Yeah... So I started replaying Pokemon Black (well I bought a real version of the game this time) and yeah... I realized it kinda sucks.
First off, all the Pokemon are pretty crap. Like it's really hard to find a good party to use. I just got past Chargestone Cave and my party is like Emboar, Archen, Whimscott, Munna (waiting until it learns Psychic to evolve it), Sandile (gonna drop him pretty soon), and Zebstrika. I find none of them really all that special. Emboar is a shit Infernape/Blaziken (also shows some REAL creativity on GameFreak that out of 6 Fire starters, half of them are Fire/Fighting in the end), seriously it's lvl 37 at this point and the only Fighting type move it learned is fucking Arm Thrust. Shit's terrible. Archen is pretty neat but it's ability just basically makes it useless when it's under 50% health. Whimscott lacks major move diversity (like I can get Shadow Ball and Psychic TMs eventually but until then it only learns Grass attacks). Munna also lacks any move diversity (its only attack is Psybeam). I ran Sandile in my old game (where it evolved and shit) and it was pretty alright but I don't want to use him again. Zebstrika I find is pretty much the only pretty okay Pokemon. It's fast, has a good ability (Lightning Rod), and decent move pool (it has Spark, Flame Charge, Pursuit, and Thunder Wave).
This just kinda highlights the current issue with Pokemon now, is that games balance between having too few good Pokemon to use and too many. I found Pokemon Y just got downright boring because almost every Pokemon is excellent. They literally hand you good Pokemon (you get a Gen I starter of choice, a Lucario, and a Lapras all for free). It got to the point that I had to ditch so many good Pokemon because there were better ones. Like I wanted to use Aerodactyl but I had no room. Like I had to ditch an Aerodactyl. He used to be cream of the crop man.
Pokemon aside Black also has a crop of other issues. The encounter rates are stupidly high, the wild Pokemon give barely any experience so grinding is a pain, and the gyms are just annoying. Some poor "puzzle designs" and like getting Pokemon to fight them is hard. Usually for most gyms there's a big area before it full of Pokemon to counteract the gym. Like before Blackthorne City in Gold and Silver you had the Ice Cave. I never found that to really be the case. There's little variety. For like the Ground gym, the next area has, for new Pokemon to catch to "counter" the gym, is Deerling. Just Deerling. Which is shit until it evolves (at lvl 34 and the gym leader's highest Pokemon is 31) and even then learns basically no physical-based Grass moves and it's an Attack-based Pokemon. You're given a Sun Stone to evolve your Cotonee/Petilil but even those Pokemon are flawed. There's also basically no good water types outside of the starter, and he throws a Ground/Steel at you. You can use a Fire type or a Fighting type for him as well (I used by Pignite) but God forbid he survives a few rounds and sweeps you.
The story in the game is also super boring but constantly in your face, there's so many "cutscenes" that it gets annoying and you just start mashing A to move through it. You're stuck fighting three rivals on and off too (Cheren, Bianca, and N). I always found one to be good enough.
So yeah, it's easily the worst series of main series games since Gen III. Yes Gen III is awful guys stop pretending it isn't.
First off, all the Pokemon are pretty crap. Like it's really hard to find a good party to use. I just got past Chargestone Cave and my party is like Emboar, Archen, Whimscott, Munna (waiting until it learns Psychic to evolve it), Sandile (gonna drop him pretty soon), and Zebstrika. I find none of them really all that special. Emboar is a shit Infernape/Blaziken (also shows some REAL creativity on GameFreak that out of 6 Fire starters, half of them are Fire/Fighting in the end), seriously it's lvl 37 at this point and the only Fighting type move it learned is fucking Arm Thrust. Shit's terrible. Archen is pretty neat but it's ability just basically makes it useless when it's under 50% health. Whimscott lacks major move diversity (like I can get Shadow Ball and Psychic TMs eventually but until then it only learns Grass attacks). Munna also lacks any move diversity (its only attack is Psybeam). I ran Sandile in my old game (where it evolved and shit) and it was pretty alright but I don't want to use him again. Zebstrika I find is pretty much the only pretty okay Pokemon. It's fast, has a good ability (Lightning Rod), and decent move pool (it has Spark, Flame Charge, Pursuit, and Thunder Wave).
This just kinda highlights the current issue with Pokemon now, is that games balance between having too few good Pokemon to use and too many. I found Pokemon Y just got downright boring because almost every Pokemon is excellent. They literally hand you good Pokemon (you get a Gen I starter of choice, a Lucario, and a Lapras all for free). It got to the point that I had to ditch so many good Pokemon because there were better ones. Like I wanted to use Aerodactyl but I had no room. Like I had to ditch an Aerodactyl. He used to be cream of the crop man.
Pokemon aside Black also has a crop of other issues. The encounter rates are stupidly high, the wild Pokemon give barely any experience so grinding is a pain, and the gyms are just annoying. Some poor "puzzle designs" and like getting Pokemon to fight them is hard. Usually for most gyms there's a big area before it full of Pokemon to counteract the gym. Like before Blackthorne City in Gold and Silver you had the Ice Cave. I never found that to really be the case. There's little variety. For like the Ground gym, the next area has, for new Pokemon to catch to "counter" the gym, is Deerling. Just Deerling. Which is shit until it evolves (at lvl 34 and the gym leader's highest Pokemon is 31) and even then learns basically no physical-based Grass moves and it's an Attack-based Pokemon. You're given a Sun Stone to evolve your Cotonee/Petilil but even those Pokemon are flawed. There's also basically no good water types outside of the starter, and he throws a Ground/Steel at you. You can use a Fire type or a Fighting type for him as well (I used by Pignite) but God forbid he survives a few rounds and sweeps you.
The story in the game is also super boring but constantly in your face, there's so many "cutscenes" that it gets annoying and you just start mashing A to move through it. You're stuck fighting three rivals on and off too (Cheren, Bianca, and N). I always found one to be good enough.
So yeah, it's easily the worst series of main series games since Gen III. Yes Gen III is awful guys stop pretending it isn't.
