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Best 3DS Pokemon game?

A

andrespi

Member
So I just bought a New 3ds for 160 € with 2 games (it's the Dragonball Extreme butouden pack with 2 games included and cover). When I was a kid I played and loved Pokemon Red and Gold. I haven't played any other pokemon game since then.

Now that I bought a 3ds I want to try and buy one of the recent Pokemon games for 3ds. I decided I will buy Pokemon Yellow (for nostalgia reasons mostly) on VC and one of the games specifically for 3ds.

I saw that there are a lot of pokemon games on 3ds, so which one should I buy first?

I saw that there are:

- pokemon ruby omega and alpha sapphire (which are remakes of gba games from what I understand);
- pokemon x and y;
- pokemon sun and moon.

So, which one do you consider the best? which one do you recommend? And why?

About my tastes, so maybe you can help me choose better for my tastes: I would strongly prefer one that is less linear and more open rather than a more guided one. I also would prefer one with a lot of side-activities and end-game activities (like the second continent on Gold and going back to Kanto which was mind blowing for me when I was a kid). It doesn't matter to me that ruby omega is a remake (since I didn't play the original ruby it would be new to me). The most important elements are: rich of secrets, side activities and end game activities, also more open/less linear experience and world. So i'm interested in the one with more content, more polished experience, better post-game and better exploration (less guided and less linear or more open).

Don't care too much about graphic or story, i'm more interested in exploring, collecting pokemon and so on.
 
I don't know which is best, but X/Y are clearly the worst of the group. Least end-game content, most generic setting, story, and characters
 
Sun and Moon. Also makes the most sense, given that you're playing Yellow, because you can transfer your yellow version 'mons over to Sun or Moon once you finish that game.
 
It's Sun and Moon. The other two are perfectly playable but aren't really recieved well by the fanbase. They're okay but not as good as the past DS entires.
 
Pokemon Sun and Moon

Latest games in the series and most up to date in mechanics, visuals and quality of life improvements. Plus it has a surprisingly compelling story. All of the 3DS games have bad side content and are linear.

ORAS does have a bunch of legendary pokemon available to you in the post game but they are very lazily done and time and day dependent
 
Sun and moon.
If you have cfw 3DS,then i suggest you to install Pokemon Prism,best Pokemon games i ever played in all my life.
 
Dysun said:
I don't know which is best, but X/Y are clearly the worst of the group. Least end-game content, most generic setting, story, and characters
Click to expand...

Fictional France >>> Generic island 101 ala Hoenn.

Anyways, i would pick Moon and Soul Silver (if you can get it, considering it's the best Pokemon game. Period).
 
Sun and Moon are good but the game doesn't understand when to shut up and let you play. It just keeps on talking and guiding you, sucking any potential enjoyment out of the game.

X/Y was enjoyable but had so many technical problems and zero post-game content.

Haven't played the Ruby/Sapphire remakes.

The DS Pokemon games were significantly better in my opinion. Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, and Black/White are all worth your time more.
 
ORAS I'd say. SM feels very linear plus ORAS being the remake of Gen 3 so the first new gen for you. Also ORAS has a lot of activities to do after the end of the main game. It's also the one with the most pokemon to catch.

If you like it play SM afterwards.
 
andrespi said:
About my tastes, so maybe you can help me choose better for my tastes: I would strongly prefer one that is less linear and more open rather than a more guided one. I also would prefer one with a lot of side-activities and end-game activities (like the second continent on Gold and going back to Kanto which was mind blowing for me when I was a kid). It doesn't matter to me that ruby omega is a remake (since I didn't play the original ruby it would be new to me). The most important elements are: rich of secrets, side activities and end game activities, also more open/less linear experience and world. So i'm interested in the one with more content, more polished experience, better post-game and better exploration (less guided and less linear or more open.
Click to expand...

Based on your tastes I don't think you'd like any of the 3ds pokemon games. If you've already played gens 1 and 2 Emerald is probably the only other one you'd like, maybe Black2/White2 since those ones have an enormous postgame.
 
andrespi said:
About my tastes, so maybe you can help me choose better for my tastes: I would strongly prefer one that is less linear and more open rather than a more guided one. I also would prefer one with a lot of side-activities and end-game activities (like the second continent on Gold and going back to Kanto which was mind blowing for me when I was a kid). It doesn't matter to me that ruby omega is a remake (since I didn't play the original ruby it would be new to me). The most important elements are: rich of secrets, side activities and end game activities, also more open/less linear experience and world. So i'm interested in the one with more content, more polished experience, better post-game and better exploration (less guided and less linear or more open).

