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Main Series or Spin-Off Games?

Which set of games would you say you like more?

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L

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Simple enough question. Which, on a whole, do you prefer?

While I'd say the main series is more satisfying to play and has considerably more elements (team building, competitive battling, Pokédex completion, etc.) it's honestly starting to wear out on me. I'm not big on most of the hardcore stuff anyway. Of course I'll buy whatever they come out with, but I can't help but wish for more innovation and freedom.

In recent years, meanwhile, the spin-off games have increased in quality and multitude. If this were only a few years ago, this wouldn't even be a question, but now it most certainly is. At least to me. I'm a bit concerned we're going to get stuck in a Mystery Dungeon/Ranger rut and the concepts will grow old, but hopefully they'll continue to branch out and establish new, unique directions for the franchise. I'm kinda hoping to see less RPGs (and puzzle and pinball games) and more new genres. Like maybe a fighter game, which would be perfect.

Kinda sense main series will win by a large margin, though, heh.
 
Main series have more thigns to do when you finish like Train for battles against friends (Excluding Marowak dojo) and has more thigns to do..Then again i love my pokemon pearl for chaining as much as training xD
 
Main series. The only spin off games I like are the PMD ones, which I think are possible better than some main series game, but not enough to beat all of them, and certainly not enough to make up for the aweful Pokemon Ranger and all the other rubbish like Dash and Trozei. Although I must admit I quite like Ranch, sort of.
 
The main series. I absolutely dislike most of the spin offs besides the pmd ones.
 
The main series has continuity in a way that the majority of spin offs do not because they are linked and the fruits of your labour in Generation III can be transferred to Platinum for example (clearly this is not true for Gen I & II although trade between the two is possible). So the time you invest and the training you undertake can be used in current games. The games of the main series also feature quite a bit more on the content side, but then I am probably not the best judge considering that I have only played PMD.
 
Where's the "I like both about evenly" and the "I couldn't care less" options? The PMD and Ranger make great changes of pace from the main line, though it *is* often nice to get back to the bog standard games.
 
I like the main series games, but I said the spin offs cause they are different and not repetative like the main games, but I'd play both, so I'd say I like both about the same.
 
I love my Main Series games, nothing beats the games based on the originals that made Pokemon so popular.No spinoffs have really tickled my fancy, and the only ones I have are Snap and Dash, and they were kinda let downs ;[
However, that is not to say in the near future they wont release a good one.
 
The main game is awesome, but when I need to take a break, I'll usually start a new file on a different version. But if I want another type of Pokemon fix, I'll turn to Mystery Dungeon or the GBC Trading Card game. I've never played the Ranger games but will likely try in the near future.
 
GuitarHero said:
I've never played the Ranger games but will likely try in the near future.
Click to expand...

Play them, I always thought they weren't worth buying, but when I did I got addicted to them. I can really suggest them. And I can also suggest to play ranger 1 first, that will make 2 easier, because playing 2 first will only make 1 harder.
 
Spin offs!

Mystery Dungeon Two, the Ranger duo, and Snap are my favorite Pokemon games.

I like the main series, but sometimes it's good to play something new and different.
 
Though I'm overall more fond of the main series as a whole, they can sure get boring after a while. Diamond/Pearl feel especially so, and it's worse when they actually dumb down the Gameplay so you're pretty much forced to buy the 3rd game, which offers no real improvement, and it's just "what could have been there all along", like Yellow and Crystal were.

The Spin-Offs aren't my cup of tea either, outside of the Ranger series (Which I firmly believe to be actually tied with the main series much more than all other Spin-Offs, alongside Colosseum and XD, which are Spin-Offs in that they don't follow the main games' mold). Ranger is awesome and has vastly expanded not only the main series, but also my own Pokémon Fanon.

As for all other Spin-Offs, I certainly could care less. The Dungeon Series is not really my thing, and the others much less so. Only Puzzle League/Challenge were appealing, and that's because they took my favorite Puzzle system of all times. And even then, I still have more of a kick when playing as Yoshi's Island characters. Also, the original, Panel de Pon has cute girls. Puzzle Challenge is awesome, though. Now, Snap also seems to be fun enough, as well as seemingly capable of fitting with the mainstream. Too bad it was on the N64...

So yeah. The main series for me. I just hope they stop doing cheap crap, like with this Generation, where their level of "cheap" is even heinous. :/ Regardless, Ranger games are awesome and a great expansion and deviation from the eventually boring main games. Same for the Orre Saga, which is still a Spin-Off of sorts.
 
PDL said:
How so?
Click to expand...
First, we can't ignore the Battle Frontier and the Gym Leader rematches not being there since Diamond/Pearl. How's this cheap? Let's see...

The Battle Tower debuted in Crystal. Since then, it's become a staple in every following mainstream game. It was in Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. One'd expect that the improvements to the "After Elite Four" Battle Facilities would be not regressing, but ongoing. As such, I expected the Battle Frontier and the rematches being in Diamond/Pearl all along, since they had debuted in Emerald. They even had a Leader for the DP Battle Tower. It's like telling us "Yes, we can have the Battle Frontier now, but we enjoy killing your gameplay experience and making you buy the special Version!".

Oh, but I actually had half-expected they'd do this. My other gripe is inexcusable, though. Such gripe rests in the blatant dumbing down of the game's speed and even certain features they intentionally removed from Diamond/Pearl and were "fixed" in Platinum. Just check any battle and the need to keep on pressing A or tapping the Touch Screen through every bit of text so the action can flow smoothly. Platinum's battles seem way faster, even though maybe they kept the same "Press A/Tap Touch Screen" thing. However, I feel they didn't. Now, this isn't as grave. It's just slightly tiring. What's next is just blatant proof that they were lazy arses and wanted everyone to buy Platinum.

