I personally just prefer the older games to the modern stuff. Besides the fact that the low/unstable frame rates of the modern games bothers me, I generally just prefer the 2d/pixel art styles in general. Same applies to long franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The new games are cool, but the 2d style is so simple and just leaves so much to imagination that I prefer it.
Also I like to just RNG the old games and break them because it’s fun. And it’s way harder to do in modern games since I don’t have a webcam.
I think sometimes we give nostalgia too much credit. While nostalgic, I still play the Pokémon games because I enjoy them. They are good games. I can pick them up without having to learn mechanics.
To OPs point, it is gettingr more difficult to enjoy and get immersed in games in general. I still happens, but I have to put in effort and commit to a single game. I also am at the point where I only play old games because I don’t think new games are as good.
Not exactly oldest games of the series but only recently I reached my limits with Sun&Moon. Absolutely loved them since release and 3 out of 4 cartridges have 999:59 game time so there’s been many sessions with shiny hunting and Battle Tree winning streaks.
Maybe it’s just time to give them well earned rest and buy something else like HGSS.
HGSS has two maps inside it so I think you would really like it! It is quite a long game which is exciting but also the reason why it can be a bit overwhelming to start haha
For me it`s not about being bored but mainly judging myself to take “productive” time out of the day in exchange to play instead of working but I guess thats the pain of being an adult
I’m having alot of fun playing through Yellow again, but not every session to sit down to play is enjoyable/productive (from a gaming POV). Sometimes I’ll fire it up and enjoy a 2+ hour gaming session where I’m very mentally engaged by the game. Sometimes I’ll fire it up and after 8 minutes, I’m not locked into the game and find myself wanting to play another game or wanting to do something else entirely.
IMO this scenario is true for most single player Retro/Modern gaming experiences in your 30s or older lol. Having/making the time is one thing, enjoying the medium once you are doing it is another.
P.S - I also find myself not having this problem with mutiplayer games at all. Which i think has to do with the social aspect of it.
I just want to update this thread that I started playing explorers of sky mystery dungeon and I am REALLY enjoying it. It’s only been an hour but I feel like they do such a good job of giving tasks without making user read a bunch. I’m looking forward to exploring more
I can happily restart any Gen 1-4 game and get addicted all over again. I find these games to be like crack tbh, and I play them TOO much if I get a new save file going. I think I did Red, Yellow, Crystal, and Fire Red back to back the other year.
What helps keep it interesting in my experience is to try and use different Pokemon rather than the same ones that my (and a lot of people’s) teams defaulted to back in the day. Playing HGSS for the first time at the moment and I’ve tried to avoid the standard Starter/Ampharos/HM Slave/Pidgeot/Gyarados team that I always fell back on in the OG Gen 2. I’ve been using Magneton and Miltank and actually bothered getting Skarmory as well (usually only collected later on to fill the Pokedex). Miltank has proven to be a beast (especially when copying Whitney’s use of Attract via TM) and Magneton…ok, Magneton is pretty crap but I swapped him over to Diamond, evolved into a Magnezone, then traded him back. Also taught him Thunderbolt over on Diamond where I have piles of money to just buy 10,000 game corner coins for the TM (screw that Voltorb card game in HGSS!!!).
So yeah, varying it up helps keep it interesting for me. But even so, the music, sound effects…all that good stuff would keep me enthralled regardless.
explorers of sky is definitely a top 5 pokemon game (imo), i’m looking forward to rebuying and playing it again hopefully soon
as for the thread topic, i enjoy replaying any of the gba-3ds era games but rby/gsc don’t do anything for me. they feel really sluggish (granted d&p also have this issue lol) and largely visually unappealing, but i think those are symptoms of entering the franchise later and working my way back to play the older titles. both as a kid and now, i’d rather play frlg/hgss than their original entries. honestly probably looking to sell/trade my copies of those games so i can finish out the era of games i know i’ll replay more often
voltorb flip goes crazy! i’ll play browser version just for fun sometimes lol
I played SwSh for a bit and enjoyed it, but not enough to complete it. Same with Violet, but played only a few hours before i was too bored to go on.
On the flip side, I picked up an Anbernic handheld last week that has Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire and have been burning that game up. It’s so basic but so fun!
I did at one point stop enjoying the games as much because they are just far too easy in my opinion. I understand why they do it, but different difficulties would be nice. This is why I started only playing Nuzlocke. It’s completely changed the game for me. I enjoy the hell out of Pokemon games now. I recently played through Sword and it was amazing. Was it frustrating sometimes? Yes, but it was worth it. Nuzlocke recommended.
I just finished Pokemon Yellow two days ago, and I’m working on completing the Pokedex now. I think when you first try to go back to games like this, your brain starts screaming at you that they’re too slow or grindy. For me at least, if I just kind of suffer through the first little while of that feeling, it goes away.
I had a great time playing it once I told myself to just relax and go along for the ride. What’s the rush? Who cares if animations are slow and there are no running shoes? I think a lot of why people think the older games are boring is more about our constantly deteriorating attention spans and newer games getting “faster” rather than being about the games literally being boring due to lack of content.
Yes, obviously some of the old games could benefit from some QoL, but I think they’re still enjoyable if you approach them the right way.
I still love the lore, the myths/glitches/legends of the 1st and 2nd gen games and all that good stuff from back in the day, every other month I stumble on Tamashii’s old videos in regards to the glitches and other things related which I watch/listen with gusto, but to play them? I unfortunately lost that spark because I’m so massively busy, maybe when I retire or win the lotto and retire early to a massive Villa in Sardinia I’ll revisit the old games properly, lol.
