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What do you NOT miss about the older games?

Not being able to catch most of the opposite version's Pokemon. This is why I don't want Max Raid Battle to stop being a thing.
 
Gen I back sprites (and some of the front ones in Red and Blue)

The huge level jump when you reach the Pokemon League (especially in Kanto)

Pokemon names and other important words in capitals. And NPCs in battle facilities who talk in weird, robotic sentences in all capitals (the dialogue used to be written with the same system used for mail, trendy phrases etc.)

Only being able to face level 100 opponents in the Battle Frontier once your Pokemon reach level 51.

Being unable to obtain most trade evolutions without trading (Sword and Shield improved this by having most of them appear in the wild)

Single-use TMs (Despite improving trade evolutions, Sword and Shield also took a weird step backwards with the introduction of TRs), having to check a Pokemon's learnset online before you can use an evolutionary stone, and worrying that a move could be lost forever if you overwrite it

Being unable to change the date or time (at least, not easily) if you set them wrong at the beginning of the game

Internal batteries running dry

Getting stuck at Indigo Plateau in LeafGreen (I missed the Fly HM and there was a barrier in Victory Road I couldn't remove from the Indigo Plateau side)

Having to catch 60 Pokemon to visit the the last four Sevii Islands

The way that the back sprites in Emerald, Diamond and Pearl wiggle around instead of having a proper animation

PokeStar studios. The obnoxious tutorial put me off wanting to return there after I was finally allowed to leave. The movies are really naff, and you have to sit through them all twice because you can't use your own Pokemon the first time.

Having to open menus to use HMs in Gen 1.

I wouldn't say that I disliked HMs - they're a cool concept - but they were badly implemented a lot of the time and I think we're probably better off without them.

- Needing to fill up dex sightings to get the national dex. Being forced to backtrack to a seriously complicated or slow route/dungeon to find that one particular trainer who has that one last pokemon that doesn't appear in the wild.

The ability to see every Pokemon to complete Sinnoh Pokedex without trading is actually one of my favourite things about those games. It was the first time I was able to get a sense of accomplishment from filling a Pokedex, even if it was a relatively small feat compared to actually catching them all.

That being said, I think filling the Pokedex should always be an optional challenge and not something that you have to do in order to access certain areas in the game. As I mentioned above, I hated having to catch 60 Pokemon in LeafGreen, and needing 50 just to access the Fuschia Gym in Let's Go is even worse. Only needing to see them in Sinnoh felt like a more casual and fun challenge to me, but I can still see why it could be annoying for players who don't want to do it.
 
Another thing I don't miss are some of the stupidly broken mechanics from earlier gens.

Sleep was downright deadly and unfair, as waking up cost you the turn in both Gens 1 and 2, pretty much being a guaranteed KO. Gen 5's Sleep mechanics were just as bad, as getting put to sleep was a pseudo KO especially in tournaments and other high-level gameplay. Freeze, while rare, was permanent in Gen 1, as it lacked the thawing mechanic, making it just ad deadly as Sleep. And Paralysis was also a nasty one in Gen 1, too, as getting Paralyzed pretty much a death sentence like Sleep and Freeze.

Speaking of Paralysis and Gen 1, the fact that the games had the "Speed = Critical hit rate" mechanic was just brutal. Speedsters like Tauros, Jolteon, Zapdos, Dodrio, Alakazam, and more could launch some nasty critical hits because their Speed gave them high chances of it. Paralysis played into that fact as getting Paralyzed nuked those chances, so moves like Stun Spore and Thunder Wave were high in demand. It's a good thing that later gens made critical hit rates have their own chances, with Gen 6 nerfing them to only 1.5X because there were now ways of getting near-guaranteed crits with the right tools.

Wrap, Bind, and Fire Spin, while weak in terms of raw power, were disabling in the fact that once you got caught by it, it was game over in Gen 1. Those moves made Mons like Victreebel downright broken, and even less powerful ones like Arbok and Tangela could be a royal pain if they got one of those moves off. I'm so glad the moves became pretty much worthless in later gens, as being unable to do anything while under their effects was pure evil.

