What Pokémon Games Could and Should Be (But Sadly Aren't) (Series Comparison and Retrospective)

[@jackdonsurfer]

Given the announcement of Pokemon Legends Arceus, what are your hopes for the game and the future of the series?

[@snomflakes]

I frankly just want that greater sense of challenge which you elaborate upon in this video. Picking which gyms to fight first gives the playthrough a sense of uniqueness that helps it stand out from the rest. Another thing I really want from future games is the passion of its making to be present consistently. Having environments with more life in them would really help shape the world in a way the older games might not compare to.

[@-carpet-]

@@snomflakes yeah kind of like crystal clear I want to go on my own pokemon journey instead of following the one laid out for us Maybe they could do this with an online mode

[@jackdonsurfer]

@@snomflakes I'm not sure gyms are gonna be in the game... not a bad thing by any means but I'm curious as to how/if they're going to implement a progression system

[@maxie134]

I hope they fix the frame rate issue

[@Eldoofus]

kinda looks like Pokemon BoTW

[@2dollarchickenwings689]

I don’t quite understand when the whole “children are incompetent” mentality started to develop in these games.

[@SkimBee]

Well, about 6 and below kind of are now Name one time someone 6 and below could actually do something with independent thought

[@undeadwaluwugi758]

They don't make it easy for the children. They make it easy for the reviewers and critics.

[@yiangaruga4928]

@@SkimBee Bruh if I could beat Pokemon Firered without knowing any english as 6 year old I'm sure the generation that literally grows up with smartphones in their hand can beat the new games. Kids are not so dumb that they have to be guided through everything step by step.

[@ShooterJay]

@@yiangaruga4928 You're being too generous, these kids are dumb as hell XD

[@gundampeacekeeper]

@@ShooterJay the idea that kids are dumber this generation is crazy and completely unfounded but I think Pokémon could definitely use different difficulties. Let’s Go was great because it was definitely designed for younger kids but the rest of the series shouldn’t have that feel

[@Little_Lepus]

I always hated that whole "It's for kids" excuse. First of all: Kids are pretty smart. Second: So what? That means it's okay if it's bad? Why?

[@reborno-o4498]

Pokemon pulled a Sonic Boom...

[@XXLRebel]

Lots of games are designed for kids, that's no excuse for them to be badly designed. Imagine designing a toy that you want to sell the idea of to a company but it already breaks apart if you hold it the wrong way. "WeLl iTs mAdE foR kIdS😃👉"

[@80sForever29]

Because kids have no quality standards

[@EVPointMaster]

I was able to figure out the Regi puzzles in Ruby when I was 9! The new games are pretty much, hold the stick forward and mash A. Even kids's games shouldn't be this dumbed down

[@Little_Lepus]

@@80sForever29 The adults that look back on the things they enjoyed as kids do have standards. So.

[@HungerGamesFanatic11]

the whole "it's for kids" thing... I was able to beat Cynthia when I was like 10. kids like a challenge too ffs

[@taeslilclown9801]

they should’ve focused on entertaining their older fanbase that grew up with them rather bringing in newer ones and taking away the challenge we all loved while growing up

[@daxterzokachuz2958]

"It's for kids" isn't even an excuse they can use for the challenge or difficulty taken out of the newer gens. If it's for kids then it should be more difficult, urge training or thinking more because that helps kids grow, it's what's most memorable a lot of the time, and what is most achieving.

[@Ray25689]

Tbh, I only heard from the cynthia memes that she is considered to be that hard. I had absolutely no problem killing her, back then and now. Even though I was like 10 or 11 aswell. It wasnt too easy, but especially not too hard, even for a lil child

[@San-lh8us]

the thing is that it's NOT for kids, it's for the kids that grew playing them and are now adults

[@Okino123321]

@@daxterzokachuz2958 hell yeah

[@alejopeth]

Even tho Hoenn was a lot of water, i remember it as one of the few games that actually made me use the map to see where the F i was, as a kid finding the little gap to reach sky tower and find rayquaza was amazing not to mention the bike control to pass through, reaching the tower with half team almost dead because all the random enconters and then try to catch that green beast, amazing video man!

[@kmdreacts]

This brought back memories. I remember the same happening to me back then on GBA Ruby. I even bloody learned Braille through the game manual in order to uncover the Regis. Unforgettable!

[@kripticlunar8198]

ong they make the games so unbelievably easy now like kids weren’t beating the old games

[@SirWifHat]

And dont forget we didnt had youtube playtrough and tutorials.

[@Sandman503413]

Dude for these reasons I have never played a new Pokémon game past like heart-gold basically except the moba Pokémon game. I’m so disappointed, I’m a grown ass man, I want a challenge. Children do as well I guarantee.

[@handsoaphandsoap]

The “too much water” argument isn’t that there’s literally too much water to know where you’re going. The problem is that going through water in most Pokémon games is just not fun and poorly designed. Water routes are like other routes if they were full of tall grass, with a chance of triggering random encounters on every square of the map. Add on to that the lack of variety in Pokémon found in these routes and you have a very monotunous and annoying experience. There’s only so many Tentacools you can kill before you start getting bored. A modern Hoenn game would not have this issue since random encounters are almost fully gone. You could just wade around the ocean and only fight Pokémon if you choose to. Look at f.e. the Cobalt Coastlands in Legends Arceus, no one really complained about that being mostly a water level because the player has more control of their gameplay experience. If you want to fight Pokémon you can and if you don’t, just evade them.

[@zLucci.]

"We have to make the games easy for children!" Seriously. I beat pokemon soul silver when I was 6 and barely knew how to read, why does gamefreak think kids are so stupid? fr tho its just a bit of trial and error instead of this handholding shit up until the 8th gym

[@Ryuchu_that_one_nerd]

Well, the world thinks children are stupid.

[@Kyrmana]

Heck, we even played some games in Japanese as kids just by trial and error

[@oliverp1510]

same i didnt know a lick of english and still beat soul silver black and white 1 & 2 og platium

[@grandarkfang_1482]

It's because everyone thinks they're so stupid that they're becoming stupid. Our low expectations are making them try less.

[@Vainglory100]

Kids aren’t stupid just unwise

[@HopCatSmash]

It hurts me how much I agree with this

[@asg3133]

Yeah

[@jaydenjahani6023]

Hey my favorite smash content creator

[@jorden9821]

Same

[@alexbluecyndaquil]

Ditto! There’s a reason my profile pic is a Cyndaquil! Because I made a connection with it, and my other Pokémon.

[@sodabug]

hi hopcat, and ya, I hope *if* they remake diamond and pearl, I hope it dosent become mudded up like these recent games

[@isaiahthomas9817]

“ Kids are stupid” also kids: beat Pokémon platinum in Japanese

[@aRotundCat]

PokeTips?

[@Djboyrimo]

Think he meant an American kid beating say the Japanese version of Pokémon Platinum

[@nightwolf3167]

I beat chyintia when I was 10 and my 20 year old uncle can't beat chyintia even tho he plays pokemon for a year

[@megagyraswampx9239]

@@nightwolf3167 smh I beat Cynthia when I was 7

[@austinparker87]

My first copy of Pokémon platinum was Japanese and I beat it before getting an English version with HGSS. Edit: I was 7-8 years old at the time.

[@GHOSTYChoco]

“Difficult battles help with creating memorable moments” Yeah, my many attempts at Volo’s final battle is definitely burned into my memory now… I’m never going to forget the pain and suffering I went through battling that guy and that damn Giratina 💀

[@RogueT-Rex8468]

Volo definitely was memorable. I was so unsure of him. Enemy? Friend? Both? When he showed his full colors I was pleasantly excited. It wasn’t a shock- but exciting nonetheless. And that battle. MAN I cannot remember the last time I was cheering, “THAT BETTER NOT BE IT, BUD. COME ON. GIVE ME YOUR ALL!!” And then his Giratina went organ mode I screamed. DAMN that was a blast! We need more legends games

[@mohdebrahim91]

I lost two shirts fighting that battle. ripped them both off of me.

[@ThatPersonNamedJune]

I also found him quite challenging but that was mostly just because it was a big jump in power. Oh, and he technically had 8 Pokémon but whatever that doesn't count. Any ways the point is, I feel like the issue with Volo is the rest of the game was... Not easy, but the trainer battles were... Well, there weren't really any aside from the easy small trainers. That made Volo even harder since you have to cope with such a large power jump.

[@strabwerry_jam]

i never understand the "it's for kids" argument because the older games were for kids too.. you can make a game that's appropriate for children while also not making it a hollow shell. and the funniest thing is how they're constantly pandering to older fans with nostalgia bait but somehow they're making the games for new kids.. :/

[@jackdonsurfer]

it’s the most common argument I’ve seen from people that disagree with the vid... I think that just shows an unfairly low standard of children personally

[@strabwerry_jam]

@@jackdonsurfer totally agree.

[@yiangaruga4928]

@@jackdonsurfer What's most hilarious about that arguement is that people who use it are 100% wrong cause GameFreak itself actually disagrees with said people. "Pokemon is for kids" is wrong because GF has said that it's for everyone in numerous interviews. The only reason it feels like Pokemon games are for kids only these days is because GameFreak for whatever reason thinks that making the games as easy as possible thus making the more accessible is synonymous with making the game for everyone... While in reality it means that the older fanbase can't even enjoy the games.

[@Martin-yh7vi]

@@yiangaruga4928 They're just being hypocrites at this point. And to be honest, the "It's a for everyone game" while also saying "it's for kids" are just marketing or PR replies just to satisfy some of the player base even though its not true.

[@dreamingahopefuldream4439]

This is why I think there should be difficulty settings. Even M rated games have difficulty settings so you can choose depending on your play style. Whether you want a challenge or just wanna relax and play through the story. The fact that Pokémon doesn’t bother to let you pick in the first place is mind boggling. Also kids aren’t “dumb”. As a kid I beat the older games just fine. And it’s not too hard for a kid to read the differences for difficulty settings if they want to

[@seanchapman5959]

Nintendo also need to realise that half of the player base are kids from the 90s that are adults now.

[@Glasyara]

it's not nintendo's fault though

[@yj4003]

*Game Freak

[@flameshana9]

AKA "Pokemon is 4kids!"

[@dwight179]

92' played Gens 1-4. Tried to get back into Pokémon and played Sun/Moon. I was highly disappointed and bored. Too much handholding. But from this video maybe I need to check out Gen 5, sounds like it is the last good game for us older players.

[@yaelvacacenteno1382]

@@dwight179 As someone who played Gen 5 as one of their first Pokémon games, I'd really recommend them. The storyline and lore of it is incredible, the storytelling is interesting, the routes and areas are explorable and I still carry many memories from when I played them. Not having Pokémon from previous generations was kind of a lackluster for me, but the games are really interesting, would recommend.

[@soutburger6418]

You’d think a 92 billion dollar franchise would be able to produce an exceptional game.

[@Istrianprincess]

And not have to charge another £25 to finish the game

[@tiger_844]

Ikr

[@Jdudec367]

@Agent Eagle lol why?

[@viceb7]

My thoughts exactly. I haven't bothered with Pokémon in years but if they made a botw type game for exploring I would be obsessed

[@UnclePhil1112]

The reason why they won’t is because They know no matter what half-assed unfinished game gets put out, people will buy. When games such as Pokémon Battle Revolution and Pokken have better animations (that still hold up to this day) than your main series games it’s time to let another studio produce the games because Game Freak clearly doesn’t care anymore.

[@olliej.2776]

I would do anything to make Pokémon games revert to the pixel style. It's timeless, unlike the modern uncanny 3D models devoid of soul, unattractive and inconsistent textures, and suboptimal rendering. I don't think anyone would complain if GF doubled down on pixels, either. A pixel art style can still be successful with a modern audience. Undertale and Stardew Valley spring to mind.

[@cliferf]

I am probably the minority with this opinion, but i would absolutely hate that. Back then on NDS it was absolutely okay and perfect since they had no other option than making the game in the pixel style. But now they have the option to make the game look good, but they are completely messing it up by just making these graphics REALLY uncanny which is neither the pixel nor the high-quality style

[@oaky2222]

I agree with everything but reverting to pixelated graphics. It's just more limited that way. Pokemon just wouldn't look as cool.

[@cliferf]

@@oaky2222 same opinion

[@olliej.2776]

@@cliferf Pixel games look good. They have a consistent style which is easier to work with AND sprites always have more character than some T posing washed out plastic toy looking model

[@cliferf]

@@olliej.2776 it is obviously just taste, we can't say which is better because it is decided individually.

[@Larserr]

"the bare minimum", is a good way to describe pokemon right now

[@seansavage4845]

Not even. The bare minimum would have be having the entire pokedex.

[@motherlove8366]

@@seansavage4845 but how can they sell the rest of the dex later then?

