Shinnoh vs Unova

[Esserise]

Although I have issues with Sinnoh introducing more Legendaries than any other generation.

Although didn’t Unova introduce just as many?

1. Uxie / Cobalion
2. Mesprit / Terrakion
3. Azelf / Virizion
4. Dialga / Reshiram
5. Palkia / Zekrom
6. Giratina / Kyurem
7. Heatran / Tornadus
8. Regigigas / Thundurus
9. Cresselia / Landorus
10. Manaphy / Victini
11. Darkrai / Keldeo
12. Shaymin / Meloetta
13. Arceus / Genesect

(I guess Sinnoh also added Phione but Phione is useless, and it would be the difference between thirteen and fourteen which is negligible at that point.)

 

[Diamond & Pearl]

I think what @Guzma is trying to say is that the amount of legendaries introduced in Sinnoh is very unproportional (14/107: a whopping 13% of the Pokémon introduced in Sinnoh are legendaries).

 

[colours]

- Best region design

Oof, this is quite the hard one! I guess I'll have to give it to Sinnoh here; Sinnoh has a much more interesting geography to me than Unova. I felt like there were more varied environments in Sinnoh too. This isn't really a point off of Unova because the whole entire purpose of Unova is for everything to feel like a big city, but personally I prefer more variety.

- Best Pokemon selection

Definitely going to have to give this to Sinnoh (totally not biased in that some of my favourite Pokemon are from Sinnoh).

- Best Story and Villain team

Well, this is a tough one. I suppose story can go to Unova, although in a sense this is an unfair comparison because Gen V is when character development started to actually become a thing. Going to give this to Unova though regardless even if I did have personal qualms with Team Plasma as a whole.

- Best mythology (legendary pokes)

I'd say they're about equal here, with a slight edge to Sinnoh mostly because of the Distortion World. If it weren't for B2W2 exploring more of Kyurem's mythology, then Sinnoh would take this easily, I think.

- and the most important one: best maingame- length and postgame length (replayability)

They're equal here. Platinum is replayable if you care a lot about the Battle Frontier, and B2W2 is replayable if you care a lot about the Pokemon World Tournament and Join Avenue (although I don't remember of Join Avenue is postgame or not). I think both games have rather enjoyable postgames so it's super difficult for me to pick one over the other here. Perhaps slight edge to Unova because of the nostalgia factor of battling previous Champions and Gym Leaders in PWT.

 

[imcomid]

Which one is better gamewise?

To decide it, first choose the best game from each region, for example Platinum from Shinnoh and W2 from Unova. Compare them in these cathegories:
- Best region design

- Best Pokemon selection

- Best Story and Villain team

- Best mythology (legendary pokes)

- and the most important one: best maingame- lenght and postgame lenght (replayability)

Best region design: Unova it's just soo beautiful
Best Pokemon Selection - Unova
Best story: Unova
Best mythology: defo Sinnoh
best maingame- lenght and postgame lenght: Unova for the main game, Platinum/ BW2 post game

 

[NinjutsuSen]

Best region: Sinnoh, by far. Unova was just way to linear and most of the routes were just plain boring.

Story: BW1

Pokemon selection: BW2.

Mythology: Sinnoh

Length: Sinnoh. Unova's 10 routes until the league wasn't enough but all the dialog made it feel longer. BW2 did it better but still not as good as Sinnoh. Post game was good on all three.

For me personally I prefer a fun to explore region over a story which was the best so far in a mainline game but still isn't a good story compared to other rpg's so I choose Sinnoh.

 

[Plaid]

My opinions are... probably on the biased side due to B/W being my favorite games in the main series, and D/P/Pt among my least favorites, but I do want to think about these:

Best region design
I'm partial to Unova's, of course; especially with Black and White's very noticeable graphical improvements over their immediate predecessors allowing for lots of pretty sights and more interesting-looking locales while you explore. The seasons mechanic was also a nice touch that I'm surprised hasn't made a comeback in any other game. Being a lot more linear than Diamond and Pearl helped cut down on frustration when I was younger, as Sinnoh's backtracking and tendency to leave first-time players not knowing where to go sometimes (like hiding a few of the HMs you need to advance in out-of-the-way areas) without a guide was one of the contributors to me not liking those games as much back then. Black and White cutting down on the usage of HMs itself is also a major quality-of-life upgrade to the overall experience; the repeated slogs Mt. Coronet felt tedious enough without having to bust rocks, scale walls/waterfalls and push boulders every other room.

Best Pokemon selection
Unova by far, and thanks to the infamously shallow Diamond and Pearl regional Dex, though it does happen to be home to a large selection of my personal favorites. Gen V Pokémon designs have their own sort of unique and memorable flair that I love; I can name a lot of Unova natives off the top of my head.

Best Story and Villain team
Black & White and Team Plasma here. This category is admittedly not much of a competition in my eyes; even a couple of the NPC Galactic Grunts in D/P/Pt don't entirely know what's going on and lampshade how muddy their organization's goals are apart from "take over the world". Which is the ultimate goal of pretty much every villainous Pokémon team, of course, but Galactic felt the most generic overall about it. Platinum does try to give them a little more depth, but they still don't feel as integrated into the story as Team Plasma. Some people might understandably find Black and White's story to be a little on the preachy side, but it's easily the much deeper and more memorable of the two in my eyes, with more emotion built in.

Best Mythology
I like both of them. In terms of lore, Sinnoh's creation trio and the Tao dragons are just as interesting as the other, and embody some pretty interesting concepts. Though similarly to the Team Galactic plot, Dialga and Palkia feel somewhat tacked on to the story, and Giratina quite literally comes out of nowhere in all three Sinnoh games, with no buildup to its existence before Spear Pillar in Platinum or further exploration to its backstory and relationship with Dialga and Palkia - making it feel just as underutilized as Zygarde in X and Y. Disappointing because Giratina is one of my top favorite legendaries. I do like that B/W started a semi-tradition of making the player's bond with the boxart legendary a bit more personal instead of simply making them another checkmark in your PokéDex (even if that's all they wind up becoming either way once the story's over).

Replayability
I've only recently even reached Platinum's postgame after more than ten years of Pokémon Diamond sitting unfinished in my collection, so I can't really form a solid opinion on this one. However, White is the first mainline Pokémon game that I've ever sat down to replay, and have had a blast doing so the last time I was. I remember there being a lot of little nooks and crannies to explore in Unova, and plenty of battles to keep you entertained and training your Pokémon. Both region have some replayability to them, though.

 

[BlueWaves]

Its really hard to say. I really think its hard to compare them because they feel like they were designed to accomplish different things completely. For example, Unova is very story-driven, with the conflict with N taking priority before the League, something that has not been seen since then, so Unova definitely wins there.

On the other hand, Sinnoh brings back lot of new life to old Pokemon by introducing cross-evolutions, which Unova doesn't by only including New Pokémon for BW, albeit the only new Pokemon focus means that Unova does an excellent job at showing off their Pokémon.

In the end, the question is very subjective, and it really varies depending on your opinions and how you play the games.

 

[Daenerys]

Sinnoh's a far better region than Unova by far on all accounts including storyline, geography, Pokemon availability, memorable characters and music. Not that Unova's bad it's just that I don't think it was that great. As far as regions go, Sinnoh was pretty much perfect in my opinion.