When did Pokémon lose its way?

Take the new mega-evolutions for instance. I like the fact that they are trying to add new mechanics to the series, but they just look so uninspired and almost forced. They've just taken the original designs and added more flames and shit to them. They don't even have an original name; they just stuck "mega" in front of it.
See, I really like that the changes are subtle and their names aren't changed. They're not new evolutions - it's a lick of paint to make those old Pokémon new and exciting again.

Ultimately, Mega Evolutions seem to serve the same purpose as the different forms. They can have their cake and eat it - update old Pokémon without needing to create all new ones.

They probably have the hardest fanbase in the world to please, seeing as their most vocal demographic is probably the smallest one; those that have been with the company since Gen III or earlier. They need new stuff to attract the kids in Japan and the rest of the world, but they also can't mess with the basics too much for fear of backlash from this minority audience (whose opinions are still very valuable I might add).
I'm not sure they do need to worry about backlash, really. Fans are valuable, but we're a small minority of buyers. These games sell millions. And we're the hardcore - we'll buy them even if we don't think the games are as good as our old favourites. The people they need to convince are the people who won't buy them if they look boring.

The biggest problem Gamefreak are facing with XY, I reckon, is the low 3DS sales so far. Hopefully the 2DS and special 3DS XLs will help turn around the console's fortunes.

I have a feeling we're going to see a major change in the way Smogon teaches and tiers competitive pokemon, because right now, gamefreak have shown little to no support for it (by which I mean Smogon's standards, not VGC).
Thing is, people have been predicting that the metagame will crash and burn in chaos since, oooh, gen 2? Yes, I remember the panic at the time as the metagame's focus shifted to chiefly physical types early on, not to mention the furore once we saw Wobbuffet in action.

The thing about having so many Pokémon is, it makes it more difficult for a small handful of Pokémon to dominate. There are plenty of Pokémon who've been called broken. It won't stop communities like Smogon forming rules to bring more balance to the games. It was ever thus - think how long we've had evasion/accuracy bans in place, regardless of the fact that the games have continued to add more moves and things surrounding evasion and accuracy. The world keeps turning, the game keeps going.

But the idea can only be sustained for so long until not just the original fans grow bored of it
That's what NEW fans are for.

I've been part of Pokémon fandom for around thirteen years now. Hardly any of my friends from back then are still around - and the ones I'm still in touch with just don't play. I remember when the new EV system came in with gen 3, we were livid. We thought it ruined the games, they'd have to change it back. But by now, most fans of the games got into them after the new system had been implemented. People don't even question it now - it's part of the established past.

That'll happen again. I was dubious of the physical/special split in gen 4, and I'm still not keen on the Dream World. But I'm just one voice, and in the long run, I'm not that important.

Am I the only person who didn't watch the pokemon anime until much later (sinnoh arc) yet still loves the old anime whereas I hate the new anime?
I watched it all when it arrived on terrestial telly in the UK, getting up early on Saturdays. Drifted away from it halfway through Johto, wandered back years later, still watching it now (quite behind, though).

And I've got to say, although I'll always absolutely love those early seasons, Diamond & Pearl is just a vastly better show. Not sure if it's the quality of the translation, but it's funnier, wittier, more exciting and varied, better paced and much more solid and consistent. It doesn't have the same feeling of filler vs plot progression. It's bright and fun, and its characters are lovely. I miss Misty, sure, but Dawn gets to be a proper protagonist with her own feature adventure - her contests are like Ash's gym battles, and they're some of the best episodes. It's sweet and brilliant.

I'm not far into Black & White, but it's nowhere near as good. A lot of the wit is gone. Iris and Cilan are miles less interesting than Dawn and Brock - we've gone from having a comedy sidekick and a relatable protagonist to having a bland friend and a mildly antagonistic companion. Team Rocket have gone from ridiculous larger-than-life baddies with giant robots and ridiculous plans to shadowy figures - cool, for sure, but the series really feels the loss of the DP-era Rockets.

So, I reckon the show lost its way when it lost Brock, Dawn and comedy Team Rocket. I expect it'll find its way again down the line.
 
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on the subject of the anime, i really liked how many tournament battles they did in comparison with d/p and r/s. it highlights game mechanics and sorta teaches you how to play, which is something the anime started in gen 1 but kinda strayed from that with a fuckton of pointless filler. but yeah, a lot of the wit is gone (see: the episode titles even if they are bad puns).
 
