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Most overrated generation of Pokemon?

The Sceptile King

Just came back from a break!
358
Posts
15
Years
Fair Warning: I will anger some of you with my response, but please take my opinion into account

In my opinion, Gen 1 was the most overrated. Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome gen, but with so many people growing up with it, it has to get a lot of credit, no matter what it is, Pokemon, Game System, Music, etc... But let me tell you why Gen 1 is the most overrated

1: Pokemon Designs

Yes, I know, gen 1 had some awesome designs, but in there, there were some uncreative ones. Magneton, Dugtrio, Dodrio, all of them are almost exact copies design wise as their previous form. People also bash Trubbish and Garbodor for being trash pokemon (literally, and figuratively) when they forget that they loved Grimer/Muk. Voltorb/Electrode also go on this list for uncreative pokemon, simply because they are pokeballs, enough said.

2: Storyline

I know most people love this storyline, but if you take a close look at the game, you would stumble upon Team Rocket, defeat them, and then leave. In the games I don't believe they ever said what they were doing in Mt. Moon! I have to admit the Blue's Raticate story is interesting, but it is a theory, and hasn't been proven to this date. I also think that including the Mew story a little more than the pokemon mansion would have been nice, and added to the story a lot!
 
1,071
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It really depends on the circumstances surrounding the game. In my opinion, as of now Gen I is overrated. At the time when it was the biggest thing, it was awesome, but now that the older fans are into the nostalgic factor of the original Pokemon, it makes me dislike it a bit. I honestly find it hard to get through the Gen I games because they are so boring now. That was not the case, of course, when I was 6 years old playing Yellow Version (which imo is the best of Gen I).

So yeah, I feel Gen I is a bit overrated albeit still very good. I think Gen V is way underrated though, because the wholer efreshing set of Pokemon makes it one of the most imaginative games of the whole series.

In terms of favorite gens, mine goes:
Gen II> Gen III> Gen V> Gen IV = Gen I
(GSC is amazing, RSE is beautiful, I love Unova, Diamond & Pearl sucked but Platinum & HGSS saved their butts, Gen I is boring now, but Yellow is often a fun experience)
 

Cerberus87

Mega Houndoom, baby!
1,639
Posts
11
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I think you guys are missing the point. Overrated doesn't mean "worse". A lot of people hate 5th gen, how can it be "overrated"?

Which is why my assessment of 3rd gen is accurate. A lot of people are pushing GF to do remakes, so a lot of people are singing praises of 3rd gen nowadays, but it really wasn't all that great, at least not enough to place it above the other gens. Hoenn was a big turnoff to me, because, while it's definitely a beautiful and varied region, it didn't have the "feel" of a Pokémon game. It felt way too different from GSC. All the other games, I felt I was playing a Pokémon game, because the general "feel" was there. I was immediately immersed in Platinum when I first played it, and also Black. Ruby, not so much.

And Emerald's story sucked. Pokémon games aren't known for their good stories. Having the worst story among them is quite sad.
 
456
Posts
14
Years
I think you guys are missing the point. Overrated doesn't mean "worse". A lot of people hate 5th gen, how can it be "overrated"?

Which is why my assessment of 3rd gen is accurate. A lot of people are pushing GF to do remakes, so a lot of people are singing praises of 3rd gen nowadays, but it really wasn't all that great, at least not enough to place it above the other gens. Hoenn was a big turnoff to me, because, while it's definitely a beautiful and varied region, it didn't have the "feel" of a Pokémon game. It felt way too different from GSC. All the other games, I felt I was playing a Pokémon game, because the general "feel" was there. I was immediately immersed in Platinum when I first played it, and also Black. Ruby, not so much.

And Emerald's story sucked. Pokémon games aren't known for their good stories. Having the worst story among them is quite sad.

I don't known about R/S/E being overrated because there are tons of people that seem to hate it. While I do think it is jumping up the list but only because of the remake. Just imagine if they do go through it and how people will want Gen 4 to be remade. I think it is basically like that.

Also, when you say Emerald's story sucks, do you mean Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald? Emerald was pretty much the combination of the two games (and i actually enjoy it but that is beside the point).
 

GalacticGlameow

Galactic Grunt!
9
Posts
11
Years
I think Diamond and Pearl...? I don't know why it doesn't appeal to me. I like the Mystery Dungeon games and original games better. Diamond and Pearl just has too many gimmicks
and is so confusing!
 
