Most Innovative Generation

[Charlie Brown]

Aside from Gen I of course, what do you think is the most innovative generation of Pokemon, in terms of the changes it brought?

Would you say Gen II, which brought genders, breeding, shiny Pokemon, two new types, and hold items?

Or maybe Gen III, which introduced natures, double battles, contests and abilities?

What about Gen IV, bringing us the new physical/special split, and brought the world of wi-fi to Pokemon?

Gen V, with the Global Link and Dream World, triple battles and hidden abilities?

Or perhaps the newest generation, Gen VI, which immersed Pokemon in a 3D world and brought changes such as trainer customisation, Pokemon-amie, the Fairy-type, horde battles and sky battles?

 

[Zorogami]

Ufff this is a tough one to be honest. Im going to have to split my answer into 2 parts: As for most innovative Gen, i would go with Gen3. Natures and Abilities are a big and important part in Pokemon, especially nower days and in competitive, so i would say those were some pretty nice additions. Also, without regular abilities we would have never gotten the DW ones.
As for most important innovation, i would go with Gen4 and the physical/special split. I think this really changed and improved on how to raise Pokemon and what moves to teach them. Water Pokemon that had a higher Attack than Sp. Att could finally learn some useful moves that would actually do damage for example, and so on.

 

[Palkia]

Gen III rewrote the entire structure of the game and fixed a lot of the glitches of the past generations. It also introduced Natures, Abilities and running shoes.

 

[mangamusicfan]

I think Gen III by far.
Al the other games add something new, this one did a lot more!

 

[Aeroblast]

Gen III rewrote the entire structure of the game and fixed a lot of the glitches of the past generations. It also introduced Natures, Abilities and running shoes.

Couldn't have said it better. I feel that the future generations only built on the foundation that Gen III provided; Gen III was vastly different from its previous generation.

 

[Flushed]

I've always felt that Gen IV really started the modern era. Most of that is due to the fact that we moved to the DS and stuff like Wifi were introduced, in addition to clearer graphics, music, etc. Also the physical/special split was pretty important. Idk, I guess I don't really have a concise answer, it just feels like Gen IV sparked the greatest change.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I feel like it's a tie between the 3rd and 4th gen.

3rd gen added abilities, weather, natures, characteristics, double battles.

While 4th gen added the physical/special split and WiFi trading/battling (both HUGE things)

The 3rd & 4th gen was a major transitioning period for the franchise I believe.

 

[Treecko]

I would say gen III definitely. It introduced many key things we still use today such as natures, abilities, the Running Shoes, the improvement in the PC system ,etc. I'd also say gen VI considering it introduced things like Mega Evolution , Pokemon Amie, the Fairy Type, Pokemon Bank , and made online trading and battling way easier with the PSS.

 

[Hiatus]

I'd say generation three. Compared to one and two, its graphics were miles ahead. Plus, it had introduced lots of new features, with one of the biggest being day and night evolution (it was introduced in gen three, wasn't it?). Second would be generation six, which had given us character customization, mega-evolution, Pokémon-Amie, horde battling, and more. As for third, I'd say gen five. :]

 

[Pendraflare]

Plus, it had introduced lots of new features, with one of the biggest being day and night evolution (it was introduced in gen three, wasn't it?).

If you're talking stuff like Espeon and Umbreon, no, that was introduced in GSC. (Unless you're thinking something completely different...)

But personally I have to say Generation IV, for the physical/special split and the introduction to Wi-Fi battling. While Generation III did introduce IVs, EVs and natures, there wasn't any serious need for them while playing, except maybe for the Battle Frontier in Emerald. After that would be Gen VI.

 

[Keiran]

Gen II, I'd say. Day/Night, formes (Unknown), 2 new types, held items, breeding, genders, "pokegear", shinies and weather. A lot of the core mechanics still in the game today were introduced in Gen II. The only one that comes close is Gen III because of abilities and natures. Gen IV-VI have just been improvements of old mechanics.

