Why does Gen 7 have such a staying power? There are more threads about their characters than Gen 8 or 6 which are just after and before.
Even when people criticize games, it's always aimed at 8 or 6. Somehow 7 is never blamed.
When people criticize ugly Pokemon, 7 is always spared too.
last gen before art direction was maimed and never recovered
It was comfy, and didn't take itself too seriously. It was honestly a breath of fresh air for me. It made me feel like I was a veteran trainer just taking a breather and relaxing.
It was, dare I say, fun.
Make no mistake. The Alola games were absolutely shit, they just happen to be in the middle of other shit generations so they are neither the original shit that started the trend nor the most recent shit in everyone's memory. Thats why the avoid most of criticism in the switch era.
Im talking about the games at least. I have no opinion on the anime as I dont watch it.
>The Alola games were absolutely shit
yeah but they're still better than the ds games.
The absolute state of /vp/
The only thing people talk about regarding gen 7 are the skimpy underage girls.
Which is the only redeeming thing about Pokemon nowadays.
>There are more threads about their characters than Gen 8 or 6
probably because gen 7 characters don't live in a box with 3 lines of dialogue and never see them again and at best 1 or 2 appearances in the anime. you spend more time with them in trials than you do with gym leaders, see them outside of them as well, and they also take part in the plot, then add in ~146 episodes where you see them every episode vs every other series with 20 random anime npc of the day episodes inbetween 1 or 2 gym episodes, and the sun & moon anime just being more enjoyable its easier to get attached to this generation of characters than ones that on average just dont show up at all outside of their designated building
>Why does Gen 7 have such a staying power?
Game-wise:
USUM still stands as the last entry where you can obtain just about every Gen 1-7 pokemon up to Zeraora (807 pokemon in total + every mega evolution).
This was before SwSh's dexcut reduced the number of obtainable pokemon down to 664 and no megas. Objective downgrade and the death of the "Gotta Catch Em All" motto.
so USUM is (objectively) still the game with the largest pokedex of playable pokemon.
Anime-wise:
Not everyone will enjoy the Sun/Moon anime's slice of life approach and I'm not here to convince you otherwise.
It's unlike previous seasons where Ash traveled to 8 gyms to collect gym badges. So whether you enjoy Ash's tropical school adventures or not is completely subjective.
However, this season was the first time Ash has a won a tournament since.... frick, since the Orange Islands tournament. It's nice to see Ash not job for once, even if it is a backwater league.
Other than that, the Sun/Moon anime was a waifu palooza fest. Ash had a trio of cute female companions (Lillie, Lana, Mallow) instead of just 1 this time. And Alola had cute girls in general like Lusamine, Acerola, etc.
I bring up waifus because we took them for granted. Personally, I don't like Ash's SwSh companions very much. The femboy Goh and forgettable Koharu just pale in comparison to the Sun/Moon trio imo.
>Even when people criticize games, it's always aimed at 8 or 6. Somehow 7 is never blamed.
Because its fans are the ones attacking the other games.
I hate lillie but everything else was fun
JRPG fans tend to like SM because of the human cast and the unique setting. But that's basically it. Nothing else about the game really had staying power. Z-Moves, Festival Plaza, Rotom Navi, and all the tutorialized gameplay was widely panned. USUM was considered good by people who were hungry for a "Challenge Mode", but also panned for ULTRA CHANGES like the corridor city where Necrozma lives.
It really is just a solid single player story kind of game, assuming you care enough about it to power through the handholding. XY and SwSh were more built around community play.
Gen 7 was a pokemon vacation and peak comfy. I hadn't had as much fun in the series since G/S/C.
Too bad about all the unskippable cutscenes though.
it's hard to get over tragedies like gen 7. we're still talking about 911, holocaust, op being a gay, etc.
Why has poor Rokon underwent a nosejob in order to stay relevant?
OG vulpix is superior.
>bipedal Shinx
don't do this to me senpai…
?
Because it had the best Dex and story since B/W [not that that's a high bar to clear in the latter, mind you] and some of the most memorable characters in the franchise because Ohmori was passionate about his work. I still hate that they walked back Lusamine and her crazy in US/UM, it was a great angle for her.
Despite cutscenes and a bit too much handholding, Gen 7 had really solid games that were the only time when GF actually tried to innovate and play with mechanics and tools they had available.
Also Alola as region is colorful, vibrant, pleasant for eye and varied. Also there's a lot of genuinely likeable characters and Pokemon.
Also Alola anime was genuinely fun - yes, it was different but honestly I loved the comedy adventure vibes, with simpler character designs and more fluid animation.
As someone who has put in ungodly hours into gen7, doing hardcore nuzlockes, shiny hunting, and competitive battling here are my key takeaways:
Good waifu cast.
SM had a decent story with lusamine’s descent into madness, usum shafted this by shoehorning the ultra story for marketing purposes but the lore helps redeem some of this (realising mohn is the dad, finding a world destroyed by guzzlord,in SM you find out lusamine started investigating wormholes when mohn disappeard, and started going crazy after being infected by nihilegos toxins - good shit)
Gameplay wise you have megas and zmoves co-existing which makes battles exciting.
Nice legendary cast, from zygarde complete to ultra necrozma. Fanservice like ashgren
As a hardcore nuzlocker usum was the pinnacle of the vanilla nuzlocke experience.
Plenty more to list like getting to see red and blue but thats the stuff off the top of my head
because of Lana and Lillie