The Best Generation

I'm genuinely curious. Which generation do you think should be considered the best previous to SwSh? Why?

(if you want to count LGPE as gen 7 or something then feel free to c: I personally rather consider them spinoff-remakes / flirt effort with Pokémon GO fans though)

Gen 1: RBY (G)
Gen 2: GSC
Gen 3: RSE, FRLG
Gen 4: DPPt, HGSS
Gen 5: BW, B2W2
Gen 6: XY, ORAS
Gen 7: SM, USUM

Curious to hear your opinions and reasonings! And please vote in the poll c:

I love everything about gen 1 but I think gen 2 was better and the remakes were prob the best games they made I know they come under gen 4 but the overall gen 2 was better for me

It's hard for me to say. My favorite is Gen 5, but "favorite" is a subjective thing, and which entry is someone's favorite is not necessarily the objective best.

If you can even pin down an objective best in the first place. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

Gen 3, and Gen 7. Gen 3 was the first generation I experienced, so I have nostalgia for it. Emerald was a really good game and I enjoy it greatly. Although gen 3 definitely has its flaws, I still enjoy this generation.

And Gen 7, while handholdy, I thought was a nice attempt at trying to mix up the Pokemon formula. I know S/M/US/UM have their haters, but I liked these games. I feel like I'm one of the few who didn't hate sun/moon lmfao

But I wouldn't say any generation is "the best" all of them have their own strengths and weaknesses even my least favorite generation of 6 has good things about it, as does my second least favorite in generation 1.

This is a hard one. I waver between gen 3 and 6 because they both encompass Hoenn, and that is the region I am most drawn to. I lean to 6 though because of the mega evolution mechanics introduced in XY.

As the runner ups I like gen 5 and 2.

6 and then 5 for me. I loved the styles of both so much and Hoenn was my favorite Gen as a kid and megas, oh yeah, Gen 6 is the shit for me.

This is interesting, I hadn't expected gen 6 to be in the lead tbh! Sure, there's only 1-2 votes for most gens so far, and 3 for gen 6, but still.

Personally, I absolutely adore gen 2 due to its style and huge nostalgia feels. In many ways, gen 1 is ofc even more nostalgic, but it just isn't as good looking or fun and that matters too. Gen 3 is also part of my childhood, yet I never felt drawn to those games as much as GSC.

But I'm not entirely sure I would call gen 2 the "best" gen, even when we talk personal taste, honestly. Because gen 4 and gen 6 exist. Now, I am not hugely experienced with gen 4 - gameplay wise I prefer gen 5, but gen 4 has Johto and Sinnoh and those regions are just amazing. Plus, the music, oh, Sinnoh just had the Best Music. But gen 6... the Mega Evolution are hands down the best gimmick and I wish they just kept going with it more rather than bother introducing uh... Z-moves..... Dynamax..... blergh. And while Kalos was a quite boring region with a disastrous story/NPC companions that I barely even remember, the Hoenn remakes are possibly the best games. Like. Omega Ruby somehow makes me more nostalgic for Hoenn than Ruby does?? And the gen 6 gameplay might be my favorite. Things are smooth (if you turn off 3D lmao), I could play with my pokémon and pet them and do that training thing with them ahahah I loved that so much.

So I'm not sure I can quite vote yet, I have to consider it a bit more. But 2/4/6 might be in the lead imo :3 ofc, gen 3 did really well too tbh. Adding so much new stuff that has become staples ever since. And the music in Hoenn wasn't half bad either tbh.

I grew up playing gen 3, it's the nostalgia for me. Plus most of my favorite Pokémon are in that gen. A close second would be 2 as it was my first Pokémon game I played, with my all time favorite Lugia cx. After gen 4 I stopped for a bit skipped 5-7 and got back into SwSh, I did go back and play those gens but it was kind of boring for me. It lacked that story for me as well, although I'm quite biased towards older gens. gen 6 surprised me being the top so far but I can see it. The first game I went back to was Y and I really enjoyed that game and progression a lot. So I'd put 3/2/6 as my personal gen ranking

Oh wow, now Gen 3 and 6 are pretty clearly in the lead. Do I detect a Hoenn superiority here? :D

"best" is tough, but I like playing 2 the most.

Probably Gen IV for me, (out of Gen III/IV/V, the only ones I played) as an overall time period at least. I got super into Pokémon at that time. I was on here, using shoddy battle, trading, breeding, even watching the anime (Ash battling against legendaries towards the end was very cool). Plus if I had actually spent the time, I could have completed the National Pokédex between the games I own and trading online, something that wasn't possible in Gen III due to the lesser capabilities of the GBA.
But just taking the games in isolation you never forget your first, which is Emerald. LeafGreen also gets a nostalgia kick due to allowing me to play with all he Pokémon I saw on TV (young me was very confused by the lack of Bulbasaur in Emerald).
So...a two-way tie, out of three? I'll choose Gen III in the poll though.

This question is hard to me because I like each generation for its own merits. Gen 1 still has the best (semi-) open world approach and gen 2 had a nice blend of freedom and cultural expression. Gen 3 will always stick out to me due to all the hidden spots you need Dive for in order to reach them. And of course the creative way how the regi's were hidden. I still don't know ho I even managed to figure out the puzzle, but I did. Gen 5 had the best sprite design and was surpisingly difficult if you're just trying to wing it.

