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Where should I start with Pokemon?

L

lastmessiah

Member
Never played a Pokemon in my life. I have a Switch and I want to see what it's all about. From what I can gather, the Let's Go! titles are meant as a sort of introduction to new players, or at least a convenient entry point. But it also seems like they are considerably stripped down and simplistic compared to Sword & Shield?
 
Just wait a bit for the sequel to the goat.

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lastmessiah said:
Never played a Pokemon in my life. I have a Switch and I want to see what it's all about. From what I can gather, the Let's Go! titles are meant as a sort of introduction to new players, or at least a convenient entry point. But it also seems like they are considerably stripped down and simplistic compared to Sword & Shield?
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I recommend just getting sword or shield, it's not hard to understand pokemon nor its systems as they are not complicated and kid friendly. Since the series is going in the sword and shield direction you can determine if you like the series based off that.

But if you want to play an older one, I personally loved Heart Gold, by far my favorite one.
 
If Switch is your only option, Sword or Shield is as good an entry point as any, honestly. Every mainline game is made with new players in mind.
 
lastmessiah said:
Never played a Pokemon in my life. I have a Switch and I want to see what it's all about. From what I can gather, the Let's Go! titles are meant as a sort of introduction to new players, or at least a convenient entry point. But it also seems like they are considerably stripped down and simplistic compared to Sword & Shield?
Click to expand...

Let's Go was more adapted to children while stimulating the parent-child play. If you're into kids games, go for it. But stay far away from Sword and Shield.


Sword and Shield is a mediocre and pathetic attempt of RPG, holding so far only because of the name "pokemon". The game basic treats the player as a retarded.
If you really wanna get into the rpg pokemon, there are far way better versions to play if you're interested.

Old ones like Blue and Red are good if you want the oldschool titltes. If not, jump into Platinum, Heart Gold/Soulsilver and Black/White. I totally recommend Black/White.
 
TeKtheSanE said:
I recommend just getting sword or shield, it's not hard to understand pokemon nor its systems as they are not complicated and kid friendly. Since the series is going in the sword and shield direction you can determine if you like the series based off that.

But if you want to play an older one, I personally loved Heart Gold, by far my favorite one.
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So what was the reason for Let's Go! then?
 
Saber said:
Let's Go was more adapted to children while stimulating the parent-child play. If you're into kids games, go for it. But stay far away from Sword and Shield.


Sword and Shield is a mediocre and pathetic attempt of RPG, holding so far only because of the name "pokemon". The game basic treats the player as a retarded.
If you really wanna get into the rpg pokemon, there are far way better versions to play if you're interested.

Old ones like Blue and Red are good if you want the oldschool titltes. If not, jump into Platinum, Heart Gold/Soulsilver and Black/White. I totally recommend Black/White.
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I only have a Switch though, and I'd rather be where there is an active multiplayer community.
 
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Let's Go, maybe? Experience a remake of the original game with the original 150.

Probably not the person to answer though. I adored the original Red/Blue on GB but I am not a huge Pokemon fan in general. I had fun with Let's Go but that's possibly due to the nostalgic trip it was for me.
 
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lastmessiah said:
I only have a Switch though, and I'd rather be where there is an active multiplayer community.
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Not sure you're really interested if you're only narrowing your experience to Switch and there are very few pokemon games on it. Whatever works for you then.
 
Since you have a switch just get Sword/Shield.

It's not like the design or gameplay has changed too much over the years and none of them have a worthwhile story anyway.
Not to mention that unless you want to fight competitively the gameplay is fairly simple and straightforward so it's not like you need some game to "ease" you into the franchise. These games are designed so kids can easily beat them after all and every entry is newcomer friendly (almost to a fault).

I'd avoid let's go unless you have kids and want to play co-op with them. It's an even more casual friendly take on the franchise and you'll miss out on a key part of the experience (wild Pokémon battles).
 
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Don't let people talk you out of Sword and Shield. Longtime fans are salty about the design choices made with that one, but at the end of the day it's still a Pokemon game like any other -- especially for the uninitiated. Go for it!
 
