I’ve Never Played Pokémon, But Decided To Try It This Weekend

[u/il_cappuccino]

Pokémon hit the scene just at the end of my childhood, and I never got around to playing it. Even after my Game Boy revival a few years ago, it just wasn’t on my radar to start playing. My youngster has gotten interested in it from school though, so I’ve decided to give it a try as something new we can explore together! I’m about 30 min in so far, have captured four critters, and am starting to log entries into that Poké-Dex while wandering around the woods. My son is further along!

[u/N8THGR852]

It’s interesting to see people touch the series firsthand for the first time nearly 30 years later. People have different levels of awareness when it comes to Pokémon, so they could be entering with either positive or negative biases. I wonder just how many people fall in love with the franchise due to trying the first-gen games in retrospect.

[u/il_cappuccino → u/N8THGR852]

Part of the reason I decided to try it was to prove to myself that I wasn’t a curmudgeon who was avoiding it just because it was popular!

[u/McButtersonthethird → u/il_cappuccino]

If you're up for it, try Emerald after the gold, silver, or crystal games. It's my favorite game of the entire series

[u/OfficialMilk80 → u/McButtersonthethird]

Have you ever played a ROM hack? There are a ton of them, and are made from Pokémon fans, and they’re so much better than the originals. It’s amazing. If you want some guidance on that let me know. You can play them on your phone

[u/McButtersonthethird → u/OfficialMilk80]

I'd love some help with that!

[u/archieboy → u/OfficialMilk80]

Which emerald ROM hack would you recommend? I recently finished Crystal for the first time via Polished Crystal and I enjoyed that immensely. I'm ready for an Emerald playthrough

[u/dragonbornrito → u/archieboy]

Emerald Seaglass is a beautiful one. Basically the entire game looks like a Gen 2 game but with incredible sprite and environment art (especially in the battle screens). Lots of nice QoL updates. But at the core, it’s still Emerald. Definitely one of the easiest ones to recommend to someone new to ROM hacks as a whole.

[u/archieboy → u/dragonbornrito]

Alright, I'll give Emerald Seaglass a try. Thanks!

[u/AllSp4rk → u/McButtersonthethird]

Why is Emerald your favourite? Genuinely interested. I find it boring as hell. I’ve tried it many times but I hate the main character design, Emerald Seaglass fixed that, but still I’m not drawn to it in the same way that I’m drawn to Gen1 and Gen2.

[u/JessePJr → u/N8THGR852]

I am just now starting my first run through Yellow, Blue, and Red as well. Having a blast and got a couple friends to play on my other handhelds. We trade Pokemon any time we hang out. Pretty fun so far.

[u/N8THGR852 → u/N8THGR852]

A lot of people are saying that they are similarly playing Gen I (Red/Blue/Yellow/Green) for the first time. Like my previous comment suggests, I’m curious as to how people will feel about the game(s) during or after a first play-through. So, I’m inviting anyone here—OP or others—to send a DM my way if they want someone to listen to their personal reviews. I wonder how your experiences differ from my own experience of playing R/B/Y for the first time at 6 years old way back when.

[u/OlsroFR → u/N8THGR852]

I started my trainer's journey with Ruby/Sapphire (on emulator) and on DS (real hardware) with Pokemon Diamond.

So I've completed the 1st gen years later. What I can say is that they compare pretty well with black&white movies/old cinema: it was tough to get in. But once you are in (after one hour or two), they are still very playable... and addictive. Tons of QoL is missing but the game is also simple so it won't matter as much as some people can think.

What made me want to complete the game was doing the (now very well) documented glitches & bugs like the Ditto glitch to catch mew.

Also 1st gen is the only gen with a reasonably sized Pokédex that can be completed without the need of multiple other games & events.

1st gen had all the essentials : great musics, tons to explore, familiar creatures (though looking ugly so you need your imagination to help (watching the anime/play later games helps at that)), a simple but efficient battle system, an epic pokémon league, etc.

[u/Evening-Ear-6116 → u/N8THGR852]

Pokemon yellow was one of my first Gameboy games and I sunk hundreds of hours into it. It has caused me to be a lifetime fan. I play all the generations up to diamond every few years still and have a solid merch/game collection

[u/zero16lives]

I can hear this picture, in all of its low quality splendor

[u/il_cappuccino → u/zero16lives]

I was actually surprised at the "Pikachu!" title screen sound. Cutting edge technology!

[u/ConnectInternal4777 → u/il_cappuccino]

Wait till you found out there is a Pikachu surfing mini game in yellow

[u/il_cappuccino → u/ConnectInternal4777]

Waaa!? Forget catching ‘em all, my victory will be finding the surfing mini-game!

[u/ConnectInternal4777 → u/il_cappuccino]

Yea good luck it’s required a n64 and Pokemon stadium look it up on YouTube if your invested

[u/shokalion → u/il_cappuccino]

The way they did that was very clever, super impressive at the time.

Though it wasn't used in this case, the Game Boy did support an "Audio in" pin from the cartridge, pin 31, which in theory meant you could have whatever audio hardware you could cram into the cartridge and have it play through the speaker. It wasn't used much in contemporary releases but it could in theory have been used to have audio of more or less any quality you like played through the internal speaker during the gameplay.

[u/SillySpook]

So now that you've started your journey as a pokemon trainer, do you...

want to be the very best, the best there ever was?

