#I've played firered so many times

[ifbench]

Pokemon Firered Retrospective, from the perspective of someone whose primary experience with Kanto was Pokespe

To preface this, I have never seen Kanto outside of Pokespe, and brief clips from stuff like "Beating Pokemon without getting hit" or Pikasprey's softlock videos. I knew the general story of it, but I didn't know the details.

If you'd like to read my other mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, and X here.

Pokemon Firered was one of the most mixed quality gaming experiences I've had in recent memory.

It was mostly fun, sure, but I had to take extensive measures in order to make it not unbearable.

I chose Charmander as my starter, named him Burhalla, and caught a Pidgey and Ratatta on Route 1. I named them Linne and Jifa respectively. Jifa would become my HM buddy.

First few routes weren't too bad...until I made it to Brock.

Then everything went downhill.

Brock was brutal. His Onix was 3 levels higher than any I had encountered thus far, including his gym trainer. With both my main Pokemon weak to rock, and all of my attacks NFE against rock, it seemed like my only choice was to grind.

So I activated an infinite rare candy cheat instead, and leveled up Burhalla until he learned Metal Claw.

Even then, that wasn't quite enough. I had to level up him even further until he evolved into a Charmeleon, and then I finally beat Brock.

At this point, I was rather miffed, but I decided to press on. Maybe things would get better soon?

Mount Moon was fine. Not bad, not good, just...fine.

Then was Cerulean City, and Misty, who was my biggest roadblock in the entire run.

Burhalla was right out, leaving only Linne the Pidgey to battle her.

And it took so, so many tries. Even more than Brock.

But eventually, with the right luck, and the right timing of usage of healing items, Linne the Pidgeotto defeated Misty.

That battle tanked my enjoyment of Firered severely. It was frustrating, hard, and I began to start disliking Firered.

But I pressed onwards, up through Nugget Bridge (Which, I gotta say, I did not expect the nugget guy to be a Rocket grunt), to Bill's house.

It was cool seeing stuff from Pokespe in-game, like the stuff with Bill, but backtracking back across Route 25 was annoying.

Then there was the SS Anne.

It was a maze to navigate without a guide, and it got really frustrating.

But I continued pressing onwards, even as much as I was getting tired of Firered.

Surge was thankfully much easier than Misty or Brock, and I pressed onwards through Route 11.

Then I arrived at the sleeping Snorlax, realized I had no idea where to go or what to do from here, and gave up.

For over a month, I didn't touch FIrered again. I played some X, some Sun, some Shield, and some Violet, but Firered was on hold.

After growing a bit bored with my Violet replaythrough, though, I decided to return to Firered. Maybe, with a month's break, it'd be less painful than I remembered.

First order of business was where to go next.

I asked for advice, and apparently I had to backtrack to Cerulean City to get to my next destination.

I made my way through Diglett's Cave to get back there, and caught my third team member: Dirir the Diglett.

And after taking the long way around, I finally went into the house at the top-right corner, and made my way across the northern edge of Kanto, Route 9.

Then was Rock Tunnel.

See, I hadn't gotten Flash. And I had no idea where it was.

So like with Emerald's Victory Road, I had to navigate through Rock Tunnel with extremely limited visibility. And I was going Repel-less as an additional challenge, since I was imagining that my protagonist was a Zorua.

Not an experience I wish to repeat. But eventually, I made it to Lavender Town.

Lavender Town was both unlike and yet exactly like the stories I've heard of it. It was spooky, creepy, and eeire, but I felt safe, and the music felt calming instead of terrifying.

Perhaps it was simply that I had simply outgrown creepypastas? Or maybe it was just that my interests had shifted, or my standards had changed. I did attempt writing a PMD creepypasta once, after all.

Whatever the case was, I didn't spend too much time in Lavender Town. I remembered from a small clip I saw years ago, that I needed a Silph Scope in order to make it up the Pokemon Tower.

So I set out west, towards Celadon City, in search of the Silph Scope, and perhaps a new friend or two.

After passing through yet another underground tunnel that bypassed Saffron City, I was beginning to suspect that perhaps something similar to the manga was happening: A psychic bubble that enveloped Saffron City, preventing anyone from entering.

But soon I made it to Celadon City, the home of Kanto's Game Corner.

I had learned my lesson from Emerald: These places were rigged.

So I decided to cheat a little in turn.

You know how I had a ton of rare candies from the infinite rare candy cheat? I decided to sell about a hundred, so I could get one of the Game Corner prizes: A Dratini.

I had read a wonderful fic a long time ago called Dragon Dance, detailing Lance's rise to champion, and I decided to take inspiration from Lance freeing a Dratini from the Game Corner. I named them Darnod.

In flavor, I imagined this as busting up the Game Corner, freeing all the Pokemon, and a Dratini and Eevee follow my protagonist into the Rocket Hideout, becoming part of xyr team.

Yes, an Eevee too. I got the Eevee from the Celadon Department Store, and named them Voivick. I also acquired a water stone, and evolved Voivick into a Vaporeon.

Burhalla, Linne, Dirir, Voivick, Darnod, and Jifa would comprise my final Kanto team.

But before we get there, I had to infiltrate the Team Rocket Hideout.

I had heard of spin tiles before, from reading an Undertale AU sprite comic called Inverted Fate, but actually experiencing them was a fun puzzle! It was also silly watching my character spin around and around and around.

Eventually, I made it through the hideout, to Giovanni.

He was no slouch, and I had a pretty tough time with him! But thanks to my new team members, I pulled through, and acquired the Silph Scope.

After a quick detour to defeat Erika, who was a relatively easy opponent, I made my way back to Lavender Town.

Pokemon Tower was a bit more spooky than Lavender Town itself. It wasn't quite as terrifying as its manga incarnation, but still pretty eerie, especially with the possessed trainers, and the spell tag circle.

Soon, I made it to Marowak's ghost, and put the restless spirit to rest.

And after defeating a few Rocket grunts and rescuing Mr. Fuji, I obtained the pokeflute. Finally, I could bypass the Snorlax that had frustrated me into giving up for a month.

I went south from Lavender Town, across the docks, and battled the Snorlax there. It was a tricky battle, but I eventually won.

The long walk to Fuchsia City was arduous, but before too long, I made it to the home of the Safari Zone.

I originally wasn't planning on going in, until I heard from a friend that I needed to go there to get an HM.

And so I went in, trying to find my way to the fabled house at the end of the Safari Zone.

It was tricky, but I found it, and someone's gold teeth while I was at it!

With my new HM in hand, I challenged Koga for my next badge. It was another tricky battle, but thankfully, none of my team were weak to poison.

Next...I went to Cycling Road, having no idea that I was going the complete wrong way.

Cycling Road, as far as I can tell, is meant to be ridden downhill. I went uphill.

I was very confused at first, but kept making my way up the now-tedious Cycling Road, and eventually came out the other side, now with HM Fly. No more backtracking for me, I could now quickly return to any Pokemon Center I've been to.

Then, finally, with nowhere else to go, it was time to enter Saffron City.

While there was no psychic bubble around the city like in the manga, the city was certainly overrun by Team Rocket.

And so, like Red, Blue, and Green did in the manga, it was finally time for me to storm Silph Co.

