>>51819063Critics, fandom, /vp/, TPCi, gamefreak, none of them matter. At the end of the day, the only pokemon experience that truly matters is that of a kid playing the game for the first time. Whether it's RGB, firered, emeral, GS, XY, SM, SS, SV, LGPE, what you might think of each game is meaningless. Only a kid that doesn't know better, bonding with monsters.
At least that's how it should be in theory. The catch is, kids of today are not like kids from 20 years ago. We've left the target demographic, we'll never experience the magic again. But the target demographic itself has shifted. The pokemon experience as we understand it is not as magical for a kid today as it was for you a decade or so ago. But you do remember the magic, whereas they don't know it so they don't care. People in their 20s desperately trying to recapture the original magic are, ironically enough, closer to the original intended target demographic than the actual target demographic will ever be.