Evaluating the story of every major Pokemon game from generation 1-7

Well that took way longer than expected.
Join me in this feature length film as I slowly lose my sanity over Pokemon stories from generation 1-7.
All drawings (except for the really bad ones) are done by my personal art goblin, the talented Leonie: / cakebunn
For merch and merch accessories: www.thesaltfactory.store/
Hey I stream on twitch: / thesaltfactory_
Twitter: / saltiestfactory
Discord server: / discord
Patreon: / thesaltfactory
Here's where you can get a screenbar light thing from BenQ: www.amazon.com/dp/B07DP7RYXV
Songs:
A handful of songs from all the main Pokemon games
Ketamine by Versatile
Sexually Suggestive Knuckles Theme by Swordy: / sexually-suggestive-kn...
In The Hall Of The Otamatone King by andrew_howes: / in-the-hall-of-the-ota...
Prancing Dad by Prince uf Darkness: • OC ReMix #2388: Final ...
Title theme from Solstice
"Legendary Slam" part of "The Great Pokeslam" by ZVAARI: • The Great Pokéslam
Outdoor Lounge from the Huniepop OST
Timestamps:
00:00- Intro
01:01 - Red/Blue
9:57 - Gold/Silver
20:31 - Ruby/Sapphire
34:31 - Diamond/Pearl
51:10 - Black/White
01:19:55 - Black 2/White 2
01:37:14 - X/Y
02:15:51 - Sun/Moon
02:51:44- Final thoughts
02:53:20- Outro
This video is brought to you by please no more pokemon games for awhile.
Thanks for watching!

[@TheSaltFactory]

Here's some timestamps for those who want to skip around between games in this feature length film: 1:01 - Red/Blue 9:57 - Gold/Silver 20:31 - Ruby/Sapphire 34:31 - Diamond/Pearl 51:10 - Black/White 1:19:55 - Black 2/White 2 1:37:14 - X/Y 2:15:51 - Sun/Moon Next video is Skyrim. Sorry this one took so damn long, and sorry for the ads. I kind of need them just because I didn't get anything out for 2 months. Thanks for your patience!

[@mekudu-man3804]

you should've covered the endgame story from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - it is straight up about different dimensions and how to not make people suffer there, because there are some machines that use resources that have bad consequences for people in these other dimensions. Shit's wild, man,

[@Randerson2409]

Don't worry about time between vids or for ads. I know some people might get pissy, but I for one will always be waiting for a new upload

[@marc-antoinehamelin1625]

shit man, its so on the nose. i laugh so hard im pretty sure i woke the neighbor...

[@AwestynJaxxxson]

Pokemon Colosseum?

[@myfellowsonicfans7131]

M e K u D u - man it’s so fucking poorly written though, Zinnia just expects you and everyone else to believe there MIGHT be another universe out there based on NO evidence and curses the entire known world to destruction based on a theory she has. It’s really stupid if you think about it... also she gets torn apart by Rayquazza in one of the Manga’s

[@gabesuplee2203]

About N- he doesn’t actually keep his Pokémon, all the Pokémon he has are always around the area you’re in

[@perkypears]

This is actually genius and I have never heard of this before. I love that

[@belablanck]

In Black 2 and White 2 you can actually find N's released pokemon in the wild.

[@edhead7172]

@@belablanck I believe you need to activate Unova Link for this to occur.

[@raspberrypie1706]

That's actually a really cool detail, reminds me of pokemon ranger where you always release yur pokemon when you're done with he area you find them in.

[@TheSpectralForce]

No pokemon story will ever beat B&W. It's probably the bravest they will ever get with a pokemon story

[@GynxShinx]

Pokémon game has no story: Why does this story suck? Pokémon game has a story: Why can't I just go fight a gym?

[@commonviewer2488]

There's an ideal balance between plot and player freedom that's not often found in these games.

[@friendlyelites]

To be fair, Black/White bloated the game with the story considering it ends at what would be the mid-point of other pokemon games. Half the map is also completely inaccessible until you defeat Ghetsis and enter the postgame.

[@fumomofumosarum5893]

because bad writers. really bad story writers.

[@Gfreak250]

Sir, this is a Mystery Dungeon Game.

[@friendlyelites]

@@fumomofumosarum5893 No, the writing in Black and White is fine, good even. However the pacing is bad because of the timeframe all the story content is given to the player in.

[@ZourlemonZ]

Ruby/Sapphire's plot seemed silly, but it was actually based off of real discussions happening in Japan at the time. The Isahaya Bay project in Kyushu (which is also the place in Japan the Hoenn region is based on) was mostly a conflict between fisherman and farmers in western Kyushu, due to a sea wall built in the inner part of Isahaya Bay, to allow a reclamation of land from the Airake Sea. This in turn, caused annual depleting catches of shellfish, prawns, crabs, and groundfishes. It's also caused many other problems to the Airake Sea's ecosystem. Hence why Team Magma (adapted from supporters of the Isahaya land reclamation project) and Team Aqua (those who are against the project, and want the Airake Sea's ecosystem to be repaired) are the way they are. In hindsight, Team Aqua and Magma didn't translate well gloabaly, but when given the context, it adds greatly to the story. :D

[@Shiekism]

I also wanted to mention this! I thought it was a really interesting. Its a shame that salt doesn't really research much before sharing his opinions..

[@Hartono25277]

I didn't know this! Cool to know local issue inspired a global game plot

[@KryxtianBlack]

seriously !? thank you for sharing this

[@PatchesNjose]

@@Shiekism Most pokemon fans didn't know this tho

[@thehucklebillyfenn]

Makes me wish they would’ve attempted to be a little more elicit in their allegory. They should’ve had team Aqua lean more into trying to make money with fishing or maybe boat making if the entire world was gonna be plunged in water and magma should’ve been trying to make money through agriculture. Both of these groups could’ve still been using the money for world domination and it stops the idiotic motive of getting rid of all water in magma’s case which would doom the world for obvious reasons. Instead we get villains that make laughably no sense.

[@zephyrstrife4668]

One small thing about the Sun/Moon story early on; If you manage to defeat Kahuna Hala without using any Z-moves, he actually remarks about it after the fight. It doesn't change the story all that much, but it was something fun that I found out completely on accident in my original blind playthrough of the game.

[@Saiku]

It's pretty much been established that a gym leader will use a stronger pokemon team vs trainers with more badges. While the games force us to clear them in order for game reasons, in the lore they change up their team based on how many badges a challenger currently has. In the Pokemon Origins anime Brock asks Red how many badges he has, since Red has none Brock says "Okay, I'll battle you with these two Pokemon then."

[@drewpagie9485]

It actually happens in Silver, that is why the Kanto Gym Leaders don't just kill over when you fight them in post game.

[@joshuakim5240]

Yeah all of the gym leaders have made it clear since Emerald that the teams they use when you first fight them is the team that they use in accordance to your current badges (this is greatly expanded upon in the manga and anime series), as the Pokemon League is a sanctioned sports program that can't have their testers (gym leaders) just smash poor Jimmy's lvl 12 Charmander with a lvl 62 Golem. It's also implied based on Gen2 having Koga promoted to the Elite4 and Iris becoming champion in B/W2 that all of the gym leaders are League battlers who are eligible to compete for Elite4 and Champion spots. All of the gym leaders with their best teams have insanely strong teams that they don't use against anyone but fellow League battlers because they have the courtesy of not bullying people below their power level like assholes.

[@piratenerdz1602]

I honestly did not know any of this. This makes the game waaaayyyyyy more intriguing

[@Saiku]

@@piratenerdz1602 Someone did a mod of pokemon Crystal where all of the HM restrictions on the map are removed and pokemon/gyms/trainers scale based on your badges. You can fight any of the 16 gyms in any order, it's pretty awesome. Oh, and you get to select to start Kanto or Johto. The mod is called Pokemon Crystal Clear iirc.

[@anenemystand5582]

At least in the galar region they explain that the gym leaders literally all battle each other to determine their ranking. Thus why you follow a certain order.

[@infnew5343]

Something I thought was cool is how they gave Ghetsis’s Hydragon, his strongest and most used pokemon, the move frustration, the move which increases in power the lower your friendship. They incorporated the main antagonist’s ideals of how Pokemon are only for power not only into the story, but also in the gameplay

[@scottishboy112]

On the flip side, Cheren says in Striaton city that items will be his focus and from almost every battle onwards he does give his Pokemon hold items to boost them up. Bianca also goes on about her love for Pokemon and their friendship... And every one of her Pokemon knows Return which takes advantage of that. B/W went into all the little details story wise that sadly a lot of people don’t seem to appreciate. Gen 5 was probably the most ambitious they’ll be story wise.

[@frog2444]

Ghetsis is a bit of a gamer (animal abuser 😎)

[@denkerbosu3551]

@@scottishboy112 dunno, it seems B&W are generally considered the ones with the best story.

