Now, with the release of Pokémon X and Y fans of the franchise around the world freaked out about how innovative the game was overall, which to a very large extent is very true. However, do the games have something that has been inherently the same with each generation/game? Well, let's take a look at the evolution of the franchise.
Pokémon Red and Blue took the world by storm, selling way over the amount Nintendo and Gamefreak respectively expected. The game was praised by children around the world, clamouring over the fact that you could battle and collect awesome creatures that literally had the power to change the world. From the adorable and loveable Charmander to the mighty and terrifying Mewtwo, the game was very successful. However, there were a slew of issues that broke the game immensely. One example is that Psychic types centralized gameplay, they had no reliable counters (bug type was super-effective against them but this hardly mattered as bug types sucked big time back then, and ghost types, but the only Ghost type, Gengar, was weak to Psychic types) and were for the most part incredibly diverse in what they could do. The next is that speed altered your critical hit ratio, there was no flat percentage. This means Pokémon like Persian, with it's blazing (at the time) 115 base speed and access to Slash, would crit 170.34% of the time. This means that only rock types, and ghost types to due invulnerability to normal type moves, would be able to survive a hit. Mewtwo get's an average of 27.84% crit chance on ALL of his moves due to his blazing 130 Speed. On top of his base 154 Special he decimated teams, with the only check (not even reliable) being either Slowbro or Mew. If he wasn't carrying Blizzard his most reliable counter was Exeggutor. These are only a few of the myriad of issues that Generation I had.
In 1998 Nintendo released another two Pokémon games to the world, aptly named Gold and Silver. These games were even more popular than the last, with colour sprites and environments, new Pokémon, a whole new region with whole new regions, the split of the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense, and two new types, Dark and Steel. Now, you may think that adding two new types to the game may not do a whole lot. Dark and Steel types would change the metagame forever. Dark type was a fully dedicated anti-Psychic type, being fully immune to Psychic and super-effective to it. Along with this it took reduced damage from Ghost and Dark types and did super-effective damage to the former. The only three types that were super-effective to it were the still terrible Bug type (except for Heracross), and the revitalised Fighting type, with new fighting types like the powerhouse Heracross and the dedicated defensive powerhouse Hitmontop, Dark, Normal, Rock and now Steel types were in serious danger. The Steel type is a fully defensive typing, having a massive 11 resistances, including the new Dark type, and 1 immunity to Poison, Steel types were coveted by many stalling teams around the world and breathed new life into some older pokémon, prime examples being Magnemite and Magneton. In addition to these resistances it only had three resistances, Ground, Fighting and Fire, steel was beloved even more. Even the Day Care got an upgrade. Pokémon could finally hatch eggs and transfer moves they normally wouldn't get to their off-spring, giving some poké's some much needed coverage moves. The coveted Hidden Power was also a result of this Generation, giving even more coverage options on top. Weather effects like Sunny Day and Rain Dance were introduced, improving the power of water and fire type moves respectively, and altering the mechanics of some moves entirely. Another weather effect, Sandstorm, didn't empower any moves or types, but did residual damage on anything that wasn't Rock, Steel or Ground type and changed the mechanics of some moves entirely as well. You could even travel back to Kanto and challenge all of their gyms after beating the league. A new concept was also introduced at the same time, shiny Pokémon. Shiny Pokémon were simply recoloured sprites of Pokémon, nothing too special, but incredibly rare. The chance of finding a shiny was 1/8162, making them the most infamous addition to Pokémon. All in all Generation II certainly impressed and had very few issues.
Now, Generation III (Ruby and Sapphire), was it hit or miss? Well, Generation III was a monumental hit, being revered amongst players around the world as being either the best Generation or the most innovative. There was a new region, even more Pokémon, quite a few legendaries, a gripping storyline and a brand new villainous team. Remember how I said that in Gen II there were two new types that changed the metagame? Well in Gen III there weren't any new types, but there were two new concepts: Natures and Abilities! These were massive changes to the metagame, Natures heavily influenced the way a Pokémon's stats would grow by reducing one stat and increasing another. This changed the metagame is a big way, but not nearly as much as Abilities did. As the name suggests, each Pokémon, old and new, got an ability assigned to it. These abilities could influence either the overworld (things like Pickup, which had a chance to pick up an item after a battle), just during the battle (abilities like Speed Boost, for example, would raise your speed one level after each turn in battle) or both (Suction Cups, for example, makes hooking fish easier in the overworld and ensures you don't lose your item in battle). This made a huge impact on the metagame worldwide, making some older 'mos absolutely terrible and some new one's absolute beasts. Gen III would change the Pokémon world forever.
