One of the things I was recently asked about on Ask.fm was my favorite thing about each Pokemon Generation (or at least, I assume that was what they were referring to by “gen”) so if you want the quick version of this post, you can just hop over there to read :P But I’ll be taking those and also expanding on all features I really enjoyed. Afterall, it IS Pokemon’s 20th Anniversary this year and while I have some stuff planned, I felt inspired to expand upon the question :) This will only focus on the mainstream Pokemon games so things like the gyms and how awesome Phenac City is from Orre will not be referenced beyond this sentence. I’m also going to skip things like bigger bags, more Pokemon, and more PC boxes as those were things expanded on in each generation and always for the better. Similarly, I do like seasons and time of day, but don’t have much to talk about with those so just consider those included!
Generation 1
Honestly, there isn’t too much to say here :P This is what started Pokemon so I guess I can talk about what first interested me about the game? I’ve never been a big fan of battling (though, I did like the badges) so it was always all about catching them all and completing the pokedex. I started with Pokemon Blue and even then, my cousin and I worked together to finish our Pokedex.
While I didn’t stick with Pokemon cards beyond this time (I was even in a Pokemon League at my local Toys R Us and completed my booklet and everything), I still kept up with the games (and still collect random cards and merchandise to this day).
Also, Yellow brought us Pokemon that follow us and I’m sad this has only been brought back twice. I’ll talk about this more in Gen 4 though.
Generation 2
Despite the fact that Gold, Silver, Crystal, and their remakes are the only ones to do this, the fact that we got to travel more than one region was just one of the coolest things to me and it genuinely pains me how this (and many other features I will be talking about) never gets carried over beyond this set of games. It’s probably the main reason I’ve always wanted to see a Pokemon MMO where you can have your own travel group and go through every region similar to what the Anime does. We’ve seen all kinds of transport in the games and there’s really isn’t a good reason for why this has yet to happen. No matter how unlikely it is, a game where we can travel to every region is something I’ll always be hoping for.
Generation 2 also brought in several new Pokeballs including one of my favorites–the Love Ball.
While I don’t care too much for shiny Pokemon (shiny hunting, most shiny colorizations, the idea that it being “rarer” makes it better), Gen 2 did bring into existence my favorite shiny Pokemon:
Shiny Celebi is essentially all my favorite colors and is one of the few (if not the only) Pokemon where I greatly prefer its shiny colors over its normal ones (though, they are still nice).
And of course, Crystal finally let us play as a female character. Crystal is actually the only main Pokemon game I’ve never played, but it’s nice getting to play as my gender so definitely a nice addition :P
Finally, while I didn’t use it too much… I loved mail and all the different types and enjoyed keeping one of each just to look at.
Generation 3
Secret Bases were just the greatest thing to me. I love customization of any kind so being able to have these bases that we could decorate was just amazing to me. I had so much fun setting it up and despite some item limitations, I was just excited to set up a base. You can even check my secret base in Alpha Sapphire.
I also really liked contests. While I had mixed feelings on the system (I wish battle moves and contest moves were separated/you could have two move sets along with mixed feelings on contest stats–thankfully this was fixed in Generation 6), I liked having more things to do besides just battling and really enjoyed the introduction of ribbons–even if I wish there weren’t ribbons for events outside the game.
Generation 3 also introduced my other favorite Pokeball…
The Dive Ball!
Generation 4
Generation 4 is kind of a hard one as it didn’t really bring anything super new that I was super excited about so much as enhanced some things previously. The Contest expansions were especially great as they really gave you a lot more to work with as costumes were quite a bit of fun to play around with.
Unfortunately, while it improved Contests, it was a bit of a let down with their secret bases with a smaller item limit (despite having a ridiculous amount of room if you got enough flags) and most bases looking rather similar. Even though I enjoyed the digging part of the Underground, I often ended up losing everything and would have preferred a more… relaxing minigame than a “better be careful and find what you need fast or lose everything” approach.
Finally, with Heart Gold & Soul Silver’s remakes, we received Pokemon following us again which was great and I’m sad they once again removed it. We also received the cool photospots with all of our Pokemon. I’ll talk more about Photos in Gen 6.
And while I didn’t personally care for the Pokéathlon (Nature having a large part in it and the weird controls), I did find the special rooms neat and would like more things like that… though, preferably without the highscore based ones.
I also found Seals & Capsules pretty fun, though, annoying to have to switch off from time to time.
Generation 5
So, to start, I really liked Pokemon Musicals. Having it so stats and attacks weren’t part of it meant that you can have a Pokemon participate regardless of what attacks you gave them and what nature they may have. It was all about props which you earned and so you could dress up and try and get attention and it was just a fun mode. I wished it had some kind of award for your Pokemon (like ribbons or medals or a special entrance animation), but it was still cute.
