Overall what have you liked about the games in general?

[Shinx3000]

If you take all the pokemon games you have played, what overall, do you like about them? For me:

The way battling pokemon has evolved over the years from starting out to simply catching a pokemon, giving it 4 moves and beating other NPCs/Gym leaders or friends, right through to having natures, IVs/EVs and a wider range of moves an pokemon to choose from, making battling get better and slightly more complex over the years.

How the graphics have evolved from this:

To this:

But sometimes you can't beat the older sprites, even if new ones look cool, like these from red (Jap)/ Green:

Still feel that Yellow has great sprites for many pokemon.

Breeding too has been good, especially when natures came and egg moves

Music - definatly sparks nostalga for me when I hear the older RGBY music, can't wait to hear it in HGSS, especially the Route 1 and other Kanto music like the trainer battle music etc..

The plot of the games evolving. Up until GSC all we had was TR plot, but with Gen III we got evil teams actually trying to steal legendaries and the plot involving you trying to stop this added more to the plot than just catching pokemon, beating Gyms and E4 really and facing your rival.

In game events I liked such as finding pokemon on certian days like Clefairy in Mt Moon on was it mondays? And Drifloon on fridays at valley windworks. Even day/night was good too. But lets not mention honey trees...

Contests - adding contests gave us something extra to do. Some don't like them, but if its not 100% bad, isn't anything extra to do in pokemon games a good thing? Contests did bring many new berries, a use for moves that would otherwise be worthless on a high level pokemon like defense curl or splash (slpash before having no point and being stuipd move).

Shinies and even gender differences - Shinies gave you a purpose of trying hard just to find one and feeling good that you did, when pokeradar came, you caould not only find shinies easier, but now even get the right natured one too for battling. I also liked the gender differences that came in Gen IV, even though it was slight.

Probably more, but can't think at moment of more.

 

[Envoy]

The plot of the games evolving. Up until GSC all we had was TR plot, but with Gen III we got evil teams actually trying to steal legendaries and the plot involving you trying to stop this added more to the plot than just catching pokemon, beating Gyms and E4 really and facing your rival.

That's the one thing I actually hate about the newer generations. Their poor attempts at a plot are half assed and not worth anyone's time. The only one that did a decent job of it was Platinum. Personally, I prefer Team Rocket being the Pokemon world's mafia than Teams Aqua/Magma/Galactic vehemently hunting down a myth that no one in the Pokemon world even knows exists (and having the story force you to be some kind of epic hero in the process, instead of just a trainer.) I really hate the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond and Pearl "plots" with a passion.

As to what I like:

-The Pokemon's designs. They're cool, there's no denying it

-The music. At least the Gens I and II music (plus their remixes) were awesome, while the Gens III and IV music is still good

-The competitive aspect of it. I love using some of the more "underdog" Pokemon to defeat some of the major threats

-The silent protagonist. I love character development in any medium, but there's something about being able to give your character whatever personality you want that has me loving this in Pokemon (which, ironically enough, I don't particularly care for in similar games like Zelda and Metroid.)

-The strategical aspect of it. Which moves to give which Pokemon and why, which Pokemon work well together and which don't, which is the best nature for which Pokemon, etc...it's very deep and complex

-The journey in general (with the exception of the evil teams.) I like the idea of traveling across an entire country (or two) and collecting badges, defeating trainers, becoming the best in the country, etc...

-Contests. They're optional, but I've found myself quite entertained by them quite often

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there's more

 

[DerMißingno]

I like the fact that there's just so much in the game that you can do. With a lot of games, you pretty much just finish the story and it's over. With pokemon, I feel like after you beat the E4 is when the game really starts. You still have the pokedex, contests, battle frontier, trainer card stars, competitive battling, chaining and collecting shinies, finding glitches, plus probably a thousand more things that I haven't even thought of. It really does seem like an endless universe.

 

[Like_Fahrenheit]

definitely the graphics

the music

The fact that there's always more to do in each successive generation

And building my team to see which ones are the best for me.