Always the latest mainline game for a newcomer.

It has the most recent QoL features. It has the current Pokémon so you don't have to delve into years-old guides. It's the latest buzz of the town so it's easy to find info when you need it. It has active multiplayer and online community if you want to delve into that. And, it's still Pokémon through and through.

If you don't want to get into multiplayer Pokémon you can go with basically any version of the game from the past 20 years, but QoL features really got their stride with the 3DS games. I was there in Gen 1 and I think all the online bitching about "lazy devs", franchise ruined, too easy and all that crap that's been flying around since the Ruby and Sapphire remakes on 3DS is a crock of shit bordering on gatekeeping. If you aren't the type who thinks 500+ tries to get a single perfect-stats Pokémon from breeding isn't that much, you'll be right at home with whatever the latest main entry in the series is.

For the love of God, if you know nothing about Pokémon, don't. listen. to. diehard Pokémon nerds babbling about Nuzlocke, Battle Frontier, shinies etc who'll try to convince you that the best place to dive into the series is a game from no less than 2 generations of hardware past.
 
Don't play Let's Go. It somehow makes the most casual RPG on the market even more casual, it's not quite a "real" mainline Pokémon game. It's shit.

Honestly though if you've never played one, and you only have a Switch, Sword + Shield will be just fine, because you don't know what you're missing. The people who have issues with SS (me) only have those issues because they've played all the previous games.

If you want to play the best, get a DS and HeartGold or SoulSilver, remakes of gen 2. It's not gotten better than those and it probably never will.
 
I would play Heart Gold on PC via emulator.

Sword and Shield is extremely mediocre and Let's Go basically plays itself.

Sorry to sound like a purist but neither of those games is a good intro to the series.
 
Heart Gold and Soul Silver are by far the best games. I would suggest you play Gen 1 to get the feel for Pokémon and understand why it became such a big hit. You should be able to finish ut in about 30 hours or much less if you will use the emulator. Then go straight for Heart Gold and enjoy the greatest Pokémon game ever made.
 
Heart Gold & Soul Silver (Nintendo DS) were the last Pokemon games with an art style that I, personally, associate with the series (pixel art). Unfortunately, a physical boxed copy for the Nintendo DS with the Pokewalker is hilariously expensive now. But a ROM can be found online if you have the hardware/emulator for it (y)

BRB, just spending $350 on re-buying my copy of Pokemon Soul Silver from eBay :/
 
If you only have the switch, then there's just gen 8 (S&S).

On the 3DS: I liked gen 6 (X&Y), it has a lot of commodities and the story was not that childish. The gen 3 remake (R&S) was a clusterfuck of free stuff.
And the gen 7 (S&M) ditched gyms for some kind of stupid activities.

On the DS: gen 5 (B&W) has a more obscure story. Gen 4 (D&P) has an epic setting, creating the mythology of the pokemon universe. And the gen 2 remake (G&S) is just superb.

On the GBA: Gen 3 (R&S) is a favourite, bringing pokemon to a new level (in that age). The gen 1 remake (R&G) is also great.

Don't know about multiplayer nowadays, I still think the majority of the mp community are diehard breeders (people who minmax every stat down to the genetics of the pokemon).

I just made a Platinum full randomized rom yesterday, so I loled at your post 👏.
 
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You cant...
You should go back to the 90s when the originals released, play it on the brick og Game Boy, try to find a light when you are outside to see the screen, watch the TV show, talk it with friends, and play it with friends...

Oh holy fuck how do I miss those times T_T
 
Play Fire Red or Leaf Green on an emulator. It has almost all of the meaningful advancements in the series with the original Pokémon and world. If you enjoy it, I'd recommend Heart Gold or Soul Silver. From there it really doesn't matter as long as it's forward and not back in time.
 
Should have known everyone would ignore my OP where I point out I only have a Switch. I have a PC too so I guess I could emulate the older games but not too interested in that. I want an active pvp scene.
 
