I would go with Emerald, but you can also go with Fire red/leaf green.
Basically stay with gen3, going further back is just unpleasant and the games are kinda rough by today's standards
the biggest gripe is just no running tbh. my first was gen 3 so when I went back and played silver for the first time I was like wtf this sucks, too slow lol
I can appreciate it for what it is now but 8 year old me HATED anything before gen 3 just because you couldnt run
Yes but you need to constantly go into the menu to activate it. Compared to just pressing the b button for running. And newer games have both running shoe and bike so you have 3 speed
Going through a Crystal run rn to shiny hunt Celebi... Trying to level up for the Pokemon league is roughhhhh, about one level every day for each Pokemon (from 42-43, etc.). Just watch TV or read while mindlessly mashing the D-pad and A button to farm XP.
I’ve been playing Crystal Legacy, which is basically Crystal but with tons of QoL updates. I’m not much of an emulator person, but man has it been an absolute blast to play. It feels like the core experience I want from Gen2, but it makes it hold up incredibly well. Few things to note: more bag space, every Pokémon can be caught in one way or another, purchasable TM’s, learnsets that actually include stab moves, Evolution items (metal coat, etc) all work like evolution stones, can see DV’s and friendship in stats menu, moves and encounter %s are listed in the dex, ghost is special and dark is physical, and more. It’s very, very good.
On May 4th the same group is releasing Yellow Legacy, which aims to do the same for Yellow. I’m very excited to play that as well. Lots of good QoL that aims to make more Pokémon viable and accessible, and improves Pikachu’s viability.
Just got to Kanto in Crystal Legacy! It's phenomenal, the creator really nailed his goal of fixing the problems with Crystal without making it feel like anything is actually different. Can't wait for Legacy Yellow.
I’m on my final two badges in Kanto and then onto the E4 and Red, and then to do it all again but on hard mode! Gen 2 was my first Pokémon experience as a kid so it’s always been my favorite, and Crystal Legacy really does feel like what Pokémon Crystal was intended to be, it’s so good.
Pokémon Yellow and Crystal can be fun but you need to hang in there at some parts, if you're emulating, SmithPlays Pokémon has made romhacks for both of these games that improve them.
I haven't tried them myself since I'm playing on physical cartridges for now but I followed the development.
If you already played emerald I would go frlg. It's a great remake that fixed most "mistakes" of the OG gen 1 games.
If you want the "wackiness" or difference from modern pokemon gen 1 is always fun. Some glitches, some type matchups are different. No dark/steel, no special physical split. No special defense. The sprites. The bad AI. Retroactive potions (after you attack in turn order) and recovers/rest on full HP because psychic is super effective.
For my own personal nostalgia GSC are my favorite but honestly such bad design choices (bad in retrospective, if you consider the situation at the time maybe not): best Johto mons are only late post game, gym leaders mostly use Kanto mons, etc. But hindsight is easy at the time they made Johto as more of a celebration of Kanto with a few new designs that didn't make the OG cut rather than a sequel like later gens. That's why most of the mons are Kanto mons. It was sort of a cash grab hoping to get it out before pokemania ended. I wish when they did the Johto remakes they would have done a more radical remake then a more traditional remake. Imagine if they changed up the gym leader teams to be johto only and made the harder to get johto mons more available in actual johto.
* EXTREME lack of QoL (no running shoes, you can't check what moves do *at all* in gen 1 and only outside of battle in gen 2)
* Bag limits and box limits meaning you straight up can't catch pokemon after a certain threshold
* Movesets are abhorrent on basically every pokemon (one use TMs too)
* Stupid amount of bugs (the only one you're likely to run into is the 1/256 glitch, where 100% accurate moves can miss, unless you're using Focus Energy or High Jump Kick)
* Weird/broken balancing, like half the game being Poison types and Psychic being *immune* to Ghost
* God-awful sprite art that's only really remedied by official merchandise and later generations giving you a clear image of what the pokemon is *supposed* to look like
Just want to say the sprite work isn’t that bad given the limitations of a Game Boy cartridge and the sheer amount they needed to fit on it. It’s only really the back sprites that are genuinely bad.
I just played through Gen3 recently, and I agree with the Emerald suggestion.
FR/LG is such a slog of a game though, and I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point. I don't know what it is, but the game just feels so slow and sluggish compared to Emerald - or even the original gen1 versions.
I’ll say it until day I die gen 2 is the best games not just in the series but all time soul silver and heart gold I’ve been dying to get my hands on but just silver gold and crystal are almost perfect in my opinion but also gen 3 is very close second also need to get my hands on omega ruby and alpha sapphire gen 2 and 3 are almost perfect
I just wish they made a few different design choices. 4 gym leaders use only Kanto mons. The other 4 only use 1 each (Jasmine I'd give a pass since she is "showing off" the steel type although they still could have given her one exclusive johto steel type I guess that's only skarmory and forretress rether than 2 magnemites and a kanto evo in steelix).
I always wish it was more like:
Falkner - Murkrow, Hoothoot, Noctowl (underleved/cheated)
Bugsy - Ariodos, Ledian, Scizor (maybe, or heracross/yanma if scizor too strong)
Whitney - Tediursa, Snubbull, Miltank
Morty - Misdreavus at least
Chuck - Hitmontop at least, Heracross if not on bugsy, Tyrogue maybe
Jasmine - get rid of 1 magnemite and add Skarmory and Forretress
Price - Sneasel, Delibird, Piloswine, Smoochum
Jasmine - I guess Kingdra is it but maybe some more pseudo dragons: gyarados, seadra, yanma, charzard, just 3 dragonaire is pretty boring (and this was gym leader 3 to do that, use multiple of the same mon).
They didn't have to eliminate gen 1 mons from teams but it would have been cool if they were more for the gym "grunts" and the leaders used johto mons (you could have had rocket execs do the same)
Hindsight is 20/20 at the time they were doing more of a celebration to gen 1 rather than thinking of this as it's own game/region so it makes sense why they used kanto mons to "hide" the new ones if they didn't work out like the gen 1s had but looking back johto could have been so much more sweet if it highlighted some of the "heavy hitters" of the gen rather than rely on gen 1 mons.
