Your LEAST favorite Pokemon game

[Spinjira]

My least favorite main series games are RSE and OMAS. The games are fine, it's just personal preference. I'm not crazy about most of the Pokemon, I found the story boring, the region uninspired and the characters unmemorable. They are good games but they were never my cup of tea.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

Main Series?
It would be Gen 1 because of how boring and glitchy it is, but it's Pokemon's first game so I'm letting it go
My least favorite would be Diamond and Pearl because of the terrible Pokemon choices, slow battles, and the overall pacing of the story. Also I don't really care about the story. Platinum does fix all of these problems, though
USUM was the most disappointing, especially since B2W2 did it much better with the sequel/alternate timeline idea. I was also supporting this from the get-go despite the mixed reactions.

For spin-off, I didn't like Pokemon Dash with it's terrible courses and (imo) a pretty bad use of the touchscreen
Colosseum was the most boring of the spin-offs that I've played so far. I can't get past the first hour of the game.

 

[Gligarman]

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald were my least favorite. I found them to be a bit on the tedious side. Also I'm one of the few people that agreed with the infamous "too much water" comment. It did have some of the best starters though!

 

[Zeb]

Definitely XY. The PSS, being the first to have character customisation, and (most of) the Pokemon designs are the only redeeming features for it, everything else I didn't really like.

 

[Silktree]

It's a tough choice between DP and XY. Both games were not easy on the eyes in terms of the overworld, didn't give me a lot of new exciting team building options, had an awkward plot with over-the-top villains and lore, and their regions just aren't that memorable to me.

DP introduced the Physical/Special split as well as some neat moves, which I value more than Fairy and Mega Evolution. On the other hand, XY have a vastly better regional Pokedex that makes them infinitely more replayable than DP, despite the reduced difficulty. I haven't replayed either one, so whatever.

 

[Almonds]

Gen1 and Gen2. It is mostly due to me having played them too much to feel enthusiastic about those regions.

Also, USUM for the near copy-pasta story and wasted potential.

 

[Incinerawr]

Diamond/Pearl. The music is prancy, the Grunts have bowl cuts, and the only thing anyone really likes about it is Cynthia, who rarely if ever comes beyond giving you an HM and/or SecretPotion to cure a crowd of Psyducks.

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Definitely SM. For reasons related mostly to gameplay. Online went from being a seamless, intuitive affair in Generation 6 to a sluggish hub world now segregated from the main experience. Festival Plaza fails to replicate the design of the Join Avenue, giving you significantly less freedom in the customization and development of your stores. Rotom Dex replaces every 3DS touch screen innovation with absolutely nothing. Why did we need a talking map in a game that's so story intensive? As if the constant interruptions and friends towing you around wasn't enough to ensure you reach your next destination...I mean it's impossible to get lost. And even if it weren't, other games with maps on the touch screen gave you the option to turn them off. In general, the over-bearing nature of this game kills the adventure for me.

I don't like playing through the story, and all the missing or gutted features just makes me want to go back and play older Generations.

The only thing that I liked was the culture and world building. Probably some of Pokemon's best.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I would say Ruby is my least favorite Pokemon game, this is because the E4 had bulky Ice-types, not many good Pokemon in the wild at the beginning and an overall needy use for HMs. However, Kanto is starting to draw dangerously close to be my least favorite because of pandering in Gen 6, Gen 7 and the Switch game taking place in Kanto. I wish Game Freak would just move on from the Game Boy Pokemon games.

 

[phidari]

USUM was garbage.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

XY.

The 3DS was a massive game changer for many DS based franchises and since Pokemon was making the jump over to that console, a mixture of everything we loved about the previous games combined with the brand new 3D look should have made this one of the best.

Alas it wasn't.


Despite some pretty looking graphics XY to me is the most soulless and miserable entry in the entire series and complete with some characters that shouldn't even be called characters (lookin at you Tierno, Shauna and Trevor), a boring, cliched going through the motions story and a ridiculously easy challenge making what should have been even the hardest and toughest Pokemon look like Caterpie it's clear all that hard work went into the 3D change.

Shame really since Kalos is a beautiful looking region (which the 3DS perfectly captures the grandeur) and it kinda deserved better. No wonder they didn't bother with a sequel.

 

[techitisJ]

Honestly, I can't think of a main series Pokemon game I really dislike, because I actually haven't played many. I've only completed Crystal, X and Y, Sun and Moon, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I've played a bit of Emerald, Platinum, Soul Silver, Fire Red, White2, and most of Ultra Moon.

I guess my least favorite out of the ones I've played would be FireRed or Ultra Moon. FireRed because I'm just not too interested in the story, and Ultra Moon mostly because I had already beat Sun, and then Moon, and it was just very much like its prequels.

 

[colours]

XY.

the tl;dr of it is that the plotline of Kalos was pretty much all over the place, Team Flare wasn't exactly the best representation of absolute world destruction and genocide making it hard to take the plot seriously in the first place and the French culture wasn't ingrained as much as it could have been, I think. Looking back at how prominent Hawaiian culture is ingrained in Alola, Game Freak could've done a lot better integrating more French customs into Kalos, I think.

Also obligatory mention of the four rivals that did not need to exist whatsoever; Calem/Serena would've been just fine rivals on their own.

 

[Dieter]

XY, maaaybe followed by DP, though none I would quite qualify as sub par for me.

DO has issues with speed and Dex, which are both very glaring issues, so hence its 'honorary' mention.

