Your Least Favorite Gen?

[Bolt the Cat]

Agreed. The main storyline was neat, but the post-game was boring. Same with the region and graphics imo.

What makes you say BW's post game was boring? I'd say compared to other generations, 5th gen had the second best post game behind 4th. None of the others even compare aside from FRLG. RBY, GSC (not counting Kanto as post game), RSE, and XY all have fairly minimal post games.

 

[AmyTheOddball]

Judging off Pokemon alone, I'd say Gen I. There wasn't enough variety.

The game I've been least interested in was HeartGold/SoulSilver. Mainly because I'm blinded by my love for Sinnoh and Pokemon X was awesome x)

 

[Dragoniss]

I don't hate any of the generations (even though I was meh with Gen 1) but I'm going with Gen 5. It had a good storyline but the game is kinda boring to me and I wasn't interested. >_<

I don't really think gen 5 is so much boring as it is slow. I mean think about it. While I personally didn't like the story it was well paced and there was a lot of great post game material.

But the game itself was very slow moving. Your character walked, ran, and biked rather slow, pokemon attack animations were slow, animations in general was slow, If you were grinding off of wild pokemon that were at or under your same level that was disgustingly slow [and that happened a lot because the level gaps between gyms was rather large for my taste and they didn't have enough trainers to even it out], the breeders always battling you over and over again when they usually have at least three baby pokemon that get really under leveled really fast, and the routes were so linear and uninteresting that it made the whole experience feel even slower. I mean to give Sinnoh credit for something at least the routes there were pretty big and there was some exploration to them, but here you have like at least 4 things that are bridge or tube like structures where all your doing is running is a straight line. People joke about Final Fantasy 13 Hallway Edition but this is pretty much Pokemon Hallway Version. Not to mention the one sin of pokemon in forcing you to take part in the stupid side things and bring your journey to a complete haunt just for the game to say "look at this cool feature we added, you have to enjoy it cause were forcing you to do it." [pokestar studios and joint avenue were the biggest offenders and i'm so glad crap like that was removed from X and Y.]

Yeah that stuff all made the game boring but it was because the game just felt like it chugged at points. At least in X and Y i'm battling team flare as an interruption to badge collecting and not pointlessly being shown how to film something or accidentally walking into the musical place to sit through 5 minuets of explanation for a feature that i'll never use. Granted it did stop you for the battle chateau but that was actually battling and the explanation was kept rather brief and you didn't absolutely have to participate, you could pretty much leave right away. Plus at that point it could actually aid you as it allows you to get experience. And the daycare but that kinda has to be explained in every game and it's pretty short.

 

[ToeyJoey]

Which was the game where they stopped letting you cut the grass? That one was the worst...

 

[PokemonMegaBeast]

Gen 5... Why do people hate on it. It has the best story line and really good post game. 4th gen's post game was the best. But the character development was amazing in B/W and its sequels.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Gen 5... Why do people hate on it. It has the best story line and really good post game. 4th gen's post game was the best. But the character development was amazing in B/W and its sequels.

-Linear region design
-General decrease in difficulty
-Tons of removed gameplay features, and no significant improvements to the gameplay to compensate.
-Many of the new Pokemon felt like substitutes for the originals (not just the usual regional rodents, birds, and bugs, but also stuff like Purrloin, Woobat, Roggenrola, Timburr, Frillish, Ducklett, and even Bouffalant)

Basically, I think a lot of people didn't like the "fresh start" approach that they took with 5th gen (both in terms of execution and the idea that we even needed a fresh start to begin with), and it was also a point in the series where Game Freak started pandering even more to the younger crowd. The result is that the games lacked a sense of depth, variety, freedom, and challenge that past games had.

 

[10th Doctor]

And how is that?

Kanto (And Generation I as a whole) had it's flaws, definitely. However, linearity and railroading weren't among them. Once you got the Poke Flute, you could take multiple different paths and do the next part of the game in any order you choose. Want to go to Silph Co. early? Go ahead. Want to go to the Safari Zone? Have fun.