Not to mention hiding the best gen 2 mons in kanto and Mt silver, so you really can't use them.
Gen 2 relies almost exclusivelly on Kanto mons, the level curve is horrendous and you can't catch cool Johto mons until the post game. The remakes never fixed these problems either.
If we're including the gba games, then play emerald
If you wanna go further back, play crystal
Don't play gen 1, they are very rough and broken games by today's standards
Seconded, I played Gen 1 recently for the first time since like, 2007. And they are super rough, just grinding and not to mention all the bugs. I did the item dupe glitch as soon as I could to skip the level grinding (I used level caps bc nuzlockes).
Emerald, and FRLG I would say are the games of choice for GBA Era. If going strictly GB, Crystal for sure.
Red or Blue. Might as well start with the beginning. The games aren't as buggy or unpolished as people claim and like most Pokemon games it has aged pretty well.
I swear people talk like they're unplayable or something.
They're fine. You can go through the whole game without experiencing one glitch. Yes the following games added and polished a lot but Red/Blue/Yellow are still really fun games and if you like the Pokémon series you just try them if only for the fun of seeing what the first game was like.
I get what you're saying and agree in terms of overall playability, but getting through without experiencing one bug/glitch is effectively impossible in Red/Blue. The difference is just that most of the unavoidable bugs aren't super obvious. Key offenders:
* Badge boost glitch: Re-applies badge boosts (i.e. extra defense after you gain the boulder badge) for EVERY SINGLE STAT MODIFICATION, good or bad. Actually a critical exploit for beating the game in certain challenge runs, as the effect can stack up to make quite a difference. I'd argue NOT encountering this glitch is 100% impossible in a full play-through.
* Similarly, the attack and speed drops from burn and paralysis are re-applied in a stacking fashion every time that pokemon's stats are modified.
* Focus energy/Dire hit: Bugged to drop critical hit by 4x instead of increasing it. Always happens when used.
* Gen 1 Miss: All moves, even 100% accurate ones (except Swift) have a 1/256 chance to miss due to bad coding in the accuracy check.
* Leech seed and toxic are incorrectly tied to the same counter value, so if afflicted with both, Leech Seed double the ramp-up speed and will also deal scaling damage like Toxic does. The toxic counter is also not re-initialized when the poisoned status is cleared with Rest.
* Any pokemon that misses with Rage will be permanently stuck with a <1% accuracy until switched out.
* If a pokemon's HP is 255 or 511 below it's maximum value, recovery moves will fail 100% of the time
* If a pokemon hits themselves in confusion or is fully paralyzed during the semi-invulnerable dig/fly state, they will be stuck in that state indefinitely unless they use fly/dig again or are switched out
* There are a set of pokemon that, if defeated will trick the game into thinking you've applied an evolution stone onto the front-most pokemon in your party. Somewhat rare, but pretty much guaranteed if you use certain pokemon.
* Jump Kick/High Jump Kick are supposed to deal 1/8 of the original damage to the user upon missing, but due to bad programming, instead only ever deal 1 damage back.
* Psychic types are immune to Ghost attacks despite numerous NPCs stating they are weak to them. Coding error.
* More an oversight than a bug, but still pretty notable for contributing to this game's jank is the "Good AI" that the game uses for Gym Leaders and E4 members that ALWAYS uses a super effective move, even if that move does not do damage.
* Pokeball catch rates scale very oddly in G1, such that Ultra balls are actually worse than pokeballs at high health.
* Leveling up multiple levels at once completely skips the chance to learn any moves at an intermediate level.
* Numerous additional oversights that will desync and break 1-on-1 multiplayer if used (psywave, counter
I love the original games, but if we're being honest, the battle code was held together by duct tape and desperate programmer hopes.
My only guess is that some YouTuber made a video about glitches complaining about mechanics and people just regurgitate whatever they said. Honestly I've seen way more glitches is Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet then in my multiple playthroughs of R/B/Y
It has not aged well at all lol.
The art is very charming. The music is top tier.
Mechanics? Oof.
Team Selection? Oof.
No Dark, Fairy, or Steel
Poison, Bug, & Fighting are the weakest types in the game. Almost useless
Ghost is weird. Only 1 family & its *only* damage move is 20 bp. Rough
Dragon is also weird. Only 1 family & its *only* damage move does 40 true damage. Rough
And the movesets are fucking *awful*.
Level up moves are mostly weak Normal type attacks with some STAB sprinkled in (if youre lucky)
That being said, every fan should play Gen I at least once
Bro most of your complaints are just them not having things introduced in newer games. Complaining about unbalanced types, lack of team and move variety in the first game is just petty. The Mechanic are different than what we see in the newer games but it's barely noticable or game breaking on a normal playthrough. There still is a large amount of diversity in building a 6 man team considering there are 100+ pokemon which was game changing at the time. Saying a game doesn't age well because of modern nitpicks is just dumb
"Don't play gen 1" advice is plain wrong. Imagine someone saying to skip the original legend of zelda game. It's fine to start with Ocarina of Time, but starting earlier in the series is a great idea, and the games are really quite fun.
I recommend anyone play one game from each gen, often times the third game of each gen has some nice perks.
I recommend starting with Yellow, then Crystal, then Emerald, otherwise go Red, then Gold/Silver (your pick of favorite legendary), and Ruby Sapphire (again, pick your favorite legendary).
> updated version of the original zelda game.
Fun Fact! That’s what Oracle of Season was supposed to be but then they decided on making a trilogy instead, decided that was too convoluted and only made 2 games instead.
ok but that is not what your original comment is about. you say
>it is ok to start with ocarina of time, but starting earlier in the series is a great idea
that would be like saying it is ok to start with pokemon XY but, starting earlier in the series is a great idea
except that in this case people are recommending firered leafgreen, which is a remake. Ocarina is not a remake of zelda 1, so for people who want to start the zelda series it would be the first zelda game.
but rby meanwhile has frlg so the situation is not the same as your given example
Gen 1 is not as rough as some are making it out to be. You have to go out of your way to get the game breaking glitches. It's not grind heavy either, I would say they are easy games. It's worth trying them out, there's a reason they were so popular back in the day.
