Pokémon G/S/C In-Game Discussion

[M. Rock]

Pokemon Gold was my first Pokemon game, and from there I went onto Crystal, Blue, Yellow, and then the GBA and DS games. I loved my choice of Totodile in GSC and so I've been picking the Water starter ever since. In the remake HeartGold the Totodile family's movepool and coverage only got stronger, which was totally boss. Obviously, the Totodile family is also the best looking out of all the starter families.

^^So much this^^

Gold was my first - I was a pokemon fan before then, but lacked the understanding on how to play videogames. My starter was my first pokemon ever - a Chickorita named Chicky. I remember picking it because it was the starter used on a screenshot on the back of the box, of all reasons. I came to love that thing, even though it was painfully apparent how weak it was early on. When HG came out, I coulnd't resist doing the same thing over again :).
I think my fondest memory was going after Lugia. I loved that thing so much (probably from the hype of the 2nd movie), but my limited intelligence took a long time figuring out how to properly incapacitate it. It wasn't until I finally caught it that I felt like a real champion.
I found the old cart a few days ago, and went so far as to replace the internal battery so it can save again! The nostalgia trip is great, and it's so fun playing through after using the three-starters glitch. Feraligatr + Typhlosion just kill everything, lol. Awesome glitches and pokemon that are usable regardless of "nature" - that's what I miss about the series. It's cool to catch a random Heracross and know that it's almost immediately usable for Stadium 2.

 

[Advancer]

On Christmas day in 2000, I unwrapped Pokemon Silver. 'but I don't have a game boy' I explained. Yeah, well, I got one of those too. And some rechargable batteries. As it happened my parents and I were moving house the next month, and so they got it to keep me busy. I was nine at the time, and it was the first Pokemon game I owned, and it would be the only Pokemon game I owned until I got Platinum a few years ago.

I should pause here though to admit that I had played most of R/B/Y on an emulator in 1999, and an incomplete translation of Gold early in 2000. I changed to a new school that year, and one of the ways I tried to make new friends (because Pokemon is 'in') was to talk to people about the new games that were out in Japan and the new Pokemon I'd seen in it - of course, it's hard to convince nine year old gamers about something when they don't have the internet, and although I one day brought a copy of Nintendo magazine to school to show them a feature article about the new games+plushies it would be a while until I was believed... and by a while, I mean, when the games started being advertised in K-mart/Big W/Target catalogues. Around the time of the release I remember talking to an acquaintence about how we preferred translated Japanese names over the Official names, but I can't remember the old names and I'm not sure if I miss them.

In both the early emulator of Gold and the Austrlian cart of Pokemon Silver I started with Totodile. As I got a lot of hours out of my Silver cart, it's easier to talk about it - I trained a Sentret, traded for Onix but also trained a Bellsprout, I caught and trained Red Gyarados, I had to use a Max Revive or two to beat Lance, and I didn't catch Lugia or Ho-oh until after completing Kanto. I ultimately ran a team of Feraligatr / Ho-Oh / Lugia / Gyarados / Onix / Weepinbell, but I'll go into detail on that in the In-Game team thread.

I remember my cousin had Pokemon Gold, and although we didn't see each other much we did trade Pokemon once - just to evolve them, really, he wanted to evolve his Onix with Metal Coat and I wanted to evolve my Poliwhirl into Politoed, but honestly we could have done more trades than that. Somehow he managed to catch more Pokemon than I did, I remember maxing my Pokedex out to 160-175 but he got his up to about 215 - he did have Red and maybe Yellow, but I don't know if he traded anything over. He stole some of my nicknames, too.

As for shinies, I actually came across two. I found a shiny Goldeen while surfing in Mt. Mortar, which I later evolved, and once in the second floor of Union Cave I encountered a shiny Onix but because I was in a hurry I accidentally fled the battle =/

I got a lot of my Silver cart in 2001 and also on occasions in 2002 and 2003 when I was on holiday, but like most G/S carts the story of mine ended sometime in 2006 when I booted up the game to see if the cart battery had died, and lo and behold, it had. I haven't really touched it since, but one day, I'll get a new battery installed.

 

[BigZac]

Typhlosion is God.

Seriously.

EQ/Flamethrower/Thunderpunch/Swift FTW.

 

[-Eddie-]

Any stories about the shiny that got away? I got a really awesome one.

So when I played gold in second/third game, I found a shiny tangela. Not the most exciting, but a shiny is a shiny. Anyway, with my heart pounding, I weakened it to the red and.... I realized I didn't have any poke balls. So I never caught it.

Now, 11 years later, I was replaying and found a (you guessed it) shiny tangela in the same place (Mt. Silver). This time I was prepared and had like 10 ultra balls. Tangela actually flee in this game, so I was like 'don't run away, don't run away, don't run away.' And ... I caught it. It finally ends after 11 years end. I'll never delete that file.

