5th Gen Why people hate gen 5 so much?

Shiny Ebottian Eevee said:

And this is the pokemon fandom for you,they start hating on something and take a big 360 turn,gen 5 is no exception.

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If you turn by 360 degree, you're facing the same direction again.

But I have to agree with what was already said. I remember that this gen was hated back when it was new, but is now loved by many fans. I don't really see a hate nowdays.

VisionofMilotic hit the nail on the head.

Gen 5 games are very dear to me, as they actually tried something new with the games then just rince and repeat again. (Gen 4 games feel very bland to me.) All new Pok?mon that you've never seen before, characters that I actually care about, not just rivals that are jerks with a heart of jerk because fans demand it, a fantastic plot with fantastic villains, gym leaders that actually give a damn about what happens in the region and extremely varied locations and music.

These games are my drug.

When I first heard of Gen 5, it felt like a breath of fresh air when it came to Pokemon. Most of the Pokemon featured were all new and did not have any relation to previous generations. I skipped Gens 3 and 4, so I was a little out of the loop. Gen 5 got me back into Pokemon, and I have so much respect for it.

I really loved gen 5. It was a bit different IMO from other generations, but I thought was the best out of all odd-numbered Generations and no disrespect to Generation 1 as I thought it was okay. I really liked Gen 1, but I hate to be over-obsessive with it. I have seen so much of that over the past many years. However I was not impressed with Generation 3 and Generation 7. I have no disrespect for Nintendo and GameFreak at all. There are good generations and there are bad ones too. Gen 6 was my favorite overall as well as Gen 4 and this is from a person that has watched the oldest episodes of the series. Watched the Generation 1 episodes on VHS and loved them as a little kid. I remembered watching Johto and Hoenn on Kids WB! I loved Johto more than Kanto. Overall I really love Pokemon no matter if it is the older or newer ones! I can careless about the whining! People have nothing else to do but whine XDDD! I was not impressed with the Colosseum Series at all. I grew up with it and still love it no matter the ups and downs!

I personally loved Gen 5 and it's easily one of my favorite generations. For the first time, Game Freak had actually implemented a really engaging and interesting story in a Pokemon game. The backstory of N and Ghetsis was great, the ideals of N felt more justified than other villains from previous games, and seeing him realize what Ghetsis was really doing and turning against him was a cool twist.

Interestingly, TyrantitarTube actually did a video about exactly this topic and how having a really good story quite possibly led to the lower sales since most people don't really look for a good story in a Pokemon game. To me, having a good story only made the game feel way more enjoyable, and I didn't constantly just want to beat the game so I could get to the post-game features.

I will admit that Game Freak got a little lazy with some of the new Pokemon in Unova (looking at you, Vanillite and Trubbish), but a lot of the other Unova Pokemon are some of my favorites. To me, some lazy Pokemon designs doesn't really seem like enough reason to completely disregard the games though.

Overall, BW/B2W2 felt like a great new addition to the series, but there were just things that people didn't necessarily care for in a Pokemon game. Just look at how right after Gen 5 Game Freak went right back to the criminals like Team Flare who want to screw over the world because... reasons? Not many people care for the Pokemon game stories, so they stopped trying when writing a good one didn't help them. I wish more people had loved Gen 5 like some of us did, but I guess it's just the sad truth that games like those simply don't appeal to the whole Pokemon community.

Because of their nostalgia for older generations, which is the same reason people hate Gen 4.

That might just be me, since Gens 4 and 5 are easily my favorites.

That said, GameFAQs is filled with haters of Gens 4 and 5. Gen 7 hate also crops up on a semi-frequent basis over there.

One of my favorite parts of the Black and White games was the lack of older Pokemon, I was getting so bored of using the same ones over and over, it was refreshing to me. But apparently not many people liked that, which is why I'm guessing gens 6 and 7 both barely introduced any new Pokemon.

Unova region was beautiful.
I really loved the Gen 5 games. Maybe people hate gen 5 because of the anime (I guess)

I love the Best Wishes anime but even in this day and age I'm still in the minority.

But the games on the other hand have been having a growing popularity as it gets older. It got a lot of hate as the "new games that doesn't have old pokemon" and such when it was announced but when you look back now there's a lot of people who are fond of the games. Good story, music, and people have (kinda) learned that you shouldn't judge a region or generation before you actually play the games imo.

I never played Gen V, VI, VII, but for specific reasons. Post Gen 4 I felt the models stopped following what I considered a Pokemon feel. So i never touched them. Maybe they became too detailed who knows? Also any game post Mega is borderline a nogo for me. I don't like the mechanic or idea of the mechanic. Which is why I want a proper remake of Gen 4 OR i wouldn't mind a Crystal style game where you progress through Kanto Johto Sinnoh and Hoenn.