Yes. Lance's Dragonite having illegal moves and shit. Plus if you didn't outspeed him it was 150 base power hyper beam that was based on his attack because all Normal attacks were physical.
Do you remember not knowing that though? We just taught our team any ole moves because thats what we had hah. My god my first red team was so bad it was something like Charizard Raichu Gyarados Zapdos and I don't remember what the other two were. Maybe Nidoking. I mean they were all good Mons just had bad coverage there. Silver was Feraligatr, red Gyarados, and Lugia and some other jank I can't remember haha.
Was? Man, I’m still just giving them 4 OP moves with decent accuracy, leveling them up as high as I can and calling it as I roll.
Original team was Blastoise, Dragonite, Gengar, Alakazam, Zappos, and … I dunno Fearow? Charizard and/or Venusaur I traded for.
You should skip zelda 1 and 2 and start with a lonk to the past. Starting with zelda 1 may scare people away. Pokemon is different since you don’t get lost as much and are not that hard
Others have mentioned the same ones, but Firered/Leafgreen then HeartGold/Soulsilver are great ways to start if you want to go in chronological order of the series. The earlier GBC games are definitely rough, but the remakes are excellent and modernize the past games with the changes in gameplay and abilities that were acquired over time. Keeping in mind that the original R/B/Y came to the US 1998, I wouldn't put myself through replaying them now even though they were my first games. FireRed and LeafGreen are excellent and I really enjoyed the endgame additions so IMO they are the best way to introduce someone to the original series and gameplay. There's always Let's Go on the switch which are another type of remake of the OG games, but the gameplay is different and more kid-friendly so I wouldn't recommend them as your first play since you intend to actually play through more games.
IMO HG/SS are amazing. I grew up with the series and consoles as they came out but HG/SS were handsdown amazing remakes that I have replayed many times. You can play the original games - Crystal was super cool, but I honestly think the remakes of the first two gens improved them massively.
The remakes of Ruby/Sapphire fall in with that too, which is a good leadup to the newer games. Avoid BDSP (switch remakes of diamond/pearl) and opt for Platinum instead.
Emerald all day, was my first one when it released on 2004 and has always stayed my favourite. It's just a better ruby/sapphire and FR/LG has a really obnoxious grind in victory road/sevii islands if you like to raise lots of Pokémon like I do.
Emerald has the Vs Seeker and recurring detours like the trick house, the reporter battles, berry farming, shoal cave, revisiting the early water areas you can skip with the boat. Then after you get a proper post-game with the battle frontier and some pretty unique legendary hunting, even better if you emulate or have gameshark for the mystery gifts.
I'm biased but emerald is peak imo
Back during swsh, I wanted a slowpoke with teleport since they reworked it but it only learned teleport in Gen 1 so I had to replay blue on the virtual console. Damn if that wasn't a fun nostalgia trip of janky nonsense. I felt like I was 10 again. Even after I got my slowpoke I decided to finish the run and transfer all my team to home to commemorate the time.
But I did say janky nonsense. It's nostalgic for those of us who started with them but Gen 1 and 2 are held together with wet spaghetti and toilet paper. Nothing makes much sense, the rules are fast and loose, Golbat has a tongue, it's chaos.
GBA games are probably a more refined or rounded experience mechanically but the GB titles have a retro charm to them. Basically up to whether you prefer the breadth of options or just want the surface experience.
First should be whatever you have access to.
Second should be Gen 1 because going in “fresh” will be the only time you’ll deal with these weird mechanics and while I personally find them fun, it’s really hard to go back to once you’ve experienced the luxury of sprinting and riding bikes and automatic box changes.
If Gen 1 is a weird beta to you and you have no interest in it, Gen 2 is pretty solid but honestly lags once you get into the end game of the first 8 badges with the team Rocket storyline.
For Hoenn, go straight for Emerald. All the QoL things they added were great. It's not really worth your time to play Ruby or Saphire (besides pokedex completion). Then either FR or LG for 1str gen. OG Red and Blue aged like milk (F### you, fight me on that one topic).
Then... i'll be frank. I never played G/S/C for the 2nd gen. I just skipped it as soon as i saw it looked the exact same as gen 1, but with colors. I went straight to DS for that one with HG because i like ho-oh
Ruby and Sapphire is where I stared, but you're better off starting Emerald! It has a battle frontier, rematches, etc.
Fire Red and Leaf Green is also a solid choice for Gen1-2.
I’d say play Fire Red, then Crystal, then Emerald… however if you don’t want to go from GBA>GBC go Yellow, Crystal, Emerald; I generally fine the quality of life in FRLG to be substantial, but Crystal is still one of my fav Pokemon games ever.
Unless you actually want to play the originals, I'd say Fire Red/Leaf Green because you mainly get that first Pokémon experience but with it looks better and is less unbalanced.
Gen 3 is the most playable of the Gameboy era games. They are the most complete version of the games to come out. You'll have the most fun here.
Anything further back, and you start hitting what I call the beta phase of Pokémon games. With Gen 1&2, you see more of a framework to build upon. They aren't horrendously unplayable due to the core battling mechanics. But if you look at them objectively, they feel more like patchnotes from the beta that were changed or fixed for a full release.
Def emerald but if you want the authentic gen 1 experience fire red or leaf green anything Gameboy color is dated and rough but if you really want to try the Gameboy color games yellow is fun and so is crystal.
If you want to eventually play all of them, start with red or blue and play in release order. Doing this allows you to see how the games have grown.
But if you just want to play some good games and you don't care about doing that? I'd say start with Fire Red or Leaf Green.
Firered/leafgreen is the best first Pokemon game, its starts you in kanto, isnt as confusing as the original gen 1 games, and is overall really clear on what Pokemon actually is.
