Mainline Pokémon rankings
Best to worst, plain and simple. Third versions are treated as separate. Check notes for more info. Spots #1-4 are generally interchangeable, with #5-6 being just behind them; there are mild-moderate and moderate-large quality drops after spots #8 and #14 respectively.
19 Games
compared to bw1, this is a step up in design and strategy and several steps down in story and characters. remixes unova to be more interesting from a macro perspective which was sorely needed, and provides the most meaningful postgame since gs added kanto. unlike bw1 it has no coherent plot to fuck up in the ending, and at the moment i prefer that
1
a competent jrpg with characters who actually grow and change as they face each other. bianca is underutilized despite completing her arc. too many cutscenes and the beginning is slow, but overall a better all-in-one package than basically any of the rest of these games barring maybe platinum. also the final-final battle kinda undermines the shit out of the plot and theming and i still don't understand why that's a thing to this day (at least ghetsis is a legitimately challenging boss, though). i find that this game being such a good complete package makes it top material when i feel like it regardless of those major flaws
2
updates the originals in a loving way but misses the mark in terms of actually solving the originals' biggest issues, i.e. level scaling and feeling too dependent on kanto, though at least kanto is actually more fleshed-out here. also shoehorns legendaries into the plot unfortunately. in any case, comparable if not superior to the originals and can easily take #1 if i'm in a good mood about it due to sheer qol and the sense of effort and love they've got
3
sinnoh but good and less slow (but still not quick), awesome region despite bland environments. presents a fair challenge compared to most of the rest of the series, and has a whole lot to do both during and after the main story. unfortunately utilizes hms about as badly as rse did, and its background plot becomes too intrusive in mid-lategame for how hands-off it's meant to be. easily able to take a higher spot depending on my mood
4
probably the best casual entries in the series with the best atmosphere and mood, but have blatant issues with movepools and level scaling plus a somewhat barren (but still pleasant) postgame and not enough new pokemon available in the maingame. still, with the level scaling they thankfully don't expect you to grind and the actual region design is one of my favorites on both a macro and micro level. the johto games in general have "perfect seven" energy more than just about every other game in the series but are definitely heavily flawed in a way that i understand would make some people turn away. see crystal for info on why this is above it
5
i personally prefer when legendaries are completely optional in the story, so the suicune focus is something i'm not a fan of. otherwise entirely better than g/s for sheer polish but fixed virtually none of their major issues which is arguably a flaw in its own right
6
ultimately mediocre featuring bad map/encounter design, particularly from the moment you get surf onward, yet great town/city concepts and probably the best non-rival champion among qol boons over the old gens. earlygame map design is great but somehow the devs' brains evaporated for the lategame. i respect these games for doing what johto couldn't and putting tons of new pokemon in its early to midgame, but once again that's something that drops off as time goes on and doesn't really make up for the terrible second half. this also happens to be the first time the game properly forces legendary subplots onto you, as crystal had been more hands-off about it. that formula pretty much immediately taints the series and is only ever really good in black/white
7
slightly worse dungeons and a worse champion than r/s in exchange for slightly better dex and gym leader teams as well as a postgame that's just glorified arcade games with a pokemon battle system (the battle frontier trainer quotes are hilarious though, i'll give it that)
8
plays better/faster than the original so places above it, but otherwise has almost all the same issues in terms of general pacing and a weak dex, not to mention going back on most of the things platinum added
10
slow as fuck but sinnoh's an interesting region so at least it isn't straight-up shit
11
full of bland trainer-filled hallways and gets worse with every playthrough the moment you realize how much grindy-feeling encounter spam there is in kanto's games. this one's definitely gone down for me over the years but it at least gets some points for replayability due to kanto having a solid dex and there being a nice degree of nonlinearity with gym/city/route order for more than half of the game's runtime
12
i deadass forgot to add this in the original incarnation of this list. really great qol features over the original versions but has a much shittier art style and uninspired rearrangements of the music. people cry about the battle frontier but i don't really mourn its loss; i'm just more pissed about how stupid as fuck the 'le deep lore' is in the postgame episode. zinnia's a piece of shit and her associated lore is too, but i'm glad they at least had the mercy to make gen 6 onward be in an entirely different dimension from gens 1-5
13
0 reason to play this over any other game but doesn't have a lot of faults besides being unmemorable and easy. stupid as fuck plot/characters but pokemon standards aren't high for them anyway outside pmd and b/w
14
gets worse with every playthrough but is better about bland trainer hallways than kanto (not that that's saying much), also has one of the better rivals in the series in hop
15
broken ugly mess that's just a bunch of hallways full of trainers, only this time you can use all the starters if you really want to and the sprites are slightly better. still a really fucking interesting mess to look at and can be fun if you're in the right mindset/just wanna fuck around with speedrun tech and glitches
16
broken ugly mess that's just a bunch of hallways full of trainers, but damn if it isn't a really interesting mess. see yellow for more info
17
black and white if they were bad games
18
black and white if they were bad games, but slightly better than sun in terms of boss fights besides the maybe the champion. unfortunately you don't get solgaleo in the main story of the game with him on the cover though and that's fucked up enough for me to put it lower on the list even though i think the game itself is better than the original gen 7
19