Feature: Every Pokémon Game Narrative, Ranked From Best To Worst

I absolutely hated the story of Sun / Moon, too much handholding in the early game. And the lack of gyms was really annoying.

X & Y have my favorite story. Legends Arceus is number 2, Sword & Shield number 3.

Yes, I actually liked the character of Hop.

In the end, I almost completely disagree with this list, but that's not new for a Nintendolife-tierlist.

I'm honestly partial to gens 3, 5 and 7.

I… don’t think you know how “best to worst” works.

Definitely agree that SwSh had the worst story. The evil guy literally went berserk because he couldn't wait one more day to stop something that is going to happen in 1000 years

Also agree that BW/B2W2 had the best story.
Don't get why GSC in on 3rd though. Team Rockets only goal was to get Giovanni back and they didn't even achive that

Also where's Legends Arceus?

That article was savagely written…
I don’t necessarily disagree with the order (Sun + Moon should have been higher up but whatever), but Sword + Shield isn’t that bad… Although I forgot the thing about it being a thousand years in the future, that’s a bit strange. Team Yell is also laughably bad, but they were designed to be that way, so it shouldn’t count as a negative. I’ve never forgotten them. Then calling Hop annoying is mean, I didn’t find him annoying at all. So yeah, SW/SH is the worse, but it’s not “lower than F” in my opinion.
Also I just realized XY is second-last but in my opinion it had a decent story. Although, I’m judging that one based on the anime, I never played the game.

You know admittedly I never really played the mainline Pokemon games for their narrative 😅. Some of the spin off games have some pretty great stories though

Sun and moon is the best, I love the crazy alien portal plot, which is then followed by sword and shield second, because I always wanted a story where the gym battles are treated like huge sports games.

I'm sorry but I can't take this list seriously if it does not include the Pokemon spinoff games which have narratives that far surpass any of the main story games. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games (1 & 2 in particular) are easily my favorite stories in any Pokemon game.

I guess one way to look at this list is to understand what the narrative intention might have been behind the mainline games, which is probably best portrayed by the Pokemon Adventures Manga. To that, I say G/S/C arc was the strongest.

Never expected to see a ranked list I agree with 100%... but here we are.

I’ve messed with a few Pokémon games, but I don’t play them for the story.

Ranking Pokemon stories are about as personal as it gets. article:
Farfetch'ed

I loved Gen 1, but skipped 2. I couldn’t get into 3 when I tried. I thought my Pokémon days were over. Eventually, I bought Pokemon White on a whim. I loved it! It’s reignited my love for the games which lasts to this day!

While I agree it does have the best story of all the gens, I think the thing that helped me get into it, was that it was a totally brand new set of Pokémon. It was amazing. Then you beat the game, and bam, a ton of older Pokémon were available!

I haven't played any Gen 5 games (can't find any for a decent price and don't want to hack my 3ds) so I'll have to say Gen 3.

The manga's version of Red & Blue hold a special place in my heart as well because it's more authentic to what Pokemon was meant to be

Call me crazy, but although yes, Gen 5 and Gen 7 are better and more interesting, I actually love the Team Flare plot in XY. Maybe it’s that bizarre music theme that plays when you fight them, or the way they’re obsessed with their sunglasses.

This seems about right to me, though honestly I drop most of the pokemon narratives under the same rank because they’re all equally simplistic besides black and white, which was quite ambitious and for that alone made for a more interesting plot, even if it didn’t exactly deliver on all fronts.
As evil team goes, I love Team Plasma’s music and aesthetic too, so that’s a double win for me, hehe.

I thought I read it backwards… Sword and Shield ranks 18th place from a top of 20 in your OWN site, which I agreed with then, and I agree now as well! I mean… come on!

I prefer the older gens where the story wasn't so much "in your face" and I especially hated when the supposed adventures started feeling more like guided tours. Even the legendaries felt more "legendary" when you didn't necessarily need to run into them in your playthrough.

I think Gen 2 has the best balance, there's some lore in there if you're interested but you can also just mosey on along and ignore it for the most part if you so choose.

I knew Gen 5 was going to be on top of the list and poll (and rightfully so). But I was very pleased to see Gen 3 get its dues too. Perhaps I have nostalgia goggles (go goggles?) on since Emerald was the first Pokemon game I owned, but I always loved how cool it was to see two different teams rival each other with similar plans of harnessing the weather—via the means of legendary Pokemon—to achieve their goals.

