Pokemon (Gen 1)
Genre: JRPG
Summary:
Pokémon Red and Green were first released in Japan, followed by Blue, then reaching the rest of the world as Red and Blue. Later, the special edition Pokémon Yellow was released. The Red and Blue versions were remade for Game Boy Advance as FireRed and LeafGreen. The player controls the protagonist from an overhead perspective and navigates the fictional region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokémon battling. The goal is to become the champion of the Indigo League by defeating the eight Gym Leaders and the top Pokémon trainers in the land, the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining all 151 Pokémon.
Availability: Gameboy, 3DS, Gameboy Advance
Time to Beat: 28 hours
Personal Opinion: Since Pokémon is pretty well known, it could be fun to explore it in Japanese if people haven’t already, and if you’ve played the games before it makes it pretty easy to figure out what’s going on even if you don’t understand. There’s the potential for an offshoot if people want to play the rest of the games. I’ve played black/white in Japanese and found it pretty easy to follow along, and there’s plenty of people that stand around in towns to talk to for practicing reading. There’s also the remake versions FireRed and LeafGreen for GBA if the old graphics make you cry too much.
Pros
- Well known game
- Linear
- Plenty of guides available
- Language is usually not too difficult
Cons
- Physical copies can be expensive
- Move names can be hard to figure out
- If someone chooses Pokemon Yellow its got some differences to the other games