Red and Blue are exempt because they're the first Pokemon games made, and thus had a lot of early installment weirdness like the excuse plot of a story they have. Back then it was a simpler time; the main goal was to complete the Pokedex and become champion. There were no doomsday cults, no world-wreaking behemoths, no romance, no nothing. Just the occasional infiltration of the local mafia as you battled your rival and beat the Elite Four. It was simple but enjoyable, and even in its simplicity it's engaging enough to make you wanna keep playing.
That's the main difference between R/B and X/Y. Even if the story is just barely there, you can at least enjoy it. X/Y on the other hand had more of a story, but said story was boring and not very engaging. It had very awesome lore, yes, but the lore and the main storyline are pretty much mutually exclusive in X and Y and the storyline is just... boring.
Exactly. Gen 1's story was extremely barebones, but it was still engaging and it even had some memorable characters. (Blue and Giovanni come to mind here.)
In fact, I think that's one of XY's biggest failings. The story focused too much on (awkwardly-done) lore and worldbuilding at the expense of character. To me, a story just isn't even remotely engaging if its characters are all about as interesting as a piece of cardboard. I can barely recall XY's rivals, Gym Leaders, and E4 members as it is, and knowing that they'll all inevitably be replaced with a completely new cast in a new region come Gen 7 doesn't give me any motivation to connect with any of them.
Yet again, Gen 5 did this better. While it had a deep and involved story, it was a very
character-driven one, mostly being about N and his moral conflicts. It wasn't a save the world epic, and it didn't involve 3000 year old wars or multiple alternate timelines, and it was better for it.
While I'm mostly apathetic in the pokemon competitive scene such as VGC, I love how gamefreak has made competitive battling much more accessible to players since XY. (and still continues in ORAS). However, I'm a little flustered with the whole lack of in-game content for the CAZZZZZZZZSSSSSSUAL non EV training, non nature and IV breeding crowd (which apparently is still basically 50% of trainers). Well I'm sorry for you all but that's how its rolling now. POKE-ESPORTS is the way to go these days.
The "CAZZZZZZZZSSSSSSUAL" stuff is annoying and not even remotely funny.
Yes, it's unfortunate that the newest games are offering so little for casual players, which is why I have opted to not spend my hard-earned money on a 3DS or XY/ORAS. If GF cares that little about fans like me, then they don't get my money. (And, considering that XY were the worst-selling paired games yet, they should be very concerned.)
(suddenly nerfing things without context and real explanations, nerfing things because players whine about them (DRAGON TYPE IZ SO OP BECAUSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO DEPLOY ICE TYPES OR TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SECONDARY WEAKNESSES, MAKE A TYPE IMMUNE TO DRAGON PLZ).
Remember how awful Bug types were in Gen 1 and how they did little to stop the overpowered Psychic types they were supposed to be "strong" against? That's where Ice types have been for a
very long time. Bad stats, bad weaknesses, bad movepools, you name it. Most Ice types would get outsped and nuked by Fire Blast/Stone Edge (after taking 25-50% Stealth Rock damage, of course) before they could even fire off the first Ice Beam, and even the standard Outrage/Draco Meteor could do the trick with Stealth Rock damage (as there always was). Plus, a ton of Dragons running around also meant a ton of Steels (for Dragon resist) and Fighting types (good against Steels), both of which are also bad news for Ice types. If MixMence didn't kill your Ice type, then Scizor would.
Most Ice Types are at the bottom of NU/PU for a very good reason. Mamoswine only gets by because of its Ground typing (No Stealth Rock weakness!) and STAB Ice Shard coming off of a powerful Attack. Cloyster has Shell Smash and Skill Link. Kyurem Black has a higher BST than Mewtwo. Otherwise, they're about as useful as a Beedrill. (Probably less now, thanks to Mega Beedrill.)