I'm done with Pokemon

[Gloves 11,206]

New games, that is.

I'll always have fond memories of the first two generations, and I'll definitely replay those games. I still need to get around to the 3rd gen. I didn't have a GBA until way late so I basically skipped that era of handheld games until I got a DS.

Heck, I have a tattoo featuring Gastly and its evolutions (Haunter is my favorite Pokemon).

But the spark is long gone. Not for me personally, but the company making the mainline games at least, the series is completely lacking in every way. Playing through Sword/Shield made it more clear than ever, the quality is in the absolute dumps; Sword was easily one of THE WORST RPGs I've ever played.

I was looking at upcoming games (in general) today and was reminded of the re-release of Diamond/Pearl and I kinda realized - the only excitement I could possibly get from Pokemon is from them re-releasing a game I already own! I'll just play the original!

Anyway, bit of a rant, and a good chunk of the site is a bit older than me and wasn't grabbed by the Pokemon craze in the 90's, but I was right there in the thick of it and it had a lasting impact on me. It's gone to show however that nostalgia alone really can't keep a passion alive.

Anyone else in the same boat, or otherwise have any thoughts or feelings on the place Pokemon has come to?

[CodysGameRoom 2,007]

[BortLicensePlate 652]

I’d say I’m in the same boat, yeah. I keep trying to play the newer ones and a get a few hours in and then I just don’t feel any urge to get back to it. I think the first 3 gens were great and beyond that I just kinda meh on the series. 

[TDIRunner 2,504]

8 minutes ago, Gloves said:

New games, that is.

 

Would that be Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee, or is there some other new game right now?

I'm one of those people who was at just the right age to be too old for Pokémon when it first emerged, so I've known very little about it most of these years.  With that said, now that I have kids ages 4 and 7, they have been getting into Pokémon and I've been learning about it myself by association.  My oldest son has been playing through Let's Go, Eevee for a few months now.  He has really been enjoying it, but again, he is 7 and this is his first Pokémon game.  It's also the first game he has ever played through almost completely by himself.  He and I complete Odyssey together, but I probably did 75% of the work.  He has done almost everything with Let's Go, Eevee except for a few small parts where he got stuck and I helped him.  I'm actually kind of excited/proud for him to finish his first video game, so for him this game will probably be very special.  He will probably have the memories with this game that you had with the original.  

[Gloves 11,206]

2 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Would that be Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee, or is there some other new game right now?

I'm one of those people who was at just the right age to be too old for Pokémon when it first emerged, so I've known very little about it most of these years.  With that said, now that I have kids ages 4 and 7, they have been getting into Pokémon and I've been learning about it myself by association.  My oldest son has been playing through Let's Go, Eevee for a few months now.  He has really been enjoying it, but again, he is 7 and this is his first Pokémon game.  It's also the first game he has ever played through almost completely by himself.  He and I complete Odyssey together, but I probably did 75% of the work.  He has done almost everything with Let's Go, Eevee except for a few small parts where he got stuck and I helped him.  I'm actually kind of excited/proud for him to finish his first video game, so for him this game will probably be very special.  He will probably have the memories with this game that you had with the original.  

Let's Go Eevee is just Pokemon Red/Blue though, yeah? So it's still at least based on a well structured game. 

There's the new Pokémon Legends: Arceus coming out next: https://legends.pokemon.com/en-us/

It looks like a PS2 game. Actually, let's not insult the PS2, I've been playing a fair bit of PS2 lately and it generally looks better than this. Graphics aside, I just have no faith based on the last like, 3 core games, that they'll do anything decent with it. I mean at least with Black and White 4 gens ago they tried something different by putting story first.

[Nintegageo 562]

I'm with ya @Gloves man. Red was a day 1 purchase and I adore what the series was, I just don't actually enjoy the newer models. 

[guitarzombie 796]

Never was a fan.  Play Doom Eternal instead

[BriGuy82 682]

My kids love it. They're already asking me for the new one coming out. I'm not the pokemon generation myself so I've never actually played any of the games. 

[fox 1,546]

I’ve been done with Pokémon since 98.  Never even finished Blue.  

[TDIRunner 2,504]

35 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Let's Go Eevee is just Pokemon Red/Blue though, yeah? So it's still at least based on a well structured game. 

 

I honestly wouldn't know.  I'm sure I can look that stuff up, but Pokemon just hasn't been interesting enough for me to do that on my own.  I try to help my kids understand stuff as they ask about it, but comparing to older games just isn't something they know about yet.  

[Gloves 11,206]

4 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

I honestly wouldn't know.  I'm sure I can look that stuff up, but Pokemon just hasn't been interesting enough for me to do that on my own.  I try to help my kids understand stuff as they ask about it, but comparing to older games just isn't something they know about yet.  

