Reasons why you love Pokémon

[Maqqy]

Hello hello everybody. I wanted to make a comfy thread. I wanted to know what made you guys into the gigantic franchise that is, Pokemon, in the first place and the reasons that made you continue to stick by it. For me I’ve always loved it. Started with Pokemon Gold and never stopped. The feeling of setting out in an adventure with 6 loyal friends, winning battles and seeing them grow and evolve, it’s irreplaceable. Pokemon has helped me a lot growing up and going through tough times. Even now it’s still my source of strength. I still wish for that one special day that when I wake up, I’ll be packing my stuff, leave the house, get my starter mon and never look back. So how about you? What do you love the most about pokemon?

 

[Wolfox]

Well firstly there was the anime, followed it till unova when I could finally play myself. And that's about it on how I became a fan. 

[Destrakon]

Charizard got my attention, from that on, I follow Pokemon, watching the animated series. My first game, was, rarely, Diamond. I really love, and later I realized Platinum was in my hands. The best core games of Pokemon, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, in my opinion.

[Candy]

This is going to get long af but I think it'll be a fun read if you like reading  

My story with Pokemon begins with the Pokemon anime. I don't know when or how, but when I was 5 years old, I watched the first episode of the first season (the one when Ash wakes up late and gets Pikachu) and was hooked by the world inhabited with animals but cooler. At the time, my parents both worked during the weekdays, and they'd given explicit directions to my nanny to only allow me to watch one hour of TV per day. So I watched Cardcaptor Sakura and Pokemon, right after the other, 30 minutes each in the afternoons.

Then, my dad's colleague, bless him, gave me a limited edition gameboy color (golden hardware with pikachu and pichu on the display's rim), and my aunt, bless her, gave me Pokemon Pikachu Version and Silver Version, which my cousin had played already. I tried Pikachu version first, because the idea of Pikachu following you was awesome as hecc. But I was a dumb 5 or 6 year old at the time so I couldn't beat Brock with a Pikachu and Butterfree/Pidgey. So I discarded that and played Silver. I learned as I played, and every puzzle was a struggle, every gym leader a challenge. But that made it all the more satisfying when I managed to beat all the Gym leaders. I was still a dumb kid though so I didn't beat the league.

Sometime around then, the first Pokemon movie was being sold as a VHS, and supposedly a mew holographic card would come with it. I won't lie, when I opened the VHS's case and didn't find the card inside... that was top 10 anime betrayals in my life xD but I was determined not to be upset by it, and watched the movie. I was a simple-minded kid, as I've already told you, so I didn't get the deep themes or anything, but it was an enjoyable movie. I watched that movie about 10 times during my childhood. That's when mew became my favorite pokemon.

Since mew was my favorite pokemon, my dad bought me a mew keychain that lit up when you smacked the bottom (no lewding pls) when he traveled to Japan. I was ecstatic. I brought that keychain everywhere I went. But again, I was a dumb naive kid, so one day during my ballet presentation rehearsal (I think we were doing the Sleeping Beauty but not too sure), I showed it to one of my "friends" who proceeded to apparently throw it somewhere in the direction of the seats. I was heartbroken, and my dad and I spent about half an hour looking under every seat to find it without avail. My dad told me that my "friend" might have made a gesture of throwing but then didn't throw it and might've kept the keychain to herself. But since I had no way of proving that, I just gave up on that. My dad somehow bought me another one, but I also lost that one. I was a dumb kid (yep, hammering it home) so many of the kids at school took advantage of me and stole a lot of my stuff in the early school years lol

Anyhow, one more thing. One Christmas, "Santa" got me a Pikachu plush that moved its mouth and said "pikachu! pika pika" when you pressed somewhere (I forget). I was ecstatic again! Though obviously the battery didn't last forever, it was a lovely gift.

