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Pokemon used to not be as gay

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
I played and enjoyed the first couple of Pokemon Gens back in the day so still have some fondness for the series. They are an actual good "intro to RPGs" series I think. Just enough party building, leveling, and meaningful optimizing to get people invested, but they're still pretty easy and short games. I've heard of the Nuzlocke thing, might be worth revisiting the games doing something like that, but once you've played stuff like SMT I don't really see what else Pokemon offers you other than nostalgia & cute monster designs.
 

Siveon

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The anime was better than the games.
I'm actually inclined to agree. The anime presents this neat more freeform battles, with party members, proper built up boss battles (see movies), I like a bit of it.

I would love a monster catching game that focuses on like, 3-dimensional movement, creative tactics and the like. Maybe even have monster joinings be an event like in the anime, so they're more akin to party members in a CRPG than just a picture and a set of stats. Never going to happen, but it's something that sounds interesting to me.
 

urmom

Learned
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I only know Pokemon from the cartoon, and people stumbling around the neighborhood like dumbasses with their eyes glued to their smartphones.
 

NoSoup4you

Learned
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Stop lying to yourselves, the show was fucking awful and the only reason anyone liked it was because it had pokemon in it.
 

HarveyBirdman

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If anything this series gets more complex as time passes, up to autismal levels that make Red/Blue look like calculator games
And DragonForce's Through the Fire and the Flames is a more complex song than Hey Jude, but one is clearly lightyears better than the other. Not saying Pokemon is Hey Jude, but you get my point.
 

Poseidon00

Arcane
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Everyone thinks Pokemon is easy until they try to beat Stadium 1 and 2. Better yet, with rentals.
 

Neki

Scholar
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Jul 30, 2016
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The thing about pokemon for me was to the weeb anime autism factor.
Wake up at 5 am watch it during anime block on TV, come home from school and watch the same block again + an extra ep since the more mature ones only played in the morning.

The games by themselves are pretty average IMO the best part was finding secrets and being "in" the anime.
 
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If anything this series gets more complex as time passes, up to autismal levels that make Red/Blue look like calculator games
And DragonForce's Through the Fire and the Flames is a more complex song than Hey Jude, but one is clearly lightyears better than the other. Not saying Pokemon is Hey Jude, but you get my point.
If the point is that Red/Blue is lightyears better than the rest by virtue of older=better, no.
 

HarveyBirdman

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If anything this series gets more complex as time passes, up to autismal levels that make Red/Blue look like calculator games
And DragonForce's Through the Fire and the Flames is a more complex song than Hey Jude, but one is clearly lightyears better than the other. Not saying Pokemon is Hey Jude, but you get my point.
If the point is that Red/Blue is lightyears better than the rest by virtue of older=better, no.
Gen I and Gen II are best because the fundamentals of the series were at their peak.

(1) Gen I and II pokemon designs are obviously the best franchise, and cool pokemon are like half the appeal of the whole concept.

(2) The sheer quantity of available pokemon hadn't grown so much as to dilute the feeling of picking one pokemon over another.

(3) Team Rocket was a good enemy. Simple, believable goal.

(4) Legendaries and ancient pokemon were mysterious and cool without jumping the shark.

(5) Best soundtracks.

(6) No overcomplication of a very simple game. The added complexity of the newer editions didn't translate into deeper gameplay. It's just a layer of pointless autism.

(7) You didn't need to have 5 different HM mules just to navigate the world. Pokemon is about making you feel like you and your pokemon are an inseparable, unbeatable team. Switching them out every 30 minutes is the game telling you that they are replaceable tools.

Crystal is easily the height of the franchise. The additions to the formula were perfect. Yellow is second best.
 
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Palomides

Augur
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Dec 29, 2011
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Who does the modern art? It's pretty gay and more feminised. Used to be edgy kids and such with whips, now everything's round and soft and girly. Disgusting. I do feel that it works better in 2D anyway. Whilst not fond of the "modern" monsters, I didn't abhor them as much seeing them in that 2D demonstration someone made, trying to replicate the GBC or whatever.
 
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Yusuke Ohmura, though Sugimori is still around. The latter's style has changed through the years too.