[@frog2444]

@@denkerbosu3551 yeah I would say bw and sm have the best stories in the series

[@toughlondonman]

Another nice touch about ghetisis is that in bw2 his hydragon has a life orb which hurts it each turn

[@BlackWizardClub]

I'm actually shocked by Sun and moon's plot being the most well thought out and executed, especially after the complete bomb plot wise that was X and Y. I never made it past the first island in sun though, because the hand holding just about brought me to tears. There really should be an on/off for stuff like that. I've played pokemon since I was 5, I do not need to be told how to catch pokemon or what a pokemon center looks like. Sun just took it too far with that and now I see I missed out on something good because I just couldn't get past that. I guess I'll finally dust off my copy of Sun. As a hugeeeeee fan of Black and White I really appreciated this video and I'm glad you took on this massive undertaking.

[@Dudebox64]

one day there'll be a mod for Sun/Moon that'll let you skip the cutscenes. One day.

[@rhythmicwindu4262]

I recently played through all the main series games, and yeahhh sun/moon and the ultra versions have so many forced cutscenes and so much handholding that you’ll go crazy

[@BlackWizardClub]

@@rhythmicwindu4262 the funny part is I recently gifted sun to my niece as her first pokemon game since she's only 3 and learning how to read. It came highly reccomend for young gamers for the very reason I couldn't play it. It served it's exact purpose

[@TheLastSpider-Man]

If you can tolerate the tutorials, Sun and Moon are really appealing games. The Alola Region is beautiful, I really like the Pokemon introduced in this generation, and the characters all have much more personality than the cast of XY. Lusamine was a more entertaining villain than Lysandre, Hau was fun and enjoyable to see unlike the XY rivals, and I really enjoyed Gladion and Lillie's story

[@calliecalamity8787]

The ultra games are arguably an even better experience

[@batatafrita2783]

Sun and moon's team skull felt like a breath of fresh air, they are not evil, they are just there, they are funny enough and never take themselves seriously, and god...Guzma is strong, I'd say he's stronger than Giovanni(comparing the first time you battle the boss for each of them and personal experience), you go unprepared and boom, you loss

[@jokerswild2380]

Team Skull just being a bunch of goofy punks is the best thing ever. Literally my favorite team. Admittedly, Team Yell is also pretty wholesome.

[@oldfrozenwolf6803]

@@jokerswild2380 I guess but the difference is that team skull is an actual group of delinquents that do try to do bad stuff team yell are just simps and now team star is just a bunch of students Skiping class team skull was the best because they were wholesome but didn't completely betray the entire idea of being actual bad guys

[@briankelly130]

It's not a breath of fresh air anymore since every team after Sun/Moon is just Team Skull but less and less malicious.

[@thespacebat]

And then Team Yell feels like they tried to do the same thing but it was just bad and annoying.

[@wildfire9280]

@@thespacebat Literally “I’m you but worse!”.

[@lillyofthegalley]

26:40 gen 100 player: *walks near a bike shop* Bike shop owner: *tosses a bike out the window with a note that says "just take it and leave me alone, i'm tired."*

[@mellow6751]

gen 200 bike shop owner straight up hunts you down and kills you with a bike

[@christophermartinez4104]

Gen 300, the player is the bike

[@ironwill6148]

Christopher Martinez Gen 400, instead of selling games Gamefreak starts selling bikes.

[@xstarforcex990]

Gen 500 gamefreaks employees are the bikes

[@dylangallagher143]

Gen 1000 gamefreak offers their mothers as bikes, they're always up for a ride.

[@raspberrypie1706]

You did a massive disservice to yourself by not playing emerald or platinum, both improve massively over the previous games in their gen, especially poor gen4.

[@Whispernyan]

@@TheAngelOfTheBottomlessPit He wanted to play the original versions of each game, if he was just going to do the most enchanced version why wouldn't he then play the remakes of games instead.

[@PsychoDiesel48]

Gen 4 was my first game but I only recently (months leading up to Sw/Sh actually) played Platinum. I was very happy because I lost my pearl game a long time ago but finally reunited with my good friend Mr. Turtle the Torterra. Yeah for some reason in my first game I practically named half of my pokemon caught "Mr." Or "Mrs" something. It was a tad weird but it did make sense for noctowl because he became "Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?"

[@lyg483]

Well no, Emerald is not that good, Steve not as champion is like the first example of being wrong.

[@agata6337]

the point of the video was to evaluete the story by itself without the patchup in the holes made by the third version; since by this point the reviewers of the time awready pointed out the flaws in the internal logic of the story.... so my conclusion is: rip gen 4 :v

[@liamwhite3522]

Emerald actually had the two evil teams doing evil things, and the RIGHT evil things. No more Aqua messing with volcanoes, no more Magma messing with boats. And in Platinum, Galactic isn't entirely stupid. They summon more gods than the Lake trio can stop, or that you could capture with a masterball. And then Giratina shows up and makes an absolute awesome puzzle to solve.

[@rowanwallace6721]

I choose to believe that Jasmine wouldn't leave Amphy because Amphy was sick and was basically the lighthouse's lightbulb, so Amphy needed to be nursed back to full health so that boats could safely travel nearby. Jasmine was protecting the lives of sailors and passengers, albeit not efficiently but she was. The Ampharos' name is Amphy...

[@AisSora]

1:13:55 I think it's a localization issue; In Japanese, even if two siblings are twins, it matters who basically was born first and that would be the older sibling.

[@confusedcaptain350]

Something you missed in gen 5: Team Plasma kicking the munna shows that they don’t necessarily agree with ghetsis and have ideals of their own. Which is why they run away when they hallucinate ghetsis because they know he’ll be upset with them.

[@LightStreak567]

No, no, your perspective is slightly wrong. The first two Team Plasma grunts you meet kicking the Munna hints that not every Team Plasma grunt genuinely believes in treating Pokemon humanely and liberating them, there are grunts who KNOW that Ghetsis' plan to liberate all Pokemon is a lie and are loyal to him and his true goal of controlling all Pokemon. When Munna casts the illusion of Ghetsis, the grunts are confused at whether Ghetsis is putting on his act of deceiving people or not, which is why in the sequels the grunts in the black Team Plasma uniforms are loyal to Ghetsis and angry about N betraying them, while the Team Plasma grunts who were ignorant about the lie Ghetsis created and believed in N and what he was fighting for left the organization led by Rood, one of the Seven Sages, still wearing the old uniforms. Team Plasma learned form the defeats of Team Rocket, Aqua, Magma and Galactic, they learned that if they are out in the open with their goals, Pokemon Trainers will fight back, so they went and crafted an elaborate deception to deceive the moral beliefs of the people of Unova. The grunts in N's Castle in Black 1 and White 1 tell you this if you pay attention.

[@bigtimetimmyjim6486]

@@LightStreak567 Yeah, this is the correct interpretation of that scene without question. If anything, the grunts are kicking Munna because they do not agree with *N's* ideals and are fully aware of and aligned with Ghetsis's ambitions.

[@silverwisp1364]

Shut the fuck up and shut the fuck down.

[@ryanrzjr]

to me it was just that ghetsis never really installed the morals into these people, because it would contradict his end goal of conquering Unova using pokemon. They knew why they were fighting, but were to dumb to put their cause and their actions together, which allowed ghetsis to take the moral high ground but still get things done through rough and evil means.

[@Zayizzle]

How I felt about that scene was always that some people are horrible people and will join a cause just to feel part of something important, to feel powerful and use it as a shield for doing horrible stuff or people that say they care about this cause or that ideology and when no one looking do horrible stuff. They don't genuinely love or even care about Pokemon, probably never did but like having the moral high ground or power over others.

[@geo_licious]

N is the only one in Team Plasma that obeys their ideals. He releases his Pokemon after each battle, and catches Pokemon in the next area. It's a nice touch. When he realizes he's been tricked, he goes all over the region and catches the strongest Pokemon he can find.

[@littlekingbaku5092]

I like to personally think that he doesn't catch them but instead since he can talk to them, the pokemon willingly fight for him

[@jjones3064]

@@littlekingbaku5092 or he has a pokestyler

[@littlekingbaku5092]

@@jjones3064 fair point

[@jjones3064]

@@littlekingbaku5092 he could be a ranger

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

So he becomes a bad person?

[@alexisstone468]

2:16:15 it makes sense that nebby isn't in a PokeBall at this point. Lily wasn't a trainer. She was just trying to escape with nebby. She probably wasn't allowed to use them.

[@tootsie_]

Yeah but the balls are 200p, and children also use them. Never been a mention of any regulation at all anywhere ever.

[@juneroughs]

@@tootsie_ if she's been inside aether foundation, i'm not sure where she can buy pokeballs...from what i remember, we can only purchase beast balls there but they were unlocked after defeating aether foundation.

[@tootsie_]

@@juneroughs true, but also immediately after she could have bought a ball?

[@juneroughs]

@@tootsie_ possibly, another point could be, she's not a pokemon trainer at that time so capturing a pokemon in a pokeball is not on her mind.

[@tootsie_]

@@juneroughs yeah but she's literally surrounded by trainers on all sides? You're saying she wouldn't put 2 and 2 together at some point?

[@the_dpad]

2:13:30 I don't recall when it comes up, but you do eventually find out that Malva of the Elite Four (who's also been making video news reports in a similar way to Lysandre all game) was actually also a member of Team Flare.

