Gen 5's soundtrack was so good. Probably one of the reasons why 5 was my favorite gen. XY's overworld themes were good but I thought all of the battle themes except Trainer Battle sucked.
HGSS was fairly recent and they still didn't do that good of a job on it. I'd really rather have something more focused than see what nightmares would arise if they tried to cram 2-5 regions into one game.
People were already disappointed at the world in x and y. The postgame is currently one city, a couple caves, and some mega stone hunting Making a region-sized postgame would probably have involved gutting kalos or delaying the game a year or more.
Nichibro bringing the hype with the B2W2 Rival Encounter theme. To be quite honest, if it weren't for Mega evolutions, refinements to a lot of game systems, specifically the breeding system and online options, and the customizable trainer stuff, B2/W2 would be unchallenged by anything in the series. I guess it helped that B/W were very strong games lacking in post game things to do and B2/W2 just came and added that back to the mix between Pokemon World Tournament (BESTEST BP battling concept ever).
The legendaries were a bit weak though. The pseudos were godlike though. Hydreigon & Volcarona are wonderful. Alt form genies also gave them great distinct looks.
B2W2 music (actually Gen 5 music in general) was SO good that for me coming back into the franchise as a lapsed Poke-head, I couldn't believe some of the stuff I was hearing.
I'll cut out the rest to save space but I'm in agreement with this.
Seeing that lineup of battle themes reminds me how diverse they all were, I love how some of them weren't afraid to just experiment with some more unconventional styles for a Pokemon game, I mean Ghetsis kicking off with like a minute of pure percussion may not be a catchy classic but hot damn did it set a scene like nothing else.
Of them all though it was actually the playful rival battle theme from the first B/W that sticks with me the most.
Coming to think of it I posted something for these games earlier in the year.
Really looking forward to how these updates handle Gen 3's music assuming they don't screw it up, removing the GBA sound quality roadblock could mean some damn good stuff, especially for the battle themes that were pretty explosive and energetic.
Nichibro bringing the hype with the B2W2 Rival Encounter theme. To be quite honest, if it weren't for Mega evolutions, refinements to a lot of game systems, specifically the breeding system and online options, and the customizable trainer stuff, B2/W2 would be unchallenged by anything in the series. I guess it helped that B/W were very strong games lacking in post game things to do and B2/W2 just came and added that back to the mix between Pokemon World Tournament (BESTEST BP battling concept ever).
The legendaries were a bit weak though. The pseudos were godlike though. Hydreigon & Volcarona are wonderful. Alt form genies also gave them great distinct looks.
I got your back, man! And yeah, 6 brought more than its fair share of good to the table which is why I put the weaker , but valid, "Greater than or Equal to" between those two.
Yeah, the NPC designs in 6 are over-the-top compared to past gens, in the best way possible. Such a quality spike.
And agreed on the starters, the main reason it takes 2nd for me is because Froakie is the first Starter to look real good through all three evolutionary stages! It's quite the feat. Also, I love Fennekin/Braixen, but once it turns to that...final thing all love is gone.
They wont abandon the brass, they'll harness this newfangled technology to give us the quality brass we truly deserve, my route 110 horn hype is so ready.
Was anyone else kind of let down by XY's soundtrack? I feel like the gym leader and elite four music was a step down from Gen 5, as was most of the soundtrack.
Was anyone else kind of let down by XY's soundtrack? I feel like the gym leader and elite four music was a step down from Gen 5, as was most of the soundtrack.
Was anyone else kind of let down by XY's soundtrack? I feel like the gym leader and elite four music was a step down from Gen 5, as was most of the soundtrack.
Definitely, after the amazing Gym Leader theme from B2/W2 nothing in X/Y comes close.
It's actually really disappointing for me. There's some decent tracks like you say, but it's either just retreading common ground that's been done much better or it a mess like the Gym Leader theme.
If you include XY's customization, though, it's the clear winner. So satisfying to finally have a trainer that looks near as close to perfect as I can possibly get it.
Music: 5 > 1 > 3 > 2 > 6 > 4
Gen 5 is probably the first time that a Pokemon game legitimately astounded me with the quality of its' music. Route 19 from B2W2 is fucking amazing.
Was anyone else kind of let down by XY's soundtrack? I feel like the gym leader and elite four music was a step down from Gen 5, as was most of the soundtrack.
Yep, I'm not let down by soundtracks often but this is one of the few cases in recent years where it happened. Nothing in there that I found bad mind you (except maybe having to keep hearing the grating Team Flare battle theme in succession) but very little that stood out to me.
Route 15 is one of my faves though, it nails that sort of hard travelled adventure vibe.
And also Sycamore's theme for sounding like an abandoned Professor Layton track, kind of wish that they pushed the whole European music styles further.
