Ah, yes.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
I agree that Dudunsparce is the best evolution Dunsparce could have possibly gotten, though I still think it would have been better to just never give it an evolution. Dunsparce was perfect just the way it was.
thank you verty much mate
19 or 23 would make more sense than 17 then. Closer to the current 20.
My unpopular opinions:
1. X and Y are actually really fun, definitely among the most replayable games in the series. Huge region with an even bigger Pokedex, pretty visuals, and not too many cutscenes to mash through. Yes, the story is bad, but I think Pokemon fans put too much emphasis on story in a series where the story is, more often than not, a formality, a bonus at best. I'd like a better story, but especially on a repeat playthrough I don't think the story adds much. Also, the limited number of new Pokemon in gen 6 wasn't a problem because they went for quality over quantity. Most of the gen 6 mons are, at least, acceptable in design, but a lot of them, like Tyrantrum, Pyroar, and Trevenant, are absolutely knocking it out of the park. Look at gen 5: It has the most new Pokemon of any gen, including several excellent designs, but the stereotypical Pokemon fan dislikes gen 5 mons because there are a lot of duds too. I'd rather have fewer Pokemon that are better designed than more Pokemon that I don't care about.
2. The hate towards Charizard and gen 1 pandering in general is a little overblown. Yes, Charizard is consistently used, but so are a lot of other Pokemon. I don't see this much vitriol aimed at Eevee, which has even less reason to be as oversaturated as it is. I understand and agree with a lot of the criticisms towards Zard and Kanto itself, but I think at this point it's gotten a bit old. I first saw "Charizard is overrated" memes when I was like, 12, I think we get the point by now. Also, I'm not sure if "genwunners" are actually that common as real people. I see them mentioned a lot as a strawman, but I've never personally met any.
3. On the note about Charizard, I think it getting two Mega Evolutions was actually sick as fuck. They shouldn't have cut one of the Megas, they should've given Venusaur and Blastoise two Megas too. The flexibility and strategizing afforded by two Mega options is really cool for both in-game and competitive use, and I wish they did more with the concept. Imagine a Mega Blastoise X that's Water/Steel and is built to be a physical tank with Regenerator, or a Mega Venusaur X that relives the glory days of being a sun sweeper with Ninetales. Heck, go beyond starters, why not have two different Mega Medichams, one based on physical moves, one based on special moves? So much potential in this idea.
4. The universal Exp Share was a good addition to the game. The biggest problem with older Pokemon games is often the grind, Johto being especially problematic. Having your entire party get experience does wonders to fix it, while also making the possibility of using more than 6 Pokemon and swapping members around an actually realistic option compared to how it was before. The problem with this idea was removing the ability to disable it. People want hard modes for Pokemon games, so having such an easy way to implement a "hard" mode, and then removing it, is strange to me. This part isn't an unpopular opinion, I just thought it'd be best to include it for the sake of nuance and clarity.
5. Digimon actually does a lot of things better than Pokemon, and I think Pokemon fans are too quick to bash it without giving it an earnest, good faith try. And yes, that means actually learning the mechanics and trying to play it like it was made to be played, not trying to force it to play like Pokemon. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth in particular is better than the vast majority of Pokemon games, imo. In particular I think the nonlinear evolution system where Digimon can degenerate to a lower form to become stronger upon Digivolving again, and how a single Digimon has multiple options for what they Digivolve to, and from, is awesome. Imagine having a Charizard that knows Extreme Speed because it started as a Dratini, or being unsatisfied with your starter options and eventually turning your starter into a Pokemon you DO like. That rules.
6. "Advanced" Pokemon mechanics like EVs and IVs are actually very simple. The reason more casual players think they're "too complicated" for them is because the games don't do a good job of explaining them at all. The most you get is stuff like "if you level up your Pokemon with just Rare Candies they'll be weaker than if they leveled up by battling", which is true, but they don't explain WHY, or that once you max out EVs you can use Rare Candies all you like. I think the community has done enough work documenting this stuff that it's easy to learn it all by doing basic research, but as frustrated as I get with people dismissing something as "too hard" or "too complicated" without even trying, when "I don't actually care" is a likely more honest response, it's more on the fault of the games for not explaining core mechanics like that.
7. Most of the PokeTubers I've watched are carbon copies of each other with different voices and aesthetics but otherwise the exact same style of content. It's gotten more varied over the years, now challenge runs are in vogue (or were) but even the challenge runners are generally interchangeable. If you're going to dedicate your channel to Pokemon games specifically, which isn't necessarily a good idea with how samey Pokemon games tend to be (I guess that's another unpopular opinion), you have to inject your own personal style beyond aesthetics to really stand out from the hoard. Craft a sense of humor and a presentation style that's unique to you, an aesthetic that's more deep than "Pokemon Trainer oc with my favorite Pokemon as the mascot", and find something interesting to talk about, and you have a winning formula on your hands. In fact, if you're going to specialize in Pokemon, you still need to play other games like Digimon or other turn-based RPGs to have a more fleshed out and nuanced perspective. As of now? I could take or leave most content creators who specialize in Pokemon. I much prefer people like Big Yellow and Pikasprey who play a variety of games, since their Pokemon videos tend to be more distinct as a result, rather than copying a formula that's been long established.
