How's it going, everyone? This is my first time being on the forums in a while, although I will admit to lurking around the occasional discussion posts and just not saying anything. On the topic of discussions, I've been thinking more and more about a specific question lately that could definitely lead to some fun interactions. So, without further ado.
I'm sure we've all heard the basic, most generic questions Pokémon fans ask each other from time to time. "What are some of your favorite Pokémon?" "What's your favorite region?" "What's your favorite Pokémon type(s)?" Questions like those. Those are fine and all, but rarely do we see the reasons behind some of these decisions. That isn't to say people aren't happy to share their stories, but as a very psychological person by nature, the topic of "why" has continued to peak my interest more than the topic of "what".
I then thought to myself, what's the one thing Pokémon fans seem the most divisive on these days? This fandom is truly fascinating to me, and I think that one of Pokémon's biggest strengths as a multimedia franchise is that there's very likely to be something for everyone as opposed to some franchises which seem entirely carried by the same one or two installments.Like seriously, I didn't even know The Elder Scrolls had other games than Skyrim until I was halfway through high school.
The question I now present to the rest of you quickly became clear after thinking about that. The vast majority of Pokémon fans have at least a decent idea of what games across the franchise they would consider their favorites. Main series, spinoffs, again, there's something for (almost, where's our Pokémon FPS game?) everyone. But why exactly do you enjoy these favorites as much as you do?
I'll kick-start the discussion for us by mentioning my favorite main series games, those being HeartGold & SoulSilver. Aside from the nostalgic bias I have from 2010, I think the biggest appeal of the Johto games for me is the region's simplicity compared to most other regions. Both the originals and the DS remakes aren't overly focused on new battle gimmicks, the repetitive evil team trope we saw from Gen 3 onwards with the mascot Legendaries, and the ability for a decent portion of Johto to be explored in any order while still feeling connected. The remakes are also the highest-quality games in the series in my opinion because of how they maintained all of why older fans loved Johto so much during the Game Boy Color era while fixing most of Johto's core issues that the original games had. They did all of that while still implementing stuff like the Battle Frontier, the extremely underrated Pokéathlon Dome, and even addressing the infamous level curves slightly better (things don't have to be perfect for me to enjoy them) during the Kanto postgame. Which, oh yeah, you can battle 16 Gyms of almost every type and, new to the remakes, even have weekly rematches with them. I never actually got around to doing those, come to think of it, but my point is, it's a great thing that the option was there in a perfect send-off for the fourth generation games.
I'm sure we've all heard the basic, most generic questions Pokémon fans ask each other from time to time. "What are some of your favorite Pokémon?" "What's your favorite region?" "What's your favorite Pokémon type(s)?" Questions like those. Those are fine and all, but rarely do we see the reasons behind some of these decisions. That isn't to say people aren't happy to share their stories, but as a very psychological person by nature, the topic of "why" has continued to peak my interest more than the topic of "what".
I then thought to myself, what's the one thing Pokémon fans seem the most divisive on these days? This fandom is truly fascinating to me, and I think that one of Pokémon's biggest strengths as a multimedia franchise is that there's very likely to be something for everyone as opposed to some franchises which seem entirely carried by the same one or two installments.
The question I now present to the rest of you quickly became clear after thinking about that. The vast majority of Pokémon fans have at least a decent idea of what games across the franchise they would consider their favorites. Main series, spinoffs, again, there's something for (almost, where's our Pokémon FPS game?) everyone. But why exactly do you enjoy these favorites as much as you do?
I'll kick-start the discussion for us by mentioning my favorite main series games, those being HeartGold & SoulSilver. Aside from the nostalgic bias I have from 2010, I think the biggest appeal of the Johto games for me is the region's simplicity compared to most other regions. Both the originals and the DS remakes aren't overly focused on new battle gimmicks, the repetitive evil team trope we saw from Gen 3 onwards with the mascot Legendaries, and the ability for a decent portion of Johto to be explored in any order while still feeling connected. The remakes are also the highest-quality games in the series in my opinion because of how they maintained all of why older fans loved Johto so much during the Game Boy Color era while fixing most of Johto's core issues that the original games had. They did all of that while still implementing stuff like the Battle Frontier, the extremely underrated Pokéathlon Dome, and even addressing the infamous level curves slightly better (things don't have to be perfect for me to enjoy them) during the Kanto postgame. Which, oh yeah, you can battle 16 Gyms of almost every type and, new to the remakes, even have weekly rematches with them. I never actually got around to doing those, come to think of it, but my point is, it's a great thing that the option was there in a perfect send-off for the fourth generation games.