Don't care too much about graphic or story, i'm more interested in exploring, collecting pokemon and so on.
Click to expand...

I hate to break it to you but none of the 3DS Pokémon games are open and allow the players to wonder off the beaten path and explore, they are liner to a key with Sun and Moon being the master of this.

I would suggest picking up Pokémon Platinum, if you're willing to hunt it down.
 
Pokemon games have always been linear, with gen 1 being sorta of an exception I guess. You're really better off just getting Sun/Moon, they're great.

Now if we're talking handholding that's a different story.
 
Slightly unrelated note: do we think it's likely that we could get DS games like Heart Gold / Soul Silver coming to Switch VC? Would be good to play them again!
 
Ok it's not the most recent generation you look for then, ORAS would be the recommended games for those specific needs.
Check serebii for the codes of a mythical pokemon event that is still going in those games until february 28th.


I usually recomend the newest games since it's the game that i think you are most likely to be able to play with people you know, and Sun/Moon has some good stuff going for it, but it does have alot of handholding(most of the series) so based on that you wanted a more free experience go for ORAS.

That said, with S/M and pokebank (which has a yearly fee), you can transfer those rby pokemon to the current generation, so that's a bonus since you already got one of the vc games.
 
Sun and Moon absolutely.
XY and ORAS are really bad in comparison, although still decent games.

Spinosaurus said:
Pokemon games have always been linear, with gen 1 being sorta of an exception I guess.
Click to expand...
Diamond, Pearl and Platinum are the opposite of linear imo
 
Cartho said:
Slightly unrelated note: do we think it's likely that we could get DS games like Heart Gold / Soul Silver coming to Switch VC? Would be good to play them again!
Click to expand...

I imagine all of the Pokemon games will be on VC eventually, but you'll be waiting a really long time.
 
Sun and Moon. You might get very annoyed at the game's structure, though. It's cutscene after cutscene for a while at the beginning that doesn't say shit. It's Pokémon Lillie.

But echoing this, the DS games were better:

gngf123 said:
The DS Pokemon games were significantly better in my opinion. Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, and Black/White are all worth your time more.
Click to expand...

I think Black 2/White 2 are better than Black/White. It has a ton of content and I don't think the story for Black/White is as good as people say. Going from B2W2 to XY was awful.
 
Pokemon Sun and Moon are the best. XY and ORAS are fine. I don't like how the gen 6 games look and they IMO look worse than the DS games. SuMo look much better. Though the GOAT Greninja is introduced in gen 6.
 
I enjoyed all. Well..still playing through Moon. It seems a little light but I still enjoy it.

X and Y has the best fashion and locations. Alpha and Sapphire has the best post game ( so far.)

Weirdly enough all the games seem a bit different from each other
 
Sun and Moon by a mile. XY are forgettable in almost every way. ORAS doesn't even have the content found in Emerald which made it so great in the first place. Sun and Moon do things differently with trials, does things differently with the story which actually makes it somewhat enjoyable, and no more HM's.
 
I would suggest going with the latest gen games since you'll have all of the Pokémon available there, either catchable or by trade.

Now if you don't care about any of that go with XY.
 
You could take a fourth option and go with Black 2/White 2 since 3DS plays DS games.

I would strongly prefer one that is less linear and more open rather than a more guided one. I also would prefer one with a lot of side-activities and end-game activities (like the second continent on Gold and going back to Kanto which was mind blowing for me when I was a kid). It doesn't matter to me that ruby omega is a remake (since I didn't play the original ruby it would be new to me). The most important elements are: rich of secrets, side activities and end game activities, also more open/less linear experience and world. So i'm interested in the one with more content, more polished experience, better post-game and better exploration (less guided and less linear or more open).
Click to expand...

Honestly all the Pokemon games are pretty linear but everything else here makes me think you'd love B2/W2.

EDIT: If you can't get ahold of them then get ORAS. Less handholding than Sun/Moon.
 
gngf123 said:
Sun and Moon are good but the game doesn't understand when to shut up and let you play. It just keeps on talking and guiding you, sucking any potential enjoyment out of the game.

X/Y was enjoyable but had so many technical problems and zero post-game content.

Haven't played the Ruby/Sapphire remakes.

The DS Pokemon games were significantly better in my opinion. Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, and Black/White are all worth your time more.
Click to expand...