1. X and Y are actually really fun, definitely among the most replayable games in the series. Huge region with an even bigger Pokedex, pretty visuals, and not too many cutscenes to mash through. Yes, the story is bad, but I think Pokemon fans put too much emphasis on story in a series where the story is, more often than not, a formality, a bonus at best. I'd like a better story, but especially on a repeat playthrough I don't think the story adds much. Also, the limited number of new Pokemon in gen 6 wasn't a problem because they went for quality over quantity. Most of the gen 6 mons are, at least, acceptable in design, but a lot of them, like Tyrantrum, Pyroar, and Trevenant, are absolutely knocking it out of the park. Look at gen 5: It has the most new Pokemon of any gen, including several excellent designs, but the stereotypical Pokemon fan dislikes gen 5 mons because there are a lot of duds too. I'd rather have fewer Pokemon that are better designed than more Pokemon that I don't care about.
2. The hate towards Charizard and gen 1 pandering in general is a little overblown. Yes, Charizard is consistently used, but so are a lot of other Pokemon. I don't see this much vitriol aimed at Eevee, which has even less reason to be as oversaturated as it is. I understand and agree with a lot of the criticisms towards Zard and Kanto itself, but I think at this point it's gotten a bit old. I first saw "Charizard is overrated" memes when I was like, 12, I think we get the point by now. Also, I'm not sure if "genwunners" are actually that common as real people. I see them mentioned a lot as a strawman, but I've never personally met any.
3. On the note about Charizard, I think it getting two Mega Evolutions was actually sick as fuck. They shouldn't have cut one of the Megas, they should've given Venusaur and Blastoise two Megas too. The flexibility and strategizing afforded by two Mega options is really cool for both in-game and competitive use, and I wish they did more with the concept. Imagine a Mega Blastoise X that's Water/Steel and is built to be a physical tank with Regenerator, or a Mega Venusaur X that relives the glory days of being a sun sweeper with Ninetales. Heck, go beyond starters, why not have two different Mega Medichams, one based on physical moves, one based on special moves? So much potential in this idea.
4. The universal Exp Share was a good addition to the game. The biggest problem with older Pokemon games is often the grind, Johto being especially problematic. Having your entire party get experience does wonders to fix it, while also making the possibility of using more than 6 Pokemon and swapping members around an actually realistic option compared to how it was before. The problem with this idea was removing the ability to disable it. People want hard modes for Pokemon games, so having such an easy way to implement a "hard" mode, and then removing it, is strange to me. This part isn't an unpopular opinion, I just thought it'd be best to include it for the sake of nuance and clarity.
5. Digimon actually does a lot of things better than Pokemon, and I think Pokemon fans are too quick to bash it without giving it an earnest, good faith try. And yes, that means actually learning the mechanics and trying to play it like it was made to be played, not trying to force it to play like Pokemon. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth in particular is better than the vast majority of Pokemon games, imo. In particular I think the nonlinear evolution system where Digimon can degenerate to a lower form to become stronger upon Digivolving again, and how a single Digimon has multiple options for what they Digivolve to, and from, is awesome. Imagine having a Charizard that knows Extreme Speed because it started as a Dratini, or being unsatisfied with your starter options and eventually turning your starter into a Pokemon you DO like. That rules.
6. "Advanced" Pokemon mechanics like EVs and IVs are actually very simple. The reason more casual players think they're "too complicated" for them is because the games don't do a good job of explaining them at all. The most you get is stuff like "if you level up your Pokemon with just Rare Candies they'll be weaker than if they leveled up by battling", which is true, but they don't explain WHY, or that once you max out EVs you can use Rare Candies all you like. I think the community has done enough work documenting this stuff that it's easy to learn it all by doing basic research, but as frustrated as I get with people dismissing something as "too hard" or "too complicated" without even trying, when "I don't actually care" is a likely more honest response, it's more on the fault of the games for not explaining core mechanics like that.
7. Most of the PokeTubers I've watched are carbon copies of each other with different voices and aesthetics but otherwise the exact same style of content. It's gotten more varied over the years, now challenge runs are in vogue (or were) but even the challenge runners are generally interchangeable. If you're going to dedicate your channel to Pokemon games specifically, which isn't necessarily a good idea with how samey Pokemon games tend to be (I guess that's another unpopular opinion), you have to inject your own personal style beyond aesthetics to really stand out from the hoard. Craft a sense of humor and a presentation style that's unique to you, an aesthetic that's more deep than "Pokemon Trainer oc with my favorite Pokemon as the mascot", and find something interesting to talk about, and you have a winning formula on your hands. In fact, if you're going to specialize in Pokemon, you still need to play other games like Digimon or other turn-based RPGs to have a more fleshed out and nuanced perspective. As of now? I could take or leave most content creators who specialize in Pokemon. I much prefer people like Big Yellow and Pikasprey who play a variety of games, since their Pokemon videos tend to be more distinct as a result, rather than copying a formula that's been long established.
