Gen 7 Farewell Party

[RC821]

Since November 14 is the final day of Gen 7, do you think we should celebrate the end of Gen 7 with a party?

It's sad that all things must come to an end for Gen 7 of Pokemon.

 

[Daenerys]

Rest in piss peace Gen 7.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Eh, the 'current' generation may be 8 but that doesn't mean the past generations stop existing. I can still pop old games into my system and play them so they're not really going anywhere to me.

 

[Leaf_Ranger]

I could honestly live without Gen. VII. I regret having bought Moon, the anime is crap, I hated the sheer amount of reveals and how they were so happy tuned because of being Alola and in the end it was an utter trash where we have to press a button to enter certain buildings, we are Power Rangers mixed with Sailor Moon and the number of three staged evolutions is minimal.
The only thing truly great that came out of it was Midnight Lycanroc.
To sum it up, no party, let's all pretend this was just a bad dream and move on.

 

[Emmy]

I'm going to miss Gen 7.

Sun/Moon was one of my all time favourite PKM games, but I wished they could've done more in Alola rather than just give us Ultra S&M.

 

[Phosphene]

I actually liked gen 7 quite a lot—yes it has its glaring flaws but at least it’s better than gen 6—so I’m a little sad to see it gone.

 

[prog rocker]

I also liked Gen VII a lot. Curiously enough, the changes they did were, in my opinion, cool. If they didn't try to do something new and did an extremely safe game like Gen VI, I would have left the fandom.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Gen 7 was a mixed bag. It had its pros and cons. Let's go over them.

Pros:

• Trials, Trial Captains, and Totem Pokemon were a fresh twist on the usual Gym Battle/Leader concept, giving them a boss raid feeling
• Introduced Regional Forms, which helped upgrade a number of lackluster Mons, which I'm glad will return Gen 8
• SM had a story that rivaled BW in terms of depth and nature, something that we don't see too often in Pokemon
• Tying in to the above, we got great, realistic character with very deep personalities and backstories
• Solidified the "multi-verse" theory coined in ORAS and introduced Ultra Beasts
• Offered quite a bit of world-building, such as Mantine Surf, Alola's customs and traditions, the birth of a new league, etc
• Unique "version differences", such as 12 hour time difference, Lycanroc's forms, and so on
• The second most threatening villains in the series (Aether)

Cons:

• Waaaaaay too much hand-holding and forced tutorials
• At the time, all Regional Forms were only Kanto Mons, leaving a lot to be desired, something that Gen 8 is already correcting with Zigzagoon
• Still way too much Kanto pandering, something that I hope Gen 8 fixes
• Too many one-stage Mons and very few three-stage ones outside of Starters, plus a low amount of new Mons introduced (outside of UBs)
• Most Alola native Mons were on the slow side and/or had rather odd stats
• Anime is garbage, right up there with the BW anime (why do the games with good stories end up getting terrible anime adaptations???)
• USUM was rushed to be completed, leaving it rather lackluster (though it did correct some issues, like adding Move Tutors, expanded the Dex, etc)

So, overall, Gen 7 was a decent gen. It had its strengths and weaknesses, but it was, overall, a rather good Gen. While I don't think a "party" is necessary, it should still be remembered fondly for what it introduced, like Regional Forms and such, and was a fresh take on some rather stale concepts. So, while I don't feel a farewell party is really necessary, as people can just pop in one of the games and play them like any other gen, it did offer some new and fresh ideas to the series. While it is the end of an era, as they are the last Pokemon games to be on a pure handheld console, it should get a salute for what it has offered and how it can act as a foundation to later games. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

 

[colours]

I liked it about as much as I liked pretty much any other gen, which is to say that I enjoyed it! Sure, this gen has its flaws like any other generation (no, not even Gen 5 is perfect as much as some people would have you believe otherwise), but I think overall, for me, it was fun and that was all that matters.

Although if I'm going to be honest, my biggest complaint was that I didn't have a whole lot of incentive to stick with a lot of Gen VII Pokemon, and as such they tend to be kinda forgettable to me.

