I think modern Pokémon games aren't really bad but they're not really what I want to play.
I've probably said it before but it's honestly pretty hard to admit that I'm getting older and I'm more or less set in my ways now. In case you don't know I'm part of the age group who started with the DS era (Gen 4-5) and there were many things about those games in particular that I really valued and formed a fairly concrete idea of what Pokémon "is" to me. And frankly, those games had me hooked and I sunk countless hours into them, and I even watched the DP anime a lot back then (in case Dawn being my pfp wasn't evidence enough, she's one of
the most formative characters of my childhood from one of my most formative pieces of media).
But since then the games since XY have started to take the series in a different direction and are trying to do other things. And in the end, there's nothing wrong with that but that stuff isn't really what I want to pick up a Pokémon game for. It's sad that a series is reinventing itself and replacing what I find interesting with what I don't necessarily but I guess such is life. Many other franchises have been doing the same too
I honestly started falling out of Pokémon gradually starting from XY. X and Y were pretty fun and were really great looking for the first mainline 3D entry and I still enjoyed it. But I blazed through it pretty fast and afterwards I was like "Wait, that's it?". I really couldn't be as attached to it like I could the games before it. I still sunk many hours into it afterwards because of Pokémon Amie and its three minigames, which I found utterly adorable, and because of the Super Training minigame, which I found cute. Also the Friend Safari was fun, and XY really does have some of the best multiplayer features in the series. Still, my interest in it wasn't as strong as past games. ORAS ended up being the same song and dance. Finished it quickly, felt a bit empty afterwards. I didn't totally fall out at this point and was still watching the anime (which was honestly a fun watch) and was into the competitive scene, even though the power creep was slowly burning me out. Ironically Gen 7 ended up diminishing my interest even further. Maybe it's partially because I was getting into other things now but I played through Sun once and even though I appreciated the increase in difficulty and the story was great I just put the game down and didn't touch it again afterwards. Ultra Sun took me nearly a whole year to complete because I took several breaks between because I was honestly struggling to force myself to get through it. I had no interest in the anime at that point and was barely into the competitive scene itself. I straight up skipped out on LGPE. At that point I was frankly wondering if I had simply outgrown the franchise, and I was like "Yeah, I guess I've just outgrown this series
".
Yet in a weird way, and this ties into yet another unpopular (and contrarian) take I have, Gen 8 is ironically the most fun I've had with Pokémon in a long time. More specifically, I find Sword and Shield's DLC got me hooked into Pokémon in a way that I haven't been in ages. And I frankly don't know why. The base game beforehand was the same song and dance with Gen 6, except I got through the story, played a little more, then I put it down and went on to FE Three Houses which I spent months being super into, never touching my copy of Shield for months to come. And yet, I decided to purchase the DLC out of curiosity and somehow, it got me hooked again. Especially when the Crown Tundra half came out. I haven't had so much fun since, and I've replayed my copy of Shield multiple times with the DLC attached and I've really enjoyed it. Maybe because it actually has repeatable and fun post-game activities in DLC with rematchable rivals/Mustard/Peony and Dynamax Adventures and Restricted Sparring and the Star Tournament and whatnot. Maybe because the Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor felt so much more alive than the main Wild Area (which is honestly pretty boring) and brought back the joy of exploration that other recent games lacked. I'm not sure. I know the game is heavily flawed and lacks polish but especially after the DLC I still ended up enjoying it. A lot, even. I don't even care anymore that the EXP All mechanic is mandatory or that the game makes it easy to over level, I had fun with it outside of that anyway. Frankly it's merely less tedious anyway and not less difficult (My recent playthroughs of Sapphire and Platinum confirmed my suspicions that older games are still easy, just much more grind demanding).
I suppose in a way there's a good reason why I'm looking forward to Legends: Arceus so much. It's *so* different from every mainline Pokémon game before it that it's more likely to register in my brain as something new and interesting and not just as "That thing I love but just off a little bit". It has Pokémon attached to its name, but it's a brand new and refreshing experience. I'm also looking forward to BDSP because it'll reignite the feelings of joy I had for DP in my younger days despite sticking to the formula of old.
But I also think the Red and Green formula is becoming increasingly primitive and outdated compared to what other RPGs can do now. It's starting to show that that formula is not only unsustainable, it's actively holding the series back from true growth. Especially with the advance of technology that GF has no choice but to roll with, using that formula is actively making Pokémon fall behind compared to modern day RPGs. So I'm glad to see Legends: Arceus is trying something new, even if I expect some hiccups along the way, I do hope it leads to Game Freak trying new formulas for Pokémon games because it cannot be what it used to be anymore without some major overhauls. It's long overdue but even if Legends doesn't come out perfect, the effort to reinvent the wheel to something that allows Pokémon to truly adapt to modern games and be up to par instead of staying in the Game Boy days is truly commendable. I guess that's yet another reason I'm looking forward to Legends. Combined with BDSP not really butchering the classic Sinnoh experience I think I'll end up seeing Gen 8 as one of my favorite generations, ironically enough, especially since I strangely ended up enjoying SwSh after the DLC and really enjoyed Galar in the grand scheme of things despite how much of a mess that game is (it's clear they took a bunch of different ideas and slapped them together at times).
Loooots of rambling but had a lot of thoughts in regards to the stuff I said.