Topic: The Universal Games Ranking Forum (Currently: Characters/Weapons/etc. You Hate Playing Against)

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Okay, before I begin, I'd like to say that Pokémon is one of my favorite videogame series, all of the mainline games are great and all-time classics. Also, I'd like to give a clear timeline of my relationship with the franchise to avoid getting anyone who reads this confused. I'm old enough to just have feint memories of the great Pokémon boom. The plush toys at Burger King, the anime, the trading cards and so on. However, and that is a big however, I was too young to really a. understand the battle system with types, levels and so on and b. to appreciate the games. I was a young, impatient brat (around 4 to 5 years old) to understand the concept of 'training, leveling up and so on' so I got stuck in Red rather quickly and had my dad play it for me (he fell in love with that game btw and still has fond memories of his Level 100 Wigglytuff that knew Psychic and was 'indestructible'). Sure, I liked the anime (though the Digimon anime was much better and more memorable imo) but the games weren't anything for me. Same with Crystal and Sapphire, which I ended up never playing.

It wasn't until I made one fateful spontaneous buy that everything changed: Blue Dragon (a masterpiece btw that you all should play) that would change my opinion of rpgs as a whole. Tales of Vesperia (another masterpiece that you all should play) would come and after it, my first real Pokémon game: Platinum. And afterwards, I was hooked to SoulSilver, White, Black 2, Y, OmegaRuby (a little less, never finished that one) and finally Moon. Starting with White, I'm used to training 60+ Pokemon to, in a way, compensate for never playing anything pre-Gen 4. This would cause me to take well over 200 hours to actually finish a game and with the Pokemon mainline releases coming closer and closer together, I had just finished the last game when the new one was released. And it became so tiring I never finished OmegaRuby and even Moon is yet unfinished. We will see what UltraSM holds but I'm not too much looking forward to it. With that finally out of the way, let's start my list from worse to best.

1. (Omega)Ruby, (Alpha)Sapphire, Emerald: I'm not too fond of Gameboy Advance games due to the requirement of a light source and the third gen being the 'I don't care about Pokémon' years, so I never played my copy of Sapphire. Even the remakes came when I simply needed a break from the franchise.

2. (Fire)Red, (Leaf)Green, Blue, Yellow: But ... but ... it's the originals that everyone loves. Well, no, I don't obviously. I hadn't played any of them up until the VC releases and even then they came when I needed my afromentioned break from Pokémon. And with my 3DS being long forgotten in favor of my beloved Switch, I doubt I'll be returning to them.

3. Sun/Moon: I really don't have a reason or serious criticism towards these two but they are somewhat the middle child in this ranking that isn't loved enough to be higher on the list but also liked enough to be above Gen 1 and 3.

4. X/Y: My relationship towards these two can be called a 'Love/Hate' relationship. On the one hand, Y has by far far far, the most hours put into it (807:04 to be exact, my dream is it to surpass that in Splatoon 2 or Overwatch). I became a shiny hunter once I was done with the game and would spent afternoons after afternoons cloning my Shinies via a now-patched out glitch and would trade the Shinies for new ones. It wasn't until I picked up an Action Replay (to get event-exclusive Pokémon) that my value for Shinies died from one day to the next. The hate side comes in with the game itself. I like most of the new Pokémon, especially the poor forgotten Megavolutions, but everything else about the region from its locations, to its inhabitants and especially its villaneous team and gym leaders was just bad, boring even. I also hate how there are a bazillion different Pokemon in the region. It seemed to me that with every new route, the Pokémon living there were completely different to the one from the last one (SM also has this problem but it's not that bad there). That's completely unnatural and ultimately destroyed Kalos for me. It felt to me like each route was a cage and none of the Pokémon could leave and spread throughout the region. It felt more organic when the Pokémon are slowly sorted out for new ones while some are just always there over the course of 2-3 routes.

5. (Heart)Gold, (Soul)Silver, Crystal: I've never played the original but I have very very fond memories for SoulSilver. I love that Kanto is included into the game but wished it be more story-involved than just post-maingame stuff. It was a little too easy for how much I tried my, at the time, small team.

6. Black, White, Black 2, White 2: To this day, my favorite Pokémon come from Gen 5 (come at me, gen wunners!). It was also the first game where I actively followed as more and more Pokémon got revealed. While Unova itself isn't my favorite region (that would be Sinnoh with Johto as a close second), the gym leaders and evil team are cool, the story is heartfelt and N ultimately sympathetic.

7. Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: And here's the great one, the nostalgia bomb itself, Platinum. So, what do I have to say about this one. Not much besides that my Torterra is a frickin tank. I've trained all my other Pokémon by giving them EXP Shares and let Torterra do all the work. Once I was done, it could withstand any Explosion or Self-Destruct easily. The region is awesome, the gyms and their leaders are awesome, the new Pokémon are awesome and the evil team is ... okay, rather forgettable if I'm honest.

