What do you miss most about the older games?

[fluffy-wooloo]

The sprites for both the Pokemon and the overworld character sprites. They looked cuter than the full 3D graphics that we have now.

 

[Jessibella]

Little things like the Battle Frontiers and Game Corners. Nothing too major or needed but I'm still nostalgic about that stuff that we lost from the older gens.

 

[charlycicero]

* Exploration in general. I started to notice the lack of exploration in Alola but Galar turned it up to 11. I call it hallway land because everything in the region is nothing but a glorified hallway, pretty to look at but empty and linear. i miss places like Coronet Mountain, or those expansive routes in Hoenn, or dungeons like the Whirl Islands and Seafoam Islands.

That's why I'm really hoping that Gen 9 games are completely open world (the franchise needs that a lot IMO). Maybe not as extensive as Breath of the Wild (it would be amazing if they were), but a lot more than most routes in Galar for sure. The wild area is a nice taste of this, but it is still little. At least we have the expansion pass to look for.

Oh, and they should bring back the possibility of mounting your Pokemon like in the Let's Go games. Now, that is also amazing!

 

[Pink-Butterfree]

Side activities. The latest games don't have that many things to do after the post game which I suspect is something that GF does on purpose. I miss the days of Contests and Pokeathlons. Mantine surfing in USUM was pretty cool though.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Game Corners, amazing graphics, fleshed-out story, post-game content...

 

[Silktree]

I wouldn't say that Pokemon games ever had "amazing" graphics. Cute, yes.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I also do miss the ability to explore and go "off the grid" to find small side-quests or items. The now more linear mentality GF has is rather tiresome. I'll be the first to admit that BW were the first offenders in that regard, but at least you still had a fair bit of exploration regardless, like Desert Resort and Moore of Icarus, which were largely optional (though the former did have the part where you had to go there to confront Team Plasma in Relic Castle). While I don't want an open world Pokemon game, as that's overkill, I would like GF to cut back a bit on the straight and narrow mentality and give us a bit more freedom to roam. At least the prospect of the DP remakes gives me hope, as DPPt were very good in that regard, as the various side-quests you'd find off the main road were very rewarding. While, yeah, I won't deny that GF will try to keep the linear mentality with the DP remakes, at least when it comes to the Gyms, anyway, I do hope they keep the general layout of the map the same, which would result in giving us more freedom to explore. I'm not holding my breath on that, but given Sinnoh's natural landscape it does open up the possibilities of more exploration and side-quests. Let's hope that's the case if/when the DP remakes come out.

 

[Esserise]

I also do miss the ability to explore and go "off the grid" to find small side-quests or items. The now more linear mentality GF has is rather tiresome. I'll be the first to admit that BW were the first offenders in that regard, but at least you still had a fair bit of exploration regardless, like Desert Resort and Moore of Icarus, which were largely optional (though the former did have the part where you had to go there to confront Team Plasma in Relic Castle).

"A fair bit" is really underselling BW in that regard. They have tons of optional/side areas.

- The entirety of Routes 17 and 18 are optional
- The majority of Wellspring Cave is completely optional
- Route 3 has a hidden spot you can reach via Surf
- There's, as you mentioned, the Desert Resort - you do have to come back to it eventually, but you have the option of visiting it early for a wide variety of new Pokémon
- Route 16 and Lostlorn Forest are completely optional
- Anville Town is optional
- Mistralton Cave is completely optional
- The Moor of Icirrus, as you mentioned, is totally optional
- And then the post-game gives you Challenger's Cave, the basement of the Dreamyard, the other half of the Relic Castle, and the entirety of Eastern Unova which is comparable to Sinnoh's Battle Zone

Then you also have the way certain areas open up new sections in winter, giving you a reason to backtrack.

Of course, that being said, while there admittedly isn't much of this at all in Sword & Shield (other than the lake on Route 2), the two prior generations deserve some credit as well. There's definitely less of it, but it's still there. X & Y had the Lost Hotel and Route 16 as optional areas, as well as Terminus Cave, Azure Bay, the two return-sides of Route 6 with the tall grass, and the marshy lower half of Route 19. In Alola (sticking to SM for the sake of simplicity), none of the following are mandatory: Melemele Sea and Ten Carat Hill, Hau'oli Cemetery, Seaward Cave and Kala'e Bay, Hano Beach, the mountainside of Mount Hokulani, Blush Mountain and the Secluded Shore (not much going on either of those places though, to be fair), and the Haina Desert. And of course the Poni Gauntlet in the post-game.

 

[CynthiaLover]

"A fair bit" is really underselling BW in that regard. They have tons of optional/side areas.

- The entirety of Routes 17 and 18 are optional
- The majority of Wellspring Cave is completely optional
- Route 3 has a hidden spot you can reach via Surf
- There's, as you mentioned, the Desert Resort - you do have to come back to it eventually, but you have the option of visiting it early for a wide variety of new Pokémon
- Route 16 and Lostlorn Forest are completely optional
- Anville Town is optional
- Mistralton Cave is completely optional
- The Moor of Icirrus, as you mentioned, is totally optional
- And then the post-game gives you Challenger's Cave, the basement of the Dreamyard, the other half of the Relic Castle, and the entirety of Eastern Unova which is comparable to Sinnoh's Battle Zone

Then you also have the way certain areas open up new sections in winter, giving you a reason to backtrack.