But yeah GSC and RBY are the best. All of my favorite pokemon are from the first two games.

 

[M. Rock]

Getting a chance to play through again, I think the only thing I dislike about GSC is how hard it is to get a good moveset on some pokemon. Most TMs can only be found once unless you know how to clone a pokemon holding a TM, and its not like every kid back in the day knew. Getting Fire Blast/Thunder/Blizzard requires grinding on an obscenely fast slot machine until you get enough coins for the TM (5500 apiece). Even 12 years later that Game Corner is pretty hard.
Speaking of which, I was wondering: let's say I have like 5501 coins or so and I want all three of the big name TMs. Remember how you can get all three starters via a box glitch? Could I do the same thing with those three TMs? Just save outside the Game Corner, buy a TM, attatch it to a pokemon, put it in a box, change box, turn off while saving, rinse and repeat?

 

[Tobes]

Yeah, the box glitch can clone things like Master Balls if they are equipped to a mon, so you should be able to clone TMs. The timing can be a bit of a bitch though.

 

[Jellicent]

I started with Blue, then got Red, and then Yellow. I ended up trading Yellow for a copy of Silver, and I was glad I did. A lot of R/B/Y players have this "original 151 only" mentality that keeps them in the dark ages really. While I loved first gen wholeheartedly, 2nd gen was superior, I have to say.

I had been an avid Dragon Warrior Monsters player between first and second gen, and discovering Pokemon now had breeding was a big deal for me (even cooler that the parents didn't just run off and abandon their kid like in DWM >.>).

Shinies were also a great addition, and I spent so long mindlessly leveling in areas with Pokemon that I liked with the hope of finding a good shiny. I never ended up getting a shiny until Soul Silver (Raticate... ugh). Backwards compatibility was also huge, and I was sad that ADV games lacked it. DPP and BW thankfully had it, but they still lacked a way to send the Pokemon back to the older gens, which is kinda sad...

The best part about this game, however, was returning to Kanto. I can't tell you how many times I beat the original games, and I was quite thrilled to finally play in a new region. The ability to go back and see how things had changed in the past few years, however, made this game feel like a real sequel instead of just another iteration. It added a ton of new features, offered a whole new place to explore, and still fit in nicely with the chronology and allowed you to make your way back to quiet little Pallet Town. It's definitely my favorite gen in the series.

 

[Cinccino]

GSC Gym Leader are bitches.

- Falkner haxed me with Mud-Slaps like crazy.
- Bugsy's Scyther laid few consecutive Fury Cutters on my pokes, easily KOing Quilava at the end.
- Whitney's Miltank. WTF is that thing.
- Morty's Gengar & Chuck's Poliwrath with seemingly perfect accuracy Hypnosis...
- Jasmine's Steelix has Sunny Day making Water-moves do little to him. :|
- Pryce's Ultra-Bulky Dewgong with Rest. Man that thing wass really hard to kill.
- And those trollish Dragonairs of Clair TWaving again and again.

Things weren't that hard in HG/SS :(
I catched shiny Stantler, Weedle, Butterfree, Psyduck, Magby (Day-Care Egg), Gyarados (LoR), Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pikachu, and Larvitar. Yes that was a lot.

 

[M. Rock]

GSC Gym Leader are bitches.

- Falkner haxed me with Mud-Slaps like crazy. Bad luck
- Bugsy's Scyther laid few consecutive Fury Cutters on my pokes, easily KOing Quilava at the end. Not too bad if Quilava comes in when Scyther does
- Whitney's Miltank. WTF is that thing. I sympathize completely
- Morty's Gengar & Chuck's Poliwrath with seemingly perfect accuracy Hypnosis... Bite and Gust, respectively. Also, plenty of Awakenings
- Jasmine's Steelix has Sunny Day making Water-moves do little to him. :| So use fire
- Pryce's Ultra-Bulky Dewgong with Rest. Man that thing wass really hard to kill. Ampharos, Typhlosion Thunderpunch, both 2HKO at same level or higher
- And those trollish Dragonairs of Clair TWaving again and again. Jynx @ Nevermeltice. At level 30, it outspeeds and OHKOs all Dratini w/Ice Punch, and after 1 or 2 level ups, OHKOs all Dragonair before they move

Things weren't that hard in HG/SS :(
I catched shiny Stantler, Weedle, Butterfree, Psyduck, Magby (Day-Care Egg), Gyarados (LoR), Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pikachu, and Larvitar. Yes that was a lot.

Not really criticisms, just advice if you ever want to play through again and get revenge on the gym leaders. Jynx is godly late-game.