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First of all, forgive the novel. Here are some notes before I get started on my own list:

• I have yet to play Sun/Moon (just picked up Sun and hoping to start it this weekend! ), so for now I'll be skipping Gen 7. Thus far I've managed to avoid most story spoilers.
• My first Pokemon game was a Gen 2 game (Gold), but I've played at least two versions of every generation since (barring Gen 6 and 7).
• I'm counting remakes as part of their introductory generation, despite appearing in later gens. Said remakes likely affected their rankings in some way.
• Incoming spoilers, obviously.
• I will use the Pokemon introduced in each generation as a rating point as well. Please note, however, that there are Pokemon that I both like and dislike out of every generation.
• Finally, it should be noted that I don't dislike any of the mainline Pokemon games. They're all excellent games in their own right, similar to how I feel about the Zelda series. If we were ranking spinoffs, however...hides chopping block

6. X/Y - I'm not gonna lie, there was a point early on in the game (the long drag before the second gym) where I almost stopped playing completely. This was unheard of for me before I played Y. Thankfully the story picked up a little after that, but X/Y was, overall, pretty bland in my opinion. The story in general was a snoozefest compared to Gen 5's storytelling, Lysandre's motives were about as deep as a a Lotad's leaf dish, and the character models...what was up with their heads?

There are some positives, however. I like most Mega Evolutions despite the general power creep that they introduced (not that I care much since I don't have the time or patience to battle competitively). Kalos has some wonderfully designed areas which pop even more when the 3D is used. Character customization was a huge plus for me, something I've been wanting for years. AZ was an interesting character, and his story and motivations were a high point for me. Last but not least, while I complained about Lysandre before, his final trump card (or his "watch everything burn" plan), is deliciously dark (in Y) if you read between the lines.

5. [Omega]Ruby/[Alpha]Sapphire/Emerald - I'll start with the original three first. In hindsight, overall, there are some things that I really appreciate about these games. The graphics overhaul was breathtaking compared to the GB/GBC titles, though my complaint about the heads of the sprites persists here. These games also introduced the concept of two teams instead of one, groups who were more eco-terrorists than straight-up mafia thugs. The story is better than X/Y's, but it could have been better. The Hoenn region, however, is home to my second least-favorite Pokedex. The fire types minus the Blaziken line were few and disappointing, whereas there were more water types (most of the designs of which I'm not fond of) than you could shake a stick at. [Warning: Petty complaint incoming] Surfing in the original three games...ugh. Ugh. Move three squares? Battle time! It's a common Wingull! Run or make it faint. Continue surfing on that bland ocean, five tiles later...Woo-hoo! Another annoying Luvdisc! Wash, rinse, repeat until you're beyond sick of the water routes. The only redemption here was the sheer rush of joy that I still get when using the Dive HM.

Emerald did improve on the story somewhat by putting you into conflict with both teams, and I loved that cutscene of Groudon and Kyogre fighting in Sootopolis. Conversely, though, there was the Battle Frontier. Now, I understand that Game Freak was trying something new here, and for the most part it worked. Some of the Battle facilities were an absolute joy, but it was so easy to get RNG-screwed in many of them. To date, the only symbol that I've ever earned is, ironically, the Luck Symbol. I'm still bitter about the last floor of the Battle Pyramid....

I felt that OR/AS fixed some of the problems of the originals (like the encounter rate while surfing, for example, and the story was cleaned and spiced up a bit), but overall I found some parts of the game to be rather bland like X/Y and made me think that some parts of these remakes were rushed. For one thing, many of the legendary encounters outside of the main story and Delta Episode seemed tacked on. The Delta Episode was a big improvement though, which almost made up for Emerald's absence in my book. Also, a special nod to those two grunts who were in love and eloped from their teams. XD

Also, while at the time I appreciated Brendan/May's friendliness as a nice change of pace when compared with Blue and Silver, it set an unfortunate trend for many of the rivals to come. Wally is superior to them, IMO. I feel that the remakes sugarcoated them even more.

4. [Fire]Red/[Leaf]Green/Blue/Yellow - Hah! Come at me, Genwunners! Honestly, these almost went higher on the list until I realized that a big chunk of my feelings relied on nostalgia. I still appreciate the difficulty and and limited non-linearity of the original games when compared with some of their successors. The regional Pokedex is still one of my favorites, though there are Pokemon out of it that I don't care for. Even though I have a lot of the story memorized by this point, it seems pretty barebones when compared with the games that followed. Some ridiculous things like Pokeballs missing their targets and the OP-ness of the Psychic type were remedied in later games.

Yellow was a slight improvement. The fact that Pikachu could follow you around and display emotions is still one of my favorite aspects of the game. You could obtain all three starters, and many of the sprites were cleaned up and improved.

FR/LG improved on the originals in a lot of ways. Not only did they give the games the Gen 3 graphics overhaul (and I like the character sprites here a lot better), but adding the Sevii Islands was a big game-changer for me. There were all these new areas that you could explore, and in a way these reminded me of the Orange Islands from the anime. To this day, FR/LG both contain one of my favorite post-game experiences.

