"A Review of the Main Series Pokémon Games: Part 1 (Generation 1) [Long Post]"

1) Intro: The Pokémon series has been around for 25 years and is a big collection of games and other media loved by many, including myself. I grew up with Pokémon, watching it evolve into what it is today. With all the video games, tv shows, trading cards, manga, and toys, Pokémon has a lot to offer its fans. As of now, we are all waiting for the gen 4 remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl releasing later this year as well as Pokémon Legends: Arceus at the begining of next year.Of course, this series isn't perfect, far from it. The reason I wanted to make this post is to review the main series games, which stems from seeing the direction Game Freak is taking these games as of late. I want to be able to play them as if it were my first time while taking a more critical look at various features of each game. Therefore, no self-imposed challenges and I'll playing each game to completition, defeating the champion (for some games, I'll play up to the point past the champion to fight a stronger trainer like Red). I'll also include completion times and final teams. I'll try to avoid using a Pokémon more than once to give my play throughs more variety.I'll be splitting up each post to include one generation of games. Please do not get defensive when I talk about your favorite game or generation. This is purely the opinion of one person, so if I think a feature or mechanic is bad, you might think it's actually good for that particular game. I also encourage discussion for each game so everyone can other opinions. Without further delay, let's get to it.2) Red, Blue, Yellow: For generation 1, I decided to play Yellow, the "enhanced" version of Red and Blue. Generation 1 was the one to bring us to the region of Kanto and the first 151 pocket monsters to use. Even though this was the big start of the franchise, RBY was not my first game. I came back to it after I played Crystal. My mom had a Gameboy Color, and when I was old enough to play, she gave me hers along with Pokémon Blue and Crystal. I also got Red and Yellow from my uncle, who at the time was playing the games. Playing Yellow, it took me 28:42 to complete with a team of Nidoqueen, Charizard, Jolteon, "Ricky" the Machamp (NPC trade), Exeggutor, and Omastar.Going back to playing this game was a nostalgia blast for sure, even when it's riddled with glitches and bugs. I didn't encounter too many of these except when I swapped into a different mon just to get wrapped to death, unable to pull up my move list after Wrap finished (Sorry, Jolteon). Despite this, I still had fun playing this game. Yeah, Psychic types virtually had no weaknesses in this game and the special attack and special defense stats were rolled into one stat, so there was a balancing issue that gets fixed in the next generation. However, Sabrina actually didn't give me too much issues and I was at least +10 levels below her Alakazam.This brings me to my first point: the level curve. After you defeat Lt. Surge, your team may be close to lv30 depending on how much grinding you do. His Raichu is lv28 and Erika's Gloom and Weepinbell at lv32. Not too bad of a jump considering you have 3 routes and Dark Tunnel in between. However, what threw me off was the fact that Koga, the next gym leader after Erika, jumps to lv50. That's an 18 level difference. Sure, I was also underleveled for him as well and didn't have any fainted mons, but I still found it strange. I noticed that the trainers between Pokémon Tower and Cinnabar island do not increase in level. They remain the same level, about lv27 to lv37. Even the Team Rocket grunts at Silph Co. have this same level range. The only people whose level actually increase are your rival, Giovanni, and the gym leaders. At least the trainers at Victory Road are actually stronger, so there's that.This kinda leads to my next point of difficulty. Yes, I think the level curve is a bit weird, but I personally had no trouble. After Erika, I was underleved up until the champion. Blue had lv60, I had lv50. I suffered little to no caualties throughout the gym leader, elite four, and champion battles. Others may not find it as easy as I did.Another point is the lack of moves. I understand that the arguement could be made that this is the first few games in the series, so it won't have as much variety like it does as we get to later games. This same arguement could be made for other points as it gets fixed in later games. When the game came out, the lack moves wouldn't feel like a problem, but as a veteran of the series coming back to it, I can feel the restrictions. TMs helped, but they were one use only.My last issue is my bag space. There were plenty of times I had to backtrack for items because I had no room and I didn't want to throw anything away. I had to put items away in my personal PC if I wanted to keep them. My PC had key items that had one use and it would just take up space as well as TMs and rare candies that I wanted to save for my final team. The one time I got really irritated with this mechanic was when I at the Rocket Game Corner Hideout. I had to go back to move some items around when I was trying to grab some stuff near the spin pads. It wouldn't be so bad if the spin pads weren't SO DAMN SLOW.On a more positive note, the game in terms of progression does a good job. It doesn't feel like it's holding your hand the entire, so you're free to explore to figure out what you need to do to get past roadblocks and progress the story. You had to talk to NPCs to get hints at what to do next instead of having someone come to you to explain what's next. You get your starter and your Pokédex and Professor Oak tells you to go have fun. Simple and I like that.In terms of region, characters, and Pokémon design, they're good overall. Of course, every generation is going to have its few bad Applins and every region will have sections players dread going through. For the Pokémon, this first batch has a good variey of the cool, cute, and weird monsters. Some have basic designs and others are based off of Japanese folklore, giving them more depth. Again, there are some stinkers, but the majority are decent or great designs. The sprites, at least for Yellow, looked nice and clean up. The back sprites are a different story...The characters are ok. The game does not tell it's story through dialogue, so NPCs seem bland. Not too much development for anyone or any major involvement of the characters other Giovanni being the big baddie and Blue as your rival and eventually becoming champion. Speaking of the baddies, Team Rocket is this region's villian team. Their motive is to make money and aim for world domination. This is how mafia works. But on a real note, this team seems tame compared to other teams in terms of the leader's end goal.For the region, it has a good layout. There are a good amount of dungeons to explore, even if they are annoying to traverse without repels or due to requiring HMs. Kanto also has a museum in Pewter City, the S.S. Anne cruise ship, the Celadon department store, and Cycling Road for some sightseeing locations. The Game Corner in Celadon offers some fun for the high rollers to earn some coins to cash in for different prizes. The Safari Zone in Fuschia gives a player to go an all out catching spree for more rare Pokémon, like Kangaskhan, Tauros, and Chansey (hard to find and harder to catch) to help complete the dex. In Yellow, in a house south of Fuschia before you surf, you can play a Pikachu surfing minigame (I'm playing the Virtual Console version, so I don't need to connect to Stadium). All these locations help Kanto feel less bare and more like there is actual things to do aside from the gym challenge.Overall, generation 1 was a great experience for people to get started or those wanting to take a trip down memory lane. The bugs may get in the way, but the game still offers replayability. If you want to see where Pokémon gets its roots, RBY is a must play.For these posts, I welcome discussion on generation of games I covered to hear other people's opinions. It could be anything related to the RBY games or if you have any questions for me about my run. I'm planning on playing all of the games before I get to Brilliant Diamond, but if you guys want to see more reviews, I'll gladly do another one. My next game will be Crystal for my visit to the Johto region. I hope you all are having a great weekend./u/Team_Aqua_Grunt via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/3vIwul4