True Fire said:
The 3DS Pokemon games are all terrible. Go play HeartGold/SoulSilver or Platinum.
Click to expand...

Mr-Joker said:
I hate to break it to you but none of the 3DS Pokémon games are open and allow the players to wonder off the beaten path and explore, they are liner to a key with Sun and Moon being the master of this.

I would suggest picking up Pokémon Platinum, if you're willing to hunt it down.
Click to expand...

i would love to get the DS pokemon games, whcih seem to be the best for my tastes, unfortunately DS games are nearly impossible to find here in Italy. I was searching earlier for DS pokemon games here in Italy, but they have crazy prices and are very rare. I'm looking at a soulsilver copy, and I can't find at less than 40 euro. Other pokemon ds games cost even more.

So I fear I wil have to restrict myself to 3ds games, which are really the only ones that I can find easily here.

Bedameister said:
ORAS I'd say. SM feels very linear plus ORAS being the remake of Gen 3 so the first new gen for you. Also ORAS has a lot of activities to do after the end of the main game. It's also the one with the most pokemon to catch.

If you like it play SM afterwards.
Click to expand...


Smasher89 said:
Ok it's not the most recent generation you look for then, ORAS would be the recommended games for those specific needs.
Check serebii for the codes of a mythical pokemon event that is still going in those games until february 28th.


I usually recomend the newest games since it's the game that i think you are most likely to be able to play with people you know, and Sun/Moon has some good stuff going for it, but it does have alot of handholding(most of the series) so based on that you wanted a more free experience go for ORAS.

That said, with S/M and pokebank (which has a yearly fee), you can transfer those rby pokemon to the current generation, so that's a bonus since you already got one of the vc games.
Click to expand...



Ok so from what I'm reading the choice would be between ORAS or sun and moon, since most of you don't recommend and say that X or Y are forgettable.
 
I'd say Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, myself. The thing is... they're 'old', and you're missing out on several new Pokémon and basically locked out of playing online against other people with the most up-to-date version if you go for those.

Depending on how much this bothers you, S/M is also a nice game. It's just... I personally felt like it lacked a bit of the charm that ORAS had, and the way the cutscenes were padded throughout the game didn't really work. There's a couple great moments, but it seemed like the writing was even worse than usual -- probably an impression I got as the game felt as if it boasted significantly more text than the previous entries.

There's also a couple things that I don't like about Sun/Moon. First, it's the removal of the DexNav, which was a fantastic addition to ORAS and made it so that catching and breeding cool competitive Pokémon even during the story was a fun endeavor. Instead, we got the whole SOS system which was clunky and incredibly boring. But the biggest mistake was abandoning the dual screen structure for the online stuff.

In XY and ORAS you could access the online menu with a simple click on the lower screen and play while 'online'. You could see which friends were online while walking down some field, you could request a trade or a battle with ease and everything was just really functional. In SM... not anymore. Festival Plaza forces you to 'pause' your game and go into a different physical space, has more menus to get there, feels obtuse with the menus not being straightforward at all... It was a big step back, and people speculate it has to do with the lack of a 2nd screen on the Switch. If that's the game, I'm gonna miss the 'DS' family of systems a whole lot for Pokémon, because their answer for the online was a huge miss. Here's hoping Stars -- if it turns out to be real -- can find a better way to deal with it.

Anyhow, I don't think any of the games is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the others, but if I had to pick one, I'd go for ORAS, as that one gave me what I think is the best 'adventure' in the 3DS family line of Pokémon games. Soaring was great, Hoenn was -- despite the claims of too much water -- a region that had some really cool routes, and the two rivals were also the most likeable for me. Oh, and the soundtrack was amazing!
 
ORAS has the best post-game / side activities, hands down.
Like, its not even close.

SUMO has the least linear feeling campaign, but its still fairly linear, and is possibly the best combo for pairing with the Gen 1 game as a combo, as there's very little overlap between pokedexes, as well as being the one that is going to continue being supported. I also agree with the sentiment that the online features are implemented in a worse way than in XYORAS, but thats something of a double edged sword because XYORAS online is likely to die off sooner.
 
Spinosaurus said:
Pokemon games have always been linear, with gen 1 being sorta of an exception I guess. You're really better off just getting Sun/Moon, they're great.
Click to expand...

Not true, past Pokémon games did allow the players to walk off the beaten path and explore and they would be rewarded with rare items, TMs or Pokémon.

Gen 6 and 7 stripped all that away.

