🔴 Pokemon Gen1 (Game Club) - Week 1

[WeepingWeeb]

Welcome to Week 1 of Pokémon Gen1 Club!

Home Thread | Game Club

Welcome to Pallet town! This marks the start of your exciting Pokémon adventure! There might be a bit more text this week for tutorial purposes so this thread is being released a week early!

Week 1	21 Aug 2026
Start Point	Game start!
End Point	Enter 2番道路
Next Week	Week 2

Walkthrough: English | Japanese

Participation

Will you be joining us this week?

• Yes, I’m playing along
• I’m still playing but haven’t reached this point yet
• I’m just here for the discussion
• I’m playing after the club has ended

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Pokemon Tips and Tricks

• STAB moves: when a move type matches the type of the Pokemon using it, it will do 50% extra damage
• Status conditions: Inflicting status conditions like sleep give you a greater chance to catch a pokemon
• Weak Pokemon: If you want to level up a weak Pokemon in a high level area, you can send it out first in a battle then immediately switch to another Pokemon to share the EXP with both
• HM moves: These moves are necessary for game progression but are worse than most moves and cannot be deleted once learned. It can be a good idea to have a pokemon on your team dedicated to carrying as many of these moves as possible
• Losing Battles: Note that when you lose a battle you also lose half your money

👣 This Week's Guide

• Your first task is to pick your first pokemon! (unless you’re playing yellow or let’s go and you get pikachu or eevee thrust upon you against your will). According to the guide Squirlte is S tier compared to the others, but the choice is yours
• Head to the Pokemon Mart in トキワシティ to get Professor Oak’s parcel
• Make your way back to トキワシティ then head West to 22番道路
• Explore 22番道路 to find and battle your rival again
• Head back to トキワシティ and go North to enter 2番道路

🔥 Nuzlocke Rules

An optional challenge for Pokemon games to shake them up a bit is to do a nuzlocke challenge which basically involves only catching one pokemon in each area. If you’re interested in trying it out you can make a little “home post”/list for a running count of who you’ve got from each area and to keep track of duplicates if you’re using that rule.

Core Rules

1. If a Pokemon faints you cannot use it again. (Box or release it)
2. You must catch the first Pokemon you find in a new area. If it flees or faints you cannot catch another in that area
3. You must nickname all pokemon you get

Optional Rules

1. If you already own the first Pokemon you encounter in a new area, you can catch the next instead to prevent duplicates
2. If you encounter a shiny, you can catch it no matter what, and it doesn’t count towards that area’s catch

There are many other optional rules but these are the basics from Nuzlocke university

Note: If you’re playing Let’s Go it’s a little different for 2 reasons: wild Pokemon walk around in the overworld so there’s no random encounters, and you level pokemon up by catching them. Therefore if you want to Nuzlocke Lets Go you can do the following:

1. Catch the Pokemon closest to you in a new area, or run around with your eyes closed and catch the first one you bump into
2. You’re allowed to catch extras to level up, but they must be immediately released

Extra Resources

Pokémon Let’s Go Game Script - Pokémon Forever

Pokemon Let's Go Kanji

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Which starter are you choosing?

• Charmander
• Squirtle
• Bulbasaur
• Pikachu
• Eevee

Set this thread to “Watching” to get updates!

[WeepingWeeb]

My week 1 adventures

Since I’m playing Let’s Go, my starter is Eevee, nicknamed socks (fox in socks)

My first catch was rattata! Nicknamed remi (ratatouille)

Also according to the guide this may be one of the first game differences between lets go and the others, according to the guide you can fight your rival by heading south once you receive your Pokemon, however in lets go there’s a distinct lack of my rival in the area. He appeared once the parcel was delivered though.

Caught a spearow on route 22 and named it Jack (captain)

Nuzlocke Details

Route	Pokemon	Name	Type	Status (/)
Pallet Town	Eevee	ソックス
Route 1	Rattata	レミ
Route 22	Spearow	ジャック

[Akashelia]

@WeepingWeeb

If you’re playing Let’s Go it’s a little different

I have Let’s Go and could play it in Japanese, but I hate so much this system that I don’t think I will ever replay the game!
So, good old Fire Leaf it is (hope I won’t regret, it is kana only I expect )

[wooper94]

To quote famous nuzlocker and pokemonstreamer PChal: “Your nuzlocke, your rules”. In the end YOU have to play the game, so you better use rules that YOU enjoy playing with. That said, I ended up going with the following rules for my Fire Red playthrough:

