[twillight]

This'll be the final post from me in the topic. Just quick summary of each generation.

Gen 1: pokemon Blue is the better version just for providing access to Meowth, which can generate you more money that's in the game in otherwise fixed amount.
Yes, Gen 1 is a "buggy mess", but it's neither game-breaking, nor immersion-breaking. The pacing is good, the puzzles are challanging but not impossible all htings considered (though you really have to work for the last bird on Victory Road), and is compact enough to not outstay its welcome. The backtrack helps the immersion.

Gen 2: you either have to settle with gutt-wrenching ugly, or for an incomplete version here. I say, avoid this generation.

Gen 3: I have o idea how the original releases work, but in Emerald you are constantly twice the level of the enemy, making the only challanging fight the post-game Steven. That's not good. Also, the game is a railroad, no diversion from the One True Path. Boring as heck, especialy grinding for the flutes.

Gen 4: the time you are allowed to backtrack is, when all the items you constantly saw no longer worth your time and effort. The pacing is also hirrble, switching between oneshotting everything to bumping into difficulty-spike and thus grinding-sessions. the Distortion World is also BS: potentialy softlocking the player in a VERY challanging puzzle, good luck solving it without a guide.

Gen 5: this one is simply boring. Any pokemon remotly interresting is way bexond the starting area, and this was actualy the first game I actualy won (later I went back and finished the Elite Four for the other games too), this time using only a single pokemon (Herdier). The plot is nonsense, N is absolute nonsense, there's no flavour in the game - it's boring. That's kinda worse than being bad. The only good thing is the updated visuals.
EDIT: also do not forget HALF OF THE GAME is locked behind post-game. That amount of story and content is NOT post-game, but proper game, and that's inexcuseable.


Gen 6: I should go into explanation why I think the story is great, the pacing is great, and the game is generaly the best pokemon can offer. It's not flawless though, the game(s) definitely would have benefited from a 3rd release. And is "way too easy", meaning the enemies are not too challanging considering, so either use a weak (low base stat) pokemon, or do not use the Battle Chateau AT ALL. Also: you definitely not need Mega Evolution. Possibly.

Gen 7: Look. there's a large difference by the look of it between the difficulty of the original and the Ultra versions. I don1t know the original release, neither will touch them. But darn, the Ultras are HARD. Some tips if you want to try any of it:
- do EV-training as soon as you got the pokemon you want! Do NOT rely on exp.share, it'll ruin your day, because it not just transfers exp, but also EV, and that can BREAK you pokemon. Imagine giving pyhsical attack EVs to special attackers.
- do NOT feed your pokemon with beans! At least for a long while. You'll want them for the pokePilago, where you can plant the berries you need! (I never used them, but better safe than sorry)
- you have to catch 75-90 pokemon to be able to fully build the PokePilago! So start catching them early! (I don't like the spring-section fully built on the Pilago, and you don't actualy need it for anything, so I don't need the 90 pokemon)
- the RotomDex is annoying as heck, but there are some useful gains from it: Roto Bargain cuts prices in shops (not just pokemarts, but also clothes, the TM-shop etc., though not restaurants or BB-shops) from extraorbitant to simply too expensive. RotoCatch helps you capture that elusive pokemon. If you are a breeder, you might like RotoHatch, though it's way to rare in my case. RotoStealth is a free repell, if you are fed up. Roto HP and PP are equialent of their shop-items, only free, in case you use items. The rest is inarguably useless.
In the Ultra versions you also gain (allegedly) the power to use Z-power twice in battle, and that's something to be considered for now.
- you WANT high, or at least moderate affection-rating on your pokemon, because while they are like 5% chance modifiers, that CAN help you out. Well, this is mostly only if you do a solo playthrough I assume. Or if you keep UltraNekrozma in mind. That thing is infamous for a reason.
- the game has so high-level challanges, it is hard, and poses tactical problems along just grinding levels. Which you'll need to do anyway.
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Otherwise, naratively, and by pacing these games are trash. It's not fun playing them. The cutscenes are a chore, the endgame is padding, the miniquests are unsatisfying most of the times, and have pretty demanding requirements at times for barely any reward. Some are funny though.

Gen 8: "Optional" and barely existing trainers, bring, glitch-filled, unsatisfying.

Gen 9: There is 2 good thing in this: the story in paper, so worth comprised walkthrough on youtube, where it's only 20-60 minute or such. And this terrestrialization-gimmick could last.
Everything else is trash though. There are no scripted events, absolutely no trainers (imagine playing Baldur's Gate with no scripted events, just random kobolds spawning), it's crashing left-and-right, bugs and glitches everywhere. Defnitely do not play, do not buy.