• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate each gen?

@Esserise - thank you for clarifying!

I think the reason why "mythology" as a theme is not all that prominent throughout Sinnoh is because it's not it's theme in the first place (despite being very rich in it). IMO, the recurring theme of Sinnoh is more-so along the lines of "larger-than-life", y'know, things that are far beyond the reach of the ego. This is incorporated through Mt. Coronet; where it's said to be the place where it "all" originated from, Arceus (the original one), Dialga, Palkia and Giratina; which all represent elements that are far beyond our control due to the all-encompassing nature of them, as well as Team Galactic's goal. Meanwhile, the lake trio -the other most significant legendaries of the region- represents the self-contained aspects of life/sentience/the ego itself (willpower, knowledge and emotion), which was meant to act as a contrast towards -and hence emphasizing- the larger-than-life theme of the creation trio. It's a really hard -if not impossible- theme to showcase through aesthetic/hands-on activity alone, so I can see why they decided to incorporate it all into the storyline and lore instead rather than into the landscape/features of the region, hence leaving it with just "grass and rocks". (Even though imo Sinnoh still made the best use of those limitations and nailed the atmosphere it was going for most of the time; Eterna forest, the snowy areas, Jubilife, Hearthome, Lost tower, Celestic being some of my favorite most atmospheric places.)

I also wouldn't call Sinnoh's plot an exaggerated/up-scaled version of RSE's, as to me they're incomparable, and it also comes off as devaluing it a little. TA/TM could either be seen as eco-terrorists or wide-eyed idealists who want to change the environment for the greater good of certain Pokemon species (like you said). In Emerald especially, their intertwined goals were symbolic of the balance of the eco-system (again, like you said is the theme of Hoenn). On the other hand, in Platinum, Cyrus using the lake trio (with them representing aspects of humanity) to take control of Dialga and Palkia (with them representing larger-than-life concepts like time and space) is -or can be seen as- a metaphor for people who view the entire world through their own egos; rationalizing and conceptualizing everything around them through it, as if everything moved, or should move, in accordance to their own minds rather than to its' own accord -- much like Cyrus himself with his goal to reshape the whole universe in accordance to how he deemed it should be. Despite rejecting every aspect that had to do with sentience, he was -ironically- at the same time relying on them (emotion, willpower, knowledge) to write any trace of sentience and emotionality out of the picture.

I'm sorry for spamming this wall of text in your face, and I'm not trying to invalidate your opinions here (as I had been the one to ask for your elaborations on them and you were just answering that). It's just that as a huge fan of DPP's plot, I feel the need to defend it a little and point out things like that seeing how other aspects of the plot always gets overlooked in favor of the whole "Cyrus wants to play god" thing, with nobody ever really wanting to look deeper into it like they do for other gens.

fails to make use of the handful of actually interesting story avenues available to it, like how Cyrus is cold and logical and stoic but by necessity is also a man of faith who believes in these myths wholeheartedly unlike the rest of the region, who merely seem respectful of them if they even mention them at all.
I am yelling "yass!" to this however, if what you're implying is that they should focus on Cyrus more. I remember way back when I was 9 and playing Diamond for the first time, how that line from Cyrus about emotions causing strife caught my attention back then, and how disappointed I ended up feeling when I found out catching/defeating Dialga was pretty much the end of the plot, as well as Cyrus' character (though Platinum is much better in that regard considering he ends up in the Distortion world, of which the principals behind its' workings pretty much matches his ideals, so that can either be viewed as him achieving his goal in another way or as poetic justice). Nevertheless, the game not focusing more on Cyrus's ideals is one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the handling of DPPt's story, so here's hoping that gets rectified if future remakes were to come!

EDIT: corrected some mind-boggling grammar.
 
Last edited:
I am aware that I have already answered the thread question, but I also feel inclined to give my scores based on 2 alternative ways of ranking: a) remakes coupled together with their native regions, and also b) individual rating of each games:

- Counting remakes as part from the generation they are remaking:

Gen I (RGB/Y/FRLG): 6.5
Gen II (GS/C/HGSS): 10
Gen III (RS/E/ORAS): 10
Gen IV (DP/Pt): 8
Gen V (BW1, BW2): 9.5
Gen VI (XY): 6
Gen VII (SM, USUM): 7

- Rating games individually:

RGB: 5
Yellow: 5.5
FRLG: 7

GS: 6
Crystal: 7.5
HGSS: 10

RS: 6
Emerald: 10
ORAS: 7

DP: 6
Platinum: 8.5

BW: 7
BW2: 9.5

XY: 6.5

SM: 6
USUM: 7
 
Last edited:
I've never played much of the first two gens, so I won't be including them in this list.

  • Gen III - 9/10
My first and favourite generation. The graphics were great at the time (shout-out to Sootopolis City and Fortree City) and still look decent by today's standards imo. The introduction of abilities was pretty much revolutionary with how they gave certain Pokémon a much-needed buff. The Battle Frontier was also a welcome addition imo. FRLG introduced the Sevii Islands, which gave Kanto much-needed postgame and enabled players to capture Gen 2 mons. Locking Gen 2 evolutions (Crobat, Blissey, etc) behind the Elite Four was very questionable imo - seems like Gamefreak did this as an incentive to beat the game and unlock the national dex. Pretty strange decision in hindsight, especially with the expanded dex in HGSS and ORAS.
  • Gen IV - 8/10
The Physical/Special split enabled most Pokémon to use their higher attacking stat - it gave buffs to Gyarados, Absol, Feraligatr, etc. It and breeding are by far the best changes ever made to the franchise imo. As much as I liked Sinnoh, it was very slow (Platinum fixed this to some extent) and accessing the PC meant having to endure a very long save. This gen also introduced some of my favourite Pokémon and my favourite Champion. HGSS was strange - despite the many changes (gym leader rematches, Pokeathlon, following Pokémon), neither the level curve or Pokémon distribution were fixed. Want to use Houndour or Sneasel? Too bad, you either have breed one from another Gen IV game or wait until Kanto.
  • Gen V - 7.5/10
My main complain was the linearity - BW1's Unova was basically a corridor with gym towns in between. It was essentially "arrive at new town -> fight the gym leader" rinse and repeat. It could teach FF13 thing or two about corridors imo. Because this was their first foray into plot-heavy games, it seems to me that GF designed Unova around the plot.
On the plus side, I really loved the rivals' (Bianca, Cheren, and Hugh) development because it fleshed them out as likable characters. That climax was very hype too - you've got the final duel against N and his dragon (with some great bgm), followed up by Ghetsis and that Hydreigon. And of course BW2's climax where N returns in the nick of time - Plasma Frigate is one of my favourite dungeons in the franchise.
  • Gen VI - 4/10
The introduction of the Fairy-type was good, nerfing Dragons while buffing Steel and Poison. Customisation was also a welcome addition, albeit very limited. I loved Kyogre and Groudon's themes - you can hear bits and pieces of the original battle theme, so even their music is reverting back. That was a brilliant detail. New Mauville too - it provided some darker elements (broken marriages, unemployment, etc) that fleshed out the world outside the protagonist and Pokémon.
Unfortunately, that's where my praises end - XY was insultingly easy, not to mention the plot and characters were a definite step down from Gen V. Desperately in need of a revisit - Z version, sequels, anything will do. ORAS were decent remakes, but were held back by very questionable changes (volcanic ash, a lack of gym leader battles, Mauville City, cutting down the Trick House Puzzles).
  • Gen VII - 3/10
Ooh dear. There were so many Kanto references that Alola could give Johto a run for its money. I believe the region suffered because of this and doesn't have much of an identity aside from the island challenge, kahunas and the tapu. Even the Pokémon distribution suffered - most of the dex was comprised of Gen 1 Pokémon, even after USUM's expansion. It's a new region, I want to encounter Stufful or Mimikyu instead of yet another Rattata or Gastly.
The plot was more about personal than anything else in the main series games. I'll have to give GF credit for that, but unfortunately SM felt more or less centered around Lillie as opposed to the player. USUM fixed that detail, fortunately. Mantine Surf is one of my favourite minigames and provides a fun alternative to the Battle Tree.
 