It's not a deep plot, which I will concede Gen 5 does have that point going for it. But at the same time, it has a unique one that stands out, especially in comparison to the other Gens. Like a lot of people, Gen 5 has my "favorite" plot in a mainline Pokemon game. But I had to vote for Gen 3 in the poll, especially since I knew Gen 5 was going to have an overwhelming high margin of votes. Gen 3 will always have a special place in my heart for its uniqueness and charm.

Insert "7.8/10 too much water" meme here.

Gen V definitely has the best story but they clearly made an effort there. 2, 3 and 4 probably come next and then the rest. I’m not really in them for the story.

I know Sword and Shield will get some debate it was too bland. It was honestly what I wanted in a game. After not having finished a game since Gen 3 and 6, I just wanted a game about fun exploration and beating the bad guys, and not about is humanity the real monsters all along. I have Kirby for the latter.

I actually agree with this entire list with the exception of me swapping gen 2 with gen 7. I’m hoping Scarlet and Violet have a decent story.

Gen 5 has by far the best story of course but I'd say Gen 7 should be second. (Or at least the original Sun/Moon should be; IIRC they changed the storyline for the worse in the Ultra versions.) Team Skull is easily one of the best 'evil' teams.

I'd put X and Y near or at the top, actually. Lysandre is one of the best antagonists in the Pokemon series, imo. He isn't particularly insane or evil. He's just wrong. While the plot may seem rushed, I think the presentation is quite good.

I put Gen IV on the bottom. I don't believe that anyone can be just erased (which is why Infinity War is about at the bottom of my Marvel tier list). Essentially, I don't think the plot makes sense, so I don't relate to the story as much as I do others in the series.

I also don't agree with Gen VIII's analysis. Team Yell is a refreshing change of pace for the series. It fits the theme of the generation quite well. Having a "villain" team be fans in a generation thematically built on popular competition just fits. The focus of the generation isn't primarily on saving the world. It's on exploration and competition, the focus of the series from the start, with an added focus on connections between trainers and others, including their Pokemon.

It's only more recently that bonds between trainers and Pokemon have been more heavily emphasized, which is why I think modern Pokemon games are better than the former in general, at the very least in terms of story and characterization. Gen III, of course, is where Pokemon stories started to take off, but I think Gen V onward is where the best Pokemon stories to date are.

In essence, I don't think narrative ought to be analyzed separate from interactions, setting and characterization. They make up a whole, and it's the connections between those that make the narrative richer. As said before, the connections were lacking in earlier gens, which is why I think Gen V onward is better overall.

SwSh's story was definitely one of the worst in the series. The villain's plot made zero sense, and everyone seemed to be hellbent on getting you to finish your gym challenge, even with wild dynamax pokemon rampaging around Galar.

No wonder that gen V is just better overall, but I'm worried about that 3% that voted sword and shield.

Pokémon is always trying to push its narrative on us. When will it end? lol.

@Dogorilla yeah, they made lusamine not as evil, which is weird because she still has frozen pokemon and stuff in her lab.

Black and White are the obvious winners for the story and it's honestly not even close.

There really was no contest. Pokemon Black and White, in my opinion, are the only Pokemon games to ever have a good story.

All I can say is sun and moon had the strangest Pokemon out of all of them. And primarily turned me off of the game. Just couldnt really mesh with any of the designs. Wayyy to shapey/random. Mostly refering to the dimensional ones. Not to mention regional forms I think started here, and honestly came off to me as lazyy stand ins for what should've been new Pokemon/evolutions. Honestly left me dissapointed. Still don't care to bother catching regional forms either as of today.

@BabyYoda71
XY’s anime was MUCH better than the games, the characters in the games are kind of cardboard cutouts of the anime characters

You're seriously overrating the GB games' plot (really, I think nearly everything about them is overrated, the games have aged like milk, but this article is focused on plot). The characters have little to no personality or backstory and are either glorified punching bags for you to battle or generic NPCs. And we can barely call the sequence of events in the game a "plot". There's little to no sense of an overarching narrative in the game, Team Rocket's events are mainly disconnected Saturday morning cartoon tier fare that generally have nothing to do with each other. To rank these games as high as they are, especially Gen 1, feels downright criminal. You could even argue that they belong at the very bottom of the list, even below the poorly written dreck that's Gens 6 and 8. At least those games had a narrative to speak of.

