I have been a fan of the Pokemon series since I first played a friends copy of Pokemon Red in Elementary school. I have played all of the main line games and most of the spin off games. I have read all of the Pokemon Manga, and the anime. I am writing this review not just for 1 game but for the whole franchise, and how its changed over time.
So if you have somehow lived under a rock for the last 3 decades roughly, the Pokemon series is a game about exploring a new area, catching the magical elemental creatures that fill the area, and using them to battle other people in the world. There are also multiplayer features such as trading and battling with your friends, with some Pokemon only evolving via trade to promote the multiplayer element as back in generation one some of those Pokemon were the best you could get as well as get some exclusives that are only available in 1 of the games. We have gone through many regions through out the main line and spin off games and 1025 different Pokemon with more to be released. So now lets talk about the games.
Generation 1- Every series has a start and for Pokemon it was back on the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color with Pokemon Red, Green (japan only), Blue, and the Special Yellow edition that let you have a Pikachu as your first partner Pokemon. Pokemon Yellow also followed a story closer to the anime rather then the games. The generation 1 games have you travel through the Kanto region. The plot of almost every Pokemon main games follow is you are a new trainer just in the 10-16 year old range, depending on the region, you get your first Pokemon from that region's professor, then leave home to beat the 8 gyms of the region deal with the evil team of the area, then challenge the Elite 4 and their champion to take the title of best trainer for yourself. Then the post game tends to be just catching them all or training a team to play against your friends, with the post game changing from game to game. Generation 1 didn't have anything to do outside of catch them all and raise a team. Many people look at gen 1 and think its the best in the franchise but I disagree. We have gone back to Kanto so many times and I have had many chances to evaluate the region and I gotta say its one of my least favorite when I look back on it. Guards that will only let you into a town if you bribe them with team, glitchy game play, nearly nothing to do after you catch them all, poor level spread for wild Pokemon leading you to having to do a ridiculous amount of grinding between the final trainers and the Elite 4. Wild Pokemon even give less experience then their trained counterparts which feels so taxing to run around the final cave, Victory Road, and running back to the Pokemon center to heal up to repeat over and over until you team is strong enough to survive the final challenge 5 trainers in a row with the highest level Pokemon in the game with only the items you can carry as the way to heal. The evil team of Kanto is iconic, Team Rocket, which are basically the Mafia who catch Pokemon to use for extortion and stealing from others. You fight many of their grunts throughout the area and stop them from stealing from people and taking things that they will just use for their nefarious purposes. When all is said and done with the evil team in Kanto feels like a threat when they take over a town and keep you from being able to go to the gym as you storm a large office building to defeat the mafia who infects in. But otherwise their goals aren't clear unless you read the Pokemon Adventures manga. All the Pokemon manga follow the story of the games rather than the anime that is the story of Ash. Turns out Team Rocket created the strongest legendary Pokemon in the region Mewtwo, a human Pokemon hybrid with incredible psychic powers. In the games you get a bit of lore on Mewtwo in the burned mansion, a old destroyed lab that was created and funded by Team Rocket to make the most powerful Pokemon. When you defeat the leader of Team Rocket the final time he disbands the team. You get the opportunity to catch Mewtwo once you have beaten the Elite 4 but that is your last challenge. But with the end of generation 1 we move to the next games.
Generation 2 - This was a big jump for Pokemon we get to go to a new region with a whole slew of new Pokemon to find and a whole new world we live in. This generation was made up by Gold, Silver, and Crystal version. Crystal being similar to Pokemon yellow with being a game released after the initial 2 and it adding new stuff to the story and cleaning up the games just a bit. Now gen 2 was a fantastic sequel but feels like it lingered too much in the leftovers of gen 1. So in this game you are now in the Jhoto region a new land that shares a border with Kanto. This region has all the same story beats as Kanto, new trainer, go battle the gyms, deal with the evil team and then go challenge the Elite 4. But this game takes place a few years after generation 1 story wise. You find that the remnants of Team Rocket are still active here in Jhoto. You beat the remaining admins of Team Rocket and get them to fully disband. You also have a different Legendary Pokemon to catch in each region Ho-oh for Gold, Lugia for Silver, and a whole new side story for one of the legendary trio Suicune in Crystal. The end game of Jhoto though is miles above Kanto. Once you have beaten the new Elite 4 and their champion you now get the chance to go back to Kanto see how its changed and fight all their gym leaders in their prime. Then once you do that you can climb Mount Silver the most dangerous area on the map, and at the peak you can find the main character from Generation 1 with an iconic team, sporting all the starters and some other powerful members for one of the harder battles throughout the whole series this game also has its issues of a poor leveling spread that feels like it stagnates a bit mid story as you get the chance to take on 3 gyms in any order you want which means they had to keep them all around the same level range so you don't feel like you go against any of them too early. You also had access to transferring Pokemon between Gen 1 and 2 via a time machine that lets you send Gen 1 Pokemon between both games but you can't send any new new Pokemon back to Kanto. Jhoto also added a feature that becomes a staple in the franchise and one of my favorite things Shiny Pokemon. Shiny Pokemon are just a color palate swap but its incredibly rare to run into with a 1 in 8192. So any shiny Pokemon you find is sure to be a status symbol. Is gen 2 perfect, still no but the series is gaining momentum and it feels like a definite step up that sadly lingers a bit too much in the story and success of generation 1 with the whole post game revolving around exploring Kanto again and finding and beating the player character from Gen 1. Next is one of the most controversial jumps in the series Gen 3.
