Little things you like about Pokémon

[Codraroll]

Not to mention the variations in the Gym themes in BW2. It's the same music, but with a personal flair from each Gym leader (Except Cheren, who gets the normal music, but he is the Normal-leader too). Shout-outs to Roxie with her singing, the creepy calm in Burgh's Gym, Skyla's flute ensemble, and how Elesa's theme builds up as you progress through the Gym but doesn't start properly until she herself enters the stage.

 

[Siggu]

To put it bluntly, what makes Gen 5 special is not the major additions it has (which are... actually very few, possibly the lowest of all generations), but how it raises the level of what was already present in the game.

Graphics (with a few exceptions), sound, pacing, story, user experience...

 

[The Mind Electric]

To put it bluntly, what makes Gen 5 special is not the major additions it has (which are... actually very few, possibly the lowest of all generations), but how it raises the level of what was already present in the game.

Graphics (with a few exceptions), sound, pacing, story, user experience...

It's the culmination of all the little refinements they had been making to the formula since Gold/Silver. It's not really a massive leap forward from the generation before it, it's just a bunch of little things done well.

 

[mertyville]

Here are why I like Gen 5
- the game is insanely quick in terms of fps compared to the slow gen 4 games
- simultanious HP bar drops in double battles and the quick drop in HP after attacks in General. No longer waiting almost a minute to OHKO a Blissey with Close Combat.
- BW has the main story full with just new Pokemon, so you don't struggle to find members to make a full team of Gen 5 only Pokemon. Post Game obviously gave you access to your old Pokemon in addition to being able to catch a handful of old Pokemon in General
- Pokemon sprites moving the entire battle.
- weather wars (yes, I am that guy): Weather made this generation pretty fun trying to make various Pokemon work. For Dragonite it was a blessing because it could abuse all it's weather based moves feeling like you are using Dragonite like he was portrayed in the anime, aside from the average Dragon Dance sets you see normally or MixNites.

Most of my other likes were covered by others so I won't repeat them (yes, I repeated some of them... regardless).
I actually stopped prior with Pokemon when gen 3 came and accassionary played on my cousin's GBA or DS. Nothing about Gen 3 and 4 interested me to the point to get a DS. Not even the Gen 2 remakes and Gen 2 was my favorite Gen before Gen 5 came.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Just wanted to chime real quick and say that there are no guides about Pass Powers except for one video which is good enough but there isn't a written guide.

This is honestly quite fascinating. It seems like you are right, there are no written guides for Pass Powers in Gen 5. Nor does there seem to be any for the Entralink in general, or for the Entralink/Funfest Missions. How is this possible? I guess the demand for a guide for those features is (or was) never very high, and that nobody ever bothered writing one.

I searched a little, and I assume this is the video you mentioned?

I watched it and I think it was pretty good. It is fairly short but it still does a great job at explaining how you unlock more Pass Powers in B2/W2.

As for my experiences with the Entree and Pass Powers, I remember that when I was leveling up my Entree levels to get more Pass Powers (I was actually more doing it for the TC upgrade, but whatever) in both B/W and B2/W2, I never really used a guide. I never felt that I needed one. I just tried my best with the Entralink/Funfest Missions until I succeeded, and I had tons of fun along the way! I remember that reaching the next levels for the Entree in B2/W2 seemed to happen very randomly, I never really understood the principle behind it. In B/W, I remember that it was a lot more straightforward compared to in B2/W2.

Still, it is a bit weird how there's not a written guide for Pass Powers available anywhere. Maybe someone should write one? Maybe I should? It would be great to have a complete guide for the Entralink, Pass Powers and Entralink/Funfest Missions, all in one place! It is interesting how this discussion came up now, because in the past, I have had thoughts about writing a guide for Funfest Missions. However, I never got around to it due to the lack of time and interest. Not sure if I have the time/dedication to get it done nowadays either, but I'll consider doing it if anyone is interested. Maybe other players can help as well, and we can work together to get it done. Just an idea I got.