[@ObtuseDookie]

The bare minimum is being a bit generous

[@tiramisu5912]

That’s the reason why I switched to Digimon, the games they hace rn are FANTASTIC and it might be because it’s a smaller franchise and they make everything possible to stand out

[@adrianrocha49]

The bare minimum made them rich, why would they change? If anything, I think they would make a lot more money, if they decided to make it into a constantly evolving open world, that constantly had updates and things going into it, but you have to be subscribed to it in order to experience every single thing.

[@birdbrain6503]

I honestly think their point about pandering to children is bs. I played gen 5 when I had no idea what pokemon was when I was like 10. I was the biggest idiot and while I struggled at some points I figured stuff out. Gen 5 was fantastic as an introduction. There was so much to do and explore and I had done multiple hundred+ hour playthroughs. I think the only point I ever needed help was when I was an idiot and couldn't figure out I needed a flying or fire type against the bug gym. It was challenging but really really fun and exciting. People underestimate kids way too much

[@werisekk3]

Every time I hear that current Pokemon games are made for children, I question myself for whom was the first generation then? What about the Regi puzzle in gen 3? It's just an excuse, plain, simple, and pretty bad when you think about it for half a second.

[@icecontrol1]

@@werisekk3 Because they learned that things like the Regi puzzle were bullshit

[@765craven4]

@@icecontrol1 The Regi puzzle is probably the only case I can think of where a puzzle in a Pokemon game was straight up unfair/bs. Sure, there are some cases of Pokemon and other things being gated behind annoying mechanics (Feebas in Gens 3 and 4, Honey Trees in Gen 4, etc) but they're for the most part pretty fair. Saying that they're making the Pokemon games easier and that they hold your hand more and more just because they're "for kids" is a pretty bad excuse. The older games were very successful and appealed to kids without them being absurdly easy and halting your progress every 5 minutes to tell you to go somewhere you were already going.

[@G0o0ober2]

Gen 5 was even my favorite to even tho I played one play through and lost my copy :’(

[@765craven4]

@@G0o0ober2 Gen 5 is definitely one of my favorite Gens. It strikes a good balance between telling a story and letting you do your own thing, while the newer games don't (I swear I can't walk 5 steps without getting stopped by SOMETHING in Sw/Sh). Still, my favorite Pokemon game to this day is Pokemon Crystal. Is Gen 2 a mess of a game sometimes? Absolutely, but I can pick it up and play through it in a few days and have a complete experience. Definitely can't say that for Gen 6 and forward.

[@JC-lb3df]

Bruh imagine if your Pokémon’s natured determined there personality in Pokémon camp that would’ve been cool

[@wackyanimations3326]

That would have been smart too. Imagine a pokemon with the nature "Serious" and the pokemon keeps thinking "I WANT TO TRAIN" and stuff

[@spade4acer]

We need the ingame tutorial to go over what pokemon nature actually fucking means in terms of IV's

[@fatedmicrocosm5837]

they kind of do my Umbreon's characteristic is that ''it takes lots of siestas'' and I usually see it dozing off in my camp. it might not have much to do with natures tho

[@zjzr08]

@@fatedmicrocosm5837 Characteristics are IV hints although they could in theory also could be incorporated in their personality set.

[@fooddaily3609]

I have never seen anyone else mentioning it before, maybe I missed it, but I have always thought that HMs were a good solution, but they shouldn't take move slots, and should be like Let's Go techniques, even before they were invented. So you still need a Pokemon that can use Fly, Cut, Surf, Flash, but it should be your Pokemon, adn you don't need to remove an attack slot. Like when Ash used Charmander to light up the cave. Your Pokemon are the ones who should be helping you on your journey. I wanted it to happen since before Let's Go. It's weird how they can program HMs, program techniques, but can't program a combination of both. Like, you already have a running animation of Ursaluna. Why can't you make it into a rideable Pokemon?

[@brandonyoung181]

It’s 2020, I want voice acting and realistic battle moves. It’s not hard. Also I want an “I’ve played like ten Pokémon games before, no tutorial needed” option.

[@lakeguzman3259]

i do want voice acting to, and not a minecraft villager noise, a real voice with real words. and i don't think we need realistic battle moves, i want magical places to explore. i just want a real adventure.

[@aldrinlimos5159]

Breath of the Wild is honestly the start of a mainline Nintendo franchise in terms of voice acting, so people could still be turned off by that. I think an early game gym leader would be a decent idea for testing how capable a player is. (ex. You sweep the 1st leader, but your team is still around their level, so you get the hardest difficulty set of trainers vs. You sweep the 1st leader, but only because you overleveled, so the next segment of the game gives you trainers with tricky strategies you can't beat by oveleveling).

[@00Hendrik00]

That moment when the Dark Gym Leader Piers was singing....for a very annoying long time... and he was just moving his mouth but no sound came out.

[@rodimusunicronus2089]

@@00Hendrik00 and he's made to babysit the trainer by giving hint on what move, type or ability his team member has just because its a traditional non dynamax gym

[@tiramisu5912]

They have the money to hire more animators

[@aluien7]

I can still play the old games and still have fun even though I've played them 1000 times. I can‘t say that about the new ones.

[@Luis-cl5cv]

Same ...

[@supermorioh8277]

I LOVE pokemon fire red

[@zehraparlak3842]

I played emerald 3 seperate times in 2018

[@Shahzad-ss1jq]

Gen 3 and gen 5 I played these two a lot

[@kaohs2133]

Where do you play them? The older ones. I always wanted to but do not know how.

[@lalalalala2958]

How I would describe my experience with Sword and Shield: I'm 17 and on my senior trip. I'm trying to explore the art museum across the street but the teacher keeps pulling me aside and telling me to stay with group and look at gravel.

[@jackdonsurfer]

That's a good analogy

[@emmareiman64]

And then you never get to go to that museum. The trip ends, and all you can do is try and imagine what could have been at the museum, discuss it with a couple other people and think of what you might have just missed The museum could have been anything. Amazing, bland, but because you never saw it you're left with past experiences and imaginations You've gone to a couple museums, they were pretty interesting, maybe this one was too, but you'll never know now That is, unless you pay the same price to go to the trip again, and maybe you get to go to that museum this time, after more gravel sightseeing, maybe just maaaybe there's time for that museum this time. But are you going to pay for the trip, knowing it's only a chance? They showed a picture of the museum, but didn't actually mean the museum

[@tommccurrach5972]

@@emmareiman64 even better analogy my man. Summed it up perfectly

[@ghostdjub464]

I was between 4 and 6 years old when I played Pokémon Red and I have SO many clear memories of it, and just thinking about this game gets me so excited. I played maybe half of Shield two months ago and have absolutely no memory of it. I randomly stopped playing it just because I didn’t cared about anything in this game and didn’t even think of it until now. It’s so frustrating to have all this material that could create great games and stories and to just have it repeatedly stuffed into a boring story that leads nowhere just for the sake of putting new pokemons and legendaries there because that’s what’s always been done..

[@CirroStratus]

Same here. One of my greatest discoveries as a kid was what "gee, I'm thirsty" means and how to get to Saffron city :D (Pokemon games definitely incentivized me to learn English when I was in primary school). Nowadays, after beating Omega Ruby and Moon, I've just lost interest in Shield mid run. Pokemon games generally aren't exactly challenging, but in SwSh I've overleveled and steamrolled everything despite actively trying to handicap my team by changing mons often (I don't think it's exp share fault, there seems to be something wrong with how fast Pokemons gain levels). There's no sense of exploration, because journey is just like a walk through a straight corridor. Finally, story is bland and dialogues boring. No reason reason to load up that save file again :(. At least Arceus was nice in terms of exploration and story was ok-ish (nothing amazing, but there were some nice ideas there that reinforced sense of adventure), so I'm hopeful for Scarlet and Violet.

[@sandwich3290]

Waiting for Pokemon Left and Right to come out.

[@LancesArmorStriking]

Pokemon Yes and No

[@ethanclark9339]

Pokémon Plus and Minus

[@DragonForceWR]

Pokemon Hi & Bye

[@anoaboadosaro]

Pokemon bitch and shit for 19 year olds.

[@rogueywougey7545]

Pokemon salt and pepper

[@jacobquackenbush2981]

The wild area in gen 8 is a bad attempt at compensating for the boring routes

[@KillSchwill]

To me the wild area is the most lackluster feature ever to be added. With marketing that you can now control the camera?? I could control the camera back in Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. You can't climb or jump or crawl to explore. You can't even traverse over a one foot gap between terrain height because of the terribly dated design. It really feels and looks like a bad mobile game at this point.

[@KikonSketches]

@@KillSchwill im shocked no ones even mentioning hoe they be using the same animations and shit from 2d games in a 3d game, like npc's walking on a grid or pokemon models statically hopping, rotating and sliding instead of an actual animation for a 3d model.. like come on this aint 2d, shit even pixel games had better animations like bruh? 😂

[@KillSchwill]

@@KikonSketches I know right? Pokémon could be such an amazing looking game if they took the time to make better fluent animations and interactions. Even knockoffs like Temtem have better graphics and animations than Pokemon.

[@-Raylight]

I mean, come on give them a slack they're indie developer and don't have that much budget to work with... Oh wait, they're a multi billion company?

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

The Pokemon Company =/= Gamefreak But you're right

[@yopi_yopi]

The funniest part about that joke is that indie dev ARE WORKING HARDER. Look into kindred fates.

[@ZudeXbox360]

@@yopi_yopi Oh, with Indie games, there are a large bunch that really want to make their games stand out, and they use their understanding of game design to do it. Like Shovel Knight, it's designed with difficult, but fair platforming challenges in mind. Or Hollow Knight and its major Metroidvania vibes. Cuphead with their boss system, Super Meat Boy with its split-second responses, and that's only the fraction I am most intimate with.

[@yopi_yopi]

@@ZudeXbox360 ikr!! This is also why an indie pokemon (like) game would feel refreshing because ppl can finally use ideas GF just either dont get the time to do or dont want to risk anything. My love for indie game is enormous. Don't forget stardew valley!! It took some time to make but it was literally a one man project and in retrospect it's incredible (and crazy good if you compare it to its inspiration aka harvest moon). The og creators even thought it was a nice legacy to it!! But surely the Pokemon company would be too scared from competition ... a bit of a shame because I think competition means something is lacking from the original concept. So yeah I think, even if it's too good to be true, Kindred Fates want to bring that originality of interacting with your monsters and making them talk etc. There is so much room for opportunities with a Pokemon-like universe handled by indie game devs 💖 even if it sounds wayyy too promising. There's probably a lot of thoughts to put into it but that's basically what ive had in mind rn 😥

[@srvino6160]

@@yopi_yopi hey man you should check out temtem

[@amphithererose2300]

Scarlet and Violet were so close to being great again. The open world and the nonlinear gym progression along with the added titan and team star battles had the potential to lead to amazing new experiences for pokemon fans but it was too rushed. The story battles didn’t scale and the overworld was glitchy and unfinished. If the game had been given more time in the oven I truly believe it would have been one of the best games in the series. I love it as is, but it is still disappointing to see Game Freak rush it

[@ashura-nz5xd]

i didnt experince much glichs the only ones i got was the frame rate in the classroom when u first starteded the game and anyways they needed to rush it in games there is balance between rushing and not rushing if u rush it the game sucks if u dont u take 10 years and your fan base dies out

[@GrayDavisgrayisbae]

@@ashura-nz5xd surely theres a middle ground though, i mean pushing 1-2 mainline games every year on top of spinoffs versus one every 10 years is just the extremities. they could wait an extra 6-12 months really finalize and polish it up and they wouldn't lose their fanbase.

[@Dragonballmaster-n1g]

If only the pokemon anime was like this too

[@MasonOfLife]

I think the world itself should be a bit more immersive and realized More detailed/fleshed out Kind of like certain areas in Botw There are glimpses in SV but more often it’s just a bit bland and empty of a landscape with not a lot of detail

[@ashura-nz5xd]

@@MasonOfLife its pretty immersive and realized but u are right it can be a bit better but its still good idc cares its a good game

[@benthemother3fan884]

Its really stupid how gamefreak is so focused on making pokemon a kiddie game but panders to a generation that no child today would be as interested in Edit: Masuda has made a statement during black and whites production that he wanted pokemon to age with the players. So he's even a bigger liar than i thought he was or nobody knows the demographic for pokemon. If you dont believe me check out gnoggin's black and white reboot episode specifically 2:37

[@XellosNi]

Actually, I don't know. I'm rather surprised how well a bunch of kids I come across are familiar with the first generation Pokemon. Still...

