>>38209758Gen 2 was the last generation handled by the OG Game Freak, especially Satoshi Tajiri, who left before Gen 3 started. It had far more soul back then as people who just wanted to make a badass collectathon and monster battling simulator, not aiming to be the money-making cookie-cutter garbage that exists now. Tajiri was the soul of Pokemon, and most of it evaporated after he left.
>>38209790Pokemon wasn't designed for competitive back then; there was hardly a metagame. That's why many Gen 1, 2, and 3 Pokemon have such shitty base stats and are mostly "jack of all trade" Pokemon instead of the more specialized Pokemon we have now. Gen 4 was the start of when GF actually factored in the competitive metagame into a Pokemon's design, and Gen 5 was when they refined it. Gen 6 took a step back because GF realized they went too far, with them mostly balancing the stuff that was imbalanced. Still, many moves and Pokemon were indeed designed for a doubles format back then. Gen 7 had most Pokemon designed with VGC specifically in mind.