XY might not have introduced a lot of new Pokemon, but the designs were absolutely solid. I can't point out a single pokemon with a design I strongly dislike, or that feels 'wrong'. It also introduced a bunch of interesting and helpful features, I mean the games definitely have things going for it. However, the narrative of the plot is weak and the region design is a mess. The different parts of the region are pretty enough and the locations generally are interesting, but somehow a lot of them just don't fit together very well and the sudden changes in environment tend to be jarring. Which seems odd considering Unova for example also had a very varied environment, so I'm not sure why. Tobe honest, I think Kalos could have benefited from seasons, like Unova had

 

[Boss1708]

My least favourite game is easily RGBY. The most barabones game in the franchise. There is literally nothing to do in this game once you beat Blue and catch Mewtwo. Other than rechallenging the Pokémon League like a psycho.

DP and XY complete my Top 3 least favourite games. They are objectively better than RGBY, but they still annoy me, for various reasons.

 

[darkblastoise0]

Crystal is annoying.

 

[9tiefly]

RBY mainly, but tbh any game that includes Kanto. I hate nearly all the designs of gen I, the region is dull, its (non-existent) mythology is bland...

USUM was a massive disappointment after how much I loved SM, too. Mainly because of how much they screwed SM's beautifully thought-out character arcs. I enjoyed the new features and revamped movepools but the narrative changes definitely outweigh everything else.

 

[Esserise]

In thinking about it, it's been so long since I played any of the Game Boy games that, realistically, they just don't hold that much meaning to me anymore, and with the way that the series has progressed on a technical level, I find that useful comparisons are difficult to make between, say, Red & Blue versus Sun & Moon. I like the original Kanto and Johto games, but they're never going to be my favorites. However, at the same time, it doesn't really feel fair for me personally to condemn them to last place; they certainly are charming and retain an important position in my history. So I would just remove those ones from contention in the first place.

Of the games that I think are still relevant in my head and that I've actually played within the last few years (here's the corresponding alphabet soup: RSE FRLG Platinum HGSS BW B2W2 XY ORAS SM USUM LGPE), I would say that HGSS are my least-favorites.

I'm not going to disingenuously pillory them here. They are not "the worst things ever" or anything so dramatic as that. HGSS are, on balance, basically fine. But they are the ones that I find it hardest to enjoy due to the technical gameplay. Every now and again, I will get an itch to revisit them, but as soon as I boot up the game and begin the slow, slow pilgrimage to Mr. Pokémon's house, regret begins to sink in. By the time I finally obtain the Running Shoes and can actually play the game properly, catching wild Pokémon and such, my patience has already worn thin.

Platinum has a similar issue when it comes to game speed, but I'd rather play it than HGSS because it has a more interesting Pokédex (yes, Johto's is somewhat larger, but Platinum offers choices from four generations as opposed to just two), a progression that doesn't feel so aimless (even though I find the meat of the plot of both of these games to be dull and barely coherent), and, although I don't particularly love the Sinnoh region, a more diverse and dynamic terrain and scenery. HMs are a real problem in Sinnoh, but that's made up for to me by the presence of move tutors and better-distributed TMs. I can suffer HMs occupying some slots in my team's movepools, but I want those movepools to actually be fun and diverse, which I find harder to accomplish in Johto, where for some reason they decided to charge BP for all of the interesting move tutor moves. I never participate in Battle facilities, so that avenue is completely closed off to me. Furthermore, in terms of extracurricular activities, neither Super Contests nor the Pokéathlon are really my cup of tea, but I can happily tool around in the Underground for a fair while, which Johto doesn't have. The Kanto post-game is also not very fun for me, since it feels so directionless and everything in Kanto is so wildly underleveled. (And, just to be completely biased, Sinnoh's soundtrack is ultimate.)

Overall, HGSS just offer the least amount of things that I find engaging.

USUM was a massive disappointment after how much I loved SM, too. Mainly because of how much they screwed SM's beautifully thought-out character arcs. I enjoyed the new features and revamped movepools but the narrative changes definitely outweigh everything else.

Personally, the character work is the only thing about USUM that I think is defensible. Ideally, all of the gameplay additions, while certainly good, should have been in the originals. Those open construction spots in SM look egregiously bad now that we know what was "supposed" to go there - basically three useless buildings, two Photo Clubs, and the fake Gym. (Except, of course, there's the fact that USUM seemingly didn't even finish the job - Seafolk still has an unfinished lot, and the Dream Park is still under construction!)

 

[9tiefly]

Personally, the character work is the only thing about USUM that I think is defensible. Ideally, all of the gameplay additions, while certainly good, should have been in the originals. Those open construction spots in SM look egregiously bad now that we know what was "supposed" to go there - basically three useless buildings, two Photo Clubs, and the fake Gym. (Except, of course, there's the fact that USUM seemingly didn't even finish the job - Seafolk still has an unfinished lot, and the Dream Park is still under construction!)

Really? I'd love for you to elaborate, if you have time To me, the existence of the Ultra Reckon Squad completely changes the dynamic between Lusamine and her children. Having her be a flat out overbearing and autocratic mother without the influence of Nihilego's poison (if I remember correctly, in the USUM timeline she wasn't poisoned, right?) was a welcomed change. But in return, it lessens Lillie's and Gladion's characters. Lillie's wardrobe symbolism immediately looses meaning, as well as the subsequent agency she gained when she changed in SM. As for Gladion, fleeing the Aether Paradise with a Type: Null because of a much generic motivation severely weakens their partnership... In my SM headcanon, that weird hand twitch hints at PTSD; one can only imagine what kind of twisted, gruesome experiments he ran into in the AF laboratories. Watching him balance trauma and anxiety with kindness and determination was amazing.

 

[Parissong]

DP and XY complete my Top 3 least favourite games. They are objectively better than RGBY, but they still annoy me, for various reasons.

Is it the slowness and TM/HM overusage that deterred you from it in DP?