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I'd like to ask something in the wake of all the videos I've seen talking about future Legends games: can we stop trying to assign Pokemon to these games who don't deserve to be? What, just because the first Legends game did it means Celebi and Kyurem need games named after them as well?
Arceus is a deity, and the apex legend of a group of 14 others from its initial generation (all of which are steeped in mythology in their own rights), so it makes sense for a game to be named after it. What the hell does Celebi have? Being middle of a pack of 6, occasional time travel, a Zorua, and a Pichu? Seems pretty underwhelming in comparison. And as far as I'm aware, there's no mention anywhere of Kyurem being the original dragon itself; only that it's the husk left over from when the original dragon split into Reshiram and Zekrom. In that sense, it isn't any more the original than a Shedinja is a Nincada.
I'd like to ask something in the wake of all the videos I've seen talking about future Legends games: can we stop trying to assign Pokemon to these games who don't deserve to be? What, just because the first Legends game did it means Celebi and Kyurem need games named after them as well?
Arceus is a deity, and the apex legend of a group of 14 others from its initial generation (all of which are steeped in mythology in their own rights), so it makes sense for a game to be named after it. What the hell does Celebi have? Being middle of a pack of 6, occasional time travel, a Zorua, and a Pichu? Seems pretty underwhelming in comparison. And as far as I'm aware, there's no mention anywhere of Kyurem being the original dragon itself; only that it's the husk left over from when the original dragon split into Reshiram and Zekrom. In that sense, it isn't any more the original than a Shedinja is a Nincada.
Well yeah, time travel is the whole thing - legends is basically experiencing a region in another time - its natural for people to associate the time travel Pokemon with that.
As for Kyurem - its basically a placeholder. Legends: Unova or Legends: The Original Dragon might work too, but Kyurem is probably better for the game marketing wise if they do decide to go there.
Lets be real though the next one should be Legends: Guyana
The Legends game wishlist are just Pokefans being Pokefans, expecting the next game will have the same patterns. And Legends Arceus is a new kickstart for "Legends: <existing region>"and slap what they thing the relevant legendaris/mythicals will be.
Not against the Legends template. I also agree it just a template.
Remember when everyone expected a Let's Go: Johto, and it never happened, because like Legends: Arceus it was just a experiment and GameFreaks never gives followup to their experiments?
While we could see future Legends games, given the success of PLA itself, Game Freak is indeed well known for being inconsistent and refusing to conform to a consistent "pattern" when it comes to their games and how they do past generation revisits in a given generation, let alone mid generation games as a whole.
Which is to say, not every single region revisit going forward will be a Legends game. But if Legends: Arceus is indicative of one thing for sure as far as the future is concerned, as I've said before in this very thread, Game Freak is moving away from doing by-the-number remakes as past generation revisits and reimaginings. Which means FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS style games are likely over, and ORAS is and will remain the last of its kind in that regard.
I could feasibly see a Johto Legends game personally, because Johto is just as myth and legend heavy as Sinnoh from a lore standpoint, and there's plenty of ancient lore to explore. The likes of Kalos or Johto are games that could feasibly get set-in-the-past Legends action-adventure games given there's a lot of ancient lore to explore in them like Sinnoh. But not every single region is necessarily suited to a Legends game. Unova isn't necessarily unsuited to one but there's no guarantee that the Unova revisit down the line will be a Legends game. For all we know it could actually be a Black 3 and White 3. Especially considering one of Gen 5's gimmicks is that its follow up game was not a third version or DLC, but rather a sequel story, as Black 2 and White 2, a third game to round it off as a trilogy would be a move I could imagine them doing. Which is to say, you never know what might happen.
Game Freak is definitely in it to get more creative and take a variety of directions for future past gen revisits instead of the modernized reimaginings HGSS and ORAS were. But one thing's certain: FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS style "remakes" are a thing of the past now, and more original experiences set in the same region like PLA was are the future, even if they won't always manifest specifically as a Legends game.
Remember when everyone expected a Let's Go: Johto, and it never happened, because like Legends: Arceus it was just a experiment and GameFreaks never gives followup to their experiments?
Game Freak is definitely in it to get more creative and take a variety of directions for future past gen revisits instead of the modernized reimaginings HGSS and ORAS were. But one thing's certain: FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS style "remakes" are a thing of the past now, and more original experiences set in the same region like PLA was are the future, even if they won't always manifest specifically as a Legends game.
To be fair, there is also the issue that ""remakes"" are now approaching gen 5, and the main idea of the remakes was to basically play "the old games but with modern graphics and systems".
However, we're getting to the point where there's... not so much new anymore. Sure gen 5 would still have the update of modern combat system, but come gen 6, they're basically modern games with almost identical battle system.
At this point, it makes much more sense to start working on "alternative" instead.
