History YMMV / PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness

* TheScrappy: Michael's [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling little sister Jovi]]. You're tasked with finding her at the beginning, she follows you around until you've collected the Machine Part, and insists you're her assistant the whole time.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some fans feel like changing Orre into a much more habitable place made it lose its "edge."

* HilariousInHindsight:
** The Hexagon Brothers are obviously a ShoutOut to Franchise/SuperSentai. However, they beat Sentai to the punch with a purple/violet ranger - [[Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger 2 years]] before Sentai would have their first official one - and a brown ranger - [[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger 4 years]] before a wannabe ranger would take those colors.
** Cipher Peon Lobar (the one with the Shadow Duskull fought during the ONBS invasion) uses Pokémon that all happened to gain evolutions in [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation 4.]] (Duskull, Misdreavus, Sneasel and Yanma)

* EarWorm: Miror B. may have traded his poppy disco theme for one that leans more heavily into funk, but [[https://youtu.be/WuhqoZvyntA it's as catchy as ever]]. It helps that he [[MickeyMousing snaps his fingers in time with its opening riff]].

** Lovrina in her Orre Colesseum battle. While the other 6 rounds are optional, Round 1 is required to be beaten in order to access the new PlayableEpilogue content, Lovrina serving as its final boss. Most of her team consists of annoying {{Stone Wall}}s with little attacking power but many ways to stall, except her Blissey, which is a shocking powerhouse. On top of its [[DamageSpongeBoss massive bulk]] and Leftovers, it has Counter and Seismic Toss to smash opponents who actually dent its health, and Sing and Attract to make any connecting moves rare. The safest ways to beat it thus are to get by itself, then deal it a OneHitKill, or put it to Sleep and slowly chip its health bar down.

** Lovrina in her Orre Colesseum battle. While the other 6 rounds are optional, Round 1 is required to be beaten in order to access the new PlayableEpilogue content, Lovrina serving as its final boss. Most of her team consists of annoying {{Stone Wall}}s with little attacking power but many ways to stall, but her Blissey is a shocking powerhouse. On top of its [[DamageSpongeBoss massive bulk]] and Leftovers, it has Counter and Seismic Toss to smash opponents who actually dent its health, and Sing and Attract to make any connecting moves rare. The safest ways to beat it thus are to get by itself, then deal it a OneHitKill, or put it to Sleep and slowly chip its health bar down.

** Lovrina in her Orre Colesseum battle. While the other 6 rounds are optional, Round 1 is required to be beaten in order to access the new PlayableEpilogue content, Lovrina serving as its final boss. While most of her team consists of annoying {{Stone Wall}}s with little attacking power but many ways to stall, her Blissey is a shocking powerhouse. On top of its [[DamageSpongeBoss massive bulk]] and Leftovers, it has Counter and Seismic Toss to smash opponents who actually dent its health, and Sing and Attract to make any connecting moves rare. The safest ways to beat it thus are to get by itself, then deal it a OneHitKill, or put it to Sleep and slowly chip its health bar down.

** Lovrina in her Orre Colesseum battle. While the other 6 rounds are optional, Round 1 is required to be beaten in order to access the new PlayableEpilogue content, Lovrina serving as its final boss. While most of her team consists of annoying {{Stone Wall}}s with little attacking power but many ways to stall, her Blissey is a shocking powerhouse. On top of its [[DamageSpongeBulk massive bulk]] and Leftovers, it has Counter and Seismic Toss to smash opponents who actually dent its health, and Sing and Attract to make any connecting moves rare. The safest ways to beat it thus are to get by itself, then deal it a OneHitKill, or put it to Sleep and slowly chip its health bar down.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: [[OverlordJr Ardos]], one of the sons and CoDragons of Cipher's leader [[BigBad Greevil]], shows himself to be the most vicious and fanatical member within an already monstrous organization. Ardos is fully involved and supportive of Cipher's worst atrocities, involving the mass corruption of Pokémon into becoming unfeeling Shadow Pokémon—whereupon they'll be rendered unable to be purified and massed into an army through which Cipher will control the world. When Greevil is defeated, Ardos, in a last moment of desperation, attempts to cajole his father into killing the child protagonist by wiping out their base on Citadark Isle—-[[BadBoss taking all his subordinates in the building with it]], to which Ardos merely scoffs "[[WeHaveReserves such things can be replaced]]". Even in the post-game, Ardos is as dedicated to the Cipher agenda as ever even when his father has surrendered himself, coldly informing the protagonist they are now Ardos's top target.]]