They're all basically the same game lol

They're all pretty dull to be honest.

Uh oh, the gen fivers are out to play. I can't wait for those remakes so they can truly remember how bad that generation was, especially the story. The best narratives were Legends: Arceus, Platinum, and Emerald. Worst were USUM, B2W2, and XY, and SwSh. The stories went downhill after gen 4.

I'd without hesitation put Gen 7 as the worst story mostly because it's the most obtrusive. Gen 6 has less interesting things going on on in it but Gen 7 feels a lot more like it just adamantly refuses to shut up.

Though in general, while Gen 5's definitely the best of them, I don't think the Pokemon games have ever actually had a GOOD story.

Even though I am excited about the new games I hope we still get sequels to 'Let's Go Eevee!' and 'Let's Go Pikachu!' that are remakes of 'Gold' and 'Silver.'

I can pretty much agree with the list, yet gen 3 is the only one I haven't finished the main game or remake of. I guess a decent story only takes you so far...

Agree with most of the list. Though I would move up Sword and Shield and put Sun and Moon much, much lower. USUM is the only main series game I had to put down without finishing, the pacing was just so terrible. Not that I play Pokemon for the "plot" but in this case the frequency of cutscenes actually turned me off the game.

I liked Sword and Shield not so much for Chairman Rose but moreso for the gym challenge and the sports anime-ness of it all. The gym battles felt meaningful with the great scene-setting, music, and everyone using dynamax. Bede, Marnie, and Leon were memorable. And I liked the final Eternatus raid-style fight with the box legendaries on your side.

See, I liked Team Yell from Sword & Shield. They're not actually villains, but an allusion to the football (or soccer, for Americans like myself) hooliganism that you sometimes see in the UK and elsewhere. They weren't evil, just annoying. When they weren't cheering for Marnie and sabotaging her competition, they actually seemed like pretty cool guys, trying to cheer on other Pokémon to do whatever it is Pokémon do.

And frankly, I thought it was real cool that they helped you find and defeat the real villains of the story during the climax. I had never seen that in a Pokémon game before, so it was a real treat to see.

Compare that to Team Rocket, who was so generic in their plot (both in terms of their story and their schemes). Rule the world by stealing powerful Pokémon? Seriously? And their boss is basically every generic mob boss (Italian, Yakuza, etc.) ever seen in movies and television.

And let's not forget the anime where, despite the show going on since 1997, the Terrible Trio themselves, Jessie, James, and Meowth, almost always end up being the villain every episode, being blasted off again by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, and returning the next week with a new scheme, a formula that continues to this very day. At best, they should have been retired after the Johto League and let new characters from the other region's criminal enterprises take center stage, just like how the games do.

And Team Plasma is basically just PETA or some other animal right's group that basically kidnaps people's pets and takes them away to be euthanized without the knowledge or consent of their rightful owners, thinking they're doing it for the animal's own wellbeing (in their own twisted words, a "mercy killing').

Team Galactic was pretty neat, though, since they wanted to rewrite all of reality in their image (like Thanos in Avengers Endgame) using Dialga or Palkia. They easily posed the greatest threat, if you asked me.

Of course, these are the only Pokémon games I have played. I have yet to play any of the others, mostly since my mother would not let me get into the series as a kid. She said it was too violent for me, but the real reason was that she didn't want me to get obsessed with the trading cards and memorabilia; joke's on her, I got into Yu-Gi-Oh! and Beyblade instead.

So, in terms of a ranking for the games I have played, here's mine:

1. Team Yell
2. Team Galactic
3. Team Plasma
4. Team Rocket

I never played B/W2 (and probably won't unless I figure out how to run an emulator) but Gen V is my baby and it will always be in my heart. I might be also bias because I'm a N fanboy for years.
The other 3 games I played was meh (S/M, X/Y, Arceus) I have disconnected since none of the characters i actually cared about, sooo... they are ranked low for me.

