Underrated Pokémon Games

Are there any Pokémon games, either core series or spinoffs, that you think are underrated? I recently played through Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, the third Mystery Dungeon game that many people seem to hate, likely either because there were only 150 Pokémon in the game despite being a Gen 5 spinoff, or simply because it wasn't as good as Explorers of Sky (which was always going to be hard to top). I definitely didn't think that Gates to Infinity was as bad as alot of people make it out to be. Even if it wasn't as good as Explorers of Sky, it was still an enjoyable game on its own with a decent storyline imo.

I made a sizeable post typed up for USUM mostly because, even with its many flaws aside, I can transfer all of my old Pokemon to those games which therefore makes competitive team building significantly easier on me. I also think the characters are also enjoyable which is another underrated opinion because I don't see many people praising the trial captains and island kahunas for some odd reason even though they're pretty dynamic and likeable characters but perhaps that's just me. I also think the new Pokemon aren't bad, Bottle Capping is a blessing from Game Freak considering that, aside from IV Breeding, we've had no way to "fix" IVs (so basically it's even moreso a blessing for Legendary Pokemon). But I think with all of these positives, it's still easy to get bogged down by the negatives, so I won't go into that, here.

So, my next choice would be Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaatttttt???" Yeah, I know.

When I think of "underrated" games, I think of games that people don't talk about a whole lot. Games that people don't massively praise or get too much criticism or somehow fly under the radar. In ORAS' case I feel like it's more of the "don't talk about a whole lot" and "flies under the radar", and even though it's my second least favourite remake, I'd still recommend it to those miss the Hoenn days a bit. What ORAS has in its favour is that, being a Gen VI game, you have a wider pool of Pokemon to choose from which may be important to people. I feel like ORAS can appeal to a broader audience than just Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald can based on the Pokemon availability alone. I mean, nearly almost every legendary is available for capture in ORAS for goodness' sake, so there's bound to be at least one legend that people might want to catch in that game. Ignoring the plot, Soaring may also be a pretty nice thing to have as it's a novel feature as far as Pokemon games go, and the DexNav can certainly be useful. Tbh, I think despite the flaws that the Battle Frontier aren't in these games and the plot may or may not be up your alley (and there's forced shipping between Brendan/May), I think ORAS aren't really getting the attention that they should. They're not HGSS-quality remakes by any means, but I think that they're pretty solid and enjoyable games.

By the way, I'd like to add something: one of the biggest reasons I don't agree with any fifth generation game being "underrated" is because I feel like at this point in time, I don't believe that they quite fall into that category. I feel like everyone and their mom who has ever played fifth generation can probably safely recommend it to another person to play and enjoy, and although fifth gen might have gotten a massive amount of hate in its day (and it did get quite a bit of hate), I also think the gradual reminisce that people have started to have for it has slowly moved it out of the more "underrated" category into the more "well-liked/popular" category, which therefore means that they aren't quite underrated games in the strictest definition of the word. But that's just me.

i'm gonna agree with usum bc i gave it a lot of flack when it was first released, and i think part of its problem is that they didn't change enough to release it only a year after the original sm but uhhhh guess what? they didn't change that much in yellow. crystal. or emerald. yet no one was bitching about those as much as they did usum. and i guess another part of that is how usum were pitched, as though they were supposed to be akin to bw2 in functionality. and i get that...

but. the games are still incredibly fun. they added so much more to the region, gave us more pokemon, fuckin flying through space. it's pretty fun and it makes for a good time shiny hunting and looking for stuff and never knowing what you're gonna find. idk it's just all around a solid time and i think if you give yourself a decent break from the original sm and then hop back into usum, you'll be like "oh wait why was i so mean to this game???????" bc i got back into it and literally couldn't put it down last summer. the post game is massive and that's always seemed to be a gripe when it comes to pokemon games and it's probably the biggest and most solid post game since bw2. i actually still haven't finished team rainbow rocket and i damn sure haven't found all the legendaries in space yet.

If I had a choice to pick one game for being underrated it would be XY simply because A.) It's the most streamlined and rewarding game in the series, I think anyone can pick up XY and really have a great time and get a feeling for how much you can get out of a Pokemon game at the cost the game is quite easy but I still find the game a great starting point and B.) It has probably the best female character in the series in the form of Emma who receives more character development than any other character in the game and it's mind numbing that she wasn't a part of the main story.

Even the original Sun & Moon are underrated.

Honestly, I'm not sure why SuMo are thought of as so much slower and more 'handholdy' than other games. If you're comparing it to R/B/Y, sure, but I recently replayed SoulSilver (one of the most widely praised games) for the first time in years...

This is all before you even get Pokeballs; I literally can't figure out why people respond so differently to this than to Sun and Moon. In fact, I was more annoyed when SoulSilver stopped me; regardless of whether or not it was successful, SuMo was at least trying to use the interruptions to tell a story and get you attached to major characters that would appear throughout the game, while SoulSilver was just throwing random NPCs at you.

