Luis 2025-08-03 21:34:08

Nobody need this much truth bombo

BrandMChaos 2025-08-03 21:53:50

Gen 5 I think had a solid story. Been a while since I played pokemon, but I wish there would be more grounded elements to it sometimes.

Guess that's why ? Specifically the antagonist group of villains have such a bombastic plots that basically makes no sense, and the latest gen was just a school fan group

Tyler 2025-08-03 22:01:53

I stopped at GEN 2 Silver and picked up Arceus and I liked that. But little changes: I'm still using math powers to subtract my opponent's numbers until they're zero.

PegasuTV 2025-08-03 22:12:02

is there anyone "in the pokemon fandom" that doesnt think gen 1 and 2 was the peak of it? damn

Nabella 2025-08-03 22:41:42

Every forever franchise will eventually lose its soul.

AlphaStormMusic 2025-08-03 23:19:10

Honestly, hot take: I don't think Pokémon was ever really that interesting to begin with. Whatever "soul" you felt is just you having grown up with it; that'll be anyone's opinion about whatever Pokémon game they grew up with, or indeed whatever they grew up with in general. That's not a bad thing, but if you look at Pokémon in general as a series of video games from a purely objective standpoint, all it really had going for it was the collectathon aspect. Outside of that, your story was a mix of trying to be the best trainer in the region, and collapsing a capitalistic group trying to exploit all Pokémon for their own gain. The legendaries didn't really play into the story until gen 3, they were just additional challenge Pokémon for you to try and catch. And even then, who really plays a Pokémon game for the story to begin with? Let's be real here: Pokémon was always kind of bland.

For clarity, my experiences with Pokémon start well after I would have the same experiences as any kid from the 90s or early 2000s would have done if they grew up on Pokémon. I started with Gen 5 in 2016, and finished Gen 1 in 2020. Jaded pre-teen and mid-teen that I was in those days, I found my fun with them, but they never fully captivated me; I didn't actually finish Gen 5 until this year.

With all that being said, I cannot deny the magic Pokémon has, especially in its earliest days. Obviously, it's a successful franchise, and the early Pokémon designs are great and incredibly iconic! Hell, I find myself coming back to it for the Pokémon designs and especially the music; and when put into a challenge run like a nuzlocke or whatever ridiculous Pokémon challenge Alpharad does that week, that can be where you find it interesting. And of course, you have one of the best strategy RPGs in the battling system alone; can't deny that the battles can be fun and extremely tense at times. However, I still maintain, Pokémon as a whole entity, with all things considered about it, was never exciting. And especially now where fangames far surpass mainline entries, while still being built upon Gen 3.

In general, I'll agree that Pokémon peaked at Gen 1&2, though. Especially where Gen 2 has such amazing music (that'll usually be the thing I like about a Pokémon game; what can I say? I'm a musician), it's hard to deny those games as classics. But even classics can be unexciting.

BrandyBuizel 2025-08-04 00:27:55

soul silver was dope

LiteraryWho 2025-08-04 00:41:29

The first two generations were also about pokemon coming into a world like ours, rather than being in some alternate "Pokemon world" like today. I wonder if that might have added to the charm, since it kept things more grounded?

drawnthatwayxx 2025-08-04 00:47:32

Sure, after Gold and Silver it was clear (for at least a couple decades) to Game Freak that they didn't need to do much to keep raking in money.

FloppyDisk789 2025-08-04 00:52:08

There's a reason that the most popular and sought after games are HeartGold and SoulSilver.

colorsCrimsonTears 2025-08-04 01:41:01

everyone who doesn't agree with this is lying to themselves :^)

Sikowny 2025-08-04 03:31:00

One of my favorite things about gen 1 / 2 is the ability to play Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2 with the pokemon you could obtain in the games. Played stadium as a kid, never understood what the attachments were for until I was a teen. Figuring that out was magical.

phenorax 2025-08-04 07:07:47

UH OH NINTENTODDLERS AINT GONNA LIKE THIS ONE

Yeah, it would be really cool if they could make a game that would be more in line with the original S1 series but more scaled up and for a older audience, but due to GameFreak and microdick sycophants that aint ever gonna happen lol

phenorax 2025-08-04 07:07:47

UH OH NINTENTODDLERS AINT GONNA LIKE THIS ONE

Yeah, it would be really cool if they could make a game that would be more in line with the original S1 series but more scaled up and for a older audience, but due to GameFreak and microdick sycophants that aint ever gonna happen lol