Black & White

[Elliekat]

Yay, cookie.

Anyway, the reasons I personally like RSE so much were the region, the Pokemon, and most of all the music. The region was just really creative compared to the other generations, the most notable town being Fortree. The diving areas and long water routes would have been painful if not for the fast surfing and the AWESOME surfing music, but the towns on the way were nice.
I really enjoy RSE's Pokemon more than the Pokemon introduced in the 4th gen. They just seem more creative and generally better, plus there aren't that many prevos and evos in the dex. My favorites were Masquerain, Absol and Blaziken, although it would have been a lot better if Masquerain would have kept the water-bug combination.
Then in the fourth, they used Infernape, yet another Fire-Fighting type. That is just blatantly copying already used type combos. I mean, what is it with the dual type starter evolutions? Squirtle didn't get one. If memory serves, none of the 2nd gen starters got one. Treecko didn't get one (I think, never used Treecko). But in the 4th, ALL of them get one! And Empoleon's makes it weak to both of the other starters, and slow enough that Infernape can get it in one hit! Swampert's dual type made it EVEN MORE WEAK to Sceptile's Grass, for heaven's sake!
And now, the music. Best for last! RSE's music style is really nice, I like the instrumental way and all the trumpets. But DPPt's music really ruined it for me, I just don't like the tunes. There's no catchy segments in them that make them worth listening to. And they left the theme out of the opening screen! That is unforgivable. Plus, the bike song SUCKED. Seriously:
RBY bike song was catchy and fun. Everyone likes that song.
GSC bike song was a remix of Goldenrod, one of the catchiest songs. Yay.
RSE bike song was good, not as good as RBY, but no bike song was.
DPPt's... made me actively avoid the bike, I hated that song so much.
So you see I hope the music really improves in Black and White, because DPPt's was such a huge disappointment to me. And I also hope the dex will be more like RSE's, with lots of new, exciting Pokemon and less prevos and evolutions that no one wants or needs, and less overpowered type combos (GARCHOMP, LOOKING AT YOU.)

 

[Yarnchu]

I can not put my finger on why, but I never liked R/S that much. I was excited for them(hell, when my brother first showed me Japanese screen shots and I saw FOUR FREAKING POKEMON ON SCREEN AT ONCE, I nearly died with excitement), but they just feel empty to me. However, I can easily say I enjoyed Emerald far more than R/S, and perhaps even more than FR/LG(since they were basically identical to R/B with the nostalgia and fun glitches removed), and the Battle Frontier is perhaps the single greatest thing they could have added to any Pokemon game. But then Platinum had to go and ruin the BF for me....

I dunno, Emerald was just the most interactive of the 3rd Gen, I guess. It was just a vast improvement over R/S for me.

The music was alright...but I definitely(hey look, I finally spelled that correctly) prefer the Kanto and Johto themes to it. Some highlights for me are probably the E4 Battle, Legendary Pokemon Battle, Regi Battle, Wild Battle, Surfing, and Diving themes. The others just don't stick out as much to me.

Anyways, to provide something meaningful to the games this topic is about:

Someone made a recreation of the city theme you can here in the walking video shown on Pokemon Sunday.

Yes, except for certain parts, this is very much like what you can hear. Listen closely to the PS video, and you can hear this over the hosts yelling like madmen.

 

[surskitty]

Then in the fourth, they used Infernape, yet another Fire-Fighting type. That is just blatantly copying already used type combos. I mean, what is it with the dual type starter evolutions? Squirtle didn't get one. If memory serves, none of the 2nd gen starters got one. Treecko didn't get one (I think, never used Treecko). But in the 4th, ALL of them get one! And Empoleon's makes it weak to both of the other starters, and slow enough that Infernape can get it in one hit! Swampert's dual type made it EVEN MORE WEAK to Sceptile's Grass, for heaven's sake!

Typhlosion is exactly the same as Charizard as far as stats go, except that it's pure fire. Meganium is almost exactly the same as Venusaur (defense and special attack are switched), except it's pure grass. Feraligatr and Blastoise are the only RGBY/GSC starters that don't match up almost exactly, and they're also the only ones with the same type. I'd much rather have dual-type starters than a bunch of clones.

Also, bawww Empoleon's type combination doesn't give it STAB super-effective moves. All of the Sinnoh starters can easily hit each other super effectively. Torterra and Infernape can get Empoleon with ground or fighting (but *not* grass or fire), Empoleon and Torterra can get Infernape with water (or flying with drill peck) or ground, and Infernape and Empoleon can get Torterra with fire or (non-STAB but still) flying or 4x ice.