Ruleset

1. The game is randomized, the pokemon you find and battle are different from the original games. I don’t remember how the randomizer randomizes them, but I prefer it to be 1 to 1. This means that all places you find pokemon A they get “turned into” pokemon B. So all pikachus will be bulbasaurs f.e.
2. First pokemon found in a route/place is the only one I can catch. The only exceptions are the above mentioned shiny- and duplicate clause.
3. Some people like the “should I catch this hard to catch pokemon or not” part of nuzlockes fun, I do not. Hence I will be porting in masterballs. Since I can only catch one pokemon per route this does not feel too OP to me.
4. In similar trend, I do not enjoy the grind. I do not have the grindset and my time is limited (especially after the summer holiday). Hence I will also be porting in rare candies. For those who do not know, rare candies level up your pokemon by one level. Down side is they do not get EVs (advanced pokemon stuff, feel free to ignore for a more casual play through).
5. There is a hard level cap. I can only use pokemon that are at most the level of the strongest pokemon of the next gym leader (14 → 21-> 24 → 29 → 43 → 43 → 47 → 50). For the elite 4 it is similar (54 → 56 → 58 → 60 → 63). The use of a level cap also combats the over use of rare candies, making it so that I feel fine implementing rule 4. Note: it is fine to overlevel in the battle with the gym leader/elite 4 member. F.e. my pokemon can level up to level 15 while fighting Brock (first gym leader).
6. I did totally not forget this rule, I blame the fact that this is one of the core nuzlocke rules. When a pokemon faints, it retires. It can not be used for the rest of the game.
7. ADDED AFTERWARDS: Besides randomizing the pokemon, I will also randomize their abilities. This creates more chaos.

Note: I retain the right to change or add rules to this list.

I think I’ll start somewhere this weekend, might even give it a go today. When I do I will keep a diary and keep you all informed

[ChristopherFritz]

My planned LeafGreen ruleset.

1. Use only Pokémon that can evolve.
   • If a Pokémon on my team evolves to its final form, I have to drop it from the team.
   • This forces me to use Pokémon that normally only appear for a short time in a normal playthrough, as I would typically delay evolution to learn better moves sooner, then evolve twice shortly after.
   • Johto evolutions do not count, so Pokémon such as Onix and Scyther are not eligible for my team. (Likewise for Pokémon that evolve in later generations, such as Magneton.)
   • If trading allows it, Johto Pokémon are eligible to trade in from another game, but since I’m aiming for three-stage Pokémon, that limits me to Skiploom and Pupitar.
   • Since I’m playing on a Switch, Hoenn Pokémon are unavailable for consideration for this playthrough.
2. Trading from FireRed will supplement my team.
   • I plan to trade in a Meowth early on to be the main member of my team.
     • If trading allows it, I may send it over as an egg. No bonus experience, but also no worries about it not listening to me.
   • I’ll likely trade in Squirtle and Charmander around the time they’re available in Yellow. (I’ll pick Bulbasaur as my starter.)
   • I’ll trade over an Exp.Share to make leveling up my team easier.

[simias]

I’ll use the “fashion souls” ruleset: I only use a pokemon if it looks cool.

[Sisthra]

I have played ahead so I’m here for the discussion and to infodump about japanese Pokémon names (that anyone could find out easily but eh, saved you guys a click I guess)

Week 1 ramblings

I am doing a Green Poison type mono run, so I picked Bulbasaur/フシギダネ as my starter.

First, let’s do a little breakdown of what the names of all the starters mean, since that’s pretty much the fun part of playing Pokémon in japanese: learning words effortlessly by associating them with Pokémon!

Bulbasaur/フシギダネ
It’s a combination of 不思議, mysterious, and 種, seed, getting rendaku’d. But it’s also a pun because read outloud it becomes 不思議だね (“strange, isn’t it?”)

Charmander/ヒトカゲ
火 + トカゲ, lizard. Pretty straightforward.
English localization went with “salamander” instead (which is actually more fitting since in some myths salamanders were thought to be able to survive fires, to the point of naming a kind of elemental spirit after them!)

Squirtle/ゼニガメ
Zenigame (銭亀) is the name given to refer specifically to a young japanese pond turtle.
But it’s also a combination between 銭 (coin) and 亀 turtle, and apparently the fact that ゼニガメ’s shell looks like coins is what got them their name in the world of Pokémon. (As a trivia mentioned in a later game)

Pikachu/ピカチュウ
As the posterboy of the whole franchise, this one has been intentionally kept the same in almost all languages. No matter where you go in the world, people will understand “Pikachu”.
It’s a combination of ピカピカ (onomatopea for an electric spark) and チューチュー (sound of a mouse squeaking)
Depending on what game you are playing you will also see its sprite radically different: they made him slimmer and slimmer as the years went on, I guess for better marketability.
Personally, I will always be a fan of early Bowling Ball Pikachu.
It just looks *so* huggable.

Eevee/イーブイ
Not much to say here, it’s a transliteration in kana of the word “Evolution”. Early gens did this a *lot* for some Pokémon where their name is simply an English word that’s vaguely related to their type or design (but more on that as we go on). It was the 90s, no one spoke English in japan and it sounded cool!
It is a bit funny when you look back at now iconic Pokémon, then you look at their Japanese name and it’s just a random word.