[@benthemother3fan884]

@@XellosNi thats why i said "as interested". They'll be interested but lets be honest the kanto pander is for long time fans. Gamefreak doesn't want old players being overwhelmed by the new stuff so they put familiar faces

[@albertthepeacock8020]

You can hate on SwSh all you want but you cannot lie the OST SLAPS

[@benthemother3fan884]

@@albertthepeacock8020 heck yeah. Im a music man first and a sw/sh hater second

[@twitchywitchx]

I had this very same thought but its because Game Freak wants to force Gen 1 on younger audiences. Its like "Hey we made this easy game that features some of our most loved pokemon! Play it!" and by easy, i mean when they literally hand hold cutscene after cutscene after cutscene in gen 8....you know the parts.

[@Duskool]

The sad thing is, when it's a spin off Pokemon is usually better than mainline. Rangers has a better connection to the pokemon, Mystery Dungeon has way better storytelling and character growth and the new Snap game is probably gonna be way better at making Pokemon interacting with each other than any of SwSh's overpriced DLCs could

[@NEETKitten]

And Colosseum had the difficulty down pat.

[@kellytamia9152]

Thats cause those games WERENT handled by money thirsty gamefreak lol. Genius sorority,etc were ones who worked on these spinoffs. Which is another reason why they have more growth,content and story telling (:

[@cadequillion5276]

The progression in mystery dungeon stories was awesome! In explorers, at a story beat, you got dragged out into the whole new environment half way (don't want to spoil it). You were left to what you had and it was hard, scary and you felt the same way your characters did which translated to the story. That was like 10 hours of gametime where as an 8 year old, I felt the most invested in the stakes in a pokemon game in my entire like. Mainline games since gen 6 have never touched that level investment.

[@Lagzlot]

Conquest had playable trainers that specialized in one type of pokemon just like the anime, but the pokemon themselves had their own gimmicks besides just type advantage/weakness, so you had to assemble teams around the map and the pokemon's attack ranges instead of just picking the widest type coverage and the biggest numbers.

[@NEETKitten]

@@Lagzlot Conquest was the shit!

[@ScarlettHasToast]

Imagine getting a Pokémon game as expansive as HG/SS on Switch,

[@karentriminio3146]

It's my favorite pokemon game, two regions in one, the only pokemon game which you could walk with your pokemon on the world and they made an impact on them too. The pokewalker even made my lazy 14 year old ass go for walks just to discover new areas

[@soulsilvergamer5225]

I mean, look at my name of course I love it

[@raphathekid]

BEST remakes, so far

[@rahla5683]

Gold and Silver aged so well they are both so enjoyable. If Pokémon could pull this off again I’d be surprised. It doesn’t even seem like they want to

[@halcyon9783]

Soul silver and platinum are some of the best in the series for me. I haven’t played a single game since black 2 and white 2.

[@sergeantsharkseant]

TBH the pet feature was kinda fun in XY I always played with my team after an important battle or just an battle and it had a use as your Pokémon got the relationship bonuses which I do know kinda feel weird but if you actually have to do something for it I deem it justified that you get a bonus

[@colour_fall14]

I feel like the mechanic took a good first step, being able to pet your pokemon was really fun to me and the minigames were alright, even if this first iteration was really limited. The pokemon being completely broken was a problem, but it wasn't a big issue to me on a casual playthrough. Having the option to remove/reduce the effect would be better though. The main issue really is how it never improved. Now we have to deal with a 5 minute sandwich physics cutscene just to give the pokemon affection and can't even pet them anymore, it just hasn't really developed since XY

[@LG-ii7gl]

I don't understand the "it's for kids" argument. Getting my ass kicked in pokemon emerald was so much more fun than snoring through Kalos's gyms

[@pengu108]

yeah im playing firered and i have to train my pokemon to beat the elite four

[@rewrose2838]

I remember losing to Tate and Liza multiple times and getting my revenge with Blaziken and Peliper 😂

[@BoTheJo]

Remember getting stomped by Cynthia in White 2 and in Diamond!

[@weyoheyo6367]

@@pengu108 oh i remember having to stay on routes to train my pokemon because if i just ran from gym to gym i would be too weak to fight them.

[@pedro-e-o-lobo]

Since you are a clever adult now, maybe you should start playing on set mode and turning off that exp share

[@SahilTanna]

They need to go back to the old styles like Pokémon black and platinum and soul silver. Harder competitors and less child like corniness.

[@selfishbeats]

exactly, it's too easy and the exploration was boring.

[@jupiterjam9776]

In the game for children because ultimately pokemon is for kids

[@Akashi-ml9dn]

@@jupiterjam9776 Pretty sure most of those 'kids' that they are talking about also already grown up too

[@jupiterjam9776]

@@Akashi-ml9dn the game is made for children I didn't say it was made for a specific group of children just that it was made for children

[@tartatovsky]

@@jupiterjam9776 being made for kids means it excusable for it to be bad? NICE LOGIC lmao

[@samsalvan201]

dynamax is literally just gamefreak saying, hey lets take mega evolution but make it last three turns and have each attack be a z move

[@audra2575]

dynamax is so CRINGE holy shit what a bad idea, if it was only mega evolutions would be soooo much better. I get so pissed off how gamefreak hold this game, the ceo should be fired rn omg

[@pixlyJolt]

True tho

[@pixlyJolt]

@@audra2575 damn, chill lol

[@audra2575]

@@pixlyJolt srry man, was a high testosterone moment

[@pixlyJolt]

@@audra2575 huh.

[@gmcm2165]

I think having depth of story in children's media is great, as long as it prompts questions as opposed to imposing answers. Having a narrative isn't the issue with the weaker Pokemon games. The problem is the intrusive hand-holding and oppressive rail-roading, which the designers sadly use the narrative to do.

[@btuttle8]

I feel like as soon as the games switched to 3D, they were lacking in just about everything. I feel like GameFreak should take like 5 years to make Gen 9, instead of releasing them in 3 years with a rushed, unfinished product. Sword and Shield with the DLC is what the games should have been from start.

[@yiangaruga4928]

That's because GameFreak's dev team is made of incompetent "industry veterans" who have no idea how to program 3D. The fact alone that the battles are viewed from the same angle as the old 2D games says it all, they have no idea what they're doing.and yet they refuse to hire new blood. Heck, they have 6 years of 3D experience now and Sword & Shield is still terribly made... The incompetence is real.

[@lourdcebuma3957]

Can't do that chief, they gotta make something every year for the merchandise and the anime.

[@bern9642]

@@lourdcebuma3957 even if they take 5 years to make the game it will still be bad. It's lack of expertise

[@bern9642]

It's lack of expertise, not time. Each pokemon game makes 100s of millions. They can have about 3 different huge teams working on 3 different games at once. One working on mainline games, one working on remakes and one working on spin-offs and they can release a game every 1.5 years. That will have each team working on a game for 4 years.

[@yiangaruga4928]

@@lourdcebuma3957 2 years is more than enough to make a game as basic as pokemon. But GameFreak refuses to hire enough people and they're so bad even in basic 3D programming that even 4 years wouldn't save the games.

[@capitalcoffee7514]

Rivals in older games: "What, you just battled that tough gym and barely won? Alright, now that you are weak I can clap your ass easily" Rivals in new games: "Hello, I'm your friend, let me hold your hand, let's go through that one small batch of long grass, did that lvl 3 Rattata hurt you, here let me heal your pokemon every 2 seconds, here have a free rare candy or two"

[@dippin4dots]

"Oh, you want to battle? OK! Lets do this!" *Proceeds to put down own Pokemon*

[@goGothitaLOL]

@@dippin4dots *one

[@slevinchannel7589]

There were even 'nice' Rivals before that i had no problem with, and yet, i still despite Hop so much. His talking, his nonsense he spouts during matches, about it being always a close match, even though that's not true. You will never lose to him ever. So there's only 2 options: Either you dont care OR you feel bad about beating him, which is a negative thing.

[@CynningSeline]

I dunno if this is an unpopular opinion, but my favorite friendly rivals are Bianca and Cheren. They had great personalities and even though they battled you after basically every gym, you're all on the adventure together from the start! "B-but Hop is your friend too!" I didn't really feel the bond I had with the Gen 5 rivals. He was always complementing how well you battle. Instead of like.. I dunno, like Cheren and Bianca. Maybe this is nostalgia talking, but Gen 5 felt like an adventure with friends more than a British dude holding your hand.

[@solarrrrrrrr]

Tbh Gen 1 and 2 actually had *RIVALS*

[@aetherblackbolt1301]

"It's for kids" "Are you implying that the game quality is low, and that kids deserve low quality games?" > : (

[@zirzeus2645]

Where did i hear this exact sentence?

[@vikavoltisepic3507]

@@zirzeus2645 it’s basically the view of most pokemon fans of any age

[@zirzeus2645]

@@vikavoltisepic3507 But i remember this exact sentence from a video or an essay, but i don't remember from where

[@vikavoltisepic3507]

@@zirzeus2645 oof, ig just read the comments of any game freak announcement to do with pokemon or watch a negative review video of sw/sh and look at the comments

[@astrodeath1322]

@@zirzeus2645 Yoooooo same, that second sentence is from somewhere I just don’t know where

[@LeafyBreezes]

19:48 this sums it up so perfectly. The first 10 minutes of sun and moon when they had a whole ass cutscene to show you how to jump down a ledge I instantly knew things were going to be painfully slow

[@yungjose3369]

Gamefreak is basically how not to handle a big franchise. On the other hand, Minecraft (another huge franchise) is being developed pretty well by Mojang. They listen to their community, they deliver good content and DLC is not a priority. (edit: to anyone below the comments tryna change my mind, i don't care)

[@SkyNinja759]

The only problem I have with Minecraft is that skins on consoles are not free. If people want to pay for skins that's fine, but I want to upload my own skins and use them for free (like Java).

[@bluetowel-reko]

@@SkyNinja759 im just lucky i play minecraft on my phone

[@temslink2000]

Minecraft is a completely different style of game so that is not really a fair comparison to make as pokemon has a release every 2 years yet mc works on the cycle of 1 release with a regualr update cycle ie the development cycle is far more relaxed and focused than the pokemon project which while built on the same principles and as game development gets streamlined simular codebase to eachother will have unique features and gimmics that pertain to indevidual generations and/or consoles not to mention 2 years is not enough time for the size of company game freak is to develop a largely overhalled experience between gens and consoles however they do not get a choice in this as the pokemon company esentially holds the control my guess is cos they are doing so much but are limited on resources and havent fully worked out the jump between the 3ds and switch that they wernt able to implement animations, better textures and the full pokedex in time but cos yall would complain if the next pokemon game took 3+ years between releases rather than 2 and cos of the jump the experience is way more time consuming and intensive to develop they are stuck in this nightmarish place that mojang doesnt have to deal with due to the incremental updates TL;DR dont compare the 2 and dont complain if the next pokemon game takes longer to dev as the assets and work required doesnt appear outta thin air like many fans and TPC believe

[@WillisPtheone]

Pokemon is the most successful franchise of all time..... so you are .... wrong. Minecraft is what it is because of its community the moment they get board or turn against it Minecraft dies. Pokemon just keeps making Pokemon games over and over and every new generation has their own to start on. No need to fix what is not broken. Dumbass people but the same FPS over and over year after year. Pokemon is what it is and you either like it or you don't. None of the things complained about in this whiney video have anything to do with what makes a Pokemon game what it is. If you do not like the game play something else. This crap just makes you look sad.

[@yiangaruga4928]

@@WillisPtheone "No need to fix what is not broken" Nobody, and I mean nobody here is saying that the Pokemon game loop needs to change. It has been established a long time ago that people love the premise of pokemon games, that's why they buy the same damn game every time. Sure, there are people who say stuff like the gym system needs to go etc. But they're a small minority. But here's where you go wrong and utterly contradict yourself with your statement. You call this video whiney without realizing that the video is in fact criticizing the games exactly because *they are no longer as they used to be.* Like did you even watch the video? He compares the new and old games throughout the video and talks about pacing, region design and difficulty and the whole point of the video is to point out that those things have become so simplified in the new games that they're not the same and thus not enjoyable anymore. People don't want strict change, they want *improvements.* Pokemon Sword & Shield is so full of cut corners and awful design decisions that of course fans are pissed, they no longer feel the same about the games. There has been complaints ever since X&Y came out and SwSd were simply the last straw to those people. If the games had not cut the national dex, had a satisfying enough story, some difficulty, less handholding and the region design wasn't completely linear people wouldn't complain nearly as much about the less important things like graphics. But because SwSd is so lackluster and bareboned, people try to find at least something good about them but the fact is that nothing *fundamental* in these games is good so everyone gets frustrated. They're utter trash compared to the older games. Everyone is pissed not because the games haven't changed but because the games are missing everything that made the old games great. GameFreak removed all those aspects. "No need to fix what is not broken" Yeah piss off. If you think the games aren't already broken just from lacking everything that makes a good modern RPG then I don't know what to tell you.

