Which gen is the strongest, whether gameplay wise or lore wise?

gen 5. all the gym leaders had lives, they introduced reusable TMs, you didn't need HMs that much, PWT.

>lore wise

You mean best or in terms of power levels?

I've always liked the lore of Gen 2. There's enough mystery around Ho-oh, Lugia, and the beast trio for them to be interesting, but they still feel like natural creatures.

Gen 3 you start getting into nature deity territory, Gen 4 has literal Pokegods, and from Gen 5 on we've gotten into the abstract shit like truth, ideals, life, death, etc. And on the opposite side, Gen 1 really didn't have any lore at all. The legendary birds were just natural creatures, Mewtwo was an escaped lab experiment, and Mew was just a mysterious creature from South America.

As for gameplay that's super subjective, though anyone who says anything pre-Physical/Special split is being heavily influenced by nostalgia.

>>28201758
Gen 4 has universe+ level Pokemon, you tell me.

>>28202013
>>28201887
What if you discard legendaries?

4. Generally brought the annoying aspects of the series up to reasonable standards and set the mood/quality for everything to come after. Also greatly appreciated the bulk of cross-gen evos which I really wish they'd do again.

>>28202510

More often than not, legendaries = lore, so that's kind of a moot argument.

>>28201887

Gameplay isn't really subjective if we take it to mean 'Which gen introduced the most powerful mon's' rather than 'Which gen had the strongest metagame', because in the case of the former, it's Gen 6.

Primal Groudon, Mega Fug, Xerneas and certain other Megas make everything prior to them look like a total waste of development time by comparison. Gen 6's power creep was absurd.

Lore-wise: Gen 5 had the most character development, interesting NPCs and well thought out plot.
Gameplay-wise: Gen 4, specifically HGSS had some of the most fun challenges, most content for value and is probably my favourite game of the series.
Pokémon design-wise: Toss up between Gen 1 and 6. For how small the Kalos dex was I believe had a lot of quality, interesting designs with only a few like Barbaracle spoiling the mix. Gen 1 had some pretty meh designs and some groanworthy names but it's designs have become iconic and it contains a majority of my top ten favourite Pokémon

>>28202577
>liking the gen that gave us smogon rocks

>>28202510
As of now, I'd argue gen 3 (6?). A great number of important characters have the ability to mega evolve.

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60KB, 653x495px

>STILL liking golem

>>28201758

None.

>>28202577
>Generally brought the annoying aspects of the series up to reasonable standards
And they would be?
I ask because most people attribute other gens additions with 4 to make it seem better.

>>28202933
6, mostly in ORAS, had the deepest lore too.

>>28201887
Movie Lugia and Celebi already felt like nature deities, so Groudon and Kyogre weren't out of reason. The Regis were a little weird but most people overlooked them.

It wasn't until Gen 4 with an actual church, pokegods, and a library book that in Japanese basically says humans and pokemon used to get married that really fucked the lore and made it something far different than the original series ever intended to be. Gen 4 also confirmed that pokemon defecate, which was a subject matter they tried to avoid for the longest time.

>>28203116
In all honesty in the first three gens Ho-oh was probably the legend that overstepped the boundaries slightly. I mean, reviving pokemon sounds a bit much even for a nature deity.

>>28201758
Gameplay wise probably Platinum, B2W2, or HGSS due to sheer levels alone of the trainers and leaders (HGSS only because of rematches and Red).

Lore wise gen 4 with literal gods followed by 5 (legends can raze the world to the ground apparently), 3 (extinction tier legends), and 6 (Yveltal can auto-kill things?).

>>28203281
Gen 4 took a dump on lore.

>>28203305
Well, they're still the best power level wise. If you're talking about actual lore as in history and shit, then likely Gen 2 and 3. Possibly gen 5 with the ruins and stories of the heroes.