Thread: Is Pokemon Getting Weird?

It is a little obnoxious when people say that the old Pokemon were better and everything new sucks, but it can also be bothersome when people think that when you dislike something from a new generation, it's because you're blinded by nostalgia goggles. I'm honestly not too crazy about Gens IV or V, but it's not because of nostalgia. They just don't appeal to me as much as Gen II did. Not trying to imply that those gens were bad, mind you.

The Pokemon franchise has always been, and always will be considered "weird", but I prefer to use the term "unique" rather than "weird".

Being a Pokemon fan for over 10 years, I have continually supported the progression and evolution of the franchise, even if there have been a few things here and there they have done that I don't particularly like. This person is one of those "old school" Pokemon fans, the kind of fans that practically worship the earlier generations (specifically the first gen and ONLY the first gen), and bash on everything after that. These people should know that if they did not add more Pokemon after the original 151, the franchise wouldn't still be continuing today.

Originally Posted by FinalArcadia

I'm a veteran player, since Pokemon Blue, and I definitely disagree. Honestly, the original 151 Pokemon are my least favorite, LOL.

I'll never understand why people get mad when the new games are different, because it's not like you can't go back and play the old ones. They'll always be the same as you remember them. But to keep a series fresh, new approaches have to be taken. Nobody wants to play the same thing time in and time out.

I do agree with you on that, I've been playing since R/S came out, and other than a few individual Pokemon, I don't like most of the Pokemon from the first two generations, almost all my favorite Pokemon are from Gen 4 and 5.

The series cannot continue if it doesn't try new things, these kind of fans simply heavily dislike any change to something, no matter how big or small the change is.

I'm a veteran fan, and I don't think PKMN is getting "weird" to the point where it's "destroying my childhood". It's just moving forward, like any other show would. If anything, it just keeps getting better! I mean, Look at me. my favorite PKMN is Buizel, a 4th generation Pokemon! :P

Indeed, I've been around since day 1, too, and only see that Pokemon only continues to get better with each passing game. Platinum is the best game in my opinion (translation: it's my favorite durhur) and I enjoyed it WAY more than I ever did Crystal or Yellow. Folks like your cousin just can't admit how much better things have gotten, or they can't admit they were just a trend-follower. Either way, his opinion is just not worth listening to.

If anything, the franchise keeps getting better.
Generation V has the best Pokémon designs up to now. :3

At first, I didn't like the idea of fusing two Pokémon, but it is really well explained, so I don't care much.

And yes, I am playing and watching Pokémon since the 90's, but happily my brain cells were not affected/destroyed by nostalgia.

Originally Posted by FinalArcadia

I'm a veteran player, since Pokemon Blue, and I definitely disagree. Honestly, the original 151 Pokemon are my least favorite, LOL.

Same here, not only the original 151, but the Kanto and Johto Pokémon in general, are pretty much boring if compared with the ones from Hoenn, Sinnoh and specially Unova.

I've been playing since the original R/B/Y came out, and there have always been some things about newer generations that I don't like and some things that I do. I always look forward to new generations because of different Pokemon and features, and I'm nostalgic about the older generations for the same reasons.

Are you implying that Pokemon was ever normal?

I wouldn't use the word weird. I'd rather use the words, "being used a nothing more then a cash cow". Not saying that Game Freak, the Pokemon company and Nintendo shouldn't be making money on the franchise but that shouldn't be the only reason to make the games.

I know it's hard to make a game, I know it's hard to keep up with the times but frankly, they are making a lot of money off this franchise and call me crazy but I think that entitles all of us to games that don't insult our intelligence. Pointless mini games, pointless retooling of the battle systems, using the same formula over and over again and for some reason not understanding the limitations of a game that uses the overworld perspective. I mean, they are somewhat dealing with these problems but they have yet to fully resolved them. I don't no if it's just because they are resistant to changing too much but it's just causing major problems.

