What’s the least fun play through you’ve had?

[FelipePR]

- It was definitely play Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu, the most tedious game I've ever played in my life. A remarkably slow game, without a bike, with exhausting and irritating capture mechanics, with the removal of several mechanics of battles in order to simulate the first generation, which has the worst games in the franchise. Despite the beautiful graphics, the game is so boring that to this day I haven't finished it, because saving the President of Silph Co. was a torment.

Ah, a Drayano one. Those are amazing. Playing his Platinum one now and it's tough but a good kind of tough. He makes a lot of good changes.

- Drayano hacks are usually wonderful, I don't remember playing his Platinum hack, but his HGSS, BW and BW2 hacks are among the best I've ever played.

advantages that you can't even make use of (looking at you, Pokémon Reborn ). These games practically force you to rotate your team constantly, they force everyone to use the same Pokémon because they're the least bad ones you get access to, the official games are easy alright but this allows people to use a wider variety of Pokémon, to play in different ways, and that's what makes them fun! Want to make a fun difficult game? Improve the AI! Give the Gym Leaders good teams with good movesets! Screwing the player over by giving the NPCs unfair advantages that you can't even exploit yourself later on might as well be the cheapest way to make a game difficult!

- That's precisely why I like these games, they force you to think of a good strategy, to build teams with synergy, and not just capture any pokémon and press any button. These games make Pokemon, moves and etc. highly accessible, so it is possible to put together several strategies much earlier and without immeasurable effort. Pokémon Reborn, especially, has great passing and a increasing difficulty so that even less experienced players can adapt to the game. The game is, however, huge and time consuming.

I personally enjoy going underleveled in official games, because I don't like grinding and it feels like more of a challenge, but it's fair because it's not like the Gym Leaders have full teams of competitive Pokémon, and I'm not being forced to play this way. I can still win playing the way I find more fun. I don't have fun being forced to use this and that Pokémon because it's the only good option against the OP competition. I don't have fun being forced to play a certain way because it's the only way to win. If "difficulty" means handicapping the player and next to no freedom in the way you can play then I'd rather have the easy official games than tr00 gamer fangames.

- Exactly, I don't know why people complain so much about the HGSS level curve after winning the league since that, even with Pokemon fifteen levels below, you can easily get the Kanto badges. The only issue that I see is if you want to rotate Pokemons or remake your team, then you might want to grind a little bit, but the league is already available for that.

 

[Stef50S]

The only two playthroughs that I remember where I stopped playing before I finished them were Pokemon Conquest and a Pokemon Black 2 nuzlocke. I tried playing Pokemon Conquest 2-3 times and I just never ended up completing the story. I don't play many startegy games to begin with and I suck at thinking multiple steps ahead so it's not too surprising for me. As for the Black 2 nuzlocke, I kept failing and having to repeat the beginning over and over again. The main reason for my failures was not paying attention and preparing properly. Now that I've completed two nuzlockes and I'm going through a third right now, I do want to return to Black 2 and nuzlocke it again. In particular, I want to beat it only using Unova Pokemon so I can't use the new Pokemon added to the regional dex.

 

[henrymidfields]

Pokemon Black after completing Y was really not fun. Like at all. Now for some context, I returned to Pokemon with Y and decided to go a Gen back, in late 2012. Cue the WiFi shutdown announcement two months after Y got released - and having to rush through Black 1 if I had any chance of getting the Unova Dex complete. And trying to get used to the generally better AI, the new moves and Pokemon and also getting used to a few gameplay crucial differences between XY and BW (crits being double damage in the latter). All while working full time and a part time Masters coursework on top. By the time I finished the Unova regional Dex literally the day before the shutdown, I felt I was done with this game.

Strangely enough, Black 2 felt nowhere near as bad. Level grinding was a whole lot easier, and somehow the Pokemon I had in this game I was able to utilize better...

As for something I didnt complete, ended up ditching Sun. For some reason the battle seemed really sluggish on my 2DS...