Just check out what happens when you enter a gate between a City and a Route in Diamond/Pearl while you're on your Bike. You're forcefully dismounted and you have to use your Bike again when you get out. You might ask "So what?". It's simple... let's go back in time. Red, Blue and Yellow all did this. You automatically dismounted your Bike when you entered a City gate. However, this didn't happen anymore since Gold/Silver. You stood on your Bike when entering gates. This was sure an improvement. I mean, what was the point to dismount you at gates? Realism? If so, what the hell? Realism should always be overlooked if it's useless and annoying. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald lacked gates, but the one gate in the game doesn't dismounts you from your Bike. Then we have FireRed/LeafGreen, which wisely kept the trend and didn't dismount you upon entering gates. I mean, it's just annoying to go in, get dismounted, go out and use your Bike again. It's not that critical, I know, but the point is, it had been solved and had stuck since Gen 2! Why the hell did Diamond/Pearl go back to dismounting the Bike inside gates!? This removed feature was fixed back in Platinum...

Then we have Surf speed. OK, I understand that Sinnoh has too few water Routes to make this that bothersome, but I have another valid point. Again, let's go back. Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal had a Surf speed on par with the regular walking speed. In Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen, Surf got a slightly higher speed. Understood in both cases with the increase on water Routes. Then we come to Diamond/Pearl. Surf is slightly slower than your regular walking speed. What for? Realism again? I understand water friction can slow things down some, but damn it! Pokémon can swim super fast, can't they? OK, let's just move on. It's not like Sinnoh is half water like Hoenn. We can live with it...

Then explain me why the hell this was fixed in Platinum!? I see no new areas where there's loads and loads of water whatsoever! And that's my point. It just feels as if they intentionally made Diamond/Pearl slower, so that you seek to get Platinum not for the expanded plot or the new features, but for the much improved gameplay. I can't understand this regression at all. I can't believe these small features were so amazingly difficult to code or implement in the DS that they had to scrap them! They're no amateurs. In short, they have no excuse. I can understand keeping the Battle Frontier until Platinum. It's still cheap, but rather expected. However, these three gameplay aspects... there's no excuse for the slower gameplay. There just isn't. The battle speed was kept consistently in all previous games. Perhaps it could've been faster, but the lack of improvement in third Versions means that it was truly the best they could do, or didn't bother with enhancing it. That's all fine. It means the gaming experience remains the same, and you have only the extras to consider. The no-forced-Bike-dismounting in gates was fixed from the original games in Gen 2, and stuck since then, and the Surf speed at least as fast as your walking speed has been here since Gen 1. The dumbing down of these aspects of gameplay isn't justified in Diamond/Pearl. The fact they casually fixed these three things for Platinum just screams a cheap scheme.

I'll be blunt... Platinum is more like Yellow and Crystal, and less like Emerald. The extras could've been there since Diamond/Pearl, and it lacks which I believe should've been the milestone in terms of features: Random Wi-Fi Battles. Much like the Battle Frontier, the added effects to Abilties, Nature Breeding, Gym Leader rematches, the EV-reduction Berries and a better storyline made Emerald a must-buy, that single feature would've made Platinum awesome enough. There wasn't too much to improve over Diamond/Pearl. That was all it needed, alongside the extras they intentionally removed. But this time, they also improved the gameplay and the speed, when it had been kept consistently in every game of a given Generation. Yes, Emerald had several features that should've been there since Ruby/Sapphire, but the point is that these features were still unknown and only added since Emerald. Instead, Diamond/Pearl removed the Battle Frontier (Which had been already introduced), Gym Leader rematches (Already introduced too), Elite Four Second Round (Justified in that Emerald lacked it as well) and the good Move Tutors (Though this seems more like a trend than a deliberately removed feature) so they could have their extras ready for Platinum. That's OK...

What's not OK at all is to kill the Gameplay and turn it into the ultimate purchase bait when their experience wouldn't make it possible in any way, shape or form. It's just unfair and even stupid in every way possible. Unless they contracted a whole new block of programmers with no experience whatsoever in DS programming, there's no justification to go back to the RBY crap of dismounting Bikes on gates, making the battles very slow, and make the Surf speed slower than ever. They did what they had never done before, and fixed all these things in Platinum. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I firmly believe there's no excuse to do what they did, and it was intentionally made so we'd have to buy Platinum as we grow frustrated of the dumbed down Gameplay in Diamond/Pearl. That's the only reason I want to buy Platinum: the much-improved game speed and lack of retardation. Not their goddamn extras and all that crap. The fact they fixed all of this makes such flaws stand out in Diamond/Pearl. Seriously, I had never felt so badly cheated with this franchise...

What would you say if FR/LG had gone back to the Bill's PC Menu system, 20 Pokémon per Box and having to save with every Box change for the sake of continuity? You'd be certainly annoyed at the regression. Gameplay improvements are meant to be kept, not retired!

Yes, this is why I think they've fallen into a cheap and heinous practice. Every other gameplay aspect has been an improvement, not a regression. I just hope they don't do this again in the future Generations, if any...
 
I like the main series, the only spin-off I liked was Puzzle League
 
Don't get me wrong; I love all of the games. But I can find a lot more to do with the main series titles than I can with the spin-offs. Thanks to the Underground, the GTS, breeding and the Poke Radar, I've racked up over 865 hours on my Pearl game.

And I haven't stopped yet.

The spin-offs are fun, but seem to be a bit less engaging to me. I play them once and that's it. With the main series, I find myself unable to put them down.... until the next generation comes along.
 
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