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[Smeags]

It's most certainly up there. I've put over 300 hours into this game and it's for a good reason. Heres some points I want to flesh out so we can have a better picture of what I think the game did well on!

1. Removal of HMs: This is such a great change in how a trainer approaches his/her adventure. Not only is it a QoL improvement, it fundamentally changes how a trainer builds their team. No more HM slaves taking up a spot(s), or sacrificing a moveslot for a less powerful move. It also works as a world building element, having Pokemon be a part of day to day life with humans other than battling.

2. Totem Battles: On your your adventure, no matter what game you were playing, finding trainers that actually pose a challenge has been... difficult. Usually the "challenge" is throwing a bunch of trainers at you, which is more of a battle of attrition than an actual challenge. After all, who can stand up to your team of six well trained Pokemon? Well, the Totem battles try to even the playing field by creating boss Pokemon. In any other situation the fight would be unfair, due to the fact that these Pokemon boost their stats as well as outnumber you. But that creates a challenging situation that forces you to think creatively in how you defeat your foe. Take down the weaker support Pokemom first (and risk getting pummled, and having it replaced?) Or target the Totem Pokemon (and risk having the support Pokemon set up to create dangerous situations)?

3. Team Skull: These goofballs were such a refreshing take on the evil team dynamic. After seeing six generations of well funded, organized, cutthroat, malicious, and (overly) serious crime organizations defeated single handidly by children, Game Freak poked fun at the trope (and itself) with Team Skull, more of a band of delinquent dorks than an actual crime sindicate. Their leader (and your boy!) Guzma is both intimidating and pitiable, and his musical theme suits him perfectly. Which brings me to...

4. The Music: A lot of the time when a play a portable game, the music stays off. But this game has some fantastic tracks. The final battle for the championship of Alola was ome of the hypest moments I've haf in a while, with that stirring theme a major reason why. Speaking of which, how Sun/Moon handles the Elite Four makes so much sense. You're the champion and you need to defend your title. Took us seven generations to finally make it a concept, but I'm not complaining!

5. Z-Crystals: I'm honestly not much of a fan of Mega Evolutions, and when Z crystals were announced I was very skeptical. But what makes them work is twofold: One, every Pokemon can use them and two, they allow for some fun and varied movesets. Who knew that having Splash could actually be threatening? Or that Smogon would actually advocate having Fly on your moveset? Z moves bring a greater sense of unpredictability and creativity to battles, and I'm all for it.

6. The Pokemon: This one's a bit more subjective, but Alola brought with it not just new Pokemon (Mimikyu is an all time great. I also love Salazzle and Tsareena)... but a great twist on older Pokemon as well. Alolan forms have brought older, more forgotten Pokemon out of the shadows. Who knew that Muk and Marowak would be highlights in competitive Pokemon? And it's done in a way thay doesn't render the original forms completely obsolete. I will say though that I was very disappointed in how few new Dark and Ice types there are in Sun/Moon. As they're my favorite types, it was really a bummer to see a lack of cool new Pokemon to add to their respective ranks.

_

Those are the big things for me. All in all I'd say that it's the best Pokemon to date. Hopefully Stars isn't just a rumor! *crosses fingers*

 

[KLonso]

It's probably my nostalgia speaking in some way as Crystal was my first pokemon game, but nothing matches HG/SS for me.

Also, it had a battle frontier. What's up with none of the recent pokemon games having a battle frontier? It's one of the best features in the series, but it's completely disappeared since HG/SS.

 

[nubbe]

Sun/Moon is my least played Pokemon game to date... only spent about 60 hours on it
Even XY had my playing for almost 400 hours
I enjoyed ORAS quite a bit too

But HGSS still remain the best in the series

 

[Vanillalite]

There's a lot to like in this. I still think the B&W series are probably the best of the OG style. That's not surprising since they are the newest of the 2d games so they've been iterated on.

I think the 3d games have followed a similar trajectory with each entry being better than the last (knowing ORAS had some issues due to it being a remake).

