>>43146893The Unova games were Masuda's Magnum Opus for sure and definitely had the most heart and effort of any games besides HG/SS. Yet his genius would be unappreciated by the public and here's all of why:
The decision to only have new Pokémon available in B/W until post game, most of which were expies of Gen 1 mons (this was on purpose as the games were meant to be a "familiar but different" homage to R/B/G) was largely unpopular. It didn't help that their designs were (and still are) incredibly polarizing. The choice to be more narrative heavy was also completely lost on a lot of causal fans, most of whom have never played another JRPG in their lives and/or just mash A through all of the text anyways. Lastly the perceived trade of Contests and a Battle Frontier for Musicals and eventually Poke Star Studios seemed like a really rotten deal (because it was).
Black 2 and White 2 had a bigger regional dex and were less narrative driven but by the time they were released the 3DS had come out and people weren't about to open their wallets for a "3rd Version split in two for a double dip cash grab" when they could just save for what would eventually be X and Y.
Unironically thanks a great part to piracy (as well as the new games being ass and a great deal of boredom) people are beginning to go back and see exactly what they missed out on. I don't think all of the Unovabortions popping up are all underaged zoomers as is assumed by many here, just people in their early to mid 20s forming a brand new or different opinion on a generation they didn't appreciate or give a chance as High School Juniors, Seniors, and college students. It's almost like Gen 5 was actually good.
Pic of beta Gen 5 unrelated really; just to make people read the post.
