Do you start over your games?

[KaneAshura]

I've noticed compared to the earlier generations say Gens I-III, maybe IV, its become a lot more trickier to making the choice to start over. Whether its because of the amount of work you've put in your game, or having a competitive set you want to hold onto, it seems people seem more reluctant to start their games over. Why do you think that? With Pokemon Bank and the ability to pass on pokemon to later games you'd think it would make things easier to start your pokemon journey from the start.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[PSDuckie]

I don't restart my main games (currently Y and AS) but the other games in my collection are fair game.

 

[JES]

No, I don't, and with special items such as Soul Dew (AS) and Blazikenite, I never will.

Maybe I'll restart Diamond or Platinum, and do a nuzlocke one of these days, since I found a second DS, though.

 

[Lady Vader]

Any game that has been a major copy or some sort is off limits. My copy of Blue, Yellow, Ruby, Platinum, SoulSilver, Black, White*, Black 2, X*, Y, and Alpha Sapphire are unresetable for various reasons. Games like Blue, Y, and Alpha Sapphire won't be reset any time soon since they have major stuff on their game cards. Ruby won't be reset since I still want to beat it one day (just Victory Road and the Elite Four). Yellow won't be since I love that save file (though I will admit it isn't completely off the table). Platinum, SoulSilver, Black, and Black 2 are a combination of important stuff (both nostalgic and competitive reasons) and love for those save files, especially Platinum as it was my first playthrough. Also, Platinum and SoulSilver both have access to forme changes introduced in Gen IV that they otherwise couldn't get if I started their files now (the Rotom formes in Platinum and the Griseous Orb in SoulSilver**)
On the other hand, my copies of Red, LeafGreen, Diamond, and White* can be freely reset as much as I want. Well, I need to get a few things off of Diamond, but that's another story.

*One copy of White is will not be reset until I get around to catching its Victini. The other copy (I have two) can be freely reset since it doesn't have an event. A similar story to my copy of X since I am STILL resetting for a decent Diancie.
**Yeah, I still can get that in other copies of the Johto remake since I still have my two Gen IV Arceus.

 

[JES]

Then again, between my actual games, and Pokémon Showdown, I have no idea how I'll ever find the time to do a Nuzlocke, unless I had a Hyperbolic Time Chamber/Time Dilation Field.

 

[WaffleTitan]

I have 2 games from most gens so I usually play through one just once and have that be my permanent file and then play through the other game tons of times and just transfer the good pokemon over to my permanent file. Although transferring over gets super annoying. Some games, like pokemon sapphire, I have probably restarted and played through 30+ times.

 

[KaneAshura]

Seems when it comes to games that have value whether sentimental or practical or if they are of the current gen and/or recently released people are reluctant to start over their files. Good to see i'm not the only one who faces this issue when it comes to playing pokemon

 

[cant say]

Before I got into seriously breeding and training a bunch of stuff on-cart I would just playthrough the story and restart when I got bored, so I've played through my older games a bunch of times but I've only played White, White 2, X, Y and AS once each. I also put this down to these games having quite a bit to do post-game. I really never went back to White because the sequels came out relatively soon after their release, and I got stuck playing the post game of White 2 so I was too busy to go back (I want to, I loved gen V). Then I got Y and it became my main breeding / Maison / Battle Spot game, so I went and got X so it could be my infinite playthrough game, but then I ended up SRing a 31/19/31/31/31/31 timid Articuno on it and haven't restarted the game so I'm still able to nickname it for anyone I trade it to (since nicknameable legendaries are quite valuable in Wi-Fi). I'm planning on doing it though so I can SR a good bold HP ice Zapdos.

tl;dr: I used to do it all the time, but now that I spend all my time breeding / battling on-cart I don't really have time to do casual playthroughs as much as I want to

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I used to restart my games from Gen 1-2 a lot in the past when I still played them. But I have only ever restarted two of my Gen 3 games (which I somewhat regret), and I have never restarted any of my games from Gen 4-6. The reason is simply that if I were to do so, I would lose way too many things. I usually try to complete as much as possible in the games, and since the newer games have more content, it means that more stuff is lost if I were to restart them. This involves things like completing the Pokedex, getting Trainer Card upgrades, winning Symbols/Prints/Monuments at Battle Facilities, winning at minigames, obtaining Pokemon with good IVs/Nature and stuff like that, EV-trained Pokemon and so on. Naturally, if I were to restart a game, I could simply just trade over all Pokemon and items I don't want to lose, but the very core in terms of Pokedex and stuff would still be gone. And no matter how fun it is, I really don't want to do it again after restarting, I'd rather keep it as a proof of accomplishment or something like that. I prefer to buy both games from every pair so I can do everything twice without having to restart, I don't restart either game but also won't use one of them as my "main" (most of the time), instead having about equal focus on both.

