4th Gen Disappointments

[curiousnathan]

With the hype that naturally surrounds new games follows extreme highs but also a lot of disappointment. What disappointed you about the 4th Generation games? Was it lacking a character you adore, was it too easy, or even worse were the new Pokemon not to your taste?

 

[November Lima]

Hmmm, I think I disliked how easy HGSS was when not battling Rivals, Gym Leaders and/or Champions (those weren't that hard either, but they were satisfactory). I think it was supposedly the low levels of the Pokémon used by random trainers. Especially after Ecruteak this became quite noticeable!

Regarding DPPt... Well, not much! At first, DP didn't had a lot going for it post-game, but then came along the Battle Frontier in Pt. Oh, and there weren't not that much Pokémon in DP (but again, Pt fixed that).

So, there you have my opinion :)

 

[Sirfetch’d]

Diamond and Pearl were a bit slow for my taste but otherwise I have no gripes! Gen 4 was really fun and HG/SS were really well done remakes. I like nearly all of the new Pokemon introduced too haha.

 

[Hikamaru]

The Pokemon were really interesting, but the one major disappointment was just how terribly slow Diamond & Pearl were... thank god Platinum fixed that issue up.

 

[Drayton]

Before Platinum. D/P having very slow save progressing and the game it's slow itself, but more frustrating it's takes time for the game to save your progress and no rematches against stats trainer nor gym leader, plat fix all the trouble and lacking in DP

 

[Sydian]

I have a lot of issues with Diamond and Pearl, however I wouldn't really call them disappointments. I think those are different. So here are my disappointments with DP...

- Lack of Fire types
- Introducing a ton of new evolutions, but having to wait for the post game to get them
- The slow rate the game ran compared to previous generations at the time
- The cartridges not being color coded to match the name of the game...honestly my biggest haha.

I don't remember having any disappointments with Platinum however, since it fixed the things from DP that I didn't enjoy...except the cartridge color. Seriously, GameFreak. I'm waiting. Anyway, moving on to HeartGold and SoulSilver then...

- The level issue was not addressed

Oh. Well that was the only thing that really disappointed me in HGSS I guess. :P

 

[Hikamaru]

- Lack of Fire types
- Introducing a ton of new evolutions, but having to wait for the post game to get them

Ah yes the Fire problem... I'm not really a fan of Ponyta so I always find myself picking Chimchar as my starter in like every playthrough I do of Diamond & Pearl. Platinum thankfully expanded the Dex, but still that doesn't stop me from always picking Chimchar because it was literally the only good Fire-type that stays awesome throughout the adventure due to its speed, power and versatility. It was literally the biggest criticism I have of Sinnoh as a whole, and that's the drastically uneven distribution of types in the Dex.

I hated having to wait until postgame for the new evolutions, but at least we still had some that could be obtained before then like my beloved Ambipom, and the badass Weavile too. Again, extremely happy with Platinum correcting that.

- The level issue was not addressed

That was my biggest downfall of HG/SS, the fact it was extremely hard to train within those games. There was just not enough high-leveled stuff to grind against, now only if we had 5th Gen Audino method available back then...

 

[classiccartoonsftw]

My biggest issue with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was the lack of Fire types in the Sinnoh dex. We only got the Chimchar and Ponyta lines, and I'm not really a fan of the Ponyta line. Luckily, Platinum fixed this one.

My biggest gripe with HG/SS was the music for Goldenrod City. They tried to make it upbeat while keeping the emotional tones of the original one. But the end result... too crappy and annoying, even for a Pokemon soundtrack. Aside from that, I didn't like Lyra, and the fact that you needed so many HM's to get to Red in comparison to the original.

 

[Drayton]

What's lacking in HGSS is the leveling. Not enough high-level mon to level up your pokemon easily even chansey isn't bit enough since EXP bit lower than Gen5+

 

[Aether★]

I love Platinum to be honest, but I found many flaws in this game. I hated the lack of my favorite fire type Pokemon, Infernape and Houndoom were the only ones acceptable. The game was a bit slow as well, and the random wild Pokemon were repetitive, just like in the older series. I was tired of Zubat and Geodude at that point.

 

[curiousnathan]

As I usually rant about, my two major disappointments was the fact that the follow me feature was not a art of DPPt - however it didn't really exist as a prominent feature outside Yellow so I understand why - and the severe lack of fire types in DP. At least that problem was elevated in Platinum which I think trumped both of its predecessors (as it should have). The only real other disappointments I had was the slow surfing speed in DP and the relative easy difficulty of certain gyms.

 

[esperance]

The really low wild Pokémon level curve in HGSS has always really frustrated me, especially when I need to train for the first time through the Elite 4 and all I can fight are level ~30 Ursaring in Victory Road (and there weren't even any trainers!).

I've always really liked DPPt, but the lack of wild Pokémon variety in DP was rather annoying.