In short, to answer the OP's question: Pokemon lost its way the instant FR and LG were announced.
I think the nice thing about FL - and later HS - is that they extended the duration of their generations. A generation should last at least three years, I reckon, but there's clearly pressure to get new Pokémon games out every year. I don't see the difference between FL or HS and, say, Yellow/Crystal/Emerald/Platinum. They're all pretty much just remakes with added flair. You don't have to pick them up if you don't want to, but it means Gamefreak and Nintendo get to benefit from the money rolling in, without putting us in a situation where we end up getting a whole new generation every year.

I like it. It mean gen 3 and gen 4 lasted four years rather than the normal three-year cycle. Gen 5 only lasted three years, since we didn't get remakes (BW2 are basically the Yellow/Crystal/Emerald/Platinum, aren't they?). It'll be interesting to see what happens in gen 6. I'm really, really hoping for RS remakes - not just because I love Hoenn, but because it'll be a lovely way to pass the time until gen 7.
 
...Heh.

From my point of view, Pokemon lost its way with Gold and Silver and didn't find its way back until Heart Gold. It took BW1 to really restore my faith in the series. I thought Ruby/Sapphire and Gold/Silver were just that bad. I remember Gold and Silver trying to force you to use so many weak pokemon and movesets, the still incredibly unchallenging final act of the game... I remember the incredibly bad, water-dominated 'dex of Hoenn, with water-dominated routes, and the bar-none worst villains of the game.

I'd say Pokemon has gotten back on track and been back on track solidly with Gen V. Mega Evolutions really aren't going "digimon" - digimon had permanent evolutions first, actually, and the anime made them temporary to tap into the larger Japanese supermode trope. That's all these are: supermodes.
 
am i the only one who actually likes the anime? i mean, ash sucks and all butbit's fun to watch.

i like tcg, and ijust dont play it because its expenaive in Brazil.

and i dont consider the remakes as bad things, since they brought gens 1 and 2 poces to the new games.

and sorry for thw mispellings, its nice to read smogon on mobile, but writing is more difficult. is smogon o tapatalk?
 
I enjoy the Pokemon anime too, but the problem I have is that it's become too repetitive, Prof. Almeida. It's not allowed for Ash to have character growth where you see how the fruits of his labor as a Pokemon trainer would be able to shine through, and how it feels like he won't mature too much if most of his Pokemon are remaining cute and in only a few evolutionary stages. I mean, his most evolved team so far in the franchise has been in Diamond & Pearl with Pikachu, Staraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Buizel, and Gible/Gliscor. Now if Buizel had evolved into Floatzel, yeah. But that's my real grief about the anime.

And the remakes are fun to explore the old days in new ways like Fire Red/Leaf Green and Heart Gold/Soul Silver were adding new stuff to the mix, and the TCG is always nice to see with all the cool art.
 

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As far as the anime goes, I wouldn't really expect anything from it. Character development indicates progress. Progress indicates change. Change means deriving from the winning formula.

They can give Ash's companions and Pokémon character development. After all, those can be (and are!) ditched repeatedly after they've finished developing (that is, at the end of a saga). But Ash is meant to be the constant the series revolves around. He will stay young and inexperienced, because that point of view is the easiest to introduce to new viewers. If he appears to be as new to Pokémon as they are, it's easier to connect to him. New viewers follow the series for one generation or so, before dropping off. Ash can develop as a trainer during that saga, but after that it's back to a blank slate. Actually, scratch the former. Ash can't develop. Ash's Pokémon can. His Pokémon get stronger, making Ash a more powerful trainer, allowing him to progress from Gym to Gym and eventually to the Pokémon League. But Ash himself can't change, he can't become more experienced or develop new training tactics that would give his Pokémon training, experience and evolutions faster. For the sake of the pace and nature of the show, every new feature and Pokémon has to be introduced gradually, as if Ash knows nothing about it beforehand. He can't understand too much already, because then the viewers would miss the introduction. And introducing viewers to new concepts and Pokémon is the very point of the series. After all, it's meant to sell the games, the cards, the plushies, the rest of the franchise. The Pokémon Anime is the only part of the franchise the consumers don't have to pay for directly. As long as their parents pay for the right channels, the Anime will come for free. Though, the Anime isn't a good product of its own, it's meant to show that "Look how fun Pokémon is! Watch this show to learn the tactics you can put to use if you buy the games! Isn't this Pokémon cute? Buy a plushie of it to put in your room!". Introduction of features, and selling them as the best thing ever. That, sadly, is the purpose of the Anime. If Ash gets more experienced, they can't introduce the features to him (and the viewers). Things have to go gradually, to keep the information in bite-sized portions. Evolutions, final evolutions especially so, have to be kept rare to underline their ultimate coolness and power. If all of Ash's Pokémon were fully evolved within the first ten episodes, the final evos would have become mundane. And, well, cutemons sell better and are often easier to give expressions.

