What do you miss most about the older games?

[PkmnTrainerV]

Damn, one person goes to youtube and in a single day a single channel can make at least two videos with rumours but since there are a horde of those, these multiply like viruses while seeming phonies to the point where they're the ones creating faking content just to make buzz.

I pretty much stay away from Poketubers since the forums usually give the leaks first, reading them is quicker than a full of clickbait video (and the whiny voices some of them do? What’s that?) and forums pretty much disect the leak quicker than the videos.

 

[tommyyy]

i miss furret.

 

[a230]

• Jerk Rival like Blue and Silver
• Professor wih names based on a tree
• Pokemon following like in HGSS . You could choose any pokeon you want to follow you and even take picture with your hole team.
• Good music. From gen 1 to 5 , the music where awesome, since then, there's only 2 or 3 good music per games.
• Side story or activities to do . For exemple, the pokeathlon, the contests, the bug challenge, the movie making thing in BW2 and our own street like in BW2, and much more. Also, things like Looker's investigation where great.
• The time where shiny pokemon where actually rare.
• Cave that are actually labyrinth, where you need to solve boulder puzzle or ice puzzle.
• The charm that the 2D sprite have.
• The exploration and some secret place to go, like the power plant in the first gen, I discover it only at like my 5th run. Exploring the sea and discovering some special boat like in RSE.
• The pokemon battle before stupid gimmic that I actually never use. Mega's where ok, but after that hey loose it completly with Z-moves and Dynamax.
• Big roster of new pokemon like 100+ new pokemon each gen until gen 6.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

• Professor wih names based on a tree

...They never left? Sycamore, Kukui, and Magnolia are all named for trees.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

- The National Dex.


- I prefer the 2D graphics over the 3D graphics, personally
- Lower stat totals with less power creep and stat lines which were less universally optimized towards OHKO strategies meant slower battles which gave more room for strategic depth
- Growing Berry Trees
- Pokemon following you
- Surfing on Pokemon
- Bad Guys who are actually Bad, and Rivals who are actually Rivals
- The Pokewalker and the Pokemon Dream World

 

[prog rocker]

Rivals who are actually Rivals.

*sigh* Rivals don't have to be a jerk to want to compete with them. In fact, jerk rivals had the opposite effect on me.

 

[kitstellation]

i miss following pokemon. yellow was onto something with it and the heart gold/soul silver games were great for it. amie/refresh/camping is great! but i just miss my pokemon buddy following me on my journey, i wish it was in something outside the let's go games.

 

[Sobble Bubble-O-Seven]

I miss being able to hit one button on any menu to get me back to the main game. Having to back out of every menu can get annoying.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

*sigh* Rivals don't have to be a jerk to want to compete with them. In fact, jerk rivals had the opposite effect on me.

Honestly, mood. I never understood the argument that "The fact that they're so stuck up means that you feel more satisfied taking them down!" Like yeah, maybe it would, if they ever actually had it affect them and they changed, but instead they're just constantly like that and being annoying.

I miss being able to hit one button on any menu to get me back to the main game. Having to back out of every menu can get annoying.

Was this really the case? I'm pretty sure that even in Gen 1 games, you would have to back out of moves, to party, to menu, and so on.

 

[Sobble Bubble-O-Seven]

Honestly, mood. I never understood the argument that "The fact that they're so stuck up means that you feel more satisfied taking them down!" Like yeah, maybe it would, if they ever actually had it affect them and they changed, but instead they're just constantly like that and being annoying.

Was this really the case? I'm pretty sure that even in Gen 1 games, you would have to back out of moves, to party, to menu, and so on.

I'm pretty sure the gen 5 games and maybe even gen 6 had this, but I can't remember for sure on the latter. I don't recall gen 7 having this and gen 8 certainly doesn't have it. It's a nice QoL thing to have.

 

[RK9]

Rivals need more of a middleground tbh. Hau is no rival. He's just a piece of gum underneath your shoes. Cheren and Hop are a great example of good rivals. (And I'd argue Blue since we see in HGSS that he did get humbled somewhat after Red smacked him up constantly. People really just like bashing Blue I feel.)

 

[Esserise]

Sword & Shield pretty much split the difference on rival personalities, no? Bede's a prat, Hop is very friendly, and Marnie is more straightforwardly competitive. Furthermore, they all manage to have their own personal arcs and narratives in a way that, say, the Kalos rivals did not.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

*sigh* Rivals don't have to be a jerk to want to compete with them. In fact, jerk rivals had the opposite effect on me.

Honestly, mood. I never understood the argument that "The fact that they're so stuck up means that you feel more satisfied taking them down!" Like yeah, maybe it would, if they ever actually had it affect them and they changed, but instead they're just constantly like that and being annoying.

When did I say anything about wanting them to be jerks? I just want them to actually compete, and not both be total pushovers, and be treated like total pushovers by 3rd parties. In HeartGold, references to Silver talk about "someone fantastically strong was just in there" or things along those lines. He absolutely smokes everyone he encounters other than you, and as he does so, he routinely questions what it is that he's missing, and why when he's so very strong can he never match up to you.

In Sword and Shield, Hop very much feels like he's along for the ride. He gets beaten by Bede and spends more time talking about how he's second guessing himself than anyone ever does talking about how strong or capable he is. He's not a serious or credible threat at any point. He challenges you to catch like a million, brags about how many he caught, and shortly after battles you with what, 3 Pokemon total? Once you finish the post game, he goes on to be an intern with a goal of being a Pokemon Professor, reinforcing the idea he never really wanted to be a trainer in the first place, and was only going down this path because his brother was champion. This, in turn, makes it feel like he's in the tournament by default, as there's just not that much interest, since everyone you interact with is in there.

