Personally i’d say XY and gen 6 in general, mega evolutions are excellent and they made an actual effort putting lore into the games (plus i’m french so i may be biased because kalos), ORAS were imo the best remakes ever and are exactly what a remake should aim to be.
Gen 5 is my absolute favorite out of them all . I love the plot of this game and also like how it forces you to play with unova’s own pokemons until you have the national dex , which is fun since I won’t be using the same pokemons I always use and will try something new . Also I really have a soft spot for gen 4 , imo it has the best soundtrack of them all .( I personally love the nighttime pokecenter theme and distorted world theme ) Johto was also really good , I like the region’s history . Wished Gen2 had a bigger plot (or a plot at all lol).
Grew up with Gen 3 and 4, and those have sentimental value with me; spent a lot of time trying to complete the Pokedex. I want to say it’s been going downhill since gen 6, but I think that might just be me being grumpy and old. :P
IMO gen 6/7 was the peak, it all kinda became garbage from there, especially with dexit and DLCs (thought its also the point where i stopped playing the games due to lack of emulation)
OG gen 2 or 3 are tied for first, but if I had to pick one, it’d be 3. The remakes were decent but felt off.
3 is probably my favorite, too, and the one I played the most as a kid. I stopped paying attention to Pokemon for a while and missed when the remakes came out. I played them a few months ago and really loved all the content they added. I went in blind and was blown away.
- It used to be 2 for nostalgia reasons but gen 5 feels like the titles that tried to be more ambitious than the rest of the series
Gen 3 has the most memories for me, though Gen 2 will always hold a special place in my heart. My hands down favorite Pokémon game to date though has to be Legends: Arceus. The combat was so refreshing, being able to catch Pokémon in the overworld was novel and fun, the story pulled me in and got me feeling really invested. I haven’t had nearly enough of that game yet.
It was delightful, being thrown into a world where the Pocket Monsters were treated… Like monsters. The consequences of being caught out without any partner Pokémon to battle with weren’t just “run back to the Pokémon center embarrassed”. I mean, they were for the player character, but in-universe they made a point to tell you that people die dealing with wild Pokémon. It was a diversion from the typical formula in a big way, and I loved everything about it. Shame we probably won’t get any more Legends games.
For me, it will always be first and second gen. I remember playing Pokemon blue on a very bare bones emulator before it released in my country or at least before I became aware of it. Later went on to get red, yellow (the one with Pikachu following you around) and silver.
The gens after that kind of added so much stuff that I wasn’t interested in at all and that seemed to clutter up the experience. But maybe I just grew out of the franchise as well.
Gen 1, but that may be because it’s the one I have the most nostalgia for.
Gen 2, hands down.