Why is Sinnoh so nostalgic for people?

[Trillion]

for me it's partly because it was the first game i followed up to it's release

it started when i saw munchlax in that deoxys movie when i was 8. and one of the intros for advanced generation showed lucario and weavile. i discovered serebii sometime in 2005 and everyday i would keep checking to get more news. then more pokemon started getting revealed like bonsly, electivire, buizel, mantyke. then we started getting screenshots from the games and at that time the graphics were considered great. so that hyped me up even more

i started with gen 3 but i was too young to be able to follow it's release. ruby and sapphire just appeared on store shelves one day lol. but with gen 4 i was able to see everything as it was happening. my cousin bought me diamond the day it was released. i was 11 by that time. then the dp series started and that got me excited too

and then we got battle revolution where i could see all my pokemon in 3d

i remember when we thought the starter types would be dark, psychic, and fighting lol

 

[Orphalesion]

i remember when we thought the starter types would be dark, psychic, and fighting lol

Oh man, I can remember that too. My first careful footsteps (mostly, I had already seen the Gen 3 roster online) into the wider internet and I encountered that trio of fakemon starters for Gen 4 that were dark, psychic and fighting. I think the fighting one was a kangaroo and the dark one was a black dog that kinda looked like a mix between Poochyena and Eevee...

 

[Missingno.Fan]

It’s just the right age for people to get nostalgic over it. Plus it’s the next generation that hasn’t been remade yet. For what it’s worth, it was the first generation that I followed the pre-release for to some extent. For me personally, I’m more nostalgic for the Unova games.

 

[Leonhart]

For what it’s worth, it was the first generation that I followed the pre-release for to some extent.

Same here: I used to visit the front page of the site every day back in 2006 just to see if any new information about D/P had been released, and I followed all the new developments leading up to the games' release.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Sinnoh fixed a lot of fundamental problems with the game, introducing the physical/special split and introducing a legion of new moves for types that were previously lacking in viable move options, such as Bug, Flying, and Poison. I would also point towards Gen 5 being the generation that started introducing the power creep that has gradually warped the game over the course of several generations, so Gen 4 was, in a way, Pokemon's peak in terms of competitive balance. It was also marketed very aggressively and was the first Pokemon game for the DS, so I imagine quite a few fans started with a Gen 4 game.

 

[wobbanut]

Even if I like Ruby Sapphire Emerald better since they were my first games, and HeartGold SoulSilver had more to do, I did enjoy playing the 4th gen Sinnoh games a lot. I got my first shinies in the games (kricketune, psyduck, and graveller), I liked playing in the Underground (and can't wait to see how they'll upgrade it with a remake), and I had fun putting together the house in Platinum. It has its drawbacks, like not having any wi-fi so I couldn't get spiritomb, and it took me FOREVER to get the hang of PokeRadar, but I do have fond memories.

 

[NeganTheSavior]

The anime's inclusion of Paul made it seem personal to Ash. Paul wasn't just challenging Ash's battling strategies, but his ideologies as well. That's why it felt so satisfying to see Paul lose to the Infernape he released as a Chimchar.

 

[Sakuyamon]

Sinnoh was the first core region of the DS Pokemon games so I think most people who were fond of the Nintendo DS love anything related to it that involves Pokemon. I think Sinnoh as a region is awesome but it's not my favorite one and I don't think I'd buy Diamond & Pearl remakes regardless.

 

[c1234]

I am not nostalgic whatsoever about Sinnoh. As a matter of fact, after playing Diamond version for a while shortly after release, I quit playing Pokemon for a number of years. Eventually I got Platinum which fixed the problems of D/P. I am most nostalgic about Gen 1, because those were the games that came out when I was a kid. I am old OK? I am ready for your "OK boomer" replies...

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

It was the last challenging game story wise before Gen 5 and beyond made things easier.

...But nowadays, people have accepted remakes so much that they will spill blood if they can't revisit the damn place again just because it's a trend.

 

[Golden_Latias]

I don't really have anything new to add here, but I think it's mostly timing and the fact that we haven't revisited it yet. As others have noted, D/P came out 13 years ago. A lot of the people that may have started with Generation IV are high school, college age now and therefore at the right age to be talking about it on social media. Speaking of, I think the pervasiveness of social media is exacerbating the nostalgia significantly, since it allows those who started out with Generation IV to easily reach others who also started out with it.

But that's kind of how Pokemon has always been, too. Every generation is eventually Vindicated by History, and there's a definite cycle to how people perceive generations that correlates to older fans leaving the franchise and younger fans coming on social media. It basically goes from "it sucks" to "it's tolerable" to "it's the peak of the franchise" to "outdated classic." People hated Generation III when it was current, then around the time that Generations VI and VI were current, it was widely considered the peak of the series until it got remade. Meanwhile, when Generation III was current, people people did consider Generations I and II (mostly II, admittedly) to be superior generations. People hated Generation V when it was current. Now, it's widely considered the peak of the series along with Generation IV. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, we start seeing people being nostalgic for X and Y because that came out almost seven years ago already! Hell, I feel like it's kind of starting already, mostly due to the absence of Mega Evolutions in Sw/Sh.

That being said... Generation IV is also the only generation where I don't recall people completely hating it when it was current. Sure, people had some gripes like the movement speed and some of the designs of the new evolutions, but I think people felt for the most part, the positives outweighed the negatives. And people have already listed a lot of the things they enjoyed about Gen IV, so I won't go there. Because of that, I feel like Generation IV won't wind up like Johto or Hoenn where it gets remade and more or less forgotten about by the fans. The hype will die down, definitely, but I don't think it will completely disappear.

