The second generation is considered by many to be the best generation, even among people who continued to play all of them. I'm not one to pick favorites, as I find that each generation brought with it important changes... but there is a magic to GSC that makes me think those people might have a point.
The journey through Johto and Kanto really felt like such an adventure. It’s when the series really started to hit its stride, gameplay-wise, but it was also when they were still these very simple Game Boy games, and that simplicity added to the design.
Diamond and Pearl were particularly frustrating in this regard, as they tended to have these massive, uninteresting areas just for show, as well as mechanics that sought to expand upon the existing ones just for the sake of expanding. Among other issues.
I could rant about those games for a while, and in fact, I was so burned out after a while that I would only play Soul Silver years later, right before XY came out. I simply had no faith these remakes would turn out right.
I was wrong. HGSS are pure, unabated, loving fanservice, targeted directly at those nostalgic memories I keep. HGSS would set the bar for remakes so high that no other game since would be able to match it.
Johto is remade in a way that feels like it is renewed, but at the same time, like it never really changed. GSC's cartridge space limitations are the stuff of legend, and this meant tilesets were very restricted. HGSS is free of such issues, and it shows. So many areas in the game are given gorgeous visual makeovers, it's pure joy.
GSC also had very memorable music. The problem is that remastering those great chiptunes carries the risk of ruining them. I didn’t doubt Game Freak after their work on FRLG, though, and HGSS definitely didn’t disappoint. The music is well preserved and feels just the same as the originals.
As for the gameplay… Well, it's true that updating the games to Gen IV means incorporating much of those changes-for-changes-sake I mentioned I didn't like. But HGSS were not designed with those changes in place, which leaves us with core changes such as physical/special split and new moves, whi
Speaking of restrictions, I mentioned the memory limitations that made areas less pretty, but in addition to that, there were areas that were outright cut from the original game, either because of time, space, or nothing to put there in the first place. So imagine my surprise when I walk into a cave and wind up in a Safari Zone. Or when I went to Seafoam Islands as a joke and they were there. Or when Viridian Forest wasn't cut down.
None of that was in the originals, and their absence was noticeable. In the Seafoam Islands, specifically, you can even capture Articuno. Zapdos and Moltres are also present elsewhere. And in Cerulean Cave, there’s a Mewtwo. Their presence makes the game feel so much more like a sequel, so much more complete. Heck, in modern games, they'd make a point not to give you so much stuff, to make you buy multiple versions or go to stupid events.
And that's not all. Even existing areas, like some of the less interesting Gyms, see new elements that would not have been possible on the GBC. Areas that were good already are mostly unchanged.
Other additions include the Battle Frontier, but I'll be honest, as much as I like it, I don't like it enough to bother with pre-Gen VI breeding mechanics. Breeding and IV mechanics in this gen took copious amounts of time and luck to get anywhere, which goes against the idea of experimenting with different teams in different facilities.
There's also this crazy bit of postgame content, the so-called Pokéathlon, which is a bunch of minigames played with your Pokémon. Touch minigames usually have the potential to go horribly, but most of them are actually pretty fun, and add to the game a lot.
...anyway. I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to stop here and just say you should totally play HGSS if you haven't. Yes, even though, by now, it's older than the source games were on its release. Everything in Soul Silver is so carefully redone, improved with so much love, it’s almost a manual on how to remake a classic game. Unlike some modern cough-cough-bdsp-cough games, they remind me of why I love this series so much.
The journey through Johto and Kanto really felt like such an adventure. It’s when the series really started to hit its stride, gameplay-wise, but it was also when they were still these very simple Game Boy games, and that simplicity added to the design.
Diamond and Pearl were particularly frustrating in this regard, as they tended to have these massive, uninteresting areas just for show, as well as mechanics that sought to expand upon the existing ones just for the sake of expanding. Among other issues.
I could rant about those games for a while, and in fact, I was so burned out after a while that I would only play Soul Silver years later, right before XY came out. I simply had no faith these remakes would turn out right.
I was wrong. HGSS are pure, unabated, loving fanservice, targeted directly at those nostalgic memories I keep. HGSS would set the bar for remakes so high that no other game since would be able to match it.
Johto is remade in a way that feels like it is renewed, but at the same time, like it never really changed. GSC's cartridge space limitations are the stuff of legend, and this meant tilesets were very restricted. HGSS is free of such issues, and it shows. So many areas in the game are given gorgeous visual makeovers, it's pure joy.
GSC also had very memorable music. The problem is that remastering those great chiptunes carries the risk of ruining them. I didn’t doubt Game Freak after their work on FRLG, though, and HGSS definitely didn’t disappoint. The music is well preserved and feels just the same as the originals.
As for the gameplay… Well, it's true that updating the games to Gen IV means incorporating much of those changes-for-changes-sake I mentioned I didn't like. But HGSS were not designed with those changes in place, which leaves us with core changes such as physical/special split and new moves, whi
Speaking of restrictions, I mentioned the memory limitations that made areas less pretty, but in addition to that, there were areas that were outright cut from the original game, either because of time, space, or nothing to put there in the first place. So imagine my surprise when I walk into a cave and wind up in a Safari Zone. Or when I went to Seafoam Islands as a joke and they were there. Or when Viridian Forest wasn't cut down.
None of that was in the originals, and their absence was noticeable. In the Seafoam Islands, specifically, you can even capture Articuno. Zapdos and Moltres are also present elsewhere. And in Cerulean Cave, there’s a Mewtwo. Their presence makes the game feel so much more like a sequel, so much more complete. Heck, in modern games, they'd make a point not to give you so much stuff, to make you buy multiple versions or go to stupid events.
And that's not all. Even existing areas, like some of the less interesting Gyms, see new elements that would not have been possible on the GBC. Areas that were good already are mostly unchanged.
Other additions include the Battle Frontier, but I'll be honest, as much as I like it, I don't like it enough to bother with pre-Gen VI breeding mechanics. Breeding and IV mechanics in this gen took copious amounts of time and luck to get anywhere, which goes against the idea of experimenting with different teams in different facilities.
There's also this crazy bit of postgame content, the so-called Pokéathlon, which is a bunch of minigames played with your Pokémon. Touch minigames usually have the potential to go horribly, but most of them are actually pretty fun, and add to the game a lot.
...anyway. I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to stop here and just say you should totally play HGSS if you haven't. Yes, even though, by now, it's older than the source games were on its release. Everything in Soul Silver is so carefully redone, improved with so much love, it’s almost a manual on how to remake a classic game. Unlike some modern cough-cough-bdsp-cough games, they remind me of why I love this series so much.