[@shadowrosegaming3566]

Isn't she lysandre sister? I heard she was from somewhere

[@NintendoMeister2260]

Than why would she be trusted to be a elite four member?

[@elywahl9520]

​@@NintendoMeister2260Giovanni

[@Isopodre]

You poor soul, playing Gen 4 without Platinum. I commend you sir, Diamond/Pearl is so f**king slow.

[@ozwald9118]

Lack of fire types too

[@AkaiAzul]

I played D/P and never Platinum. Yeah...it’s ludicrously slow.

[@TheQuashingoftheTub]

It took just as long to get through Victory Road abd the Elite Four in one attempt in Diamond as it did to beat the first three gyms in Platinum. It was a nightmare to get Larvitar for my SS playthrough.

[@MCarlos15]

I've been playing Platinum for the first time recently, and so far I find it insanely boring. But I want to advance so I can accurately critizise it xD

[@HMMadsen]

Aside from Surfing, Platinum ain't that much faster than Diamond & Pearl though.

[@DavidArcher_]

"We want more oceans!" "Ok..." "So we've taken over this weather station!" "Right." "To make it rain more." "And this makes more oceans how, exactly?" "What?" "Rain is just evaporated water. It's a cycle; it doesn't create new water. How will the oceans get bigger?" "I, uh, well-" "Man you guys are du-" "Poochyena go!"

[@bubbykins4864]

Kyogre summons it, and the game alludes to this fact. Not only would it flood the world, but the land that's left becomes colder due to the drastically reduced salinity.

[@WeavileLady]

But they want to catch the Pokémon who made the oceans in the first place out of rain. So basicly they would be adding more ocean out nothing because poke-god magic boogaloo

[@kingbowser4542]

Magic

[@zeromythosver.]

This is why I wish he’d made an exception for Emerald and Platinum. Those are the quintessential versions of the plots of their Gens. R/S are trash plot-wise when you don’t have the enjoyable interaction of BOTH enemy teams fighting one another using BOTH Legendaries, and BOTH realizing together that they screwed up, regretting their actions and seeing how equally ridiculous one another were. And then, for both Emerald and Platinum, the “parting of the skies” moments at the end of each’s Legendary plotlines with Rayquaza and Giratina respectively, they are the payoff to the Legendary plotline that is suuuuuper lacking in their two-version predecessors. I feel like this video kneecapped itself from the get-go by not just using the quintessential version (plot-wise) of all Gens. That’d be arguably... - Yellow for Gen. 1 - Crystal for Gen. 2 proper or HGSS obviously if we count remakes - Emerald for Gen. 3 - Platinum for Gen. 4 - *Both BW and B2W2* for Gen. 5 due to the canon sequel format - (no contention for X/Y since they dropped Kalos REAL quick) - For Gen. 7 I’d argue both Sun/Moon and USUM deserve plot reviews for Gen. 7 because each fleshes out further one facet of the plot than the other; Lillie/Gladion/Lusamine central plot for SuMo, and the Legendary plotline for USUM.

[@PatManDX]

@@zeromythosver. Don't forget the Hau subplot in USUM, that was one of the bigger weaknesses of SM.

[@Jedislayer19]

100% agree. Sun and Moon is currently my favorite game of the series. The world was vibrant and alive in a way most of the other games struggled to portray.

[@j_g_t6091]

I would like Sun and Moon so much more if they didn't try to do so much extra stuff. They made goofy regional variants, rewrote the evil team, reskinned gym battles, and introduced alternate universes. I feel like they just did too much all at once, which made it feel less like a Pokemon game and more like a marketing test

[@Wollus]

1:13:53 "these two heroes are twins, but then they say "older brother" and "younger brother" so I don't know what that's about." Do you really think that twins stretch out their mother so far they are born at the exact same time? All twins have an older and a younger twin, some even being born hours apart.

[@mskain4896]

Right, and just to clarify, the order of birth is still VERY important to the Japanese; in America some families with twins make a bigger or lesser deal over which was actually born first, but in Japan, it's vital. Also, in the original Japanese language they don't really use generic terms for a single brother or sister to begin with; they always use different words that translate literally to 'Younger brother' or 'older sister', etc.

[@DatHypnoboi]

I think Giovanni had the right idea. If I was a mob boss and got beat up multiple times by a couple 10 year olds, I'd probably just give up too.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

To be fair. You arm your troops with literally the worst available pokemon, then become dismayed when you lose. I think it was on purpose. I think Giovanni wanted out of the game, and knew the only way you can leave the mob is as an act of wounded pride.

[@yellowgetbright]

If I were a mob boss, I would've just called my grunts to whack the kid....with actual weapons lmao

[@nathansarfo1768]

@@yellowgetbright I think Pokémon could probably survive most weapons. If they can survive fire, electrocution, and just raw blunt force than I don’t think things like guns or knives would kill them.

[@lUseMyBlade]

@@nathansarfo1768 don't forget the Psychic shit too i think Alakazam could stop a gun.

[@nathansarfo1768]

@@lUseMyBlade that too

[@Picar70]

Fun fact: The first elite four member in Pokemon X/Y (The girl with the red glasses) is actually a former Team Flare member. That's the reason why she talks down towards you.

[@fearlucario542]

Thank you. Couldn’t believe nobody mentioned it

[@diegocalderon5190]

I was going to mention the same thing

[@PrismPoint]

Wait, isn't that a major unmissable plot point? Not a hidden fun tact?

[@findlayrutherford]

@@PrismPoint Only in the Looker postgame quests I think

[@dalepeters3841]

I honestly didn't know this.

[@katieb9428]

In all honesty the XY plot definitely feels choppy, unfinished, and messy, but I have to say that whole ending with AZ and him getting back his Floette was a great ending. The entire plot was just complete garbage up until AZ was introduced, and that little cut scene at the end with Floette actually had me tear up a bit

[@knightshade2654]

I just finished XY after having put away Pokemon for nearly six years. I had one badge and the the endgame to go, and, while the champion was dreadfully easy, the ending was worth it. Seeing AZ reunite with his Floette made me love Pokemon again.

[@AS34N]

Lol

[@hondaaccord1399]

AZ walked so Arvin could run ❤

[@blazethegame]

Gen 6 are my favorite Pokémon games, but I do agree that the story is garbage.

[@johnschwalb]

Hopefully it get fixed in pokemon z.....

[@MrDj232]

My headcanon for why the villains are so incompetent is that the islands the games take place on are relatively safe. All the competent adults are on the main continent fighting either a war or much stronger Pokemon. Incompetent adults, children, parents, and a handful of testers serving as the Elite 4 stay on the islands where they won't be killed.

[@Madcat1331]

That's actually a very interesting interpretation!

[@tynirio_1]

So basically Lt.Surge was discovered unfit for duty, and was sent to his home town to fuck up anyone he sees fit

[@Niceguy312373636]

Being a pokemon champion just means you are drafted as a general or something

[@wolfetteplays8894]

@@Niceguy312373636 nah, it just makes you the oligarch of the nation

[@zyth3392]

That's a cool interpretation but they are on main continent like bw being new york area and you can look up the others too

[@leozimmer6140]

57:00 an often overlooked aspect of N is that whenever you battle him, his Pokémon are all from the area you meet him at their highest natural level, so it is assumed that he meets and befriends them and then releases them as he goes. This also implies he meant something other than training his Pokémon when he said he needed to train more

[@unknownanon4993]

What's the song at 59:53

[@leozimmer6140]

@@unknownanon4993 it’s one of N’s themes, specifically like the goodbye N from the end of the game I think

[@glanni]

@@leozimmer6140 It's not exclusively N's, it also plays at least one other time when N is gone already. You meet Cheren at a railing, where he reflects and so on, and later you can battle him in Victory Road.

[@robertlupa8273]

Oh wow, I never knew the "highest natural level" detail. We learn something new every day.

[@kiro9291]

oh wow that is actually a lovely detail

[@mesadrums375]

“You simps are held up by a mere child?” Oof. Archie using meme culture before it was cool.

[@themorrigan1312]

"Before it was cool" shit, before it even properly existed

[@notjimpickens7928]

@@themorrigan1312 right? 😂 this is some protomemeing

[@Sean-sw5qv]

... it still isn’t really “cool” to just meme. But yeah, time travel Archie is something I had no idea existed.

[@myrongaines6022]

I think simp was an old-timey short version of "simpleton".

[@stellaelyzabeth2151]

came here to post the timestamp, it's official, team aqua is full of simps. 25:20 btw

[@therandomgem2400]

Something salt didn't mention was Lusamine's motivation which was to find her husband after he got sucked into a wormhole, but she slowly went insane, as for the husband it's Mohn who returned with amnesia and is the guy at poke pelago, in the ultra versions lusamine and him actually talk about business between poke pelago and the foundation but he doesn't recognize her and she just bids farewell after seeing him being happy with the poke pelago.

[@bri1085]

The ultra games have a different story altogether, Lusamine is almost a completely different character there, and there's the Necrozma storyline with the ultra recon squad.

[@EnderPryde]

Re: Malva It's elaborated more in the post game (and supplemental content) that she was a member of Team Flare, and was just being a dick to you for what you did to the villain team. Not saying that XY is any better as a result, just that that's why she and the league are like that.

