Sun and Moon really knocked it out of the park I feel. It lost a handful of features that I was fond of, sadly, but overall it’s a much better experience than X and Y, and were probably the ones I had the most fun playing since Silver back in the day. Anyone who’s curious about the series would not be remissed to start the series on the latest installment because it’s probably the most accessible to newcomers. Even the story isn’t THAT ridiculous compared to where the series had been leaning the past few games, where things like Global Climate Catastrophes and World-Ending Super Weapons were featured prominently.
Red and Blue are also fine places to start, because they mostly hold up (especially if you haven’t played any of the series prior) and are a fascinating look into how a game held together by chewing gum and dental floss can actually succeed at being engaging.
There’s also a bunch of side stuff like randomizer hacks and battle simulators that I’ve been putting a lot of time into lately because while my love for the games is strong I do kind of get tired of the same old thing, and the hard mode challenge (colloquially referred to as the Nuzlocke) is not my bag of tea.
Feel free to ask me about Pokemon stuff because I know tremendously way too much about it. It’s a problem.
Honestly outside of the bad glitches like ghost being weak to psychic Red/Blue are good games for the time. It’s more little things with the game, like no good ghost or dragon moves and some types being underrepresented.
Right. There’s a lot of janky stuff that doesn’t really start to rear its head unless you get really deep into strategizing and counter-playing. Psychic being IMMUNE to Ghost (which to be fair only had Lick and the mostly irrelevant Night Shade but still), Bug having 2 attacks that could hit for above 40 base power, one of which was a signature move for the worst Bug in the game (Pin Missile and Twinneedle), the only Dragon move being Dragon Rage (40 set damage making it most of the time worse than Night Shade), Fighting’s best move being Submission (EUGH), Special being a single stat, etc. I’m sure there’s more I’m missing too. It’s a hot mess if you try to do more than just play through it the normal way, but that’s really all you should be doing with it at this point, so it’s sort of a moot point.
Honestly the glitches are half the fun, I’ve been playing the virtual console red and I have an omanyte and growlithe now because I walked through walls to cinnabar before even fighting Brock.
I’m loving Alola - I’d honestly say the latest gen is better than any of the past ones, especially with the changes from gym battles to totems and kahunas. My favorite poke, though, is the sword evolution tree from last gen. Swords are cool.
Was ghost actually weak to psychic in gen 1? I thought that was just a side effect of the only ghosts in Gen 1 also being poison, which was weak to psychic.
I’m sad I lost the N64 mic because Hey You Pikachu was so cool. But I feel like I’ve never heard of any other game using the mic? So it just was never used. I miss the unique animations when you insulted pikachu tho.
Actually, there were two better, Jump Kick and High Jump Kick. Problem was, those were both exclusive to Hitmonlee and it alone. Everything else was stuck with Submission.
This and Hyper Beam/Body Slam are part of why Tauros, Chansey, Persian, and Snorlax are so dominant in RBY.
For the lonngest time I thought ghost was weak to psychic because of this. I’m glad there’s a lot of cool ghosts now, it’s my favourite type! Sun/moon is really good for ghosts, I kind of want to do a new playthrough with a ghost-only team.
The seventh generation games are my favourite by far, I could go on at length about how much I love the world and the characters, there’s a real sincerity to them that shows how much the writers cared and its something the mainline games have lacked until this point, even if the past two gens have seen a progression towards it. The art & sound direction of Sun and Moon are also incredibly vibrant, there’s so many great looking locales and wonderful songs and it all ties together in what is honestly just such a lovely, heartfelt game.
That being said, Sun & Moon are effectively just introducing to the main franchise the kind of tone the Mystery Dungeon games have always played with, they’re incredibly sweet, earnest stories and I adore them a lot, and I think it’s a real shame they’ve never enjoyed the kind of reception the main franchise has.
I don’t know if it’s like a ‘controversial’ opinion, but I nothing quite excited me like playing White and just running into nothing familiar. Whenever I play the new games now, I get a little disappointed when I run into something I know. “OH BOY WHO’S THA-- oh hey wingull.” The national dex would probably get a little out of hand if they added like 150 mons every generation though.
Black and White having only new pokemon in them was honestly super refreshing and one of the things I loved most about them.
Black/White are really good and were refreshing enough to keep me interested in the series, especially after Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, which were so unfun I was about ready to move on from the series.
And of course Sun/Moon have kept that interest very much alive. They’re SO GOOD
Not sure how I feel about the announcement saying they’re distributing some of the old mega evo stones (Beedrill/Mawile) via the online competitions. I mean I guess to be fair, apparently in the past you’ve really only had to sign up and play three matches online to qualify for the “prizes,” but I’m still surprised that they’re not just barfin’ them out through mystery gift like they have almost everything else thusfar.
i’ve played all generations but i think sun and moon are by far my favorite. Though, I do have a soft spot for Gen II [except for Whitney] I tried replaying Gen I Red and holy crow i forgot how difficult it was. [you know, back then when the trainer have infinite move set and can spam the same move over and over again].
Favorite pokes is Nidoking and Growlithe. :3 I don’t even know, i love them so.
Mystery Dungeon is pretty great spin off game, not too much of a fan of pokemon ranger. Though, I always wanted to try that pokemon/ dynasty warriors spin-off that came out? The latest mystery dungeon tugged at my heart strings and I was like: why
My favorite generation tends to be whatever’s current, and Sun & Moon’s no different. It’s usually improved mechanics and more cute monsters available that does it for me. I’ve been playing since Gen 1, so I really appreciate the way SuMo shakes things up. It even has my favorite story from the main Pokemon series, because they really tried this time!
My favorite Pokemon? No, not Chespin, even though he’s a good boy.
My favorite spinoff is Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, hands down. Favorite stories in the franchise, most of my favorite music, and one of the reasons I like Skitty so much. In the most recent one, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, they even brought over a lot of mechanics from Shiren the Wanderer—along with its difficulty, especially in the post-game. It gets mean, but the story, music, and characters are all still great.
Mawile is my absolute favorite Pokemon, I really hope mega stones are going to be available after these tournaments in some way. Especially since the number of participants are limited, and there have been problems with Global Link where newly registered people can’t sign in and register their game.
Certain random mega stones not being available in SuMo surprised me, but I wasn’t too upset over it initially… But it feels a bit cheap that there are trainers in the Battle Royal using mega evolutions the player can’t get themselves. I think Battle Royals are the only element of SuMo I don’t enjoy, it’s a really fun concept and I was really excited to try it, but even at the easiest rank it feels like it was balanced exclusively for hardcore competitive players. There are trainers throwing out Mega Blazikens right off the bat!
(my favorite spinoff game is puzzle league, hell yes)
Just finished Sun yesterday with my all Dog (Five dogs, one dog substitute) team and turns out I didn’t need to train them up to lv 50 at all cause Arcanine just murdered everything with X-tremeSpeed.
Especially since the number of participants are limited, and there have been problems with Global Link where newly registered people can’t sign in and register their game.