Topic: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!

Gen 4 > Gen 3 >>>>> Gen 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>> Gen 5 > Gen 6 > Gen 1 > Gen 7

My placement for each Gen (including remakes in said Gen):

Gen 2 > Gen 4 > Gen 5 > Gen 1 = Gen 7 >>> Gen 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gen 6

Really surprised to see all the dislike for Gen 6 ("Pokemon cycle?").

For me:

Gen 4 > 6 > 5 = 3 > 7 > 2 > 1

Gen 1 > Gen 6 = Gen 4 < Gen 5 % Gen 3 >= Gen 2 != Gen 7

Idk for me Gen 3 is where I stopped playing it for a while. I just never had an interest in Ruby and Sapphire and I tried to play it back then and tried to play it recently after that and I still hate it. Just a combination of different things that I can't really pinpoint one exact thing. I remember liking Black and White and then I didn't play another Pokemon game till X and Y which I thought was kind of boring and so I had no interest in Sun and Moon at all despite liking the Alolan forms and the region in general.

I don't really like JRPGs besides maybe Pokemon, Dragon Quest and Yokai Watch. I like the simple stories I guess that don't take themselves too seriously and I guess that's been happening in Sun and Moon with the dimension stuff... that and I just don't care about catching all these Pokemon now. I'm actually excited to play Let's Go as with the changes coming with it I want to catch them all again and I hope the changes fixes some of the things I hate about the series like the random battles and the grinding. I hated this in Dragon Quest as well but XI got rid of the random battles.

For me, it goes something like this:

Gen V > Gen II > Gen VI > Gen IV >> Gen I >>> Gen III >>> Gen VII

If LGP/E count as Gen VII that only makes Gen VII even worse than I've already calculated.

That's a funny way to say "LGPE will make Gen VII the 2nd best one". Don't worry though, we all know that's what you meant.

@-Juice- ...What? I thought we were working with a "greater than" system here.

I don't really hate or even dislike any Pokemon generation and the "worst" one of Gen 6 for me isn't even bad. I thought Gen 7 was pretty damn good, though there were some major problems with what it wanted to do compared to Gen 5's storytelling.

I'd rank Gen 5 > Gen 4 > Gen 2 > Gen 7 > Gen 3 > Gen 6 > Gen 1 (due to how insanely buggy it is). Honestly aside from Gen 1 and 6's placement, it's very arbitrary.

@Harmonie Pretty sure that's a half-joke.

@EvilLucario Even if I hate Ruby and Sapphire I wouldn't call it bad either. I'm just not that excited about it compared to if I play another game in the series.

Looking back on Gen 5 I really liked some of the pokemon from that gen, but at the same time, I found a lot of them very eh. I was just thinking about it when thinking up bug Pokemon teams and remembered how many cool ones there were that gen. It had awesome pokemon like Scolipede, Volcarona and the awesome fossil pokemon, but also had Conkeldurr (and his prevo) which I consider to be up there for the ugliest pokemon ever and I was not a fan of the two trio groups from that gen. The genies rubbed me the wrong way and really came off as copy-pasted mario when I first encountered them. I like their beast forms though.

For me, Gen 5 was great because it had a fairly good narrative for Pokemon standards. It wasn't terribly mindblowing or even that expanded upon as by the end the questions it posed became extremely simplified and sort of swept under the rug, but it was still a compelling enough narrative that carried over between two games. There's a lot of good background details, but being a Pokemon game aimed for people of all ages (mainly children though), you can't exactly be sharp and cynical like Xenogears/Xenoblade or Final Fantasy.

As for designs, every generation has their fantastic ones, their meh ones, and their absolutely atrocious ones. For me I just like a variety from every generation so it's hard to really say which generation is my favorite in designs.

Gameplay-wise though, it was just perfect for me. Everything flowed so quickly. That 60 FPS during battles mixed with fantastic animations and sprite-work made things look beautiful, and the game balance was tight as hell. I don't know if Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee will target 60 FPS (considering Battle Revolution and Colosseum/XD were 30), but 60 FPS would make the game look real good.