Biggest thing Sun and Moon tackled was probably HMs that wasn't part if the battles. It's such a massive QoL improvement for the series.

Makes me excited to see where the follow up goes.

 

[Greatest Ever]

HGSS are better. But people annoyed by the amount of story never played another JRPG then.
S/M has the best campaign so far, but it needed more post game to beat HGSS. I hope Stars fix it.

We have, it's the pre-X/Y Pokemon games.

 

[Lunarwhale]

I like HGSS and BW more, but it's up there for me. SM just needs to be faster as far as gameplay is concerned, a bit less linear at parts, and either needs an edit to some of the early story beats or a skip button. It's far too wordy and drawn out early on.

Absolutely love that there's an early diverse type spread, and the redesigned Alolan forms are fantastic. I really liked most of what it brought to the series.

 

[NSESN]

I didn't include ORAS, just XY specifically.

XY had no "tunnel" or "hallway" routes, actually had a form of exploration even if just a little bit, had earlier "sidequests" (Chateau, restaurants and cafes, etc.), harder trainer fights, better stat management, PSS, better Pokemon distribution, National Dex being available without Bank, and had no Lillie cutscenes.

Alola feels fresh. Kalos is just like every other pokemon region but in 3D. Harder trainer fights? It was the easiest pokemon game, every gym leader was a joke, and Diantha is a terrible champion. Alolan forms are much better than Megas, even GF agrees with the way the pokedex talk about them. I love Lillie character so I don't know what are you talking. The only thing that I really miss is PSS.
And it is forgetting all about the QoL changes like no HMs and IV training, I can finally caught a legendary without resetting 100 times.

 

[CrocoDuck]

Way to linear/handholding. Felt like a long hallway similar to FF13. A lot of the new Pokémon designs don't look good at all and too many of them are from gen 1. The puzzles are way too easy and the story is super forgettable.

The graphics look good; the style and presentation are perhaps the best in the series, but that's about all the positives I can say about it.

 

[ffdgh]

Also, it had a battle frontier. What's up with none of the recent pokemon games having a battle frontier? It's one of the best features in the series, but it's completely disappeared since HG/SS.

Strange excuse for leaving it and BW2's difficulties out.

According to the interview, the Battle Frontier as well as the difficulty setting from Black 2 and White 2 are not present in ORAS because "a very small part of the players would have fully appreciated and made use of this feature; nowadays players get bored and frustrated more easily and they aren't interested in things that are so demanding/challenging."

They wanted to create "a "balanced" game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games,

 

[AnkiRendan]

No way.

It took me months to finish just because I hated the characters, SOS battles...the only thing I could say I enjoyed was Team Skull. Pokemon S/M has actually made me consider retiring from the series after playing since generation one continuously.

Generation 5 was the best of the series, and if I do stop playing I would only come back for those remakes.

 

[KdylanR92]

Pokemon black/white 2 are just straight up the best pokemon games and i can only wait for the day where they're topped.

X&Y is the best pokemon game on the 3ds lol that's a joke.

 

[sinonobu]

Absolutely.

 

[cHinzo]

Pokemon Sun is the only Pokemon game I started, but didn't finish yet. I liked X&Y better. Especially the Pokemon design in that part was superb.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Yeah I guess I meant the whole "streamline of the games" combine lines, simplify processes, reboot/retcon stuff, remove pokemon if needed. I feel like most people wouldn't love that. I've played every mainline game, but I'm not super hardcore into them or any sort of competitive battler, so to me I never knew Alomomola was a "hand" thing, just looked/seemed like a boring duplicate thing that I caught to fill my dex and never looked at again. So maybe that's my fault

Anyway that's not my biggest gripe, I think my biggest gripe is how the scale and sanity of these games have spiraled out of control in regards to the story. I'd love to see a return to the roots in that aspect of things. I'm not saying "8 gyms, elite 4, done". But maybe not have to fight villains that want to take over time/space/muliverse, and not having legendary pokemon that are gods and just make it a little be smaller of a feel in scope. Or increase the scope in better ways like exploration, environments, etc.