Last edited:
@Esserise - thank you for clarifying!

I think the reason why "mythology" as a theme is not all that prominent throughout Sinnoh is because it's not it's theme in the first place (despite being very rich in it). IMO, the recurring theme of Sinnoh is more-so along the lines of "larger-than-life", y'know, things that are far beyond the reach of the ego. This is incorporated through Mt. Coronet; where it's said to be the place where it "all" originated from, Arceus (the original one), Dialga, Palkia and Giratina; which all represent elements that are far beyond our control due to the all-encompassing nature of them, as well as Team Galactic's goal. Meanwhile, the lake trio -the other most significant legendaries of the region- represents the self-contained aspects of life/sentience/the ego itself (willpower, knowledge and emotion), which was meant to act as a contrast towards -and hence emphasizing- the larger-than-life theme of the creation trio. It's a really hard -if not impossible- theme to showcase through aesthetic/hands-on activity alone, so I can see why they decided to incorporate it all into the storyline and lore instead rather than into the landscape/features of the region, hence leaving it with just "grass and rocks". (Even though imo Sinnoh still made the best use of those limitations and nailed the atmosphere it was going for most of the time; Eterna forest, the snowy areas, Jubilife, Hearthome, Lost tower, Celestic being some of my favorite most atmospheric places.)

I also wouldn't call Sinnoh's plot an exaggerated/up-scaled version of RSE's, as to me they're incomparable, and it also comes off as devaluing it a little. TA/TM could either be seen as eco-terrorists or wide-eyed idealists who want to change the environment for the greater good of certain Pokemon species (like you said). In Emerald especially, their intertwined goals were symbolic of the balance of the eco-system (again, like you said is the theme of Hoenn). On the other hand, in Platinum, Cyrus using the lake trio (with them representing aspects of humanity) to take control of Dialga and Palkia (with them representing larger-than-life concepts like time and space) is -or can be seen as- a metaphor for people who view the entire world through their own egos; rationalizing and conceptualizing everything around them through it, as if everything moved, or should move, in accordance to their own minds rather than to its' own accord -- much like Cyrus himself with his goal to reshape the whole universe in accordance to how he deemed it should be. Despite rejecting every aspect that had to do with sentience, he was -ironically- at the same time relying on them (emotion, willpower, knowledge) to write any trace of sentience and emotionality out of the picture.

I'm sorry for spamming this wall of text in your face, and I'm not trying to invalidate your opinions here (as I had been the one to ask for your elaborations on them and you were just answering that). It's just that as a huge fan of DPP's plot, I feel the need to defend it a little and point out things like that seeing how other aspects of the plot always gets overlooked in favor of the whole "Cyrus wants to play god" thing, with nobody ever really wanting to look deeper into it like they do for other gens.


I am yelling "yass!" to this however, if what you're implying is that they should focus on Cyrus more. I remember way back when I was 9 and playing Diamond for the first time, how that line from Cyrus about emotions causing strife caught my attention back then, and how disappointed I ended up feeling when I found out catching/defeating Dialga was pretty much the end of the plot, as well as Cyrus' character (though Platinum is much better in that regard considering he ends up in the Distortion world, of which the principals behind its' workings pretty much matches his ideals, so that can either be viewed as him achieving his goal in another way or as poetic justice). Nevertheless, the game not focusing more on Cyrus's ideals is one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the handling of DPPt's story, so here's hoping that gets rectified if future remakes were to come!

EDIT: corrected some mind-boggling grammar.

Oh this is so good. I'm going to keep this in mind when I finally revisit Gen IV. I didn't look for these things as a kid, but now I see subtext in everything. It's one of the reasons I don't like the upgraded graphics in Majora's mask as they seem to push creepiness over atmosphere and how mundane life is clashes with existence. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Pokemon, everything I've read about Platinum and Sinnoh has me geared to fall in love with it.

Also <333 your Sapphire avatar.

Also Also: Walls of text are good.
 
Ooooh this is gonna be super hard.

Wow. I pretty much agree with all of this, though I haven't played Gen I or II recently enough to have an opinion. Crystal's sprites are so good. They are actually animated, rather than just being squeezed and shook and calling it "animation". Every time animation shows up in a game until Gen V it looks sad and like they felt like they needed to include it rather than wanting to. Gen V is the realization of the game I wanted as a kid, minus the linearity. It just feels like a celebration in so many ways, from the music to the sprites and story.
 
Oh this is so good. I'm going to keep this in mind when I finally revisit Gen IV. I didn't look for these things as a kid, but now I see subtext in everything. It's one of the reasons I don't like the upgraded graphics in Majora's mask as they seem to push creepiness over atmosphere and how mundane life is clashes with existence. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Pokemon, everything I've read about Platinum and Sinnoh has me geared to fall in love with it.
I hope your experience of Sinnoh turns out to be an enjoyable one when you do come around to playing one of its' games :) As proven by several posts on here as well as across the forums, its' region and story definitely isn't for everyone, but nonetheless, I hope for your sake that you do enjoy yourself with it :)

If you're referring to that part where I was kinda analyzing Platinum's story..then yeah, I definitely did not catch that at all when I was playing it as a kid. It was only about 6 years later when I was replaying Platinum for the 2nd time, after I had completed the story and was kinda reflecting back on everything that's happened that all the dots connected in my head. I'll admit that it's not an easy subtext to pick up on while you're going through the storyline; it's pretty well-hidden amongst all the action that happens throughout the game, hence it's more likely the kind that requires you to take a step back from the game and replay all of the events in your mind after completing it for you to go "oohhh" at. And even then, it's obscure enough for it to be missed entirely due to the story's higher focus on save-the-world-action, so I guess I can see why it's only Cyrus's god complex and his grand scheme to take over the universe that gets brought up whenever Sinnoh's plot is talked about. Of course, it's entirely possible that I may be seeing something that isn't there in the first place considering this all comes down to subjective interpretation in the end, but idk...the way Cyrus's scheme lines up with the purpose of the legendaries just seem to be a little too coincidental for it to not come off as at least somewhat intended to me. (However, if it is in some universe confirmed that I am indeed a nutcase that's been reading too deep into a primarily-children's game all along, then ah well, pondering subliminal messages is part of the fun anyway :p)


Also <333 your Sapphire avatar.

Also Also: Walls of text are good.

Thank you! ^-^ Sapphire is bae <3
 
Last edited:
Okay, time for my opinion. Note that remakes will be associated with their respective gen, not their "introductory" gens.

Gen 1: 5/10 (initial), 1/10 (current)
Reason: While Gen 1 started it all, it was by no means perfect. Sure, at the time it was fine and dandy, being revolutionary for its era, but it was bland and very straightforward, with no story or really "outstanding" characters. Plus the gen didn't age well... at all. After a playthrough of Yellow on VC, and with repeated Gen I glorification that has happened over recent years soured my opinion of Gen I very viciously. I've come to loath Gen I, Kanto, Red, and pretty much everything associated with it. If possible, I'd rank it far lower, as my opinion of Gen I has gotten so low you'd have to dig for it, but for the sake of this thread (and to keep me from ranting full-force), I will just simply say this: just because it started it all doesn't make it the best.

