The main reason I never got into the Pokemon games (but was huge into the anime) is because by the time they came out with Red and Blue, I had already been playing major RPGs like Final Fantasy, Baldur’s Gate, etc. Compared to these, Pokemon just felt like an RPG for babies with the primary gimmick being a collect-a-thon. Minimal options in combat, bland and rather boring story with short, easy to read dialogue…

It’s pretty sad that they never evolved from that, considering evolution is a core concept of the game.

Edit: Just wanted to add that this is not necessarily to shit on the games. They’re made under Nintendo, whose entire ethos of game design is accessibility. They are primarily for younger people and people who don’t play games. So they are much simpler on purpose. My only real complaint is that they don’t even have, like, a side company meant for older players who are heavily into games. Because most of us still got started with Nintendo games.