4th Gen What are your thoughts on the D/P/PL games?

[Dragon]

I hear these games get talked about a lot more lately, so, I'd like us to gather our thoughts here! What are your overall thoughts on the Gen 4 series of games, starring in Sinnoh? Were they an experience that you constantly would like to relive? Were they flawed in some way? How was the challenge for you guys overall?

Personally, I really enjoyed playing Pokemon Platinum especially; it just feels like everything comes together in that one game, with more pokemon, and more things to do overall. I really enjoyed the new battle frontier especially, it was a nice challenge, as I really liked the battle frontier in Emerald.

 

[Janp]

I wasn't a fan of Sinnoh games at the beginning, because they were slow and I didn't really like most of the designs introduced in this gen. These are also the only games I haven't played outside doing challenges in them. But this region grew on me lately and I enjoyed last challenge I did on Platinum. And I plan on returning to Sinnoh soon.

I would also like to dive in the post game one day.

 

[alisaie]

I wasn't a huuge fan of them when I first played them (didnt help I lost both Pearl and Platinum down the line). Came back to them later and even though they're slow and such I enjoy them more than I did when I first initially played them.

 

[Percy]

the sinnoh games had a different feel that touched many people positively. probably the music, the story, the characters, etc. personally, i've never been that fond of the sinnoh games. but i can see why so many pokemon fans likes it. i still come back just to listen to that ost of eterna forest

 

[SacredSuicune]

They are personally my favourite games in the series. Gen 3 and 4 were the games that were popular when I was a kid and while I did own a Gameboy Advanced as a kid, I never owned the Gen 3 games and only really played the Gen 3 games at my friends houses because they owned Emerald and FR. So despite playing Gen 3 first I never really owned or got into the games until Gen 4 came out and I got Pokemon Diamond. I love everything about Gen 4 from the new pokemon introduced (Garchomp, Lucario, Hippowdon, Weavile, Luxray, Roserade, Togekiss, Honchkrow, Darkrai, Shaymin, Heatran, Cresselia, etc), to the music (I personally feel that the Gen 4 games had the best battle music, the tracks all sound very intense and brings a lot of emotion to the battles for me. Top three tracks are probably "Battle! Azelf/Mesprit/Uxie", "Battle! Champion", and "Battle! Team Galactic Commander" and this doesn't even take into account all the amazing remixes in the Gen 2 remakes), and even the design of the elite four and gym leaders (Their teams were all very well thought out and they are some of the most challenging in the series for me personally). I realize that they are not without their flaws like the slow speed etc but I truly feel like Platinum fixed most issues on top of bringing back the Battle Frontier.

 

[colours]

My favourite generation to date! For a number of reasons, but I'm not ignorant to the downsides of the fourth generation games. Understandably, D/P might not have left the best of impressions because it just felt sloggy compared to Platinum. Not only that, there may be some mixed feelings about Barry as a rival. I feel like you either like him or hate him and there's no real in-between. Personally I don't mind him and he's much more rival-like than in subsequent generations, but I understand if people find him kind of obnoxious.

Sinnoh's Gym Leaders were pretty unremarkable, but then again, I get the impression they were never designed to leave any sort of impression in the first place. Much like every generation prior, they were goalposts and nothing else. That's just the way we were used to things back then so no reason to think differently. Looking back though, i do wish they would've interfered with Maxie's whole scheme to some degree. It almost feels like none of them really feel invested enough to do a whole lot about Team Galactic (to the best of my knowledge, anyway).

D/P's postgame was awful (not that it had one to begin with), but thankfully Platinum's Battle Frontier rectified that concern. I'm a huge (in-game) battling fan so I was really pleased with this. I still miss Battle Frontier to this day and it's one of the biggest missed opportunities and heavily disagree with Game Freak's decision to keep skipping out on it.

I could keep going on and on but... all things considered, I feel like the Fourth Generation games as a whole, with their flaws taken into consideration, are still amazing games to play through. Even though Diamond/Pearl were annoying to play through, I honestly wouldn't hesitate recommending them because it really does kind of show the improvement between D/P and Platinum and the differences between them and what happens when Game Freak puts a hell of a lot of effort into making a third game actually good and polishing it up.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

To be quite honest, I absolutely could not stand Diamond or Pearl when i first got them. They were way too slow for my liking. Back then, I was in 5th or 6th grade so a Pokemon game would easily invest me and I'd finish one up in less than a week, Diamond (the one I was playing) took me a month at the least to finish and plus the slew of HM's that I had to slap onto my Pokémon didn't help the experiebce either.
I played Platinum a year later and I truly enjoyed it because the speed increase really served as a boon. However, the confusion of getting through that hailstorm, mount Coronet and basically the whole geographical layout of Platinum made it hard for me to navigate. However, I recently had a chance to revisit Sinnoh through Drayano's Renegade Platinum and I truly feel that this particular refined version of Sinnoh made it better than the official versions in my opinion.

 

[ChaddyCFC]

Personally, Platinum is my favourite original Pokemon game. HG/SS are my favourite, but since they're remakes, I won't count them.