[@padraigmurphy3540]

I remember how frustrating trying to track down Suicune in Crystal was. At times you'd feel so close only to end up farther away. That led to one of the more rewarding and fulfilling parts of the game once I finally did track it down and catch it. It created a huge sense of accomplishment within the game.

[@shadowknighthunter1390]

I remember trying to catch Raikou. Just flying everywhere

[@Lucifronz]

Yeah, but seriously fuck that. I'd rather transfer him over from Colosseum than deal with chasing the fucker down. It was not a good design. I remember in one of the remakes I went out and tried to find one of them and when I finally managed to get into the same area as them (they moved so randomly across the region it was _impossible_ to time it right), they'd run away the first turn of battle after a failed catch. Those, as well as Abra, are shit designs. I'm sorry, but they are. I get it, the challenge makes it better when you *do* catch it, but it's poor game design to make it so RNG-based. If they didn't run away afterwards, I'd have less complaints, or if they were more consistent in where they appeared so it wasn't a wild goose chase, that'd be fine, but together it makes for one of the most frustrating and unfair hunts for a Pokemon to date.

[@elcocho1568]

@@Lucifronz just use Mean Look or a Pokémon that has Arena Trap ability like Dugtrio so it don’t run away

[@diamondminer5459]

Sometimes things are just frustrating for the sake of it. Gen 3 is a good example (Mirage Island, the Regis, etc.)

[@ggundercover3681]

@@elcocho1568 why have I never thought of this.

[@Jaded123x]

I remember how pokemon black would make me feel, heroic, hopeful, sad and even scared

[@murcury906]

Yeah black was my first to

[@hellodarkness5644]

Pokemon black ripped me from my V to my A. Never went back to white.

[@christopher.costner]

@@hellodarkness5644 ill tell you what mane dang old gen 5 man was the shit man I'll tell you hwat

[@OogleySpoogley]

Pokémon black and white was the shit back then

[@valentineomalley7290]

Oh definitely, and the music is incredible

[@angrymoose3383]

I ADORED Unova because it was full of insanely beautiful spritework, and it felt so insanely new when compared to every other game. Having an entire roster of brand new Pokémon felt like Gen 1 again but without the relative clunkiness of Gen 1. I’m sorry ‘Genonners’ but Gen 1 really wasn’t the absolute best. I like Red and Blue- it’s a good game but it’s so full of flaws and kinks that were almost entirely worked out by Gen 5. Kalos, Alola, and Galar are insanely linear, way too easy, and I truly cannot get halfway through either of them without f***ing off and going to play a Unova game or Diamond and Pearl which I should say is literally just Diamond and Pearl for people who hate change.

[@absoluteunit8027]

As a member of sobble squad I can literally not describe the physical pain I feel when I see sobbles final evolution

[@Freekun]

I was team Sobble until the final evolution was announced, once again, a completely ruined water evolution line for me. Pretty sad that this happened two generations in a row

[@thescrimble]

Idk, I think it's pretty alright, especially among the humanoid gang of the newer generations. He's a smug bastard and all of the smug bastard pokemon are good

[@jaqiqi33]

I felt the same about grookey and rillaboom

[@maxdunn4756]

I like how it looks still, but the monotyping almost ruins it.

[@cloveraev]

It should be Water/Dark or Water/Fighting (If they don't want a greninja)

[@revtengu178]

"it's hard to imagine a kid picking up sword and shield the same way i played pearl as a kid and getting really attached to the series, to the point where they'd be making a 5500 word script trying to express their disappointment that the franchise they once loved has consistently fallen short of their dreams." .....wow. that was powerful.

[@dadeliepanguinexe2828]

More telling then anything else. I don’t think any long time fan is gonna get the same enjoyment out of newer Pokémon Games as they did old ones. Simply put, theses games aren’t for them. They’re for kids now, and my little brother loves sword and shield (and so Do I). I think it’s kinda stupid to expect newer games to appeal to you as much as the older ones they played as a kid. It feels more like some people just can’t accept they aren’t in the target audience for these games anymore.

[@Codraroll]

And if you do imagine it ... how bad would those games released around 2040 have to be to evoke such nostalgia for Sword and Shield?

[@supersaiyancharizard2063]

As a kid I played red and blue, then yellow.

[@rahla5683]

Sword and Shield was the game that got me disinterested in the main series games

[@revtengu178]

@@rahla5683 i didn't really care for gen 7 but swsh was kinda the last straw for me

[@Shyguymask]

This video just about perfectly go in detail about why I and many other people don't like the newer games. Great job with this, it takes a lot of skill to properly elaborate to such extent.

[@jackdonsurfer]

appreciate it boss

[@Mclucasrv]

But I think they continue to sell millions so they dont have to change

[@Derpmaster001]

You should really check out Nexomon. The second game is on all platforms and the first game is only $1 on the app store. And no it's not some cheap pokemon micro-transaction ridden game it's a full on pokemon experience with interesting villains and story.

[@championsergioromo54bayare38]

Wait for my New Nintendo 3DS Super Mario Bros White Limited Edition on the upper screen

[@ichwalsadam9179]

And yet more than that "Many" people still buy it more and more to the point that the "Bad" Newer one is the best selling one, than the"Good" olds one. No matter how much boycott/Complaining about the newer one, Sword and Shield Slaves/people Prove Nintendo don't have to change pokemon at all to be like the "old" game.

[@Tux612]

I really didn't want to watch a 30 minute video explaining all the things that I have been saying, but I have to give it to him, I haven't watched a video this good explaining the topic. I really hope Game Freak and Nintendo watch this. He really goes over everything explaining how you can literally make a perfect pokemon game. I feel like the whole Pokemon Community has this same views, yet Game Freak isn't listening to the community that plays their game. 20:00 mark is where people should really hear what he is saying. I've been playing pokemon every since I was little and it just seems that every game they are releasing is just getting worse and worse. They've changed the style of Pokemon now making Pokemon into Apples & Ice Cream or making the proportions weird and splashing them with everycolor from the rainbow just so they can be applying to kids. Slapping together Sword and a Sheild a $60 game and then going and adding a $30 DLC, that's where the game Devs are going down the wrong path. I think Nintendo and Game Freaks best option is to really just listen to the community and the people who are die hard Pokemon fans, the people that have been playing this game for years and years. I'm pretty sure everyone can ramble on and on about this topic and no one will probally get to this part of my paragraph review but thank you for taking the time to read this.

[@JC-lb3df]

I would prefer having an easy, normal, hard mode option in the new games same goes for being allowed to skip tutorials because let’s face it no one likes tutorials especially when they know what there doing

[@koalafromtomorrow5656]

I had some ideas maybe work at nintedno

[@stuckonaslide]

i think everybody but blind toddlers can press some letters.

[@The_Last_Norman]

It would be awesome if the league was made to be a bigger deal, I.E the elite 4 and champion actually being ranked players on a server, with A.I controlled balanced/non legendary teams of course but even if the chances of you winning were slim to nought, that would make training your pokemon and beating it so much more satisfying and meaningful. The prize being your legacy

[@Thunderbolt5827]

@@The_Last_Norman i agree that the Elite 4 should be a big deal. But they shouldn’t ever be real people. They should be more involved in the story. Why is a 10 year old dealing with big time criminals that can literally destroy the world while the strongest trainers in the region are sitting around doing nothing? I’m not saying they should do everything, if you can beat most of the gym leaders then you obviously can hold your own in battle, so the E4 could be helping the player. But the E4 should not be based on real people.

[@The_Last_Norman]

@@Thunderbolt5827 I get you, the Elite 4 could still be fully A.I as normal but I thought it would be cool if the Champion could actually step down and change upon defeat, with the winning players Avatar and team becoming the new champion (A.I controlled but with the option to defend/challenge his or her position also) something like that. And yeah I have always wondered that, they should make that a much bigger deal too, maybe allow players to join them?

[@MaXeL077]

Bro I nearly forgot about that time when I was really young and got stuck in that cave in platinum for so long that I think it was the first time I rage quit, then came back to it like a week later, so determined and eventually found my way out. I don’t think I had ever been so happy before. Thanks for reminding me😊😅

[@TheUncomfortable]

Happened to me in Pokemon Red or silver ... Don't remember. Eventually i had Played the Game so much that i could geht through the cave blindly and knew exactly where to go how many steps.

[@ariefbudisukma]

Hahaha same as me!

[@k1tsune_777]

Opposite problem for me as a kid. I was to stupid to get on top of the mountain and was basically stuck outside...

[@AliGator0924]

I want a rival that starts out like Hop, friendly and nice, but then as we progress they start losing more and more battles making them frustrated and doubt their abilities. From there it all goes downhill for them and they go from friendly to a jerk rival. Then during the championship they start to question why you keep winning and after a realization they start to self reflect. Then during a post game they keep their jerkish nature but they try their best to be nicer still having that sarcasm and sass like silver and blue.

[@SteveCrafts2k]

Not really. Turning into a huge jerk after many losses is a sign of a sore loser. Here's an idea: Have Hop start out as a TOTAL NOOB. He knows next to *NOTHING* about Pokemon typings, advantages, disadvantages, movesets, EVs, IVs, etc. That would add logic as to why he picks the starter weakest to yours. Then, as the game goes along, he learns from his losses. He takes notes, he grows, he evolves. Then, at the championship battles, he would've been an expert due to the losses, research, and wins that he experiences throughout his journey. Heck, depending on your team before you enter the league, he'll have a team to counter your every Pokemon. When he inevitably loses, he shakes your hand, symbolizing that despite his loss, he truly enjoyed the struggles, the teachings, and the victories that he gained along the way.

[@alfiehicks1]

That's a good one. As if the current """writers""" for Pokémon games could ever create meaningful character development. They'll be sticking to cardboard cutout archetypes that don't grow or change at all, with the biggest "development" coming when the antagonist just falls off the face of the Earth when they lose or just sits and laments their failure.

[@bambimonstahh]

Omg YES!!!

[@Darkorona]

@Ghettodi nixoh They have before with Blue, Silver, Cherin, and Bianca. What the hell happened to GameFreak?

[@Boslatine]

Plus post game they should have a Red like battle to try and prove themselves one last time

[@Snusmumrikenx]

Why bother improving the game when it will sell well anyway? The future of good pokemon games lies within the modding community.

[@nonamesinspace1291]

I didn't buy arceus. We need to not buy these goddamn games man.

[@anthonybrito2610]

@@nonamesinspace1291 arceus is actually good tho

[@Deifus]

@@nonamesinspace1291 dude arceus is one of the best pokemon games of all time

[@jamilf9947]

@@nonamesinspace1291 u chose not to buy the only amazing game they’ve made in years

[@goldsteins7819]

@@jamilf9947 Its like waiting for a shooting star to pass, but when you gave up and turns away, it passes.

[@MrSloth-tl5yv]

I think my main problem with this game is just there’s no personality at all. I remember the such challenging fights I went through in past games but don’t remember a damn thing I did in shield. Every past game made a name for themselves that made them so recognizable, but shield and sword sound and feel like an unfinished parody game.

[@waterworks_yes]

Mr. Sloth I remember how much I hated nessa's gym. It was hard because I wasn't very good at making strong teams. I still wouldn't say I'm good at training but I find this game too easy at this point. It's crazy. I'm bad at this but it's still easy to the point where it's stupid

[@0918only]

I remember having difficulty beating certain trainers and I still have trouble with them sometimes but now the new games just feel easy for some reason

[@BaileyYTB]

Sun and moon is worse tho you gotta admit

[@waterworks_yes]

TDMG YTB I prefer Sun and Moon cuz at least it actually has a story

[@NotDurk]

@@BaileyYTB Sun and moon looked amazing for the 3ds, included every pokemon and had a good story with interesting characters.

[@JCBro-yg8vd]

The problem with modern Pokemon may be that they keep releasing games every year or so, whereas before they would usually only release every couple of years between generations. They're not giving themselves time to learn from their mistakes. And they keep throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, only to discard it in favor of trying something else new. The franchise needs to find a consistent direction again, even if it's just opening up the world.

[@icecontrol1]

What are you talking about? Look at this graph here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_(video_game_series) and tell me how is different of how it was recently

[@xavmrfy4544]

icecontrol1 they graph literally shows that before, game freak released a game a year for maybe 2 or 3 years and then had a year between. Now they are releasing them too often just like he said. Not only that but those games game freak used to make before usually had a remake of some previous game during those couple of years where they made a game annually for 2 or 3 years. In terms of a remake, they don’t want to make it too different otherwise it wouldn’t be a remake.

