>>56688853If a dev does something new and it ends up poorly executed, and the only feedback they get in droves is that "it was confusing :(" that doesn't exactly help them make it better the next time, which is probably one of many reasons they didn't do it in subsequent games. The fact it was considered alone, like
>>56689010 said, means it was in mind during the development process.
Another factor of replayability that I consider when picking Pokemon games to play is the regional dex. In my eyes, the more total Pokemon available, the better. BW had the unfortunate curse of being the reboot gen so they made 152 new pokemon to start with, but in B2W2, the distribution of Pokemon from other generations is one of the most even in the series, with statistically one of the lowest amounts of Kanto pandering, if that's something you care about.
The problem comes when the further in Generations you go, the more new mechanics get added and it's up to preference and ease of playability at that point. Going purely by regional dex variety, the most balanced games are B2W2, XY, USUM, SwSh, and maybe ScarVio, but I'm the least familiar with that one.
So pick your poison (or just play romhacks/fangames lmao). Mine is usually B2W2 as a base. Maybe when the source codes of multiple Generations from this leak finally gets uploaded, and better romhacks of those games get made in a few years, I'll have changed my mind. Until then, B2W2, while very linear due to its narrative-driven nature, is one of the better games imo when it comes to pacing, and what Pokemon it gives you access to at which parts of the game.
TL;DR: B2W2 has replayability baked into game mechanics it introduced and took with it for the series, whether you like it or not, and it among every final version of a Generation mainline game since its release (except Gen 9 because I'm not familiar with it), has a mostly balanced regional dex, offering variety of choice each time you play. Also known as replayability.