Aaaand you've finally finished reading the earliest memories of my childhood that concern pokemon  after that, I got my first brand new pokemon game, Pokemon Emerald, and proceeded to buy the Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, and Pokemon Hard Gold. That was the last pokemon game I bought, because I started not playing games as much. I don't really know what I did in my free time. Guess reading lol

It was actually finding the existence of DS romhacks (at the time didn't know they were illegal because they were hacks of older games, but I guess I was a dumb grownup as well) and me playing Pokemon White that brought me back into the franchise. I'd heard bad press about Gen 5 so I gave it a shot thinking it'd be meh, but really the haters were meh because that stuff was da shit. Gen 5 is still my fave gen. Then, I found out about fangames, and the rest is history my frens. Now I'm the literal definition of a Switch Girl, cause people somehow don't expect me to play Pokemon even though I'm Japanese for whatever reason. Whatever, their loss.

[Gainery]

I could talk about the reasons why I enjoy, and value Pokemon as one of my favorite series for a long time. Generally, I'm not someone who's played since day 1, in fact, I came in the middle of generation 4, but I've probably invested more time into this series than anything else I have, besides Legend of Zelda.  It all started one Christmas, around 2008-2009, when I was given a GameBoy Advance, and a bunch of Pokemon games. Specifically Blue, and Leafgreen. I vividly remember turning on Blue for the first time, and taking an hour to figure out where the door to the house was. I ran out of ideas and started hugging the wall, and I managed to go outside. I absolutely had no idea what was going on, but I went through the game anyway, and it was amazing. The aspect of the varying amount of choices was mind boggling to me, and it was great to figure stuff out, such as that one guard that needed something to drink. It took me MONTHS to beat the Elite 4, until I finally managed to do it with my lvl 83 Zapdos, and everything else lvl 40's. I ran around my house, happy at my accomplishment when I finally beat Gary. This would become the building blocks that readied me for the next generation that I would play. A generation which came to include my favorite game of all time. That generation was gen 5, and my favorite game of all time is Pokemon Black. 

I think that the point of gen 5 was to reinvent gen 1, which was why black and white had almost all new pokemon, and nothing else from other gens. I believe that Game Freak succeeded in doing so. 

I actually didn't know of Black and White until 2011, until my friend's brother came over, and brought a DS and Pokemon White. He was having trouble beating Burgh, and I asked him if I could try. I ended up beating Burgh with a Pidove and a Servine. I instantly wanted the game, but I had to wait until my birthday later in the year, until I could get it. When I got it, I played it, and continued playing it until I suddenly beat the game. When N said "goodbye" and the end credits music started playing, I realized how beautiful the game had been. I realized that I loved the music, and I loved the characters, and I loved the pokemon, and I loved the areas. It hit on me how much better Pokemon Black was then Blue and Leafgreen. Gen 1 didn't have much of a story at all, no music that I personally enjoyed, but Gen 5 had those, and much more. I believe that if I played Black as my first game, I would have disliked it, but because of my prior experience in the battle mechanics, I had the time to notice the other good aspects of the game, such as the music and the plot. No other game since has managed to recreate that moment of joy, combined with sadness, when I realized that the game was suddenly over, and that the journey was incredible. Well, besides Breath of the Wild, but that's for another topic. 

From then on, I got SoulSilver, and Platinum, and enjoyed them too, but they couldn't revive that moment of satisfaction at the end of the game, when you realized how good the game really was. Instead, I noticed everything as it came, and "gained" an appreciation for the games that came before. In fact, that's where I got my name from. I was a kid, and substituted the "ed" for "ery" to make it sound more like a name, and I've just rolled with it since. 

After that, my thirst for new Pokemon experiences brought me here, and that's where I stand today. 

 

Thank you for reading this rather blocky response, and I hope everyone has a great rest of their day.

[Vinnie]

I've been around since the beginning, but I've enjoyed every moment of it. 

