Hard to believe this "modern" retelling of the original Pokémon story is now over 3 times older than the original games were when this came out.
It's still imo the definitive way to play Kanto, even if its sorely missing some big QoL steps that would come just one gen later (most notably a special/physical split). It loses the gen 1 jank while not being as overly casual as Let's Go.
As a region Kanto is comfy, but fairly boring. Being based on a game with super limited hardware means most routes and caves are very plain and basic. It does still have some iconic landmarks though, like Pokémon Tower, or Nugget Bridge.
Trainer battles are probably at their most persistent. This is something I feel later games lack, in Kanto losing can actually feel quite bad because a lot of the time there's no easy way back to a free heal. If you're in the middle of Victory Road you'd need to not only go back out of the cave, but even go all the way back through the checkpoints to find a Pokémon centre.
This marathon through hordes of weak trainers that slowly wear you down becomes so trivial in later games thanks to NPCs offering healing after like every 3 battles, and/or routes only having a small handful of trainers to begin with. Whether or not you think this is a good or bad thing will vary, but I appreciate that gen 1's overabundance of these battles mixed with less convenient Pokécenters actually feel challenging.
Some weird design choices, like not letting you get Johto Pokémon before the national dex makes sense, but not allowing you to evolve a Golbat or Chansey by friendship (and STILL playing the evolution screen just to stop it) does not.
Sevii Islands are fine. They don't elevate the remake massively, but it's nice to have some postgame.
It's still imo the definitive way to play Kanto, even if its sorely missing some big QoL steps that would come just one gen later (most notably a special/physical split). It loses the gen 1 jank while not being as overly casual as Let's Go.
As a region Kanto is comfy, but fairly boring. Being based on a game with super limited hardware means most routes and caves are very plain and basic. It does still have some iconic landmarks though, like Pokémon Tower, or Nugget Bridge.
Trainer battles are probably at their most persistent. This is something I feel later games lack, in Kanto losing can actually feel quite bad because a lot of the time there's no easy way back to a free heal. If you're in the middle of Victory Road you'd need to not only go back out of the cave, but even go all the way back through the checkpoints to find a Pokémon centre.
This marathon through hordes of weak trainers that slowly wear you down becomes so trivial in later games thanks to NPCs offering healing after like every 3 battles, and/or routes only having a small handful of trainers to begin with. Whether or not you think this is a good or bad thing will vary, but I appreciate that gen 1's overabundance of these battles mixed with less convenient Pokécenters actually feel challenging.
Some weird design choices, like not letting you get Johto Pokémon before the national dex makes sense, but not allowing you to evolve a Golbat or Chansey by friendship (and STILL playing the evolution screen just to stop it) does not.
Sevii Islands are fine. They don't elevate the remake massively, but it's nice to have some postgame.
SlayerSaint
1 year ago