One thing I love about the Pokemon series is that each game improves on the mechanics of the last.
2nd Gen added a Sp. Def stat and fixed some of the bullshit from Gen 1.
3rd Gen added double battles, and made the Box system bearable.
4th Gen finally added a Special/Physical split among attacks.
5th Gen threw in rotation and triple (my new favorite) battles, and made HMs optional and TMs reusable.
Throughout this, there's been a Day/Night/Seasonal system that's come and gone and hardly ever really mattered at all. I'd like to see Gen 6 take this concept and do something useful with it, for once.
But back to the 5th Gen. Black and White contained all new Pokemon, which made the game feel fresh and exciting. No old standards to rely on, it's time to make new friends. And I definitely found a lot of new dudes to hang with. At the same time, it also gave a reason to create new Pokemon to fill existing niches that were suddenly empty, which is a casus belli that the previous generations didn't have.
and then we got Black2 and White2, which for the first time actually introduced enough "new" things to justify their creation. I know people expected a Gray, and perhaps they could've just made one new game, but I'm glad for the remixed Pokedex and new routes. also that battle tournament thing is badass, triple battle tournament with the gym leaders from all previous games? it's as fantastic as it sounds.
But let's return to what you came here for, and the true heart and soul of any Pokemon game - the roster itself. The 5th Gen Pokemon averaged out to 5.4/10, and I have to say I'm a little surprised it's that low. because, I totally thought I loved this generation, but apparently I actually like it 2nd least. I think what it was, is there's a high amount of 5/10s in here. Not as many absolute stinkers as Gen 4, and a few gems, but most of them just sort of hover around the middling range.
I think a lot of the designs were good, but more than a few were just not designs suited for a Pokemon game. compared to Gen 4, with many designs not suited for even a modern art gallery. But enough about me, what do you peoples think?
other regional scores, for reference:
Gen 1: 6.2
Gen 2: 5.8
Gen 3: 6.1
Gen 4: 4.8
Gen 5: 5.4
Day/Night is totally important. In that it's totally worthless to play in Daytime because Dusk Balls are the best.
ReplyDeleteSome other little nice things I love that 5th added are the ease of grinding thanks to Audino (though something needs to be done to just remove the need of grinding) and mid-field/dungeon healers. Holy crap are they a life saver and just help the flow of the game so you don't have to keep going back and forth to heal.
My pre-concieved notion is that I think 5th>4th>3rd>1st>2nd, but I do wonder from time to time if that would be the case if I scored them. You never really know, there may really be some stuff that you're just not thinking of on the lower and middle end of things like what seemed to happen to you here.
The more I think about it, the more those ratings seem *about* right. Both Gen 1 and 3 were pretty strong, and I've always loved Gen 2.
ReplyDeleteGen 5 just has too many "meh" Pokemon - probably a side effect of how MANY there are.
Anyway, I'd love to see more retrospectives here - for types, ratings, etc. - and then when fall rolls around we can start all over.
Are you going to do the warlords in Conquest?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could do one about the new awakened Mewtwo, Im pretty curious to see your thoughts on that.
ReplyDeleteTBH I think you've averaged out the 5 generations quite well
I know you have some time on your hands before they reveal x and y, so why not try out a few fakes? Check out outpherm pokemon -probably the most legit fakes I've seen.
ReplyDeleteSo I have a question and I guess this is as good a place as any to ask. It's looking likely that Fairy type is going to be added, so if it is, will you be re-rating those that have been re-typed?
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for Straw Hat, but a re-rating is unlikely since he mainly focused on rating the designs, not the usefulness of the critter itself. Heck, he could re-rate every single one for meta game purposes only.
ReplyDeleteIt is kinda weird....
ReplyDeleteI actually liked Gen 5, though I found them to be having too many counterparts of Gen I.
Almost like a throwbback, just more obvous (I am olooking at you Roggenroler or whatever your name is Geodude-wannabe)