 

I remember playing pokemon red for the gameboy color, and I've gotten one game from each set of pokemon games that has come out since. I remember at one point during the ds era that in the mornings I'd have battles with friends on my bus ride to school. It was really silly back then, as everyone cheated yet no one had any idea about ivs, evs, natures or move sets. By black and white 2 I started taking in a lot of the competitive scene and by XY I'd official started breeding perfect mons for it. I later gave up on that as pokemon showdown became a thing though.

 

As for the TV show, again I've been watching since day 1 and I've loved every minute of it. I've watched all the way up through XY, and it's only been recently that I've stopped watching with the Sun and Moon anime. My interest in TV shows and anime has really waned these last couple of years. Overall I think the pokemon anime is very entertaining, although I feel as if the intended audience really switches with each region. 

 

It's something that's really grown with me, that I've grown beside and I don't see it leaving my life. There will be times when I'm less or more involved with it, but it will never truly be gone.

[Guest Relinquished]

Because they are unique little creatures and are fun. They remind of pets and appeal to somebody who likes collecting! They are cool, powerful and reflect their trainer's habits/mindset. What's there not to love? Even weak and ugly ones, whenever presented to you in the right circumstances, can be very much liked, even adorable, at times. And the fanart with suggestive themes, adult palette and various other "modifications", is really skyrocketing their popularity, even!

[Yahen]

I don't like talking about myself so i will try to go directly to the point.

My cousin had like 40494948 gbcs (pretty sure ze traded with itself) and yahy had 0 gbcs, so i stole one without any games. Then i gave it back just to steal another one with pokémon blue. I kicked the hell out of the league while 5~6 year old (it took a while tho). By this time mamma purchased a TV and i really liked the anime (pretty sure it was Hoenn anime, cause May is my fav till now). Welp, i ended up being caught and my cousin just started sharing zes things with me for apparently no reason. So i did the rest of the gen 1 games, played some gen 2 (Johto is still my fav nowadays). I don't wanna talk about the rest.

Welp, what makes me really like this games is the feeling i get towards both my pokémon and the NPC's. For some reason, i feel like they are part of me and i'm part of them. Even tho they're AI's but y'know what i mean. That's silly after all lol.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Yahen

[seki108]

It was a unique game that originally inspired me to get a Gameboy in order to play Pokemon Red, which was quickly joined by the pokemon Anime.  It was such an exciting feeling exploring this large world back then, and it only grew more with Gen 2 when they introduced a new region with new pokemon. I even pestered my mom to get a golden GBA that was Pikachu themed at the time (though I didn't know there was a GBC in the same golden color, @Candy).  While it somewhat lost it's magic after Gen 3 for me, coming back to series when Gen 6 hit and getting into the Gen 5 games a while later, gave me a renewed appreciation for the series, even if it wasn't quite the same feeling, with a bit more appreciation for the competitive aspects......even if I suck at it.

[Des Teto]

It was my first game ever. I received Pokemon Red for my eighth birthday. I mean, what was I supposed to do?

[SilverAngelus]

For me, I grew up playing it. I think it all started with the Pokemon cards and the anime. I just wouldn't stop watching Pokemon and begging my dad to buy me more Pokemon cards. Then I got my first GBA when I was about 6 years old and started with Pokemon Sapphire (but I had to share that, haha, so I don't consider that my very first self-played Pokemon game). I loved Pokemon so much that I continued on to get my own copy of a Pokemon game when I got a DS for the first time. So I like to consider Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness my very first Pokemon game. Emotional attachment, and stuff like that, yada yada. Then I started to play pretty much every Pokemon game there was (except for Switch games )

[JoStarNight]

For me, it all started with Generation I's Pokemon Red as well as after watching the original Pokemon anime. Why do I still continue to support Pokemon...its my beer, but in a good way.

