7th Gen What are your thoughts on gen 7?

Alola was a bit of a hit-or-miss with people, with some enjoying the differences compared to other games (such as trials and islands) and others finding them not as great.

What are your overall thougts on the Alolan games? Did you like them and the changes they brought, or were you not a fan?

I did like quite alot about how different alola is. Trials being a different take on the standard gym romp. Pretty interesting story dynamic(in default SM not ultra). Introduction of regionals which I enjoy. If i had to name some cons; Z moves are a terrible battle mechanic, just a one off super move. Alola itself i kinda wish was bigger, feels alot smaller than alot of prior regions. And a equally as bad post game as X and Y, meaning practically no post game. Overall though? 7/10

I really like the characters and Pokémon of Alola. I think they were all fun and full of personality with some super memorable designs such as Mimikyu, Komala and Minior. Not to mention that the introduction of Regional Forms was something that brought a lot of interest and life to old mons such as Raticate and Sandshrew! However, I do find it quite hard to replay due to how slow paced the story is. The content is interesting, but I found it a bit of a hassle having to stop and start so frequently. Perhaps a future game set in Alola will entice me more.

If by Gen 7 you're specifically referring to Pokemon Sun & Moon, they're some of my favorites, if not outright my favorite games in the series! I love the story, characters, vibrant region, music, and of course the new Pokemon- Incineroar quickly made its way into my list of favorites, among others. I think all the elements I listed blend together in a really engaging experience that reminded me of why I love Pokemon so much when I first played it. I never understood the flack the games got in the years following its release, that could just be the Pokemon cycle repeating itself but I always thought the critiques of them being too easy was kind of dumb since imo it's like the hardest game in the series with how many boss fights have buffed stats.

USUM and Let's Go (which honestly I frequently forget about) I can't say the same for. USUM had some cool additions but overall they don't add enough to justify being new games in the year it came out, especially when I was really hoping we'd get a sequel in the vein of BW2. The story was kind of a downgrade too, Lusamine was completely watered down with the focus on Necrozma and Ultra Space and the whole story with Lillie just did not mean as much. The Rainbow Rocket story was cool as hell though, for as silly as it was. And Let's Go was one of the few Pokemon games I didn't care enough about to finish, that's about all I can say there.

I thought Gen 7 wasn't a bad generation. It was trying something new by shaking up the formula a little. While, yes, S/M were quite "handholdy" at times, I don't think they were "baby easy" or whatever. The Totem Pokemon were actually pretty hard, if you ask me. But, I do think some of this generation suffered being on the 3DS. I hated how whenever I closed the game, it had to restart my 3DS. It just shows how these games were pushing the limits of the hardware.

I definitely didn't think Let's Go were needed or necessary, though. They probably only existed to test out the capabilities of the Switch. I do think, S/M did kind of start going towards the "Pokemon is starting to change" era. Even if most people don't think Pokemon really changed much, I feel like it really started to in gen 7.

To this day, I believe Gen VII had a kind of magic that subsequent generations haven't been able to replicate. It was truly the first time that the standard Pokémon journey went on a different direction than usual, with what the trials replacing Gyms and the story taking center stage over gameplay. Same for the anime - there was a massive change in animation style, and it was the first time Ash had a sort of hub to go back to after his adventures (not to mention actually won a Pokémon League.)

I'm mixed on the changes, but they were mostly for good. I didn't like how the story in S/M was more about Lillie and her family instead of the player character, but I respect people who do, and I got served anyway with the releases of US/UM and LGPE, which had a more proper balance between story and gameplay. The trials could have been a little less light on battling, but that got remedied in Gen VIII when Gyms came back with a vengeance alongside those little challenges. And as for the anime, S/M was the series that allowed for Ash's recently announced exit by having him win a League, just as the other anime series (Generations) proved that a Pokémon anime didn't need him to thrive. I'm still mad the new series isn't going to be a hard reboot, but eh, what can you do?

So yeah, Gen VII is one of my favourite Generations for how they started to push the limits of the franchise. Oh, and because it introduced my all-time favourite Pokémon - Mimikyu!

I'm not exactly a fan of Gen 7, something about it didn't really do it for me overall. I find the story of the Alola games to be rather overrated, and I never bought into the idea that Sun/Moon was Pokemon's first attempt at changing things up.
On the other hand, it has what's probably my 2nd favorite starter trio, and I wasn't bothered by the amount of dialogue and story scenes and all that like a lot of people are/were. Pokemon is an RPG, and RPGs are generally somewhat heavy on dialogue and cutscenes and have long been that way, so it's almost funny to watch people take issue with that.

and then there's LGPE, which is a watered-down remake of a region that gets a little more attention than it deserves

Alola is an enjoyably region. I don't rank it amongst my favorites, but it's definitely not a bad region, having a really solid mon lineup.
The trials were a neat change-up, but I was never a fan of Z-moves. I'm gonna ignore the story as it's irrelevant to me.

