5th Gen Seasons

In generation five, GameFreak had introduced to us a new feature, which changes climate (as well as Pokémon that appear in the wild) depending on our device time and date.

What are our overall thoughts on this system? If we have any, which season would we call our most favorite?

Thanks Ben for moving, because I knew this would mainly be a 5th Gen topic.

But that said, I actually loved this feature since it added a bit of realism to the Pokemon universe and the changes in the environment allowed for Pokemon encounter changes, as well as some other small events as well and even getting to certain places. I was sad this feature never returned in 6th Gen, but I do hope 7th Gen can bring it back.

I agree with Hika, it was very cool and did make Pokemon more real. It also allowed for more of a challenge in getting certain Pokemon which is always more fun. My favorite season would have to be winter. I liked the overall design the season had and the design of Sawsbuck was pretty cool during this season more than the others.

I really like the seasons feature. It was a natural progression from the day and night system.
It gave the Generation 5 games a bit more of realism with the changes in the environment and in the appearance of certain Pokemon.
My favorite would have to be winter since it caused the most drastic change in the oversnow and of course because of snow.

Loved that feature, and the Deerling changes for each season makes it a nice touch.

Stokesma said:

My favorite would have to be winter since it caused the most drastic change in the oversnow and of course because of snow.

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Winter is definitely the most unique season in the game, because it can actually change the areas you can reach, such as most parts of Twist Mountain. It also had the most unique-looking Sawsbuck form, with all that beautiful white fur on it and also the white antlers captured the look well. Winter Sawsbuck really knew how to have awesome fashion sense hahahaha

I really, really liked the seasons. I enjoyed how they changed frequently and gave each part of the region a new look and feel. I hope they do seasons again in the future.

I liked the seasons system, although I didn't quite like how it wasn't tied with the real life calendar. Yet again I also wouldn't have wanted to have to wait 9 months to get the items in frost mountain if I missed them during the winter, so I suppose they had to find a happy medium... but yeah, I'd be happy for this system to make a return someday and hopefully not just in the Unova region.

I loved this system and I don't understand why they didn't kept this...

The fact that Sawsbuck can change form, and that we can reach new regions...

i loved the fifth generation and that might have play a big part.
It's.. unusual. This generation is different than the others.

Yeah I do quite enjoy watching the seasons go by :D
And the fact that my favorite Gen 5 Poke (Sawsbuck) switches forms with the seasons makes me like it that much more

i loved the season system it opened up so many new things like what items are obtainable in the winter or the summer what form of deerling you have what pokemon are available and i thought it gave more depth to the game like as you were playing time passed in the poke universe i just really really liked it haha

I loved this and I really miss it in the newer games. I really wish they would have carried this over and kept it going. I loved how Deerling and Sawsbuck would change forms depending on what season it was.

Seasons were really nice; they added a natural dynamism to the region of Unova. The idea behind seasons was that if you were to set your game aside for whatever reason and then on a whim decide to pick it back up a month or so later, it would seem completely different and that would encourage you to explore once again--I think that certainly worked. The only negative aspect I saw was that some events were tied to the changing of the seasons: the two biggest ones I remember were in B2W2, where you could challenge N only once per season, along with the Shadow Triad. The Shadow Triad, I felt, could have been challenged more frequently, whereas it made sense for N's to be seasonal because of his weather teams. In cases like that, along with the fact that some Pokémon are much harder, if not impossible, to obtain during certain seasons, makes me think that perhaps if the feature were to return it would be a bit more successful if the seasons passed more frequently--perhaps every two weeks rather than four?

N having a different team during each season for his rematches was a clever concept, especially with the type theme present in each team, like how the Winter team is Ice-types, Autumn is Rock and Ground, Summer is Grass and Fire, and Spring is mainly Water-types.

didn't care for this feature. mainly because you couldn't get to certain areas depending on the season and i found that super annoying. i don't want to have to keep changing the date or whatever just so i can thoroughly complete the game.

don't get me wrong i love snowy areas and i also love hot summer areas, but i rather have the region be varied in set areas where they stay snowy/hot all the time. or better yet i rather just have a whole region dedicated to one temperature. hoenn was that tropical hot region, i liked the theme... sinnoh kind of half assed being a cold region. i'd rather see an entirely snowy cold region, there's so much you could do with it!

so i guess unova was trying to be the best of both worlds in making it a seasonal region. i appreciate the idea, but i was not a fan.

Moon said:

I don't understand why seasons weren't kept. They were an awesome feature that added another level of realism to the games, and offered us some changing environments, access to areas we couldn't get to in other seasons and the most pleasing of all - themes that change to fit the atmosphere and feel of a season.

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I agree, the seasons gave this generation a realistic feel and while it changed every month instead of the real world seasons changing every three months, I can understand why they did it this way, because they likely wanted each season in-game to happen three times a year and keeping it to one season for too long would make you have to wait ages for certain season-exclusive in-game events.

I thought seasons were a really cool implement to Pokemon. I loved how they affected where you can go and what items you could obtain. Plus, Twist Mountains looks pretty cool in the winter!

Not a very good gimmick. Pokemon isn't a simulation game and the player doesn't have much reason to keep going on most of thr routes in the game (especially when you get Fly) so you're spending more time making different graphics and music for each place rather than just sticking to one style and crafting that well. Seasonal-dependant items or events were uncommon, and they were frustrating when they did happen because you would need to wait weeks or even months to get at it.

^ You can change the time on your DS though, so it's not like it was a huge hassle.

Anyway, I rather liked this! It even affected the music. It might be the tiniest little chord change or a different instrument used, but it's really nice. :) Unova in spring and autumn look absolutely wonderful. I remember playing HGSS and Ecruteak had that nice autumn feeling and I would think how cool it would be to see the whole region like that, and BW delivered that idea. Very nice touch.

Ludger said:

^ You can change the time on your DS though, so it's not like it was a huge hassle.

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The game punishes you for changing time, that's clearly not an intended way to play the game.