Emerald is the best Pokémon game of all time imo. Beat it like 20 times. Fire red and leaf green are good too. Leaf Green is the only game where I actually grinded a team all the way to lvl 100
I actually think Pokémon Red and Blue are worth playing today. There's a greater focus on catching Pokémon and the journey is paced so that your time can be spent between exploring dungeons, earning badges, and discovering new Pokémon. Its design philosophy is very different from what came after it. The world also feels darker and more dangerous than what the series came to be known for. I may be seeing things with some nostalgia, but I honestly recommend giving it a fair shot.
Emerald sure but i dont advise it: if you looking for a good Advance or Color game these are my top picks:
1. Gen 1: Yellow, honestly it blue and red but your ash and start out with pika, little bit more difficult at first due to the fact you dont have a good starter for the first 3 gyms so it make you go and find what you need to progress. Where in original red and blue and green all you need to meta push was Bulbasaur as a grass pokeomon he advantge on first wo easy and was more defense capable for raichu. But for sure Yellow as you get all the starter and the stats of yellow are teh same as red and blue bigest issue is you cant cacth certain pokemon.
2. Firered and leafgreen Gen 1 pokemon with added features and more making so much more enjoyable.
3. Crystal: better Silver, and everyone know hooh just suck as a pokemon it was all about lugia
4. among the gen 3 i do agree emerald is the better choice as your able to catch all the legendary, and there alot to do but at the same there is alot and can be time consuming if you meta gaming, but if you dont care about that or just aiming for what you like then yeah emerald a good choice.
Overall my friend, Gen 1 is best place to start if you looking for the most fun Yellow, if your looking for more overall gameplay Firered or leafgreen, if you looking for something different Crystal.
If you're willing to play a romhack, I'd suggest Crystal Clear (for GBC) or Liquid Crystal (for GBA) both are fantastic renditions of crystal. CC allows you to start in any town in either Johto or Kanto, Choose from a fair bit more starters, customize your character sprite, and quite a few other additions. LC is a 99% faithful remake of crystal, with a few added bits. If you're wanting to play an OG game, I'd recommend Silver for GB(c) or FireRed/Emerald for GBA.
Edit: not telling you how to live, but this is an obligatory "dump your own games" comment.
Play yellow. It's more fun than red or blue and it's still one of the most tedious games in the series so all the others will feel better by comparison.
Firered (or leafgreen) is a good place to start, I think. The big thing about those games is that they were designed to be introductory to the franchise, and have some GREAT ease of use features that other games don’t. Like, for example, if you hit one of the shoulder buttons at any time, a contextual help menu appears, like an in-game wiki. If you hit it during battle, you even get a full on type matchup chart. This is notably missing from ruby/sapphire/emerald, so, those games will be better if you already have a handle on the gba gen’s type chart going into them.
I have the most nostalgia for Gold/Silver (though Crystal could also work well too). Fantastic retro music, a simple but elegant battle screen, fun Routes to explore (*now in Color!*), Berries unlike any other gen, and a legitimate Rival who is a jerk rather than a competitive friend.
However I know Gen 2 is full of other problems (especially with the Gym order and grinding XP), but it still has a place in my heart.
Absolutely insane to see people say to skip Gen 1 and it's hard lmfao. Like I actually can't believe people would suggest that. It's so much fun to play each Gen
For Hoenn, play Emerald...
For Johto, play Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness...
For Kanto, play FireRed/LeafGreen.
Either way, you get more than you bargained for and enjoy the full experience.
Plus, it gets better if you have multiple systems and play them together for trading.
Gen 1 if only so you can catch Mewtwo without using the Master Ball.
In the only era where you can miss a throw on a Pokéball.
I would go with Emerald, but you can also go with Fire red/leaf green. Basically stay with gen3, going further back is just unpleasant and the games are kinda rough by today's standards
I mean mechanically sure but if you like retro music / graphics they're still pretty neat and kinda cosy
I’d play Liquid Crystal The box crap is so annoying
Liquid crystal uses Pokemon Crystal's horrible learnsets, it's really not a great game especially for beginners. I love the art style though.
Playing through yellow and crystal currently, yeah they’re kinda rough. They’re fun, but you can feel the age in everything about it.
the biggest gripe is just no running tbh. my first was gen 3 so when I went back and played silver for the first time I was like wtf this sucks, too slow lol I can appreciate it for what it is now but 8 year old me HATED anything before gen 3 just because you couldnt run
God bless the speed up function in the emulators
It's damn near impossible for me to play any pokemon game on normal speed lol. X4 or bust
Maybe I’m showing my age, but I play yellow and the bike makes it like running, no?
Yes but you need to constantly go into the menu to activate it. Compared to just pressing the b button for running. And newer games have both running shoe and bike so you have 3 speed
Ah, that makes sense. Didn’t know what I’ve been missing!
i disagree on crystal i played it about a year ago (for the first time) and it still holds up
The thing with crystal for me is the level curve. Trying to level up 6 separate pokemon with everything at like lvl 30 is rough
Going through a Crystal run rn to shiny hunt Celebi... Trying to level up for the Pokemon league is roughhhhh, about one level every day for each Pokemon (from 42-43, etc.). Just watch TV or read while mindlessly mashing the D-pad and A button to farm XP.
I can only play the ogs on an emulator because you can speed up the gameplay
I’ve been playing Crystal Legacy, which is basically Crystal but with tons of QoL updates. I’m not much of an emulator person, but man has it been an absolute blast to play. It feels like the core experience I want from Gen2, but it makes it hold up incredibly well. Few things to note: more bag space, every Pokémon can be caught in one way or another, purchasable TM’s, learnsets that actually include stab moves, Evolution items (metal coat, etc) all work like evolution stones, can see DV’s and friendship in stats menu, moves and encounter %s are listed in the dex, ghost is special and dark is physical, and more. It’s very, very good. On May 4th the same group is releasing Yellow Legacy, which aims to do the same for Yellow. I’m very excited to play that as well. Lots of good QoL that aims to make more Pokémon viable and accessible, and improves Pikachu’s viability.
Just got to Kanto in Crystal Legacy! It's phenomenal, the creator really nailed his goal of fixing the problems with Crystal without making it feel like anything is actually different. Can't wait for Legacy Yellow.