4,569
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  • Age 16
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I think you guys are missing the point. Overrated doesn't mean "worse". A lot of people hate 5th gen, how can it be "overrated"?
I think you're misunderstanding the term overrated.
o·ver·rate (
omacr.gif
lprime.gif
v
schwa.gif
r-r
amacr.gif
t
prime.gif
)tr.v. o·ver·rat·ed, o·ver·rat·ing, o·ver·rates To overestimate the merits of; rate too highly.
Speaking strictly amongst the Pokemon fanbase here, Gen 5 is definitely too overrated. It gets to the hyperbolic points at most times, as well. You only, or mostly, see any hate for it from people with nostalgia sitting on their head, who probably don't even play Pokemon anymore. Gen 5 is completely flawed (and that's a different topic), but is praised far too much like it's the next best thing. Hence, it's more overrated than Gen 2 and 1. I don't know about you but I also see far more praise for gen 5 and more hate for gen 1 and 2. (Case in point, this forum.)




Which is why my assessment of 3rd gen is accurate. A lot of people are pushing GF to do remakes, so a lot of people are singing praises of 3rd gen nowadays, but it really wasn't all that great, at least not enough to place it above the other gens. Hoenn was a big turnoff to me, because, while it's definitely a beautiful and varied region, it didn't have the "feel" of a Pokémon game. It felt way too different from GSC. All the other games, I felt I was playing a Pokémon game, because the general "feel" was there. I was immediately immersed in Platinum when I first played it, and also Black. Ruby, not so much.
See, that's your opinion. To you it doesn't seem like a Pokemon games, but to me it sure as hell is more Pokemon than anything after. When talking on the grand schemes of things, R/S/E are good, if not great. Great region with so many thing to explore (the sea isn't and shouldn't be a problem), great selection of Pokemon, just the right difficulty, a good starting point to the series without being too overwhelming, nicely paced and has aged pretty well. R/S/E is the most versatile of the Pokemon games. The reason people suddenly praise it now though, is because the young people who had R/S/E as their first game are now old enough to speak nostalgic about it. Nostalgia isn't the praise it deserves, but the games are good enough to warrant it.

And Emerald's story sucked. Pokémon games aren't known for their good stories. Having the worst story among them is quite sad.
Opinion. Again. Though it at least was straight to the point and not as cliche as B/W and B/W2.
 

Cerberus87

Mega Houndoom, baby!
1,639
Posts
11
Years
I think you're misunderstanding the term overrated.
Speaking strictly amongst the Pokemon fanbase here, Gen 5 is definitely too overrated. It gets to the hyperbolic points at most times, as well. You only, or mostly, see any hate for it from people with nostalgia sitting on their head, who probably don't even play Pokemon anymore. Gen 5 is completely flawed (and that's a different topic), but is praised far too much like it's the next best thing. Hence, it's more overrated than Gen 2 and 1. I don't know about you but I also see far more praise for gen 5 and more hate for gen 1 and 2. (Case in point, this forum.)

It is that good. It has the fastest and best battle system. Maybe the region is bland, which was fixed with B2W2, but it's quite difficult for me to go back to static sprites after playing BW.

However, the 5th gen haters are at least as vocal as the 5th gen praisers, so there's a balanced view on it, therefore 5th gen is not overrated.

See, that's your opinion. To you it doesn't seem like a Pokemon games, but to me it sure as hell is more Pokemon than anything after. When talking on the grand schemes of things, R/S/E are good, if not great. Great region with so many thing to explore (the sea isn't and shouldn't be a problem), great selection of Pokemon, just the right difficulty, a good starting point to the series without being too overwhelming, nicely paced and has aged pretty well. R/S/E is the most versatile of the Pokemon games. The reason people suddenly praise it now though, is because the young people who had R/S/E as their first game are now old enough to speak nostalgic about it. Nostalgia isn't the praise it deserves, but the games are good enough to warrant it.

And you fight my opinion with another opinion. This will get nowhere, of course.

Opinion. Again. Though it at least was straight to the point and not as cliche as B/W and B/W2.

IMO it was the worst plot because of how ridiculously stupid the evil teams' goals were. I was, what, 16 when I first played Ruby, so I already had some understanding that, if you evaporate most of the world's water, or if you flood the world's landmasses, nothing good will come out of it. It was an attempt at touching on the subject of global warming and other environmental issues, but one that was extremely childish and downright silly.
 
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It is that good. It has the fastest and best battle system. Maybe the region is bland, which was fixed with B2W2, but it's quite difficult for me to go back to static sprites after playing BW.

However, the 5th gen haters are at least as vocal as the 5th gen praisers, so there's a balanced view on it, therefore 5th gen is not overrated.
Fastest, definitely. Best? Not really. (speaking as a retired competitive battler.) The region is awful because of the main design of it, which is linear in its core, so B/W2 doesn't fix anything. And B/W's animated sprites for gen 1-4 Pokemon are lazy and jagged. (Aren't they just stretching and cropping sprites passed off as "animation"?) I don't see how that has to do with anything anywya, but I'd take anti-aliased still sprites over that, personally.

