Spoilers Best Main Pokemon Game of the 3DS Era?

[KrisiChiki]

I'm of the same opinion regarding the upcoming Switch games, especially since the new console is, understandably, more expensive. I bought most of my (main series) Pokemon games on release day, but the way Game Freak has treated the past couple of generations has made me finally say "no more".

One of my biggest joys is playing a new generation Pokemon game with little to no knowledge of the game's content. I want to be surprised and truly feel like I'm exploring the new region on my own. Sadly, now I've become wary so next time I will have to patiently wait for reviews.

I almost feel ashamed for believing Game Freak when they hyped USUM so much, complete with an epic trailer of what seemed to be an adventure beyond Alola, into the Ultra Space.

 

[Almonds]

From what I can tell, even on other sites, the DS era is favored over the 3DS era.

Looking back, people complained about Gen5 being the worst gen when it came out, but compared to the 3DS era, BW had a beautiful, firm, cohesive story to tell, and B2W2 had massive content to enjoy.

Gen6 and Gen7 has its ups and downs, but I really can't praise Gen7 much. Alola is certainly a colorful region that has a lively natural atmosphere, but it lacks in both storytelling and content. XY had an incomplete story but the customization options are superior (even if the male character has less options than the female pc) and Kalos is an okay region to explore plus Fried Safari. ORAS carried over nearly all the key features from XY except for customization (though I don't mind because Brendan and May are cute in their updated outfits). I guess story isn't much of an issue because RS already had a good, complete story where ORAS only needed to expand on it. The BF tease was certainly cruel, but they did give us plenty of other stuff to work with, even providing easier methods to put together competitive teams.

When I stop and think about it, the 3DS games are certainly a problem when the remakes have a better written story than new games...

 

[godiego]

From what I can tell, even on other sites, the DS era is favored over the 3DS era.

proooobably because a lot of people on the internet rn are from around that era.

 

[Midorikawa]

I can’t say I prefer any over the other.

Kalon is beautiful and while it was linear, it still felt more exploitable than Alola. And the customization was wonderful. I loved the outfits even if I had to wear a hat. And the story behind it had such amazing potential. Unfortunately it’s the pacing and the lack of story attention that takes from it. And the rivals aren’t that great.

Alola has a great story. By the hand holding galore and the constant cutscenes and lack f exploration take so much from it. I also don’t find it’s outfits all that great, though I like the increased hair options. The side quests are cool but hard to keep track of. And as others have said there isn’t much other content. I don’t care for things like battle tree and whatnot so I like the fun after game activities like hidden plots. I haven’t beaten USUM yet so I don’t know if it has any but I believe that SM didn’t if I remember correctly. And neither did Kalos. However it had the best rivals. And a nice difficulty.

ORAS is a remake so it already had a solid structure. With the delta episode and contests, you have some on the side and after game content that’s somewhat entertaining. I don’t think it’s plot was as great as Alola but it was better than XY. And it has the exploration addition to it. And I just love contests. I was disappointed in mauvile. It was confusing as flip and I wish they did the casino even though parents would probably complain. And while they improved on the rivals, they weren’t that great compared to some other games.

I think if you take Alolas difficulty and plot rating, combine it with Kalos beauty and customization, and Horns extra features and exploration, you’d have a great game. And get rid of ride Pokémon. I prefer the classic challenge of HMs and I miss the bike and skates.

 

[Pokesan]

At the first galance, I want to choose "All of them suck".
But after thinking for a while, I believe XY is my best love among the 4 games, which consumed me the longest time on playing it.

Mega is a good idea for new forms, though it's imbalanced for online battle.
It gave old Pokemon new life and gave me aspiration to use those old Pokemon again who were played by me tens of times in first 5 gen.
I enjoy the animation when I mega-evolve Pokemon.
Battle Mansion is not as attractive as Battle Frontier, but it's not bad.
Rotation Battle is my favorite.
The atmosphere in Kalos really made me feel the flavor of France.
Though the story wasn't well-developed. The mature and restrained relationship between Lysandre, Professor and Champion, who stand for the red white blue of France national flag, makes me feel Pokemon game not a kid game ever.
The world is not filled with only good and evil, it's more complex. Aging and Beauty, Dream and Limitation.

I love soaring in the sky of Hoenn, but nothing more for ORAS.
SM should have been a great game, of which regional variant is my favorite idea on new forms in Pokemon history, but not extended in USM. And the co-existence of SM and USM impede each other. Because I can't call four almost same games the best game of 3DS era.

 

[Boss1708]

This comes over as a bit subjective if you ask me.

Well of course it is. It is my personal opinion. Others might feel differently.

He's probably criticizing them more for teasing the BF in ORAS and gyms in USUM, than for not bringing them back.

That is exactly what I meant.

