Thread: Why is Generation II so loved by fans?

Originally Posted by Citizen Snips

IMO, you need to have experienced it when it came out to appreciate it.

I was there, and I never saw what was so fantastic about it.

Anyway, all I can see is that it was indeed during the fad age of Pokémon, and people enjoyed the sequel feel. They were also spoiled to think every game after would be like this, or they thought these would be the last games, which is ridiculous in hindsight...

So yeah. I guess nostalgia and most people's inability to let go of the past.

Nostalgia.
Gold was my first Pokémon game and it loved it, I played it non-stop for days, and days and days.
Since then, I haven't loved a game so much like GSC...

I was only around 6 or 7 when Gold and Silver came out and wasn't into Pokemon back then so I didn't really notice the hype of it, but once I started getting into Pokemon around 10-11 years old I started to see how popular it was. I agree with everyone who said nostalgia and because of the fad. G/S added a lot of new things and not only did it have the original villains from the first game, but you could also visit the first region again.

Simple: it expanded on the original concept just enough so that it appealed greatly to people who enjoyed the original games. And most people who enjoyed the original games weren't yet cynical enough to pay that much attention to its faults (that cynicism unfortunately arrived in time to catch Gen III in the crossfire). Throw in the nostalgia factor, and it's suddenly the default answer for "Best Generation" in most peoples' minds.
Amusingly enough, Digimon Adventure 02 works on the exact same principle. Original Content+Shiny New Stuff+Non-jaded fansXNostalgia=Perceived Greatness, every time.

Originally Posted by Arc Blader

Simple: it expanded on the original concept just enough so that it appealed greatly to people who enjoyed the original games. And most people who enjoyed the original games weren't yet cynical enough to pay that much attention to its faults (that cynicism unfortunately arrived in time to catch Gen III in the crossfire). Throw in the nostalgia factor, and it's suddenly the default answer for "Best Generation" in most peoples' minds.
Amusingly enough, Digimon Adventure 02 works on the exact same principle. Original Content+Shiny New Stuff+Non-jaded fansXNostalgia=Perceived Greatness, every time.

I agree with this completely. Even though I love all the pokemon games, gen 2 always seem to be my favorite, even though I haven`t played the remakes. I could never pinpoint what made it my favorite, but this kinda sums it up. My favorite pokemon isn`t even from gen 2. My second and third is though.

For me, it was a combinations of things. First off, I loved the design of almost all of the new Pokèmon, especially the starters. It also had an air of familiarity to it, without being exactly the same (my main complaint with Yellow).

I loved that I could breed Pokèmon now, I loved the addition of new types, and the capability to pick berries and Apricorns.

I can definitely say that I view it with nostalgia goggles though. It came out at a point in my life that I look back on with fondness, which adds to my good feelings towards it.

I love generation 2 the most the breeding and day and night feature was brilliant and the fight with Red at the end. I missed the day and night feature in generation 3 and can't understand why Nintendo didn't put it in.

Because it fine tuned what gen1 had.

It balanced the types out so every thing is more even.

Added some new stuff that have been huge parts of every other main game sence such as pokemon breeding,shiny pokemon,the day/night system and legendary mascots that are in the main story line.

It was a huge part of alot of peoples(including me) childhoods so its like red/blue(or green if your in Japan) to some who started in gen2.

And it was released when the poke-fad was at its peak.

I used to love it, too, but as I got into Emerald, and eventually Platinum, I realized what weak games GSC and HGSS were. D8 IMHO, there is nothing good about it except that horrible disease known as nostalgia.

Originally Posted by Orion Hasta

I was there, and I never saw what was so fantastic about it.

Anyway, all I can see is that it was indeed during the fad age of Pokémon, and people enjoyed the sequel feel. They were also spoiled to think every game after would be like this, or they thought these would be the last games, which is ridiculous in hindsight...

So yeah. I guess nostalgia and most people's inability to let go of the past.

QTF man. D8 A LOT of 90s babies are spoiled and think it's always about them, not thinking about the next generation instead.

Like everyone else here has said, it was towards the tail end of the fad phase. That and a lot of the fans were ecstatic about being able to actually catch new pokemon without having to rely on false promises given by shady angelfire webpages claiming that you could catch togepis and pikablus in Bill's garden.

Originally Posted by FairyRed

QTF man. D8 A LOT of 90s babies are spoiled and think it's always about them, not thinking about the next generation instead.

Please read the OP. I specifically wrote "hostile, flaming poats will not be tolerated" and that is very much what this is. This is the only verbal warning anyone will receive in this thread. We can discuss this without attacking others.

Originally Posted by FairyRed

I used to love it, too, but as I got into Emerald, and eventually Platinum, I realized what weak games GSC and HGSS were. D8 IMHO, there is nothing good about it except that horrible disease known as nostalgia.