I don't think anyone's going to sensibly complain about Swampert's dual type sucking. Charizard dies in one hit to any rock move. Swampert ... can survive quite a lot of grass moves, thank you.

I can not put my finger on why, but I never liked R/S that much.

I honestly would not be surprised if the font's involved there. While it seems like a silly thing to care about, it's kind of important to be able to comfortably read everything displayed on the screen and the font is amazingly awful. Even if you don't think "wow that's ugly", it's still there and it's still going to make it that much more awkward to play.

Emerald and RS had very few differences for most of the game. Sure, there's a lot more postgame in Emerald than RS, but really? The main thing's that the font's different. Sure, there're slightly different encounters and theoretically the game's improved by FIGHTING BOTH TEAMS (... yeah no that didn't change much) but it's the font that's actually different.

 

[Dannichu]

I LOVE YOU PEOPLE who defended the newer gens. D/P has its faults, but lack of creativity in design was not one of them.

Actually, DPP was my least favourite Gen mostly because it didn't feel like the previous Pokemon games. RBY had its colourful towns and big grassy fields, I absolutely loved the mountainous, off the beaten track-feel GSC had, and the meeting of technology and nature that ran through the design of RSE. In DPP, they had a "snowy town", a "mountain town", a "big city" and they just didn't connect and feel like a proper world to me, and that kinda ruined the game for me ):

I don't get the RSE-font-hate at all o.o

 

[Shadow Serenity]

I don't get the RSE-font-hate at all o.o

Seconded. I actually rather liked that font...

I think D/P were my least favorite due mainly to the available pokemon during playthrough. I just didn't feel like there was much diversity, and I really hated the fact that there were new pokemon introduced that you couldn't obtain until after the National Dex (Electivire, Gliscor, etc.). Platinum really fixed that, and though I haven't played through it in a while, I definitely recall enjoying that version a great deal more.

 

[Minish]

I LOVE YOU PEOPLE who defended the newer gens. D/P has its faults, but lack of creativity in design was not one of them.

Actually, DPP was my least favourite Gen mostly because it didn't feel like the previous Pokemon games. RBY had its colourful towns and big grassy fields, I absolutely loved the mountainous, off the beaten track-feel GSC had, and the meeting of technology and nature that ran through the design of RSE. In DPP, they had a "snowy town", a "mountain town", a "big city" and they just didn't connect and feel like a proper world to me, and that kinda ruined the game for me ):

I don't get the RSE-font-hate at all o.o

Ah, I think this is one of the reasons I don't like DPP. It always seemed like a sort of disconnected load of towns and cities without much of a consistent environment. I liked that it was supposed to be cold and snowy in parts, and those were my favourite bits, but... it wasn't like we saw much evidence of it other than the weather.

RSE always seemed to just be so real -- the nostalgia I get going into Verdanturf, going off to Fortree in the rain, diving and going up into Sootopolis... I think it was all set off by the music, which was just sublime. Diving in RSE still never fails to awe me because of just the whole atmosphere of it.

While I'm not hugely fond of GSC (I happened to play RSE and RBY first, so I missed out on the nostalgia factor and had it redirect towards RSE instead) I have to give it credit for the atmosphere of the game. I liked the mountainous feel too, going through up to fight Clair always feels like I've actually done well and accomplished something.

...I get waaay too sucked into these games. :p

And whaaaat I liked the RSE font. Mainly because it just packs in more nostalgia for me. It seemed more... 'mechanical', rather than the smooth, almost too perfect font and text used in later games. It reminds me of somewhere on the main site where Butterfree criticised the lower-casing of moves in battle. I always liked seeing "PIKACHU used THUNDERSHOCK!"... just another reason for me to dislike DPPt. Eh.

 

[Elliekat]

I do agree with the above statements about DPPt's towns seeming too abrupt. I never understood how there would be A BEACH in one place, and snow less than 50 steps away. RSE's just felt more connected to me, I guess. I want that to be one of the thing Black and White fix, and also make the bike song suck less. Because you have to admit, it did in DPPt.
I also agree with what Butterfree said about the annoyance of moves that got changed to "SolarBeam" or "BubbleBeam" or whatever. That looks really out of place. Also, it really startles me almost every time when it blares "The attack of the foe's WHATEVER missed!" Either make it all grammatically correct (which looks out of place to me in these games) or make it like it was before!

