(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[SwampySwampert]

Went to go get the Destiny Knot, and now I just want to point out that Remake Marley may have the single worst moveset of any trainer in Pokémon history:

Just look at this monstrosity. She has one attacking move (which runs off its lower Special Attack and only works once per battle, by the way) and three support moves that literally only benefit the player. Why, Game Freak, why? Were you trying to give us PTSD of Route 110 in Hoenn with the Plusle and Minun?

 

[Magcargo]

Went to go get the Destiny Knot, and now I just want to point out that Remake Marley may have the single worst moveset of any trainer in Pokémon history:

View attachment 397210
Just look at this monstrosity. She has one attacking move (which runs off its lower Special Attack and only works once per battle, by the way) and three support moves that literally only benefit the player. Why, Game Freak, why? Were you trying to give us PTSD of Route 110 in Hoenn with the Plusle and Minun?

Also wanted to mention that nearly all the double battle trainers in this area seem to have placeholder dialogue, saying "come on" instead of something else (this was not the case in DPP).

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Just look at this monstrosity. She has one attacking move (which runs off its lower Special Attack and only works once per battle, by the way) and three support moves that literally only benefit the player. Why, Game Freak, why? Were you trying to give us PTSD of Route 110 in Hoenn with the Plusle and Minun?

I'm getting real sick of people complaining about mixed attackers using their marginally lower offensive stat.

Everything else about the set sucks ass, granted.

 

[R_N]

Also wanted to mention that nearly all the double battle trainers in this area seem to have placeholder dialogue, saying "come on" instead of something else (this was not the case in DPP).

I definitely do not remember the dialog being placeholdery

 

[Magcargo]

I definitely do not remember the dialog being placeholdery

The second trainer in most of the double battles say "Here I come." which was NOT the case in OG DPP.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Own Tempo:
"This Pokémon has its own tempo, and that prevents it from becoming confused."

Oblivious:
"The Pokémon is oblivious, and that keeps it from being infatuated or falling for taunts."

Moxie:
"The Pokémon shows moxie, and that boosts the Attack stat after knocking out any Pokémon."

Aside from the awkward way its written, can we also talk about how just bad these descriptions are flavor-wise? Okay, sure, they describe the effect which is the most important, but the first part of the description is supposed to tell you a bit how the Ability works... and all it does is restate the name of the Ability. If anything these feels like placeholder text, like they're supposed to be more descriptive (and sound better in English) but they never got back to them:

Own Tempo/My Pace: "Working at its own speed of thought, this Pokemon can't be confused."
Oblivious/Thickheaded: "Hard at understanding other's behaviors, this Pokemon can't be infatuated or taunted."
Moxie/Overconfident:
"Easily excited from victory, this Pokemon boosts its Attack stat after knocking out any Pokemon."
OR
"After knocking out any Pokemon, this Pokemon gets very excited and boosts its Attack stat."

I think Moves, Items, and Abilities need to have two descriptions: One that tells you exactly what it does and another which describes what it is. Jamming both in one textbox results in either only being told what it does (as that's the most important information), the flavor part isn't very informative as there wasn't enough room to go into detail (they might as well not have had it then), there's just enough room for both a quick flavor and effect description (which, atm, I guess is the ideal scenario), and finally they do try to squeeze in some flavor but as a result they don't tell you the full effect (or there just isn't enough room to tell the full effect so summarize it as best they could).

And I don't think it would take up that much room. The Flavor Description wouldn't be long (for Moves will just describe what the Pokemon is doing, for Items a general description of what it looks like and other traits about it, and for Abilities explain what's going on that's making it affect the Pokemon or environment). It would be the Effect Description I think would need to be made bigger for those certain moves that are slightly more complex. To put it more simply, Flavor Description would have a max text limit of, say, 100 characters while the Effect Description would be 500 characters.

Honchkrow has a number of issues in the movepool department. My chief issues are:

- Lack of Knock Off: It is one of the unlucky Dark types that doesn't have access to this move, and it doesn't even get a decent equivalent like Crunch. Instead, its strongest reliable option is Night Slash, at only 70 base power. With so many Pokémon gaining access to this increasingly important move, Honchkrow is being left behind quickly.
- Lack of a good special Flying STAB: Its best option is Air Cutter, which has the same base power as Hidden Power. It doesn't get Air Slash or Hurricane. This hurts, as it has access to Nasty Plot and its special movepool is otherwise decent but this oversight prevents special sets from being very good.
- Lack of any good Attack boosting moves. Its only options for boosting its attack besides its ability are either Curse, which it is not bulky enough to pull off, or the even riskier Swagger + Psych Up. Even if you don't want to give it Swords Dance, it doesn't even get a mid-tier Attack boosting move, like Bulk Up, Work Up, or Hone Claws (which Talonflame actually has interestingly enough). Other Moxie users have access to these, but Honchkrow doesn't.