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This is a more subjective opinion than what I usually post in this thread, but...
Massive Regional Dexes suck.
Massive Regional Dexes suck.
I'd point that people don't dislike the Exp Share per se (though, allowing to disable it would have been nice).
It's more a problem with the fact that gen 8 specifically didn't have a powercurve balanced around it, and you'd easily overlevel without even trying if you opted to do some pokedex catching between each gym. (and iirc even without that in USUM).
The issue is much less egregious in gen 9 due to literally everything other than the gyms and "boss fights" being optional and people don't usually complain about it.
(There's also the minor annoyance that the forced exp share makes manual EV grinding a bit more obnoxious, as entire party is getting EVs meaning you can accidentally give mons EVs they're not meant to have, and EV reducing berries for whatever reason are still quite obnoxious to get)
Mandatory Exp. All in BDSP where they didn’t change any of the levels from DP is still possibly the most insane design choice ever made. Well, second only to mandatory affection passed through that Exp. All, but I still like to think that that was a bug as opposed to a game design decision.
But I agree with Worldie that that issue isn’t Exp. All specifically, it’s the level curve… but I do have my own issue with Exp. All. As someone who likes to keep my party about as evenly levelled as possible, I really enjoyed that in the older games that meant I switched around my lead frequently. It meant that I was always using my whole team more often, because once one of them levelled up they’re going into the reserves. They may still get switched in of course, but for the most part they get some time out of the limelight to rest. And this added a bit of flavour, because if one of them managed to solo a gym leader or something, they get a long reward rest because they probably gain like 2 levels.
Exp. All makes this way less possible. With the reserves getting a flat chunk of experience all the time, they don’t get switched into the lead slot as often, because they don’t get the chance to get underlevelled. And of course any team members who are unfortunate enough to be in a fast experience group almost never see use, because they’re keeping up with the slower levellers in the lead slot anyway. It was particularly a problem during SwSh with my Flapple and its erratic level curve, where it was consistently overlevelled all game and it made me not want to switch it in even in advantageous matchups. It irks me massively to the point where I’d still prefer a non-Exp. All based game and level curve compared to a really refined one with Exp. All.
Plus it means that if a mon faints you can’t really leave it fainted in the back of the party, because if you do it will be massively underlevelled for ages.
But I agree with Worldie that that issue isn’t Exp. All specifically, it’s the level curve… but I do have my own issue with Exp. All. As someone who likes to keep my party about as evenly levelled as possible, I really enjoyed that in the older games that meant I switched around my lead frequently. It meant that I was always using my whole team more often, because once one of them levelled up they’re going into the reserves. They may still get switched in of course, but for the most part they get some time out of the limelight to rest. And this added a bit of flavour, because if one of them managed to solo a gym leader or something, they get a long reward rest because they probably gain like 2 levels.
Exp. All makes this way less possible. With the reserves getting a flat chunk of experience all the time, they don’t get switched into the lead slot as often, because they don’t get the chance to get underlevelled. And of course any team members who are unfortunate enough to be in a fast experience group almost never see use, because they’re keeping up with the slower levellers in the lead slot anyway. It was particularly a problem during SwSh with my Flapple and its erratic level curve, where it was consistently overlevelled all game and it made me not want to switch it in even in advantageous matchups. It irks me massively to the point where I’d still prefer a non-Exp. All based game and level curve compared to a really refined one with Exp. All.
Plus it means that if a mon faints you can’t really leave it fainted in the back of the party, because if you do it will be massively underlevelled for ages.
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The Level curve wouldn't "need" to be balanced around the EXP All if it was optional, which is one reason why making it mandatory without compensating in the design is such a letdown in how the games are played. The revamped EXP Share is the closest thing Pokemon has had to even a basic difficulty option outside the B2W2 key system (which is okay itself but asinine in how it's unlocked and made usable) in that it actively generates more resources for your Pokemon with than without, compared to the old EXP Share changing the distribution of the same amount of Experience.
Tangential but I wish Pokemon would do different forms of difficulty than just ramping up stats/levels, or at least vary up the battles in this manner more often. What comes to mind is stuff like how the Gen 3 overworld has Weather effects inherently for certain routes or during the Weather Mascot's rampage. Imagine something like the Distortion World having innate Trick Room, or something like the Zero Lab battle in SV having an innate Sun/Electric Terrain environment without the AI Professor running a Weather setter.