Now, Generation IV. Diamond and Pearl quickly became the Pokémon franchises biggest sellers worldwide, but did it impress? The short answer is, not entirely for a lot of the fanbase. The long answer? Well, let's find out. Generation IV, just like Gen III, brought an entirely new region filled with entirely new Pokémon (150 new Pokémon pre-event, the biggest addition to the roster since Red and Blue), a new villainous team and a different storyline. So, what didn't impress the world? The storyline and the characters. These were some of the weakest characters in the Pokémon franchise and the story was really complicated for 10 year-olds, and older audiences didn't gravitate towards it. The story line, in the barest of bones, was about a group that wanted to capture the Pokémon that controlled space or time (Space for Pearl, Time for Diamond) and create a new universe for them to live in and rule. This is the story with all of the meat stripped away, and these were concepts that were brand new to little kids. The villain was one of the weakest in the franchise and the villainous team just looked incredibly silly in their outfits (so did the teams in Ruby and Sapphire but to a much lesser extent). However, there were many things that worked in the games favour. Gen IV finally brought in the Physical/Special split. Whereas in the last 3 gens where moves of a certain type were either physical or special, Gen IV changed this up by having different moves being either Physical (like Aqua Tail) or Special (like Hydro Pump). This radically changed the metagame, allowing Pokèmon like Feraligatr to have what's called a Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB for short) on a move that favoured it's higher Attack stat. This revived the usage of a lot of old 'mons, making them very usable again. The next thing that really impressed was the soundtrack, the soundtrack, for the most part was fantastic. It is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in the Pokémon franchise. Another thing that really impressed was the legendary Pokémon. I am dead-set serious, the legendaries in Diamond and Pearl had some of the best designs and a lot of them have quite an extensive lore behind them. Generation IV also slightly changed the mechanics of Sandstorm, giving Rock types a 30% boost to their Special Defense whilst in the sandstorm. This allowed Pokémon like the monstrous Tyranitar to take hits far better, allowing him to take on many threats like Alakazam as though they were throwing marshamllows at him. The last thing that ensured that Diamond and Pearl would be forever remembered is the final Champion (or boss battle) at the Pokémon league. This is a battle done right, it was intense, the theme was perfect and the battle offered enough of a challenge to be a huge amount of fun. Overall I feel that Generation IV did a lot more things right than it did wrong, and damn did it really do a lot of things right.
Now we come to Generation V (Black and White, Black 2 and White 2), the generation that spawned a lot of what's called "Genwunners." Genwunners are people in the Pokémon fanbase who proclaim that only Red and Blue were good games, often using the "better graphics" argument and better designs to attempt to prove a point. Whingers aside, how did Gen V do? To this day Gen V is the best selling Pokémon generation in the franchise, boasting a whopping 17.1 millions sales worldwide. Gen V is the most refined generation of Pokémon games at this point, improving the gameplay slightly and changing up strategies. What exactly worked in it's favour? Well, almost everything. The mechanics of a single battle for the most part was the same, although we got new abilities like Prankster (improves the priority level of non-attacking moves by one) which did a huge number on the meta-game in it's entirety. Double battles would forever be changed by moves like Wide Guard (provides a protect for your allies) and the Pledge moves, which were unique to the starters and would change field effects (which are different to weather effects and affected gameplay separately). Triple battles and rotation battles were also introduced, which spawned their own meta-games. In a Triple Battle, it was 3v3 on the field, with only the middle Pokémon able to attack all three of the opponents Pokémon (but only one at a time). Rotation battles were similar but at the same time vastly different. In a rotation battle it was still 3v3, but only one Pokémon could fight at a time and you could switch between the other two you had on the field, making predicting the opponent's moves all that much harder. The story was another bonus for this generation, being much darker and less predictable than the last few generations. Whilst the story was weaker in Black and White, it was vastly ramped up in strength in the dedicated sequels, Black and White 2. The story is so complicated that a barebones version can't even be made. The soundtrack for the games also got bonus points with fans, being incredibly intense at times and generally having a fast pace during a battle. The fifth generation also introduced a new concept called the Dream World. What the dream world did was unlock Hidden Abilities in Pokémon, reviving old favourites like Staraptor who got Reckless (improved the power of recoil moves, greatly enhancing Staraptor's potency) and turning some old 'mon's into absolute rubbish (Tyranitar for example got Unnerve, which prevented the opponent from eating berries. An absolute rubbish ability on Tyranitar.). The games were amazing and they came so close to being perfect, if it weren't for one major flaw, the exp system. The exp system in Black/White and Black 2/White 2 was the system used in major MMO's like World of Warcraft, where you got less exp from the same Pokémon the higher your level was. In World of Warcraft this system works due to the sheer size of the world, in Pokémon it fails hard due to the low level of all the wild Pokémon and all the trainers, meaning progression was a grind at times or extremely limited. On my first encounter with the Pokémon League my entire team was barely over level 40, something I had never experienced in the other games. Overall the games were a huge success and did a lot to improve the franchise.
