4th Gen Love?

[The darn 4th chaos emerald]

I see 4th gen get so much hate and 9/10 the single sole reason is that "it's slow". A valid complaint, but honestly, besides the hp and exp bars, I was never bothered by it. I loved the anime, so many trash pokemon were made good through evolution, the pokemon in general are just cool, the graphics are good, it has the 2nd gen remakes, the MUCH NEEDED phys/special split, better competitive due to the split, iv checker, and wi fi, battle frontier, best rival, and people complain about the story too, but in my opinion, 7th gen is the only gen with a story that passes an "ok" rating.

[Sonikku]

I honestly love 4th gen, and it was the gen I started in. Also to tell you the truth, a lot of people would say Platinum is the best pokemon game, and I def believe it's up there, but not sure about being the best. Another thing, gen 4 was easily the best competitively. There weren't really any pokemon that ran rampant that also couldn't be checked. It was the most balanced and was really offensive. Gen 7 is kinda looking to be like gen 4 in that regard. (not that balanced tho, rip)

Gen 4 was just barely my second favorite generation behind gen 5, but Sun and Moon took that place. Man, those games are really well made. Still boggles my mind that they actually removed hms in a main series pokemon game.

Also gen 4 brought wifi and physical crunch, nuff said

[Hexagoen]

Honestly, I don't think people necessarily hate Gen 4, its just that it wasn't as interesting (imo) plotwise as the other generations were. How i can best describe this feeling is, it feels 'grey' while the other generations were colorful. That being said, I was introduced to pokemon in generation 4 and honestly it felt just as good as the other generations I played.

So take it as you will I guess.

[pikafan96]

Honestly, I've always loved gen 4! The Turtwig line is one of my favorites as far as starters go, it brought along a ton of awesome new evolutions for older Pokemon, and as stated in the original post, it gave us the physical/special split, which was greatly needed. And don't forget about Cynthia! She's a great champion! She's one of the few trainers that have actually given me a hard time in the main series Pokemon games, I still remember how frustrated I was when I first battled her.

But overall gen 4 really was one of the better generations, I still like to go back and play Platinum sometimes

[Chase]

I don't dislike generation 4 - but only because I have yet to finish a Gen 4 game.

For me, Gen 4 happened at the time in one long-time fan's life where Pokemon was fading out of style and after the generation I had played the most (I had completed the PokeDex in Gen 3 through ardous work.) - so it's the generation that symbolizes the bad times.

That being said, it's not the games itself that give it a negative stigma. It's probably a really great game, that I missed out on.

[Combat]

I like Generation Four, so that's all that really matters to me.

[Zey]

Gen 4 is pretty much my favourite generation of all time.

Not because of the story because that wasn't it's strong point imo, or it's slow gameplay which I do acknowledge for it being a huge flaw and set back; but because of the Pokemon introduced (Roserade, Lucario, Giratina, Darkrai to name a few), the characters involved (CYNTHIA, Elite 4, Team Meteor as a whole, Gym leaders esp Wake and Looker for sure) And the whole map was memorable and never ending. The features the game had, the interactivity at the time, ONLINE WAS A THING, and everything else under the sun. It was just perfect for me. It was the first game I saved my pocket money to get because parents are highly against Pokemon.

The soundtrack was brilliant, I rather it than Hoenn's trumpets.

I can't fault it. There is a reason I have the timer stuck at 999.99 on my original Platinum save.

[5hift]

I'll take gen 4 over gen 5 any day of the week.

[Personthing]

EDIT: I am dumb, did not notice I posted on this thread before the site update lmao.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Personthing

[Ironbound]

Gen4 master race

Anyone who disagrees will suffer death by magnets.

[Yours Truly]

The gen 4 games need a remake; the story was nice and team galactic was the first genuinely terrifying evil team in the main pokemon series, and it also introduced Weavile, Rhyperior, and Giratina; who are all awesome, but I could never finish a Gen 4 game myself; I always got lost before the electric type gym and eventually gave up.

[FairFamily]

Gen 4 is with cynthia right? Nope can't hate that gen.

Also the story of gen 5 was actually quite decent.

[Alistair]

Hey, gen 4 is cool.

It just suffers from the relative lack of memorable designs imo. But that kind of stuff is always subjective.

[Jmanultrax1]

Gen 4 was a really good game. It actually gave challenges in its story. Also Cynthia was by far one of the most toughest champions. (Alder and Dianne weren't really a challenge).But Cynthia I failed to beat her twice, that champion was fun to fight no how many times I re-matched her.

