Red/Blue/Yellow (Gen I)
Probably considered the worst competitive setting for Pokemon, and for relatively good reason. If the competitive community didn't already complain about Pokemon's luck factors, this gen gives them even more to snivel about. For those that are unaware, the major factor here is that critical hits are determined by a Pokemon's Speed stat, as opposed to later generations, where crits have a 6.25% of happening at all times. That means Pokemon like Tauros and Starmie are critical hit fiends, landing extra damage about 20% of the time. This also means that a Pokemon with a high critical hit ratio attack (Slash, Razor Leaf, etc.) with a base 65 Speed stat or higher will critical hit 100% of the time with that attack. Factor in widespread paralysis (because a lot of OUs have access to Thunder Wave and some Pokemon don't have a large enough movepool to use anything else except Body Slam for their last move) and a freeze status that does not defrost unless you use a Fire-type move or Haze, and you have a gen where luck can turn things around instantly for player, regardless of the skill gap.As derpy as that sounds there are a number of thing to be appreciated about this gen. For one thing, it helps a fact set in that Pokemon has luck factors. However obvious that is, it seems like whenever a lot of players get haxed, they must cry endlessly after battle about how luck screwed them over and how much different the battle would have gone if Hydro Pump hadn't missed three times in a row. Considering the battle could have gone any kind of way in regards to luck, such whining is unwarranted. Luck is part of the game, and you should expect it to happen at any time. RBY helps that fact set in. Because luck plays such a prevalent part in a battle, you really can't be mad that your Snorlax was full paralyzed for 3 turns straight, because you probably froze the opponent's Chansey or critical hit that Snorlax with a Psychic when it was set to finish your Alakzam off.
Another thing to appreciate about this gen are the movepools, or lack thereof. There's a simplicity to the game where optimal movesets are not diverse and where a Pokemon's movepool might only give it 2-3 relevant moves, yet a skilled player can make the most of what they have. Breaking down walls is also not *as* much of a chore as it can be in later gens, since your premier physical walls are things like Golem and Rhydon (and Cloyster?), to which Tauros answers with Blizzard, Snorlax with Surf/Blizzard, and Persian with Bubblebeam (yes, Bubblebeam) and your special walls are Chansey and Alakazam (Snorlax is not a special wall just yet).
In summary, it's a relatively offensive gen with not a lot of set up moves that relies often on raw power and a very common luck factor to break through opposing defenses. Defenses which must improvise on how it handles certain Pokemon, as there are no Leftovers to help with health recovery and there is not always a solid answer to certain threats (except Chansey vs special moves). It's easy to pick up, however monotonous it is to see the same 4 Pokemon on every team, and difficult to dislike, unless you're an aforementioned whiner.
Gold/Silver/Crystal (Gen II)
First thing someone says when looking at the competitive OU environment in this gen is that it's a "stall metagame." That is a common misconception, depending on how you look at it.To explain, and this spans across both Gen I and II, all of a Pokemon's stats are maxed. There are factors that influence stats, like DVs and IVs (don't worry about that), but a Pokemon can max ALL of its stats, and is not limited by the EV capacity of later gens. That means moves hit harder, but it also means Pokemon can generally take more damage before fainting.
Next, GSC introduces the Steel-type. This is important because of Skarmory. What RBY never had to worry about (Normal types could Surf/Blizzard an incoming Rock type) and what later gens had measurements for (Magneton/Magnezone trap and OHKO Skarmory, an Pokemon just became stronger in general to where even certain physical moves could bear down on it) is none other than a metal bird and the premier physical wall of GSC and generations to come. It's not something gotten rid of easily, to make way for the Pokemon it keeps in check, so that Curse/Return/Earthquake/Rest Snorlax you're conserving as your only/main offense will be set in to wait for quite a bit of time before it actually gets a chance to do relevant damage.
And then, there's Sleep Talk. Sleep Talk works a bit differently in this game, as when you Sleep Talk and it selects Rest while you are at less than full health, you recover to full health and your sleep counter resets. This is appealing to a number of users since you can attack from a defensive position. Very dangerous when Pokemon with offense boosting moves, like Vaporeon and Snorlax are involved. Very...dull when something isn't boosting its offense in the process. The exceptions being Zapdos and Raikou, who have the Special Defense and moves to take a Sleep Powder from Exeggutor and potentially fire back a Drill Peck/Crunch/Hidden Power [Ice] for some considerable damage. Having the strongest STABed (Same Type Attack Boost) Thunder/Thunderbolts in the game isn't a bad deal either.