[@chris07]

Great point, but personally I think the community is at fault. During the Unite Presents, people were expecting Sinnoh Remakes and Let's Go Johto. Keep in mind, it hadn't even been a year since SwSh came out. So, yeah

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

id argue the games would be easier to lose interest, a longer time means more hitters and the lows are even more painful.

[@dolphinpower1107]

@@chris07 well thats true but pokemon said it would be a big announcement of a new project and during the presentation they announced this they had a pokemon snap sequel so of course people would be hyped.

[@vasilias7987]

"i've never settle for mediocrity as an acceptable standard and neither should you" - Seto Kaiba, Yugioh DSOD -

[@Kikker861]

Kaiba the GOAT.

[@AlphaladZXA]

Pretty much what I see from people who like swsh and it's just like... man why be content with just okay

[@vasilias7987]

@@AlphaladZXA you know what makes it funny? if you take out the 'pokemon' from the game, people will be mad and keep saying this is a $60 game with $30 DLC?! lot of people just dont realize that pokemon is now selling nostalgic value and doesnt showing any evolution in their game for years

[@sparklepawz1185]

The virgin Sword and Shield: "You need to go to the hotel" *exits building* "Ah challenger, you need to go to the hotel so follow me" *dragged along to the hotel* "Here's the hotel you're staying at. Please head inside" *fade to black as you're forced inside* "Hey there, now that you're inside you should check in." The chad Emerald: "That's it, Rayquaza must be at Sky Pillar!" *leaves you alone as you spend hours looking for where Sky Pillar is, checking everything until you realize there's an unmarked island on the map with what looks like an ocean path leading up to it so you spend another 30 minutes trying to find the correct path because there's a legit dead end path that tricks you into thinking you can't go further* "Oh sorry I just left you in that cave, I was too excited lol. Anyways head up the tower champ, I need to head back."

[@elcocho1568]

Actually having to look for the legendary Pokémon and battling it in order to catch it is a whole lot more memorable and enjoyable than just being handed to you. I hate how pampered Pokémon has become.

[@nayru_7]

Yeah, like how we had to find articuno, moltres or zapidos in Pokémon x/y

[@shepherdstar14]

Yeah I remember ACCIDENTALLY finding Lugia, saving constantly, not sure where I was going, and then finding him in Gold without having any prior knowledge he was there it was amazing

[@karlmanchur9906]

I'll never forget trying to solve the puzzles to unlock the rooms and battle the Regi Trio in Ruby.

[@rjd-kh8et]

That and event Pokémon just being literally given to you at a Poke Mart instead of being able to catch it yourself.

[@reikara04]

@@karlmanchur9906 I never unlocked it😂

[@remis8623]

The worst part is that Game Freak will either never see this or won't care if they do. I have loved Pokemon pretty much my entire life and what you said is exactly how I feel in regards to the most recent gens. I want to have the same sense of wonder and mystery, the same feeling of triumph, and the same bonds that I made in Platinum, but Game Freak's refusal to try will never let me experience it in a new environment. I really want Pokemon to succeed, but if honestly feels like they don't even care anymore. Another thing is that we need to stop thinking that kids are dumb. If we were able to handle Gens 1-5 the so should kids today. Like why do people think that just because it's a kids game it means you can excuse every single flaw the game has. It's very frustrating, especially since many of these games franchises has a very sizable portion of fans who are adults. They should be considered too.

[@NightMourningDove]

Because the US government rewards profit and not actual innovation. This also explains why so many narcissists and know it alls are being born into the world 😔

[@brentsta]

@@NightMourningDove but they're a Japanese company... not even touching that other bs you said lol You America haters need a brain

[@error_404.69]

@@brentsta if you need proof that America rewards profit look at our healthcare

[@petermei6276]

America hates Pokemon. America kids have no respect over America Pokemon. America cannot allow Pokemon to be popular because America still only wants repeat and technology. I hate America loves repeat and money appearance. Bring back America love variety appearance. America screwed over variety like Pokemon and Avril Lavigne and still only want repeat version of popular like SpongeBob and streaming. I want my Pokemon is very popular appearance back, America.

[@slevinchannel7589]

Gamefreak is Failing Epic again and again, but they dont even know they do, probably. Cause incompetence makes them only look at Sales Numbers, which is of course a noob mistake. But they are known for Noob Mistakes - who can blame them? They do it only for Decades now, give them some time! But seriously, this Franchise is a Mess. And surprisingly, a lot are. I really do wonder if this is coincidence, but whatever. Important to know is the fact that defending these games, like delusional fans do, is the main reason why we dont get better stuff but only will get even worse stuff.

[@calacalamari3977]

my favorite thing about the isle of armor is how you find emolga. emolga are shown to sit on branches & fly from tree to tree. sure, they have a bit of a static movement pattern, but it was incredible seeing that as someone who’s loved emolga since gen5 came out (my second electric type ever!). emolga never even notices you! YOU have to go out of your way to get its attention for it to come to you! THAT’S the kind of “wild area” pokemon needs, showing pokemon in habitats & them doing their own thing. it should be up to the player to catch it, instead of having every pokemon run towards you mindlessly. some pokemon run away from you, which is a nice feature. YOU’RE meant to go catch em all, not have pokemon run into you to make it easy

[@komarunaegi7460]

I think it makes sense for at least *some* Pokemon to try to chase and attack you, though. That gave a feeling of enjoyment to a lot of players in its own right. There's a reason highlight clips of Trainers being chased were so popular when the games came out. It made people feel tense and wanted to avoid picking fights with Pokemon that were too tough for them to battle or catch, or made them want to run away from Pokemon they didn't feel like encountering. There should be a balance between how different Pokemon behave in the overworld, and I think SwSh does a decent job at balancing it out to some extent--Pokemon like Wimpod run away from you, for example, and then there are Pokemon like Emolga like you said. I agree that they could definitely put more detail on how each species behaves, though!

[@calacalamari3977]

Komaru Naegi oh im not saying that there shouldnt be aggressive pokemon, im just saying that not all pokemon are automatically aggressive. an obstagoon would def chase you while a golurk, not so much

[@komarunaegi7460]

@calacalamari Oooh, I get you then!! My bad!!

[@Hectoreo]

@@komarunaegi7460 Yeah, but it doesn't help when you have a draw distance of -2 feet and you accidentally slam into a wild pokemon

[@komarunaegi7460]

@Hector⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ Eh, I guess I’m used to RPGs like Earthbound where there are a ton of enemies in the overworld that are hard to avoid and they all chase after you anyway. SwSh isn’t that different when it comes to that, only Pokémon are easier to dodge even if encounters happen often.

[@phoemix7043]

I think X/Y’s Amie was the best since it had the stuff refresh has but with mini games, all refresh had was petting, feeding, and washing. At least they had Mohn’s island though.

[@phoemix7043]

@@mr.lholmes650 So… are you enjoying Legends Arceus?

[@arjunabazaz1006]

The Wild area feels like they made the wild area like Producer: “Let’s add a wild area” Director: “We don’t have space tho” Producer: “Don’t worry just make a flat plane that connects two towns” Director: “Aight”

[@ShredBundy420]

It had so much potential but they kinda just wasted it.

[@Pokemondeliveryold]

i dont know why but i think GameFreak is kinda lazy to make great wild area like BOTW, GTA, etc

[@visiblevisionward7518]

its not "we dont have the space" but rather "we dont want to design the space because we dont have to do it to still make money"

[@ryan-tl1wr]

Abel Parvez I feel like gamefreak should step down for a while

[@dextercm2442]

Too true

[@maskedindominus]

Honestly if they lay off the hand holding the game would be way better because i dont like sitting there spamming A

[@alyssaagnew4147]

Seriously, there is no reason we shouldn't have the option to skip the tutorial stuff (AKA the stuff you'd be familiar with if you played a Pokémon game before).

[@Omeyrolx_theChessmaster]

I mean, you get to skip the "catching Pokemon" tutorial at the start of the game.

[@ojeritoayala]

That is what has kept me from finishing Ultra Moon.

[@jonathandaniel1592]

this is why i was never able to finish a gen 7 game lmaooo. the only reason i was able to complete gen 8 was cause it was so short

[@alfiehicks1]

That's all you have to do to beat the entire game. Seriously - when the game is trivial to the point where strategy is merely a suggestion, then it has failed to be a game.

[@capuchinosofia4771]

You know what would be cool? A rival like hop, but with a twist. they always lose, and they get destroyed by you and your team. Of course, they get depressed, but instead of regaining their confidence and seeking another thing to do, they turn towards the evil team, who give them hope of being great and having *unlimited powaaah*! That would be great. And you try to defeat them, to show em that having an strong team isn't all to being a good trainer. You need the power of uh... Love and friendship, or something

[@49thNap]

Yes, having it to were the rivaly ends up destroying the friendship.

[@pengen_gantinama]

that sounds like Sasuke

[@wavyuchiha5224]

@@pengen_gantinama 😂😂 fax

[@slevinchannel7589]

This Video is still way too nice. These games are trash and need to be called out. Missing Voice Actors, no Story, making Pokemon pop-into-existence in the Overworld in the most ugly way that should just never happen... it's too much wrong with this franchise too count. I can literally not list all. Rivals? Legendaries? Tutorial-Skip? Evil Teams? I cant list it all. It's too much!! I CANT LIST IT ALL! This world feels less alive than any game i ever had. Even Red and Blue, who were just some pixels, felt more alive! No kidding! Idiots say that this franchise needs no good Narrative, which just shows that gamefreaks mind-control is working. They dont want to deliver quality and many delusional Fans think they dont need Quality. We obviously need Story, too. A lot even. That’s just obvious. 5 Million Issues if you dont care for the National Dex is obviously way too much.

[@slevinchannel7589]

The "It's for kids"-argument is just objectively wrong. Evidend and proven by none other than kids, duh. Kids look up from their game and ask their older siblings or parents "What... What is Gamefreak doing???" Literally. I have seen it, i swear. Literally!! Insulting the Fans intellect, adult or kid, is unacceptable.

[@zephra1675]

Tbh violet scarlet has me weirdly optimistic after having the same overall feeling from the other Pokémon games for so long, the Pokémon just seem so much more alive then they ever have in the trailers :P

[@B1ngleB0mb]

Same! And the open-world theme gives me a sense of excitement.

[@Halwyn_Parrish]

Respectfully, Scarlet Violet are hot garbage. People are still losing their save files.

[@OnryoKami]

​@@Halwyn_Parrish resurrecting a 8 month dead comment lol

[@Bludobi9001]

SV is mid at best. You're forced to wear garbage unisex school uniforms (even worse actual Old Men students wear the outfit too....shivers) instead of the great customization gen 6, 7 and 8 had, Most NPCs can't be talked to, garbage framerates well below 30fps they refuse to fix, mediocre dlc, can't enter most buildings, shops are now just a pop up menu, etc. This is the last pokemon gen I take part in. It's obvious TPC only cares about merchandise and maybe the anime (the games are just a half arsed attempt to promote the merch)

[@ryankramer913]

Bro when you said Sobble could’ve been the Lochness monster I was like “well shit”

[@theoneandonlyme4724]

We got Pokémon James Bond instead

[@bearatdusk8013]

This would have been amazing

[@fuli2975]

that's lapras

[@xocab2868]

The game doesn’t need anymore Pokémon, it needs more interesting stories, and maybe even your own customizable character where you can battle in many tournaments in an open world. Just a start

[@username-yn5yo]

it doesnt need anymore bad pokemon. maybe make 10 - 20 new pokemon per game that have outstanding desing and include all the old ones

[@kushagrasinghvisen9935]

you know youre right i think they should stop making new pokemon and make it so that the old pokemon were found at the same time in some other regions other than their origin region and also there should be a region where you meet all the old protagnists,you find out where did they go

[@mazhermehdi7803]

I mean they can make mor3 pokemons , but the designs make me cringe hard asf especially the new legendary that is criwn tundra and its uglier then trubbish

[@mazhermehdi7803]

Intellion made me laugh ngl a sniper right it gave shooting fingers another meaning

[@kushagrasinghvisen9935]

@@mazhermehdi7803 IT WOULD BE TOOO MANY POKEMON WE ALREADY HAVE A THOUSAND

[@MasterImpsy]

This video hit the nail on the head and just makes me hurt more when I know Game Freak is never going to change. Like, all these suggestions are great but I will never see the developers change. Especially with every interview I've seen from them. I'm honestly just hoping the demand for a better pokemon game just makes more indie devs do something better. That, or Pokemon gets picked up by another development team...

