The Positives of your Least Favorite Pokemon Game and the Negatives of your Most Favorite

[MoonlightRose]

Most of the pokemon in black and white have got kinda shit movepools that are STAB, Normal and maybe 1or 2 flavour moves of other types.

The sheer amount of glitches in Red and Blue is fun, and thise glitches are fun to mess around with.

 

[Siggu]

The sheer amount of glitches in Red and Blue is fun, and thise glitches are fun to mess around with.

To the point I couldn't beat FireRed or LeafGreen without a text edit ROM Hack (False Red for the curious) because Kanto seems so bland without the glitches...

 

[Steel With It]

Favourite (PLA): I vastly preferred pre-Daybreak's shiny hunting method to post-Daybreak's. Like, yeah, it was broken both literally and figuratively, but they should've let us have our fun. ;_; Also, no option to change the backwards-ass controls and no compass on the UI, which is just lazy.

Least favourite (XY): Klefki. Fuck yeah.

 

[Modulo]

Favourite:
Crystal:
- The level curve, while being ever so slightly better than G/S, still sucks
- So does the move distribution (Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam postgame only wtf?)
- No Mareep line
- Still no Houndour in Johto

Least favourite:
Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
- The introduction of regional forms is really cool
- Not requiring HMs to remove/traverse obstacles is neat

 

[Pemderp63]

Favorite:
Black 2 and White 2 - The story was a downgrade from Black and White. It felt safe in almost every way. I did enjoy seeing how characters changed though.

HeartGold and SoulSilver - They didn't improve the weird gym teams and the level curve is still a mess. On top of that the game's poor Pokémon distribution and lack of evolutionary stones stuck.

Platinum - Not letting the player access the postgame areas unless they have seen every Pokémon in the regional dex is a really baffling design choice. There's a reason they didn't do it before or since.

Sun and Moon: The pacing was terrible. There were constant interruptions and unskippable cutscenes throughout the entire game. The first island in particular is a slog on replays.

Least Favorite:
X and Y: The selection of new Pokémon, while small, was excellent. There were only a few designs I would say were weak.

Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh is one of the best regions in term of design and lore. I love how there were so many optional areas with often useful rewards.

Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee: The Pokémon following mechanic was perfected. The remastered soundtrack was solid and the addition of Alolan forms were nice too.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Favorite:
Black 2 and White 2 - The story was a downgrade from Black and White. It felt safe in almost every way. I did enjoy seeing how characters changed though.

HeartGold and SoulSilver - They didn't improve the weird gym teams and the level curve is still a mess. On top of that the game's poor Pokémon distribution and lack of evolutionary stones stuck.

Platinum - Not letting the player access the postgame areas unless they have seen every Pokémon in the regional dex is a really baffling design choice. There's a reason they didn't do it before or since.

Sun and Moon: The pacing was terrible. There were constant interruptions and unskippable cutscenes throughout the entire game. The first island in particular is a slog on replays.

Least Favorite:
X and Y: The selection of new Pokémon, while small, was excellent. There were only a few designs I would say were weak.

Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh is one of the best regions in term of design and lore. I love how there were so many optional areas with often useful rewards.

Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee: The Pokémon following mechanic was perfected. The remastered soundtrack was solid and the addition of Alolan forms were nice too.

A brief counterpoint for HGSS only: evolutionary stones are relatively easy to access (the racing mini-game and PokeGear calls are there), some fairly cool mons were added to the region in the Safari Zone, and the Pokewalker - if you have it - can give you crazy access to some.

I will say the lack of evolution spots for Magneton in Kanto and the inability to get a Shiny Stone to evolve Togetic pre-E4 are criminal.

 

[R_N]

A brief counterpoint for HGSS only: evolutionary stones are relatively easy to access (the racing mini-game and PokeGear calls are there), some fairly cool mons were added to the region in the Safari Zone, and the Pokewalker - if you have it - can give you crazy access to some.

I will say the lack of evolution spots for Magneton in Kanto and the inability to get a Shiny Stone to evolve Togetic pre-E4 are criminal.

relatively easy with the big caveats of:
-pokegear calls are completely random. I think i got like...one stone phone call in all my time with HGSS
-the evolution stones from the Pokethalon are still only available in the post game (& honestly kind of expensive)
-the pokewalker ones are either event only (the GTS one you cant get any more, for example) or post game only and both's access to stones are rare

so still not great, honestly

 

[Esserise]

-the evolution stones from the Pokethalon are still only available in the post game (& honestly kind of expensive)

Bulbapedia and Serebii tell me that you can purchase Fire/Water/Thunder/Leaf/Moon Stones from the Athlete Shop before the National Dex… but only on certain days of the week, and the problem of them being pretty pricey is still there. So you can get them, but you kinda have to grind for ‘em

 

[R_N]

Bulbapedia and Serebii tell me that you can purchase Fire/Water/Thunder/Leaf/Moon Stones from the Athlete Shop before the National Dex… but only on certain days of the week, and the problem of them being pretty pricey is still there. So you can get them, but you kinda have to grind for ‘em

Sorry you're right, I was looking at the wrong part of the shop listings where they add more of them all to the rotation (so theres 2 days you can get fire stones and so on). It's the Dawn, Shiny & Dusk stones that are definitively post game because they arbitrarily made them more "special"

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Platinum - Not letting the player access the postgame areas unless they have seen every Pokémon in the regional dex is a really baffling design choice. There's a reason they didn't do it before or since.