Gen 2: 5/10 (initial), 5/10 (current)
Reason: Gen II was a decent upgrade from Gen I, and I will admit my current playthrough of Crystal on VC has been a much smoother experience compared to my Yellow playthrough, it still had glaring faults. This was also the gen that started my opinion of Gen I taking a nosedive, as instead of focusing on Johto alone, it dragged us back to Kanto for a repeat performance. Making the region's "native" Mons (meaning the 100 new guys) rarer and harder to obtain than the Gen I ones was also bit of a crippling blow. However, this gen introduced the concept of a female protagonist instead of just a male, which was a step in the right direction. After all, not all trainers were boys, so why shouldn't the player character have that option? Crystal started that, and it was a very welcoming change. Still, lack of story and really memorable characters was a letdown, as by this point I was really favoring games that actually had a plot and good characters than just playing for the sake of it. So while it was a bit of a breath of fresh air at the time, it started showing the negative aspects that have become glaring to me.

Gen 3: 7/10 (initial) 6/10 (current)
Reason: Gen III was a major step in the right direction. Hoenn was beautiful and vast, had a wide range of environments, and started to pick up more story elements. Plus it introduced several Mons that have become favorites of mine. However, I didn't get to play much of Hoenn, as at the time it came out, Pokemon was no longer "cool" and I was already getting viciously bullied for having "lame" interests (and I was largely considered a "loser" anyway, which only rubbed salt on the wound), so I sorta fazed out a bit at this time. But I do fondly remember playing Sapphire in secret, and the Hoenn anime was a nice change of pace (mainly thanks to getting rid of Misty and Ash becoming more like a mentor to the new rookie, May, who became a favorite of mine). However, my opinion tanked a bit thanks to FRLG, which, once again, brought Kanto back into the limelight, something that was becoming a very big sore spot for me. If maybe I had gotten the chance to play Emerald it might have made up for Kanto's repeat performance, but I didn't, so while I loved Hoenn's beauty, it was not enough to keep the gen afloat thanks to Kanto.

Gen 4: 7.5/10 (initial) 8/10 (current)
Reason: I got into Sinnoh late, as I was still dealing with the aforementioned bulling problem, so Pokemon had become somewhat of a guilty pleasure at that point. But I was still fairly skittish about the subject. But I picked up Diamond at one point and tried it out. Sinnoh introduced a lot of very powerful and valuable changes, like the physical/special split, and gave me a lot of new characters to enjoy, such as Cynthia (obviously), and the more entertaining Team Galactic. Plus there were more story elements being added in, which was a welcoming change. When Platinum came out, it became a huge hit for me, and to this day I value it as one of the best Pokemon games to date, since it addressed a lot of the flaws DP had and gave us more to enjoy. Thanks to Platinum, I was able to tolerate the return of Johto in the form of HGSS, since, while a stark improvement from the original GS, it still had the same glaring faults that Gen II had. Plus, for the forth gen in a row, we STILL had to deal with Kanto making yet another encore performance. At that point and time, Kanto had become a very sore subject for me, so having to put up with it for the fourth time was leaving a really bitter taste in my mouth. However, Platinum has managed to continue keeping Gen IV afloat alone, and I highly value it. I will admit that Sinnoh had very bad pacing issues, and railroading was starting to become very much a common theme, but Sinnoh managed to hold its own, and I can still enjoy it to this day.

Gen 5: 10/10 (initial) 10/10 (current)
Reason: I'm going to be blunt here, but Gen V was the BEST gen to date. Not only did we get a region based on a place OUTSIDE of Japan (New York, with a bit of New Jersey thrown in), but the story was groundbreaking, and the feeling of a brand new experience was very strong. Plus the fact BW forced us to start from scratch, using only the new Mons main-game, was a huge game-changer, a change that I welcomed. There were a lot of very good additions, like reusable TMs (a major game-changer), moving sprites (a bit crude, but a major step in the right direction), and lots of good music. The characters were also very memorable, from the flighty Bianca to the misguided N to the utterly loathsome monster known as Ghetsis, which was all very welcoming additions to the series. I loved a lot of the new Mons as well, and I felt GF had really hit a major high in this gen. It felt like they finally internalized everything they had done and made it even better. Plus... NO KANTO!!! That alone sent my spirits into orbit. Sure, railroading had become a permanent thing in Pokemon, but at least it was tolerable this time around, though grinding did become bothersome, though no where near as bad as Kanto or Johto (plus we had the living pinata Mon, Audino, to help in that aspect). B2W2 almost set the rating back a bit initially, as I wasn't fond of some of the changes, but I managed to overlook them and managed to still enjoy Unova and Gen V because it still had enough going for it (plus the addition of the PWT was a huge treat). So Gen V has been crowned as the best the series has produced to me, and will always be a favorite.

Gen 6: 3/10 (XY), 8/10 (ORAS)
Reason: This gen is bit of an odd one, as my opinions regarding it are very largely split. So, this time, I'm ranking it by game vs. whole gen. So let's get on with it.

XY was a major step into the realm of 3D for Pokemon (baring consoles like Gamecube and such), so it had a lot to accomplish. Unfortunately, XY fell sorta flat on its face. After the revolutionary Gen V, Gen VI opened up a lot of old wounds for me. Bare-bones contend, minimal story (which often got contradicted), flat, unimaginative characters, a laughably pathetic Champion, very few new Mons, and the lamest villains ever produced in the form of Team Fail... er, Team Flare. This was a major step back from the DS era. And it, once again, opened up a really big wound on me... the return of Kanto glorification. Not only did Kalos, while a decent region, favored the not-so golden oldies of Kanto over their own native creatures, but the lack of story and engaging characters left XY very hollow. The railroading was done to an even more absurd degree, which had become very tiresome when the only thing stopping you from venturing further was a construction man. I would rather tolerate a Strength boulder or a body of water instead of just a random "You cannot pass" guy. At least a body of water would be more natural at this point. So XY fell flat on its face. The only reason it didn't rank lower is because of things like character customization, Mega Evolution (though bad distribution on its part), and the addition of Pokemon Amie, Super Training, and the PSS, which were good additions. So I don't rank XY very highly as an end result. Which brings us to the second half of this gen...

ORAS was a stark improvement from XY. It took all the good qualities of Gen VI, combining it with the strengths of Hoenn and Gen III, and seasoning it with new and creative ideas. It still had some of Gen III's faults, but it allowed me to really enjoy Hoenn in all its glory much more thoroughly than originally possible for me, thanks to the issues that had plagued me during Gen III were no longer in play. It probably helped that these games had their originals as a foundation, which helped it flesh out what would have been the least memorable gen thanks to XY. HGSS did have a similar boost, but the flaws were still very glaring, which is why Hoenn ranked higher here. They managed to mesh in the Mega Evo subplot very nicely with Hoenn's original plot, giving it more life, as well as introducing more, and more fun, Megas to go with it. Plus the expansion of characters like Steven, Wally, May/Brendan, and Team Aqua/Magma (especially in the form of Courtney, who has become a huge favorite of mine) was a welcoming addition. The region just felt so alive compared to Kalos. Plus the addition of the DexNav, Soaring, and Mirage Spots (though they could be headaches at times) showed off just what a 3DS Pokemon game could be like. There were still some downsides, which is why it doesn't rank higher, but it still was a big improvement to the otherwise forgettable Gen VI.