Of course, that being said, while there admittedly isn't much of this at all in Sword & Shield (other than the lake on Route 2), the two prior generations deserve some credit as well. There's definitely less of it, but it's still there. X & Y had the Lost Hotel and Route 16 as optional areas, as well as Terminus Cave, Azure Bay, the two return-sides of Route 6 with the tall grass, and the marshy lower half of Route 19. In Alola (sticking to SM for the sake of simplicity), none of the following are mandatory: Melemele Sea and Ten Carat Hill, Hau'oli Cemetery, Seaward Cave and Kala'e Bay, Hano Beach, the mountainside of Mount Hokulani, Blush Mountain and the Secluded Shore (not much going on either of those places though, to be fair), and the Haina Desert. And of course the Poni Gauntlet in the post-game.

Oh, I'm aware of that, I was just giving a few examples at the time, especially since they were off the top of my head. I know that BW had more side-quests than what I was listing, those were just the first examples that popped into my head at that moment. But the point stands that BW were the first offenders when it came to the linear path that GF is taking, as the main story was pretty linear with limited backtracking, something that Sinnoh didn't do. And, yes, XY and Alola did have their fair share of side-quests, they paled in comparison to past gens, as most of those areas were rather empty (sans Poni Gauntlet, obviously) and only really had a few items to collect and a handful of trainers to battle. Mostly it was to drive the point home that if/when DP remakes come out, the natural layout of the Sinnoh region lends itself to have a lot of optional places to explore (as long as man of those areas aren't locked behind HM-based walls again, obviously, since Sinnoh was very HM heavy), something that most regions as of late haven't had. That was largely my point.

 

[Emelie]

• Walking Pokémon
• VS Seeker
• The 3D sprites being more expressive (Stadium) and the correct size (Colosseum)
• The national dex (don't we all?)
• Surprisingly enough the trials from SM! They could be really hard if you had certain Pokémon which was an interesting challenge.
• Speaking of trials I like how some of the Pokémon characters were given a chance to shine like Mimikyu. Imagine a trial featuring Galarian Corsola with some kind of backstory...
• The multiverse plot. What happened to that in Sword and Shield?
• Minigames
• Not having so much Kanto pandering in Gen 3-5
• Having fewer but more developed characters like in Gen 5.
• One rival is enough. (I would remove Cheren, the XY rivals and give the SWSH rivals more screentime)
• Speaking of rivals why do they always pick the weaker Pokémon nowadays? They were supposed to teach you about type matchups.
• Original plots. Aren't we all tired of the abusive dad/mom plot by now?
• Smaller bags lol
• The challenges in the Colosseum games when you have to use a certain Pokémon or strategy to win
• Mega evolution
• To a lesser extent Z-moves
• Mimikyu before it was nerfed lol
• A second region like in Gen 2
• N
• Older protagonists like in Gen 5
• Actually having a dad lol
• Being able to deposit items in Pokémon Stadium
• Each generations gets a remake and only one remake! Looking at you Let's Go. Will Gen 4 remakes even happen? (And Gen 5 remakes since that is what I'm actually worried about lol)
• Gen 3 introduced many interesting spin-offs but now they are dead (or almost dead in PMD's case)
• The opening movie from Gen 5

 

[Esserise]

Oh, I'm aware of that, I was just giving a few examples at the time, especially since they were off the top of my head. I know that BW had more side-quests than what I was listing, those were just the first examples that popped into my head at that moment. But the point stands that BW were the first offenders when it came to the linear path that GF is taking, as the main story was pretty linear with limited backtracking, something that Sinnoh didn't do.

That's fair. But at the same time, how often do you run into forks in the road in Sinnoh where you're forced to go a certain way due to some artificial roadblock? The north and west exits of Jubilife are cut off until you get the relevant HMs. The north exit of Oreburgh is waiting until you come down from Eterna with a bike. Mt. Coronet is HM Hell. You can't go fully south of Hearthome until you've gone all the way around to Pastoria. The Psyduck herd on Route 210 make sure you stay on the path to Veilstone. You can't go east of Lake Valor to Sunyshore until after you've dealt with Team Galactic, because the power's out. You can't go to Route 224 until the post-game. There's lots of backtracking to be done, but that's largely because they constantly walled off your options in earlier parts of the game.

Not to say that Black & White aren't without their roadblocks - every Pokémon game is going to have them, after all - but I find that Unova's baked-in linearity actually allows you a lot more freedom. You can chose to explore the Dreamyard before or after the first Gym. Same for the outer Pinwheel Forest. Castelia City is your oyster as soon as you get there, and you can even make some headway into the construction half of Route 4 before taking on the Gym and dealing with Team Plasma. After doing that, you can simply go straight ahead to Nimbasa, or you can head over to the Desert Resort. When you arrive in Nimbasa, you're free to explore Routes 5 and 16 and the Lostlorn Forest uninhibited, regardless of whether you've challenged Elesa. Arrived at Driftveil? You can either take Clay's cue and investigate the Cold Storage in order to progress the story, or you can explore up north on Route 6, with the ability to go all the way to the Chargestone Cave entrance. Once you reach Mistralton, you're told to go up Route 7 to the Celestial Tower, but even then, it's up to you whether you want to stay on the direct path or explore the east wing of the route that leads to Twist Mountain. Same deal once you get to Icirrus - the time at which you go through Route 8 and the Moor is entirely your call.

