What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the Pokemon franchise?

[PoryKid575]

This can include both favorite/least favorite mediums such as the anime, games and TCG as well as particular mechanics.

 

[Devalue]

Favorite: The different Pokemon. Ranges from things like design to stats to moves. Varies just enough to make one team of six feel different from another team of six. Made the system simple and easy enough to let you blaze your own trail and reasonably succeed.

Least favorite: All of the Trading Card Game platforms for not including a decent single player mode in any of them in the last 20 years. Holds this grudge against a few card games. Beats out Unite due to not caring about MOBAs.

 

[Setsuna]

Oh it's so tough to pick a favourite. Overall I think I have to go with just how accessible the whole series is. It's so easy for people to pick up and understand especially with it being marketed towards kids often. The variety in Pokemon designs, locations, characters, and such a wide range of inspiration for designs for the series makes it feel like there's something that you're bound to enjoy about the series. My boyfriend doesn't have a positive view on a lot of the recent aspects of the series like the newest games or spinoffs, but he still has a favourite Pokemon and has characters he likes. The TCG holds an incredibly special place in my heart and that's something that's always felt really accessible to me as well. It's pretty easy to pick up and understand the rules and doesn't have more complicated aspects of other TCGs such as a lot of modifiers on MTG cards or things like trap cards in Yugioh. Having specific age divisions for younger players makes it really feel like it's their game too, and it's not just young, eager, casual players being put up against older players who take higher competitions way more seriously.

I guess my least favourite is... general fan outcry? It feels like everywhere you go there are people out there determined to tell you your opinions are wrong, or Game Freak is doing something terrible, or this or that is terrible and the worst decision ever, and it feels like Pokemon in general can carry a lot of negativity. There'll always be an angry mob out to yell at everything new in the series saying it's a terrible idea and I wish people were more open to the variety the series holds and weren't so quick to shoot first and consider later.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Favorite: The different Pokemon. Ranges from things like design to stats to moves. Varies just enough to make one team of six feel different from another team of six. Made the system simple and easy enough to let you blaze your own trail and reasonably succeed.

Least favorite: All of the Trading Card Game platforms for not including a decent single player mode in any of them in the last 20 years. Holds this grudge against a few card games. Beats out Unite due to not caring about MOBAs.

Same for both. I love teambuilding and making all sorts of different themed teams of six and figuring out how they all work together, but I don't enjoy multiplayer at all and wish the TCG had single-player video games beyond the early GBC games, kinda like Yu-Gi-Oh did during the GBA/DS/PSP era.

It's honestly very irritating that so few TCGs have single-player video game versions that aren't roguelikes or pay-to-win cash grabs.

 

[ReKoil]

Favorite: The Pokemon themselves. There's pretty much always a couple new favorites every new generation.

Least favorite:
-Lack of side things to do that don't involve battling in the more recent games.
-There's too much focus on battling over & over in general.
-Lack of actual choice and GF's perpetual garbage 'dialogue loop until the players says the choice we want them to say'.

 

[𒈟Lavemu𒐫]

Favorite: shiny hunting

Least favorite: shiny locks

 

[FeraligatrMaster]

My favourite things about Pokemon:
-The Pokemon
-Exploring the regions
-ROM hacks
-Abilities
-Held items
-The Mystery Dungeon games
-Pokemon Conquest

My least favourite things:
-Natures, EV's, and IV's
-Confusion
-Evasion
-Selfdestruct, Explosion, and Memento
-Moves like Roar and Whirlwind
-Unskippable dialogue and tutorials

 

[Palamon]

Favorite things about Pokemon: that it's a multimedia franchise that is constantly expanding and is more willing to explore stuff that hasn't been tackled. Like, the Miku collab. That was so cool, and I really loved that.

Least favorite thing: Truth be told, the fandom. Screw some of the people in it, tbh.

 

[Zeostar]

Favorite: Team building and progression. (watching them level up and evolve/learn new moves). Amount of diverse Pokemon to choose from.

Least favorite: The new games take forever to get going. Legends: Arceus took over an hour to escape the intro sequence. Makes replaying the games harder if I choose to do so.

Agreeing with @ReKoil. The series is going backwards with optional side content. The towns are so empty feeling. Let me enter all the buildings again, please.