I'll cut out the rest to save space but I'm in agreement with this.
Seeing that lineup of battle themes reminds me how diverse they all were, I love how some of them weren't afraid to just experiment with some more unconventional styles for a Pokemon game, I mean Ghetsis kicking off with like a minute of pure percussion may not be a catchy classic but hot damn did it set a scene like nothing else.
Of them all though it was actually the playful rival battle theme from the first B/W that sticks with me the most.
Coming to think of it I posted something for these games earlier in the year.
Really looking forward to how these updates handle Gen 3's music assuming they don't screw it up, removing the GBA sound quality roadblock could mean some damn good stuff, especially for the battle themes that were pretty explosive and energetic.
Really good write up. You did a much better job of articulating the biggest reasons why Gen 5's music is the gold standard in a post RBY world. The diversity is real. Loved your thoughts on the ending theme. Honestly B/W was a game that pretty much wanted to challenge EVERYTHING about what you knew about Pokemon as a franchise and the sequence of events that started with you reaching Route 10/Victory Road and ending with the ending theme was just too much for me who's been there since Day 1 Red version. The scenes and music just came together in a way I was not expecting.
Shoutouts to the one and only time where it went down to cover legendary vs cover legendary used by the protagonist and rival only for big boss himself to step out from behind the curtain and bust out the most exotic Pokemon ever. Did I also forget to mention that this sequence interrupted your regularly scheduled first victory over the region's Elite Four and Champion because the bad guys won?
Since I haven't done it yet:
Music: 5 > 2 > 1 > 3 (this has potential to rise)> 6
Games: 5 ≥ 6 > 2 (actually has potential to drop and I was a hardcore Johto kid) > 3 > 1 (not a bad game by any means but it's showing its age to the whippersnappers)
Pokemon: 5 (Highest number of favorites in one region ever for me; this one gave me Mothra, bestest dragon Hydreigon, Scrafty, Eelektross, Ferrothorn, Jellicent and so many others with the wildest typings) ≥ 6 (Megas. Notably, M-Blaziken. Also Greninja) > 1 (Jolteon/Zapdos, Dragonite, Alakazam, Arcanine, Blastoise, Exeggutor... I will never forget my first team) 3 (more and more I'm realizing that a lot of my mainstays come from this gen somehow) > 2 (fondly remembered for Umbreon, Scizor, Typhlosion, Lugia with broken ass Aeroblast, but starting to lose outright to more and more gens)
Gen 4 goes mostly unrated because I had a long lapse through it barring my time dabbling with my brother's HeartGold.
Edit: Starters: 3 ≥ 1 > 4 > 6 (Froakie's so good it almost bumped the group into third place, but Chespin's latter evos and Delphox kinda hold the group back) > 5 (the weakest aspect of gen 5 mostly because they all either sucked or had direct competition from Pokemon available that did their niche better; it's also the biggest missed opportunity that Serperior didn't become Grass/Dragon with Contrary) > 2 (they're cute and fun, but they're decidely vanilla versus the other starters and Bayleef becomes Meganium; also Typhlosion got a huge visual nerf thanks to X/Y being true to portrayal and turning his back's explosive flames off during most of his idle animations)
Yeah Blue was easily the best rival followed by silver. Cheren and Bianca were also good and I liked that they each had a story and character development to them. Every other game's rival kind of sucks. I really wish they'd go back to a more antagonistic rival rather than making them more super friends. XY was easily the worst in this category. Although I like how it's been discussed in another forum I go to where we concluded that in XY, you're essentially playing as Gary/Blue except without failing in the end.
Why is Gen 5 on their twice for rivals and gen 6 missing? Did you just ignore gen 6 in terms of rivals and give gen 5 two because the sequels had a new rival? Or is one of those gen 5 ones supposed to be gen 6?
Yeah Blue was easily the best rival followed by silver. Cheren and Bianca were also good and I liked that they each had a story and character development to them. Every other game's rival kind of sucks. I really wish they'd go back to a more antagonistic rival rather than making them more super friends. XY was easily the worst in this category. Although I like how it's been discussed in another forum I go to where we concluded that in XY, you're essentially playing as Gary/Blue except without failing in the end.
Hate to say it but RSE were the games where the rivals became friends. I was really hoping Hugh would be more antagonistic when he was first revealed. Maybe gen 7.
B2W2 music (actually Gen 5 music in general) was SO good that for me coming back into the franchise as a lapsed Poke-head, I couldn't believe some of the stuff I was hearing.
