4th Gen What is your favourite feature of the Gen IV games?

Diamond 97

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    My favorite Sinnoh-based feature has to be the Pokétch. It's a good starting point that Game Freak/the Pokémon Company went for in using the touch screen, and it's honestly got some pretty useful, er, apps. The type effectiveness chart is useful for learning/remembering type matchups, the counters were neat for certain things like hatching Eggs, the Dowsing Machine is at its absolute best here because of its incredible convenience, there are the maps to remind you of certain places to go to... I think I'm making my point fairly clear.
     
    It has to be the physical/special split. It changed the whole game for the better. Honourable mention to the Poketch and being able to run indoors
     
    Probably an unpopular and perhaps even forgotten feature, but I'm going with the Villa in the Resort Area that was only in Platinum. It cost huge amounts of money to buy all the possible furniture pieces for it, but it felt so satisfying once I did get them all. Important NPCs like the Gym Leaders and your mom would drop by for a visit, which was also cool.
     
    What I love about gen 4, Sinnoh specifically, is how calm the whole region feels. It felt like a genuine feature to have the music be more dynamic with how it expresses itself. I love the theme of Solaceon Town, Route 213, the Lake theme, Eterna Forest, Eterna City, Sunnyshore City, and the pokemon league. Aside from that, another main feature I love of Sinnoh has to be with how it was the first game in the series to have mystery gifts more easily accessable. You usually had to go to an event in person to trigger them, but this time we had the option to use Wi-fi at home to experience them. Sinnoh had a lot of these events too that made the games come alive.
     
    Diamond 97 said:
    My favorite Sinnoh-based feature has to be the Pokétch. It's a good starting point that Game Freak/the Pokémon Company went for in using the touch screen, and it's honestly got some pretty useful, er, apps. The type effectiveness chart is useful for learning/remembering type matchups, the counters were neat for certain things like hatching Eggs, the Dowsing Machine is at its absolute best here because of its incredible convenience, there are the maps to remind you of certain places to go to... I think I'm making my point fairly clear.
    Click to expand...
    Poketch in Diamond/Pear/Platinum, and Item Finder in HGSS.
     
    I can only speak for DP (haven't played Platinum or HGSS) but I really like the use of the bottom screen- the Pokétch in the overworld, and moving the battle commands there during battles. It's a great way to showcase a new feature of the DS: dual screens. I've pretty much only played Pokémon games for DS and 3DS- that's to say I'm used to things being divided across two screens, and I think it's better that way.
     
    DPPt felt like they had a lot of smaller things put into them that really filled out the games and made them more than just "the next Pokemon". The introduction of Wi-Fi connectivity with stuff like the GTS and VS Recorder were absolutely massive for the series as a whole, things like the physical/special split and introduction of moves like Focus Blast or Power Gem to capitalize on that chance and items like the Choice items were definitely cool and interesting for competitive play. Contests managed to stick around from Gen III, and things like Ribbons felt like a bigger deal due to the Ribbon Syndicate, they were their own big thing you could collect now. The Battle Frontier also made its return with (mostly) new facilities and kept gameplay interesting. The PokeRadar was an interesting way to shiny hunt, there were rewards for beating the Pokemon League more than once, you could fill out the villa or transfer Pokemon through the Pal Park or the super unique Dual-Slot mechanic. The Poketch was a really neat way to utilize the bottom screen and getting different apps as you played through the game was always exciting. You could collect Unown to fill out the Ruin Maniac Tunnel, experience different music depending on whether it was day or night, there were a lot of social features like the Union Room and the Underground (which also had a really good incentive to just play it single-player for items), and some of the major dungeons like the Distortion World, Mt. Coronet and Stark Mountain felt a lot bigger in scale than what was in previous games.

    Sorry, I'm gushing. My point is, I guess my favourite feature is how they took pretty much anything that existed and added something new or cool or interesting on top of it. DPPt didn't just do the same thing RSE or FRLG did, there were a lot of reasons, big or small, to play Gen IV.
     
    I liked the Pokemon walking behind you from HGSS. To add to that: they even added a feature that made your Pokemon look for Shiny Leafs in certain spots. Find enough of them and your Pokemon gets a Shiny Crown. Apparently finding one increased your base friendship level and mood.

    It'S just a nice little detail.
     
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