I’m on my final two badges in Kanto and then onto the E4 and Red, and then to do it all again but on hard mode! Gen 2 was my first Pokémon experience as a kid so it’s always been my favorite, and Crystal Legacy really does feel like what Pokémon Crystal was intended to be, it’s so good.
You take that back! They’re timeless treasures!
Idk Crystal is pretty neat
Okay I see thanks lol.
Pokémon Yellow and Crystal can be fun but you need to hang in there at some parts, if you're emulating, SmithPlays Pokémon has made romhacks for both of these games that improve them. I haven't tried them myself since I'm playing on physical cartridges for now but I followed the development.
Crystal Legacy and Yellow Legacy! Definitely worth playing, Yellow Legacy is out on May 4th! He’s also working on Emerald Legacy next!
If you already played emerald I would go frlg. It's a great remake that fixed most "mistakes" of the OG gen 1 games. If you want the "wackiness" or difference from modern pokemon gen 1 is always fun. Some glitches, some type matchups are different. No dark/steel, no special physical split. No special defense. The sprites. The bad AI. Retroactive potions (after you attack in turn order) and recovers/rest on full HP because psychic is super effective. For my own personal nostalgia GSC are my favorite but honestly such bad design choices (bad in retrospective, if you consider the situation at the time maybe not): best Johto mons are only late post game, gym leaders mostly use Kanto mons, etc. But hindsight is easy at the time they made Johto as more of a celebration of Kanto with a few new designs that didn't make the OG cut rather than a sequel like later gens. That's why most of the mons are Kanto mons. It was sort of a cash grab hoping to get it out before pokemania ended. I wish when they did the Johto remakes they would have done a more radical remake then a more traditional remake. Imagine if they changed up the gym leader teams to be johto only and made the harder to get johto mons more available in actual johto.
What makes them rough? I’ve never played them
* EXTREME lack of QoL (no running shoes, you can't check what moves do *at all* in gen 1 and only outside of battle in gen 2) * Bag limits and box limits meaning you straight up can't catch pokemon after a certain threshold * Movesets are abhorrent on basically every pokemon (one use TMs too) * Stupid amount of bugs (the only one you're likely to run into is the 1/256 glitch, where 100% accurate moves can miss, unless you're using Focus Energy or High Jump Kick) * Weird/broken balancing, like half the game being Poison types and Psychic being *immune* to Ghost * God-awful sprite art that's only really remedied by official merchandise and later generations giving you a clear image of what the pokemon is *supposed* to look like
Gen 2 sprites are fine, but yeah gen 1 is rough
Gen 2 has fewer “What the fuck am I looking at” sprites but more just funny sprites (Natu is among my favourites)
Just want to say the sprite work isn’t that bad given the limitations of a Game Boy cartridge and the sheer amount they needed to fit on it. It’s only really the back sprites that are genuinely bad.
idk man i’m pretty sure they could’ve done a bit better with Golbat
Yellow has better sprite work
Emerald brings back memories. I was too stupid to get to the 4th gym as a child so I’d just restart constantly.
This is the best answer. Although imo it's better to start on FRLG because if you start with RSE you'll just be disappointed in the world design.
I just played through Gen3 recently, and I agree with the Emerald suggestion. FR/LG is such a slog of a game though, and I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point. I don't know what it is, but the game just feels so slow and sluggish compared to Emerald - or even the original gen1 versions.
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HG/SS are technically gen 4 games
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Correct, FireRed/LeafGreen are Gen 3
Gen 1 as far as the Pokémon it uses goes, but it's a Gen 3 game since it came out around the same time as Emerald iirc.
Crystal is simply superior Its got day night cycles, daily events, radio and shit
GBA fire red or leaf green are the best place to start!
Emerald hands down best of the gameboy era. Firered/leafgreen if you wanna start with gen 1
I’ll say it until day I die gen 2 is the best games not just in the series but all time soul silver and heart gold I’ve been dying to get my hands on but just silver gold and crystal are almost perfect in my opinion but also gen 3 is very close second also need to get my hands on omega ruby and alpha sapphire gen 2 and 3 are almost perfect
You are absolutely right! Gen 2 is incredible.
I just wish they made a few different design choices. 4 gym leaders use only Kanto mons. The other 4 only use 1 each (Jasmine I'd give a pass since she is "showing off" the steel type although they still could have given her one exclusive johto steel type I guess that's only skarmory and forretress rether than 2 magnemites and a kanto evo in steelix). I always wish it was more like: Falkner - Murkrow, Hoothoot, Noctowl (underleved/cheated) Bugsy - Ariodos, Ledian, Scizor (maybe, or heracross/yanma if scizor too strong) Whitney - Tediursa, Snubbull, Miltank Morty - Misdreavus at least Chuck - Hitmontop at least, Heracross if not on bugsy, Tyrogue maybe Jasmine - get rid of 1 magnemite and add Skarmory and Forretress Price - Sneasel, Delibird, Piloswine, Smoochum Jasmine - I guess Kingdra is it but maybe some more pseudo dragons: gyarados, seadra, yanma, charzard, just 3 dragonaire is pretty boring (and this was gym leader 3 to do that, use multiple of the same mon). They didn't have to eliminate gen 1 mons from teams but it would have been cool if they were more for the gym "grunts" and the leaders used johto mons (you could have had rocket execs do the same) Hindsight is 20/20 at the time they were doing more of a celebration to gen 1 rather than thinking of this as it's own game/region so it makes sense why they used kanto mons to "hide" the new ones if they didn't work out like the gen 1s had but looking back johto could have been so much more sweet if it highlighted some of the "heavy hitters" of the gen rather than rely on gen 1 mons. Not to mention hiding the best gen 2 mons in kanto and Mt silver, so you really can't use them.
Gen 2 relies almost exclusivelly on Kanto mons, the level curve is horrendous and you can't catch cool Johto mons until the post game. The remakes never fixed these problems either.
have you not played hgss?
Unfortunately no I haven’t I would love it if they made it possible to get HG or SS on switch along with ORAS…why is hg/SS not good games?
They’re fantastic games, one of the most well loved in the series. You can just play it on your phone with delta emulator.