[@nazeersadek6705]

MasterImpsy bro it’s already happening there’s loads of new games in the monster taming genre. Nexomon extinction came out a month ago on all platforms and it’s amazing and offers great value for just 20$. You also have upcoming games like kindred fates and anitons

[@JCBro-yg8vd]

I think the only way to make Game Freak learn is to start boycotting the games. When the games don't sell as well as Game Freak and Nintendo want them to, then they'll feel obligated to listen. We know that Nintendo cares about its fans, it shouldn't require fans to complain loudly enough to be heard.

[@Tealmoonstone]

@@JCBro-yg8vd this is why they then just make another 27 charizard forms and sell pokemon back with new forms that are liked because they know it will sell

[@Derpmaster001]

@@nazeersadek6705 Man I love Nexomon I got into the series a month before Extinctions launch and played micromon and Nexomon in anticipation for the launch.

[@nazeersadek6705]

derpmaster ! Honestly I got to know the franchise thanks to a KZbinr called gym leader Ed and bought it for my PS4 I’m also having a blast with it. He covers a lot of other monster taming news so you might want to check his channel out

[@DarkrarLetsPlay]

With the new EXP share I LITERALLY cannot play the games anymore. I used to have a very special playstyle. I had my party always in the order I caught my mons and trained them so that they would always be on the same level. If the first Pokémon had leveled up, I would select "switch" 5 times to put it in the last place, so that every other member got one step closer to being the "active" Pokémon. I tried to avoid sending out a Pokémon with a better matchup if it had meant that it would have gotten a level-up too early. With the idiotic new EXP share, this is simply not possible. I haven't bought a game since Let's Go, where this was introduced.

[@Cernunnnos]

I was that kid that got everyone in class through the dark cave in red, blue and yellow without using flash. The main thing these games have been missing for a long time is difficulty. Getting lost and frustrated and having to fight your way though places like silph co are what made the originals fun.

[@P4PmmaFan]

I agree but disagree FUCK random encounter spam

[@Cernunnnos]

@Cedar Tiger no I'm sure lots of people were that kid. That's the point

[@Cernunnnos]

@@P4PmmaFan I think the wild encounters are handled much better in sword and shield. With them being in the game world and waking around. But there needed to be longer sections of game where you had to fight lots of trainers without someone healing you up every 5 seconds.

[@YTAdubz]

It took me hours upon hours, but I made it through without flash. That was an excellent challenge

[@P4PmmaFan]

@@Cernunnnos Yea, we do need more trainer battles. Or maybe even some more special event encounters for wild pokemon, make it more in depth than every single step having a 50% chance to start a random encounter with the same asshole pokemon appearing over and over. One of the biggest flaws of pokemon for me, which is why I hate almost every cave on every game

[@DrPepperPanda03]

I feel like gen 5 was such a high point, and then they kind of fell flat on their face in gen 6. They could have set themselves back on the right track in gen 8, but it felt very linear.

[@thelegacyofgaming2928]

I said the same thing. Gen 5 felt like the peak.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

gen 8 is a back towards ambition.

[@samueloladosu4721]

@person person That was back then. Nowadays Gen 5 looks like the work of God. It only shows how bad Pokemon has gotten.

[@garydorsey4243]

@person person this is a bit of a hot take, but I firmly believe that all pokemon games are about the same quality. Platinum was my first game, but throughout the years I've gotten to all of them, most of the old ones through an emulator. I honestly can't see why people think the earlier gens are masterpieces compared to the new ones. I mean, they're all almost the exact same game.

[@sveipr]

@@garydorsey4243 I agree, I think it's honestly nostalgia. Thanks to quarantine I've had the change to play the older games again (gens 1,2 and 4) and honestly they have not aged well and there are issues that I didn't notice when I was younger. I think the level of "quality" that people are spouting about the games is just about the level of enjoyment since all of the games are pretty similar.

[@lucykaede5863]

I just want my Pokemon to be trailing behind me like they did in Golden Heart/Soul Silver

[@Mekkidolila]

Ya

[@personwithanaccount23]

I also want that 'create base' detail from pokemon Sapphire/Emerald/Ruby. I really liked that, creating my own base and decorating it the way I want.

[@lucykaede5863]

@@personwithanaccount23 oh yea that one too where we can choose trees to make as our treehouse base!

[@personwithanaccount23]

@@lucykaede5863 it's my favorite part! Although, if they were to add that detail, I really want the option to take out pokemon, and if i could, I'd take out all of them!

[@its_saber1525]

Idk if you realize but following Pokemon us a lot harder now. Since in HG if was tike movement, it was simpler to program but let's be honest. It isn't a good excuse for Sword/Shield following

[@lofizap840]

When I was younger I got lost in that damn cave too. It took me literal days to finally find my way out. But when I did I was so excited to finally continue the game that I still remember it. The new games just feel lack luster and it honestly isn't even hard to get legendary pokemon anymore. I remember how hype it was to finally find a legendary, at the very end, and catch it. Now there's like 50 legendary stuffed into one game that have very little solid lore. Pokemon games have been kinda declining

[@saberwolf181alpha6]

I enjoyed X and Y, but yeah, nobody really remembers the gym leaders, not to mention the elite four from that game.

[@kai_s.hazaki289]

I remember Olympia, Wulfric and Korrina

[@kai_s.hazaki289]

Mostly because of the Anime

[@doceonbane7443]

I remember all of them...... Ones I don't remember was from Gen 7 aside from Guzma and that Edgekid with the Freakazoid Arceus Wannabe Pokémon. That's how Bad Gen 7 Sucked for me and I find Gen 8 Tolerable tho not really all that great.

[@anthonystrangio]

I remember Siebold because he was actually challenging for me

[@jordanevolved]

I remember clemont, that’s it lmao

[@frankwu4747]

The “wild area” should have encompassed the entire gala region

[@richardtaveras3642]

Even the city areas?

[@frankwu4747]

@@richardtaveras3642 sure! Why not?

[@ehsanali6352]

@@frankwu4747 i think that would be too hard/long time for nintendo to code or would cost a lot of money

[@frankwu4747]

@@ehsanali6352 You would think so wouldn’t you? But then we have breath of the wild.

[@swizzlesticks4661]

@@frankwu4747 Then we remember that gamefreak is a multi billion dollar company that can do virtually anything with their money. They can hire hundreds of more people to make these games amazing like breath of the wild

[@funkyviral587]

the newer pokemon games are so easy that i start to doubt my mons' strength if they dont oko an opponent

[@_ikako_]

i've been playing pokemmo and, after 5+ years of only playing the new games, i'm shocked whenever one of my pokemon faint.

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

@@stephaniecronin2056 Lol, no. I swept his entire team in under 3 minutes. He's soft. I miss tough opponents like Gary and Cynthia.

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

@@stephaniecronin2056 I didn't grind once for the fight but I always have a diverse team that never shares a type. Seriously, Leon was a push over. Idk how anyone found him to be tough. I didn't even plan for the fight and went in blind. 🤷‍♂️

[@slevinchannel7589]

@@ThwipThwipBoom My comment got deleted, despite not having any s-earing or anything... maybe it was too big? Is that a thing? Can someone tell me whats going on???

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

@@slevinchannel7589 KZbin comment bots that "clean" comment sections are fucking retarded is why.

[@xanderx3788]

One year later and legend arceus just proved this video right by rocking that awesome goldeneye 64 level of background graphics.

[@tomc.5704]

Wonder why pokemon games are getting easier? It's intentional. All of these are quotes from Junichi Masuda, one of the three founding developers of Game Freak and the Director of the Board. He's most famous as the composer for all the music you know and love, but he's also been credited as Director and/or Producer on every game since Crystal. Junichi Masuda: So when we tried to think about how kids these days generally play games, what came to mind was mobile games really. Games which you play for a short time, and perhaps you'll be moving between various games pretty quickly, so if it was a game that kind of takes about two hours to get into, we thought that perhaps people might get a bit bored and then decide to move on to a different game. So back in the day, even playing in the virtual console version of the original Pikachu version, it might take you know thirty hours, forty hours to kind of complete, or progress significantly in the game. And in this age with so many games to choose from, we thought that we'd rather make something that was easier to progress through, and kind of tailor that playstyle to how we think that the playstyle has evolved over the years and how children are playing games now. -- 2018, on Pokemon Let's Go "Rather than any actual feedback from players, it's more accepting the realities of modern life," he said. "Kids these days or even people who grew up playing Pokemon--everyone is a lot more busy. There are a lot more things competing for a person's time than there were back then. For example, there are so many free games you can play on your phone now, there's so many entertainment options, so making it a little easier to play is the reason for that." "Back when I was younger, someone would buy us a game and that was the only game we had, so we had to play it," he added. "I don't think that's really the case for many people these days." -- 2014 We asked Masuda if Game Freak might ever consider rebooting the entire Pokemon series, bringing it to life in a new way that potentially strays from popular convention. Masuda suggested that this is unlikely, as he said one of the hallmarks of the series is that it's relatable to a wide range of players and ages. "One of the main appeals of Pokemon over the years is the concept that even through all these games, you can have people 20 years apart but they can still talk about Pokemon," he said. "There's always the gyms, the elite four champions, a lot of the pokemon are featured throughout all the different generations. A lot of that shared experience, even if you're 20 years apart, is something that's really appealing about Pokemon." --2014 First of all, we did not create Pokémon for kids. We create the Pokémon games for everybody. Everybody can play the Pokémon games, so we try to make the games very approachable. For example, we use different colors. It's not just about the text, but the visual appeal. In the end, yes, even kids can play this game. Of course, adults might focus more on the storyline. But the main thing is catching Pokémon, and trading Pokémon. You trade Pokémon. If you're an adult and you're trying to trade Pokémon, you might feel a little bit shy, because you're dealing with Pokémon. Maybe between kids, they're not shy about it. So maybe in that sense, maybe kids can better enjoy the trading aspect of Pokémon games. --2009 The basic concept of Pokémon is that we want to attract the beginner, so that when the beginner comes and plays, if it's 3D, it's three dimensions instead of two, so it's much more information for you to take in. We don't know if that's what they want. We want the game to be approachable and easy to understand. Also, there is a balance that we have to make. By balance, I mean, do we want to make the scenario deeper, so we have a deeper, more complicated storyline, or do we want players to collect, catch, and trade Pokémon? --2009

[@hamsandwich6685]

Clearly unfit for his position and out of touch with reality and what players want from the games. I remember, about 19ish years ago, when gold and silver came out after red, blue and yellow, the regions connected and it felt like the pokemon world itself was expanding. From that iteration forward, I harbored expectations that the games would get bigger and deeper to explore and filled out with vast varieties of pokemon. Ruby and sapphire did not deliver but I still held that hope. I lost all that childhood hopes and dreams at x and y. Black and white with their sequels teased me enough to think it might still be possible. I'm very niave in this sense. It's never going to happen. until a rogue development team creates a pokemon rip off that does the original explore/collect formula better than pokemon, they will just churn out these hollow hand holding interactive movies instead of real games. Sun and moon is a glorified treadmill of cutscenes.

[@neon_quest]

This is extremely sad. He has no pride in the game he's directing. He's willing to conciously make a "fast food game" to secure a few dollars. The only public they're paying attention to are hyperactive kids who don't care about exploring the world or taking care of their pokemon and only want instant gratification. This kind of mentality is so present these days, everyone wants fast trash and then "oh well it was trash, let's try another one" and keep throwing money at them. I'm never buying a pokemon game again. Honestly, screw Game Freak.

[@Azoolag]

Legit can't believe I'm reading this. Even though the general Nintendo mentality has regressed for a while, I thought Masuda was outside of that. Sigh.

[@jacksonbridgeforth3217]

These quotes are the last straw. I don't know If I'm going to keep buying Pokémon games now that I know that these are actually their intentions. At first I though sword and shield were just bad games, and it happens. But based on this, Pokémon really is going downhill, isn't it ...

[@kingcam0775]

@@Azoolag Masuda and Game Freak are the worst. Pirate their games.

[@shaneyzamora2525]

Maybe its time for the developers to go back and play the games again.

[@Otome_chan311]

I can't even replay the originals. Playing them now is far different than playing them back when pokemania was a thing.

[@icecontrol1]

Or maybe you can learn that the games are not for you anymore

[@Otome_chan311]

@@icecontrol1 That's why I stopped buying them. But if you alienate all your fans, who will be left to buy the games?

[@icecontrol1]

@@Otome_chan311 The fact that they continu to sell over 15 million shows that new people are buying it

[@Gamer88334]

@@icecontrol1 The new games may not be up to their standards, but the amount of hand holding in Sword & Shield is unnecessary to the point of being insulting. Children, in general, are NOT that stupid. I'm pretty sure that most children know that when you go to a hotel, you check in. They don't need an NPC to suggest that they check in because they learned from watching their parents do it in real life.

