My ideal venture. It takes all the ideas and tropes of the Pokemon ethos and amps them up to several notches, even its weakest connect still hits stronger than the others. Gen 5 fanboys have, understandably, been seen as obnoxious due still acting like underdogs like it's the early 2010s, and it doesn't help every supplementary material for this Gen ranges from "neat" to "awful", but with a duology this good, it's fine!

Gen 4 Slow yea yea yea, Gen 4 poor Pokemon placements yea yea yea, listen man I can't help it. This is the gen I'm easily most nostalgic for, containing not only my favorite region, but likely my favorite Dex as well alongside some Gyms and League members. Every now and then I see stuff like "which Pokemon region would you like to live in?", and Sinnoh always pops into my mind due to its mountainous boundaries gating several different facets of habitats.

Yes I know, I'm using the remake instead of Red/Blue/Yellow, but even then most of my point stands. Kanto's just a massive vibe, this is one of very few times the franchise's whole adventure aspect was truly fulfilled where the pacing and way you progress really does feel like you're just perusing and cruising the places out to your own beat. Not to mention it being the first of its series meant that it's so easy to pop it in, pour a few hours, and then pop it out whenever!

Will likely make a full review of my thoughts on this Gen when I get off my ass and finish Emerald, but

- Transitional Phase to a T. Cemented the IP's status and legacy, has enough distinct personality and idiosyncrasy to make it stand out amongst its peers, but just enough flaws and wrinkles that could (and should) be ironed out in the future.
- Emerald is the weakest third version. Doesn't feel enough like a remix a la Yellow, doesn't feel enough like an extension of the base game a la Crystal, nor does it even overhaul the system to such a degree it gaslit people into thinking the Gen was always That Great a la Platinum. Placebo at best, intrusive at worst, still fun regardless.

I'm sorry but I do not get the hype for Gen 2 at all. Johto just reminds me of Sanded Off Kanto, nearly half of its dex required two whole generations to become good, it has no idea if it wants to be More Pokemon or do something completely different, Silver and Neo Team Rocket are supremely lame and serve to weaken the already poor pacing, the remakes serve to do more harm than good, and of course that fucking level curve and Mon placement stilting team variety. Even by "nostalgia" and "vibe" standards I don't get it, which is pretty bad since that's what the series is rooted on. I probably won't write a review since I'll sound even more like a Negative Nancy, but know that this hits the same White Flag level of "not getting it" as Gravity Rush 1 and Mega Man 9. At least more people as of late are realizing this gen sucks lol

Whereas Gen 2 suffered from overambition, Gen 6 suffers from underambition. Almost every facet of X&Y are either undercooked to hell or just wasn't there to begin with, and it kind of makes you wonder what was even the endgoal for the majority of the runtime. Being pisseasy in a franchise known for lax difficulty doesn't help matters as well since you can just solo or near-solo the Champion despite her having the Mega Evo gimmick! This definitely feels like the beginning of TPC/Nintendo's hardened grip on Game Freak's neck, but even then I don't think that would really excuse the persistent feeling of rushed nonsense that plagues this generation. I like the character and monster designs of this one, and Kalos is a far better region than Johto, but my positives aren't to the point I'm willing to devolve further into being a contrarian and say it's better than G2.