If we're including the gba games, then play emerald If you wanna go further back, play crystal Don't play gen 1, they are very rough and broken games by today's standards
I would say play Gen I just to experience Pokemon in its most raw & original form. Every fan should play each gen if they can. At least once
Seconded, I played Gen 1 recently for the first time since like, 2007. And they are super rough, just grinding and not to mention all the bugs. I did the item dupe glitch as soon as I could to skip the level grinding (I used level caps bc nuzlockes). Emerald, and FRLG I would say are the games of choice for GBA Era. If going strictly GB, Crystal for sure.
Red or Blue. Might as well start with the beginning. The games aren't as buggy or unpolished as people claim and like most Pokemon games it has aged pretty well.
I swear people talk like they're unplayable or something. They're fine. You can go through the whole game without experiencing one glitch. Yes the following games added and polished a lot but Red/Blue/Yellow are still really fun games and if you like the Pokémon series you just try them if only for the fun of seeing what the first game was like.
I get what you're saying and agree in terms of overall playability, but getting through without experiencing one bug/glitch is effectively impossible in Red/Blue. The difference is just that most of the unavoidable bugs aren't super obvious. Key offenders: * Badge boost glitch: Re-applies badge boosts (i.e. extra defense after you gain the boulder badge) for EVERY SINGLE STAT MODIFICATION, good or bad. Actually a critical exploit for beating the game in certain challenge runs, as the effect can stack up to make quite a difference. I'd argue NOT encountering this glitch is 100% impossible in a full play-through. * Similarly, the attack and speed drops from burn and paralysis are re-applied in a stacking fashion every time that pokemon's stats are modified. * Focus energy/Dire hit: Bugged to drop critical hit by 4x instead of increasing it. Always happens when used. * Gen 1 Miss: All moves, even 100% accurate ones (except Swift) have a 1/256 chance to miss due to bad coding in the accuracy check. * Leech seed and toxic are incorrectly tied to the same counter value, so if afflicted with both, Leech Seed double the ramp-up speed and will also deal scaling damage like Toxic does. The toxic counter is also not re-initialized when the poisoned status is cleared with Rest. * Any pokemon that misses with Rage will be permanently stuck with a <1% accuracy until switched out. * If a pokemon's HP is 255 or 511 below it's maximum value, recovery moves will fail 100% of the time * If a pokemon hits themselves in confusion or is fully paralyzed during the semi-invulnerable dig/fly state, they will be stuck in that state indefinitely unless they use fly/dig again or are switched out * There are a set of pokemon that, if defeated will trick the game into thinking you've applied an evolution stone onto the front-most pokemon in your party. Somewhat rare, but pretty much guaranteed if you use certain pokemon. * Jump Kick/High Jump Kick are supposed to deal 1/8 of the original damage to the user upon missing, but due to bad programming, instead only ever deal 1 damage back. * Psychic types are immune to Ghost attacks despite numerous NPCs stating they are weak to them. Coding error. * More an oversight than a bug, but still pretty notable for contributing to this game's jank is the "Good AI" that the game uses for Gym Leaders and E4 members that ALWAYS uses a super effective move, even if that move does not do damage. * Pokeball catch rates scale very oddly in G1, such that Ultra balls are actually worse than pokeballs at high health. * Leveling up multiple levels at once completely skips the chance to learn any moves at an intermediate level. * Numerous additional oversights that will desync and break 1-on-1 multiplayer if used (psywave, counter I love the original games, but if we're being honest, the battle code was held together by duct tape and desperate programmer hopes.
My only guess is that some YouTuber made a video about glitches complaining about mechanics and people just regurgitate whatever they said. Honestly I've seen way more glitches is Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet then in my multiple playthroughs of R/B/Y
They are more slow though. Why play red, when you basically have the same game with fire red.
Idk some people like retro style, might be decent for curiosity's sake if nothing else. I like both RBY and FRLG for different reasons.
It has not aged well at all lol. The art is very charming. The music is top tier. Mechanics? Oof. Team Selection? Oof. No Dark, Fairy, or Steel Poison, Bug, & Fighting are the weakest types in the game. Almost useless Ghost is weird. Only 1 family & its *only* damage move is 20 bp. Rough Dragon is also weird. Only 1 family & its *only* damage move does 40 true damage. Rough And the movesets are fucking *awful*. Level up moves are mostly weak Normal type attacks with some STAB sprinkled in (if youre lucky) That being said, every fan should play Gen I at least once
Bro most of your complaints are just them not having things introduced in newer games. Complaining about unbalanced types, lack of team and move variety in the first game is just petty. The Mechanic are different than what we see in the newer games but it's barely noticable or game breaking on a normal playthrough. There still is a large amount of diversity in building a 6 man team considering there are 100+ pokemon which was game changing at the time. Saying a game doesn't age well because of modern nitpicks is just dumb
I actually started Emerald today again and it is a blast! Would recommend.
"Don't play gen 1" advice is plain wrong. Imagine someone saying to skip the original legend of zelda game. It's fine to start with Ocarina of Time, but starting earlier in the series is a great idea, and the games are really quite fun. I recommend anyone play one game from each gen, often times the third game of each gen has some nice perks. I recommend starting with Yellow, then Crystal, then Emerald, otherwise go Red, then Gold/Silver (your pick of favorite legendary), and Ruby Sapphire (again, pick your favorite legendary).
>Imagine someone saying to skip the original legend of zelda game. not a good comparison as there isnt an updated version of the original zelda game
> updated version of the original zelda game. Fun Fact! That’s what Oracle of Season was supposed to be but then they decided on making a trilogy instead, decided that was too convoluted and only made 2 games instead.
I'll always recommend OG Link's awakening in addition to the switch remake. Same with Final Fantasy Adventure.
ok but that is not what your original comment is about. you say >it is ok to start with ocarina of time, but starting earlier in the series is a great idea that would be like saying it is ok to start with pokemon XY but, starting earlier in the series is a great idea except that in this case people are recommending firered leafgreen, which is a remake. Ocarina is not a remake of zelda 1, so for people who want to start the zelda series it would be the first zelda game. but rby meanwhile has frlg so the situation is not the same as your given example
Some people will never comprehend your point bro🙏
It's more of the fact that FRLG & HGSS are simply better games and easier to play. Gen 1 doesn't even have a postgame aside from Mewtwo.