Silph Co was a maze. Over 10 different floors, each connected by warp tiles, with no indication of which ones led to the path forward.

It was brutally confusing, and filled to the brim with trainers itching for a battle.

But I eventually found the keycard, and navigated my way to the hidden side of the top floor. It was time to face Giovanni again.

He was just as tough as when I encountered him in the Rocket Hideout, but Voivick pulled through, and I acquired the master ball.

Compared to Giovanni, Sabrina was relatively easy, though still pretty difficult. I had to work for that win, but I got my sixth badge.

Then it was time for me to go Surfing, along the southern edge of Kanto.

The Seafoam Islands were a tricky puzzle to figure out. It took me a few rounds of falling through holes and climbing up ladders to realize that I had to use Strength to push boulders down the holes, and change the flow of the water.

Soon, though, I made it to Cinnabar Island...and was immediately taken from there to Firered and Leafgreen's exclusive sub-region, the reason I decided to play this before Let's Go: the Sevii Islands.

For the Sevii Islands, I had absolutely no idea what the game version was like. I hadn't even seen any snippets of footage about them. My only experience with them was the Firered and Leafgreen arc of Pokemon Adventures.

But this time, there were no repossessed pokedexes, or "three Team Rocket beasts". Instead, I simply had to go on a variety of fetch quests.

It wasn't anything too special, but I'm glad it was there. It was fun! And I look forward to returning here in the postgame someday, once I find the drive to catch enough Pokemon for the Rainbow Pass.

But that's for later. For now, having defeated a biker gang, I returned to Cinnabar Island. Before I could face the gym, though, I had to traverse through the decrepit Pokemon Mansion.

Pokemon Mansion was like Silph Co, only much smaller, but the random encounters, statue puzzles, and eerie atmosphere made it feel just as long.

This was where Team Rocket conducted many of their experiments. It was where Mewtwo was created. And it lived up to that atmosphere.

Although some of the journal entries clearly had some of the dubiously canon stuff from Pokemon's very early days, such as references to real-life locations.

Still very neat, though.

Blaine wasn't as difficult as Misty, but was much more difficult than Erika. He specialized in the same type as my starter: Fire.

But with help from Voivick, I defeated him, and got my seventh badge.

I had just one stop left before Victory Road: The very first gym I encountered, whose gym leader was absent for so long.

Viridian City's gym leader had finally returned, and I was going to take him on.

The gym puzzle was my favorite yet of Kanto's, with the combination of spin tiles and trainers creating a genuinely neat maze.

And then I made it to Giovanni, for our final battle...until Soulsilver, Ultra Moon, and Let's Go Eevee, at least.

This battle with him was the trickiest against him yet. It took several tries for me to win.

But win I did, and Team Rocket, supposedly, was no more.

With all eight Kanto badges under my belt, it was time to go to Victory Road.

Before that, though, another battle with Blue. It was another tough one, but then again, all the major battles at this point were tough.

The badge check gates were really cool! The only comparable one I had seen so far was in Kalos, as Hoenn didn't have any. And Kalos' was more just inscriptions of the badges on the walls. Still cool, but not like Kanto's.

And then it was time for Kanto's Victory Road, my third Victory Road.

It was tricky, but in a different way from Hoenn and Kalos'.

Hoenn's was a test of navigation. How well could I navigate this maze in near-complete darkness?

Kalos' was a test of strength. So many powerful trainers, with nowhere in between to heal besides usage of items.

Kanto's was much shorter than both, fully lit, and its trainers weren't as tough as Kalos', but what it lacked in navigation and strength, it made up for in puzzles and endurance.

There were boulders scattered around, and I had to maneuver them sokoban-style onto switches in order to progress.

Oh, and the entire thing was filled with random encounters. At this point, I gave up on the "no repels" rule, and bought a bunch of max repels for this.

It was tough. It was confusing. It was my final test before the Indigo Plateau.

And eventually, I passed the test, making it out.

All that was left, was five battles. The Elite Four, and the Champion. The toughest the Kanto region had to offer.

At this point, all my Pokemon were fully evolved, save for my HM buddy Jifa. I was functionally going into this gauntlet with five Pokemon.

But I had conquered Hoenn in a similar way. Five battlers, and an HM buddy. I had hope that I could do this.

Healing up, and stocking up on healing items, I proceeded towards my first of my final battles, against Lorelei.

It's been a while, so I don't quite remember how these battles went. I do remember, though, that even Burhalla's fire wasn't enough to melt her ice. Linne, Dirir, and especially Darnod were weak to ice, so it was tricky.

But I pulled through, and next up was Bruno, fighting-type master.

Linne was vital here. Her Fly was invaluable in avoiding moves while still dealing damage. But a Hitmonlee knocked her out, leaving Voivick, Darnod, Dirir, and Burhalla to take on the rest.

Next was Agatha, and her ghost-types were no joke...even if she was more of a poison specialist. All my normal-type moves were out of the question. But with patience and strategy, I did it.

And last of Kanto's Elite Four was Lance, who had influenced this journey in his own way, back at the Celadon Game Corner. Darnod helped me a lot here. It was dragon vs dragons, and Darnod's Dragon Claw took many of them down. But the same went in reverse, and Darnod fell, leaving Voivick to finish things off with their Aurora Beam.

One battle left. Healing up my team, I progressed into the champion's chamber, to face Blue one final time.

This was by far the most difficult late-game battle I had. All the others had specialized in one or two types. But Blue was like me, with a rounded team.

It was tough. It was arduous. It took every member of my team, even Jifa, to win.

But win I did, and I had become champion of Kanto.

I had completed Pokemon Firered.

While my thoughts on this one are more mixed than Emerald or X, I did truly enjoy it, especially once it hit its stride around Lavender Town.

It has its flaws. Extreme difficulty in the earlygame, lots of grinding necessary, and much confusion on where to go next.

But I had fun, despite it all. I cherish this victory all the same.

[xemthawt112]

Genlocke Adventure

so I'd been mentioning to friends I was doing this, but I have a blog so may as well post: I've been doing a Genlocke, a variant on a Nuzlocke.

For theunmitigated, a Nuzlocke is a self imposed challenge mode for playing a Pokemon game. The rules can vary, but the big ones are 1. If a pokemon faints it's dead and you can't use it and 2. You are only allowed to catch the first (new) pokemon you encounter. The Genlocke is an expansion: you play one run across many generations of pokemon (I'm doing Gen 3* through 7). When you beat a game, you take the champion team to the next game...but every time you lose a pokemon it's gone for ALL future games.

Ive already started....so I'm going to give a summary on the two games I've done and then update as I do things.

