GEN V

[coolcatkim22]

I was curious about how generation 5 holds up. It's only been a few years but I want to know people opinion.

I remember playing the game and being very disappointed with it. It wasn't as bad as 4th gen but I still had qualms with it. Lots of other people seemed to love it, to the the point where they got really mad at me for daring to say otherwise.

So, I wondered, is it still as good as people remember? I'm planning to replay it again, perhaps I'll have more fun with it this time around but I want to hear people's opinions first.

P.S. I meant for the second last option in the poll to be "The sequels were good, the first ones were okay". I don't know how to edit polls.

 

[GhostFingers]

I went into Gen V expecting to not like it at all, with all-new pokemon having no cross-gen relatives like Gen IV (something i really liked). Also my initial reaction to the trash bags and ice creams was predictably critical.

Then i actually got swept up into the fresh new story with fresh new pokemon, and i mostly like them all now (nothing on this Earth will make me like the element monkeys, but i at least recognise they have vast potential in battle). Team Plazma's motivation is something i found complex and deep enough to hold my interest far beyond that of the Rockets, and i found myself really liking the Gym Leaders after they all showed a level of involvement unmatched before.

Certain mechanics make me love this gen so much. Reusable TMs, no boring berry planting, the more interactive Dex, hidden abilities, some of the gen V moves are supreme and playing earlier gens without sludge wave, flame charge and scald is really hard.

The sequels are overall better just for the improved and augmented content (PWT, Pokestar, more map areas etc, move tutors) but i really love them all.

Sure there are problems, like how it's impossible to trade with gen IV, only transfer up from it. And even than you need 2 DSs rather than one (like when transferring from gen III to IV). Some really good TMs got replaced and many gen V moves were seriously underpowered until gen VI came along (Hex, Incinerate, Struggle bug, Frost breath) but that's all part of the progress.

 

[Zeb]

B2W2 are probably the best games so far IMO. They have the useful/good mechanics Gen V brought with the reusable TMs (seriously hate playing the older games without reusable TMs), seasons, repel mechanic changes, and stuff like that, but they also make other corrections and additions.

For one, the main game is longer: you have the expanded region, bigger dex and you go around Unova in a not-as-obviously-linear fashion as BW. I remember being surprised at just how much longer the main game felt as you visited more places. It was also pretty cool to see the changes from BW Unova to B2W2 Unova.

You have the difficulty settings - which I will admit were implemented poorly - that if you had access to the hard mode it made the game a million times better and enjoyable.

You have a bunch of side stuff to do:

-Pokestar studios
-Black Tower/White whatever [which I actually quite enjoyed]
-Subway
-Hidden Grottos (HA collecting)
-the sidequest with Yancy and whatever the other one was called
-all the legendaries they added
-the World Tournament
-Medals
-a bunch of rematches against trainers like Alder, Cynthia, Cheren/Bianca, Colress, Shadow Triad,
-the ability to link your BW version to B2W2 to connect the timelines of your games
-Join Avenue

I think I got everything? There's lots of stuff to do after (and before) you beat the main quest. Medals in particular are pretty cool, because they are set goals for you to achieve and keep track of, which Pokemon somewhat lacks in the usual RPG way (besides one being the Pokedex of course).

A lesser one, but move tutors return and are dotted throughout your path in the main game which is always helpful (I hate how ORAS tutors are relegated to after the main game).

Another minor thing I loved was how each gym had its own unique soundtrack. It's really only minor, but it added so much character to each gym when you go from one to another and had the different styles. Animated trainer sprites were an -ok- addition at best.

Rotation battles were a good mechanic to come out of the generation, but really are underutilized in general which is sad. They are definitely one of the more interesting battle styles we have, if not the most imo.

The cast of Gen V (Pokemon here) is darn good tbh. Yes, it introduced a few clones of Gen I mons, yes it introduced some pretty bad designs (Conkeldurr is one I can't come to like at all). But on the whole there is massive selection of cool and unique Pokemon and I really don't understand why people say it's a generation of bad designs. Obviously it's personal taste, but out of 152(iirc?) Pokemon, there isn't even a handful that they like? I just find it impossible and boggling. And when they introduce so many, of course there are going to be some you don't like, and most likely more than usual, because they introduced a bigger batch than usual which means more choices to what you like and dislike. And the luck of the draw may just be that most of them don't appeal to you.