 

[Esserise]

Solidified the "multi-verse" theory coined in ORAS and introduced Ultra Beasts

Much as I do love the Ultra Beasts (and I really, really do), I'm a little hesitant to file this one as a "pro." I think the basic concept of the UBs functioning as Alola's equivalent to invasive species is fairly clever, and I like how Nihilego is used in the plot. Additionally, the idea of extradimensional Pokémon that have never been encountered before opened up very fresh ground for design ideas. However, I'm kind of disappointed with how little we learned about Ultra Space. It worked very well as a source of tension and urgency when viewed from the perspective of Alola/Earth and those characters, but I feel like we don't really see enough from Ultra Space's perspective. For example, he relationship of Solgaleo/Lunala and Necrozma to that realm is only very vaguely expressed. And even though we get to see most of the UBs' own native worlds, the underdevelopment of those settings (as a result of them being little more than hallways with bizarre wallpaper) makes it hard to appreciate the concepts that are at work. The games go to great lengths to illustrate the deeply interwoven ecology of the Alola region through exposition, illustration, and gameplay, but only gives us the briefest of glimpses into how the Ultra Space worlds work. For instance, Nihilego. It's a parasite, right? But why would it evolve that way on its world if it's the only lifeform there (as far as we can see/are told)? What does it normally parasitize? It feels like it has that ability just so they can justify its fusion with Lusamine. Or, take Poipole - what was it about Ultra Megalopolis as an environment that caused that sort of life to develop? It's described in the Pokédex as a popular choice of Starter Pokémon in the world it hails from. But that implies that there are other options, of which we see none, and that the people of that world have a reason to work with Pokémon, which is odd, since the one thing we do know about the humanoid denizens of that world is that they have no concept of Pokémon battling. And of course, we don't ever get to see the worlds of Stakataka and Blacephalon, either, nor do they even receive any decent loredumps from Wicke like the rest of the UBs did in SM.

Unique "version differences", such as 12 hour time difference, Lycanroc's forms, and so on

I appreciate that they tried, but honestly, other than the Verdant Cavern Totem and the exclusive Captain battles during USUM's final trial, I think in hindsight a lot of these really weren't implemented all that well.

No one liked version-exclusive clothing colors and having to rely on Dye Shops in Nightmare Plaza (which also had numerous version-exclusive shops that I don't think did the feature's reception any favors), and that in itself was yet another step down from the numerous customization options in XY.

The day/night inversion accomplished little more than an aesthetic difference, and eventually proved to be a pretty annoying inconvenience for Ultra Moon players who wanted Dusk Lycanroc. And speaking of Lycanroc, its exclusivity is really in name only... you can catch both forms in the wild regardless of which game you're playing. The actual "exclusive" is the ability to evolve your own Rockruff into a Lycanroc of your game's form, which feels really arbitrary since they ended up letting you get both without trading anyway. Not even using Solgaleo/Lunala to travel to the parallel world with the opposite time cycle affects this, which also makes that feature feel underused (as well as feeling like a tacit admission that the day/night inversion was a clunky idea to begin with).

And then USUM had the version-exclusive appearances of the Ultra Recon Squad, which added up to nothing despite them ostensibly having "different goals" depending on the version (ultimately, it was just a nominal difference between either catching or defeating Necrozma), and really just made their whole narrative messier than it needed to be. Plus, their individual personalities aren't fleshed out enough to justify their existence as four separate characters.

 

[RustyTrubbish]

Worst generation yet. The USUM games were probably the best part of the whole era, but only by a slight margin. The original games were extremely frustrating and limited though and don't even get me started on the anime series in the 7th Gen era.

 

[Gengarzilla]

If I hadn't mostly overcome the stupidity of Rainbow Rocket and passed on UM like I first wanted to, then this generation would have gotten the dubious honour of being the first that I knowingly skipped in its entirety. I'm not kidding, Gen VII's games really did turn me off more often than not; SM lost me and my money when I found out Lusamine was the real antagonist at a time when I was bored with such bait-and-switch villainy (as a big PMD buff, I've already seen that trope three times) while LGPE was an instant nope because pandering.

