In Defense of Die-hard Gen 1 Fans...Kinda.

[@SuperSpacebum]

By the time generation three landed in the USA in 2003, we had already moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh in middle school.

[@mista414]

@@SuperSpacebum that was definitely me

[@CanaldoZenny]

Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Beyblade became the new hot thing in the 2000's. They were also more accessible because they didn't require batteries or electricity to work.

[@FosukeLordOfError]

For whatever reason at my school and grade level (6th grade) when gold and silver dropped everyone had moved on from Pokémon. There was a gap between the two but yeah we moved on to yugioh. I was actually like one of the last guys still into Pokémon. I even had gold and silver strategy guide. But like weeks before the games came out I caved and moved on.

[@alexjones-qe5gc]

Haha yep

[@willdill4987]

Exactly. We moved on

[@Aethelhart]

Gen 3 felt like a huge step back. They eliminated the day/night cycle, the calendar system, pokemon animations, the ability to trade or port pokemon from prior generations, the phone system and ability to rematch NPCs, and the ability to go to older regions. I got over it and enjoyed Gen 3 a lot, but removing those features was a huge mistake and made the transition feel less like Gen 3 was a step forward and more like it was a step in a different direction altogether, and a not wholey good direction.

[@FosukeLordOfError]

As someone that stopped after gen 1 coming back and trying leaf green fire red, gen 3 felt amazing with how much quality of life improvements it had.

[@MrKingkz]

You pretty much explained how I felt about it I guess I wasn't the only one 😂

[@jeffreygao3956]

Nope!

[@MrKingkz]

​@@jeffreygao3956Yep

[@nickmeale1957]

​@FosukeLordOfError I was excited to play firered until I learned they included all pokemon up to gen 3. Why would they do that?

[@Wilderness-Will]

I was a Gen I to III guy. LOVED Gen II; the idea that you could go to Kanto blew my child mind; it really felt like these games did take place in a single, contiguous world. Gen II was designed to be THE sequel to Pokemon Red and Blue. There's this sense of finality to the whole affair and the way the postgame ended; the fight against Red on Mt. Silver was legendary. The kind of thing you prepared for, that friends helped you strategize for. Gen III was a soft reboot, which isn't an inherently bad thing... it just felt very different than what preceded it.

[@crappypapi]

What preceded it is called growing up. I used to think just like you, then I saw my girlfriend's younger cousins playing the gen 5 games with the same spark in their eyes that I used to have while playing the gen 1 - 3 games. In that moment I realized that I forgot the actual meaning of playing and discovering an entire region with a device resting on my hands. By growing up you lose a little bit of awe day by day, they still have it and new kids will keep enjoying new Pokemon games to come, just as we did :)

[@Wilderness-Will]

@@crappypapi If you're doing life properly, you don't lose that sense of awe as you grow older. You just start finding it in other things.

[@therpgerer]

​@Wilderness-Will and those things won't be new Pokémon games. Enjoy what you had, and be glad they are still coming out to be those things for the next generation. Just remember, the new games aren't any less important or good as the old ones, they just aren't for you anymore.

[@macheefkaze]

​@@crappypapinaa... After Gen 2 the original essence of Pokemon started to change.

[@Jac735]

@macheefkaze facts even the music and battle style and everything changed one of the reasons I stopped playing after

[@TheFatestPat]

I was there when this all started, back in 5th grade of 99. You know what the biggest factor was? People liked Pokemon Red/Blue, but that was all they liked. Once everyone had their fill, they moved on to other stuff. Nearly everyone in my elementary school played Red and Blue. When Gold and Silver came out, there were only a small handful of us who cared. Pokemon obviously didn't die, but it was a massive fad for a lot of people. I don't think people realize how massive it was when it first came out. Something similar happened with the Zelda games around that time. Everyone wanted Ocarina of Time, but that was all they wanted, no other Zelda games.

[@Zudovader]

Pokemon and Harry Potter. If you didn't live through it, it's hard to understand how big these were at the time in 99 and 00.

[@Jac735]

Facts your right I'm an 89 baby and in 4th grade in 98/99 alot of people were into Pokémon cards first then the show was not really into it until everybody on my block had the cards and the games as well.My fifth grade year back in 99 2000 year was crazy It was at its peak I remember going into junior high that's when the fad kind of died a little bit which was sad because I was still into it but for some reason in my junior high 7th grade year in 01 You were either a Pokémon fan, but you had a little bit of people or some had to hide and pretend they didnt like it That's it what the vibe was just really strange at the time especially were I grew up

[@nikpetrovic3877]

You had me until OOT. I know many who still consider OOT to be the best Zelda game (ALttP for me though) but all of them loved the future iterations too. MM was weird, as were the DS stylus games, but everything else for GC/Wii/Switch has been on point

[@Gemini050788]

@@ZudovaderHarry Potter was the the biggest thing since Goosebumps books if you know you know.

[@ZombieBarioth]

@@nikpetrovic3877 OoT was among the first major 3D games so a lot of people would have been interested in it for that reason alone, but not necessarily enough to get into the series. Especially when the following games were more on the cartoonish side. Wind Waker caught a lot of flack because everybody was expecting another dark, "mature" style game.

[@jaysherman2615]

I was around for Gen 1 and the true magic of the game wasn't what was in the cartridge, but among friends at school. There were so many rumors that existed that I still remember. Ones like that Mew was hidden under the truck near the SS Anne, or that there was a secret evolution of Charizard called Charcoal. There was also a rumor of an evolution of Pikachu that would turn it into a water Pokemon called Pikablue. The thing is back then hardly anyone had the internet, so nobody could confirm these rumors. Even then, the internet was so sparsely populated that the rumors were still a mystery. It isn't something you can do these days. The second a new Pokemon game comes out, there is not a single secret the game can hide. You get a start to finish walkthrough hours after the game is released. Back then all you had were your wits, a magazine that was gave bad information half the time, and playground stories of how some kid managed to catch the Gym Leader Blaine with the Missingno glitch. That is why I say the Gen 1 experience was the best experience a person could have with Pokemon, where it seemed anything was possible.

[@KatrinaSForest]

Lol, yeah, I remember a lot of those rumors going around. The version I recall was that Mew was either hidden under the nugget bridge or maybe in the burned mansion. I don't remember hearing about PikaBlue, but I did make up a fakemon that was a ghost variant of Pikachu. Whoever came up with that "bonus evolution of Charizard" one must have felt really good when XY came out. :)

[@robertharper3114]

When Marill came out we thought that was pikablu lol

[@armandoaparicio5799]

I remember there were rumors you can catch Mew earlier on and I always thought it was fake until I play the gen 1 games again with KZbin glitch videos. So many hidden gems I missed out like battling professor Oak

[@FosukeLordOfError]

Every time I play through kanto I have to blackout against a trainer on the ss Anne so I can leave without triggering it to leave so I can come back with surf later

[@stillbuyvhs]

@@robertharper3114 Marill was actually called Pikablu on one of Topps' trading cards.

[@TheDeathmail]

Another thing to note is the time period of the games. Most fans were kids. It wasn't up to them if their parents bought a new system for them or not. Also, it was during a time period where people often did move on from kids stuff.... Like, our generation now enjoys our childish enjoyments, but back then, most people moved on once they were older.... These 2 factors actually are also a huge reason for people dropping the franchise... And it should be noted that until 2016, Pokemon was consistently losing fandom...

[@CWCvilleCop]

Yep, it's just plain true that we grew out of the series and moved onto more mature things. However, I definitely noticed back then that the series started appealing to a YOUNGER audience, and not maturing with us. I think that sealed the deal.