** [[https://zippy.gfycat.com/AssuredImperfectGrackle.webm Snattle's running animation.]]

* {{Narm}}: The title is hard to take seriously when it looks like the laughing {{Emoticon}}.

* EvenBetterSequel: Despite the above, the gameplay is universally considered an improvement across the board. Shadow Pokémon now have fleshed out movesets, don't try to kill themselves with recoil damage, are much more useful in battle, there's a greater variety and number than before, you can convert Shadow Pokémon in batch now without having to constantly keep a slot open to individually Purify them, and Cypher's dungeons are more complex and engaging.

* SlowPacedBeginning: It takes a few hours before you get into the meat of the game. What with finding your little sister, acquiring the Machine Part, and having to use the Purify Stone to individually convert your Shadow Pokémon until the Purify Chamber's complete. Once it is finished however, Cypher's plans start to come together, the map opens up, and you can start tackling their operations head on.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming:
** Shadow Togepi's backstory: you have the option to trade it back to Hordel, with him giving you an Elekid with a unique moveset (if you give him the Shadow Togepi in particular). But you can feel his joy when you give the Togepi/Togetic to him. You can tell he genuinely cared for that little guy and wanted him to be purified as a personal favor, because he grew attached to it.
** If you beat [[spoiler: Greevil]] again after purifying all Shadow Pokemon, you'll see a brief cutscene of the hero putting his Snag Machine away, as it's not needed anymore. Gives a nice feeling of closure.

** Lovrina, for her GeniusDitz personality who doesn't lose an ounce of her valley girl accent or competence while she cheerfully crosses the MoralEventHorizon in creating new and stronger Shadow Pokemon.

* EvenBetterSequel: Despite the above, the gameplay is universally considered an improvement across the board. Shadow Pokemon now have fleshed out movesets, don't try to kill themselves with recoil damage, are much more useful in battle, there's a greater variety and number than before, you can convert Shadow Pokemon in batch now without having to constantly keep a slot open to individually Purify them, and Cypher's dungeons are more complex and engaging.

** Cipher Peon Lobar (the one with the Shadow Duskull fought during the ONBS invasion) uses Pokemon that all happened to gain evolutions in [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation 4.]] (Duskull, Misdreavus, Sneasel and Yanma)

* NightmareFuel: The idea of Shadow Pokemon was already scary enough, but Shadow Lugia is a Pokemon so completely messed up its body literally transformed.

* SlowPacedBeginning: It takes a few hours before you get into the meat of the game. What with finding your little sister, acquiring the Machine Part, and having to use the Purify Stone to individually convert your Shadow Pokemon until the Purify Chamber's complete. Once it is finished however, Cypher's plans start to come together, the map opens up, and you can start tackling their operations head on.

** Greevil not only has access to the three Legendary Birds, but also Lugia, as well as three Pokemon that are fairly strong in their own right.
** [[spoiler:Ardos]]. Unlike the previous enemies before him, and even a few after him, he introduces some diabolical shadow moves with three very high quality shadow Pokemon, two of which are fast, and have full movesets, the other, a Snorlax carrying Leftovers, being very difficult to capture. Oh, and his [[spoiler: Alakazam]], which he previously used to ''obliterate'' an earlier boss, will tear apart an enormous variety of Pokemon, covering all of the weaknesses of his team.

