Pokemon Games Tier List

[LordCowCow 843]

Using that site that's become popular for it

https://tiermaker.com/create/pokemon-game-tier-list-3510

Yes it just has the main games I know I was lazy sue me, maybe I'll make one with the rest sometime.

I wanna see where you'd rank them

Mine

Spoiler

Yes I know BW2 is technically better than BW I just personally enjoyed BW more overall and it helps that it got me excited about Pokemon all over again

Note: Hadn't played Let's Go yet but it looks fun.

Couldn't find one with an E/F rank and was lazy this works just fine I don't think any game is total trash

 

[yui 577]

[LordCowCow 843]

8 minutes ago, Yui said:

HOW DO YOU PUT IN OPTIONS

also play fire red/leaf green it's like red/blue but good

[yui 577]

21 minutes ago, LordCowCow said:

HOW DO YOU PUT IN OPTIONS

also play fire red/leaf green it's like red/blue but good

the gears next to each row

[Saikazo 241]

100 Percent Correct Tier List

Spoiler

Sidenote: These are ranked in order to. The bottom right is the absolute worst and it steadily gets better and better. I'm also willing to explain before you all burn me at the stake as a heretic.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Saikazo May Cry

[Mr. Hyde 204]

Only reason Black is in S tier is because the White version is always superior to its black counterparts B)

[Azure 72]

[Nico 116]

[reparoni 161]

One day I'll play through Platinum

[yui 577]

1 hour ago, REP said:

One day I'll play through Platinum

[LordCowCow 843]

2 hours ago, Yui said:

Besides you and saiku everyone so far has it at A or S 

Begone thot

[Chiri Bedhead 116]

Didn't use S because I'm basic like that.

[Kazooie 168]

Spoiler

Because I like to be more indepth with this sorta thing usually, I'll talk about each game here briefly. I want to make it perfectly clear... I only Nuzlocke Pokemon games at this point, and any commentary on the gameplay should be taken with that in mind.

S Tier

Black and White 2 - This pair take an easy number 1 spot for me. Maybe it's because it was just really really good for Nuzlockes and that lead to me playing it over and over again, but it's easily the Pokemon game I played the most. The story definitely wasn't as strong as Black and White 1, but the gameplay was refined to a point where it was much more tolerable, the addition of Pokemon from past gens helped diversify the region, Hugh was a better rival than either Cheren or Bianca was in Black and White 1, though arguably a weaker character than Bianca could have been. It's not perfect, the massive detour that is Pokestar Studios could have been left out entirely and nothing would have been lost, but overall, I really liked what it added. And Iris is still my favorite Champion.

Platinum - It's gotta be funny to look at these lists and see Platinum up near the top, but then have the original pair way at the bottom. But I really liked Platinum while D/P were kinda a slog. I won't go to into D/P here, but Platinum made a lot of changes to the game that made it less of a slog at the start, speeding up the encounter with Rowan and the other Player Character to be at the beginning being a notable example. Of course, if you don't at least like the basics of Gen 4, you probably won't like this one either most likely. I liked the basics, I liked the characters and I loved Team Galactic, from the dumbass Grunts who needed that Sweet Honey, to the commanders who were actually pretty scary fights. And Cyrus is still one of the best villains Pokemon has had in game for me.

A Tier

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon - Honestly? From a purely objective standpoint, these probably don't deserve A-Tier. They're kinda cashgrabby and Sun/Moon in general had a problem with being really handholdy and slightly annoying with the Rotom Dex, problems that these didn't fix sadly. And I totally get anyone who didn't like the game as a result of this. But for me, Alola was a breath of fresh air. While I put these higher than Sun and Moon, you can make an argument for either one being better, depending on what kind of story you want. A tragic story of a mother who's obsession ran her kids away, or a world desperate to regain it's own light, both stories are cool in their own right. But, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon had a TON of missed potential, I was hoping the story would have been a lot more different at the start, but it really wasn't. I think taken as a standalone title, it's good, better than Sun and Moon were for gameplay and nuzlocke purposes. But there was a lot of missed potential that just kept this out of S Tier for me.

Black and White - I love them, I really do! I will be the first to admit, the pacing is all kinds of wonky, wild battles are way too frequent, the game has a tendency to stop you to point out obvious things, but the story is great. I love the Unova Pokedex, and even though I mentioned earlier that I think Hugh is better than Cheren and Bianca, I didn't hate them! I actually like Bianca's character arc, I just wish she had gotten a little more time with it, it kinda felt like it was resolved out of nowhere. Not literally, that scene in Nimbasa was great, but it felt like it was resolved too quickly. Cheren is less interesting, but at least the game wasn't trying to make me like him. The game didn't act like I had to like him, despite the whole 'childhood friends' thing, they weren't actually stuffed in your face all too much... Especially compared to another game on the list. Not perfect, but with good Pokemon designs, a fresh new Pokedex, and a great story, I definitely liked these games a lot.

