Yess, so excited for this! I technically filthy preplayed the game but will still join the discussion as much as I can. (And havenāt yet finished it yet, so I will catch up with people as we play)
Iām feeling a bit torn here. On one hand, Iād love to play Letās Go because it has kanji, which would help me practice reading, and because itās the most fun in my opinion (less grinding, the prettiest in the franchise, dynamic overworld movement).
On the other hand, Iād like to play FireRed because I played it as a kid but never actually played the post-game content. Iād also like to play RBY for the nostalgia, but Iāve ruled it out because it shares the same issue as FRLG.
Iām very indecisive. I wish I didnāt have so many options
I think I might go with Letās Go. Last year when I was first starting out studying, I tried playing it in Japanese and it was too much at the time. Iām also really focusing on kanji practice right now, I think this game would be great for lookups by drawing. I think it might be a good time for me to get my revenge on Letās Go
If I decide to be a bit more chill, Iāll go with FireRed lol.
Iāve been playing Pokemon since the original Red came out in English, and Iāve played (though admittedly, not always finished) basically every main line game, plus many of the spinoffs. I almost always have a Pokemon game going in English (currently Iām working on the post-game content for a play through of Gold). Iām going to play FireRed for this, since itās one of the few I havenāt finished all the way through (though I have finished LeafGreen, so hmmā¦). In any case, I canāt wait to start!
This might be the push I need to finally play a game in Japanese! Iāve been wanting to play the Letās Go games for a while now, so I might finally pick one of them up.
Fast forward to 2007, Diamond and Pearl just came out and it seemed like everyone on the gaming forums I was on were playing the games. I figured why not find out what the excitement was about, so I picked up Pearl and never looked back. I soon picked up Emerald, Firered, and then every mainline game onwards. My favorite gen is 5th gen followed very closely by 3rd gen (plus their remakes).
I never got to play 1st gen on the orginal hardware. Alas.
This release added Game Boy Color support, allowing the game to display enhanced color palettes when played on a Game Boy Color.
The Japanese original predates the Game Boy Color and was a standard Game Boy title (with Super Game Boy color palettes), while the international release runs with an enhanced color palette on GBC hardware.
Speaking of kana versus kanji, I put a page together from the Letās Go kana and kanji scripts, allowing one to type in text and get it with kanji + furigana + the English version. So even if youāre playing a kana-only version, you can check out the text with kanji.
Granted, itās got an extra step of typing some letters.
Mmh, Iām not a big Pokemon fan but I did play the original GameBoy game back then, maybe I could give it a try for nostalgiaās sake. I donāt know if I want more full-kana japanese in my life howeverā¦
I see that most participants will go for the GBA remake over the original, is there a specific reason besides improved graphics and some QoL changes?
Regarding the original versions, if I remember correctly (these are nearly 30yo memories, so bear with me):
Red and Blue are the same, just with a handful of Pokemon unique to each version (presumably to incentivize trading)
Yellow came a bit later, and I think is meant to more closely match the popular anime that was on TV at the time. IIRC you donāt get to chose your āstarterā, itās always a unique Pikachu and he follows you on the map unlike all other pokemon that are normally stored in your inventory outside of battles. I donāt remember if there are deeper differences besides that.
For me it is mostly that I know the game and have played them before. So I donāt NEED to read the text to know what Iām doing. Besides I believe there are some different interactions between types (read as immunities or super effectiveness) in the original gen 1 games iirc. And I donāt really feel like having to remember those while playing the game.
So basically in Japan the first two games were Red and Green, which are identical games with a handful of Pokemon exclusive to each version (and a different color palette when played on GameBoy Color).
The game was a hit, so an updated version was released as Pokemon Blue in Japan that had some bugfixes and a graphical overhaul.
When the game was released in the west, Red and Green became Red and Blue and they both used the updated graphics of the Japanese Pokemon Blue.
I was similarly scared of the kana only text, but I look at it as ālistening practiceā by trying to read it outloud if I canāt make sense of somethingā¦ and that just means thereās more stuff to discuss with the club!
Canāt speak for anyone else, but to me the GBA and DS games are just the best-looking Pokemon games. Gens 1 and 2 had some truly heinous spritework, and once they started with 3D everything got kind of soulless and shovelware-ish. Iām not really someone whoās very motivated by nostalgia normally, but modern Game Freak games are just ugly.
I also donāt feel any need to āsee where it all started,ā because Iāve already spent hundreds of hours with the GB games. The GBA games just look, sound, and play better, while having an extremely faithful script.
Yeah Iām looking at them now and I probably overstated it. Itās mostly more of an art style shift than anything being poorly done. Some of the back sprites are definitely pretty hard to look at though, because they were 1/4 of the resolution and blown up to the same size as the front sprites. Even as a kid I remember being baffled by Butterfreeās back sprite.
That said, chubby Gen 1 Pikachu was and is a treasure.
Game Club
