Ex and Why general thread.

[Darky's Reincarnation]

[Koopaul]

So this game's writing is awful. After I find the Furfrou for the owner of the Parfum Palace... why does Shauna say "Maybe it would be better off if we didn't find it" wait what? Why? Because the guy was going to launch fireworks for his Furfrou? Is there something I'm missing? Like some lost in translation Japanese insult this guy did?

[TomGuycott]

I forget the exact lines, but he was either being snotty to them or he was really creepily obsessive over the Furfrou. Still not a spectacular plot point.

[Chaoxys]

Yeah, I think the idea is that the guy was a snotty spoiled creep. Basically, I think she was essentially saying "I think theres a reason his pokemon ran off in the first place."

[Baegal]

I don't know, I think this game's dialogue is 10000 times better than BW2. Everything the rival said made me cringe.

This one has much more humor to it, and all of the silly references really suggest the writers had fun. I approve o/

[[robo9]]

Also, the butler gives you the TM for Protect after those tense fireworks. It's as golden as the guy in the alley that have you the TM for Flash in B/W

[Tellis]

Ok but can we all agree that the characters personalities in this game are super flat compared to Black and White? I mean Hugh was kind of boring and bit of a dope but at least he had SOMETHING to his character (his motivation to get back his little sister's Purrloin) instead of the spread-too-thin buddies you have in X/Y. Shauna is the only one with anything really that interesting about her (her whole thing about creating memories and the fireworks scene was cute but that's about it, though). Trevor and Tierno never do anything beyond just sort of repeating their single character trait (Pokedex and Dancing guy) and Calem/Serena are barebones "hey let's fight because hey we're rivals, I guess".

And I better not catch you talkin' shit about Bianca and Cheren, they're like the most well-executed of the friend rivals, imo. Bianca's dealing with the fact that "hey maybe I don't want to be a trainer... what then?" and Cheren's questioning of his goals "what does it actually mean to be strong?" (whereas Calem/Serena stop at the "i wanna be stronger than you" stage of character development) are really great.

Also, Black and White had a ton of little glimpses and peeks into the lives of the Gym Leaders (plus their towns and gyms actually said things about them as people that were beyond just surface level characteristics). X/Y had little to no such thing and it aggravated me because honestly some of them seemed pretty cool. Wolfric was the only one who ever even really into detail with why he chooses the Pokemon he does (he's also easily my favorite leader of this gen for it).

Bleh, I'm rambling and this is barely readable. Sorry I just... didn't like X/Y's writing much at all. Or I guess world-building is more accurate. I liked the nods to other regions and the little gags were good. It just didn't have as much life as Gen V or IV if you ask me...

[megaMasquerain]

Popping in to add my two cents since I've discussed this with Tellis before: My first impressions of the XY dialogue was that there was... so little of it? And looking back on it, it wasn't that there was less, it's just that what we got was a lot lighter and less packed with characterization and information as Gen 5's and Gen 4's were. Sorrt of the difference between just saying what someone is doing VS adding emotion and meaning to it. "Ash picked up the Pokeball" vs "Ash gripped the Pokeball in his sweaty, shaking hand" etc etc.

I got the feeling that all of the writers who actually knew and cared about what they were doing (q: how many writers does XY share with BW? Curious) got shoved into the Looker Bureau sidequest and did some work on the main story stuff with Lysandre and Mr. Immortal Hobo, because the amount of work put into the story seems to go Looker Sidequest > the end of the main story > everything else > rival characterization. I felt the Looker sidequest was on par with some of the better parts of BW, IE, not amazing, but "Holy crap Game Freak MIGHT know something about writing interesting and well developed characters after all."

I really just felt like the writing in 90% of XY was written by someone who just stopped caring about the value of writing in the Pokemon series, which is disappointing, because even if I don't expect the series to be Megaten 4 Kidz I do expect some degree of integrity from the writing team as writers.

[Koh]

Now you know why I say that blanketing the games as kids games doesn't excuse them from their glaring flaws. If it's not one thing, it's another with the games. BW had the best character development in the series, but the worst exploration factor. XY seem to be mediocre with everything, from what I've been hearing. Not much post game, aside from the Looker Sidequest. Not much to the story aside from the cookie cutter Team.

[Tellis]

Well, I wouldn't say everything's mediocre! This generation has added some of the coolest Pokemon in the series (Hawlucha best lucha, for example) and all the new additions are (for the most part) pretty clearly well thought out. The only real complaint on that front is that this is the smallest Pokedex addition ever, though that may be part of the reason the designs are all so solid this time around ("alright we've only got room for a small amount of new additions, let's make 'em really count").

But yeah, everything else about this gen is making me go "well, hope they remedy that in Z"

[Koh]

You're right...when I get my hands on one of these games at some point, it's definitely the first set to make me go to the grass starter. Dat Chespin.

His gluttonous persuasion in the anime sealed the deal XD.

[Koopaul]

Honestly I thought that this Gen was pretty forgettable with a few jems here and there. But that's my tastes.

Gen 5 gave me a real nostalgic feel with all it's goofy silly Pokemon. An Ice Cream Pokemon? A Garbage Bag Pokemon? It reminds me of why I got into Pokemon years ago. I'm more partial to cartoony silly Pokemon. An ostrich with three heads?! That's nuts! I love it!

[Baegal]

An animal very commonly associated with night-time that has elements of clocks incorporated to introduce the concept of day and night! Awesome!
A reanimated scarecrow!
A Moai inspired pokemon inspired by a compass, which is a theory of what the ancient statues were used for! Pertinent to real life, but original and creative!
A torpedo shark!
A Pokemon inspired from turtles carrying the earth on their backs!
A possessed sword! What a silly childhood haunted-house esque fantasy!
A fighting cotton-candy dog! How cartoony and silly!
An upside-down squid that is inspired by wacky upside-downness!
An avian luchador!


There are plenty of goofy, creative, and well conceived Pokemon. There isn't a generation that doesn't have silly Pokemon. Sure, some have more complicated designs with interesting backstories (Glalie, Farfetch'd, and Mawile, for example--and I love them more for that, but to each his own `u`), and others are silly and entertaining, (Vannilish, Trubbish, Swirlix, Honedge), but they're all so different.

I can understand that some generations may be more nostalgic for whatever reasons (Gen III will forever be my favorite), but it's not fair to say that gens I and V are the ONLY generations with creative pokemon designs.

[Koopaul]

No I mean SILLY like Mr. Mime, Vanilluxe, Garbodor, etc. Reanimated scarecrows and possesed weaponry is pretty common in fiction.

If being a fictional is enough to be silly to you then EVERY Pokemon is silly.

But in reallity thare are three different kinds of Pokemon designs:

1. Cute
2. Tough
3. Silly

Hoothoot is cute.
Cacturne is tough.
Nosepass is silly.
Torterra is tough.
Aegislash is tough.
Swirlix is a combination of cute and silly.
Malamar is tough.
Hawlucha is tough.

So pretty much only two of those Pokemon you listed are designed to be silly. Overtly silly that is. It's pretty obvious when a Pokemon is designed to be cute or tough or silly looking.

[Zadaben]

Those are all opinions though, for a lot of people cute and silly are almost synonymous, and what you see as tough others might find adorable.