'>>3472955
you goofed by not playing the ds remakes.
most monster-collecting games that put in effort to have a charming story or world end up being just as braindead easy (yokai watch for example), at any rate if you just want a monster collecting game but more challenging, check out the shin megami tensei series. a good starting point is nocturne (EMULATE PS2 VERSION, DO NOT PLAY THE "REMASTER") or strange journey (ds version is preferred unless you're kind of a baby in which case 3ds is fine).';

'>>3472955
Play the gen 3 to 5 games but with all the battles turned into double or triple battles.';

'>>3472961
>you goofed by not playing the ds remakes.
I mean, it's the same shit with pitiful enemy scaling. That's not to say the remakes aren't kino, they just don't do much about the difficulty.';

'>>3472955
They’re games made for 7 year olds to sell other merch
No shit they’re mindless';

'>Apparently gen 2 is the best/most iconic
No its not. Its neither of those.
Gen 1 is the most iconic with horrible gameplay, with Gen 2 ripping it off for half of the game and Gen 3/4 remakes of Gen 1 and Gen 2 are the best in terms of pure Pokemon gameplay with Gen 3 ruby/saphire as honorable mention.

Gen 1 and Gen 2 are just janky as fuck in about everything from weird bugs to strange planning. If you expect le grand strategy though or minmaxin jrpg stuff you are wrong with every Pokemon game. Kekmon is a kids game and will forever be one so just steamrolling shit with your first Pokemon is an essential part of its gameplay to make it accesible for the biggest retard in the room aka a six year old at which the franchise was originally targeted. Expecting that to be some pinnacle of vidya is just delusional. You wont buy a dvd of Peppa Pig and start measuring it on a cinematic scale with the LotR trilogy or something like that just because a bunch of autists who never shower created a Peppa Pig fandom and 8h video essays on youtube about it.';

'>>3472981
Johto is the same, but the remake did buff the levels on the Kanto bosses, plus there's all the rematches for more stronger fights to do.';

'>>3472981
well, no.';

'try clover version';

'>>3472955
GSC is cozy but it's not a good game. Challenging nuzlocke though.';

'>>3472955
Dragon Warrior monsters. it's like pokemon but u can breed them into crazy shit';

'>gotta catch them all
when i was 18 and these first came out, i thought of these games as trying to push merchandising and consumerism through kid's fears of being left out.';

'megaten. pokémon is a kiddified ripoff of megaten. that's what you'e looking for. not not persona, the original fucking series. get the fan translation of kyuuyaku, the first two smts, and if.';

'>>3473026

except literally yes';

'>>3473192

>when i was a kid, i think that they wanted people to spend money on the game

wow, such a genius';

'Try arc the lad collection, you have to get through arc teh lad one to get the monster taming, but the reward is well worth it.
this came out the same year as gen 1 Pokémon
https://youtu.be/Tw4rSpaiMyw?t=78

as you can see in this arena you are using party members along with tamed monsters.';

'Let me hijack this thread and ask:
Which newer games/roms are great for nuzlocking? Last one I tried was SuMo with excessive difficulty spike. Do newer nsw games still get romhack'd?';

'>>3473456
the post is about the how, anon. psychological manipulation of children isn't pleasant.';

'>>3472961
>gen 2 without the soul

anon why would you mislead like this, i dont care if shit is optimized or whatever, pokemon is dragon quest levels or braindead. you play it for the vibe alone. dont be so stupid. insane captcha get also';

'>>3473192
>i thought of these games as trying to push merchandising and consumerism through kid's fears of being left out
maybe but not everyone is mega autist who has to horde junk
the games are complete in themselves and you only need one';

'>>3472955
Have you tried games not made for literal children?';

'>>3473192
>when i was 18 and these first came out
How's your osteoporosis doing?';

'>>3472955
normal gen 2 is just awful ROM hack versions of it (and hreat/soul) are the GOAT of pokemon games. platinum and BNW2 are ok i guess.';

'>>3472961
The DS remakes are worse than the originals.';

'>>3473417
second SMT on snes is fucked, there is no good way to play the game, some tranny made some patches recently but it doesn't fix the main problems with the game (like retarded dialog with monsters) and game can crash when you do specific fusions, as i recall';

'Romhacks are better than the official games.';

'>>3475082
You're heartless. Choosing between growlithe or sandshrew is always the hardest part of going back to those games.';

'>>3473676
fuck nuzlocking, it's artificial difficulty with no reward.
if you want a fucking challenge play stadium with a boosted team.';

'>>3472955
It’s not really comfortable but Shin Megami Tensei.';

'>>3472955
Gen 2 is meant to be a life-sim like animal crossing. It's all about the slow, rural Japanese life. Things have low level curves because you're supposed to backtrack a bunch to find secrets and do daily events. It's much better as a kid because your mom only lets you play a little bit at a time and we couldn't look things up.';

'>>3472955
pokemon is about collecting cool little creatures, I will never understand people who play it when they want a challenge';

'>>3477575
that's why you play 251 rom hacks';

'>>3472955
>and this is even without any grinding, just using your main monster against all trainers.
You're playing wrong.
>b-but the game shouldn't let me
The game was designed to be played by humans with a soul. You have 6 slots so you're supposed to want to fill them to have multiple friends.';

'>>3472955
>"Muh levels" Johto shitposters leaked from /vp/.

Play the game instead of repeating the same opinions that some youtuber fed you, child.
Specifically in Gen 2 levels are progressively less relevant due to stat experience and badge boosts. You can easily beat Lance in early 40s, you can beat Red in 50s.
Remakes are kind of different beast due to literally not having this mechanics anymore - post-game is build more like "single player MMO" and expects you to do dailies to slowly build your team to be strong enough to take on Red.
A lot of people expects all Pokemon games to play the same but both OG Johto and remakes are just the least Pokemon-like Pokemon games with how you're supposed to bit them.';