Generation 3 - These games are where I feel Pokemon starts to hit its stride and reach the pinnacle of its s game play to me, its not quite there yet but its close to that peak. These games are Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. We also get 2 remake games where they took Red and Green and made Fire Red and Leaf Green, where we go back to generation 1 with generation 3 mechanics and graphics. Generation 3 is where Pokemon moved from the Game Boy to the Game Boy advance and with a big change in the coding and mechanics game one of the more controversial things in Pokemon, the break in transferring Pokemon up the generations. You could move your Pokemon from Generation 1 to Generation 2 with the time machine which means you can play with your favorite partners from your first story. Due to coding changes and huge overhauls in design change in the games Pokemon from Gen 2 couldn't get transferred into Gen 3. Which many people couldn't get past and caused Gen 3 to be many people's dropping point in the Pokemon series. So lets get into the new games. Ruby and Sapphire got released at the same time with the differences being the version exclusives and the evil teams being different in each game. Team Magma for Ruby and Team Aqua in Sapphire. The story is ultimately the same with the Pokemon used by the evil team being different and this is the start of the legendary Pokemon on the box being the goal of the evil team you fight. But this generation also had Emerald the first in what can be considered the combined or true story of the region, we get a few of these from the generations here on out. Emerald has both Evil Teams at different parts of the story and it is up to you to defeat both evil teams. Now lets talk about them since they are the biggest difference in the games and the only games to have 2 different evil teams, Team Magma are wanting to expand the land and Team Aqua the Sea, both are looking for the Legendary Pokemon that expanded the land and sea to complete their goals. Team Magma is themed by like devils while Team Aqua pirates. In Emerald you run into both in different parts each trying to complete their goals of Eco-terrorism with Emerald adding story for Rayquaza the large green dragon who lives a top a giant pillar and who embodies clear skies. Ruby and Sapphire added the end game of the battle facility of the Battle Tower which was a single battle arena where you climb a tower of elite trainers who's Pokemon are built for competitive battle. You have to keep battling till you beat 7 or you are defeated. This gets fully fleshed out in Emerald with the Battle Frontier which hosts 7 unique battle facilities to test your teams against. Now you can just go at them with your existing Pokemon but you are likely not to go far. But if you E.V. train and breed up a team then you have a chance at winning. Each facility has a different gimmick some you use your own Pokemon, one you use rental Pokemon, another you just chose your Pokemon and based on their nature they will battle on their own. You have to win 7 in a row 3 times on both the level 50 run and the level 100 run in order for you to complete and beat all the frontier brains. Its a very rewarding experience and probably a bit too difficult for some kids but going back and replaying Emerald and prepping for the battle frontier was a delight. This generation also added what becomes a staple in the rest of the games, Double Battles. Where you use 2 Pokemon on the field at one time, so some moves can get both targets or even damage your partner if you aren't careful. Finally this generation added secret bases where you could make your own little room and if you mixed records via the link cable with a friend they get your based in their world and you get theirs. Their trainer avatar will be there and you can battle them with whatever team they had equipped when you guys mixed records. Otherwise Ruby Sapphire and Emerald hit the same story beats that all the main line games do. 8 gyms yada yada I have said it twice before. Now to address the remakes, Fire Red and Leaf Green, they are faithful adaptions to Red and Green from generation 1 but with graphics and mechanics updated. I am going to sound like a bit of a broken record but this is now the 3rd time we have gone back to Kanto. Its nice to remember your roots but never leaving them and dragging everyone back to the old story over and over again can get a bit waning. But there is a new addition to these games via the Sevii Islands which you get to go to the first 3 after you beat the 7th gym and the rest as part of the post game. Finally gen 3 added one more final kinda questionable gimmick to the mix which we never see again. The E-Card Reader. This was a special expansion to the GBA that let you swipe cards to get special events unlocked in your game. Stuff like event legendaries in R/S/E and new islands to go to in FR/LG. The issue is is some cards you could only scan at participating locations which there is a chance that you were no where near one and you had to have the e-card reader to be able to even swipe the event card. Meaning if you don't emulate the games or use an action replay or game shark you are locked out of so much content for the game. We also see this issue in a few other games in the franchise where local events are a timed part of the game but the E-Cards just feel bad to me. Gen 3 to this day is my 2nd favorite generation despite all it does wrong though. Anyway it time to leave the tropic region of Hoenn and head to generation 4 in the cold mountains of Shinnoh.
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