A classic:

__ethan_pokemon_and_3_more__65abf6717d331df83a78c893e7138147.jpg


funny enough, Suggy didn't think the old designs looked "cool", he just made them "energetic". He'd probably agree with the comparison's general idea.

https://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-4/

Sugimori: “We’d had male protagonists wear caps before, but we hadn’t had a female protagonist wear one yet. Next, we thought about what kind of clothes this girl should wear besides a hat, and we agreed on stuff like shorts. We observed girls making their way around town and we tried out a few different ideas — like maybe this, or more of that. And then we combined all these ideas and ultimately we landed on the design we have now. Hilbert was sort of the reverse of Hilda in comparison — so thinking about balance, we thought why not give the boy sort of a vibe of coolness this time around? Now, I don’t usually like characters that are too cool, so in the past I’ve wanted to avoid doing this as much as possible (laughs). In Pokemon Diamond & Pearl and Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire, we made the protagonists energetic and hot blooded with short hair, but this time we were aiming for something cooler. We finished up their designs with stuff like stylish haircuts.”
 
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No overcomplication of a very simple game. The added complexity of the newer editions didn't translate into deeper gameplay. It's just a layer of pointless autism.
The other points are subjective* but the games getting more complex with time are a good argument against the people who claim streamlining mechanics into absolute rock bottom is "inevitable" and "necessary" because turn based games are for old coots who are stuck in a past of technological limitations. Also it gives us funnies like those in the pvp aspect.







*though the point about not needing HM slaves isn't really what happened either, I remember getting stuck when my team all had chubby hands used to punch and I needed someone who could CUT bushes to advance. You always needed a few guys used to simply get around. Speaking of that:

https://kotaku.com/new-pokemon-short-finally-gives-bidoof-the-respect-it-d-1848340107

Bidoof’s standing in the Pokémon community has fluctuated since its introduction in 2007’s Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Today, fans see the beaver-like pocket monster as something of a meme thanks to its overall dorky demeanor, but for years it was only considered useful as an “HM slave,” a term that was already outdated in its heyday and is now just downright embarrassing in retrospect.
 
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flyingjohn

Arcane
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Vanilla Gen 1/2 are unplayable to me because of a lack of Physical/Special split.Luckily romhacks fix it.
People can bitch about the art/shared exp/hm,but this one was a incline change.
 

DJOGamer PT

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the solo part of the game was never really good as the combat there is overly simplistic against nerfed opponents who never really use the full spectrum of what a well balanced team of monsters could do.

That's somewhat true... right up until you get to Battle Frontier (specially the Battle Tower)
Where you get stomped for not having the best team composition for the combat set you find yourself in

Crystal is easily the height of the franchise.

That would be Soul Silver/Heart Gold
 
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Hobo Elf

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The other points are subjective* but the games getting more complex with time are a good argument against the people who claim streamlining mechanics into absolute rock bottom is "inevitable" and "necessary" because turn based games are for old coots who are stuck in a past of technological limitations. Also it gives us funnies like those in the pvp aspect.
For me the additional mechanics in the new Pokemon are pointless because the games are so easy that you don't need to interact with them. Why would I waste turns setting up storms and buffs when I can just use my overleveled Pokemon to OHKO everything. Pokemon games have some decent layers of depth when it comes to combat mechanics, but only PvPers get to enjoy them. It's a regrettable waste.
 

Falksi

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Pokemon was actually a huge key cultural moment in making everything gay and ruining it all IMO.

Sat morning TV suddenly went from being fun, hang-over telly with a nice blend of adult humour and kids shows, to pure candy-coated Disney-channel bullshit which embraced their foul philosophies. Pokemon was part of that foul shit, and even though some JRPGs had a hint of that gayness anyway, a lot also were straight as arrows and there was a bearable balance until Pokeybum. Then it just went full on homo-shit, and that's around the time when I stopped buying console games all together and went almost full PC (I still hung on to the great 16-bit games I enjoyed).
 

lightbane

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funny enough, Suggy didn't think the old designs looked "cool", he just made them "energetic". He'd probably agree with the comparison's general idea.
Funnily enough the second design looks outright manly compared to the future ones, who got lazier and lazier. For good or bad By X and Y you can dress up your avatar whatever the hell you want.

For me the additional mechanics in the new Pokemon are pointless because the games are so easy that you don't need to interact with them. Why would I waste turns setting up storms and buffs when I can just use my overleveled Pokemon to OHKO everything. Pokemon games have some decent layers of depth when it comes to combat mechanics, but only PvPers get to enjoy them. It's a regrettable waste.

Multiplayer battles seem to be mostly about killing the enemy in one-two hits before they do the same to you. Not much strategy besides min-maxing your critters.
IMO they should do a soft reboot and get rid of some redundant types.