3. Black/White 1/2 - These almost got ranked below the previous entry, but the well-written story in both sets of games (particularly B/W) won out. N is still one of my favorite characters in any Pokemon game and is, in his own way, as much of a hero in the game as the player. Watching him overcome the general brainwashing that he experienced under his adoptive father, Ghetsis, is something to see. The cutscene where N's castle virtually consumes the Pokemon League is still a "Wow" moment for me. In the sequels, it's interesting to see how Team Plasma was split into two factions: One clearly bent on helping Pokemon, and the other still set on "liberating" Pokemon for their own selfish gain. I felt that none of the other titles explored the antagonistic team's motives quite so well.

The games' 2.5D environments still stick out in my mind, and Castelia City's vastness helps bring that idea home. Nimbasa City is still my absolute favorite, though I'm quite biased towards theme parks. XD B/W 2's Join Avenue is still one of my favorite side activities in any of the games. Same goes for the movie-making studio north of Virbank City; it was interesting to see how the movies would turn out, and it was almost a game within a game to try to get the films to turn out just right.

My major complaint with these games is that the regional Pokedex was way too vast for its own good. I have my favorites out of it, but they're overshadowed by a ton of Pokemon that range (design-wise) from mediocre to just plain bad. I mean, who asked for three elemental monkey lines or things like Stunfisk or Reuniclus? Did we really need ANOTHER Fire/Fighting starter? (though Ganonpork Emboar was an improvement over Sir Methane Monkey, but neither compare to Blaziken....)

The rivals here weren't bad, though I prefer Cheren and Bianca to (meh, had to look up his name) Hugh.

2. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - I think I can safely say that, until the Sun/Moon buzz, the original Diamond/Pearl games achieved my highest hype rating. I remember getting a hold of a demo unit and playing through the demo in a local store (something that doesn't happen often in Nowheresville, Midwest, USA). I was blown away by the 2.5D game engine and Jubilife City in general, and to this day Gen 4's graphics engine is still my favorite. The Sinnoh region is also my favorite region, not the least because (for some weird reason) I love Mt. Coronet and how most of the region is designed around that massive complex.

While I wouldn't say the story here is quite comparable to Gen 5, it definitely had its high points. The gym leaders were memorable to me, and Team Galactic (preferred them as Galaxy) had motives of rewriting the universe, not just the whole planet. Cyrus is one of my favorite team leaders after Ghetsis and Giovanni; there's a bit of a quiet megalomania to him. Dialga and Giratina are still two of my favorite draconic legendaries, and I was pleased (though not too surprised) that Platinum focused on the dimensional outcast. The focus on the Distortion World (still one of my favorite areas in any Pokemon game because it's, well, wonderfully crazy), and the slightly improved story make it one of my favorite sequel versions.

D/P/Pt aren't completely perfect, however. While the Dex here isn't as bad as in Gen 5, it could have used some improvement. There were too many legendary Pokemon in this generation (cool as some of them are), and all it took was one design that I really disliked to make this the first generation where I didn't start with a fire Pokemon. Some of the evolutionary "add-ons" such as Tangrowth and Magmortar seem kinda meh to me.

1. [Heart]Gold/[Soul]Silver/Crystal - A little of this entry may be based on nostalgia, but I feel that the Gen 2 games got so many things right. The story isn't anything too stellar, but I found a lot of the characters to be memorable. Silver is still my favorite rival, and how could he not be? It's interesting to watch him change from a cold, uncaring person (partially due to his upbringing) into someone who cares for and respects their Pokemon. These games also cemented Lance as one of my favorite characters due to his general awesomeness. And the Ruins of Alph....I still love that weird radio signal. Hunting down the roaming beasts could be a bit of a pain, but I enjoyed the challenge. There was quite a post-game in the form of a future Kanto region, and while it was a bit barebones in the original releases, we're quite lucky that we got it at all. The regional Pokedex is perhaps my favorite one. Also, the originals retained a form of non-linearity with some of the gyms.

Crystal was another slight improvement. The game introduced the Battle Tower, the added sub-story of Eusine and Suicune, and a few other little changes that I appreciated. One of the neatest things for me at the time was the introduction of Kris as a female character; this was a novelty for a girl who was used to playing as male characters, and Kris is still one of my favorite female avatar designs.

On their own, the original games don't hold up as well, but HG/SS improved on them in nearly every way I can imagine. The Johto AND Kanto regions received the Gen 4 aesthetic overhaul that I love so much, every Pokemon could follow you, and the story was improved upon in various ways. There were a lot of great changes that ranged from fanservice (like that device that let you hear the GB tunes from the originals) to general quality of life improvements. Add in a certain event Celebi with significant clout, and I would rate these two remakes as my favorite Pokemon games.

The only negative? I still dislike Lyra's design.