It's me, Golf! I've been writing a ton lately, so in between writing I decided to rank the main series Pokémon games for fun! Below, I'll write some very broad general thoughts on each gen. Have fun, and make sure to comment your thoughts! I also tried to rank each game horizontally, and each version as well.
Ps: my opinion is objectively the only correct one.
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- Gen 1: the genesis of Pokémon. I always respected gen 1 for that. I don't expect it to be amazing, since it was their first ever try to make a Pokémon game. For some reason, my interest in playing the gen 1 games always went stale around the 5th gym.
The only full experience of Kanto I've ever had is in Soulsilver/Heartgold. I played most of Let's Go, which I hated. I played FireRed until the 5th gym, which I'll try to play again sometime soon.
- Gen 2: I never played the originals, but HeartGold/Soulsilver are some of the best games in existence. The amount of content the games have is insane. You can genuinely play until your Pokémon reach level 90 or so. Johto is also a beautiful region and the music is insane.
- Gen 3: I never played the originals. Was thinking about playing through Emerald sometime, but that plan is on the back burner for now. I love ORAS. The region looks amazing, I love the Latias flying and the mega evolution makes it even better. Also the music, top notch.
- Gen 4: My first ever gen and thus some of my favourite games. I put Diamond and Pearl in the "decent" tier only because I know the games have issues, so I don't think casual pokéfans would enjoy the games as much nowadays. If not, I'd put them in S tier. They're my most played games by far. Platinum is way better quality-wise, and improved a lot of the flaws. Objectively one of the best Pokémon games of all time. Also, gen 4 might have my favourite soundtrack. As you've probably realised by now, music is an important factor in my Pokémon enjoyment. As a musician myself, I love the Pokémon music.
Also, I haven't finished BDSP yet (I stopped around the 3rd gym), but my experience so far has been purely nostalgia-based. There's barely any new content, and they threw away almost all the improvements made in Platinum. The game also just looks worse than the originals. I'll finish the rest of the game soon-ish. I'm just very disappointed the Gen 4 remakes, THE most anticipated Pokémon games of all time, received this kind of treatment. Sad.
I stopped playing Legends Arceus after the Lilligant boss fight, I simply got uninterested. The game felt very clunky to me. The catching was either very simple or impossible. I disliked that you couldn't catch the enraged Pokémon until after a certain rank/level. The boss fights so far were also very clunky (spam dodge roll). The dex completion, for a noob like me, seems like such a huge grind to complete that I'm not even interested. All the different new items and strategies are also too much for my brain to handle. Also, the game looks so ugly it's insane xD I don't play Pokémon for the graphics but man... it genuinely looks horrible. I'll continue my adventure sometime soon, though, and see if my opinion changes.
- Gen 5: Growing up, I've always seen people hate on gen 5, myself included. However, for some reason, these days people suddenly see gen 5 as one of the best Pokémon games. My opinion on the games still hasn't changed much, though I don't dislike them anymore, now I just think they're decent games.
I don't like the Pokémon, the rivals or the region much. I acknowledge the story is great, though. And the music also slaps at times.
I've already tried around 5 times now to re-play through both Black, and also White 2. However both games get me very bored between the 4th and 6th gym xD I have completed both in the past, but I'll definitely try to play through both again soon-ish to see if my opinion on the games changes.
- Gen 6: Maybe the most overhated Pokémon games of all time. I personally love Kalos, and I find the Pokémon also decent. While I like Serena's design, I do think the rivals suck. But the music, the region, the customisation, Team Flare... I like them all. Sure, the games are very easy. But c'mon now, we don't play Pokémon for its difficulty, right? A third version like Pokémon Z could have made gen 6 S-tier, however it wasn't meant to be.
- Gen 7: This shouldn't even need an explanation. Strong contender for the most overhated Pokémon games of all time. In my opinion also the best Pokémon games of all time. The region is beautiful and calming, the characters are the best characters in the Pokémon universe, the story is amazing, the music might be the best in the franchise... the Pokémon selection is also one of the best in my opinion. All starters rock.
I think quality-wise Ultra Sun/Moon are objectively better than Sun/Moon, but I put them in the same tier just because Sun and Moon will always have my heart, and Lillie leaving broke that very heart XD I also enjoyed evil Lusamine. Rainbow Rocket in USUM also slapped. Might be the best postgame in Pokémon? Except maybe gen 2 or gen 9.
- Gen 8: In my opinion by far the worst gen of the franchise. The music was fine, but I didn't like the Pokémon roster much, the region was very one-dimensional, and the cast was meh. The lack of evil team or anything else to do besides the main gym road made the game very meh. The wild area was a good initiative, but lacked any sort of depth and had lots of bugs. I thought Marnie had potential, but in the end she was just a pretty bland character. Hop was annoying, Leon was a letdown. Chairman Rose's plan was ridiculous. The legendaries boring. Most meh experience I've ever had. I didn't like it. I didn't hate it. It was simply "meh". The DLC saved it a bit.
- Gen 9: Surprisingly one of the best gens so far in my opinion. Potentially the best story, the best cast of characters, a beautiful region too. Music is also amazing at times. A potential DLC might crank it up to best Pokémon game of all time. For a very detailed review, check out the chapter I made about it.
That'll be all for today! Go away now! Adios! ~Golf