I am willing to excuse and even try to justify an omission of a feature I like, but not when the game itself reminds me of that omission on purpose. That I call disrespecting the fans.

 

[Diamond & Pearl]

Well of course it is. It is my personal opinion. Others might feel differently.

I wasn't pointing at you giving your opinion. I thought you were generalizing by saying that most were trolled with the absence of gyms which came over as a not so valid argument at first glance. I lost interest in Pokémon games since Gen 5, so I wasn't aware of GF toying with the fans.

 

[Esserise]

From what I can tell, even on other sites, the DS era is favored over the 3DS era.

Looking back, people complained about Gen5 being the worst gen when it came out, but compared to the 3DS era, BW had a beautiful, firm, cohesive story to tell, and B2W2 had massive content to enjoy.

Sure, although revisionism is a danger here. The 3DS games have their flaws, but so do... basically all Pokémon games. And as time goes on, I think that people become more forgiving toward those flaws. For as much as many, many people will say that, for instance, HGSS are the greatest Pokémon games ever, HGSS have a ton of problems of their own, and failed to fix a lot of the original games' issues (this is partly why I still firmly prefer Crystal over HGSS). And you could say essentially the same thing for any of the old games.

The online fandom is (not entirely unreasonably) harsh on the 3DS games now, but let's see where we're at seven or eight years from now.

When I stop and think about it, the 3DS games are certainly a problem when the remakes have a better written story than new games...

I mean, personally, I'd argue that FRLG have a better story than any of the Hoenn games, and that none of the storytelling in Gen 4 is particularly good. So this aspect of Gen 6 doesn't really strike me as odd. As you said, ORAS had the benefit of working with a story that was already mostly written and had twelve years for its flaws to be analyzed. It's pretty easy to look at it in retrospect and simply change or sharpen the bits that needed to be fixed. Whereas when you're making something from scratch, you're taking more of a gamble because you don't know how people will respond to the end product, or if the end product will even come out how you want it to.

 

[KrisiChiki]

@Esserise I interpret it as more along the lines of people not having major complaints back when they played the DS or GBA games in comparison to how they felt while playing the 3DS games. There were complaints back then, of course, but for many people those seem minor compared to what they have to say about the 3DS era.

I will use myself as an example and say that when I played Gen III, IV and V I had some complaints and there were things I didn't like about the games. After all, no game is perfect and plenty of them have flaws. However, in the grand scheme of things, those flaws didn't affect or hinder my enjoyment too much because the good aspects overshadowed the bad things.

Despite my complaints regarding the 3DS games, I did enjoy them. Alas, there was a lingering feeling of disappointment after I finished them. That's because the flaws of these past two generations seem greater. Part of it is also because of Game Freak's progress and the vision they had regarding the games at the time they were made. We have to criticize games in the context of when they were made, too.

Maybe XY's story isn't much worse than what we got in DPPt or RSE, but I cannot accept it when Game Freak proved they can write more intricate stories in Gen V. They tried to make the game more casual to attract mobile gamers, but didn't offer difficulty settings for the those who like challenges, even though we had difficulty settings in BW2 (albeit poorly implemented). In the era of DLC, it's hard to justify Game Freak making games incompatible within the same generation (ORAS's Megas are incompatible with XY) or them making two "third versions" with content and story alterations that... really could have been a DLC. There is also them teasing content like @Meta Boss mentioned. It was quite insulting that they copy & pasted the Battle Maison from XY into ORAS while teasing "Look the Battle Frontier will be built here in the future!". I say this as a person who doesn't care about battle facilities.

Of course I'm not speaking for everyone here. I'm sure there are people that think the 3DS era games are fine, people that might even dislike the older games or simply those biased by nostalgia.

 

[Kharixi]

There are things I like and enjoy about all of these games, but I think my favorite will go to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for one big reason: replayability. Yes, any Pokémon game can be played over again and again to catch new 'mons or evolve or trade them, but ORAS (and the original Hoenn games) allow the player to battle trainers over again. Of course it only goes so far, but it's still much more enjoyable than most other games where your only choice for leveling up Pokémon well is the Pokémon League... after you beat the game.

The DexNav also makes looking for Pokémon to complete the Pokédex actually quite enjoyable for me. It saves a lot of the hassle of rustling through grass only to find Pokémon you already have.

Edit: My runner-up goes to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Sure, although revisionism is a danger here. The 3DS games have their flaws, but so do... basically all Pokémon games. And as time goes on, I think that people become more forgiving toward those flaws. For as much as many, many people will say that, for instance, HGSS are the greatest Pokémon games ever, HGSS have a ton of problems of their own, and failed to fix a lot of the original games' issues (this is partly why I still firmly prefer Crystal over HGSS). And you could say essentially the same thing for any of the old games.

