>>51543234I think the Gen 5 examples stand out because ostensibly they're totally new Pokemon, but the parallels to Gen 1 Pokemon end up standing out quite a bit, especially in a game like BW which flaunted its lack of Pokemon from previous gens. Why try that hard to be new but end up copying 25% of Gen 1's homework? It's just a bizarre decision. They had an opportunity to separate themselves and really make Unova feel distinct, but instead it just feels like they backpedaled, or totally ran out of ideas. Meanwhile, regional variants and other similar examples like Wigglett aren't pretending to be anything but variations of older Pokemon. It's incredibly low-hanging fruit, but it's transparent and isn't terrible from a conceptual point of view. It's the difference between someone bringing you a store-brand cola and trying to pretend it isn't just the generic version of Coke, and someone bringing you Cherry Coke. Yeah, the latter is Coke, but at least it's not pretending to be something else when it isn't.