In comparison, X/Y's soundtrack is a big miss for me outside of like 4 or 5 themes. (Diantha's Battle, Lysander's Battle, Successor Korrina's Battle Theme, & Anistar Town) #Ichinose4OmegaRubyAlphaSapphire
I remember listening to B/W's music almost non-stop for about an entire year. I didn't expect much from B2/W2 (I mean, past 2nd games only added a few pieces of music) but I was completely blown the heck away when I heard its music. They somehow even took good music and made it really awesome. Even some of the best pieces in B/W were made completely amazing in B2/W2.
The music is the only reason why I'm sad that the Gen 3 remakes are in gen 6 instead of gen 5. If B/W's music was like that, I can't imagine what R/S's music would have been like in that style.
Gen 5's soundtrack was so good. Probably one of the reasons why 5 was my favorite gen. XY's overworld themes were good but I thought all of the battle themes except Trainer Battle sucked.
A lot of Gen 6's music was totally out of place (gym leader battle especially), but then it grows on you. My favorites are Successor Korrina (which is way better than the gym battle but sadly you only hear it once the entire game, in a very short battle, no less) and Elite Four battle. Trainer Battle is also really good in this game, too.
What disappointed me the most, however, was that Gen 5 had a small number of battle themes. I thought it was a total cop-out when they allowed you to select your music for some battles instead of simply having new themes.
Why is Gen 5 on their twice for rivals and gen 6 missing? Did you just ignore gen 6 in terms of rivals and give gen 5 two because the sequels had a new rival? Or is one of those gen 5 ones supposed to be gen 6?
Hate to say it but RSE were the games where the rivals became friends. I was really hoping Hugh would be more antagonistic when he was first revealed. Maybe gen 7.
I know. And yeah Hugh sucked. His story was just lame and he had nothing beyond that. Among the friend rivals the only ones even decent were Bianca and Cheren as I mentioned earlier IMO
Hate to say it but RSE were the games where the rivals became friends. I was really hoping Hugh would be more antagonistic when he was first revealed. Maybe gen 7.
If they're willing to go as far as introducing new forms for now-classic box legendaries, there's hope that they'll finally flesh out Brendan/May and/or Wally. If nothing else, there's bound to be a slew of new postgame opportunities for them to get involved in.
Yeah Blue was easily the best rival followed by silver. Cheren and Bianca were also good and I liked that they each had a story and character development to them. Every other game's rival kind of sucks. I really wish they'd go back to a more antagonistic rival rather than making them more super friends. XY was easily the worst in this category. Although I like how it's been discussed in another forum I go to where we concluded that in XY, you're essentially playing as Gary/Blue except without failing in the end.
Honestly, gen 3 rivals were just completely forgettable. That said, I still prefer them to the incredibly annoying gen 6 friendship rival group (although I guess alt gender trainer was the only real rival, but even they were incredibly boring and one track)
That's actually a tough question. I'd say no because all of his roles revolve around team plasma, but I suppose the arguement could be made that he's a villainous rival. Ultimately though I still think the rivals of the game were clearly just Cheren and Bianca. I do like N though, and thought his story stuff was pretty strong by pokemon standards. Like, the only part of black 2 and white 2 where the story got remotely interesting were when you got to him and ghetsis, with everything else being really generic and boring, which was a huge step down from Black and White
Really good write up. You did a much better job of articulating the biggest reasons why Gen 5's music is the gold standard in a post RBY world. The diversity is real. Loved your thoughts on the ending theme. Honestly B/W was a game that pretty much wanted to challenge EVERYTHING about what you knew about Pokemon as a franchise and the sequence of events that started with you reaching Route 10/Victory Road and ending with the ending theme was just too much for me who's been there since Day 1 Red version. The scenes and music just came together in a way I was not expecting.
Shoutouts to the one and only time where it went down to cover legendary vs cover legendary used by the protagonist and rival only for big boss himself to step out from behind the curtain and bust out the most exotic Pokemon ever. Did I also forget to mention that this sequence interrupted your regularly scheduled first victory over the region's Elite Four and Champion because the bad guys won?
The whole endgame was such an enjoyable little swerve, as you said it was surprisingly effective having been around from Gen 1 turning a few of the simple story conventions of the series on their head.
Black/White in general was really the sequel I'd been waiting for in that it kept the core base as they all do of course but dared to stand alone with a cast of new pokemon taking centre stage entirely for the main game, it helped bring back that sense of discovery I just couldn't quite get again after playing the originals.
So if I were ranking the games, well I'll just say my favourites are Fire Red and Black.
While the return trip to Kanto still has some flaws that its update still couldn't quite deal with (it gets a bit tiring committing poison type genocide, hope you brought a psychic type!) I just can't deny my nostalgia, really nice update on the whole minus the unfortunate changes to the music.