[@CWCvilleCop]

@tlst94 Well said, and it seems that Mr. Takeshi saw what apparently someone in the company didn't. The first 2 generations had serious, adult themes, and yet appealed PHENOMENALLY well to kids as young as 5, and up to teenagers. It seems nonsensical that they dumbed the series down to appeal to a younger audience, when they already had them, when they could have focused on maturing with their main audience. It's not like the younger generation growing up would have been less interested in the series had they done that. It wasn't like today where childish media is celebrated even into adulthood; most kids wanted MORE serious and mature media and didn't want to feel babied. In fact, it was the overly censored and infantilized 4kidz localizations of the anime that was the biggest complaint about the series among kids in the 90s. But instead of learning from this, the Pokemon company chose to alienate their maturing audience to appeal to a younger generation that almost certainly would have played the games anyways.

[@TJBPlays]

Aside from other factors, a big thing for me and my friends was the shift in artstyle from Gen3+. Sharp pokemon designs became more rounded, artwork was mostly computer generated rather than being completely hand drawn and using water colours to bring the pokemon to life. Once a franchise like that shifts visually it loses some of its original identity which pushes a lot of people away. Its like when drink companies change the flavour of a fizzy drink, it tastes similar but its never the same so you dont buy it after that. All you have from that point on is fond memories of what once was.

[@WillHerrmann]

This was me. My first exposure to Gen 3 was as a ROM, which I went into sight unseen. I booted it up and thought I got a bootleg Pokémon game by accident because it just looked *wrong*. Also, the tone felt very off; everything was so cheery (especially the rival not being a jerk). I played for maybe 20 minutes, then turned it off and never looked back. The only games I've played since are the Gen 1 & 2 remakes.

[@stillbuyvhs]

Another thing: as the games' resolutions improved, the developers started creating more complex designs. Even the slightly more complex designs from Crystal looked off to my 12-year-old self.

[@KatrinaSForest]

Heh. I remember when Pokémon Stadium came out, and the idea that we could now battle in 3D(!!!!) was mind-blowing. Sure, Snap existed before that and it was fun, but being able to bring out anyone from Kanto and have a real battle with the announcer and everything...that was crazy. ^_^;;

[@Che1ito]

Gen 2 sprites>Gen 1 sprites.

[@jacobi2393]

This was almost entirely the problem for me. The aesthetic of Pokemon shifted very noticeably... and it continued to do so. The art style, and the slight shift away from ultimately naturalistic predominantly "animal" style of Pokemon, to more "theme" in each design is what finally wore me out. Feraligatr was a colorful water crocodile. That was it. Some people complain about that, but I prefer it over the seal-but-also-a-mermaid thing thats so dominant right now. My favorite new designs continue to be the simpler more animal like ones

[@sunzi7466]

Gen I & II were basically "animal" only in design. It already stared to change in Gen III and with Gen IV we've got a majority of new PKMN which weren't "animal" like. Since then most of new PKMN are resembling rather robots, aliens or Digimon-style monsters...

[@mikeCD62]

The more complex modern designs have always felt really jarring to me because they enforce a kind of eerie "sameness" on pokemon of the same species. Like, Pikachu or hypno or ekans don't have a ton of intricate details, so when you see them on screen, your mind fills in the blanks and can imagine that any "real" ekans might look slightly different than other members of its species. But take a detail heavy design like serperior or Cinderace and there are so many enforced features that feel more like characterization than anatomy that two cinderaces standing next to each other look like clones, not mere members of the same species. Some pokemon have always felt more like characters than species, but in gen 1 that was reserved for legendaries and pokemon like Mr mime where that unsettling dissonance was part of the character. I will say that this was likely inevitable. It's tough because you need to leverage a lot of detail in order to carve out the design space to have a thousand unique pokemon. There probably isn't an easy way to have 1000 pokemon in the style of gen 1.

[@alakazam15]

As someone who was a kid during the first wave of pokémania and experienced it primarily by TCG and anime, but later played the games up to gen IV, I also like the first generation the most (and have some extreme genwunner friends) and would see two main factors driving our preferences: 1) fashion, growing up, and nostalgia - at some point pokémon became not cool anymore, so we stopped following the franchise, but as we returned to it as adults, had the nostalgic connection only to the first few generations. 2) aesthetics - the first generations were presented in a hand-drawn style similar to the cartoons we grew up with (think old Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry and other Cartoon Network classics) while the new generations have the more rounded digital arts style that many people from my generation find ugly.

[@flowrebaz6189]

I stopped at Gen three because I had no money. Now I have money and kids and we play Pokémon on the Switch together. We have every switch Pokémon game so far.

[@TailsTube]

Gen 2 set the bar so high that I was really disappointed by Gen 3 when it came out. I lost interest in the series until Gen 4 when most of the features I liked were restored (backwards compatibility, day/night cycle, and of course, HGSS bringing back two regions in one game).

[@mooganify]

Bro did not play RSE

[@TailsTube]

@@mooganify What are you talking about?

[@mr.patriotjol]

@@mooganifyRSE never had a night cycle, except in real time based on when Pokemon would appear, but not in universe.

[@KatrinaSForest]

Yeah. Gen 4 didn't 100% win me back as a dedicated fan right away, but HGSS were a welcome addition, and I did eventually come back and spend a lot more time in Pearl.

[@bobmarkerson]

Gen 3 over everything

[@CWCvilleCop]

Many commenters are (correctly) mentioning that by the time Gen 3 came out, most of us had moved onto other things, but that's really only half the story. We were starting to grow up by then and move onto more mature things, and meanwhile, Pokemon decided to target a younger audience. By the end of Gen 2, most of us were expecting the series to transition into more mature themes like most other media at the time, but it went the opposite direction. Yes, the graphics were better, but they were... softer, gentler. And the rivals were LESS competitive, and the villains LESS threatening. Pokemon had been one of our first forays out into adventure, where you take on a big, scary adult world with nothing but your wit and trusted, battle-hardened Pokemon. But now, it felt like the series was regressing into a game only for children. And that did bring a younger crowd into the series, but it's hard to imagine that those same kids wouldn't have gotten into the series regardless.

[@Charles_Anthony]

You're absolutely right. The first handful of Pokemon episodes were actually pretty intense. The flock of angry Spearows, Team Rocket basically nuking Viridian City's Pokemon Center... just from the anime alone you saw a noticeable regression into something softer and that's ignoring how the games became more aimed at a younger audience too. Pokemon didn't have to go full on PG13, but going for the Y7 market basically drove anyone who grew up with the franchise away. I checked out of the anime when Misty left and I gave up on the games after getting my brand new Gameboy SP (that I bought for Ruby) stolen in High school...

[@rb98769]

I very much agree with this sentiment. This was definitely one of the main factors for me.

[@remvaizor3522]

There's one simple answer why kids like me stopped liking Pokemon after the 90's: leaving elementary school and starting junior high. Pre-teens and teenagers can be cruel, and being Pokemon fan made you the biggest loser in town in the 7th grade. I stopped watching anime and playing TCG and all the other Pokemon activities in fear of being bullied, but the temptation was too strong: I still had to play Gold and Silver, even if it meant doing it in secret... And it was beautiful. Truly a swansong for this journey, but the Gen II experience did felt a little bit empty. It was missing all the hype with the other kids, the mania, the cards, the speculations, the anime... That's why I remember Gen I so fondly. For a year or two, it was socially acceptable to like Pokemon. And I loved every minute of it.