 

[Xencleamas]

Generation IV games are really good though. In Diamon and Pearl, what really annoyed me is the slowness of game as well as the surf speed which is more slower than normal walk. Another one is lack of Fire type availability during pre-National Dex. I don't really hate Ponyta line at this point. But, this make sense on Elite Four Flint's party (Having Lopunny, Steelix, and Drifblim. I know the logic of Steelix and Drifblim... but what's up for Lopunny). Another thing is about the other Sinnoh Pokemon are unavailable prior National Dex. I guess Diamond and Pearl are the only first games for each Generation that didn't show up the full own region related Pokemon (this do not couny event legendaries). Until the release of Platinum, that really featured everything mentioned there, even the fastened engine and Surf speed.

I do not anything to hate on Platinum. Since that Sinnoh went better in there.

For HeartGold and SoulSilver, its engine is as good as Platinum. But, it lacks a perfect spot for grinding even after battling Red. I think it should have the VS. Seeker at all. Level Gaps are also low. My personal friend also disappoints the Goldenrod City theme which it had given a happy-ish tune. The GSC theme's tune is a lot better.

 

[loser]

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were slow. Also, the lack of fire types was really annoying.

I love platinum, it fixed so much about DP.

HGSS had very low leveled pokemon, and the gym leader's pokemon were really lame. Chikorita had a huge disadvantage throughout the whole game. Love this game though!

 

[LiitleCrow]

Well I won't touch on HG/SS because they are remakes of games we already knew and loved, plus we also knew exactly what would be happening.
Now let be get straight to the point.
What disappointed me most about D/P/Pt?
There are are couple of things really. I'm not saying I didn't like gen 4, quiet the opposite in fact.
The color pallet was abysmal, so many gray tones :/
The difficulty was laughable at best. But to be real, the only really "Hard" official Pokémon games are BW2.
So what they should do is implementing a hard mode. (I know they technically have tried, but their so called hard mode didn't make sense, or at least not the way they implemented it)

Is there anything else? Not that I can think of, it was the first game to have a good story that wasn't too convoluted, which of course made it a bit awkward at times, because of the lack of experience they had in writing an actual story for a main franchise Pokémon game. But it was good none the less.
They also introduced some of my absolute favorite Pokes, AND they implemented the possibility for a good competitive scene. (Let's not mention evasion, it's stupid no matter how you look at it....)

 

[Starry Windy]

My main complaint of 4th Gen was how slow Diamond and Pearl was, even Surfing was as slow as a snail. I'm glad Platinum decided to fix this up, though.

 

[Dreg]

D/P were slow, especially in battling. Pt optimized a lot of this up, at least. I think the encounter rate was a little high, though.

 

[ProboVon]

Biggest disappointment with HGSS:

What happened to the DECENT TMs (prior to defeating the Champion)? Almost literally, every TM I picked up was trash. The decent TMs were mostly prizes at the Goldenrod Game Corner. Except the Game Corner became the home of one of the worst side games in the history of video games. Voltorb Switch. The chances at earning high rewards in that game tinker somewhere between frustratingly improbable and downright impossible. On average, players can expect to waste hours of time netting small rewards in the hopes of acquiring a decent technique like Ice Beam, Flamethrower or Thunderbolt.

And I agree with the person who cited the game's difficulty as an issue. Gym leaders, the Elite 4, and the Champion were reasonably powerful. But the filler trainers were laughable. I don't expect these battles to blow my mind in their difficulty, but they should still pose some sort of challenge.

With Diamond/Pearl:

Pokemon diversity. I felt like I couldn't put together a compelling team with the options we were given. Certain types were way over-represented while others were almost completely absent. These are still my least favorite Pokemon games. Though I'd like to play through Platinum again.

 

[Sonikkts]

D/P were slow, especially in battling. Pt optimized a lot of this up, at least. I think the encounter rate was a little high, though.

This was, according to Serebii and Bulbapedia the number one complaint of Gen V games. I felt it was fine in Gen IV though the difference between D/P and HG/SS can be felt.

My biggest disappointment with D/P was the gym leaders. Far too many are just silent NPCs. As much as I have played Sinnoh through the years, I honestly could not tell you the names of half of the gym leaders.

Second that, it's already well documented by Fire types were next to none-existent. Heck even Platinum didn't do much to improve that.

In HG/SS, the level scaling which was an issue in Gen II games was still not addressed. The over abundance of Water types was made quite apparent too. I did however appreciate that Johto native Pokémon that for some reason were only available in Kanto (Slugma, Murkrow) back in Gen II made their appearance in the very oddly designed Safari Zone.

 

[Paulthevideogamenerd]

Since I was born in 2000, that means I played Pearl when I was 6, so I definitely did not notice the slowness of the games (which I certainly can feel when playing today). The Pokemon, uninteresting gym leaders, and the region in a whole brings me a wave of nostalgia, and it would be stupid for me to hate the very first Pokemon game I fully defeated.