Fair enough. Specifically, the Let's Go games are really remakes of Yellow version. Same basic game, different visuals. Not that it's a big deal, play Let's Go all you want, just pointing out that those games bear the same base as some of the best games in the series, the originals. 

[DoctorEncore 3,688]

I agree. I've never been a big fan of Pokemon and even my 5 year old son seems to think it's pretty shallow from a gameplay perspective. We have way more fun playing multiplayer action games like Super Mario 3D World or Yoshi's Epic Yarn. He also finds the open-ended approaches of things like Goat Simulator and Minecraft much more stimulating. I only buy Pokemon stuff now for collecting purposes.

[Alder 242]

I'll never get over how big of a missed opportunity it was to NOT have a new Pokemon Snap on the 3DS - a handheld system with gyro controls and.. a camera!

I enjoyed Sword + Shield but they could've been so much better. 

[DefaultGen 5,132]

Sun/Moon is where I really started questioning why I even still play Pokemon games, because man does the formula not change at all. Game Freak is a technically incompetent developer with no ambition. I feel bad for Pokemon fans who play every underwhelming gen of games while watching every other major franchise pushing technology and offering new experiences.

It's the biggest franchise ever, we're in the world of the latest GTAs, Assassin's Creeds, Breath of the Wilds, Horizons (which all came out years ago)... and the latest Pokemon open world game looks like a PS2 BOTW knock off and isn't going to have every Pokemon in it. Imagine the justice a Capcom, Ubisoft, or Rockstar could do an open world Pokemon game... just to bring it up to the standards of the 2010s, not even offering anything truly new! Now realize we will literally never even have that game.

Edited September 13, 2021 by DefaultGen

[DefaultGen 5,132]

4 minutes ago, Alder said:

I enjoyed Sword + Shield but they could've been so much better. 

I've played Pokemon games for a decade now saying "Oh that was... fine. Maybe the next one will be amazing!"

[TDIRunner 2,504]

9 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Fair enough. Specifically, the Let's Go games are really remakes of Yellow version. Same basic game, different visuals. Not that it's a big deal, play Let's Go all you want, just pointing out that those games bear the same base as some of the best games in the series, the originals. 

That's actually great to hear because Let's Go, Eevee will almost certainly be one of the games (along with Odyssey) that my son will have fond memories of for the rest of his life.  The fact that it's based off one of the original and most well known Pokémon games just makes it that much more special.  

I will also add that I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about video games, but Pokémon is without doubt the largest and most popular video game franchise that I have little to no knowledge of and it's definitely my biggest weakness when it comes to video games in general.  

[Alder 242]

5 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Imagine the justice a Capcom, Ubisoft, or Rockstar could do an open world Pokemon game... now realize we will literally never have that game.

If Nintendo can trust Zelda games to Capcom or Grezzo, hopefully Game Freak can some day do the same. 

I'd love an open world game, but you know what I'd rather have? The national dex back. I have all the respect in the world for Junichi Masuda but... come on, it's Pokemon, you guys must have the resources to put every Pokemon in the game, all with unique animations. 

[Tanooki 4,894]

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

New games, that is.

I'll always have fond memories of the first two generations, and I'll definitely replay those games. I still need to get around to the 3rd gen. I didn't have a GBA until way late so I basically skipped that era of handheld games until I got a DS.

Heck, I have a tattoo featuring Gastly and its evolutions (Haunter is my favorite Pokemon).

But the spark is long gone. Not for me personally, but the company making the mainline games at least, the series is completely lacking in every way. Playing through Sword/Shield made it more clear than ever, the quality is in the absolute dumps; Sword was easily one of THE WORST RPGs I've ever played.

I was looking at upcoming games (in general) today and was reminded of the re-release of Diamond/Pearl and I kinda realized - the only excitement I could possibly get from Pokemon is from them re-releasing a game I already own! I'll just play the original!

Anyway, bit of a rant, and a good chunk of the site is a bit older than me and wasn't grabbed by the Pokemon craze in the 90's, but I was right there in the thick of it and it had a lasting impact on me. It's gone to show however that nostalgia alone really can't keep a passion alive.

Anyone else in the same boat, or otherwise have any thoughts or feelings on the place Pokemon has come to?

Felt this way for years and wrote it off other than a weird spinoff like puzzle league, pinball and snap.    But an odd chance of 1/2off ultra sun showed me they didn’t have to sorry uninspired rerun games as it’s pretty unique and fun. Also no gyms and has a full actual story and substories to keep it fresh. Sword and shield are agreeably utter crap I got bored so fast.  
 

