>>25758923
Definitely not FireRed; the way you unlock postgame sucks ass there
>catch 60 pokemon just so Oak gives you national and you can get non-Kanto shit
why

>>25758923
Ask Reddit.

>>25758923
Start with X/Y.
Those games sold the most for a reason, and are well designed around newbies.
He will get bored playing old shit, what you feel is nostalgic most feel like it's shit.

If he's never played a Pokemon game then he'll have no nostalgia for the older games. He's better off playing one of the newer games with the updated mechanics, so Platinum, HG/SS, Black/White, X/Y or OR/AS.

>>25758923
either FireRed or Crystal imo.

>>25758994
>>25759021

Ok thank you. I think ill let him borrow my 3ds so he can play y then.

>>25758994
>Implying good sells assures quality
>"most feel whatever I my opinion is"

The old games are not shit, Pokémon didn't change that much aside graphics. It's a formulatic game, you always get more or less the same experience, what really changed over the years is the meta, which will be irrelevant for a beginner.

From my experience showing the game to other people, you should only avoid Diamond and Pearl because they are slow and newcomers usually don't have patience and drop it right away.

>>25759197
>only the meta

So lets ignore EV's and IV's changes, the phys/spec split, new types, tm changes, etc etc, all changing the gameplay (in admittedly varying amounts.)

The newer games are more polished in terms of gameplay, which is more than enough reason to go for newer games as a new player.

I myself loved R/S/E but stopped replaying them by the middle of gen 5. That was entirely down to the mechanics, and now ORAS is out I am so happy playing through with those vital changes.