Similarly, Black 2 and White 2 brought in Pokestar Studios which is probably my favorite of the “extra” things as each scenario was kind of a puzzle and then your Pokemon even gets a special animation when thrown into battle for completing films. I do wish that if it does return though, remove the random factor if you do the right thing. The amount of times I had to redo a few due to an accuracy issue or accidentally getting a crit was kind of awful and some things really needed to be scripted for it.
Going to some of the other extra stuff, we have the C-Gear which while I had mixed feelings on the function, I loved all the different customization options for it. I’m glad we had various bottom battle images in Generation 6 too, but I wish we would continue to get more.
There was also Join Avenue which was a fun Wireless feature and I loved making my Avenue bigger and getting one of each building and answering all kinds of new questions.
Generation 5 also brought in TMs having infinite use like HMs which was super amazing and helpful. I’m glad this is a feature they didn’t decide to remove after the generation ended.
I also want to give a big shout out to the Link system with special cutscenes referencing your trials in the first set of Black and White games. Plus getting the Prop case! It was just a really nice treat and made some things a bit quicker considering you already did them. I genuinely would like more “sequel” games expanding on the story versus a third game that just adds something at the end.
Finally, there was the Dream World and while I honestly have mixed feelings about it (Being able to only bring one Pokemon at a time, all the berry farming, so many items exclusive to Japan…), I did like the Dream Forest and Dream Balls. I also liked the house you got to decorate (with no item limit!), but would have preferred to be able to see it ingame over just online. The time limit made it super frustrating to try and check everyday though.
Generation 6
The current generation! Now, to start off, we have two very important things Generation 6 introduced. Character customization (which was then not in the Gen 3 remakes :| I really hope it’ll be in all “new” games at least):
This was so nice to have. I’ve wanted it in a main game since it was shown in Pokemon Battle Revolution:
One of the things I hope they do when Customization returns is more color variations of items. I still don’t understand why there were no white tights–only knee-highs or shorter. And many tops really could have used more colors. I also really liked the PR videos and would love for them to be longer and to be able to do more with them:
I mean, seriously, they are so much bigger in the Anime and while I understand they can’t do as much in the game (as there are only so many resources), I do wish we could have done at least a bit more.
But yes, continuing on to the second addition… the Gen 3 remakes brought the best Pokemon ever:
Mega Audino is so awesome. ;~; It even has the best Mega Stone:
Going onto some of the other Gen 6 features… I liked riding Pokemon. While I had mixed feelings on some of the areas with battle (especially as they were quite slow moving and not the best to control), riding Skiddo was A LOT of fun as was riding around on Latias and Latios. I’d love to be able to ride around on other Pokemon like that in future games. And considering your mom is a Rhyhorn racer, those Rhyhorn should have been able to go much faster.
We also received Pokemon Amie which I really liked, even if it makes Mega Evolution a bit contradictory (After all, Pokemon Amie is all about bonding and Mega Evolution is partially through a bond with your Pokemon so the fact that they even change back and that you can’t play with a Mega Evolved Pokemon in Pokemon Amie is silly). I’m glad Pokemon Amie seems to be sticking around and hope it continues to do so. I do wish it was easier to earn the items to decorate your area for Pokemon Amie though. The randomness of it is kind of a pain and having to earn items all over again in the Gen 3 remakes was very frustrating.
The new Fairy type is great and is the first new type I’ve really liked. Fairy and Water are now my two favorite types (with Normal not far behind).
That said, Gen 6 removed a lot of great features from previous games and I hope a lot of them find some way to do it. I mean, bringing the Anime back up again, Kalos doesn’t have much of an “optional” thing to do with your Pokemon like the past ones have (Contests, Musicals) and thus the Anime created Pokemon Showcase which is like a combination of many different side things and more. It’s something that I think could be a lot of fun if put in the game in some form.
Of course, this is about what features I DO really like in the games so going back to that topic… the photos! I really love how much you could do with these and all the photo spots. I wish you could still take photos with your Pokemon and/or other people though rather than just yourself.
Similarly, you could take photos with Contests in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, but it would have been cool to be able to take one of you and your Pokemon after they won. One of the nice improvements with contests in this generation were that there was no limit on Pokepuffs so you could easily get all stats maxed out and even win that way letting you have more leeway on your attacks.
Secret Bases also received a great update with so many expansions upon the original layouts. That said, the item limit was rather small considering how much room they gave us with some of base selections. And both that item limit restriction and the loss of trainer customization felt a lot bigger with the encouragement of hiring our friends (which took up an extra item slot per friend) as “trainers” in the Gym or even just to use for their abilities when there was a chance at least some of them would look the same.
But yes, that’s a list of my favorite things from each generation and why! I just hope maybe they’ll start keeping all their good features rather than making them exclusive per generation as it’s just kind of disappointing after a while to really love a feature and then see it gone by the next. Whatever game comes next, whether it be Gen 7 or part of the X/Y series, I just am going to hope for the best.