Topic: Run the Series 2: Pokemon Main Series

[Khushrenada]

Welcome to the 2nd edition of Run the Series. 

In my mind, I envisioned this forum thread series as alternating by console and handheld series although there may be some crossover with the games in the series. Thus, every two weeks, we can do a console and then a handheld and then back to console, you get the idea.

Since I started this in the console forum with the highly successful Mario series, I thought it only right to start the handheld side with the highly successful Pokémon series. However, like Mario, there may be some debate as to how to classify the games in the series. In this case, I grouped the games by generation and even threw in some of the remakes with their perspective generation. To run the series would just constitute beating one of the games of each generation. However, I am not a Pokémon expert. So, for those who are, perhaps there are enough differences in some games to recommend separating them out from the grouping I have it in. Let me know in the comments.

[Khushrenada]

And as I said before in the first edition of Run the Series:

From past posts, I am sometimes surprised at what games users have played or missed in a franchise and it's made me curious about the gaming habits other people here have. I thought I'd find out more information by creating a series of threads designed to look at different franchises and find out more information about what series players here like. What franchises do people still find important to keep up with and what series have they let lapse or play infrequently? What are the franchises people haven't even touched or have fully completed? Which games are the most common shared experience in a series and which ones are the least?

I've created a poll and the poll lists all the games considered as franchise entries. When I mean beat, it just refers to completing the main quest or storyline and seeing the credits. Not if you've completed every other side quest or mission. If you want to provide more information about what your level of completion is on games, feel free to post about it. For that matter, feel free to give your thoughts on the series. Why you play it, why you don't, what's your favorite entry, least favorite entry, how you'd rank the entry in the series, what you'd like to see, what you don't want to see, etc. You know the drill.

Let's see how well NWR has run the series.

[rygar]

X is the first Pokemon game I played and it is the only one I beat. I haven't played any of the post-game yet. I am a few hours into Alpha Sapphire and plan on beating that and Moon. I really love the series so far and I envision buying the DS games and maybe even Y, Omega Ruby, and Sun depending on what happens with the NX.

I enjoy the core monster hunting conceit and think the art design and music are fabulous. The monsters are fun and the environments are visually rich and interesting. There is enough wry humor to make the dialogue also enjoyable for adults.

The biggest improvements I would like to see are making the menus more efficient, speeding up all the text box sequences, and divorcing field and battle moves. My other request, providing in-battle type info, appears to already have been implemented in Sun & Moon.   

[NWR_insanolord]

I've played all of them but Black 2 and White 2, but I only ever completed my original copy of Pokémon Blue.

[Shaymin]

All of them, multiple times.

[Khushrenada]

I'm of the few and not-so-proud in that the only game I've played so far is Pokémon LeafGreen and I got past the 2nd (maybe 3rd gym) but stopped playing and never finished the game or have played any other in the series. However, I do own them all so there's that.....

The one thing I dislike about the poll this time is that I'm curious to see if people have played and beat multiple games in the generations and which ones they did select. Also, the different numbers between the games. Like, would Pokémon Red have more people who played it then Pokémon Blue? How many people have played the remake versions? Would there be more people playing the remakes than the originals? I guess we'll see if the comments can give more info on that.

As for ranking the Pokémon, I'll go with whatever Lucario says because he is NWR's truest Pokémon fan. 

[nickmitch]

The grouping on this poll is weird.  Red and Blue is mostly the same as Fire Red and Leaf Green, but those are different generations and come with all the metagame of their respective gen.  Same with the other remakes.  B&W being separated from B2W2 is also interesting, but might make sense as those are the last games to receive a "third version"; even though, they themselves break the mold by being direct sequels.  Also, someone seems to have enjoyed one without the other.

There's so many fun ways you could break this specific questioning down.

[Khushrenada]

Well, I asked pokepal148 about whether I should group things and how so that was probably my first mistake. Ha ha! But, I also checked up on Wikipedia's grouping of the series and this is pretty much how they group the games although they separate the remakes. I know the remakes obviously have some changes and maybe some Pokémon available to them that weren't available before but I wasn't sure those differences would be enough to warrant them as a separate inclusion. Remakes are problematic. I didn't include Super Mario All-Stars or Mario Bros. 3 GBA edition in the Mario series because they aren't really different games from the original ones they are based on. Should remakes be considered a separate entity?

[NWR_insanolord]

Never listen to Pokepal.

[nickmitch]

I didn't include Super Mario All-Stars or Mario Bros. 3 GBA edition in the Mario series because they aren't really different games from the original ones they are based on. Should remakes be considered a separate entity?

