Hi, I'm hoping to get into Pokemon but am having a tough time knowing where to start/which games to play. I played Blue and Silver when they initially came out, but haven't really played since. I've done a bit of research and I'd like to play each generation. I'm more interested in playing through the stories and collecting Pokemon as opposed to battling competitively. As a result, it would be great if the games I played were able to link together so I could share my Pokemon between them
I was thinking of playing games in the following order:
Blue (3DS eShop)
SoulSilver (DS)
OmegaRuby (3DS)
Diamond (DS)
Black and Black 2 (DS)
X (3DS)
Sun/Moon (3DS)
Does this make sense? I know the games are all stand-alone and don't have to be played in any particular order, but my preference would be to play in the order that they were released (I tried to replicate that with some of the remakes). Any thoughts you have would be much appreciated, thanks!
Insert the cartridge on the system, power the system on, load the game and follow the instructions on screen.
That said, if you must play them in order, I'd recommend doing so in order of newness, if you go from gb to ds to 3ds and then back to ds and etc, the ds games might seem disappointing.
Okay thanks for your advice, it confirmed some of the worries I had. I'm thinking maybe I'll start with SoulSilver as from what I can tell it has all of the Kanto/Johto Pokemon and just continue from that point.
Is there much value in playing multiple games in each generation (e.g. Pearl + Platinum)? I was just planning on doing 1, but am open to doing others as well if it provides a unique experience.
Soul silver will not let you "experience" the story of the first generation, and it's actually more of a direct sequel to them.
So if you're interested in the story aspect, I'd recommend playing red, blue, yellow, fire red or leaf green (the remakes). The first three are easily available on the eshop, and will feature connectivity with Moon and Sun. The other two are remakes, and are much improved, but they're a bit harder to get and the story is mostly unchanged anyway.
"Third editions" like emerald and platinum feature the same story as the normal dual editions of their generations, but with more features and story arcs. So if you have the option, I'd recommend to go for those instead of the originals.
In the case of the fifth generation, Black 2 and White 2 are sequels instead of "third editions", so those are worth playing too.
That's too much Pokemon too quickly. It's not a story-focused game where that works. It's the same combat system, over and over, with slight tweaks and new pokemon. Just pick the generation with the starters you like the best and run with it (ideally the corresponding remake).
That said, if you must play them in order, I'd recommend doing so in order of newness, if you go from gb to ds to 3ds and then back to ds and etc, the ds games might seem disappointing.
This. Play the older games first, it doesn't matter if you play them in order if you take remakes into account as well. For example; I'd play Diamond/Pearl before OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire. Going back means that you'll find certain things missing from those games, it's better to start with the oldest games and work your way up.
@lozoot Personally, I would just play the newest entry in the series first, since the best part for me is discovering new pokemon and since you haven't played since the second generation then you have a ton of new pokemon and other stuff to discover. I mean, if a generation was introduced with the x/y games to the pokemon world, how difficult would it be for you to adapt? Granted, that would make the previous pokemon games to feel outdated and you would already know all the pokemon, but since you care about the story too then you still have a good reason to play them.
I didn't play a pokemon game since Gen 3, and for me it worked great when I played Y version for the first time. Many fans that played each generation seem to feel that those games fell short in some aspects bur for me it was Pokemon Red/Blue all over again and to be honest, I think I even enjoyed it more than my first experience with a pokemon game. I think that the reason behind it was because I had so much to discover again.
Thanks a lot for your insight - there's so many games that it's tough to know where to start. Based on this advice I think I'm going to start with SSHG then Platinum, and continue chronologically from there.
If I'm ever feeling nostalgic then maybe I'll pick up Blue on the VC. And yes, definitely a long-term plan to play these games, not sure I'll get to all of them.
Or you can just grab the one that's most readily available to you and go to town. You don't even know if you like them yet, man. And the GB games aren't worth it if you didn't grow up with them, they're actually really bad in terms of design.
Turn on Pokemon. Turn it off. Proceed to turn on World of Final Fantasy/Monster Hunter Stories/Shin Megami Tensei.
I think you've made the right choice with SS/HG, arguably the best of the series. Also, for generation 3, I would recommend trying to play the originals instead of the remakes. Not sure if they're on any e-shop though, which makes them harder to find.
Edit: just realised how old this thread is - oops!
If you're not sure you'd get through all of them, I'd go with one of the newer entries as they are far more polished and accessible. Personally I'd advise only going as far back as generation 4 (the first set of DS games) unless you especially want to play the earlier titles.
As mentioned, story isn't important, although a few games have shoutouts to others. The only real cases of when stories follow on from another are Red/Blue to Gold/Silver and Black/White to B2/W2.
As for third versions / remakes - I'd say go for these over the originals, especially in the case of Platinum for third versions (vastly improved over Diamond and Pearl).
That said, Pokemon has been consistently good over the years and you can't really go wrong with any game.
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Topic: How to Start Playing Pokemon?
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