Well, you see, what happened was one day one of the game directors was having a particularly off day. When he got to the old office there was a batch of crows/ravens hanging out in front of the entrance and, in an annoyance, chased them off before heading into the building. Now, here's a thing about the corvus genus of birds: they remember things. Notably they remember how certain people treat them, especially people who treated them badly. And they're also not birds to be passive with their anger. So, whenever he came into work that day forward, all the crows/ravens who holler at him and some would even try to divebomb. Oh, and BTW, these birds teach their offspring who to like and dislike. It wasn't until they moved to the new office did they finally escape the corvus hell, but by then it has cemented their hatred for them. And so whenever it came time to update movepools he would also tell them to skip Honchkrow, saying it has all the tools it needs so they can come back to it later, an excuse to secretly hide his hatred for the Pokemon bearing a resemblance to his avian tormentors.

ANYWAY.

Knock Off/Strong Dark-Type Move: Lack of Knock Off is a glaring omission. As for Night Slash being its strongest (Physical) Dark-type move, sadly that's par for the course. It's a bird so it's not getting Crunch, Lock Jaw, or Darkest Lariat; I can't see it learning False Surrender due to it being a mob boss; MAYBE it can get Throat Chop (though its effect isn't quite that good)?
Special Flying STAB: Special? Like, yeah, probably should get Air Slash and/or Hurricane at least by breeding, but wouldn't it prefer Brave Bird or Drill Peck to go off its higher Attack and work with Moxie?
Attack Boosters: Odd it doesn't get Hone Claws at least, Swords Dance also shouldn't be barred as its generally considered the "generic" Attack boosting move where the use just does a frantic dance, nothing Honckrow can't and wouldn't do.

I still think Ice should resist Flying tho.

On what basis? Ice is susceptible to wind erosion.

No, it was absurd back in Gen 7 too. The problem with Knock Off is that it's way too widely distributed, combined with its high base power incentivizing physical attackers to use it as a mindlessly spammable attack rather than specifically for utility.

So, here's an idea to keep Knock Off useful but no spammable after it's intended use. Knock Off has a listed Power of 40 BUT it'll never use that 40. If the opponent is holding an item, Knock Off will do double the damage go up to 80 for that turn. However, if the opponent isn't holding an item, it's Power is halved to 20.

Sometimes I wonder if knock off would have been better as a status only move

Nah, I think it works as an Attack, they just need to hit the sweet spot between acceptable Power and benefit of effect.

….huh, I guess you’re right. I’ve literally always assumed the two were created at the same time, because Embargo is a pretty pointless move to be introduced a gen later than Knock Off.

Many games give you Embargo (even through your Pokemon learning it via level or TM63) around the early mid-point of the game when the bosses (Rivals, villain team admins & boss, Gym Leaders, Pokemon League) particularly start packing higher healing items (if not just Full Restores) on them, so for players not wanting to bother with that hassle I could see Embargo having that very niche use to keep the NPC from popping out a healing item when you finally get one of their Pokemon into the red.

The Diglett counter in BDSP.

The what...

... Why was this needed? Like, if you want players to be able to get tempt bonuses in the Underground, why not make it part of the digging mini-game? Why running around finding FORTY Diglett? What's the connection? Are the Diglett helping you dig? Okay, that makes sense when you find one, but why have that forty bonus thing? This feels really superfluous and only added to give them a reason to make getting certain status or items in the digging game rarer.

 

[R_N]

Since you have to run around the underground anyway, to find more stuff or to move to the various rooms, they put in the digletts as a "fun" thing to find. They're fairly frequent so just finding one wouldn't really do anything, and its definitely meant to be a multiplayer focused thing since anyone who finds a diglett anywhere in that session will add to the counter and everyone will benefit from the bonus.

Like the reason it's there makes sense to me, honestly. It just needed to be lower, like 20, because while they're frequent they're still going to take a long time to get to 40 for a fairly brief bonus.