My game itinerary is:

FireRed

SoulSilver

Emerald

Platinum

Black/White

X

UltraMoon

[kafus]

random infodump about the various pokemon related shit i do online and beyond (this is about fandom/community stuff and not my actual in-game accomplishments):

i'm a moderator for the ribbon master discord, which is a community dedicated to getting as many ribbons as possible on individual pokemon (i have many ribbon masters myself!) technically i'm also a mod on the community reddit but uh i just let the other mods handle the reddit lol. i've been in the rm community for 4 years now

not me specifically but ayano who i share a brain with runs the pokemon fansite blue moon falls which has a lot of comprehensive articles and custom coded tools pertaining to RBY/GSC and the rest of gens 1 and 2 (she's the reason that the internet has all those nice gifs of stadium 2's idle animations now btw)

in speaking of ayano, she's also a full odds shiny hunter and is a decently well known name in that community due to her resources and general friendliness lmao

i'm not as active /w it atm because my art focus has been more on human characters but for the majority of my life i was what people would call a "pokefurry" and i have a metric fuckton of pokemon artwork under my belt

on that note i've written pokemon fanfiction on occasion too though nothing major

i'm a casual VGC competitor - i ladder in-game relatively often, keep up to date with the meta, and i attended my first regionals this year and met up with a lot of pokemon folk in the process! i hope to attend more events in the future

i'm planning on getting involved with a local pokemon convention near me to distribute mystery gifts for old pokemon games the same way a toys r us would in the early-mid 2000s

i have been a part of and donated money to a few indie pokemon sites and projects, including pokemmo, gpx plus, and pokemon eclipse (previously known as pokemon the moon rpg when i was a kid and played it for the first time!). in speaking of eclipse even though i don't play it anymore i'm the reason that a 3d model for shadowobliveon exists lol

i know a tiny bit about romhacking and made a romhack of firered that lets me play the entire game as kafu once, with kaf as my rival. i also have a bunch of personal lost media of "story" videos i made as a young child by stitching together recordings of fake cutscenes i romhacked into pokemon ruby

i made all these really shitty pokemon fangames when i was around 10 years old and i'm kind of obsessed with them

apparently i'm a pokemon horizons fan now and people keep acting like im the second coming of christ in terms of likodot on twitter so maybe that means something (LIGHTHEARTED I AM JUST SHOCKED BY THE POSITIVE ATTENTION)

i own more pokemon plushies than what's healthy and i wish i could show them here but a lot of them are in a storage bag rn

my pokemon game collection is also fucking ridiculous but i'm too lazy to put all that together for a photo. for what it's worth i own at least one copy of every single mainline pokemon game before the 3ds era including all alternate versions (diamond pearl AND platinum instead of just one for example) and almost all spinoffs aside from like, 3 of them

i'm probably forgetting shit tbh the 2010s are like a blackout void to me sorry

i've been a pokemon fan since 2004 though when i was 4 years old i am in hell

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl31 ~ Pokémon Yellow, pt. 1

Thus we arrive at our first large trek of this journey. A full-on RPG. Admittedly, it's my own fault I even have to play this one. Pokémon Yellow is not actually on NSO. But I happen to own a copy of it on 3DS Virtual console, so I figured I owed it to the legendary series to try out the very first generation!

My goal: become the Pokémon League champion. But leading up to that is a long, winding, blocky road. Can't wait to share how many hours this one takes me xP

~My history with Pokémon~

I have a... complicated relationship with Pokémon. My first game was White version on the DS, which was love at first sight. There's something very different and special about playing Pokémon games as a kid. Being allowed to name and raise your own captured critters and then excitedly show it off to your friends. I battled, I traded, I conquered the Pokémon League, I explored every nook and cranny of Unova. I spent HUNDREDS OF HOURS in this game. When you're a kid, that's basically your whole life. I'll never forget my first Pokémon adventure. I miss you every day, Pigpy... ;n;

But then... something... changed. I tried going back to FireRed, Ruby, and jumping on the hype for Pokémon X... but it felt different. I even got White 2 as a Christmas gift, but by that time, the magic was gone. I haven't played a new Pokémon generation since. For a little while, I dabbled in Pokémon Showdown (a battle simulator where you build your dream team and face off against other trainers online) and even attempted a few nuzlocke challenges (a self-imposed "hard mode" where your Pokémon must be released when they faint). At this point, I was trying to rekindle the magic. Find new ways to enjoy these games. Learn battle strategy, meticulously plan team compositions, raise the stakes to the point that I would have NO CHOICE but to care.

While those were indeed enjoyable ways to play, I've never felt the same about Pokémon as I did that very first time. In fact, my criticisms of the series began to outweigh the fun. Why is it so slow? So much throwaway, cheesy dialogue... slow transitions from overworld to battle... battle to overworld... more dialogue that you read only in hopes of an item or moving the plot along... leveling up is a drip feed... random encounters at every turn... punished with each loss by having to walk back to the Pokémon Center... then back to where you were... constant micromanagement of HM moves for traversal to each and every story-significant location... the cycle drives me MAD. Not to mention constant missteps by Game Freak in rushing out unfinished, glitchy products or otherwise ignoring the desires of their fans in new entries.

sigh

Okay... okay... general Pokémon rant over. For now. I'd love to talk about this game in particular. So far, I've been playing with an open mind. Let's see where that's gotten me.

~DUCKIE's journey~

Yes, I am following the bizarre convention in old Pokémon of writing names in all caps

DUCKIE is a young girl (we'll just say she's tomboyish (this game forces u to be a boy /.\) ) who, prompted by her sarcastic childhood friend BOSER, sets off from her small town of Pallet to see the world and collect creatures called Pokémon who wander all about the region. As she visits new places and meets new people, she learns of the esteemed Pokémon League—an organization of professional trainers that dedicate their lives to strategizing, raising, and battling Pokémon. DUCKIE earns her first badge in Pewter City, proving that she bested one of the eight gym leaders. From here on out, her goal is to become champion of the entire Kanto region.

Since DUCKIE is a bit of a fashionista, she themed her Pokémon team around the color yellow! Of course, this started with her very first Pikachu, gifted to her by the famous Professor Oak. From then on, she studied (googled the first 150 pokemon) and planned a route (looked up where they all spawn) to lead a team of all yellow colored Pokémon.

Right now, 14 hours and 2 gym badges into her journey, this is how the team stands:

SONG the Pikachu! (reference to the Pikachu song, OGs know what I mean)

WOMP RAT the Sandslash! (LEGO womp rat my beloved)

MARYPLANT the Weepinbell! (I KNOW WHAT UR THINKING, YES WEEPINBELL IS YELLOW JUST NOT IN-GAME FOR SOME REASON)

RUY LOPEZ the Hypno! (the author of works on chess, reference to They Might Be Giants song "Rest Awhile")

~Taking in the sights~

As we all know by now, Pokémon stands as one of the pillars of the GameBoy's success as the biggest portable gaming console of the 90s. For a game THAT popular, I'm a little... surprised... at the visual design. Okay, the thing is, the Pokémon designs are awesome. I have always always ALWAYS loved how every single artistic detail hints at their combat type, natural habitats, biology, even things like diet and mating behaviors. Tons of personality in their faces and stances, as well; it's even visible on the in-game sprites, which often lean into exaggerated expressions and dynamic poses (to make up for being a completely unmoving sprite).

However, it's the... overworld and menu designs that leave something to be desired. At least the text is pretty legible, being sized up on the small dot matrix screen. But the menus are very flat and strangely organized. There is a lot of information just... missing. Don't expect to pick up an item or learn a new move and actually understand what it does. In this respect, the game relies heavily on trial and error (and a great deal of patience). And wow, the towns and routes are just plain ugly. It's a tile-based overworld layout, so it makes sense that there isn't too much space for detail. Still, we've already seen several tile-based GB games that look shockingly good. Pokémon Yellow is hands-down the ugliest game I've played so far.