Having played Ultra Moon on a new copy not long ago I got to say that the Rainbow Rocket episode is such a slog. I either didn't notice it when I originally played US or forgot about it lol

They're my least favourite games of all time and the point where I realised that I probably wouldn't like any new Pokémon games because of several choices they made. Not to mention the endless tutorials.

I love gen 7 all around. For the main series games they had some of my favorite storylines in a Pokemon game, I loved the new island trials and thought it was a really fresh change from the gym leaders, and several of the Pokemon introduced are among my favorites. The Alola region just really stood out as a unique region. I did also like the Z moves but they felt a little too overpowered during the main game, and I wish they continued with mega evolution since they still had it they just didn't do anything with it.

I love it, like I love every generation of Pokemon. Frankly, though, I'm burnt out on it, not because of the games themselves, because of this subreddit constantly bashing it all the goddamn time. It got old real fast.

I loved Alola! They released during a time I needed good escapism and they filled that role well. Looking back, they do suffer from pacing issues all around. The lack of being able to skip cutscenes or interruptions with lots of text is aggravating on repeat playthroughs. Each island and Pokémon introduced was filled with personality and Hawaiian culture was all over the video games. The characters introduced were quite memorable and were a blast to fight each time. The music was wonderful too, but like all older Pokémon game soundtracks they needed more tracks that exceeded 90 seconds. Ultra Necrozma's theme in particular felt like it was cut to meet that arbitrary limit. The postgame could've been more expansive, especially in the original Sun and Moon, but the new areas to explore were quite nice. Overall, Gen 7 is my third favorite generation.

Now that I am replaying it I'd say it's much better than I remembered.

I missed the cartoony 3D style from gen 6 which I felt was a very good compromise between the pixel gens and the 3D future. So it irked me for a long time that Alola had a slightly more realistic/anime approach to the designs.

But for the game overall? It was very fun, especially all the customization, all the pokémon loyalty features and how it generally made the pokemon really feel like partners you cared about rather than pictures in a list. The characters like Lillie and her family were cool too and the story was decent (for a pokemon game). Like PageEmperor here, I expect to like it even more when I re-play Sun :) or more likely I'll just finally play Ultra Moon properly ahah.

Always said that: it's the generation I like less, yet the one with the biggest potential. The ideas were nice, but the way those were implemented wasn't any good for me. Well, the first consideration I have to make is the number of things that changed: too many changes for just one game. It truly felt like gen 7 was something totally different from the rest of the series and it's the fact that they tried to change so many things that made most of the changes just "meh", for me, at least.

The characters needed more space, the villain team could have been way more interesting and strong, the story could have had a better development and more topics covered. The region itself being different islands is cool, but those islands are too small, there is no room for exploration and routes are really just a "follow the line" thing. Trials weren't bad, but I guess the mini games too easy, however that's an entire series thing, not just gen 7.

Generation 7 has always been my second favorite Pokémon generation after Generation 5. While the adventure might have begun with Generation 5, Generation 7 introduced me to a new perspective on playing Pokémon. Firstly, I was able to create a character that looked similar to me, which was a big deal. Secondly, I loved the region of Alola and its culture. I loved their greetings, the environments, routes, cities and towns, music when traveling, and the overall scenery. I loved the idea of the Island Challenge and the trials. I loved the activity of Mantine surfing and the lore behind the legendaries and Ultra Beasts. I loved Poké Pelago, which was great for raising Pokémon in your boxes. I loved the characters such as Hau, Lily, Kukuki, and Guzma, and I loved the idea of you actually defending your title as Champion rather than still not being the Champion despite beating the game like in previous games. I loved the post-game activities too. I also love how this was the first generation to get rid of HMs. I love Alola so much!

Honestly it's about the only Generation I outright loathed and to more specifically towards Sun/Moon.

Never got the Ultra versions as I disliked Sun/Moon enough, but could tell they are far more the improved and definitive versions of the game in almost every yet bar only a few aspects.