removing pokemon means removing fans of those pokemon, and better more than less after all

the latter is more of an SM problem than anything

Heart gold and soul silver are ridiculously overrated on Gaf

definitely

with that said I like it that it exists as when people call me a pokemon fanboy I tell them I don't like Gen 1 and 2 much and especially don't see much of HG/SS,

What exactly was fucked up? I can't remember anymore.

they didn't fix pokemon distribution in the wild (a bunch of really crappy Gen 2 pokemon in Mt. Silver for no reason), trainer pokemon distribution (seriously why does Morty still have two Gastly), level distribution (low level mons in Kanto despite trainers having adjusted levels), safari being lame until post game, and Mt. Silver being HM garbage even it wasn't like that before, it's slow as molasses but that's really coming from Gen V onwards

also they gave GB Sounds way too late for you to appreciate

Alola feels fresh. Kalos is just like every other pokemon region but in 3D. Harder trainer fights? It was the easiest pokemon game, every gym leader was a joke, and Diantha is a terrible champion. Alolan forms are much better than Megas, even GF agrees with the way the pokedex talk about them. I love Lillie character so I don't know what are you talking. The only thing that I really miss is PSS.
And it is forgetting all about the QoL changes like no HMs and IV training, I can finally caught a legendary without resetting 100 times.

Alola feels fresh... but at the same time is wasted. Routes are literally roads with no means of exploration, a la "hallways" people use to describe modern day shooting games. You know what I feel? I saw golf trainers and the resort with a golf expanse... yet we never get there! That's how I feel about Alola. Kalos may not be able to stand out much in its design, but at least it lets me get around a bit more.

And yeah I'd argue it has harder fights. Really the only reason it seemed easier was due to mega mons. As a whole, Diantha's team was actually more competently build compared to SM's Elite Four fight. Your average trainer fights in XY are still slightly more difficult. Hell, The only thing it could boast was the totem mechanic, and it shows how much of a clincher they really need because they needed that feature just to feel "slightly harder". I always see people saying they had a hard time with the double Furfrou unlike in SM.

Also nah. "Better?" More like "we have to market new shit". And they shot themselves in the foot because now they HAVE to carry the megastone items in some way anyway, otherwise they'll be pissing off the player base. And it seems megastone is still favored in some circles unlike Z stones due to their one-note shit. And with Alolan forms they once again have made it so that they must import games or have special distros to get said form.

Lillie is garbage because of her plot forcing through your adventure rather than simply letting you explore, and as I said, terrible face animations, because when you have this emotional speech about Pokemon and freedom, and she gives you this face...

...you know something is wrong. They could have integrated her character much better without having to squeeze herself into your adventure. And the worst part is she isn't even a trainer, which while fine in her character, is not fine when the way they do it is by thrusting her moment with every journey you do.

IV training is garbage in Alola wtf, SOS is terrible because you are required to RNG, this is a massive step down from the more consistent horde system. And I'm not even bringing up Friend Safari, which is loads better especially when you visit a forum.

No HM is pointless in a game like Kalos because at worst, the only thing you need are surf and fly. And what? Story legendaries since BW have high catchrate so I don't get your comment on that.

 

[Trey]

It's the only Pokemon generation where I haven't beaten the main campaign. Never mind raising a competitive team.

At the very least I can say that I will always appreciate that sun/moon got rid of HMs.

 

[NSESN]

Alola feels fresh... but at the same time is wasted. Routes are literally roads with no means of exploration, a la "hallways" people use to describe modern day shooting games. You know what I feel? I saw golf trainers and the resort with a golf expanse... yet we never get there! That's how I feel about Alola. Kalos may not be able to stand out much in its design, but at least it lets me get around a bit more.