[@ryananderson4352]

“The irony of instant gratification is that it isn’t gratifying at all” very well said and a good overall summation of the problems with modern game design, especially with regards to Pokémon. The designers need to remember that the earlier Pokémon games were already designed for children, and those of us who grew up with the earliest gens have fond memories of the challenges we had to overcome.

[@bern9642]

Back then I feel they were designed for adolescents in mind, now they are designed for pre-teens, 7 year olds and 6 year olds. Even 8 year olds feel SwSh is too easy. I don't know what Gamefreak thinks but kids are good at video games.

[@IncredibleMD]

It's amazing how 99% of people aren't asking for an insanely difficult pokemon game, just for a pokemon game that's just as difficult as they used to be (which, admittedly, isn't particularly), and Gamefreak still doesn't live up to that. I'd rather a 2d sprite based game with actual difficulty than a 3d game with cutting edge next gen graphics. But, then again, I didn't even like the 3D pokemon games when those were limited to console outings like Colosseum or XD. Pokemon always had its own distinct feel, and Colosseum just felt like any other jRPG.

[@elmasterx2]

What? I'm all about instant gratification! Not on this games, just in general. As an adult I've learned how much struggling and working for something truly sucks. By the time you get it you don't even enjoy it that much anymore since it's hand in hand with all the struggle and time it took. Instant gratification might not last that long, but at least you actually get to enjoy it. ...and I just realized this has nothing to do with the video or even the comment all that much...oops?

[@pokemon5622]

I absolutely love this video, not just blindly criticizing everything, I really really appreciate that. As someone who's first game was Black, it make me happy to see Black and White included with the 'good ol games' lineup. I agree so much with all the points presented in this video. AND THANK YOU, for FINALLY saying something about attachment to your Pokémon, I feel like no one ever brings that up. I had to try so hard to feel close at all the just one of my Pokémon in Shield. Tbh I liked Sun and Moon, the Ultra versions of them were honestly really fun, lots of extra thong to do, and I felt of was more challenging than Sun and Moon, even just a bit.

[@mitkodimitrov6663]

My first game was black too:)

[@KillSchwill]

It just feels like they don't care anymore. A series this popular should have so much new and revolutionary stuff added to it. But they just keep copy and pasting the same formula over and over again. And when they do add something new, it's the most basic and lazy implementation ever.

[@CodedGaming]

honestly it's similar to how the yu-gi-oh games behave now too. with just the bare minimum, just enough to get by with as little money, time and effort spent. sad really

[@internetguy7319]

I 100% disagree but see why you think this.

[@redbunn2282]

im ok if they delay the Release just to complete something. but sadly this is the game i bought almost everything is just recycled from the 3ds

[@ceedott]

It's not that they don't care, it's that there isn't really much of a reason for them to care. Pokemon is one of the biggest media franchises in the whole world, making billions of dollars off of the TV shows, games, merchandise, cards, etc. Anything even slightly related to Pokemon almost always ends up selling incredibly well. They eventually seemed to have realized this. Why bother investing effort into your games if you can lazily put something together and be guaranteed that it'll sell millions of copies? Despite all the flaws with the more recent games, people seem to just keep eating it up. They even introduced DLCs and people still kept buying it... Their primary focus is making money, not making truly quality products. So long as they can keep getting away with it, they won't stop doing it, and I unfortunately don't see that stopping anytime soon.

[@okagron]

@@ceedott Main reason why i have given up with the franchise. I gave them the benefit with Gen 6 (i liked it but i could have been better) because it was the first main series in 3D, but Gen 7 and 8 just crap on the bed. They really didn't fixed anything they did wrong with Gen 6 and if anything, they made things even worse. And they realize that they don't have to improve, they can just make the same stale, bland game and still raking in a lot of money because their fans don't give a shit.

[@Snip216]

It still bugs me that Team Yell exists purely to be a roadblock until you beat the gyms, and while I like Marnie she's horribly boring as a character

[@DGSnowolf]

@Thyme and Oregano Wait you consider hop to be interesting? How? He's like one of the worst things about Sword and Shield

[@DGSnowolf]

@Thyme and Oregano Nessa is hot and Milo is adorable. There you go. You're right Hop does have character traits unlike all the other characters. They just made him so annoying and unlikable due to his many interactions with you and what he's saying. For the first half of the game you can barely walk 5 steps without Hop coming to tell you something annoying or battling you. You stomp him and he says stuff like "Oh I almost have you" when you have 6 pokemon with full health and he is on his last in the red. He just took me out of what little immersion I had and annoyed the crap out of me.

[@alexthorne1416]

@@8Kazuja8 I enjoyed team skull because they felt like a parody of evil teams in the past, and I think they succeeded at that, while still having Aether foundation as an actual plot driver (in a twist not a single person saw coming of course). Team yell feels like it’s attempting the same thing but not anywhere near as good or funny so it just comes off stupid

[@Missingno_Miner]

@Thyme and Oregano His story of self doubt is literally Bianca's arc told in a less interesting way, right down to becoming the local professor's assistant.

[@emmareiman64]

@@Missingno_Miner Now that I think of it, you're right. That's pretty close to the stuff. I mean yeah the characters are still different. Bianca doesn't find interest in battles and Hop is motivated by his family not giving a crap about him because his brother is champion and a god and ooooh uuuh aaahhhh look at that unbeatable charizard *Repeat line 5 times* This made me think of Bede, my own personal favourite Rival of the game He's present more than Marnie. Less than Hop but he doesn't interrupt you 5 times from walking to a train station like Hop does Bede has that attitude. You also feel sorry for him because Rose doesn't give a crap even if Bede tries his best. He's a capable trainer still and has some character development. Left handed too, that's an interesting detail. etc etc. BUT. The thing I thought of the most was 'He's your rival and he becomes a gym leader, that's kinda cool' But then I thought of it more and Green/Blue becomes a gym leader too. Bed does it during the game itself where as Green/Blue is sequel stuff when they're no longer your rival. Buuuuuut yeah, so gym leader rival wasn't the first time execution here either At least there was something else Opal is a great character and I love her, but Bede is also great Marnie..... Mmm.... she also became a gym leader, somehow, even if she kinda said no during the story itself. She could have found something else after becoming champion didn't work but nope. And Piers to me is the better of the two hands down. You could have included her in the post-game dynamax gym stuff. It makes sense as to why Bede wasn't there helping you, he doesn't care. But you could have had Marnie tagging along instead of Piers. Not that I mind, because I like Piers more, but, Maybe it could have made Marnie cooler and more involved? Too late for that now

[@dogeex9444]

Ok but can we talk about those animations? They're just so smooth and animated with great detail! And that black screen OOOOOH boy, gotta love that black screen!

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

the part where the pokemon slides in the air to it's opponent, and the particle of a hand hitting the pokemon appears... just marvelous animation, maybe even better than the grassier grass

@@BlaxeFrost-X that’s literally how it’s been in all the games

[@BlaxeFrost-X]

@ Yeah, in the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS was something acceptable... after that is just lazyness

[@robloxfansite1156]

the way the model flies into the air and stays there for one turn before it to drops onto the opponent a turn later all with its idle animation is just full of the exaggerated swagger of a pokemon.

[@Shahzad-ss1jq]

@@robloxfansite1156 or dig and dive

[@Leonardo-cw1dd]

and this is why i love the rom hacks and fan games. much more memorable than the newer pokemon games and more satisfying to complete

[@Blu3-Fir3]

Indeed. Pokemon Clover is one of the best Pokemon games I've played in a long time. There's an insane amount of content present in a ROMhack made by 4chan of all places. A lot of love, passion, and makes went into that game... Unlike everything Pokemon has released post BW2.

[@Leonardo-cw1dd]

@@Blu3-Fir3 never played pokemon clover

[@thedesensitizedsympathizer5307]

If you want a super hard but addicting pokemon experience. PLAY. POKEMON. CLOVER. It's SO fun!

[@thepokekid01]

The problem continues to be Budget and Release Schedule. We didn't get Diamond and Pearl right after Ruby and Sapphire and FRLG, there were some years in there where we got noting. Same with Black and White and Heart Gold, Soul Silver. Those games, while still mostly sprite base and simpler in design had more development time to put the ideas in the games. Now they are making games that compete directly with the biggest budget titles. Breath of the Wild is great, but the Zelda team, after they completed it, were not forced to then go make a remake of OoT in between Breath of the Wild 2. The Pokemon Company, if they want to be keeping this schedule, needs to greater invest in developers again like when they had Genius Sorority, as well as Balloon Game Freak themselves to having 4 or 5 major Development teams of hundreds or so of people. This compromise of all the pokemon really just asks to compromise on the last feature they offered players. They already asked them to compromise on the number of new pokemon, the size of the maps, the bonus features and mini games, even multiplayer features. I feel like that was a perspective mistake that was made when producing these titles. They were just more concerned with meeting deadlines than fully featuring a title that would impress fans. Pokemon games do a lot of things for a lot of gamers, I don't know how much your ideas actually match every fan, but I do agree that the pokemon and exploration are big features. I just think, the progression that we saw on this take was responsive to fan demands on everything being made more streamlined like they are now, for generations... that said, the problem is a lot of gamers are just gamers. They aren't developers! They don't exactly know why they like things, and they don't stop and think about features in the same way. The open world aspect of Sword and Shield is nice, but the difference between those worlds and something like Zelda's which accomplishes a lot (despite the huge size difference) is really that there is a sense of progression in the exploration in Zelda. The wild Area lets you camp anywhere, but you rarely actually need to camp anywhere. I think you are right in that you do need some kind of obstacle function like HMs to allow for more rewarding exploration. I don't know how I completely feel about your solution, but I do think it is the right direction. I just think the majority of the problem is Development time and Budget. I'm hoping that Generation 9 is at least 3 or 4 years off from this point to rectify.

[@gloom0259]

Maybe I’m greedy, but I want a damn full on Pokémon RPG

[@spade4acer]

Pokemon with multiple story paths and endings would be really something else.

[@The_Last_Norman]

I don't know how it could be implemented but a fully online MMO rpg could be decent too

[@jeffkealy5951]

They kinda owe it to us after all this trash. If they think they're 'top tier', they can very well show us what they really have. How 'bout, along with RPG, we can have our whole party able to come out, recognise rocks to jump over and can be pet outside of their balls. Wait, y'know what'd be so cool? When we enter a snow biom, we can hook up some pokemon to a sled. Man, wouldn't that be awesome? Shouldn't get my hopes up, though.

[@nocturnal3427]

yeah. i want better gameplay, but i don’t want plot to take a backseat. i kind of miss the lore speculation that used to be more commonplace

[@chickenchaser9348]

UNREAL ENGINE UNREAL ENGINE UNREAL ENGINE

[@francisbartoszewski2284]

I just think it's really telling when they haven't been able to top a game released in 2009. Even the graphics haven't improved as the arcade style of the older games give them a timelessness appeal.

[@leonardofarias8843]

You think that Gen 5 looks worse than HGSS?

[@francisbartoszewski2284]

@@leonardofarias8843 in terms of looks they're very similar, I'd still be happy if they went back to the gen 5 graphics. I prefer the gen 4 look though.

[@The_Last_Norman]

I've always preferred 2D sprites but it wouldn't bother me if the 3D and the designs were actually good.

[@spade4acer]

I'm glad that someone else also prefers the gen 4 and 5 overworld graphics to gen 6 and beyond

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

@@The_Last_Norman I think 2D would be better if they just wanted to focus on the battling. But if you go for this Monster Hunter World-esk ecosystem you need 3D models for that.

[@prakhyathjaisiv8851]

The battle with Ultra Necrozma in Ultra moon and Cynthia in the original Diamond are the memories I'd never forget!

[@CeruleanRogue]

This makes me sad honestly, because I remembered Sword and Shield existed a few days ago and was thinking about doing a nuzlocke for it. Yet I couldn't figure out WHY the idea sounded so unappealing to me. Watching this reminded me why. The game just isn't challenging, and what challenge is there needs to be artificially added by the player. Likewise I actually don't mind pokemon focusing on story, I think there's a lot of interesting stories they could tell in the pokemon world that could carry the franchise forward. However the stories are so bland and badly written that it just makes the bad gameplay stand out even more. Gen 5 hit a sweet spot between good gameplay and good story, so you never /really/ cared about how linear the routes felt compared to past generations because the story was worth the investment. Gen 8 just doesn't have that however. It /could/ have had it, the pokemon specials for this Gen are amazing and they show a huge depth to the world that makes it feel like a living breathing world you could realistically insert yourself into. Yet that's the problem. None of that is present in the actual games. Oleana being so crazy because she's stressed and overworked? It's only in those shorts. Chairman Rose being someone you could reasonably understand as inspiring the loyalty of those around him enough to embark on his stupid as hell plan? Only in those shorts. If Sword and Shield had half the charm of those shorts and actually recognized that the game DIDN'T NEED A WORLD ENDING TWIST OR VILLAIN then I don't think people would be half as upset over the 'story' it tried to tell. Hell the story of fighting to the top as an up and coming trainer should have made you feel a sense of progression, yet it takes such a huge back seat that any good will the initial story built is just gone by the end.

