This has probably been a while coming, and I don't want to give each thing I have a gripe with it's own part, so I'll just condense everything down to their essentials. Before any of you accuse me of being a gen one-er, I was born at the tail end of Gen 2 and consider myself part of Gen 3. The big things I'm going to talk about are designs (yes, I am), gimmicks, story and regional variants. With that said, let's get to it.
Since design is going to probably take the longest, let's start with that. Before anything, I do want to say that, throughout all the pokémon before I was born and that I grew up with, there are plenty that I would say don't have the best designs. Voltord/Electrode are definitely not super great, but there's something to like about a character that is supposed to be a bigger reference to a series. However, there is a difference between a pokémon just not looking good versus just being a pointless/needless design.
The past and future forms of pokémon is an interesting idea, but I feel like more of the work went into the ancient forms than the future. While not all of the ancient forms look great, I like that they tried to make them look different while still being able to tell what it later becomes where the future pokémon are literally just "We turned this pokémon into a robot and gave it the steel typing" which I think is a touch meh. It just feels like they put so much time and effort into the ancients but then ran out of that creativity when it came to what they would become. At least they share the same affinity for boring names, but that's more of an in-world translation thing that I don't like.
Some more regular pokémon that I think aren't great more lies in their evolutions rather than the design themselves. The major one I have an issue with is Tandemaus to Maushold. For a start, I really don't like the names as it seems a bit too uncreative, but I don't mind the idea of multiple pokémon being one (exeggcute, combee, etc) but I really am not on board with the evolution literally just being that the two mice had children. It just seems like this idea should've stopped at one stage rather than continuing on. 149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIH4E1tg3Ry
As said before, this doesn't mean that I worship the designs of every pokémon from the prior generations I played (stopped a bit through Gen 7 because I didn't care). Gen 5, my second favorite, introduced the Trubbish line. While I understand that it serves it's purpose, even I think this isn't that great of a design. It's very safe and simple, which isn't bad but I wish they'd done something else. Alolan Persian is another pokémon I have issues with because the Meowth doesn't look terrible, but then we get Persian. I feel the same way about Muk and Grimer, but I saw a Super Mario Sunshine comic using the female protag so there's something good about it, but to me they just look like someone ate a ton of skittles, got sick and threw it up. If I were to talk about all the designs I don't like, I'd be here all day but I will go over a few of my favorite designs.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bAqsa8ijI
Metagross is one of my favorite pokémon both because it's an absolute monster, but because I think it looks great. You expect it to be a behemoth and that's what you get with it along with a menacing look to it. Umbreon, while a simple design, carries with it a certain elegance in its minimalism and has, in my opinion, the best shiny in the entire game. Golurk is another pokémon that I like but that might also be my love of fantasy giving its own bias as it's just a giant golem. These pokémon might not be the best looking in general, but I like them well enough.
Now that the design rant is out of the way, let's talk gimmicks. The first gimmick was Mega Evolution which gave an interesting way to, during battle, increase the power of a certain pokémon without wasting a turn to use an item. People complain that it seemed to favor Gen 1 (of which there are 15/48), while Gen 3 has 20/48. I will acknowledge that this is the total after ORAS was made, but even before it was only 12 to 10 which is not a commanding lead. Regardless, it was a fun little gimmick that wasn't really game breaking and that you could choose to use or not.
Z-moves were a good idea that I think just kind of needed a little more time to cook. I think the advantage the mega evo has over z-moves is that mega evolutions were giving about half-way through the game and were only for specific pokémon you found the correct stone for, whereas z-moves were usable for every pokémon (save for the few special stones) and were just a massive single burst of power. It wasn't a bad idea...just need a little more time.
Gigantamax/dynamax...I have a few issues with this one. Much like with z-moves, you get the ability to do this practically right out of the gate, and it doesn't last. However, with how absolutely broken these abilities are, if it didn't have a turn limit there would never be a reason not to do it even though some pokémon get worse when gigantamax. Also...mega evolutions gave new forms to pokémon, z-moves gave pretty interesting cutscenes...while gigantamax gives new forms to the specific pokémon it is usable for, on the whole it just makes them big and overpowered. I feel like this was just an ability that they threw at the wall and it just so happened to stick a bit.
Gimmicks aside, we're looking at story. Gen 1, you were just a kid who happened to take down Team Rocket in your journey to become the chamption. Gen 2, you take down Team Rocket because they're a little more in your face. Gen 3, you get stuck in the middle of two teams fighting. Gen 4, you get tossed to the wolves a little as they seem to choose you to fight with them. Gen 5, you once again get singled out by their leader who believes that you and him are two sides of the same coin. Gen 6 you just happen to get in the way but actually need to stop a maniac from destroying everything. 149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIKNX0k0Vr
Gen 7...the team isn't even the team for the game. While I was playing the game and dreading every meeting with Team Skull and Guzma especially, but they also show that they're not the main villains at the start of the game with Lillies cutscene. You meet Team Skull, remembering the cutscene and wonder how the absolute fuck these street thugs could afford such nice facilities...and then you meet the Aether Foundations. It just seemed like a "plot twist" that wasn't even a twist and just wasted everyone's time. I made it to the dragon trial, struggled no matter how I changed my team and strategy, thought it would help to catch a mimikyu and realized that I didn't give a shit to see this through to the end. I honestly can't even tell you what the story was about, I was so bored to tears.
Gen 8 has the issue of the team leader being absolutely stupid. He claims that the energy crisis will ruin everything thousands of years from the start of the game, to which someone does say that they can find a well thought out way to change that outcome and the fact that several pokémon can create limitless supplies of energy while still being able to live fine. So the team leader decides to bring this horrific and dangerous monster to fix a problem that, at the time, doesn't even exist as a threat to anyone...Archie and Maxie may both be dumber than a sack of hammers, but at least their desires were immediately obtainable and not even because of a perceived threat that was nowhere close to happening.
The shortest issue I have with Gen 7 on is about the regional variants. This is not to say that I don't think they're all bad, but it's more about how they do it with so many new regions. It was interesting with Sun and Moon as it was something that hadn't been done, and I believe we can all agree that the Vulpix/Sandshrew lines along with Marowak are absolutely amazing, but then it seemed to become a regular thing and lose a bit of its specialness. Also, some typing changes I feel either don't make sense or were simply unnecessary...Galarian Wheezing being a fairy type makes no sense as he's supposed to be a business tycoon and less interested with nature and its spirits.
These are just a condensed version of some basic nitpicks I have, and I have no intention of making my overall thoughts on the direction pokémon is going. I fell out of the series, even for remakes after Brilliant Diamond, and have not found anything that has made me want to go back. That being said, enjoy the series as much as you do and don't take my words to heart. This is meant to be an opinion and I don't want to be the guy to make people stop enjoying what I don't just because I don't. Have a day
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