Gen 7: 7/10 (SM) 7.5/10 (USUM)
Reason: Like Gen VI, this one is a bit more divided between games than gen, but since they don't have as many stark differences as Gen VI did, this one I'll do like most of the others. For starters, SM introduced us to the beauty of Alola, with new, revitalized feeling of adventure that had largely become stale in Gen VI. However, right away SM showed off some of its faults: namely extreme railroading and way too many cutscenes. It took nearly 30 minutes before you could get your starter (well, not literally, but it was almost a chore to slosh through all those scenes before actually getting your first Mon). USUM improved on that concept right away. But back on track, this gen did introduce yet more memorable characters and engaging, if somewhat forced, plot, and like Hoenn, we had two villainous groups who were stark contrasts, though obviously the more "direct" ones (Team Skull) were largely nuisances, even to the natives of the region. Plus we got our first female main villain in the form of Lusamine, instead of just an admin-level one. Her SM incarnation could rival Ghetsis in terms of sheer evil and methods, but I do admit I was glad they toned it down a bit in USUM, as it made her actions a bit more understandable in the second half of the gen. However, like with Kalos, we still got only a small number of new Mons, and what opened up my wounds again was the fact that all Alolan forms were Kanto Mons. If they had done some that were from other regions, then I would be more open to the idea, but no, even in the far away land of Alola, we still had to deal with Kanto's influence, which, at that point, has become the bane of my Pokemon life, and I loath it with an utter passion. So that opened up an old wound that Hoenn had managed to close, which lowered this gen's rank compared to Hoenn. However, as I came to regrettably find out, this gen would be my last hurrah in Pokemon, as I wouldn't be able to follow the series as it switches to the Nintendo Switch instead of regular handhelds (bar mobile, which I also loath with a passion). So, despite any shortcomings, I told myself to just enjoy it as much as I could and be fair to it. Which is why it still ranks high regardless of its faults. It helps that USUM improved on a lot and addressed a number of faults that SM had, though it still had some problems carried over. But for an end of an era gen, it held its own well.

I think I've said enough for now. Besides, I'm getting tired, and I'd rather not fire up a potential rant before going to bed. So I'll just leave my opinion of the various gens where they are now and call it a day. That's my 2 cents on the subject.
 
I don't have a problem with Kanto per se, but I do agree that it has become something of an "author's pet" and is, to a progressively increasing portion of players, NOT their "nostalgia gen".
 
I hope your experience of Sinnoh turns out to be an enjoyable one when you do come around to playing one of its' games :) As proven by several posts on here as well as across the forums, its' region and story definitely isn't for everyone, but nonetheless, I hope for your sake that you do enjoy yourself with it :)

If you're referring to that part where I was kinda analyzing Platinum's story..then yeah, I definitely did not catch that at all when I was playing it as a kid. It was only about 6 years later when I was replaying Platinum for the 2nd time, after I had completed the story and was kinda reflecting back on everything that's happened that all the dots connected in my head. I'll admit that it's not an easy subtext to pick up on while you're going through the storyline; it's pretty well-hidden amongst all the action that happens throughout the game, hence it's more likely the kind that requires you to take a step back from the game and replay all of the events in your mind after completing it for you to go "oohhh" at. And even then, it's obscure enough for it to be missed entirely due to the story's higher focus on save-the-world-action, so I guess I can see why it's only Cyrus's god complex and his grand scheme to take over the universe that gets brought up whenever Sinnoh's plot is talked about. Of course, it's entirely possible that I may be seeing something that isn't there in the first place considering this all comes down to subjective interpretation in the end, but idk...the way Cyrus's scheme lines up with the purpose of the legendaries just seem to be a little too coincidental for it to not come off as at least somewhat intended to me. (However, if it is in some universe confirmed that I am indeed a nutcase that's been reading too deep into a primarily-children's game all along, then ah well, pondering subliminal messages is part of the fun anyway :p)




Thank you! ^-^ Sapphire is bae <3

Eh, sometimes stories have really good and interesting ideas, but poor execution with that specific topic to the point that you're questioning whether you made it up. Pretty Little Liars did that and it was so frustrating. They lined up all of these clues and then when the reveal happened... None of them were brought up for motivation. It made it seem like they were lazy and losing touch to a large portion of their fan base. They even had a character change as if she understood the implications, which made everyone wonder what that character was even doing. It was crystal clear to me, though, which honestly made it worse. Rarely am I on the exact same wavelength as something like I was with that dumb, amazing, modern surrealist, noir show. Seriously, it starts off as a typical teen drama and then slowly throws the main characters into a horror show, not dissimilar to Twin Peaks. But like that show, it had a penchant for displaying information visually. The problem is Twin Peaks operated almost solely in a visual, emotional wavelength. Pretty Little Liars would flip back and forth to the point that you could never tell what was "dream logic", and what was straight up plot. It led to a horrible writing choice that makes it sometimes hard to recommend, which still hurts, but whateverrrrrrr haha sorry. Way off-topic.

ANYWAY. I don't doubt you're seeing that and from what I remember about Sinnoh, it seems to all line up. I'll hopefully get to it in a month and I'll let you know if I see anything.
 
Let's see... I'll keep it short to what I like most and dislike most within each Gen.

GEN I: 6 out of 10.
It was a new IP and I loved RPG's back then (and even more today).
I enjoyed all of it but what annoyed me (till today though the SM solution doesn't quiet click with me either) was the need for HM slaves/waste of attack slots with useless/weak HM-Attacks and the ridicules amount of Zubat encounters in caves. Or Pidgey/Rattata encounters in grass patches all over Kanto.
GEN II: 7 out of 10.
Introduction of Day/Night cycle and different Pokemon appearing chances for time and day of the week also was nice. I really loved to be able to re-visit Kanto later on as well and Johto had some nice landscape and cities. The NPC's calling you through pokenav was it I believe was also nice, could have more text variety though.
Although Kanto had no story whatsoever besides collecting more badges and the NPC's weren't much of a thing because I already had a high level Team. Oh and very annoying, runaway Legendary. Urgh, I still rage a bit to these days for such Pokemon though new and easy to get Pokeballs weakened the annoyance a bit. And to this day I dislike the trade with item to evolve Pokemon mechanic but guess that''s something I have to live with.
GEN III: 8 out of 10.
I enjoyed the new GBA graphics and the addition of weather effects. But the secret bases really hooked me though they should have allowed bigger rooms and more items for them. Guess technical limitations though. New battles styles like double and Tag Team battle were also shweet. Also the introduction of Contest,Berry Gardening and Berry blending was nice. I still wish they would bring the contest back. Maybe next Gen.
I didn't like post-game to a point, that I didn't even try. I mean, what's the point in training your favorite team up top and then you can't use it or only with restrictions. Also how to get the legendary Golems was kind of annoying with the rules on how to find them.
GEN IV: 9 out of 10.
It improved upon all that Gen III established and added a bunch of neat extras to it. I especially liked the "bring an NPC along for certain regions" mechanic (was it this Gen to introduce it? Correct me if I'm wrong). I really liked it and was hopeful they improve upon it for more of an RPG feel with a party of "humanoid" characters as well and maybe some story/relationship to them.
I really can't remember what I disliked most in this Gen that I haven't said yet and didn't change or maybe it was so terrible that I just avert it entirely. Oh wait, one thing I do, the way the handled secret bases and all this underground stone digging was somewhat annoying.
GEN V: 7 out of 10.
Rating is mainly because I really can't remember much of Black(2) and White(2) I somehow didn't spent much time with it. My recollection tells me it was similar to Gen IV just with less stuff I liked. Though I do remember fondly the introduction of Seasons and Pokemon according to them in certain Regions. That's another thing they should have kept since Pokemon is a thing.
Also the number of Pokemon to catch and how to obtain even one exemplar of each species started to piss me off. At this point I saw it as a must to enlarge the region each game has and it's versatility to catch at least 70-75% of the Pokemon along the way to the league champion for the first time.
GEN VI: 8 out of 10.
Really liked the introduction of Fairy type (though Fairy Gym lead still creeps me out a bit) and I've found new fav Pokes with it though there needs to be a catching up of pure/first element fairy types and attacks. The battle Chateau also was a nice new feature. Enjoyed ranking up in there. I also claim this Gen had a bit better of a take on Character development and relationship building between the player and the world than other games of the series. Though they could do better. I'd also say besides D/P/Pt this one has the best story though still not what I'm used to be and like to see. The clothing feature was also nice. I'm not sure how much I like Mega evolutions though. Barely use it. I guess the Super training and what's the new tool of this Gen was called... whatever it gets a bit annoying to have it shoved into your face every time, especially if one of you Pokes has bad status but I think it is nice and I use it quiet often. At least in early game.
Some routes of the game where a bit of a chore to navigate through. The game didn't give me much motivation to level up my team and I'd even say they wanted to annoy players who like to have a strong team. And at this point it really started to get on my nerves on how many Pokemon there are and what it takes to "catch them all".
GEN VII: 6 out of 10.
Not much good I can think of this Gen. Only thing good I see atm is to make it no more necessary to have HM slaves but I still think the solution to this could have been better. The Z-moves might be nice but don't flash me that much and while I don't used them that often I believe I used them more than Mega Evolution.
No we get to the bad points. No gyms, no contest, mostly boring and/or annoying Island challenges, very linear game design, feels rather short, bad experiences system, questionable strength/weakness occurrences (I'm like 20 levels higher and can still get almost one-shot by NPC's with advantage and no crit while me being in the advantageous situation with additional damage multiplier through items don't even halve the hp of the opposing Pokemon) and irritating zones where you can't quiet see how you would reach the missing part of an Island you're on.

