for the most part the game feels really barebones to me compared to Emerald. Emerald at least had a good chunk of stuff, like finding the other fossil, new parts of the safari zone, Battle Frontier (which while I didn't enjoy it, it was still quite a bit of postgame content) and gym leader rematches. the delta episode feels like a fetch quest, and it's worse that you have to do it to get to the best breeding area. i figured i'd get that after i beat the elite four. more story is fine, but i can't help but groan when i think it's over and it's not.

while it's cool that there's tons of legendary pokemon to catch, they all feel crammed in there. you just reach your hand into a hole and WHOA A DIALGA. D/P/Pt did the best with this when it came to legendary pokemon since there were a good chunk of them and there was at least some buildup. at least there's no more wandering encounters.

mega rayquaza is the epitome of f*** balancing. same with primal kyogre/groudon to a lesser degree.

being forced to obtain latias and being forced to catch rayquaza is also frustrating. i'd love to SR me a shiny ray. not only is it locked, but if it weren't, i wouldn't be able to make any progress breeding until i caught it. if you want to SR for good IVs (lmao why would you, it's lolb&) you have to drag through the long cutscene every time.


also, the games irritate me when they removed character customization. if the reason for the removal was to keep the games as close as possible to their originals, then that'd be fine. the actual reason it's gone though is because it will be unique to Kalos to make it more unique. that's kinda dumb.

i can get keeping the poketch in D/P/Pt. i understand why pokemon following you is exclusive to HG/SS (Yellow's Pikachu aside). i see why seasons are exclusive to B/W. these things, while they're all cool, aren't really that big of a deal when removed. they're more or less extras.

while character customization is an extra, it felt more like progress. like, sweet, we have this because the games are in 3D and because the series is moving forwar-- nope it's just another regional gimmick.

rideable pokemon, battle chateau, friend safari, roller skates, photo spots, and PR videos should be the exclusive things. customization really shouldn't.



as far as i'm concerned, as far as content goes, ORAS is the best since you can catch legendary pokes yourself and you can breed almost anything that's exclusive to XY. but XY is the better game as a whole.