As for written stuff about Pass Powers... while there are no real guides, there are some general info at least. First, we have Serebii's pages on Pass Powers in B/W and Pass Powers in B2/W2. It does not mention which levels you need to be at in order to unlock the specific powers in B/W though. Then we have Bulbapedia's page on the Entralink, which includes a list of all Pass Powers and which levels you need to be at in order to unlock them for all Gen 5 games. Or so I assume, they never specify if it is for both game pairs or just one (if so, which? My guess would be B2/W2 but I really don't know). There's also a method to exploit the Entralink in B/W in order to get high-level Pass Powers for free, I remember seeing a guide for this on Serebiiforums many years ago. Here is the thread for it.

This might not be the guide you were looking for, but hopefully you can get something out of all of this at least. My recommendation for the Entralink and Pass Powers in general is to just play the Entralink/Funfest Missions and have fun. If you do, you'll get the Pass Powers as a bonus along the way.

I want to hunt for Level 1 Gyarados :D

Oh yeah, this too. That's another thing I like. Being able to catch Magikarp and Gyarados at any level from 1-100. Never tried it much and I have no idea why they added this to the games, but I'm glad they did because it is such a random and fun idea. As far as I know, this has only been done twice in the series. First at the Resort Area in Platinum (Magikarp only) and then at the Nature Preserve in B2/W2. According to Bulbapedia, it seems like there's a 1% chance to find a Gyarados at any level if you fish at Rippling water spots in the Nature Preserve, so basically a 0.01 chance in total if we assume that there's an even chance of finding one at all possible levels. Either way, it means that the chance of finding one at level 1 is extremely low, so I can definitely understand why you want a good Pass Power to increase your chances of finding one! Not sure if you are into RNG abuse, but that might be another way to get a level 1 Gyarados without relying (too much) on luck.

And while I'm still here, I have some more things to say about Gen 5. After making my post yesterday, I remembered a few more things I like about Gen 5 which I completely forgot about in my previous post. So here are those things:
- The Dowsing Machine. I think Gen 5 has the best Dowsing Machine in the series. I always used it when I explored new areas in the Unova games, it was just so useful when it came to finding hidden items. I think the only other Dowsing Machine that comes close to being this good is the one in HG/SS which is also great, but not quite as great as the one in Gen 5 if you ask me. Though I still think it is the second best in the series without a doubt.
- Many legendaries to catch. This is something I really like in games. It is mostly a thing for B2/W2, B/W aren't quite on the same level but still fairly good and far from the worst in the series. Either way, B2/W2 are currently tied with Platinum and HG/SS for being the fourth best in the series when it comes to the amount of legendaries available for capture. While they were tied for being the best at their time, they are no longer the best nowadays as OR/AS, USUM and S/S with the DLC are all better. That said, I still think B2/W2 did very well in that area.
- When a Repel runs out in B2/W2, the game asks if you want to use another one. This was really convenient, it saved a lot of time because in previous games, you would have to go into your bag in order to use a new one. I'm very happy that this became the new standard for the series as it continued in all games after B2/W2.
- Unrelated to the games, but still related to Gen 5. I like the B/W chapter of Pokémon Adventures. It is one of my favorite chapters of the manga, I love everything about it. I think it captures the essence of the B/W games and Gen 5 so perfectly. The overall story, the characters and the Pokémon in this chapter are just so great. I have to admit that it was the first chapter of the manga I read so I might be a little biased because of that... but even so, I think it is really great.

To put it bluntly, what makes Gen 5 special is not the major additions it has (which are... actually very few, possibly the lowest of all generations), but how it raises the level of what was already present in the game.

Graphics (with a few exceptions), sound, pacing, story, user experience...

It's the culmination of all the little refinements they had been making to the formula since Gold/Silver. It's not really a massive leap forward from the generation before it, it's just a bunch of little things done well.

Pretty much this. Gen 5 didn't introduce any new super mechanics or features, it just polished and improved upon things that already existed in the series and took everything up to the highest possible levels. I think they succeeded extremely well with it.

 

[Yung Dramps]

I touched upon this already in the Legends Arceus thread, but now that that's closed I wanna restate in greater detail: I am so happy that the titular godmon is finally getting the mainline respect he deserves.