I lost hope for Pokémon games after Black 2. XY was fun but just ok, Sun/Moon was a fun change but nothing exceptional, skipped SW/SH. Legend Arceus was unpolished messy experiment that just showed how little does Game Freak/PKmn Comp respect their fans( same can be said about BDSP when they couldn’t even balance the game or make Exp Share switchable/ and how much effort can that take?!…. Now seeing the silly legendaries in Scarlet/ Violet where a legendary has a tire in his chest but keeps running anyway/ well now mixing transformers into it and making Pokémon turn into a sparkling crystal creatures with a crown is just plain stupid…. The series is turning more and more into a game for toddlers and it used to be so much better. Gamefreak does t care about fans a tiny bit, they just wanna squeeze as much money out of people as they can, nothing less, and their attitude shows in their games. I was hopeful after the disappointment with Arceus and BDSP that Violet and Scarlet might be worth it, but they lost me again. Too bad because I used to be a huge fan. It hurts me that such a great series rests in the hands of greedy, selfish, untalented, unimaginative group of people. Shame on Nintendo for tolerating their abominable creations in the part few years!

I prefer Yokai Watch 1 - 3 3DS storyline than any Pokemon games storyline to be honest.

For a moment I was scared of bw not being the top choice.

Shield/Sword was my first Pokémon game and although I enjoined the gameplay loop and mechanics, the story was a ton of eye rolling. The antagonist/villain stuff was…. Meh? 😒

Actually a bit glad it’s listed here as the worst because it might mean there is a case to be said for me to play other Pokémon games. Although I am not sure the reason given is a reason I didn’t like the story. I kinda was ok with the overly ambitious rival that…. Was not really that good at all.

Personally, I like how unobtrusive and minimalist the story is in Red/Blue and Gold/Silver. The games just let you discover little snippets of lore by exploring the world instead of interrupting gameplay with constant cutscenes.

Gen 5 was uncharacteristically good in the narrative department. None of the others come close. Second place I'd go sun and moon, way too heavy on the non scipable cutscenes but none the less it was good.

The only story that isn't terrible is the one in BW/BW2

X&Y story is awful. Villains have an awful design & motive. Lysandre talking about how the people & world are evil & greedy, as he charges people 1 or 5 million (don't remember which) to join, and those who join just happen to be the ones who will be saved from his plan to reset the world, even if they're actual bad people. And instead of doing anything to preserve the life of Pokémon he just sheds a tear - they're idiots.

BW's story is probably the best, but it's still stupid. I don't buy that after an eternity of going hand in hand and only bringing good that people would suddenly start thinking having Pokémon as partners is immoral. Let alone from people committing all sorts of crimes and using Pokémon to Battle, so they're not practicing what they preach. Pokémon doesn't need to be realistic, but people immediately being filled with doubt that the Purrloin that sleeps on your lap every day & follows you everywhere would be happier in the wild is not how people would react. Honestly prefer B2W2's more because they're not even petty criminals anymore - they're terrorists, actually attacking entire cities and trying to kill people. It's a step up from Team Rocket & Team Skull without being edgy.

You've got Sword/Shield's characters all wrong. I'll agree the overall story is pretty bad just from not having a proper evil organization to fight your way through, but the individual characters see a lot more growth than in your standard Pokemon game. Hop goes from mindlessly chasing Leon's shadow, to having a minor identity crisis when he realizes he's not even that good at pokemon battles, to eventually deciding he doesn't have to be exactly the same as his brother, and pursuing his interest in pokemon research instead. Bede comes off as your standard jerk rival at first, but you eventually realize he's just bitter from continually failing to gain the attention and approval of his perceived father figure, Rose. Once he gets a proper mentor who actually wants to see him improve, he mellows out a good bit and doesn't feel the need to beat others down to boost his own confidence. Leon, who has only ever had an interest in battling and winning, sacrifices his chance at being the hero to protect you and Hop, which eventually leads to him giving up the championship title as well. His defeat animation even shows he has a twinge of dissatisfaction with his loss, but he still manages to be a good sport and celebrate your victory, and goes on to create an organization dedicated to helping other people hone their battling skills. Even Rose has better reasoning than most Pokemon villains. He genuinely has done a lot of good for the Galar region, but develops a fixation on the eventual energy crisis that he perceives as the greatest threat to his country's future. Rather than doing what most actual wealthy and powerful people do and kicking the can down the road to some future generation who might be in too far over their heads to actually deal with it, he decides to sacrifice all the power and good will he's accrued to solve the problem now. His only real mistake was underestimating Eternatus, which, to be fair, is probably easier to do when you haven't seen several other legendary pokemon nearly destroy the world like most players have. And despite that, he still more or less got what he wanted. Eternatus is under control and the future is secured. Team Yell are admittedly really annoying, but finding out they're basically a giant family of street urchins collectively cheering on their little sister definitely makes their behavior more palatable than if they were just your standard mob of idiot sports fans.