[@jackdonsurfer]

Doing a nuzlocke doesn't help much. You'd have to hack the game and give trainers much better Pokemon to make it even slightly engaging.

[@Aurirang]

​@@jackdonsurfer It also doesn't help that having the Mons roam on the are kinda destroys the while mystery of nuzlocke where you never know howyour team's going to look like. I tried it and eventually gave the controller to my brother so he can run around a route to send me into a battle with a mon for me to catch. And i agree that the game is way too easy, even going in blind. A randomly caught chinchou absolutely demolished Kate without any sort of training as example. The exp-share is the worst offender. I wasn' too stoked about it in X/Y already but having it implemented as base without option to turn it off, really was a sour note for me. It made it near impossible to make a nuzlocke without overleveling. I had to carefully skip trainers. I didn't finish the Nuzlocke, i got fed up with the game and just watched my brother suffer through it till the end.

[@jacobmorales2451]

I COMPLETELY AGREE!!! (ps I failed the nuzlocke lmao)

[@Aurirang]

@@jacobmorales2451 Shit happens. :D My X/Y-Nuzlocke ended because my team was wiped from some random enemies Mienshao. :D Sun/Moon2 got wiped by that ultra-butter-dragon (I went in blind). And most of my platinum-attempts have their stop at Cynthia.

[@jacob_bebop]

Black and White had some amazing plot points ngl. LIKE REMEMBER WHEN THAT WHOLE CITY JUST FROZE, OR WHEN ALL THE GYM LEADERS PULLED UP AT THE END TO FIGHT WITH YOU IN THAT TOWER THINGY?!?!?! Scenes like that fr made my childhood lmao

[@snivybun]

same! especially the gym leaders coming thru like that, nostalgia

[@kuronekoo96]

I still remember Poképark and Poképark 2, where the pokémon behaved like actual living things. They played with eachother, some swayed from tree to tree, some ran, some flied from time to time. I miss those games, dude.

[@RK-lo2nw]

seriously tho I would kill for a PokéPark DX/PokéPark 3

[@WheelStart]

@@RK-lo2nw pokepark on switch probably can saved and hyped up this franchise back

[@erincook5639]

Pokepark 3 on the switch would cure my depression

[@clauteletuby]

and the new pokesnap is such a good example

[@lexpendragon7935]

Ommgggg Poképark. I loved these games! I remember the younger me, after having finished the first game, to go back on it and go to the beach area and RP as a chill pikachu on vacations xD

[@wafflingmean4477]

On the topic of non linear paths, I always remember what an undertaking it was to reach Pacificlog town in Gen 3. I didn't have any guides so it was just up to my memory of stumbling across it in the playthrough before. I needed to stock up on potions, revives and even some PP restores. I knew it was going to be a *very* long journey and I would have to pay attention at all times, strategically dodging trainers to keep my item stocks high without breaking off the path I needed to reach the town. Along the way I found lots of cool areas I never knew about, especially with Dive. And reaching the town was always a stepping stone for a larger goal. It was my home base so I had a Pokemon Centre nearby when I went to catch Raquaza, with Sky Tower being a brutal challenge in its own right. I always felt so much relief when I finally made it to Pacificlog with my Pokemon on their last legs. The new games have nothing like this. A huge journey with the player figuring out where to go and not sure if they'll make it.

[@AllanDatGuy]

Game freak: Pokémon is for kids. Also Gamefreak: but gen 1 needs to be referenced for the older audiences that actually buy and play the games themselves aka kAnTo

[@yiangaruga4928]

Fun fact GameFreak has actually said in numerous interviews that pokemon is for *everyone,* not just for kids. Which makes the fact that these games are so easy and bareboned that even babies could beat them all the more mind boggling.

[@hawktalon7890]

Man, at this point the only Kanto things I care about are Sandslash, Venomoth, [best Pokemon] and Giovanni lmao; Adventures/Pokespe really got me interested in his character when I was younger. I could deal with not seeing anything else Kanto-related ever again. The region's been milked way too much, and even then how they've been writing main series Giovanni in recent years disappoints me greatly.

[@Jdudec367]

@Z _Moouse what do you mean by stop redesigning and retyping old pokemon?

[@Jdudec367]

@@yiangaruga4928 Then I think there doing this more so for casuals really.

[@citruscoffee5964]

Am i the only one bored of kanto? Lol im not even fazed when i see any reference now. Which is sad bc gen 1 itself i had fun with it just gets boring everytime gen 1 is mentioned now though.

[@IsomerMashups]

Pokemon gen 10: Game literally plays itself. Game journalists: iT's ThE MoST sTrEaMLiNeD GaMe!! TruST Me I pLaYeD TheM aLL iT's ThE BeST oNe YeT!!

[@delphoxxthevulpera68]

Pokemon quest already does that

[@hitkid2456]

Wow. Official console version of a mobile game? Have we come full circle (or been fully corrupted)?

[@umokay4177]

Exactly. it’s so disheartening and pathetic

[@umokay4177]

@Hen I’m weak lol sword /shield has N64 trees 😂

[@mauigonz]

Mmorpgs act like that

[@ariete_3281]

Actually Unova is not as linear as it seems, in fact Unova has lots of hidden passages caves wich connect cityes and more, but a lot of the are not showed in the map

[@rufavulpes]

From what i've heard, Scarlet and Violet apparently have 3 individual stories that are completely separate and you can choose what to do more freely, rather than just being forced along a singular story path. I know it's hardly perfect, but at least to me, it does make me want to try these new games once they come out, because it sounds like it'll be fun to explore the new region.

[@kripticlunar8198]

honestly that is a really good thing they’ve added truly makes it open world but the major flaw is the game is either too easy or hard because of the leveling up system

[@Bludobi9001]

Yes and no. While you do have the choice to tackle any challenge you want, there's no level scaling based on your progress (eg you can take on a certain Leader first, but their pokemon are going to be high 40s despite you not having a single Badge yet)

[@rufavulpes]

@@Bludobi9001 Yeah, I was kinda disappointed by that. You can "technically" do it in whatever order you please, there's still an intended path.

[@groldan7597]

Being honest, I remember only 3 things from X and Y: The legendaries (I really like the legendaries from that region man), the weird ass city that I spent like 2 hours in trying to find something, and being happy that the weird tall guy had a cute little flower pokemon. It's so forgettable.

[@dechirithefox8418]

And the really sad part is that ORAS actually gave u more of the tall guy and his flower pokemon's story than X and Y did.

[@groldan7597]

@@dechirithefox8418 JENFKWBDKBEK YOU NOT WRONG-

[@spade4acer]

X and Y were garbage (especially compared to BW2 directly before) and nobody seemed to notice how bad they were because they were too "amazed" by the 3D overworld and sprites

[@groldan7597]

@@spade4acer thank you, yes. I feel like it’s so much worse than SWSH (in my opinion) but I don’t see anybody complaining about it. Idk, I just feel like SWSH actually had some things that made it fun, while I literally just- never picked up X & Y after beating it again.

[@spade4acer]

@@groldan7597 I'm at least glad that people have caught on to the bullshit at this point and are en mass criticizing Gamefreak.

[@CrowLady0_0]

I just really want Pokémon to stop being humanoid it makes me uncomfortable frankly and I just like the more animal designs they are cuter and cooler and more likable to me

[@slevinchannel7589]

There were even 'nice' Rivals before that i had no problem with, and yet, i still despite Hop so much. His talking, his nonsense he spouts during matches, about it being always a close match, even though that's not true. You will never lose to him ever. So there's only 2 options: Either you dont care OR you feel bad about beating him, which is a negative thing.

[@Carbonific]

I agree with you, because Pokemon like Inteleon seem strange to me. At the same time, though, I'm fine with Pokemon like Machamp, Hitmontop, Hariyama, Gallade, Conkeldurr etc... and I'm not entirely sure what the difference is. Maybe it's just that humanoid-form Pokemon only really work as Fighting-types?

[@Thomas-nn9du]

I agree. Lopunny is an abomination that shouldn’t exist

[@JohnSmith-rb5iv]

Am fine with humanoid mon they make the mons more diverse and unique but hey thats your opinion man :)

[@Tam_Hawkins]

@@Carbonific I think you have the same problem that I have. somewhat humanoid lookig pokemon evolves into a humanoid looking pokemn = ok. Four legged and very animal like pokemon evolves into a humanoid bipedal pokemon (or dude in a furry suit as i call it) = not ok.

[@dowellz]

The suspense of having 1hp on a gym battle, hoping you get a crit is much better than one shotting everything.

[@frederickjason2964]

Yes

[@robertdouth8979]

If you are one shotting everything then you have decided to overgrind the gyms and probably play on switch vs. Set. Regardless of those self-imposed ways to make the game easier, the AI is unbelievably ignorant sometimes doubling up on status moves even if they have you asleep and the strategy employed by gym leaders (the supposed best trainers in the game) couldn't beat a 7 year old playing on the competitive ladder. I don't think anyone is expecting GF to make a game with a difficulty curve on par with a Drayano rom hack, but the only way you lose to a gym leader is if you play the game the same way you see people play mobile games in ads (intentionally stupidly)

[@Logicalleaping]

@Jett Lucas Hayes So... don't use Mudkip if you want a more fulfilling experience then. Every region has a starter that makes the game easier thats the point of them, they were the original difficulty settings in pokemon (for early game). Heres the starter difficulty up to gen 4 Red/Blue Bulbasaur is easy (super effective against Brock and Misty), Squirtle is normal (supereffective against Brock Ok against Misty) and Charmander is hard mode (Weak to Brock and Misty). Gold/Silver Cyndiquil is easy (Super effective against Bugsy and bellsprout tower), Totodile is normal (Ok on all gyms in game), Chikorita is hard mode (Weak to Faulkner and Bugsy). Ruby/Sapphire Mudkip is easy (Super effective against Roxanne and immune to Watson), Torchic and Treecko can go either way (in Sapphire Treecko is better in Ruby Torchic is better) Diamond/Pearl Chimchar is easy (if evolved supereffective against Roark then breezes the game (also best of 3 fire types in DP)) Turtwig is normal (Supereffective against Roark and Ok against Gardenia) and Piplup is slightly harder mode (Super effective against Roark weak to Gardenia).

[@actuallykiro6998]

@@Logicalleaping It is kind of sad that I have to chose a starter I don't like due to the one I like making the game insanely easy.

[@Logicalleaping]

@@actuallykiro6998 well thats just the way of pokemon. Most of the pokemon people don't like are bad and most of the pokemon people like are great. After you play pokemon for long enough you just use pokemon you've never used for a new experience.

[@JaykoBlanco]

Would love to see an updated take on this after SV/PLA

[@bansheepsyche8926]

I think gen 5 had such a great balance of story vs gameplay, good rivals, challenges, leveling, etc. God I had such a great time with those games.

[@hajidle]

Gen 5 best gen

[@joemency2242]

gen 5 was definitely good story wise. pretty memorable

[@gerragotheallidile]

Gen 4 and Gen 5 were probably the best Gens, especially in terms of storytelling.

[@Endless20162]

@@gerragotheallidile Gen 3-5

[@gerragotheallidile]

@@Endless20162 Oops... I forgot gen 3... My bad...

[@rayquaza5059]

Even though the region itself was linear, Unova was always really fun because there were just so many optional areas of interest to explore along the way. In that way, it just never felt linear.

[@Luki-1331]

Remember when almost all the legendaries had their special locations/mechanics and not just being mystery gifts, on portals or just being out of the game (gen 8 be like: aight, imma delete half of you out)

[@spade4acer]

Back then it was a complete mystery to me how the fuck you were supposed to get pokemon like Shaymin or Cresselia to appear. Which actually gave a sense of wonder to the corresponding areas of the region. Now you can just buy them online or something, don't even have to get up and go to an event. All the wonder is gone

[@AndreaXV]

Legendaries are literally delivered by postmen nowadays

[@christiant.-sg7719]

RIP 1/2 the entire dex!

[@Boredman567]

It added to the feeling of exploring a mysterious, fantastical world. That you can find these powerful Pokemon, weaved into the actual world of the game, made catching and using them much more meaningful.

[@Boredman567]

@@spade4acer TBH I always hated the event Pokemon mechanic. Especially in the first few gens, when they were extremely scarcely distributed, for short windows, and mostly in big cities like NYC. And that's assuming you even know about the event, which wasn't too likely in the earlier years of the internet. Once my older brother got an action replay for Gen 4 then we could actually experience the event legendaries.