So yeah, farewell to Gen VII. I'll remember you, but whether or not it's fondly remains to be seen.

 

[Emelie]

I guess it depends on which aspect of the generation we are talking about. I think the first game deserves to be celebrated but the other games not so much. USUM feels lazy and has a worse storyline and Let's Go is OK but is not as good or necessary as other remakes.

The anime is a mixed bag. There are some mature topics like Lillie and her anxiety and there is for some reason a lot of discussion about grief/death (Litten's father, Minior and Mallow's mother).

But there are also too many characters and many episode feel unimportant due to how uneventful they are. Not a fan of the comedy either, I preferred OS comedy.

 

[toastghost]

I personally loved Alola as a region. The different feel of the islands, how each pokemon varies from where they are from, and alola has some of my favorite pokemon such as Mimikyu, Bewear, Salandit, Minior, Primarina, Rowlet... Yes the games have their flaws but I thought the story was amazing, and Gen 7 was a really solid gen. But, there's the anime. Everyone seems to hate the anime, and while others such as Kalos and Hoenn were better, I had no problem with the episodes that I saw. And people don't like how the anime looks, but I think it looks the best out of all the animes. But, then again, this is someone who saw like twenty episodes of 144.

 

[RK9]

Gen 7 summed up in a gif:

 

[Battista]

Gen 7 was the one that got me into the competitive scene so for that I will always appreciate it. IVs were more visible and EV training was easier than ever thanks to Poke Pelago. In addition, this was the first gen I ever completed a Pokedex (regional only) and there were very few new Pokemon I didn’t like. The designs were fantastic and regional variants are one of my favorite things to come out of this series thus far.

Looking back on the Sun/Moon story it doesn’t hold near as much weight for me as it used to. That being said, I appreciate the personal dimension of it especially after Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire giving us an incredibly generic “save the world” plot. It was nice not necessarily being the “chosen one” but still doing something great. Team Skull was also a great subversion of the “evil team” concept.

Once Sword and Shield come out, I don’t know how often I’ll be revisiting Alola. But I don’t regret the time I spent there.

 

[JFrombaugh]

I would say I definitely lean more towards liking Gen VII than not. I thought the characters were for the most part pretty likeable (especially Lillie in the games & Moon in the manga), the storylines were actually surprisingly relatable and well written. I liked several of the new Pokémon as well - Decidueye, Kommo-o, Tapu Fini to name a few. Even the anime I kind of liked many episodes of, it was nowhere near as bad as I was afraid it would be when I first saw the new art design and learned that Ash would be going to school for no apparent reason.

If I were to rank my favorite regions, I'd probably put Alola at around 4th or 5th (depending on where Galar ends up).

 

[Ebail]

Gen 7 was a mixed bag of feelings for me.

Now on the one hand it did introduce some Pokemon I really liked, such as Silvally, Mimikyu, Lunala, Primarina, and Lycanroc, which are just a few of the ones I really liked mind you. I did like a fair variety of the characters, and the look of the islands as well. And the story had a nice touch to it as well. I mean, it was fun enough playing through the story, and seeing exactly where it took you.

But on the flip side it almost felt like a vacation Gen to me. That could be my own personal feelings with there being no gyms, or even a champion before you come along to claim that title. At points it didn't entirely feel like Pokemon to me, but rather a game with Pokemon added in, if that makes any sense. I don't blame them for trying something different after so many years, but it just wasn't my style.

Now if you wanna include LGPE in this too that was cool to me. As someone who had their first game be Yellow it was nice to have a remake of it where you could actually select the Eevee as your starter this time since that did bug me as a kid. But I admit the games felt a little too giving, what with you being given items by a trainer when you defeat them in battle.

So ultimately for me will I miss Gen 7? Probably not. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it. It's in neutral ground for me, with its pros and cons.