And yeah I'd argue it has harder fights. Really the only reason it seemed easier was due to mega mons. As a whole, Diantha's team was actually more competently build compared to SM's Elite Four fight. Your average trainer fights in XY are still slightly more difficult. Hell, The only thing it could boast was the totem mechanic, and it shows how much of a clincher they really need because they needed that feature just to feel "slightly harder". I always see people saying they had a hard time with the double Furfrou unlike in SM.

Also nah. "Better?" More like "we have to market new shit". And they shot themselves in the foot because now they HAVE to carry the megastone items in some way anyway, otherwise they'll be pissing off the player base. And it seems megastone is still favored in some circles unlike Z stones due to their one-note shit. And with Alolan forms they once again have made it so that they must import games or have special distros to get said form.

Lillie is garbage because of her plot forcing through your adventure rather than simply letting you explore, and as I said, terrible face animations, because when you have this emotional speech about Pokemon and freedom, and she gives you this face...

...you know something is wrong. They could have integrated her character much better without having to squeeze herself into your adventure. And the worst part is she isn't even a trainer, which while fine in her character, is not fine when the way they do it is by thrusting her moment with every journey you do.

IV training is garbage in Alola wtf, SOS is terrible because you are required to RNG, this is a massive step down from the more consistent horde system. And I'm not even bringing up Friend Safari, which is loads better especially when you visit a forum.

No HM is pointless in a game like Kalos because at worst, the only thing you need are surf and fly. And what? Story legendaries since BW have high catchrate so I don't get your comment on that.

Seriously I feel we played 2 different games because there is no way XY is harder. Diantha had like 4 pokemons weak to ice, so I don't see how is that competent. And why you hate Lillie so much when the XY friends are much worse?

 

[Gorillaz]

Absolutely not. Sun and Moon, while much better than previous entries (finally the game actually challenges you), still falls flat on a couple of aspects, namely the story (character development of the group is focused SOLELY on the protagonist rather than having real growth), and the lack of a postgame for the 2nd consecutive generation. Region design and exploration is dumbed down to the point of being extremely annoying and cutscenes being quite long only makes this worse.

For me, nothing will ever surpass Generation 5 (inb4HURRDURRPOKEYMANDESIGNS) for how much both games had to offer.

Which gen had the ice cream looking monster?

Was that 5

 

[Boss Doggie]

Seriously I feel we played 2 different games because there is no way XY is harder. Diantha had like 4 pokemons weak to ice, so I don't see how is that competent. And why you hate Lillie so much when the XY friends are much worse?

XY friends don't always force themselves to you after every route.

Not saying she was hard (I beat her without changing my Chesnaught), but at the same time that doesn't make SM's overall difficulty harder is all I'm saying.

Which gen had the ice cream looking monster?

Was that 5

Gen V didn't have an ice cream monster though, but it did had that icicle monster

 

[NSESN]

XY friends don't always force themselves to you after every route.

Not saying she was hard (I beat her without changing my Chesnaught), but at the same time that doesn't make SM's overall difficulty harder is all I'm saying.


Gen V didn't have an ice cream monster though, but it did had that icicle monster

Imo, while you play as Sun or Moon, the protagonist of the story is Lillie. So it makes sense she appears a lot. But if you didn't like that the story was around her I can understand.

 

[Juraash]

While Sun and Moon made a lot of wonderful improvements to the series, I wouldn't even put them in my top 3. Sun and Moon hand hold way, way too much as far as I'm concerned. The sense of adventure and exploration was almost completely gone.

The need for a were great, z crystals were great, the removal of HMs was amazing, the all new Pokemon were cool and I love the setting. But the game felt like a guided tour of Hawaii with Pokémon. The world felt so small and constrained and that overshadows everything else for me.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Imo, while you play as Sun or Moon, the protagonist of the story is Lillie. So it makes sense she appears a lot. But if you didn't like that the story was around her I can understand.

I don't even mind it if she's a central character. My problem is she's just pushed forward. This isn't the first time they did this too - N is also a central character. But he barely intrudes yet still leaves an impression.

But the game felt like a guided tour of Hawaii with Pokémon. The world felt so small and constrained and that overshadows everything else for me.