I would put all of them at F. None of them have a good story. Black and White included. Pokémon is not a series known for its stories. Catch & train Pokémon, defeat the 'villian', collect gym badges, defeat elite four and the champion. Rinse & repeat. The only one that tried to change it up some what was Sun & Moon but still it was very much the same as the others.

On a story level Sun and Moon is just under Black and White plus it's follow-ups.

Reason most people can't see that is because of the handholding being so annoying you don't care for the story, you just get totally mad for the constant stops the game makes because of the handholding.

X&Y has a fine story, I like it, but Team Flare just makes zero sense, even less than Team Rocket.

Legend of Arceus I found "meh" story wise, but better than Sword and Shield.

Don't get me wrong, for a Pokémon game both have a fine story.

Anyhow even while my favorite games are R&S and DPP... BW and B2W2 win hands down story wise.

For the rest Gold and Silver having a good story? Really? Nah, don't agree on that, the games are good and have some solid remakes, but they were never about the story.

Yeah SWSH story was non-eventful. Everything was left to the adults to deal with and you get snippets of how the land came to be but honestly it didn't have any staying power. Doesn't deserve to be on this list so somewhat accurately placed.

I suppose Team Rocket's story continued in Sun & Moon which helps, but that's post game and while people hate on the excessive hand holding that game has I don't think it detracts that much from the story, if anything, it hurts the pacing a tad. That said, Lusamine's character had a better arc in SUMO than USUM.

It's ironic that the anime did a very poor job of adapting Gen 3's story but knocked it out of the park with their story adaptations of Gen 4 and Gen 6

think y'all meant "Worst To Best" in that title because thats the order in the article currently

@Bolt_Strike The point is that disconnected Saturday morning cartoon fare is still more entertaining than the lousy stories in Gens 6 and 8.

A narrative with heavy continuity isn't necessarily better than episodic plots, otherwise you'd have to rank many of the most poorly written anime over great episodic cartoons (with only small continuity links between some episodes) like the original DuckTales.

Terrible article 👎

My problems with gen 5 is that a lot of N's philosophical talk made no logical sense when you take what he was saying as a whole. Also, the question of whether capturing Pokemon is ethical is interesting but not well handled, as the side fighting for their freedom is shown physically abusing their own Pokemon only an hour or so into the game. Then there's the issue of B2/W2's plot only getting interesting by the 7th gym. Cheren and Bianca were handled well overall though

@BulbasaurusRex Hard disagree that the Saturday morning plots are more entertaining, but that's subjective. And again, it's not just the Saturday morning cartoon plots that make those games so bad, but the almost complete lack of any kind of characterization or lore to those games. The characters don't feel like actual characters, they feel like soulless robots with no personality besides "Let's battle" or "Let's make small talk". Team Rocket doesn't really have any motivation to do the evil things they do, Blue doesn't have any reason why he wants to be Champion, Prof. Oak just exists to give you your starter and evaluate the Pokedex, the gym leaders just sit around in their gyms all day. There's no sense of life or depth to the characters, and when you combine that with the Saturday morning cartoon plots with no overarching narrative, it makes the whole story feel dull and practically nonexistent. You'd be hard pressed to call something so dull and empty "entertaining" by any stretch of the imagination. As bad as Gen 6 and 8's plots are, the characters actually feel like they fleshed out motivations and that all of the events in the game have a reason for occurring (even if that reason doesn't make much logical sense). Gens 1 and 2's (especially 1's) sheer lack of depth to any kind of plot or characterization breaks the immersion and betrays that these are video game characters meant to serve as roadblocks for you to overcome or hints to help you progress instead of living, breathing, characters.

@AstroTheGamosian Yeah, I appreciated that in some of the newer games they've tried to actively do something different. Team Yell not actually being villains is a good twist on the basic formula, but deviating from the basic formula is never popular by the more vocal fans. (See also the lack of a traditional 8-gym setup in Sun/Moon, which was similarly unpopular simply because it wasn't the 8-gym setup.)