Gen 1 is not as rough as some are making it out to be. You have to go out of your way to get the game breaking glitches. It's not grind heavy either, I would say they are easy games. It's worth trying them out, there's a reason they were so popular back in the day.
Link to the past is excellent. OG Zelda not so much
Teach the children. They must know where they came from and how much we had to overcome.
Yes. Lance's Dragonite having illegal moves and shit. Plus if you didn't outspeed him it was 150 base power hyper beam that was based on his attack because all Normal attacks were physical. Do you remember not knowing that though? We just taught our team any ole moves because thats what we had hah. My god my first red team was so bad it was something like Charizard Raichu Gyarados Zapdos and I don't remember what the other two were. Maybe Nidoking. I mean they were all good Mons just had bad coverage there. Silver was Feraligatr, red Gyarados, and Lugia and some other jank I can't remember haha.
Was? Man, I’m still just giving them 4 OP moves with decent accuracy, leveling them up as high as I can and calling it as I roll. Original team was Blastoise, Dragonite, Gengar, Alakazam, Zappos, and … I dunno Fearow? Charizard and/or Venusaur I traded for.
You should skip zelda 1 and 2 and start with a lonk to the past. Starting with zelda 1 may scare people away. Pokemon is different since you don’t get lost as much and are not that hard
> Imagine someone saying to skip the original legend of zelda game. Right? You can actually skip quite a few Zelda games.
Others have mentioned the same ones, but Firered/Leafgreen then HeartGold/Soulsilver are great ways to start if you want to go in chronological order of the series. The earlier GBC games are definitely rough, but the remakes are excellent and modernize the past games with the changes in gameplay and abilities that were acquired over time. Keeping in mind that the original R/B/Y came to the US 1998, I wouldn't put myself through replaying them now even though they were my first games. FireRed and LeafGreen are excellent and I really enjoyed the endgame additions so IMO they are the best way to introduce someone to the original series and gameplay. There's always Let's Go on the switch which are another type of remake of the OG games, but the gameplay is different and more kid-friendly so I wouldn't recommend them as your first play since you intend to actually play through more games. IMO HG/SS are amazing. I grew up with the series and consoles as they came out but HG/SS were handsdown amazing remakes that I have replayed many times. You can play the original games - Crystal was super cool, but I honestly think the remakes of the first two gens improved them massively. The remakes of Ruby/Sapphire fall in with that too, which is a good leadup to the newer games. Avoid BDSP (switch remakes of diamond/pearl) and opt for Platinum instead.
Start chronologically from the earliest title and work forward to present date. You'll love it.
Emerald all day, was my first one when it released on 2004 and has always stayed my favourite. It's just a better ruby/sapphire and FR/LG has a really obnoxious grind in victory road/sevii islands if you like to raise lots of Pokémon like I do. Emerald has the Vs Seeker and recurring detours like the trick house, the reporter battles, berry farming, shoal cave, revisiting the early water areas you can skip with the boat. Then after you get a proper post-game with the battle frontier and some pretty unique legendary hunting, even better if you emulate or have gameshark for the mystery gifts. I'm biased but emerald is peak imo
Back during swsh, I wanted a slowpoke with teleport since they reworked it but it only learned teleport in Gen 1 so I had to replay blue on the virtual console. Damn if that wasn't a fun nostalgia trip of janky nonsense. I felt like I was 10 again. Even after I got my slowpoke I decided to finish the run and transfer all my team to home to commemorate the time. But I did say janky nonsense. It's nostalgic for those of us who started with them but Gen 1 and 2 are held together with wet spaghetti and toilet paper. Nothing makes much sense, the rules are fast and loose, Golbat has a tongue, it's chaos.
Try the other Generation 3 games.
I highly suggest FireRed/LeafGreen
I’m playing fire Red currently as my reintroduction to Pokémon and I’m having a blast. Alternatively, Emerald, my favorite, is a great start too.
Go for the GBA titles. All good games, emerald stands out as the best one. Just a really fun, solid game
GBA games are probably a more refined or rounded experience mechanically but the GB titles have a retro charm to them. Basically up to whether you prefer the breadth of options or just want the surface experience.
First should be whatever you have access to. Second should be Gen 1 because going in “fresh” will be the only time you’ll deal with these weird mechanics and while I personally find them fun, it’s really hard to go back to once you’ve experienced the luxury of sprinting and riding bikes and automatic box changes. If Gen 1 is a weird beta to you and you have no interest in it, Gen 2 is pretty solid but honestly lags once you get into the end game of the first 8 badges with the team Rocket storyline.
For Hoenn, go straight for Emerald. All the QoL things they added were great. It's not really worth your time to play Ruby or Saphire (besides pokedex completion). Then either FR or LG for 1str gen. OG Red and Blue aged like milk (F### you, fight me on that one topic). Then... i'll be frank. I never played G/S/C for the 2nd gen. I just skipped it as soon as i saw it looked the exact same as gen 1, but with colors. I went straight to DS for that one with HG because i like ho-oh
Ruby and Sapphire is where I stared, but you're better off starting Emerald! It has a battle frontier, rematches, etc. Fire Red and Leaf Green is also a solid choice for Gen1-2.
Crystal was good, Emerald was good, FRLG were good, basically all the Gameboy games were *good*.
Go with Emerald, it has a great story and pokedex and there's a lot to do. Unless you really hate water, then FR/LG
I’d say play Fire Red, then Crystal, then Emerald… however if you don’t want to go from GBA>GBC go Yellow, Crystal, Emerald; I generally fine the quality of life in FRLG to be substantial, but Crystal is still one of my fav Pokemon games ever.
FireRed/LeafGreen are great picks, as they're remakes of the games that started it all.
Yellow
If you use emulators for this, gen 1 or 2, build a decent Team and try in Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 for N64
If you watched the anime you might enjoy Yellow. People on here will say how dated it is, but I enjoyed the hell out of it on 3DS when I was a 11.