Well that might be true but it doesn't have much to do with what TCP and Game Freak judge to be good business decisions. People "really liking" a game doesn't have much bearing on reality unless it translates into actual sales and X&Y aren't even close to being the worst-selling original titles in the main series (it being a longstanding trend that remakes sell more poorly than original titles).
It's also fairly well-known by now that X and Y were initially intended to get at least one followup but that the project was shelved in favour of making Sun and Moon the 20th anniversary release. But the argument that L:A will definitely get a sequel or similar titles because "people liked it" doesn't really hold up to numbers.
I'm not saying it won't (and course L:A's sales performance is skewed a bit by virtue of only being one title instead of two) but I feel like you're projecting the wishes of a fandom onto a decision that's ultimately always going to be based on commercial reasons.
If you look past the more heavily online fandom, X and Y are actually among the more popular games in the series, worldwide in general, but I also think it's very well liked in Japan as well. While the online fandom opinion on it, particularly the older crowd, is less favorable, especially since it was robbed of a third version/follow-up due to SM needing to make it to the 20th anniversary (and commercially, it made more sense for the 20th anniversary game to be a new generation), the games are still among the most well known and popular, and I think are very well liked and received among most of the casual crowd and to an extent a substantial portion of the core crowd as well. We are now reaching a point where the kids who grew up with the 3DS era are becoming the dominant crowd online as well, and I've seen more and more favorable opinions towards XY and Gen 6 as a whole online in recent times.
In general Gen 6 is arguably one of the most popular generations overall commercially and in public attention. X and Y are well known as the first 3DS Pokemon games, and by extension the first mainline foray into 3D, and gains long time attention for that. The introduction of the Fairy-type as well as Mega Evolutions means it brought notable changes to the series that will always be known. In addition to stuff like Pokemon Amie and the incredible online it had at the time, it has cemented itself as a well known entry. Its roster, while small, has many well known standouts even amongst casuals. Megas are obvious. Greninja is the most popular final form starter since Charizard. Sylveon has cemented itself as the most popular Eeveelution, being the new Fairy-type's poster child and having tons of appeal thanks to its cute yet powerful combination and its magical girl vibe. It enjoys plenty of other iconic favorites, like Talonflame, Aegislash, Hawlucha, and its own pseudo-legendary Goodra who is well liked thanks to its cuteness (same with its base form Goomy, who exploded in popularity very rapidly).
As someone who was around during Gen 6, I can safely say yes: it was an extremely hype time to be a Pokemon fan back then.
It's important to remember that Pokemon is basically the biggest franchise in the world and the online fandom composes a much smaller portion of its active fanbase than it seems. Even current fan favorites like DP and BW had less than favorable opinions towards them online back in the late 2000s and early 2010s: yet as a DP kid I know for a fact it was hyped among kids back then and then when we became old enough to join the online fandom we basically caused an online fandom opinion shift. This is all despite Diamond and Pearl being a deeply flawed game for instance, same with HGSS, and Black and White on the other hand were always strong games imo but the online opinion on them wasn't always positive.
To be fair, there is also the issue that ""remakes"" are now approaching gen 5, and the main idea of the remakes was to basically play "the old games but with modern graphics and systems".
However, we're getting to the point where there's... not so much new anymore. Sure gen 5 would still have the update of modern combat system, but come gen 6, they're basically modern games with almost identical battle system.
At this point, it makes much more sense to start working on "alternative" instead.
That and as I said some time ago, even before the likes of Gen 6 where they are already modern enough to begin with, we can see with Sinnoh already the shift in philosophy, and there's another reason for that: the games starting from Gen 4 onwards are modern enough as you said (unlike the first three generations), but also reimagining older regions in the modern engine with the Switch now commands a significantly higher amount of design effort to recreate old regions in the new engine. It made sense for HGSS and ORAS to be by-the-number remakes because HGSS in the DPP engine is still 2D, but more advanced and allows for creative expansion of the original. ORAS was on the 3DS but XY while 3D still conformed to several 2D design conventions so Hoenn in the 3DS engine still allowed for a recognizable reimagination of the original in the XY engine while also expanding on it.
Sinnoh or Unova in the SwSh or SV style and engine on the other hand requires way too much reconsideration of the original design to be worth it to the point where a Sinnoh or Unova in a console scale world design would be flat out unrecognizable, so it makes more sense to do alternative original experiences anyway. I think Game Freak doesn't want to force themselves to have to reconcile the faithfulness of a typical remake with modern graphics in that regard. It wouldn't be worth it for games like Gen 6 onwards where the difference is too insignificant, or in the case of the DS games, the aesthetic difference is on the other hand too significant from a world design standpoint and commands too much design effort to be worth it. If Sinnoh or Unova is gonna be borderline unrecognizable on the Switch and its style anyway, might as well go all the way with it, hence why we got PLA which was a "pre-make", set in the ancient past as an original story.