Gen 5 will always be my pick for story, but I actually like some of the characters from Gen 8. Hop, Marnie, and Bede all being different types of rivals that act as foils to each other, the real story behind Team Yell, the main villain's greater-scope goal being somewhat more justifiable than "I wanna take over the world" or "I wanna steal everyone's Pokémon then take over the world"... Maybe I read too much into characters but I found a lot of depth there that wasn't present in SwSh's general plot.

Yeah I would actually put Gen 1 higher. For such a simple it really got the sense of adventure and I feel like it was the best at interweaving the main plot and the gym plot into one. Having the final gym be the leader of a Team Rocket was a good choice and having your rival end up being the champion is an underrated twist due to how well known it is. The only other game that really mixed it as well was Gen V which has the best story (but sacrifices map design and exploration in exchange).

I... actually can't dispute this list. This hits all positives and negatives for each. I particularly agree with the bottom two. Gen VIII had some decent steps mechanically, but the plot....Woof. Such a step back from the slight promise shown in VII after how weak VI's plot points were.

I hope IX does better, but we'll see....

no suprised that Gen 5 has the best plot of the franchise, gen 5 have very well written characters.

My order: 5, 3, 2, 1, 4, 6, 8, 7

Gen 5 was the best in almost every way. For story, there really isn't much of a debate.

@Bolt_Strike I do agree that cartoons are often better with strong continuity. However, the best episodic cartoons are still much better than the worst continuity cartoons.

As for Team Rocket's motivation, they're an organized crime syndicate out to make money and gain prestige, the same motivations that real life organized crime groups have. What motivation do they need beyond that?! That's at least much better characterization than the somewhat nonsensical fantasy-like motivations in some of the other games. Plus, there's still somewhat of an overarching plot in that you start with foiling Team Rocket's smaller crimes and gradually raise the stakes until you're fighting the boss himself with the fate of a major corporation on the line and then have your final battle at the last gym.

The same goes for Blue's/Gary's motivation, as just becoming the Champion and the absolute best trainer you can be is a fully worthy goal in itself and one that doesn't need any special reason for it. What Pokémon trainer wouldn't want to be the Champion? In Gen 2, Silver then takes that motivation and takes in a different but equally good or even better direction by being outright mean and abusive until he undergoes character development. That's better characterization than some of the other wimpy or weird rival characters in some other Generations.

As for the gym leaders, that's a silly complaint, as aside from Giovanni in Gen 1 itself, Gen 5, and a few other individual exceptions, all the gym leaders in every generation just sit in their gyms and refuse to take an active role in the story. Every generation except Gen 5 has that same problem!

I think this is the first time that I overall agree with the rankings provided within an article here. Actually, when I went through the list, I was anticipating Gen. V not being #1. I expected to see what I would strongly disagree with. Generation V to me is the best generation of Pokemon, and the story certainly is a factor towards that.

Sun and moon has my favorite story, and Id rank Black and White second. I think the sinnoh region has some very interesting lore, and I dont think id rank it so harshly.

Sword and Shield is without a doubt the worst, but Hop was one problem it did not have. Hop was the best character in that story.

So weird to rank Gen 3 so high. There's nothing really too it, the game doesn't even really establish why Archie and Maxie even feel like they need to do what they are doing. Their motivation is their goal which doesn't really make them feel like people.

It deserves to be at the bottom with gen 6's bland generic story.

Gen 8 raised for atleast having a fair amount if motivation behind characters actions in the story.

I think people get mad at Rose's baffling insane actions, but it fits within the whole passing the torch narrative. He's supposed to be the genius golden-child who always made the right decisions (e.g. building up the league, sponsoring the undefeated Chsmpion Leon when he was just an unknown). But doesn't recognise when to pass the torch, I Sw/Sh he essentially makes bigger and bigger errors attempting to achieve his goal leading to catastrophe.

He basically destroys his own legacy by attempting to build an even greater one.

As others have said, Pokémon games have never really been about thrilling stories, and of course they need to be appealing to all ages, but as a player you do need some kind of plot to keep you going. What frustrates me about the series is that ever since Ruby and Sapphire, the main narrative climax has boiled down to the villain awakening the legendary Pokémon in the box art in order to destroy the world. This plot, or a variant of it, appears in literally every main series title (excluding remakes) from Generation 3 onwards, as well as the majority of the anime films, so as a player / viewer, each new entry just feels incredibly predictable and derivative.