In short, Ash is forever destined to be a bumbling doofus.
 
I do agree with Cobraroll's statement concerning Ash as "a bumbling doofus." However, I hope Nintendo throws us die-hard fans a bone. Of course, Pokémon: The Origin - a masterpiece of titanic artistry - has been given to us and I hope this wonderful fanservice continues for our sakes.
 
Don't call me a nostalgia (BAN ME PLEASE), as I am not, but the first season for pokemon, for me, was the best one.

I am in the camp which agrees that the games have improve over the years, however, the anime has gotten worse. The original run of the anime was to be 1/25 year long, ending with the Mewtwo film. They had a narrative to tell. The series, not just the games, became very popular, thus demands were made to extend it.

Bottom line, the anime did start out as a way to promote the games, but it had heart. Ash and Pikachu had character quirks and a dynamic with their traveling companions, Misty and Brock. These are largely absent in later seasons, which focus more on promoting pokemon. Ash and Pikachu are no longer characters, but rather walking Gary Stus whom follow a pattern of exploring a new region, and responding in a homogeneous fashion towards a given group.
 
I started with Blue version and played everything up through Ruby and Sapphire. I watched everythough through Johto and the beginning of Hoen(?) of the anime, watching random episodes at various times throughout the years. Here's my gripes... This is why *I think* the series has lost it's way somewhat.

The Anime:
  • Incredible amounts of filler.
  • Episodes are for the most part identical to what was in the first season or two... Over ten years ago.
  • Boring writing, no substantial character development or time progression.
  • Watching Ash start over every single region change is incredibly groan inducing.
  • Only 10 or so battles worth watching more than once.
  • Team Rocket/Evil organization gimmick is SOOO OLD by now.

The Games:

  • Vast majority of creature designs are either weird or lame by now. (IMO)
  • Terrible trainer AI.
  • Shiny rates are still incredibly rare, should be around 1/250.
  • Same formula every time; Gym Leaders > Evil Organization > Elite 4 > Post game.
  • Can't go to other regions in any game besides Gold/Silver.
  • General lack of post-game content in most games.
  • Story is paper-thin, boring, childish... Even when I was 12.
  • Natures are great additions, but the games desperately need a nature changer/psychologist. To tedious to find the right one a lot of times, especially on "Only one in the game" creatures.
  • EV's and IV's aren't quite so bad with X & Y's bredding additions, but they are way to grindy for those that actually want to use perfectly stated Pokemon for battling. Your starter, legendary's, and once-per-game creatures (Ex: Snorlax) should always have incredible IV's. You should be able to pick your starters nature and gender.
  • Once-per game TM's? Seriously?

The longer these games go on, the more disconnected they feel at times. These games don't really feel like they start until you finish the Elite Four, but there's never enough post-game content. I should be able to go to any region I want, and the trainers/gym leaders should level up to a how many badges I'm carrying, up to a certain point. I shouldn't have to buy three different games to get all the released legendary and standard Pokemon. There *ALWAYS* needs to be a battle tower, World Championship tournament, and there should be *tons* of legendary's to go and grab after you become the regional championship.

IV's are a pointless filler mechanic to me, the majority of players don't care about them and it's way to time consuming and tedious for those that do care about them. It should be accessible and relatively painless to get perfectly stat'ed Pokemon. Throwing Natures into the mix just compound this problem. My issues with EV's have been fixed for this generation thankfully.

Shiny's are cool, and they should be uncommon. But if I want a shiny Pokemon, I should be able to find it, without spending days, weeks, or months soft resetting or hunting for it. To me, shiny are just a form of aesthetic customization.
 
when you became a cynic, and when you grew up.

