[POLL] IS POKEMON GROWING STALE?

I've definitely heard a few people complain about how the main series of Pokemon games are growing a bit stale at this point. And while, I'd like to offer a useful opinion on this topic. I really haven't spent any significant time on any games in the franchise since Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald on the GBA. So, I really don't have a lot of insight to offer on this topic. While, I do own copies of Sun and Moon I haven't spent any actual time on them. And I gave up on X or Y shortly after getting access to my Kanto starter Pokemon.

And I haven't spent any time on the competitive side of Pokemon. In fact, the bulk of my hours in Pokemon games are probably in gens 1 and 2 where I easily have over 500+ hours in them. Jeez, I still remember spending so much time on grinding in Pokemon Yellow in order to try and get all of my Pokemon to level 50+ that I actually managed to max out the clock at 255 hours and 59 minutes.

Though, I've probably got way more time in the second generation where I've done multiple challenge runs. I've done everything from beating the game with a team comprised of nothing but baby Pokemon to every mono type run you could think of. Albeit, I had to cheat in a few of the runs to even make them possible. After all, you really don't gain access to any Steel or Dark type Pokemon in Generation 2 until much later in the game. And most of them can only be gained through trading.

Though, I suppose I'm moving away from the poll's question so much as side tracking into just how much I enjoy the early games before we got into the madness of having over 800+ Pokemon.

author=pianotm
I have never felt the need to buy games that were essentially advertised as the same game with more Pokemón to find.

I'd say the early gens offered more then that. Gold/Silver/Crystal introduced the idea of held items which could up the power of your moves or allow you to carry berries that would offer benefits to the player like HP recovery or status effect removal. And all of the games introduce new moves which can help expand your strategic options. A good example of this can be scene in one of my mono runs for FireRed or LeafGreen where I used a Butterfree to sweep Giovanni's entire team. And this Butterfree was around the same level as Giovanni's Pokemon, but thanks to running the move set Sunny Day, Solar Beam, Psychic, and Sleep Powder it was able to compensate for it's critical weakness to moves like Rock Blast by putting his Pokemon to sleep and then setup Sunny Day in order to rapidly spam Solar Beams since you don't have to waste a turn on charging Solar Beam while Sunny Day is in effect.

The second generation also introduced the Steel and Dark types in order to help nerf the OP normal and psychic type Pokemon from the first generation. Though, I'll admit Alakazam was still pretty broken thanks to how easy it was to access the elemental punches in Generation 2. Though, I'll admit I wished they had put more steel and dark type Pokemon in Generation 2 as well as made them easier to get a hold of near the start of the game.

And generation 2 also split the special stat into two categories which meant Pokemon like Alakazam were no longer tanky when it came to moves that did damage based on the users special stat. And Pokemon like Chansey were no longer offensively viable because of their lack of special attack.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald on the other not only introduced new moves, but also introduced players to the notion of Pokemon having special abilities that could offer the player advantages in or out of combat. Zigzagoon for instance can randomly find items for the player thanks to it's special ability being pickup. While Pokemon like Hypno have the special ability insomnia so they can't be put to sleep.

And the 4th generation introduced the special/physical split. Thanks to this water moves no longer necessarily did damage based on the users special attack stat, but could do damage based on their physical attack stat which was mana from heaven in the eyes of Gyarados.

And this concept applies to every move in the game. So whether a move did damage from your special attack or physical attack stat was controlled by how the move was delivered. This even helped Hitmonchan to a certain extent since it now meant the elemental punches were making use of it's superior physical attack stat. Of course, how useful this was is a bit in the air. Since, I'm guessing Hitmonchan was pretty irrelevant by the time of Generation 4 thanks to power creep.

author=kentona
I still don't understand (outside of a few like Pokemon Yellow and Let's Go Eevee!) why all of the starters have to be Grass, Fire, Water.

I have never played a pokemon game (except GO!) so maybe there's some logical reason to this beyond 'As Is Tradition'.

Well outside of the obvious answer of tradition at this point. I'd also point out the fact that Pokemon is just a massive game of rock, paper, scissors, when you get right down to it. As such, it makes sense to go with the least complicated trio possible to represent this rock, paper, scissor, relationship with fire beating grass, grass beating water, and water beating fire.