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Discussion The best Pokemon generation is...?

The best Pokemon generation is...?

  • Generation 1 (Red/Blue/Green/Yellow)

    Votes: 6 6.7%

  • Generation 2 (Gold/Silver/Crystal)

    Votes: 16 18.0%

  • Generation 3 (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen)

    Votes: 8 9.0%

  • Generation 4 (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver)

    Votes: 35 39.3%

  • Generation 5 (Black/White/Black 2/White 2)

    Votes: 18 20.2%

  • Generation 6 (X/Y/OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire)

    Votes: 3 3.4%

  • Generation 7 (Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon/Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee)

    Votes: 3 3.4%
  • Total voters
    89
Hero of Hyrule

Hero of Hyrule

Frieren the Slayer
Pronouns
He/Him
This can of worms was going to be opened sooner or later, so I figured I'd do it now and get it out of the way.

Some things:

  • We're talking about generations, not individual games (meaning if you think Emerald is amazing but hate Ruby/Sapphire/FireRed/LeafGreen, Gen 3 should probably not win this poll for you)
  • Remakes count towards the generation they released in (so HeartGold and SoulSilver are Gen 4 games, not Gen 2 games)
  • I'm excluding Gen 8, because BDSP and Legends aren't out yet, and they will both count towards Gen 8 in the end
With that said, what's the best Pokemon generation, and why is it 4?
 
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It's Gen IV, and it's not even close. While DP was slower, the other games in the generation - HGSS and Platinum - are consistently some of the most beloved, and the changes that the generation brought to the series (online play/GTS, physical/special split) are probably the most important... alongside bringing back the day-night cycle.
 
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It's not the one I have the most nostalgia for (that would be Gen 2 and 3) but Gen 4 is absolutely deserving of this win.
 
bellydrum said:
It's not the one I have the most nostalgia for (that would be Gen 2 and 3) but Gen 4 is absolutely deserving of this win.
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Yeah, Gens 1-3 are the most nostalgic for me (though 4 has gotten there in recent years too), but Jesus Christ, Game Freak was at the top of their game with gen 4. Platinum -> HeartGold SoulSilver is an incredible batch of games (and then they continued with Gen 5!)
 
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I grew up with Gen 2 and 3, got into competitive in Gen 4 and 5, and haven’t played too much past that (though I did enjoy Shield). That said, Gen 1 was something truly special - everyone was into Pokémon, it was an unprecedented social phenomenon that will always have a major place in my childhood (despite not owning the Gen 1 games at the time).

I also think Gen 1 has some of the best monster designed /genwunner
 
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Platinum is my favorite Pokemon game and a contender for my all time favorite game in general. HGSS are fantastic remakes of my most beloved childhood Pokemon games. So easy vote for gen 4. I was a little too old to have nostalgia for DPP but Sinnoh is by far the region I find myself coming back to the most nowadays and it overall has my favorite batch of new Pokemon.

Gen 5 is a close second though and overall indicative of how the DS was the peak of the franchise easily.
 
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Gens 1-3 are the ones I have nostalgia for and the ones I spent the most time playing

Gen 4 is the one I actually like the most and the one I voted for. I don't really have any special attachment to it but I think there's the least amount of flaws in there, and an extremely high volume of content. Though HG/SS is something else in how it revitalized a lot of my gen 2 nostalgia.

Gen 5 is technically the "peak," but something about the way Unova was designed is felt weird to me.
 
It's Gen 4. Platinum and HGSS have to carry vanilla DP, but it's still Gen 4.

DS was the best hardware generation for Pokemon really, Gen 5 included. I've got soft spots for practically every gen besides 6 though; that one let me down with both XY and ORAS. If only ZX and ZY weren't cancelled, then maybe Kalos would've gotten the chance to be something better.
 
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Gen 5. The decision to only let you use new Pokemon in the original B/W was a very bold and exciting move. I feel like the two games really complement each other well, B/W with the focus on story and all new Pokemon, and B2/W2 with giving you way more options for team building and a much bigger focus on post-game stuff.

It's nice to see that Gen 5 has been validated by time after all the shit it initially copped when B/W first released.
 
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GamerJM said:
Gens 1-3 are the ones I have nostalgia for and the ones I spent the most time playing

Gen 4 is the one I actually like the most and the one I voted for. I don't really have any special attachment to it but I think there's the least amount of flaws in there, and an extremely high volume of content. Though HG/SS is something else in how it revitalized a lot of my gen 2 nostalgia.