For Pokemon, I would say yes.  The changes are fairly significant.  The first option in this poll says "I played either the very first games or the 4th set of game".  The third says, "I played the 3rd entry in the series or literally the most recent entry".  People selecting either of those options could have had wildly different experiences.

[NWR_insanolord]

I would almost argue that the remakes have more in common with their contemporary entries than they do with the originals. FireRed/LeafGreen are basically Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald with a Red/Blue skin.

[Khushrenada]

For Pokemon, I would say yes.  The changes are fairly significant.  The first option in this poll says "I played either the very first games or the 4th set of game".  The third says, "I played the 3rd entry in the series or literally the most recent entry".  People selecting either of those options could have had wildly different experiences.

So, if you are a Pokémon player and you've played through Red, Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, Black, White 2, and X, would you buy Omega Ruby or wait until Sun? I know that with the whole breeding of Pokémon and battle system that the remakes are a bigger deal and maybe necessary to play and separate the games for that aspect but for the story, layout or progression of the game in the remakes changed between versions that much to warrant separate spots?

[Evan_B]

I understand the reasoning for the grouping, as many people tend to favor regions over "generations". That being said, remakes often polish the stories a bit but really only update the original region with the "modern mechanics". They are rarely a waste of time since they follow the first games in a generation and generally have more polish, though OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire bucked this trend by being painfully mediocre. That might be a crime of them being remakes of the second-worst Pokemon titles, however.

I would simply organize it by generation, or, the mechanics (and Pokemon) introduced with each grouping of games. I would group the four Black and White games together, despite them having a drastic difference in quality (seriously, Black and White were garbage and B2W2 were such a ridiculous improvement in every department). I can say that I have played a game from every generation to completion, but I haven't played every game because I have friends with alternate versions that trade with me. As long as we're on the subject of Pokemon, I'll simply state, as fact, that: IV>II>I>VI>V>III

Back to my self-imposed exile.

[Mop it up]

I typically see the games grouped into generations, but it's certainly tricky to group them depending on what you're going for.

I'm not a fan of this series but I like it okay. I think it has a lot of potential, but they work very slowly at making changes and improvements, and adding new elements, preferring instead to keep things "traditional." As a result, I've bought them cheap when I wanted to replay one of them, thinking "might as well get another one, not that different."

Here are the specific games I've played and how I would rank them:

6. Pokémon Emerald
5. Pokémon Blue
4. Pokémon Platinum
3. Pokémon X
2. Pokémon HeartGold
1. Pokémon Gold

I also have Pokémon Black and Black 2, but have not played either one yet.

[nickmitch]

For Pokemon, I would say yes.  The changes are fairly significant.  The first option in this poll says "I played either the very first games or the 4th set of game".  The third says, "I played the 3rd entry in the series or literally the most recent entry".  People selecting either of those options could have had wildly different experiences.

So, if you are a Pokémon player and you've played through Red, Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, Black, White 2, and X, would you buy Omega Ruby or wait until Sun? I know that with the whole breeding of Pokémon and battle system that the remakes are a bigger deal and maybe necessary to play and separate the games for that aspect but for the story, layout or progression of the game in the remakes changed between versions that much to warrant separate spots?

Honestly, it depends.  ORAS is different enough from XY to warrant playing.  Then it would depend on how "Pokemon-ed out" you would feel come November.  Also, the story has changed in ORAS.  There's now a split Pokemon timeline (yeah, I know) where the current cannon (as far as I can tell) is Pokemon Origins then X&Y and ORAS.  This has to do with the Mega Evolution mechanic.  Also, if you didn't play Emerald, then ORAS is worth a play for the Delta Episode at the end of the story.

[BeautifulShy]

Really my only blind spot with the Pokémon games is generation 5.  I think after Generation 3 I think I was trying to make the games all about competitive play and these were the original GBA games. I didn't really play Diamond or Pearl but I did pick up Platinum and I enjoyed that.   With Black and White I don't know what caused me to pass over them. Maybe where I was at the time I just felt like it was going to be the same as previous games.     I did come back with X&Y.  I loved X a lot.   I also picked up Omega Ruby which I liked and game me a different look at Gen 3 with a new lens.   I did pick up Moon for the 7th gen and there are supposedly lots of quality of life additions to the Ultra games so I will probably try and get those.

