What Made Me Put Down the Pokémon Franchise For Good

I don't know if this nostalgia loop I fall into every few years is a me thing, a human thing, or a '90s kids thing, but I hate it.

- By Violet Plata

One of the franchises that most has a grip on my heart is Pokémon because it's nigh impossible to avoid noticing some of my favourite ones since they're pretty mainstream (Gengar being one of them). Seeing them gets me poking around what's been up with the franchise lately and wondering if maybe Game Freak has done a better job now that I've been gone for a few years.

Since my family knows only a handful of games, most of which are Nintendo, I usually get gifted the same franchises. So, I decided to pick up Pokémon Violet when the nostalgia bug began again since I hadn't played for more than an hour when I first got it.

Admittedly, it's taken me longer than I like to get better about being a stubborn hardass with high expectations, so I wasn't surprised when I remembered nitpicking at everything about the then-latest entry. This time around, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience; I was particularly happy about the new quality-of-life improvements, such as being able to pull out Pokémon from the boxes without needing a PC. The list of features I was thoroughly appreciating kept growing the more I played, and what used to bother me before (namely, I wasn't the biggest fan of Miraidon's bike-like use) wasn't a problem at all.