[@GeorgePerakis]

"OFFICER JENNY IS A LIE I AM THE LAW" Goddamnit I lost. 10/10

[@StellarWishGaming2002]

Timestamp?

[@SeductiveCrab]

@@StellarWishGaming2002 40:30

[@TheHadMatters]

Did you mean to say "I lost it.", i.e. fell into laughter? Because I do not see how the pretty obvious statement that the protagonist is the only one with any power in the Pokémon games' universe would make you lose a No-Nut challenge.

[@usernametaken017]

@@TheHadMatters good one

[@Missiletainn]

The Oak you meet in Sun and Moon isnt Kanto's Samuel Oak, he's his cousin, Samson Oak

[@cakes2785]

Wow those are a lot of comments thank you for this education

[@Rhygenix]

wut

[@tyson543]

FALSE It's his Alolan Form...

[@tuxedobird]

Giovanni Benoit This...this comment somehow is the best and most soul crushing thing ever.

[@ezlotheminish1862]

It isn't Samson Oak. It's Alolan Oak.

[@simonscience5846]

I feel Po Town as a whole deserves a lot more than just a passing mention on the screen, because my gooodness, it does an amazing job

[@Tom-xt1jn]

This made me realise that Platinum's conclusion was way cooler than D/Ps. In Diamond Pearl you go up alone, get helped by the legendaries, fight Team Galactic's commander's then Cyrus before they run away defeated, then talk to Rowan and Dawn and catch the legendary. In Platinum you go up fight with Barry the team Galactic Commanders before confronting Cyrus who summons both legendaries and isn't even phased by the lake legendaries showing up (which makes him letting you let the lake legends go make sense) and basically wins until Giratina intervenes bringing Cyrus into another dimension. Then you and Cynthia team up together along with the Lake legends to explore this distorted alternate dimension to ensure it doesn't distort the world and Cyrus attempts to confront Giratina for interrupting his plans - once you defeat Cyrus he comes to the revelation that the distortion world is the world he sought to create and therefore he has won despite losing - walking off to live in the distortion world and hopes to expand his new realm. You catch Giratina and Cynthia's awesome by your side.

[@YangyChaddyDad]

Yeah that's the biggest reason I was disappointed he didn't talk about the more definitive titles like emerald and platinum

[@Magma-Idiot-2001]

He needs to do a video for those releases.

[@BlackTearDrop]

It's said a lot of times in Sun and Moon that Skull is just kids that failed the island challenges and felt lost afterwards since the challenges are a coming of age ceremony and big deal tradition.

[@batatafrita2783]

Especially Guzma, it's actually quite sad really, but they are not necessarily bad, they are like a very weird family that cares deeply about one another, even if they failed the challenges, someone had their back when they feared rejection or bullying

[@kylebear8101]

It’s probably why they end up helping you in the first trial

[@frownyclowny6955]

@@batatafrita2783 It also may be hinted at in either SM or USUM that Guzma was physically abused as a child

[@jackenyoff7820]

Most of salts reviews are half baked at best. He either has a preset opinion and highlights things that support his view, or just doesn’t bother being thorough at all and just puts the videos out anyways. There’s all kinds of things missed or ignored in lots of his review videos, which is kinda weird unless he just doesn’t value the quality of his content that much

[@pride2184]

@@jackenyoff7820 yea literally doesnt know what he is talking about because he doesnt read what is being said and just says bad story. Without even reading the story. The stories are decent not great but he doesnt read it then goes bad horrible.

[@ObtuseDookie]

When he started talking about sapphire and the moving truck I realized the only route they could drive on was through the tall grass and those boxes shifting in the truck as you drive were probably your mom running over wild pokémon in the tall grass. Maybe the zigzagoon that attacked professor birch was just pissed because he lost his wife that day.

[@guilhermefloresfeitosaguer4543]

Insert Eggman speech from SA2 fandub

[@thedeepfriar745]

I accidentally purposely read that as professor bitch

[@GM-lx7ji]

@@thedeepfriar745 TBH he kinda is, dude has a bag with three pokeballs each with Level 5 and dosen't even thinks on using one of them.

[@dakota7745]

Lamo Holy shit that's depressingly hilarious

[@tron.44]

Makes sense.

[@PokeMario-pk4ot]

Viewing this made me realize just how much more the remakes developed the characters for gen 3. In ORAS they gave the rivals a proper arc, actually explained the motivations and reasons team aqua and magma do what they're doing, and they even pick the right colored orb

[@cryotin5460]

Team Skull is definitely my favorite of the evil teams, they’re so just more more fun and unique compared to the others, and I absolutely love that they’re just a big found family of outcasts, it was a sweet sentiment seeing how the Guzma, Plumeria, and the grunts all genuinely cared about each other

[@krankarvolund7771]

"I think everyone in this game is taller than your character" Shockingly, adults are often taller than 12 years old boys ^^

[@CreepySlade]

But Lillie is taller than your character and they’re the same age

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@CreepySlade First we don't know what age is Lillie, she could be 15 ^^ Second, that's one character taller than you, hard to make it a general rule XD

[@BaeCat872]

Krankar Volund lmao why are you weirdly insisting that she’s probably 15?

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@BaeCat872 Because it's coherent with the fact she's taller than Hau and the main character? ^^

[@eleanorsfate445]

@@krankarvolund7771 Much more important question, what's with you and ending practically every sentence with "^^"?

[@theoraexplora]

56:23 N doesn't use Pokeballs, he just has Pokemon from the area help him out which is why his team keeps changing. He doesn't "train" he just convinces stronger Pokemon to help him. And if Pokemon means what they say when they say that connecting with Pokemon is how you unlock their power it makes sense that his mons are progressively strong even if he isn't training them

[@AlisonClaires]

When he sends out Pokemon in battle there are Pokeball animations, so he does use them, but he often comments on how much he hates them. It would have been very cool if that Pokeball spinning animation hadn't been there... I'm surprised they didn't think of that, since they put so much effort into him.

[@Hocotatium111]

@@AlisonClaires Especially considering an animation like this already exists for HG/SS when you send out the Pokémon following you.

[@HomemadeArtistry]

@@Hocotatium111 Unless there is some opposing trainer variant of the following Pokémon being sent into battle animation, they probably didn't even bother trying to create, let alone attempt to transfer those elements into Black and White

[@MxPokirby]

So N is basically just a Pokemon Ranger?

[@theoraexplora]

@@MxPokirby Yes. Yes, he is. He's playing Pokemon Ranger Black/White and the player is playing Pokemon Black/White

[@MetallicPetals]

The heroes in gen 5 wanted a new world, but in different ways, one wanting truth, and the other ideal, but was unable to meet in the middle

[@casseroledragon3277]

I enjoyed your review! I will say though, it was kind of funny that you would complain about the lack of storyline, and then simultaneously complain when storyline moments happened.

[@Tronerfull]

That elite four girl that disrespects you for stopping lyssandre was in fact a team flare member. She was working with Lyssandre and was very close to him.

[@kakyiondonut6084]

Tronerfull and was lysandre’s wit but ok.

[@zero63x6]

Lmao how was that not obvious? She was wearing part of the outfit, the glasses and the hair how could you not realize she was part of Team Flare.

[@assordante2205]

@@zero63x6 when you've played 6 Pokemon games in a row, I think you could forgive the dude for not giving a shit about the dialogue for a minute.

[@elissabjeletichdavis4011]

yeah, in the manga shes a full fledged member, i belive in it she was an admin

[@fatuusdottore]

She was clearly fucking Lysandre and it must have been good considering how upset she is.

[@billygranzow1331]

Archie's entire motivation in 9 words. “Yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me”

[@RayOfTruth]

I got the impression that his deal was restoring lost habitat for marine life, especially in Alpha Sapphire.

[@42Caio]

@@RayOfTruth in Alpha Sapphire only. In the original RSE both his and Maxie's plans aren't really elaborated on. The thing with Maxie wanting more land to counter overpopulation and resource drain vs Archie thinking human society is bleeding the world dry and that it needs to be destroyed and start over to safeguard nature and Pokémon was only introduced in the remakes

[@HomemadeArtistry]

He sailed the seven seas, and now he wants to sail another one

[@devyboo2]

Archie just wants to find One Piece

[@SushiReversed]

"Cynthia took me 12 tries to beat good god" **Running a team full of hm slaves**

[@jacobtrost5048]

I feel like you would have been better served playing the "combo" version of Gen 2, 3 and 4. Particularly Emerald I think does a much better job with its story than either Ruby or Sapphire, and that thing you mentioned about there being no interesting resolution after you save Sootopolis is rectified EXACTLY as you imagined it should be.

[@TheNamesDitto]

Truth

[@anthonynguyen1289]

He brought up why he was doing the original games. He wanted to see the original story and not the fixes they do with newer enhanced versions or ports/remakes. It’s like wanting to review how Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky were released, but talking about the current versions which fixed most of the issues it just doesn’t make sense. His review is on the original product they sold people and seeing what problems these products had.