Some screenshots I took of the start of my game! (I should have taken much more…)

Already learned 待ちくたびれる, “to get tired of waiting”, thanks to my rival!
I also find it interesting how the names of various moves use a mix of hiragana and katakana, I wonder why?

No Poison types on Route 1 so no catches for me, but Route 22 did have both Nidoran. My intention was to catch both a male and female to use in my early team. I caught a female, started to slowly train her up, failed to catch a male early on, then literally spent an hour without seeing another one before giving up. They shouldn’t be rare so that was stupidly bad luck.

Bulbasaur and Nidoran (f) it is then! How bad could training up female Nidoran in Gen1 be?

[simias]

@Sisthra

infodump about japanese Pokémon names (that anyone could find out easily but eh, saved you guys a click I guess)

I wanted to propose that we discuss this as part of the weekly threads as it seems one of the big draws of playing these games in Japanese, so please infodump away.

[Akashelia]

More on names

@Sisthra

As the posterboy of the whole franchise, this one has been intentionally kept the same in almost all languages. No matter where you go in the world, people will understand “Pikachu”.

Nidoran was not changed in the translations for the same reasons, they predicted that it would become hugely popular… Well this prediction did not come true I’m afraid

I think I got that info from this video where the French names of the pokemons are explained and sometimes the Japanese ones too (sorry it’s in French!)

[Akashelia]

Week 1

As predicted it is much hard for me to go without kanji, but happy to get some practice!

(I didn’t guess right away what じょうげさゆう was, I would have had no problem if it had been spelled 上下左右)

Wall of text in kana, ヤバい

In that version you can get help when you press L or R, so getting even more practice now, yay!

[wooper94]

Added rule 7: I will also randomize abilities. For those not in the know, this only is added in generation III (where pokemon FR and LG fall under build wise).

Furthermore these are my randomizer settings:

Randomizer settings:

Besides the default settings

Pokemon Traits:

Pokemon Abilities: Randomize, Ban Negative Abilities

Pokemon Evolutions: Change Impossible Evos

Starters, Statistics & Trades:

Starter Pokemon: Random (Completely)

Static Pokemon: Random (Completely)

In-Game Trades: Randomize both Requested & Given Pokemon

Moves & Movesets:

-

Trainer Pokemon:

Type Themed, Rival carries starter trough game, Force Fully Evolved at Level 30

Wild Pokemon:

Global 1-to-1 Mapping

TM/HMs & Tutors:

-

Field Items:

-

Misc Tweaks:

-

[frequent4832]

Just starting out

The wall of text on first opening FR/LG was definitely one way to get the player’s attention… You can tell that they wanted to keep all the original dialog but felt the player needed a bit more guidance than the GB games gave them. Kind of a premonition of the handholding that the newer Pokemon games always get criticized for. It especially bugs me when they feel the need to be like “don’t forget to press start to open the menu!” The thing only has 6 buttons. Just assume I’ll try pressing all of them sooner or later.

I digress… I’m also playing a randomized ROM. There were way too many options for me to remember everything I picked, but the core idea is that the Pokemon all still learn the same moves and have the same stats, but they look a bit different, appear in different places, and may evolve into different mons. Oh, and TMs are infinitely reusable like in the later games.

My starter choices were Spheal, Hoppip, and Tyrogue, for a rather messy Ice>Flying>Fighting triangle.

For some reason the randomizer also garbled the text in these and only these textboxes. And オーキド called Spheal a plant-type and Tyrogue a fire-type… I think he may be going senile.

I picked Spheal, leading my rival to pick Tyrogue. Turns out Tyrogue only ever learns Tackle in gen 3 while Spheal has a full assortment of 4 moves at level 5 including the STAB 粉雪, so you can guess how that first battle went. Hopefully the poor guy gets to evolve him soon, because I also checked the “Rival carries starter through game” setting.

And that’s as far as I got in the hour or so that I played. Here are some name explanations for the mons I saw so far, shamelessly stolen from Bulbapedia:

English	Japanese	Explanation
Spheal	タマザラシ	From 玉たま (sphere) and 海豹あざらし (earless seal)
Hoppip	ハネッコ	From 葉は (leaf), 跳はねる (to jump) or 羽はね (wing), and 根っ子ねっこ (root)
Tyrogue	バルキー	From bulky, battle, and rookie

[Sisthra]

Reply

@frequent4832

I picked Spheal, leading my rival to pick Tyrogue

I’m really curious how the game will handle the rival evolving Tyrogue of all things, considering that the thing can evolve in three different things based strictly on its stats…

[coraldragonstar]

Just waiting for my Switch to finish recharging, so I’ll start playing tonight!