Spoiler

Of course this is my personal opinion but: Serperior, Samurott, Emboar, Liepard, Stoutland, Zebstrika, Swoobat, Excadrill, Leavanny, Scolipede, Whimsicott, Lilligant, Krookodile, Darmanitan, Crustle, Scrafty, Cofagrigus, Carracosta, Archeops, Zoroark, Cinccino, Reuniclus, Sawsbuck, Emolga, Escavalier, Jellicent, Galvantula, Ferrothorn, Eelektross, Beheeym, Chandelure, Beartic, Crygogonal, Accelgor, Stunfisk, Mienshao, Druddigon, Golurk, Bisharp, Bouffalant, Braviary, Mandibuzz, Heatmor, Durant, Volcarona, Hydreigon are amazing lines/designs/concepts/whatever. Some of those are easily my top favourite Pokemon and I like them all.

The real big niggle I have with B2W2 (and Gen V as a whole really) is the god damn Pokemon sprites. They look terrible when animated in battle and so pixelated. I love B2W2, but after playing XY/ORAS I'm struggling to replay it just because of the pixelated sprites alone.

People rag on B2W2's story as being a let down from BW, but I don't really think you should go into a Pokemon game expecting a great plot (not that I thought BW's plot was good anyway and I never understood the hype for it). Of course Pokemon and a good plot shouldn't be mutually exclusive, but at this point it should be expected that it'll be some sort of recycled garbage about a kid taking on an evil team comprised of clown grunts and a few psychopaths/sociopaths leading them who try to do something awful and the kid stops them while showing them the true power of love and respect and kindness. It's generic bs.

BW was sort of a meh game in retrospect, but B2W2 are pretty awesome imo.

Edit: Kind of a long post, sorry about that!

 

[Destructive Idiot]

BW2 were excellent; BW were okay.

 

[Sakuraa]

I'm personally not too big on gen 5 as a whole. I don't want to turn this into a rant or anything so I'll try to keep it short, but basically, speaking only of the main series games, gen 5's are my overall least favorite.

BW-Story-wise these games bored the hell out of me. I found nothing interesting with N or Team Plasma and I pretty much just sped my way through the text whenever they showed up. I just couldn't get interested in the story and all the psychological talk about truth vs. ideals. Overall BW hold the place for more boring story for me. Gameplay-wise, there were a few elements I liked like Pokemon moving constantly, making their movements slower when they have a status condition, and their eyes closing when they fell asleep. However, I hated that you couldn't catch any previous gen Pokemon until beating the game and this is probably one of my biggest problems with these games. I get that they wanted a lot of focus on the new Pokemon, but I honestly don't feel it was necessary to limit everyone just to those Pokemon because there may have been people who would have preferred to use their old favorites. This was particularly annoying for me because I don't really like most of the Pokemon introduced in gen 5. I hated almost every single character, finding them horribly dull and forgettable. Oh, and I despise Musicals and find them to be the most boring side activity introduced into any game.

BW2-Story-wise they were better than the originals, but still not super interesting imo. I honestly don't even remember much of it. Character-wise I still really didn't care about any of them. Only Hugh was interesting, and even then he still annoyed me at times. Overall, the greatest part about these games was the humongous PokeDex. As I already stated, BW limiting everyone to just new Pokemon during the story mode was a huge low point for me, so BW2 putting in so many previous Pokemon making one of the largest Pokemon selections ever was a fabulous improvement. I also liked that they added a challenge mode even though I never got to use it and they really need to bring it back and make it unlock-able from the start. Pokestar Studios was far superior to Musicals, even if I personally didn't play them that much myself and I also had fun with the PWT.


Hm, looking over this, I probably didn't succeed too much in trying not to rant. I tried to keep it as short as possible, but oh well. So overall, BW2 were better than BW, but still pretty underwhelming.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Where Pokemon started to go wrong IMO. It was an unnecessary and poorly executed reboot for the series, it fixed a lot of things that weren't broken and for the things that actually were broken, it generally went to the opposite extreme. 4th gen had a pretty solid formula that a lot of people enjoyed, but it had several problems including confusing region design and a lack of new families in favor of cross gen evos and legendaries. So then how do they fix all of this? By making the region a stripped down, linear affair and limiting you to only new Pokemon the entire game, which creates a whole mess of other problems. Linearity detracts from the exploration element of the game and makes it very shallow and bland. As for the Pokemon, only having new Pokemon limits the player's choice too much and risks alienating the older fans. Also, they didn't even succeed at making the new Pokemon feel fresh because many of them were similar to existing Pokemon and filled similar roles, which made them pointless additions. For a fresh start to be effective the Pokemon need to feel unique, not like the same Pokemon with a new coat of paint (and it's not like they're so lacking in ideas for new species that they need to go back to the same bats, rocks, jellyfish, etc., there's plenty of other species that can fill that environment). The only upsides to 5th gen were the storyline improvements, de-emphasis on HMs, and infinite TMs, but those things didn't even come close to making up for the things that 5th gen ruined.

