All I get out of this is that Game Freak's most fatal flaw is they doesn't know how to human. They can make pokedex entries/animations for a fantastic magical beasts to give them personality, it works because pokemon that look like thugs (krookodile, Pangoro, and Scrafty) don't need more personality than to just look/act devious. They're animals (well... most of them are), they don't need intricate back stories, they don't need family or friends, all they need to do is look the part. That's the most important part about Pokemon is the Pokemon. This worked until they jumped to 3D.
Way back before 3ds the characters other than the bad guys were never important, Red didn't say anything, Blue was just kind of an asshole but didn't really have any personality, the Gym leaders entire personality was their team and design and you didn't really see them much after their gym. They were never good with character development in the first place, and all the personality came from the writers in the anime/manga fleshing them out. My fondness for Brock and Misty is solely due to the anime as a kid, I don't think I ever would've thought twice about them without it. I understand this continues to be true, the anime/manga has much more freedom to work with, but their current writing team for the game tries really hard to add this aspect but they SUCK at it.
I guess Diamond and Pearl was the first to technically do the friend as your rival with Berry, I never really cared all that much about him and I memory holed him being the rival and thought it was the other MC until I was writing this. I can't remember a whole lot about him so I have no beef with him. I did think it was annoying in the beginning to go with him to the lake, though. However, since Black and White came right after I feel they were going in the right direction. They were believable, Cheren becoming a gym leader and Bianca the professors assistant was great. It was still 2d and the only face to face interaction you had with them was through the Xtransceiver. Then X and Y happened, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, along with Calem or Serene, despite being in 3d these character's were so god damn one dimensional. The jump to 3D left them with those blank empty faces, and they didn't really seem like friends. bare minimum personalities thrown together. Sure it was cute that we all went through the forest together but they just aren't interesting, the single character trait they were each given doesn't make for a very well rounded group of friends. This worsened in Sun and Moon, Hau and Lillie were terrible, they were everywhere, I couldn't escape them. I couldn't enjoy Gladion as the rival because Hau and Lillie kept butting in to my business. They really tried to make Lillie this pure innocent little character who works through it to become stronger but her and Hau were just obnoxious. This is where I think everything else fell apart, they tried to give the trial leaders have personality but it just doesn't work, they have the same depth as Shauna, Tierno and Trevor do but there's more of them, they also seem more like "friends" than anything. Then I hear that Hop is Hau but worse and apparently everywhere. As I haven't played the game, I hear Bede and Marnie are ok but I can't verify.
Like, they really lost the understanding of how people, kids especially, make friends and talk to each other or act. It's like having to hang out with the autistic kid down the street because your parents are friends, he is socially inept and doesn't understand personal space. I don't expect to get a good story or characters from a Pokemon game, the MC has always been just an empty husk, but they're really REALLY botching the human aspect up to the point it's inexcusable and hindering the game. I don't need good well rounded characters, I just need them to not be annoying and GF is failing even that.