Hmm I know I'm kind of late but regarding the whole Mega and continuity issue, I thought of something. We know that the actual concept of Mega Evolutions should predate Hoenn based on what was said in X Y so, as many people have said already, the orbs could be the respective Mega Stones for Kyogre and Groundon. But what if it isn't classified yet as a Mega Evolution? During the story-line only these two would be able to do it with the orbs alone and it would be called "????-Evolution" in battle. Then after you finished the E4 they could pull a "A few years have passed" and when the post-game starts a little from Kalos swapped over and everything makes sense, the concept of Mega Evolutions is now known and you can obtain and use other Mega Evolutions.
Of course that would mean that the essentially lock them out during the main-storyline aside from the legendaries but that way the continuity should be okay. I personally wouldn't mind though if they just change and alter some things but I think Gamefreak will manage without upsetting anyone too much.
As far as GenWars go, in terms of player-characters my ranking is the following
Male:
Red = Hilbert > Brendan > Calem > Ethan = Nate > Lucas
Female:
Rosa = May = Dawn > Hilda = Serena = Leaf > Lyra > Kris
I'm prepared to get flamed for some of this
For the actual games and music, I don't want to rank them because I like them all for different reasons so I could never make up my mind on this.
And I'm really stoked to see Hoenn again in the new engine! Honestly, X and Y were in a way my dream Pokémon games because ever since I first played my Red version back in the day I always fantasized at how a advanced, future Pokémon game will look and in terms of art-style and technical realization X and Y are really close to what I imagined to have one day, my hype for them even surpassed my hype for Red and Blue I think For a most part the hype was also met, the only thing I found disheartening is that the general city/town size was still only a handful houses with extremely short routes inbetween (They knocked it out of the park with Lumiose City though, it was awesome lively and big) Same with the progression speed, I felt that the distance between the first and second Gym was perfect but afterwards the game felt a bit like on fast-forward
I still love X and Y for everything they are and are not and, to get back to my original point, I'm really excited for Hoenn because of how great X and Y are. Hoenn was one of my favorite regions back in the day and to see it so soon on the foundation of a 3DS Pokémon game can only be good!
I just realized two big reasons I should get hype for this remake that I completely neglected. Fixed rival battles (seriously, the main rival in these games was so lame; going full pacifist before I see your Pokemon's final form? laaaaame) and this theme with exponentially better sound fonts.
I got so goddamned hype when it started up in Ruby. I can't imagine what'll happen now.
Man, I love plenty about the later games, but there's no question blue is still the best rival.
The only other thing where the first game is still unquestionably the best is in limitations on the player. The sheer quantity of covergae moves available to most pokemon these days is absurd.
Man, I love plenty about the later games, but there's no question blue is still the best rival.
The only other thing where the first game is still unquestionably the best is in limitations on the player. The sheer quantity of covergae moves available to most pokemon these days is absurd.
I'm pretty convinced BW2 is on par with or better than every other Pokemon game in every way (including music). Not only does it have what I would call redeeming aspects for what the series lacks, it's an excellent execution of the formula with a lot of polish. Well, I'm not talking about multiplayer, but then I'd assume it would just be second best there. I actually didn't like BW much actually.
I'm pretty convinced BW2 is on par with or better than every other Pokemon game in every way (including music). Not only does it have what I would call redeeming aspects for what the series lacks, it's an excellent execution of the formula with a lot of polish. Well, I'm not talking about multiplayer, but then I'd assume it would just be second best there. I actually didn't like BW much either.
I'd say BW had a much better story, but yeah otherwise BW2 is probably the best in the series for now. Wouldn't be surprised if that changed in the inevitable z/X2Y2 though
I already did the starter ranking earlier but I might as well rank the music and in games.
Music
Dppt=HG/SS>RSE>R/B/Y=GSC>B/W/2>X/Y>FR/LG
FR/LG is so far down because the GBA sound quality killed the the music even compared to the originals. X/Y has just dissapointing but nothing really bad. B/W is mostly the same but had a few good songs instead of just meh songs. The rest I have no real objections to and it's mostly just pure opinion at that point
In game
Dppt=RSE=GSC=RBY>BW>XY
BW was very strait foward and really lacked any sense of exploration. XY was kinda the same but added a little flair that while that helped the original run it really makes subsequent playthroughs a real bore...
Sorry I can't join in with the Gen 5 circle jerk here but I hated that one...
Man, I love plenty about the later games, but there's no question blue is still the best rival.
The only other thing where the first game is still unquestionably the best is in limitations on the player. The sheer quantity of covergae moves available to most pokemon these days is absurd.
Honestly, X and Y were in a way my dream Pokémon games because ever since I first played my Red version back in the day I always fantasized at how a advanced, future Pokémon game will look and in terms of art-style and technical realization X and Y are really close to what I imagined to have one day, my hype for them even surpassed my hype for Red and Blue I think 