>>45048093And Game Freak saw Genius Sonority adapted the main series mechanics into a game that broke the formula and actually fixed some problems, took notes, then did everything they could to bury those games while implementing what they learned in the worst/laziest way possible. Genius Sonority gave us: 3 games focused on double battles, ai using legitimate strategies that take advantage of parts of the battle system beyond type match-ups and healing items, stories that didn't revolve around gyms, physical/special split(XD shadow moves), interactive environments(cargo boxes on SS Libra/blocks in Cipher Key Lair, the crane system in Kaminko's basement, bridges in Gateon port, ect), and even character customization. Game Freak looked at that and gave us: more battle formats that they half-assed then immediately ditched a generation later instead of building on them after already failing to make good use of double battles which THEY introduced in gen 3, the only difficulty spike they can manage is throwing a bunch of buffs to a single pokemon and/or throwing more pokemon at you while the general ai is still doing the same things it always does, even when they try something other than gyms it's essentially just gyms with a new name and a different prize, benches you can sit on and a couple of crawl spaces +- the usual hm bullshit, a choice of two characters with different skin tones and outfits with no body type or age variety and your color choices are extremely limited, and an overhaul of attacks without adjusting stats to match those changes so while overall good you get mons doomed to be less good with their signature moves than with less unique moves like sceptile still having higher special attack while leaf blade is now physical. It's frustrating that we have decade old examples of doing a lot of things right and the games just keep getting worse with only qol stuff ever getting better and any general good feature gets canned or fucked next time around.