Despite the simpler gameplay and 'shallower' characters, I actually find Generations 1 and 2 extremely refreshing to play after spending a while in later games. No annoying dialogue, no lengthy cutscenes, no compulsory battle with the box-art legendary to break the flow of the principal quests to become the Champion and complete the Pokédex.

This raises an interesting question about Scarlet and Violet. The trailers we've seen so far suggest that you get the main legendary fairly early on in order to use it to traverse the world. If this is the case, does that mean there won't be an obligatory 'epic final battle with the legendary to save the world', and therefore perhaps a slightly more interesting, unobtrusive and original story? I for one hope so.

@gregmce Or when people were upset in Sword & Shield that not all 800+ Pokémon were available to catch, already an extremely daunting task for even the earliest Pokémon games.

As that number grows, the task of "catching 'em all" will only get even more difficult, and the file size for the game will get even bigger, meaning less space for other games.

And for certain Legendary Pokémon, such as Mew and Rayquaza, you can only get them in specific limited-time distribution events, not normal gameplay, making it even more difficult.

I gave up trying to "catch 'em all" years ago, because I never got to play the other games (again, my mother wouldn't let me get into the franchise as a kid), so I was already at a disadvantage, and was intimidated by the Herculean task before me.

So I focus more on playing through the story, experiencing the region, and collecting the Pokémon for that region, plus whatever other Pokémon I can get. Unlike others, I don't need them all. I'm fine with and grateful for what I already have.

Why others can't see it that way is beyond me.

@AstroTheGamosian While tbf the file size isn't that important.

Yeah it's more like a sisyphean struggle the longer the series goes. I'd argue its better game design now because it's feasible to complete the Pokedex between the two games. Just like Red/Blue outside of mew it was fair reasonable to complete the dex and I did with a handful of trades for missing mons.

But since then was turning into a metagame. Where completing the natdex in a game not only required mons from both games it also required transfers from several generations including an increasing number of gens.

It was a completionist nightmare that made it practically impossible for anyone but cheaters and players who followed the series for decades to 100% each game. And even then tbe transfer methods were so tedious I couldn't be bothered transferring all but a few mons so I'd stopped even trying to finish the dex Iin each game long ago.

I think if 100%-ing a modern game requires content from decades old games that's bad design.

@BulbasaurusRex That's only your opinion that the best Saturday morning cartoon plots are better than the worst overarching plots. I can't stand Saturday morning cartoon plots, they're so dull and empty and they feel pointless.

Team Rocket trying to gain money and power to rule the world is so cliche and hollow. Almost every freaking villain wants to rule the world, what makes them so special? And no, there is no overarching plot in Team Rocket's events (with the sole exception of the Lake of Rage and Radio Tower events in GSCHGSS) and I've never really felt like the later events were "larger crimes". They all feel somewhat petty and localized, you never really get the feeling that they're a threat to the entire region in the same way as later evil teams. It all feels so random. Say what you want about the later evil teams and their supernatural apocalypses, at least their motivations and overall plans form a more coherent and interesting motive than Team Rocket.

Same with Blue. Wanting to be the best? Cliche. Empty. Every rival wants to be the best at their craft. You said it yourself, what rival wouldn't want to be the Champion, so what makes him stand out from any other rival? Silver's a little better because of what's going on beneath the surface, but they don't explicitly go into that until the Celebi event in HGSS, as far as you know for sure from GSC, he's just some arrogant jerk who hates weak people.

The characters need the more detailed motivations to stand out. Otherwise, how can you really be "entertained" by them? There's no real reason to engage with them other than them being the roadblock to the next area in the game.

My personal favorite will always be gen 2 but I am the first to admit that it's probably my nostalgia speaking.
Still, the games have a lot of epic moments like the final battle, fighting side by side with Siegfried...beating milktank after 200 tries.
Objectively (as much as that is possible) B&W (2) probably is the correct choice. Sword and Shield was horrible.

Ruby and Sapphire for me. It really did a great job with the end of the world plot being believable and more realistic than some other schemes.

I do love the simplicity of team rocket being criminals just out to make money.

@BabyYoda71 "That article was savagely written…"
That's literally how Nintendolife have always operated.