That being said, I do think the journey has had moments of beauty. For one thing, I adore the use of color. Unlike Red and Blue, Pokémon Yellow was developed specifically for the GB Color, and it takes advantage of this by giving the color-based towns their own auras. Here, I have a short scrapbook of the Pokécenters I've visited:

A very pretty palette of colors, like watching the hue of the sky change throughout the day ^_^

One more thing I have to point out about the visuals: seriously, these folks are GREAT at character design. Not only do the Pokémon all have their own personalities, but you gotta look out for their eccentric trainers too.

FREAKS, ALL OF THEM!!!! but I love them so much. ..

~To be continued...~

That's all I got for now! I'd love to talk about the Kanto region, how DUCKIE's story unfolds as she pursues Pokémon League championship, gameplay oddities, and more—but that will have to wait until I actually beat the game. I don't know how many entries it will take. 2 out of 8 badges doesn't seem like very much for how long I've played, but I think the pacing is just kinda weird? We'll see, I guess! Talk to you then!!

TTYL larxists <3

[cyberdragoninfinity]

judai for the ask game? (if it isn't too late)

NEVER TOO LATE i love chattering about yugioh guys....judaijaden my friend my beloved pal

favorite thing about them: wwaughhh judai/jaden is such a good character and i adore his character arc..... i love that he effectively has to learn how to have fun with dueling again (and thats its the King of Games himself who helps remind him of that!), and that you don't have to sacrifice your passion for what you love as you grow up. Real shit. Also he's just,, so fuckin funny (especially in the dub.))--both his dub and sub VAs do such a great job with him.

least favorite thing about them: man season 3!jaden is........rrrrrouuughhhh. not my favorite, the things that season does to his character. s3 is just. kind of clumsy in its execution dfsfdgdf it drops a lot of jaden's most endearing traits and struggles to make those personality shifts fully worth it. i do think s4 helps bring it back around though.

favorite line: IT'S SO HARD TO PICK JUST ONE HE HAS SO MANY GOOD LINES ESPECIALLY IN THE DUB. "Um, I read the card?" "Alright, Ap :^)" "This is no time to be speaking Australian!!" "I guess bear hugs and old people just don't go together :^(" DUB COMEDIC TIMING HITS DIFFERENT

brOTP: WAHH I LOVE HIM AND SYRUS'S FRIENDSHIP thats his BESTIE!!!!! His dynamic with Zane is so good too....honorary truesdale brother. I'm also a bit in the minority in that I much more enjoy thinking about and playing in the space of his bond with yubel being a sort of platonic soulmates situation. yuub being jaden's cool metalhead older sibling type beat 4 lyf round these parts

OTP: sorry for being a heroshipper it's not my fault i just LIKE THEM. his dynamic with aster is just so funny and kind of sweet and im enamored with them. what if we both liked superheroes and we were both boys and we kissed. 😳 (i like a lot of jaden ships though. rival, spirit, fiance..... i do think he'd be kind of a bad boyfriend for a number of reasons so his relationships might not. last. but. at least he has plenty of friends!!!!)

nOTP: just dont vibe much with jadenyubel as a romantic ship im afraid u__u like its fine but not really my jam.... i've talked about it before but the "ive loved you since you were a child" thing that yubel has just works so much better as a platonic read to me than a,, romantic one. sits weird with me otherwise.

random headcanon: god. so many. gay fat trans guy who's gonna grow up to look like jack black. can and will see every superhero movie that comes out. absolute s-tier smash bros player. has a fondness for pokemon firered. i could go on.

unpopular opinion: the aforementioned preferring his dynamic with yubel to be platonic, also season 1 jaden (and season 1 of gx in general!!) fucking rules. masterclass of just peak silly yugioh.

song i associate with them: One of my favorites for him is Odds Are by Barenaked Ladies.... something so upbeat and hopeful to it. "Sure things go wrong, but I'll take my chances/Odds are long, so why not play"

favorite picture of them:

i love this tag force 3 sprite of him....so cute

[ether-gearhead]

How I interpret the core series multiverse

Something I've been thinking over since, around the BDSP/PLA release cycle, is how many timelines exist in the Pokemon multiverse? Well, I think I've come up with about six different timelines, including the timeline Masters takes place in. If you'll all indulge me for a moment or two, I'll lay out the multiverse as I see it:

Classic Timeline:

Yellow

Emerald

Crystal

Platinum

Nothing more complicated here than putting the third versions together, because, let's face it, these WERE the canon versions back in the day! I want to make particular note of Platinum, as I believe Cyrus's actions at the Spear Pillar not only created two entirely different universes, but completely rewrote their histories, given that Dialga's power over time includes future AND past.

Diamond timeline:

FireRed

Ruby

HeartGold

Diamond

Black

Black 2

X

Sun

Sword

Scarlet

So named because this universe is most heavily influenced by Dialga, the Diamond timeline consists of whatever versions the male protags are named after in Adventures. However, Scarlet will be a constant across this and the Pearl timeline, for reasons we'll get into later.

Pearl timeline:

LeafGreen

Sapphire

SoulSilver

Pearl

White

White 2

Y

Moon

Shield

Scarlet

Being the Palkia-influenced universe, you'll find several connections to Palkia's Water-typing, mainly in Kyogre, Lugia, and Lunala. Aside from that, these are mostly the opposite versions to the Diamond timeline. Once again, Scarlet is constant between the two, which of course I'll explain.

Omega timeline:

Let's Go Pikachu

Omega Ruby

Let's Go Johto

Brilliant Diamond

Black remake

Black 2 remake

X remake

Ultra Sun

Sword

Violet

These games are largely alternate universes to the Diamond timeline, some of which haven't even been announced yet, so I guess I have to explain that.

As Mega Evolution was originally stated to be recently discovered in Kalos, that flies in the face of Let's Go Pikachu and Omega Ruby, which prominently feature Mega Evolution prior to the Kalos games, so I grouped them into a timeline together. Speaking of Let's Go, we can safely assume a version of the Johto story occurs three years after that.

Brilliant Diamond is grouped here mostly for its inclusion of the Fairy-type, but I'm willing to bet that when Unova gets remade, Cynthia will reference Dialga in Black, but Palkia in White. And Kalos remakes will most likely retconning the Fairy-type as a long-known commodity.

Ultra Sun is explicitly an alternate Sun, and is the whole reason this and the Alpha timeline are a thing in the first place.

The reason I put Scarlet in both the Diamond and Pearl timelines is because of the possibility that AI Sada travelling to the ancient past causing a butterfly effect that would cause Violet's events to play out instead of Scarlet's.

Alpha timeline:

Let's Go Eevee

Alpha Sapphire

Let's Go Johto

Shining Pearl

White remake

White 2 remake

Y remake

Ultra Moon

Shield

Violet

I won't bore you all by repeating the same logic behind the Omega timeline, just swap out the opposite versions other than Scarlet.

Masters timeline:

FireRed

SoulSilver/Crystal hybrid

Omega Ruby/Emerald hybrid

Platinum

Black

Black 2

X

Ulltra Sun/Ultra Moon

Sword

Scarlet

Masters is somewhat less rigid with its timeline than the ones I've pieced together, but at least there's no need to fret over a Kanto title. Still, I'm going with FireRed just because Red picked Charmander.