I feel a lot of complaints come from people who didn't play the games, or went into them expecting to hate them and adamantly stick to their opinions no matter what. A lot of things I notice are especially hypocritical: I've seen people curse gen 5's experience system but praise its return in gen 7, mock Litwick for being an "inanimate object" but fawn over Dhelmise, claim Purrloin is a "copy of Meowth" simply because it's a cat and therefore "lacks creativity" but adore the Skitty line, insult the massive undertaking of fully-animated sprites for "looking weird" (which I can't agree with) but take no issue to the low-quality jpeg-esque textures of Sun and Moon, laugh at the name choice of Black and White but defend any of the other arbitrary title choices despite gen 5's actually tying into the actual story. It's one thing to have preferences, but the sheer amount of vitriol gen 5 receives while its contemporary counterparts get away with much worse issues just reeks of hypocrisy born of some form of ignorance.

I feel gen 5 was just too ahead of its time. Released during a period where most of the people who started with gens 1 or 2 were reaching high school, people were just clamoring for any reason to hate it. Those exact people were entering or continuing "edgy" or "hipster"-like "phases," but with greater capacity to form more (what they believe to be) in-depth opinions than when they went through these motions in middle school. Gen 4 received this kind of backlash as well, but since it's next in line to be remade (and is, as such, getting quite old) people are beginning to look at it with fond, nostalgic memories now. And I believe gen 5 will have its turn one day.

The key difference seems to be that gen 5 just never went through the "recency bias" phase newer games have the luxury of receiving. The general "timeline" for game releases seems to be that the newest games have an overly-positive pre-release and release period timeframe, but the fanbase begins realizing the negatives some months after the new-game hype has died down. Once they get old enough, the opinions that will rise back to the top of the melting pot of thoughts will be warm, joyful, sprinkled with a hint of nostalgia. Gen 5 especially but even gen 4 seemed to have had their first two stages swapped, likely due to the reason I've stated above: the playerbase that was most likely to be using Internet discussion communities at the time was at the prime age to hate or dismiss without reason while still lavishing in their "genwunner" mindset.

Another thing to consider is that YouTube was quite different back then as well. There were no conspiracy theory analysis channels to generate artificial hype, or to discuss the latest rumor posted by some rude jerk on 4chan, and there definitely weren't any official trailers to hype fans by showing the newest Pokémon in action. All we had were blurry CoroCoro scans and text-only discussion boards--a lot of details went by unnoticed unless you followed them all, unlike today where just keeping up with GameXplain is usually enough to paint you the full picture. And admittedly, if you see other people hyped, it tends to rub off on you, which is another advantage the newer games have that the older games did not.

But tldr, I have to agree with OP. A lot of the hate for gen 5 is really at odds with what people tend to like about other (and especially the newer) games, leading me to believe a lot of the hate is just from people who didn't play the games, or from those who did but just "skim played" without actually trying to see or understand what the games had to offer. I'll end it off with a summary of a discussion I had with someone once, not long ago: apparently, the USUM remix of Maxie and Archie's battle theme is good because it sounds fine in the context of their fight, having just proven victorious in their home worlds and trying to push further now into Alola. Compare this to the Alder battle theme in BW, which is bad because it sounds more like a post-game boss battle theme rather than the final battle theme. Yes, the post-game boss's theme sounds bad because it sounds like a post-game boss theme. You heard it here first, folks!

I think the main issue that folks had with Black and White was the fact that they were forced to use Pokémon that were newly introduced while not having the option to catch other Pokémon. The reception of BW2 was more positive because of the availability/diversification of Pokémon from previous gens being available.

I feel this topic is often over analyzed. Simply put, a lot of people did not like the new Pokemon designs. I remember feeling really disappointed when I saw the designs, but I played it anyway and just hated it. I remember after a few years passed I thought to myself, "I should give it another try." I enjoyed it a lot more years later, but even now it's still my least favorite of the main series.

Long Explanation!!
I seriously don't understand why people hate these games. I played through Pokemon Black and it was great! But the Postgame was kinda ridiculous. I definitely made some bad team choices (ex. evolving my Munna way too early, getting an Unzefant really late) but still had a blast. I actually am playing through White 2 (headed to 7th gym) and actually restarted because I just couldn't with Tepig because I wanted a Riolu (luckily I wasn't too far). I've been enjoying it, I just think the middle part with the same gym leaders kinda annoyed me (and I HATE Clay's new gym puzzle), but I've had fun! (Current Team: Lucario, Crobat, Krokorok, Duosion, Sawsbuck, and Samurot).