So mix this all together and let it sit. Then take the numerous offensive threats in the game- Machamp, Marowak, Snorlax, and Vaporeon to name only a few. These are all things that can boost their offense and cause some big damage if you don't have an answer for them. So what do you do?
...You make sure you have an answer for them. That mentality leads for a lot of players (particularly players who are new to this gen) to end up creating stall teams. It's a legitimate idea to make sure you can counter a lot of things (because it's a lot harder to revenge kill Pokemon here), but then you leave little room for your own offense. Slapping Rest/Sleep Talk/Double-Edge/Earthquake Tauros on your team isn't the best of ideas if you have no way of addressing its counters. And so it's often these kinds of players that are often stalling things out (along with some veterans that prefer a more stallish approach). Others are working to conserve their offense and/or "win condition." When these two ideals clash, you good 200+ turns of PP stretching goodness.
As an example, I recently faced a player for 296 turns. My main strategy was holding on to a Lovely Kiss/Belly Drum Snorlax to finish off 4 remaining Pokemon while having Starmie spin away the Spikes that my opponent tried to lay down with Forretress. While I had these, my opponent literally had nothing he could do to me, since most of his strategy hindered on just letting me trip up over Spikes. During his team building, he had not considered any procedure for getting rid of my Spinner, but rather had THREE resistances to my Snorlax (Tyranitar, Skarmory, Forretress). His sole offense was Rest/Sleep Talk/Curse/Body Slam Snorlax, with only his Tyranitar to take on Ghost types. Nothing there to really pressure Skarmory and Steelix, who switch in on that for free. I on the other hand had a similar strategy in mind with Snorlax, but with Lovely Kiss to screw over Skarmory, at the least, and was backed up by Reflect on two other Pokemon to reduce damage from the likes of Tyranitar and what not.
That's not to say that a well-thought out offense is necessarily going to reduce the amount of turns spent in battle, but when you spend less time "stalling" and more time trying to find a way to break down walls, the game becomes more entertaining. As a parallel, you can look at the game of Chess.
Summary: GSC is not necessarily a "stall" metagame. It's harder to break down some things due to bulkier Pokemon and lack of stall-breaking moves and abilities (like Taunt, Arena Trap, Magnet Pull), but there are several methods of viable offense that those quick to judge have not explored, due to the want to counter everything under the sun (because that's more possible to do in this gen). Sometimes players do look to try and set up an offense, but do so in the wrong way (ie, trying to powerhouse their way to a win without considering potential counters). Even if offenses and strategies are well thought out, a game can still be drawn out for extra turns, but keeping a win condition in mind can make the process less rage-inducing.
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen - aka the Advance Generation (Gen III)
Yes, I must make the distinction, as certain Pokemon weren't introduced onto the Gameboy Advance handhelds until FireRed and LeafGreen, and Pokemon weren't obtainable between Ruby/Sapphire and FR/LG without the help of Emerald. ._. Not to mention that Ruby/Sapphire make a metagame of its own, called "200," which is not what we're going to talk about here.ADV is my gen of choice. It's got a more explosive offensive potential than GSC, due to new held items, moves, and abilities, but unlike the past gen it's a lot more viable to simply attack from a defensive position. Some of the counters to some of the most dangerous Pokemon can actually do some considerable damage due to the defensive limitations introduced by Effort Values (EVs), and hell, they can probably set up their own offense in the process. Where Suicune was once just a boring go-to for keeping Ground and Rock types at bay, it became an offensive threat through Calm Mind while still retaining its old job. Swampert's a crowd favorite for countering Tyranitar, and it has the ability to hit things for decent damage across the board. If you consider it so, Skarmory contributed more to offensive pressure when it gained access to Spikes. Sentiments aside from this being the first gen I played competitively, I've come to feel that this was a good balance of all things Pokemon that allowed for a wide variety of playstyles and where the metagame had evolved more over time than its preceding gens. There's really not a whole lot I want to say on this, as if there is a dislike for it from newer players (I've heard people call it a "stall" generation as well), I don't actually understand it.
Summary: Not necessarily a "balanced" gen, as I've implied, but has a good mix of offensive and defensive potential that allows for a variety of successful teams and strategies, all of which have changed in prevalence over time, and are probably still subject to change.