[Krushrenada]

Ah, I had almost forgotten about this attempt at forum activity. In my mind, I envisioned these threads spurring activity from users who don't post as much since a series is a more broad topic that covers multiple games people might have played. Perhaps I should try bringing it back but I'll at least wait until Khushrenada Week is over.

[BeautifulShy]

Ah, I had almost forgotten about this attempt at forum activity. In my mind, I envisioned these threads spurring activity from users who don't post as much since a series is a more broad topic that covers multiple games people might have played. Perhaps I should try bringing it back but I'll at least wait until Khushrenada Week is over.

You should do a Final Fantasy or 3D Zelda series topic next.

[Khushrenada]

There's a lot of topics I would like to do yet in this series. It's something I thought I could keep going for at least a year. The idea was to have a new entry every two weeks: One in the Console section and then two weeks later one in the Handheld section and then two weeks later back to the Console section. In that way, it's sort of like one per month in each forum and hopefully it wouldn't be seen as overdoing it or wearing out its welcome. However, there hasn't always seemed to be much participation in the topics and I was never sure just how well this whole idea might even be regarded by other users and if they cared about it or not so I've kind of let it drop but I'd like to see it continue on even if I may not seem that way with gaps in how long I've created new entries for it.

Final Fantasy is not really one I would think of doing. Most FF games are on the competition. 1 - 6 did eventually all get released on Nintendo console in NA but everything from 7 on has been with Sony and that's over half the series appearing elsewhere. For now, I'm just focused on series mainly appearing on Nintendo hardware. I am open to third party software if possible and had planned to do a Phoenix Wright entry, for instance, in the handheld section but I just sort of let this whole idea fizzle out at the time. My goal was to also try and keep moving through series in an odd pattern. For instance, a Chibi-Robo entry might not get a lot of commenting so a follow-up with something really popular like 3D Zelda would probably be my next choice in order to bring interest back up in between installments where I anticipated lower turnout.

I suppose an entry could be done for FF 1-6. Or, if I ever did cover pretty much all the major franchises on Nintendo hardware then maybe the series could move on to others beyond Nintendo and on the competition. There is the General Gaming section so could stick something like that in there. Perhaps it could be coordinated with another user if they wanted to tackle handling this series in General Gaming while I stuck with the Nintendo stuff but, as I say, I've been cautious with this so as to not wear out its welcome and bug other users who may not be interested in it. So I guess I'd want some sign as to how much of a demand there would be for it before doing that.

[Khushrenada]

Huh. This thread is so old, Sun and Moon hadn't even released yet. Not only did they come out but they've already had the remake/deluxe type treatment. I've added that as an option now to the poll. Sadly, there is no way to shuffle poll options to keep them in order which is a shame since this is the only poll that I think did not have its order go screwy after making it. I've just had to add it to the bottom.

[BeautifulShy]

Ah, I had almost forgotten about this attempt at forum activity. In my mind, I envisioned these threads spurring activity from users who don't post as much since a series is a more broad topic that covers multiple games people might have played. Perhaps I should try bringing it back but I'll at least wait until Khushrenada Week is over.

You should do a Final Fantasy or 3D Zelda series topic next.

You know just reading over this topic just now I noticed something. I was responding to Krushenda not Khushrenada.  I feel silly.

[Khushrenada]

What a time to bump this thread when I was already in the midst of making a new entry for this series.

[BeautifulShy]

What a time to bump this thread when I was already in the midst of making a new entry for this series.

I saw you reading and I was curious.  I saw my error and posted. The End.

[BeautifulShy]

To actually be on topic I have played a bit more of Moon and I am liking it even more than my first playthrough.  I still need to pick up Ultra Sun. Finding funds for everything I need to do and also enjoying different games has been hard to do.

[Khushrenada]

What a time to bump this thread when I was already in the midst of making a new entry for this series.

I saw you reading and I was curious.  I saw my error and posted. The End.

Yeah, I was double checking how I worked these threads in order to create the new one. Interestingly though....

Final Fantasy is not really one I would think of doing. Most FF games are on the competition. 1 - 6 did eventually all get released on Nintendo console in NA but everything from 7 on has been with Sony and that's over half the series appearing elsewhere. For now, I'm just focused on series mainly appearing on Nintendo hardware.

What a difference a year makes. Now FF 1 - 10 have been released on Nintendo hardware along with 12 and that mobile version of 15. Suddenly, a Final Fantasy entry would be something that would work ok in the limits I've sort of set for myself with doing this.

this is the only poll that I think did not have its order go screwy after making it.

Oh! And look at that. The poll options did go screwy eventually as well.