You could change these effects, but they serve as the default, so they're more present to strategize around than "KO the setter and wait for it to end" with items on your side for healing. Maybe you bring a Pelipper to give you downtime against Flutter Mane, or exploit the field yourself by catching the Quaking Earth Titan. It also adds a tad more depth to the match-ups than bringing a type advantage or needing to cheese the AI because of a numbers game (see Ultra Necrozma with Zoroark or Toxic + Item spam).
Tangential but I wish Pokemon would do different forms of difficulty than just ramping up stats/levels, or at least vary up the battles in this manner more often. What comes to mind is stuff like how the Gen 3 overworld has Weather effects inherently for certain routes or during the Weather Mascot's rampage. Imagine something like the Distortion World having innate Trick Room, or something like the Zero Lab battle in SV having an innate Sun/Electric Terrain environment without the AI Professor running a Weather setter.
You could change these effects, but they serve as the default, so they're more present to strategize around than "KO the setter and wait for it to end" with items on your side for healing. Maybe you bring a Pelipper to give you downtime against Flutter Mane, or exploit the field yourself by catching the Quaking Earth Titan. It also adds a tad more depth to the match-ups than bringing a type advantage or needing to cheese the AI because of a numbers game (see Ultra Necrozma with Zoroark or Toxic + Item spam).
The thing about the Exp Share post Gen 6 that annoys me is regardless of optional vs mandatory, to me, it ruined what was an otherwise very useful item. The Exp Share from Gens 3-5 was incredibly useful in leveling up mons you caught later in the game to catch up with your other party members, without distorting the game's level curve.
But post Gen 6 - even if optional, in order to use the item you now had to accept the fact that it would unnaturally distort the game's difficulty. By forcing other party members to gain too much experience while you may only be focusing on leveling up/catching up one of your Pokemon.
It's just not a design choice I like at all and is probably my biggest gripe with post Gen 6 games. Regardless of optional vs mandatory, though only further exacerbated in becoming mandatory.
But post Gen 6 - even if optional, in order to use the item you now had to accept the fact that it would unnaturally distort the game's difficulty. By forcing other party members to gain too much experience while you may only be focusing on leveling up/catching up one of your Pokemon.
It's just not a design choice I like at all and is probably my biggest gripe with post Gen 6 games. Regardless of optional vs mandatory, though only further exacerbated in becoming mandatory.
And that's my biggest gripe with the new Exp. Share.
It just sucks at the purpose of actually getting fresh mons to catch up. Say, you captured Gible in BDSP after Strength? It won't EVER catch up with the rest of your team because they keep getting experience passively too and likely have better Exp. Groups than Slow.
No grinding my foot, this Exp. All is GARBAGE.
I agree actually with a smaller regional dex over a big regional dex - however I also have to say replaying Gen 1 with its small regional dex was a little bit...repetitive. I honestly don't know what a "balanced" dex size would be but let me just emphasize again: 150 Mons definitely too little, especially since a lot of them are also unique (legendaries for example)
I say 220-250 is enough for region dex, assuming at min a 100-120 new mon dex. Not a fan how poorly repped new mons are
Or we can make an Exp Share separate from All be Exp+/Helper, where it doubles EXP gained. So that 1 member can get more exp than its contemporaries, but only works if you're lower in level to the teammate with the highest level
GF unfortunately doesn't care much for game balance, so...
Or we can make an Exp Share separate from All be Exp+/Helper, where it doubles EXP gained. So that 1 member can get more exp than its contemporaries, but only works if you're lower in level to the teammate with the highest level
GF unfortunately doesn't care much for game balance, so...
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Unique or lategame. If something is only available post-gym 5, for many players it may as well not exist. This is less relevant with open-world games now, but for most of the series' lifespan, there were a lot of mons that just weren't practical for in-game use unless you did something like breed them and then trade to yourself.
Here's the thing, small dexes also give regions an identity.
Case in point:
What game am I talking about?
Can you have a viable and diverse team in that game without using any of these mons? Most certainly. Hell, I'll even cut Lucario and Rotom from the draft too.
And mind you, that's not a quirky team of wack rejects, this is a fairly legit team. It took me less than 5 minutes to come up with it without even looking at the dex (I had to think a bit more about something to handle Gardenia lol)
This is the kind of stuff that makes iconic regions. Of course, certain regions kind of fail because of other design problems (Kanto railroads teams super hard if the player chooses Charmander as a starter) or just having weak regional dexes (Hi Johto!)
Ultimately, it's not about Dex size. It's about a combination of interesting mons and bosses that aren't ridiculous bottlenecks like the BW1 Triplets.
While we're on the topic of BW1, I've never jived with the Dex in terms of actually using the Pokémon.
I dunno, I just feel like I'm funneled into the same Pokémon every single time despite the selection. Partially because a good chunk of the cool endgame ones start off unevolved and weak and only evolve at stupidly high levels.
