i’m a huge pokemon fan, i grew up on the anime series and the first ever pokemon game i picked up and played was pokemon white. i’m not good at battling competitively and im not a completionist so i’ve never caught them all but the games bring me such joy, despite there being clear problems in the later gens.
i love mechanics that make you interact and play with your pokemon. i spent HOURS in the pokemon musical in pokemon white, i spent hours playing fetch and watching my pokemon in Pokemon sword and i absolutely enjoy setting up picnics in Pokemon Violet. in fact if the game was just collecting and playing with pokemon i’d be content.
i love gen 4. it was my favourite as a kid when i watched the anime. the lore was so great and though ive never played diamond/platinum it really made me enjoy pokemon so much more than i had before.
What about you guys? how do you play pokemon? and bonus if you tell me your favorite pokemon too! (for me it’s rowlet and umbreon!)
use this post as an excuse to infodump and gush about all things pokemon!
Pokemon X and Ruby are both really special. Those puddles in Ruby! My god, I felt like we had hit the peak of graphics at that point. The hideaways were really neat, too. I collected so many plushies to decorate my base.
As for X, the fashion and 3D look were so cool, and Xerneas is still my favorite legendary. The new fairy types and temporary evolutions. All so great!
My personal favorite Pokemon games are Black and Black 2. I liked them a lot when I was younger and not only getting to reply them both within the past year or two, but watching my younger sibling play both games and enjoying them really cemented my love for Gen 5. Omega Ruby is a close runner up too since I spent countless hours playing that game. Doing the battle resort, battling online, and finally being able to get and use my favorite pokemon, Victini, was great. I also surprisingly got pretty into the ORAS pokemon contests, and slowly grew to dislike Wallace since he’d somehow always secure the win lol.
Pokemon Black, easily. My first Pokemon game was Pearl, so I’ll always hold Gen 4 close to my heart, but Gen 5 is my favorite generation!
i looove ruby/sapphire and diamond/pearl. i thought it was just nostalgia, but i replayed them and they’re still my favorites. (i pretend the diamond/pearl remake doesnt exist) mystery dungeon was also one of my favorite ds games ever, i have replayed explorers of sky at least 4 times.
i enjoyed black/white when i played it but i was kind of not really in the mood for it when it came out, so i never really got into it, never finished it. but i’m really excited to replay it soon. (i want to replay each gen!)
as for the switch games, they’re all good. but that’s kinda it. i think they’re enjoyable games, but idk, i like being obsessed with games, and none of them do that for me. i loove walking around and seeing the pokemon, and doing stuff like petting my pokemon and cooking, i think it really adds to the immersion. but the main part of the game is kind of lacking, imo.
does anyone remember pokemon ranger? from what i remember it was kind of a flop but my cousin and i were OBSESSED with it, and i’m itching to play it again.
and my favorite pokemon is skitty🩷
Unpopular opinion but I really loved sword and shield. I thought the story was good, the supporting cast was memorable, had a soundtrack that went unbelievably hard, had some good designs, and kept up the player customization which obviously that’s hindsight but would really be scaled back in the next games.
Sure there’s some dumb things like the villain kickstarts the end of the world because he was told to wait a day to avoid that scenario but gen 1 had the Mafia disband because a 10 year old beat their leader in a competitive sport. Gen 3 had a group that either wanted to get rid of either water or land depending on your version despite humans needing both things to live. Etc.
For mechanics I liked Dynamaxing but from the prospective of it gave every pokemon a chance to be stronger instead of the chosen few that had mega evolutions.
Playstyle wise I pretty much only do nuzlockes any more. Not only for the challenge but I like there being consequences for failure and trying to push the emotional bond you’re supposed to have with your pokemon through game mechanics. My Sandshrew didn’t just faint, that’s obsidian that I’ve had since the early stages of the game, a valued member of the team; to take an example from one of my actual games.
My favorite game is probably X and Y, those games have special memories. Gen 4 is easily my favorite gen. Platinum and HGSS were so much fun, easily the best games in the series. My favorite mechanic is probably PokeRadar/Horde Hunts.
My pokemon supernerd days are kind of behind me now, but I still replay them every so often. I finished heartgold a little while ago, and I got my old ds out a couple days ago to start black again. Favorite gen is really hard to pick, but if I really had to I think I would say 3rd (battery issues aside, grrr). But 3-5 are all really good imo.
Collecting and team raising has always been my favorite part. I kinda suck at competitive battles, and I don’t think I ever understood the contest mechanics well enough either, so I never put much time in them.
The music too! I have a huge playlist of pokemon music and I find myself humming various bits of pkmn music a lot.
I haven’t played anything since gen7 though, and the online negativity around the more recent gens has kind of put me off trying them. I don’t know how valid any of it really is though.
Umbreon is best! but all eevees are good too!
Oh and the mystery dungeon spinoffs too are really good.
I could probably go on for a loooong time about pokemon haha
Oooh hard to say, cause I love most of them.