B Tier

Sun and Moon - Here are the original two! Like I said above, I think you can make an argument for either of the two being better than the other between Ultra and Normal. For me, I like the extra Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon making Nuzlockes a bit more interesting. I will admit, I prefer the presence Lusamine has in Sun and Moon compared to Ultra and I wish she had been more prominent in Ultra Sun and Moon as a result, instead of keeping the same basic plot structure. There's not much to say, ultimately the reason Ultra Sun and Moon won out was cause of the Nuzlocking scene for me.

X and Y - Speaking of Nuzlockes, the ONLY reason these games are as high as they are is because of how big an emphasis Nuzlockes are for me. The Pokemon Diversity and the inclusion of some extra rules make this set of games great for nuzlockes, it took a number of playthroughs before I started dealing with the game feeling too samey from a gameplay perspective...

From a story perspective, god it was disappointing. Diantha wasn't included nearly enough considering how they played her up near the start. Lysandre, while he had potential was ultimately just a meh villain at best. THE FRIEND CHARACTERS SUCKED. The only ones I could stand were Shauna, and Trevor to a slightly smaller extent. I honestly think Shauna made a better rival character than the actual rival did. I understand we were supposed to kinda be the Gary to their Ash, but holy fuck they were just annoying half the time. Shauna was a cute character who suffered from being in a game flooded with 'friends' and I think Trevor could have been decent if he had time to himself. Instead. Tierno exists. More like Tier No.

Heartgold and Soulsilver - Solid remakes. They didn't address the real problem of no actual level curve in Johto, which sucked, but the expanded Team Rocket adminship was a nice touch, the Physical/Special split made Gen 2 feel a lot nicer and the games looked really nice for the time. The expansion of Kanto was also great, there was a lot of good and a lot of meh, but I don't think they were outright bad. Just a bit easy as a result of a lack of level curve.

Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee - I was really scared these were gonna be outright bad games. And they aren't GREAT games, but they are good games. I think this is the best way to experience Gen 1, you can get both Pikachu and Eevee in the wild if you want to evolve them so it doesn't have the problem that Pokemon Yellow had with that, and... While I would have preferred wild battles with the catching mechanics added, it wasn't the worst thing ever. It wasn't the hardest game, but there was a fair bit of challenge here and there... I just wish they hadn't included the gym requirements, that was a real bummer honestly.

Emerald - Still the best way to play Gen 3 I think. The plot including both Magma and Aqua was good, and while the lack of the physical special split is really sad, it's not unplayable. Not my favorite game these days, as much as I still love the Hoenn region. Decent game, not the best but definitely not the worst either.

Tier C

Ruby and Sapphire - Emerald, but the baby versions. Resoundingly OK, nothing special. 7.8/10 too much water.

Crystal - Honestly, I wish Heartgold/Soulsilver were just a Crystal remake. I loved Crystal and it still holds a special place in my heart, it's just that all the pre-GBA games haven't aged the best. Gen 2 obviously did better than 1, but it's still hard to go back and play. The level curve is still an issue and just... Early installment stuff.

Leafgreen and Firered - Just kinda boring. Gen 1 was never anything super amazing to me, I don't love the Kanto Region and nowadays? I'm kinda against it just by the sheer nostalgia pandering it gets, so I can't fairly judge them. They're not particularly special remakes or anything either, a problem that most of Nintendo's Pokemon remakes tend to have.

Gold and Silver - Crystal, but slightly worse.

Tier D

Diamond and Pearl - Bad, slow terrible starts, meh Pokemon diversity, and just... Slow games. Platinum sped everything up and the games benefited from it. Barry sucked though, no two ways around that.

Gen 1 in general just has NOT aged well. Leafgreen and Firered were slightly better aged, but these are not. They're still worth playing and experiencing if you haven't, to see where the series started, but I don't recommend replays of them honestly.

Tier Shit

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - Terrible remakes. Terrible. So much lost potential, cause they showed they could do interesting things. Everything post climax was much better. Victory Road onwards basically, the wild Pokemon diversity was much better, the rival remained cardboard, they reverted the plot to being two individual things instead of just remaking Emerald in that regard. The only good things I can say?

