the journey that took me years to beat. mainly because I ended up losing my gameboy sp during a move but alas I have found it so I spent the last two days wrapping this up. Aka training my dratini until it evolved into dragonite. My file was left stuck at the elite four but thankfully after the training I have complete this game. I took a different approach to this playthrough. I slowed down and let myself really explore the world, talking to every npc and visiting all the houses in each city to see what was up. It made the experience very charming and relaxing, and I really felt I was going on this big adventure and forming bonds with my Pokémon. I’m hoping I can transfer my team all the way to violet somehow someway. Oh yeah and my little Bulbasaur named bite size, I kept him as a bulb. My team mascot! And won the league with him in my team; the true goat!

Since I played it for the first time ever in 2022, when I'm already 20 y/o, I failed to really see this game as anything more than a history piece. It definitely has an appeal and is definitely a game which used to be someone's childhood, but from an outsider's perspective, I can't call it anything more than just OK. And as I noticed from the other reviews, people only ever rate it highly because they grew up with it and not because it has some phenomenal design in it. I don't regret my time with it because I at least finally learned what is this Pokemon thing about and why it stays popular even today.

This was my first time playing a Pokemon game since I believe 2019? It sadly wasn't the best reintroduction, although to give LeafGreen credit, replaying this game reminded me why the Pokemon formula provided me with so much serotonin before.

It's quite simple, really. Putting together teams is just so satisfactory. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. But strategizing which Pokemon I'll use, what movesets they'll have, their synergy with each other, etc adds a layer of brainstorming I wouldn't receive in Pokemon otherwise. I felt bonded to my team in a way I wouldn't have felt if I just overleveled my starter and blown through everything.

But dear miku, this game is so uninteresting otherwise. Were there highlights? Of course. The snorlax battles, the hidden base under the casino, and searching for the legendary birds stood out to me. Otherwise, this game just feels like running through the same mundane motions over and over and over again. Nothing about Kanto's design intrigued me in the slightest (seriously, the dungeon design was on par with NES RPGs), most of the trainers used the same few Pokemon over and over again, and the difficulty was practically non existent aside from level spikes that came out of nowhere.

I know this was supposed to be a faithful remake of the original Red and Blue with GBA mechanics, but did they really need to lock the Pokemon selection to the original 151? I didn't even bother using any Pokemon besides Jon Mess the Venusaur until nearly halfway through the game because none of the other Pokemon available before then stood out to me. Apparently, you can't even evolve Pokemon that received Johto evolutions??? That's genuinely BS.

I'm glad LeafGreen at least rejuvenated my interest in the series (or at least when it comes to replaying the other Pokemon games from my childhood to see if they're worth playing anymore either), and I'm especially happy so many people seem to enjoy it. I can't say I'm one of those people, sadly.

How do you take one of the most simple card games of all time and make it a barely functional mess where people are booted from games left and right because Ubisoft can't correctly optimise their games? There were so many hoops I had to jump through just to OPEN the game, and when I went in I found out they removed a lot of custom features from the game, such as profile pictures and cards. And other features that weren't removed were turned into 'DLC' that you had to pay for despite the fact you already payed for the barely functioning game in the first place. You'd be better off keeping your $10 and just using the web browser version of the game or Tabletop Simulator.