Review in progress:
This is probably a hot take, but I think the third generation of Pokémon is where the games started to go downhill. The first generation laid the groundwork and the second generation greatly expanded on the foundation with a ton of new features (additional types, friendship, a meaty postgame, the day/night cycle, shiny pokémon, breeding, etc.) Gen II also had a ton of bug fixes and featured a far more interesting region to explore than Kanto. All of that innovation came to a screeching halt with Generation III. Most of the problems that have plagued modern Pokémon games started here. This is where the decades of stagnation and complacency began.
The subpar graphics originated in Generation III. Generation I and II had graphics that were on par with other Game Boy/Game Boy Color games. Generation III visuals are mediocre at best and don't hold a candle to other titles on the GBA. Sprites lack detail and Pokémon still aren't fully animated. Other games like Golden Sun blow this away.
This is where GameFreak started to cut beloved features. The lack of backward compatibility with previous generations is a huge omission. It must've sucked for people who completed their Pokédex in Crystal. The lack of a day/night cycle is another significant downgrade. The world feels less alive as a result.
The soundtrack is hampered by the overwhelming amount of trumpets. It's extremely monotonous.
The postgame adds some much-needed difficulty in the form of the battle frontier, but the AI literally cheats. This takes away from a lot of the fun and makes it feel like a cheap experience. There's also no reward for completing it.
Abilities and double battles are good additions but don't do enough to change the formula.
The litany of problems that have always held Pokémon back are still here and are completely unaddressed:
The story/writing is some of the worst that the medium has to offer. The world of Pokémon has a lot of potential for interesting storytelling, but it's completely wasted. The characters and story are paper-thin. It's the same plot as the first two generations. The world revolves around the player and no one else has any competence or agency.
The AI is brain-dead and the games are painfully easy for anyone older than six. Most of the time you can just mash A with your starter to win. Exploration is very limited. Dungeons are simplistic and straightforward. The lack of a difficulty option severely hurts the experience. The fact that players have to create ROM hacks and player-imposed rules (e.g., Nuzlocke) to make the games even remotely challenging is pathetic.
Quality of life features are lacking. Battles take forever even with the animations turned off. You can't skip through the shitty dialogue. You have to manually apply repel every time. HMs have always been a horrible mechanic. It's so damn slow without using an emulator. You only get one save file.
The music is good, but the audio loops are very short. Towns are all small and only have a small handful of NPCs/buildings.
Balancing is nonexistent. Most Pokémon are completely useless from a competitive perspective due to glaring issues like poor typing, no evolutions, poor stat distribution, or a bad move pool. Some types are objectively terrible (bug and ice come to mind). Third parties like Smogon have had to create tiers so that the majority of the roster isn't ignored entirely. That's sad.
Splitting the game into two versions (and then a third version that mostly renders the other two obsolete, but barely makes any meaningful improvements) has always been a greedy and anti-consumer move. I don't believe for a second that it has ever been about trying to get you to work together with other players. The third version always shows that the first two had a rushed development cycle. It shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to catch 'em all.
This is probably a hot take, but I think the third generation of Pokémon is where the games started to go downhill. The first generation laid the groundwork and the second generation greatly expanded on the foundation with a ton of new features (additional types, friendship, a meaty postgame, the day/night cycle, shiny pokémon, breeding, etc.) Gen II also had a ton of bug fixes and featured a far more interesting region to explore than Kanto. All of that innovation came to a screeching halt with Generation III. Most of the problems that have plagued modern Pokémon games started here. This is where the decades of stagnation and complacency began.
The subpar graphics originated in Generation III. Generation I and II had graphics that were on par with other Game Boy/Game Boy Color games. Generation III visuals are mediocre at best and don't hold a candle to other titles on the GBA. Sprites lack detail and Pokémon still aren't fully animated. Other games like Golden Sun blow this away.
This is where GameFreak started to cut beloved features. The lack of backward compatibility with previous generations is a huge omission. It must've sucked for people who completed their Pokédex in Crystal. The lack of a day/night cycle is another significant downgrade. The world feels less alive as a result.
The soundtrack is hampered by the overwhelming amount of trumpets. It's extremely monotonous.
The postgame adds some much-needed difficulty in the form of the battle frontier, but the AI literally cheats. This takes away from a lot of the fun and makes it feel like a cheap experience. There's also no reward for completing it.
Abilities and double battles are good additions but don't do enough to change the formula.
The litany of problems that have always held Pokémon back are still here and are completely unaddressed:
The story/writing is some of the worst that the medium has to offer. The world of Pokémon has a lot of potential for interesting storytelling, but it's completely wasted. The characters and story are paper-thin. It's the same plot as the first two generations. The world revolves around the player and no one else has any competence or agency.
The AI is brain-dead and the games are painfully easy for anyone older than six. Most of the time you can just mash A with your starter to win. Exploration is very limited. Dungeons are simplistic and straightforward. The lack of a difficulty option severely hurts the experience. The fact that players have to create ROM hacks and player-imposed rules (e.g., Nuzlocke) to make the games even remotely challenging is pathetic.
Quality of life features are lacking. Battles take forever even with the animations turned off. You can't skip through the shitty dialogue. You have to manually apply repel every time. HMs have always been a horrible mechanic. It's so damn slow without using an emulator. You only get one save file.
The music is good, but the audio loops are very short. Towns are all small and only have a small handful of NPCs/buildings.
Balancing is nonexistent. Most Pokémon are completely useless from a competitive perspective due to glaring issues like poor typing, no evolutions, poor stat distribution, or a bad move pool. Some types are objectively terrible (bug and ice come to mind). Third parties like Smogon have had to create tiers so that the majority of the roster isn't ignored entirely. That's sad.
Splitting the game into two versions (and then a third version that mostly renders the other two obsolete, but barely makes any meaningful improvements) has always been a greedy and anti-consumer move. I don't believe for a second that it has ever been about trying to get you to work together with other players. The third version always shows that the first two had a rushed development cycle. It shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to catch 'em all.
Killbutt
8 months ago