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The Faults of Gen IV

Leonhart

Imagineer
  • The lack of fire Pokémon. This was fixed in Platinum.
  • The fact that some of the new evos are to Pokémon that weren’t available to post game. Again, this was fixed in Platinum.
  • Too many evos and pre-evos, many of them pointless.
  • Saving a lot of data...

Most pre-evolved forms of old Pokemon in D/P/Pt seemed needless to me; at least the evolved forms of old Pokemon had better stats most of the time.
 

Ecastro179

New Member
By far the worst thing about this generation is the main story of HGSS. Don’t get me wrong, the games are presented absolutely beautifully, but this game’s main story is trash. It has a slightly worse version of the notoriously awful gen 2 level curve except with modern mechanics. Grinding is terrible because of the extremely weak wild Pokémon, and if you want to use more than 1 or 2 Pokémon, if you like to go into gyms with levels matching the gym leader, you’ll have to grind a lot. I found myself grinding my team for an hour for every gym between gyms 3-5 the last time I attempted to play this game, then got through 6 and 7 because for some reason their levels are weird. Once I got to Clair and realised how much grinding I’d need to do (probably several hours worth) I quit. It’s a real shame that games that look and sound beautiful can’t play better. Instead it tries to take my attention away from the train wreck of an adventure with gimmicks galore.


Strangely enough, in my case, I passed through most of the game normally. However, when I reached the Pokémon League for the first time, I couldn't get passed Lance and I didn't want to grind. I was very young and decided to passed a high leveled Pokémon from Platinum to beat him.

Nonetheless, it's true that the level of wild Pokémon was low, making it infuriating to level up (making me transfer a Pokémon). Maybe my only complain of HGSS but subjectively one of top 5 Pokémon games of all time.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Ecastro179 said:
Nonetheless, it's true that the level of wild Pokémon was low, making it infuriating to level up (making me transfer a Pokémon).

It's frustrating that this was an issue in G/S/C as well, yet Game Freak decided not to fix that in HG/SS. It was a flaw that should've been rectified when the remakes were first planned.
 

Mega Altaria

☆~Shiny hunter▢~
With the complaint about the lack of Fire-types in Diamond and Pearl, if the player doesn't choose Chimchar, then the only Fire-types available in the game before the postgame are Ponyta and Rapidash. This is especially a problem considering a member of the Elite Four already has a Bronzong and it has Levitate, which negates its Ground weakness and its only weakness will then be Fire.
 

keepitsimple

site of lies
- It's slow
- The obnoxiously long saving time after using the PC.
- The wild pokemon were weak in Johto which made it hard to train.

Basically yeah DP and HGSS kind of suck while Platinum is much better and fixes many things wrong with DP
 
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Leonhart

Imagineer
((JAWS)) said:
HGSS/Platinum are some of my favorite games but Gen IV has a pacing problem. It’s terribly slow.

I didn't think HG/SS had slow pacing. The Gyms minus the third one were easy, so winning Jouto's Gym Badges was generally fast. The only bump in the road for me was the Rocket-dan storyline after the seventh Gym.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Constant need for HMs, the disengaging routes, and medicore Dex. I still think Gen 4 is the best generation as Platnium is the closest we'll probably get to a perfect game
 

Minedreigon

A monument to all your sins
Okay, seriously, I get they had to address “muh in game gambling” in a kid’s game (except loot boxes still plague modern gaming LOL), but not having the slot machines in the European version of Platinum sucks. We have to BUY those good TMs. That’s effectively 200000 pokedollars for Thunderbolt! Censorship should not equate to bad game design!
 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
Okay, seriously, I get they had to address “muh in game gambling” in a kid’s game (except loot boxes still plague modern gaming LOL), but not having the slot machines in the European version of Platinum sucks. We have to BUY those good TMs. That’s effectively 200000 pokedollars for Thunderbolt! Censorship should not equate to bad game design!
But at least you still can buy the coins, unlike in non-Japanese versions of HeartGold/SoulSilver. Seriously, Voltorb Flip is just tedious, yet the TMs still remain just as expensive.
 

SubtleVVeirdoh

Unova Enthusiast
Differences in levels (wild Pokémon, most NPCs) compared to your Pokémon. Certain Johto Pokemon still a bit hard to find even though they originated from that region....MURKROW. Also, as said before, the need for HMs. Switching a 1/6 spot for an HM Slave is tedious/unnecessary; my biggest gripes.
 
Back when I first played DP, I found the map design and pacing intolerable, and really, really dull and uninteresting compared to Hoenn. Playing the games more recently I've come to appreciate the route design much more, but the ridiculous speed problems that DP had are still pretty bad. Same with the bad Pokedex distribution. I've never actually finished a playthrough of DP, compared with two full Platinum files. A personal gripe is that I really like Electabuzz and I think Electivire is extraordinarily ugly!