[Tartar]

I don't know, Gen 4 was kinda weak in regards to the execuation of the plot. But perhaps I'm just spoiled by the quality of the plot in Gen 5...

But I do agree that the evolutions of older Pokémon was a great feature.

I do have a personal theory though: 90% of people's favorite Gen was the one they grew up with.

[Jmanultrax1]

I grew up with gen 3 and that's not my favourite gen, but your theory makes sense.

[TimTim]

Gen 4 (Sinnoh for the most part, HGSS is a remake I am not going to touch upon that) for me is somewhere in between, I mean it has its flaws and strength, for me:

Flaws: 1) Stale as it is as everyone said before, yeah gen 4 game lag is a bit of a turn off for me, not by much though

2) Seriously have you surfed in the game like taking forever to reach your destination, its a good thing Sinnoh doesn't have abundant water like in Hoenn

3) Graphics could have been a little better

4) Was not fan of Sinnoh Mount Coronet map

Strengths: 1) I think we can all agree on Cynthia being the great champion, a full package, I always like a portrayal of strong female character in game

2) Sinnoh has best set of starters as a whole, I love all three of them and not every gens do that for me

3) Cyrus is badass boss with actual evil motivations when executed it is far more dangerous than any villainous team motives

4) Introduction of new evolutions to otherwise forgotten pokemons

[Alistair]

I actually don't mind a slow paced pokemon game. These games are about travelling and taking your time for me.

Same thing for the graphics. Yeah they were a bit weak, but no game in the generations from 1 to 4 had great graphics anyway. It's not what I expect from a pokemon game.

Funny thing tho, the set of starters which you cited as a strength is arguably one of the weakest imo, all generations taken into consideration. Again, it boils down to personal preference either way.

I agree with everything else. It's a generation that had its flaws, but by no means was it terrible.

[NickCrash]

Gen4 in a nutshell

• Competitive > Campaign
• Evolutions to pokemon from previous generations
• Physical / Special split

[laggless01]

I started with gen III, and while I really like that game for different reasons (that vastness), I think Gen IV is my favourite.
Diamond/Pearl were rather stale (their legendaries don't sound intimidating either, especially after Rayquaza) compared to Platinum, but the latter one delivered (Holy hell the Distortion World). Cyrus was a good villain, too, imo way better than Rocket or Aqua/Magma. (Plus all the love for Weavile) I also had a lot of trouble with Cynthia on my first runs, I hated Spiritomb for a while.
Plus everytime it snows, music from those games' snow route plays in my head.

Don't forget the Gen IV Mystery Dungeon Explorers of the Sky, that game was incredible.

[mde2001]

I really dislike Gen 4, not only because it runs really slowly (which is a factor), but also because it had the least interesting story, region and characters in my opinion. X and Y had an equally basic plot, but the visual advances gave things more life and personality, and without this it just leaves me kind of bored whenever I play through the fourth gen games. There are few pokemon that I really love that were added in those games as well. The roster was generally solid and there aren't that many pokemon from them that I actively dislike, there just weren't many that excited me.

I haven't played HGSS and I am more than willing to believe they would make me like gen 4 more. Gen 2 is still my favourite gen, and seeing johto in a whole new graphic style could be really cool. So I might not dislike fourth gen as a whole, just the main games of it.

[Qaaz]

I seriously don't know someone who hates Gen 4, lot hates the 5th and the rest (6th and 7th) but Gen 4 is the most popular after the 3rd.
For me is one of the fav ones for lot of reasons that already mentioned above and I'm playing Pokemon since Gen 1

Short story long: I'm just waiting for Gen 4 remakes

[WanderingCorvus]

4th Gen is actually my favorite generation so far. Yes, due to hardware and software issues it ran slowly, but to be fair it was the first true Pokemon game on the DS. I loved the story too, Cyrus and Team Galactic were a more serious bunch of antagonists than what we had seen before, what with his plan to undo all of reality and re-write it by enslaving the physical concepts of Space and Time. Universal genocide seems like the worst thing anyone could do. Palkia is still my favorite legendary followed up by Giratina, and Turtwig/Torterra is always my "bro tier" starter. If there is going to be a Gen 4 remake, I'll be ready to buy it (Gamefreak maybe include an Azure Flute event this time?).

[Maelstrom]

Gen 4 is my least favorite gen. I'd go on a rant about it but I'd just be repeating myself.

[Personthing]

Sinnoh is HM hell to the point where you need to carry cut, rock climb, rock smash, surf, and strength at all times during the post game and such. It's just awful design that drags an already slow gen down, to the point where I believe Sinnoh is easily the worst region.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Personthing