That and as I said some time ago, even before the likes of Gen 6 where they are already modern enough to begin with, we can see with Sinnoh already the shift in philosophy, and there's another reason for that: the games starting from Gen 4 onwards are modern enough as you said (unlike the first three generations), but also reimagining older regions in the modern engine with the Switch now commands a significantly higher amount of design effort to recreate old regions in the new engine. It made sense for HGSS and ORAS to be by-the-number remakes because HGSS in the DPP engine is still 2D, but more advanced and allows for creative expansion of the original. ORAS was on the 3DS but XY while 3D still conformed to several 2D design conventions so Hoenn in the 3DS engine still allowed for a recognizable reimagination of the original in the XY engine while also expanding on it.
Sinnoh or Unova in the SwSh or SV style and engine on the other hand requires way too much reconsideration of the original design to be worth it to the point where a Sinnoh or Unova in a console scale world design would be flat out unrecognizable, so it makes more sense to do alternative original experiences anyway. I think Game Freak doesn't want to force themselves to have to reconcile the faithfulness of a typical remake with modern graphics in that regard. It wouldn't be worth it for games like Gen 6 onwards where the difference is too insignificant, or in the case of the DS games, the aesthetic difference is on the other hand too significant from a world design standpoint and commands too much design effort to be worth it. If Sinnoh or Unova is gonna be borderline unrecognizable on the Switch and its style anyway, might as well go all the way with it, hence why we got PLA which was a "pre-make", set in the ancient past as an original story.
Considering the flaws Pokemon games have especially nowadays, if the biggest flaw in a Pokemon game is that it's "too easy", I'd consider that a pretty dang good Pokemon game, especially since Pokemon games are incredibly flexible with how you can alter the difficulty through the usage of Pokemon, items, and EXP Share. I've heard too many arguments against "self-restriction" being a bad look but c'mon I've done it multiple times with several Pokemon games and created the best playthroughs I've ever had off it, plus you have a story to tell. "Hey, I completed ORAS only using Clamperl." or "Hey, I completed Ultra Sun only using NFE Pokemon." The Pokemon are the biggest determinant factor to the difficulty of a Pokemon game anyway, and all Pokemon games are incredibly easy if you use the right Pokemon and moves, regardless of whether you're aware of those Pokemon or not. The 3DS titles are especially flexible as you can just send Pokemon through Bank and have early access to daycare. You can complete a game and use virtually whatever upon resetting. Pokemon games are meant to be flexible. They're meant to be played through in an enormous variety of ways. This is part of why they've likely never established a real difficulty setting, because since the days of Red and Blue they've intended on the Pokemon TO BE that setting.
On the side note I've always seen people complaining about XY being incomplete and not having a Pokemon Z to finish it off but honestly Gen 5 is even worse in this aspect and it's sad because B2W2 exist and created one of the most redundant plotlines ever in the series. Instead of taking the direction of resolving Unova's lore and mysteries, they decided to have Team Plasma come back as terrorists and have Kyurem's only use be a superweapon. We needed this game to be about Kyurem. We needed the Unova sequels to flesh out further on Unova lore and try its best to complete it all the way. At the end of the day Zygarde by now got more fleshed out without ever having its own game than Kyurem ever did with two games. Kyurem is also still one of the most misunderstood Pokemon to this very day, and its involvement in B2W2 was nothing more than DLC-level. To put it this way, there's a reason why, despite Kyurem having two whole games to flesh it out, everyone is still asking for Kyurem to get a game that fleshes it out. Pokemon having sequels within its own generation is overrated especially as Black 2 White 2 failed to do it right and finalize Unova.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were all about the backstory of Necrozma, how it influenced the Alola region, and how it was responsible for all of its culture, all of its traditions, everything they have that represents them. They were about how Necrozma got in some freak accident from getting betrayed by humanity, resulting in the Pokemon bleeding light out of ultra wormholes to Alola, creating totems, and sparkling stones to power up z-crystals, then heading to Alola to steal its light and getting defeated by Tapus, forcing it back over. Alola setting up a trial system to celebrate the defeat of Necrozma, you enter into the scene 500 years later to take on those trials and understand the mystery of Necrozma. Necrozma's out there held in a tower with artificial light given to it, but that tower is about to run out of light. These games taught us how totems were made, why z-moves were a thing, how its trial system got set up, how the people in Alola were worshipping a full blown deity without their knowledge, and we got to see the deity's original, most powerful forme. Necrozma shaped their entire culture, all of their traditions, what they do, through an incident. Necrozma gave out its trust to humanity, the people who worshipped it, only to get backstabbed and suffer a permanent injury off it, where it's constantly leaking out light, which is virtually its blood, and is in constant need of more to survive. It's a brutal injury giving it eternal pain and suffering for trusting humanity too much. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon fleshed out on the history of Alola, gave an extraordinary role to its box art, and finalized the region within its own generation. Black 2 White 2 wishes it could be this. We WISH Black 2 White 2 were this.