 

[Pebblycone]

When I first played the games, I really didn't like them. By the 4th gym I stopped playing. The main reasoning I think was that I didn't really like many of the new Pokemon, and even with some of the old pokemon, the selection wasn't great. I wasn't getting invested into the story either, and the game seemed to move pretty slow.

A few months ago though I picked my Pearl version up again, and started playing a new game. I have to say I am enjoying it MUCH more now then I did. I am enjoying the story more, and I am enjoying the Pokemon I am using too! I traded over a breeded growlithe from my HG game, seeming I had that in my team. I still am not keen on the layout of the region. and the amount of HM's you need to traverse around is still REALLY annoying. But I can appreciate the game more now.

 

[Raven Valt]

I think a more popular opinion would be that Diamond and Pearl are extremely slow, the storyline is a bit boring and the pokedex is severely lacking. Platinum however adresses all those problems perfectly and offers much more, I'd claim platinum is my second favorite pokemon game while Diamond and Pearl list as one of my lowest rated.

 

[Sydian]

i'm going to try to keep this short. i loved diamond/pearl when they were new. i replaying pearl constantly while hoarding all my pokemon in diamond (i still have the first file i started on release day: 4/22/2007) and i was having a good time. when i went back to replay my older games, i started to notice how slowly DP moved. then platinum came out and i realized holy shit. why DO dp run so slowly. so like. i really like platinum, it's THE definitive way to travel and experience the sinnoh region. the issues with DP like the speed the game runs at, the regional dex, etc were all fixed. platinum did what a deluxe version SHOULD do. and it's difficult. cyrus almost beat my ass yesterday actually lol. i've been replaying it.

sinnoh as a whole though? it is the most tedious region to travel. i can't stand it for that reason. you need like 3948032 HMs, some of which are not useful moves (i'm looking at you rock smash) and you have bs like rock climb that was clearly added just to be a pain in the ass. rock climb as an actual in-battle move makes zero sense. rock smash falls into that same category too tbh but just. ugh. and then while i appreciate the region for having great variation in landscape with a marsh and a snowy area, did we really need it to be realistic...getting through those areas is such a damn chore because your character gets stuck in the mud or goes slow as hell in the snow. ugh...spare me, please...

music is great. i have no issues there and consider dppt one of the best in terms of soundtrack.

pokemon design wise.........this is my least favorite generation. i feel like so many of the pokemon have extra fluff that they don't need. like everything just has frills that are unnecessary and you can tell that gen IV is the major turn in how pokemon are designed. don't get me wrong, i think a LOT of them are solid (togekiss, porygon z, spiritomb, rotom, leafeon, glaceon, cherrim) but compared to other regions, there are so many pokemon that i regard as eh (tangrowth, rampardos) or outright ugly (grotle, lickilicky, mamoswine, carnivine). compared to other generations, it just has so many pokemon i don't like. if you like them that's great, this just was not my generation.

i'm gonna stop lol what ever happened to keeping this short.

 

[Child Amnesiac]

D/P/PL are my favorite Pokemon games
I don't care how slow Diamond and Pearl are I still love them.
But Platinum is definitely better, and it's my favorite Pokemon game.

I love Sinnoh as a region, it's rich and varied.
I love how evil Team Galactic and Cyrus are.
I love Platinum's additions to the story
I love the music, really gives that sense of adventure.

I would play through D/P/PL again any day, (especially Platinum)

 

[Treecko]

They were never my favorite games, but I've grown fond to replaying them, especially Platinum. When Diamond and Pearl were new , I about loved playing them. Then I realized they were really slow and boring games. But now recently I've picked up Diamond again and have actually found them still enjoyable despite being slow. Platinum is a much needed improvement over DP. I've recently started a new game in Platinum and having a lot of fun with it! Sinnoh's storyline moves a lot faster and I find myself picking the game up more than some current generations. I've never really played either DP or Platinum all the way through, but I feel thats cause of slow they are. But now idk i think I just want to actually fully experience these games and they have a bit of nostalgia to them.

 

[Raicheot]

I've not played gen 4 since it first came out and its the only gen I never bought a game for, I lent it off my brother then gave it back when I finished it, but it wasn't the worst and I liked the story line also the starters were good, I have just brought platinum as I felt like doing a rerun, I paid a stupid price as for some reason it's hard to get and English copy for the 3ds but It will be worth it

I did buy Heart Gold and lovef it , forgot that was gen 4 lol

 

[Mr. Slowpoke]

I am currently going through Platinum for the first time ever. What has been said about the layout of the region as well as the over the top need for HM's I can agree with. I also find that Team Galactic's and Cyrus' motivation is bizarre as hell but better than Magma and Aqua of Gen 3.

I love the design of the new Pokémon in this game. I instantly fell in love with Shinx the moment I saw it and it's been in my party the moment I caught it.

The rival is a bit spastic obviously. I'm mostly indifferent to him honestly.

One thing I like is how Pokédex completion is based on Pokémon you've seen and not necessarily caught. I only have the one version so catching certain Pokémon is impossible for me. But if all I have to do is SEE them then it's going to make it way easier.