Top 3 Pokemon titles with the most underwhelming post-game content

While many Pokemon games have included an impressive amount of post-game content, many titles in the franchise have fallen solidly short of this mark.

As the gaming industry has evolved, the concept of post-game content has become somewhat divisive. Some players hate it, while others can't get enough of it. In Pokemon's case, it seems that gamers either prefer abundant post-game content, or if that is not available, then none at all.

The most infuriating post-game content of all would appear to be, as luck would have it, underwhelming ones.

Many Pokemon games that have post-game content have delivered upon this concept beautifully. Most notable is Pokemon Gold/HeartGold, Silver/SoulSilver, and Crystal, where players unlock an entire extra region to explore and catch Pokemon after conquering the Elite 4 and champion. But others fall well short of this expectation.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Three Pokemon offerings whose post-game content underwhelmed the most

#3 - Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen

Johto and Kanto being close by was such a treatfor Pokemon players (Image via Game Freak)

While these games may occur back in Generation I, they possess many of the quality of life changes present in the Generation they were released in, III.

The running shoes are given to players after besting Brock, the graphics have been wonderfully upgraded, and Steel and Dark-type moves exist. The developers took many of the best aspects of Generation III and put them directly into the games that started it all.

But what about the post-game content? Generation II had introduced the Johto region, and more importantly, the Johto and Kanto regions were side-by-side. It also allowed players to actually go to Kanto. Surely, in a remake of the Kanto region games, they would be allowed to do the same and go to Johto?

This is, sadly, not the case. While there is additional content compared to Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, the only appearance Johto makes is the presence of Generation II Pokemon on the rest of the Sevii Isles and one of the legendary dogs roaming the wilds. Maybe it was a foolish desire to hope for in the first place, but it was still underwhelming to discover.

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#2 - Pokemon X/Y

Pokemon X and Y did not give much in terms of what players could do after the main game ended (Image via John Funk on Polygon)

Pokemon X and Y performed a lot of firsts. They introduced the following:

• First new type since Generation II
• An entirely new concept in Mega Evolutions
• Went from 2D sprites to somewhat 3D models

In essence, the developers took lots of risks with the Generation VI titles. But the post-game of X and Y, sadly, did not share this expanse of content.

The summary of X and Y's post-game is: go around and gather some Pokemon that people want to hand out. Players can catch Zygarde, Mewtwo, and one of the legendary birds from the Generation I trio, find a slew of new Mega Stones at an obnoxiously specific time of day (in real life), fight a few people, and do the Looker's Beurea mini-story.

Compared to Generations II, IV, and V (and somewhat Generation III), where gamers would unlock an entirely new region to explore after clearing the Elite 4, this was a rather lackluster turn of events.

Oh, and Sword and Shield are unofficially in this spot as well. The only reason X and Y are the official games listed here is due to Sword and Shield getting DLCs with new regions, which may technically count as post-game content.

And while the post-game content in the base game of Sword/Shield is sorely lacking, the DLCs more than make up for that in terms of sheer content alone.

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#1 - Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

To have most of the post-game be a mix of a fetch quest and battles where gamers' level hardly even matters is, frankly, incredibly disappointing (Image via Game Freak)

Coliseum and Gale of Darkness are two Pokemon games that people are likely to forget existed. But not only did they exist, but they had post-game content as well. Neither was particularly fantastic, but between the two, Gale of Darkness certainly had the worse victory-lap.

A condensed summary: the player beats up an old man and his team of electric rodents (that are far too low-leveled to be a serious threat at this point); beat up a dancer and steal his Dragonite; play Pokemon Stadium, but with a severely limited pool of Pokemon (all the ones they can catch in the game, which is not a wide variety); perform a long and arduous glorified fetch-quest to get a Lucky Egg (which is mostly useless); beat up the final boss again after purifying every shadow Pokemon in the game.

The final boss is also insanely difficult. Players have to weaken and catch all six of his Pokemon — three of which are legendaries. To have most of the post-game be a mix of a fetch quest and battles where gamers' level hardly even matters is, frankly, incredibly disappointing.