>>58239603in my mind there's been a handful of dividing moments in the series
starting in gen 3, regions were designed to be more standalone rather than expanding a single region, with larger new dexes and new pokemon being widely available (compared to johto feeling more like a direct sequel with new, but rare content)
gen 6 marks the mainline leap to 3D
which imo does not look that bad for the 3ds, as well as the start of global releases
gen 8 obviously had dexit, which is huge on its own but was also the first "new region" title available after go (which was almost a second pokemania) that was more likely for normies who started with go to pick up than gen 7 (the switch was still somewhat common with normalfags from my experience). gen 7 is in a bit of a weird spot though since SM released after go, but wasn't influenced by the former's success since they both were being developed at the same time. but then you have let's go, which is literally designed to be a gateway to the main series for go newcomers