[@jacobtrost5048]

@@anthonynguyen1289 Sure, but when you're doing this for the sake of posterity and specifically evaluating how generations of a game were handled, it seems a little weird to me to go with the version of the game that everyone already knows is less popular / polished. To use your No Man's Sky example, it would be really weird if 20 years from now someone said, "I'm going to review No Man's Sky's story," and then evaluated its release version and not the version that people could play at that time. If he went through and compared and contrasted games like Ruby vs Emerald or Pearl vs Platinum, then I would get it. But he's basically taking a 10, 15 year old title and saying, "Hey, here's the story from this generation of games, and my opinions on it," while knowingly using the generally accepted "worse" version. *TLDR* I would agree with you if this was either the review of a more modern game or specifically about the changes between versions, but choosing the less popular version of a game from 15 years ago seems like a weird choice.

[@calliecalamity8787]

​@@anthonynguyen1289if you're trying to evaluate all games in a fair, equal way isn't that more reason to go for the games that actually improve on the originals and fix things? Like, the best versions of every game?

[@eertikrux666]

Sun and Moon Characters in a nutshell: Hau: can't stop being positive and eating malasadas Player's mom: can't stop stretching Gladion: can't stop JoJo posing Player: can't stop having 1 expression

[@artimist0315]

@Jurassic Mindset and it get wors when you are at the end of the game and the aether director explain you that they will open a portal that would probably bring overpowered creatures in the word. And then there is a traveling and you see the main character stupidly smiling like a psychopath. Nice...

[@devilishjester7718]

Lilie: GET INTO THE F*CKING BAG, NEBBY

[@MM-mx2zt]

Flatter than your average anime shonen protagonist

[@AlbertFingernoodle959]

It always cracks me up seeing you do this cool pose of triumph when you beat a trial and get a z crystal, and you just have a faint smile on your face

[@decoral]

Lillie was awesome imo!

[@danic8766]

People are too harsh on Lillie. It’s hinted enough throughout the game that she’s a victim of emotional abuse. When she “stops being useless” she’s overcoming her insecurities that were a result of her mother treating her like garbage. She’s also like 11 years old.

[@surprisinglyunshittyqualit2214]

Hinted- Her mother just straight up abandoned her for a jellyfish and calling her ugly. If that's a hint I don't wanna see clear.

[@ZoraTheExplora]

It's her voice actor that's ass. Infact all the voice actors are ass now.

[@kristiano100]

@@ZoraTheExplora wdym? In the anime? This is discussion about the game's storylines, in the anime Lusamine isn't even abusive towards Lillie

[@kalashnikovdevil]

I can't understand how anyone could hate Lillie. She's fine as sidekicks go for this franchise, and she's way more pleasant than freaking Hau.

[@shortbdubs]

@@ZoraTheExplora where did anyone mention the anime? and where did the salt factory mention the anime?

[@chriskoloski32]

For someone who complained about a lack of good story in pokemon games mattering in the first few generations, he sure did a fast heel turn when gen 5 showed up, the gen that has the most proactive story

[@gustavogoncalves1102]

Yeah the dude complains about lack of plot but on gen 5 he basically berates the game for trying to tell a story and not speedrunning through gym badges?

[@HelplessFangirl]

@@gustavogoncalves1102 his complaint was about the pacing and how it unnecessarily roadblocked you before almost every gym. Good, intricate story and not stopping you before every gym can coexist

[@gustavogoncalves1102]

@@HelplessFangirl there’s only a few gyms though, I didn’t feel like the game had a slow pacing at all before the gyms at all, it’s at most just “go battle these guys right here” and then great you’re free to go to the gym anyway

[@NsABullitzZ]

​@@gustavogoncalves1102at almost every town you are hard road blocked by somebody saying 'can't go through here, we need the gym leaders permission' or similar. The problem is the games don't allow you to make mistakes and think about whether you missed something, they just force you into doing things in a very specific order each time

[@hopelessamaturerougeofhope4399]

​@@NsABullitzZI am currently playing gen 5 and i will admit that it does get annoying having to do something before facing the gym every single time like its fine every now and then but every gym really? Still love the other stuff in the game though

[@WishGender]

what i always found weird about n is that he and ghetsis having the same hair color is (in universe) a coincidence, since n was adopted by ghetsis

[@anthonynguyen1289]

I just view anime hair as if it were normal hair in our world. Anyone in anime can have pink or blue hair without being related. If both Ghetsis and N had black or brown hair, I feel most people wouldn’t think it’s weird that N is adopted since Ghetsis makes no mention of a mom and they don’t really look similar outside sharing a hair color.

[@calliecalamity8787]

N apparently always had green hair so I would put it past ghetsis to due his hair green just for some kind of manipulation

[@allister1545]

consider: ghetsis fucking despises N and wants NOTHING to do with him, he barely sees him as a fellow human being. i wouldn't put it past ghetsis to lie about being related to N to try and distance himself from N as much as possible

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Reshiram's "good" world is based on goodwill, honesty, and truth, in the hopes that it will bring peace and prosperity. Zekrom's "better" world is based on ideals, wishes, and desires, in the hopes that by reaching it by any means, even if falsehoods are necessary, it'll lead to more people's happiness and prosperity. Opelucid City does a great job of reflecting how people can be happy in either situation of accepting a place as you see it or continuously seeking to build it towards something grander.

[@ciaranhayes3212]

Reshiram represents past truths and that’s why white has the past form of opueloid city and wields nature’s greatest weapon, fire. Meanwhile zekrom represents future ideals which is why it wields humanity’s greatest revelation, electricity

[@ZhongliArchonofSwag]

I always thought it made no sense whatsoever that Reshiram would acknowledge N, when everything N is is based on Ideals not Truth. He would never be able to face the truth of what his ideals represented. He was too softhearted. The moment he had to kill a Pokemon because they refused to be separated from their trainer he’d break like glass in a hurricane. Everything he believed in was a lie based on his own twisted ideals. But phrasing it like this does put it in more of a perspective. But if that is the case then the Dragons are misnamed. It should be more like: The dragon of virtue and the dragon of progress. But if Reshiram is a the dragon of accepting reality for what it is in any capacity, then he should reject N on the spot.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

@@ZhongliArchonofSwag That is incredibly insightful and points to Black Version as the primary one. I doubt N could fool himself or Reshiram in the presence of Reshiram, even if it wasn't all-knowing and could only see the virtue he displayed. I do think though that Ghetsis would've planned on raising N to be compatible with either Legendary Dragon even though he's definitely a better pair with Zekrom.

[@karana2833]

I just think Reshiram looks better with N to be honest

[@runningoncylinders3829]

@@karana2833 They're both pretty elegant, tbh. I mean majestic. Suits a king.

[@Yamartim]

a really cool touch on silver's arc is that when you meet him for the final time and he talks about how much he changed, in the battle against him his golbat has evolved into crobat, which requires it to have high happiness, impliying that he is actually treating his pokemon better

[@iScAre1]

Yamazake Whitesky I love that detail, he’s had golbat for so long I was grinning wide when I first saw his crobat

[@kayleigh1991]

Yes! I love that little detail.

[@sid2543]

haha so cyrus having a crobat means he also loved his pokemon XD

[@totallynotamimic3522]

@@sid2543 Fun fact about the evil team leaders. While several evil leaders have a Golbat that later evolves into a Crobat, implying that the trainer has some sort of connection with their Pokémon (even Cyrus, surprisingly), Ghetsis is the only one with a Pokémon that outright hates him. In Black and White 2, his Hydreigon knows Frustration.

[@sid2543]

@@totallynotamimic3522 Haha thanks for that! :)

[@bumbum2324]

Surprised you didn't bring up the N's memories feature of black 2/white 2. For those who don't know if you linked up your b2/W2 copy with b/w you'd unlock a feature that lets you see the memories of N as you progress through the game. It's a really nice addition to the story and adds in a lot of lore 💕💖💕

[@francez123456789]

Dexio and Sina are so memorable that i forgot they where in X and Y... and actually forgot the existed in sun and moon as well...

[@HE13272326]

"I want to take over/destroy the world!" Everyone: :0 :0 :0 :0 My character: :)

[@yoshisaurusmunchakoopas7252]

Pretty accurate

[@ukonthegod155]

Yea pretty accurate

[@elgatochurro]

When even was this?

[@fatuusdottore]

My character (I play as Dawn) stalks Cyrus. 😍😍😍💕💕💕✨✨✨

[@fatuusdottore]

elgatochurro If you project your own personality lol.

[@virtuallyfunny]

"if she's a model, what can i do? That changes everything! Bianca, my actual underage daughter, go on and have all the adventures you want" hahahahahahahahahaha

[@BiakSkull]

Dude the Tapus from SM are more like demons than guardians, their descriptions pretty much read "it'll rip you in half and dance on your corpse if it doesn't like your child's shirt"

[@flynnhunter416]

Lmao that is so true and it's ridiculous how the people worship them instead of live in fear of them being ripped in half.

[@jackal0p]

finally some goddamn sun/moon appreciation

[@JRedNose]

"How dare you only be the second best trainer in the region!? I though I raised you better than that!" - Professor Oak

[@avocadothecat]

10/10 grandpa

[@terellslaughter1626]

Oak was really a dick. Like grandfather, like grandson.