 

[Sheep]

Favorite are the always amazing designs. Each gen has some I adore and it seems like they never run out of ideas, not yet at least lol. It's amazing to be able to make hundreds of designs and still get so many right! No other series can come close; Pokémon is always the series with the best designs.

Least favorite? How the dubbed anime is treated ngl. Even now in 2024 the dub replaces music, cuts certain scenes, outright never dubs/airs certain episodes, can't keep the Japanese openings or endings, etc. I'm always shocked that a franchise that makes as much money as this one needs to be so cheap in its dubbing. It needs more funding from TPCi.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Favorite: Some of the trainer designs (Leaf, Serena, SwSh Lass, B/W Lady, Miror B), some of the older games (FR/LG, D/P/Pt, Colo/XD), and some of the Pokemon designs. Mostly Gen 4 and before, if we're being honest. Only a handful of good newer designs.

Least favorite: Only a select few Pokemon are viable in competitive (and many of them are ugly lol), speaking of which, the ugly Pokemon lol, the newer games are being rushed out with no quality control, the anime has always sucked, and I don't get the hype for the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs. Also, they had hundreds of Pokemon to choose from and they couldn't do better than Pikachu for the mascot?

And the fandom. ESPECIALLY when it comes to the shipping community, who seem obsessed with pairing everyone with anyone, even if it makes absolutely no sense.

Most everything else, I'm rather neutral about. A lot of the aspects of the series (TCG, Adventures manga, many of the spinoffs) I never got into, and don't see myself getting into.

Honestly,those attractive trainer designs are the main things that are still keeping me in the fandom - if not for the likes of Leaf and Serena, I would have completely moved on to franchises like Fire Emblem and Atelier.

 

[SteCisGreendog]

Not many to list so I'll rattle off what's been on my mind lately:

Positives

• the world building among regions and the Pokemon that inhibit them, like how each one is different to explore
• the quality-quantity aspect of the Pokemon designs vary from gen to gen, but generally I am happy with them
• the spawn of merchandise to collect and hunt for is the thing that motivates me the most, including the creative customs from the fan community
• the GTS is/was a great idea or passively improve the Pokedex
• despite not caring that much about the human trainer characters, they seem to improve in each gen. I really appreciate Gen 9's assortment
• the wall 'bump' has served its purpose. Hurrah

Negatives

• the brain trust that relies on uber popular Pokemon for marketability for everything they create - I don't need to name them - so much so that either collectors are tired of paying for them, or fans wish that they go away. My needs and wants are very specific and not too broad, and it burns me out to see so much merchandise that doesn't target to my interests. Why not produce a cycle for all Pokemon to be featured in a given time in order to give the overexposed ones a break while pushing the underused ones a chance to shine?
• "isn't technology amazing?" Echoing what Zeostar said, the later gen games are padded out with cutscenes and exposition that take too long to start
• simplistic ingame dialogue where every third character remarks on your strong team, strong this and strong that. Look, I get it! Getting strong isn't all I care about, you know!
• the state of the TCG today and how it motivates human greed, as opposed to... well, playing them and having fun!
• Pokemon with white as the dominant colour scheme are unappealing, imo

 

[inessou]

Top 3 de mes pokemon les plus détestés Scorpplane (sprite trop agressif), Tentacruel (il y en a partout dans les mers) et Nosferalto (Spam d'Ultrason et Onde Folie). Pokémon préférés (Germignon, mon premier pokemon, Pikachu et Dracaufeu en référence à la première saison de l'animé

 

[Devalue]

Top 3 de mes pokemon les plus détestés Scorpplane (sprite trop agressif), Tentacruel (il y en a partout dans les mers) et Nosferalto (Spam d'Ultrason et Onde Folie). Pokémon préférés (Germignon, mon premier pokemon, Pikachu et Dracaufeu en référence à la première saison de l'animé

Bonjour. Bienvenue sur les Forums. Veuillez essayer d'utiliser l'anglais, car il s'agit d'un forum anglophone. Ne vous inquiétez pas d'une grammaire ou d'une orthographe parfaite. (Modère cette section avec une grammaire décidément pas parfaite.) Rend difficile pour les autres de vous comprendre et de parler avec vous. N'hésitez pas à parler français en tête-à-tête si vous êtes ouvert à le parler.