You know Pokemon Red and Blue had a great story called Pokemon. It was an anime that allowed us to imagine the world. Of course the other games had it, but the show, manga and trading card game were all a part of the same ecosystem. Pokemon the first movie was also a great experience in theaters! I feel the shows now are out some time after the game launches and on YouTube rather than being one of those early morning / weekend cartoons many of us were all watching due to the limited power of streaming and fewer viewing choices in the 90s. But it made for great playground conversation. Let's be honest, the Kanto Pokemon shows were the best. Hitcha in the feels! Of course when reading the criteria above, it is really hard to say there was a solid storyline within the game itself. I just consider each generation of Pokemon is a much bigger experience than just what's in one of the channels of media it comes in. Opinion over.

@Entrr_username Well that’s certainly an opinion…

To me, it’s still red, blue and yellow. The simplicity of wanting to be the best while there’s a competitor and a criminal organization trying to stop you is just fenomenal. There’s a reason it gets implemented in each generation. I also liked thet the competitor actually became the pokemon master before me.

To me there’s too much weirdness going on in the story of each game following gen 1.

I just love the simple ‘I want to be the very best like no one ever was…’ and ‘to catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause…’ of gen 1.

I also would like to be 7 again and experience the game for the first time… please.

I also agree the story of gen viii is horrible. At the end I was like wtf is going on in this bosses’ mind… crazy for ‘power’ indeed…

And I was constantly rooting for hop to win at least something.

Also, shielbert and sordward? Wtf was that… where did these annoying characters all of a sudden come from and why were they needed in the story?

Doesn’t bode well for gen ix to be honest.

But I liked a few of the smaller stories: Opel finding a successor. Marnie learning to smile through the game and becoming champion instead of her brother Piers. Sonia, proving herself as a professor to her grandmother. And the return of the rabbit-king.

@Dr_Lugae Totally. And you mentioned the transfers from older gens to newer ones. That alone is a problem, since a lot of those services have been or are being shut down, since they're online. It's an absolute nightmare.

At that point, you'd either need a GameShark or Action Reply to get all the Pokémon, not just recorded in your National Pokédex, but to play as.

I may need to do that, because I lost my Mew in FireRed. I got it in a limited-time event as a kid, but a few years ago, started a new save file, completely forgetting I had Mew.

And because they patched out the glitch from the original Pokémon Red where you could get Mew in normal gameplay, my only option now is to use Action Replay or GameShark to get Mew back.

Conceptually, the story from the Black/White games should have been good, but it was executed so poorly that it was painfully boring and the only generation I just couldn't get into. I beat the main story of the first game, but couldn't get invested in the post-game story. Then I tried playing the sequel and couldn't even beat the main story. The characters were all so bland (even for a Pokémon game) and their was no motivation to do anything.

Ateast with some of the other games, even with a bad/nonexistent story then I could turn my brain off and go through the motions, but B&W just forced me to deal with their tedium.

It doesn't even matter if the story in SWSH is good or bad, because you don't get to be part of it. Every time something moderately interesting happens, you get a bunch of NPCs swooping in and telling you to just continue your challenge. Makes me wonder if the people responsible for this know what "protagonist" means.

XY just felt like they were making a gen 1 remake and halfway through the game someone remembered that games have stories, then they slapped on a half-baked exposition textbox with a giant old man model and called it a day.

Arceus isn't included?

I generally agree with this list. I don't understand why Game Freak can't hire a writing team of quality for the modern games

Meh, Gen 5 has a definitely overrated story and N's convictions (wether in team plasma or not) easily falls apart. For the most part ALL pokemon games lack in the story department, but the whole point was to fill up the dex as much as possible and be the best at it.

Before anyone with a Unova pokemon as their pfp attempts to bash me, I still rank Gen V as the fourth best overall generation. B2W2 is specifically top three standalone imo but BW wasn't as good.

XY should definitely be placed higher. It had a good story that was emotional, and new mechanics that were integrated well into the campaign narrative. Let's not forget the Looker's Side story after you complete the game, they were excellent.

On the other hand, I think that Gen 5 is overrated and is just placed that high because the Pokémon community is a hivemind.

I've really only played gamea in gen 6 and up and would place ORAS in my top spot. But X and Y should definitely be placed higher. I think Lysander actually had a reason to be a villan since he believed he could make the world a better place (he was obviously wrong). But team yell, don't even get me started. They literally were a fan club trying to cheat their sister into a tournament. I 100% agree with gen 8 in last place.

But that's just my opinion, and this is not my list. Maybe i should play gen 5