So because of reasons, I've decided to play through all the past Pokemon games (and by all, I mean Red, Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, Black, and Black 2). I finished Red today, so I thought I'd leave my thoughts on replaying it here.
- The first thing I noticed when putting together my team is that movepools are abysmal in Red and Blue (and only slightly better in Yellow). One character tells you that you have to use TMs to teach your Pokemon any good moves, and he's right. Pikachu doesn't even naturally learn Thunderbolt in Red! I had to use a TM for that. My poor Charizard was stuck with Ember as its only STAB move until Level 46, when it finally learned Flamethrower.
- Speaking of Charizard, it luckily didn't need to rely on Ember, because it learned Slash. Because of the wonky way critical hits are calculated in RBY, Slash basically hits critically every time. I think there were only three times during the game when my Charizard didn't land a critical hit with Slash. Because of this, Slash is probably the best move in the game. It basically OHKO every Kadabra and Alakazam I ran into, and it was the move Charizard used to finish off Blue's Blastoise in the final battle.
- Speaking of Kadabra and Alakazam, the Psychic type isn't nearly as overpowered as people say it was in RBY. Yes, Psychics shouldn't have been immune to Ghost, but every Psychic line other than Abra and Drowzee has another type that can have its weakness exploited. Even the Abra line has a weakness, which is basically any physical attack.
- Abilities not being around is weird. Using Ground type moves on the Gastly line is weird. Abilities definitely make you put more thought into battles, and without them, it's pretty easy to go on autopilot in a lot of battles.
- I like that the only real fantasy element of the story is that Pokemon exist in the first place. The whole world of Kanto (I'll get to that "world" part soon) is pretty down to earth compared to the other locations in Pokemon. Fighting Team Rocket in their money laundering casino and at a corporate takeover is refreshing compared to all the world domination with legendary Pokemon shenanigans that happen in the series later.
- Blue tends to be overhyped a lot. He is a bit of a jerk, but he got his ass kicked every time I battled him, so he's not that good! But I really was surprised at how much of a dick he was. At Pokemon Tower, he says something along the lines of "I can't kill your Pokemon, but I can make them faint!" What kind of person would even say something like that?!
- Speaking of stuff Blue says, before you fight him as Champion, he says he's the most powerful trainer in the world. It's funny to think that back when RBY were released, Kanto was really the entire Pokemon world. The series has come along way since then. The real world references are funny, though. I fought a scientist at Silph Co. who complained about being transferred to Russia!
- The campaign is short. My Hall of Fame time is 18:37. Most of the Pokemon games following RBY will take a bit longer to finish than this one.
- Finally, it's easy to see why the series has persisted so long. It's just plain fun to get together a team of Pokemon and have them fight other Pokemon. Yes, the sprites in Red are totally goofy, but the core of the battle system is there, and it's fun. There have been improvements to the system in the following games, but RBY were a good start.
And for those of you that may be wondering, here's my Hall of Fame team:
Princeton (Raichu) Level 47
Thunderbolt/Flash/Thunder Wave/Swift
Columbia (Vileplume) Level 45
Mega Drain/Petal Dance/Cut/Sleep Powder
Yale (Poliwrath) Level 46
Body Slam/Ice Beam/Amnesia/Surf
Dartmouth (Wigglytuff) Level 45
Sing/Strength/Rest/Blizzard
Harvard (Charizard) Level 48
Slash/Submission/Flamethrower/Dig
Cornell (Hypno) Level 46
Headbutt/Hypnosis/Poison Gas/ Psychic
Next up, Crystal!
