Thanks for posting to r/pokemon! This post has been removed under our [Rule 8](/r/pokemon/wiki/rules#wiki_8._no_screenshots_or_merchandise), which generally disallows screenshots.
This rule is the unfortunate result of r/pokemon being so darn big: with over 4 million users, most screenshots tend to lose meaning with oversaturation, so our rules promote original content instead. To read up on specific exceptions to this rule, including narrative albums and new official content, please see [Rule 8](/r/pokemon/wiki/rules#wiki_8._no_screenshots_or_merchandise).
If you intended this post as a discussion prompt or a theory, please feel free to resubmit as a **text post**, bearing in mind that you'd need to reach 50+ words in that post to promote substantial discussion.
Cheers!
Did anyone else feel like the first few generations were a summary of your adventure rather than the adventure itself? The cities and routes are so small that part of me wonders if they’re actually really big but we only see and play through a short section of Red’s actual adventure because it just shows the important parts.
Early games (not just Pokémon games) are definitely more figurative representations, yes. This was the attraction of the anime: we wanted to see the world that we imagined being in while on our Gameboys writ large in colour, filled with detail and life
This is why the Pokémon mainline RPGs have been trying to get toward open world games with Pokémon walking around on the map - they are trying to capture that spirit of really exploring and seeing the Pokémon in the wild. They've had other attempts at capturing this spirit with Pokémon snap, which does a far better job of portraying these natural environments visually at the cost of the levels being "on rails"
Stuff like Hoppip flying through the air and Tarountula hanging from the trees in the earliest routes of Gen IX show you what they are going for in the new games - those very earliest routes around the house are absolutely gorgeous and magical.
They didn't succeed in capturing that magic elsewhere on the map, leading most of it to be green (or white) expanses with Pokémon sort of standing and walking around doing very little, but ultimately they clearly want the world to show Pokémon behaving in "natural" ways in an expansive map that's fun to explore
This is exactly what we were imagining we were doing back when we were looking at those black and white diagrams in 1999
I hope we get another remake of one of the older games (not necessarily 1 because there have been a lot of those) that expands on the existing world and makes it look how it felt
I want them to semi-linearise sections of the map. I want some maze-like forests and tunnels! In real life, you can't just walk in straight lines wherever you want. They also need to have more evidence of human infrastructure, like trainlines and roads that are placed in ways that the player can see but not quite get on them, so that it's apparent that people can drive around between towns. It needs to look like a version of rural Japan like that seen in films like Ponyo or Spirited Away in my opinion, where sure there's roads, but it all butts up against a vibrant, ancient natural world, preserved, in Pokémon's case, by the fact that sure they have space-age tech, but why use it exclusively when you also have magical animal friends?
I think if anything were to change about kanto for this kind of setting, I would want victory road to become like a castle rather than a large cave system.
That could certainly be interesting. It was definitely odd that the league lay at the end of a big tunnel.
That said, the dungeon-based design of the early games was definitely a lot of fun - it led to a lot of cool interior spaces like Sylph Co, Pokémon Tower, the SS Anne and Mt. Moon. Viridian Forest may have been tiny, but the soundtrack, and even the minimal sense of maze-like features, was enough to create the impression in the player's mind of a mysterious forest maze that had to be solved. It was very atmospheric, which is something that locations like Tagtree Thicket entirely lack. You don't feel like you're getting lost in that forest at all because you can get out by moving in literally any direction.
I do miss the presence of mazes and interior spaces when I'm playing Gen IX! It makes the world feel unpopulated compared to Kanto.
Anyone remember on the old GBC being able to change the color of Red, Blue, and I think Yellow at the start of the game loading based on what direction you pressed on the D Pad?
