>>30593999THIS. Objectively, there is no doubt the current games are leagues ahead of RBY. Only someone truly deluded or trying to troll would argue otherwise. But the human brain doesn't work that way. Nothing we consume comes in a vacuum. The experience of seeing literally everyone you know united in their excitement for this franchise, then getting to experience it for yourself, was sheer bliss.
Millenials who got in on the ground floor in gen 1 had a generation defining experience that it's impossible for the other games in the series to ever match. Gen 2 was riding on the coattails of gen 1 and therefore can be lumped in with it, and SM came close with the Pokémon GO hype, but both of them were just weak echoes of the initial experience. Ask anyone 22-26 years old today and ask them what they were doing 15-18 years ago: they were all playing Pokémon or wanted to be playing Pokémon. That has a very powerful affect on how you perceive and enjoy things.