 

[Sandslash Fan]

Or perhaps the newest generation, Gen VI, which immersed Pokemon in a 3D world and brought changes such as trainer customisation, Pokemon-amie, the Fairy-type, horde battles and sky battles?

You should add a poll to the thread, but I choose GEN 6. It's so much easier, and enjoyable, to keep playing the game after beating the Elite Four. There isn't the unnecessary struggle to do certain things like EV train and breed now.

 

[Trainer VyNk]

Aside from Gen I of course, what do you think is the most innovative generation of Pokemon, in terms of the changes it brought?

Would you say Gen II, which brought genders, breeding, shiny Pokemon, two new types, and hold items?

Or maybe Gen III, which introduced natures, double battles, contests and abilities?

What about Gen IV, bringing us the new physical/special split, and brought the world of wi-fi to Pokemon?

Gen V, with the Global Link and Dream World, triple battles and hidden abilities?

Or perhaps the newest generation, Gen VI, which immersed Pokemon in a 3D world and brought changes such as trainer customisation, Pokemon-amie, the Fairy-type, horde battles and sky battles?

Ohh this is tough one! but probably Gen || & ||| brought a lot without hold items we won't get snorlax out of munchlax..
Gen 4 & 5 also brought new features. so its already sort.
Gen 2 & 3 are the most necessary. but every Gen was Good in its own aspects.

 

[Handsome Samurott]

In my opinion, Generation 2 was the most revolutionary in the history of the franchise. It brought us color, time and time-based events, day and night, a female playable character, two new types, held items, shiny Pokemon, and the beginnings of a plot in which the major legendary Pokemon play a part. Plus, Generation 2 and their remakes are the only games in which you can visit two regions.

 

[Azire]

The obvious choice is obvious. Not to diminish the other Gens but 2 wins for sure.

- Day/Night
- Hold Items
- GENDERS!!
- Breeding
- Shiny
- Weather
- Formes
- 2 New Types

Seriously think about it. Where are we without these? I see them as more significant than any other change. Gen 6 can say it brought a type but Gen 2 brought two and was the first to do this.

Weather? Did you play Gens after this? Weather has been huge especially in Gen 4 and 5.

Formes? All started here. No Mega Evo, or alternate forms without this.

Hold items. Need I say more? Trade holding item to evolve, boosts to Attacks and the such. Seriously.

Genders are HUGE!! Breeding for competitive, Shiny, Egg Moves. Look in the trade section, this is all huge. This is what makes people spend countless hours playing Pokémon after the storyline finish.

Day and Night. New way to evolve Pokémon and certain Pokémon only available during certain hours.

I see many people saying Gen 3 but that Gen brought what? The two significant things I can think of are Natures and Abilities. While a fair change, these are almost pointless without the Gen 2 changes.

 

[Sydian]

Each generation brought SO MUCH to the table, honestly. I think the changes that each generation brought were great. While generation II brought a multitude of features and changes and generation III revamped the EV/IV system entirely, I think generation IV takes the cake with the innovations.

While I'm not the biggest gen IV fan, I think that while the number of changes it brought weren't as large as gen II's, I think they had a greater impact, and still do. The special/physical split was one of the biggest changes for me to take in. Sure, the IV and EV system change is major, but that's not a feature that directly affects everyone, especially in the main part of the game. Maybe afterwards, but not from beginning to end. The physical/special split affected us immediately. We had to rethink our moves and rather saying "Water is special, this Golem is history!" we changed to "Waterfall is physical and Golem has a, so Surf might be better!" (Terrible example...Golem would probably not survive either of those.) It also repurposed some Pokemon. For example, Salamence was able to make use of Dragon Claw as a physical move rather than it being special.

And along with that, we got wifi trading and battling, which has really revolutionized Pokemon. We no longer had to find a local friend and buy a link cable anymore. We just exchanged a code with friends, no matter where, connected to the internet, and BAM! We could trade and battle.

So yeah...there's that.