Welp, looks like it became longer than anticipated. Oh well. Now it stands as it is.
Have a nice day and see you around.
 
Last edited:
Didn't play Gen 1 and 2 (well I partly played Gold), but I've played at least one of each set of games in every other gens

Gen 3: Played R/S/E/FR/LG: 7/10
My introduction into the series began with Sapphire. A beautiful region and nostalgia push RSE high up for me. There are also a few memorable music pieces in the game, like the Meteor Falls and the Abandoned Ship pieces. I'm not old enough to remember the flaws of this generation but I think FR/LG were the weaker set of games. I still liked them though

Gen 4: Played D/HG: 9/10
Say "Pokemon" and I think of HG/SS. The absolute pinnacle of the series. Two regions, memorable music, gym leader rematches, frontier, great sprite designs, lots of legendaries, etc. However, nowadays I find Diamond lacking due to a non-existent post game (training up Infernape to Lv100 in the Battle areas is all did), and the game being SLOW. But HGSS, as much as I dislike the Johto region, was perfection.

Gen 5: Played W/W2: 8.5/10
Best story and music in the entire series IMO. I actually prefer White to White 2, maybe because I got White 2 a day before X/Y released, but oh well. White 2 was no doubt great as well but honestly White holds a place in my heart. I still remember staying awake until 12 watching Pokemon Sunday just to see the main character wander around Castelia for a few seconds, and being underwhelmed, but that's all part of the experience I guess. Gen 5 is my favourite generation, I just think Gen 4 is marginally better.

Gen 6: Played Y/OR: 6/10
Far too easy. X/Y were too easy and the story was boring. However the games felt 'cool' and were on the 3DS, so the friend system and the PSS made it easy to battle friends. Really what I find X/Y good for is the updated mechanics. OR/AS was also too easy and I would replay it now if it weren't. However the games disregarding difficulty were great, save the lack of a post-game. It was also astonishing seeing the fist ever region I played in 3D with new mechanics and graphics, but something felt lacking to me. I acknowledge that the remastered/remixed music was great though.

Gen 7: Played S/US: 7/10
The pre-release was hype but spoiled what felt like the entire game. If we didn't have such a spoilery pre-release I would have loved these games. I like the story and music, but the post game in these games are awful.

(Not so fun fact: I like doing the Z move dances randomly in my house sometimes. And yelling "Solgaleo, use Sunsteel Strike".)
 
Ok, I'll preface this reply by saying that I'm including remakes in the generation they came out in, not the generation they were based on, and am basing my rankings entirely on how I felt on my first playthroughs of the generations.

Gen 1 - 7/10 Ah, the one that started them all. I loved this game religiously when I first played it, but it never felt finished to me. The story seemed to lack any immersion. Yes, I LOVED kicking the butts of every Rocket grunt I encountered, but even as a child I understood that I would have loved the game just as much if it had been nothing but a badge grind.

Gen 2 - 9/10 This generation scores so high for me because it had everything I loved about the first generation, kept everything that worked, built on it, and added a story. That was enough to tickle my giggle spot as a young teenager.

Gen 3 - 6/10 So many people love this Generation. So many people were introduced to Pokemon in this generation. I was not one of them. I had a falling out with Pokemon around the time this generation came out, but finally decided to play it about 2 years after it was released. It added nothing worthwhile for me, and wasn't a good enough attempt to get me to jump back into Pokemon.

Gen 4 - 6/10 Again, it gave me nothing new. Now I must say that the generations really NEVER give us anything groundbreakingly new, but I was still so disappointed from the abysmal reception I had with Gen 3, that nothing felt redeemed after playing Gen 4.

Gen 5 - 7/10 I am not a Genwunner. Neither do I hold Gen 5 above Gen 1. I played these games after I played Gen 6, and really have nothing bad to say about them. I also don't have much good to say about them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they weren't unoriginal, I just found the Gen 5 games to be pleasant and passible, and though I didn't find them as fun as Gen 6, around this time I realized how harsh I had been on the series, and approached it with an open mind.

Gen 6 - 9/10 Pokemon Y rekindled the fire inside me. I bought the game on a whim as something to play while I waited for A Link Between Worlds to come out, and I fell in love with it hard. It catered to everything I loved about Generations 1 and 2, re-introduced me to the mechanics I ignored from all the other generations since Gen 2. It also got me big into the competitive scene.

Gen 7 - 7/10 Meh. I mean it's not bad, it looks good, and I love the graphics. Otherwise, I feel the same about it as I did about gens 1 and 5.
 
i won't explain much for me it's like this:

Gen 1- 6/10 it was the start after all, but for a pokemon game they were pretty boring for me.
gen 2- 7.5/10 much better then gen 1 and i also liked all the pokemon designs
gen 3- 4/10 my least fav one, the pokemon designs are meh, the "story" was pretty boring and i just didn't like the region much.
gen 4- 8/10 i really like the pokemon designs, (lucario, garchomp etc) i liked the story and it was pretty decent region
gen 5- 10/10 unova was perfect, i like most of the pokemon (excadrill, zororak etc) the story was good. bw2 are still my fav games of all time, i don't have anything bad to say about gen 5.. so yeah, 10/10 for me
gen 6- 9/10 XY was really fresh, the region and the pokemon designs are pretty decent, megas was a welcome addition and PSS was perfect, but i just liked BW2 more.
gen 7- 8.5/10 Alola was perfect for me, the pokemon designs all of them are really good. ultra beasts are pretty cool imo and everything is pretty ok, but festival plaza killed it for me. hard to find 6vs6 matches and the online is super slow, everything about it was just bad, so yeah...
 
