Today's game is Pokemon Platinum. My steam deck decided today was a lovely day to have a stroke and crash so hard the power button won't respond. Seeing as how I had a whole day with nothing to do and with me being in a Pokemon mood the last few days, I elected to play Platinum to get a Sinnoh dex to add to my Unova Dex.
This screenshot was taken south of Sandgem town on the coast. I love this game's entire region as it has that lovely Moody feel winter has with the snow everywhere. I also love how the region is split in too and you need to pass through the mountains to get to one side too the other. It's the same feel as that scene in the LoTR films with Caradhras.
My party passing through Mount Coronet
I've so far caught 4 Pokemon for my party.
as you can see, so far on Dillon II remains standing after the first route. This is because Dillon II is better than Dillon. Dillon II will not fail me like Dillon did because Dillon II is better in every conceivable way and carried the entire time with just Tackle. I also called my starter Harold and the Bird Steven.
With hindsight, I view this generation of the Pokémon series as an awkward transition to 3D. It's pretty apparent in the graphics and UI that Diamond/Pearl/Platinum are essentially upgraded GBA games. 3D effects occur only sparingly, and I remember the backpack UI bizarrely having an iPod-style scroll wheel on the touchscreen.
The following generation got more adventurous with the 3D and started using the DS touchscreen more effectively. The "sprite puppet" effect in Black/White looked janky as heck but I honestly loved it anyway. The character sprites in Cassette Beasts worked similarly, which I guess is another reason I liked that game.
Also, man, the pacing of battle animations and UI is so slow in this generation.
Opposite for me. While I dislike DPP graphics, I fell in love with the clean aesthetic of HGSS and never warmed to the pixelated mess that is the 5th gen.
It's been a while since I played those games, but I distinctly remember my younger self feeling bummed that all the nice touch screen interactions from 4th gen disappeared when BW released.