Depends on the flaw. There are a lot of games that people have varying opinions on and can attract fans over time. Various Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon have their fair share of fans and critics for any number of reasons. But there are also some games that their flaws simply aren't forgiven over time. Sonic 06 is a good example of that, the fanbase hasn't softened their opinion on that game in the 12 years it's been out. The opposite can also happen and certain things that were once overlooked could also become magnified over time. Look at RBY, there's a lot of nostalgia for those games but now some fans are seeing those games' design as outdated and asking for a sequel.

As far as the complaints for the 3DS era, I don't see the complaints on content, linearity, difficulty, and storyline going away. At best I could see their fans getting louder over time, but I think there's always going to be a large contingent of gamers that simply hates that kind of experience.

 

[Esserise]

I interpret it as more along the lines of people not having major complaints back when they played the DS or GBA games in comparison to how they felt while playing the 3DS games. There were complaints back then, of course, but for many people those seem minor compared to what they have to say about the 3DS era.

It may seem that way right now, but my whole point was that it's hard to tell what complaints are really going to stick eight years from now when we can look back on the games with a degree of distance, and compare it to what the series has done since then. Although they're more appreciated now, I seem to recall BW being heavily bombarded by angry fans for a good long while. And I mean, there are several things in the Gen 5 games that fall into the same lines of criticism that are aimed at Gens 6 and 7, like linearity, making the game "easier," and setting up "teases" that don't go anywhere.

But also, what about when people who have grown up with the more recent games grow older and start getting more involved with the fandom? (Not to suggest that there aren't some of you here right now, of course.) People who grew up with the likes of ORAS, SM, and USUM will almost certainly have a different perspective of things that people who grew up with Emerald and Platinum, no?

Maybe XY's story isn't much worse than what we got in DPPt or RSE, but I cannot accept it when Game Freak proved they can write more intricate stories in Gen V.

Sure, that's fine and all... but then they went and improved the storytelling for ORAS and SM (to the point that in SM's case, some people feel like there's too much story). So that's a flaw of XY's, as I myself even said. But to be fair, it's not an area in which all of the 3DS games disappoint.

They tried to make the game more casual to attract mobile gamers, but didn't offer difficulty settings for the those who like challenges, even though we had difficulty settings in BW2 (albeit poorly implemented).

But there is a difference between "making the games easier" and "adding things that people can utilize in order to make the games easier." Most of what they've done lately, like the EXP Share and Amie/Refresh, have been more in the vein of the latter, and you don't have to use that stuff if you don't want to. Just like how you aren't required to trade for the Farfetch'd in XY or the Hawlucha in USUM that would otherwise completely trivialize the upcoming Gym/Trials. The option is there, but you don't have to take advantage of it.

It's fine to like challenges, but one should know what kind of game they're getting into. I don't think Pokémon games are actually meant to be particularly challenging. Bumping up the levels and slightly increasing the AI, as they did for B2W2's Challenge Mode, is only going to do so much on it's own. There's still nothing stopping the player from overleveling or buying a bunch of healing items. The difficulty is always going to be determined in large part by the player's own choices.

Still, give them some credit - many of the Totems, as well as Ultra Necrozma, have been noted for giving players a tough time. Coming in on the heels of the complaints about XY and ORAS being "too easy," this seems to me like an effort to address those complaints.

In the era of DLC, it's hard to justify Game Freak making games incompatible within the same generation (ORAS's Megas are incompatible with XY) or them making two "third versions" with content and story alterations that... really could have been a DLC.

Right, and I think that's a valid complaint. But it's highly subjective as to whether it’s more significant than anything that was complained about in previous eras. Personally, I think the handling of B2W2's Key system is at least as idiotic as any of that. Like, it takes some truly phenomenal stupidity to decide to implement difficulty modes... that not only require two players (or two systems) to unlock, but are also restricted until the post-game unless you know someone who has already beaten the game (which means that you yourself can never even reap the full benefit of a feature of your own game without having two systems and buying, and beating, a second game). Why the precise fuck is anybody going to need Easy Mode after they've already played through the entire game at normal difficulty? The thing here is, it really can't have been any harder for Game Freak to make these options available from the beginning. I think that is every bit as "self-evidently the thing they should have done" as patching XY to accept ORAS's new content was.

There is also them teasing content like @Meta Boss mentioned. It was quite insulting that they copy & pasted the Battle Maison from XY into ORAS while teasing "Look the Battle Frontier will be built here in the future!". I say this as a person who doesn't care about battle facilities.

I don't care about battle facilities either, and I think it's pretty clear that these are meant more as light-hearted references rather than "teasing content." There's clearly no actual intention of adding the Frontier, because Game Freak seem to view that kind of thing as an irrelevant piece of a bygone age (which I don't even think is an entirely unfounded observation - though that's not to say that their current course is perfect, because it certainly isn't). I don't think they see a need for it to actually be in the games anymore, but it still makes narrative sense for Hoenn remakes to reference it a little.