Bede is more of a rival than Hop ever is. This is not because he's a jerk, though he is. It's because there is a credible comparison to your pseudo-chosen one status, and one which doesn't rely on nepotism. It's because he goes on to become a gym leader, and takes care of the dynamax pokemon problem before you're ever even there. It's because he's clearly shown to care, to badly want it, to the point where he'll even break rules to achieve his goals. Unfortunately he's in turn totally hamstrung and Can't be your rival because he's disqualified from the whole thing relatively early on, making all future encounters with him just about making him feel better, rather than there being any actual competition for the same goal.

When I say I want a rival who is actually a rival, I don't say I want a rival who is a jerk because that's not what I mean. I want a rival who is strong, respected by those who go against them, and demonstrates a clear and credible threat to achieving your goals by accomplishing them in your stead. Not someone who is a friend and companion who is along for the ride by default and whose losses are far more memorable than their wins. Setting aside whether or not Hop is a jerk entirely, at any point in Sword, did you Ever feel like Hop was a credible rival? Did you really feel like he was in the same league as you? That he was really striving for the same goals? That he was someone you even remotely had to worry about? Be honest.

 

[prog rocker]

Then my mistake, it's just that when people say "I want rivals that feel more like rivals" they generally mean "I want Blue 2.0" (which is surprisingly common here). So I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions.

 

[Esserise]

He challenges you to catch like a million, brags about how many he caught, and shortly after battles you with what, 3 Pokemon total?

He never "brags about how many he caught."

When you leave to go to the professor's house, he says: "All right! I’m gonna catch loads of Pokémon. The professor will be shocked when she sees!"

When you actually get to Magnolia's house, you have another battle with him, and he's added Rookidee to his team. Once you and him go back to Wedgehurst, he finally asks to compare Dexes, and he says "So, out with it, [player]! How many did you catch? I caught a really special one!" (referring to that Rookidee).

The continuity here checks out. In the first statement, he's just excited and setting out what he hopes to do. But they're hardly going to make you slog through six or even four opponents in the second-ever rival battle of the game. So realistically he only catches the one, and he brags about that one.

The irony is though that he does use lots of different Pokémon over the course of the game - after he loses to Bede, he experiments with switching up his team composition by dropping Wooloo and Corvisquire in exchange for Cramorant, Toxel, and Silicobra, and then switches those out for Trevenant, Heatmor, Snorlax, and Boltund. He'll then go on to catch a Pincurchin and, of course, the Legendary wolf opposite yours. (Incidentally, he actually ends up owning the highest number of different species that we actually get to see compared to all other rivals, unless you factor in post-rival appearances like Blue in GSC or Cheren in B2W2, or if you count N.)

Once you finish the post game, he goes on to be an intern with a goal of being a Pokemon Professor, reinforcing the idea he never really wanted to be a trainer in the first place, and was only going down this path because his brother was champion. This, in turn, makes it feel like he's in the tournament by default, as there's just not that much interest, since everyone you interact with is in there.

I'd say this is kind of a misreading of his arc. He definitely wanted to be a Trainer, and in fact, he's a very good one. He's just not as good as you or Leon, and he has to come to terms with that, which he does by choosing a career pursuit where he can make a name for himself rather than constantly existing in comparison to you and his brother.

 

[cute pikachu]

the missingno glitch

 

[Esserise]

Probably been said before but dungeon design

I am generally not a nostalgic person, but playing through Sword a couple of times now, I do feel starved for good dungeons, and I really don't understand why they went away after Gen 6. I know peoples' go-to answer will be "they want to make the games easier." But I don't think that's (necessarily) it. If that were the case, then why would the most casual-aimed game in the series (Let's Go) not change anything about the dungeons in Kanto? They even retain the fast current shenanigans in the Seafoam Islands. I guess you could say "well a big part of the Let's Go marketing was young kids playing with parents or older siblings" and like, sure, but they left most of Hoenn's dungeons untouched in ORAS, too. For all that they tried to make those games easier and more accessible renditions of the originals, it doesn't seem as though they thought the dungeon layouts were the issue. It's just Alola and Galar that suffer from this problem, and particularly Galar, because Alola still at least has claim to Vast Poni Canyon, Mt. Lanakila (moreso in USUM where there's actual Trainers but still), and Rainbow Rocket's Castle. I'm far from the only one who misses places like Dark Cave, Slowpoke Well, and Union Cave, not just for their initial layouts, but also because they often rewarded going back and exploring them further once you had the right HMs (which aren't even a thing anymore, which you'd think would encourage more of those sorts of areas).

 

[swiftgallade46]

I do miss strength and ice floor puzzles. Those were fun little mini games.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I miss detailed lore and the climax being connected in some way, it would've been cool to have caught Zacian/Zamazenta before the fight against Eternatus and use it during that battle. Additionally, it would've been cool to have Alola become temporarily dark as Necrozma came out of the Ultra Wormhole, instead, it just battled Solgaleo/Lunala before the battle took place.

 

[Esserise]

I do miss strength and ice floor puzzles. Those were fun little mini games.

It really did feel rewarding to figure stuff like this and this (always have to stress the god-tier route design in that image) out. Even Kalos had a few decent ones, this one in particular. And on the subject of ice puzzles, I liked how Frost Cavern implemented diagonal movement into its puzzles.