BW2 was a little better and added a ton of Pokemon to the Unova Dex which was good, but as far as the region design was concerned, the damage was done. Also, it seemed like they didn't really think the changes to the storyline path through, you can tell because of some design and pacing issues. For one, important facilities like the Day Care were locked to post game because the area where you could find them just happened to be post game. The Pokemon distribution was also a little lazy, they didn't make a lot of changes to the existing distribution, they mainly just added new Pokemon to the new areas. As a result, the distribution was completely wonky, you got a good mix of new Pokemon in the beginning of the game, then the mid game areas were mainly old Pokemon, and the late game areas were mainly new Pokemon. There were so many Pokemon added to the Unova Dex that I wanted to use, but because so many of them couldn't be caught until after the 6th gym, I didn't think it would be worth it. The storyline path in general was pretty poorly designed as well because the mid game areas were exactly the same as in BW1 and late game there was a humungous gap in between the 6th and 7th gyms.

 

[CadanceXShiningArmor4Ever]

One of the bad parts was you couldn't easily obtain Pokemon's mascot Pikachu, which was not even fixed in BW2. This looked really bad given that Ash brought Pikachu with him to Unova in the anime. Glad XY fixed that. A Pokemon game where you cannot capture Pikachu is not a Pokemon game at all. It's a complete and utter travesty.

 

[skyradiant]

Gen V is easily the best in the entire frachise, both B/W and B2/W2 are really awesome games. B/W has an awesome story (especially the end game), great characters, amazing music, and fun gameplay. B2/W2 are really great too, with the expanded 'Dex, the best gameplay ever (Join Avenue, PWT, and the Black Tower/White Treehollow are the best gameplay additions ever to the franchise), a soundtrack that still kicks ass, the continued development of old and new characters, and the expansion of Unova. My only complaint with B2/W2 is that while the story is still really good, it lacks the "oomph" the originals had. There's also the moving sprites, which really help the battles feel more alive, and the changed Exp. system, which doesn't force you to use a minimalistic amount like the previous gen.

 

[Tyrfing]

Where's the BEST GEN EVAR option in the poll, exactly? Because that is exactly what I would post. Regrettably, I would say that I get ticked off really easy regarding Gen 5 negative criticism. I love everything about it (except for the Tepig family and Hugh), and I while I can see why people dislike certain parts, I have to disagree. Even if they were heavily pixilated, I loved the graphics, I loved the Pokemon, and the characters (especially Clay and Drayden). My favorite Pokemon, Samurott, comes from this gen as well. Oh, and there's no Pikachu catchable! Heck yes! Masuda himself considers Black and White to be his Magnum Opus, and I have to agree with him. I hope future gens are a bit more like V instead of the garbage that is VI (specifically, X and Y), but that's for another day!

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

I liked it for the most part.

I absolutely love the main adventure for BW. It has my favorite story and characters by far, and I especially enjoyed the surprise twist on the League Challenge at the end. The region is a favorite of mine for its major cities and towns, and I can't say I was bothered by the linearity. Smaller changes I greatly appreciated, like the unlimited TMs, and having access to all of your Boxes during a trade, or EVs being calculated after every fight. And the way they expanded the wifi with Online Competitions and Random Matchups definitely gave me some more replay value.

At the same time...Much of the content aside from that is dry, if not plain questionable.