 

[HydrogenHydreigon]

The fact that Draining Kiss isn't a physical move. I mean, it's literally a draining kiss and it's one of the few special moves to make contact, plus Fairy needs more physical moves.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

The fact that Draining Kiss isn't a physical move. I mean, it's literally a draining kiss and it's one of the few special moves to make contact, plus Fairy needs more physical moves.

It's probably because even though it's performed via kiss, the actual damage itself is magical in nature. In Rock Slide or Giga Impact, the damage comes from the physical boulders or body that's being hurled at you, but with Draining Kiss, the kiss isn't what's hurting you, it's the life-draining magic.

Drain Punch is something of a counterpoint, but at least in that case you're still getting punched and quite frankly Drain Punch never really made a ton of sense.

That said, I totally agree that it probably should have been physical to give Fairy another physical move. More specifically, it's a physical move that's much weaker than Play Rough, so it can be learned at an earlier level and thus smooths out the power curve for an in-game playthrough.

 

[Siggu]

There's something I just noticed about the translations of Sinistea and Polteageist's forms.

In nearly every language, one of the forms is called a Counterfeit Form, and the other is called an Authentic Form.

However, in English, while the Counterfeit Form is called Phony Form (so it kind of still keeps the meaning), the Authentic Form is called the Antique Form for no real reason. Spanish has the opposite issue, the Counterfeit Form is inexplicably called the Archaic Form, while the Authentic Form is called the Genuine Form.

Why?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

There's something I just noticed about the translations of Sinistea and Polteageist's forms.

In nearly every language, one of the forms is called a Counterfeit Form, and the other is called an Authentic Form.

However, in English, while the Counterfeit Form is called Phony Form (so it kind of still keeps the meaning), the Authentic Form is called the Antique Form for no real reason. Spanish has the opposite issue, the Counterfeit Form is inexplicably called the Archaic Form, while the Authentic Form is called the Genuine Form.

Why?

Just a guess, but my thinking would be that the word antique has more significance to an English-speaking audience than authentic does in this specific context. Counterfeit is a not particularly common word (in the UK at least) while authentic has a different connotation and would be a slightly unusual choice to use regarding a teapot.

Maybe it's a British thing: if I was showing off my grandmother's prized tea pot, I'd be more likely to say it was an antique rather than an "authentic" tea pot. However I'm not sure how much this applies to a USA audience so I might be completely wrong.

 

[R_N]

Just a guess, but my thinking would be that the word antique has more significance to an English-speaking audience than authentic does in this specific context. Counterfeit is a not particularly common word (in the UK at least) while authentic has a different connotation and would be a slightly unusual choice to use regarding a teapot.

Maybe it's a British thing: if I was showing off my grandmother's prized tea pot, I'd be more likely to say it was an antique rather than an "authentic" tea pot. However I'm not sure how much this applies to a USA audience so I might be completely wrong.

As an american english speaker honestly I never thought twice. Just like oh okay, this is a fancy certified antique and not a fake one. Authentic would probably read properly in all languages, but unless i'm comparing them it doesn't stand out; a britishism is as good a theory as any.


Spansih feels weirder. I can see swapping Authentic to Genuine, but Archaic for Counterfeit/Fake/Phony/etc seems weird. Wonder if that's a spanish-ism?

 

[Pikachu315111]

Spanish has the opposite issue, the Counterfeit Form is inexplicably called the Archaic Form, while the Authentic Form is called the Genuine Form.

Why?

Maybe has to do with Item names? In Spanish the Cracked Pot still translates to Cracked (Tea)Pot (Tetera Agrietada) but the Chipped Pot is called the Broken Teapot (Tetera Rota). STRETCHING here, but when we think of "authentic/antique/genuine" teapots or the such we're usually thinking of the ones made of fine china or other easily breakable finer materials that's more meant for show than everyday use. If you use it everyday you'll more than likely end up breaking it soon as it wasn't meant to be used constantly. But this is somewhat of a new concept of the "show item", in old times when you made an item it was made for purpose not show so made of sturdier stuff, hence doesn't easily break but rather will crack first. Hence, a Cracked Teapot means its older, or rather Archaic, made of more durable but "lesser" material while a Broken Teapot means its made of the more prized finer material that gives it value & rarity, hence "Genuine".

As for why they look similar, could be these teapots were made by the same company. At first they were your normal run-a-mill teapots made for use, but then the company got bigger and more popular and decided to make teapots out of finer material and sell them as show items. However, the older ones were still around and there was a lot of them, so people would try to play off the old ones as the "fancier" ones, the only way of knowing if its "authentic" or not is by the little plaque on the bottom of the base. Of course, these items are a hundred or so years old, so now the fancier ones are considered antiques due to their higher value and rarity while the older ones, despite being older, are considered Counterfeit/Phony though some more use the more gentler word Archaic.

