>>52437598This but unironically, most here were children when it came out so they don't remember very clearly but XY did actually revitalize the franchise. Both gen 4 and 5 had very niche audiences at the time (after the peak of each game, only those who watched the anime continued caring for G4, and only fujos in Tumblr cared for G5) and Pokemon had lost it's normie status. XY being the first proper 3D game, having a worldwide release for the first time, introducing such a wild new gimmick, all the marketing before the reveal of what it even was (people thinking Mega Mewtwo was a new evo called Mewthree), strategically using Kantomons, the hype and speculation around Sylveon and its type and the fact that it was a new eeveelution in general, all of this added to the success of the 3DS and that social media was growing so the word got around more, it all lead to XY being huge, everyone played it, it got back into the hands of normies and became relevant as a franchise again. It was honestly insane to witness, like someone had flipped a switch, like it or not XY marked a before and after.