Oddly enough, that's one of the things I enjoy most about the Sinnoh games.

It finally made the Dex legit relevant without making it annoying by forcing catches like RBY. It also made trainer battles more relevant because if you battle every trainer in the game, you automatically get a full dex.

Ever since I had to run all over the place to slather honey around and get a Burmy to evolve into Wormadam only to bump into a trainer I had skipped near Lake Valor with one, I NEVER skipped a trainer battle.

 

[Siggu]

Platinum - Not letting the player access the postgame areas unless they have seen every Pokémon in the regional dex is a really baffling design choice. There's a reason they didn't do it before or since.

Actually I don't see it as nearly as much of an issue in Platinum as it is in DP (and BDSP), because the Pokémon are way better distributed and, save for Manaphy, you don't really have to go out of your way to see them all. In DP and BDSP you have outliers like Drifloon (if you don't fight the Gym Trainer before Fantina), the other legendary (similar to Manaphy) or Riolu (both instances are in optional areas).

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Oddly enough, that's one of the things I enjoy most about the Sinnoh games.

It finally made the Dex legit relevant without making it annoying by forcing catches like RBY. It also made trainer battles more relevant because if you battle every trainer in the game, you automatically get a full dex.

Ever since I had to run all over the place to slather honey around and get a Burmy to evolve into Wormadam only to bump into a trainer I had skipped near Lake Valor with one, I NEVER skipped a trainer battle.

Yeah I've never been a player who deliberately skipped trainer battles so I've always really liked that feature in Plat especially. It would be nice if you could get more specific hints to find the last few entries if you missed them, but overall I'm totally fine with gating postgame behind a fully 'Seen' Pokedex in a game where you can see everything via trainer battles (besides Rotom, which is absolutely an annoyance in Plat for new players). [EDIT: Suspicious Derivative pointed out that you have to battle Azelf and Uxie too, which I agree is also bad and annoying!]

What I really don't like is getting through an entire Pokemon game, looking at my Dex, and seeing that entire chunks are still blank. It's especially annoying in games where certain Pokemon are super overrepresented in trainer rosters; why not spice things up with some of the unseen Pokemon? It also sucks when a version exclusive gets this treatment, like how the Dex entries for Vullaby and Mandibuzz will always stay blank for someone playing Pokemon White, unless you trade for one.

Your mileage will vary of course: some people like the mystery of a fully unknown entry, but I prefer having enough information to find the Pokemon for myself, without having to guess at the relevant location or blindly evolve stuff.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I would have been okay with seeing all Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex to unlock the post-game areas if it wasn't for the legendaries. The games basically force you to catch Azelf/Uxie and release Mesprit in order to access the post-game. I generally prefer to wait with catching all optional legendaries until I have done other things in the post-game, so I do not approve of it. Apart from that, I would have been okay with it since I always battle all optional trainers and I never had any problems with seeing all the non-legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex. But because of the legendaries, I consider it a negative for the Sinnoh games. I'm glad they didn't do this in any other games.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I would have been okay with seeing all Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex to unlock the post-game areas if it wasn't for the legendaries. The games basically force you to catch Azelf/Uxie and release Mesprit in order to access the post-game. I generally prefer to wait with catching all optional legendaries until I have done other things in the post-game, so I do not approve of it. Apart from that, I would have been okay with it since I always battle all optional trainers and I never had any problems with seeing all the non-legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex. But because of the legendaries, I consider it a negative for the Sinnoh games. I'm glad they didn't do this in any other games.

What's funny is that Dialga and Palkia's brief appearance at the Spear Pillar is enough to register them as "seen" in Platinum but following the lake trio around the Distortion World for an extended period, including several instances where they're right in front of your face... isn't.

 

[MrHands]

Worst is BDSP - They have the closest thing to a complete Pokedex that we'll ever see again.

Best HGSS - Pre3D Pokemon games run really slow. Walking anywhere takes ages and if you don't have a repel, good luck. Luckily emulators fix this with 2x speed.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I would have been okay with seeing all Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex to unlock the post-game areas if it wasn't for the legendaries. The games basically force you to catch Azelf/Uxie and release Mesprit in order to access the post-game. I generally prefer to wait with catching all optional legendaries until I have done other things in the post-game, so I do not approve of it. Apart from that, I would have been okay with it since I always battle all optional trainers and I never had any problems with seeing all the non-legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh dex. But because of the legendaries, I consider it a negative for the Sinnoh games. I'm glad they didn't do this in any other games.

