It's a common lament that people can't enjoy modern Pokemon games because they're too easy. All the battles are a joke, they say. I never have to think, they say. The implication is that the older games were enjoyable because they were hard.
I'm in a weird position where I can't share in those laments, not because I necessarily disagree with them, but because I've never played a modern Pokemon game because I've only ever played the one Emerald cartridge I've had since I was a little kid.
A pretty common rebuttal to those common laments is that those older games only seemed hard at the time, and that the modern games only seem easy because you're playing them with an adult brain.
Recently I've been reflecting on my years playing Emerald, and I've come to two conclusions.
- One, the old games weren't hard, even with a dumb kid brain. The only times I remember being challenged in Emerald were Winona and Drake, whose Dragon/Flying Pokemon hard-walled my Swampert with only STAB moves (also Roxanne, who hard-walled the Torchic I originally had that died when I forgot to save).
- Two, the challenge wasn't even what I enjoyed about the game. I found those three fights frustrating, not fun. I don't remember how I got past Winona, but I got past Drake and Roxane by giving up and just getting Rayquaza and Mudkip instead. Everything else, I just steamrolled with my overleveled starter, and I didn't see anything wrong with that. Oh yeah, there actually was another part that I found challenging: the Battle Frontier. I haven't even come close to beating that, and I have little interest in doing so. Factory, Pike, and Pyramid are pretty fun to run through now and then, but that's it.
So what did I actually like about Emerald? Why did it enrapture me to the point that I'm here on a Pokemon forum almost 20 years later? I'm pretty sure it was catching Pokemon. I liked finding a Pokemon I didn't have, catching it, and giving it a funny name. Hell, even if I already had one, sometimes I wanted another one, just because I thought it was cool. Punchy the Makuhita, Metel (sic) Dude the Aron, Blocks the Rhyhorn, an entire box of Swablu named Cloudy and Cloudy Jr. I never actually used these Pokemon in battle, but I enjoyed their company, and I still enjoy their company in the box. And in the years that followed beating Wallace, the thing that kept me coming back wasn't the Battle Frontier, but the Pokedex. Tracking down elusive Pokemon that I missed like Jigglypuff and Bagon, giving something the EXP share and running through the Elite 4 with Swampert or Rayquaza until it evolved, taking a break to hunt down Latias that slippery litTLE BITCH COME BACK HERE. I never cared about being the very best; I only wanted to catch 'em all. And if I ever play another Pokemon game, I'm probably going to take the same approach. Relax, not care about the battles being easy, and just find as many friends as I can.