>>36414571>Hoenn fucking sucks>Hoenn fucking sucks>Hoenn fucking sucksAlright, you’ve activated my full keyboard wizard mode. Brace yourself for my comprehensive chronological critique:
Gen 1: Glitchy mess and impossible to go back to after playing, but gets a pass for being
Gen 2: Johto feels more populated with its abundance of Pokémon species, last time you can do like half the gyms in any order you’d like, fixed a bunch of the dumb buggy stuff from, Kanto is pretty empty but it’s a miracle it’s in at all on a GB cartridge. Crystal fixes some mon distribution problems and introduces the option to play as a girl, which I’d say has generally gone over well.
Gen 3, Hoenn: Most unique art style of any gen. Cut off compatibility with first two gens, forever dooming Pokémon from the twentieth century to sit on games with volatile, terrifyingly mortal internal batteries, which would be half-redeemed a decade and a half later by the 3DS VC titles. Overhauled EVs/IVs, introduced abilities, made the PC actually good, and Hoenn is really fun to explore with lots of entirely optional routes just for the purpose of connecting to earlier areas. Could’ve handled the last third of the game being all-water better. The Regi sidequest is the pinnacle of Legendary Pokémon finding. Perfect balance when it comes to legendaries. Emerald would be the last game not to force you to encounter the version mascot, kept in some cool content from FR/LG, and introduced the Battle Frontier. Every facility except the Factory is a pain compared to later postgame facilities but the location itself remains possibly the best take on the concept.
Gen 3, FR/LG: Will likely remain the best take on Kanto by the end of 2018. Sevii Islands are really cool. Introduced the idea of game remakes, though they don’t do quite as stellar of a job as HG/SS do.
Gen 3, Orre: I haven’t actually played these games at all so I can’t judge them but I wish they still made games like this
tbc