In your opinion, how do newer Pokémon games compare to old ones?

[Sheep]

Newer to me implies games released for the 3DS and Switch, though you could have a different interpretation of that!

In your opinion, do you feel newer Pokémon games are better, or worse, than older titles? This can be based on many factors - story, gameplay, difficulty, quality of life features, character designs, just your overall enjoyment, and so on. Based on their individual pros and cons, would you rather replay a newer or older Pokémon game?

 

[Zeostar]

I appreciate all the quality of life features. Infinite bag space, removal of HM's, reusable TM's, physical/special split all give me a preference to the newer games.

I still think the old games are charming. I also think they had the perfect difficulty. Easy enough, but not so easy it becomes dull. I would rather play Emerald over Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire because the gym leaders have better team compositions, move-sets, and utilize healing berries.

 

[Devalue]

Views the newer games as better. Speaks from a position of not playing an older game for about the past decade, however. (Defines newer games as 3DS and Switch also.)

Newer game pros:
- Better variety. Gives you lots of Pokemon options in newer games. Extends to enemy trainers too.
- Infinite use TMs. Hoarded one-uses.
- Stronger trainers on routes. (Note: May be incorrect on this.) Remembers random trainers, particularly in X/Y, being much nastier than in older games. Fears some early Kadabras, for example. Do not knock early Archen or Hawlucha either. Extends to some of X/Y's later battles as well, such as any Brains and Brawn battle. Struggles to name some in Sword/Shield (and not counting their scary Wild Area encounters), admittedly.
- Good mechanics: Abilities and Physical/Special split. Applies to some older games, but not all.
- Better breeding and training. Made it much easier optimize Pokemon.
- Less grinding. Sped it up with the Experience Share upgrade and candies for individual Pokemon.
- No HMs in several games. Began as a way for your Pokemon to interact with the world. Became a thorn. Does not miss them.

Older game pros:
- 2D graphics. Misses the sprites.
- Stronger gym leaders and Elite Four. Funneled most of their difficulty into them. Worked for those shiny badges more.
- Better evil team. Prefers their serious antagonists over the new goofy ones.
- Safari Zone. Please bring this back. May not be a big fan of the difficulty of catching something there. Gave a unique feel, however.
- Fewer tutorials and cutscenes. Mashes through less.

Neutral:
- Music. Produces a few good pieces in all of them. Barely notices overworld music.
- Rivals. Dislikes the jerks in earlier generations. Winces at some of the newer ones, however.
- Postgame. Wants more from both.

Would like to replay an older game. Might feel fresh after all the replays of X, Moon, and Sword. Probably favors replaying the newer games due to one main factor: self-trading. Possesses the means to transfer Pokemon from an established save file to a new one. Unlocks more options besides Monotypes and Solos. (Ignores Nuzlockes.) Created more creative challenges. Expands the possibilities for Solos too.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

well, it depends on what players want. tbh i think 3ds era was one of the worse ones, but it may bu purely personal, while i feel like, even with their flaws, pokemon sword and shield were better than 3ds games. the thing is that imo the major change was the Internet. when gen 5 games were out, not everyone had wi fi and if they had, it wasn't a good connection. i do remember that it was such a rare case that my connection actually worked.
When gen 6 was out, more and more people had wi-fi, that was actually working ok. and u could access it from the bottom screen, which was immediate. the second thing that had the same development was the competitive. before gen6 it was extremely hard to even figure out EV and IV and how to train a pokemon. Gen 6 put that EV training in the bottom screen. People actually noticed for the first time, maybe. Then, online battles, new mechanics. This is what changed. Newer games aren't concentrated only on the single player thing, but on the online things as well, but they also gave much more space to competitive. Sword and shield comes from this kind of view, indeed think about dynamax raids, dynamax adventures or how extremely easy is making competitive pokemon or how fast the game is, in order to let people interested in competitive end the story as soon as possible.
i miss the old games, because they were somewhat more difficult and had decent stories. imo, even without megas, z moves and dynamax, pokemon games are really enjoyable, even competitively. what i like about new games tho is the fact that they're trying to destroy all classical cliches of the pokemon series, like the third title or gym leaders or the fact that legendary pokemon couldn't evolve. On the other hand, something i hate about new games is the pokedex. pokemon was born as a monster collector and it just makes no sense that you don't let me collect all pokemon. Alright, being honest, few people actually collect all pokemon, but this doesn't justify the choice. it's also very sad, not every pokemon has a pokedex page. that's silly imo, even because, just like they had done before, they could have copied and pasted descriptions and it was done.