I can't look at the Unova dex without seeing all of the gen 1/2 mons that they're clearly papered over.
As if I'm ever going to call Roggenrola anything but Blue Geodude.
This. I feel like it kind of takes away from the whole point of Unova being it’s own, unliquidated thing where you could only use the newer Pokémon if half of the regional Dex feels like full clones or semi-clones of older Pokémon. I don’t like how swapping any of these Pokémon out for the Pokémon they’re based on fundamentally would not change how the game is played. At that point, why even design the new version to begin with?
Here's the thing, small dexes also give regions an identity.
Case in point:
What game am I talking about?
Can you have a viable and diverse team in that game without using any of these mons? Most certainly. Hell, I'll even cut Lucario and Rotom from the draft too.
And mind you, that's not a quirky team of wack rejects, this is a fairly legit team. It took me less than 5 minutes to come up with it without even looking at the dex (I had to think a bit more about something to handle Gardenia lol)
This is the kind of stuff that makes iconic regions. Of course, certain regions kind of fail because of other design problems (Kanto railroads teams super hard if the player chooses Charmander as a starter) or just having weak regional dexes (Hi Johto!)
Ultimately, it's not about Dex size. It's about a combination of interesting mons and bosses that aren't ridiculous bottlenecks like the BW1 Triplets.
This is a point I make a lot about Kalos that no-one ever seems to agree with. Kalos stacks various species into its routes to a point that's frankly obnoxious, and it crowds out the new Pokemon. Each route contains one or two Gen VI species, but because there's six or seven or eight older Pokemon to be found there (and often very little variety in terms of how they're placed in each area) they don't feel at all prominent in their own region.
Weirdly despite the massive diversity of choice, X&Y still tries very hard to railroad you by giving you gift Pokemon - Lapras, Lucario, a Kanto starter. Which actually does give Kalos an identity of sorts because a huge amount of teams I see from X&Y look something very much like "Kalos starter, Kanto starter, Lucario, Talonflame, 5th, 6th".
Personally something I've often found enjoyable is going "backwards" in terms of regional dexes - using lategame mons as early as possible. Because often lategame Pokemon are just as weak as earlygame mons there's not much lost in doing this and it makes for a refreshing experience instead of using the usual options. Obviously you'd have to trade eggs in to make that work but using, say, a team consisting of Clamperl, Chinchou, Luvdisc, and Horsea in RSE, or a team consisting of Houndour, Misdreavus, Murkrow, Gligar, and Delibird in GSC is surprisingly good fun. Or even using stuff like the Kami trio or the Creation Trio (at level 5 from the Dream Radar or at level 1 from the Sinjoh event in HGSS)
That said it's often great fun to just use non-native Pokemon altogether. I've been meaning to replay BW/B2W2 for ages and I've got a bunch of freshly-bred Pokemon it'd be fun to use in a playthrough like Goldeen.
A recent Mono Gen 6 Pokerogue Challenge reminded me how much its roster sucks:
- I was starving for mons for most of the run since there's only like 60 sth of them, and worst of all I couldn't find my boy Aegislash.
- I had an unusable Diggersby who couldn't even OHKO a Magnezone up until near the end when I switched it for a Furfrou. The only non Legendary Kalos Ground type, everyone...
- The Mega Bracelet appeared in rewards plenty of times, which I couldn't pick bc there's (almost) no Kalos Megas. Reminder that its the region that introduced them
- Really, the only reason I won that was bc I had an absurd Battle Bond Greninja, which is technically a Gen 7 addition but hey the game allowed it
- I was starving for mons for most of the run since there's only like 60 sth of them, and worst of all I couldn't find my boy Aegislash.
- I had an unusable Diggersby who couldn't even OHKO a Magnezone up until near the end when I switched it for a Furfrou. The only non Legendary Kalos Ground type, everyone...
- The Mega Bracelet appeared in rewards plenty of times, which I couldn't pick bc there's (almost) no Kalos Megas. Reminder that its the region that introduced them
- Really, the only reason I won that was bc I had an absurd Battle Bond Greninja, which is technically a Gen 7 addition but hey the game allowed it
I think it doesn't help with Kalos teambuilding that none of the new Gen 6 Pokemon have Megas, and that so many of the Mega Stones are locked to post-game only. Sure, you can trade them in from another game, but the average player is not going to have those resources (much less think to do that) for their first playthrough. When the game is actively prompting you to use old Pokemon to engage with this new mechanic, and two fan-favorites with Megas just fall into your lap (three, if you got the Torchic back when the games were new!), why would you go with other options? The other Megas that you can actually use before post-game are:
- Gengar (another popular Gen 1 Pokemon)
- Aerodactyl (have fun grinding Rock Smash in Glittering Cave!)