Delta Episode was okay, Team Aqua benefited a lot from the extra characterization, Wally should have gotten way more screentime than he did, and he has a banging battle theme, and the Victory Road was cool with the diversity of Pokemon at the end of it. Aside from that, these are by far my least favorite cause of all the standard problems from Gen 3 are still here and they reverted the many improvements from Emerald. I hate them just cause of what they stand for.

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Kazooie

[Blake 312]

 

Kanto

RB isn't great. It is super fucking flawed, and while it kicked off the series, that doesn't mean it aged well, especially not with the old mechanics.

Yellow sees many of the same issues, but it had a nice shiny gimmick. It's much better, but not amazing.

FRLG was... a nice port. It had a good amount of improvements, admittedly, but the core issues remained. Low diversity, somewhat awkward pacing, and just all around... kinda dull.

LGELGP was much, much better, comparatively. While it was dumbed down, it captured the feel of the original games while making sure it had fixed some of the previous issues. Nice change of pace.

 

Johto

GS is where a lot of the mechanics became set in stone and more defined, while also adding new types and fleshing out the game as a whole. Much better than its predecessors. That said, boy does that level curve fucking hurt.

Crystal is vastly improved, unlike Yellow's slight improvements. Kris is a great addition that really drew me in as a kid (should've been a tip-off, huh?), and I remember getting up early to be at Target when the store opened. Still flawed, curve issue still exists, but much better, and makes you feel like you're part of the world more.

HGSS is, unlike FRLG/ORAS, intelligent. It actually learns from the Third Version that existed before it, incorporating the changes into it. Some more than others, like Suicune isn't as central, but the general changes stay. In addition, it had possibly the best UI in the series, and it's a shame that stuff got abandoned. Level curve still a problem tho

 

Hoenn

RS is unrefined, but not terrible. Diversity could use a bump, there really is too much water, too much backtracking, and it's the first game trying out Abilities. Decent.

Emerald actually fixes most of these issues! I mean, the water issue is still there... But, like, the diversity is much better, the game has a better flow, and having both teams be antagonists and slightly extending the story was a good call. 

ORAS reverts almost all of the fixes from Emerald, opting to be closer to RS. Except 10 years later. When they know better. Unlike LGELGP and HGSS, which were faithful while they adapted, this one is just... bleh. It gets good starting at the Primal fight onward, but it sucks until that point. There are some small QoL changes, like speeding up the backtracking and water travel, but not enough. It was insulting that it was so rudimentary.

 

Sinnoh

DP lots of weird decisions, strange pacing, and just... odd. But not bad. That said, it aged really poorly. Very... clunky.

Platinum, like Emerald, learns from and attempts to fix these things. There's still some weird pacing (just like other Nintendo games of the era), but it has a very good level curve, diversity, and challenge level. One of the hardest games in the series.

 

Unova

BW1 is... wew. The story is pretty okay, and marks an attempt to try and make something more serious and meaningful on the whole (though Cyrus was plenty dark and serious), but the gameplay has a lot of iffy mechanical changes. That said, diversity and general game balance are good, with one or two exceptions.

BW2, however, is a fucking masterpiece. I think it's straight-up an amazing game. Good diversity, good pace, passable story (has to be meh somewhere), fixed the iffy mechanics of BW, good balance... just a good game. Biggest issue is PokeStar Studios, which is a pretty comparatively small issue. 10/10, would always recommend. 

 

Kalos

XY was just... bleh. It was way too safe due to the change to the more 3D models, even though they did not age very well, and it just... awful pacing, meh story, decent diversity, and just kinda fucking wonky. And all the friends except Shauna, and Trevor isn't the worst.

 

Alola

SM was a good, albeit extremely linear, game. Compelling characters, good diversity, good pacing, and had quite a few good shakeups for the formula. Had some balance issues, too, so it wasn't the most refined, but overall good.

USUM is possibly THE hardest game in the series. That usually only matters in Nuzlockes, but some of the Totems are fucking mean, not to mention the main story's final boss. Just... Jesus Christ. But, even so, the game just takes and improves upon SM in every way, much like other 3rd Versions would. Better diversity, compelling cast, good pacing, still linear but a little less egregiously, nice minigame added, and more. Very fun experience. Fucking overcosted, tho.

[reparoni 161]

8 hours ago, Yui said:

not only am I gonna do it, I'm probably also gonna blog it. the only question is nuzlocke or not

[Nyx 253]

Really want to play Crystal and Platinum though. But I'm not very good with emulators, ROMs and such.

[Mr Spaz 37]

On 6/9/2019 at 10:22 PM, REP said:

not only am I gonna do it, I'm probably also gonna blog it. the only question is nuzlocke or not

Just saying, Nuzlocking Platinum completely blind is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. You should do exactly that.