20 05 2022
Leaf Green: Articuno took some effort to catch. Really had to make sure to save, I could actually one shot it. Oops. I also forgot to bring pokeballs and had to reset because I ran out of them. Oops. It took an hour of juggling pokemon and trying to get it into the ball. Made my way to cinnabar, got my Kabuto. Quick run to Pewter for old amber and got another Aerodactyl. I got to the mansion and got more EXP. At a certain point I got tired of the place and just did everything quickly to get the key. Beat up blaine’s gym which was easy since I have access to surf and a Blastoise.
Now we get to the part I actually didn’t know about. I knew FRLG had added areas to it. It really was a remixed new version. So glad it’s not just some post-game thing. If i had been swapping pokemon more or grinding less, this would’ve been a good time to catch up in levels in a way the original Gen 1 games did not. Bill shows up and basically invites me to jump in a speedboat with him RIGHT NOW to go to these far away islands that he needs to meet a buddy to do computer stuff. (Okay, you can delay but it’s weird how forceful it is.) Blaine was easy thanks to levels and Blastoise so I just go. We land on a small island with a tiny town. Looking at what to do, this is where Rock Smash is. And Moltres? There are islands named One, Two, Three. Upon arrival, there’s some small side story events. I don’t think this area does much different with the tileset, but the feel of these islands is nice. Bill and his friend Celio need to work on a big pokemon computer machine so it can communicate with a far off Kanto. Sends me off with a pass for these three islands to deliver a meteorite to another friend on island two. I beeline for Moltres.
One island’s game map is kinda tall, random item treasure beach to the south a little over the water. Going up north is a narrow path past a hot spring where I get Rock Smash. I think Rock Smash is only used on this stuff, so far Kanto has been rather faithful to Gen I with very few alterations. Only Double battles have been NPC designs like twins or couples that were already paired. Battles here still follow those rules but they made new couples and it feels like I’m playing Emerald again instead of fancy GBA GRBY. Up the mountain see trainer sprites that maybe show up later, but are here now. Pokemon Rangers are here, I don’t think they get inserted in place of Ace Trainers later. Not sure though. I get to Moltres and it goes in the ball easy. Whew. Now to Two Island.
Two is also small, but less to do here. Bill’s friend that we’re supposed to deliver a meteorite runs a game corner and there’s a mart here. I had a guide open to check something and there’s some progression locked items at the mart so all it has are two items. Water and Great Balls I think. Uh oh. The guy at the Game Center has something for us to do! His daughter is missing and we need to go to Three Island! This feels… I get the progression here, maybe the geographical concept was drawn up first… but it feels like a MMO quest chain just trying to get you to flight points or a specific quest zone.
Get to Three Island and it seems there’s a biker infestation. There’s also a man in a cave digging. If Emerald taught me anything this cave is going to be a tunnel. There was also a hint on the mountain that some rockets are digging for something, so there’s certainly more to be done on these islands. Feels a little late for the game to be going ‘see! It’s more than a remake’. Honestly if some of this was available say… after Koga when I got Surf and was slightly more extensive… I may have heard about this in a way that made it feel more game and gotten this on release.
Back to the biker infestation, there’s a bunch running around hassling people, but I have to fight a gauntlet of them in the middle of town with the leader. Jynx in front and bam easy. The people are thankful for me getting rid of the bikers and one of them tells me that guy’s daughter was seen going to a bridge. Three’s got a cozy layout with a small town of homes, a casual nature walk to a small connected island over a small bridge that has Berry Forest. Find the girl deep in the forest and save her from a wild Hypno for some reason. Mercifully the game teleports back to her dad, I hand over the Meteorite, and can thankfully fly between these small islands back to Bill to head back to Cinnabar.
I take advantage of this game having a flight point to the Pokemon Center near the Power Plant and catch zapdos. Took two resets. I was having terrible luck and ate through a ton of Ultra balls, but eventually got it. Did not want to stay asleep. Did not want to get into the ball. Now that I have the three birds, I hope nothing is as difficult to catch as them going forward. Fly to Viridian and prepare to get the 8th badge. I basically now have a Dragonite on reserve too.