In fact, I think within that lies the biggest disconnect between Game Freak and the current online fanbase. It should come as little surprise that the more recent games don't offer much to do after completing the main storyline if GF's perspective is that, since we have global connectivity and annual releases, the games just don't need to include as much stuff to keep players occupied between games. The logic of that makes some sense, but it's painting with too wide a brush, because people liked the Battle Frontier more for the unique gimmicks they could find there, rather than the simple fact that they wanted more battling. Same for the side-activities. Pragmatically, DP offer things like Super Contests and the Underground in order to tide players over for the two-year wait until Platinum. But people genuinely liked those features because they were fun, and therefore want to see more features like those in the games.

Hence my saying "not entirely unreasonably" about the players' current response to the 3DS games. I do think it's a myopic view on GF's part, even though I can see where they're coming from. And it's unfortunate that they've been so opposed to DLC because that would solve a significant part of the problem quite neatly.

 

[Defiant]

I voted for ORAS which to anyone who knew me would find so ironic since I was critical of the originals for a long time.

XY felt incomplete to me, Sun/Moon were decent and USUM I actually find quite insulting.

To me ORAS took the bits from Gen 3 which on reflection 12 years later I did love and perfected them. Secret bases, the deoxys event, contests and I loved the Dex nav.

Although I do agree that there was too much water (too many water routes) the whole eastern 1/3rd is water.

For me it goes

ORAS
Sun/Moon
XY
Id even include Super Mystery Dungeon here
Then USUM

 

[Almonds]

I was initially angry about the missing Battle Frontier in ORAS but after playing Sun and Moon and getting myself kicked from the Battle Tree countless times, I'm having mixed feelings. Half of me still misses the Battle Frontier, but half of me is rather glad they didn't bring back a fan-favorite feature and ruin it with unreasonable difficulties and irresponsible hax.

There's probably another issue regarding the 20th anniversary and Gen1 pandering being overused throughout the 3DS era - 5 years of celebration. Yeah. Celebrating Kanto since 2012 and still celebrating Kanto in 2017. (Excluding ORAS since it is a bundle of nostalgia on its own)

XY - we're given too much Kanto references! But wait, it's the 15th anniversary and the 20th anniversary is soon so why not.
SM - we're give too much Kanto references again! And there's even Red and Green! But c'mon, the 20th anniversary is soon!
USUM - more Kanto references with a Pikachu Valley, a Kantonian gym-ish feature, and Rainbow Rocket! And yes! It is the 20TH ANNIVERSARY!!

Spoiler

Oh, and we threw in a Surfing Pikachu so people, stop complain

And if I'm not mistaken, Rainbow Rocket is being heavily criticized as well as the Kantonian gym-ish thingy... and ironically, the characters who did receive praise from USUM seems to be the Gen5 guys.

*sigh*

 

[Silktree]

The Battle Frontier had plenty of hax to begin with. Very few players got all the symbols.

Rainbow Rocket is being (somewhat) criticized for lacking a cohesive direction. The reason for that is that it was designed to accommodate fanservice for all generations.

Lastly, XY were released close to the 18th anniversary, while SM were released after the 20th one.

 

[Almonds]

Lastly, XY were released close to the 18th anniversary, while SM were released after the 20th one.

Thank you. I messed up the dates.

But it still doesn't change the fact that nearly the entire 3DS era had Kanto pandering and celebrating anniversaries for 5 years. Add in the Ash-hat Pikachus, and there's the 20 years of pokemon anime celebration as well.

 

[godiego]

But it still doesn't change the fact that nearly the entire 3DS era had Kanto pandering and celebrating anniversaries for 5 years

people need to get it in their heads that the series has always been gratuitous to Kanto. the only time it wasn't was with Hoenn since they were trying the whole reboot thing, but even then that backfired. of course, it's great to ignore all other references to other games and regions when it furthers your point lmao.

 

[Defiant]

Game Freaks approach is managing to upset everyone it seems. People who don't care for Kanto are sick of all the Kanto references as they don't want to focus on it. Fans of Kanto are sick of all the Kanto teasing without actually getting to revisit Kanto as they want.

 

[godiego]

Game Freaks approach is managing to upset everyone it seems. People who don't care for Kanto are sick of all the Kanto references as they don't want to focus on it.

people who are sick of all the Kanto references also willfully ignore the references to other games so...their own doing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Defiant]

people who are sick of all the Kanto references also willfully ignore the references to other games so...their own doing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While you're right they do make occasional references to other games and regions the number is disproportionately tilted towards Kanto.

Alolan forms, Oaks cousin, santalune Forrest. Kanto starters in XY. Kantonian Gym. More Mega's for Kanto than any other Gen.

For me I love Kanto it was my first but I get that people who started in other regions may feel ticked off.