Personally, Generation IV wasn't my favorite generation for a few reasons, but that may have also been because it came out when I was in high school, getting ready to go to college, and I kind of missed out on Generation IV. But I'm also that weirdo who thinks the Alola games are criminally underrated, so what does my opinion matter?

 

[Leonhart]

Sinnoh was the first core region of the DS Pokemon games so I think most people who were fond of the Nintendo DS love anything related to it that involves Pokemon. I think Sinnoh as a region is awesome but it's not my favorite one and I don't think I'd buy Diamond & Pearl remakes regardless.

I do think that my personal opinion on the region might be swayed by my love of the DS era. I actually didn't like Shinou that much when I first played Diamond version since to me it seemed to lack the kind of graphics that I had expected, but over time it's become one of my favorite regions because it introduced a lot of interesting concepts.

 

[Reinhardt]

I'll admit I've never understood why Sinnoh is so popular, I never thought much of the region or the new Pokemon introduced in it, and the couple of times I did play Platinum left me frustrated, so I have no real nostalgia for Sinnoh. That being said, I'd still be down for Diamond and Pearl remakes.

 

[Marbi Z]

One could argue this for the entire gen 4 games but I see Sinnoh referenced the most when it comes to Pokemon being at it's "peak" or people simply wanting to reminisce about Pokemon. I'm guilty of this as well since despite "improvements" in Pokemon since generation 4 (which is a whole decade) I still find myself playing Platinum the most out of games that followed after.

Gen 4 is when I got back into Pokémon and actually stared throughly playing the games as originally I was more into the Anime and Merchandise than the actual games. The game that got me back into Pokémon was Platinum and I clocked in over 700 hours with that game and my original team of Empoleon, (Perry) Luxray (Diddy) Lopunny (Thumper) Gardevoir (Rose) Floazel (Barbra) and Pachirishu (Bree) I do hope they plan on Milking The Current gen for a few more years eventually adding all the Pokémon Through expansions while no requiring you to buy them to obtain the extra Pokes.

 

[Auraninja]

Hoenn is the most nostalgic for me, and Pokemon Silver was the first game I played for a prolong period of time.

 

[Bortgreen]

The first region I played, so everything feels very nostalgic
And like already said, it is the (core) region we are the most time after the last game:

Kanto: LGPE(2018)
Johto: HGSS(2009/2010, still gen 4 but after Platinum)
Hoenn: ORAS(2014, passing this "baton" to Sinnoh)
Sinnoh: Platinum(2008/2009)
Unova: BW2(2011/2012)
Kalos: XY(2013)
Alola: USUM(2017)
Galar: SwSH(2019)

 

[The Teller]

While not the first Pokemon games I've played, I've got fond memories of Sinnoh.
1). Snow. Having been born and raised in not-the-desert, I like snow, so I thought it was really cool to see it in the game.
2). HOW many of the Pokemon available then were able to be caught in-game without the use of trading?! I seem to recall being able to get at least 400, and that's with owning Ruby, Sapphire, and Leafgreen for the toggle function.
3. Okay, who at Gamefreak thought it would be okay for a kids' game's villain to say "I'm gonna wipe out every living thing in the universe and make my own."? Talk about raising the stakes.
4). Sweet, my grass starter can now know Earthquake, one of the most powerful moves in the game, and get STAB bonus from it!
5). These were the first games where I knew other, real people who played the games, so I could talk about the games to them and we could trade and battle and compete to see who completed the National Dex first.
6). These were the first games where I actually leveled up a Pokemon to Level 100, and also the first games where I actively bred and raised Pokemon for competitive play.
7). Cynthia's still the hardest Champion to beat. Blue's only a close second because of how buggy the first games were, and that I was a stupid kid who was new to RPGs. I don't have those excuses for Cynthia.
8). It was in Diamond that I first learned how much I loved my favorite Pokemon, who wasn't even a Sinnoh native.

 

[catzeye]

I'll admit I've never understood why Sinnoh is so popular, I never thought much of the region or the new Pokemon introduced in it, and the couple of times I did play Platinum left me frustrated, so I have no real nostalgia for Sinnoh. That being said, I'd still be down for Diamond and Pearl remakes.

My thoughts exactly. I wasn't a huge fan of Diamond when I played it as I didn't care for much of the new Pokemon designs, I really dislike Team Galactic, and Diamond was admittedly a slog to get through at times. I didn't put too many hours into Diamond as I did Emerald or White. That's not to say there weren't good parts as I liked the lore they brought in (the Canalave libraries was definitely my favorite part of the region), the physical/special split, Cynthia, and the stat trainers were cool. I'm down to play Diamond and Pearl remakes though, especially if they bring in Mega evolutions (let's be honest, a Mega Garchomp for Cynthia would be cool and terrifying).

If there is anything I am nostalgic for when it comes to Sinnoh, it would be the anime. The DP was the last anime season that I was extremely invested in, as I was very active in the anime section here way back when (yes I'm old). I don't really keep up with the anime like that anymore unless there is an interesting episode or arc I hear about. But during DP, I watched every episode filler or not.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

Every region is nostalgic for certain people, especially for the gens that came out when they were kids.

Sinnoh's just the nostalgic Gen right now since all of the kids who played the original DPPT games are now either in high school or college. The same thing happened with Hoenn around the time OR/AS came out & I'm sure that in a couple of years Unova will get the same treatment.

 

[Auraninja]

At this point, I'm almost nostalgic for X/Y.