4th Gen Am I the only one who didn't like heartgold/soulsilver?

[PurpleOrange]

Something that I've thought about more is that I really dislike heartgold/soulsilver, since they are the most expensive second hand games to buy I expected them to be amazing, but I had such a bad experience with them that I didn't play pokemon for a while, however everyone else seems to hail them as the best pokemon games ever, is it just me that feels that way? here are the things I dislike about them:

- incredibly frustrating and tedious to level up after you beat the 7th gym
- the lack of of gen III pokemon (a personal thing really)
- the safari zone was confusing to understand at first, and you have to play it A LOT to get all the pokemon (something like 130 days or something effing stupid)
- you had to traverse almost all of johto to get fly
- having to catch ho-oh/lugia for seemingly no reason at all
- the pokewalker is ridiculous, you have to walk 2,000,000 steps to unlock everything (and then you have to go to nintendo events to get more)
- the box system is not user friendly and very slow (glad they changed it back in bw)
- lack of evolution stones (had to play the pokethalon many times to get my arcanine)
- the pokedex was slow to use
- voltorb flip, enough said
- the surfing music was remade badly
- had to beat 16 gyms and red to get gen I and III starters
- had to beat 16 gyms to get the non johto legends
- only certain trees give pokemon when headbutt'd
- no feasible way of growing berries
- having to trade a groudon from ss to hg or a kyogre from hg to ss to get rayquaza (again personal, somthing oras did a lot of as well)
- way too many post game trainers, so catching all the pokemon was made difficult
- the wild battle music gets on your nerves
- the gb sounds only being available after you get 16 badges therefor not suing it since you already beat the game

so is there anyone else who disliked them or did I just have a bad experience or am just nitpicky?

 

[Lunar]

Yes, yes you are.

But in all seriousness, there is of course some issues with HGSS, but imo they are quite minor in the grand scheme of things. Like I can't find anything majorly wrong with the games which is sometimes the case with Pokemon cause HeartGold and SoulSilver are pretty solid in all departments.

 

[ToWriteLove]

- lack of evolution stones (had to play the pokethalon many times to get my arcanine)
- the pokedex was slow to use
- voltorb flip, enough said

These are the only complaints that I can agree with you on. Honestly, expecting stuff such as gba music, other gen starters, other legendaries, before you complete the game seems silly. I like having a challenge in a game and not having stuff just handed to me. I didn't have the issue with leveling up at any point, but I also grind levels typically.

Keep in mind I am biased, this is probably my favorite games from the series, but some of the stuff you didn't like I feel like you were seeking out to dislike because of the pricetag you ended up paying.

 

[Amore]

I liked the Pokédex in comparison to the DPPt ones, but I agree with you guys citing the Evolution Stones issue. Lyra as well, was just awful. Honestly they shouldn't have shoehorned the opposite gender character in just because you can now play as one, they didn't in FrLg so I don't understand why they felt they had to this time.

Overall I'm definitely one of the ones who liked HgSs the most, but that doesn't mean there aren't some flaws.

 

[Ace Trainer 188]

- the lack of of gen III pokemon (a personal thing really)

Quick question why would you care about not a lot of gen3 mons available when the game is technically a remake of a game that took place during a time when gen3 mons didn't exist? :P

 

[moon]

I mean, Johto always had flaws with its storyline most of all. But so many things were great in the gen 2 games, and while I haven't played HG/SS yet myself, I can't imagine it'll get much worse in gen 4, which is obviously a great gen if Platinum is anything to go by. Can't wait to start my SS run eventually. We'll see if it'll become my favorite game.

 

[ChaddyCFC]

HG/SS are the greatest of all Pokemon games.

 

[Tom2]

The only thing I hated were all the damn phone calls. Lyra please SHUT UP!

 

[immacksg]

Eh, I guess it's all just opinion, but I thought HG/SS were fantastic.
To me, they're the best way to revisit the Johto region. I love walking with my Pokemon, the Pokewalker is still the coolest thing ever to me, and I think that the updates they did to the main story and such were really for the better.
I would have liked it if Lyra didn't take Crystal's place, and yeah, you should've gotten the GB Player a bit earlier, but overall I think they're better than the original games by far.

 

[giradialkia]

HGSS are remakes of what I consider the greatest games in the series (nostalgia or not; they added a tonne of features without removing anything useful from the previous games). Maybe that's easily done since there was only one generation before this one... but I digress.