HG/SS are tied for being my favourite overall games with RSE, but Voltorb Flip is gross. Any other kind of game would be better. Putting the Game Corner prizes in the Pokathelon would be better. I also never used the safari zone as that customisation system made it feel really dull and slow to start.

Also, some of the pokemon distribution was really strange, I actually traded myself a houndoom from platinum to use on my first SS play through, because it isn't available until Kanto? There's a bad lack of pre-League dark types in general from what I remember. Also, worst HM besides Flash and Defog: Whirlpool.
 

RileyXY1

Young Battle Trainer
The regional Pokedex lacked type variety. In DP, you are essentially forced to use Ponyta if you want to use a Fire type but didn't pick Chimchar.
The game is too reliant on HMs, limiting team building.
If you catch a Pokemon or use the PC, it will take longer to save.
The game is just slow in general.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Mt. Cornet’s path to get to Spear Pillar was ridiculously long and complicated just to continue the game and challenge the Sunnyshore Gym to challenge the Elite Four. Even climbing Mt Silver in HGSS wasn’t that tedious to reach the summit and battle Red. And don’t get me started on the ridiculously limited area in the basement where you could catch Feebas that changed at random daily.
 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
Mt. Cornet’s path to get to Spear Pillar was ridiculously long and complicated just to continue the game and challenge the Sunnyshore Gym to challenge the Elite Four. Even climbing Mt Silver in HGSS wasn’t that tedious to reach the summit and battle Red. And don’t get me started on the ridiculously limited area in the basement where you could catch Feebas that changed at random daily.
Well, the Spear Pillar was meant to be well-hidden, so a little challenge is never a bad thing, and the music on the upper floors of Mt. Coronet is very atmospheric.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Well, the Spear Pillar was meant to be well-hidden, so a little challenge is never a bad thing, and the music on the upper floors of Mt. Coronet is very atmospheric.
But the problem is the constant use of HMs to get there and you have to sacrifice a couple of slots to Pokémon that knew these moves which meant you could have had stronger Pokémon on your team to battle Cyrus and had much more useful attacks in said battle.
 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
But the problem is the constant use of HMs to get there and you have to sacrifice a couple of slots to Pokémon that knew these moves which meant you could have had stronger Pokémon on your team to battle Cyrus and had much more useful attacks in said battle.
The game is too reliant on HMs, limiting team building.
Yeah, I do understand the complaints about the HMs taking up moveslots, but at least they feel more organic as roadblocks than random NPCs blocking your path that just conveniently disappear once you finish your task.
 

Ducolamia

SAYYYY WHAT???
What a coincidence. I just happened to replay the gen 4 games!

Hmmm. What's the biggest problem with these games? Honestly, there's not too much to talk about, but when it shows, mannnnnnn it's a huge problem.

1.) The level curve in DP is outrageous. I'm talking about BW post game levels of bs. You're expected to be around the late 60s when facing Cynthia, despite the fact the highest level pokemon you encounter are in the mid 50s. Thankfully compared to HG/SS there was no grinding to be had and the improvements in Platinum are greatly appreciated. No lv. 66 Garchomp for me. ThoughtobefairyouhavethatstupidTOGEKISS

2) The HMs. I'm so glad kids today don't have to deal with HMs anyone. Screw them. The are an annoying incessant roadblock that ruins the quality of the games. You need, Surf, Rock Climb, Rock Smash, Defog, and Waterfall for a majority of the the game. 5 moves taken up. Why can't we just delete those HMs on our own? Just have the badge as a requirement and then let us do what we want. It's so annoying to want to explore an area and need 4-5 HMs. Sinnoh is probably the worst case of this. At least in gen 3 there were plenty of water type pokemon that could learn HMs. Because your options are so limited in DP/Pt you'll struggle to find a decent pokemon to use those HMs unless you want to use Bibarel.

3.) All of the pokemon games for gen 4 have pretty bad distribution overall. In the beginning it's not too bad, but then you get to a point in which you lack certain types (e.g. fire and ice types) that are viable. I'm glad in Pt you have better options but it's still extremely limited. Seeing Graveler by the 4th gym is really annoying. In HG/SS it's even worse because in those games some pokemon native to Johto aren't EVEN IN THE REGION. And the influx of Kanto pokemon make it harder to forma well-rounded Johto team.

4.) The speed. The gen 4 games look nice, but sometimes they lag. It happens once in a blue moon and battles are perfectly fine, but the overworld has weird parts in which your character doesn't mess well with the 3d environment due to the anti-aliasing. It's not a gamebreaker, but sometimes noticeable. And gen 4 DP surfing is also awful. Thank god for Pt/HG/SS. I never appreciate the fast surfing speed until replaying diamond.


Overall, fun games. Not too much to complain about.
 
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