Platinum also wishes to be this.
All the Platinum plot gave out was double the embarrassment on the creation trio, with a BS explanation as to how BOTH Palkia and Dialga were used and instead of lake trio making up for their own incompetencies, or the game really being about Giratina, Giratina was just shoehorned into the exact same climax just to save the day without an explanation at the time. Took us 13 years to get an explanation on this, and unlike with USUM, which was all about Necrozma's backstory and the impact it had on Alola, Giratina just showed up for the sake of showing up in its own game. The Distortion World was cool and such, but from a story standpoint they were really lazy in how they handled Giratina. Not to mention, while Gen 4's story was more complete than Gens 5 and 6, a complete story does not necessarily mean a good one at all.
Dialga is the embodiment of time. It is omnipresent throughout all planes of it. The literal nanosecond it was summoned by Cyrus it could have also "went back" to stop the bomb Galactic dropped on Lake Valor. Palkia could have erased Cyrus from existence for a bit within that same timeframe.
Another example is how the Red Chain was used to COMPLETELY control Palkia and Dialga despite nothing about the Lake Trio indicating they can't do this. Even Legends Arceus gave the Red Chain a completely contradictory effect. The Red Chain comes exclusively from their power and it's what they use to handle Palkia and Dialga. How the heck did it outright control them here when the Lake Trio were never shown to be able to do this? It doesn't even make sense that they could only handle one of the two at a time, since Palkia and Dialga are both infinite simultaneously... Uxie could have dismantled Team Galactic just by opening its eyes, and since it's the embodiment of knowledge, it could have quickly escaped somewhere and informed the other 2 lake trio members. Azelf could have bent Galactic's willpower and forced them to give up on their plan. It could even just use them as servants to clean up their mess. Mesprit could have instantly teleported somewhere far away just like every single time you first encounter it... In reality the lake trio had possibly billions of ways they could have avoided the situation they were put in, canonically, and not one was chosen.
Speaking of Cyrus, with the backstory they gave him, there were so many missed opportunities with how he could have been more developed. Uxie could have erased his bad memories or lead the way of Azelf and Mesprit, Mesprit could have manipulated Cyrus's emotions to have him see the good side of life since Galactic was backing him up with heavy respect, and Azelf could have given him the willpower to strive for a new, better life influenced by Mesprit. Not to mention, Galactic had his back this whole time. They respected Cyrus regardless of who he was and didn't even fully understand what he wanted until it was too late. Cyrus could have recognized the sheer respect he was being given despite his preference dissuading others, and could have used it to build a company on his own with them, in a happy ending. Man even had a Crobat that could've been used for how he changed under these scenarios.
BDSP after doing a full national dex nuzlocke (yay Pkmn Home except Spinda for a reason) I have to say...
Wow does it suck that you cannot turn of exp share and love mechanics. It breaks the game. I think this is quintessential what people mean with too easy, because it is braindead actually.
I even considered no healing items and level Limits...
Permanent EXP Share has generally been handled alright in most of the Switch games barring BDSP itself, which is because BDSP is a shoddily designed copy-paste of Diamond and Pearl that very sloppily imbues Switch-era mechanics like baked-in EXP Share and Affection into it without actually adjusting to accomodate for them. This is in large part because BDSP was not developed by Game Freak (it was developed by ILCA), was likely created under strict creative control which is why 99% of the game is a copypaste of DP to the exact T, and was innately a secondary concern that was created in less than two years as a crutch for PLA which was the real Sinnoh revisit developed by Game Freak and the true follow-up Gen 8 game after Sword and Shield.
LGPE, SwSh, PLA, and SV handle permanent EXP Share pretty well for the most part, because their level curves are designed to work in tandem with the EXP All mechanic in mind, even if not perfectly, same with the scaled EXP formula. BDSP on the other hand uses the original Diamond and Pearl's level curve to the exact T with no changes, and DP's level curve was not designed around the modern EXP formula as Gen 4 was a no-EXP All game that also used the flat EXP gain formula as opposed to the modern scaled EXP gain formula.
Affection was very sloppily implemented as well, as they just threw in the mechanic without actually putting the cap on, as BDSP being a copypaste of DP uses the Gen 4 friendship method that goes all the way to 255, as opposed to the SwSh Friendship method of capping off at 179 and then needing Camp/Picnic to break it and go higher, and above 180 is where affection bonuses are implemented, which is how SwSh and SV handle affection. BDSP did not apply the cap and thus affection bonuses come automatically.
Putting it bluntly, BDSP was a horribly designed game because it was a copypaste of Diamond and Pearl to the exact T with Switch-era mechanics very shoddily implemented alongside them. The issues you highlighted are not with the mechanics themselves but the sloppy implementation owing to BDSP being a rushed and sloppily designed game that was innately an afterthought.