The series has changed and so have the pokemon, but my favorites are always gonna be from gen 1. Theres this beautiful nostalgia that binds us to them. We aren't gonna have that, my little brother is genetically inseparable from his love for milktank. Nostalgia sweetens the past espisodes and pokemon, and new ones don't have that. Thus they suck.
 
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Too much of a good thing can easily be a bad thing as well. If you live and breathe something long enough, you'll eventually become complacent about it, even if you don't recognize this fact to be true. It's just like eating a food that you like - something like Pizza for instance. If you go and eat the same pizza every lunch and every dinner for months and months on end, no matter how much you like pizza, your mind will consider it commonplace, so much so, that the idea of pizza eventually greys over.

I think the same thing can be true for anything you can enjoy in life. Unlike a physical enjoyment in food, a mental enjoyment can be the same way. Those of us on the forum that play pokemon and need to get both games each time and every game just to hold out until the next game - well it's the same thing with the pizza. You need to take breaks from it some time and there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone commenting that pokemon has changed or you have changed - both can be correct in a certain sense, but at the same time neither of those two things are all that drastically different. Even if you mature, you are still who you were; you just adopt and put into action ideas that outweigh other ones.

There would be something incredibly wrong with you or something that will be incredibly wrong with you if you attempt do otherwise. If you force yourself to keep shoveling the mental food into your brain without some sort of release otherwise, you'll just break. There's nothing wrong with enjoying something, but you can't enforce your enjoyment on that something. At that point it's not even called enjoyment. To truly enjoy something, you simply let it entertain you. And perhaps that's why it's more prevalent to realize in video games or any other interactive media. Since we're a part of that something, we think that we are the proprietors of it
 
I really don't feel like the series has declined at all. Thing have changed and some things have gotten worse but other things have improved significanty.

The anime maybe, I don't know. I never thought it was very good to begin with.
 
I'm amazed by How much people hate the design of Gen V pokemon, No doubt Swoobat sucked (Like really bad), but things like Vanilluxe and Klinklang are actually such great designs. Gen IV is my least favourite gen as I feel it gave the lest boost to Pokemon, It also has an extreme lack of Awesome Pokemon (Lucario, Magnezone, Luxray and Garchomp are really the only greats for design[off the top of my head]...). The story was alright but I felt it needed more depth (Then again I haven't played it since i was 12-13). Gen V really added huge depth to the story which I felt was needed, It also increased the Metagame by giving us a third option in abilities (However I don't like the fact dream world was the only way, Should be just in-game). X and Y have not only increased the depth of Pokemon's Story but also added some amazing new Pokemon, little in game bonuses (PSS and Supertraining and Amie have made this game so much different and better) AND then the 3D (Which I am disappointed by the Lag) as well as Mega evolution, which I personally didn't like at first but have grown to love it. (I Still want previous Pokemon evolutions)

Pokemon hasn't lost it's way it's slowly becoming the game that everyone can love, the story has really help me as I've gotten older and learnt to appreciate all of it (7 year old me spamming "A" or "B" in every text box.). The Anime has never been great, the movies are ehh but the manga is great (Still sucks compared to other however).
 
Pokemon has never been losing its way, and I've been a fan since gen 2. Some of my favorite Pokemon have come from 4th-6th. THe series is changing, and I like that, because it means we'll get more new PokEMON that each have their own niches in the metagame.
Anime, yes, its kinda just to watch Ash lose to his rival,even though he just started. Also, Pokemon is an anime, not so much a cartoon.
I'd say that the only thing I don't like about the new gens was the addition of Trubbish, that design was so bad :/
 
There are reasons people are having these feelings.

In terms of the anime, it lacks any kind of material that might appeal to an older audience. While many animated programs try to offer more mature ideas, Pokemon is and always was geared towards a specific, younger audience. Take the Transformers G1 cartoons. While younger crowds love the combat and giant robots, the older crowd enjoyed the characterizations,the power struggles within both factions, and - let's face it - the G1 movie introduced casualties of war, which isn't geared towards young children. You simply outgrew the animated aspect of the franchise because it no longer had anything to offer your age demographic.

The TCG took off like a shot because of the Pokemon name, but a number of factors killed the game. The cards became prohibitively expensive, with top foils going for around a hundred dollars. This led to a lucky few enjoying a competitive advantage. The game itself was simple in terms of gameplay. There was very little variation in terms of player interaction, and the lack of complexity eventually led most games to feel the same as any other. It also went up against Magic: The Gathering, which was experiencing a very popular Urza's block that did bring in more players. The popularity began to fade due to bored players and high prices.