Gen 5 is technically the "peak," but something about the way Unova was designed is felt weird to me.
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Basically all of this. Stole the words right out of my mouth.

Have the most nostalgia for 1-3, voted for 4, 5 was actually kinda weird.
 
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GamerJM said:
Gens 1-3 are the ones I have nostalgia for and the ones I spent the most time playing

Gen 4 is the one I actually like the most and the one I voted for. I don't really have any special attachment to it but I think there's the least amount of flaws in there, and an extremely high volume of content. Though HG/SS is something else in how it revitalized a lot of my gen 2 nostalgia.

Gen 5 is technically the "peak," but something about the way Unova was designed is felt weird to me.
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Probably the fact that it was designed to be a literal beeline as a response to criticism over Sinnoh's map.

But yeah, I feel like a lot of people in our age range are in the same boat, we were probably in our late teens/early 20s when DP came out so we don't have pointed nostalgia for them like gen 1-3, but Platinum is absolutely seen as the peak of those first four gens by many.
 
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It's hard to top Alola, I think they did a fantastic job with those games and the new Pokemon in that generation.

The main competition would be Black and White. Creating a game with only new Pokemon was amazing, even if it was divisive at the time.
 
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Between 4 and 5. Gold and Silver remakes and Black and White 1. Runner up being the Gen 1 remakes in gen 3 along with Emerald. Think Black and White did the best thing with having all new Pokemon till the post game where it added back in every other one.

Still wish we got more remakes in the style of "Lets Go" but with battling wild mons and not just catching.
 
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It's gen 3 for me. Hoenn and Kanto were beautiful regions, the graphics in both sets of games were gorgeous, and the extras both added (Sevii Islands in the Kanto remakes and the Battle Frontier in Emerald) were worth my time.
 
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Objectively, I would say 5. Pure nostalgia says 2. Overall I'm gonna go with 3. For me it hits the sweetspot between nostalgia/quality.
 
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To echo swweet, it's Gen 4 and it's not close.

Granted, Diamond was my first new Pokemon game as a fan of the series once I hopped on board the series in Gen 3 so nostalgia. But I've never minded the slowness that D/P are often criticized for. They just have a more laid back and chill atmosphere in general. I have many a fond memory of strolling the streets of Sinnoh at night listening to that smooth jazzy soundtrack. Sinnoh itself is to this day my favorite region to explore with the criss-crossing of Mt. Coronet, the lore of Sinnoh itself was deep and intricate, Cynthia is a top-tier champion, the Underground was just plain old fun, and personally the Chimchar/Turtwig/Piplup trio is the only time I've absolutely adored every starter line.

Then came Platinum with its sleeker graphical designs and UI and faster pace and Giratina focus with the Distortion World and perfected everything Diamond and Pearl set out to achieve. Platinum is often referred to as where Pokemon reached its peak and I tend to agree with that sentiment. And then a year later we get HeartGold and SoulSilver, arguably the greatest set of remakes whose reputations precede themselves?

And that's not even getting into Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky, and the three Ranger games which all came out in between those aforementioned five mainline titles.

Golden Age of Pokemon right there, what a four year stretch.
 
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Any gen prior to gen 6 is an acceptable choice. I give the edge to Gen 4, Platinum and HGSS is a tough combo to beat.
 
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Hmm...are we just talking about which gen we liked playing the most, or the one that you think is the best, period? Cause I have an answer for my favorite gen to play, but I dunno if I'd call it the best. Then again, I don't know if I could just say which is the best, cause I've got my gripes with all of them.
 
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Nice to see Gen 4 and 5 leading the pack, as things should be. Personally I prefer 5, but 4 has a lot going for it, too.
 
I think the poll would be more interesting if we ignored the remakes. Either way, I voted 5, but I think 6 is highly underappreciated.
 
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Pokemaniac said:
Nice to see Gen 4 and 5 leading the pack, as things should be. Personally I prefer 5, but 4 has a lot going for it, too.
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I was going to post almost this exact comment, verbatim. So… I guess I’ll just agree! :p

DS Pokémon games rule.
 
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It's hard to pick one! Gen 1 was my first pokémon generation, but my favourite games are G/S/C and HG/SS. Gameplay and exploration was, I feel like, best during the DS era. So maybe gen 4 considering it has the Gold and Silver remakes? I do enjoy a lot of the designs from gen 6 and 8 though.
 