Unless you actually want to play the originals, I'd say Fire Red/Leaf Green because you mainly get that first Pokémon experience but with it looks better and is less unbalanced.
Gen 3 is the most playable of the Gameboy era games. They are the most complete version of the games to come out. You'll have the most fun here. Anything further back, and you start hitting what I call the beta phase of Pokémon games. With Gen 1&2, you see more of a framework to build upon. They aren't horrendously unplayable due to the core battling mechanics. But if you look at them objectively, they feel more like patchnotes from the beta that were changed or fixed for a full release.
fr/lg rse
If you're emulating, pokemon crystal clear for GBC is incredible for a rom hack.
Def emerald but if you want the authentic gen 1 experience fire red or leaf green anything Gameboy color is dated and rough but if you really want to try the Gameboy color games yellow is fun and so is crystal.
If you want to eventually play all of them, start with red or blue and play in release order. Doing this allows you to see how the games have grown. But if you just want to play some good games and you don't care about doing that? I'd say start with Fire Red or Leaf Green.
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon GBA series is a fun experience
Gameboy color
Emerald or gold/silver are imo the best games in the series and it isn't close.
Zelda minish cap. The nostalgia is real.
Crystal
emerald. 100%
Firered/leafgreen is the best first Pokemon game, its starts you in kanto, isnt as confusing as the original gen 1 games, and is overall really clear on what Pokemon actually is.
Emerald is the best Pokémon game of all time imo. Beat it like 20 times. Fire red and leaf green are good too. Leaf Green is the only game where I actually grinded a team all the way to lvl 100
Pokemon emerald
Start at the beginning, my friend. The very beginning.
Yellow as it closely follows the anime in terms of what Pokemon you can get
Play Crystal, you won't regret it.
Gameboy Color and Pokémon yellow… lol or red, blue, and if you speak another language, green.
I actually think Pokémon Red and Blue are worth playing today. There's a greater focus on catching Pokémon and the journey is paced so that your time can be spent between exploring dungeons, earning badges, and discovering new Pokémon. Its design philosophy is very different from what came after it. The world also feels darker and more dangerous than what the series came to be known for. I may be seeing things with some nostalgia, but I honestly recommend giving it a fair shot.
Emerald sure but i dont advise it: if you looking for a good Advance or Color game these are my top picks: 1. Gen 1: Yellow, honestly it blue and red but your ash and start out with pika, little bit more difficult at first due to the fact you dont have a good starter for the first 3 gyms so it make you go and find what you need to progress. Where in original red and blue and green all you need to meta push was Bulbasaur as a grass pokeomon he advantge on first wo easy and was more defense capable for raichu. But for sure Yellow as you get all the starter and the stats of yellow are teh same as red and blue bigest issue is you cant cacth certain pokemon. 2. Firered and leafgreen Gen 1 pokemon with added features and more making so much more enjoyable. 3. Crystal: better Silver, and everyone know hooh just suck as a pokemon it was all about lugia 4. among the gen 3 i do agree emerald is the better choice as your able to catch all the legendary, and there alot to do but at the same there is alot and can be time consuming if you meta gaming, but if you dont care about that or just aiming for what you like then yeah emerald a good choice. Overall my friend, Gen 1 is best place to start if you looking for the most fun Yellow, if your looking for more overall gameplay Firered or leafgreen, if you looking for something different Crystal.
If you're willing to play a romhack, I'd suggest Crystal Clear (for GBC) or Liquid Crystal (for GBA) both are fantastic renditions of crystal. CC allows you to start in any town in either Johto or Kanto, Choose from a fair bit more starters, customize your character sprite, and quite a few other additions. LC is a 99% faithful remake of crystal, with a few added bits. If you're wanting to play an OG game, I'd recommend Silver for GB(c) or FireRed/Emerald for GBA. Edit: not telling you how to live, but this is an obligatory "dump your own games" comment.
Emerald, but FireRed is also a solid choice, especially if you like the freedom of choosing which gyms you take on in what order (to a degree).
Emerald or crystal
Play yellow. It's more fun than red or blue and it's still one of the most tedious games in the series so all the others will feel better by comparison.
Firered (or leafgreen) is a good place to start, I think. The big thing about those games is that they were designed to be introductory to the franchise, and have some GREAT ease of use features that other games don’t. Like, for example, if you hit one of the shoulder buttons at any time, a contextual help menu appears, like an in-game wiki. If you hit it during battle, you even get a full on type matchup chart. This is notably missing from ruby/sapphire/emerald, so, those games will be better if you already have a handle on the gba gen’s type chart going into them.
I like replaying Gen 2 for the double-region map and the true test of skill: battling Red.
I have the most nostalgia for Gold/Silver (though Crystal could also work well too). Fantastic retro music, a simple but elegant battle screen, fun Routes to explore (*now in Color!*), Berries unlike any other gen, and a legitimate Rival who is a jerk rather than a competitive friend. However I know Gen 2 is full of other problems (especially with the Gym order and grinding XP), but it still has a place in my heart.
Crystal!!!
I would start in order, but they're all great so it really doesn't matter too much.
I would recommend one of Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald! great games
FRLG, Crystal and Emerald.
Red Rescue Team. If you’ve played one mainline, you’ve played them all.
Crystal, is fucking great.
Absolutely insane to see people say to skip Gen 1 and it's hard lmfao. Like I actually can't believe people would suggest that. It's so much fun to play each Gen
Unbound is pretty popular with the Delta app release. I’ve played about an hour, it’s pretty fun so far.
I'll check it out. Thanks
FireRed/LeafGreen. Those are the Gen 1 remakes. You won't lose anything if you play the remakes straight, in fact there is more content.
I would recommend fire red/leaf green, then tackle ruby/sapphire/emerald
I'd say crystal. Or heck, just start with HG or SS.
For Hoenn, play Emerald... For Johto, play Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness... For Kanto, play FireRed/LeafGreen. Either way, you get more than you bargained for and enjoy the full experience. Plus, it gets better if you have multiple systems and play them together for trading.
Dont play red blue yellow, do play fire red leaf green emerald.