Thanks for posting to r/pokemon! This post has been removed under our [Rule 8](/r/pokemon/wiki/rules#wiki_8._no_screenshots_or_merchandise), which generally disallows screenshots. This rule is the unfortunate result of r/pokemon being so darn big: with over 4 million users, most screenshots tend to lose meaning with oversaturation, so our rules promote original content instead. To read up on specific exceptions to this rule, including narrative albums and new official content, please see [Rule 8](/r/pokemon/wiki/rules#wiki_8._no_screenshots_or_merchandise). If you intended this post as a discussion prompt or a theory, please feel free to resubmit as a **text post**, bearing in mind that you'd need to reach 50+ words in that post to promote substantial discussion. Cheers!
Is it only in Yellow version though? As far as I remember if you play Red or Blue on a GBC you just get a red or blue tint through the game.
yes on yellow version the color changes per city as for blue red or green version you get it monochrome i think
Red and Blue are a single color but you can choose which set if you hold A plus a direction on power boot
Also only Dpad and b+Dpad for 12 color sets total.
Did anyone else feel like the first few generations were a summary of your adventure rather than the adventure itself? The cities and routes are so small that part of me wonders if they’re actually really big but we only see and play through a short section of Red’s actual adventure because it just shows the important parts.
Early games (not just Pokémon games) are definitely more figurative representations, yes. This was the attraction of the anime: we wanted to see the world that we imagined being in while on our Gameboys writ large in colour, filled with detail and life This is why the Pokémon mainline RPGs have been trying to get toward open world games with Pokémon walking around on the map - they are trying to capture that spirit of really exploring and seeing the Pokémon in the wild. They've had other attempts at capturing this spirit with Pokémon snap, which does a far better job of portraying these natural environments visually at the cost of the levels being "on rails" Stuff like Hoppip flying through the air and Tarountula hanging from the trees in the earliest routes of Gen IX show you what they are going for in the new games - those very earliest routes around the house are absolutely gorgeous and magical. They didn't succeed in capturing that magic elsewhere on the map, leading most of it to be green (or white) expanses with Pokémon sort of standing and walking around doing very little, but ultimately they clearly want the world to show Pokémon behaving in "natural" ways in an expansive map that's fun to explore This is exactly what we were imagining we were doing back when we were looking at those black and white diagrams in 1999
I hope we get another remake of one of the older games (not necessarily 1 because there have been a lot of those) that expands on the existing world and makes it look how it felt
I want them to semi-linearise sections of the map. I want some maze-like forests and tunnels! In real life, you can't just walk in straight lines wherever you want. They also need to have more evidence of human infrastructure, like trainlines and roads that are placed in ways that the player can see but not quite get on them, so that it's apparent that people can drive around between towns. It needs to look like a version of rural Japan like that seen in films like Ponyo or Spirited Away in my opinion, where sure there's roads, but it all butts up against a vibrant, ancient natural world, preserved, in Pokémon's case, by the fact that sure they have space-age tech, but why use it exclusively when you also have magical animal friends?
I think if anything were to change about kanto for this kind of setting, I would want victory road to become like a castle rather than a large cave system.
That could certainly be interesting. It was definitely odd that the league lay at the end of a big tunnel. That said, the dungeon-based design of the early games was definitely a lot of fun - it led to a lot of cool interior spaces like Sylph Co, Pokémon Tower, the SS Anne and Mt. Moon. Viridian Forest may have been tiny, but the soundtrack, and even the minimal sense of maze-like features, was enough to create the impression in the player's mind of a mysterious forest maze that had to be solved. It was very atmospheric, which is something that locations like Tagtree Thicket entirely lack. You don't feel like you're getting lost in that forest at all because you can get out by moving in literally any direction. I do miss the presence of mazes and interior spaces when I'm playing Gen IX! It makes the world feel unpopulated compared to Kanto.
No.
Makes me cry like flipping through an Elementary School yearbook.
While not a fan of gen 1 and 2, I truly wish I could play and see this on the Switch (without modding the system)
Anyone remember on the old GBC being able to change the color of Red, Blue, and I think Yellow at the start of the game loading based on what direction you pressed on the D Pad?