Yes, yes this is a good description on one of my umbridges on Alola.

 

[Spyware]

Nuzlocking in Sun/Moon is crazy hard compared to the other games. The fact that some trainers now have IVs on their mons and some even have perfect EVs makes such a difference. And the 2v1 fights like the totem fights or some SOS ones can be brutal. I know many good nuzlockers who have had their first complete wipes (game over) in SuMo.

X/Y is snoozily easy. The only game that comes even close to SuMo in difficulty is Platinum and I'd say that one is pretty easy too.

From a nuzlocking perspective that is, I dunno how you would really measure it otherwise... they are all extremely easy if you can grind, heal and revive freely.

Example of SuMo IV/EV:

Spoiler

Captain Ilima
======
Pokemon: 2
Yungoos (Lv. 9) (Nature: Adamant) (Moves: Tackle/Pursuit/Leer/(None)) IVs: 31/15/31/15/31/15 EVs: 0/0/252/0/252/0
Smeargle (Lv. 10) (Nature: Hasty) (Moves: Ember/Tackle/(None)/(None)) IVs: 15/31/15/31/15/31 EVs: 0/252/0/252/0/0

 

[Mael]

X&Y is why I got back in Pokemon.
A bit too linear but I really loved the setting and the new mons (Goomi 4ever), loved the new type and I actually started (way too late) a competitive team and kept playing.
got ORAS last year (something like march?) and didn't hate it, a stepdown from XY for me but at least the postgame seemed interesting with all the legendaries and all.
By the time I finished ORAS, SunMoon was released so I skipped the post game of ORAS(still did the delta episode, it's not that bad btw).
Played and finished SunMoon and then I just stopped altogether.
I don't know if it's the constant giveaway that had us planning how to get all the mythicals or if it was something in the game but I couldn't even start a competitive team in SunMoon, I have access to the tree and got all the UCs I could get, got the other lowlevel legendary and stopped.
I spent more than 300hrs in XY trying to raise a team and do what little there was in the postgame, even restarted the game on someone's else cart to get all the mons I was missing (not really needed thanks to wonder trade). Also spent close to 100hrs in Oras and even watched streams of competitions and all.

And now I can't touch SunMoon without doing anything worth shit, it's easier to get a perfect mon BUT thanks to requiring an item I can't waste them on freebees to try and see how it really works.
Because they removed supertraining, I feel like I have even less control of the EV than I had before.
So yeah not my fav pokemon game by quite a long shot :/
Music is awesome and the story is serviceable I guess, E4 and champion is probably my fav part I played in a pokemon game so far.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

I also don't think the redesigns of established Kanto mons really works either.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

Woah woah, where's the revisionist X/Y hate coming from? Man, I seriously thought they were almost universally recognized as the best games in the series when they released. The transition from 2D to 3D was generally awesome. Character models looked great. The UI and speedy interface ruled. Quality of life features were introduced all over the place. The online elements like Wonder Trade made everyone's play through feel and play differently. The music was great.

I dunno, I thought they were amazing.

I can't consider story and characters when comparing Pokemon games though. All of the games are generally trash tier in those departments. They're not what you play Pokemon games for imo so they don't even factor in.

It's not revisionist. I've seen people complaining about XY (myself included) once the honeymoon period ended sometime in 2014.

 

[Mael]

It's not revisionist. I've seen people complaining about XY (myself included) once the honeymoon period ended sometime in 2014.

Can confirm that, felt like the only guy who actually likes that game at times.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

good god

anyone who really thinks that culling Pokemon is a good idea probably doesn't even play Pokemon games (much less gives a shit about them)

the biggest problem with Pokemon today is how Game Freak assumes that children have been becoming exponentially dumber throughout the years because they've got no faith what-so-ever to allow players to

explore
get lost
discover things without being told about them
make their own way toward a destination


if the next Pokemon games are somehow dumber than the last few outside of competitive/breeding mechanics, then I'm out for good.

