Hardest gen in your opinion

[FakeNate0]

Poll for what Gen in your opinion is the hardest to get used to playing.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Voted lol. Easiest answer of my life. (it's Gen 7 btw)

 

[FakeNate0]

Voted lol. Easiest answer of my life. (it's Gen 7 btw)

Oh, really? Is it cause of the cutscenes? Mine is gen 3 oddly. The other gens seem to be more user friendly in my opinion.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Oh, really? Is it cause of the cutscenes? Mine is gen 3 oddly. The other gens seem to be more user friendly in my opinion.

Nope, it has nothing to do with the cutscenes lol. If I tried to rant all about it though, it would take me an hour that I don't have to give it right now lol.

 

[FakeNate0]

That's fine. Most people are turned off by the cutscenes and hand holding of alola. My explanation is rather short. I'm having trouble getting through gen 3 GBA hoenn as I have to find proper level grinding spots to become stronger then the npcs team. Maybe I'll get used to it, but maybe I don't have to with oras.

 

[Devalue]

To get used to? Generation 1.

1. No physical/special split. No Special split either, for that matter.
2. Moves only different in this generation. Examples: 35 power Wing Attack. Normal-type Gust and Karate Chop. Mentions 100 power Dig too. (Went down to 60 in Generation 2 before going to 80 in Generation 4.)
3. Getting critical from Speed. Also ignores your stat boosts with criticals.
4. A few type chart changes, like Poison and Bug being super-effective against each other.
5. The poor options for experience in the second half.

 

[FakeNate0]

To get used to? Generation 1.

1. No physical/special split. No Special split either, for that matter.
2. Moves only different in this generation. Examples: 35 power Wing Attack. Normal-type Gust and Karate Chop. Mentions 100 power Dig too. (Went down to 60 in Generation 2 before going to 80 in Generation 4.)
3. Getting critical from Speed. Also ignores your stat boosts with criticals.
4. A few type chart changes, like Poison and Bug being super-effective against each other.
5. The poor options for experience in the second half.

These are the inconsistencies in earlier gens due to limitations. Initially gen 2 fixed the type effectiveness chart with ghost being super effective against psychic type and was intended to work as such in gen 1. Luckily gen 2 and onwards they included special attack and special defense. Only to improve the existing type moves to both include physical and special attack split in gen 4 and onwards.

 

[Corveone]

Any gen that doesn't have physical/special Split.

After that: Gen 8. Not a fan of Dynamax, never bothered learning the special effects of all the dynamax/G-max moves.

 

[FakeNate0]

Is that a ranking? In my opinion, I'm sort of biased with gen 4 because it was my first real Pokemon RPG, I'd have a soft spot for it. To answer no to physical special split would be gens 1-3 for move types that have no particular split. Gen 1 is for spcl. attack and spcl defense splits much like user devalue's points. I'm neutral when it comes to dynamaxing, even though I prefer to raise my Pokemon naturally. Gen 3 GBA hoenn in my opinion is the hardest one to get into as for the rest are easier to pick up and get used to overall in gameplay in my opinion.

Any gen that doesn't have physical/special Split.

After that: Gen 8. Not a fan of Dynamax, never bothered learning the special effects of all the dynamax/G-max moves.

 

[CoolKid575]

I'd say RSE/Gen 3. There's no Physical/Special split and experience is rather scare in RSE while the games aren't nearly as easy to cheese as Gens 1/2.

 

[FakeNate0]

I agree with you gen 3 GBA hoenn inmy opinion is the hardest 1 to pick up and get the hang of gameplay wise.

 

[giradialkia]

I would say Gen 4, but mainly DP, and perhaps Platinum.

The physical/special split was finally introduced, and this actually added viability to a tonne of Pokemon who were previously crippled by their own typing and moveset; Gyarados comes to mind. All of a sudden it gets to make full use of Waterfall, Crunch, the newly-introduced Ice Fang, where previously all of those moves would've drawn from its lesser Special Attack.

Additionally, it's just so damn slow. Game Freak's optimisation issues didn't start in the Switch games; surfing from Sandgem Town to Pal Park, or Sunyshore to Victory Road, should not take nearly as long as it does in DP. Battles are also painfully slow, even with animations off - there are obnoxious pauses when a move is selected, and the HP bar takes forever to move.

It's also possible to clip through the ground in Jubilife if you cycle too fast.

So, Gen 4 (DP) is the hardest to play/get used to.

 

[Setsuna]

Gen I. I think all the attention on the newer games has really distracted people from just how rough the first games were. They were legendary, really impressive for the time, and set a fantastic foundation for an entire series but... they were so incredibly janky.
Examples include:

• Stats being able to be raised so high they overflow into the negatives.
• Crit chance being based on speed.
• Only one Special stat making both attack and defense work off the same stat.
• Some small differences to the type chart like Psychic being immune to Ghost, which I can't say I ever felt was intended.
• A complete lack of Ghost and Dragon Pokemon outside of one family each, and a lack of Dragon moves in particular.
• Psychic types not only being plentiful in terms of moves and Pokemon but also often extremely unbalanced in their stats and movepools.
• Wrap lock existing and sleep taking an entire turn to wake up from.
• The biggest catalogue of bugs and glitches I've seen in any game, well-known ones including Missingno and the 1-in-256 glitch.

It's missing a good amount of features that would be included later in the series as well. Things like breeding, berries, held items, abilities, natures, or the physical-special split but that goes for any earlier generation, not just Gen I.
They're incredibly impressive and a great look at how the series began but there's no way any other mainline games could be harder to get used to, even with flaws the modern games have I don't think they've ever been this rough.

 

[Descendng]

I'd say it's between Gen 3 and Gen 7 for me.

Gen 3 has a bit of weird level scaling with not many great places to grind exp, lack of the physical/special split, and level up learnsets that are just criminal (e.g. Sandslash's only ground type move via levelup being Sand Tomb at LEVEL 52)
and while Gen 7 has the Exp Share and it's generally easier to keep your team on a steady level curve, most major trainers you end up battling use mons with high IVs and max EVs, and the totem mons can be genuinely difficult with some of the SOS allies they summon, especially if you aren't prepared.

 

[Sheep]

Am I the only one who thinks it may be 6? We had the jump from sprites to 3D and the lag/issues that came with it was very noticeable. A few of my favorite Pokémon had a bit of a visual downgrade in 3D that I'm still a bit unhappy with too; probably not something I'll get used to ever. :(

Otherwise definitely agreed with 4. The physical/special split was tough to adjust to for a while and the animations are so god dang slow. I can't play them even now at base speed because of that.

 

[Zeostar]

I'm finding it harder and harder to go back to the gens without physical special split. It was such an amazing change for the series.

Gen 1 is hard to understand, but I also think Kanto is the easiest region with some of the weakest gym leaders. It's easy to brute force without learning all of Gen 1's quirks, so going back and playing it isn't too awful.

 

[Palamon]

Generation 1. No abilities, no hold items, twenty items period, limited movepool, only 150 Pokemon... And glitches make it the hardest generation if you ask me.

But, gen 7 had its moments. Totems were really difficult.

 

[ReKoil]

Gen 2 gets a mention for how weird the gym leader levels and 'new' Pokemon distribution are.

That said as far as mechanics go: gen 1. You can't get me to play those games again.

 

[Rinzatapizza]

This is gen 3 for me.

 

[22sa]

Gen 7 … totem Pokémon can sweep your team 😳