>>32109543(Cont.)
Then there's the plot, which is pretty well-executed all considered. It's no console JRPG plot by any means, but it's accessible while still being quite pensive. N's entire existence is a big "fuck you" to the core concepts of Pokemon which is pretty bold, plus Ghetsis is a surprisingly savvy villain. The way the games shook up the ending a bit was also a breath of fresh air into the Pokemon formula.
Then there were the sequels, which had all of these positives and stacked them onto even more content - namely all the old Pokemon flood back into the game, there are more areas to explore, diverse gyms (with unique BGM orchestrations, no less!), the PokeDex's new Habitat List feature, Hidden Grottoes, Medal collecting (a Pokemon game with an ACHIEVEMENT system? Fuck YES!), a difficulty toggle, PokeStar Studios, and the crown jewel that was the Pokemon World Tournament. The games also played well as real sequels, referencing past events and even introducing the Memory Link feature that gave the sequels much more direct continuity with the exact cart of Black or White that you had, which is something I wish all games do more often.
It's easy to find ways to shit on Gen V, and a lot of these are tasteful additions rather than objective ones so they're not really "proof" that the games are superior, but I think it was a lot of positive steps forward. And it was really disappointing to see XY backtrack almost all of them and take even more steps backward. If you ask me, a big part of why XY taste so bad in hindsight is because they didn't live up to top Gen V.
