It’s hardly a hot take that the DS era was Pokémon’s golden age, but can we talk about how large of a margin DS held that title? For mainline games you’ve got Diamond/Pearl/Platnium, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Black/White, and Black 2/White 2. For spin-offs you have... (1/2)

Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky (the best PMD obviously) and ALL THREE POKÉMON RANGER GAMES. Every Pokémon game mainline or spinoff that’s even in contention for the best was on that console. I wonder if we’ll ever see another era like that, though if we do, it won’t be for switch

Originally was going to stop there but I still have a bunch of Pokémon thoughts I’ve been thinking about so I’m going to get them all out in a thread:

Want to talk briefly about the 3DS era cause I have very mixed feelings on them. A lot of people say that they stopped trying after gen 5, but I’d argue more that they’re focusing on the wrong stuff (for at least a few more gens). Obviously the jump to gen 6 was huge with 3D...

models and they were continuing to try and reinvent the gameplay with mega evolutions. But at the end of the day, Kalos is only memorable for 3D and mega evolutions, nothing about the region or games themselves. That’s fine if the plan is for kalos to be the groundwork for...

future gens but then they ditched mega evolutions. So you’re left with a region that’s just two loops stuck together consisting of every basic biome without rhyme or reason. The story isn’t interesting either which is typical for Pokémon, but that’s just another thing...

that fails to set itself apart. I don’t dislike kalos but I’ve yet to replay it since my first time and I think that says a lot.

Then we get to gen 7 with Sun and Moon, and this is where I think Pokémon really tried. Not to say it was good, but they tried. There was a unique region layout, effort into the story, introduction of z-moves and ultra beasts, and the defining change of removing gyms for trials.

The unfortunate thing is that most of these changes backfired. The region being islands is unique but in practice they are just isolated land masses like any other game. In addition, z-moves are awful. Maybe in competitive it’s different, but casually it’s just a way to...

eliminate any one Pokémon per battle without any strategy to it. Ultra beasts are just kinda neutral, they’re just good Pokémon. The one saving grace of these changes is the story. I thought Lily and Gladion where good characters. Though even to this, a common complaint is...

that the game forces you into cutscenes too much to get the story across. And after all that, it feels like the effort vanished. Following that was was of the scummiest things I’ve ever seen a game company do with the release of Ultra Sun and Moon. Same game but with an epilogue.

And finally for the 3DS era, I wanted to end with ORAS, as thinking about it is what turned a brief talk about how good DS was into this whole rant. Something I haven’t mentioned this whole thread, but is an issue unifying every single 3DS game is difficulty.

The original RSE are probably the hardest games, which is also one of their best features. The flying gym in that game stumps me every single time I play. The Altaria is absolutely brutal. Meanwhile I couldn’t even tell you if that gym has an Altaria or not in ORAS because I...

steamrolled through the whole game. I was recently thinking that I should replay Emerald because I haven’t since around when ORAS came out. But it wasn’t until I was thinking about the DS era that I remembered that ORAS was even an option. My mind just went straight to the...

originals. A good remake/remaster should take the place of the original as the superior experience, but ORAS is just such a downgrade. Years later and I find myself hoping that Sinnoh is never remade because of how badly they messed up Hoenn.

Actually forgot spin-offs so really quick: Two PMD games, Gates to Infinity apparently sucked but I didn’t play, and Super PMD was ok but wasn’t entertaining enough to finish. That’s honestly it which is kinda sad because spin-offs are some of the best things about Pokémon.

Finally, we have the Switch. You have Let’s Go, which I actually enjoyed despite popular opinion. Yes it’s another Kanto remake but the last one was Fire Red/Lead Green. It was cute and had a co-op mode (despite it sucking). Also there’s PMD DX which I’ve been enjoying so far.

But those are both remakes, so the only really new thing is SwSh. I hate to be that guy, but that game kinda sucked. I fail to even agree with the positive things people say about the game. Game was easy af, though that’s a given at this point. Characters were lame, like...

honestly none of them ever did anything other than Hop. Marnie, Bede, and Piers never did anything. Though possibly the worst part was the region. From what I can remember there was a single cave, a single non-linear route, and no victory road. Even the cool area ideas like...

Gilmwood Tangle were just backdrops, nothing happens there. Even though the Wild Area is beloved, I just don’t get it. It’s a large empty space. There are Pokémon there sure but there are Pokémon everywhere. Raids are shitty and they are the only new online functionality.

At least this time the DLC is DLC instead of another fully priced game, but I’m not too hopeful for the future. We’ve got another presentation this week, and maybe there will be something cool, but I can’t help feeling that it’ll just be another disappointment.