25 05 2022

GBA: Just GBA. Now that I’ve beaten Leaf Green, I’ve started consolidating the pokemon to Emerald and preparing for transfers to Gen IV. I’ve got most of the fossil pokemon and others I want from the older games. Now I just need to catch up on GenIV. I think I need to go to the move deleter and remove HM moves for PalPark to work. I remember a lot of fiddly restrictions, so I’m going to use Heart Gold. HGSS don’t have time restrictions IIRC. Have a friend who tried to catch em’ all back in the day and I remember HGSS was used for anything Gen III.

Heart Gold: Finally jumping back in. I hatched all the eggs from the password stuff, raised the Mareep a bit and used that to beat Falkner. They really made everything look nice, even Bellsprout tower maintains its charm. The GBC palette had the exact feel one would expect from old wooden Japanese architecture. Falkner’s gym on the other hand takes the concept of the original gym and makes a more realized 3D design that mixes the aesthetic of the town with having to build what is basically a themed attraction. It’s a bird gym and the original had a floating path over the pit. In HGSS, you take an elevator up showing the barricaded ground. At the level with the actual gym part there’s either a window to the sky or a painting of it. I know why they don’t, but sometimes I wish gym buildings matched their interiors. At least SWSH had the idea to make the buildings huge looking. 

    I know I went and got some special pokemon, but even then these have nicer movesets. I know not every pokemon got an upgrade at this point, but oh boy it sure is nice to do damage to my opponents. Sometimes I feel like GenIV is slow somehow, but it’s not as strong of a feeling after playing Crystal and Yellow. Everything is faster than a Gameboy. Certain areas I think my issue is the encounter rate. The battle intro and theme start to get annoying when you hear it multiple times a minute. HGSS are still kinda money restricted at this point and it makes buying a ton of repels risky. I didn’t explore Union Cave too much, this time I remembered that I need a few HMs to get use out of it. I’ll come back when I get Surf. Maybe even Fly. Johto’s progress gates and paths to return to earlier areas are actually not too bad. Actually makes it feel like connected towns in a way that Kanto sometimes didn’t. 

    Azalea Town’s slowpoke well has a slight upgrade. It also introduces named Rocket executive NPCs so the story is a little nicer now. The Togepi egg event earlier also involves the Kimono Girls. They’re not just some random unique NPCs standing around doing one thing, they have a purpose! I’m glad I waited until I finished Crystal and Leaf Green. Game Freak’s second attempt at a remake actually seems more amazing with the added context of FRLG. I don’t remember people outside of forums and stuff like that being too down on FRLG. It still feels like they had a lot of love going into it. Way more than FRLG. Slowpoke Well also has a cute slowpoke on the little graphic that displays when you enter a special area. All these little details are fun little charming details that prevent the remake from losing what made the look and feel of GSC cozy.

    Bugsy’s gym isn’t as cool as Falkner’s but certainly is up to the game’s standards. Though, I think they had less to work with and had to come up with a new puzzle mechanic. I now can have the special pokeballs made by Kurt, I forget if they carry over. I like using those designs. It’s hard to describe, but they have designs that make complete sense for the late 90’s. If there was a Bandai or Tomy or Takara on it and was sold in vacu-formed plastic glued to cardboard next to an early 00’s super sentai toy it would blend in. 

    Ilex Forest has a fun updated Farfetch’d puzzle and another kimono girl encounter. Every little event has new details to it in certain ways, but the talking here with the charcoal makers doesn’t feel like it’s too much. On route 34 I catch a ditto while battling all the trainers. Day care couple are now the grandparents of the trainer you didn’t select. It feels like they’re really trying to make the hoenn rival situation work while having the ‘villain’ rival. In some ways it’s nice, in others it adds too many details to your player trainer to roleplay as. 

    Goldenrod is Johto’s ‘big city’ and it sure feels like it. I love how the train tracks are now above level. Yes, it did seem weird in the original that high speed rail had a ground level crossing. Now that we’re not restricted by the GBC’s hardware limitations, we can have it above ground level! Goldenrod also got the Global Terminal so the dream of Crystal’s mobile adapter could be mostly fulfilled. It was certainly an interesting building in D/P and HGSS’s look just as nice. Everything is improved visually and maintains the feel of the original. However, the Game Corner got changed. Maybe changed a bit too drastically. It’s now Voltorb flip to earn coins. The exterior still looks like a nicer Sega/Namco/Capcom/etc. Owned game center that may have existed in more capacity when GSC were made. I think SEGA and maybe another company still had major giant game centers. If you’ve never seen a photo of a larger japanese Sega World or never been to one of those few places outside Japan that Sega built, maybe it’s like a Game Works with a nice exterior. Sorry, it’s just hard to think of references for North America because some of the nicer standalone buildings were very rare, just a fancy front, or in a mall. 

Whitney is still annoying but infinitely less so. I went and traded for the Machop after quickly catching a Drowzee. That Miltank still stomps too much. Her gym looks nice and is supposed to be a clefairy, but I think is the weakest graphical upgrade. Not that they had much to work with. Got Sudowoodo, got a Scyther from the Bug Contest in National Park. Was able to get one with Technician. I had enough flying types on my team, so I went to the other game and got Scizor early thanks to not using metal coat. I think I’m going to be juggling around my team. I deposited the wooper. May drag it back out if I feel like it. Wooper line is cute. Just… used it too much. 

Going to check out the Pokeathlon Dome later. Ecruteak’s major changes are on the northern side. Dance Theater has an appropriate upgrade. Inside we save one kimono girl from a rowdy rocket. For people who played the original, lots more hints that they’re a bit more to the events in the original. I remember thinking back then that they changed a lot from Gold/Silver. Burned tower directly hints at the event by showing the roaming trio on the floor before. Makes the rival seem less like a cartoony jerk. His old jerk style in that part matched RBY, but in HGSS it’s been polished. Looking forward to kicking his ass more. 

    I’m only three badges in and I’m being reminded of enough things that made people wish there was more to let’s go and BDSP. Everytime I see an outside of battle shot of BDSP it doesn’t seem nearly as charming as the DS games. DP were not polished releases either but it seems weird to be getting visually rushed pokemon games. The series is used to oddities like that, but usually it’s more weird story pacing. X/Y had some rough visual spots, but it also didn’t deal in lighting materials or depth of field effects outside of specific situations.