I put SoulSilver AND Crystal, not because I believe they're both canon, but because Kris exists, and so I'm assigning her the Suicune sidequest. As for SoulSilver over HeartGold, Ethan seems to have caught Lugia, but not Ho-oh, so I think that settles that.

Similarly, I'm inclined to count Omega Ruby as the canon game because Steven's mindscape features the Groudon mural, and also Brendan as Norman's son has Latios, which would only be the case in Omega Ruby. However, I believe the Masters Hoenn story follows Emerald more closely, as if you look at the team admins' mindscapes, then Tabitha's is the mouth of Mt. Chimney, and Matt's is the remodeled submarine, both roles that Emerald assigned the two teams.

Platinum is explicitly canon to Masters, as Cheryl namedrops the Distortion World, with Cyrus even having both dragons before Dialga abandons him for Lucas.

Hilbert, portrayed as the canon BW1 protagonist, has his base unit's sync move as "The True Razor Shell," and N comes into the game with Zekrom as his base pair, so Black is almost certainly the canon version. Also, Nate recognizes Black Kyurem when Ghetsis tries to make Kyurem absorb Zekrom, so Black 2 almost certainly happened.

There are effectively zero indications of X or Y being the canon version. Lysandre doesn't even count since he wasn't believed to have survived Geosenge Town! That being said, most of Calem and Serena's Pokemon use the Dex entries from X, so until one version or another is confirmed, I'm rolling with X solely on that.

The Ultra games were confirmed since launch, but until Nebby makes an appearance, we won't know for sure whether it's Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon.

Gloria has Zacian, Hop has Zamazenta. Sword is canon, case closed.

Scarlet seems to be canon, based on Nemona wearing the Naranja Academy uniform, but I'd like to see the protags and Arven get added first before making a judgement call. Hoopa shenanigans, and all that.

So out of the natural infinity of multiverse theory, there are at least six timelines in the Pokemon core series multiverse. I mean, technically, there are ten bad timelines where the villains actually win, but those don't make for good worldbuilding (or, multiverse building. Building a multiverse, doesn't get nerdier than that...).

[spiremire]

I am starting to think my new years resolution was a terrible idea

My resolution this year—my only resolution, despite there being many excellent candidates—was to finish all the video games I have instead of buying new ones.

I have. A lot of Switch games. But the switch isn't the problem. The problem is the DS and 3DS games. I still have them all (I have a ton of these too).

CAVEAT 1: It is not achievable for me to finish all these games over the course of the next year due to my other obligations, neither is that what I'm trying to do. I am trying to waste less of my own money. A 'We have food at home' type of situation, if you will.

The worst culprit is my pokemon platinum cartridge. Until I opened it, the last time it had been played was 2011 (if you know much about Pokemon games, specifically american game release dates and generational transfer, you may agree with me when I say that's a bad sign). I want to be clear that going into this, I thought this was going to be the easiest of my DS games to finish.

I cracked open the save file and was immediately blasted by the egregious choices of my preteen self

All the pokemon were gone. Well. Not all of them, but all the ones I'd beat the game with. And all the ones I'd traded from my Diamond cartridge (said Diamond cartridge was suspiciously missing from the pile and has been for a while) as well as all the ones I'd traded from my older cousin's Diamond cartridge. My cousin had all the gameboy pokemon games, which meant he had a BUNCH of legendaries and stuff. He gave me the cartridge to share with my brother, and I managed to rescue anything valuable before my brother cleared the save history (yikes lmao) Not to worry, though, they're all safe, split between my two Gen 5 cartridges.

My PC box had at least 40 unhatched starter eggs (what was I DOING) a Lv 30 Mantyke, a Lv 3 Zigzagoon, and a Lv 100 Blaziken named HOT SHOT. To say I was a little devastated is an understatement. I really wish I had pictures but I was too distracted to take them.

But the most egregious infraction in my opinion was that the Exp Share had been sent to my Gen 5 games as well. I was truly starting from scratch.

So I did some research to see what my options were.

I decided to find a Lucky Egg to solve my most immediate problem, and set off on a Chansey hunt, which I'll talk about in the next post I make about this.

But it was during my research that I realized I was going to have to break my initial resolution: finishing games instead of buying new ones. See, the original DS and DS lite console had backwards compatibility with the Gameboy Advance cartridges. Which of course means that you need to have ALL FIVE Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen to make certain pokemon appear on the Routes. Best marketing scheme I've ever come across. I had an emerald cartridge at one point (also missing from my stack) and a dual slot DS Lite. I don't remember if I sold the console or not, and I don't know if the game is in a box somewhere in my mom's garage, or if it would even work if I did find it. But that's not the point.

The point is I might have to buy 5 games AND a DS console to truly finish this game in the way I'd hoped, which sort of defeats the purpose of the resolution in the first place. I would of course play through the GBA cartridges for completeness sake and also because I want to, but the audacity of Nintendo to do this to me in 2024.

And this is only as aggravating as it is because the pokemon it's populating into the game when you have the dual cartridge thing going isn't even anything Extremely Cool. It's just like. Lotad and Caterpie and such.

I guess it would help my finish my Diamond cartridge as well, if I ever end up finding it, but that doesn't really make it better.

[spinnerlockeplay]

2023 Plans for Nuzlocke

Hello, hello! As you can see, I just released the fourth part of my FireRed Nuzlocke before the New Year. After 1 year of posting, whoops...

But in all seriousness, if you read my 2023 news post in my gaming blog, you can tell I've been focusing on my writing lately including playing the latest games that I can't record in my blog, like Pokemon Violet's main story because of spoilers!

So the first thing I should address is regarding my current FireRed Nuzlocke playthrough.

(breaths)

Yes, I will be continuing it, and depending on if I don't choke on it, I want to see through my second Nuzlocke attempt. I know I'm still in the 4th gym, but I really want to finish it as best as I can. But on the other hand, I really want to try Nuzlocking other games. So here's the plan.

Game-wise, I want to try to do a Nuzlocke with either Pokemon Sword or Violet. One pro is that I can get clean screenshots with the Switch's capture feature. On the other, both games have many features which may complicate the Nuzlocke rules a lot. I'll explain more in two separate posts very soon if I do plan to play through them. But I can tell you this. My Pokemon Violet Nuzlocke won't feature all stories as in the 3 main stories and the last one that culminates the game's story itself, which I won't elaborate more on because of spoilers. It's not only efficient and less grindy on my end, but I don't want to experience a trauma button called Ed Sheeran's Celestial and the ending.

(A perfect recreation of me after playing Pokemon Violet's main story)

It might take a while to plan out rules and how to balance all playthroughs along with my writing, but these things take time before fruition including recording what happened in my playthroughs. I also plan to have a randomized Nuzlocke or a non-Pokemon game Nuzlocke, but I can't overwhelm myself with my focus on going back to Artificial Fantasy and a new story I'm planning. Regardless, I'm gonna try my best on balancing my schedule with my meetings with my co-writers. I can't make any promises or a New Year resolution, but again, I'll try my best this year.