Hmmm.... lets think.

1. Introduction of two new types, Dark and Steel
2. Introduction of the berry system
3. Introduction of genders
4. Introduction of breeding
5. Introduction of egg moves
6. Introduction of held items
7. Introduction of the special stat split
8. Day/Night system
9. Time system
10. Happiness evolution
11. Evolutions and pre-evolutions for old fan favorites (ex: Scizor, Blissey, Bellossom, Pichu)
12. TWO regions
13. 16 badges
14. Battle against Red

On a more macroscopic note:

1. Introduced the idea of more than just 150 Pokemon
2. Introduced the idea of more than just 1 region
3. Introduced shiny Pokemon
4. Introduced the concept of cross-generational trading, which after having been on hiatus for all of Gen III, came back full force in Gen IV and has stayed around for Gen V.

Nope. Nothing good about Gen II at all.

I think it was so loved because it was different enough from Gen I while still keeping an air of familiarity by mantaining the Pokemon and evil team from the first Gen. Gen III tried to divorce itself completely from the first two Gens, which in retrospect may not have been the best move for GameFreak, comercially speaking. Aren't RSE the weakest selling Pokemon games in the history of the franchise?

I'm sure timing also played a huge part in it and that adds in the nostalgia factor (which I hardly see as a 'disease.' Everyone has the right to formulate their opinions based on their own reasons. Nostalgia is just as valid as anything else. Also? It's quite possible to like these games without the nostalgia factor. It isn't any type of fact that when people take off the nostalgia goggles, they'll immediately see how awful Gen II was and bow down to the awesome that was Gen III.) but I'm not entirely sure that was the deciding factor.

The games also showed us the Pokemon world in a much wider scope than we previously knew even existed. The introduction of a whole new region has been quite possibly the biggest thing GSC ever did because at the time, it had never crossed anyone's mind that that was even a possibility. It showed us that the Pokemon world was that much bigger than we originally thought (yet it still managed to tie it to the familiar region of Kanto, which made us feel at ease subconsciously since we didn't feel alienated from the critters and characters we grew to know and love.) None of the subsequent generations have ever had a change quite so innovative as the introduction of the Johto region was for its time.

By the time Hoenn rolled around, with its new landmass, new characters and new Pokemon, we had already 'been there, done that' with Johto. Regardless of which was the better game, Hoenn didn't bring us anything we hadn't seen before (in a macroscopic sense.) New Pokemon? Johto did it. New gym leaders? Johto did it. New region? Johto did it. It wasn't anything new anymore, therefore it didn't catch the fan's interest quite as much. Divorcing themselves from familiar territory as much as it did didn't help things since there was no sense of familiarity the players could fall back on. Notice how the number of fans spiked after FrLg came out.

Gens III, IV and V haven't yet come up with anything as revolutionary as what Johto did in the time of its inception, the closest being the concept of remakes. Now, I know that there is a hotly contested generation war permanently going on about which was the best Gen, but most fans (note the 'most', I know there are quite a few that don't qualify) that have been around since the first Gen will agree that Johto was the most revolutionary generation, second only to RBY (and they get a pass for simply introducing us to the franchise in the first place.)

Originally Posted by Envoy

1. Introduced the idea of more than just 150 Pokemon

Gen I did that with Mew. =P

Other than that... yeah. The 2nd gen was the first gen where the concept of there being a new batch of Pokemon was... new. (Well, aside from the 1st gen, when every Pokemon was new, but that's getting too technical.)

It also introduced the concept of legendaries being the box mascots. Although I do like that that's not what happened 1st gen.

I think it was so loved because it was different enough from Gen I while still keeping an air of familiarity by mantaining the Pokemon and evil team from the first Gen.

That's why I like 2nd gen over the 1st one... but I like 3rd gen better than 2nd gen.

And also...

Originally Posted by Glow

Like everyone else here has said, it was towards the tail end of the fad phase.

Yeah. Personally, I think this was a significant influence. Not to mention, Yu-Gi-Oh! came to America around 2001 (can't speak for other English-speaking countries when it comes to the year), and that got popularity.

Originally Posted by Envoy

Gen III tried to divorce itself completely from the first two Gens,

They still kept in existence the first 251 Pokemon in existence, and they made a couple 2nd gens have pre-evolutions. They made Colosseum, Fr/Lg (which you mentioned later), and Emerald, each with many older Pokemon. (Not to mention the e-cards they released before Colosseum, which had some older Pokemon you could battle that you couldn't catch in R/S.

If it tried, it didn't try hard enough.

By the time Hoenn rolled around, with its new landmass, new characters and new Pokemon, we had already 'been there, done that' with Johto. Regardless of which was the better game, Hoenn didn't bring us anything we hadn't seen before (in a macroscopic sense.) New Pokemon? Johto did it. New gym leaders? Johto did it. New region? Johto did it. It wasn't anything new anymore, therefore it didn't catch the fan's interest quite as much. Divorcing themselves from familiar territory as much as it did didn't help things since there was no sense of familiarity the players could fall back on. Notice how the number of fans spiked after FrLg came out.

