I can definitely say that BW were the worst in the series, and playing B2 has only further reaffirmed my stance. Tons of poor game design choices made this game look very, very bleak in comparison to the absolutely fantastic HG/SS, which was released just 1 year prior to BW1.
Bad game design choices? Like what?
The main problem I see here is that gen V put too much focus on things that were never a reason to play a Pokemon game in the first place, leaving other, much more important features behind.
The main reason to play a Pokemon game is to capture Pokemon and train them to battle other players. That's still there.
Seriously, why do we even need a plot in those games? I want to smash my way to victory with cool monsters I catch in the wild, not read a story of some autistic hippie kid with a big heart who wants everything good for poor, oppressed Pokemon.
1: People have complained forever about the lack of a decent storyline in the Pokemon games. Now, people are complaining about having TOO MUCH storyline. The fandom is impossible to please.
2: The character you play as is not you. YOU might want to do those things, but the characters have a story to tell. Even as Red you were playing a role. When it comes to these kinds of games, we are actors playing different characters.
There was also a problem of difficulty. GameFreak has completely dropped the ball with that one. Why make the already piss-easy in-game even easier than before?
Because the target audience is kids. Young kids at that. I use to have problems with the games at times, but now I'm an adult. I can handle it. But I didn't run through Black without losing a few times either.
And note the addition of Challenge Mode in B2W2, so they addressed those concerns, even though I don't personally think it was needed.
Why make healing items completely obsolete by placing doctors on every route around (most of which were too short to warrant such an inclusion)?
Doctors can't heal your Pokemon in battle, and if I remember correctly, you have to beat the doctor first.
Why did they remove poison's damaging field effect?
This one I don't know. I actually agree that poison's field damage should have been left alone.
Why Audino and pre-E4 Lucky Egg were even allowed to exist?
Audino is one of those typical "Cute Pokemon". Girls play Pokemon too, so there needs to be a few "girly" Pokemon for them to enjoy as well. And you don't have to use the Lucky Egg.
Pokemon hardly needs any grinding as it is. Adding those two is a complete overkill that wiped away any traces of a challenge this game ever had.
Except you don't have to use either of them.
On the contrary, why haven't they done ANYTHING to help the competitive scene, which, judging on the sheer amount of cheaters, is a much more pressing issue? I can tell you dozens of cool ideas just sitting here on my bum and typing on my keyboard, why can't the entire team of professionals do the same?
Because most people (being the kids) don't care about competitive gaming. They play for fun and with their friends.
It's things like this that make me lose faith in this franchise. Sometimes I can't wrap my head around on what goes inside the heads of those freaks (pun intended).
What goes on inside the heads of the folks of Game Freak is that they try to design a game that ANYBODY can just pick and play whenever they decide to. They want the games to be able to appeal to everyone, not just one particular group of people. More importantly, it has to appeal to the youngsters. They're the ones that make GF money, not the teens and not the adults.