In other news, I do have plans beyond gaming and writing, but I'm not ready yet to reveal it. If it's ready, I will let you know in my main blog.

I will get back to FireRed as soon as possible and I will start working on my future playthroughs. Thanks for sticking through my blogs including this one and let's have a happy 2023.

[onebizarrekai]

I went on an unfiltered positive soapbox rant in a doc about green oak last night at 1am

please note that I usually post with moderation on my language but this rant does not have this

I have to give you the original. I have to

yo it’s almost 1 in the fucking morning and I played pokemon for 4 fucking hours today and I’m gonna ramble about GARY FUCKING OAK

LISTEN CAREFULLY. ok listen

to start off my ted talk with something partially irrelevant, I cannot get over the fact that green and gary are almost 2 very distinct personalities. they have similarities, but in my head, green has a genuine capacity to be personally malicious, while gary exists for the sole purpose of being as much of a chad as possible

scale of oak: <————————————————> emo bitch         smartass       tax fraud (manga)             (game)              (show)

(I haven’t read the manga in like 10 years and I’m having these vague recollections and I’m like whoa god. I forgot that red and green didn’t know each other in the manga they were literally strangers it’s so weird also they were ALL SO YOUNG)

so basically, gary is a hilarious fucking character whom cade (my brother) and I have distorted beyond belief by making him a rich snob and making endless tax history jokes, and green oak, green fucking oak, is a much more elaborate human being.

real character development as a real life person is growing up and realizing that green is your favorite pokemon character, and not just because he’s comically an asshole and easily mockable, it’s also because he goes through so much fucking implicit character development and it’s VERY IMPORTANT AND COOL.

call it extra and biased but fuck off. no character in pokemon has ever gotten more character development than green oak, and not seeing any of it happen on screen is actually really interesting.

pokemon isn’t generally about character development beyond the dialogue you see on the screen. I mean, apparently it’s little enough about the story that sword and shield completely bailed on the idea of actually having a fucking story, even though sun and moon had a pretty decent one. ANYWAY, green oak is such a fucking cool character because there’s so much room for speculation, and I’m gonna go on a list of reasons why everything about this is neat.

1. he is the only character whom you actually see change in a pokemon game off camera and between long timespans, to my recollection. the only thing to compare this to is the transition between the two fifth gen stories, and while my memory is foggy since I only played black 2 once, I don’t remember any of the characters in that game changing much at all. maybe cheren became less of a dick, whatever. no one cares because he has absolutely no subtext.

2. red is the only protagonist in pokemon history who has made a second appearance. red is a real fucking person, a real pokemon character, and isn’t just a convenient fill-in for the player who gets thrown away after the game is over (LOOKING AT YOU, BLACK 2 AND WHITE 2). green’s relationship to red, no matter how damaged, is a real thing, and a real story element. this is never done in any other pokemon game. green is the only rival whose story continues after the game is over because his counterpart continues to exist.

3. the context of the game. after green barreled through the entirety of kanto, talking red down all the while, and then becoming champion, he gets beaten by red once and for all and his dream of being champion is torn right out of his hands moments after being obtained. everything green cared about is taken away from him by the person he was always mean to. karma, bitch.

so green becomes the 8th gym leader. it doesn’t take two moments of thinking about this to understand how much he doesn’t want this. it’s like, settling for 6th best after your dream job falls through, since nobody knows how the structure of the elite four works.

to top it all off, red RUNS THE FUCK AWAY TO A GODFORSAKEN MOUNTAIN. he takes everything away from green, shatters his world, and then won’t even take the dream that green wanted. can you imagine how mad he’d be about that? green is already having an existential crisis about his behavior problems, he doesn’t need this fucking bullshit. somehow lance becomes the new champion meanwhile even though he’s an elite four member. you’d think green would at least take his place, or something. the amount that I’m confused about this is probably also applies to green. there’s a chance that green rejected the position of champion due to being defeated by red right away, and all the shame he got, but even so, it undoubtably would have taken a toll on him.

finally, here’s the kicker. in spite of all this, green doesn’t make it his business to end the world or some shit. in spite of this, he becomes a better person. green fucking oak has a fucking soul. also, it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve played all of soulsilver, but does green ever complain about red being isolated on mt silver? maybe that’s wishful thinking.

final bout: after years and years, green and red arrive in alola together as grownass men. red came down from the fucking mountain, and green is the one he came to the islands with. this implication of reconcile is so FUCKING IMPORTANT because of what these two have been through for like, the last 20 years.

you cannot POSSIBLY look at this like it’s not a big deal. like, they didn’t just “grow up and get over it.” red had to kick green aside to become the champion (which is still such a fucking good conclusion for the game, like, thinking back on it having a rival who’s a dick to you for the whole game and then destroying his life is grimly poetic), RAN AWAY TO A MOUNTAIN and gave up the title, indicating to green that it didn’t even matter to him (whether he meant that or not, whatever, running away to a mountain is fucking stupid), and in spite of all this, they ended up reconciling. they reconciled. green could have been mad at red for the rest of his life for destroying his dream, regardless of how he treated red when they were younger. maybe green figured that he still had a shot at becoming champion again, but maybe that’s the point. he continues to want to be stronger than red but doesn’t let it carry into how he treats people anymore.

I’m curious, though. what really happened? did red and green put it all behind them? did they deem there someone to blame? did red just become the champion to get back at green after all, and then ran away because he didn’t know how to live with it? or did he run away because it truly didn’t matter to him? or did red become the champion purely out of his own self goals and wasn’t even thinking about green? if so, why did he run away? so many things to think about.

anyway, tldr, green has been through more character development than any other pokemon character and I adore him

also. where the fuck is gold. he defeated red and then ceased to exist

update: in heartgold and soulsilver, green doesn’t seem to know where red is, but in some of his dialogue over call, he tells you that you “remind him of someone” and he mumbles dejectedly about red before hanging up

[o-wyrmlight]

1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 13

Honestly I would do all of them but that seems like a lot for one ask

1. Favourite game(s) in the series?

My favorite games in the series are absolutely the first trio that I've played: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. It's just so nostalgic and wholesome and I just love that trio to bits and pieces, and the story is just so beautiful and tragic and I cried and... you get the idea.

2. Do you prefer the 2D or 3D games (in terms of style or the games in general)?

I prefer the 2D games. I actually prefer all of the Pokemon games in a 2D style, but that might just be me being stuck in the past in that regard. I grew up with 2D Pokemon games and Pokemon Pearl was the first Pokemon game that I actually beat (the first Pokemon game I ever got to the Elite Four with was FireRed). I'm a '99 kid, so I'm a touch retro, I guess. 2D pixelated graphics is just so charming to me.

4. What were your hero characters like before being turned into Pokemon? What did they look like and how were their lives? Do they ever recover any of their memories?

Hmm! I've never thought about it! I suppose in regards to how the main character in Explorers of Sky is, I suppose I imagine them mostly as a character that is firm and determined to the end, with their companion Grovyle. They're resolute and determined, and their life was difficult and bitter in the perpetual stasis that the world existed in. I never put much thought into how they look, but I like to imagine that they got their memories back at some point and have found peace with themself, even if their companion Pokemon is no longer with them.

