I played through this on stream with no Nuzlock etc requirements, just trying to beat the Elite Four and catch Mewtwo. I did make a rule of no Legendaries for the Elite Four, and simply focused on winning. You can watch the YT playlist of it here (I haven't uploaded the last 2 videos yet).
About 10 years ago, with all 3 cartridges on my Gameboy Color I got all 151 Pokemon and did a more thorough playthrough. Because of how important this was to my childhood, and the obvious Attachment in that I've replayed it so many darn times and even completely 100%'d it which requires hours and hours and hours, I wondered if this would make it on my Perfect Rating list, which recently grew to include Kingdom Hearts and Super Mario World on top of the original Final Fantasy X. And tho it certainly is a very important game to me and an endearing, forever-loved game, I did learn a lot more about the bugs, quirks, and flaws in the game. Wont change that it's beloved to me tho!
Look: 8/10
Endearing, RPG Maker-esque, but I learned a lot about how those mediocre pixelated backsprites came to exist. Some really cute sprites though, and really good trainer sprites so no complaints here. This and the Sound were never something I focused on as a kid, tho a lot of my viewers seemed to, and I think that would've had a bigger impact if I had.
Sound: 7/10
Some great tracks in there, but also some annoying sound effects and too repetitive. All my viewers had intense love for the battle music and other music, and again, maybe if I didn't always play with my Gameboy muted :-X (my mom would have never allowed sound out of that lol) things would be different. I wonder if that is the source of me traditionally playing games without sound on (tho this chronology project has got me always playing with sound on now). This wont be included in the overall rating since a) it would hurt the overall rating and b) it's a Gameboy game ha. That being said, the Look and Sound are a reason this is only an Ultimate because of how much I just love replaying it/my Attachment, plus the intense nostalgia. Same with a big part of why it's not a Perfect Rating.
Play: 9/10
Speaking of not making it to the Perfect Rating I foresaw, wow is this buggy. Now, you can play this a thousand times and probably not notice them. You'll just think you have bad RNG or weird moments. But nope, she buggy. As one of my viewers who's much more knowledgeable about the history of gen 1 and pokemon etc said, "gen 1 is held together with duct tape."
Now, despite that, I fricking love this game. It's my kind of RPG: turn-based, to the point, you could just smack your way through with an overpowered Pokemon, or you could do a completionist route and catch em all. It's foundational to my love of that type of game. I only ever played Gen II after this, but obviously it's hugely influential for RPGs in general not just Pokemon games.
They reallllly need a confirmation when replacing an old move lol. Woops Pikachu with no Thundershock…. (lol yes you read that correctly. I accidentally had Pikachu forget Thundershock super early in the game, so I went without an electric pokemon.... in Pokemon Yellow... for much of the game till we got Jolteon :-p ). Basically all grass Pokemon have poison type which is a burden with the lack of good poison moves besides maybe toxic. Also, they really should’ve done more with Ghost, Bug, etc. types, and some really poor choices with how certain 2-types happen rendering some Pokemon barely useful, but the nostalgia and existing dynamics make for a fun, forever-played game.
This being for Gameboy (like my also beloved Final Fantasy Legends series, which I'm super excited to replay in the context of the chronology project. I could see a couple of those being lifelong favorites) allowed for the portability of training. There was something so great about even logging in just for 10 minutes during a short bus ride or something, knowing you got some more experience or caught a new Pokemon you needed. I remembered loving the grind-heaviness of this game and, yeah, on replay, wow, it's very grind-heavy. Like even if you just want to simply beat the game, you have to grind (wellllll, I suppose not if you do the one-OP-Pokemon route, but any other type playthrough).
Feel: 10/10
And since I was a kid, I've loved that feeling of grinding. This game delivered it for sure, with that portability I mentioned. Seeing new skills be learned, seeing your Pokedex increase, knowing you used the right move to be Super Effective against an enemy... great Feelings abound. There isn't much of a storyline, so hypothetically this shouldn't earn a 10 but like, you just wanna be the greatest! And there is something epic about returning near your hometown for the final gym battle against the leader of the bad guys! And the addition of Pikachu as your friend in this one also makes for a bit of a storyline I guess. And most of all of how I feel justified giving this a 10 despite essentially no plot, the English translated dialogue is so solid! I was really surprised by that!
I love all the powerful women in this game, tho my viewers informed me the way/why there isn't an option for a femme lead character (oh, Gameboy). Anyway, not perfectly balanced by any means, with some borderline useless Types and seemingly underdeveloped Types, but dang is the Feel there. It's genuinely fun and a game I struggle to put down, especially on a Gameboy.
Attachment: 10/10
Annnnd the Attachment is definitely there. One of my most replayed games, and it's not a short one! This is where the game really shines. Despite its flaws, despite the illogical lack of strong Dragon moves or Thunder being less accurate than Blizzard or no Bugs learning strong Bug moves (the list goes on and on), despite the good but underwhelming Sound and Look, it's a game that if you played when you're young, you simply do not forget it. It's like you're "back home" when you play it. Maybe it was because it was on a portable device, maybe it's the grind-heaviness and I love grindy games, maybe it's the cute characters though I've never been into that factor in games--whatever it is, this game has "it." Like Kingdom Hearts and FFX, it attaches to you and doesn't leave. Best of all, like those two, it's a game that's outright fun (for turn-based RPG lovers like me) so I enjoy returning to it to play.
Completion: Elite Four, caught Mewtwo Moltres and Zapdos but skipped Articuno
*Playtime: *37h 30m
(in past, caught all 151 Pokemon on a Red file. Not sure the playtime but I'm sure it's insanely high lol)
