>>22081912That happened, but the 3rd generation and all the awkward things they did in all Pokémon related things during it caused an undeniable dip in popularity.
Ruby/Sapphire:
- Get rid of day night
- No backwards compatible
- Shit pokemon designs
- Introduce natures in the most retarded way possible (no explanation in game, nothing)
- Feels rushed
It was fixed to a degree with Emerald, though
Trading Card Game:
- Insane power creep, your old cards don't do a shit now
- Crazy things like those Pokémon with switched types, like a Steel/Electric Charizard, showing they don't know what to do anymore
Anime:
- Get rid of iconic characters like Brock and Misty and shove May and Max to promote new games.
- The chapters become even more formulaic
Manga:
- Emerald. WTF.
It's like they didn't know what to do with Pokemon so they tried changing things for the sake of changing instead of analising what could be improved.
Gen IV fixed a lot of this things.
In my case, I began playing Ruby when Pokemon wasn't "hip" anymore ( I had 12/13 years or so) and I was surprised how shit the game was. In 2007 I bought Diamond and I loved it, so I gave a chance to Emerald and I was glad how they fixed many of the problems.
So, the problem of the dip in popularity wasn't only because children grew up, but that it also happwned at he same time there was a dip in quality