And last but certainly not least the fact that the Special Attack/Defense were one stat in Gen 1. That meant Mons like Chansey, Alakazam, and Starmie were very dangerous because they could both deal powerful Special hits while tanking them just as easily. Even Mons like Tauros and Snorlax could become deadly, especially the latter once it use Amnesia, which was basically a double Calm Mind in Gen 1. The Special stat split was a godsend, as it cut Mons that were once staples in Gen 1 down to size.
 
HMs. Replaying Silver on VC has reminded me how Awful they are.

Game Corners. I hated the Game Corner. I was awful at the mini games, and I hated how they locked Good TMs like Ice Beam and Flamethrower as well as Pokemon like Porygon behind them. So glad that they got rid of them in BW. Thanks PEGI!
 
HMs. Replaying Silver on VC has reminded me how Awful they are.

Game Corners. I hated the Game Corner. I was awful at the mini games, and I hated how they locked Good TMs like Ice Beam and Flamethrower as well as Pokemon like Porygon behind them. So glad that they got rid of them in BW. Thanks PEGI!
I remember spending a lot there to get a TM or a Mon.
 
Single-use TMs (Despite improving trade evolutions, Sword and Shield also took a weird step backwards with the introduction of TRs)

It's less of a step backwards and more of a step sideways. The real underlying problem with single-use TMs was their usual non-renewability, meaning that you only ever got that one chance to teach the move to a Pokémon, with no take-backs. That, and even the renewable ones would sometimes be a hassle to obtain, like the aforementioned Game Corner prize TMs which were often very good moves to have.

TRs address both of those problems by being infinitely renewable, and by being distributed through a single, clear, consistent feature via Max Raid Battles. It's a little less convenient to have to do a Max Raid in order to obtain a TR you might need more of, but since most TRs are strong/good moves, I think that's a fair trade-off, as opposed to having to pay P80,000 to get enough coins to then go and exchange those coins for TM24, which is just paywalling with fictional currency and has nothing to do with any of the core gameplay. Plus, completing the Raid will also give you a new Pokémon as well as some other items that you can at the very least sell off for cash, so you could argue that it's a net positive compared to any of the prior situations where you just paid money in order to obtain (a select few) duplicate TMs.

- The snowy route from Mt. Coronet leading up to Snowpoint City. You are forced to walk slowly and the overworld blizzard can get bad enough that you don't know where you are.

I actually really like this segment of the game, especially in the context of when in the series Diamond & Pearl came out. Those were the first games to include any real "snowy" areas at all (the closest in prior games being Johto's Ice Path, the basement of Hoenn's Shoal Cave, and Sevii's Icefall Cavern, all of which were ice-based rather than snow-based) and I admire that they decided to not just have it be a pretty overworld aesthetic thing, but to make it a meaningful part of the environment by throwing you head-first into a harsh, unforgiving, long Arctic wasteland. Hampered movement, lack of visual waypoints, and constant residual damage from the hail all combine to make it feel like you really are having to brave a full-on blizzard, which I would argue makes for a really well-utilized weather mechanic that justifies its inclusion. (Contrast that with Fog, which is just used as a glorified Cut tree and doesn't, in my opinion at least, provide any interesting dynamics to the overworld areas it affects.)

Towers where you have to use the Mach Bike with extreme precision and speed timing or else you fall through cracks. That's the one thing I dislike about Hoenn.

These were kind of fun for me at the time, but I do think we moved past any further need for them. Hoenn said just about everything that I think could be said with them.
 
Those Mamoswine routes, man they took a lot longer than needed to get through, with wonky controls related to the grid and all.

Don't forget the Rhyhorn route. Equally annoying. One of the few bits I never liked about Kalos (my favorite region still). And the HMs. I'd love a Kalos game without the damn HMs. I'll be looking forward to a Gen 6 remake, however long it takes.
 
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In all honesty, the overall look of the Game Boy games (Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal). They look just so awful and stiff in retrospect, and all the wonky, half-baked features, the creepy Mon sprites especially in Gen 1, and the lack of actual color and more defined textures (I love the crisp look of the games starting with Gen 4, and still Gen 3 was a step in the right direction, though they look outdated already) don't help at all. Not to mention the limited selection of Mons. Don't get me started on the glitches (though admittedly I had fun getting a glitch Mew with the Missingno method back in the day).