The upcoming open world active play one looks interesting to me but the rehash doesn’t and I skipped that generation among others. I fell out with gen2 and that was late with soul silver. Got fire red but skipped gba, ds and 3ds until that one. It’s like Zelda became a tired parody of itself with new paint coated over an uninspired crappy rerun. I do happen now to own crystal and emerald so ill try them eventually. 

[twiztor 755]

Much like @TDIRunneri was JUST too old for the Pokemon craze, but went in on it anyway. had a lot of fun with the cards and picked up Blue as soon as i could. Loved it. (sidenote: i was in high school, but for gym class i acted as a teacher's assistant for the elementary kids. They all thought it was AWESOME that this BIG KID liked Pokemon too. Like everyday they'd ask me about this or how to do that. very fond memories!)  Picked up Gold day 1, and it was fine, but it was years before i checked out any more. Tried to get back in with X/Y, but it just didn't hook me. Tried again with Let's Go, Pikachu and liked it a lot, but that's likely only because it was familiar.

Looking forward to giving the series another shot with the Legends game. But i'm equally cautious that i won't like it. We shall see.  Raticate better be in it. 

[TDIRunner 2,504]

On a side note, I've watched a few episodes of the original Pokémon cartoon while my kids were watching it and I can tell that if I was about 4 or 5 years younger when it came out, I probably would have been in love with it.  It really would have been right up my alley with all of the different stats and strategies.  

[MagusSmurf 574]

I was in the Pokemon generation and was pretty into it, but my interest flagged after Gen 2. My sister got Ruby but I initially didn't bother with the GBA games until I got dragged into Netbattle simulator battling by online friends and had fun with that so eventually went back and played Ruby. Stuck around for a bit of Gen 4 and played Shoddy Battle a bit but never quite finished Diamond (was at 7 badges) and couldn't be bothered with later games.

I think Gen 1 remains probably my favorite. It's buggy, unpolished, and unbalanced but some of the bugs are good (Missingno., Safari Zone encounters outside the zone), the core gameplay isn't super-great and can only be stretched so far but the game was kept to a reasonable length, they hadn't yet added a bunch of annoying stuff that came in with Gen 2, and Blue/The Rival is by far the best and most memorable character in any of the Pokemon games I played.

[spacepup 2,312]

I was never really into Pokemon.  But I know that some people absolutely LOVE it and are ravenous for more pokemon, and that's fine.  

It does *feel* like from the outside, that there has been a lot of just cashing in on people's nostalgia and admiration for the franchise, without much depth or innovation - but who knows, I could be completely wrong as I haven't really explored any of them.  

I guess it feels like....if you are one who like Pokemon, you probably (or may) continue to like the Pokemon games that come out.  But it doesn't feel like newer pokemon entries do much to pull in people like me who didn't really grow up with Pokemon or who didn't care about it much in the first place.

I think the Pokemon are cute, and I like Pikachu in Smash Bros, but from an actual gameplay perspective, it just doesn't do much for me and I prefer other types of RPGs.

 

 

[DarkTone 958]

Played every gen up to sun/moon. WORST gen, probably tied with pearl/diamond. Maybe because I loved getting all 151 in blue (legit) and now its become a chore. Besides trying to catch a shiny, and the odd Nuzlocke, I just watch lets plays instead. 

[LeatherRebel5150 1,010]

I was fully engulfed in the Pokemon boom of the late 90’s, was prime age for it. Was obsessed with first two generations, got pissed at the initial  launch of the 3rd gen because you couldn’t get all the pokemon in those either until they released Firered and Leafgreen but by that time I had already moved on. Came back and played all the ones I missed in 2010 or so and played them all since though not all at release. Sword and Shield is by far the worst Ive ever played from them. The lack of full dex is enough to get me miffed but the game is just so damn boring!! The “wild” area was a joke, game completely linear, having to pay extra money to have more pokemon (still not all of them!) and a mildly interesting area. Even then only Crown Tundra is kinda interesting the other one was just as boring as the base game. So much disappointment from one game. For the biggest franchise on the earth, they are also the absolute laziest and/or most arrogant. They seem to be dead set on keeping their tiny little dev team. They need to expand their development team or give it to some other developer.

[Tanooki 4,894]

See that’s it. No innovation just tiny bandaids usually. The upcoming open world one is fresh so maybe. And ultra sun and moon changed a lot with a real story and not more tired ass gym runs which made it fun again

mostly it’s feeding off doing nothing. Re because they don’t have to as people catch on and stop more kids age into it. 
 

again why I got into puzzle league pinball and snap.  Familiar yet very much not.  I catch the cartoon it’s fun as I have a kid.  I always was older for it.  I was early into college when it popped up along side n64.