Topic: The Ultimate Pokemon Retrospective (Gen 1-Gen 8)

Hello, everyone. NoName404 here. I'm a new user in nintendo life and this is my very first post so please forgive me if there is some mistakes that I made. Personally, I really love video games. Normally I don't like RPGs but Pokemon is an exception to me and I like Nintendo. I have a strong desire to talk about video games with other people in my place but they aren't really interested. Without talking about video games with other people, I feel.... empty. With Nintendo Life forums, I hope I no longer feel empty and I can share opinions and discuss in a friendly way with other people.

Anyway, it's fascinating how much the Pokemon franchise has literally evolved from gen 1 to gen 8. There are some highs and some lows and yet somehow Pokemon is still going strong up to this day. In this forum, we are going to look at each mainline Pokemon game and analyze what they did right and what they did wrong. We are going to have a retrospective on the following games:
-Pokemon Red/Blue
-Pokemon Yellow
-Pokemon Gold/Silver
-Pokemon Crystal
-Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
-Pokemon Emerald
-Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen
-Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
-Pokemon Platinum
-Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver
-Pokemon X/Y
-Pokemon Sun/Moon
-Pokemon UltraSun/UltraMoon
-Pokemon OmegaRuby/OmegaSapphire
-Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
-Pokemon Sword/Shield
-Pokemon BrilliantDiamond/ShiningPearl
-Pokemon Legends: Arceus (GameFreak considers this game part of the mainline games so I include this game in this retrospective)

There are a lot of pokemon games to analyze so we are going to discuss the games one by one. Let's start with the first Pokemon game: Pokemon Red/Blue. Let's start with my opinion and I'll keep it short. Personally, I think this is not the best game to introduce a newcomer. There are a bunch of bugs, forced HM usage, and some areas are confusing mazes. In addition, Psychic types are overpowered and some Pokemons are pathetic due to various issues (such as special stat being attributed to both Special Attack and Special Defence). All of these problems makes revisiting these games possibly difficult for certain people. However, for what it is, it's a decent game that should be played for people who are curious where the Pokemon franchise started and this game is a solid foundation for all future Pokemon games. What do you think? What is your retrospective on Pokemon Red/Blue?

(Again, this is my very first post. I'm nervous and I'm very new to the Nintendo Life forums so please forgive me if I make a mistake in terms of forum posting. Also, should I make this topic exclusive to Pokemon Red/Blue and make other topics focus on each Pokemon game or keep this topic like the way it is?)

I played Yokai Watch games on 3DS and I thought Yokai Watch games was slightly better than Pokemon games in my opinion.

I played some Pokemon games on 3DS and Switch but I still prefer Yokai Watch games than Pokemon games.

Also, I'm from Indonesia. 🇮🇩

My first Pokémon game was yellow on 3DS VC. I knew it was one of the first games, it had my favourite colour and the only Pokémon I knew on the front cover. I thought it would have been a great place to start. But then I faced all those problems you mentioned.
It is a good game but unfortunately doesn't hold up to modern standards. For veterans of the games, I believe this is a great game, but for newcomers, the handholding of the newer games work better.
(@NoName404 welcome to Nintendo life btw)

I agree. I think the existence of Pokemon Yellow is kind of pointless as the game is roughly the same as Pokemon Red and Blue with minor differences and the game still has the same problems as Pokemon Red and Blue.

Anyway, I am going to share my experience with the Pokemon franchise while we are here. It's the year 2000s. Me and my older brother have two DS. My brother got Pokemon Heartgold and Pokemon Diamond or Pearl (I forgot which one it is). At that point, I'm not yet interested on playing Pokemon. Instead, I watch my brother play those games and I had fun with my brother. Then at some point, we got Pokemon Black. I don't remember if we actually got Pokemon White. Just like before, my brother play it and I watch him play and we had fun together. Then at some point, I got Pokemon White 2 and my brother got Pokemon Black 2. If my memory serves me right, I think Pokemon White 2 is my first Pokemon game that I actually play. I had fun with the game but young me struggles with certain parts of the game such as the Ghetsis battle.

I still have some fond memories of Pokemon Black 2/White 2. One particular memory that sticks out the most was my brother telling me that the Monster in The Creepy Red Mist 3 (a movie in Pokestar Studios) will scare me to the point of making me unable to sleep. At that point, I didn't know what the Monster looks like but I was too scared to find out by myself (I was still kind of a scaredy cat at that point). I end up having a hard time sleeping that night, constantly thinking about what the Monster would have looked like. In my imagination, I imagine the Monster to be this horrifying Lovecraftian monster that belong in horror movies. Ever since that day, I still don't know what the Monster look like until I looked it up in Bulbapedia in the year 2020s. Looking back now, the Monster isn't as horrifying as I thought.

Me and my brother also played Pokemon Rangers: Shadow of Almia in the past. I remember having fun with my brother playing the game.

Cut back to the year 2020 and I play Pokemon Red, Pokemon Silver, Pokemon Ruby, and Pokemon FireRed. In the year 2021, I revisit my childhood Pokemon games with Pokemon Heartgold, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Black, and Pokemon Black 2. Finally, in the year 2022, I play Pokemon X and Pokemon Ultra Sun.

I liked the Yellow version, probably more so than Red and Blue, probably because the anime was part of my childhood, and the Yellow version was practically the only existing Pokémon game made for fans of the anime. Plus, I easily got the three starters, so I couldn't complain, especially when I hardly traded with others playing Pokémon as a kid. I was a lonely kid. lol

But yeah, I don't think it's pointless. I think Game Freak made it for the anime fans, and I appreciate that.