My Nuzlocke Ruleset

Basic rules:

1. If a Pokemon faints, it will be boxed.
2. Catch the first Pokemon in a new area only.
3. Nickname all pokemon.

Additional Rules:

1. Duplicates - hard no duplicates rule, but it only applies if the first of that type has not fainted, and it applies to all members of the evolution line. For example, if I catch a Pidgey, I am not allowed to catch any other member of the Pidgey line until/unless the first one faints. Once it faints, though, the dupes clause no longer applies, and I must catch another Pidgey if that’s the first pokemon in the new area.
2. Gift pokemon/eggs are allowed, but only if they are received/hatched in an area where I have not yet caught anything (cities/towns are allowed as areas).
3. In Gyms, all trainers must be battled, and leaving before facing the Gym Leader to go to the Pokemon Center is not allowed.
4. Level Cap - my highest level pokemon must not exceed the next gym leader (but if it levels up in battle against either the leader or the other gym trainers, this is acceptable).
5. Set Mode for battles must be turned on. This means that when an opponent’s pokemon is defeated, I can’t swap in a new pokemon at the same time the opponent brings in their next one.
6. I actually love grinding in Pokemon for some reason (I’m maybe a bit weird that way ), so I will not be allowing Rare Candy/Exp Share. All levels must be gained through battling.

Not actually a rule:
Since Pokemon is canonically a ‘trainers start at a certain age, usually 10’, I like to keep track of how long my character’s journeys are. As such, I always play according to the following:
The player is starting at midnight on their 10th birthday, and 1 hour of Game Time is the equivalent of 5 days of Real Time.

[ChristopherFritz]

@Sisthra

They shouldn’t be rare so that was stupidly bad luck.

Don’t look down on the 5% encounter rate!

@Akashelia

Wall of text in kana, ヤバい

They put a Pikachu there to indicate it’s an easy read.

@Sisthra

I’m really curious how the game will handle the rival evolving Tyrogue of all things

The randomizer probably has logic built in for this, and sets everything in stone in one go. (I’ve never used a randomizer.)

[frequent4832]

By the way, what’d everyone name their player character and rival? I chose the female PC (Leaf) and named her ミドリ. Naturally, my rival is アカ.

[WeepingWeeb]

I think I called myself weeb and the rival gary

[Kelsyy]

I got started playing Let’s Go, made it through the tutorial. The last time I tried to play this last March, I was a month into my JP learning journey and it was SO rough lmao. This is so easy to read now! I still need to draw some of the kanji but it’s otherwise pretty smooth. IMPROVEMENT

I’m not doing any challenges, I prefer just playing vanilla Pokemon everytime. I will be making an all Alola team though lol, I especially love Alolan Dugtrio he’s so stupid good in this game.

@frequent4832

By the way, what’d everyone name their player character and rival?

My rival is the canon name シン, and I always name my player characters カエデ in Japanese.

[frequent4832]

Week 1

I’m realizing that I definitely should’ve used the option for not letting higher stage pokemon appear below their natural level. So far every wild pokemon I’ve encountered has come fully evolved, which makes them annoying to catch and means I get a lot of exp when I KO them. Well, this was never gonna be a balanced run.

In my second battle with アカ, he used a Porygon2 in addition to his Tyrogue. His Tyrogue knew Mega Punch (I think) but it wasn’t enough to keep them from both being swept by my new Hitmontop.

Right now my team is just everything I could find on routes 1 and 22. It’s very ice-heavy so I don’t really plan to use Glalie or Delibird.

I finished this week with 1:54 on the game clock. I’ve already started liberally using the emulator fast forward button as poor man’s running shoes, so it may be a bit long, but it also doesn’t count all the time I spent reading the opening tutorial and Oak’s introduction.

[coraldragonstar]

Week 1, Part 1

Well, so far this Pokemon journey is looking like it’ll take a lot longer than most of my others… But we’ll see if my reading speed picks up a bit. Of course, it doesn’t help that I forgot to pause the game when I spent almost 15 minutes trying to look up the Japanese Natures… In any case, I paused tonight before I took on my Rival, グリーン on Rt. 22. I’ll pick up there tomorrow, probably after spending some time training my team a bit.

So, details after my first play session:
Date Started: August 14, 12:00AM (00:00 game time)
‘Current’ Date: August 19, 12:00PM (01:06 game time)
Player: りゅう
Rival: グリーン
Starter: Cello, Charmander, L8, Male, Calm nature, caught/received on August 14, 6:00PM (00:09)
Additional Pokemon:
Rt 1: Pear, Pidgey, L4, Female, Quirky nature, caught on August 17, 12:00AM (00:36)
Rt. 22: Nimh, Rattata, L2, Female, Lax nature, caught on August 18, 2:00PM (00:55)