It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of Lv. X It was the age of no gold stars. It was the age of Nintendo DS. It was the age of lame promos It was the season of Crescellia It was the season of Darkrai. The best of Pokemon was before us. The best of Pokemon was behind us.
Let this thread be a place with those who appreciate the 4th Generation of Pokemon, the games, the trading cards, specific Pokemon from this generation and share memories of those times when Pokemon was in its dark ages. Or those who skipped over this series and made an attempt to return to it.
What do you think of Gen IV? What was your experience with it? What do you think of it today?
Played the games a ton but didn’t interact with the cards or the anime - very similar with my experience of Hoenn. Also the last generation I played as a child, everything after just doesn’t hit the same as gen 1-4.
Have since watched the anime from this generation and it is fantastic.
I played the games when they came out. I remember preordering diamond and getting the stylist pen with dialga on top of it from GameStop.
I loved the fourth generation a lot. Lucario, garchomp and bidoof are the Pokémon that stand out to me. Cynthia obviously being one of the strongest champions in the whole series.
But it’s still behind gen 1, 2 and 3. Great generation nonetheless.
On a less joking note, I loved the games, particularly platinum and just how great spear pillar and the distortion world is. I may be biased just due to the fact that when I got into pokemon it was during the gen 4 era so the games I played were Platinum and HGSS and the cards I had were gen 4 era. I’d say gen 4 is either my favorite generation or tied with gens 2 and 5 for that.
The co-op underground game modes in D/P/Pt were peak multiplayer, the distortion world, obvious night and day cycles, team galactic, poketch, i could go on with all the fun elements of Gen 4 VGC
I played the games a tonne (though the slowness of DP made it feel like self punishment sometimes), and casually collected all the sets through the era, but at the time I remember feeling like Pokémon had run its course and gone as far as it could, reskinning the exact same story plot of RS.
The Gen 4 legendaries completely jumped the shark for me, going from “super ancient Pokémon with suped up ground/water abilities” the previous gen, to “unexplainable deities of time & space…and LITERAL GOD?!” the next.
Instead of Pokémon being diverse elemental animals, they’re now the ultimate universal entities that created reality. It just makes the universe feel so small & uninteresting.
…Outside of the crap lore, I enjoyed quietly collecting the TCG, especially Secret Wonders and Stormfront from the DP sets, then went nuts with HGSS.
HGSS are still my favourite games in the franchise, and I loved every second of revisiting Johto, especially with all the QoL improvements and expanded Pokédex. It was only last year that I found my first two random encounter shinies (and somehow only a week apart?!) on SoulSilver, after all these years!
Pokemon Diamond was the last game I played for Pokemon before jumping back into Scarlet and Violet . That was a tough transition as I didn’t know any of the new Pokemon in between Diamond/Pearl and Scarlet/Violet. There was just something missing about this generation. But the music sure as good!
Since my very fond and only connection to Sinnoh was the anime and movies , since no one has fleshed it out, I will do it.
If there was any season which showcased characters and Pokemon taking L’s, striving, learning to be stronger and coming back better, it has to be the Sinnoh season. This season was a great character development season for Ash, a trainer who believed in ideals of friendship and bonding with his Pokemon who managed to win against his rival Paul who has the same goals as Ash but just on the opposite ends of ideologies.
This season also dealt with a lot of more darker topics like death (Hunter J), which I believer is also first time in mainline anime and was pretty for an anime like Pokemon, and also depression / doubts in the form of turtwig, my boy was basically like a wwe jobber this season.
Not to mention, hands down the best league cup showcase with the Sinnoh League culminating in the greatest ever rival match-up of Ash vs Paul with the Infernape going literal super saiyajin in the final matchup vs Electivire.
With all of the adrenalin from the Quarter Final win, what happens? Tobias happens. The guy with a freakin Darkrai and a Latios! and his opener and second Pokemon. It was truly a special experience watching the anime the very first time and seeing Tobias pull out a Darkrai. That bout was similar to playing any of the Pokemon games and bullying the low level Pokemon trainer outside your hometown after you have beaten Elite Four. This season had everything.
Truly special season to watch. Also Dawn felt more of its own caracter with her own goals and ideologies and her Piplup was hilarious.
That’s an interesting point. As much as I like Gen 4, I agree with it. While a Pokémon that has some supernatural powers is okay, a creation trio is jumping sharks. Like, it would appear to me that they would have to be the most powerful Pokémon and following that train of thought you’d think Gen 4 would be the final generation of Pokemon. Anyway, I think Dialga’s ability to control time is cool. I don’t even know how Palkia would control space. But Arceus is strange.
Finally a Gen 4 appreciation thread.
So I got into Pokémon with the anime in the early 2000s. I played gen 3 games casually, but when Gen 4 was released and I got Pokémon Diamond, it was over. That’s the game and generation that grew my love for the franchise from casual to hardcore. I have a couple of completely biased takes ready for this thread and why sinnoh is awesome.
Cynthia is the greatest character in all of Pokémon and it’s not even remotely close.
The region of Sinnoh itself is perfect. The theming, music, and overall Vibe. A northern, cold climate region was exactly what Pokémon needed at the time, and it still likely holds up as the most region identity in my opinion (although Alola did a great job of that too)
Gave so many amazing evolutions to Pokemon from previous generations that needed them (and some that didn’t lol)
The legendary Pokemon represent a mysticism and almost ‘religion’ within the Pokemon universe reminiscent of Greek or Roman gods (Arceus = creator, gods of space/time, beings of wisdom/benevolence/valor, beings of dreams and nightmares, a being of gratitude, sea guardians, etc.). Even the starters reference mythologies from other cultures (the sun wukong, the turtle upon whose back the world is built, Empoleon is essentially Poseidon).
The game music is incredible
Even though the promos of the era were lacking, I still think this is one of the best non-japanese, unique artworks in the hobby:
Sinnoh being based on Hokkaido gives it such a strong identity. I always felt that the best regions were the ones inspired by Japan (although this may come down to me being a weeb).
One of my favourite characteristics of Sinnoh is that the region unfolds really nicely as you explore it. The whimsical and innocent tone of the early game is set perfectly by Jubilife City, Floaroma Town and the Valley Windworks. The game gradually builds the region’s lore and makes it feel rich in history, with secrets to be uncovered. Emerging onto Route 216 after using Defog in that random Mt Coronet pathway was a really special moment for me as a kid. The race up Mt Coronet up to the Spear Pillar in the howling snow felt so climactic and exciting, especially with the incredible soundtrack.
The Sinnoh Pokédex is the perfect size imo, making it just the right amount of challenging to complete.
My brother and I received Diamond and Pearl (our first Pokémon games) respectively for Christmas in 2007, and I’ll always cherish the memories of progressing through the region alongside him with absolutely no idea what was in store for us.
I remember being 11 or 12, eating breakfast in my dad’s dining room, watching TV when this commercial came on
I was so unbelievably excited for these games that I burned the date April 22nd into my brain. That day I learned later on was Earth day, but to me that’s Diamond and Pearl day. I wanted those styluses from the commercial so badly that I somehow saved $70 to pre-order both Diamond and Pearl so I could get them. Unfortunately, I no longer have them
Yeah. Which game did you play first, diamond or pearl? Brings me back to the days when I used to get excited for games coming out. Interesting that most comments on this thread relate to the games and anime, not much mention of the TCG.
. That was a tough transition as I didn’t know any of the new Pokemon in between Diamond/Pearl and Scarlet/Violet. There was just something missing about this generation. But the music sure as good!