Like I said, strictly within the fanbase. The gen 5 praise is far too hyperbolic at times.

And you fight my opinion with another opinion. This will get nowhere, of course.
None of what I said is strictly opinions. If it was, I'd have said the region is boring (too huge for my liking) and the selection of Pokemon is yawning because I don't like a lot of the Pokemon available personally. I wouldn't have been in this thread to begin with because I actually think the Pokemon series is some of the most boring and yawn inducing RPGs ever. Doesn't mean I don't have to acknowledge that the region is well designed for exploration and secrets and the Pokemon selection is versatile enough to make a good enough team without much flaws.



IMO it was the worst plot because of how ridiculously stupid the evil teams' goals were. I was, what, 16 when I first played Ruby, so I already had some understanding that, if you evaporate most of the world's water, or if you flood the world's landmasses, nothing good will come out of it. It was an attempt at touching on the subject of global warming and other environmental issues, but one that was extremely childish and downright silly.
You're taking a childish and silly story that was purposely childish and silly because the target audience are children a bit logically.
 

Pinkie-Dawn

Vampire Waifu
9,528
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11
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Gen II is clearly the most overrated of the series, since it's highly regarded as the best. It's true that Gen II has brought us two new types, held items, breeding, and the Special split, but in-game wise, it was step backwards from its predecessor:

- There's still too little Ghost and Dragon types
- Wild Pokemon are underleveled, making it difficult to level grind to lvl 100
- Kanto Pokemon are hogging all of the spotlight when it's suppose to be Johto's Pokemon
- Some Johto Pokemon aren't even available in Johto but instead in Kanto
- There really isn't anything to do in Kanto other than battling the gym leaders
- Jotho's gym leader rosters aren't so well-organized, as some of them use Kanto Pokemon as their signature Pokemon rather than a Jotho Pokemon, and some use 2-4 Pokemon from the same evolutionary line
- There are no trainers in Victory Road
- Lance's 3 underleveled Dragonites
- No Sneasal and Tyranitar on Karen's team

HeartGold and SoulSilver ignored fixing these problems while adding a tedious way to rematch the gym leaders that isn't like how it was done in Platinum.
 

Atomic Pirate

I always win.
930
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12
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A lot of people hate 5th gen, how can it be "overrated"?

Gen. V is overrated mainly because the gaming magazines and websites loved it and considered it the best of the series. Famitsu gave it 10/10, IGN gave it 9/10, and many were praising it as a "return to the series' origins" which it really isn't.

Plus, I have seen quite a bit of love for this generation on this forum, more love than for any of the other generations. In fact, of all the Pokemon forums I have seen, this is the one that throws around the slang term of "Genwunner" more than any other forum. This is the forum where Gen. V is regarded as the best.

So yeah. Gen. V is definitely the most overrated.
 
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WingedDragon

Competitive Trainer
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11
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Considering that lots of people on here are saying Gen 5 is overrated then likely will think Gen 6 will be more overrated then 5
 
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I feel like the praise that Gen 5 gets as a whole is largely as a result of the bashing it immediately received from the people who regard the original 151 as the best (not using the term Genwunner; it's kind of idiotic.) It's sort of the mentality that "it's the least popular Gen and I have to stick up for it and shove its positive qualities in everyone's faces". I feel as if, out of most people that I talk to, Gen 5 definitely gets the most flak. Even objectively useless mons like Burmy didn't get as much hate as Vanilluxe and Garbodor. I also don't feel that review sites are the best way to determine what is overrated; I mean, sure, it satisfies the most literal definition of the term, but it's mostly one person's (albeit, more influential than most) opinion. It's more what the community as a whole feels about a specific aspect or product that makes it overrated, and if it gains a folkloric reputation for something that it doesn't deserve. That's how I see it, anyway. (There's also a whole spiel about reputability I can go on about referencing review sites and such, but that's a bit of an unrelated tangent to go off on.)

This all may be because Gen 5 is the most recent Gen, but I digress.

That said, I cast my vote for Gen II. It did many things right - nerfing Psychic, introducing many cool mons as well as breeding and held items, and having the most Gym Leaders and other such bosses to fight out of any gen. I just don't find Johto interesting. At all. The gym leader's sets, apart from notable ones like Bugsy and his Scyther and oh god miltank of doom, are boring to battle and don't have much diversity (Janine's team in particular is pretty nonsensical with things like String Shot Ariados and Foresight on mono-Psychic attacking Venomoth in postgame. Pryce's team of Seel/Dewgong/Piloswine isn't very interesting either, especially considering Jasmine outlevels him??? Even the Champion fails to impress because all he does is spam underlevelled Dragonite.) Also, with all of the things it changed from Gen I, it retained its broken Stat Exp system, which is rather silly.