• Black City and White Forest. These were cool ideas, but you will lose content if you don't have someone else to play with. Who thought that was okay? I was freaked out when I found that the major buildings in my Black City suddenly vanished! I thought it was some type of glitch in my game or something...But no, you're..Almost penalized for not playing with other people. Pokemon is a game that's always been expanded by multiplayer, but its never been a requirement to such a degree that you outright lose part of your game :/
• The Dream World...Honestly...Meh? I mean it was kind of cute for a minute, but...Well, 1) I'm not a fan of browser games. 2) The time you had to put into that to get the best Pokemon (Drought Vulpix for example) was kind of absurd, given the amount of time that you were allotted each day. And 3), I really disliked the Berry system being locked into that rather than being accessible on the game card...Overall it wasn't really something that I got immersed or invested in, and they eventually just scrapped it with Gen 6 anyway.
• Musicals...They were basically like Contests, but without any of the fun. Unless I was missing something.
• Continued the awful trend of removing great post-game quests like Battle Frontier Facilities and withholding them until a later game. I am really tired of this, and not even Gen 6 has addressed it.

Moving on to BW2, these games did a great job at fixing my content gripes from the prequels. And that's another thing. Paired sequels as opposed to a complete redo of the first pair. They expanded on the region and continued the story in some pretty nice ways, in addition to giving us extra content like these games usually do. I especially appreciated...

• A Black City that actually works. The Black Tower feels like some type of cross between the Battle Tower and Pyramid, and I really enjoyed it as an Open Level Facility.
• Pokemon World Torunament. Seriously. Every Gym Leader and Champ from the first 5 Generations, complete with remixed teams (and theme music, for that matter), and the chance to fight them with type locks of your own. Kinda disappointed that you could only fight them in competitive format, but the fact that they did this at all allows me to overlook it. Those extra download tournaments were really nice nod to the actual World Championships too.
• Single Player Entralink games. Finally, a good reason to use this feature! The shard minigame is especially great to have. A much nicer alternative to how it ran in Platinum.
• Those new dungeons that were added along with Unova's expansion, like Clay's Tunnel or Relic Passage were fun to explore.
• Medals, because achievements.

My only issue with BW2 is that the story was honestly less engaging. I enjoyed seeing what happened to old characters, and I liked how they continued the themes...But Neo Team Plasma was immensely generic, and even Ghetsis, who was my favorite villain during BW, was just old coot. All of that menace from the first game, where you learn of his years of plotting, manipulating the hearts of the masses, and molding his own adoptive son into a tool...Replaced by him basically just being bitter and crazy. It was boring :/ Hugh as a rival was also kinda repetitive...I like his dynamic with the player (he's kind of edgy, but very respectful to you), but it feels like he has a severely one-track mind most of the time. As opposed to Cheren and Bianca, who really felt like they were growing as they moved forward and learned more about themselves.

So overall...The first pair was great for the main run, but mostly weak in its post-game and extras. The sequels did a fantastic job in that regard, but I wasn't as engaged in its story. :T

 

[Aulos]

Black/White were a very refreshing experience for me. Not that I was particularly tired of the formula or anything, but I REALLY liked how they only allowed us to use the newest Pokemon. It required me to not just hinge on old favorites like I tend to do. And overall I just really liked Black/White.

Black 2/White 2 were not anything spectacular, but at the same time I didn't regret buying Black 2 at all.

 

[WallflowerCanyon]

Gen V is my absolute favorite. The characters and the storyline have left the biggest impression on me, the last time being Colosseum and XD of Gen III. I also liked all the "brand-new-ness" that it gave us with most of everything. I'm honestly a little shocked that people are almost distasteful about having to catch all brand-new Pokémon with Black and White. Isn't that the whole point of starting a new Generation of Pokémon games? I'm big on nostalgia myself, but holy cow.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I'm honestly a little shocked that people are almost distasteful about having to catch all brand-new Pokémon with Black and White. Isn't that the whole point of starting a new Generation of Pokémon games? I'm big on nostalgia myself, but holy cow.

The issue is that it's forced, not everyone is going to want to use the new Pokemon so forming a team of 6 of them can be difficult. What they did before worked, they had a mix of old and new Pokemon, but with a majority of new Pokemon. This encouraged players to use the new ones, but allowed players to fall back on some old favorites should they not like their options.

 

[Camille]

People rag on B2W2's story as being a let down from BW, but I don't really think you should go into a Pokemon game expecting a great plot (not that I thought BW's plot was good anyway and I never understood the hype for it). Of course Pokemon and a good plot shouldn't be mutually exclusive, but at this point it should be expected that it'll be some sort of recycled garbage about a kid taking on an evil team comprised of clown grunts and a few psychopaths/sociopaths leading them who try to do something awful and the kid stops them while showing them the true power of love and respect and kindness. It's generic bs.
!