Now we get to the latest release in the franchise, Pokémon X and Y (Generation VI). Gen VI has been interesting so far, there have been a lot of major innovations and a heap of changes done to the old formula. How does it compare to the games of old? Well, in terms of the fun factor, the game provides a lot. It introduced the new horde battle feature where instead of encountering one Pokémon at a time, you encounter 5. This made training so, so much easier. On top of this, the chance of finding a shiny is significantly increased due to encountering 5 Pokémon instead of one. They can sometimes even be found with their Hidden Ability. Another new battle type was also introduced called Sky Battles. Essentially only Flying types (not all of them) and levitate users can participate in these battles. Whilst fun, this overcentralizes gameplay, thus turning a lot of players off. Speaking of shiny Pokémon, the natural chance of finding one was also increased from 1/8162 to approximately 1/4000. Not much of a difference, but a difference nonetheless. The game also introduced Mega Evolutions. Mega Evolution is where a final stage Pokémon can evolve one further stage, giving it a new ability (sometimes), a new typing (sometimes) and a huge buff to it's stats. However, only about 33 Mega Evolutions have been introduced so far. This has changed the meta-game quite a bit, with some Mega-Evolutions being outright banned from most competitive communities. The new games also got rid of the terrible exp system Gen 5 had and buffed an item called Exp. Share, giving all of your Pokémon half the exp in a battle, even if they didn't participate, as opposed to one Pokémon at a time in every gen before it. The soundtrack is also a huge plus in Gen VI's favour, having some remixes of old themes and having stellar new themes (the Champion theme and Villain leader's theme are the best). The characters are pretty strong as well, and the villainous team, whilst not the strongest, hold up well in these games. Their goal is pretty simple, eradicate everything on Earth apart from their team and start anew because they think everyone sucks. This is the darkest story in the entire franchise, and although it's glanced over, it still makes a huge impact. Gen VI also vastly changed the meta-game by removing perma-weather granted by abilities like Drizzle, Dought, Snow-Warning and Sand Stream, thus reducing the potential of a lot of the most popular threats in the game. Gen VI also introduced the new Fairy type, which resists Dragon type, Dark type and Fighting type moves and is super effective against them. They are also incredibly weak to poison and steel type moves. Fairy impacted the meta-game in more ways than one, reducing threats like Hydreigon to dust and empowering old favourites such as Gardevoir and Togekiss by granting both of them with the new typing, thus improving their versatility. Steel also lost two key resistances, Dark type and Ghost type moves are now normally effective to pure Steel types. For Pokémon like Metagross, this is the worst thing that could happen, because of his Psychic/Steel typing he now had two new weaknesses. The new region is also one of the biggest in the franchise, giving a lot of variety in terms of Pokémon that would show up. All 718 Pokémon at this time are obtainable in the game without cheating or hacking, which was a huge difference to the last five generations. Gen VI in it's current form has impressed a huge number of fans worldwide, giving something new and somewhat familiar to experience.
In my opinion, the games are significantly different from each other that those who are unfamiliar to the franchise or are just uneducated about the games are the only ones who will stand there and say that "They're all the same." The games are and will most likely continue to be hugely popular and successful.
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