Pokemon was actually a huge key cultural moment in making everything gay and ruining it all IMO.

Funny that the first seasons were good, but then corp mentality took over and went to shit...
Except for the odd short unrelated to Ash's adventures and such, which tends to be of better quality.
Non mainstream games are also usually good, like the Mystery Dungeon ones, which need a new title ASAP rather than remaking the old ones.

Pokemon began inspired by Earthbound series. Perhaps they should let the player characters aid the pokes to spice things up? Even if it's purely in a support role, some trainer types like Psychics could do some harm themselves. Pokemon: Arceus seems to be touching that a bit.
 

flyingjohn

Arcane
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May 14, 2012
Messages
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The other points are subjective* but the games getting more complex with time are a good argument against the people who claim streamlining mechanics into absolute rock bottom is "inevitable" and "necessary" because turn based games are for old coots who are stuck in a past of technological limitations. Also it gives us funnies like those in the pvp aspect.
For me the additional mechanics in the new Pokemon are pointless because the games are so easy that you don't need to interact with them. Why would I waste turns setting up storms and buffs when I can just use my overleveled Pokemon to OHKO everything. Pokemon games have some decent layers of depth when it comes to combat mechanics, but only PvPers get to enjoy them. It's a regrettable waste.
You can always go for romhacks. They are the only difficult pokemon games.
Radical red is the newest "difficult" romhack and is somewhat overrated,but still better then the base game by a mile.
 

Morenatsu.

Liturgist
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Pokemon was actually a huge key cultural moment in making everything gay and ruining it all IMO.

Sat morning TV suddenly went from being fun, hang-over telly with a nice blend of adult humour and kids shows, to pure candy-coated Disney-channel bullshit which embraced their foul philosophies. Pokemon was part of that foul shit, and even though some JRPGs had a hint of that gayness anyway, a lot also were straight as arrows and there was a bearable balance until Pokeybum. Then it just went full on homo-shit, and that's around the time when I stopped buying console games all together and went almost full PC (I still hung on to the great 16-bit games I enjoyed).
Saturday morning cartoons were always shit, is what you're saying. ‘adult humor’, lol, for retards.
 

Maxie

Wholesome Chungus
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Glory to Ukraine
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I'm a little drunk so it's story time from Bigg Boss.

I can understand the average Codexer scoffing at the notion that Pokemon used to be some worthwhile thing. It's JRPG FAGGOTRY your Gold Boxer might cry. It's not even isometric your monoclefag might yell. Both true things but to a young 10 year old boy with limited options at hand Pokemon Blue (or Red if you are not cool) was amazing. Sure you could play good RPG's elsewhere but could you collect monsters and fight your friend? You could even watch the cheesy Jap cartoon in the morning when you were eating breakfast and working your summer job with DAD! Awesome dude. That kind of thing. The age of GAMEBOY COLOR. That was a thing. We were happy the Gameboy could have color. It sounds so quaint.

But I digress. Zoomers you might not realize it but there was a time not long ago when we...had a limited supply of games to play. I know it's hard to grasp but things were not like they are now. The Wild West of video games. Basically what I am saying is PC purists need to cut some of these games some fucking slack because they established genres that did cool things. Even though their later entries suck cock and should generally be looked down upon I think games like Pokemon earn the RPG moniker due to focusing on the combat in such a way it involves collecting and kicking your friends ass which are two fun video game past times. I hear a lot of noise about Pokemon being decline but any series with twenty entries is decline. I only played Pokemon Blue but I say it was unique and did cool things. Thank you.

Discuss.
tldr is this sone gen1 whinge
 
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For me the additional mechanics in the new Pokemon are pointless because the games are so easy that you don't need to interact with them. Why would I waste turns setting up storms and buffs when I can just use my overleveled Pokemon to OHKO everything. Pokemon games have some decent layers of depth when it comes to combat mechanics, but only PvPers get to enjoy them. It's a regrettable waste.
Monstan collectan gaems have to be somewhat easy so the player can change his team often. Colosseum added a bit of difficulty (limiting what mons you can get and making bosses use rain dance teams or "ha ha protect+earthquake goes BRRRRRRRRR") and it already makes it hard to justify not instadumping your Shroomish or whatever for that Entei. That said, the games have been a bit too baby easy lately even for the average player so gamefreak might be more consistent about adding optional hard modes and battle towers in the future.
 

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