Sword and Shield, Legends: Arceus, and Scarlet and Violet work better with them because they are designed in tandem with the mechanics. Meanwhile BDSP implements Gen 4 mechanics in a way where the original DP aspects and the affection/EXP All are working antithetical to each other.
In short, BDSP is just a horrible blemish in the history of mainline games. SwSh, SV, and even PLA are by no means perfect but are still overall competently designed games, even if I find base SwSh to be on the underwhelming side. But BDSP is just the standout exception in an extremely bad way and not representative of everything else in the Switch era.
Considering the flaws Pokemon games have especially nowadays, if the biggest flaw in a Pokemon game is that it's "too easy", I'd consider that a pretty dang good Pokemon game, especially since Pokemon games are incredibly flexible with how you can alter the difficulty through the usage of Pokemon, items, and EXP Share. I've heard too many arguments against "self-restriction" being a bad look but c'mon I've done it multiple times with several Pokemon games and created the best playthroughs I've ever had off it, plus you have a story to tell. "Hey, I completed ORAS only using Clamperl." or "Hey, I completed Ultra Sun only using NFE Pokemon." The Pokemon are the biggest determinant factor to the difficulty of a Pokemon game anyway, and all Pokemon games are incredibly easy if you use the right Pokemon and moves, regardless of whether you're aware of those Pokemon or not. The 3DS titles are especially flexible as you can just send Pokemon through Bank and have early access to daycare. You can complete a game and use virtually whatever upon resetting. Pokemon games are meant to be flexible. They're meant to be played through in an enormous variety of ways. This is part of why they've likely never established a real difficulty setting, because since the days of Red and Blue they've intended on the Pokemon TO BE that setting.
On the side note I've always seen people complaining about XY being incomplete and not having a Pokemon Z to finish it off but honestly Gen 5 is even worse in this aspect and it's sad because B2W2 exist and created one of the most redundant plotlines ever in the series. Instead of taking the direction of resolving Unova's lore and mysteries, they decided to have Team Plasma come back as terrorists and have Kyurem's only use be a superweapon. We needed this game to be about Kyurem. We needed the Unova sequels to flesh out further on Unova lore and try its best to complete it all the way. At the end of the day Zygarde by now got more fleshed out without ever having its own game than Kyurem ever did with two games. Kyurem is also still one of the most misunderstood Pokemon to this very day, and its involvement in B2W2 was nothing more than DLC-level. To put it this way, there's a reason why, despite Kyurem having two whole games to flesh it out, everyone is still asking for Kyurem to get a game that fleshes it out. Pokemon having sequels within its own generation is overrated especially as Black 2 White 2 failed to do it right and finalize Unova.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were all about the backstory of Necrozma, how it influenced the Alola region, and how it was responsible for all of its culture, all of its traditions, everything they have that represents them. They were about how Necrozma got in some freak accident from getting betrayed by humanity, resulting in the Pokemon bleeding light out of ultra wormholes to Alola, creating totems, and sparkling stones to power up z-crystals, then heading to Alola to steal its light and getting defeated by Tapus, forcing it back over. Alola setting up a trial system to celebrate the defeat of Necrozma, you enter into the scene 500 years later to take on those trials and understand the mystery of Necrozma. Necrozma's out there held in a tower with artificial light given to it, but that tower is about to run out of light. These games taught us how totems were made, why z-moves were a thing, how its trial system got set up, how the people in Alola were worshipping a full blown deity without their knowledge, and we got to see the deity's original, most powerful forme. Necrozma shaped their entire culture, all of their traditions, what they do, through an incident. Necrozma gave out its trust to humanity, the people who worshipped it, only to get backstabbed and suffer a permanent injury off it, where it's constantly leaking out light, which is virtually its blood, and is in constant need of more to survive. It's a brutal injury giving it eternal pain and suffering for trusting humanity too much. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon fleshed out on the history of Alola, gave an extraordinary role to its box art, and finalized the region within its own generation. Black 2 White 2 wishes it could be this. We WISH Black 2 White 2 were this.
Platinum also wishes to be this.
All the Platinum plot gave out was double the embarrassment on the creation trio, with a BS explanation as to how BOTH Palkia and Dialga were used and instead of lake trio making up for their own incompetencies, or the game really being about Giratina, Giratina was just shoehorned into the exact same climax just to save the day without an explanation at the time. Took us 13 years to get an explanation on this, and unlike with USUM, which was all about Necrozma's backstory and the impact it had on Alola, Giratina just showed up for the sake of showing up in its own game. The Distortion World was cool and such, but from a story standpoint they were really lazy in how they handled Giratina. Not to mention, while Gen 4's story was more complete than Gens 5 and 6, a complete story does not necessarily mean a good one at all.