[@tuxedobird]

Terell Slaughter To be fair, it’s implied Blue abuses his Pokémon, at least verbally.

[@jazminespinoza7932]

- The same man that couldn't be bothered to remember his own Grandson's name

[@CrystalGreymon]

@@jazminespinoza7932 Let's Go lampshades that when you see Blue and Oak at the lab. Blue just comments that the joke is stupid and nobody falls for it.

[@Dead_Pegasus]

"She says she wants me to escort her home because she's scared, I don't know what my non-pokémon having ass is going to do besides tuck and roll at some more Pokémon." 10/10 Best line

[@Zezlemetkun]

Guess be her meat shield

[@Frankie-xu6sr]

Potentially my biggest critique of your critique on these games is the lack of depth during your analysis of each story/plot. There's more to each one, like how N is actually the only one who truly lives by Team Plasma's goals. Every battle he fights with pokemon he found in the wild of the location you are in which I thought was so cool. This means he never claims pokemon, but asks for their help and let's them back out into the wild afterwards which wasn't ever seen in a main story line pokemon game (I'm assuming we're not counting pokemon ranger). Or how Silver is actually Giovanni and one of his executives child, which really adds a nice twist on why he's so obsessed with steam rolling over Team rocket members. The spite he has for his father is what keeps him going, he wants to prove to him that he's the stronger one. I don't know, maybe you think it's just too much looking into the story and you only reviewed them at the surface, but it just bothered me that these things were overlooked with the explanation of "essentially every pokemone town with a gym has some sort of fetch quest to activate the gym and every evil team is just stupid".

[@MoonEnvoy]

Yeah, i like Salt a lot but his "in depth" analysis is typically only ever surface level

[@Silvyatha]

I completely agree with your assessment of Sun/Moon. It is my favorite of the entire series by far! I loved the story and the characters. I *really* wish they would update it or at least release it as is on the Switch! I would preorder it instantly!

[@sisterslothington]

Team Yell makes Team Skull look like the coolest dudes in the world.

[@Aurirang]

At least Team skull still ahd the humour-factor going on. (Also Guzma is cool) Team yell is just.. pathetic. They're even a bigger affront to the eyes than team flare and those guys with their neon-y red were already an eye-sore.

[@caesarspeaks]

Monika you realise they’re meant to be stupid right? Like, you’re supposed to see them as cringy twitch followers who think Marnie will acknowledge them if they keep bending over backwards for her?

[@Aurirang]

@@caesarspeaks All Teams were meant to be stupid in one sense or another. Team skull was designed around the very point of being stupid little shits. But at least they made it funny. Team yell is just cringey, boring and completely unnecessary. They could have added way more with the actual antagonist fraction instead.

[@arlen7726]

People keep bashing team yell and ignoring the fact that they were never actually antagonists, just an overblown fanclub. Meanwhile the fact that the regional league is seriously corrupt flies under the radar as completely normal.

[@Aurirang]

@@arlen7726 It's the same Situation as with the Ether foundation, to be honest. Team Skull were a bunch of rowdies but they weren't "the bad team" per se. Yet they had the most screen time. It would have been very nice though, if after the explosions, your character would rush there and not solely the unbeatable champ with his charizard. Maybe have SOME build-up, some clues, even if it's just somebody of the league sneaking away from the explosion-site. But i guess that would have been too mucheffort in storywriting to ask from this soggy generation.

[@dsgibboney3]

"It's hard to take someone seriously who is wrestling their own hand like they're trying to prevent it from writing in the death note" 👏👏single best description of Gladion I've ever heard.

[@cottoncoffin]

The unova link was so sick and playing triple battles and rotation battles was so much fun The grind never got boring

[@hisshoes1107]

Why is so interesting to hear my entire childhood be completely burnt alive

[@frickinfrick8488]

I would like to add a few things about Gen 3’s plot just because I know those games ridiculously well and wanna share some details for those who are curious. 1. team aqua and magma don’t just wanna expand the land and water for the sake of it (although they barely explain it in the original games so I don’t blame people for not knowing that). Aqua wants to expand the ocean for environmental purposes cause Pokémon rely on the ocean and sea life is dying out I guess. Magma wants to expand the land for overpopulation reasons, Maxie thinks people need more land to accompany the growing population. Still pretty stupid but I just thought I’d mention they actually have motivations. 2. The reason for why stopping the volcano’s activity is bad as given in the manga was that it would 1. Ruin the hot springs in Laveridge town and 2. Fuck up the weather patterns or something making hoenn colder than it should be. Still stupid but yeah. 3. Even though the Bike Shop guy didn’t say giving you a bike was for advertising, it’s implied it was indeed for advertising. In the cycling road one of the cyclists mentions something like “oh that’s a bike from Rydel. How can I tell. Why it’s written all over it, rydel rydel rydel rydel rydel rydel” which I thought was a funny little detail. He played it cool but he gave you an advertisement of a bike. 4. Archie and Maxie aren’t mad that there’s more water or drought than they expected, they’re mad because they’re unable to control the legendary because apparently using the red orb on the red Pokémon and the blue orb on the blue Pokémon is too advanced for these 3 IQ children. They pissed off the legendary by smashing the square peg through the circle hole and now everything’s falling to shit because nobody can control them until, you bring the circle peg to fix everything. 5. Just a small point but I think Brendan works slightly better as a rival than May if you’re a girl. He kinda starts off as a sexist douche who doesn’t think a strong trainer would be a girl and as a little girl that made me wanna beat his ass. They’re still boring rivals though they don’t really have a character arc until the remakes. This isn’t me being like “omg you’re so dumb how did you not know that”, most of these details aren’t noticeable unless you read the manga or play the remakes, I just wanted to mention these details for anyone who’s interested. Your criticisms about it are still mostly valid, the motivations are pretty dumb and the plot isn’t well explained in game. Also in Gen 5, a cool detail is that N’s teams are always made up of Pokémon he can find in that specific location. I think this is meant to imply that he doesn’t train and keep Pokémon like we do, and instead uses his ability to communicate with Pokémon to recruit Pokémon in his immediate vicinity to fight with him. Just an interesting detail I wanted to mention.

[@frickinfrick8488]

Your local professional idiot. His final team could possibly the Pokémon he grew up with within the castle, like his childhood friends. Considering it’s hinted he grew up with his Zorua it’d make sense with the Zoroark on his team.

[@myfellowsonicfans7131]

It’s not like expecting a girl to be poor at at an activity like Pokémon, which is a lot like a sport in the Pokémon world is unfounded though, the rival is also always a douche but the dude/dudette also expects you to be reasonably shitter than they are since they started first. But yeah the Rivals are much better in the remakes, although still about as 1 dimensional as all rivals are, not including N... and maybe Wally.

[@thotsi]

@Vela S stupid? whats stupid about a girl wanting to beat a male character's ass for being mildly insulting (as a part of the game)? get invested more.

[@keiyakins]

Are you implying N is a ranger, not a trainer? ... Actually yeah that sounds right.

[@B0K0691]

>Implying that anything other than the game is canon

[@noonesfang131]

The more salty you got as it went on really made me crack up, this is a great video. On another note i think its interesting how much hate gen 5 gets because of piles of garbage and ice cream, yet it had the most solid story of the franchise. I remember playing it for the first time and thinking "Is pokemon actually an rpg now?"

[@commonviewer2488]

I was happy that the whole "dogfight" thing was addressed to justify Pokémon trainers battling one another. They are not simply animals, it's not a one-to-one comparison.

[@TheQuashingoftheTub]

No one should complain about Garbodor(who is pretty ugly-cute) when the original Grimer and Muk are a thing. Also, Ice cream ghosts are pretty cute and clever. I quite like how the Pokemon World bases their products and economy around the Pokemon they discover(Castelia cones, anyone?)

[@commonviewer2488]

@@TheQuashingoftheTub It's free advertisement when a food is commonly associated with a species of animal.

[@TheQuashingoftheTub]

@@commonviewer2488 Me: "Look, Chocollite! It's a treat modelled after you! Doesn't it look sweet and delicious?" My Vanillite: *slowly backs away*

[@CMB505]

To me, BW were the big turning point where it became less enjoyable to play and it just...became a slog. Namely because of the story just...halting EVERYTHING. And I don’t mean for anything good. Mostly just...fluff.

[@SpringDychymyg]

In pokemon diamond and pearl cyrus's crobat actual has minimum friendship and you can know this because it uses frustration which increases in power the lower your friendship is and his hits like a truck, implying forced evolution or he stole one and abused it

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

I think the reason a kid is able to beat most adults in the Pokémon world is because training Pokémon is a huge time commitment and is really only something a kid can do since most adults probably have part time jobs and chose their Pokémon on their ability to help them in their daily lives.

[@TheMock5000]

Al Capone: oh noooo, I was defeated. Guess I'll study some animals or something.

[@michaelstanley7361]

al capone was defeated by syphilis

[@TheMock5000]

@@michaelstanley7361 you didn't watch the video, did you?

[@TheMock5000]

@@dr.mikizzletherapist8294 no

[@fyrentenimar]

It's not just "studying some animals", though, it's studying the biggest phenomenon/mystery in the world.

