people who claim that Pokemon Sword and Shield are the worst entries have not given X and Y a proper look. it's very easily the worst duo by a very wide margin considering everything, but I can't bring myself to really hate it - or at least not hate it the way a lot of people seem to. this was probably the first generation I liked every Pokemon introduced (yes, even supposed stinkers like Quilladin and Avalugg and Barbacle) and the streamlining for competitive play still makes this my top game whenever I want to do competitive. the Looker quest was legitimately pretty nice to do and Pokemon Amie (and the successors it enabled) is still one of the best concepts to ever come to mainline Pokemon. Pokemon X and Y helped me bond with classmates in high school that no other game has been able to do before - or since

that being said... the characters are incredibly one-note, the game relies far too heavily on nostalgia to make anything new, and the main plot is absolutely, mind-bogglingly bad in a series that generally writes acceptable to good plots. but I'd still hesitate to call this game /bad/. just very mediocre