 

[ripplefieldz]

gonna say gen 4 also. even with cheat codes that let me get exp easier my last platinum run was such a slog to get through that i never even finished it. my last run of soulsilver also had some issues, namely the fact that i never had a full team due to needing hms and the fact that while i did want to beat red, grinding took so long that i just completely gave up.

in general, pre gen 6 games aren't exactly fun for me because of the grinding. apparently black and white has a postgame but i've sure as hell never done it because as soon as i saw the levels i decided i wasn't dealing with that bullshit anymore!

 

[JohtonianZoroark]

Gen V sapped my love of the series for some reason, I ended up skipping VI and VII before a friend gave me Shield as a gift…but in retrospect, Gen IV was significantly more tedious than I thought. Went back and played both Diamond and White 2 in the months before BDSP came out, found myself enjoying the latter far more. Think what turned me off at the time was not being able to catch non-Unovan Pokémon until the postgame, but I’ve come to love a lot of those creatures since the first time around.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Probably Pokemon Sword and Let's Go. They were just so......meh in almost every conceivable way to me (more the former game, as the latter I didn't even finish, and likely never will.)

 

[Blanc]

Somewhat echoing Charizard above me, I never played the Let’s Go games, but I definitely never finished Sword & Shield. I don’t know if it was nat-dex fiasco that left me kinda unmotivated or the lack of care for all the new gimmicks (like Dynamax) but that game really tested my passion. Especially since I came out of USUM kind of burned out of Pokemon (did I even finish the post-game of that? LOL Other than how hype the gym battles felt in sw/sh, I just didn’t like the plot, and I didn’t like how much the game held my hand. The characters were OK but I also just couldn’t appreciate them because I already lacked fondness for the game.

X and Y I didn’t hate, but I remember I just felt ‘OK’ about it. Maybe I’ll give sw/sh another chance someday.

 

[stunning_cyan]

My latest Water monotype run in Pokemon White. I usually love monotypes and play them without any problems but this one I couldn't finish at all. Actually, my team was sweeping through everyone with ease but I just couldn't beat the Castelia city gym. The problem, is, of course, not the bugs but grass element in Leavanny. What's worse, my pokemon had decent coverage but NOT against grass and Leavanny is a very defensive pokemon. Plus, this gym is actually quite early so I didn't have many TMs or pokemon to use and those TMs with neutral moves I had couldn't be learned by my pokemon or just didn't deal enough damage to offset damage done by Leavanny. I wish I had a single status move like sleep powder or poison but Water pokemon actually are the worst with status moves. So, yeah, my pokemon were actually very strong but not against early grass. I had to ditch that playthrough and start a ground playthrough of Platinum instead.

 

[plasmas4ge]

lets go pikachu, xy and hgss.

lgpe were... pretty awful games, to say the least. i've tried several times to play them, but they're just so annoying. the catching mechanics irritate me, the battling is dumbed down to an insulting degree, i hate being forced to use gen 1 pokemon only, so my team ends up being uninteresting and boring, and the game is generally just.... not fun. i've never beaten misty despite the amount of times i've tried to play the game.

xy can be fun i guess, but the constant rival encounters make it borderline unplayable. at least the gen 7 games had GOOD rivals and story beats to make up for the sheer amount of dialogue, and fun pokemon designs, good vibes, etc. playing xy feels like i'm being forced to watch a mindless baby cartoon with a kid i'm babysitting. not to mention the amount of gen 1 pandering. at least gen 7 was somewhat original with this, with the new forms and characters being from kanto. gen 6 just throws a huge amount of gen 1 pokemon at you, and i usually end up unintentionally having almost a full team of boring gen 1 mons. i've played through these games at least 3 times, and haven't really enjoyed any of those playthroughs.

hgss were my first pokemon games, i've played them through to the end of the main story at least 5 times and i love them, but GOD does the level curve, grind and general tedium of the game irritate me. i have to randomize them to make them somewhat playable by adding that element of surprise and discovery. i've only completed kanto once, and i've only beaten red once. if it had more of a story like gen 5 and gen 7, maybe it would be easier to suffer through.

also, nuzlockes in general. call me a casual, but i simply cannot enjoy the game when i can lose my precious pokemon at any time. i have adhd and most of the time i don't think through my actions enough in battle, so i don't make it very far at all. but i do love watching people play nuzlockes, and i have so much respect for people who do possess the skill and strategy to play like that