[@sonoftheviper__4304]

He gave up the mafia life for the zoo life.

[@Kumaclaws]

A jellyfish alien randomly appears from a wormhole, so lovecraftian that its mere existence is slowly tearing apart the fabric of reality itself Your trainer: 0u0

[@tanyasellars7492]

I just realised the climax of S/M is just the end of the triangulum arc in Devil survivor 2

[@akatsukigajou1639]

@@tanyasellars7492 wait?really?

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Game: The love you show for pokemon is so obvious. Player Character: My desire is to take from you your men, your coin, your world. My one wish is to destroy, until this world is powerless to resist, at which point I will leave forever, only occasionally returning to send my tools forewards in time to the next world I descend upon, and occasionally break reality. 0_0 Game: Such an inspiration.

[@Metalseadraking]

iirc in the german translation its a bit more obvious what the twins were fighting each other for. One of them wanted to make a better world by making a world people see reality as it is (People being realistic) and the other one was more idealistic, wanting people to achieve their dreams and ideals

[@liamwillis860]

2:35:10 There are two characters with the surname of Oak. Samuel in Kanto & Samson in Alola. Samuel Oak is the Kanto Professor we are all familiar with.

[@Kinra_Jade]

"You don't understand the gravity of this moment. This is the one thing that made my character form a different facial expression." I felt that on an emotional level, man...

[@Salt_Mage]

I really loved in B2W2 how when you get to the post game and go back to the first game's starting town, entering the first protagonist's house has their mother welcome you home - right before realizing that you aren't her child. Apparently the protagonist left Unova in search of N and hasn't returned home since.

[@CrystalGreymon]

What I love about Black 2 and White 2 is if you memory link the original game, upon getting to Nuvema Town, Bianca turns up and battles you as if it's something her soul was longing for. Piggybacking off of the point about the first protagonist, it's clear that other characters start to see the B2/W2 protagonist as the B/W protagonist and that's honestly kinda cool.

[@islandboy9381]

Not meeting the player character from B/W1 in B/W2 is what keeps the story from a 10/10 to me (I rate it 9/10 now).

[@CrystalGreymon]

@@islandboy9381 It was originally planned that the character would show up in the PWT but it was scrapped for whatever reason. If I had to assume, I'd say that where none of the main characters of BW2 were able to contact them, I'd say that none of the PWT staff were able to invite them to it. That and I bet it'd be kinda annoying having that character be much easier to face than any other important character of the tournament. What I think would have been nice though is if they were randomly appeared where the Shiny Haxorus does in the aftergame and after you've caught it.

[@theadmirableadmiral7408]

CrystalGreymon Lostlorn Forest could be another fitting location to meet the BW protagonist.

[@CrystalGreymon]

@@theadmirableadmiral7408 Maybe. But isn't it heavily implied to just be an illusion made by the Zoroark that lives there? It feels kinda wrong to have them in a place you'd go to so early since you can go there in the mid-game. I get that they could show up after you've gone but it feels more like the allure of going there would be for the Zoroark and if you've already caught it, I half-expect them to just silently battle you and it'd feel awkward there. With the place that you face the Shiny Haxorus, it feels like they could've gone there to train there Pokémon in peace after learning that Team Plasma has been disbanded by the player in the sequels. That way, people don't keep interrupting them in their training but they might find more Pokémon to raise or something. Actually, doesn't the XTranseiver kinda create a problematic loophole? It seems to be able to call you from any location in the region and assumedly they'd have broadcasting towers to amplify the signal to call other regions. That item alone should make contacting them much easier. Man... this is confusing...

[@justinismad5779]

I’m so glad that this was recommended to me. I enjoyed listening to your takes on each gens story. Definitely deserves a sub and can’t wait to see what other videos you’ve got in store for me

[@elkarlo1593]

I love Team Rocket being so stupid and worthless, it feels like nobody takes care of them because it would be more troublesome than team rocket itself can actually be trying to evil

[@Ankh-yf3gl]

Pokemon Ruby's plot makes a lot more sense than Pokemon Sapphire's. the expansion of land for additional land for humanity to build on and to help develop the human species. Then Groudon's power seemingly looking as a threat to all life and possible mass extinction just fits so much better.

[@mrsauceman5721]

I personally prefer Emerald, because pretty much nothing changes anyway.

[@banana-uo3be]

Emerald is the best in my opinion

[@mrsauceman5721]

@@banana-uo3be Yeah exactly, if Groundon and Kyogre are equal then both of them should have been awoken, and Rayquaza sent to shut them down.

[@catarah8772]

Achie just wants a magical sea adventure but gets a pissed off kyogre and rain instead.

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

Team Magma was always more hate-able to me, I always thought Aqua had a stronger argument. Team Magma expanding the land for people just seemed like an over-all terrible idea in a world where Pokemon are so integral. That and living not even 5 hours away from a desert that used to be underwater I don't want Hoenn to have to deal with Arizona summers. But ocean's having such great amounts of biodiversity and Team Aqua being more worried about Pokemon than people was always something I appreciated and I feel the rest of the region aligns more with them than Magma. There is constant examples of people stopping their expansion once they realized it would hurt Pokemon or the environment, and Team Aqua both shoulders that message and is trying to push it. Team Magma on the other hand is just ignoring how valuable Pokemon are and going to speed up the death of the world for both people and Pokemon. And the dark rain pouring down with Kyogre around was always more disturbing to me than the vaguely brighter screen that Groudon would have so I never felt intimidated by him (it doesn't help his typing is utter sh*t.)

[@maddiemcnugget1076]

Blue: infiltrates team rocket hide out Giovanni: so you’re here to stop me? Blue: nah I just want the gym badge. Giovanni: oh... o... kay?

[@somethingcraft3148]

This funny as heck

[@Pelmite]

well if thats all i guess you can have it and leave

[@RooftopRose079]

@@Pelmite Funny how that game would have gone if Giovanni just gave Red and Blue the gym badges and they just up and left.

[@sad_boi_razor8983]

yup thats pretty much my mood rn.

[@campbellsoup93]

Title: Evaluating the story of every major pokemon game Content: "UUUUGGGHH I don't care about the story! Just let me battle the Gym leaders and be done!"

[@toolatetothestory]

I do like the small details. Like some of the bosses still treating their Pokemon well enough to have them evolve through friendship. And then there is... Getsis. Actually pure evil. Black and White is my favourite Edition. I may be biased, but I don't care. I have so many fond memories with that game, and N is still my favourite rival.

[@earlymorninstonedpimp]

N’s not a rival.

[@toolatetothestory]

@@earlymorninstonedpimp You periodically fight him throughout the game to check how you have progressed so far. More often than you fight Cheren and Bianca, for sure. I'd say that counts. Rival/Anti-Villian

[@allister1545]

@@earlymorninstonedpimp N has the rival theme skill in pokemon masters

[@brokage8398]

When you realize that. In Black and White they established that Gym leaders are allowed to enforce the law and uphold the peace. Imagine Whitney trying to stop Team rocket

[@2getha5eva]

"Alright, Miltank, use Stomp!"

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I mean, not gonna lie, Whitney seems like right about the appropriate level of response to gen 2 Team Rocket. Who else but Whitney would storm over and smash some bats and snakes because some jackasses took her favorite station off the radio? Faulkner only cares about birds, Bugsy has an entire forest of bugs to molest before he finally makes it, Morty is busy hallucinating on the good shit in his gym, Chuck isn't okay to drive, Jasmine is getting the hell out of Johto, Pryce broke his hip on the way, and Claire is too cool for radio. Silver was too busy complaining about everyone but him being so weak that they kept beating his ass ruthlessly, Lance doesn't have time for evil plans not on the level of magic brain control mind wave things being run out of the basement of a local corner store, and the cops are busy making sure 10 year olds that walk up to them at night aren't actually those bandits infesting rpg towns. Nah. A local semi-famous girl going over and tantruming until Team Rocket goes to take over the Asprin Factory instead sounds about right.

[@guilhermefloresfeitosaguer4543]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 LMAAOOOO

[@consistentpogba237]

i think its only because gym leaders in BW have other important roles in their respective cities sort of like mayors, pilot, artist, running the museum, model

[@guilhermefloresfeitosaguer4543]

@@consistentpogba237 I mean, it's literally their thing. It's one of the best parts about BW

[@kylebear8101]

When I was a young child…I didn’t know you were supposed to name Silver. When the cop asked his name I was like “well the game said it was ‘???’”. So I constantly battled ??? Wondering when I’d learn his name…

[@TheRealStorman]

100% same here 🤣🤣

[@scooby-doovillain]

OMLLLLL THATS SO JGJJAHSGGDHAAHAHHAA

[@zeroshade715]

That’s actually cute 😂

[@valenti333]

i was like 9 and at the beginning it said i was challenged by passerby boy in hgss so i name him paserby bc of the 7 letter limit lmao

[@smallmediumatlarge]

#Metoo

[@AS34N]

I've used this video to sleep for the past almost 2 years lol. Thanks!

[@AisSora]

Amazing video! Thank you for all the hard work

[@keinname1896]

You should probably have taken Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, because they somewhat adress some of the story things at some points like the anticlimax of Ruby/Sapphire, but this was still a treat!