Dialga is the embodiment of time. It is omnipresent throughout all planes of it. The literal nanosecond it was summoned by Cyrus it could have also "went back" to stop the bomb Galactic dropped on Lake Valor. Palkia could have erased Cyrus from existence for a bit within that same timeframe.
Another example is how the Red Chain was used to COMPLETELY control Palkia and Dialga despite nothing about the Lake Trio indicating they can't do this. Even Legends Arceus gave the Red Chain a completely contradictory effect. The Red Chain comes exclusively from their power and it's what they use to handle Palkia and Dialga. How the heck did it outright control them here when the Lake Trio were never shown to be able to do this? It doesn't even make sense that they could only handle one of the two at a time, since Palkia and Dialga are both infinite simultaneously... Uxie could have dismantled Team Galactic just by opening its eyes, and since it's the embodiment of knowledge, it could have quickly escaped somewhere and informed the other 2 lake trio members. Azelf could have bent Galactic's willpower and forced them to give up on their plan. It could even just use them as servants to clean up their mess. Mesprit could have instantly teleported somewhere far away just like every single time you first encounter it... In reality the lake trio had possibly billions of ways they could have avoided the situation they were put in, canonically, and not one was chosen.
Speaking of Cyrus, with the backstory they gave him, there were so many missed opportunities with how he could have been more developed. Uxie could have erased his bad memories or lead the way of Azelf and Mesprit, Mesprit could have manipulated Cyrus's emotions to have him see the good side of life since Galactic was backing him up with heavy respect, and Azelf could have given him the willpower to strive for a new, better life influenced by Mesprit. Not to mention, Galactic had his back this whole time. They respected Cyrus regardless of who he was and didn't even fully understand what he wanted until it was too late. Cyrus could have recognized the sheer respect he was being given despite his preference dissuading others, and could have used it to build a company on his own with them, in a happy ending. Man even had a Crobat that could've been used for how he changed under these scenarios.
Okay so I have some significant disagreement with the sentiment expressed in the USUM portion of this rant, in that I think it's just assuming that because it gave all these ties and answers to Necrozma that it is immediately preferable. I'm all for a culture or mythology with a lot to speculate on, but when everything has a concrete answer it kind of becomes a checked box instead of a source of wonder to me. Sometimes fantastic stuff or magic simply IS a thing in a setting and doesn't need to all tie back to a source, whether or not that source is fantastical. This is especially the case for me when half of Alola is drawing from a real world basis of Hawaii (which has a very rich culture and Mythology that didn't have to ascribe things to one Alien Dragon Shell) and the other half is based on extra-dimensional and borderline Lovecraftian Alien creatures (which by nature are most intriguing/intimidating because they're hard/impossible to comprehend). I would infact posit the opposite position that explaining so much of the world, and especially as a consequence of one Pokemon, makes the story and setting less intriguing when it's all answered questions with nothing to explore.
The issue with XY is not being "incomplete" in that I think it needed to tell a story or focus more on Zygarde necessarily. Its issue is that the story it chooses to tell is incredibly threadbare in what it uses or contains: Team Flare is not a general criminal nuisance (as is the case with Gen 1 Rocket for example), yet mostly appears in incidents with no relation to their overall Endgame.
Compare Magma/Aqua doing things like stealing the Orb and the Submarine for the Ultimate Goal of reaching and controlling their respective Titans, Galactic incidents being in their bases of operation while they steal Energy or the aftermath of their capturing Legendary Pokemon for the Red Chain, or Part-1 Plasma searching for the Legendary Dragon Stones and their side incidents involving Propaganda that ties directly into their goal (which involves "convincing" people to follow N rather than just beating down EVERYTHING with their power outright). Lysandre has a few not-subtle scenes hitting you with his motive and then the Endgame just very abruptly hits you with the exposition and dungeons related to Team Flare's "Nuke the Planet" MO. It feels like there are pages missing because an outline is here but Team Flare has almost nothing to do with Lysandre himself in the Endgame other than being his Manpower.
B2W2 are not strictly "redundant" because they do not espouse on the lore of Kyurem (and frankly I think this is downplaying the implication/impact of outright showing Kyurem re-absorb one of the Tao Dragons into itself after Part 1 alluded to it having a role as the "shell" left behind). This is to assume that the games MUST be about answering the existing mysteries, when frankly answering those mysteries in a lot of cases is boring for some people (in my case go back to "everything about Alola is Necrozma" for a personal example). And THIS is the point where I think you're being very reductive
To put it this way, there's a reason why, despite Kyurem having two whole games to flesh it out, everyone is still asking for Kyurem to get a game that fleshes it out.
Because this is to ascribe the following to the Unova games for this criticism
Their focus was specifically upon Kyurem as a Pokemon, despite your simultaneous claim that its lore was not gone into.