 

[pkmin3033]

Much as I would just like to say "worse" and end my post there, I have to admit that I am basing this almost entirely off aesthetics - 2D sprites are better than polygonal models, and since Gen IV the designs of Pokemon have been less and less appealing to me. That's about it.

The problem with Pokemon is that unlike a lot of long-running franchises it hasn't changed in any significant fashion gameplay-wise since Gen IV. The physical/special split was the last noteworthy gameplay addition, with everything that has followed being an under-utilised gimmick - Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax, etc. - that doesn't really alter the gameplay unless you're into the competitive scene. Even the narrative is identical between games - it hasn't changed at all since Gen III. Every Pokemon game since then has had exactly the same plot: evil team and/or person wants to use Legendary on cover to take over the world, stop them whilst you become League Champion, the end. Maybe they'll mix up the order of events every now and then (i.e. Black and White) or they'll pad it to hell and back (Sun and Moon) or strip it right down (Sword and Shield) but the story beats are all the same. Played one, played them all. It's not a failing unique to Pokemon - in fact you might even say the repetition is the secret to its success; if it ain't broke don't fix it - but it is definitely there.

So really, the only difference between new and old Pokemon games, outside of the visuals, is the platform they're running on...and between playing an old game and a new version of it that incorporates the few small QoL features the games have introduced and actually kept over their long lifespan, in most cases I'm going to pick the latter. Most cases. I mean, you lose nothing by playing FRLG over RBY, or HGSS instead of GSC, unless you *really* like the old-style visuals. Why play Ruby/Sapphire when you can play Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire? Granted, in that instance Emerald is the superior version for having the most complete worldview by incorporating both teams into the plot on top of the postgame, but as a like-for-like comparison, the updated versions are the better experience...and that's just it. It's not so much "new vs old" as it is "updated vs old" because there hasn't been a NEW Pokemon game in the sense that we used to get new Pokemon games since Gen IV. I suppose Legends Arceus may change that, and if it does maybe I'll revisit this topic or one like it, but as things stand right now, we've had four generations that have basically only updated things introduced in the previous four generations, rather than brought fresh new ideas to the table themselves. Looking at it like that I don't think it's really a fair comparison, because you would expect an updated version of a game to be better precisely because it has been updated.

 

[Corveone]

Every Pokémon game is somehow better and worse than the ones before it, at the same time. They add, improve, or fix some things, then they break/worsen other things in stupid ways. Then you also have stuff like Mega evolution which makes you think if it was actually something positive or if it actually did more harm than good to the gameplay.

Maybe it's intentional, maybe they just don't want to create "the Pokémon game that does everything right", because if they did ever achieve that, they would set the bar too high and games following will have a bad time living up to the expectations. If every Pokémon game has its flaws, you'll allways miss something while playing them so that will make you want to play the other (past and future) games that do make that right, despite of course failing in other areas.

Overall, I favor the newer games. Because the newer games' flaws, or personal issues I may have with them, are easier to bypass. I mean, if X and Y are ridiculously easy, I can nerf myself using a weaker team, pretend Megas didn't exist, keep an eye on Exp. Share to prevent overlevelling, etc. But if I play an old game that doesn't have fundamental features like Abilities or P/S split there's just nothing I can do about that.

 

[ReKoil]

I'd go with the newer games simply for the Quality of Life improvements.

 

[PageEmp]

As a general rule, I prefer anything from generations 4 and onwards because those were the ones I actually own physical copies of and are overall more familiar with.

Altogether though, I believe that all the generations and games of the franchise are amazing in their own way. There are some games that are possibly slightly better than the other, and every genration has both ups and downs and overall, I think they are all good in what they provide.

Even gen1: yes, I know about all the glitches and I know many find it easy to make fun of it, but personally, I can see the enjoyment of it. It was very innovative for it's time, and if you know what to be aware of, it's a lot more fun to enjoy. Even if the later generations have improved on it's formula, I still greatly enjoy gen1 for what it offers.