[@dannykazari2875]

I thought the same thing, but I think the point was that GameFreak figured these first versions were polished enough to release.

[@myfellowsonicfans7131]

Tbh I am not a fan of those third entry things, I’m glad they’re gone, it means more original games, but it doesn’t really matter anymore because we get shit like Sun and Moon and Sword and Shield.

[@ayanlemohamed5060]

@@myfellowsonicfans7131 seems like you hate sword

[@botyorick]

@@myfellowsonicfans7131 tbh at least US/UM were like 100000times better than S/M (which doesnt mean mmuch) even though i hoped for another B/W, B2/W2 continued story

[@commonviewer2488]

@@botyorick The Ultra games were better than the originals, but not unique enough to justify being their own games. They feel more like an update, or dlc than a full price 3ds game.

[@liambird2053]

I’ve always thought that Cyrus’s Crobat was a hint that he wasn’t being entirely genuine when he says he doesn’t care about Pokémon.

[@bubbykins4864]

Or perhaps he's merely pretending to care.

[@crimsonking440]

Or MAYBE gamefreak doesn't actually think about shit like that when making enemy trainers

[@skateboardmd9163]

@@crimsonking440 Yeah, and Ghetsis having his ace and strongest Pokémon Hudreigon know Frustration (which gets stronger when your Pokémon despises you) means nothing to Ghetsis' character. I understand you may be annoyed because nowadays, everyone overanalyzes every detail, but don't just dismiss everything off as empty or hollow, or for just being there. While many things have the simplest reason for being what they are, there's still a reason, and this may be a detail, but also not. We don't know. It's up for us players to interpret.

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

@@skateboardmd9163 They put a hell of a lot more effort into the BW bad-guy team than they did for the D/P team though. Cyrus's Crobat is far more likely them just not paying attention. They were extremely ambitious in that game and details like that are easy to fall to the wayside when they don't hire competent writers. Though I don't want to give B/W any more credit than saying they tried for the story. It isn't good unless you only compare it to mainline Pokemon games and Nintendo in general. It just has a lot of effort put in (which is sad.)

[@RarutoUchiha2]

@@haruhirogrimgar6047 Friendship evolution and the whole system are a measurement of how much a Pokémon is attached to its trainer and enjoys being in their care. Cyrus' Crobat can be attached to him and enjoy being its Pokemon without Cyrus actually reciprocating those feelings.

[@natalie-sloth2308]

Loved this video! Your sense of humor is really great! I laughed so many times :D

[@jolynncampbell4954]

This, my friend, is a fantastic video. You can see the work, time, and effort you put into it.. it was a pleasure to watch and made me laugh plenty of times! Coming from a life-long pokemon fan, you did extremely well with this one. Thanks for making this!!!

[@MatthewBurns8]

I do like how at the beginning you were like "Red and Blue have no plot" like it's a bad thing. Then by Black you are like "JUST LET ME FIGHT A GYM AND NOT HaVE ALL THIS S**T IN BETWEEN"

[@carolinea6769]

I didn't because it became apparent that the plot was being picked apart by someone who had no interest in the plot whatsoever. It really felt like this was just a list of complaints. Sure, he discussed some character arcs but he didn't analyze any of the games' broader themes or the storytelling. For example, when discussing red and blue, he didn't mention the more subtle hints at a critique of science overstepping its boundaries evidenced by the Mewtwo/pokemon mansion subplot. This all felt so surface level, especially as the video dragged on. Seriously, 80% of this video was plot summary. Like, I understand the plots of these games aren't great, but they do at least try to throw out some interesting ideas. If you are playing just trying to get from gym to gym, you're clearly not even trying to care about the story. Of course the evil teams and scenarios are incredibly contrived. And the critiques there are fair. But we're talking about Pokemon here so some suspension of disbelief is required. (Sorry to "go off" in this reply. This video still had some funny moments. It felt like a satirical critique passing itself off as a genuine one. If we were here just to poke fun at the games, I wouldn't be complaining, but this is like cinemasins level of criticism where it's unclear how seriously it's taking itself.)

[@Jmantheomega]

Caroline A Nope I got that feeling too. This started out legit, then quickly started sounding like pure satire by diamond.

[@carolinea6769]

@@Jmantheomega Yeah, exactly. I can appreciate this as satire. In that light, it was super entertaining and hilarious, but it doesn't really work as a fair evaluation of the story as advertised by the title. I guess I was just frustrated that the expectations of an insightful critique I had for this video weren't met, but I was still entertained and found it enjoyable nonetheless.

[@wardedthorn6523]

More plot is not the same thing as more words. Good storytelling is shown, not told. Granted, black/white did a better job with plot than most other pokemon games, but that isn't saying much. A bit more subtlety and a bit less directly spelling things out would benefit them greatly.

[@connerrobles-emery3672]

@@carolinea6769 I don't mind his skimming over things due because not everyone picks up on it, although what you mentioned is one of the more hard to miss hints of Kanto as this dying world. And the intent before Gen III was to create this dangerous world to showcase that you're playing with monsters, which is why there's poison everywhere. Despite making Psychic very broken, it showed the seas, the caves, the forests, and even the air and grime itself becoming poisoned. I personally find the Unova and Alola games to be the most compelling because of their characterizations, with B2W2 also having my personal favorite OST and mix of pacing. However, the original games certainly didn't lack unspoken intent with its world and that's to its strength. Platinum aimed to be the ultimate Pokemon experience and I think it has a really beautiful exploration element that none of the others matched. The music, the locations, the labyrinths. All of it served to make Sinnoh feel lived in, and I think it's aged quite nicely. The only thing the brings it down for me is it feels like they sacrificed interesting locations in favor of map design. I know that seems kind of contradictory, but Sinnoh never had that moment where I suddenly came upon a city in the trees or found a burning mansion or tower. The Shaymin event probably came closest to that feeling, and I did like the team up characters.

[@EliasMorals]

"They're *twins*, but then they say older and younger brother" Twins don't have to be born at the exact same moment, y'know?

[@thomasdawicki141]

Double barrel uterus disagrees with you

[@XVINutkabob]

@@thomasdawicki141 take my fucking like and leave

[@sageoverheaven]

@@thomasdawicki141 Alright, you win.

[@zaidhernandez4601]

I am a twin and we refer to each other as twin brothers but I am refered to as older because I came out first

[@skylergarza8371]

@@zaidhernandez4601 do you ever say to your twin "you know when I was your age (proceed to explain what you were doing like 15 minutes ago)"?

[@chriskoloski32]

I love that these comments are filled with people that actually paid attention to the story and characters, especially villains like N and Guzma

[@With_Kris]

2:18:17 "the stone did not belong to me but I kept it out of spite because she didn't tell me her name" that's a great line 😂

[@bixmcgoo5355]

props to this guy for openly admitting he thinks twins are born simultaneously, instead of one after the other.

[@Tvboy777]

came looking for this comment.

[@thalmoragent9344]

Ayo... pause ⏸ 😳

[@philto9999]

They were MADE simultaneously tho

[@dr.applesreadings1923]

@@philto9999The older twin brother comes out of the womb first and the younger one comes out second. Twins just means they were in the womb at the same time.

[@calcv617]

@@dr.applesreadings1923 you are to young to understand what he means

[@leninthebeaniesouhacker.2459]

Team aqua just wanna stay hydrated, stay hydrated everyone. (anyone who sees this comment, play underrail, it's a amazing game, or at least listen to the grey army ost.)

[@SidneyM559]

Hydro homies rise up

[@myfellowsonicfans7131]

Nate Millen how about you dry up, TEAM MAGMA 4EVA YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Dab dab dab

[@liaramsay9976]

Inb4 more anger at michelle obama lol

[@cyncynshop]

I can't believe I met a fellow Hydro Homies in a Pokemon Story Video

[@2tired2p15]

r/hydrohomies

[@KittMouri]

Sun & Moon was easily my favorite, too! I loved that game! Awesome video.

[@lil_muzi_vert8190]

This is the best Pokemon yap session ever

[@NegativeVitality]

Malva calls you a "hero" in quotes because she was apart of Team flare herself, that's why she doesn't seem legitimately happy when talking to you.

[@totallynotamimic3522]

I feel like having a member of the Elite Four be part of the evil team could have been a really cool concept if done well, but they went literally nowhere with that. In fact, I don't think there was any mention or even foreshadowing of her being in the team until the postgame, where she explicitly states it and everyone acts normal about it.

[@remixgamer4565]

Totally Not a Mimic they made it so much cooler in the X and Y manga

[@earlymorninstonedpimp]

@@totallynotamimic3522 way to sum up Pokémon X/Y in a nutshell

[@whishiwhooshi5783]

Lily: I love you Sun and Moon protagonist: Yeah okay, I don't care.

[@Sonicsis]

More like "I love you, you gave me the inspiration and encouragement to become independent so I wanna be more like you" Sun moon protag: ye, bye.

[@friendlywobbly9903]

*DON'T CARE. DIDN'T ASK. PLUS YOU'RE LILY.*

[@Chtsht23]

I’ve watched this video twice already. Yet here I am. Watching it again. Much kudos to you.