The 8th generation of consoles came out at a bad time in my life.

Long story short, my mental health was a trainwreck, and from about 2011 to early 2016 I was severely depressed, for reasons that had nothing to do with gaming itself. 

As those who've been there will know, when you're depressed, you it becomes hard to enjoy the things you usually would. And that was what gaming was like for me during that time, I just wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to cos I was so stressed out and unhappy in my everyday life.

Now at the time, I didn't realize that this was what was going on, so I just felt like "ugh, gaming sucks now, the Wii U sucks, the PS4 sucks, the Xbox One sucks, everything just sucks now."

Thankfully, I eventually started to recover, and in early 2016 I started a new job, in a new place, made a bunch of new friends, and things started to look up. 

Many years down the line, having revisited a lot of 8th gen titles via PS5 and Switch, I realize that actually there was a ton of great stuff that generation, I just wasn't in the right headspace to appreciate it at the time.

Lately especially I've been collecting a bunch of PS4/XBO titles for dirt cheap ($10 a pop or less) and having a ball.

Guess it just goes to show, a positive mindset makes a world of difference.

I thought this was about Pokémon when I clicked the thread title lol.

Glad to hear you're doing better.

Depression is no joke.

And yeah, what is happening in your life can massively affect even the things you enjoy and would likely make you happier.

I was in a bad period between late 2018 and mid 2020 (before the pandemic and it extended into it) and it was only when The Last of Us Part 2 came around mid pandemic that I got back into gaming.

It could have lasted longer as the state of the world was in was horrible, mid 2021 it was taking lives of my coworkers and it was a really scary time, but then it was gaming that was helping me a lot now. The Last of Us Part 2 into Ghost of Tsushima into the release of Genshin Impact was such a incredible time for gaming to me.

But yeah, the 8th gen was great. As is the 9th as well, and people will start agreeing with it when the 10th come and the cycle starts over where 9th gen is now great and 10th sucks...

Ever since the 3rd gen gaming has never stopped being great, stuff change and varies, but there was always and still are a lot of great games to play.

Best generation in gaming, which I've been alive but I can fairly confidently say ever. It'll never reach that highth again.

That usually happens earlier in the gens. This gen people thought gaming was shitty to begin with as well. Some still do.

I loved the 8th generation, Bloodborne and Souls 3, made me happy.

Had a similar experience with depression, but a few years later. Was on sick leave for the better part of one year and even spent a few weeks semi-forced hospitalized to get treatment.

I'm still stuck in disliking the 8th generation however. I did not even like the 3DS. That gen is probably the reason for my playing a lot more on mobile instead of dedicated gaming consoles. The WiiU is the only gaming system that I no longer own that I do not at some point have wanted back.

I still like a several of the PS4 games released, but quite a few seemed like a downgrade from the PS3 games of the same series. Still good, but not improving for me. And I still feel kind of glad that I never bought the PS4. Had the pro incorporated 4K blu-ray support I would have,

I am very sorry you dealt with depression for so long. It really does sap the pleasure out of all the great things life has to offer. But I'm equally glad you escaped that period and are doing much better now :)

However, like @Pajderman above me, I'm still a little down on the 8th gen. Most of the successor systems during that time are downgrades from the previous gen. Vita, WiiU, and Xbox One in particular were disappointing compared to what came before. I think the explosion of indie games during the 8th really kept it going, along with several standout first-party games on 3DS & WiiU and multiple exceptional experiences from Atlus, From Software, Capcom, and Platinum.

I only jumped in at the start of 2017, so I completely missed all the 2013-2016 releases. I’ve heard there was a drought of e.g. first-party Sony releases early on, but I completely missed most of that.

2017 and 2018 are two years in gaming I hold very highly. I still find 2023-2026 to be leaps and bounds higher than the highs of the past, but gen 8 was definitely a solid gen!

(though I may be a little biased in favor of current gen b/c I’m literally keeping tabs on every release. You’d be shocked to discover that almost every week, a new game with 80+ OC will drop. There’s never a shortage of good games.)

Considering the earliest generation, I've spent a lot of time on is the 6th Generation (and not much before then in titles or especially on pre-6th Gen hardware) the 8th Generation of gaming is one of my favorites.
Yes, the growing DLC and microtransactions and such are a big problem. The 8th Generation gave us so many bangers. 3DS and PS4 were quite strong to me, especially PS4. And even Wii U, Xbox One and Vita have some games worth playing. If you count Switch as 8th Generation, it makes the gen even stronger.
I feel the 9th Generation is overhated (and it's not done yet), but I think it will end up being weaker than the 8th Generation.