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Without factoring in the competitive side as I only got into VGC with Sword & Shield...

I hesitate to say Gen IV, because it's my first and that bias is hard to account for, but otherwise the vote would go to Gen VI as the best package and Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold and SoulSilver beat X, Y, Omega Ruby and AlphaSapphire game for game.

Gen V can make a good case for itself, except the animated sprites and grandiose story bug me.
 
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a bit off topic, but are BDSP and legends considered gen 8? What’s Let’s Go too actually.

Considering all previous remakes are considered in the new gen they came out in
 
Phendrift said:
a bit off topic, but are BDSP and legends considered gen 8? What’s Let’s Go too actually.

Considering all previous remakes are considered in the new gen they came out in
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Let's Go is 7, BDSP and Legends are 8. Remakes and spin-offs go with the generation they release during, with a few weird cases of ongoing service games that defy categorization.
 
Pokemaniac said:
Let's Go is 7, BDSP and Legends are 8. Remakes and spin-offs go with the generation they release during, with a few weird cases of ongoing service games that defy categorization.
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So generation is just a release time period thing? Not what pokemon are in each game? I’m not a fan of the series so I don’t really know but has always been curious
 
i voted 6 because i think it's where i had the best time. france was a cool concept for a region (it was very cozy), i STILL love the concept of megas, and the gen 3 remakes were packed with content (even without some emerald stuff).

that being said i can see why 4 is going to blow this out of the water. when i think of my favorite games themselves, platinum and hgss are both right there in the top 3. hell of a generation and would rank a close 2nd.

i'd probably go 6 = 4 > 2 > 1 > 7 > 5 > 3 or something like that.
 
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Phendrift said:
So generation is just a release time period thing? Not what pokemon are in each game? I’m not a fan of the series so I don’t really know but has always been curious
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The two kind of go hand in hand, though TPC has been doing their best to try and muddy the waters recently, with Gen 7 starting to introduce Pokémon mid generation, the entire Meltan debacle where Go got to introduce a Pokémon line, and Game Freak starting to work on side projects like Legends. With Legends in particular, its pretty likely that the official National Dex will get a "Hisui" section separate from the rest of Gen 8 because they kinda painted themselves into a corner by using regions instead of generations, but all those Pokémon will almost certainly be patched into Sword and Shield by the time Home support for Legends launches, which makes them unquestionably Gen 8 Pokémon.

The start of a new generation is always very clearly demarcated by the release of a brand new pair of mainline Pokémon games and generally all games that release up until the next generation starts are considered part of that generation. That said, categorizing the spin-offs into generations is also a much more informal thing as they're free to include as few or as many Pokémon make sense for what they're doing, and sometimes even will include a few Pokémon from the next generation as a "preview" of sorts. Also post release support has muddied the water a bit, since Pokémon Go would traditionally be considered a Gen 6 game, but will (probably, technically only Gen 1 and 2 are actually complete in Pokémon Go even after 5 years) eventually contain every single Gen 7 and 8 Pokémon, and possibly even beyond that.
 
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I picked Generation 5 mainly because of how it has taken some bold decisions, chief among them being that it's the one that introduced the most Pokemon. Not only that, it's the only generation where the updated rerelease pair of games is a sequel, which was unprecedented and actually makes both generations justifiable instead of the newer games rendering the older games obsolete.

In some ways, Generation 5 is like a transitional generation because it has characteristics of both the games in the gens before and after it, and the name is indicative of it: the games are named after colours like the older games, but it can also represent the game's themes like the modern games.

Thank you for reading.
 
Diamond and Pearl were my favorite Gen, until Sun and Moon. Those for sure became my favorites in the series.
 
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Generation 4 is the last to be additive. From Generation 5 on they started cutting things from what had been established in previous generations. Also they started to get more gimmicky from then on, so 4 is the purest generation for me.
 
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So glad to see so much love for Generations 4 and 5. Both of them are peak Pokemon. My nostalgia gives the vote to Gen 4. It was when I began understanding the mechanics of the series better instead of steamrolling everything with my starter and some legendary or mythical. Also matches when I started interacting more with Pokemon online - the early DP discovery days on Serebii were the stuff of legends. It's the generation I spent the most time with by far.

