Monday, January 13, 2025

Pokemon Red, Green, and Blue

POKEMON RED, GREEN, AND BLUE


Ah, Pokemon. A massive beast of a franchise with tons of content, tons of characters, and so much more. Ground rules, right off the bat: I will be covering the games in sections by generation instead of by type. I do not want to do the entire Pokedex in one solid block. That just sounds like a nightmare. So, our first batch will be the main games, plus the first Stadiums, Snap, Hey You Pikachu!, and so on. Secondly, I'll get this right out of the way immediately: EVERY Pokemon is in, except for those who are designed to be limited in their moveset. So, the larva and cocoon Pokemon like Caterpie and Metapod are out, Abra is out, Beldum is out, Unown is out. So on and so forth. Ditto and Smeargle are not out, however, owing to the fact that their "one" move allows them a wide range of subsequent moves. Make sense to everybody? I hope so. Also, I struggled for a bit with characters like Diglett and Dugtrio, considering mobility would be a massive issue, but I've decided to include them, and just leave that part as an issue for the theoretical game designers to solve.

The first games are a bit weird to talk about, seeing as they started out with Pokemon Red and Green in Japan, later released an updated version in Pokemon Blue, then American releases came out later as Pokemon Red and Blue. They're all functionally the same games, just with some version differences, like some Pokemon only being available in one game but not the other, which encourages trade between the two versions.

The plot follows a young player character named Red who is given a starter Pokemon by his neighbor Professor Oak and sent out on a journey to explore the region of Kanto, collecting and training Pokemon and challenging the game's eight gyms. One hundred and fifty-one Pokemon exist in this country, all of which have their own moves and typings that determine how strong they'll be against others. Most of that will be covered later. As for Red himself, his demonstrated abilities include throwing Poke Balls to catch Pokemon, riding a bike, fishing, and using HMs (special moves that Pokemon can use outside of battle): these games include Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, and Flash.

Other characters of note include Professor Oak, Oak's grandson Blue who acts as a rival to Red, the eight gym leaders: Brock (Rock type), Misty (Water type), Lt. Surge (Electric type), Erika (Grass type), Koga (Poison type), Sabrina (Psychic type), Blaine (Fire type), and Giovanni (Ground type). Giovanni is also the head of Team Rocket, the game's villains more or less based on the Yakuza. After the eight gyms are completed, you take on the Elite Four, including Lorelei (Ice type), Bruno (Fighting type), Agatha (Ghost type), and Lance (Dragon type). Non-trainer NPCs of note include Red's mom, Oak's granddaughter Daisy, and the computer guy Bill.

The entire game takes place in the country of Kanto, which is more or less based on the real world Tokyo and some of the surrounding areas. Places of note include Pallet Town, Viridian City, Viridian Forest, Pewter City, Mt. Moon, Cerulean City, Lavender Town, Vermilion City, the S.S. Anne, Celadon City, Fuschia City, the Safari Zone, Saffron City, the Seafoam Islands, Cinnabar Island, and the Indigo Plateau.

Here's what we've got so far:


Characters:

Red/Pokemon Trainer: Poke Ball, potion, bicycle, fishing rod, HMs

All Pokemon (Barring all one to two-movers)


Candidates for possible trainer system idea:

Red

Blue

Oak

Brock

Misty

Lt. Surge

Erika

Koga

Sabrina

Blaine

Giovanni

Team Rocket Grunt

Lorelei

Bruno

Agatha

Lance


Stages:

Pallet Town

Viridian City

Viridian Forest

Pewter City

Mt. Moon

Cerulean City

Lavender Town

Vermilion City

S.S. Anne

Celadon City

Fuschia City

Safari Zone

Saffron City

Seafoam Islands

Cinnabar Island

Indigo Plateau


Thanks for reading! Next up, technically the first Pokemon Stadium, but not the one we know as Pokemon Stadium 1.