Something like this for me:
Gen 2 > Gen 1 > Gen 4 > Gen 5 > Gen 7 > Gen 6 > Gen 3

I like every Pokémon game. My favorite is Gen 2 and least favorite is Gen 3. Others aren't locked and change positions on daily basis. I would probably give a different answer tomorrow.

Gen 1 and 2 are great because of their simple mechanics. I agree that in terms of battle mechanics (and just various bug fixes) gen 2 is a lot better than gen 1. I also like a lot of the gen 2 designs; however, gen 2 has some big issues with level pacing, the entire region feels pretty short. Almost as if to compromise Kanto being included on the cart. Gen 3 and 4 are pretty good because of abilities and the physical/special split. From 1 to 4 it's like a refinement of battle mechanics. Gen 3 has Colosseum, one of my favourite games due to the double battles (and difficulty). I wasn't a fan of the more story-focused BW. And it feels like the games became easier after that one; unlimited TMs, the EXP Share, removal of HMs. Even their movesets got OP, as a result of getting bigger movesets, more available TMs, etc. A lot of Pokemon are essentially the same these days, bar their ability. They should bring back the exclusive moves, and keep moves more limited to certain Pokemon in general.

It's less buggy than State of Decay 2, and the games are still perfectly playable today. There's a bit of annoying wrap/bind shenanigans, and critical hits don't work like they should, but if you're aware of them, there are hardly any major issues that prevent you from finishing the game like any other Pokemon game.

A lot of Pokemon are the same with some having insurmountable limitations. They should either make the stat system work so you can use every Pokemon competitively or add unique moves like Octane said. The rift between singleplayer and multiplayer Pokemon really is laughable, playing through the campaigns doesn't teach you how to battle other players at all.

@Haru17 It's so stupid at times, why can nearly all Pokemon learn Toxic? It doesn't even make sense! I'm in favour of cutting their movesets down, that alone should make them all feel a bit more unique. I'm not saying every single one should be equally useful, but so many are outclassed by the fact that another Pokemon can learn their de facto moveset, but has higher stats or a better ability.

@Octane Yeah, I was saying that about usefulness. I definitely feel like there should be a way to make every fully evolved or single-stage Pokemon at least plausibly competitive. I mean the whole ethos of the series and anime is that Pokemon are each valuable, it seems self-defeating to have the mechanics disagree.

Ice sort of embodies the point Octane was mentioning as well. By type, they’re intended to be glass cannons yet water Pokemon commonly edge in on their territory by learning ice movesand a lot of the more defensive ice types, Glaceon and Avalugg, are completely limited by type and ability. Like balancing such a large roster is probably a pipe dream, but so many Pokémon could really just use changes. Gamefreak just seems to be very wary of that in most cases, unless they’re large points.

@Haru17 I wouldn't say every one. There are Pokemon like Mr. Mime, Unown, Plusle, Delibird or Volbeat that GameFreak has made for reasons other than being good at fighting. I remember reading an article (I think it was after XY came out?) where they discussed that they make sure to include a few 'gimmick' Pokemon every generation because there are people out there who really enjoy them, and that they help the world feel wider than just battling. Though yeah, a lot more Pokemon definitely could be rebalanced on the competitive side, mostly by ditching moves that every Pokemon learns (Toxic and Return are the main offenders there), rebalancing some base stats to account for power creep (already done somewhat, but needs more work) and making sure that each Pokemon has a niche of some sort that is unique.

In other news, I've been thinking. Since the Alolan forms came out, I've noticed that they all are designed to help cover the typing issues inherent in Gen 1 (More Ice Pokemon that aren't Water/Ice, actual Dark types, additional Dragons, Steel and Ghost and Rock pokemon that aren't Rock/Ground). Basically every single issue with the original roster is handled between them (Other than Alolan Raichu, who... doesn't cover any holes I'm aware of?) So the question becomes, did they make all the Alolan forms Kanto Pokemon specifically to prepare for a Kanto return? Has Pokemon Let's Go! been planned that long?