X and Y are my most played, but OR:AS are my absolute favourites. Favourite gen is probably 3 or 4, but I really like the newest gen (is it 9? Not the most up to date)
I love all the mechanics in Gen 6 but I really love the open world aspect and cooking of Scarlett and Violet tbh. They would be my favourite, but the game performance let me down. I also love the character customisation introduced in Gen 6.
Favourite is a tie between Heart Gold/Soul Silver and Crystal. The first 2 were my favourite games and the latter is the only old game I enjoy playing.
Favourite gen is fifth gen because in my opinion it has the best story, the reason why they aren’t my favourite is for the fact that the first two games forced you to use local Pokémon.
Favourite mechanic: megaevolution because I like how it made some Pokémon stronger in the competitive scene although in my opinion it was badly spread with some creatures getting it without any need for one.
Playstyle: admittedly it’s minimalist, I only focus on catching Pokémon I know will accompany me for a while from the get go.
SoulSilver. A Pokémon follows you at all times, the dungeon intro screens are super cute, Johto is the coolest region, I love the UI and the cutscenes for Lugia and Ho-Oh.
Second place is (Ultra) Sun/Moon. Team Skull is hilarious, surfing Mantine was awesome, calling Pokémon instead of having HM slaves was a genius improvement. And the mood was so unique.
Explorers of Darkness, really good story. Honestly I should replay it’s been a while.
My favorite generation might be kalos cuz it has the best OST and the best customization
My favorite mechanic is mega evolutions, just a berzerker mode. I seldom had anyone to use it beyond the main characters but it’s kinda cool having a power that slowly drives you insane like it’s real good angst fodder.
My play style is “ATTAAAAACCCKKK!!!!!” also fling bullshit woe! blast seed upon ye!
My favorite pokemon is mew, but I also love surfin’ pikachu, togetic, chikorita, buneary, lopunny, phione, azumarill, bunnelby, whimsicott, luchador pikachu, charmander, cinderace like honestly most bunnies I love, bunnies are cute as hell.
Pokémon Emerald will always have a special place in my heart. I played it so many times, it was one of the few games I had when I was a kid and I love every bit of it. I also love Diamond/Pearl/Platinum because of Piplup (Empoleon water and steel type rocks ♥). Pokémon Black is awesome too!
Diamond is my favourite, I spent so much time on that game.
legends arceus, it’s a shame it’s so damn ugly…
Gen 5 is my absolute favorite mainline games. I LOVED that the newer mons were showcased first – been playing since Blue on my GBC, so the change-up to mostly new mons until further in game was refreshing for me. And TRIPLE BATTLES?? FUCK YEAH. Admittedly when I first heard of the gummic it seemed overkill. Then I actually had my first triples battle… delightful! And ROATION triples? I became the Chicken Thoughts comic meme where Blueboy angrily chomps the cracker and instantly falls in love. GAMEFREAK, BRING BACK TRIPLES, ESPECIALLY ROTATION, AND MY LIFE IS YOURS.
After gen 6 it got more and more stale… or maybe I got older and more grumpy heh. But then PLA came out… and now it currently sits as my all-time favorite pokemon game (used to be a tie between the Black and White 2 games). It was such a HUGE refresh on the pokemon formula, as well as the pokemon are feral af can actually HURT the player.
Also shoutout to Larry. That man is the incarnation of all of us that started on Blue or Red and grew up depressed and overworked lmfao
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Scarlet/Violet are my favorite games so far. They are basically everything I ever wanted from a Pokémon game since I slotted Pokémon Blue into my original Gameboy all those years ago. Exploration, a sense of adventure, good companions (Nemona, Arven, and Penny are my favorite companions!), and a cool Pokémon that i can ride on, climb, fly and swim wherever!
As for specific mechanics, I also loved the contests in gen 3 and 4! I loved the idea of being able to compete in another way besides just battling. And figuring out moves that were good for fighting and good in contests was really fun!
I don’t know if I choose a single favorite Pokémon, but I am partial to water, steel, and ground types. Maybe squirtle +evolutions, buizel/floatzel ,sandshrew/sandslash, or wooper and quagsire/clodsire.
This might be an unwanted take, but… Palworld.
I also love mechanics that make you interact and play with your pokemon, and I have only felt that need really catered to in Palworld.
The theming is kinda unfortunate (and some other things), but Pals in that game interact with you and the world in a way no Pokemon game do.
In the Pokemon Anime you see Pokemon help out with manual labour such as construction, or energy production, etc, and they exist outside of the battles. But in the games you almost only ever interact with Pokemon through battles, and there you just stand there and let them fight. In palworld you fight **with** them. In palworld they actually help you build. They generate power for you, and when you feed them or pat them you do it in the overworld, not through a menu or minigame.
Scarlet and violet was nice with its motorcycle pokemon (i forget the name) but in palworld almost all pals have some interaction in the overworld. From riding, to flying, to being a shield, digging for you, gliding, sitting on your head and attacking, etc.
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I wish for Pokemon to add this level of interaction and closeness that Palworld had, because Pokemon still has the better theming. I hope but don’t have my hopes that high up that the success of Palworld makes Pokemon better.
And my favourite Pokemon are Plusle and Minun. Nothing in Palworld comes close.