This is the part where you start to rip me a new one. I've never inquired as to the overall appeal of Gen IV and Gen V, but have inferred it through what I've seen and experienced...which isn't an awful lot. I've played enough to test several teams and enter a couple of tournaments in each gen, but I haven't become notably successful or attached to either one. I now introduce you to the sloppier part of this post:
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (Gen IV)
***Skip Down if you don't care about why I initially disliked this gen***When I heard a new generation was on the rise at the peak of competitive ADV play, I was a bit conflicted. I was just getting the hang of things and becoming a decent player, so it all felt a bit too soon for me. Not to mention we had already reached 386 Pokemon total. The thought of shoving 100 or so more into memory was a bit daunting. However, I was interested...for all of two seconds. News hit that a major change would be a physical/special split between moves and that was not an idea I was fond of.
For the unaware, the physical or special properties of an attacking move in Gens I - III were determined by type. Water, Grass, Fire, and Dragon type attacks were of the special variety, while types like Normal, Rock, Bug, and Ghost were physical. DPP changed all of that by giving moves their own physical or special property, regardless of type. (ie Fire Blast is special while Fire Punch is physical). I was highly against this idea, whining a silly complaint that the change was to appeal to "dumbass losers who didn't know how to properly deal with Skarmory + Blissey," and vowed to never play the new game due to the fact.
As a perspective to my naive thoughts at the time, take a look at Sneasel. It was a badly designed Pokemon when it was introduced in GSC. It was fast, but incredibly frail, and the moves it received STAB from came from a terrible Special Attack stat while its strong Attack stat only warranted use from a poor variety of moves (like Dynamicpunch and Return/Frustration. D:). This remained relatively unchanged during ADV, yet there were lesser players who would use it and get frustrated when their Ice Punch was doing absolutely nothing to anything that mattered, particularly (you guessed it!) Skarmory and Blissey. But with DPP and its new mechanics hitting the shelves around the same time as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I had this notion that game devs were trying too much to make games that were well received by competitive communities more appealing and accessible to casual level players (how ironic that I play Brawl more than Melee, right?). There was nothing wrong with this, of course, but it didn't sit right with me that this once terrible Pokemon would be able to hit a special wall with a move that it once took minimal damage. So after a year or two of unwarranted hatred and re-introducing old gens to a Gen IV dominated community, I gave the game a shot every now and then.
******End Skip******
The first few tries of me failing I attributed to me not being familiar with how things work. As I watched and played a little more (I still don't have a full understanding of the metagame, btw), I saw the general flow of battle, and I can say that the gen is relatively solid, however much I still dislike/feel uncomfortable with it. The pace of the battles are similar to the pace of RBY battles, since making a defensive switch doesn't always involve a solid counter, but often rather a "check" or a combination of checks.
Because there's not much I can say that I like about the gen (except maybe the changes made to Scizor), I'll try and describe the things I dislike about it, the first of which is Stealth Rock. If an alternative set of Spikes were introduced that simply and exclusively hit Flying types or Pokemon with the Levitate ability (which are immune to regular Spikes), I'd probably be fine. Stealth Rock is a whole other monster. It takes one turn to set up, can remove up to half of certain Pokemon's health (more commonly a fourth), and the metagame seemingly revolves around setting it up and keeping it around. Literally, some Pokemon are set out as sacrifices to set it up from turn #1 and some Pokemon have movesets mean to counter those kinds of sacrifices and keep them from setting up (or rather ensure their death the moment they do choose to set up a Stealth Rock). Even calculations in Pokemon analyses factor in how many attacks it takes to KO an opposing Pokemon WITH Stealth Rock damage in mind.
For clarification, Stealth Rock is an entry hazard, where a Pokemon receives damage based on its resistance/weakness to Rock type moves. It takes 12.5% health from a Pokemon that's neutral to it, meaning Weavile takes 25% damage and Yanmega takes 50% damage JUST FROM SWITCHING IN. This is not completely a bad thing, since there are measures to get rid of Stealth Rock, as well as preventing them from being set up. What actually irks me is how much more dangerous some Pokemon would become without its exsistence (a sentiment that carries over into Gen 5). Gyarados and Dragonite gaining access to physical Waterfall and Outrage/Dragon Claw respectively become a bit more difficult to write off without the extra damage provided by SR, and as I mentioned before, some Pokemon analyses calculate KOs with Stealth Rock damage factored in, meaning without Stealth Rock, you may be taking an extra turn of damage trying to kill certain things off. Like I mentioned, if it were just like regular Spikes, where it takes 3 turns to set up fully, or even only it exclusively hit Flying types, this wouldn't be as much of a gripe for me, but won't someone please think of poor Regice? ;___;
Next is Choice Scarf. My opinion here doesn't hold very well, since I'm adamant that someone should not complain about unpredictability in a game where so many options are available, but competitive Pokemon is already a lot of guesswork in that sense. Choice Scarf adds an element to where not only do you have to guess what kind of move is going to be used against you (from Pokemon that are versatile like that), but now you have to guess if you're going to be outrun by the attacking Pokemon as well. If I know how dangerous Swords Dance Scizor can be, I'd certainly want waste no time in blasting it with my half-health Heatran. How unfortunate that this Scizor is of a Choice Scarfed variety and outran me to hit with Superpower for a KO. Once again, it's an unpredictability element, so there's little room to complain, but the offensive prowess of the game leaves little room for conservation if you're not running a stall team, and the surprise of a Choice Scarf, from my perspective, leads to loss in personnel more often than using a non-standard moveset (think Snorlax using Fire Blast to mess with Skarmory).