- Ampharos (no half-hearted snarky commentary, good pick imo)
- Abomasnow (I've always loved this choice, it ties in with the Team Flare fights in the Frozen Cavern well and gives you a fun in-game option for an Ice type, which the game rarely encourages you to do)
There's definitely an interesting part to teambuilding that is worth bringing up. Namely, I feel a lot of teams in a given region are driven not just by the availability of Pokemon, especially new vs old, but also what's particularly good. Something that's very useful, is fun to use, and tends to look cool or cute design wise in a memorable way. And is readily available in some way.
Sinnoh gets memed a lot for having a very specific team composition but there's a good reason the same set of its new mons are so commonly used. Luxray and Staraptor are presented extremely early on as the relatively cute Shinx and Starly, making them appealing off the bat when you're just starting out and catching new Pokemon, and they evolve twice over the game into middle forms and then really cool and badass final forms, with strong overall stats and good toolkits to make them valuable team members. They are good early-game Pokemon in just about every front, which is very rare when most early game Pokemon are a combination of mediocre and bland looking and will inevitably fall off. When you consider that is the norm, having something immediately appealing that also lives up to that appeal off the bat makes Starly and Shinx quite standout. Bibarel also gets on so many teams because it has a funny design but most of all even if people don't use it in combat, it learns so many HMs in an HM heavy game and is available everywhere in the region, so it's easy to pick up and throw HMs on it for field use, also making it useful as a field member.
And then you get Budew, Buizel, and Ponyta fairly early into the game, and they are three elemental users who are immediately valuable for covering your starter in type matchups, with Budew also going through a great three-stage progression into Roselia and then Roserade. Other cool Pokemon are presented to you in appealing ways as well. Riolu is presented as an egg that you get as a gift in the story and becomes Lucario who is one of the most marketed and cool Pokemon. Garchomp is found as a Gible in a side dungeon and is not only really awesome looking and powerful, but is one of the few pseudo-legendaries who is genuinely usable in an in-game playthrough thanks to a good natural movepool and reasonable evolution levels. Weavile and Gliscor (in Platinum for the latter) are cool new evolutions who have great designs and their pre-evolutions are found in distinct places, and despite Weavile, Garchomp, and Lucario being available fairly late, make it to their final forms at a reasonable time to justify their use anyhow.
Meanwhile addressing Kalos since that was brought up. It seems to be on the other end of the spectrum. Talonflame is popular because it's also a really good and cool looking early route bird like Staraptor is, but then you see almost everyone use the Kanto starter and Lucario, because the game railroads you into them by giving them to you as gifts. They are a case of gift Pokemon that are given to you, but you're inclined to keep them because they're just so good. The Kanto starters and Lucario are all popular and have great designs, and giving them Megas to highlight the new feature with new designs for all four of them no less gives them novelty value despite being old gen Pokemon, and using their Megas feels good, especially since the former are basically your second starter and now you get to Mega Evolve them, while Lucario is the ultimate reward to use Mega Evolution, which X and Y slowly builds up.
And then the last two slots are usually some sort of fill-ins. Lapras is sometimes used, though not always, but it's useful for Surf off the bat if you need it and has a special overworld sprite to top it off. But usually I see at least two of the following: Sylveon, Aegislash, Goodra, Heliolisk, or Noivern. Kalos does have a massive dex with a small new dex with most of the new mons scattered across one route apiece. That said, each of the new Pokemon only being available on one or two routes does work to their benefit in some ways: while it has a small new roster, many of the new Pokemon are good, with standout designs and great battle capabilities, like Sylveon being the new Eeveelution and the poster child of the Fairy-type, Aegislash being a unique gimmick Pokemon with a great type and skillset, Goodra being a usable pseudo-legendary, and then some other particulary solid picks.
What I do think is the benefit of the new Kalos mons often being only in one route and often intermingled with many other old gen Pokemon in a large regional dex is that it helps the new Gen 6 Pokemon stand out more, and it feels good when you do find them and use them, which I think has allowed some of the really like Goodra and Aegislash to be desirable and standout picks.
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That said looking at BW1 in particular, it ultimately has a few shortcomings in how its new roster is designed, especially using the above notable aspects of Kalos and Sinnoh as comparison. The first two routes before the first Gym have a dismal selection. It's just Patrat, Lillipup, and Purrloin. Patrat is mediocre, Lillipup is fine but nothing worth noting, and Purrloin stinks. Watchog and Liepard aren't exactly great either. Lillipup is the only one of the three who has any sort of longevity. Contrast that with DP's immediate giving of Starly and Shinx, and even mingling in a few other good early mons before the first Gym like Budew, Geodude, Psyduck, and whatnot as other potentially good options. Then there's your first "gift" Pokemon...in the elemental monkey. The monkeys are not horrible in battle per se, but they're pretty weak, don't have appealing designs, and even when they evolve their evolved forms are widely considered ugly and battle wise they're quite bland and average at best and later on it shows. Whereas XY gives you the Kanto starters and Lucario who are really good and showcase a new and cool mechanic, BW gives you a boring monkey who only serves to help against the first Gym in a tutorial on type matchups and is a very bland Pokemon otherwise in just about every aspect.