[@Jac735]

You know what I noticed I was born in 89 when the Pokémon craze was in my older brother was a freshman it must have been different for him because even deniers in my neighborhood wree with cards and games so our era was different your right the vibe wasn't right after 01 when johto was on thr ainme too It seemed like the show wasn't getting that much ratings because I noticed that they had the johtol series for at least three years for some reason I would say after 2009 Pokémon became popular again.That's just me though

[@itstheman0nthem00n]

I played pokemon my entire school life and I never let anyone know I played it. I did have a friend from another school who was also my coworker (and did the same job as me too) who still played it with me though

[@ivancito7790]

This was my experience too. By gen 3, Pokemon was seen as "lame" by our generation.

[@itstheman0nthem00n]

@@ivancito7790 i definitely know the generation after went through a phase because i can especially remember pokemon cards still being a major trading commodity in school cafeterias and on the bus until at least 2015. They got banned but kids would still do it in secret. And then pokemon go came and another phase which even managed to bring some older fans back or older people who had never tried pokemon before

[@nikpetrovic3877]

sorry man, i was in 8th grade when pokemon red/blue hit the US shores and all the dudes at school were playing it without shame. i feel bad that you were ridiculed for doing what you love. maybe gen2 coming out while i was in HS made it less appealing, but it wasn't for fear of being a loser, it was just not as good a game to me. i kept playing red/blue throughout highschool, I still recall many a night staying up with my friends battling and trading im 40 and married with 2 kids now. from time to time, I still play pokemon blue. my wife doesn't think it is cool, but she still married me and had kids with me anyway! don't let people change you, be who you are and live the life you love

[@HoshizakiYoshimasa]

Gen 1 fandom in both Japan and West was those of us born in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And most grew out of Pokemon in the early 2000s. Western fans moved to Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh in the early 2000s

[@DubDigital]

This. Dragonball Z was way cooler for young Boys back then.

[@mariowalker9048]

Dbz was popping in the late 90s.

[@cleverman383]

I bought the GBA, I bought Ruby and Sapphire. It "felt wrong". The anime changed too, and it also "felt wrong". Pokemon during Gen 1&2 was an entirely different franchise than Pokemon Gen3+ I think anyone who goes back and tries to play Red/Blue will notice this too, in the opposite direction. No icon to show if a wild pokemon has been caught or not? No pokemon genders? No berries? No held items? No abilities? No EVs/IVs? No Battle Tower? No breeding? No GTS? No Wonder Trades? Even Ruby/Sapphire and Sword/Shield don't feel too different from each other. But Gen 1? Completely different feel to it.

[@KatrinaSForest]

That's a good point. Ruby and Sapphire started the pattern of each region being a separate experience from the last, and it introduced a lot of the games' staple mechanics. So I could see them feeling like simplified versions of newer games.

[@alfalfag]

Finally, someone thinks the same way I do. When I first saw the Gen3 games, i said right away "Pokemon changed, I'm not playing this". And I eventually did play Gen3 like 10 years after its realease. Gen 3 was the beginning of the hange for Pokémon and it kept changing for the worst each gen. I do suggest people play Black2/White2 though, those games are not that bad...You can skip Black1/White1, spoil yourself the story. Is not that harsh anyway

[@joeyjoe5339]

I read the Shogakukan manga special on Satoshi Tajiri and I think it explained why Gen 3 on felt like a completely separate franchise. Gen 1 is essentially the creator of Pokemon's passion project. It's "Pokemon" in its purest form. Gen 2 was the spillover of ideas that didn't make it into Gen 1. And that's where Tajiri disappeared more or less. From Gen 3 on he let the sound producer become the main producer of the games, and while I have played ALL of Masuda's Pokemon games and enjoyed them more or less, I agree that there's a hard line between Tajiri's Pokemon (Gen1+2) and then Masuda's re-envisioning of it (Gen3+).

[@ZeroX7649]

​@@KatrinaSForest I lived through this and stopped at Gen 2. Gen 3 as just awful. Almost all the old Pokemon were gone. No 2nd region. Sure it was in color, but the new Pokemon sucked. It was a complete and total downgrade. They were just awful.

[@xxwes997xx]

@@ZeroX7649 that was my issue, the vast majority of the original 150 and the additional gen 2 pokemon were cool. by ruby/sapphire, only a handfull were even cool. i didnt even like the starters.

[@gargantuasounds]

This video makes me feel like I wasn't the only one expecting to go back to Johto/Kanto after completing Hoenn for the first time

[@darklinkduck2275]

As an English player I think something that is not talked about enough is the absolute fever of poke mania from 1999-2001 it just the games but the anime the TCG and the games were all pretty tight knit. Remembering 150 Pokémon is easy 250 starts to get hard 386 is when things start to get even harder. As a kid I remember being uninterested in the anime when they changed the VA for Ash but honestly the thing that killed Pokémon the most is the fact that they believe dumping 100 more mons at a time is the only way to keep players interested when reality they are just diluting there brand. There’s a reason very few Pokémon can even touch some of the original 151 in terms of name recognition.

[@KatrinaSForest]

Yeah, I'd say there are a few stand-outs with each generation, but there are many that are easily forgettable, too. Tinkaton drew my attention immediately when I looked at a line-up of the Gen 9 additions, and I'm not surprised she's one of the most recognizable new Pokémon. I'd love to do more videos about the general Poké Mania atmosphere in those early years. I was hooked on all elements of the franchise, and it was probably the first time I liked something that was actually popular. ^_^

[@bigfoot9049]

Diluting the brand? At gen 3? They didn't dilute the brand til they started making stupid shit into pokemon, clefki is a prime example of a mon that just shouldn't exist (obviously thats my opinion I'm sure alot of people love the dumb bastard). I will 100% agree on the dilution of the brand but not the timing you're saying.

[@cmbaz1140]

I agree mostly...gen 2 is basically anything that didnt make it into the first games + a little bit more... Gen 3 tried to recapture the magic of gen 1 but with "new" pokemon... Instead... They should have made your players choice matter in the games and plot. (Like in Mass effect) I wanted to be evil so often in game...but sadly there was no way... (Like in fable) There should have been more than one way to beat the game and "plot"...like either by standard brute forcing your way up to the top boss of the evil organization and beating them all or stealing a uniform/costume and going in metal gear solid style trying your best not to be found out...or joining the other evil organization and riling them both up and pitting them against eachother... Or sabotaging them in some other way etc...( like metal gear solidor similar ) Maybe at the beginning of the game you have to make a choice what you want to do ... Becoming a pokemon champion or a pokemon contest champion and i really wish they included the Trading Card game into the mainline pokemon games and you could have chosen that route if you wanted...and once you became the champion you could try the other stuff... More caves forests mountain ranges deserts and mysteries to explore and make it worth to explore maybe very rare pokemon very rare items special random trainer encounters like trainers gym leader elite 4 members or special events like causing an avalanche and changing the landscape permanently or starting a chain quest of some sort ... (Make environments more interactive + biomes like in minecraft) More side quests like finding a lost person or a specific pokemon with specific gender nature and stats for a child...giving people certain items they want...(zelda games stuff) Make game interesting and more than just about pokemon berry gardening secret bases etc... also important for post game (make it similar to animal crossing especially post game) Make an actual competitve pokemon battle" tower" with old and new teams of real world competitve players... also you will be ranked in the real world in real time once you enter the battles inside the tower... Make one game with all pokemon aviable but randomize certain encounters to make every run slightly different...(certain pokemon are rarer to encounter like lets say you play pokemon silver with all pokemon aviable the pokemon from gold would be rare encounters like shinys...)