That the first games were ABOUT Kyurem in the first place (the focus clearly being on the Truth/Ideals conflict between the actual Cover Legendaries and You vs N) for that to be a failed criteria across the Generation
That people want more focus and fleshing out about Kyurem because they think there is not enough of it
That the lore all has to specifically pertain to Kyurem rather than exploring myths and legends throughout Unova such as the Swords of Justice or even just other relatable Legendary Trios (since the Kami Trio in LA don't originate from Sinnoh's Gen after all)
That people are literally asking for Kyurem and not the obvious Elephant in the room of the Original Dragon that was split off into these 3, which has never been depicted on screen and has no name to be referred to over Kyurem as a shorthand since it's the one that most directly links the trio back to this entity
Now comes the part where I layout a bunch of my issues with this Gen 4 story beatdown which I skipped over the first time it was ranted about. This part is going to get long so THIS one gets the hide tag to match
First and foremost: Nothing hard confirms the Sinnoh Legendaries as controlling masters of their themes. Sure chalk it up to writers not having a sense of scale for these concepts, but look at how many other games include appearances by these Pokemon that should give absolutely no mind to the things they're presented with: Mystery Dungeon clearly depicts Time and Space being fucked with on a Planetary Scale as something that troubles the duo but they do not have direct ability to prevent (Dialga is shown being driven mad by time's collapse rather than vice versa), and given this is a world of Pokemon as dominant, their feats and abilities aren't being filtered or exaggerated through Legends as is. They are not "infinite" for this to be contradictory, they're worshiped as beings of this nature by the people of the Sinnoh region (and in LA case, not even directly the Dragons so much as a more ambiguous image of Arceus that they ascribe to one or the other Dragon). I feel the need to hard emphasize this limitation because nearly 2 decades later when revisiting Sinnoh for LA, TPC has made a point that while Dialga/Palkia and co. are depicted consistent with their "grounded" Gen 4 interpretations, Arceus has been reaffirmed if not elevated to a Capital-G God entity with the being you use in Battle being one fraction of its power given an Avatar, so this idea of the Dragons as Omnipotent masters rather than Powerful Influencers of their respective fields isn't even a result of neglecting their lore after the initial depictions, which I also remind you have shown them able to be captured by skilled-but-still-young Trainers after battle (the Counterpart is assisted by the first Legendary and the Origin Ball, but said first Legendary still had to be caught as a "Plan B" when the Red Chain failed).
The above also brings me to the Red Chain and the Lake Trio: it most logically would control Palkia and Dialga by manipulating their emotional states, not by enforcing a direct control over their powers or being as, say, Gen 3's teams thought the Red/Blue Orbs would do. This is consistent with depictions like Primal Dialga in MD clearly depicting that for all their power they are still creatures with emotional states and frenzies. The Lake Trio being able to negate control induced by something made by their power feels like an odd thing to consider a contradiction, and claiming Legends Arceus to give it a contradictory effect especially: The plot of that game is "Giratina tears a rift and pisses off Palkia/Dialga," which if the Red Chain draws on the emotion/spirit Pokemon as a means to control/influence the Pokemon, puts it perfectly in-line with what it would do DPPt, just the player character is using it here to pacify the Legendary rather than direct its power (and this all with the fact that it doesn't even work so as to push the player into a capture battle anyway).
Palkia and Dialga are rarely depicted as "Sapient" levels of intelligence for Legendaries, which we have points of reference for in most Speaking/Telepathic legendaries such as Mewtwo, Lugia, Jirachi, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Kyurem, Keldeo and the Swords of Justice, Diancie, etc. Putting aside the above issues I noted with assuming their Omnipotence as a source of contradiction, this would be assuming they have the intelligence and rational thought to act on what is occurring as soon as they become aware of it, because they are consistently shown NOT to be omniscient or aware of everything everywhere and every-when all at once within their sphere. This is also assuming that the Legendaries care enough to actively resist Cyrus's plan if we ascribe the level of being to them that you describe: if rewriting reality is effortless what makes one better or worse than another for the Dragon? If they are Omniscient and Omnipotent, then if they can be captured by the player on a whim as some people prescribe, what makes following Cyrus's direction any less plausible under an influence at that point? The simpler explanation is that they are not immune to such control, but if that interpretation must be placed on them there exists explanation with as much or more ground than "the writers put in contradictory story with no justification"
And on the same point of "why do they care about Cyrus?" I will mention the Lake Trio as brought up: why do they give a shit about showing a happier outlook or a better prospect to the guy who had them captured and put through the evidently painful procedure of making the Red Chain? If we're going to assume their abilities can be done at face value for them to be able to stoke emotions or manipulate memories, they're just as capable of indiscriminately wiping his memories of everything in general or removing his emotions/drive to pursue his plans, which would be simpler solutions than trying to selectively affect him and his followers to correct his emotional distress. I don't see why they'd be inclined to help someone who goes to a cruel option especially after LA establishes they can give the RC materials willingly. I focus more on this question than the previous because other depictions around the same time DO suggest these are within the scope of the Lake Trio's powers (Uxie wiping Memories is brought up in PMD, and Gen 4 Manga depict Azelf influencing Willpower when the Heroes are struggling in battle with Saturn at Lake Verity). Mesprit's acknowledgement and playfulness can easily be ascribed to the player saving them rather than being in their default nature for such an encounter. On the teleporting point, Pokemon also has you unable to use Teleport in a situation as mundane as being inside of a building, and given Mesprit usually does it when in control of itself (after being freed at the Veilstone Building, leaving Spear Pillar after breaking the Red Chain, and starting what is essentially a game of tag for the Roaming Capture), I think it's fair to assume that whether it's the extreme pain or something Galactic built to contain these 3 Specific Pokemon they need for their plot, there is a major obstacle to being able to teleport out of captivity even while conscious (to discard the possibility that Galactic fainted them and took them to the building while unconscious since they're not depicted as Titanically powerful-class Legendaries by most depictions either).