5. Which Pokemon from Gen 7-8 would you consider potential hero/partner options, outside of the regular Starter Pokemon?

Oh! Hmm. Hmm, that is. An excellent question. I didn't play Gen 7 or Gen 8. Keeping in mind that I know literally nothing about them and am just looking through them as I go, I think! I think it'd be interesting to have a dragon option to start off with. So maybe the Jangmo-o line if we're going by Gen 7. In Gen 8, I have to admit that I do think that the Impidimp line is pretty neat. I'm sort of tempted to say them. Or maybe even Farfetch'd, so you can play around with Sirfetch'd! I suppose. Maybe. Maybe.

11. Any headcanons that take place after the games that you want to share?

I just like Darkrai, okay? Rise of Darkrai has tainted my vision, and he deserves a second chance. I like to imagine that he might eventually regain his memory and earnestly regret all that he's done, though he might not outright say it. ALSO HOT TAKE: PMD DARKRAI IS TRANS. Assigned genderless at birth. Goes by he/him. I love him. He is valid. Hell yeah.

13. Free pass to talk about anything you want!

Every single PMD game should have the opportunity to take multiple jobs at once. That's something that Darkness/Time/Sky have spoiled me with, as the first PMD games that I attempted to play, and that is something that I haven't had in any PMD games that I've tried to play afterwards. There's just such a rush of delight when you get so many jobs done at once--it makes you feel productive, it makes you feel like you worked hard and that you deserve those rewards that you are getting. And I love it. It's such a great feature! Someone make a mod to put that in Rescue Rangers. Please.

[ifbench]

Miscellaneous things a PMD fan has found strange about mainline Pokemon games

To preface this, this is not a true retrospective. This is just me rambling about some things I found odd in the mainline Pokemon games I've played so far, including those I have not yet finished.

This is likely going to be much shorter and more unorganized than my mainline Pokemon retrospectives, so be warned.

If you'd like to read my mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, Firered here, and Black here.

Why is move relearning so restrictive in so many of the mainline Pokemon games? In Emerald, X, Firered, and Black, it requires an entire Heart Scale in order to let your Pokemon relearn a single move. And unless I've been very unlucky, Heart Scales are very hard to find.

Not to mention how in Firered, the Move Reminder is on Two Island, so you can't reach them until you make it to Cinnabar Island, which is very far into the game.

Shield allows your Pokemon to remember moves for free any time you go to any Pokemon Center, and Legends Arceus and Violet makes it even more accessible, with moves being adjustable anytime, anywhere.

Is it just early installment weirdness stuff? But why did it last so long? It was in X, so it lasted at least until then. I can't imagine it lasted much longer than that. Hopefully Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Ultra Moon, and Let's Go Eevee have more accessible Move Reminders.

On the topic of moves, learning them to begin with is weird too. So many move tutors are functionally just early-gen TMs, with them saying that they'll only teach the move once. It makes me nervous and less likely to ask them to teach my Pokemon moves, because move relearning is so difficult, and I don't want to waste this one chance to learn these moves.

I also recently encountered a Roaming Pokemon for the first time, in Soulsilver. I had just left Ecruteak, and my immediate first encounter was Entei. I had no idea what to do, and it was much higher leveled than any of my Pokemon, so I just used my Furret's Run Away ability to flee before it could decimate my team. But apparently Entei always flees if not trapped? So I wasted a rare encounter.

Speaking of Entei (and Raikou), I don't understand their pathing at all. They seem to travel completely randomly on the map, seemingly teleporting several routes over every time I enter an area. How am I supposed to corner them and encounter them? Or is there some other trick to it than clever maneuvering?

There's so many baffling things about mainline Pokemon, from the perspective of a primarily PMD player. I'm still enjoying these games a ton, but there's a lot that's confusing about them to me.

[thunderjolt]

pokémon firered (and leafgreen)

first, let me get this out of the way: i did not technically play pokémon firered - i played a hack called pokémon throwback. it largely consisted of quality of life tweaks from the original game - the only major change that impacted balance was reusable TMs, which i didn't really use. for all intents & purposes, i played pokémon firered.

with that out of the way: a pokémon post on here was inevitable. it's probably the single most important video game series to me, period. replaying older entries is a great comfort to me. these are relatively undemanding games that i've played through dozens of times, and they always offer a new experience on replay, with all the various team compositions you can run. oftentimes, when i can't bring myself to do anything else, pokémon is there for me, as it was a couple weeks ago, when i decided to start up this playthrough.

the first generation pokémon games, and by extension, their remakes, are sort of a hot topic. there's a cult of people out there, often referred to derisively as "genwunners," who believe it's the pinnacle of the franchise, aesthetically and mechanically. similarly, many believe the first generation is a sort of "rough draft," something that was directly improved upon with later iterations. i personally fall somewhere in the middle, maybe leaning towards the former's side - there are a lot of things that the kanto games simply do better than later games.

most of this comes down to a few main factors, all of which are connected.

to start, kanto has the best progression in the whole series. while later games progression gate more and more heavily so as to pretty much become completely linear, kanto is comparatively open. the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh gyms can all be done in a pretty flexible order - not completely rearrangeable, but there's definitely room to put some off for later, or do some early. while levels are certainly an issue, they're homogenous enough in the midgame that things are only really going to be 15 or so levels higher than you max. in this playthrough, i mostly stuck to the standard order, as it worked best for my team, but i did do koga before silph co., which resulted in a much more challenging fight. kanto is also the best-designed region in the series. while many don't care for it due to being "plain," kanto's map gives you numerous ways to traverse the region, often looping in on itself, or simply giving the player options. do you want to take the boardwalk to fuschia, or cycling road? fuschia to cinnabar, or pallet to cinnabar? on top of cutting down on the feeling that you're traveling in a straight line, these are meaningful decisions that impact what items you collect, and how much experience your pokémon gain, and what pokémon you encounter.

speaking of which, the pokémon distribution in kanto is excellent. in almost all of the later pokémon games, there feels like a limit on how many pokémon you can feasibly use out of the regional dex. a team member basically stops being viable if you get them later than the sixth gym or so. kanto's open design mostly removes this issue; once you've reached fuschia, almost everything is available to you. later games gate off strong pokémon until the very end, but kanto balances them by simply making them difficult to raise, like gyarados, difficult to obtain, like the legendary birds, or both, like dragonite. these balancing mechanisms seem as if they've been completely forgotten by modern pokémon games.

something else that's been forgotten by modern pokémon games is dungeons. this hallmark of jrpg design and of kanto's progression is almost completely absent from the newest games as of this writing, sword and shield. this wasn't a sudden change - kanto has by far the most dungeons in the series, and the number has been dwindling since. it's a stark contrast to sword and shield, really - galar feels like a straight line where you just go from gym to gym to gym, while gyms are just part of the story in kanto. dungeons break up the pace, add longer challenges that make things like PP and being stocked up on healing items important, and make gyms, your main goal, feel more meaningful.

really, the only bad thing i have to say about the kanto games, at least relative to other pokémon games, is that the level curve can occasionally be a problem. firered and leafgreen at least include the vs. seeker to make grinding more manageable, but pokémon has never had a strong solution for grinding and is at its best when it's not something that has to be thought about. i ended up very underleveled for endgame, and even after some grinding, my pokémon were still mostly 10-20 levels under the elite four and champion. (these issues still aren't as bad as in gen 2 though!)

all in all: kanto's great. hopefully this encourages you to give it another shot if you've dismissed it in the past.

to cap off, here's my hall of fame:

[genopaint]

Love your team. Vileplume and Raticate are so underappreciated

I completely agree! Kanto has so many Pokémon that just go completely ignored in favor of some of the big hitters. I actually wasn't even expecting to use Vileplume and Raticate but they ended up being crucial parts of my team (especially Raticate) so I had to take them all to the top!