[@SuperFlashDriver]

God all of my Millennial siblings and I were alive when that happen...1999 and 2000 was a time to be alive man, that's why those years from 1998 up until 2003 are fondly remembered as I was only 3/4 years old when that happened....

[@alecrutz956]

a lot of the newer pokemon that are recognized are usually from my experience, recognized for being a monster in tournaments, being dumb, or for... less than wholesome reasons.

[@Raldo5324]

I stopped playing Pokemon for while after gen3, not because I didn't like it, but because it wasn't "cool" anymore. I fell into the trap of trying to fit in with what was or wasn't popular for my age group at the time. I got back into it with HGSS and I haven't stopped playing. Every new generation that comes out is different and it's not anywhere close to the same as it was in gen1. It will never be as good for me as it was when I was a kid and I accept that. The bottom line is that Pokemon is awesome, and always will be.

[@stephenvaldez6147]

I felt like I was the one typing while reading because I went through the same thing. Got out at gen 3 and came back because of gen 4 when gen 5 was about to end. Glad someone has a similar experience to me with this.

[@Raldo5324]

@@stephenvaldez6147 It helped me learn a lot about who I am as a person, and about the real world. You shouldn't compromise who you are as a person or what you like in pursuit of the approval of your peers. Instead, you should surround yourself with people who enjoy the same things as you or just enjoy what you enjoy regardless. This is a lesson that I'm trying to teach my daughter, who is massively into Pokemon.

[@leargamma4912]

Nostalgia bias. Loser.

[@jamesprumos7775]

Gen III was Dexit before Dexit.

[@megaman37456]

Not really as all the pokemon were still programmed into the games code, unlike modern pokemon games.

[@Claymireko]

True too much water and not being able to use previous gen pokemons and less fractures overall Made me quit, i played X-Y gen, and stopped Again, waiting for a good Pokémon game

[@jamesprumos7775]

@@megaman37456 It was a similar situation though. Pokémon took a decline in popularity as a whole around the time Gen III came out (and I'm not denying that there were also people who got into the series around this time), and that was partially due to no longer being able to bring over the previous gen's Pokémon. Even though they were still in the code, players needed to wait for Colosseum, XD, and FRLG just to get back to where they were in Gen II. And even accounting for that, Pokémon caught on original hardware in Gens 1 and 2 are either gone from existence due to batteries dying or just stuck there because you can't transfer them over to later games unless you're the guy who made that one crazy contraption to port them over.

[@megaman37456]

@@jamesprumos7775 Yeah, but that only lasted while Ruby/Sapphire were around, after the Gamecube games and FRLG came out Gen 3 got way more popular, especially with Emerald coming out being the last gen 3 game. I remember gen 3 through most if it's run was extremely popular, and pretty much the peak of pokemons overall popularity, meaning not just the games, but the merch and the shows too.

[@flyawayq5115]

At least it was a design oversight instead of being intentional

[@ericmackrodt9441]

I grew up on Gen 1 and I remember how exciting it was to get new Pokémon with Gen 2 because it felt that couldn't happen. I couldn't play gen 3 though and I stopped playing the TCG and wasn't really following the anime anymore by then. If I could've owned a GBA, maybe I'd been into Gen 3, but by the time the next few generations came out, the ship had sailed and I wasn't familiar with those generations. I've played some of the games later on on the 2ds and switch and I got familiar with some later generation Pokémon, but I never really dove into them and I tend to focus on capturing Gen 1 and 2 Pokémon in those games because those are the ones I like the most. But that's me, I honestly don't get people hating on other people who like later generations, especially when that's one of the reasons Pokémon is still relevant 20 something years later.

[@enitheway]

If I would add anything to this, it would be what Nintendo 64 did better compared to GameCube. For example we didn't own a GameBoy but with Pokémon Stadium's Transfer Pack we were able to play Red, and then later Pokémon Stadium 2 with newer content was still compatible our Rare Candy trained teams. Your point about Gen 3's hard reset and lost progress was on the point, and it took a long time until Pokémon has given us something similar - thanks to Pokémon Home.

[@Hice_T]

Remember the amount of batteries we had to go through

[@pupper5580]

always save the game a lot, in case your battery runs out and you lose your progress. lol.

[@pokepress]

You bring up a valid factor, but I think going from elementary to middle to high school where the franchise was less and less accepted was probably a bigger factor. Once folks reached adulthood, you started to see them come back. For the record, the technical reason for the 2/3 divide was due to the stat realignment, but perhaps more importantly the protocol differences between the Game Boy and GBA link ports. Someone on YT did eventually figure it out, but it likely would have required a specialized device to be made and distributed.

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

This is exactly how it went for me. Born in '91. Immediately fell in love with the franchise during pokemania. Hung on into gen 2, but I lost touch by the time gen 3 came around during middle school.

[@SunriseRss]

For me Gen2 was peak Pokémon... Truly for me felt like a final game. Everything after feels like filler (not that they aren't good games etc. I enjoyed them all ).

[@brennanyoung2978]

I dropped out after Gen II for these reasons, less so about compatibility, but I already felt the scope creep. Part of the joy of Pokemon was knowing each intimately... that quickly felt impossible for someone like me.

[@froloffanton]

Absolutely true. Being not able to transfer my beloved Pokemon into the GBA games killed my interest in continuing the franchise.

[@j.z.5678]

I played Pokémon Blue religiously, Pokémon stadium and watched the 151 Pokémon version. After that I was out.

[@aspookyfox]

I’m a Genwunner. I still play and enjoy the newer generations-especially Gen V-but I see them very differently.

[@MicaelAlighieri]

The core games from Gen 3, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, were part of a soft reboot and direction change for the franchise. The games became much more complex with the new dynamics and many things we used to have went missing, like day and night cycle. Other parts of the Generation got a change of direction as well, like the TV series, which got a weaker plot, and there weren't new Pokémon Stadium games anymore, which used to attract people who didn't normally play otherwise (like my own mother, who loved the minigames). People love their comfort zone and hate sudden changes, even more if they lose things they enjoyed and loved, so that's why many players left every time they've tried to do something like that (in my case, I temporarily quit Pokémon during mid to late Gen 5, and I did it definitely from Gen 8 onwards, I only play old games and Pokémon GO with my father and some friends now).

[@ChibiCosmos]

I left at Gen 3 too. It was much harder back then to collect all the Pokémon. So when I worked hard getting everything, then found out Gen 3 cut us off, I was devastated. On top of that, I wasn't a fan of the starters, and the art style started to look different. I came back in DPP. The next game to cause my leave would be SM

[@nickgates4259]

The designs just flat out got worse and lazier with time, something about the bright clean aesthetic they went with is just really unappealing to me

[@stephenthomson3120]

I was a junior in high school when gen 1 came out. I loved the tagline "gotta catch 'em all." I used my own money to buy two gameboys and both red and blue to catch every pokemon. I felt a real sense of accomplishment. I did the same in gen 2 and still believe that Crystal was perfection. When gen 3 came out, and I realized that catching them all was neither easy nor fun, and the games were more or less a carbon copy of the first 2 generations (beat 8 gyms, take on the elite 4), I quickly lost interest. The great thing about gen 1 and 2 is that Game Freak was pulling out all the stops. They didn't know if Pokemon would be successful, didn't know if the series would continue, and made sure what they were putting out was their best work. Subsequent generations were just trying to do a little better, but not that much more, doing the bare minimum to get a sequel out the door.

