The Beginnings

Which Pokemon games do you think have strong openings, and which feel like slogs?

In comparison to other JRPG's, Pokemon games open up rather quickly. Less focus on story means there isn't an hour of text. (besides sun and moon).

I liked the opening of Johto. It's simply taking a short walk, and the catching tutorial is skippable. Unlike Hoenn.

X/Y has nice variety in the early routes, making them pretty fun from the starting points.

I don't think Gen 5 is very interesting until around badge 3, which is why I don't replay much.

Good:
- Sword/Shield. Deals with some exposition and a visit to the Slumbering Weald. Busts wide open shortly afterward. Wanders a huge area, plus Isle of Armor.
- X/Y. Places you in the thick of things fairly early. Keeps the cast introduction brief. Offers a good selection of Pokemon.

Slog:
- Sun/Moon. Minds this less than others. Acknowledges the long time to even reach the school. (Unlocks trading there. Kicks off most challenges then.) Hates the forced Poke Finder tutorial, though.
- Hoenn. Blames this on the early Pokemon. Finds most of them underwhelming visually and/or in battle. Looks ahead to other routes to catch...something else.
- Probably Johto? Has not played it in a while. Walks a lot to Elm's place, and then Bellsprout Tower before the first gym.

Okay so like, I'm of the personal opinion that the beginning of a Pokémon game (let's say starting town to first gym) is probably where I spend my most time in the games's story-mode. Those first impressions are so crucial to me that I've spent hours in every game finding every native Pokémon, reaching my starter's first evo, and grinding excessively. And I love it. I don't know why, but the very beginning of a Pokémon journey is where I could spend my entire Pokémon journey, lol.

And in my opinion, there has yet to be a game that doesn't fill me with that same excitement and desire to get the most I can out of that fresh, new experience. It's just a period of the games that I've learned to cherish over time. ◟(๑•͈ᴗ•͈)◞

Probably BW, because while Sun and Moon has a lot of story, you still have a lot of visual wonder and Pokemon variety.

BW on the other, you have like the same few graphics for 3 routes, with the same 2 Pokémon until you beat the first gym. It's just that much more restrictive.

Even though strictly speaking the tutorial ends in the second town, the tutorial feels like it only ends after gym 1.

I've always disliked the early phases of B2W2 - too many old pokémon. Unova introduced another 151, let us have them!
In my recent Black 2 save I literally just had Tepig through 3 badges (didn't realise I could get to Route 4 before the 3rd gym). Never had that experience before.

The best are Kalos and Galar for the variety of Pokemon and just the pacing.
Alola after that. Yes it has a lot of cutscenes, but it also good Pokemon variety.

Sinnoh and Unova are the most boring early on.

I think SuMo start is slog. While it has great atmosphere, the dialogues and cutscenes are so slow and boring, especially on the 2nd playthrough. On the other hand, Iki Festival that follows is fun. And the rest of Melemele Island and Akala Island are fun to explore.

I'm also not a fan of BW start, since it has short and linear routes and not that interesting variety of Pokémon.

I love XY entire beginning and middle game. It only gets repetitive during and after Team Flare's questline. The amount of details that went to the early routes is amazing. Especially Routes 4 and 7 really makes me feel like I'm on a new adventure no matter how many times I cross them.

Good is easily GSC for me. I'm...not sure why, but I really, really enjoy going through the early routes in these games. Same with RSE. Replayed them so many times and the early parts are always a lot of fun! Doesn't seem like some others agree with that haha, but I like it.

Not sure I found any to be slogs per se... but SuMo, despite Alola being my favorite region, is pretty slow with all the cutscenes. There are a lot of nice things to catch early on though, so I like it anyway.

The beginning is basically the worst part in any Pokémon game. The modern games have great early game Pokémon variety compared to the first gens, but they're the most tedious for me with the walking tutorial rival and other annoyances constantly interrupting gameplay and holding your hand. I mean, Game Freak, you don't need a cutscene with the stupid rival showing where a Pokémon Center or where the next route is, especially in a very small town that only has a few buildings anyway... players are perfectly capable of finding it by themselves.

That's why when playing a Pokémon game, I usually just want to get through the opening phase as quick as possible so I can start actually playing the game. I guess Hoenn and Kalos had a good start, not too slow or tedious to play through from what I recall. Worst beginning for me was Sword/Shield.

Corveone said:

The beginning is basically the worst part in any Pokémon game. The modern games have great early game Pokémon variety compared to the first gens, but they're the most tedious for me with the walking tutorial rival and other annoyances constantly interrupting gameplay and holding your hand. I mean, Game Freak, you don't need a cutscene with the stupid rival showing where a Pokémon Center or where the next route is, especially in a very small town that only has a few buildings anyway... players are perfectly capable of finding it by themselves.

Click to expand...

This.

As the last game I played was Black 2 (as stated above, a bad start for other reasons) the constant interruptions were particularly jarring in Sword, almost negating the newfound wow factor of Pokémon on my TV for the first time since a brief foray into PBR, and seeing my own nation reflected in the game (particularly as plenty of real life Wooloos outside my house who also like charging gates make for good immersion).

As a 10-year old I admittedly got stuck in Slateport City over and over in Emerald, but I easily made it that far with no issues - the late capture tutorial is a bit odd, but I already figured it out from the game manual and NPC dialogue. I know we don't get manuals before, but still…it's an unnecessary amount of cutscenes.