I'm really looking forward to playing the rest of the series whenever I get around to it. I wanna see all these other Pokemon I've never really used/played with before (I've only beaten Firered and Soulsilver in the past. This was my first time playing straight up Red.) I'm particularly really excited for Emerald, Platinum, and White (Unova is one of my favorite regions with a lot of similarly underrated Pokémon)

[zorualesbian]

i've been wanting to play the pokemon games but there are so many and i don't know where to start. do i have to start from the first ones? if not, then where should i start/what order should i play them in?

you don’t have to start with the first games. each game is its own self-contained story set in the same universe, so you dont need the context of the previous games and the tutorials in the beginning always go by the assumption you’ve never played a pokemon game before. there are typically some references to previous games made by nameless npcs, but it’s never anything major and if you really wanted to understand them i think it would just take a quick google search to get the full context, you wouldn’t have to go back and play an entire game or anything.

there’s not really a suggested order to play them in, but i definitely don’t mind making recommendations. ive played through all these games several times, and with the exception of firered/leafgreen, diamond/pearl/platinum, and heartgold/soulsilver i’ve played through them within the past 2 years. so my memory is relatively fresh.

first of all, i’m not going to recommend you anything that’s had a remake. i love the classic games and i feel like they were a wonderful starting point for a fantastic series, but theyre not a great starting point. i play them for the nostalgia because i grew up playing pokemon since the first generation, my wife didn’t really play pokemon until the fourth generation and only enjoys the classic games because she already loves pokemon. compared to newer games, theyre just not that fun if you don’t already have a lot of nostalgia/love of pokemon in general. 

also a quick note about which versions you should pick--it honestly doesn’t matter. they’re the same game, but there’s a small handful of pokemon that’ll appear in one version and not the other. sometimes i choose by which pokemon on the box art i like best and sometimes i choose by going to serebii and looking at the version exclusives list. its really up to you and your preferences, and it doesn’t matter that much either way

Sun and Moon/Ultra Sun and Ultra Moonthese are definitely the ones i’d suggest starting with, they’re the most beginner-friendly by far. there’s a new feature that tells you if your opponent is weak or resistant to your moves if it’s a pokemon you’ve fought before, which is great because now you don’t have to mentally keep track of the type matchup chart and the individual types of 800+ pokemon! your pokedex also shows you if a pokemon is part of a pair or has evolutions, so you won’t make mistakes i made when i was a kid where i assumed some of my pokemon didn’t have evolutions and didn’t train them and missed out on some cool pokemon as a result. story-wise, they’re my favorite so far and have done the best job of fleshing out and developing their characters.

as for whether you should play sun/moon or ultra sun/ultra moon, i’m not sure. the ultra versions have a few new pokemon, new areas, new moves, and an “enhanced” story, which is basically the same as the old story but deeper this time (and while i haven’t finished it, i’m enjoying it a lot). but the “new” things aren’t that many and i think whats giving me so much appreciation of the ultra story is the fact that ive already played through sun/moon, but that might just be me. it’s probably better to go with the ultra version because it has much more content for about the same price, but original sun/moon are still good choices if you have your heart set on those.

Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphiretheyre remakes of the third generation games ruby/sapphire and imo they lived up to the hype. ruby/sapphire were fan favorites and so are or/as. they aren’t really difficult because the games that came out right before this introduced an item that lets your entire party gain exp from a battle even if they didn’t participate, and while or/as are more balanced for this item than the game that introduced it, they still arent quite all the way there. personally i don’t mind it, i think these games are enjoyable regardless of if they’re challenging or not, but you’re free to turn the item on/off as you want to make it as easy or as difficult as you want.

X/Yhoo boy. i actually don’t like x/y. they had bad pacing, the story barely held itself together, and this is the game where the exp share was introduced and if you never turn it off, your pokemon get way overlevel and you can effortlessly breeze through the game. but they’re pretty, and i think the fact that theyre ridiculously easy might make them more enjoyable for new players because it’s the perfect chance to just build a team of pokemon you like instead of worrying about strength or team composition. plus, this is the first game to have character customization and you get enough money through the course of the game that buying all the clothes is easy.

Black/White and Black 2/White 2black and white are by far my favorite pokemon games, and black 2 and white 2 are the only direct sequels to a previous game so you should probably wait until after playing b/w to worry about b2/w2. i really enjoyed the story and this was the first time i actually got heavily invested in the characters because until this point, most characters in pokemon games felt pretty flat and one-dimensional. the one complaint i have is how exp scales based on your level. the concept itself is fine, but it feels like the scaling is extreme and there’s a lot of exp you start to lose just by going up a single level, which makes grinding a massive pain. but grinding isnt really required, so it’s nothing to worry about unless you’re determined to be overlevel.

HeartGold/SoulSilverremakes of the second generation games gold/silver and another huge favorite of mine, but arguably also a direct sequel to red/blue. they don’t lean heavily on red/blue but when they were initially designed they were called pokemon 2 and were intended to be the last games, so unlike other games it begins with the assumption you’ve already played the previous game. but the tutorials are still available and neither gold/silver nor red/blue are very story-heavy in the first place, because this is when the series was still finding its footing. i think theyre perfectly fine to play through with no context, but i can understand if you’d prefer to skip them for now. i very much enjoyed having my pokemon walk around with me all the time, the environments are beautiful, and hg/ss has the most useful use of the DS’s bottom screen.

Diamond/Pearl/Platinumok i know i listed diamond/pearl but that’s just because they deserve a mention. platinum is the enhanced version, and unless you see a pokemon thats exclusive to diamond/pearl and you REALLY want it, you should play platinum. that being said, i don’t actually like these games that much. they made improvements to the gameplay that have stayed through the current generations and provided deep lore about the pokemon universe and had a killer ost and a fun underground mining mini game, but outside of those the game always felt really lackluster to me and even as a kid i had a hard time getting invested in it. i think it was level design and difficulty curve that put me off so much but since i havent played them in so long i can’t say that for sure. overall, i’d say they’re worth playing at least for the lore because it’s very good and very important, but probably only if you already like pokemon. theyre not great first games.

FireRed/LeafGreeni’m only listing these because they’re currently the most updated way to play the first generation (red/blue) but they’re older than anything else on this list. stat calculations are different. movesets are different. and both of those are a bad different, not good or even neutral. they did a good job of providing extra tutorials, but overall theyre just completely outdated and suffering from red/blue’s bad layout and level design. i’m hoping these are the next games we get remakes of (remake of a remake sounds ridiculous, but these games are seriously getting close to 15 years old) but until then i’d really only suggest playing them if you already love pokemon and just want to see older games in the series.