[Monochrome_Complex]

Ah well, first time I heard about pokemon was on the news during the porygon incident. The news seemed to make it out to be this dangerous and scary thing that was bad for kids as they said it was alike to dogfighting, had sexually suggestive scenes(of course they show James crossdressing at this point lol) and parents should be careful with it.  I was in the 2nd grade and was initially kind of scared of it since the media made it out to be this "dangerous" thing lol. Then sometime later I caught it on TV and found it kind of cool, but didn't want my parents to know I watched it as I thought I would get in trouble. So I would flip the channel whenever they walked in lol. This happened for a while until my dad caught me, they were okay with it  and ended up becoming a HUGE fan.  I was totally involved in the whole pokemania craze and had cards, toys, clothes, videos....only thing I didn't have the first gen games but gen 2 came out I was all over and got them + a GBC(turquoise colored).  I played those games to death and admittedly pokemon proved to be a great outlet for socializing with friends and making new ones. But man drama regarding pokemon cards was serious business back then lol. They were banned for a bit at our school,  and many other schools did the same.

 

Gen 3 is where I fell off though, and didn't get back into the series until diamond came out when I was in high school. I had nostalgia for the franchise but thought myself too "mature" for it but some junior student was playing during class, let me play for a bit and I was like, "dude this looks rad," and started looking up the new mons when I got home lol. Admittedly I found some of them horrendous looking(I like them now but man my reaction to drapion initially was something else) but stuff like torterra, dialga, lucario and garchomp got me wanting the game since they looked so cool.  I was hooked when I finally played diamond and even now that game holds a special place in my heart.  Being able to battle/trade online was mindblowing back then, as before it was link cable or bust lol. Since gen 4 I've stayed, and pokemon is easily my favorite Nintendo franchise and one of those series where I can always find enjoyment to be had.  

 

As for my favorite part? I guess I like how customizable the gameplay is in regards to how difficult you can make it and how to build your team, the surprising amount of depth, the worldbuilding and most of all the pokemon themselves, all of whom play an integral part in fleshing out the world. Plus it's great how there's literally a pokemon for everyone out there, like it's seemingly impossible to found someone who doesn't fancy a single pokemon design. Such is the variation and genius behind them that this can occur.  I think this is something pokemon does better than other "mon" games, like in yokai watch and dragon quest too many designs are just overly goofy and offputting. Digimon is better but also suffers from a lot of over design too.  But with pokemon there's a nice balance of cool, cute, awesome, and flat out weird. It's great.

[Kokoro]

Fun fact is when I was a kid, me and my brother didn't find interest in Pokemon. Just one day though, on kids WB, my mom left it on and just said "watch Pokemon" and I remember us seeing the episode when Ash's Charmander first evolved and then we became interested, and hooked ever since. Sadly we could not see the first film in theaters, but we bought it on DVD and loved it. Not having that much money, I mostly played PC video games, so I did not have a GameBoy like most kids and did not experience any official Pokemon game for awhile. Most of my exposure was to the anime, and I know more about gens 1-3. My exposure to gaming Pokemon was playing with this site GPXPlus and fun fact, Pokemon Reborn. My first official Pokemon experience was a few years ago I bought a used GBA and started Mystery Dungeon. Currently hoping to buy a used 2DS to buy Pokemon Moon. And download Pokemon Yellow if it's available in the online store. 

 

So yeah, majority exposure is in the anime. I even remember our parents watching with us and laughing histerically, they enjoyed it.  That's how good the anime was back then. Good times.

 

I really love fire type Pokemon~ But also electric and flying!

Edited May 12, 2019 by Kokoro

[Starry Knight]

Mew

 

Seriously Mew fell in love with the playful kitten, before mew it was a passing interest however as soon as I seen it in the movie I fell in love with it, to my displeasure couldn't ever get to it, there was no GameStop near us that I could walk to. Though playing Emerald really helped as well, it was my first Pokemon game I later got to play the older games and most of the newer games but Emerald had a fantastic story though my sister kept stealing my sapphire game she fell in love with Kyogre and team Aqua

[J-Awesome_One]

The anime, the games (the originals or not), the community, the fan made games. Everything.