 

[KaneAshura]

I used to restart my games from Gen 1-2 a lot in the past when I still played them. But I have only ever restarted two of my Gen 3 games (which I somewhat regret), and I have never restarted any of my games from Gen 4-6. The reason is simply that if I were to do so, I would lose way too many things. I usually try to complete as much as possible in the games, and since the newer games have more content, it means that more stuff is lost if I were to restart them. This involves things like completing the Pokedex, getting Trainer Card upgrades, winning Symbols/Prints/Monuments at Battle Facilities, winning at minigames, obtaining Pokemon with good IVs/Nature and stuff like that, EV-trained Pokemon and so on. Naturally, if I were to restart a game, I could simply just trade over all Pokemon and items I don't want to lose, but the very core in terms of Pokedex and stuff would still be gone. And no matter how fun it is, I really don't want to do it again after restarting, I'd rather keep it as a proof of accomplishment or something like that. I prefer to buy both games from every pair so I can do everything twice without having to restart, I don't restart either game but also won't use one of them as my "main" (most of the time), instead having about equal focus on both.

That's dedication to a fault. I've always wondered if it's better to reset my games but as the series goes on it does feel like the value of what you do does diminish a bit

 

[Daemul]

Back when I was a more hardcore completionist and into EV training and breeding, I never restarted since I would lose too much, but over the last couple of years I've become a more casual player. I've stopped completing the dex(I don't know why I bothered in the first place), I no longer go for trainercard upgrades(this is mainly due to GF making it hard for people outside Japan to complete all the upgrades though), I've stopped breeding, I've stopped trading(though this is due to the amount of nonsense that goes on with online trading), I no longer care about natures, EV's and IV's for my in game teams and I've stopped bothering with the post game Hax Institutes - I mean Battle Institutes like the Frontier, Maison and Subway, ain't nobody got time for those haxfests anymore.

Becoming more of a casual player has allowed me to not worry about restarting my games, since I just stick to the main plot, side content like PokeStar Studies and non hax-filled post game content like travelling the rest of the unexplored region in Black 2, rebattling trainers and taking on the Black Tower. When I'm in the mood to start a new game I can do so without thinking.

If I ever want a competitive fix I just come online to the lovely Pokemon Showdown, where I don't have to play Bike Simulator in order to get a battle ready team.

 

[KaneAshura]

Back when I was a more hardcore completionist and into EV training and breeding, I never restarted since I would lose too much, but over the last couple of years I've become a more casual player. I've stopped completing the dex(I don't know why I bothered in the first place), I no longer go for trainercard upgrades(this is mainly due to GF making it hard for people outside Japan to complete all the upgrades though), I've stopped breeding, I've stopped trading(though this is due to the amount of nonsense that goes on with online trading), I no longer care about natures, EV's and IV's for my in game teams and I've stopped bothering with the post game Hax Institutes - I mean Battle Institutes like the Frontier, Maison and Subway, ain't nobody got time for those haxfests anymore.

Becoming more of a casual player has allowed me to not worry about restarting my games, since I just stick to the main plot, side content like PokeStar Studies and non hax-filled post game content like travelling the rest of the unexplored region in Black 2, rebattling trainers and taking on the Black Tower. When I'm in the mood to start a new game I can do so without thinking.

If I ever want a competitive fix I just come online to the lovely Pokemon Showdown, where I don't have to play Bike Simulator in order to get a battle ready team.

I think Black 2/White 2 was definitely GF's response to fans wanting something for the more casual gamers. While you have the Subway and all its hax filled glory there were a ton of post game content that didn't make you feel the next step after becoming champion is to use your game as a competitive platform.

 

[Mova]

I do this with my older games, such as FireRed, but I usually keep my newer files for a longer time period. The only in-game thing I care about is the Pokedex.

 

[Aditya.A]

I restarted emerald...have finished days ago...will restart diamond soon...

 

[Xen]

Though I haven't done any replays recently due to time constraints with life, I'll occasionally restart one of the games every here and there for various reasons (usually boredom), though I'm a little bit more stingy about restarting the newer games due to online play and such. Even though it would seem that the current games would be easier to restart due to the advent of Pokemon Bank, multiplayer functionality feels largely restricted until post-game due to many valuable items & NPCs (such as the IV Judge or Move Tutors) mostly being available post-game only. Because of this, I find myself restarting older generation games more since the stress of completing the main narrative for post-game content is less of an issue, allowing me to enjoy the game more. As far as Gen I-II goes, nostalgia is also no longer an issue since their first saves with my old Pokemon perished a long time ago with their original internal batteries, which makes it easier for me to restart those games on a whim when I feel like replaying them, now that I've replaced their batteries.