[@chriswillis4960]

The Gen 3 Dexit was rough, if it wasnt for my parents having my sister preorder the games for me, and already having a GBA. I think the Gen 3 pivot would have been the end for me. I lost a lot of friends I played the original games with, some moved into Gen 3 with me and I made new friends due to Gen 3 being the newest at the time I met those people, mostly younger kids in the neighborhood I grew up in that either moved to the area or I hadn't met until around that time. I also didnt like the Gen 3 Pokemon at first, but grew on them as I played the game, I did get upset however when I learned all the pokemon were in the game just not available, making me buy a cheating device just because I wanted access to my old favorites again.

[@KatrinaSForest]

I don't blame you. At least when the Gen 1 remakes came for GBA, players could get their own favorites again. But it wasn't like we knew those were coming at the time Ruby and Sapphire released. I was an only child and while my parents weren't against video games or anything, I was old enough that a personal system like the GBA was going to be something I bought myself. And it just wasn't a high priority when I had no one to play with. I got more into PC games for a while and didn't get another handheld system until the DS.

[@martialmushi918]

Everyone at my school collectively decided in 6th grade (2000-2001) that they were all too old for Pokemon at the ripe old age of 11. I remember having to hide the fact I got gold abd silver 😂

[@PrincessAmanda2290]

I love Gen 1 and continue to play every Pokémon game because I just love Pokémon, but I would also consider myself a Gen 1er. I still think you can’t beat the OG

[@iNsOmNiAcAnDrEw]

I think the bigger problem is with the TV show rather than the games. The games presented us with new characters, and the TV show didn't, at least not in the way that it should have. What I mean to say is Ash should have become a guest character instead of the star character. Gen 3 onward or whenever, he should have no longer been in every episode... but they just kept him there...nothing wrong with making him a guest character IMHO. I know I haven't played every gen of the Pokemon games, but I have larger issues with the complexity of the multiplayer and the ease of single player being so different rather than anything like exploration or story complaints. I remember playing an online battle simulator for Pokemon and being surprised at how wild it's all become.

[@KremBotop]

Experiencing the transition first hand from someone who was into pokemon since the beginning, I guess by the time gen 3 rolled around some OG fans had that "I'm too old for the stuff I liked as a kid" phase and voluntarily left without giving RSE a fair chance. Doesn't help that it was one of the series' major attemps at a soft reboot, further alienating audiences who had certain expectations of familiarity. Though in my case, gen 3 was when I truly became a fan, based on seeing the kids who still played bringing their GBAs to class and play RSE on breaks. As well as me trying those games through emulation making them my first pokemon game experience. While I was already familiar with the series before, it was primarily through the merchandise and TV show.

[@GoldieCristal]

Funny how history repeats itself. I was a fan of the franchise since gen 1, but I didn't learn there were videogames until gen 3, with the Kanto remakes funnily enough. Needless to say I was hooked, and everything from gens 3 to 5 (especially the Unova games) includes almost all of my best memories with the franchise. The jump to 3D was a bit rough, and I spent pretty much all of it waiting in vain for the games to get refined enough to recover that DS era goodness with expansive postgames, battle facilities, and all of that good stuff that made me so happy. And hey, despite all of that, I put Sun and Moon as some of my favorite games, so it wasn't all in vain. I started training lots of Pokémon in preparation for that one game that would get me back into the stuff I missed since Black and White 2, I even planned to train all of the Pokédex if I could. And then... It happened. Just as gen 1/2 fans before me, I saw all of my hopes for the franchise crushed away by the dexit announcement. The precedent for a decade and a half had been that as long as you got access to a Pokémon, you could transfer it and use it in every single game from its debut onwards, and starting with Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee it stopped being the case. It was disheartening enough that I still haven't gotten any of the Switch games, nor do i plan to do so. The franchise has moved on from what made it good for me, and I've come to terms with that. Now it's time for the new generation to enjoy the franchise based on what THEY value, so I'm fine staying in the sidelines and just taking a peek out of curiosity every now and then. And I feel this somewhat resembles the fall off of older fans that drifted off with gen 3, just as I would do with gen 8 for a not too dissimilar reason.

[@zach9962]

I’ll never forget gen3 release and all of a sudden the fad was dead. Overnight you weren’t cool if you played Pokémon.

[@Aries16603]

I’m a millennial born in 1991 and I can say, I stopped watching and playing Pokemon after gen 3. The Pokemon designs got weirder, tackier, and just cheesy overall.

[@ZaneDaBold]

No they didn't, they just had to start getting creative, with making new ones, you can't make boring pokemon like dewgong twice

[@RaineyDaysStudio]

Have you seen fan creations? It’s entirely possible to be creative and tasteful while preserving what made Gen 1 designs stick with us.

[@mikehayes160]

Ur on point none wants trashcan , hot dog or ice cream cone as a pokemon like what were they thinking?

[@ZaneDaBold]

@@mikehayes160 Oh yeah, Who wants a pokeball pokemon that evolves Into same thing backwards, Who wants an ugly pile of purple sludge that turns Into a bigger pile of sludge. Certainly not me

[@Aries16603]

@@ZaneDaBold no, they started to over design the Pokemon with a bunch of unnecessary features. They also, have Pokemon that are ice cream and a bunch of other foolishness. Pokemon sucked after gen 3. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. It hadn’t gotten more creative, it got tacky.

[@stunistus]

It's mostly because we had fun playing pokemon on the GBC but by the time gen 3 and the GBA came out we had moved onto other fads (e.g warhammer) and didn't have to money or interest to spend on a GBA. Our younger siblings/cousins took up the pokemon torch.

[@kocharjm]

I normally don’t post anything , but I think you also missed how empty generation three felt. You did strike on how you couldn’t bring any of your old Pokémon over and how a lot of the original cast never made an appearance, but I also feel like the whole game was very cookie cutter and it didn’t make you feel like there was a whole lot of playability after beating the elite flour. I also felt like a lot of the “ improvements” in later generations weren’t exactly mind blowing like they were in generation two with the backwards compatibility, the traveling between regions, night and day, and special events. Not to mention a lot of the new Pokémon seemed to just be slapped together instead of having genuine care and creativity put into them. A penguin with an ice cube for a head killed me. Just so you don’t think I’m some GEN one boomer I’ve played all the way up to sword and shield and I can honestly say none of the new games captured the magic of the original two. If they ever make a game with all the regions in it I’ll play again, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I’m good.

[@alicevioleta3184]

an older girl that i lived with at the time let me play gen 2 on her GBC. i was hooked and my father bought me Colosseum, which had a lot of gen 2 pokemon. i got sapphire later on, and it was never as cool. i kept playing the copy of Crystal i had for years, and it's still my fav. when i got Diamond in 2006? i was in love. diamond brought me back, but even my love for sinnoh doesn't match how much i love johto. johto feels like home.

[@Spongebrain97]

I grew up with gen 1 but my first game wasnt until gen 4 with Pearl version. So from gens 1 through 4 it always felt like a smooth transition to me because of how each four gens frequently crossed each other with evolution lines. I always felt like gen V onwards was where the gameplay and pokemon felt more disconnected

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

The mega memory card became necessary.

[@KatrinaSForest]

Wish I'd known about it at the time. I think when my Gen 2 games went, I knew it was something that could happen, but it took by surprise that it happened as soon as it did.

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

@@KatrinaSForest along with the memory cards, it is useful to be able to replace the batteries. This means soldiering tools, security screw bits and replacement batteries.