In part of my personal preference, I can say that for me Gen 1 was always the absolute best overall Gen for me in terms of Gameplay and as a result my most favorite Gen. However, I can admit in terms of actually, the gameplay is the least advanced of all Gens. I loved the fact that the battle system allowed paralysis speed srop to be nulled by moves like agility and burn attack reduction to be nulled by swords dance even though it was most likely an oversight, and criticals don't feel much like hax than they do now and they also ignored attack boosts as well so setting up was counter productive to those with somewhat high speed due to the way critical hits worked in gen 1. All prood that Gen 1 had a lot of flaws in battle mechanics that were gradually fixed in later gens. However i prefer this system for it's simplicity and unique charm. Does it mean it is better than than other Gens in the long run, no it isn't. I will admit that the gameplay has in fact generally gotten better with each gen due to being next to no glitches but for me all the gen 1 glitches were a half a dozen of fun. So yes to me i think Gen 1
is better than all other in terms of my preference, but that doesn't mean i don't like or can't enjoy the other Gens. In fact i quite enjoy 5th Gen alot. Btw I think most of my favorite pokemon design-wise come from Gen 3 such as Milotic,Salamence,Metagross,Swampert,Flygon,Gardevoir,Castform,Aggron, and Regirock while my only favs from Gen 1 are Mewtwo,Arcanine,Nidoking,Golem. So design wise for me Gen 1 isn't the best.

I'm a rare case who has an opinion that Gen 1 was slightly better but won't exaggerate it or shove it down peoples throats while giving credits due to the other gens. Pokemon has only Improved each passing Gen even though i would stand by 1st Gen partly due due some nostalgia and of course the uber awesome glitches and simplified battle mechanics,and yet i will be the first to say that 5th Gen is the most advanced of em all and the designs are getting more creative each passing Gen. This is my full opinion on the matter.

Originally Posted by D. Strider

There are a lot of people who'd agree with him. There are also a lot of people who'd disagree with him. This goes regardless of whether someone's a veteran player or not. I've been playing since the RBY days and I'm still enjoying every Generation.

This is, in fact, one of the most well-known traits, for better or worse, of the Pokémon fandom. Ask anyone in it and they'll be able to give you countless recollections of older fans complaining that the newer games aren't as good, or that the newer generations are somehow "ruining" the older ones, or (my personal favorite) that the only real Pokémon are the first 151. But there are just as many fans who'd say the exact opposite is true.

I think most of us - actually, I feel safe enough to say "all of us" - here can attest to the fact that there's a huuuge number of Pokémon fans who have trouble getting over their own nostalgia.

I really think this is the most honest way to say it. To the original poster, the doubts your friend is facing is nothing new, and is something that a lot of pokemon players have experienced or witnessed already. I can say that this kind of stuff has been going on ever since generation 3, maybe even 2 (I'm only hesitant to say anything earlier because I wasn't around that time). 8+ years this has been the cycle of opinion, and it kind of shows you how much it ended up mattering.

I guess I'm beating a dead horse since everyone seems to feel roughly the same way, but time to take a nostalgia trip.



When I was a kid and I saw this commercial, I had to have this game. Had to, and it became my favorite game. Pokémon Blue and Yellow were my childhood. Everyone I knew played at least one version of the game, and several different factors about the game became prominent staples into how I developed as an adult. No matter how the quality may change from game to game, none of them will ever take the place of the original three in my heart.

HOWEVER... with that said, I fail to see how the series is going downhill or anything like that. Yeah, some of the Pokémon designs are a little strange, and yeah, the atmosphere is a little... different, but then, you could say that about the original games, too. Nostalgia is the only thing keeping me liking Pokémon like Muk, and maybe in fifteen years, I'll grow to appreciate Garbador. But there are a large amount of Pokémon that really aren't any stranger than the Generation I Pokémon. Lilligant for example fits very well in the Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, and Bellossum family. Snivy looks just as much like a normal grass starter as Bulbasaur and Chikorita.