 

[AquaticPanic]

While we are on the topic, Polteageist and Sinistea's forms themselves are things that annoy me. They are asthetic firm differences where the asthetic can't be seen for 90% of the time, but does actually inconvinience you when it comes to evolving it because you need a pot that matches (which makes no sense anyways. If the tea is entering the new pot, why doesn't the pot determine what form it evolves into and not the other way around?)

This is specially annoying because I am pretty sure the place where you get the evolution pots is limited to one item per day, so you could go days on end without being able to evolve your Sinistea because its sprite has a stupid sticker in a nearly unnoticeable place so now it needs a rare item to evolve. Not only that, but it only adds to the relatively massive Evolution Item bloat that SwSh added (Between the apples, the slowtwins items and the identical pots, its already 6 new evolution items that function like stones. Except unlike new stones added before in the series, these are all super restrictive lorewise and will probably never be used in another line ever again, and having SIX of those added (+all of the alcremie decor items) is just a tad tok much imo, and it really doesn't help that the pots did not need to exist)

 

[Pikachu315111]

This is specially annoying because I am pretty sure the place where you get the evolution pots is limited to one item per day, so you could go days on end without being able to evolve your Sinistea because its sprite has a stupid sticker in a nearly unnoticeable place so now it needs a rare item to evolve.

You can use the Cram-o-matic to get one, might require some fiddling but possible.

 

[Magnus0]

One thing that annoys me about gen 5 boss design is how gym leaders only use Pokemon or evolutions of Pokemon that the player can also get at that point. Never do they use a Pokemon that is unavailable until later in the story. It's such a missed opportunity, because it makes the gym fights quite predictable. You've already faced random trainers that use the same Pokemon as the gym leader, just at lower levels or without being fully evolved. It makes the gym leaders feel like glorified route trainers rather than elite trainers chosen by the Pokemon League.

One of the thrills of fighting a gym leader in early gens is seeing some powerful Pokemon that you have never seen before. Even the very first gym in the series does this with Brock's Onix. Other good examples are Whitney's Miltank or Maylene' Lucario. These never before seen Pokemon keep you on your guard while playing the game for the first time. It also encourages the player to keep on playing so they too can eventually obtain that cool Pokemon. This is almost completely absent in gen 5, because you can mimic the gym leader's exact team most of the time.

It also limits team building possibilities for boss fights. For example, I think a Pokemon like Larvesta would be a very fitting Pokemon for Burgh's team. Volcarona is considered to be a beautiful Pokemon, so I can absolutely seeing Burgh being all fabulous next to a dancing Volcarona in a rematch against him. He is an artist/performer after all. As such, Burgh having a Larvesta makes more sense to me flavor-wise than the comparatively ugly Whirlipede. Larvesta is also not weak to fire like most other bug types, and its flame body (and possibly wisp) has great synergy with Burgh's overall strategy of lowering incoming damage with struggle bug. Elesa has two of the same Pokemon because Emolga and Zebstrika are the only Electric Pokemon available up until that point, even though her having a Joltik would be just fine. A Joltik could even be able to cover ground types with giga drain, making her team more well-rounded. Another example is Skyla having the boring Unfeazant rather than the much more interesting Braviary. These are missed opportunities in my opinion, born from an unwillingness to surprise the player.

 

[Hugin]

You can use the Cram-o-matic to get one, might require some fiddling but possible.

Nope. The Cracked Pot(Phony Form) is available in a few places, including Cram-O-Matic and as a normal item on the ground in Stow-on-Side. The Chipped Pot(Genuine/Antique Form) is ONLY available through the Bargain Shop, and is a rare drop there according to Bulbapedia. So a 10% chance of having the mark, then you have to wait through the 1/day reroll to get the evo item...I'm suddenly really surprised I managed it in my first playthrough via pure dumb luck.