The whole narrative rubbed me so wrong that it felt like my previous 6 outings as a Lifelong Pokémon fan felt rather insignificant in regards to Gyms being replaced with Trials that felt like it was less to do with Pokémon battling at it's core and more for narrative and lore purposes for the game instead. Top that off with a sudden impromptu Pokémon League that felt so shoe horned in that I couldn't take it seriously anymore.

The Characters for the most part were either bland, forgettable, or downright annoying. Enough said.

The Story being about one mere NPC that is rather undeserving in my opinion to take all the limelight away from the player by reducing the player as nothing more than their means of resolving the plot in their favor is perhaps the most egregious of my grievances, further insulting my previous experiences with the six prior generations.

Everything else was either unremarkable or a downgrade from previous generations aside from a few QoL improvements implemented.

Tldr: I have grown a profound distaste for Generation 7, specifically Sun/Moon that will last for the rest of my days. And I truly believe no other Gen will come close to toppling that for me, both beloved or hated both before and after and any Generation to come.

Now much of these are subjective and I see alot of people genuinely enjoy it for what it is. Glad they had fun with it. I'm currently having fun with my all time favorite, Gen 1 via Playing a personal romhacked mod I made for myself as I learn how to binary romhack on an android phone.

In my eyes, Gen 7 has replaced Gen 5 as the new most controversial generation. I have praise, but I'll start with criticism first.

The year Sun and Moon released was a massive high for Pokémon. People who hadn't touched the franchise in a long time were suddenly very hyped for it because of Pokémon Go. I know several people personally who were excited to play the newest installments releasing that coming fall. But when they finally arrived, most barely finished the first trial, if that. The games were bloated and didn't resemble what they were nostalgic for. Meanwhile, more dedicated fans were still perturbed by the lack of content from Gen 6, and were waiting to be wowed again. For many, these games didn't resolve those issues either.

Everyone knows about the dialogue and pacing issues. But if you can accept that these games are talky, I think there's a lot to appreciate. I think this generation provided Pokémon's most vibrant region, and a dex more tailored for its habitats than any other. They're stylish, immersive, and were a nice mix-up from what fans had become accustomed to. But for some, too different to rank alongside the games that came before. At this point, I'm left wishing there was less talking and more showing. More exploration of Ultra Space, elaboration on Fallers and a plot more designed with them in mind, and a more meaningful conclusion to Rainbow Rocket instead of just being a cutesy inclusion. But I don't think those things take away from the 3DS era's impressive art style, which peaked with USUM.

And speaking of USUM, to this day these games feel the most "complete" of any game out there. Z moves are probably the least liked of any gimmick, but their inclusion alongside Megas means a game with 2 battle gimmicks and over 800 Pokémon. Bottlecaps *finally* let you fix IVs so it felt like a good final destination for team members who had been struggling in battles game to game. But I do think some more side content like contests would have been nice.

If they ever revisit these games, for the love of god let the main characters stop smiling once in a while. They deserve a break.

I really liked it. It was the first generation I got to play as it was current (I got the game for my birthday a few months after it came out) and it felt like a HUGE upgrade over the DS games and Y that I had been playing for a while at that point. It was cool being able to play online before everyone had optimized the game to bits and the graphics look great for a 3DS game. I'll admit the first 3 hours or so are trash, the game is far too handholdy and it felt like I was going through 5 minutes of tutorials/cutscenes/story for every 1 minute of actual gameplay. But imo it really picks up after around the midpoint of the second island when the game finally eases off a bit.

Oh boy gen 7. For those of you who knew, I had a small Ultra Moon obsession one or two years ago. I had a major obsession over the aesthetic of Lunala. Besides the point, Ultra Moon was the only gen 7 game I played so my opinion may be...not accurate. The first time I played it was on a plane Christmas Eve 2018, and boy did it have magic. I chose Popplio and named him Piper. Spent the entire holiday playing that game. Then I transferred all the Pokemon to Home when Home came out. RIP my fellow gen 7 'mons. So I restarted UM a year or two ago in hopes to recapture that magic...and it was lost. I had to question by the 4th island was I even having fun anymore. No. The answer was no. It was horrible. A relief to get to the end. My current save file just has a bunch of wonder-traded Pokemon on it, and I can't even wonder-trade anymore because my 2DS doesn't want me to access wi-fi anymore. Oh well. Nothing lost nothing gained I guess.

Does anyone remember the festival plaza? On my first file, I had all lotto booths. Rank in the money! This current file, I didn't even touch the FP facilities. What's there to spend money on anyway now that my 2DS wi-fi is dead. Oh well.

Sorry to have such a negative spin on this. Want a good Pokemon game? I recommend gens 2 and 3. Peak performances there.