>>58542191>>58544339Speaking as someone who lived through Pokemania, the games have always been mid at best compared to other games of their respective handheld gens. The only "great" thing Pokemon's ever had was how memorable the many Pokemon were. 150(+) "characters" to have in a game has always been a lot, and having most be pretty solid was pretty good too.
Like cute shit? You've got options.
Like cool shit? Options.
Weird shit? Options.
Plus the games have mostly been easy enough that you could just bring along whatever shit Pokemon you want to bring instead of being forced to use the best, which sucks from a gameplay perspective but is good from a mass appeal perspective.
Graphics were primitive but serviceable, the story was basically non-existent for most gens, bugs were usually not an issue (outside of gen 1), gameplay was primitive but serviceable (fuck the limited movesets for the first handful of gens though).
Things were mostly fine for the longest time, outside of BW hard-blocking people from using Pokemon they're familiar with, which is half the reason TPC had to panic and shit out BW2 and give people back their Pokemon.
Then you get to the full-3D gens.
Now, there's actual issues you can't just ignore.
>framerate drops>Pokemon having simpler designs to save on vert count, make them easier to animate, and make them easier to make toys/plushes of>redesigning some Pokemon to make them simpler>shit/simple animations, and losing the ability to just "headcanon" what something might look like>the lack of voice acting slowly becoming weirder with every gen>closer cameras that reveal more issues you wouldn't normally notice, like how shit/primitive the cutscenes are or how limited the character animations are (mainly the player, and especially their face)Then when the games hit the Switch, instead of it finally having room to breathe with extra specs, no, we get the dex cut and the worst gen of the franchise, which just sells well anyway because ???