 

[R_N]

give :clap: us :clap: a :clap: shop :clap: to :clap: buy :clap: all the evolution items :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Yung Dramps]

>Starter family is the only one still MIA in all of mainline gen 8
>Followup game got canned with Zygarde being shoehorned into Alola
>Anime's popularity got torpedoed by the League fiasco
>Has the near-universally recognized worst anime movie
>As bosses, the overwhelming majority of the cast have never gotten any sort of rematches that made them competent
>As characters, the cast isn't actually memorable enough to develop legit fanbases nor old enough to have history on their side so they just marinate with minimal fanservice or acknowledgement by Game Freak and affiliates
>Smallest new Pokemon selection ever without something like regional forms or (more than 1) cross-gen evo to supplement it, resulting in them being overshadowed in their own region the worst of any roster not counting Johto or DP Sinnoh
>Worst rivals and a villain that is worse Cyrus
>Only one of its own Pokemon got access to the biggest and most successful generational gimmick
>Said generational gimmick was barely utilized within the core games, was only just about kept out of obligation in the next generation and outright deleted the one after
>In fact the best use of the generational gimmick was in a remake of a then decade-old GBA game
>2/3 of its most successful mons competitively have gotten direct nerfs, one of which (Gale Wings) totally killed any viability

Kalos is bar none the most cucked region, and it's not even close. I think most fans have a general idea that it got dealt a bad hand, and I'm sure some will even argue for things like maybe Galar getting it worse, but the more you really dissect it the more you realize the unfathomable sequence of unfortunate circumstances and decisions Kalos has been put through. I massively doubt Game Freak truly hates any of their creations, but if there's one they've shown glacial apathy towards it's this one.

 

[Sonikku A]

Not to mention it was the first region made after the mobile game scare, and the first full 3D Gen where Creatures Inc had full control
Gen 6 really was screwed over, huh?

 

[Samtendo09]

[…] I'm sure some will even argue for things like maybe Galar getting it worse […]

Oh no, no, no, you are right how badly handled Kalos and the whole Gen 6 are in retrospect. Even Galar and Johto have their great strengths that give them an edge over Kalos. Let me add more things wrong with Gen 6’s stuff.

• One fully evolved starter got a form change from the anime with the other two getting nothing off note. Also blatant favoritism towards Greninja in general.
• Mega Evolution’s distribution on Pokémon, and how poorly balanced they were, did more damage than good.
  • Mega Rayquaza is horribly overpowered even by Legendary standards.
• The mechanic also proved to not a solve-all solution like cross evos before them, but unlike cross evos, they did made the power creep even worse instead of bridging the gap.
• Fairy-type is by far the most cracked type, which in theory is balanced by Pokémon with weak stats but instead introduced some of the most obnoxiously overpowered Pokémon we ever met even by Legendary / Mythical standards (Magearna, Xerneas, Zacian) as later generations introduced more. The type itself is a problem in by later additions, but never in theory.
• Team Flare is the worst team, no question. Except maybe next to Gen 2 Team Rocket but that was another story.
  • Grunt’s roster and even Admin’s roster are abysmal by evil team standard; nothing new or interesting sbout them.
• Effectively “killed off” cross gen evos ideas all for the wrong reasons until Gen 8, with only Sylveon in Gen 6. Gen 5 started it but with the intention with bring a fully isolated generation with largely inspired by Gen 1 mons (which kind of backfires in BW in retrospect, but nonetheless a good attempt), while Gen 6’s Mega Evolution is a weaker excuse.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

>Starter family is the only one still MIA in all of mainline gen 8
>Followup game got canned with Zygarde being shoehorned into Alola
>Anime's popularity got torpedoed by the League fiasco
>Has the near-universally recognized worst anime movie
>As bosses, the overwhelming majority of the cast have never gotten any sort of rematches that made them competent
>As characters, the cast isn't actually memorable enough to develop legit fanbases nor old enough to have history on their side so they just marinate with minimal fanservice or acknowledgement by Game Freak and affiliates
>Smallest new Pokemon selection ever without something like regional forms or (more than 1) cross-gen evo to supplement it, resulting in them being overshadowed in their own region the worst of any roster not counting Johto or DP Sinnoh
>Worst rivals and a villain that is worse Cyrus
>Only one of its own Pokemon got access to the biggest and most successful generational gimmick
>Said generational gimmick was barely utilized within the core games, was only just about kept out of obligation in the next generation and outright deleted the one after
>In fact the best use of the generational gimmick was in a remake of a then decade-old GBA game
>2/3 of its most successful mons competitively have gotten direct nerfs, one of which (Gale Wings) totally killed any viability

Kalos is bar none the most cucked region, and it's not even close. I think most fans have a general idea that it got dealt a bad hand, and I'm sure some will even argue for things like maybe Galar getting it worse, but the more you really dissect it the more you realize the unfathomable sequence of unfortunate circumstances and decisions Kalos has been put through. I massively doubt Game Freak truly hates any of their creations, but if there's one they've shown glacial apathy towards it's this one.