That is a fair point. All the cutscenes with them really should count towards them being seen.

 

[Sonikku A]

Least fav: Colo showing that just cuz you're an "adult" (he's 17, so no) protag, doesn't mean story is automatically better
But legit, I do like

Spoilers

The twist of the mayor being evil. Screw his skill swap Slaking though, the level jump was baaad enough

Fav: Explorers of Sky not doing a special episode of Team Skull (no not the pathetic yet funny team). The fact freaking Sunflora, a character no one gave a cent about got it still makes me mad. Even Bidoof and Team Charm had something remotely relevant to the main plot, so Sunflora not I'm just...aaaaagh
Seriously, Team Skull almost died, and then is just...nonexistent post game

 

[InvisibleWater]

Least Favorite: X and Y allowed me to catch best birb without any complicated post-game bullcrap. It was just right there on Route 11, waiting for me to catch it.

Favorite: HeartGold and SoulSilver's level curve. Even with the incredibly stupid way 10-year-old me managed my team's levels, everything felt very underleveled until I got to Kanto.

 

[Ransei]

-s about Favorites
OR/AS

• Lack of Trainer Customization - It makes sense that Gamefreak didn't do this at the time, but this would have been cool .
• Super Secret Bases reduce Trainer AIs to 3 Pokémon max - In RSE these trainers had six Pokémon each, which makes it odd that they have three in these games instead. However, you can also face off against Trainer AIs at anytime you want using the Vs. Recorder Mock Battle System, so this isn't all that bad of a thing.
• Creativity is required to make more memorable matches - ORAS are often regarded as some of the easiest Pokémon games to play through when you just use a regular team of favorites, but it can be difficult if you make challenges off it, just as any other Pokémon game. However when you do this, your run ends up being less relatable to the average person. The average person won't see through the potential of what you can do in Pokémon games (esp Gens 6 and 7) and could often not have as good of experiences because of it. I loved the Wally and Zinnia matches in this game. They were very special and very memorable, but so many people disregarded them for being too easy and it's saddening how that's all that matters.

US/UM

• Removal of the National Pokédex - This wasn't horrendous because all Pokémon at the time were still programmed into the games, but it would've been fun to try completing a National Pokédex in Alola.
• Marshadow - As someone who played Anything Goes during Gen 7, I've experienced the large about of impact Marshadow has made on the metagame and it's usually unanimously agreed upon by everyone who played before its release that Anything Goes was much better without this Pokémon. Its dual typing and STAB moves were just too much for a fun metagame to handle and teams had to compress themselves being primarily balance all the time due to how centralized Marshadow became. On top of that, it doesn't really have a solid lore, it backfired with what it was given in the I Choose You movie, and has all around not shown to be very special elsewhere. This Pokémon currently just exists but one of the greatest concepts in Pokémon battling significantly worsened with its presence.
• Background Trainer Models being added to the game and/or Pokémon 3D models not being scaled properly - In Gen 7, the improper scaling really showed because trainer models were included in the game with them in the background and the 3D models had to zoom out a just to fit those trainers in. I battled off against Team Rainbow Rocket only to find Maxie being taller than his Groudon and it sorta killed a lot of the magic in fighting a Groudon. At the end of the day, it's still a Groudon though and it's able to decimate through teams if left unchecked but it would've been cool to see a much larger Groudon!
• Z-Moves - This one is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it was a great idea to give all Pokémon something to work with. On another, these were a little overboard and they broke the scale of balance a fair bit in competitive. Competitive as a whole was rougher to handle than in generations before this, but Z-Moves were one of the biggest factors to that.

Conquest

• No online PvP
• It would've been really cool if there was a battle mode where you can customize the opponent's team based on what you've obtained in your gallery and then face off against that team right away. This is probably too much to ask but you can technically customize the opponent's team; Doing so just takes a long while (possibly days irl) because it's done through a story mode.
  • Example

    
• Advertising and Marketing SUCKED for this game - Pokémon Conquest is a great Pokémon game, but many people don't know it exists. It's all because the game came out very late in the DS era and had to compete with Black 2 White 2 for advertisement.

+s about Least Favorites
Sw/Sh

• Although Calyrex is busted in competitive, there are a lot of things that are cool about this Pokémon. It has some high tier legendary battle themes, sick lore about how it thrives off worship but is weakened without it, and has a great character arc in the Crown Tundra DLC for Sword and Shield.
• Out of all the Gigantamax formes that were considered for the game, Gigantamax Garbodor just happens to be one of them. It's a perfect Pokémon to symbolize how I feel the concepts of Gigantamax, Dynamax, and Eternamax are! Hooray! c:
• Gamefreak made a giant wedding cake into a Pokémon...