Most of BW1's early roster consists of Pokemon who are functionally identical to something from an earlier generation, and while Gen 5 does have some really cool and fun Pokemon, many of them are either found very late and evolve way too late to be of use for a playthrough or are fortunate to be in the mid-game. From my experience, there are precisely two points in the game where fun team picks are presented to you: the desert around Nimbasa, and Chargestone Cave. The desert has some really good ones, like Sandile, Darumaka, Scraggy, and the two fossils, and the area around Chargestone has some great ones in Joltik, Ferroseed, Tynamo, and to an extent Klink. Litwick and Axew can be found around the same point in the game through other means. But those are generally the main points where something interesting and good is available.
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I do want to say though, I think SM was somewhat worse with mingling its new Pokemon into the region than XY. Mainly because so many of them are slow or boring, and are mingled in with what is often time a repetitive combination of Pelipper and Yungoos/Alolan Raticate. Everywhere you go, it's Yungoos, Alolan Raticate, and Pelipper. All. The. Damn. Time. And then you find very few good Pokemon here and there, but I feel a lot of them aren't too standout or fun.
Just a lot of rambly thoughts on some topics here.
Sinnoh gets memed a lot for having a very specific team composition but there's a good reason the same set of its new mons are so commonly used. Luxray and Staraptor are presented extremely early on as the relatively cute Shinx and Starly, making them appealing off the bat when you're just starting out and catching new Pokemon, and they evolve twice over the game into middle forms and then really cool and badass final forms, with strong overall stats and good toolkits to make them valuable team members. They are good early-game Pokemon in just about every front, which is very rare when most early game Pokemon are a combination of mediocre and bland looking and will inevitably fall off. When you consider that is the norm, having something immediately appealing that also lives up to that appeal off the bat makes Starly and Shinx quite standout. Bibarel also gets on so many teams because it has a funny design but most of all even if people don't use it in combat, it learns so many HMs in an HM heavy game and is available everywhere in the region, so it's easy to pick up and throw HMs on it for field use, also making it useful as a field member.
And then you get Budew, Buizel, and Ponyta fairly early into the game, and they are three elemental users who are immediately valuable for covering your starter in type matchups, with Budew also going through a great three-stage progression into Roselia and then Roserade. Other cool Pokemon are presented to you in appealing ways as well. Riolu is presented as an egg that you get as a gift in the story and becomes Lucario who is one of the most marketed and cool Pokemon. Garchomp is found as a Gible in a side dungeon and is not only really awesome looking and powerful, but is one of the few pseudo-legendaries who is genuinely usable in an in-game playthrough thanks to a good natural movepool and reasonable evolution levels. Weavile and Gliscor (in Platinum for the latter) are cool new evolutions who have great designs and their pre-evolutions are found in distinct places, and despite Weavile, Garchomp, and Lucario being available fairly late, make it to their final forms at a reasonable time to justify their use anyhow.
Meanwhile addressing Kalos since that was brought up. It seems to be on the other end of the spectrum. Talonflame is popular because it's also a really good and cool looking early route bird like Staraptor is, but then you see almost everyone use the Kanto starter and Lucario, because the game railroads you into them by giving them to you as gifts. They are a case of gift Pokemon that are given to you, but you're inclined to keep them because they're just so good. The Kanto starters and Lucario are all popular and have great designs, and giving them Megas to highlight the new feature with new designs for all four of them no less gives them novelty value despite being old gen Pokemon, and using their Megas feels good, especially since the former are basically your second starter and now you get to Mega Evolve them, while Lucario is the ultimate reward to use Mega Evolution, which X and Y slowly builds up.
And then the last two slots are usually some sort of fill-ins. Lapras is sometimes used, though not always, but it's useful for Surf off the bat if you need it and has a special overworld sprite to top it off. But usually I see at least two of the following: Sylveon, Aegislash, Goodra, Heliolisk, or Noivern. Kalos does have a massive dex with a small new dex with most of the new mons scattered across one route apiece. That said, each of the new Pokemon only being available on one or two routes does work to their benefit in some ways: while it has a small new roster, many of the new Pokemon are good, with standout designs and great battle capabilities, like Sylveon being the new Eeveelution and the poster child of the Fairy-type, Aegislash being a unique gimmick Pokemon with a great type and skillset, Goodra being a usable pseudo-legendary, and then some other particulary solid picks.
What I do think is the benefit of the new Kalos mons often being only in one route and often intermingled with many other old gen Pokemon in a large regional dex is that it helps the new Gen 6 Pokemon stand out more, and it feels good when you do find them and use them, which I think has allowed some of the really like Goodra and Aegislash to be desirable and standout picks.