And for god's sake, please please please do not make another stupid way to evolve things! We do not need any more stones that evolve a grand total of two Pokemon! We do not need any more annoying happiness-evolvers! We especially do not need any more Pokemon that only evolve when they know certain moves- that the have already forgotten by the time you meet them! And we really, really do not need another Feebas-style-evolver!

 

[Tailsy]

I don't dislike any generation. I think this is because I don't sob in horror when they, oh god, dare to switch it up a bit. I like new things, and I don't think any Pokémon game from the main series has ever disappointed me. They do a very good job of updating the series without WAH RUINING IT FOREVER, imo.

It 'feels' like Pokémon if I get to wander around and catch shit and get stuck in places by tiny tiny trees and start over a million times to amuse myself with raising a deliberately crap team!

In b4 TAILSY IS A FANGIRL HER OPINIONS SUCK 8) Maybe I'm just easy to please, but idk.

 

[Shadow Serenity]

I don't dislike any generation. I think this is because I don't sob in horror when they, oh god, dare to switch it up a bit. I like new things, and I don't think any Pokémon game from the main series has ever disappointed me. They do a very good job of updating the series without WAH RUINING IT FOREVER, imo.

It 'feels' like Pokémon if I get to wander around and catch shit and get stuck in places by tiny tiny trees and start over a million times to amuse myself with raising a deliberately crap team!

In b4 TAILSY IS A FANGIRL HER OPINIONS SUCK 8) Maybe I'm just easy to please, but idk.

I agree with this, for the most part. As I said, D/P were my least favorite generation simply due to the available selection of pokemon, which Platinum fixed for me. Obviously, there are some pokemon I dislike, but the same could apply to any generation.

Most of the complains I had with D/P were in fact rather minor, though there was quite a few of them. Most notably were the pokemon availability yet again, the single button on the poketch that only moved forward, the slow default speed for item scrolling when there was obviously room for improvement... but nothing that really impacted the gameplay itself had changed much. Oh, and the ever-increasing amount of crappy HM moves that are required to progress. I just hope no more of those are added in Black and White.

 

[Shiva64]

I liked DPPt a lot. I have spent more time in one file on my Pearl game, than I have in previous games. I think it's already over the 400 hour mark... if not quite yet. It's the original file I started out with! ...and It's still not even close to completion. I need to find it :(

I do agree with the above statements about DPPt's towns seeming too abrupt. I never understood how there would be A BEACH in one place, and snow less than 50 steps away.

Well, if you consider real life, there are places like this. I think even Japan itself is like this, since it does snow there, and I'm pretty sure there are beaches somewhere near where it snows (or at the very least, other parts of the world). So they probably based that off something similar.

 

[Butterfree]

I honestly think every new Pokémon game is a vast improvement upon the previous (Emerald to FR/LG probably the least, but that's because they had to go back to working from an older game). :/ People glare at every little thing they can find that they liked better before and ignore all the added features, conveniences and other little things that plainly make up for it. I liked the music and towns of R/S/E better than D/P/Pt too, but meanwhile, D/P/Pt have the physical/special split, new moves, new Pokémon (which do not all magically suck or indicate that "Game Freak is running out of ideas" because if you honestly think a fiery horse is more creative than a giant magnetic Easter Island statue slash Mario, there is something wrong with you), better graphics, all the useful gadgets in the Pokétch, a far more extensive selection of Pokémon that can be caught without trading, the Underground, Wi-Fi trading and battling, a Bicycle that can switch gears on the go, the ability to shine your badges on the touch screen until they sparkle, many more TMs including FALSE SWIPE, an unlimited bag, all sorts of interesting new items, the return of day and night which actually look pretty good, the ability to run inside buildings... and that's just the highlights. Similarly, R/S/E lost the day and night feature and Crystal's animations and had a limited selection of Pokémon available, but instead they got double battling, vastly better graphics, a bigger region, the Running Shoes, more Pokémon/moves/items, the new IV/personality value system, effort values, natures, abilities, contests, and probably a whole bunch of stuff I'm forgetting right now. Yes, there are always certain things you wish were like in the previous games, but that does not make the previous games superior overall.

So sure, you can like a region, or a set of Pokémon, or a soundtrack, or whatever more in one game than the next one, but I'd argue the games themselves get strictly better with every generation.

 

[Dannichu]

Yup, and I'm totally with you that the games get better as you go on, but this doesn't mean people will/should like them more. My list of what I think are the best video games is vastly different to the list of my favourite video games.
(but I'm a complete philistine, so)

 

[#1 bro]

i think most people's overall experience of each pokemon game is not determined by things like "oh, there's a physical/special split now" or "nice, the bike now has more gears" etc. it's more the general feel of the environment and the design of the pokemon.

that said, i am pretty sure that eight year old children playing diamond and pearl right now will one day look back on it as fondly as we do the older games.