 

[Tarextherex]

Firered and Leafgreen are the best

Yes

Tbh sevii islands>gen 2 kanto. Gen 1 and 2(remakes) and Emerald are basically the most fully realized adventures. I say SM is up there, right behind those three at least. The only step behind XY is the online interface. QOL improvements are significant rather than being tiny steps for once(getting rid of hms and making iv training possible). Sure game was chatty and linear but you could still go back to islands with your new rides to find more stuff. Considering that most post gen 3 games were pretty much shallow adventures that felt like an afterthought compared to competitive battling, I think the changes of formula in SM are a good compromise for that. Basically you need to explore to get valuable TMs and held items rather than merely getting them at the end of the game after beating 8 gyms just like in any other game, that got old pretty fast. Post game is lacking but still better than XY. The last gen 1-2-3 game that had good post game that I played was white(haven't played bw2 or the sinnoh games), that had a nice post game but it felt like half the world was locked to you before the league rather than feeling like you unlocked a whole new game/the world changed after the league like sevii islands, kanto or battle frontier did

 

[ShiftaDeband]

No. I really enjoyed the X&Y after taking a long hiatus... and ORAS.

I know I'm in the minority, but Sun/Moon felt so forced with those damn gates and was just lackluster for me. It also sucked not having a national dex.

 

[Meffer]

Not quite.

 

[Gazoogleheimmer]

So pretty much no one agreed with the OP? I read through some pages but looks like there isn't even a handful of people that think S/M are the best Pokemon games.

 

[Acrylic7]

Original silver and gold.

 

[neilyadig]

I think its the highest quality presentation of the series.

I still think B/W/2 are the best gameplay of the series.

 

[God Dayumm]

They are up there. But Gamefreak needs to trim their dialogs in future games because they get mind-numbing at some points.

 

[KLonso]

Strange excuse for leaving it and BW2's difficulties out.

Well if that's not the most Nintendo excuse I've heard...

 

[Greatest Ever]

good god

anyone who really thinks that culling Pokemon is a good idea probably doesn't even play Pokemon games (much less gives a shit about them)

the biggest problem with Pokemon today is how Game Freak assumes that children have been becoming exponentially dumber throughout the years because they've got no faith what-so-ever to allow players to

explore
get lost
discover things without being told about them
make their own way toward a destination


if the next Pokemon games are somehow dumber than the last few outside of competitive/breeding mechanics, then I'm out for good.

This dude knows what's up. This is why I stopped after Sun and Moon's first hour was more X and Y shit.

 

[jryeje29]

I would love to go through all of the games in order, I missed out on all of the ds gen games except diamond and didn't play another till Y on 3ds. They just changed so much it threw me off.

 

[jryeje29]

good god

anyone who really thinks that culling Pokemon is a good idea probably doesn't even play Pokemon games (much less gives a shit about them)

the biggest problem with Pokemon today is how Game Freak assumes that children have been becoming exponentially dumber throughout the years because they've got no faith what-so-ever to allow players to

explore
get lost
discover things without being told about them
make their own way toward a destination


if the next Pokemon games are somehow dumber than the last few outside of competitive/breeding mechanics, then I'm out for good.

This plus ease of difficulty​ is why I was thrown off by the games myself as well.

 

[arturo2666]

For me, yes. I really loved them, but I can easily see how someone with different preferences would put them at the bottom of their list. They're really heavy on dialogue and story segments, which I liked in addition to all the upgrades and streamlined stuff.

 

[Aesnath]

Imo, while you play as Sun or Moon, the protagonist of the story is Lillie. So it makes sense she appears a lot. But if you didn't like that the story was around her I can understand.

Yeah, I like the game and the world they built, but, god, the focus on Lillie was so draining. I didn't like her as a character too much and the plot they built around her just lacked punch. I kept thinking they would go somewhere interesting

Spoiler

with family drama

but it just underdelivered. X/Y's story sucked as well, but, jeez S/M felt like a complete slog. The whole thing somehow felt more linear to boot.

I really appreciated Team Skull and felt like they didn't do enough with it.