The main game franchise basically boiled down to personal taste. I am a Gen 1 player, but I love Kalos, Johto, and Sinnoh. I didn't care for Hoenn or Unova. That came down to designs. Unova had pretty uninspired designs, and Hoenn's world was downright frustrating to navigate. That detracted from the experience for me. I never cared about a storyline. Pokemon always felt like you stumbled into major events - right place, right time - rather than being some anointed chosen one. You were just a trainer out to make it big in a world and story that didn't revolve around you.
 
So my opinion of the anime seems to be the common one: it's pretty crappy. But then it's aimed at little kids, and it's also an advert for other areas of the franchise as much as it is a show in its own right. It's good to laugh at though, the exposition is hilariously clunky, the faithfulness to the games is highly inconsistent, and even little things like how Meowth pronounces the word "twerps" ("back off, you twerps") bring a smile to my face. I'm glad the anime hasn't changed a bit as it means the newer episodes still have nostalgia value.

The games... haven't really changed. Sure, the mechanics have grown more complex, but the premise is the same and I think it will remain that way. The battles will always be turn-based, the overworld will always have a top-down perspective, even the eight gym leaders + elite four + champion formula (which is something quite specific) is unlikely to change. Is this a problem? Not really. Game Freak's sales come off the Pokemon themselves, and as long as they can keep churning out new species they will be okay. And there are plenty of other games series that produce the same game over and over again and remain popular (I'm looking at you, Fifa). I've never played any of the spin-off Pokemon games, but for people who want variety from the series can play those games fine.

Trading cards... meh. I'm a red-blooded genwunner and of course at school we would all brag about the cards we had. I remember having a contest with another kid to see who could drink ten cups of water faster and the loser would have to give the winner his rarest card. (For the record, I lost but my conqueror immediately left for the toilets to be sick afterwards.) But nobody actually every played the card game - we were seven years old and it was way too complicated. The card game is too complicated for kids, too simple for more serious audiences and is only saved from obscurity by its branding.
 
everyone knows pokemon never changes, youve probably just changed


btw sinnoh league is the best league in the anime
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO NOTICED YES YES YES

This is by far the best 'league' portion the battles were all animated amazingly all of Ash's old Pokemon showed up and the battle with Paul gave me nerd chills for days :D
 
As far as anime goes, the show has never really been all of that good. It's really not to be taken seriously in my opinion, it's just fun to watch for laughs. I was really excited when Pokemon Origin came out, and I kind of wish that the anime had been more like that or Pokemon Adventures. The art was really nice and it had such a nostalgic charm.
 
As far as anime goes, the show has never really been all of that good. It's really not to be taken seriously in my opinion, it's just fun to watch for laughs. I was really excited when Pokemon Origin came out, and I kind of wish that the anime had been more like that or Pokemon Adventures. The art was really nice and it had such a nostalgic charm.
I could say that, as a (autistic) woman in her mid 20s, the anime is my favorite television show although one needs to purify the gold from the dross; I enjoy my favorite episodes of the anime immensely, but on average, a show such as King of the Hill and The Simpsons have a greater proportion of "watchable" episodes. I just suppose ending many of the first season episodes with "A Meeting and Parting" touched me. My favorite non- gym battle or league episodes include:
  • Pokémon - I Choose You!
  • School of Hard Knocks
  • The Bridge Bike Gang
  • The Song of Jigglypuff
  • Holy Matrimony!
  • Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden
  • Go West Young Meowth
  • Bad to the Bone
And in Johto, "Wired for Battle" and "Ignorance is Blissey". For various reasons, I felt like that I sympathized with Misty and enjoyed her camaraderie with Ash and did not bother watching the Hoenn episodes.

Sinnoh had the most engaging plot mainly to due to how well the writers played out the rivalry between Paul and Ash; the plot and interactions seemed much more mature. I found it is worth the time to watch the episodes featuring Paul and Ash (and some about Chimchar overcoming his fears of Zangoose.) I really did not watch any full Black and White episodes and he league battles I saw on YouTube were boring.

