What do you miss most about the older games?

[Parissong]

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

Yes but I would like to say it took my 8-year old self a good hour to go through Snowpoint all on my own to get to Regigigas (only to discover you can't even awaken it without the Regi trio ; - ;

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Yes but I would like to say it took my 8-year old self a good hour to go through Snowpoint all on my own to get to Regigigas (only to discover you can't even awaken it without the Regi trio ; - ;

Fair, but that then becomes memorable, does it not? I played an adventure / puzzle game as a kid based off a sci fi book, and there was one puzzle in there which was brutal. It was a symbol puzzle and you had to figure out the missing symbols. The key was, the symbols correlated to math equations. However, they were not in base 10. 1 was in base 6, another base 9, another base 13. So you had to figure out that they were math equations, then figure out what base they were, then solve the math problem, then figure out the symbols that correlate with the answer and put that in. As an 8 year old or thereabouts, brutal.

The thing is though, I don't even remember the name of the game anymore, but I remember that puzzle. I remember sitting on the floor with pages upon pages of symbols probably looking like a madman as I figured out what they meant and how to solve the puzzle.

That's not for everyone, sure. But this is the age of the internet, if a puzzle is too hard you can always look up the solution or a guide online. For those who choose to tackle such puzzles, being crazy difficult can be frustrating, sure. But it also makes for memorable experiences and an incredible feeling of satisfaction once they finally do get it.

 

[prog rocker]

That's not for everyone, sure. But this is the age of the internet, if a puzzle is too hard you can always look up the solution or a guide online. For those who choose to tackle such puzzles, being crazy difficult can be frustrating, sure. But it also makes for memorable experiences and an incredible feeling of satisfaction once they finally do get it.

I don't think that's how I feel about them...

 

[Daenerys]

The interesting post-game activities. The newer games hardly have anything to do other than battle competitively or fill the Dex and to me only one of those things is appealing. I'm just sick of GF being lazy with post-game content.

 

[Parissong]

Fair, but that then becomes memorable, does it not?

For sure! Definitely one of the more "YES I DID IT" moments of my early Pokémon journeys hahaha

 

[CynthiaLover]

I miss most of the side-quest stuff that you can do in certain games. I especially miss things like Joint Avenue and PokeStar Studios from B2W2. Sure, most people don't like PokeStars, but to me it was a lot of fun making mock movies. It was a fun time-waster. Plus, you got rewarded for achieving certain box office successes, including rare items like Old Gateau and Lava Cookies (which you could turn around and sell to the item maniacs for huge profits). As for Joint Avenue, that was a very useful gimmick that was somewhat recreated in Gen 7 (though I forget the name of it, which is why it was such a failure compared to Joint Avenue). I would love to see something like that re-implemented, as it would make online socializing more worth your time and actually make the NSO worth the price. But, in general, side-quests and little time-wasting gimmicks that reward you pretty handsomely are something I miss greatly.

 

[Xenidal]

I miss gen I and gen II in general. I can't put my finger on it, but something was lost when they transitioned to gen III and the GBA. I did enjoy Ruby, but Crystal nevertheless remained my favourite for years. And it's still one of my favourites. The only ones ever to rival it (at least in my opinion) were HeartGold/SoulSilver and gen V.

But I can tell you what I don't like about the new games. For one thing, they're too easy. For another thing, there have been far too many retcons. The newer games also feel too "engineered", like they lack that sense of wonder and mystery. It doesn't feel like a real world with real monsters and real NPCs living in it, and there's zero-chance of ever running into anything that the game designers didn't intend for you to run into.

 

[Captain Save A Ho-Oh]

the youthful innocence

well that aint the game's fault but the games hit better when you were a jit...

 

[jeremyml]

I miss being able to store items in the PC. That was always nice. I like my Bag to not have too much stuff in it but since the bag has unlimited space now I guess it's different. I also miss the old TMs and such (at least most can be taught to pkmn and then transferred though!)

 

[GhostLucario]

What I've been missing like crazy these past few weeks is the Dream World from Gen 5. It was so good! The mini games were kind of meh but they were entertaining and I liked decorating the dream house (I forgot the name) and getting pokémon with HA from the mini games was much more fun than using hordes, the dreadful SOS battles and the raids. Plus the dream world art for the pokémon is so cute! And it had a nice variety of areas you could visit. Oh I wish it could come back as an app or something.

 

[charlycicero]

I miss not having a copy or Diamond, Pearl or Platinum. I want to play those games so badly.

