Never played a Pokemon game. What am I missing?

I used to watch the show a bit when I was younger but didnt get too into it.  Anyways I hear that kids and adults play it but how does it compare to FF games, which are pretty much the only jrpgs I play.

I've hardly played any of them, tried Black a couple of years ago. Played it for eight hours and enjoyed it, but for some reason didn't return to it. It's addicting if you like grindy gameplay.

Pokemon is perfection wrapped inside a miracle...

I prefer it over Final Fantasy as a series, and this is coming from someone who's favorite game of all time (besides Pokemon :P) is FFIX.

You are not missing much. It's kinda like FF but you use only one party member at a time. :p

Not to mention the new Pokemon titles still cling to randomly triggered encounters.

It's a genius game with a simple surface. When you get into the technical stuff, it's extremely deep and one of the only tournement viable RPGs in existence. Easily one of, if not, the best RPG series out there.

The battle system is very memorable.

if you hhave played many rpgs then i suppose you wouldnt mind much...

but its very addicting game...and very rewarding and fun to plan out which attacks you want learn and which ones to forget..

A childhoodTriforceBowser

Pokemon is perfection wrapped inside a miracle...

Pixel-Perfect

All you need to know. 

A soul.

Coming from someone who plays solely for the singleplayer, Pokemon is an amazing and addicting RPG series... Easily one of the best.  The utter simplicity of the combat betrays the true depth of it, not even taking into consideration EV's, IV's and the like.  I just love building teams and wiping out the Elite 4 with different guys.  Plus just exploring the world is a lot of fun.  The fact that there are so many Pokemon to choose from gives you tons of options.

I like FF as well, but for different reasons.  When you get down to the nitty gritty of Pokemon, it's about 10000000000000000000000X as deep and involved than almsot any other JRPG on the market... If you enjoy old school gameplay (namely random dungeons) and building different teams you should enjoy it.  The core gameplay has hardly changed, and that's hardly a problem because the basics of Pokemon are near perfect.

That's my two cents on it.  

[QUOTE="Pixel-Perfect"]

Pokemon is perfection wrapped inside a miracle...

Zassimick

All you need to know. 

Only if you have 31's in all stats.

What are you missing? You're missing a f*cking childhood, that's what! But don't worry it's not too late for you my friend. Honestly when I was a kid, I played pokemon up until sapphire I think, then just got tired of the repetitiveness, and I was also maturing as a gamer in general. But now that I know I can go back and not care what anyone thinks, and also with Pokemon X/Y coming out (which looks like the best pokemon game in years!!!) I'm happy to say I am buying a 3DS and getting this new pokemon game come October :)

I got the GBC Pokemon and I could never get into it. I think I got further in Pokemon Red/Blue but never really got into it either. I just don't see what the big deal is.

I love Pokemon :) & I'm 22, grew up wih the series! Any other students out there love it too? Great rpg. delectabledoz

I think that most college students, whether they admit it or not, play/ have played Pokemon at some point in their lives.