>>37201333I've only played pokemon on the emulators for the last 10 years and have never tried any gen after gen 4. It was and still is a blast to play through them all so I wouldn't say that the social factor is as crucial for the enjoyment of the series as you make it out to be. It may be fun to trade and battle with friends, but realistically chances of having adult friends who are into pokemon are quite low, at least in my experience.
I don't want to say that the newer titles are bad because I have never tried them myself, but they're not what a person who's only just beginning their adventure with the series might think of when they think pokemon.
The core gameplay doesn't change that much with each instalment, so emulating older games for free instead of buying a console + game is a good way of trying out the series.
>>37201149Catch all the pokemon you meet and try them out. Let them earn a spot in your team. Don't give HMs to your main pokemon maybe besides surf, they're ass in battle.
Try to avoid grinding too much exp, that will keep some semblance of a challenge in your games. If that's not enough, maybe don't use potions etc during battles, only inbetween them.
Also if you end up liking Emerald HeartGold/SoulSilver are your next stop. It's a remake of the games before Emerald and a pretty good one at that.
