It was the beginning of the end in many ways, but I also think it's important to put it into perspective.
I was 16 when it came out and played XY. Anyone who lived through that initial period remembers it well: it was magical. PSS was one of the best online games ever made, and before the bank, everything felt like a rediscovery. The forums were a constant stream of requests for friend codes to access safaris. Many of my acquaintances, myself included, were breeding or battling for the first time.
It was a constant battle and trading. And the magic wasn't just the period between the game's release and the bank's release, actually, come to think of it. The entire pre-release period was magical. Along with the seventh-gen games, the sixth-gen was the last true pre-release period in which the arrival of the new generation seemed eventful. Once this honeymoon period was over, it became clear that the game was actually very little, given its enormous gaps; it was an incomplete game.
And then came ORAS, which was even worse. Sure, as a game it was better than XY, but we could give XY the benefit of the doubt. It was their first 3D game, their first 3DS game, the first game of a new generation, and it was set in a new region. Of course, ORAS had none of this, its assets being derived either from XY or RSE. It was a downward development, unlike the upward development of XY, and it still managed to squander its potential by a huge margin. I also hated the redesigns, and I hated the primal reversion.
And despite all this, I think that as games they're... okay. I have fond memories of both, despite ORAS being more mixed, and overall I've spent a thousand hours on the sixth-generation games. In fact, it's the last true generation that feels like a "Pokémon game" in many ways. And I'll continue to cherish the memories of the first XY I mentioned.