But why did D&P (which repeated the new gym leaders, Pokemon, and region thing), and B&W (which also did all that stuff- in fact, having you unable to catch a pre-5th gen Pokemon within Black or White before beating the Champion or whatever) get much favor?

Originally Posted by Envoy

Hmmm.... lets think.

1. Introduction of two new types, Dark and Steel
2. Introduction of the berry system
3. Introduction of genders
4. Introduction of breeding
5. Introduction of egg moves
6. Introduction of held items
7. Introduction of the special stat split
8. Day/Night system
9. Time system
10. Happiness evolution
11. Evolutions and pre-evolutions for old fan favorites (ex: Scizor, Blissey, Bellossom, Pichu)
12. TWO regions
13. 16 badges
14. Battle against Red

On a more macroscopic note:

1. Introduced the idea of more than just 150 Pokemon
2. Introduced the idea of more than just 1 region
3. Introduced shiny Pokemon
4. Introduced the concept of cross-generational trading, which after having been on hiatus for all of Gen III, came back full force in Gen IV and has stayed around for Gen V.

Nope. Nothing good about Gen II at all.

I think it was so loved because it was different enough from Gen I while still keeping an air of familiarity by mantaining the Pokemon and evil team from the first Gen. Gen III tried to divorce itself completely from the first two Gens, which in retrospect may not have been the best move for GameFreak, comercially speaking. Aren't RSE the weakest selling Pokemon games in the history of the franchise?

I'm sure timing also played a huge part in it and that adds in the nostalgia factor (which I hardly see as a 'disease.' Everyone has the right to formulate their opinions based on their own reasons. Nostalgia is just as valid as anything else. Also? It's quite possible to like these games without the nostalgia factor. It isn't any type of fact that when people take off the nostalgia goggles, they'll immediately see how awful Gen II was and bow down to the awesome that was Gen III.) but I'm not entirely sure that was the deciding factor.

The games also showed us the Pokemon world in a much wider scope than we previously knew even existed. The introduction of a whole new region has been quite possibly the biggest thing GSC ever did because at the time, it had never crossed anyone's mind that that was even a possibility. It showed us that the Pokemon world was that much bigger than we originally thought (yet it still managed to tie it to the familiar region of Kanto, which made us feel at ease subconsciously since we didn't feel alienated from the critters and characters we grew to know and love.) None of the subsequent generations have ever had a change quite so innovative as the introduction of the Johto region was for its time.

By the time Hoenn rolled around, with its new landmass, new characters and new Pokemon, we had already 'been there, done that' with Johto. Regardless of which was the better game, Hoenn didn't bring us anything we hadn't seen before (in a macroscopic sense.) New Pokemon? Johto did it. New gym leaders? Johto did it. New region? Johto did it. It wasn't anything new anymore, therefore it didn't catch the fan's interest quite as much. Divorcing themselves from familiar territory as much as it did didn't help things since there was no sense of familiarity the players could fall back on. Notice how the number of fans spiked after FrLg came out.

Gens III, IV and V haven't yet come up with anything as revolutionary as what Johto did in the time of its inception, the closest being the concept of remakes. Now, I know that there is a hotly contested generation war permanently going on about which was the best Gen, but most fans (note the 'most', I know there are quite a few that don't qualify) that have been around since the first Gen will agree that Johto was the most revolutionary generation, second only to RBY (and they get a pass for simply introducing us to the franchise in the first place.)

Yes to everything. Especially the part about the pokemon world, because I don't think that anyone ever really thinks about how it was Gen. 2 that opened everyones mind to the idea that there was more than just Kanto.

Originally Posted by Rex Kamex

But why did D&P (which repeated the new gym leaders, Pokemon, and region thing), and B&W (which also did all that stuff- in fact, having you unable to catch a pre-5th gen Pokemon within Black or White before beating the Champion or whatever) get much favor?

Two reasons. New generation of players being introduced to the franchise in one sense or another, making the DS games their first Pokemon game ever. And the second reason is because the older games are seen as graphically inferior.

Thankfully, we have reached the point in gaming where graphics are no longer going to be the focus of a game title. Look at the games out there now. We have a large range of artistic aesthetics to choose from, from photorealism to cartoonish to abstract. Eventually, the focus will be put into other areas, and that second reason I just stated will be rendered moot by artistic intent.

However, keep in mind that with each new generation being born and introduced to the franchise, there are always going to be that group of players that never played the older games and don't really see why those older games are so great. I mean, I know kids who never played Contra but can play through Call of Duty like it is nothing. They look at Contra and just don't see how it could be as fun.