How do you choose which game to play?

[Crowing]

Pokemon is notable for often being featured as a duo of games, e.g. the upcoming Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and it got me wondering. How do you decide which of the two to play? There often isn't much difference between the games aside from the legendary Pokemon featured as the mascot. In the early games, there were version-exclusive Pokemon but as the series progresses, this becomes more irrelevant as you can easily trade Pokemon with other players.

So what helps your decision? Is it the legendaries, the exclusives, or something else entirely?

For me, it depends. X was because it was the first to feature a fairy-type legendary Pokemon, Alpha Sapphire was... because I liked Kyogre, I guess; Moon was because of the difference in the day/night system over Sun. I also own White 2 but I'm not entirely sure what made me play that over Black 2.

 

[Mizunil]

My deciding factor is usually just on the legendary exclusives, whichever one I like more is generally the one I get.

- B/W I got Black for Reshiram
- X/Y I got Y for Yveltal
- S/M I got Sun for Solgaleo
-Or/As I got Omega Ruby (this was a tough choice)
- Sw/Sh I had to get Shield because Sword was sold out, but again I would’ve gotten Sword for Zacian, although it doesn’t hugely matter to me.

If I were getting the D/P remakes I would get Brilliant Diamond simply because I like Dialga more. I want the box that’s more appealing to me

If I like both legendaries equally/similarly, I base it on the version exclusive Pokémon, yeah you can trade easily now, but I’d just prefer having the version itself. I’d usually watch a YouTube video which compares the 2 and get whichever version has more Pokémon I’d like to use. There are no huge differences in gameplay, so it was never a huge issue to me.

 

[Artisan]

The box art to me really sells it. You get to keep the box after all. My first Pokemon games I got I had no real choice in the matter. Later on it was because my friend had the other version. Now it's off of what comes to mind to me most and how I feel I can be attached to that title. You could have a birthstone based on the release of a certain game so basically that's how I got stuck with Diamond.

 

[Deepak]

I just think of which name sounds cooler or which legendary looks cooler.
Like I chose X in X/Y. And if i bought pokemon sw/sh I wouldve gone with sword.
But now that I think about it, I always seem to like the first title. Like in diamond pearl, i like diamond. In black white, i like black. Like i've seen a list of all the pokemon games and I always like the first title better. Idk why. Maybe I think its better just because it comes first. The only exception is sun moon. I like moon better.

 

[Dowhat?]

Pretty much which Legendary I like more, and that's about it.

 

[ariamisu]

a mixture of approaches are used for picking a single version game.
one is relate to a recent or old anime favorite or liked anime with a name or character name “example i would have picked pokemon shield for i like shield hero anime”
another is based on some of what is found in the game without trading , like sir fetched if playing sword.
characters in game that may be version exclusive as i picked sword in the end due to liking bea more than shield gym leaders.
based on version friend is getting , best to go for opposite version.
the legendsry cover pokemon that is liked the most.
game music for version exclusive areas as i would go for black and black 2 for opeuslid site of 8th gym leader music.