Now, truth be told, I don't even like Arceus that much, very much neutral towards it overall (even though it indirectly lead to the creation of Silvally, one of my all-time favs). But good lord if for the past 15 years he wasn't the ultimate posterchild of how bullshit Mythicals are then I dunno who is. Sure, people complain about the ones from XY onward for good reason but seriously, you can't just introduce literal canon god and not only lock him to an event, but proceed to cancel it in favor of the most milquetoast, slapped-together wi-fi distribution. I'm aware of some of the external media like the Arceus movie and Pokemon Conquest, but those IMO couldn't make up on their own for the big goat's shafting in the main series. After ages of this with no resolution in sight I would've been fine with a relatively small acknowledgement like what they did with Deoxys in ORAS, but good lord Arceus being tied to a game like this is far beyond anything I could've anticipated. Kudos to Game Freak for amending this sin in such a spectacular fashion, and may the actual game give Arceus lots to say and do.

 

[The Mind Electric]

I touched upon this already in the Legends Arceus thread, but now that that's closed I wanna restate in greater detail: I am so happy that the titular godmon is finally getting the mainline respect he deserves.

Now, truth be told, I don't even like Arceus that much, very much neutral towards it overall (even though it indirectly lead to the creation of Silvally, one of my all-time favs). But good lord if for the past 15 years he wasn't the ultimate posterchild of how bullshit Mythicals are then I dunno who is. Sure, people complain about the ones from XY onward for good reason but seriously, you can't just introduce literal canon god and not only lock him to an event, but proceed to cancel it in favor of the most milquetoast, slapped-together wi-fi distribution. I'm aware of some of the external media like the Arceus movie and Pokemon Conquest, but those IMO couldn't make up on their own for the big goat's shafting in the main series. After ages of this with no resolution in sight I would've been fine with a relatively small acknowledgement like what they did with Deoxys in ORAS, but good lord Arceus being tied to a game like this is far beyond anything I could've anticipated. Kudos to Game Freak for amending this sin in such a spectacular fashion, and may the actual game give Arceus lots to say and do.

Even the event on Spear Pillar, while cool, tells us almost nothing about Arceus. It basically just says that he exists and does stuff. The post-game conversation with Cynthia where she talks about the ruins in Celestic Town gives us more information about Arceus than the event itself. There's a really great opportunity here for them to expand on this thing's backstory.

 

[Lightchao42]

Speaking of Arceus, I want to say that Gen IV felt like the golden age of how Mythicals were handled. Not only were three of them catchable in-game (Manaphy wasn't, but it had Pokémon Ranger instead) with interesting events (Arceus's DP event was never released, though it got another event in HGSS), but all of them had their existence hinted at before they were officially revealed:

• Darkrai ties into Cresselia's plotline by being behind the nightmare plaguing Sailor Eldritch's son. It even gets a very subtle name drop! ("Dar... Dark... Is watching me...") Darkrai's event can only be done after dispelling the aforementioned nightmare, which continues the plotline by suggesting that Darkrai wanted revenge on you for foiling its scheme.
• Floaroma Town is said to have once been barren until someone expressed thanks for the blessings of nature, which is of course a hint at Shaymin's nature powers and connection to gratitude. The rock used for Shaymin's event is also present even without Oak's letter. It's also cool that the event permanently changes the world by adding the Seabreak Path.
• And Arceus obviously has the story of the Original One in Canalave Library. It makes me wonder what a player unaware of Arceus's existence would think of the mysterious creator of Dialga and Palkia spoken of in myth...

Gen V did pretty good too by having Keldeo be related to the Swords of Justice and Genesect be related to Team Plasma. But most Mythical Pokémon feel like afterthoughts nowadays, even when there are things they should logically tie into (Anistar City has a big pink crystal, so it should have something to do with Diancie, right?). Hopefully Game Freak will go back to handling Mythicals like they did in Gen IV some time in the future.

