>>33120995People who say stuff like Gen I and II were "scarier" or "darker" or that Pokémon "had a gritty edge to them" are obviously full of shit, but those games definitely had a focus on game design that isn't present in later games.
Originally Pokémon were legitimately JRPG enemies. You started fighting giant rats and bugs and bats and moved on to fight rock monsters, giant water creatures, ghosts, enemies with poison, paralyze and sleep gimmicks, and finally dragons and mythical beasts. And the last thing you fight in the game is fucking Giegue.
Early game shitmons are designed to evolve early and become useless quickly after. You're meant to constantly swap out for stronger mons as you encounter them.
Modern games you can go through easily with fucking Raticate and whatever shitty bug you get. Your late game mons aren't particularly stronger than earlier ones, aside from the mandatory dragon, and in most cases are even just the evolved forms of early ones (you're still encountering Raticate and Gumshoos in the last area, and the couple previous areas are full of Dugtrio, Ribombee, Fearow, Orircorio, Lycanwolf and Machoke). You can even catch Snorlax, Chansey and Salamence in the very first route.
Catching legendaries is also a joke. You just walk right into the cave as soon as you have the prerequisite field move and solve a "puzzle" made for preschoolers. In early games you had to navigate a difficult dungeon with rare and strong Pokémon in it. The legendaries can be compared to raid bosses, they're there for dedicated players to get, not to just be handed out to every player, and they offer really powerful rewards.
I'm not saying they were masterpieces by any stretch, on the grand scale of JRPGs they're barely even average. But at least they were designed as GAMES, with a difficulty curve and rewards for being good at the game. Now they're just amusement park rides designed with a checklist of things that are in every game.
