Has Pokemon...

[Palamon]

In terms of story, gotten darker and edgier with each generation? What do you guys think? Is Pokemon more mature now, or as family friendly as ever?

 

[Caliber70]

wut? have they gone past the cubone darkness level yet?

 

[Hiatus]

I do believe the games are still family-friendly, and will continue to be so long as Pokémon is under the hands of Nintendo. Though, I'm sure some of us appreciate seeing them throw around some edgy things here and there, such as incorporating mass-genocide into their storyline in XY.

 

[Sopheria]

It seemed like Pokemon was going in that direction, starting with Gen 5. The story in Black & White was considerably darker and edgier, and it explored some really deep and mature concepts. But then with X&Y, it sorta felt like they took a step back. I mean, I guess it was still fairly dark considering that mass genocide was a factor, like Peitharchia said. But even with that...most of the game felt pretty light-hearted.

I feel like 5th gen is the only one that's considerably darker than the rest, while the others are all about even with each other.

 

[ShinyHoundoom]

Well Cyrus did want to create a new universe by destroying the current one and Lysandre wanted to destroy the world. These are the two team leaders with the most extreme intentions. Every other team leader just wants to control a part of it not destroy. Pokemon has been darker since Coliseum and XD with the Shadow Pokemon.

 

[Hikamaru]

Like Achromatic said, XY had a really dark story, such as a canonical death happening (which you pretty much never usually see given these games are targeted at kids) and Team Flare's goal is to wipe out anyone not aligned to them, which is pretty much genocide.

BW also had a pretty mature story, much more edgy than other games at the time of its release. But DPPt's one was also quite noteworthy given Cyrus wanted to destroy the world and create a new one. ORAS even made the Magma/Aqua plot more serious than in the original Hoenn games.

So yeah, Pokemon games have been getting edgier without some even knowing about it.

 

[Somewhere_]

I think Pokemon has gotten a little darker, but its really not the focus. I wish it would be more dark.

 

[VisualJae]

I think Black/White by far is the most mature of the core series games.

I only think X/Y weren't as "dark" because they're the first 3D Pokemon games. Development time likely went deeper into prioritizing exploration and atmosphere. The Looker post-game quest was interesting on its own. I don't read too much into ORAS as they're remakes. But like Hikamaru pointed out, some changes were made and helped boost the story a little.

Perhaps we'll see something interesting in Z whenever it gets here, now that the fans had their time tinkering with a 3D Pokemon environment.