let's play pokemon red!
0: my evil backstory
hello!! i've recently been watching a ton of pokemon videos in the background while i do stuff and it's given me the itch to replay the games... and i realised i never finished most of them and never even PLAYED a few! so i thought it would be fun to go through each generation and record it here :3
this is veryyy much inspired by this awesome LP of OFF. i originally found when i was stuck on a puzzle, but i found it so fun to read i ended up going through the whole thing along with my own playthough. i don't think this will be quite as detailed or useful as a walkthrough... but i'd like to make it detailed enough that i can come back to it if i fall off for a while.. since that's my biggest issue with finishing games. i Forget.
i'm going to be starting with the mainline games, but i
might eventually do side games like ranger or mystery
dungeon too! i think they're very fun and also never
finished them..
okay well.. i think that's it for now!! see you at the start!
(posted: 01/08/24, last updated: 04/08/24)1: wadda hell... bulnosaur
it's time... let's start at the beginning with pokemon red!! enjoy these lovely screenshots with the virtual console borders -3- well at least they're cute. never played this one OR any of its remakes, so i'm crazy excited!!
i chose this version specifically for the arcanine line :3 as far as i'm aware the exclusive pokemon are the only differences in this gen? i think that's kinda fun. it always makes me sad when i miss out on version exclusive content!!
i think oak's sprites look really cute and funny in this game. he looks so intense but he's just an old sweet guy!
i actually really like red as a protaganist. i think he's fun even tho i don't know loads about him (YET...). i love the idea of a kid who becomes so well known and is a kind of prodigy so young. i love silent protags a LOT too. in a way he reminds me a little of agent 3 from splatoon... i think his status loses a little impact with later protaganists stopping WORLD ENDING CATASTROPHES but the concept itself is so appealing to me!
...but i'm not red!! i'm a pokemon loser!!!!!!! so we just name them FINLAY. i might still refer to the protaganist as red within the context of the story though. i just like it.
as an aside... i always thought red was 10 in gen 1, but according to the game manual he's 11? i suppose this confusion comes from ash being 10 in the anime when he starts his journey. but it's interesting as i feel i've seen soooo many people quote 10 as being the age for the first game!
...oak forgetting his own grandson's name will always be funny ^_^ i do prefer blue as a name for him... but i could never be a rival to blue as good as red... so we go with the name GARY. i think gary oak rolls off the tongue nicely. and yes... i'm not okay with stealing red's rival... but ash's i'll steal any day. :P
yeah!!! let's go!!! i think it's funny also that red is just sitting around playing video games just before he goes on a journey that changes his life forever. very realistic.
can't forget the potion we were conveniently saving on our pc! i knew it would come in handy one day. :P
awww... it must be hard for parents in the pokemon world. 11
is crazy young to be leaving home! you know... now that i
say that... do trainers return home to their parents each
night when on their journeys? are there hotels for trainers
specifically? ...or... do they just rough it outside? in the
anime they mostly camp or stay with random people.. right?
huh.
okay well... time to look for oak!! he's not in his lab, so maybeee we can sneak away-
aww. caught! this part where oak leads you to the lab freaks me out a little because of a glitch video i watched as a kid where you could get this sequence to break and totally fuck up the game.. in a fun way of course! it just softlocks you in the wall.. but i get scared that it's going to magically happen to me... :o
we choose bulbasaur!! i usually struggle with grass types so i thought it would be a fun challenge. i also like that it's got a dual typing right from the start! of course we have to name him WADDAHELL. welcome to the team!!
this is some nice kinda subtle ... foreshadowing? i'm not sure what this is. it's hard to remember which information is already given to the player when it's become so well known.
okay gary! let's go! i found this fight... surprisingly hard? for a fight where you basically just have to spam tackle. when i tried this out the first time to test everything was working properly i actually lost since he got so many crits in on me.
but not this time!!! see you later charmander!
heheh. nice.
only a poor workman blames his tools, gary. i can't say i blame him for being like that though... i think i'd also be a little bitter if my grandpa let the kid next door pick before me!
with our rival defeated, it's time to head up to viridian city! we battle a load of pidgey and rattata, but can't catch them yet... -_- we have to run an errand for oak first!
i think this is fine for the first game as a natural way to get the player to explore and train without throwing a load of features their way, buttttt... it does feel strange not immediately being given the pokedex and some pokeballs. maybe that's me, and not complaining! it's just different.
ohhh oak... never give up on your dreams!!! unless.... this is some sort of ruse to get us to do your work for you?! ...or maybe you just want us to go do cool things. i shouldn't be so harsh...
now that we have our pokedexes, we can head back to viridian city and buy some pokeballs! the hunt begins... next time!
(posted: 04/08/24, last updated: 04/08/24)2: the hunt begins
here we go! time to catch some mons!
we head back to route 1 and catch a pidgey. welcome CHAMPION to the team!
next, we go back to viridian city and head left to route 22. there's a cool little patch of grass with some nidoran in it!
here we nab our next pokemon! i made a typo trying to type "sweet" which i found funny enough to keep so... say hello to SWEEK!
side note about nicknames... i usually try to give names based on the first letter of the species name but... it's kinda boring and hard. so from now on i'm going with my pikmin bloom method of naming where i just pick the first word that comes into my head! it helps that i'm not going to be trying to complete the dex... so only need to worry about pokemon i actually want to use!
and speaking of nidoran... i always found it strange that they had their gender in their actual name in later games. i didn't realise that gender just didn't exist in gen 1! abilities too... how strange... :o
okay! let's explore some more! we'll just head up a little and-
uh oh. we didn't heal but... this should be fine, right?
shit. -_-
this probably won't go well. it's funny how nidoran looks like a bunny from the back though.
well... how embarrassing. guess we won't go that way again any time soon! time to grind! >:3
we head back to route 1 and catch a rattata. i wasn't going to originally since i don't plan on using one long term but... might as well have as many team members as we can, right? soo.. hello to temporary team member SPORTS!
...we have a little trouble training. somehow i completely forgot about STAB. -3- so after getting roasted by rattata for... far too long, we head back to the little patch of grass on route 22 to train up sweek against his own kind.
i love the art in this game. i always find it amazing how they managed to get so much across with so little. the pokecenter is beautiful.
sweek is struggling a little. he's just a weak little guy!! i have to employ this genius strategy of sending him out first and then sending out another mon to knock it out. he doesn't get the mosttt exp from this but it's enough! we just need to buff him up enough so he can start sweeping wild pokemon alone.
after grinding for a while, i get bored. so let's explore viridian city a little more! and ah! what's this?
a gym! we head up to check it out.
this old guy decides to show us how to catch pokemon. too late dude.... i appreciate the thought though.
oh. -_- ...well... i think i know who the gym leader is at
least...
okay then.. let's head up towards the next city then? maybe we can find some more fun pokemon to battle too!
...is it me, or are crits wayyy more common in the game? it seems to be every couple of turns. misses are quite common too. maybe i'm just unlucky.... ^3^
in viridian forest now! there's another super fun glitch from this area too that lets you get level 100 pokemon if you do everything right.
i forgorrrr to screenshot it BUT we catch a caterpie here! maybe a weedle is technically better, but we already have a few poison types... and caterpie is so cute! her name is CHRISTINE.
okay, let's keep looking.
HOLY SHIT IT'S PIKACHU!!!!!!!!!!
hell yes. you're coming with us now! everybody say hello to POPCORN!
and with that, we have a full team! all that's left is to grind some more and explore pewter city... next time! see you then!
(posted: 05/08/24, last updated: 05/08/24)