>>55259022Base versions tend to be underrated because most fans won’t defend them against criticism that doesn’t include the third version. DP are a primary example of this because they have a lot of haters for some reason and Platinum changed enough stuff for people to be able to shill "DP are awful, Platinum is amazing" narratives (even though this doesn’t make sense and Emerald honestly added more to RS than Platinum to DP).
The reality is that DP are the second best base games after BW. Nobody was calling them bad when they came out, in fact, Pokémon was very popular during that time and the vast majority of people loved DP and gen 4. It’s a few years ago that people started saying that "looking back they were bad" because they’ve been outdone not only by Platinum but also HGSS and gen 5. But that doesn’t make them bad at all. They just came out in an era that was so far above every other. And none of the other DS games would have been able to exist in their current state if DP didn’t provide a solid base for them. Even gen 5 was only as successful as it was because they had experience on the DS. And he’ll, like 80% of gen 5’s sprites come from gen 4.