It's blind nostalgia that can really lead to... well, simply not enjoying a lot of things, and that aside, I think the whole "ruining my childhood" or "ruining the legacy" thing is probably the worst criticism for anything I can think of. If you see something and it's not as good as something else, how does the lesser product "ruin" the other thing? Do you really become so attached to the quality of the older product that if you see something newer that you don't like that it ruins your perception of them? It's like when people hear a cover of a classic song by a modern artist and say the modern artist "ruins the original." It's like, yeah, the cover may be bad, but it's his version of the song not their's. You can't just listen to the original because the modern artist ruined it that much? I find that really hard to believe.

I also agree to Callisto's point, though. Some people don't like the newer generations, and it isn't always because of blind nostalgia. Sometimes it just doesn't appeal to some people as they do others. Take the Mario franchise, for example... is there really anything that has dramatically changed since Super Mario 64? Not really, but every main platformer that has followed has simply not had the same feeling to me. I'm not saying Sunshine and everything after is bad, it's just that since then there have been some pretty annoying changes that were made to the series that sort of made it less enjoyable for me. Like the way Bowser used to roar, you know... like a dinosaur. Now he just grunts. I mean, I guess you still hear him roar, but it's not the same. As for Yoshi... do I really need to talk about Yoshi? That being said, I still like the Mario games, but none of the newer ones capture the same magic that Mario 64 and every game before it did. So yeah, while I wholeheartedly disagree with Link Snivy's cousin, I'm not going to assume it's solely because he's blindly nostalgic.

I am a veteran player myself since Red and I have found that every generation has been stepping stones throughout my life from childhood to adulthood. With every step is a different adventure, different scenery, different features, a different story, different characters, and most importantly different Pokemon.

Pokemon is always changing and I personally think that is the best part about it. Why dwell on what once was, when you can just enjoy it for what it is?

Going back to what Exor said, does your friend like Dugtrio and Magneton? He might come back with the fact that these Pokemon are evolutions are made up of multiples of the same Pokemon, and therefore exempt. But what about Slowbro? Now this is a clear example of two distinctly separate Pokemon, Shellder and Slowpoke, combining into one Slowbro. And guess what? That was good ol' generation I. This has clearly been going on since the beginning. So if combining Pokemon is what has him all bent out of shape, well, I've got some news for him...

Originally Posted by elec-boy

Wuts wrong with nostalgic people?

It depends on the person if they're wrong or not. When people go crazy and say things like this is RUINED FOREVER or 151 or the only REAL Pokemon there may very well be a problem. I mean, I'm nostalgic, I really like the first gen and second gen the most (including the remakes), but I don't push my opinion down everyone else's throat! That's just really mean.

Then again, I might be nostalgic, but I like the later games too. I rather like gen IV story and the feeling that the bad guys are one step ahead of me. I like things about Black and White. To me, each generation has things that they have offered and that you can say are good or bad but none of them have been "terrible" (nor they have ruined the franchise forever). I rather think that's truly hard to do with anything even if something is "terrible".

Also, with the legendary in Gen. IV, wasn't it like "defused" and now is becoming more whole? I think this is an awesome idea, and I'm old school! xD

No, I think Pokémon has been improving. My brother thinks the same thing. He's 20, and he says only R/B were good. He also told me I was stupid for liking the new games because I had never played R/B. It's funny because I have 7 different files from Gen I (some on roms). Heck, he didn't even know about the Mew glitch, what the hell does he know?

I hate nostalgia fans who haven't even tried to enjoy the newer generations. Obviously, some people will not like them and it's fine, but when you claim a game sucks just because you're glorifying childhood memories that's just kinda pathetic.

I've been playing since first Gen, and those are definitely my favorite pokemon, but I also love newer generations too. I love playing my Gen V games because of how much they advanced everything, and I just like the Unova region in general. I don't like sinnoh though, and only like a few pokemon from it. It's really a matter of preference and how the person feels. If he doesn't like the newer generation then he should get the old gen and play it. I still play my blue version when I feel nostalgic