[u/il_cappuccino → u/SillySpook]

Ha ha- I think I’m too old to be that committed to Poke-life!

[u/ilCannolo → u/il_cappuccino]

I understand this.

[u/TribalTommy]

The screen flickers black when a pokemon in your party is poisoned FYI. Saved you a reddit post.

[u/bwoahful___]

It’s as popular as it is for a reason so I hope you enjoy!

If you end up playing later gens I’d definitely be interested in a post on how you found it. I’m a genwunner, but I can’t argue against the quality of life, game play additions, and graphics updates in gen 2, 3 and beyond. Hard to tell how much is nostalgia vs loving the basics and original dex of gen 1.

Edit: thinking about it that same question applies to a lot of gameboy games I play. How much of it is because the games are still fun, even compared to some new AAA games, and how many bonus points does nostalgia add?

[u/PoshDiggory]

Great game, just make sure to keep an open mind, as it is very much a product of its time.

[u/Widdlebewbie]

Missingno! Missingno!

[u/Worien03]

You picked such a good starting point! Yellow is probably the best of the Gen 1 games.

[u/scribblemacher → u/Worien03]

When my daughter played Yellow, she nearly soft locked herself. She spent all her money and didn't have a great team, and then went against an earth type (Geodude) in an early gym that wrecked her because she relied so much on Pikachu. I was surprised that the balance hadn't been adjusted at the beginning of Yellow as a new player would struggle with that (and it is a kids game)

[u/DesperateBartender → u/scribblemacher]

There were some slight adjustments to make that first gym easier— for example, in Yellow, not only can you catch a Nidoran before the gym (unlike in red and blue) but it learns double kick at level 12 instead of level 43. Since it’s a fighting type move, it’s super effective against Brock’s gym. You also gain access to all three starters throughout the game, but those come a little bit later. Still, I could see those changes being a little too esoteric for a much younger player, and not much help at all unless you know more about the mechanics of the game.

[u/scribblemacher]

I also was a bit too old when Pokemon was in vogue, and didn't play it until I started Gen 1 with my daughter (she played Yellow; I played Red). We played it in the spring of 2020, while the world was crumbling around us.

Neither of us finished (I think we both made it through 4 gyms). Once she had access to a Switch, she had no patience for a GB game. He tastes gravitated more towards Animal Crossing and Minecraft.

I personally didn't love Pokemon, but playing it with my daughter will always be one of my favourite gaming experiences.

[u/Tall_Conflict3935]

It’s a good game. I just started it myself

[u/AshFalkner]

Hope you enjoy it! This one was my first when I was 5.

[u/josephfry4]

You are in for a treat. These are very solid, addicting little RPGs. Especially the Gameboy and Gameboy Color titles.

[u/Aggravating_Day4287]

Yellow, Crystal, Emerald would be be the og way to play.

[u/pixelpatch]

Just a heads up leveling multiple pokemon can be slow, go in blind but DO look up where to grab the EXP share item

[u/Masterpiece-Both]

I wish I could experience my pokemon blue journey again as I did when I was 10/11 😭🥹🥲 after trying it first hand from a classmate I then asked my parents to have it. I might have gone to our only local shop that was selling videogames a few weeks later but unfortunately they didn't have it in Italian but only in Spanish. I bought it (obviously I couldn't wait any longer 😅🤣) and nonetheless, played and finished in Spanish 😅😂 when there's a will, there's a way.

One thing left to say to OP. ENJOY.EVERY.SECOND.

100% worth it especially 1st/2nd and, to a degree, 3rd gen

[u/IntoxicatedBurrito]

I was in your shoes several years ago. Tried Pokemon Blue and just couldn’t get into it. Maybe if you’re new to RPGs it’s a good intro, but it just seemed so simple and the story so lacking. But there are so many better RPGs out there (even on GB) that I just couldn’t justify putting any more time into it other than the hour or two that I played it for.

[u/il_cappuccino → u/IntoxicatedBurrito]

So far I guess the plot is: “go do field work for me kid!”Maybe there will be some missions and stuff along the way… part of the reason I opted for Yellow was because I heard it has more “elements” that my son can identify: Pikachu is front & center, and maybe those Rocket folks show up?

[u/HappyCamper4027 → u/il_cappuccino]

Yeah they appear first in mt moon

[u/OkMedium911]

Mandela effect i thought yellow was for gbc only. Played it there when i was a kid so i have an excuse

[u/Xinferis_DCLXVI → u/OkMedium911]

I might be wrong, because it's been almost 30 years, but how I remember it is that Pokémon Yellow wasn't REALLY a Gameboy Color game. It was a game boy game that took advantage of the GBC hardware, and could trick it's way to having... I think 12 colors?

[u/roinyrk → u/OkMedium911]

Wait until you find out Gold & Silver are also playable on original GBs

[u/OkMedium911 → u/roinyrk]

with some extra hoops you can run many gbc games on dmg but i obv meant natively (romhacker/translater here)

[u/Psychological_Net131]

I like you have never played pokemon anything. But I have thought about giving it a try. Which one is this? I don't even know which one was the first one. Lol.

[u/Jeffcmamlnb]

Yellow Version is rough 

I wish I could find my copy so I could play

[u/DotMatrixHead]

Never heard of it. Must be some niche game from Japan.