[@MochiPupusa]

I was so into gen 1 and 2. When 3 came out I was trying to be cool so i dropped pokemon for years until sun and moon

[@olive6366]

An unfortunate point to come back to the game 😅 Try the third gen that you missed out on, so much better

[@jamesmichaels4979]

Gold and Silver ere were the perfect ending. Though I did play Sapphire. And I thought it was a fantastic game. (I was born 1991)

[@GeaForce]

Santa brought me a Gameboy color specifically to play Pokemon Gold and he wasn't willing to get me a GBA to play Pokemon Ruby and Saphire 2 years later. Also guess what happened with Diamond and Pearl?

[@1bwash]

For me the games stopped feeling like a realistic adventure in an exciting world and then it was like this existential, save the world type thing. It felt ridiculous juxtaposed to how cute everything was supposed to be.

[@dixonbuttes]

This was excellent. You did a great job capturing the overall feelings from back then. Thank you!

[@KatrinaSForest]

My pleasure! So glad you liked it!

[@josephmelendez8370]

This is good point but honestly part of what hurt Pokemon was the fact that the Johto series was dragged out compared to the Indigo league and Orange Island runs. I remember A LOT of kids tuning it out at that time and as a result, turning away from anything Pokemon. I also remember that the release of new "dark" Pokemon cards and other gimmicky card series' wasnt particularly well received with kids where I lived. Once the magic was lost from the TV series and the card game, it was only a matter of time until the Video games felt the impact.

[@SuperFlashDriver]

I think that's why Seasons 1-5 were so special. Johto especially focused a lot on the "Slice of Life" type of progession compared to the "always battling always something happening" type of episodes from seasons 1 and 2.

[@nikpetrovic3877]

the gimmicks is what did it to me. "oooh dark" "oooh shiny" "ooooh fairy" "ooooh babies" "ooooh steel" "oohhh berries" "oooh genders" "oooh day and night" "ooh letter shapes" like ffs gen1 was such a huge hit for a reason. all it needed were some QoL improvements, maybe some sharper graphics, clean up the glitches, balance the pokemon a bit better. instead they shat something out which did those things to an extent, but crammed a ton of shitty gimmicks that nobody except your 6 year old sister wanted.

[@fr33z1ng]

I'm a gen three-er because I got my older brother's Gameboy advanced with the Emerald game at age six and got obsessed 😂 I tried gen 1 and 4 and 5 as a kid as well, but always returned to gen 3 as nothing compared to it for me. I've worked hard to become more open minded over time and now as an adult I have many new favourite pokemon from new generations! But I have a mAssively soft spot for every gen 3 mon. My friends are concerned for me for liking mons such as nosepass and castform 😅But the nostalgia man, I can't help it.

[@KatrinaSForest]

I'm a fan of Trubbish, so I make no judgments whatsoever on anyone's favorite Pokémon. ^_^;; Also, Castform is awesome.

[@bigfoot9049]

I've been playing scarlet recently and everytime a gen 3 mon pops up as an outbreak I'm there. Gen 3 for life bro

[@megaman37456]

I grew up on blue, but for me the games I ALWAYS go back to, even now are: Crystal, Emerald, XD, Fire Red, ORAS, and Legends. Because in my eyes, those are the best games in the franchise. I personally feel that Gens 4 and 5 are EXTREMELY overrated, Gen 6 is only good when it's ORAS, and Gens 7+ are some of the lowest quality AAA grade games I've ever played.

[@ehrenschopenhauer]

There was a huge tonal shift in the game and especially in the anime after Gen 2. It didn't even feel like Pokemon anymore

[@WormAteWords]

Thank you for making this video! It reminded me of facts that I had forgotten. I am still basically a Gen 1 guy, but not militantly. I just prefer it! And I think the rough transition to Gen 3 is why, combined with getting older.

[@johnfeathers1055]

Definitely grew attached to the world of gen 1 and 2. And it Definitely crushed me when they made the transition. I still get sad. That's nostalgia for you though.

[@TophDaGreat]

I was a teenager back then. My older pkmn being locked behind was bad enough, but what pissed me off even more were the financial barriers that had to be broke down For the full experience back then, you needed the following A GBA R or S or E FR or LG A GCN A GCN/GBA link cable colosseum/XD (AND you had to beat the game before trading was even an option) Yea, it was too much. I dipped and moved on to JRPGs like KH and Tales of series.

[@junkyardkongssb]

Wow the voiceover is so good!! Cadence, tone, sound quality, very easy to understand 👍👍👍 I’m so impressed! And Pokémon vids? Subscribed 😎

[@rb98769]

I'm one of those people and you've got it right. Honestly it just bothered me quite a bit that a lot of the hallmarks of the games seemed to be gone. There was no longer a Team Rocket, many of our favorite pokemon were gone forever, and many things in gen 3 just seemed like they were going a step back. Looking back there were actually a lot of cool new things, but back then it just didn't seem like the game was worth buying a GBA for.

[@lay-z]

You just describe my pokemon journey 😮 I had no idea that there are others like me. Gen1ers unit

[@OnyxAnimosity]

Gen 2 was and will always be the peak for me. There was so much added and so many QOL changes that kept me replaying.

[@melo75286]

I am the group she’s talking about. I was born in 1990 and we truly got shafted big time. Thanks for shining a light on this. RiP my childhood lineup.

[@isaacmedina2957]

When the GBA came out my older brothers' love for Pokemon was waning like you said (they were the ones who introduced me) but mine was just starting to grow❤

[@jamescasson9483]

I appreciate seeing this video and especially some of these comments on the character aesthetics. Good to know some people get it.😌

[@KatrinaSForest]

Thanks! Glad to know it was relatable!

[@Deeeeezeeeee]

I left after Blue, Red and Yellow and I'm happy for it

[@corystarkiller]

Gen 2 was designed to be the ending. The anime was made to hype Gold. Then no more. Pokemania happened, and they weren't going to stop that gravy train. So us Gen 1/2ers, are completely justified in stopping there. That was always the plan.

[@Jac735]

Dang facts though

[@nikpetrovic3877]

i always felt that every gen was trying to appeal more and more to the lowest common denominator. even Gen2 introducing "baby" pokemon... like wtf maybe my little sister thought that was cool but the game felt much less hardcore in essence and like the tried to overcompensate for that by adding on more superpowered pokemon. Cool, there's like 100 legendaries now, i guess they are all really legendary....

[@BigmanDogs]

Competitors as Yugioh is the primary reason I can think of. Boys in partcular in my school tended to find the yugioh designs and anime story to be much cooler.

[@vulpix85]

my first mainline game was ultra moon on the 3ds when i was just 13-14ish, and back then i never understood genoners and why they hated newer regions, while i dont like the idea of hateing a region, i think your video made me understand. For me it never bothered me to start from scrach in a new gen, but i do respect the ones who left after hoenn

[@KatrinaSForest]

I think sometimes it's a self-justification thing--if you come back to the fandom after a long time away and feel overwhelmed by how much you've missed, it's easier to say you were right to ignore it all along. I'm still not okay with people hating on new generations, but I also think fans saying, "I'm not interested in Gens 3+" can easily get misinterpreted as hating when that isn't always what they mean. Anyway, glad you found the video helpful. :)

[@vulpix85]

​@@KatrinaSForest Yeah, i think i get it now! Its kinda simmilar to another fandom im in, where most people left after a certain point. If someone decides that theyd rather not interact with newer regions or games, i can respect that! My only problem is with people who are mean to eachother (and that means both sides) and honestly, this video is the first video i saw from your channel, and from how it was, i think this is gonna be a fun and helpfull channel to watch^^

[@michaelthem3]

Loved the explanation. I was there as well and didn't enjoy the change back then.

