ABRA BYE-BYE, ARBOK APPRECIATE
These are the words of a champion. THE champion, in fact, of the Kanto region, as of Sunday night.
After the mid-game took about 10 hours, I got the last two badges and beat the Elite Four+League Champion in under six. I also caught all three legendary birds (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres). Moltres was easy, But Articuno and Zapdos took a total of almost 50 ultra balls and 20 great balls.
Here’s a tidbit: the last time I had the three legendary birds was in ~2005 (give or take a year) on this same copy of FireRed. My friend’s older sister really wanted to get them registered in her Pokedex in her own game, so I gave them to her. And in a turn of events that will surprise no one who was a kid in the mid-2000s, I never saw the birds again. I don’t remember if she erased her save file, or lost her game cartridge, or just never gave the Pokemon back to me, but it doesn’t matter–the point is, they were gone.
I still never caught Mewtwo, though. Anyway, so the end game all went quite fast. I went back and beat Sabrina in the 6th gym, which I had skipped previously. I truly did not know where the 8th gym was, and the game provides absolutely no indication about where to go after the 7th gym–not even a hint.
It turns out that the 8th gym is back in Viridian City, the first main town you arrive at in the course of the game. After a web search told me this, I then vaguely remembered that when I had arrived in Viridian a few weeks ago, the gym there was locked. But that was more than 20 game hours prior, and no mention is ever made of it again.
This piece of questionable game design is very emblematic of 1st gen as a whole. It’s such a strange time-warp to a different and substantially unexplained universe. It’s weird that the 8th gym leader is GIOVANNI, the wanted recently ex-kingpin of the criminal organization Team Rocket, which stole people’s Pokemon and killed them as a matter of business. Actually, unpunishable white-collar criminals continuously being given second chances and propped up by society and given the blind eye by law enforcement? That sounds a lot like America in the 21st century.
When I arrived at the Elite Four, which is Pokemon’s ubiquitous ‘final-boss run’ in every game, my Pokemon were underlevelled by 10 or more levels. My whole team was around level 45-46, and the lowest-level Pokemon of the first Elite Four member Lorelei was around level 51. I hadn’t really even stocked up on that many potions and revives, because I was almost out of money and the Elite Four PokeMart only sells the most expensive potion types.
And I somehow made it all the way through. The final Elite Four member, Lance the dragon tamer, has Pokemon in the upper 50s, with one level 60. I truly barely made it out of that one, and I don’t understand how I did at all.
After the Elite Four, you have to fight the champion, who turns out to be your little home-town rival (mine’s name was Toru, because one of the features of the game is that you get to choose your rival’s name, and this was just a suggested name). Although his Pokemon are even higher-level than Lance’s, my team had a more favorable type-matchup against Toru’s team and so the battle itself was a bit easier. But I barely made it: when I won, 3/6 of my team was knocked out, and I was out of revives. Two of my other Pokemon were at half or lower health, and all I had left were Fresh Waters, which restore a measly 50 health. Anyone who’s played Pokemon knows the sweep potential of a single battle; he could have played one Pokemon that had a type-advantage to mine, and all three of my remaining fighters would have been as good as gone.
But I won the entire thing in one go, despite being underleveled by a margin of almost 20%. I guess I did learn something from watching hundreds of hours of competitive Pokemon in high school.
Thusly, I completed 1st gen! I would write a reflection of my thoughts on the game, but I actually think my thoughts have been reflected quite well in previous posts. The game is bizarre, enchanting, and has — as a friend put it — a strange sense of ‘inevitability’ to its storytelling and aesthetic which is otherwise slightly beyond the powers of written language to describe. It’s 1st gen — despite forgetting a lot about the details, I’ve had these general feelings about the game since I first played it nearly two decades ago. If you’ve played it — and particularly, if you’ve played it as a child — you know.
And now, onto the next step of the journey: 2nd gen. Honestly, I’m dreading this one most of all. I really don’t like 2nd gen. But I also think it will be more fun than I remember, and it still has the sense of novelty that 1st gen doesn’t, since I’ve played 2nd only once in my whole life.
Farewell to my honorable 1st gen team: SQUIRTY9 the Blastoise, SINGSING the Nidoking, LUFFY the Primeape, FAE the Clefable, MOKU the Dugtrio, and LIGHTNING the Arcanine.
League Champions!
midnightstatic 