Unova, however, followed a formula of:
-Get to new city
-Talk to important NPCs in city
-Do something in route next to city to advance the story
-Beat gym in city
-Travel to next city without making any detours
-Repeat

There were no split paths, no choices, and no side events. Generation VI was also quite guilty of this, in fact it was probably worse in this way.

 

[ilovemyumbreon]

Kanto (And Generation I as a whole) had it's flaws, definitely. However, linearity and railroading weren't among them. Once you got the Poke Flute, you could take multiple different paths and do the next part of the game in any order you choose. Want to go to Silph Co. early? Go ahead. Want to go to the Safari Zone? Have fun.

Unova, however, followed a formula of:
-Get to new city
-Talk to important NPCs in city
-Do something in route next to city to advance the story
-Beat gym in city
-Travel to next city without making any detours
-Repeat

There were no split paths, no choices, and no side events. Generation VI was also quite guilty of this, in fact it was probably worse in this way.

You've got a really good point, I hadn't thought of that.

5 and 6 are worse for several reasons, there's the linear region design that KyogreThunder brought up, lower difficulty than other games, removal of fan favorite features, 6th gen has the EXP system and XY's lack of replay value going for it. 1st and 2nd gen may have been a bit bland, but it's easier to forgive them for their flaws if you take their age into consideration, they were good games for their time. Whereas 5th and 6th gen's flaws are a result of some very unpopular, intentional design decisions.

Can anyone explain the problem with Gen VI Exp? I for one really took advantage of the new Exp share, the Pokémon Amie boosts, and easy trade or lucky egg boosts. It helped me fill up this huge Pokedex easier than I could in any other game (my first full national)

 

[Dragalge]

Can anyone explain the problem with Gen VI Exp? I for one really took advantage of the new Exp share, the Pokémon Amie boosts, and easy trade or lucky egg boosts. It helped me fill up this huge Pokedex easier than I could in any other game (my first full national)

The new Exp Share, when turned on, automatically makes it the easy button in the game. Not only that but you have Amie, Lucky Egg, O-Powers, Restaurants and the Battle Chateau to add on to it's brokenness. It made leveling a joke sure but for most part it makes one stomp through XY without any hassle. This is also the main reason why they've been called the easiest in all generations (I personally don't think any Pokémon game is hard). I mean when was the last time someone said a Kalos gym leader gave them a hard time? Gen V is referred as one of the easiest games but you'll definitely hear that Elesa, Clay, Cheren, Lenora and even Drayden gave a lot of others trouble.

That said the Exp Share + the abusable stuff are optional but no doubt does the new Exp Share makes thing a little to a lot less difficult.

 

[KantoPkmnMaster]

Each generation brings something new to the table, but if i had to choose one, i'd say Generation 5. Would've said Generation 4 if not for HG/SS's inclusion.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Each generation brings something new to the table, but if i had to choose one, i'd say Generation 5. Would've said Generation 4 if not for HG/SS's inclusion.

Just out of curiosity, what would you say that HGSS brought to the table that made that difference?

 

[Tonguetyd]

Unova, however, followed a formula of:
-Get to new city
-Talk to important NPCs in city
-Do something in route next to city to advance the story
-Beat gym in city
-Travel to next city without making any detours
-Repeat

There were no split paths, no choices, and no side events. Generation VI was also quite guilty of this, in fact it was probably worse in this way.

Remember what happened when Gen 2 gave us a choice of where to go, with Olivine or Mahogany?
The level curve in that game eats kittens for breakfast and says that the holocaust was Jewish propaganda.

 

[Dancing Charmander]

Glad to see Gen 3 isn't winning this poll.
Obviously by today's standards Gen 1 is now the worst, but for their time I'd have to go with Gen 5 as the worst. The story modes of the Sinnoh games were incredibly lackluster, but the introduction of online play, physical/special split and HG/SS made up for it. Gen 5 just feels kinda forgettable, the Team Plasma story had so much potentially but kinda went to waste when they pretty ditched the question of Pokemon's morality, and the Pokemon designs were easily the worst.

 

[lavanda]

Lol, I'm so disappointed with this. The best generation by far is winning and the second worst is the least voted. At least Gen I is in second place.