Understanding that these don't necessarily reflect my scores for the games in a general sense, and that I'm going on a scale where 5/10 is average, not 7/10.

Generation I (7/10):
It's very hard to know how to score this generation. It was the original, and thus some of its design flaws really have to be overlooked to be fair to it, since there was nothing to really compare it to. I think that the games are straight-up unplayable by today's standards. However, back in 1999 when I played them they were the best games I had ever played. So... To be fair, I won't give them a low score, but I won't give them a 10/10 either.

Generation II (9/10):

This... actually has many of the same problems as R/B/Y, and I feel like these games are not very playable by today's standards, either. However, G/S and especially Crystal were what I really looked for in a sequel. They were picture perfect to me. I know Kanto was watered down, but this was on the GBC. It was just the icing on the top of the cake. I actually was spoiled of nearly every single detail of G/S, because I had an unofficial guide someone made from the JP version and I still loved every single moment of the games. This could only happen for me nowadays in a game like Breath of the Wild, which I hold very highly. The OST was top-notch, even though it was on the GBC... Crystal finally allowed me to play as a trainer of my own gender. The day/night system was something I really loved, as well. And then the week schedule as well. I found it really made me want to play the game more.

One point off here is acknowledging that the games are practically unplayable nowadays like R/B/Y.

Generation III (4/10) (not including FR/LG in that score, because that would complicate things):
A lot of what made Generation II so great for me? Removed with this generation. It was like a 'reset' button and although the games had music, Pokemon, and places I loved (Abandoned Ship!), the disappointment was just overwhelming for me. I wanted story continuation. I wanted the day/night and week system, etc., etc. Plus, the instant I saw Plusle/Minun I just felt like GameFreak had run out of ideas. This is, of course, no true. However, I still hate those two Pokemon to this day. They're just cheap rehashes of Pichu.

FR/LG, I liked, though. Mainly because they gave us Leaf. Poor Leaf has been neglected ever since, though. It has made me practically hate Red.

Generation IV (8/10):
D/P/Pt returned some of the features that were missing from R/S/E, and thus I had a more positive view of them. The addition of Wi-Fi was also really neat. It felt very "open" to me, and made me want to catch them all, whereas in games like R/S/E, it was hard. It's been so long since I've played them, though. I'm practically going off of a ten year old opinion here, now. lol.

Generation V (9.5/10):
Generation III attempted to kind of reboot the series and make it feel fresh, but IMO, came out a subpar product. B/W kind of tried the same thing and came out much more enjoyable. First of all, I just have to appreciate that we got a non-Japan based setting. It's nice to have variety. However, that isn't what made me love the games. I just found the games to be refreshing. One feature that I loved was, in B/W, no previous Pokemon appeared before post-game. Some people might not have liked this, but being a Pokemon gamer since Generation I, I would always lean on the same Pokemon, because they always appeared at some point in the game. Now, I was forced to actually look at and appreciate the new Pokemon that had been created. There were A LOT of great new designs.

Generation VI (9/10):
X/Y didn't particularly do anything amazing compared to Generation V. However, IMO, they didn't really mess anything up, either. Can I just say that I loved the region? Not just because it was based off of France/Western Europe, but also because the region boasted so much variety and neat locations. They may have removed the seasons from Generation V (might be a neat addition in future Pokemon games, if it were based off of real season times instead), but the region has locales that resemble the different seasons. The autumn-like portions were particularly beautiful. The music was incredibly good in this generation, too. With the rare exception I found the music post-Generation III (and spoilers... Generation VII) to be very forgettable. X/Y came out with an OST that I had to purchase on iTunes immediately. Plus there were some great Pokemon designs, not as many as Generation V. Fletchling will likely always be the cutest bird Pokemon ever for me.

(Personally if I got to see a Pokemon region/game actually made with HD - non-chibi/non-2.5D graphics, this would be the one. Parfum Palace would be so beautiful)

Generation VII (3/10):
With Generation V and VI, I felt like Pokemon games were doing just fine as they were and that GameFreak would only continue to make great games. I was wrong. The disappointment I felt with Sun/Moon was so overwhelming that it was more than R/S/E. The game looked promising, with a feature I really liked - the Alolan Variations... However, then all of them turned out to just be Generation I Pokemon, and the vast majority of them were really, really, really bland. However, that's far from being what really detracted from this game for me.

Right off the bat I was annoyed with the SOS battle feature. Catching and training Pokemon was all of the sudden a hundred times more frustrating than it had ever been. It's not that I don't see that there was some good to the feature, however I think it should have either been implemented better or not implemented at all. It's that bad as it is. I got so sick of having the weak Pokemon I was training double-teamed that I had to turn on Exp Share and move on with the game.

The region... It's unimpressive to me. I'll not go too much into how I just am not interested in the region theme-wise (tropical, Hawaii, I'm not interested), because that's not fair to it. It was nice to see the environments made less 2.5D, although there were still remnants. However, I felt like the environments just became more cramped. The islands felt small. Areas to surf were so small. Fishing was now only limited to certain spots. This game is the very opposite of what Nintendo did with Breath of the Wild. The games became MORE closed. I do not like.

The difficulty... It felt like this game was all over the place in difficulty. My Pokemon felt much weaker than they ever were before (which made me really feel sour toward Alolan Marowak and Alolan Ninetales, they were soooo weak!). Either GameFreak scaled things differently, or they actually gave competitively trained Pokemon to in-game trainers. I've seen others say that it is the latter. I can not even begin to say how much that bothers me. I have absolutely no problem with this being implemented in a more difficult setting for the games... To do this in the regular game? No, just no. I don't competitively train because it is arduous and requires too much time. I play video games for fun, I save my hard work for things that are more important to me, like the oboe. EV/IV training, specific breeding, ability selecting - that should never be expected of us in a main-game, unless they add difficulty settings. However, they didn't here.

When I say it felt all over the place? I would run into a Pokemon/trainer with smart AI, and then one second later I would be battling my rival who couldn't even understand the most basic concept of type match-ups and thought that using moves like
"Growl" several times in a row was smart.

I was frustrated with the game for a long time just because of the sudden difficulty of some trainers versus others. It took me several months to come back to the game to complete the post-game. When I did, I discovered that the National Dex had been removed. That was the final straw for me. The games even had a QR Code feature that would allow you to "see" non-Alolan Pokemon. Except those Pokemon that you "see" there were not registered anywhere in the game visibly at all. The same goes for non-Alolan Pokedex Pokemon caught. What on earth is GameFreak thinking?

The thought of purchasing US/UM didn't even cross my mind. S/M are the worst mainline Pokemon games ever made IMO. I only hope that this series can come back with the Switch version. However... I'm not too hopeful.
 
The thought of purchasing US/UM didn't even cross my mind. S/M are the worst mainline Pokemon games ever made IMO. I only hope that this series can come back with the Switch version. However... I'm not too hopeful.
About the only significant fix is that SOS battles now have a limit of 1 wild Pokemon answering the call (unless you use an Adrenaline Orb).
 