---
That said looking at BW1 in particular, it ultimately has a few shortcomings in how its new roster is designed, especially using the above notable aspects of Kalos and Sinnoh as comparison. The first two routes before the first Gym have a dismal selection. It's just Patrat, Lillipup, and Purrloin. Patrat is mediocre, Lillipup is fine but nothing worth noting, and Purrloin stinks. Watchog and Liepard aren't exactly great either. Lillipup is the only one of the three who has any sort of longevity. Contrast that with DP's immediate giving of Starly and Shinx, and even mingling in a few other good early mons before the first Gym like Budew, Geodude, Psyduck, and whatnot as other potentially good options. Then there's your first "gift" Pokemon...in the elemental monkey. The monkeys are not horrible in battle per se, but they're pretty weak, don't have appealing designs, and even when they evolve their evolved forms are widely considered ugly and battle wise they're quite bland and average at best and later on it shows. Whereas XY gives you the Kanto starters and Lucario who are really good and showcase a new and cool mechanic, BW gives you a boring monkey who only serves to help against the first Gym in a tutorial on type matchups and is a very bland Pokemon otherwise in just about every aspect.
Most of BW1's early roster consists of Pokemon who are functionally identical to something from an earlier generation, and while Gen 5 does have some really cool and fun Pokemon, many of them are either found very late and evolve way too late to be of use for a playthrough or are fortunate to be in the mid-game. From my experience, there are precisely two points in the game where fun team picks are presented to you: the desert around Nimbasa, and Chargestone Cave. The desert has some really good ones, like Sandile, Darumaka, Scraggy, and the two fossils, and the area around Chargestone has some great ones in Joltik, Ferroseed, Tynamo, and to an extent Klink. Litwick and Axew can be found around the same point in the game through other means. But those are generally the main points where something interesting and good is available.
---
I do want to say though, I think SM was somewhat worse with mingling its new Pokemon into the region than XY. Mainly because so many of them are slow or boring, and are mingled in with what is often time a repetitive combination of Pelipper and Yungoos/Alolan Raticate. Everywhere you go, it's Yungoos, Alolan Raticate, and Pelipper. All. The. Damn. Time. And then you find very few good Pokemon here and there, but I feel a lot of them aren't too standout or fun.
Just a lot of rambly thoughts on some topics here.
That team shows up a lot for first playthroughs, sure. But second? Sixth? There's no region with as many mons available early on or as much type diversity as Kalos. Yes, first playthroughs look similar, but there's no reason to keep your team similar in repeat playthroughs unless you enjoy that. A monotype F W or G team can have 6 slots filled before Zubat Roost/Connecting Cave without repeats(bug and flying do it before Lumiose). And sure, those are common types. But a monodragon is feasible, for maybe the only time in series history. Axew/Bagon/Tyrunt/Trapinch/Goomy/CharmanderX or Skrelp. You hit 3-4 of those members before the second gym and fill it out right after gym 4. Is there any other game with that level of options available early? If you're running a Nuzlocke, you'll walk out of each route with something you haven't seen before, even if it's not a mon you'd normally pick.
Yes, you have to search for mons harder in XY. And it's a conscious decision not to just go Greninja/Charizard/Lucario and steamroll everything. But if you want to challenge yourself and play the game in a new way, XY makes that a lot easier than the rest of the series, even if the actual difficulty isn't there.
For me the difficulty issue in XY has ripple effects that taint the rest of the game experience. Kalos' long, varied routes should be a huge plus, but they become a slog when you aren't strategising and building anticipation for the next boss battle. When a Gym Leader poses no challenge, they become unappealing and forgettable, which ends up making the city they appear in forgettable too. Viola and Grant were a good start, but the game up to Cyllage City feels kinda like an extended prologue to me, which is fine on a first playthrough but a little annoying on subsequent runs, so at every stage of the game I'm mildly bothered by something. Even little gripes like the awkward Rhyhorn-riding section are made worse when the payoff is just a bunch of corridors leading to three easy Grunt battles.
I really love monotype playthroughs, but a team is only ever as interesting as the challenges you overcome with it. I absolutely agree that XY lets you assemble any number of sick rosters, but the shine comes off pretty quickly when you realise that there's nothing fun or interesting to do with them. In the newer games more generally, I think the benefits of a big regional Dex are also undermined a little by the trend towards more expansive and generic move distribution, since a Pokemon's movepool used to be one of the strongest tools for making it feel unique to raise.
I really love monotype playthroughs, but a team is only ever as interesting as the challenges you overcome with it. I absolutely agree that XY lets you assemble any number of sick rosters, but the shine comes off pretty quickly when you realise that there's nothing fun or interesting to do with them. In the newer games more generally, I think the benefits of a big regional Dex are also undermined a little by the trend towards more expansive and generic move distribution, since a Pokemon's movepool used to be one of the strongest tools for making it feel unique to raise.