Well, to be fair, a certain Ground type Pokemon back in gen one counts as the first death in a Pokemon game, I'd say. (Sure you don't see it, but then this is also a so-called Disney death too. To the point where people speculate he's alive too).
Anyways, my reaction? 'What'. A sceptical and disbelieving sort of what. =/ (I recently beat this part in my playthrough). Sure, Pokemon plots aren't very heavy to begin with, and I usually just play for the gameplay and Pokemon rather than plot. And this may have been an attempt to be ~dark and edgy~. But it was just so poorly executed! Characters do not comment on it anywhere near enough (your rivals basically go 'lalala let's continue on our adventure then! ^^'). There's no real sense of urgency by anyone else. (Compare to RSE. People comment on the changed weather conditions. You can see the rain/heat in other nearby towns too. Here? A few people comment on it, and some do not at all in the town. Outside of it? Few and far between.) It's too condensed too (you battle Lysandre three times in the space of an hour, two tops? Uh... and he's wearing what exactly in the last battle? Where did he get a mega stone from? Why did he cry for a moment and that never be mentioned again? How did AZ get out of that jail anyways? And so forth.)
It's a pity as there is potential there. But compared to BW's plot for instance (
which mind you was far from flawed itself), it's many steps backwards in many areas. Oh well, at least I play more for the Pokemon and gameplay anyway. Nonetheless... I prefer a decent plot to a rushed and flawed one.
The sort of potential I mentioned. A pity this was never made clear or used as a focal point. After all, it's not presented as a main thing! Early on you certainly can't tell what their motives are, or how to join and all.
Idk about darkest, myself. It's rather similar to the plan of Galactic after all (in general - the whole 'screw everyone else so I can have my own ideal world' deal), while Colosseum/XD challenge it with the implications of Pokemon being tortured and etc into a Shadow state (and look how well that went for Lugia...plus the general setting too is darker/more fitting for such a theme than happy-go-lucky
France Kalos).
I also hope they improve stuff if they make a third game or sequel or whatever. Because there's a fair bit they can work on.