And yet two of these psychopaths/sociopaths fully realize that they have done something awful and vow to rebiuld their teams to do things properly,but I'm not going to get into it since it doesn't belong here.

 

[Zeb]

People rag on B2W2's story as being a let down from BW, but I don't really think you should go into a Pokemon game expecting a great plot (not that I thought BW's plot was good anyway and I never understood the hype for it). Of course Pokemon and a good plot shouldn't be mutually exclusive, but at this point it should be expected that it'll be some sort of recycled garbage about a kid taking on an evil team comprised of clown grunts and a few psychopaths/sociopaths leading them who try to do something awful and the kid stops them while showing them the true power of love and respect and kindness. It's generic bs.
!

And yet two of these psychopaths/sociopaths fully realize that they have done something awful and vow to rebiuld their teams to do things properly,but I'm not going to get into it since it doesn't belong here.

And I don't see what difference that makes to my point. The plots are still the same recycled formula every gen.

 

[Lysson]

I didn't like it at first but now I adore it. I love everything about BW/B2/W2 except the musicals.
I don't care if people think the Pokemon suck, I think they're imaginative and adding lots of Pokemon makes it fun to catch them all.

 

[Samber]

I have recently started playing Pokemon White for the first time, after not playing any Pokemon games for several years (since HGSS) so I'm picking up where I left off!! I'm enjoying it, but I'm finding progress through the game very fast compared to what I remember from older games. I don't know if this is because I'm older, but it seems a breeze to get through. I've just beaten Iris, I thought I might lose the first time and have to go grind for a bit, but nope! Straight off.

I've already got W2 waiting in the wings though and I'm very excited to play through it after reading about the improvements!!

 

[henrymidfields]

I actually looked forward to playing Black 1 after I finished the main game in Pokémon Y. It ended up being somewhat of a downer - which I don't like saying this, because one of the reasons wasn't very much to do with the game, or even GF at all.

I started playing Black 1 in Dec 2013, right after I finished the main game in Pokémon Y. I knew that I would be missing some of the online features, such as the Dream World and such, but as they aren't the main online features unlike the Wi-Fi trading/battling, I was fine with that.

The Good
I do agree that the story was more interesting than GSC or XY. A big boon for this was the difference of opinion that comes up in several moments:

• When N started to find out more about how people (and Hilda in particular) engage with Pokémon.
• Ghetsis and Team Plasma in general, and how they rejected other ways of respecting Pokémon
• Bianca, her father, and Elesa

I could be wrong, but I see a parallel to this and particularly, the punditry in US politics/media - perhaps because it the most widely-known, and perhaps because of the strong emphasis in participating in democracy, and the right to free speech. (At least TV Tropes seem to agree when I last saw the YMMV page.) Of course, any country would show the ugly moments of narrow-minded politics. (Example: Japan's right-wing politics in recent years is a good example why I don't want to return home from Australia.)

Another aspect that I liked was the choosing of a hero that came up with Reshiram/Zekrom's summoning, and the subsequent battle with N and Ghetsis. As far as my experiences in living in San Francisco ages ago went, and as far as I know through the movies and the news, Americans seem to love heros. Another nice reference to the real-life US culture.

Another great thing about Black 1 were the main characters: there seem to be more detail, mainly through NPCs actually interact with each other. Let's face it, Blue and Silver pretty much only interacted to the player on-screen most of the time. Bianca and Cheren, on the other hand, actually talks to other NPCs, and that greatly adds dimension. Clay had a stand-off with one of the TP sages, and so did Brycen against the Shadow Triad.

The Bad
I did notice, however, that raising Pokémon in this game is actually difficult. There seemed to be more of Pokémon with poor stat balance and/or movepools that actually hinder the main game - not to mention that there were no old Pokemon that I could fall back on. Purrloin, Blitzle, and Panpour quickly came to mind; particularly I had to ditch the latter two. Some of the wild Pokémon from the fourth badge to the sixth are not worth the experience points due to their annoying tendencies. Most crucially, the experience payout is rigged the wrong way - and now levelling up became outright frustrating. People talk about GSC being the most difficult in levelling up, but at least the type of wild Pokemon appearing were more predictable and they didn't have as many moves to screw your training.

The Ugly
What made this much worse? The Wi-Fi shutdown, which I did not expect to happen - especially when Nintendo had been very good at aftercare service with older consoles and handheld.

