Honest thoughts about Gen 1 Pokémon

[tweek]

In my small opinion, Generation 1 of Pokémon is carried by nostalgia. Gen 1 has way to many battle mechanics, Game mechanics that do not hold up to day, Basic story, And unclear instructions to advance through out the story. What are you're opinion's.

 

[Daenerys]

Gen 1 has way to many battle mechanics

Um, could you clarify? Gen 1 arguably had the most simple battle mechanics because everything was so basic back then, so I'm not sure what this criticism is exactly.

I agree about some instructions not being as clear in-game, though that's what made playing Gen 1 so fun; the games didn't hold your hand like they do now.

I don't have anything against Gen 1 itself. The first 151 Pokemon are decent as a generation even though I've never used at least half of them on any of my teams before. If I have any issues with the games it's the amount of glitches they had, and the limited movesets back then too. Also minor stuff like the games having practically no post-game content other than Cerulean Cave. Also I've always been annoyed that GF programmed a Prof. Oak battle, yet they decided not to use it, because reasons? It would've made a nice treat after beating the E4.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

In my opinion, gen 1 is a cozy little game for when you're nostalgic for a simpler time. It's a well-paced game without too much grinding, and while i will not claim that it's better than FRLG in any way, it's still a fun time. Can't say that about gen 2.

 

[Thegameandwatch]

Its the first game so its understandable if its simpler compared to later games.

 

[Daren]

Only thing I really agree on is basic story (though frankly I prefer a basic story to a bad one that gets too much time like Sw/Sh). Theb attle mechanics are very simple and I don't think they really fail to hold up any more than other older RPGs (the newer entries are different, but I don't actually think they're always better, even seemingly obvious improvements). Where do you think the instructions on how to advance are unclear?

 

[Juliyet]

Generation 1 100% has growing pains with the weird quirks as well as the lack of QoL improvements future gens added, but I'm willing to be soft on it for setting the groundwork and GameFreak basically stretching everything to even get it out.

I also think storywise, it's more complex than given credit for. Sure maybe not as complex as later games, but it does still has some layers like Mewtwo's entire backstory. It even goes places modern games would never touch, like team rocket straight up killing a Marrowak, it has a lot of charming early installment weirdness to it.

Don't get me wrong, I too don't enjoy playing gen 1 today aside from maybe some intentional glitch shenanigans, but I think for the time they were out without the hindsight of future games' improvements, as well as factoring the insane development, they were pretty remarkable and ambitious games for the GameBoy, and I totally see why they blew up like they did. And I think something like FRLG shows that the game's core can still hold up

 

[staticmoth]

Echoing a lot of what others are saying: Gen 1 is definitely a hot mess, but a fun one.

But what I think draws me to Gen 1 are two things: its map and level progression? Really good, you don't feel like you're overleveled or underleveled at any given time and the game progresses in a very natural way, to the point where the backtracking doesn't really feel like much of a pain at all. (But I'll admit that the stretch between Route 13-15 is far too long with not enough new or unique Pokémon which can feel like a bummer if you decided to come from Fuchsia instead of the other way around lol.)

Also some of my favorite Pokémon are Gen 1 mons. I love the newer Pokémon of the later gens quite a bit, but Slowpoke is perfection you see,,,

Personally, I would just play FRLG if I wanted to play a classic Kanto based game but idk. Sometimes I'm in the mood to play Gen 1 warts and all. Sometimes its just like that.

 

[Nicolas721]

Games-wise I haven't played them (the closest I've played is FRLG) but they don't seem that bad to be honest. The adventure has a clear direction, the world is semi-open, there's a good roster of usable Pokemon and decent difficulty. Without it Pokemon just wouldn't exist and they receive a lot of injust flack, given that they were developed by like 20 people during 5 years.

Pokemon-wise I'd say the same, "imperfect but good enough". As a child I only cared about Pikachu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur, I didn't think much of the others and I preferred the artstyle of Gen 2 & 3, but nowadays I appreciate them more. They are unique and creative, I can see why they coming back in many regional dexes as they have a good balance of cool and easy to understand.

 

[Thegameandwatch]

A lot of the glitches with Gen 1 are exaggerated since a lot of them require a guide on the internet so the average player wouldn't know about without prior knowledge.

I heard that the reason why Gen 1 isn't balanced is because PvP was added much later. The game is more designed as an RPG first which explains why Onix's stats are bad for example since it's meant to be an early boss.

It even goes places modern games would never touch, like team rocket straight up killing a Marrowak, it has a lot of charming early installment weirdness to it.

A lot of early installment weirdness in general with the series lore like how the games treat Pokemon originally as something that is recently discovered instead of being known from the beginning. It lasted even in Gen 2 like how an NPC supposedly mentions that Pichu was discovered by Professor Elm despite not making sense nowadays.

Also animals being a separate thing like in the anime.

 

[nickdt]

In my small opinion, Generation 1 of Pokémon is carried by nostalgia. Gen 1 has way to many battle mechanics, Game mechanics that do not hold up to day, Basic story, And unclear instructions to advance through out the story. What are you're opinion's.

Do you know what a Battle Mechanic is (Read: Mega Evolution/G-Max/Z-Moves/Terastalizing). Gen 1 doesn't have those.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Do you know what a Battle Mechanic is (Read: Mega Evolution/G-Max/Z-Moves/Terastalizing). Gen 1 doesn't have those.

battle mechanics are all of the game mechanics that affect battling. Things like stats, type effectivenes, status problems, critical hits and priority are all battle mechanics. Mega Evolution and Z-moves and the like are also battle mechanics, but for any game to not have battle mechanics, it would need to not have battles.

 

[Daenerys]

there's a good roster of usable Pokemon

Many of the evolved Pokemon had mediocre stats though, which also wasn't helped by the limited movepools in Gen 1, which made using some species impractical. Like, I considered using a Flareon once but decided against it because Charizard was just more useful in Gen 1 even if it's overrated.