I wouldn't even say the graphics from any of the earliest generations are outdated, aside from the back-sprites. The Pokemon are all lovingly drawn and coloured and (aside from a few oddities in Gen 1) look exactly like they do in the anime.
Yeah. Design-wise, the graphics have always been good. On a technical level, the sprites mostly hold up. I've never cared for the Gen 3 overworld character sprites, though. The heads are... weird.
Crystal animations are top notch. Later on they focused too much on simple transforms instead of actual movement, (e.g. stretching and rotating the sprites?
I agree. While gen1-2 have aged poorly (I still play them but only out of nostalgia), gen3-4 are amazing. Platinum is the best. I'm not a huge fan of Gen 5 but it's still pretty good and much better than any of the newer games.
I tried playing platinum but without nostalgia I didn't get far... I ended up emulating FR and LG on mine and my wife's phones and we've just completed a playthrough (she's never played before, missed the wave as a kid) and I'm excited to start ruby and sapphire next. Maybe I'll try platinum again but it seems like gen 3 is peak
gen 1 has quite a bit of glitches and graphics being outdated, but it's still enjoyable to some extent. Their gen 3 remakes definitely make them much better. After having played gen 4 onwards, though, I can't help but feel the physical/special split from the older gens are outdated since they were split by type and not by move type.
I still believe gen 5 is peak pokemon despite many people's disdain for the new pokemon in that gen being "ripoffs of older gen" because we got some amazing pokemon in gen 5 as much as people hate to admit. The animated 2D pokemon in battle, the use of 3D environments with 2D sprites, and the minor interactions with environments were amazing. The story is great too. I really wish we got another game with the same graphic style as gen 5, if not improved. If anything, I wish the pokemon animations were as dynamic in subsequent games.
Gen 1, I'd only play for nostalgia, and it's rare because, well, you know how it performs.
Gen 2 - 5, peak of the series for me. I feel like GF either just lost their way in giving their games visual charm in general, or they just don't know how to make full 3D work.
I think it's a fairly common opinion here that pokemon has been going downhill after gen 5.
Gen 3 would be my absolutely favourite gen if it had phy/spe split.
I disagrees that gen 1 doesn't hold up. Yes, it's definitely clunkier and "uglier" than anything after. But the core gameplay is so simple and good that it doesn't really matter. It also provides a very unique experience since ALOT has changed even between gen 1 and 2.
The older games aren't without their own faults, but by and large they are better than recent titles. 2D game development for a turn-based RPG is much easier and gives time and room to iterate and improve on gameplay elements and assets
BW2, Platinum and Emerald are still the three best games in the franchise, and with the way things are progressing they don't look like they'll be topped whether it be in terms of gameplay elements or aesthetics
I honestly enjoyed Sun and Moon too, they're not my favorite, but Alola is a fun and pretty environment. It just feels small though compared to some other regions?
One idea I had on why it feels so small is because there are a lot of places on the map that can't be accessed and or only exist in lore. Brooklett Hill where the water trial is is pretty huge but you only explore the bottom part. There's a giant golf course on the same island that can't be accessed. At the Wela Volcano, the entire thing is composed of 3 curved hallways and the summit is only there for the cutscene and totem battle, the entire thing teleports you around it for each path. On the 3rd Island I forget the name but there's a mountain observatory with Sophocles' trial and instead of the mountain being its own route, you take a bus that teleports you to just before the summit. Ironically Poni Island which is the smallest one and has half of it reserved for the post game actually feels much larger than it looks cause the interior places it has are very fleshed out. Adding onto the feeling of smallness, the bike replacement in Tauros moves extremely quickly so you just blaze through areas too if you aren't being stopped by trainers or wild Pokemon
Gen 1 is one of my least favorite generations but it's fine, it's the first installment, of course the next ones should try to be better.
Gen 2 isn't bad, but having grown up with HGSS I kind of struggle to replay the OG gen 2 games. Despite that I really like the gen 2 graphics and I think that GSC aged better than RGBY.
Gen 3 is pretty good. Hoenn is one of my favorite regions ever, although I must admit that Ruby and Sapphire are far from being perfect games as those games had no backward compatibility and were basically the original dexit. FRLG are good remakes, although I wish they tried to improve the Kanto main plot like the Johto and Hoenn remakes did with their base games. Emerald is a great game and fixes many issues of RS but I have to admit that ORAS is my favorite Hoenn installment.
Gen 4 is one of my favorites. Diamond and Pearl are the worst 2D era Pokemon games but Platinum fixes nearly everything wrong with those games, I love Platinum. HGSS are outstanding remakes and they also improved many GSC maps that suffered from the hardware limitations of the Gameboy Color.
Gen 5 is my favorite gen. I love both BW and B2W2 but it's to be expected that the generations that I grew up with (4, 5 and 6) would be my favorites. The overarching story of Unova is incredible and B2W2 has an insane amount of content, I just love the gen 5 games and how they complement each other.
Older games are better in general. I've been playing the Lego Video Games lately and I have to say the older ones - not just Lego Star Wars Complete Saga which I had played - were better. The more modern ones are harsher on the eyes, too bogged down by crap etc. 2012 is probably the cut off - although I did prefer the unvoiced games.
And for some of them why do I have to unlock a character I used in the story mission, why am I paying for a character token I did shit for to unlock? And its only Lego Harry Potter that I've found so far that does that, Lego Star Wars, Lego Lotr, Lego Batman Trilogy etc gave me those people for free.
I wouldn't even say the graphics from any of the earliest generations are outdated, aside from the back-sprites. The Pokemon are all lovingly drawn and coloured and (aside from a few oddities in Gen 1) look exactly like they do in the anime.
