Pokémon Gen 5 #shorts #pokemon
44Yeah, I said it. It's a highly unpopular opinion, especially among older fans of the series. However, having been playing the games as they came out since third gen (and having played the second and first gen games completely and loving them as well), I do believe I count as something of an older fan, considering that Gen 3 is almost 15 years old at this point.
Now, many people say Gen 1 is the best Generation. It was difficult, and of course, created an entirely new type of video game. The issue here is that much of the hype around these games is nostalgia: they're great, yeah, but they've aged terribly, and are riddled with so many glitches (Um, missingno anybody?) that it's quite possible that if we were talking about them in retrospective to today, they'd land on the bottom of the "best of" list.
Another common choice is Gen 2. This choice is one I fully understand, as for a long time, Gold and Silver (or specifically HG and SS once they came out) were my favorite games of all time. The plot was significantly better than Gen 1, almost every glitch was fixed, stats were balanced, more pokemon were added, and all in all, the game quite literally "perfected" any imperfections that Gen 1 had possessed while only adding positive things.
The problem is, the plot of those games, while interesting, is rather shallow once you take a look at it. Honestly, it, despite a few deviations, follows the formula set by the first games and followed by almost every other game in the series. Young trainer gets pokemon, young trainer is somehow "special" and loves pokemon, young trainer fights gyms but runs into evil team, fights evil team three to four times, and then fights the boss. They then beat the elite four and champion, and claim their champion position! Yay!
Now, you may notice that I said "almost" every other game. That's because Black and White don't follow the traditional plot, like... at all. Sure, it uses the basic skeleton, but instead of adding a few extra joints to it like most of the other games do to seem "original", it fucking amputates half of the body and replaces it with a whole load of wonderful shit. Now, I will admit that a few pokemon designs were somewhat unoriginal, but you know what? The games make up for that in spades.
Let's start with the most obvious thing: plot. Black and White (and to an extent, their sequels) are very, VERY different to any other game in the series. The evil team does not seek conventional world domination or abuse pokemon: they believe in the liberation of pokemon. They're basically PETA but without the unnecessary "mercy" killings. Not only that, but they've got possibly one of the most terrifying and difficult main series Bosses in the form of Ghetsis, who acts as both a final plot twist and as I just mentioned, probably the most difficult trainer in the traditional pokemon series.
Oh, and now that we're talking about Team Plasma, let's get to probably the biggest point in this whole review. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the single most interesting and developed character in the whole franchise.
Of course, there are even more memorable and interesting characters in the games that make it even better. We've got a mother who is actually involved and talks about more than how much she misses you, a Professor who isn't generic as shit, a calculating hardass for a friend and almost-rival who visibly develops as his ideals are challenged, and a clumsy girl just trying to prove that she can do something right for once.
That's the main characters alone. Even the gym leaders seem to have more personality in these games, and some even take part in the plot! In fact, the champion in these games is a constant player in the events of the story: so much so, in fact, that he puts even Cynthia to shame in this regard.
And now we have the formula changes made. How about we cover the biggest and most glaring one to shorten up this already long as hell post. Adler, the champion, gets his ass kicked by N, and you don't even fight him in the main game. You fight N (a fight that isn't easy in the first place), and then watch as his false father berates him: you feel bad for the guy. Then, Ghetsis himself challenges you, revealing himself as the true leader of Team Plasma, and turning out to be the ultimate enemy in the game. If N was hard, fighting Ghetsis is like trying to eat seventeen ghost peppers coated in siracha all at once. It's impossible unless you have a team coated in steel and covering every weakness possible, and even then, it's hard as hell. This is objectively the only pokemon game where you never fight the champion in the main story, as well as the only pokemon game where you fight the Evil Team's boss after the Elite Four have been defeated.