I also have more of a personal connection to Platinum - prior to that, I lost my copy of Diamond, and with it most of my Pokemon at the time. I didn't play much Pokemon after that until Platinum came out, and to make up for losing everything, I vowed to complete the National Pokedex. It took nearly a year to do it, but I did, and it's still one of my favorite gaming achievements.

Even so, man, Generation 5 was bold. First region not based in Japan, completely new Pokedex for the main game, an attempt at a deeper story, full sequels instead of an upper version...and I'm very biased towards NYC! Some of the translations to the Pokemon World were weird (I still find the desert in the middle of "Manhattan" silly), and I wonder how Unova would have been depicted on, say, the 3DS, but still, what a great time.
 
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Platinum is my favorite single release and HG/SS are wonderful remakes so Gen IV wins for me.

I'm also one of the few people that likes the old Pokémon evolutions added in Gen IV, they really helped a lot of older Pokémon that were just "meh" before.
 
0
Giving it some thought:

  • 6. I know, I know. Hot take, but I really liked Gen 6. Honestly was the gen I began really love Pokemon, even though I had played the whole series growing up. It was when I first completed the Pokedex, got into competitive battling, got my first shiny, etc. I loved the jump to 3D. And to this day, they still have the best multiplayer suite in the series. I'm not denying that these games have issues, but I can either learn to live with them, or they don't particularly bother me. The spin offs were also very good this gen.
  • 5. B2W2 is one of the best games in the series hands down, and while I have my gripes with BW, it's still a very fine game. Helps that they're very snappy and feel great to play, compared to the molasses filled truck that is Gen 4. Not a fan of the weird 2.5D look of the overworld, or the constant zooming in on 128x128 sprites, but those are some minor gripes.
  • 3. I'll always have a big soft spot for Gen 3. Even if I largely prefer ORAS (I know, another hot take) to the originals, these are still some great games. This gen also gave the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which is still one of my favorite games period.
  • 4. Some of the most content rich games in the series...married to quite possibly the worst engine in the series. Diamond and Pearl in particular are a trainwreck, throwing the worst regional dex into the mix. Platinum and HGSS, while not as bad as D/P, are still so sluggish. As games, they're still amazing, best in series contenders, mind you. Just not fun to actually control. Plenty of classic spin-offs as well.
  • 1. I fucking love Gen 1. Yeah, it's a broken mess, but it's an extremely charming, entertaining mess. It's pure nostalgia, and sometimes that's just what I need. In addition, I still find myself coming back to the original games, something I don't find myself doing for Gen 3 very often, or for Gen 2 at all.
  • 8, so far. In a vacuum (i.e. if I could only play this gen forever) this would probably be above Gen 1, but the complete destruction of online communities in its wake just brings it down in my memory. It's hard to talk about Pokemon these days without either a flamewar, a Game Freak hatejerk, or the "Pokemon hasn't been good in a decade" takes. I didn't like the dex cut (I understand why it occurred though), and the games were kinda meh for me on launch, but the way people talk about them it's like it came in and murdered their children or something. Game wise, the DLC did a lot of heavy lifting for this one, as if it was only base game it would probably drop below Gen 7 for me. Online play is also some of the worst yet, and spinning off the GTS to a mobile-only companion app is such a dumb move. It also got rid of two of my favorite Pokemon designs in the series, and no, I'm not bitter, why do you ask? Rescue Team DX was sick, though. This might move up depending on how BDSP and Arceus turn out.
  • 2. If someone told me I could never play the original GSC again, I'd probably be OK with it. Not that these are bad games, far from it actually. HGSS just fills that Johto gap so well for me in a way that the other remakes don't.
  • 7. GOD, STOP TALKING! This was the point I realized I absolutely couldn't give two shits about plot in a Pokemon game. It takes up so much of the damn screen time, and you're forced to watch all of it. And if you played both the originals and the Ultras, you get see most of it again. Yay. I didn't find the games to be good enough to be worth putting up with that again. Good games, but an absolute bore to replay. It doesn't help this gen is basically one game, a better version of that same game, and a very mediocre Gen 1 remake. It was also when online play began to go down the shitter after it had peaked in Gen 6. The absolute dearth of quality spin-offs didn't help.
 
i was a bit cold on gen 4 at first but platinum followed by hgss showed stellar course correction and managed to vastly improve upon gold and silver which were my favorite individual games by that point.

i skipped gen 6 and 7 almost entirely though, only coming back for sword/shield which in retrospect may not have been the best choice to return to the series on. i doubt having played those would change things as far as rankings go, anyways
 
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