I have such mixed feelings on the "skip cutscene" option that so many people wanted for SuMo. I mean, there should definitely be one at least on repeat playthroughs, but for the first playthrough...I'm big into personal choice, so it would seem just plain wrong to argue that it shouldn't be an option, and I fully respect that some people dislike Sun & Moon's story/characters; but based on what I've seen, there would be more people who would just skip the entire story without knowing anything about it just because they think cutscenes are annoying. Again, play how you want and don't feel guilty about it, but...a part of me can understand why the developers wouldn't want that, you know?

On the spinoff side, I think Pokemon Ranger is underrated, but maybe I'm biased because it was my first game. c: No matter how unlikely it is, I'm hoping for another installment on the Switch.

i think, and this is more of a general thing than aimed at either hgss or sm specifically, the long tutorials are more noticeable a second time through than the first. the first time, you're just getting used to the game and you're still excited about it and sometimes you do need that extra push to know where things are, who you're looking for, etc. second time through you're like.......alright thanks..........third and beyond you just wanna pay someone to do the tutorial for you lmfao. i think the biggest offender is bw.

I wouldn't play through USUM or SM a second time, but the tutorials themselves aren't really a big reason why. I feel like the pacing of the game isn't really great because, like a lot of Pokemon games, it does take a while to get to the "climax" of the game and imo I don't think it truly gets really exciting until you get to Po Town. If the pacing was better and there was more of a sense of urgency throughout the entire game and not just towards the end of it, then I wouldn't mind playing through SM multiple times because I genuinely don't mind the cutscenes.

There are JRPGs that have it far worse than SM in terms of cutscene persistence so I'm way used to them by now.

Real talk? Pokemon Conquest. It was such an innovative game and I feel like it got zero play out of Pokemon fans.

Fairy said:

Real talk? Pokemon Conquest. It was such an innovative game and I feel like it got zero play out of Pokemon fans.

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Yes! I loooved that game!
Also I gotta mention Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, got lots of hate.. which I see why, but it wasn't that bad, at least IMO.
Idk if Pokemon Battle Revolution was 'popular' either but I loved that one too

I WAS JUST COMING HERE TO SAY GATES TO INFINITY!
I legitimately don't understand what's supposedly so bad about it (aside from a few things like not being able to pick your partner's gender and *bitter sigh* not having all the Pokemon available). A lot of people outright acknowledge this in their criticisms, but there's a severe bias due to it coming right on the heels of Explorers.
Not to hate on any game, but in my opinion, Gates to Infinity was better than Super Mystery Dungeon. I was legitimately surprised when I saw how much more positively the latter was received than the former.

I do believe every main series game is underrated to an extent as there is at least one person who bashes them endlessly when in reality they are all good an we should just appreciate them for what they bring out.

I loved Super Mystery Dungeon. I thought the story was great, and it was challenging, which is something I hear complained about in the franchise.

Also I liked Pokemon Snap enough to play through several times.

ZeoStar said:

I loved Super Mystery Dungeon. I thought the story was great, and it was challenging, which is something I hear complained about in the franchise.

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Is Super Mystery Dungeon underrated? I thought it was widely liked.

EmTheGhost said:

Is Super Mystery Dungeon underrated? I thought it was widely liked.

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I personally haven't seen much discussion about it, but I may have just not been noticing. With Mystery Dungeon the one I see getting the most attention is Explorers of Sky. Which there's nothing wrong with, because I think all of them are great. Although I haven't played Gates to Infinity yet.

Conquest is underrated. I loved it. The newer mystery dungeon games were slept on too. As for main title games? X/Y due to being "easy" or "quickly finished"

I haven't played it in a while, but Ranger was REAL good.
Also DPP, for some reason a lot of people don't like DPP but i love it, one of the best gens.

Personally, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity is pretty good. Maybe some are not fond of it, but I for one enjoyed it.

And also, I enjoyed Pokémon X and Y. I'm not sure why some seems to not liking the game, but I do owe to these sets of games for bringing me back to Pokémon gaming when I'm almost losing interest of it at one point.

Oh yes, gen4 in general is underrated. Moreso back then, I'm glad more people are starting to admit it was actually very good.

Fairy said:

Real talk? Pokemon Conquest. It was such an innovative game and I feel like it got zero play out of Pokemon fans.

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I agree with this.

conquest! man I loved this game. the sprites, the gameplay, the overall art style, the music... it was great. then there was mystery dungeon gates to infinity, especially that pretty music track towards the end of the story. it had its downsides (like slow, unskippable cutscenes which made replaying a pain), but I still loved it!

Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs. I mean, the whole Ranger series really, but this one especially, because it built upon what made the second game such a MASSIVE improvement over the first (the first Pokemon Ranger and I did not get along...who thought it'd be a good idea to draw consecutive rings around moving targets?! Steelix was just absurd...) and added some really neat gimmicks - the titular signs made for some really interesting puzzles, it had a separate quest mode you could just about run solo, and...well, I suppose the narrative wasn't that bad, all things considered. You kinda have to lower your expectations for Pokemon when it comes to characterisation and story, and this went above par at least. Plus it let you ride Legendary Beasts and that's always a plus. Overall, it was a really nice way to round off the series.

Plus it also gave us this.