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Darren

Looking for some Pokémon fans to talk about the good ol' days

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Hey!

Decided to jump back onto the N-Europe forum (since I stopped using social media, i've had an itch for forums again), and see if I can find some new people to chat with about one of my favourite franchises ever: Pokémon. It's something i've got a lot of love and nostalgia for, and it'd be great to speak to other fans who have been enjoying it throughout the years.

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You might need to specify which days were the good old days before you draw Glen's ire.

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Pokémon natter, eh? Always up for that.

You refer to the "good ol' days" in the title, but that's subjective. (EDIT: Damnit, @bob! I hate that you predicted me perfectly!) Most people's favourite Pokémon game tends to be the first one they played when they were a kid.

Not me though, I'm weird.

Despite being a fan of the series since the Game Boy, I think the DS era of Pokémon is the pinnacle of the mainline series. Specifically, from Platinum to Black2/White2.

The four different games here are just constant high quality, with the fifth generation being my favourite mainline games ever.

The series hasn't quite gotten to those heights since. Sword/Shield was getting there, but with Scarlet/Violet going open world, I have little confidence it will reach it anytime in the near future.

Edited by Glen-i
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I only really played Pokemon seriously for the first two generations. Got all 150 in Pokemon Blue around 2000 or so with my friend that had Red but I never had a gameboy printer so I couldn't print out my tiny little certificate on that crappy heat transfer paper. I also played gold but I didn't complete the Pokedex in that one. Was a real surprise when I found out I had to do Kanto again after beating the pokemon league in Johto though lol.

I've dabbled in pokemon Platinum years ago but I never really took it seriously. Still fresh in the box and I see the price on that thing has went way up so I might consider selling it one day.

Dissapointed I never jumped on Fire Red or Leaf Green on the GBA when I could have. I have the same regrets with Heart Gold and Soul Silver actually. I really liked the first two generations of pokemon but then I kind of grew out of it I guess.

Edited by martinist

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Yeah.  Pokémon Black/White and White 2/White 2 was the series peak.  A soft reboot of the series that was brave enough to ditch the entire cast of previous Pokémon (until post-game), with a brand new set of 151 mons, an interesting new story driven focus that moved beyond the usual Team Evil & Pokémon Gym concept (a story that even dared to challenge the very concept of mainline Pokémon games themselves, essentially being cockfighting simulators!), excellent level design and pacing; a huge, exciting and colourful handcrafted world to explore, masses of post-game content and excellent battle mechanics.  Gen 5 really had it all.

Gen 6 (X/Y) attempted to recapture some of what made Gen 5 so incredibly good, but fell flat on its face while doing so.  And the shift to 3D meant that much had to be sacrificed in terms of level design and such… Still, it had the best rendition of the series’ signature battle system; especially with the introduction of Mega Pokémon, as a much needed rebalancing that made previously useless Pokémon now competitively viable! If you love the battle system of Pokémon? This is the game for you.

Gen 7 (Sun/Moon) went way too far with the story, with so many incessant cutscenes that just wouldn’t stop, you’d think that Hideo Kojima directed it! And the amount of linearity and handholding was utterly suffocating.. and on top of that? The new Z-Move gimmick broke the careful balance achieved during Gen 6.  Thoroughly disappointing.

Gen 8 (Sword/Shield) actually took things back to more of a Gen 4 kind of structure, and it was all the better for it.  Some excellent new Pokémon designs, interesting gyms and cool set pieces; with some actual non- linear exploration!! A real breath of fresh air after Gen 6 and (especially!) Gen 7.  Unfortunately, the game was blatantly unfinished, with a massive chunk of Pokémon cut, and huge portions of planned content cut (including Mega Evolutions, and most traditional handcrafted Route/cave/dungeon environments).  Game Freak simply stretched themselves too thin during this time period, and it really really shows in the final product.  It’s a real shame, because conceptually it’s a real return to form for the series; but just not in the state it was released in.

And unfortunately, it seems that Game Freak have given up on the idea of making a traditional handcrafted game in HD… as they’ve switched to the Open World format with Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet… Damn shame.  Sadly, it seems that Pokémon isn’t really for me anymore; but hopefully the battle mechanics will at least return to something closer to the heights of Gen 6 this time around.

Edited by Dcubed
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