Encore une chose : interrogé sur vos choses préférées et les moins préférées de toute la franchise (anime, jeu de cartes, jeux vidéo). Accepte votre réponse selon laquelle certains Pokémon sont vos parties préférées et celles que vous préférez le moins. Cela ne pose aucun problème. Voulait vérifier que vous aviez réalisé que quelque chose autre que Pokémon était une option.

(Traduit avec Google Translate / Translated with Google Translate)

Hello. Welcome to the forums. Please try to use English, as this is an English-speaking forum. Do not worry about perfect grammar or spelling. (Moderates this section with decidedly not perfect grammar.) Makes it difficult for others to understand and speak with you. Feel free to speak French in one-on-one settings who are opening to speaking it, though.

One more thing: Asked about your favorite and least favorite things about the entire franchise (anime, card game, video games). Accepts your response that certain Pokemon are your favorite and least favorite parts. Has no problem with that. Wanted to check that you realized that something besides Pokemon was an option.

Oh, right. Translated the post above for others too.

Top 3 of my most hated pokemon Gligar (too aggressive sprite), Tentacruel (they are everywhere in the seas) and Golbat (Supersonic and Confuse Ray spam). Favorite Pokémon (Chikorita, my first pokemon, Pikachu and Charizard in reference to the first season of the anime

 

[Sake-Kun]

The strengths of the franchise, especially for Gens 1-5 AKA the Iwata era, has been worldbuilding & the creatures themselves, to the point where often times the gameplay can feel like a bit of an afterthought. And the idea of connectivity was the definitely one of the aces in the hole... at least until they ruined that in order to make people pay more for the services that used to be there by default. Unsurprisingly, this has been a great boon for me.

Upon playing SMT IV however, I realized what I had been missing out on as well as what Pokemon as a franchise sacrificed in order to play safe & double down on their selling points. The battle system in Pokemon games have always been quite simple & focused on type interactions... often at the cost of interactivity & impact of strategic decisions you make in battles outside hyper-focused competitive formats that raise the bar... slightly. I've often grown rather bored of the combat in many of later mainline games due to this, mostly due to the slowness combined with said flaws in design.

Meanwhile, in SMT IV the combat was and had to be engaging, because not paying attention had a high chance of ending with you being sent to see Charon. And that punk is going to make you pay A LOT of Macca in order to return you back to the world of the living in that game.

I would have to create a whole another thread just listing my problems with said fighting mechanics and the amount of changes I would feel the need to make in order to fix them. And even then with how many people in this fandom tend to play it safe when it comes to ideas relating to integral game mechanics, I would have to spend more time arguing with people over such things than possibly getting to the point of developing a prototype to test said mechanic changes out and refining them. So not worth it.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

For me, the favorite part is making a Pokemon Team, and winning the region. It is the most fundamental aspect of Pokemon Franchise, which I also enjoy a lot. Other things which I like are surfing, caves and ice skating, and other filler tasks which gives a different experience. And every new region brings some new move and abilities to the mix, which gives very unique and interesting feel. I also liked Regional Variants as well, and they should be continued moving forward. Fossil Pokemon were also good, although they were taken away in Gen-IX. I also liked Pokemon GO, as it uses all original moves, most official concepts and stats(in complicated manner), excluding natures, abilities plus the official designs are also there. And coming to mainline games, I felt Story is quite decent, as it is targeted for kids as well. And I am very much happy that The Pokemon Company didn't decided to go for content targeted at people with reasonably higher age than kids. This would have taken away the fun from it, and I hope that they don't follow the herd of involving that kind of content.




Least favorite part includes the fact that there are only 8 gyms despite having 18 types. So most types are left out even after including Elite Four. So instead there should be 9 gyms at minimum, with all being dual typed gyms. Another thing which I don't like is Shiny Pokemon, they are of no interest for me, hence I don't look forward to get them. I also don't like breeding as well, and had mostly used day care for leveling up the under-leveled Pokemon. Another problematic thing is that Pokemon Games are only available on Switch or rather Nintendo systems only. Storyline is very short and for most of the time we just waste the time moving back and forth on same route or pressing Enter to end the conversations or doing unnecessary side tasks to get some money. Story should be lengthier and more involving rather than doing redundant tasks. Labyrinths should be tougher as well. Other spin-off games uses hypothetical moves which doesn't makes sense to the people who are first time into them. And this includes games like TCG, Unite, etc. which involves usage of those moves which are non-existent. Plus they usually follow pay-to-win method.