[@tommcdermott3233]

Gen III was just poor timing for my age. I was exploring new hobbies and making new friends playing sports and going out. The 3DS generation brought me back because of my fascination with the technology. Now, I stay up to date so I can play with my kids.

[@SomeCrow-rq5dz]

Gen 2 was like a DLC of Gen 1. Gen 3 was too different for a lot of people.

[@pmnt_]

What I like most about the Gen 1 games are the glitches. When I learned about the Missingno / item duplication glitch, I actually deleted my "perfect" save file (the most you can get without trading, 137 dex entries iirc). I was careful not to use important TMs, made sure to keep at least one moon stone, rare candy, nugget in the box just to be able to duplicate as needed. Game Frak created the best post game by accident. It's a sandbox, where you can try new Pokemon with new movesets with ease. There was the playground rumor around that rare-candied mons were weaker than normally trained ones, but I thought I could bypass that by duplicating vitamins as well. (Turns out, vitamins give Stat XP, but only to a cap) I played through Red and Blue multiple times, always knowing that I wouldn't lose much progress. There was never the feeling of losing "invested" time in the form of grinding. With that background, even Yellow felt like a downgrade (I didn't know about the Trainer Fly glitch to encounter Missingno as a child). Postgame experimenting was just griding, never something that I would ever reset. Now, I know that I can't expect the same sandbox in any of the new games. And that's fine... except for Kanto remakes. Kanto without glitches is unplayable for me. Too much nostalgia.

[@patrickshepherd1341]

I played all of Gen 1 when it came out. Never did get Gen 2, but MAN did i used to sit in Walmart flipping through the players guides and imagine it.

[@damianwarneke305]

I grew up on the original games, love gen 2, but gen 3 just didn't hit the same for me. I wasn't even that old at the time, and I wanted to like them. There is something fundamentally different about the newer games, couldn't explain it really.

[@stwida91]

Shinies being in Gen 2 blows my mind, not because I don't remember them existing, but because due to the fact that the concept was never actually explained, it wasn't apparent what was going on. I literally thought the Red Gyrados was just... a 'special' red Gyrados, not because there was something inherently special or rare about it, but because the game / developers thought "woudln't it be cool if you could have this ONE red Gyrados?!". To my memory, I don't recall every stumbling across a shiny of any other Pokemon in those games, and so I thought the Redy Gyrados was essentially just some gimmick built into the story. Given how rare it is to actually find a shiny, it's very possible that someone could go all the way through a Gen 2 game without seeing a shiny other than the Red Gyrados, therefore never having the opportunity to connect the dots. I certainly never did. Lol. But I was also like 8 at the time, so who knows.

[@anthonyanderson9771]

Pokémon came out in 1st grade. I caught, trained, played the game endlessly in between school, homework, playing outdoors, and anything else I had to do. I got my dad to drive me an hour away to fight a Pokémon master, and had all my favorites together for Gen 1 and 2. It was a significant accomplishment. When I found out that all my hardwork was to be lost because of lack of compatibility I was done. Somehow I got nostalgia video recommended to me at some point and I'll watch but the sting was too much. If they came out with A Pokémon World, with all Pokémon, every region, updated lore that explains how everyone can have legendaries, and a story interweaving all the evil teams and protagonists, balancing all the monster's stats - I might play in spare time. Catching them all was the draw. I would need that still.

[@8figures8]

The thing about Gen I and Gen II is that these gens felt like they really put their heart and soul into them. 16 gyms. Red and Mt.Silver. Giovanni. The glitches. Everything they did made it feel like a magical world. And then the Pokémon movies that coincided with each generation among everything else people have already mentioned furthered that magic and imagination. As much as I love the Gen III starters, it did indeed feel like it was detached from the old Pokémon world and it felt like a downgrade. And as you said, not being able to traverse regions in gen III was a major letdown. The later gens will never understand as they never truly experienced pokemania.

[@IbilisSLZ]

Central European person perspective (Poland) in year 2000: Be a 6 year old kid luchy enough to get GameBoy Color (incredibly expensive back then) and Pokemon Silver in English (and later English version of Yellow and German version of Red) as of course no official translation existed. Have English knowledge limited to keywords (such as colors, greetings, etc). With simplicity of gen 1 and 2 (if you're stuck - try exploring around) and very clever (maybe accitental) way of writing dialogues in Pokemon (all important words such as items, attacks, names were written in ALL CAPS) I was able to beat both gens without any external help (later got some magazine which had tips for gen 1... and some errors). Two years have passed and GameBoy Advance arrives, rich kids (GBA was much more expensive at launch than GBC when it arrived, propably local distributor tried upselling it here) play Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, games with much more „complicated” quests and „prettier” graphics that actually looked a bit uncanny for me (also I thought Brendan had gray hair), lack of backwards compatibility (we tried connecting, of course with no success), „end of anime” (after Orange Islands another netword licensed further seasons or just switched airing hours) getting an upgrade was pointless for me. Many years later (in 2010s) I bought an used GBA and Pokemon Ruby and... still got disappointed a lot of game problems which existed in gen 1 and 2 still persisted (such as trainers limited rosters, I mean you have three generations of first route rodents, not every youngster has to use only local variant) while story became more hand-holding (if you understand language), which actually started even in gen2 to lesser extent (we dealt with Team Rocket in gen 1 because they stood in our way, in gen 2 - because NPC told us to). Not to mantion many regressions (such as removal of visual morning/day/night cycle and most time based events such as weekly events, phone calls; lack of backwards compatibility, same sprites in used in both games of generation, removal of animated sprites from Crystal) and a lot of new features felt extremely gimmicky (double battles in R/S were a novelty, only Emerald utilised them in meaningful way), berry blending and contests were (and even today seem to be) just confusing with no real benefit. What I love most in gen 1 and (especially gen 2 as time of day and day of week affected some stuff) was exploration of non-mandatory locations and nonlinear gym order. With less railroady quests (which since gen 3 started to dominate story in Pokemon games) and more freedom - it felt like my own adventure each time I stardted game. Of course you can optimize it and get very similar runs each time, but average runs in gen 1/2 felt (especially when compared with local kids) much more varied, than those in gen 3 (everybody did the same stuff in same order using almost exclusively same Pokemon). Modern Pokemon seem to be aimed to even younger audiences than those made 25 years ago - when I tried playing FireRed (yea, calling it modern xD) I rolled my eyes at battle tutorial - even as 6yo kid I understood that to win I have to attack and not let my Pokemon faint and now you explain it while still not explaining much more confusing aspects (such as what is difference between normaln and special attack). TL;DR: I prefered simpler games which gave me more freedom to realise my own story opposed to complex games which stories (tbh... who even plays Pokemon game for it's „ambitious” plot?) and additional mechanics that seem to be particular generation's gimmick (i.e. Megaevolutions in X/Y) while still being extremely repetitive (Use X mechanic in this game to stop Y team from using legendary Z Pokemon from doing something evil).