Spoiler

Also, Skull's motivation to help AF was just unclear and just seemed to exist because "villains work together, lol."

Also, I really missed the PSS from Gen 6 and the pokenav from ORAS.

 

[Frost Walrus]

I didn't enjoy them that much, though I did appreciate the increased difficulty. I think I'm just growing tired of the way GF handles the series. (massive amount of friends helping you every step, texttexttext, obvious railroading) At this point it feels like I'm just playing to see new Pokemon and to go "oooooh" when they evolve. (who here didn't go "oh shit" when they first saw Barbaracle, Golisopod and Crabominable?)

Obviously I don't want or expect Pokemon to suddenly turn into a "dude you can go anywhere and beat the game in 15 minutes" type of game, but it feels like the series has gradually become a museum attraction rather than a proper adventure.

 

[Chris1]

I think it's probably my least liked Pokemon game. For every step forward the game took 2 steps back.

 

[Takashi]

They're very good games but I wouldn't call them the absolute best. Huge improvements from X/Y regarding story and difficulty, but they still had their missteps like removing the PSS and being handholdy for the first parts of the game.

Best games I'd still say were HG/SS with Emerald right behind them.

 

[lvl99 Pixel]

The only better thing about XY is the online and the anime. And ORAS online is the same so it isn't so special.

anime is entirely subjective, and a lot of people like the new one
having the same online somehow makes it worse?

the additions to S/M werent exactly great
putting trainers in battle? extra laggy
totem pokemon battles? also lagged
Z moves? long, drawn out sequences that get old very quick
Trials? other than 1 or 2 of them they're totally forgettable and worse than gyms
being interrupted every few steps by lilly is worse than anything in XY
etc

They're very good games but I wouldn't call them the absolute best. Huge improvements from X/Y regarding story and difficulty, but they still had their missteps like removing the PSS and being handholdy for the first parts of the game.

Best games I'd still say were HG/SS with Emerald right behind them.

The story is a joke in both games, but s/m put more effort into the cutscenes. Whether or not you enjoy watching cutscenes in pokemon is important because even with animations off you still have to watch the intro to every Z move.

 

[LotusHD]

So pretty much no one agreed with the OP? I read through some pages but looks like there isn't even a handful of people that think S/M are the best Pokemon games.

Not surprised, too many mainline games out for S/M to have the consensus of being declared the best, not to mention Gen 2 and 5 admittedly were that good. Also, previous gens have the luxury of having remakes/sequels/3rd versions, where better post-content and such is basically guaranteed.

Perhaps the sequel/3rd version for Gen 7, assuming it also listens to feedback for certain things, would sway more people.

 

[Ray Down]

Hell yes.

I don't see how anyone can say the gen 2 remakes when they still have the leveling issue.

 

[Boss Doggie]

anime is entirely subjective, and a lot of people like the new one
having the same online somehow makes it worse?

the additions to S/M werent exactly great
putting trainers in battle? extra laggy
totem pokemon battles? also lagged
Z moves? long, drawn out sequences that get old very quick
Trials? other than 1 or 2 of them they're totally forgettable and worse than gyms
being interrupted every few steps by lilly is worse than anything in XY
etc

The story is a joke in both games, but s/m put more effort into the cutscenes. Whether or not you enjoy watching cutscenes in pokemon is important because even with animations off you still have to watch the intro to every Z move.

Ah right, good call on the trainer being on the field.

XY models already have scaling issues.

LET'S PUT IN TRAINERS SO WE HAVE EVEN MORE SCALING ISSUES!

 

[Phu]

I didn't say it before but put me in the '5th gen is best gen' camp.

 

[PrinnyBomb]

Apart from gen 2, yeah. For sure

 

[night814]

2nd Gen Remakes still have that crown.

First post got it and with a Nightwing avatar to boot


Sun was the version I played and as someone who has had a game in every gen I felt it was pretty boring and lack luster. The new designs didn't grab me and the ultra linear gameplay did it no favors.