I'll catch hate for this, but Pokemon Let's Go. I thought it was great (except for some stupid control limitations).
 
jigglet said:
I'll catch hate for this, but Pokemon Let's Go. I thought it was great (except for some stupid control limitations).
Click to expand...

I really liked a lot about the game, but the Go style random encounters really killed it for me. I would love a remake of the OG games like this, with the Pokemon visible in the world instead of random encounters...without changing the wild pokemon fighting system. SOOO close to my perfect Pokemon game...oh well.
 
I plowed through Fire Red on GBA and was bored all the way through. I might have missed something, but it just felt like constant grind.
 
HE1NZ said:
I plowed through Fire Red on GBA and was bored all the way through. I might have missed something, but it just felt like constant grind.
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Nostalgia plays a factor in how much you enjoy that game. If you played the originals as a kid, FireRed is a blast to play through. But I still find it weaker than Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, which have slightly better graphics, way better music, better pacing & a more interconnected world.
 
If your ignoring console preferences:

Best Games in the series bar none:
Black & White 2
Platinum
Heart Gold & Soul Silver

Best story:
Black & White

Most complete Pokemon game in terms of mons, variants, form changes and what not:
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon

Most recent game:
Sword & Shield + DLC

Best game to start the Pokemon titles that gives you a good idea of the series as a whole is probably Heart Gold & Soul Silver. Unless you want the original Gen 1 experience then Fire Red and Leaf Green is a good start.

Sword & Shield really isn't a good representation of the best of what the franchise has offered. But it is the newest and most different as it became a little more open world.
 
Walk, talk, grind, battle, win. Doesn't matter which version you play. Many other games out there that deserve your attention. My guess is that Pokemon games continue to thrive off of a huge nostalgia trip dating back from the 90s.
 
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You dont know pokemon unless you played OG Red/Blue
After that you can jump to Heart Gold / Soul Silver
Then you need to play Black and White 2 or White and Black 2
 
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They're all basically the same. Quality of life changes come and go, so the old ones are just as smooth to play as the new ones. There's no continuing story. Just play any of them.
 
You can honestly pick up any game in the series as they're not connected in any way, they are all standalone games. Perhaps the only exception would be Pokémon Black and White 2, I can't tell as I haven't played it. There are however references to previous games that fans might appreciate.

Since you have a Switch, get Sword and Shield if you want to get into Pokémon. It's a flawed game and far from perfect, but I personally enjoyed it.
 
Just play the casual normie games on the Switch if you're not gonna budge and want to experience the better titles.

Also Red and Blue are trash nostalgia games.

The apex is gen 3 to gen 5 and it's all down hill from there.
 
lastmessiah said:
Should have known everyone would ignore my OP where I point out I only have a Switch. I have a PC too so I guess I could emulate the older games but not too interested in that. I want an active pvp scene.
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If you only have Switch and don't want to play on other platforms there's not really much for anyone to suggest.

I'm going to go ahead and suggest romhacks/fan games after you play a few official ones.

Pokemon Glazed

Pokemon Gaia

Pokemon Clover (Made by 4chan, be prepared for stupid 4chan humour, but the game is pretty great)

Pokemon Insurgence.
 
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Gold and Silver lift much of the frustration and bad programming without being bogged down.

Seriously, don't let the Sword/Shield backlash sway you. Sun and Moon are rubbish!
 
Pokemon Platinum, Then Pokemon HeartGold or SoulSilver, then Pokemon Black or White, then Pokemon Black or White 2, then you can decide for yourself if you wanna check out anything more. These are by far the best games in the series, although Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald has some amazing music. Ignore people recommending Sword/Shield. Lazy gashgrab shit with zero heart and no effort put into it. Same with Sun/Moon.

And L lastmessiah absolutely ignore people telling you the games are the same. These people have zero clue.
 
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Good/silver/crystal

easily the best gen and it's from back when the games were simple yet with a decent difficulty curve (before they turned the franchise into 6 hour tutorials and baby-level gyms several gens later)
 
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