Here goes nuffin:

- Red/Blue 6/10, Yellow 7.5/10
  • All-time classics... that super-duper do not hold up well today. At all. Bonus points to Yellow for upgrades like improved movepools... and upgrading those hideous sprites from Red & Blue. There are some nice things about going back to the oriinal games-- I like the simplicity of them, of only having to worry about 150 Pokemon. But in reality, any fun I'm having with Red, Blue & Yellow is going to be tied pretty much exclusively to nostalgia, which probably means they aren't great games.
- Gold/Silver/Crystal 9.25/10
  • All-time classics that DO hold up fairly well! Huzzah! Features like the day/night cycle, bug-catching contest, roaming legendaries, Pokemon happiness, eggs and breeding, and many others were introduced here and in some cases, still haven't been topped (why haven't we gotten another bug-catching contest?). And the two new types and splitting special into attack and defense really balanced things out from the original games. Upgrades over the originals though they are, Gold & Silver still do lose some points for the often clunky mechanics, the cumbersome PC system and the fact that the game doesn't tell you how powerful the moves are. It's the kind of stuff you don't notice until you play a newer game, but it makes it hard to go back to games without it. Oh, but also: you fight your former self on top of a mountain, and the battle is hard as nails. I retract any and all complaints, these games rule.
- Ruby/Sapphire 8/10
  • Like Gold and Silver, penalized a bit for the fact that the remakes are just better. The jump from 8-bit to 16-bit was a big one, and combined with the beautiful Hoenn region it made for really nice-looking games with striking scenery and memorable areas. However, these games did bug me by taking steps backward from Gold & Silver in many areas: the absence of features like the day/night cycle. Emerald is a step up with its introduction of features like gym leader rematches.
- FireRed/LeafGreen 8.8/10
  • If you're going to play Kanto, this is the way to go. These are probably the safest Pokemon remakes out there, doing very little other than upgrading the original games mechanically and graphically. Which is fine with me--these are perfect for when you want that early-gen simplicity, but don't want to deal with the headaches that come with revisiting the 8-bit games. Still, without the physical/special split, it's hard to put FRLG in the top tier.
- Diamond/Pearl 6/10 Platinum 10/10
  • Diamond and Pearl only get such a low score due to the fact that Platinum makes them utterly irrelevant. Yes, Platinum has a few issues, namely its speed and the slightly lackluster influx of new pokemon (wayyy too heavy on unnecessarily evolutions from previous generations), but for the mst part Platinum is as good as it gets. Bringing the physical/special split makes these the earliest games that aren't outdated or clunky mechanically. But unlike the newer games, there's a degree of difficulty we haven't seen lately; the DS games really seem to value Pokemon battling in a way that the newer ones don't always do. It also doesn't hurt that Sinnoh is one of the better regions, brimming with memorable areas and a fantastic soundtrack.
- HeartGold/SoulSilver 10/10
  • Perfect games. 2 regions are better than one, 16 gyms are better than 8, and upgraded Kanto and Johto are better than the original incarnations. Everything from the GSC section stands...except now with upgraded mechanics, general quality of life improvements and DS graphics that really bring life to the two regions. Absolutely perfect.
- Black and White 6/10
  • Really was not a fan of the designs of the new Pokemon introduced in this game, so while I like the idea of a "reboot" style Pokemon game with only new ones, it was poorly timed to coincide with their worst batch of Pokemon. Half of them aren't really even new ideas, just rehashes of gen 1 pokemon (looking at you, Conkeldurr line and especially the egregiously named Woobat). I also wasn't a fan of how easy this game was (though the 3DS games have all surpassed it in easiness) the region (with its many empty bridges), and most of all the ugly pixellated art style. I know people really like the story, but: eh. Whatever, it's fine.
- X and Y 8.8/10
  • THREE DEE! These are beautiful games, bringing the series into 3D, and while too easy and utterly lacking a postgame, these are solid entries to the series. Yes, the story's mind-numblingly dumb, but also: who cares, I'm not playing Pokemon for the story anyway. My favorite aspect of X&Y is the breadth of the Pokedex--it really does seem like every single Pokemon is avaliable for you to use in the main game, making these possibly the best Pokemon games to replay with new and creative teams.
- Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire 9.5/10
  • Definitely the best of the 3DS offerings. ORAS do take more liberties with the originals than the other remakes, but I don't necessarily know that that's a bad thing--they really do the much-loved originals justice, while putting a new spin on things. Hoenn looks more gorgeous than ever, and being a remake of an older gen means they're not as painfully easy as X&Y or Black & White. ORAS just make for the best blend of modern convenience and the charms of the older games.
- Sun and Moon 7.5/10
  • Ehhhhhhhhhh. I can't help but feel like these games could have been great. They take a lot of risks, jettisoning series staples left and right (losing gyms and HMs, adding regional variant Pokemon, etc)... but went backward in so many ways, too (taking away the PSS and replacing it with some garbage being the most egregious). I had fun playing Moon, but I feel no desire to return to it, which is the main reason I haven't played Ultra Sun & Moon. There are just so many side things and distractions that the game comes off as being completely indifferent about Pokemon battling... which is, y'know, the main thing you do in this game. And Z-moves: ehhh. Feels like an idea with wasted potential, and the animations take wayyy too long.
 
Gen 1: Good start to a franchise altough the games weren't the best with graphics or game play they did what they needed to do. Story and post story sub par 6/10

Gen 2: perfect follow up, except rockets rreturn feels lack luster and the leveling is off but a classic none the less. 8.5/10

Gen 3: interesting region with college legendary plot (bad villain plot though) if this was just Ruby and Sapphire it'd get a 5 but emerald brings it up to a solid 8/10

Gen 4: legendary used to take over world plot reused but cool Pokemon, likeable region 7/10

Gen 5: best story to date and black white 2 have some of the best post game to date 9/10

Gen 6: kalos sucks but mega evolution is cool 6/10

Gen 7: alola is cool and has a good story and usum has a cool team rocket come back but I found myself bored with this genrgenera way to quickly 6.5/10
 
Gen 1: A good start, I guess. I have a lot of nostalgia for it despite my constant criticisms of its designs and such. Yellow was enh. RGB get a 6/10, but I might be being generous due to these being the originals; Yellow gets a 3/10 because of my disdain for Pikachu.

Gen 2: Way better than Gen 1 as games aside from the bad level curve and the complete pointlessness of Neo Team Rocket, but most of the new Pokemon were pretty underwhelming. There were some real gems in there, though, like Scizor, Heracross, Gligar, Dunsparce, Lugia and Tyranitar. GS and Crystal both get a decent 7/10.

Gen 3: RS was kind of weird all around. There were lot of steps back from Gen 2 mechanics-wise, but otherwise pretty solid, and the Pokemon designs were mostly okay aside from stinkers like Medicham. Then you have... *sigh* FRLG, which tried way too hard to be like RB for their own good. Emerald managed to be better than RS in a lot of aspects and introduced the Battle Frontier. RS gets a 6/10, Emerald gets a 7/10 for the Battle Frontier, and FRLG gets an abysmal 1/10 for being bad enough to make me skip HGSS upon their initial release.

Gen 4: This one is really variable quality-wise. DP felt outright incomplete and had some really bad Pokemon designs like Ambipom, but Platinum fixed most of their problems aside from the bad designs and reintroduced the Battle Frontier. The story was also decent, and Galactic was the best villain team up to that point. HGSS took what worked with GSC and made good games even better. DP gets a 5/10, Platinum gets a 7/10, and HGSS get an 8/10.

Gen 5: This is it. This is the generation that made me fall in love with Pokemon again. I like or outright love the vast majority of Pokemon designs from this gen, the story is still the best in the franchise to this day (although B2W2's story was a little weaker than BW's, although the added features made up for it), the cast of characters is utterly fantastic (special mention goes to Ghetsis, who managed to be the first "love to hate" villain in the series for me), and this was also the gen that finally decided to throw my beloved Bug-type a bone; pretty much every Bug-type this generation is usable; even Leavanny, due to having Heal Bell. A perfect 10/10 for BW and a 9/10 for B2W2.