 

[Almonds]

This might be just me, but I miss the overworld Dive feature. There's just so much you can do to showcase underwater areas as part of the pokemon world. B2W2 had the Marine Tube, and ORAS improved on RSE beautifully where some pokemon can also show up as themselves for Dive models.

 

[Sheep]

the sprites. 3D is nice and of course the modern step to take for a lot of games nowadays, especially AAA titles, but older Pokémon games using sprites had a certain charm to them that can never be replicated in the most recent generations. I think bw/bw2 was when the spritework was at its peak, and I do miss it dearly sometimes. (plus some shinies looked much nicer in sprite form! Swablu and Altaria went from a pretty yellow to this mustard color I just don't like as much) ):

 

[Bolt Strike]

-Proper sidequests and side mechanics. Things like Contests, Secret Bases, Join Avenue, etc. that had entire goals for you to work towards instead of shallow tasks that are basically just one and done.
-Battle facilities with unique mechanics (see: almost anything from the Battle Frontier, Inverse Battles). The battling needs something more than the same generic Battle Tower clones.
-Field abilities and overworld puzzles. Not having them makes the overworld bland and boring, you need some of these to spice things up.
-The ability to transfer my Pokemon to new generations without having to pay for an overpriced app with more storage space than I will ever need in my entire life. I don't want to transfer my entire damn PC to the current gen, I don't need anywhere near the amount of storage space you're making me pay for, I just want to transfer a few Pokemon at a time.

 

[Medusa Gorgon]

Weirdly, lilycove lottery in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. Eight years old and playing the lottery like a boss ...

 

[prog rocker]

Weirdly, lilycove lottery in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. Eight years old and playing the lottery like a boss ...

Isn't that still in the games? I think the Alola games have it as part of the Festival Plaza.

 

[toastghost]

the sidequests for mythical pokemon were really cool

 

[Bolt Strike]

Isn't that still in the games? I think the Alola games have it as part of the Festival Plaza.

That's been in every game since GS, yeah.

 

[Puddle]

I miss the sprites sometimes. Something that appeals to me about the Pokemon games is having this whole miniature world, full of miniature creatures, that you can carry around with you in your pocket, and the 2D graphics really lended themselves to that. The later games, as beautiful-looking as they are, don't always create that effect quite as well. Perhaps part of the problem is that the consoles have got bigger - at least they have if you got the 3DS XL and the regular Switch. "Pocket Monsters" is at its most charming when played on a pocket device, I think.

I found a quote by Junichi Masuda in this old interview which I thought was interesting:

"You think that creating 2D is easier than 3D, but it's not. It requires a lot of technological understanding and technological skills. I always talk with the art director -- "What's the value is of sticking with 2D art?"

When you look at 2D, it's like a picture. You look at the picture, and it has some flavor to it. 3D, yes, you can make the object very realistic, but 2D is something you can put flavor into. That's what we love about 2D.

I wonder what eventually led them to make the decision to switch to 3D? Perhaps a desire to take full advantage of the 3DS? Or pressure from Nintendo to modernise the series so it could compete with other titles?

Another more trivial thing I miss about sprites is that they looked good on Pokemon fan sites, and it was fun to use them in forum signatures and the like. the 3D models don't look good at all when converted into 2D images.

This isn't an attack on 3D models, by the way. There's plenty of things I love about those, too (although I still haven't quite come to terms with what they did to Typhlosion!).

 

[RileyXY1]

I miss the sprites sometimes. Something that appeals to me about the Pokemon games is having this whole miniature world, full of miniature creatures, that you can carry around with you in your pocket, and the 2D graphics really lended themselves to that. The later games, as beautiful-looking as they are, don't always create that effect quite as well. Perhaps part of the problem is that the consoles have got bigger - at least they have if you got the 3DS XL and the regular Switch. "Pocket Monsters" is at its most charming when played on a pocket device, I think.

I found a quote by Junichi Masuda in this old interview which I thought was interesting:



I wonder what eventually led them to make the decision to switch to 3D? Perhaps a desire to take full advantage of the 3DS? Or pressure from Nintendo to modernise the series so it could compete with other titles?

Another more trivial thing I miss about sprites is that they looked good on Pokemon fan sites, and it was fun to use them in forum signatures and the like. the 3D models don't look good at all when converted into 2D images.

This isn't an attack on 3D models, by the way. There's plenty of things I love about those, too (although I still haven't quite come to terms with what they did to Typhlosion!).

Eelektross got it worse, as did Xatu, Skarmory, and Tropius.