Newer games I mostly like for the updated mechanics. The 3D has kind of hampered my enjoyment just a little; mostly due to the soulless animation loops of each Pokemon during battle. Still, adding a Fairy type, changing the type chart in general for better balancing and adding some fun mechanics like Mega Evolution was something I appreciate quite a bit.

Still, nostalgia easily wins out. Though, one of the reasons of me not picking gen 1 as my absolute "best" is mostly due to Kanto fatigue. And if I were to choose between gens 2 and 3 I would probably still end up with gen 2.

Gen5. No questions about it. I have already talked about my reasonings in many other threads.

Gen 3 is rushing ahead :D

I still haven't been able to decide what to vote for, haha. It might actually become Gen 2 still, but if I'm honest that's mostly due to nostalgia and my love for the whole style and feel of the game, and how great it was with the limited technology they had to work with. But Gen 4 might be the magnum opus still. It had so much, did so much, and was a great leap forward from gen 3 (which was already a huge awesome leap from gen 2, and i loved gen 2 but yea ahah). So... Maybe my vote will be gen 4 after all ^^

Voted for BW, but interesting to see gen 3 still in the lead! Honestly I love both, but not much will top BW's story for me. It also has some of the best Pokémon designs I've seen that I have grown quite attached to.

Honestly, none of them. Each gen has its virtues but also its flaws. Some are good for their features, more updated and compelling mechanics, some for their challenge or level curve, some for their region, Pokémon roster, etc. But there's really no Pokémon game that is good at everything.

None of them are perfect that is true and I don't think we will ever have a perfect pokemon game. Something will always be wrong. There will always be something a large portion of the fandom doesn't like. However, in my opinion, I think Gen 5 was definitely the best.

Gen 5 was the first game to break the mold. It moved away from Japan and went to the US. It had the best and longest storyline. The evil team actually had a compelling argument until BW2 which I think was Ghetsis just being petty. It was the most unique with the most unique designs. I know people say 'its a ice cream pokemon! They are running out of ideas!' look at Gen 1 and tell me those designs aren't weak compared to others. We have piles of muk and poke balls. It also gave us a TON of new pokemon which is the original concept of Pokemon. Catching them all. I know there is a lot of pokemon, but look how much people have complained about the lack of new pokemon in Kalos, Alola, and kinda Galar.

Gen 5 also had a great battle system. It made leveling a lot easier and that was without the EXP Share. You had sport stadiums which I loved training at. You could feel the pokemon living their lives with their pokemon playing sports. We had the subway, which I loved to death to the point where it was my favorite facility. The Elite 4 and the story was much more inviting. The gym leaders actually did something and it continued in BW2 which was the best 3rd version games we have ever had. It added a lot of area. Old pokemon and even more story and completely changing the way in which we traveled so it wasn't just the same game. It felt like Pokemon GSC. It felt like we were in two totally different regions. And the trainers just felt right. And the traveling group of friends was great. It felt like a complete story and a complete game. Yet we still have mysteries in Unova.... what did the Original Dragon look like? Where did the train in Anvil Town go that they were building in BW2? What pokemon are left that haven't been discovered yet? How much larger in the land surrounding Unova? And what actually happen to Relic Castle? Was it part of Kalos?

Unova also reignited my love for pokemon that I really started falling away from during Gen 4 because of how long it was and how hard it was to watch the anime because Cartoon Network would randomly change the times in which the show came on.

I know people hate the Unova Anime, and I don't blame then that much. But would you not make the same mistakes Ash made when going to a completely new country? Could you hold your excitement in and weaken a pokemon before throwing that first ball in a foreign place so far away from home?

And the manga..... it got dark.... and just felt amazing to read, even though it was so detached from the rest of the series, even Kalos, Alola and Galar. It took them forever to finally release the last chapters, but it was some of the most anticipated stuff in my opinion. However anime and manga have their own sections. But I felt like they needed to be at least mentioned.

Corveone said:

Honestly, none of them. Each gen has its virtues but also its flaws. Some are good for their features, more updated and compelling mechanics, some for their challenge or level curve, some for their region, Pokémon roster, etc. But there's really no Pokémon game that is good at everything.

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That is a good point, I do not have anything to add. I'm just gonna like ya post.

I've seen some pretty cool post in this thread, no pokemon game is perfect so my only choice is too go off how much nostalgia they give me
Gen 1: all I have is pain dealing with sabrina
Gen 2: I didn't play johto before hg
Gen 3: despite dying to brock because I picked charmander, and having the same fate to Roxanne definitely my second favorite
Gen 4: Cynthia's Garchomp gives me ptsd. I love it.
Gen 5: first gen, and I'm the only person who doesn't hate the monkeys(my simisage murdered everything, the simisear got murdered by everything.)
Gen 6: I'm still salty about the sidemen Quartet
Gen 7: I love incineroar, but I don't think I can vote this one.
Gen 8: Cinderace is pretty cool but same as gen 7

All in all 3,4, and 5 are my votes.

Gen 6, because it brought balance to the types by adding Fairy. When the news about Fairy came up, I hated it, but then, I saw that it was necessary.
But Gen 5 is the one I like the most, because of Triple and Rotation Battles, not to mention the PWT. Yeah, I used to love these modes

Gen 5
fairies didn't exist and dragons were op
the guy above mentioned rotation battles
in gen 5 you could destroy entire teams using one outrage
and another sweeper like Excadrill for example