Rant over, do not start with my on Gen 4 slander unless you're prepared for walls of half-coherent text.
Permanent EXP Share has generally been handled alright in most of the Switch games barring BDSP itself, which is because BDSP is a shoddily designed copy-paste of Diamond and Pearl that very sloppily imbues Switch-era mechanics like baked-in EXP Share and Affection into it without actually adjusting to accomodate for them. This is in large part because BDSP was not developed by Game Freak (it was developed by ILCA), was likely created under strict creative control which is why 99% of the game is a copypaste of DP to the exact T, and was innately a secondary concern that was created in less than two years as a crutch for PLA which was the real Sinnoh revisit developed by Game Freak and the true follow-up Gen 8 game after Sword and Shield.
LGPE, SwSh, PLA, and SV handle permanent EXP Share pretty well for the most part, because their level curves are designed to work in tandem with the EXP All mechanic in mind, even if not perfectly, same with the scaled EXP formula. BDSP on the other hand uses the original Diamond and Pearl's level curve to the exact T with no changes, and DP's level curve was not designed around the modern EXP formula as Gen 4 was a no-EXP All game that also used the flat EXP gain formula as opposed to the modern scaled EXP gain formula.
Affection was very sloppily implemented as well, as they just threw in the mechanic without actually putting the cap on, as BDSP being a copypaste of DP uses the Gen 4 friendship method that goes all the way to 255, as opposed to the SwSh Friendship method of capping off at 179 and then needing Camp/Picnic to break it and go higher, and above 180 is where affection bonuses are implemented, which is how SwSh and SV handle affection. BDSP did not apply the cap and thus affection bonuses come automatically.
Putting it bluntly, BDSP was a horribly designed game because it was a copypaste of Diamond and Pearl to the exact T with Switch-era mechanics very shoddily implemented alongside them. The issues you highlighted are not with the mechanics themselves but the sloppy implementation owing to BDSP being a rushed and sloppily designed game that was innately an afterthought.
Sword and Shield, Legends: Arceus, and Scarlet and Violet work better with them because they are designed in tandem with the mechanics. Meanwhile BDSP implements Gen 4 mechanics in a way where the original DP aspects and the affection/EXP All are working antithetical to each other.
In short, BDSP is just a horrible blemish in the history of mainline games. SwSh, SV, and even PLA are by no means perfect but are still overall competently designed games, even if I find base SwSh to be on the underwhelming side. But BDSP is just the standout exception in an extremely bad way and not representative of everything else in the Switch era.
I hate that I feel the need to stand up here and point out that I was (barely) able to avoid difficulties with exp and affection during my own playthrough of BDSP. I hate that BDSP is my favourite mainline game on the Switch. I wish I could look at the copy-paste content, the questionable coding mistakes, the half-assed features and use "not representative of the other games" dismissively. But I can't escape that significant parts of my enjoyment of the series are only there in the one place they didn't have a chance to remove them.
I pointed out in another thread that "brilliant" is already a word you would associate with diamonds and "shining" is already a word you would associate with pearls compared to the Johto/Sinnoh (but not Kanto) remake titles. My new theory is that they were called that to indirectly imply they would be more remasters and not remakes, and Legends Arceus would be the game that actually introduced significant new lore.
Though it would be easier if they were explicit about that from the beginning.
We always have to remember that Pokemon is generally marketed towards a much younger audience than the average age of members on this forum. Unlike say BotW and TotK which are marketed towards an older age group and have a much higher difficulty.
They have to go for a low difficulty level because their main demographic is kids. Its really not that hard to put on self restrictions and its just something we have to accept since we are in essence playing a game MAINLY designed for quite young children.
A challenge mode might be nice, but they tried that once and it didn’t do so well (I believe due to horrible implementation/unlock reqs). They just aren’t gonna go back to that.