 

[Tonguetyd]

second worst is the least voted

Kinda early to condemn Gen 6, considering it threw most of Gen 5's problems down the trash chute.
Oh yeah and if Gen 2 is better than Gen 6 I'm the Emperor of China.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Glad to see Gen 3 isn't winning this poll.
Obviously by today's standards Gen 1 is now the worst, but for their time I'd have to go with Gen 5 as the worst. The story modes of the Sinnoh games were incredibly lackluster, but the introduction of online play, physical/special split and HG/SS made up for it. Gen 5 just feels kinda forgettable, the Team Plasma story had so much potentially but kinda went to waste when they pretty ditched the question of Pokemon's morality, and the Pokemon designs were easily the worst.

I pretty much disagree with this, the new Pokemon and the Team Plasma storyline were the best things about gen. 5 and I do think that the storyline in gen. 4 was really good too. For me gen. 1,2, and 6 are the worst imo, not so much gen 2, but gen 1 and gen. 6 had the worst stroylines and the Team plots felt lacking to me and the post league content in both games were really lacking, gen.1 didn't even have anything post game except for completing the Pokedex.

 

[Ironthunder]

Yeah, but cut it some slack. Gen 1 was probably a test, as Nintendo probably didn't want to waste time on a postgame if it wasn't going to be popular. Plus, back then, there wasn't really going to be much, aside from possibly a TR resurgence and the pokedex. There was nothing to include from past gens.

 

[Tonguetyd]

Yeah, but cut it some slack. Gen 1 was probably a test, as Nintendo probably didn't want to waste time on a postgame if it wasn't going to be popular.

Well that doesn't make the game any better.
"They didn't try as hard" isn't much of an excuse.

 

[thiagomestres]

Generation 5 is by far the worst. I had to force myself to finish the game. The story that was supposed to be the best aspect, it was actually predictable and it lacked good plot twists like the original RGB. Besides that, the plot was supposed to make pokémon battles look less like cockfighting and more like a sport, but it didn't help at all. The only unique factor about Team Plasma was fake after all. Their name makes no sense by the way!
About the gameplay, you can only battle with your pokémon. There's no interaction. You couldn't take your pokémon off the pokéball. There's no cool features like Contests, PokéAthlon, the Underground, PokéWalker, Poké Amie and Super Training. Of course, you had the stupid Musical where your pokémon jump around while you do nothing. We had the Dream World too, but it was lagged as hell and it was really limited and boring.
Besides that, Battle Subway sucked. Features like BF need something special so they wouldn't become repetitive, Battle Subway failed there. By the way, it makes no sense to bring this feature before the post-game, when you still have a lot to do, instead of after the post-game, when you have almost nothing to do.
Oh and a ice cream pokémon. REALLY?!

 

[lavanda]

Kinda early to condemn Gen 6, considering it threw most of Gen 5's problems down the trash chute.
Oh yeah and if Gen 2 is better than Gen 6 I'm the Emperor of China.

Except it is the other way around, Gen V introduced so many awesome new things and Gen VI threw them all away. Brilliant changing music, an actually appealing plot, a challenging but not brutal post-game facility, loads of ingenious Pokémon designs, etc., while Gen VI added bland characters, terribly unbalanced levels, the new exp. share, Amie in-battle bonuses and O-Powers (quite different from Pass Powers as they don't require online or any effort), among others. Pretty much all the good stuff Gen VI added was mandatory and the least they could have done but for some reason people think it's great, as if they had an option between going 3D or sticking to 2D, having great online connection as of all 3DS games or not improving it. But so much for the Pokémon fandom.

p.s. Send regards to the people of China.

I pretty much disagree with this, the new Pokemon and the Team Plasma storyline were the best things about gen. 5 and I do think that the storyline in gen. 4 was really good too. For me gen. 1,2, and 6 are the worst imo, not so much gen 2, but gen 1 and gen. 6 had the worst stroylines and the Team plots felt lacking to me and the post league content in both games were really lacking, gen.1 didn't even have anything post game except for completing the Pokedex.

Pretty much this.

Oh and a ice cream pokémon. REALLY?!

Yeah, I don't know why I came here. See ya.