>>46433524It all started with X&Y
mega evolution to bait old fags who stopped playing after gen 1
free gen 1 starter 5 minutes into the game
free mega lucario
ORAS was pretty atrocious in terms of cutting out content, hand holding, fast traveling for no reason, free legendary pokemon halfway into the story, etc
But to answer the question the most soulless moment has to be playing sun and moon for the first time and realizing there aren't any actual routes and that the story and plot are just retread bullshit literally lifted from x&y along with a shitty gimmick (z moves). That game was so fucking bad, it was the first time I couldn't bring myself to finish a mainline game. X&Y may have been bad in retrospect but at the time they came out it wasn't outright terrible. With sun and moon i just instantly knew that they rushed it and cut every corner possible.
They did do some good with the 3DS games by adding fairy typing and also the regional forms are good (its obvious that mega evolutions were suppose to have the same effect of regional pokemon, which is why megas are gone forever and we still get regional mons), but the lasting effects from this era have more than likely destroyed the series forever. Shitty soulless 3D graphics, retarded ass battle gimmicks that make the game worse, pokemon GO streamlining in the mainline games, and the worst has to be the extreme and mind numbing hand holding you will find in any game in any genre. Sword and Shield are literally just button pressing simulators, I might as well be looking at a blank screen while pressing a single button.
