"[Unpopular Opinion] Platinum is the most underrated game in the series."

A lot of people seem to hate gen 4 due to the heavily criticised diamond and pearl, but I often see Platinum getting lumped in with them, despite that it:1) Massively fixed the pacing issues in battle and out. Battles didn't drag as long as they did, repels worked, surfing wasn't a slow process anymore. The whole game was streamlined.2) Gave the region way more visual flair than in Diamond and Pearl, replacing the often bland graphics of those games. Cities and towns had extra splashes of detail, many building models were redone to be more unique, and extra details like the Elite Four Rooms, new intros, redone gyms etc... Really went a long way.3) A common complaint with Diamond and Pearl were the Pokemon available. Many new evolutions of old pokemon were unobtainable due to not being fully new Sinnoh Pokemon. Platinum massively increased your team options by making all of these available in the main game, as well as expanding the amount of non gen 4 available Pokemon too. Take the fire type, for example. Only two were available in DP, but Platinum gave us five.4) It fixed the story pacing too. Here, there were greater gaps between the 3rd, 4th and 5th badges, as well as an actually unique "story climax" in the distortion world. Team Galactic could actually be taken seriously, because they achieve way more during the story.5) The post-game was improved and expanded, with the addition of the Battle Frontier. Everyone gushes about the Hoenn Frontier, but I always liked the one in Platinum. The Arcade, Factory and Tower especially. Add to that the greater variety of prizes available and the popularization of competitive battling, and you have a damn good fun game mode. Also, Gym Leader rematches were now possible.6) The whole "mythology" of the region was expanded. I for one am dissapointed that event legendary areas have essentially been dropped. Visiting Newmoon Island to catch Darkrai, or Flower Paradise to catch Shaymin was epic, and something I really miss in Pokemon games. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2b953Lh