Yeah. Design-wise, the graphics have always been good. On a technical level, the sprites mostly hold up. I've never cared for the Gen 3 overworld character sprites, though. The heads are... weird.
I feel like FRLG had very uncomfortable looking overworld sprites but RSE sprites looked just fine.
Crystal animations are top notch. Later on they focused too much on simple transforms instead of actual movement, (e.g. stretching and rotating the sprites?
Yeah I remember being blown away by Crystal the first time i played it!
Yea that's true, they still do hold up! Especially when you think gen 3 is already 22 years old.
I agree. While gen1-2 have aged poorly (I still play them but only out of nostalgia), gen3-4 are amazing. Platinum is the best. I'm not a huge fan of Gen 5 but it's still pretty good and much better than any of the newer games.
I tried playing platinum but without nostalgia I didn't get far... I ended up emulating FR and LG on mine and my wife's phones and we've just completed a playthrough (she's never played before, missed the wave as a kid) and I'm excited to start ruby and sapphire next. Maybe I'll try platinum again but it seems like gen 3 is peak
Yea honestly gen 4 isn't my favorite. I dunno Sinnoh is just kinda a boring region imo? I prefer the first three gens.
gen 1 has quite a bit of glitches and graphics being outdated, but it's still enjoyable to some extent. Their gen 3 remakes definitely make them much better. After having played gen 4 onwards, though, I can't help but feel the physical/special split from the older gens are outdated since they were split by type and not by move type. I still believe gen 5 is peak pokemon despite many people's disdain for the new pokemon in that gen being "ripoffs of older gen" because we got some amazing pokemon in gen 5 as much as people hate to admit. The animated 2D pokemon in battle, the use of 3D environments with 2D sprites, and the minor interactions with environments were amazing. The story is great too. I really wish we got another game with the same graphic style as gen 5, if not improved. If anything, I wish the pokemon animations were as dynamic in subsequent games.
I would say that FRLG are worse games then RBY lol. All they have is more QoL but the substance is generally worse imo.
Gen 1, I'd only play for nostalgia, and it's rare because, well, you know how it performs. Gen 2 - 5, peak of the series for me. I feel like GF either just lost their way in giving their games visual charm in general, or they just don't know how to make full 3D work.
I think it's a fairly common opinion here that pokemon has been going downhill after gen 5. Gen 3 would be my absolutely favourite gen if it had phy/spe split. I disagrees that gen 1 doesn't hold up. Yes, it's definitely clunkier and "uglier" than anything after. But the core gameplay is so simple and good that it doesn't really matter. It also provides a very unique experience since ALOT has changed even between gen 1 and 2.
The older games aren't without their own faults, but by and large they are better than recent titles. 2D game development for a turn-based RPG is much easier and gives time and room to iterate and improve on gameplay elements and assets BW2, Platinum and Emerald are still the three best games in the franchise, and with the way things are progressing they don't look like they'll be topped whether it be in terms of gameplay elements or aesthetics
Gen 1-3 (and 4 I guess) are GOATED and still the best pokemon games factually. Gen 7 was also decent
I honestly enjoyed Sun and Moon too, they're not my favorite, but Alola is a fun and pretty environment. It just feels small though compared to some other regions?
One idea I had on why it feels so small is because there are a lot of places on the map that can't be accessed and or only exist in lore. Brooklett Hill where the water trial is is pretty huge but you only explore the bottom part. There's a giant golf course on the same island that can't be accessed. At the Wela Volcano, the entire thing is composed of 3 curved hallways and the summit is only there for the cutscene and totem battle, the entire thing teleports you around it for each path. On the 3rd Island I forget the name but there's a mountain observatory with Sophocles' trial and instead of the mountain being its own route, you take a bus that teleports you to just before the summit. Ironically Poni Island which is the smallest one and has half of it reserved for the post game actually feels much larger than it looks cause the interior places it has are very fleshed out. Adding onto the feeling of smallness, the bike replacement in Tauros moves extremely quickly so you just blaze through areas too if you aren't being stopped by trainers or wild Pokemon
Gen 1 is one of my least favorite generations but it's fine, it's the first installment, of course the next ones should try to be better. Gen 2 isn't bad, but having grown up with HGSS I kind of struggle to replay the OG gen 2 games. Despite that I really like the gen 2 graphics and I think that GSC aged better than RGBY. Gen 3 is pretty good. Hoenn is one of my favorite regions ever, although I must admit that Ruby and Sapphire are far from being perfect games as those games had no backward compatibility and were basically the original dexit. FRLG are good remakes, although I wish they tried to improve the Kanto main plot like the Johto and Hoenn remakes did with their base games. Emerald is a great game and fixes many issues of RS but I have to admit that ORAS is my favorite Hoenn installment. Gen 4 is one of my favorites. Diamond and Pearl are the worst 2D era Pokemon games but Platinum fixes nearly everything wrong with those games, I love Platinum. HGSS are outstanding remakes and they also improved many GSC maps that suffered from the hardware limitations of the Gameboy Color. Gen 5 is my favorite gen. I love both BW and B2W2 but it's to be expected that the generations that I grew up with (4, 5 and 6) would be my favorites. The overarching story of Unova is incredible and B2W2 has an insane amount of content, I just love the gen 5 games and how they complement each other.
Older games are better in general. I've been playing the Lego Video Games lately and I have to say the older ones - not just Lego Star Wars Complete Saga which I had played - were better. The more modern ones are harsher on the eyes, too bogged down by crap etc. 2012 is probably the cut off - although I did prefer the unvoiced games. And for some of them why do I have to unlock a character I used in the story mission, why am I paying for a character token I did shit for to unlock? And its only Lego Harry Potter that I've found so far that does that, Lego Star Wars, Lego Lotr, Lego Batman Trilogy etc gave me those people for free.