The biggest thing was no Pokémon from previous gens. Everything was unfamiliar: the Pokemon, the land, even the people. While it is a crummy excuse that was a huge part of why it seems disliked on the surface. People like familiar things. That's the best way to put it.
As for my personal story...well it's the story/setting/gameplay. It's a fantastic story, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't really take much shape until the grunts steak from the museum. Most noticeably it's that the gym leaders are taking charge of things that are going wrong around them. It's a great source of world building that isn't really seen again until the big kahunas. And right after we have this awesome revaltion we're dropped into one of the largest cities the Pokémon world has ever seen.
This isn't nearly as horrible as it sounds but being a nostalgic gen wunner it forces you to re-evaluate the fact that we're past the point of exploring caves, woods, and forests. Something in the atmosphere changes at the sight of it all. Gen three had too much water? Gen five had too many buildings. Not everyone will agree but that's my gripe with it.

TLDR/Condensing: It's the Slow Start of Pokemon Games. That map tho. Who's that Pokémon? (And is it worth my time evolving it)

Come to think of it I have no idea how I learned about all the gen five Pokémon seeing as I only played through the story once. (Or twice thanks to the much better, highly praised sequel! Stupid Leopard. I'll never forgive you! T^T)

Caite-chan said:

Funny thing is I never really heard that much bad stuff when it came to Gen 5. It was always Gen 4 that got all the bad rap as far as I know. Everyone seemed to always hate on D/P/Pl and how bad it was. I thought Gen 5 was really good and I liked both B/W and B2/W2. I on the other hand never played Gen 4.

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I've seen people hate both Gen 4 and 5, which is ironic because Platinum and White are my two all time favorites. I kind of disliked B2/W2 though because it was so much different than B/W, which I really loved. If anything, I wish they would of put more things to do and more places to explore in B/W. I hope if they ever remake them then they'll add much more stuff, especially since the Nintendo consoles are improving.

I've never played Gen 3 before or Gen 7 (though I have both ORAS and Sun/Moon (Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon) so I could easily catch up on the stories but I've always been too busy. x_x
Though I do really love Sun and Moon just because the Alolan type Pokémon, I thought that was an interesting idea. :D

Gen 5 has some of my favorite Pokemon like Zorua, Zoroark, Eelektross, Zekrom, and a few others. But I have to admit that Gen 5's Pokemon were a mixed bag. For every appealing Pokemon, there were like a dozen awful-looking ones imo like: Patrat's line, Timburr's line, Tympole's line, the Vanillite line, Sawk, Throh, etc. I could go on for ages, but my main issue with this generation were the Pokemon designs.

the lactose intolerant people are just rly pressed abt that vanillite line

its because of the pokemon's design. See, they sort of reused some ideas EG munna, the moon pokemon, we already had clefairy, and then they gave us munna. also for gen 5 we got a trash bag... The legendaries themselves were unappealing to some people (also more dragon types?) and fire and electric were both used in the first generation, the again in gen 2. as for the story, its about animal rights activists who use pokemon to make others not use pokemon. it would be different if they used the whole "i want all the pokemon for our team" thing but they just wanted to let all the pokemon go. i personally enjoy these gsmes and black was my first pokemon game, it sort of has that nostalgia factor going for it, and i always regret that i can't get my copy back. Honestly all these "opinions" come from my older brother who grew up with emerald

Gen 5 is one of my favorites. At first I didn't like that it was ALL NEW POKEMON but I really grew to love a lot of them. If I used Lapras AGAIN I would never find out how cool Seismitoad or Jellicent are. If I used Dragonite AGAIN I would never know how cool Haxorus is. He's one of my favorites.

With that being said I think it has the ugliest starters... and the ugliest early game pokemon. Whatchog, Stoutland, Leipard, Unfezant and Swoobat are just hideous pokemon. I'm cool with having the new normal/rodent type, the new bird, the new bat, the new cat but did you have to make them all so ugly? The further you get into the game you get some incredible designs. Litwick/Chandelure, Zorark, Cofagrigus, Haxorus, Volcarona. I think some of the best designs ever and the worst designs ever. All in all I equate Black and White to the horror movie genre. My favorite and least favorite movie genre. A lot of my favorite movies are horror but ALL of my least favorite are also horror.

I may be the minority but I want the new Pokemon game to have 150 new Pokemon and be mostly the new ones until post game. It will never happen though. It will be more revisions and stuff with the first gen Pokemon.