The Successes of Gen IV

I'm making this to juxtapose the "Faults of" threads. Generation IV has some pretty bad faults, but the games are still pretty great. Just put down what you love about the generation.

 

The Physical/Special split added a new layer of strategy and made Dark-types more useful.
The new evolutions, while controversial, helped underused Pokemon get an edge.
Some trade evolutions (Gengar and Steelix) can actually be found in the wild.
After being removed in Gen 3, the Day/Night system returned, and it has since become a regular feature.
The Battle Frontier is back and it remains a good postgame area.
The Underground is an expansion of the Secret Bases from Gen 3, and you can also get some rare items down there without having to pay any money.

 

- Pokemon Contests in the anime
- Dawn from the anime
- Some of my favorite Pokemon

 

Let's see here...
Gen 4 gave us one of the greatest One Piece stories lol, Pokemon Adventures Diamond & Pearl + Platinum Arc!
And by extension Pokemon Adventures gave us the best incarnation of Cyrus!
Dawn is an awesome addition in the Pokemon anime!
Gen 4 gave us the best Mystery Dungeon games!
Gen 4 gave us the best Pokemon Ranger games!
Gen 4 gave us Pokemon Battle Revolution, arguably having the best graphics out of any Wii game... wish I could say the same for the gameplay.
Pokemon Ranch, one of Pokemon Bank's predecessors came out.
Some of the best Pokemon movies!

... and still nothing about the Pokemon main series games itself lol.

 

The way of importing Pokémon from the Gen 3 games was much better than in Gen II and the fact you could make Pokémon hold items during transfer was a nice touch especially when getting more of the harder to find TMs in Gen IV like Iron Tail.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver were the best of the remakes in terms of content. ORAS come closet to that honor but fall short because they had no following Pokémon and no real post game after the Delta episode.

The night and day cycle was a welcome return and the fact that the music in several areas changed to suit the time of day was well incorporated.

 

-The physical/special split
-Sinnoh is my second favourite region
-The amount of postgame content
-The Gym Leaders, Cynthia and Cyrus are actually tough to beat
-Team Galactic is the first evil team I liked
-Torterra, Staraptor, Rotom, Togekiss, Floatzel, Gallade, Weavile, Roserade, Magnezone, Mamoswine, Palkia and Giratina-Origin
-Distortion World
-The Pokeathlon
-The Battle Frontier
-You actually had to see every Pokemon in the regional Dex to unlock the National one in the Sinnoh games.

 

The physical/special split was probably the best thing this generation brought us, second best giving so many garbage Gen 2 Pokemon evolutions they should've had from the start

 

- Physical/Special split. It's income cannot be overstated.
- Evolutions to older pokemon. Yanmega, Togekiss, Weavile, Gliscor, and Mamoswine are some of my favourites. Mismagius and Honchkrow too.
- Day/Night cycle returns
- Cynthia is the best champion
- Best difficulty curve (Platinum)
- Mt. Coronet (the best "dungeon" in the series thus far)

 

-Physical/special split. That’s all I can think of.

 

Peak of Pokèmon tbh

 

Physical/Special split and some cross-generational evolutions (mostly for Johto). I don't give credit for returning features (including Crystal's online ones) or inherently subjective stuff.

Following Pokemon for HGSS.

 

What would be the best place to ask questions about the pokemon X and Y games for the 3DS?

 

The best soundtrack in the series imo
Really good Pokemon designs, including some of my all time favourites such as Garchomp, Roserade, Luxray, Torterra, Empoleon etc
Vast mountainous region that encouraged exploration
Strong (at least at the time), memorable champion with a cool and diverse team
Strong post game
Walking Pokemon is HGSS
Pokemon sprites were probably the 'cleanest' in the series
Physical/special split

 

I'm writing this on top to remind myself that this is my list of favourite things from the generation, and not a Bulbapedia article

DPPt:

• The inclusion of day/night specific themes for both routes and cities
• Special and Physical split
• The standardization of Multi Battles as a battle style; these are kinda fun when the AI works right.
  
• The Global Trade Station/Global Terminal
• Pokeball Seals
  
• Breeded Pokemon hatching a Lv. 1 instead of Lv. 5; it's a little jarring to revisit the previous breeding system
• Sinnoh Underground
• The introduction of 3d into the overworld; allowing for more complex locales and gym layouts.
• Sinnoh Battle Frontier
• Masuda Method
• Migration of Pokemon from Gen III and the Pal Park (Transferring older Pokemon to the newer generations always feels so rewarding.)
• The introduction of forme changes by item or object interaction.
• The Poketch
  
• Gender differences
• The Distortion World
  
• The OST: Route 216, Route 225, Game Corner, Galactic HQ, Veilstone City, Lake theme, (sub-)Legendary theme, Canalave City, Twinleaf Town, Jubilife City, and the Cynthia themes.
• Gym leader rematches
• Cynthia

HGSS:

• Sprint button
• Walking Pokemon
  
• The updated and new vibrant locales, especially: Bellchime Trail, Route 32, Route 47, and Kanto Gyms
• Removing the 24 hour limit on Gen III migration from DPPt
• As badly replaced as the slot machines were, the Voltorb Flip minigame does offer some pretty strategic gameplay. (The lack of an ability to buy coins sucks, though.)
  
• The revamped pokegear
• The integrated elements from Crystal
  
• The Arceus event
  
• A Johto Safari Zone
• The Pokeathlon (it's nice to do once in a while)
  
• The Ho-oh/Lugia cutscenes
• The Pokewalker

General:

• The availability of a Mew through Pokemon Ranch
• Pokemon Battle Revolution