I feel like re-playability is one thing the series seems to be losing as new games come out because of multiplayer/post-game content. If that's considered a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on the person playing the games, but it's still interesting to note. When the current set of games get replaced with a new generation, the re-playability tends to go up since the attention of multiplayer shifts over to the newer games.

 

[Daemul]

I think Black 2/White 2 was definitely GF's response to fans wanting something for the more casual gamers. While you have the Subway and all its hax filled glory there were a ton of post game content that didn't make you feel the next step after becoming champion is to use your game as a competitive platform.

Yeah, the postgame content in B2W2 was really well done on the casual side of things. I was really surprised to find that Black Tower wasn't just another BP farming ground where you were limited to using level 50 Pokemon, and that instead it was an advanced form of Victory Road where you gained experience and money. That came as a real shock, because I thought it was going to be Gen V's version of the Battle Tower and that I would need a properly raised team to go through it, but nope, I could just use my in game team, which was nice.

 

[Jimera0]

All my older games (gen III and lower) are regularly reset by me as I try new challenge runs. In the generations after that I have one game from each generation I refuse to reset that holds all the various valuables I've collected that generation. For gen IV that's my Pearl Version, Gen V my White version and Gen VI my Y version. Everything else gets reset, again for various challenge runs, and since I have both first version of each generation past III I can reset and play any version of game I own. This is important to me since most of my Pokemon playing is challenge runs, and I like to keep things somewhat fresh by cycling through my available games every now and then.

 

[Trainer10913]

I only tend to overwrite when I want to do a challenge of some sort. Case-in-point, I restarted my White in the hopes of doing a Nuzlocke on it, but not before trading every single Legendary or Pokémon that helped me through the playthrough to my White 2.

And a Hidden Ability Slowpoke for some reason.

It only took me about half an hour or so. I still think that I left behind an Arceus back in the Dream World though . . . I do feel it's harder to restart later generation games than older, because there's likely to be more Legendary Pokémon or just 'better' Pokémon in those games, and thus they may make the save file worth more. Then again, older games must feel quite nostalgic I suppose.

 

[Fluke]

Older ones, no. Newer ones, yes.

 

[Reisen]

It's the contrary for me, i don't mind of restarting my game with the new versions but i don't want to lose all of my "story" in the past generations like in my Red version in which i've collected all the pokemons of the game without any glitch (except for mew).

I guess for some people the pvp has become more important nowadays because of the wifi battleing, everybody is able to fight against each others.
The adventure is more structured and maybe more longer so it can also be annoying to have to restart everything.

 

[DHR-107]

Yes.

Unfortunately I have fallen into the trap of buying both games. One to keep as my "main" game. And the other I can keep restarting and playing through with different teams. So I have Sapphire/Diamond/Heart Gold/Black/Black 2/X/Omega Ruby as my "main" version, and the other I use to play through the games. Sometimes I just like having new teams :)

This also doesn't being up the amount of savegames I have made for challenges and things like that.

 

[Stratos]

Nope, beating the game once is enough of a chore

 

[Yveltal]

I don't think I could ever restart the gen5-6 games. They hold on to so much passerby data, it'd be a shame to lose all of that.
I've restarted my SoulSilver, though. The Johto region is really special to me and I was curious to try a different team of Pokemon.

 

[Kyuzeth]

The only game I ever restarted was Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team. I felt like going for my best playthrough on said game and my old save file was absolute garbage (I was 9-10 years old at the time, go figure), so I decided to start a new game with a clean slate. Needless to say, I've definitely enjoyed it.

I was once forced to restart my SoulSilver game, as my DS battery ran dry when saving. I just caught a great Snorlax, too, so needless to say I was pretty pissed about losing all my progress.

 

[Ksh13]

I used to reset my games a lot, I have reset HG and Pearl maybe like 30 times, but my brothers Platinum cartridge has a save file with over 500 hours of playing time, and it will never get reset. I have reset the gen 5 games a couple of times, and reset my X twice. I have no plans of resetting my AS game, and I plan on trying to complete the dex on that save file for the first time ever in a pokemon game. On Pearl and HG me and my brother have done countless of lockes and LP's, trying out different pokemon by trading over pokemon we bred on Platinum. All the memorable pokemon are ofcourseley saved on Platinum or transfered to gen 6.