And this comes from a guy who started with those games. I like them for being the first games and setting the standards of what Pokemon is today, and also due to nostalgia. But still, they look awful and are very tedious to play through again, I dare say even for a Game Boy game.

I have a downloaded copy of Crystal on my 2DS, and I want to play it not just for nostalgia, but also to get myself a Celebi. I but still can't go back to it when I have the DS, 3DS and Switch games at my disposal (along with the superior remakes). Some time, probably.

P.S. Oh, and the fact that the cartridges I still own (Red and Silver) can no longer save the game due to the dried-up battery.
 
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HMs and single-use TMs seem to be the most popular opinions here, and I completely agree. Just to remember the concept of an HM slave is infuriating, and that's why it's funny to think that GF got rid of HM only in gen 7! Why taking that long to remove something so unpopular? I'd be glad if they were gone by gen 2 or 3.

Single-use TMs were axed by gen 5, earlier yet not that much.
 
And the HMs. I'd love a Kalos game without the damn HMs.

I always thought Kalos (and Unova for that matter) was pretty good about HMs. Obviously I don't miss them now that they're totally gone, but they never felt too intrusive to me in Gen 5 and XY.
 
They've really thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to HMs. Yes, having to have Pokemon with certain moves was extremely irritating, but the field obstacles themselves have been disappearing along with them and that part of the formula needs to stay. The field obstacles add more variety and puzzle solving to overworld exploration and the games are definitely missing something by not having them. Moving them to optional areas doesn't really help much either. The best thing to do with them is to just go back to the way they were in 3rd and 4th gen, but with Poke Ride or some other type of mechanic that doesn't require you to have certain moves on your team.
 
For me, I think HM's would work best not as attacks, but as unlockable powers of your party Pokemon. That is, rather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it. That way, you don't have to worry about teaching HM's nor their effects to your Pokemon - It's automatically applied - But you still need to keep those Pokemon with you in order to use their effects.

Anyways, what I don't miss the most about older games is the limited distribution of Pokemon, where the local Dex rarely exceeded 250. The Trainers you battled always felt constrained to using repeats of the same species, such as that Rocket Grunt with 5 Rattata and Hikers with nothing but Geodude. Battling trainers with the same old mons starts getting real boring in the games, and I'm glad they expanded the Dex not only for us to have more options - but so the trainers could have a diversity of Pokemon as well.
 
They've really thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to HMs. Yes, having to have Pokemon with certain moves was extremely irritating, but the field obstacles themselves have been disappearing along with them and that part of the formula needs to stay. The field obstacles add more variety and puzzle solving to overworld exploration and the games are definitely missing something by not having them. Moving them to optional areas doesn't really help much either. The best thing to do with them is to just go back to the way they were in 3rd and 4th gen, but with Poke Ride or some other type of mechanic that doesn't require you to have certain moves on your team.

I agree - my irritation with HMs are the ridiculous numbers of them certain generations can throw at you, and the fact that so many of them are competitively worthless, even by in-game standards. However, in theory they're a really neat way of tying your party into overworld mechanics, and I've been feeling that lack of puzzles in recent games. Ride was good fun, but it loses some points for not featuring your own team members.

If there's a future happy medium, I think it probably involves no more than four HMs, all of which are moves you would actually want to use. Surf's already in the prime spot, but you could crank Strength up to 100 base power to account for the loss of Return, for example. Rock Smash could quite happily become a Fighting variant of Fire Lash. Not only are fewer move slots gobbled up, but the moves enable players to power up their teams to handle the new, tougher areas they've just gained access to.
 
For me, I think HM's would work best not as attacks, but as unlockable powers of your party Pokemon. That is, rather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it. That way, you don't have to worry about teaching HM's nor their effects to your Pokemon - It's automatically applied - But you still need to keep those Pokemon with you in order to use their effects.

I really like this idea. I could see something like that happening in a remake of Sinnoh, where the field obstacles are integral to the region's design.

I agree - my irritation with HMs are the ridiculous numbers of them certain generations can throw at you, and the fact that so many of them are competitively worthless, even by in-game standards. However, in theory they're a really neat way of tying your party into overworld mechanics, and I've been feeling that lack of puzzles in recent games. Ride was good fun, but it loses some points for not featuring your own team members.

