>>55748438>>55748587yeah Gen 5 is in a weird place, gameplay wise it is very much a continuation of Gens 3-4, and in many ways feels like the ultimate conclusion of that design philosophy. The core gameplay of Gen 4 is intact but it also introduces a lot of great QoL without overdoing it (things like reusable TMs and the bw2 repel system, but still before permanent exp share or trivializing ev training etc) so it feels like a very polished, refined iteration of what came before mechanically.
The map design as you say is also more similar to Gen 3-4, at least on the route-level, but the region map was a big step away from the complicated, interconnected maps of previous gens and was distinctly more linear. And the environments weren't as natural as previous gens, it was the start of treating biomes like theme parks and sticking in stuff like a random desert just to check it off. As opposed to Hoenn & Sinnoh, which tried a lot harder to integrate biomes naturally. And as you say the story is a lot more in your face and planted the seeds for GF's modern storytelling.
XY is also in a slightly weird spot imo, obviously it is the start of the 3D games and introduced battle gimmicks, so it definitely has a lot more in common with newer gens. But at the same time, you could tell they were still reluctant to move on from a lot of 2D era mechanics, like the overworld grid.
I would say that Gens 5 & 6 both belong to a transitional period, with Gen 5 being more old than new, and Gen 6 being more new than old, but both being somewhere in the middle.