Also, need I mention its grinding? Especially for Red. Ugh. I just don't feel it deserves all of the praise it gets. Even HG/SS is overrated - same boring Johto, same horrific grinding. At least it has EVs and more interesting leader sets.

I'm also minded to include Gen I here, but it's the opposite situation with Gen V; anti-nostalgic people saying "oh look Gen I isn't that great because xyz reasons" is kind of rampant where Gen V hate can be found. :/ I hate the Special stat, above most things, but that doesn't really make it overrated. I mean, it kind of introduced the concept of the series, which is sort of a big deal I guess.
 

Cossolotto32

Pokemon Collector!
33
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11
Years
A couple months back, I would've instantly said the third generation in Hoenn. But the more I look through the pokemon I realize how many of them I actually did like. The story was one of the better ones too IMO. Johto was perfect.

I'd say my least favorite was Diamond and Pearl. It was slow, I hated all the characters, and the fact that all the pokemon pretty much sucked....aside from the evos from previous gens...yeah, 4th gen is the worst for me
 

Alexander Nicholi

what do you know about computing?
5,500
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I think you guys are missing the point. Overrated doesn't mean "worse". A lot of people hate 5th gen, how can it be "overrated"?

Which is why my assessment of 3rd gen is accurate. A lot of people are pushing GF to do remakes, so a lot of people are singing praises of 3rd gen nowadays, but it really wasn't all that great, at least not enough to place it above the other gens. Hoenn was a big turnoff to me, because, while it's definitely a beautiful and varied region, it didn't have the "feel" of a Pokémon game. It felt way too different from GSC. All the other games, I felt I was playing a Pokémon game, because the general "feel" was there. I was immediately immersed in Platinum when I first played it, and also Black. Ruby, not so much.

And Emerald's story sucked. Pokémon games aren't known for their good stories. Having the worst story among them is quite sad.

Take into account what you just said. You said the fifth gen isn't overrated because it is 'worse', yet you immediately jump into how the third gen is overrated, and because—in a nutshell—you think it's 'worse'. Where's the logic in that?



It is that good. It has the fastest and best battle system. Maybe the region is bland, which was fixed with B2W2, but it's quite difficult for me to go back to static sprites after playing BW.

Like Spinosaurus said, fast battling doesn't equal a good battling system, and if you ask me, Game Freak made a horrible decision on animating non-antialiased sprites.



And you fight my opinion with another opinion. This will get nowhere, of course.

What? XD


IMO it was the worst plot because of how ridiculously stupid the evil teams' goals were. I was, what, 16 when I first played Ruby, so I already had some understanding that, if you evaporate most of the world's water, or if you flood the world's landmasses, nothing good will come out of it. It was an attempt at touching on the subject of global warming and other environmental issues, but one that was extremely childish and downright silly.

It's quite hypocritical of you to complain about the third gen's plot and how 'horrible' it was, while ignoring the fact that the plot in Generation V was practically nonexistent.
 
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  • Age 33
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I feel that the first generation is hugely overrated. I've been playing the series since the start but now I think people praise it far too much. Sure it was the first but the pokemon weren't that creative....it's bizarre how people actually say that the newer pokemon are less creative and that game freak are running out of ideas. They're astronomically more creative than the first gen was.

1st gens answer to evolution most of the time was: stick some extra heads on it.....

I still love the first gen (it's actually not my least favourite gen) but it's terribly overrated by fans.
 

imevil

Biggest Scyther Fan
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1st gen. I mean it was the begging but the games actually were not that good.
 

Demon Days

Element of Magic
177
Posts
11
Years
Gen II.
There were so many flaws with G/S/C. The main two:
1. Underlevelled Pokémon everywhere.
2. Johto Pokémon weren't featured enough. I mean, Lance had 3 Dragonites. Really? And Morty had 2 Haunters. And a Gengar.
And Game Freak did nothing to fix any of the flaws in HG/SS. Which means it's like playing G/S/C with updated graphics.
Honestly, with Gen III, it doesn't get enough praise. There's something from /v/ or /vp/ floating around somewhere, while being sarcastic, actually has a lot of good points about Hoenn. It's more the vocal 'le 151 Pokémon were the best Johto onwards sucks ecks dee' putting down the newer generations.
Man, I'd love to see them use Charizard today.
Spoiler:
 
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