If there's a future happy medium, I think it probably involves no more than four HMs, all of which are moves you would actually want to use. Surf's already in the prime spot, but you could crank Strength up to 100 base power to account for the loss of Return, for example. Rock Smash could quite happily become a Fighting variant of Fire Lash. Not only are fewer move slots gobbled up, but the moves enable players to power up their teams to handle the new, tougher areas they've just gained access to.

If HMs did come back in their original form (which I think is unlikely) I think five is the ideal number. I liked what they did in X and Y, sticking to the original set of five from Gen I but replacing Flash with Waterfall. Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength and Waterfall seem like the most "iconic" HMs, the ones which are always included (apart from Waterfall being absent from Gen I, of course). Surf and Waterfall are both great in-battle moves; Fly and Strength are pretty good but could be improved a bit. Cut definitely needs to be powered up. Strength could be changed to a Fighting-type move for some variety - and actually, by that same token, maybe Waterfall could be replaced with something else so that each HM is a different type.

Also, Fly should allow you to overcome obstacles like the others! Imagine a deep canyon or crevasse where you have to use Fly to get to the other side.
 
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For me, I think HM's would work best not as attacks, but as unlockable powers of your party Pokemon. That is, rather than teach Lumineon Surf and Defog, you unlock the powers to Surf and Defog with any Pokemon that's capable of doing it. That way, you don't have to worry about teaching HM's nor their effects to your Pokemon - It's automatically applied - But you still need to keep those Pokemon with you in order to use their effects.

Yeah, I think this would be the best way to go about it. Keep everything else the same but divorce the HMs from the moves, then let anyone in your party capable use the field abilities. I don't think you should be forced to keep certain Pokemon with you to use the field abilities though, then we're going right back to needing to swap out your party members for HM slaves. Instead, I think they should have a 7th slot in your team for field abilities only and you can choose to fill it with an HM slave or if you don't have one, you could rent one from an NPC.

If HMs did come back in their original form (which I think is unlikely) I think five is the ideal number. I liked what they did in X and Y, sticking to the original set of five from Gen I but replacing Flash with Waterfall. Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength and Waterfall seem like the most "iconic" HMs, the ones which are always included (apart from Waterfall being absent from Gen I, of course). Surf and Waterfall are both great in-battle moves; Fly and Strength are pretty good but could be improved a bit. Cut definitely needs to be powered up. Strength could be changed to a Fighting-type move for some variety - and actually, by that same token, maybe Waterfall could be replaced with something else so that each HM is a different type.

Also, Fly should allow you to overcome obstacles like the others! Imagine a deep canyon or crevasse where you have to use Fly to get to the other side.

As far as battle moves, maybe, but as far as field abilities those wouldn't be my choices. Cut and Waterfall don't really add much as field abilities, they're just regular obstacles that you clear once and then move on. Surf gives you a completely new mode of transportation. Strength is used in boulder puzzles. Fly is used for fast travel. Cut and Waterfall don't have quite the same level of utility as those. They all make good TMs/TRs for sure but not all of them are good field abilities. As far as which field abilities to keep, I would do something like this:

-Surf
-Fly (now used for Soaring in addition to fast travel)
-Strength
-Dive
-Rock Climb (can now climb entire cliffs of softer rock at your leisure instead of just automatically charging up and down a set path)

I would also introduce a few new ones:

-Dig (works entirely differently from how Dig used to. Now it can be used to dig through soft dirt to create new paths, and to find hidden items in the dirt like you could with Rock Smash. You can also dig through dirt on the ground to create pitfalls.)
-Jump (can jump up ledges and across small gaps)
-Glide (can jump off high cliffs and glide across to faraway areas)

Those should all add a lot to the exploration and puzzle solving.
 
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That would still require you to have a Pokemon in your party that can unlock those powers.

Yes, precisely. However, you might be surprised how even a single Pokemon you like can learn a lot of HM moves - and you have 6 pokemon to chose from in a dream team. For instance, each the 3 sinnoh fully evolved sinnoh starters themselves can learn at least half the HMs in the game. The only major requirements of a dream team would be a Water Pokemon for surfing and a Pokemon that learns Fly - which I'd try to increase the distribution of capable users.
 
I prefer the current way of replacing HMs, the only part that should be brought back are the obstacles themselves.
 
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