* Lovrina, for her GeniusDitz personality who doesn't lose an ounce of her valley girl accent or competence while she cheerfully crosses the MoralEventHorizon in creating new and stronger Shadow Pokemon.

* FashionVictimVillain: Snattle's outfit consists of a BadassLongcoat combined with what appears to be a white jumpsuit underneath, with what appears to be a massive mood ring around his neck. His purple lipstick and bizarre hat (or possibly hair) don't do him any favors, either.

* FoeYay: After being defeated at Orre Colosseum, Lovrina takes a liking to Michael and grants him the title "Lovrina Fan Club Member No. 1".

** Also, Gorrigan's letter talking of his new "friendship" with Micahel is so over the top that some can't wonder how deep these feelings of "friendship" really run.

%%* ReplacementScrappy: Michael is seen by many as a huge step down from Wes.
%%* TheScrappy: Michael's [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling little sister Jovi]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[EvilIsCool Shadow Lugia]] for being utterly badass and Miror B. (again) for being hilarious, LaughablyEvil, stylish, and having awesome music, are the most remembered characters in the game. Even to this day there are several fans demanding that they both make another appearance in the series.

* ScrappyMechanic:
** For many, Poké Spots defeated the entire point of Shadow Pokémon and Orre. Though each Poké Spot has three different Pokémon each to catch for a total of nine with three Poké Spots, and even then, three were necessary to trade for Duking's Meditite, Shuckle, and Larvitar, making it a total of just twelve different kinds by using the Poké Spots.
** The fact you lose any Shadow Pokémon you caught in a fight if you lose, unlike in ''Colosseum''.

* HilariousInHindsight: The Hexagon Brothers are obviously a ShoutOut to Franchise/SuperSentai. However, they beat Sentai to the punch with a purple/violet ranger - [[Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger 2 years]] before Sentai would have their first official one - and a brown ranger - [[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger 4 years]] before a wannabe ranger would take those colors.

%%* EvilIsCool: Shadow Lugia.
%%* FanPreferredCouple: Michael and Lovrina.

** The backstories behind Eevee and Togepi. Awww!
*** Adding on to the Shadow Togepi backstory, you have the option to trade it back to Hordel, with him giving you an Elekid with a unique moveset (if you give him the Shadow Togepi in particular). But you can feel his joy when you give the Togepi/Togetic to him. You can tell he genuinely cared for that little guy and wanted him to be purified as a personal favor, because he grew attached to it.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some fans feel like changing Orre into a much more habitable place made it lose its "edge."

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some fans feel like changing Orre into a much more habitable place made it lose its "edge."
---

* EvilIsCool: Shadow Lugia.
* FanPreferredCouple: [[ToyShip Michael]] [[FoeYay and]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Lovrina]].

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Some thought this game re-used too much from ''Colosseum''
* IThoughtThatWas: No, the name of the game doesn't mean "Pokémon, LOL".

* ReplacementScrappy: Michael is seen by many as a huge step down from [[MemeticBadass Wes]].
* TheScrappy: Michael's [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling little sister Jovi]].

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The things they ''didn't'' keep the same rubbed some fans the wrong way, particularly changing Orre into a much more habitable place, thus losing its "edge."

* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[EvilIsCool Shadow Lugia]] and Miror B. (again) are the most remembered characters in this game, and even to this day there are several fans demanding that they both make another appearance in the series.

** [[spoiler: Eldes]]. His Shadow Salamence is a few levels higher than anything you've fought at this point, and it will steamroll anything that isn't a Shadow Pokémon. Not only that, but his other Shadow Pokémon hit quite hard as well.

** [[spoiler: Ardos]]. Unlike the previous enemies before him, and even a few after him, he introduces some diabolical shadow moves with three very high quality shadow Pokemon, two of which are fast, and have full movesets, the other, a Snorlax carrying Leftovers, being very difficult to capture. Oh, and his [[spoiler: Alakazam]], which he previously used to ''obliterate'' an earlier boss, will tear apart an enormous variety of Pokemon, covering all of the weaknesses of his team.