 

[Coronis]

Speaking of Arceus, I want to say that Gen IV felt like the golden age of how Mythicals were handled. Not only were three of them catchable in-game (Manaphy wasn't, but it had Pokémon Ranger instead) with interesting events (Arceus's DP event was never released, though it got another event in HGSS), but all of them had their existence hinted at before they were officially revealed:

• Darkrai ties into Cresselia's plotline by being behind the nightmare plaguing Sailor Eldritch's son. It even gets a very subtle name drop! ("Dar... Dark... Is watching me...") Darkrai's event can only be done after dispelling the aforementioned nightmare, which continues the plotline by suggesting that Darkrai wanted revenge on you for foiling its scheme.
• Floaroma Town is said to have once been barren until someone expressed thanks for the blessings of nature, which is of course a hint at Shaymin's nature powers and connection to gratitude. The rock used for Shaymin's event is also present even without Oak's letter. It's also cool that the event permanently changes the world by adding the Seabreak Path.
• And Arceus obviously has the story of the Original One in Canalave Library. It makes me wonder what a player unaware of Arceus's existence would think of the mysterious creator of Dialga and Palkia spoken of in myth...

Gen V did pretty good too by having Keldeo be related to the Swords of Justice and Genesect be related to Team Plasma. But most Mythical Pokémon feel like afterthoughts nowadays, even when there are things they should logically tie into (Anistar City has a big pink crystal, so it should have something to do with Diancie, right?). Hopefully Game Freak will go back to handling Mythicals like they did in Gen IV some time in the future.

Man how much better would it have been if say Zarude (literally introduced as part of a major update) actually was an event in the game with a battle and maybe some lore rather than just a WiFi download =/ Surely it wouldn’t be that hard.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

- Many legendaries to catch. This is something I really like in games. It is mostly a thing for B2/W2, B/W aren't quite on the same level but still fairly good and far from the worst in the series. Either way, B2/W2 are currently tied with Platinum and HG/SS for being the fourth best in the series when it comes to the amount of legendaries available for capture. While they were tied for being the best at their time, they are no longer the best nowadays as OR/AS, USUM and S/S with the DLC are all better. That said, I still think B2/W2 did very well in that area.

While ORAS and USUM had more legendaries to catch, per se, I am of the opinion that BW2 implemented the legendaries it had into the game much better than ORAS and USUM did. ORAS had "oh, here's Hoopa who brought in these legendaries from other universes and timelines!" and dropped them in random locations more often than not. USUM made them all appear in Ultra Space.

BW2, on the other hand, while it didn't have as many legendaries to catch as those two games, integrated the legendaries it had naturally into Unova itself. The Lake Guardians didn't just show up out of no where in some sort of alternate space timeline, no, there was a cave in Unova that was intrinsically tied to the Caves of the Sinnoh region and you get some backstory from Juniper about them, and they appear before you, then travel across the region and appear before you in certain locations. Heatran was actually in the volcano in Unova. The Regis also had a special ruin discovered around the Clay Tunnel and Twist Mountain in the case of Regigigas. It was inherently selective of which legendaries were available, unlike ORAS and USUM, but the legendaries it included it integrated naturally into the region itself. Cresselia also has the Lunar Wing show up somewhere in the region and there's a bit of a story there too.

On a side note not regarding Gen 5, this is why I found Sword and Shield's Crown Tundra quite likable and refreshing compared to ORAS and USUM and why I loved that DLC pack. It actually made some legendaries like the Regis and Galarian Birds naturally available in Galar and they were integrated into the region. The rest of the legends are all part of some special minigame, but on the other hand that still made them interesting to catch in a dedicated location for Trainers to hunt for legendaries that scientists were actually around and researching as well as getting Trainers to partake in, which means it was still integrated into Galar pretty nicely. It's a nice change of pace after BW2 was imo the last time legendaries felt naturally integrated into the region.

- BW has the main story full with just new Pokemon, so you don't struggle to find members to make a full team of Gen 5 only Pokemon. Post Game obviously gave you access to your old Pokemon in addition to being able to catch a handful of old Pokemon in General

- The regional dexes. They are very different but I think they are both excellent. B/W only had the Unova Pokémon in their regional dex and I thought that was amazing because they gave the full focus to the new Pokémon during the main game.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I loved how BW1 made you only use Gen 5 Pokemon for most of the game. It made the game feel fresh and the fact that Unova introduced so many new Pokemon means I had a hell of a lot of fun experimenting with the new Pokemon left and right, and because they were all new at the time, you never knew what to expect from each Pokemon and they all felt unique and fresh. Some of them were less than subtle expies to older Pokemon, but you also had some unique Pokemon with some incredibly fresh capabilities: Krookodile for example has Moxie that makes it stronger and stronger with each kill and a great offensive stat spread that feeds into that, Cinccino has a lot of multi-hit moves and Skill Link or Technician to hit hard with them, Galvantula can use Compound Eyes to have a highly accurate Thunder, you get the drill.

I legit have never had so much fun experimenting with Pokemon left and right not only on one playthrough, but on many playthroughs of BW1 I've had lots of fun experimenting with Pokemon, and in some cases I've constantly rotated Pokemon throughout my team in and out as I went through the game because it was fun meeting new Pokemon everywhere and learning and experiencing so many different Pokemon that I had never seen before. The distribution of the Pokemon helped it even further, meaning no matter where in the game you were, there were still more and more Pokemon to look forward to.

Also Brycen-Man is great, and it helps fleshing out Brycen's character, being a League representative that's also an actor before Diantha was cool.

He does it better than Diantha imo, because he has more of a presence in the game. You actually got to see him here in his actor persona in the flesh and see him in action, unlike Diantha who had borderline nonexistant presence in her own game (you don't even see any mentions of the movies she's starred in!!!). No disrepect to Diantha by any means, as her lack of presence is more a fault of XY itself than Diantha, but Brycen really had much more of a presence that he made felt.

- TMs can now be used infinite times! I think this is a really awesome feature because it meant that you never had to re-obtain a TM if you wanted to teach a TM move to several different Pokémon, nor did you ever have to save a specific TM that could only be used once for a special Pokémon which would be the only one to learn it. Or go through the complications of TM breeding, which I was forced to do at various times in Gen 3. I am very happy that this became a new standard for TMs in the series and that it has been kept in all generations past Gen 5.

Legit when I found out TMs were infinitely usable in Black and White, I jumped at the chance to buy them because this was such a promising prospect. Being able to teach good moves to any Pokemon that needed them without limitation was really an incredible prospect and helped to give my Pokemon good movesets without having to sacrifice a TM and lose the ability to teach that move to something else.

- The Unova Pokémon. The largest number of Pokémon introduced in a new generation so far, and I think the Unova Pokémon themselves are really amazing. I really like the vast majority of them, there is only a small number which I think are “only” okay, and there’s not a single one I dislike.

One of the best things about Gen 5's roster of Pokemon, while it's great overall, imo is that it was incredibly kind to the Bug-type. This was the first time where the Bug-types were all legitimately good and not just poor early-game fodder. Even the closest Gen 5 has to "early route bugs", Sewaddle and Venipede, are very usable at each stage and their final forms Leavanny and Scolipede are solid Pokemon for in-game playthroughs with good stats all around and movepools that help their usability. Scolipede in particular has great stats and a fantastic movepool and abilities that make it a solid Pokemon, both to an extent in-game and also in competitive where it's one of the best Bugs out there. It's also a fantastic design in general.

Gen 5 has a load of other great bugs though, aside from Scolipede and Leavanny you also have Galvantula, Escavalier, Accelgor, and ESPECIALLY Volcarona and Genesect. They absolutely nailed the Bug-types and made them all fantastic both battle-wise and design-wise.

I'm very glad Gens 7 and 8 kept up the record with good Bug-types because they've been on a great streak starting with Gen 5 and it's a good thing they kept it up.

- Pokemon sprites moving the entire battle.

The moving sprites also had soooo much personality. I could go on quite a bit of a tangent but especially compared to the 3D models, the 2D moving sprites in Gen 5 are incredibly vibrant with personality, especially Bouffalant, Hydreigon, and Typhlosion imho.

Look at this fucker. It looks like it's ready to charge at you any moment is is preparing itself to do so.

It's not only got its flame up, but it's basically on the verge of blowing up all the time. How much better can you get?

It's biting at you with its three heads all the time. It clearly gets across what kind of Pokemon Hydreigon is.

Long rant, but I wanted to throw in my two cents about Gen 5 (love this gen sooo much honestly).

 

[Coronis]

I wouldn’t mind at all if in the future (if it could be implemented somehow) that in your first playthrough, you’re limited to only new Pokemon in that playthrough. Personally I always try to only use new Pokemon on my initial playthrough, to fully experience and integrate myself with the new region. I do love putting together teams from multiple gens on later playthroughs though.

 

[Yung Dramps]

I wouldn’t mind at all if in the future (if it could be implemented somehow) that in your first playthrough, you’re limited to only new Pokemon in that playthrough. Personally I always try to only use new Pokemon on my initial playthrough, to fully experience and integrate myself with the new region. I do love putting together teams from multiple gens on later playthroughs though.

Yeah nah, that sounds like a really bad idea, especially if they continue with the relatively small dexes of the past 3 gens for the future. Artificially limiting player choice in such a fashion is never a good call

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I wouldn’t mind at all if in the future (if it could be implemented somehow) that in your first playthrough, you’re limited to only new Pokemon in that playthrough. Personally I always try to only use new Pokemon on my initial playthrough, to fully experience and integrate myself with the new region. I do love putting together teams from multiple gens on later playthroughs though.

Every Pokemon game is someone's first, and for those new players, every Pokemon is a new Pokemon.

 

[The Mind Electric]

I wouldn’t mind at all if in the future (if it could be implemented somehow) that in your first playthrough, you’re limited to only new Pokemon in that playthrough. Personally I always try to only use new Pokemon on my initial playthrough, to fully experience and integrate myself with the new region. I do love putting together teams from multiple gens on later playthroughs though.

The problem is that that's simply not feasible for a lot of regions/games. Unova was able to get away with it because it introduced the most new Pokémon in the franchise's history since Kanto, but a smaller roster like Johto would be awful with only new Pokémon.

 

[Hugin]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of X/Y because of how many old mons they brought back. The early game of X/Y has so much variety available before the second gym it's a little ridiculous, but it's excellent for replay value. Given that that's the gen that introduced the fewest new mons, it's impressive. I think SwSh was trying to do the same thing via the wild area, it just doesn't work since the mechanics for actually finding anything are such a pain.

 

[The Mind Electric]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of X/Y because of how many old mons they brought back. The early game of X/Y has so much variety available before the second gym it's a little ridiculous, but it's excellent for replay value. Given that that's the gen that introduced the fewest new mons, it's impressive. I think SwSh was trying to do the same thing via the wild area, it just doesn't work since the mechanics for actually finding anything are such a pain.

The only issue is that it sometimes leans too heavily on old Pokémon IMO, especially where Megas are concerned. A bunch of trainers could have used Mega Evolution if they gave it to more Kalos Pokémon, and some trainers are forced to have Pokémon from older gens as aces just so they can have a Mega. It's a bit disappointing.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

While ORAS and USUM had more legendaries to catch, per se, I am of the opinion that BW2 implemented the legendaries it had into the game much better than ORAS and USUM did. ORAS had "oh, here's Hoopa who brought in these legendaries from other universes and timelines!" and dropped them in random locations more often than not. USUM made them all appear in Ultra Space.

I agree, B2/W2 were the last games before S/S where finding legendaries from other regions made sense (more or less). That said, I still liked the way they implemented the legendaries in OR/AS (some of the legendary Mirage Spots were really cool) and US/UM (the wormhole minigame is far from perfect, but it does at least work, and seeing the silhouettes of the legendaries before the battles was amazing IMO). However, the Crown Tundra implemented the Regis, the birds and the Swords of Justice really well in a cool way that made more sense. I think it would be neat if we got to see more like that in the future.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I loved how BW1 made you only use Gen 5 Pokemon for most of the game. It made the game feel fresh and the fact that Unova introduced so many new Pokemon means I had a hell of a lot of fun experimenting with the new Pokemon left and right, and because they were all new at the time, you never knew what to expect from each Pokemon and they all felt unique and fresh.

Same here, I loved it.

As for it being done again in a future generation, I agree with some other posters in that I don't think it will work if they only introduce 60-80 new Pokémon in every new generation. This more or less needs at least 150 new Pokémon in order to work. Though I can see it work to an extent for 130+ too like Hoenn had. However, as cool as it was, I don't think we'll ever see something like this again.

One of the best things about Gen 5's roster of Pokemon, while it's great overall, imo is that it was incredibly kind to the Bug-type. This was the first time where the Bug-types were all legitimately good and not just poor early-game fodder. Even the closest Gen 5 has to "early route bugs", Sewaddle and Venipede, are very usable at each stage and their final forms Leavanny and Scolipede are solid Pokemon for in-game playthroughs with good stats all around and movepools that help their usability. Scolipede in particular has great stats and a fantastic movepool and abilities that make it a solid Pokemon, both to an extent in-game and also in competitive where it's one of the best Bugs out there. It's also a fantastic design in general.

Gen 5 nailed it when it comes to Bug-types. There isn't a single one I dislike, and none of them feel useless to me. I think all of them are awesome in different ways. Volcarona and Galvantula are two of my personal top favorite Bug Pokémon from all generations.

The moving sprites also had soooo much personality. I could go on quite a bit of a tangent but especially compared to the 3D models, the 2D moving sprites in Gen 5 are incredibly vibrant with personality, especially Bouffalant, Hydreigon, and Typhlosion imho.

I agree. The moving sprites often get criticized but I think they were awesome, they were very well done and they made the battles feel more dynamic. Even if I usually play with animations turned off, this made the battles a bit more enjoyable and less static compared to how it was in previous generations. The battle speed of Gen 5 also helped since it was so fast compared to the slowness of Gen 4.

Long rant, but I wanted to throw in my two cents about Gen 5 (love this gen sooo much honestly).

Nothing to worry about, Gen 5 can never get too much love!

I also came up with one more (very minor) thing I like about Gen 5. In B2/W2, when you walk out from Pokémon Centers (and some other buildings) during the day, you will see the rays of the sun for a second. It is very minor but a really cool detail which hasn't been done in any other game as far as I know.

I also wanted to say something about Mythicals and how they are handled since that was brought up. I agree that Mythicals were mostly well-handled during Gen 1-5, they all had some sort of backstory in the game or were available through an event (even if some of the event items never got officially released, such as the Azure Flute to get Arceus, which is a shame). Regarding Gen 5, apart from Keldeo and Genesect, there was the Victini event at Liberty Island in B/W (which was also the last time we got to actually catch a Mythical in the games thanks to an event-exclusive item) and Meloetta which had a slight event at Café Sonata where it could learn Relic Song. And you could get an event-exclusive Funfest Mission thanks to it in B2/W2!

The newer generations don't do anything like this (sadly), even if I like several of the newer Mythicals. Notably Magearna and Zeraora, they are two of my overall favorite mythicals. That said, I think there are two things that Gen 7/8 did just right when it comes to mythicals. The first one is the Magearna Event in Gen 7. Making it obtainable through a QR Code was an excellent idea since it means that this event will never expire, it will always be available, no matter what happens. S/M were released in late 2016, but the event is still available today thanks to the QR Code, and it will still be available in 10 or even 20 years from now!

The second thing is about Zarude. What I like here is that Zarude wasn't in the games from the beginning. Instead, it got added with an update. This means that Zarude did not get leaked/datamined before it was officially added to the games. In comparison, pretty much every single mythical from past generations has always gotten revealed before their official reveal because of datamining. But now, if they continue to handle future mythicals in the same was as Zarude, that will no longer happen. If there are more mythicals to be revealed for Gen 8 (which I believe), then they will not be revealed beforehand either, which is excellent.

 

[mertyville]

The battle sprites of Gen 5 were really a class of their own. Aside of Hydreigon, I loved seeing Black Kyurem. He really felt like a Kyurem is using the power of Zekrom.
Back when I did BW2 Wifi Battles, it was always terrifying to see him and I keep thinking "Oh right, Black Kyurem who has 710 BST is OU..."

Compare that to his 3D model... doesn't have the same energy. Hardly any 3D models do dynamic poses or anything.

 

[The Mind Electric]

The battle sprites of Gen 5 were really a class of their own. Aside of Hydreigon, I loved seeing Black Kyurem. He really felt like a Kyurem is using the power of Zekrom.
Back when I did BW2 Wifi Battles, it was always terrifying to see him and I keep thinking "Oh right, Black Kyurem who has 710 BST is OU..."

Compare that to his 3D model... doesn't have the same energy. Hardly any 3D models do dynamic poses or anything.

It seems like basically every Pokémon introduced before the 3DS games is at their most memorable sprite-wise in gen 5. Shame that they couldn't recapture that magic after the move to 3D.

 

[mertyville]

It seems like basically every Pokémon introduced before the 3DS games is at their most memorable sprite-wise in gen 5. Shame that they couldn't recapture that magic after the move to 3D.

it really annoys me especially considering what Masuda said

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1331996683161333760

To me that is a flat out lie, because the spin off home console titles had more personality. Same goes for the upcoming New Pokemon Snap. I mean I can tolerate that in the debut game, but non of the old Pokemon got upgraded animation nor do they feel dynamic.

At this point I feel it was done on purpose.

 

[R_N]

Honestly it's kind of funny Masuda said that at all considering around that point they had no doubt already began the process of creating the models they'd use starting in gen 6 (to make no mention of the pokedex 3d that launched on 3DS' eshop lmao).
Definitely reads more of an off the cuff "excuse" for not following the 3D trend on the DS generations (one that...was frankly not really needed; 3D on DS was a mixed bag much less one they'd haev to really commit to and then throw away next generation).

I can also easily see a scenario where Masuda himself, specifically, thinks sprites have more personality but his sole opinion is not the only one that matters not to mention any other factors in play.

 

[UninspiredLunch]

I don't think the distinction is as clear cut as 2D = personality, 3D = no personality. Later gen pokemon have plenty of personality that shine through in their animations. Do you want dramps to start posting about Mr Rime again? The issue with a lot of old pokemon is that they were simply not designed to function in a semi-realistic 3D space. A mon like Blastoise can be contorted into cool shapes in a 2D sprite, but once you have to get an actual skeleton in there the range of movement just disappear and you get these horrible little stubby T-Rex arms.

 

[Millky95]

I don't think the distinction is as clear cut as 2D = personality, 3D = no personality. Later gen pokemon have plenty of personality that shine through in their animations. Do you want dramps to start posting about Mr Rime again? The issue with a lot of old pokemon is that they were simply not designed to function in a semi-realistic 3D space. A mon like Blastoise can be contorted into cool shapes in a 2D sprite, but once you have to get an actual skeleton in there the range of movement just disappear and you get these horrible little stubby T-Rex arms.

I never got that argument either when the old Stadium 1 and 2 models looked like they had a bunch of personality as well

 

[mertyville]

I just noticed that Gen 6 onwards, Charizard got back his gen 3 Shiny color

It's beautiful and I wanted to share it. His Mega Y form sadly took the Gen 4-5 Shiny variant so you can see the difference.

Also loving it that Charizard has a different color compared to it's preevolutions in shiny form. I recently mentioned that I love Charmeleon stands out just for it's red color alone and if it had it's orange color it would be forgotten like most middle stages. If not more so.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Just gonna pop out a quick appreciation post for THE most underrated character in the series, bar none

Honestly Mustard is just perfect in every way.

-Not one, but two great themes? Check
-Cool-ass team? Check (Fr, Luxray? Kommo-o? Corviknight? Too many smooth picks, just too many)
-How do I even elaborate further tbh, I mean god damn, he's just too freakin cool
-He's also unironically funny as shit when he wants to be (the comment about Leon's training is A+++)

tl;dr Cynthia can eat shit, long live god emperor Mustard