5th Gen Only new Pokemon were available until the Postgame

[Palamon]

Generation V did something that hadn't been done before: all the Pokemon available in the wild were completely new. In Black/White, there were 156 new Pokemon. (152 new Pokemon if we don't include the mythicals, tho.) Until the post game, you would only be seeing Unova Pokemon in the wild.

This was changed in B2/W2, however, as Pokemon not native to Unova were in the wild at the very beginning of the game.

While I know B/W are ten years old at this point, what did you think of it?

 

[FeraligatrMaster]

I didn't like the fact that no previous Pokemon were available before the Elite Four. Fortunately, this problem was rectified in B2W2.

 

[starlightartist]

i think the idea behind this move was quite a good one, it's just that in execution people are really not gonna like having to beat the game to have access to their favourite pokémon. gen iv's (d/p, it got fixed in plat) problem was far worse though imo, where they added a bunch of new evos to classic lines, but kept the whole line locked to the postgame. i don't have the numbers off the top of my head but there's certainly a good chunk of brand new mons added in d/p that were simply unobtainable until after the game, and in some cases not obtainable at all without using pal park / GBA slot encounters.

that was a lot worse, and it's a real good job they extended the dex in plat.

 

[Lunar]

I've just started a new playthrough of White a couple of days ago and actually, I like how it forces us to use the new Pokemon. I think when the games came out, I wasn't the biggest fan of the 'mons in this generation, but after playing it more and more, I've really come to appreciate them! I'm planning my full team atm and having fun deciding which native Unova Pokemon to use; I think my problem is I often 'play it safe' in a playthrough and go for classic Pokemon that are always in my teams, so not allowing me to use Kanto, Johto or Hoenn Pokemon is a good thing for this generation imo!

 

[starlightartist]

I've just started a new playthrough of White a couple of days ago and actually, I like how it forces us to use the new Pokemon. I think when the games came out, I wasn't the biggest fan of the 'mons in this generation, but after playing it more and more, I've really come to appreciate them! I'm planning my full team atm and having fun deciding which native Unova Pokemon to use; I think my problem is I often 'play it safe' in a playthrough and go for classic Pokemon that are always in my teams, so not allowing me to use Kanto, Johto or Hoenn Pokemon is a good thing for this generation imo!

i agree with this, i usually try to use as much new stuff as possible in my first and second playthroughs of a gen

 

[Reyzadren]

I don't have any problem with having only gen 5 pokemon in BW. The real problem is that bunching often happens in the beginning, and most pokemon that I wanted on my team are seemingly distributed only on the end routes.

 

[Amore]

I thought it was a great idea, and to be honest I found the Pokédex too large in B2W2. 151-ish seems a great size (although they can get it wrong with that number like in DP) of giving you a lot of variety without making filling your regional 'dex seem like too much of a mammoth task. I did enjoy finally getting to use a Zangoose during a main storyline in Black 2 though.
It might be a recency bias, but I feel like the 26 species of Pokémon capturable before the 3rd gym is a lot, given how few routes that takes you over. Or if it isn't then they're quite a diverse bunch (hard to gauge given I've been absolutely smashing it with the Pokéwalker in my current HeartGold save). You can definitely criticise them for too closely remaking some of the original common Pokémon (Sawk / Throh's ugly designs just add to the feeling it would have been better to actually have wild Hitmons), but I was really glad they didn't add another Magikarp equivalent. Patrat gets a bad rep but he has the incredibly valuable (in-game) Mean Look + Baton Pass combo for trapping roaming legendaries.
That's my main criticism actually - too many legendaries. But at least only one is roaming, given how much worse the gate system is for locating them than anything in Gen IV. Platinum's 5 was absurd (and unnecessary given the Gen II remakes).

 

[Inner Rhymes]

I understand that Black and White aimed to be soft reboots of generation 1, especially with how some Pokemon were designed in a manner which seemed to pay homage to gen 1 designs (Bouffalant = Tauros), and while it sounded great on paper, it failed to play out smoothly in the execution phase. I mean, the games before B/W had a mix of new and old Pokemon to bring about a combined effect of familiarity as well as freshness by introducing a mix of new and old Pokemon. The removal of familiarity via placing previous generation Pokemon in the post-game adversely affected the enjoyment factor,

 

[faf]

When I first played White, I initially had a weird feeling of thinking I wasn't playing a Pokemon game because every Mon was new. Afterwards, I really liked only using new Pokemon just because previous games had a mix of old and new and it's nice to at least break from that. A lot of the the Gen 5 Pokemon are my favourites and I even got a new #1 favourite Pokemon out of it too. Gen 5 also inspired me to only use new Pokemon every new gen (I failed this in Gen 6; it was Gen 6 mons + Scrafty because I hated using Pangoro) and the runs have been enjoyable.

 

[Ninetales]

I loved it. It was refreshing break from the constant Kanto pandering. I wish they'd do something similar in generation 9 or in another future generation.

 

[Raicheot]

I wasn't a fan when it first came out as there is only a handful of great designs, so reruns are hard to change the team up as I don't like a lot of the pokemon where as bw2 has a lot more options and a mix of pokemon from different gens so more options for reruns

 

[CPU 4]

It's kinda a cool idea, but it is a little annoying that you couldn't get your favorite Pokemon if it was in an earlier generation. I think just the regular mix of mostly unique Pokemon, with some older Pokemon here and there is better.

 

[Bellsprout]

It's a good idea and I would have liked it if I liked a lot of the new Pokemon in Gen V. Unfortunately there's a lot of designs in Gen V I loathe and the ones I really liked I couldn't get until later in the game so because of that it left a bad taste in my mouth. It's also caused me to only replay b/w in the single digits.