I've really mellowed on Kalos in recent years - after disliking it immensely when it debuted - to the point of seriously considering downloading X to my 3DS so I can play through the region again. I think a lot of that initial distaste was down to context: Kalos came after Unova and then was followed by ORAS's iteration of Hoenn and Alola, all three of which put it to shame. Given that Galar is the current region, retrospectives on Kalos now invite comparisons to Galar which is a much better light to be stood in.

Because there's so much good about it. It's a really vast region in terms of content, with a fittingly broad level curve. It's ambitious (to a degree), it has a thoroughly good - though small - roster of Pokemon, and the story of the games, while not living up to the standard BW set, was at least somewhat interesting. I am a major Francophile, and the French vibe of the region was seriously cool to me. It brought some interesting new ideas to the table (the split Pokedex? Very cool concept executed well) and, unusually for the first game of a generation, has a fairly decent postgame challenge in the Maison (though I never have completed it fully).

And god, we were spoiled and we didn't know it. "Oh no, there's only 72 new Pokemon!" "Yeah, but it's because they had to spend time creating 3D sprites for all the 649 older ones - and all the Mega evolutions!" Honestly, with that consideration I'm surprised Dexit didn't happen here instead.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a perfect region by any measure. The soundtrack is utterly insipid and many of the later towns blur together for me (it's the only region where I can't tell you the location names from memory), and the cast of characters are a morass of wasted potential. The pacing of the main story is more than a little off. And Lumiose City is a total disaster, from both a conceptual and a technical point of view.

I think the biggest thing that turned me off about X and Y initially - and may have unfairly prejudiced me - was the pentagon symbol. No, seriously, hear me out. My first Pokemon game was Crystal. So when my friend told me they'd brought out two new games called Ruby and Sapphire, I was like oh wow, they sound cool. But we couldn't transfer our Pokemon. At the young age I was then, that was quite traumatic. But I got over it eventually and got stuck into Gen III, embracing it and making that my main Pokemon home.

And then Gen VI brings in this pentagon symbol. Got Pokemon from older games? Too bad, gotta go catch and breed new ones. Well, I didn't want to do that, and though I've never been much for online battling, it still turned me off. After making the effort to stick with my Pokemon and transfer my Pokemon from Gen III all the way up to Gen V and VI, it was like being told that they're not good enough. And the justification that, well, if they're Gen VI-native then they're less likely to be hacked because Gen VI is hack-proof fell apart after about a fortnight when hackers uncovered the three till-then hidden mythicals.

I truly do wish they'd had time to do Pokemon Z, or more optimistically just improved what was there in X and Y. Kalos is in the unique position of having both the anime and the manga tell its story far, far better than the games did, and neither of those were exceptional. It's just that the plot of the games was so underbaked. Kalos needs a redo but I don't see them going back any time soon. Maybe in Gen XII, after the phenomenal success of Gen X's Pokemon Deepest Black and Sparkling White, Game Freak will feel inclined to have another bite at the apple and give us Pokemon Everlasting X and Catastrophic Y. Who knows.

 

[TMan87]

The soundtrack is utterly insipid

I am shocked to hear this; I actually think X and Y have some of the best town themes of the entire series (granted, this is only about the towns and not routes or battles or w/e).
Shalour, Coumarine, Cyllage, Anistar and Laverre have very neat themes, and I know Snowbelle and Lumiose have their fans, though i don't count among them.

 

[R_N]

XY has a great sound track but it also has one of my least favorite battles themes in the series, the Leader theme

But other than that, great. Love the main battle theme, the route themes are nice, the bike theme is the best in the series, Diantha's theme is great, really solid town themes throughout.

 

[Scorpio]

I truly do wish they'd had time to do Pokemon Z, or more optimistically just improved what was there in X and Y. Kalos is in the unique position of having both the anime and the manga tell its story far, far better than the games did, and neither of those were exceptional. It's just that the plot of the games was so underbaked. Kalos needs a redo but I don't see them going back any time soon. Maybe in Gen XII, after the phenomenal success of Gen X's Pokemon Deepest Black and Sparkling White, Game Freak will feel inclined to have another bite at the apple and give us Pokemon Everlasting X and Catastrophic Y. Who knows.

Apparently they were planning two Z versions, so they should just have ZX and ZY as the remakes or something.