I don't dislike any generation. I think this is because I don't sob in horror when they, oh god, dare to switch it up a bit. I like new things, and I don't think any Pokémon game from the main series has ever disappointed me. They do a very good job of updating the series without WAH RUINING IT FOREVER, imo.

i think game freak has a much bigger problem with not changing things than they do with changing things.

 

[Minish]

Yeah, I do agree that technical-wise each generation is overall a vast improvement. I'm really so attached to RSE because of the nostalgia factor -- all the games except for DPPt I have some sort of childish attachment to, 4th gen just didn't really grab me like the others did. Like I said, I get too sucked into games. X3

Then again, we're not going to get anything as revolutionary as natures again or anything, so... yeah. But man, running inside buildings was the best idea ever. ;-;

 

[Jason-Kun]

On the hating of the recent generations, it's not a sentimental thing for me. It's that I think Diamond/Pearl were pretty awful. And don't say it's because I hate all new Pokemon games -- Gold/Silver used to my least favourite gen and my favourite will *always* be Ruby/Sapphire, which I love so much that it's hard to put into words.

Diamond/Pearl were so bad that I probably won't ever try to play them more than about maybe one more time, whereas I've played Ruby/Sapphire maybe over 30 times through. I just hate the way it was so obnoxiously "WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF POKEMON, LITTLE EIGHT YEAR OLD, LET'S DRESS UP OUR POKEMON NOW~!" and how dumbed-down it was.

I'm probably just fixed in that mindset from when I first played, though... if I can find my Pearl version I'll probably give it one last go. But I don't understand people who hate on the third gen, imo it was the high point of the entire series. :(

This. Gen III will always be my favorite, it's what made me a fan in the first place to be honest. I love Hoenn best out of all the regions and I find Gen I and Gen III to have the best designs. Sure I don't like the first two gens ((mostly because I have a hard time getting into them due to the gameplay/graphics)), but I'm wiling to look at the good parts from the both of them, ya know?

 

[Butterfree]

Yup, and I'm totally with you that the games get better as you go on, but this doesn't mean people will/should like them more. My list of what I think are the best video games is vastly different to the list of my favourite video games.
(but I'm a complete philistine, so)

Oh, I agree. My favorite Pokémon game is still Yellow. It's just important to note that that's a personal taste thing and Game Freak has no way of magically making a game that's going to be everybody's favorite. By any objective standard, the games have been getting strictly better - you can't say the series has been "going downhill" or whatever just because your personal favorite was Yellow or Silver or Emerald or you don't like the fourth-generation Pokémon as much as the first-generation ones.

I was going to put this in my last post but forgot: I never thought the Ruby and Sapphire font was bad until after I'd played FR/LG. Once I'd gotten used to that font, suddenly the R/S font seemed absolutely horrible in comparison.

 

[Yarnchu]

Oh, I agree. My favorite Pokémon game is still Yellow. It's just important to note that that's a personal taste thing and Game Freak has no way of magically making a game that's going to be everybody's favorite. By any objective standard, the games have been getting strictly better - you can't say the series has been "going downhill" or whatever just because your personal favorite was Yellow or Silver or Emerald or you don't like the fourth-generation Pokémon as much as the first-generation ones.

I was going to put this in my last post but forgot: I never thought the Ruby and Sapphire font was bad until after I'd played FR/LG. Once I'd gotten used to that font, suddenly the R/S font seemed absolutely horrible in comparison.

I actually made a blog once about looking at video games with an objective view on another forum. Needless to say, it didn't go over too well with the other people there.

From an objective stand point, I totally agree that all games after R/B have only been improvements: R/G to B, B to Y, Y to G/S, G/S to C, and so on.

But my personal favorites would have to be Red and Gold, simply because I had the most fun with them.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

But man, running inside buildings was the best idea ever. ;-;

I agree. I always thought it was ridiculously formal that you couldn't run inside buildings. ):<

 

[Tailsy]

i think game freak has a much bigger problem with not changing things than they do with changing things.

Then the They Changed It Now It Sucks crew are far, far louder than It's The Same Now It Sucks crew? ... Who cares?

 

[Renteura]

Hmmm. I adore the RSE font. I still think it's just perfectly unperfect, if that makes any sense at all (which I doubt).

Useless contribution ftw.