[@vaya-dragon1998]

When you think about it, it’s like the backlash Pokemon Sword and Shield got when they announced that not all Pokémon are available in those games. At least you could transfer some previous Pokémon to Sword and Shield. Also, you can transfer Pokémon between Sword/Shield (gen 8) and Scarlet/Violet (gen 9) and vice versa as long as the Pokémon is in both games. I caught an Eevee in Scarlet (gen 9) and transferred it to Sword (gen 8)

[@BryJovi17]

For me it was a mixture of things. I was born in 1988, and so it was sort of my peak childhood years when I was lucky enough to play gen 1 and 2. I bought myself all 6 versions - R/B/Y/G/S/C and yes felt like it was a complete story and the trading between both was fantastic. When gen 3 launches in 2002, I'm already 14 years old and beginning my GCSE studies at school (these were important to get into college and then eventually university). I was also doing a paper round part time and I had my PS2 in around 2001 which dominatef my free time and took up most of my money earned from my paper round. I wasn't going to invest in an entirely new portable gameboy advance just to play a new Pokémon game. I was also feeling at that very age that I was wanting to grow up a bit more towarda an adult and part of that meant cutting the umbilical cord of Pokémon... I was getting into music properly and also got my first guitar age 15 and was self teaching myself through my latter days in school and throughout college. I had a great 4 or so years with Pokémon having played gen 1 and 2. I also was extremely into it so much that I managed to find on the internet back then a JAPANESE version emulator of Gold. I played it immediately and even though I couldn't read any of the in game text or what the attacks were I was guessing everything based on the animations 🤣 It added a whole new mystery to playing Pokémon game and I pretty much got stuck at the Lighthouse and having to get medicine for Ampharos. I eventually had to simply talk to every NPC in the game again until I could progress and managed to complete it in the end. I was RELIEVED and excited when the English version was released in UK for me and played it a lot. Gen 1 and 2 will always be the first and greatest Pokémon experience and I'm sorry that due to pure circumstance of anyone born into this world later in human history than then to be able to experience it at the time, the new gens just honestly don't compare to the euphoria of the originals. Fact.

[@PLANTAS-PODEROSAS]

The gold version is for me one of the best adventures I've had in my life, beating Red was very exciting, I still keep my cartridge as a treasure. They are great memories but sadly Pokemon never evolved with me.

[@GodwinXZ]

My star dream was stuck forever in my Gen 1/2 cartridges. There was no way to get my team into future generations. This was my reason.

[@MrTopTenList]

Even though I was fine with the Hoenn games change up things, it really felt like a different era. I think it was the popularity in outside media that also made Gen 1 and 2 feel unique. You saw products for Pokémon where they didn't quite know who was popular, so guys like Poliwhirl and Chansey were just as dominant on products as Pikachu. Now, unless you're the de facto most popular, you're not going to be on as much promo stuff unless it's material every Pokemon gets, like plushies.

[@crh1985]

I left after gen 2 can came back in late gen 4. I left for 2 reasons; 1st was the loss of the ability to trade from gen 2 to gen 3. 2nd my life took a hard bad turn And i know what you mean about finding a shiny before Red Gyarados, my first encounter was a shiny Sentret… before you get pokeballs

[@jaymuffinz]

Gen1er here, I lost attention after they made such a big deal over “catching them all” then releasing a whole ton more that I could never keep up with. My parents already spent tons of money buying me cards and I couldn’t put them through all that again every time a new generation came out.

[@djb1ge]

This was pretty much my experience. Gen 2 honored Gen 1 and was tied to it where Gen 3 did away with it entirely until FR/LG were released. By then, I was in 10th Grade and wasn’t interested in Pokemon anymore. Nowadays if I get the itch, I still emulate the first two gens, but I don’t really care about anything after that. I started collecting cards again, too, but I pretty much exclusively collect species from the first two gens. I’m not quite a Genwunner, but close. lol

[@moralessanchezoscarelias6412]

You are totally right. I was exactly in that situation, and dropped out of the series. Later I only returned for X and Y, because my sister already owned 3DS XL.

[@Dnightshade100]

THANK YOU! I’m glad there’s someone else who understands the problems us gen 1 & 2 players faced with the old games and the inability to transfer old game pokemon to newer games. I lost my event mew too when the battery in my pokemon games died. DX

[@Vmac1394]

The reason I fell off after the first couple games was that I got all 151 Pokémon in Red in 1999. That was a massive effort for me that took hundreds of hours. Then gen 2 had 251 and I didn't finish the pokedex before getting burnt out trying to catch those stupid dogs. Then when I heard gen 3 had almost 400 Pokémon I just had no interest in slogging through that and considering the catch mechanics for things like Feebass/Milotic, I'm glad I didn't. Obviously, I didn't HAVE to complete the dex but I couldn't wrap my mind around that at that point in my life.

[@Ty-douken]

For me I was one of those first adopters, being excited for Gen 1 from Nintendo Power. I was also excited for Gen 2 & while I enjoyed my time with it & recognize it as the easily better game. However my memories are more closely tied to Gen 1 as that's when I played the series most. On top of that portable gaming was always a "back seat" activity for me & I could play Gen 1+2 on my Super Gameboy, but I didn't buy into Gamecube as my interests shifted towards PC gaming at that time & with getting my license I started losing out on those many hours of travel where I could play games.

[@Kate-lr6yv]

I never played rs only oras because I dunked my gbc in water as a kid

[@bradhaley8432]

As for me, I stopped watching the Pokémon anime after the 19th season, and I stopped playing the main series Pokémon games on February 27th, 2024, aka Pokémon day 2024 and the reason was because the Pokémon company still is refusing to acknowledge that both Scarlet and Violet were released in horrible condition. I've been a Pokémon fan since 1999, and I've been playing the main series Pokémon games since December 25th, 2004. Unfortunately, it's an end of an era for me.

[@gafee2001]

This video is incredibly well made!

[@cooltaylor1015]

It was the trading forward that did it for me. I told myself I'd move on to RSE when I could trade my Pokemon to them. That never, officially, happened. So, I've been still playing rbygsc for the 21 years since. And, honestly, I haven't run out of stuff to do yet. Working on a living shinydex and a living level 100 dex.

[@user-ZacBey]

Getting those 16 badges was the best. Such a golden game memory and I didn't know about shinnies back then other then Red Gryados 😢

[@TeH.j0keR]

This. Even in the show, the original idea of extra gym badges from alternative routes is still there.

[@edscr87]

The excitement of Gen 2 will be forever unmatched, it was huge. Though economic times when gen 3 came. Parents could not afford a GBA.

[@johanngeorgfaust4309]

I also was Gen 1-3 then we moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh! Now I'm back with Gen9 and trying to play competitively... It's a lot of fun for sure but Gen1 and 2 have still an untouchable special place in my gaming heart

[@mcrmy119]

I've always thought that it was Pokémon itself that caused it. Pokémania opened the floodgates for more Japanese properties to hit the west in the early 2000s, and Yu-Gi-Oh took off MASSIVELY around the time Gen III launched. And since Yu-Gi-Oh had more complex and "mature" themes of soul stealing with more complex and cooler looking monsters, the kids who grew up with Pokémon were now like 12 and wanted something that seemed more grown up.

[@EBChrispy]

This video really took me back, thank you!

[@DomWrath]

There were a lot of reasons I stopped after finishing gold. We didn't have the money for a gba, my friends stopped playing it which took away the social aspect of it, I was and always have been against anti consumer practices like not having backwards compatibility (stuff like that has honestly taken me out of gaming completely at this point). Also as a kid I deeply felt that when they released the unown pokemon that they were phoning it in. I clearly remember thinking "that's just a squiggle with an eyeball, they're running out of ideas", and that just kind of lingered in my mind, so going on after that I was probably more critical on designs than I should have been. I don't have anything against new generations, it's just something I don't have enough investment in to actively keep up on outside of a passing interest.

[@PancakHeaven]

the design philosophy also started to significantly change with gen 3 pokemon. I remember hating Blaziken when I first saw it because it didn't look like a pokemon. I didn't have that type of reaction to the gen 2 mons