By designing the Unova region linearly in order to accommodate the story progression, the designers can always rely on the fact that you are inherently going to be heading where you need to be, thus reducing the degree at which you encounter paths that need to be blocked off, and so each segment of the game is allowed to loosen the reigns within a certain area and let you walk around a bit at your discretion. There's really only one big rule: Don't Go To Eastern Unova, since it is functionally Unova's version of the Battle Zone.

 

[charlycicero]

I forgot a very important thing: back in early games, Psychic types were about the strongest. Too bad nowadays they have been nerfed to death, so much so that the type is no longer my top favorite.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I forgot a very important thing: back in early games, Psychic types were about the strongest. Too bad nowadays they have been nerfed to death, so much so that the type is no longer my top favorite.

Isn't that because they had only one weakness (after an error made them immune to Ghost) and said weakness only had moves with 25 base power? Plus the way the Special stat worked then? I wouldn't call the resulting changes "nerfed to death" as it just balancing the game. Even Dragon was never intended to have only one weakness.

 

[Leaf_Ranger]

I miss the Gen. II Mom because she acts like a bank and most important of all, she buys usefull items and decorations to our room.

 

[charlycicero]

Isn't that because they had only one weakness (after an error made them immune to Ghost) and said weakness only had moves with 25 base power? Plus the way the Special stat worked then? I wouldn't call the resulting changes "nerfed to death" as it just balancing the game. Even Dragon was never intended to have only one weakness.

You may be right, but I still feel that the Dragon types, even with Fairy introduced, are still way stronger overall than Psychic types nowadays. Just my opinion, but in my later playthroughs I even prefer to get a Dark, Fairy or Dragon type over a Psychic type (overall I still feel they are more useful than the latter). I still think it has been nerfed way too much compared to other nerfed types.

 

[prog rocker]

You may be right, but I still feel that the Dragon types, even with Fairy introduced, are still way stronger overall than Psychic types nowadays. Just my opinion, but in my later playthroughs I even prefer to get a Dark, Fairy or Dragon type over a Psychic type (overall I still feel they are more useful than the latter). I still think it has been nerfed way too much compared to other nerfed types.

You also have to consider that most dragons are also completely overpowered. It's why I want more normal dragons and more non-dragon pseudos (bonus points if they are not even reptilian).

 

[prog rocker]

Even though it was only for one game, I would have liked it to be in others: Someone (or something) that tells you how Pokémon evolve, like Cheren did in B2W2. We seriously need that back, specially when things like Runerigus exist now.

 

[charlycicero]

You also have to consider that most dragons are also completely overpowered. It's why I want more normal dragons and more non-dragon pseudos (bonus points if they are not even reptilian).

That they are. I like Dragon Pokemon, but many of them being so hyped/ overrated is not good for me. I'm not usually the type of guy that goes with fads, and even fads or hyped stuff can become tiresome and pretentious way too fast. Hence I'd prefer Dragon Pokemon to be less powerful or just less hyped in the games. I don't mind reptilian Pokemon though, I love especially the ones that look like dinosaurs.

And I'm counting Charizard here eventhough it is not a Dragon, because it is waaaaaaay too hyped and overrated. How come it is even more so than the mascot of the franchise? Why is it so damn popular? It's not even that great looking (Mega designs aside), to me it looks boring and too chunky and goofy... and it is the signature Pokemon of none other than the Galar Champion? Enough with this preferential treatment of Charizard, I'd like it to be excluded from the Pokedex of Gen 9 already... sorry, enough venting hehe.

 

[prog rocker]

And I'm counting Charizard here eventhough it is not a Dragon, because it is waaaaaaay too hyped and overrated How come it is even more so than the mascot of the franchise? It's not even that great looking, to me it looks boring and too chunky and goofy... and it is the signature Pokemon of none other than the Galar Champion? Enough with this preferential treatment of Charizard, I'd like it to be excluded from the Pokedex of Gen 9 already... sorry, enough venting hehe.

Excluding the anime, since I feel that's where it originally started, I think it all began with BW, since Charizard was one of the two Pokémon not from Unova that got referenced before the post-game. Then XY came and things started to spiral out of control.

EDIT: I forgot the online minigame thing in DP. The only region completely Charizard-free is Hoenn.

 

[charlycicero]

Excluding the anime, since I feel that's where it originally started, I think it all began with BW, since Charizard was one of the two Pokémon not from Unova that got referenced before the post-game. Then XY came and things started to spiral out of control.

EDIT: I forgot the online minigame thing in DP. The only region completely Charizard-free is Hoenn.

God Bless Hoenn for that... Unova was close but ALAS.