I don't get Pokemon's appeal

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I honestly still enjoy the anime and the games. They are nostalgic, definitely. That's an added bonus.

In the 90's it was a game of collecting with so many facets (cards, TV, games) that everyone could easily be involved, and it was the first of its kind that was widely known. I'm not sure how it's still going strong and especially why similar games with superior mechanics are so far behind, but it probably has something to do with history and ease of access for new players. There's also the fact that other titles like Monster Rancher had perhaps a few dozen monsters while Pokemon has hundreds of potential favorites, and the monsters are the heart of these games.

If I'm bored enough, the simplicity doesn't bother me too much, so from time to time I load up Pokemon Emerald on the Virtual Boy Advanced emulator and play a little bit. I really can't compare it to other turn-based games that are in it's genre because my only other experience in it was Paper Mario (one of, like, my top 5 favorite games I played on Nintendo 64). And compared to other Pokemon fans, I really only care about Gen III, as the only Pokemon games that I played at an old enough age to understand them but before I really stopped being into handhelds are Ruby and Sapphire.

I played my first Pokemon game (Blue) when I was 20-21, and 14-15 years later I'm equally hooked on each new main game, and each new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorer. I also loved Pokemon Conquest.
I still think it's the best game ever, better even than Harvest Moon, SMB, TMNT, Animal Crossing or Rune Factory.
Pokemon is pure genius, fun, exciting, extremely addictive and emotional.

I don't play the new ones, I only play the older gameboy/gbc/gba ones, and even then, usually only once a day per like... year. I used to play red and blue all the time, but over time they just got too ridiculous with the pokemon. These days I think it sells mainly from overly hyped fans and over-rated reviews/commercials/etc.

It's become generic and plain, without any real substance aside from "new pokemon" to capture. It's Nintendo's version of Call of Duty.

Some people get a lot out of competitive battling.

This.

And honestly, I cant remember the last time I saw an "action RPG" that DIDNT end up being really button-mashy (which is why I tend to avoid them, though I am willing to at least try them).

Though, I also cant remember the last time I saw a turn-based RPG that wasnt A: way, WAY too easy, B: grindy as hell (aka, boring boring boring), or C: both. Even supposedly difficult ones like the SMT series can be utterly defeated by simple (and mindnumbingly dull) grinding.


I think that was always my issue with Pokemon as well. I was very into it as a kid, but nowadays, not really. The games take too long, there's way too much grinding, and even without grinding it's a very easy game. The challenge comes from the multiplayer, but the multiplayer pretty much requires the insane grinding in order to get your team up to the proper level for it.

You should try the King's Field series, and The Elder Scrolls as well, I think those are classified as Action RPG, though there is no button mashing and both can be quite challenging (especially king's field).

The Elder Scrolls ones I have indeed played. I cant call them "button mashy", but they're still very, very close at times.... I always find there's precious little thinking involved, just get a good sword and maybe a good ranged attack for emergencies and chop things. Doesnt matter HOW you chop them.... just chop them. They're entertaining games, but they dont hold my attention very well as a result.


King's Field, hmm..... that's new to me. Considering who made those, I do think I'll have to give them a go, as I've always liked that developer.

I definitely recommend them, there were only 3 out of the 4 games released in the U.S. but they're really fun to play and figure things out in.

I've watched the anime (who hasn't) but never got into the games despite some pressure from my brother and some of my friends and I'm wondering should I get into it?

You can always try getting into it, maybe you will start liking it if you learn how everything works?

If you really don't like it then just don't do it. It's simple as that.

Pokémon is like most fads that we grew up with. It was popular for a long time, but eventually become more of a cult thing for its fans.

I used to watch the Pokémon TV series and collect the trading cards. It was an expensive hobby. Once you collected most of the cards, the rarer ones marked with a star were hard to find to complete the set. Everybody wanted a Charizard. Everyone had to have one!

The reason I went off the Pokémon TV show was because I become more interested in survival horror games and I felt the series had run its course. Almost every episode was like a rehash, with Team Rocket trying to capture Pikachu, but they would be left being embarrassed and then sent blasting off into the sky again.

They later brought out new Pokémon and Brock was replaced by Tracey for a while. It was also a chore having to get up at 7:30 every morning to catch episodes on Sky One. After so long, I just lost interest, although a few years ago, I saw they had brought out overpriced DVDs of the series and I had considered getting back into it, but there was so many seasons I'd missed out on from not watching them and I questioned whether I ought to bother being a fan again. I chose not to bother, but Serebii dot net has a very comprehensive list of its episode summaries.

This is exactly why on every playthrough of Pokemon I've done so far I get exceptionally bored of it when I reach the Elite Four. I don't want to grind my Pokemon to level 50 or any of that bullcrap, so even though there are, like, a million, bajillion Pokemon fans that would say "For shame", I might not ever really beat a Pokemon game.

I just realized how many people are mentioning the show, and even though this isn't really something I talk about, I'll give my own experience of it:

I f**king hated it everything about it made me when to phase into the TV and just kill all of the characters. My bulls**t detector as a kid was kind of overactive so I actually liked only a few things on TV when I was young; a lot of kid's shows back then were incredibly stupid and just made me rage.

A show better than Pokémon is Cardcaptor Sakura, just called Cardcaptors in the UK. The show was sort of like Pokémon in that there was a book filled with cards that had powers, called Clow Cards and then Sakura who opened the book, has to get them back. She can then use their powers to fight the other cards and she has a group of friends, with one of them being able to film her adventures. I do remember it being heaps better than Pokémon.

I've seen that show when I was younger but I didn't quite get into it.