Vital Tundra said:
Sun and Moon by a mile. XY are forgettable in almost every way. ORAS doesn't even have the content found in Emerald which made it so great in the first place. Sun and Moon do things differently with trials, does things differently with the story which actually makes it somewhat enjoyable, and no more HM's.
Click to expand...

I disagree with the Trial, they were so boring to do and frustrating at times as the game repeatedly prevents the players from catching wild Pokémon till the trial is done. Plus fighting wild Pokémon did not feel the same as fighting gym leaders.

I would rather fight Kalos bland gym leaders than do another trial.
 
andrespi said:
Ok so from what I'm reading the choice would be between ORAS or sun and moon, since most of you don't recommend and say that X or Y are forgettable.
Click to expand...
Yep, since XY is probably the easiest games in the series, but one can argue it's also the best looking games.
That said, XY have a postgame plotline that I think most people actually missed that had some interesting stuff in it.
 
andrespi said:
Ok so from what I'm reading the choice would be between ORAS or sun and moon, since most of you don't recommend and say that X or Y are forgettable.
Click to expand...

I also think ORAS is better than XY, but SM is just way ahead of it. The thing I dislike most about ORAS is how cringy the characters can be at times, made even worse by the chibi models... In certain cutscenes it just looks ridiculous and kills the immersion imo.
SM is also way more challenging and good looking + has a ton of quality of life improvements.
 
I hate just about everything about Sun and Moon so I guess I'd say X or Y. It's not amazing but the streamlined way to train pokemon is perfection and the online integration is intuitive (and of course S/M removed all of these features).
 
andrespi said:
was searching earlier for DS pokemon games here in Italy, but they have crazy prices and are very rare. I'm looking at a soulsilver copy, and I can't find at less than 40 euro. Other pokemon ds games cost even more
Click to expand...

HG/SS being expensive isn't just an Italy thing. They are expensive everywhere.

According to Amazon.it, Pokemon Black is 26 EUR. That's not too bad I think.
 
gngf123 said:
HG/SS being expensive isn't just an Italy thing. They are expensive everywhere.

According to Amazon.it, Pokemon Black is 26 EUR and a used copy of Diamond is 25. That's not too bad I think.
Click to expand...

not too bad, I didn't notice because I was looking only at Black 2.

But the diamond one, I can't see it: the cheapest one I see on amazon.it seems to be 39.95.
 
I think Sun and Moon are easily the best, but based on your stated tastes I would suggest Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. They're the least linear of the lot, have a solid post game, and interesting side activities.
 
andrespi said:
not too bad, I didn't notice because I was looking only at Black 2.

But the diamond one, I can't see it: the cheapest one I see on amazon.it seems to be 39.95.
Click to expand...

If you want to play Diamond or Pearl by the way, just go with Platinum (which is the least linear game of the series probably, and with a lot of post game content), it's basically a soft remake but leaps and bounds better than the originals
 
Sun & Moon >>> ORAS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> X & Y

Sun & Moon reminded me why I like Pokemon games to begin with, and that when they actually try, the story can be pretty decent. Whereas X & Y on the other hand nearly made me quit Pokemon altogether.
 
I'd probably go Sun & Moon > ORAS > X and Y.

X and Y introduced some of my favorite new pokemon (Pangoro, Aegislash, Noivern, Hawlucha and Greninja, the best starter ) but was otherwise pretty forgettable.
 
X and Y are trash, I've hated what I've played of Sun and Moon, and while they're inferior to the originals, ORAS are pretty good.

Get the DS games instead if you can.
 
Man, I can't believe that X & Y get so much hate around here.

It was the game that re-introduced me to the series after a long hiatus since generation 3. It felt so warm and inviting.

ORAS would be a very close second, I loved generation 3.

Sun and Moon missed the mark and I'm still not sure why.
 
Mr-Joker said:
Not true, past Pokémon games did allow the players to walk off the beaten path and explore and they would be rewarded with rare items, TMs or Pokémon.

Gen 6 and 7 stripped all that away.
Click to expand...
Funny, because I recall backtracking in Sun/Moon to find areas that I originally missed, and finding Pokemon, items and TMs that I would've otherwise missed out on.

I doubt a lot of people found Seaward cave while going through the first island, for example. I can't comment on XY because it's been a while since I played it, but saying gen 7 stripped out any optional areas you could explore or find is a pretty ridiculous exaggeration, even if it doesn't have the best side content.
 
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