This was when things started to become stressful. I now suddenly had a time limit in completing the game and the Unova Pokedex. I had to bust my butt and get through the remaining 5 gyms, beat the Champion, and explore the eastern side of Unova within 3 months. (I was right before challenging Elesa when the announcement was made.) I ended up fretting over whether I can do the above within 3 months and rushed through the game, when it could have been slowly grinding through and at least pay more attention to the story.

While the storyline and the region were something to be appreciated, the Wi-Fi Shutdown ruined things more than necessary. Rubbing salt in the wound was Nintendo's ostensible reasons of moving onto the 3DS, when the real reason was due to its subcontractor (GluMobile). "Why the hell did you gave us corporate bullshit reasons when you could have told us the truth!?" was my reaction.

---------------------------------------
Black 2 on the other hand was essentially a game that tied loose ends, and addressed the gameplay issues with Black 1. While the story seemed to revert to the usual Pokémon formula, it also showed me how most people moved on, which was a bonus.

Raising and choosing Pokémon was much less problematic, thank goodness. Having actually useable Pokémon from other generations (like Mareep, Growlithe, Lucario etc) and being able to fall back on them seem to help, as I had significantly less problems dealing with wild Pokemon. Also, it seems that the experience point hand out from wild Pokémon was generally increased. Further raising one level for Pokémon 2-3 levels overlevelled seemed to take 10-15 minutes in most cases (even without Audino), whereas it could take up to an hour in Black 1. (Consider that some Pokémon - especially those in Route 4 really wore out my Pokémon's HP - and having to go to the Pokémon Center every 1-2 battles.)

Unfortunately, since the Wi-Fi has been down by the time I started Black 2, there is no way I can complete the Unova Pokedex in this game. (Unless if there are other BMGF members in Sydney that are willing to trade with me.) My other worry would be whether I can finish everything in time when [*(insert the following options Pokémon X2Y2/Pokémon Z/7th Gen games*] comes around - there's so much to do... (I thinking about skipping ORAS entirely.)

I've just arrived at Lacunosa, so I'll have to go level up some more for the Plasma battle.

 

[Silverwynde]

Where's the BEST GEN EVAR option in the poll, exactly? Because that is exactly what I would post. Regrettably, I would say that I get ticked off really easy regarding Gen 5 negative criticism. I love everything about it (except for the Tepig family and Hugh), and I while I can see why people dislike certain parts, I have to disagree. Even if they were heavily pixilated, I loved the graphics, I loved the Pokemon, and the characters (especially Clay and Drayden). My favorite Pokemon, Samurott, comes from this gen as well. Oh, and there's no Pikachu catchable! Heck yes! Masuda himself considers Black and White to be his Magnum Opus, and I have to agree with him. I hope future gens are a bit more like V instead of the garbage that is VI (specifically, X and Y), but that's for another day!

Pretty much this in a nutshell.

Gen V is easily my favorite Gen and I love everything about it. The story was fantastic, the rivals were great and the Pokemon...

The top three of my top ten favorite Pokemon all come from Unova. Having to work with brand new Pokemon and different types really changed my outlook on the game. At one point I wouldn't dare touch a pure Fighting type. Now I think they're awesome and it's because of Sawk. I didn't use Steel or Dark types very often until I met Bisharp. Ghost types? Not for me. Then a massive blue Automaton and its utterly adorable base form seized my heart and never let go.

So yeah, Gen V is pretty much my favorite Gen EVAR!

 

[Esserise]

The Black and White games, both sets of them, remain my absolute favorites to this day. I can see why others don't like them, and I'm not saying that they are perfect (I don't really think that any Pokémon game is, or even could be), but I guess the problems that they find with the games just aren't the sort of things that bother me. I loved the "fresh start" feel (Probably because, for me, it really was a "new beginning" - White was the game that I formally got back into the franchise with after having left since sometime around FRLG's release, although my interest had been somewhat renewed around Platinum's time. I was just never able to get a DS until 2012 and so that interest declined again for a bit.). I loved the deeper mythology, and the more involved storyline, even if it meant sacrificing a non-linear region. I loved the way that there were only new Pokémon in BW, and that many of them were a newer take on old concepts. Hell I even liked the Musicals. Gen V was just a great generation for me.

The Dream World and Black City/White Forest were pretty ropey, though. And the difficulty modes were severely mishandled. Those should have become permanent fixtures, no question.