Summary: This gen is more solid than I initially gave it credit for, but occasionally the offense it allows seems mindless and the idea of hindering conservation (even RBY gives you some outlets and reasons to keep a Pokemon around, even when they're on their last leg) doesn't sit well with me.
Black/White (Gen V)
You know how a lot of people view today's media and their effect on kids? Like, the values they're being taught and what not? That's kind of how I view BW. Being taught patience and ingenuity with the resources I have in older gens, the fact that this gen's competitively play encourages hitting hard and fast more than anything (there's still stall and it still works) makes me cringe. It's another case of "I dislike this, though it's not necessarily bad," but in a sense that this is the kind of fan base that influences how certain games will be made. The kind of competitive community that derives from this is often in conflict amongst itself because of the mindless elements it includes. Forget the inherent luck factor and the players that complain about it. Explain why Dragon types got such a boost that 4Drag2Mag(neton/nezone) is a legitimate offensive strategy. Have you seen Volt Switch + U-Turn on the same team? It's not impossible to defend against, but shit if you don't take unnecessary damage if you don't predict correctly. Weather has never been such a dominating factor since it was introduced in GSC. What's a Terrakion, you ask? A high HP, high Attack, high Speed Rock/Fighting type (you know, the dominant attacking type in this gen) that gets STAB on Stone Edge (high crit ratio Rock-type attack) and whose main checks have to take a ton of damage to where they can only switch in 1-2 times, or who have to use Choice Scarf to outspeed/KO it (if it's not using a Scarf itself). Setting these things up has a mindless feel to it at a lower level, though higher levels of play include more thought and prediction.Parallel: For anyone who's familiar with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom, think of how some low/mid-level players can herp derp their way to victory with Wesker or X-Factor (or both), yet at high level play, one can appreciate the intricacies that underlie solid gameplay, turning it into smart/technical gameplay. That in mind, it doesn't take away the fact that both games have evident bullshit in them.
The only thing I can really appreciate about this gen is the variety. I'm a sucker for combining things to work as a unit, which is the only real reason I gave this a shot. But past that, the mindlessness of just attacking with your strongest moves or having to sacrifice a Pokemon to a strong move (because you can't cover everything, even less so than in RBY) and the community that plays it-
Oh, right those guys. I've seen a lot and done my share of whining after battle, but jeez, I think the newer generation of players take the cake. Not only do I occasionally see complaints about using "cheap" strategies (Really? Really?), but people get called out for using stall teams, people rage quit when you get ONE critical hit for a KO on their star Pokemon. At a certain point, it was less of me not deriving any enjoyment from the game and more of me not wanting to deal with these kinds of people. I mean, I've been called out for predicting correctly and getting a KO for it. What? Maybe I'll give it another go in the future to make a better opinion, but my impressions thus far are a detriment to that cause.
Summary: Clusterfuck of a gen where there are few restraints and results only become consistent at higher levels of play, and even then it's Pokemon, so luck factor can (and often does) ruin the experience for those involved. The community that plays it fervently at low/mid-levels are often childish and complain about the dumbest shit, moreso (I believe) than in past gens. My comrades can feel free to call me out on this.
So, if you enjoy Pokemon for what it is, more power to you. I think that's the best way to go, since the in-game experiences are definitely some of my treasured past times from older generations. The anime was enjoyable for the first few seasons and I only read one issue of that kick ass manga but it was...kick ass. But I've been trying to come to grips with the current competitive community, since that's where I get the most experience for my buck, and this is where I currently stand.
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