In comparison, I thought the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's was more mature and aimed at an older demographic. I thought the 4Kids version was inane and did not bother with it. Yusei definitely is more mature than Ash and is a very competent and likeable character, and I sympathized with the villain Aporia . The duels were choreographed extremely well with the fitting dialogue, voice acting, background music, and animation to generating an amazing sensual experience. A wonderful example of impeccable execution of a glorious scene is Yusei attaining "Clear Mind" to acel synchro summon Shooting Star Dragon against Placido and picking up 5 Synchro monsters with its effect to attack five times to defeat him. The best Pokemon battles also do this too, but there is less dialogue between opponents (as most of the talking are trainer's commands to their Pokemon.

I actually had a Pikachu plush hanging from my bag (containing a Rosary in the Pikachu). I also enjoy listening to "Together Forever" and "My Best Friends".
------

To me, it would seem that the games would be tedious and easy, so I did not bother with them except when I borrowed a friend's Game Boy to complete "Red" and "Gold" about ten years ago. It just seemed that level grinding is all that is needed to "beat" the game (without understanding the game mechanics at all), and trading within and between generations is needed to "catch 'em all". I do not want to use HM slaves and have some Pokemon with False Swipe so I wouldn't waste a Master Ball capturing the legendary dogs.
 
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...the [Pokemon] anime is my favorite television show...
Wow, I never thought I would hear those words from anyone, much less someone who isn't a fan of the games. Still, each to their own. Maybe I've only ever caught the bad episodes...

It just seemed that level grinding is all that is needed to "beat" the game...
That's the case for every RPG, fundamentally. People play RPGs for other reasons, like a sense of exploration, or a feeling of attachment to the main character (or even of being in the role yourself) as you see him grow stronger and/or customise his capabilities to your personal preference.

Anyway, for me, the level-grinding problem was mostly solved in BW - the experience formula made it really slow to level grind but also stopped you being too underlevelled, so battles were about picking the right team member/move rather than level grinding beforehand. In any case, I don't recall ever having to level grind in any of the games because I couldn't progress otherwise (except in Red when I had picked Charmander, then I needed to grind before Brock).
 
In-Game: full of stuff that's OP though less so in gen 6, a small pool of mons are great everything else either is god awful or not legal. Gen 6 attempted to solve the power creep a bit but honestly from what I've seen the gen 6 games are really flashy but not all that much better... game freak is kind of continuing the pokemon series just by making things look "cooler" .

Cards: lol power creep is huge here. When the cards came out it would be like 1 energy = 10 damage, 2 = 20, 2= 10 + special effect, and so on. now you have landorus ex doing 30 damage + 30 to the bench for one energy LOL which when you thing about it is just stupid. So the cards are just stupidly powerful at this point though I don't think they've been ruined by power creep as bad as in-game mons

on another note, I heard the new mystery dungeon game is fkin terrible with no plot at all -____-

But yeah, ultimately (as some people were saying earlier), I think the main reason is pokemon is still directed at like, 9-year-olds, and im pretty sure most people here are over 9, so it just doesn't have the same appeal D:
 
I have had the following conversation several times.

I am playing my DS on the bus, and a kid comes up to me.

Kid: "Whatcha playing?"

Me: "Pokemon X and Y."

Kid: "Those games are crap. [Insert game from gens 1-2] is so much better."

Me: "Really? Have you played X and Y?

Kid: "No, but there is a possessed set of keys/garbage/ice cream cone!"

Me: "What makes that so different from Gen One? There was a pile of acid, an animated magnet and a group of eggs. Each gen has had its great 'Mons and its not so great creatures. With 718 released, there are bound to be some awful designs."


Everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, but they should have at least played the games.

One of the most common complaints has to do with the design. However, Japanese mythology is filled with possessed objects. Pokemon designs also come from a menagerie of sources. Lucario is based on Anubis from Egyptian mythology. Hydreigon is based on Hydra from Greek myths. We have multiple fox Pokemon based on kitsune from Japanese legends.

I have never played Red and Blue, and only a bit of Yellow. I think fans tend to idolize them due to nostalgia.

Pokemon was not originally targeted towards nine year olds. It is like Mario or Minecraft- hitting a wide demographic. This is evident in GF bringing back the Kanto starters and using so many older 'Mons in Gen VI.

Pokemon has just changed IMO, not lost its way.
 
I personally enjoyed all main pokemon games

Except DPPT, that almost made me quit Pokemon entirely (and an BW2 was pretty uncalled for )

The anime was never really good. As for cards, I still collect them, just because I like shinies.

Pokemon hasn't "lost its way" that's simply your opinion.
 

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