Gen 6: The gameplay was okay and Kalos was a pretty region, but I hated XY's story and characters (dishonorable mention goes to Team Flare, who are the absolute worst villain team in the series to the point even Neo Team Rocket was better), especially since we just had a generation with a great story and great characters. I also have heavily mixed opinions on Mega Evolution, although there's a few Megas I'm rather fond of; however, the new Pokemon designs were almost as good as Gen 5's designs (special mention goes to Hawlucha and Greninja), aside from INTRODUCING ONLY ONE NEW BUG-TYPE LINE ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH. ORAS were really good, though not as much of an improvement on the originas as HGSS were on GS; special mention goes to making Archie one of the coolest villain team leaders. XY gets a 6/10, ORAS gets an 8/10.

Gen 7: After the disappointment of XY, SuMo were a massive improvement, with a great story, utterly fantastic Pokemon designs (including Golisopod, the Pokemon that somehow managed to unseat Scizor as my absolute favorite) and great characters; extra-special mention goes to YA BOI GUZMA, since he's my all-time favorite character in the franchise, but Team Skull in general is easily my favorite villain team due to being absolutely hilarious; I've never laughed harder at any Pokemon game than the Gen 7 games, and that's primarily because of how funny Team Skull is (although Hau's dorkiness and Nebby refusing to stay in the bag also helped). USUM kind of messed up SuMo's story with some of its changes, but like with B2W2, the added features were great; also, the Rainbow Rocket arc managed to restore Team Rocket's cred after their poor showing in GSC/HGSS and also further cemented Ghetsis as the biggest "love to hate" villain in the franchise. 9/10 for SuMo, 8/10 for USUM.
 
I'm going to have to divide this up into separate games instead of just going through gens. My score is going to be based on what I thought at the time of playing the game.

Yellow - 9/10
My second game of Pokemon. I saw the flaws in it because I had already played Gold, but I still loved playing it. The best parts about it are being an adventure instead of a bad story and introducing Pokemon to the world. It has better sprites than Red/Blue as well. Team Rocket has a realistic goal too.

Gold - 10/10
I compare all of my later Pokemon experiences to this game. Absolutely loved it! I loved how it kept the adventure aspect of gen 1. I would soon find out that bad story driven Pokemon would be coming. So many cool things were introduced this gen. I have some of my all-time favorites in Ampharos, Typhlosion, Espeon, and Kingdra from this gen. I thought Lance was really awesome too as a kid. Team Rocket yet again has a realistic goal.

Sapphire - 8/10
I liked it, but it wasn't as good as Gold and Yellow to me. I still can't figure out why. It introduced cool things like double battles and weather. The region is pretty interesting. I think I hated the story driven plot. Team Aqua/Magma are stupid. Bad goals with dumb ideals. The Pokemon in this gen are pretty good design wise. I loved all the cool places to explore as well, including the water routes.

Emerald - 8/10
I didn't use much of the new battle facilities. I thought they were too random at that point in my life so I didn't enjoy them. Emerald felt like the same experience as Sapphire, but the story was even worse. Strong sunlight and heavy rains? So it equals itself out. No idea why I had to "save" anyone from it. Emerald brought some old Pokemon back though with some new areas.

Fire Red/Leaf Green - 6/10
I only used these games to get some of the older Pokemon and transfer them over to my main Emerald version. I didn't care much for Kanto remakes. Super boring. Pretty average. Just didn't feel like the adventure I was used to.

Pearl - 4/10
I almost stopped playing Pokemon. I don't have any favorite Pokemon introduced in the gen 4 dex. The game was almost unbearably slow. Getting off your bike between routes was terrible. Saving was terrible. Longest load screens in Pokemon games to date. What made it worse was how big the region was. Normally, I would love that, but it made it more of a slog to get anywhere. I also disliked the saving the world thing again with a really bad plot. I have no idea how no emotions guy somehow persuaded all of these idiots to follow him. I don't get it. Really bad plot.

Platinum - 6/10
A vast improvement over Pearl/Diamond. I still was not convinced of Pokemon being that good anymore. It sped up the game a lot, but it was still the same region that I had grown to hate with a lot of new Pokemon I didn't care for.

Heart Gold - 10/10
This saved the series for me. This is what a remake should be like. Tons to do. So much I can't remember it all. Cool loading screens for the different caves and places to go. Save times didn't take half an hour anymore. Some of my favorite Pokemon came back into the spotlight. Following Pokemon! Physical/Special split in remakes. Gym leader rematches. I can still play this game.

I missed B/W because I was away from home for two years. I am thinking of picking one of them up sometime though to play through and see the story.

Black 2 - 10/10
When I got home these games were on the horizon so I waited a month to get Black 2 instead of B/W. I absolutely loved this game! Yet again there was so much to do and great happiness while playing the game. I am actually playing through again right now. I love the music, the atmosphere (from Indiana, so it reminds me of home with the seasons and tons of trees), the Pokemon (two of my favorites are from this gen), the decent story (best in Pokemon so far), best post game, and team Plasma. A team dedicated to doing bad for the sake of taking over the region. Kyurem gets an amazing back story. Hidden abilites making some Pokemon useful again. The only thing that bothers me even a little is how you can see that they begin to remove some of the exploration aspects. There are still hidden places on routes and pretty decent cave complexes, but they are nothing compared to Sinnoh.

X/Y - 5/10
Really mediocre. I can't remember the champion sometimes, most of the characters, and even most of the routes. Nothing stood out to me except how annoying that circle city is to navigate. Great new Pokemon additions and I love Megas, but I think they didn't do a good job preparing them for competitive. The best online functionality in Pokemon to date. Overall, it was a snoozefest introduction to gen 6.

OR/AS - 7/10
I already played through these before so they need something to enhance the experience. They basically failed at this by taking out the battle facilities. I was looking forward to this since I skipped them previously in Emerald. I liked some of the new Megas. Yet again they failed to balance them for competitive. Overall, much better than X/Y. Dexnav was cool. Good use of bottom screen overall.

Sun - 6.5/10
Slightly worse than OR/AS for me. I'm saddened that they feel the need to remove good features like perfect online functionality. Some of my least favorite Pokemon came out this gen. I've always hated anthropomorphic Pokes since gen 1. The starters and the bug ultra beasts are my least favorites to date. Five of my least favorite Pokemon in the same gen. I love a lot of the other ultra beast designs though. I like some of the new regular Pokemon too. I liked totem battles. They were a cool differentiation from the norm. The environments of Alola feel quite barren though. I think the transfer to full 3D hurt them. Double battles lag too and they got rid of triples and rotation. Battle facility is very blah again. Worst use of the bottom screen in Pokemon. No good place to grind post game. It fixed some of the broken Megas though and added bottle caps to make almost all Pokemon useful. The story was pretty good in this game.

Ultra Sun - 7.5/10
Strangely a lot better than the base version for me. Introduced Naganadel which is one of my favorites now. More ultra space exploration was cool. I loved seeing Kartana's world for the first time. In general there are more things to do and enjoy. Post game is better but not the best. The story was actually a bit worse with lots of unfinished loose ends. This should have been what Sun and Moon offered to begin with. Overall, if the franchise continues to move in the direction of X/Y and Sun/Moon I will stop playing at some point.
 
Please note: The thread is from 6 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom