I like how ever since about Generation 5 or so, they've slowly been giving individual Pokemon divergent character evolution of sorts (I'll get to this aspect in a second). Or at least, how Pokemon were consistently usable in-game from that point onward.
A lot of things prior to Gen V were kinda hit or miss. For every Starly and Buizel you had mons like Burmy and Finneon. Even within an expy-filled dex, Gen V gave mons plenty of tools to differentiate themselves. For example, Elgyem and Munna are the only mons to get Calm Mind naturally while other Psychics like Gothita do not (though you have to hold off on evolution for Munna). Outright crap like Woobat, despite being outclassed by Sigilyph, have fun tools like Imprison Shadow Ball on Shauntal, then boost up with Calm Mind to win (though Elgyem can also do this). This was also the generation to introduce Stunfisk which to this day still has a unique type at the time of writing.
For a Pokemon added late in development, Basculin is actually awesome with Adaptability. Things like Deerling which would fall victim to shallow Grass type movepool got an actual movepool to work with of many different attacks, Druddigon, despite being borderline objectively outclassed by Axew, has good Abilities to utilize.
Going back to divergent character evolution, it was cool to see that going forward. Pumpkaboo and Phantump have interesting playstyle differences, as do Dhelmise and Decidueye or Golisopod and Araquanid. A lot of Pokemon are consistently given interesting traits, like Mimikyu with Disguise or Tsareena with a good movepool and Queenly Magesty or Falniks with No Retreat.
In short, while the modern games are definitely flawed, I think they've generally managed to make the new Pokemon interesting even if certain design concepts have been done before.
I know this post was a little all over the place but I wanted to give credit where it is due. While the recent games may be pretty divisive, I'm glad to see they are still reinventing the wheel despite having almost 900 different Pokemon at this point.
A lot of things prior to Gen V were kinda hit or miss. For every Starly and Buizel you had mons like Burmy and Finneon. Even within an expy-filled dex, Gen V gave mons plenty of tools to differentiate themselves. For example, Elgyem and Munna are the only mons to get Calm Mind naturally while other Psychics like Gothita do not (though you have to hold off on evolution for Munna). Outright crap like Woobat, despite being outclassed by Sigilyph, have fun tools like Imprison Shadow Ball on Shauntal, then boost up with Calm Mind to win (though Elgyem can also do this). This was also the generation to introduce Stunfisk which to this day still has a unique type at the time of writing.
For a Pokemon added late in development, Basculin is actually awesome with Adaptability. Things like Deerling which would fall victim to shallow Grass type movepool got an actual movepool to work with of many different attacks, Druddigon, despite being borderline objectively outclassed by Axew, has good Abilities to utilize.
Going back to divergent character evolution, it was cool to see that going forward. Pumpkaboo and Phantump have interesting playstyle differences, as do Dhelmise and Decidueye or Golisopod and Araquanid. A lot of Pokemon are consistently given interesting traits, like Mimikyu with Disguise or Tsareena with a good movepool and Queenly Magesty or Falniks with No Retreat.
In short, while the modern games are definitely flawed, I think they've generally managed to make the new Pokemon interesting even if certain design concepts have been done before.
I know this post was a little all over the place but I wanted to give credit where it is due. While the recent games may be pretty divisive, I'm glad to see they are still reinventing the wheel despite having almost 900 different Pokemon at this point.