They stayed true to the Johto/Kanto story experience, but as others have mentioned, elements such as Ethan/Lyra's presence and the obligatory Ho-Oh/Lugia battle felt very much shoehorned in

Like, making it so the player character was specifically chosen to hold the egg, thus are worthy of encountering Ho-Oh/Lugia... it just.. no. It was a different approach to the Legendary encounter, but it just didn't work IMO - they would've been better off leaving it optional, like in the original games.

Another gripe is the postgame. Still, the best/longest postgame in any Pokémon game, but it took way too much grinding to be ready for Red. And the GB Sounds should be given straight after the League, rather than after beating all Kanto gyms, when most of the awesome battle music is much harder to come by.

There's more to complain about in the Bag and Pokédex interfaces (the bag only displaying 6 items at a time, the Pokédex in an awkward grid format), and the most annoying would probably be the relentless PokéGear calls. Leave us the ability to delete numbers like before, and it'd be fine.

With all of that said, the overall nostalgia brought by HGSS, as well as the freshness they brought to the series (at the time), definitely made them enjoyable to play. They were much more successfully executed than FRLG, in my opinion, although I think they really got their remake-act together for ORAS, which leaves me even more hopeful for the DP remakes.

 

[Star Arcana]

I can't say I agree with most of the points addressed in the first post. I do agree that the stones was a bit of a problem, and I would have liked to see some of the "rare" Johto Pokemon earlier. That being said, those issues were present in the original as well, so yeah. And, although I feel the GB music should perhaps have been available earlier, that's a pretty minor issue.

My only real beef with the remakes is Lyra. Ugh, I was so disappointed when the revealed her design. To this day, I wish they'd just changed Kris's design up a little, like they did with Gold and Silver. I understand she wasn't in the original GS, but neither was the Suicune side-story, and they included that. But yeah, before I start to rant, Lyra is my only major complaint about the games.

The pros totally outweigh the cons when it comes to HGSS: walking with Pokemon, expanded post game, and dressing up as a Rocket are just three examples of things I liked in the remakes.

Plus, here at least, HGSS were pretty cheap, but that's likely due to our dollar being stronger at the time.

 

[SleepyTrainer]

I haven't played HG/SS yet but I'd really want to, I did play Silver and if the remakes are how the originals have been, but improved, it's definitely one of the better pokemon games. Most of the stuff you dislike is minor, and the grindy part of leveling is good because you actually have to develop your team. Not like XY and newer games where you beat the game in one go.

 

[SleepyTrainer]

I can't say I agree with most of the points addressed in the first post. I do agree that the stones was a bit of a problem, and I would have liked to see some of the "rare" Johto Pokemon earlier. That being said, those issues were present in the original as well, so yeah. And, although I feel the GB music should perhaps have been available earlier, that's a pretty minor issue.

My only real beef with the remakes is Lyra. Ugh, I was so disappointed when the revealed her design. To this day, I wish they'd just changed Kris's design up a little, like they did with Gold and Silver. I understand she wasn't in the original GS, but neither was the Suicune side-story, and they included that. But yeah, before I start to rant, Lyra is my only major complaint about the games.

The pros totally outweigh the cons when it comes to HGSS: walking with Pokemon, expanded post game, and dressing up as a Rocket are just three examples of things I liked in the remakes.

Plus, here at least, HGSS were pretty cheap, but that's likely due to our dollar being stronger at the time.

THIS :D Walking with pokemon is something i would really like to see again.

 

[EndercreeperMugen]

I don't agree with many of your points, but I can agree that HGSS did have flaws. Far from the worst in the series, but there were definite problems. It's hard to pin-point specifics, since they're remakes of Game Boy games, meaning liberties have to be taken I suppose. One thing is for sure; HGSS is better than ORAS, since they didn't mess with the original game's plot too much, whereas in ORAS it's pretty much a Gen.3 sequel rather than a Gen.3 remake.

 

[youngster_joey]

I absolutely loved it playing through it for the first time, but looking back on them they definitely have their fair share of problems. In my opinion they are the most polished games in the series, thus their appeal; they're visually appealing, trigger nostalgia in a large portion of the fanbase, and are incredibly feature-rich. However, the level curve and the difficulty in general is confusing as all hell, with the game becoming incredibly easy late-game, only for Clair to come out of nowhere with her overleveled and overpowered team. Kanto definitely could have had more, but a lot of these complaints are better directed at the originals.

As games they're not perfect, but they're definitely the best remakes in the series; FR/LG suffer from many of the problems of Red and Blue, and I could honestly write a damn essay on why OR/AS are the worst games in the series.

Also, they had the Pokewalker. I cannot say enough good about that thing; it got 8th grade me off the couch, and my friends and I had loads of fun walking around and catching Pokemon.