Suggestions for a Timeline Playthrough

[Feign]

Hey everyone!

I've given a needlessly detailed recap of events below, but the short story is that I'm going to do a replay of the main series games and want to, instead of doing it by generation, go by the timeline. What I'm most looking for is suggestions about what Gen to should start with. This is my current list:

Red
Emerald
Crystal
Platinum*
Black*
Y*
Black 2*
Moon*
Ultra Moon?* Undecided.

(* denotes a version I've never played from a generation.)

My thought process is that if there are generations taking place at the same time, then I should go with whichever one will offer a break to offset the time jump. By going to Black, then Y, then Black 2, I should be able to get a better feeling of the two year time jump.

In theory, this should work the same with Gen I and III, but I'm wondering how it's going to feel skipping an entire generation and then going back or if there are any story cues that put one before the other.

The reason I'm choosing Red over Blue is simply that I've already bought Red off the 3DS store and don't want to buy Blue as well. I was planning on Yellow just because I've never played it and it's in color, buttttttttt nostalgia won out for me. Specifically with the Red and Blue Sprites. I just love how weird and off model some of them are compared to the rest of the series. Yellow mostly fixes this and that's a bitter pill to swallow. I'll play it some day, I'm sure.

After all of this, I'm planning on doing the remakes. Probably LeafGreen (Even though that's the one I've played.) HeartGold, and OmegaRuby.

For Reference:

And Colress's appearance in Alola allude to it appearing after BW2, so it goes nicely at the end.

-----------------------------------------

Backstory: I didn't mean to go off the deep end. While waiting for Ultra Sun, I realized I never finished White 2 or AlphaSapphire. It's not that I didn't like the games, but for some reason I'd gotten distracted with each of them. I picked up White 2 and while at first I had no clue where I was in the game or what was happening, I eventually found my way into the rhythm and got completely absorbed. I always enjoyed Unova, especially after Diamond really left me wanting more and I somehow never picked up Platinum, but this ended up being one of my favorite Pokemon experiences. I decided I wanted to go back and start over with Black and Black 2 this time. My 3DS makes the graphics really blown out and blurred, and I discovered the worst bug with my DSi that shut down the system if the front edge touched a hard surface. Placing it down on any table would make me lose data unless I closed it. So I began saving like crazy, but oh my god, save times are awful on it. So I ended up with a DS Lite, the only generation of DS I haven't owned outside of DSi XL. The system didn't shut down if I set it on a table so with that I was set. I'll get back to this in a minute.

After beating White 2, I went back to AlphaSapphire. Apparently, I'd only gotten through 3 badges. Outside of the Delta episode, I found myself sort of unenthused about the whole thing. I loved bits of it, but it didn't add up the way past remakes had. Ultra Sun arrived and I fell in love with Alola again, although for the first time I really questioned the point of the games. When my favorite thing about them is "Pressing Y allows you to save from the menu," then something is off. My friend had told me recently that she preferred Kalos and how varied the region was. So I erased my game file and started again. It's been a lot more fun this time around, although not without its problems. I haven't finished it yet, but so far I'm finding it superior to ORAS, which is something that's surprised me seeing my deep love for Hoenn and Gen III. That got me thinking, though. I suddenly found myself with a DS Lite, which is capable of playing GBA games. I was always planning on picking up Yellow (whoops) and Crystal, and just last week decided to pick up Platinum if I could find an authentic copy. (Which I did.) At this point, I was replaying every main series game except for Gen III, so I bit the bullet and found a copy of Emerald with a new battery. That just arrived and while I could play in release order, I think it'd be a lot more interesting for myself to kind of do a Pokemon Machete Run.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

If you want a more modern experience I'd suggest replacing Red and Crystal with the Gen 3 and 4 remakes respectively, using the game of your choice. Emerald vs. ORAS is a toss up that's basically based on, do you want Megas, the Delta Episode, better graphics, and Deoxys, or the 100% third version experience and the extremely fleshed out Battle Frontier.

Regarding Gen 1 and 2 though, since they are available as VC, it might make sense from a compatibility standpoint, that is, if you don't have a DS to transfer teams up from Emerald or FRLG to the current game you're playing. Considering the VC releases have direct compatibility to Gen 7, you could do something like this, and keep as many titles on the 3DS as possible:

-Red VC
-ORAS
-Crystal VC
-Platinum
-Black
-Y
-Black 2
-Ultra Moon

This way, the only titles that aren't 3DS releases are the Sinnoh and Unova games, but you could transfer them up with PokeTransporter to current Gens, I think? I haven't transferred Pokemon out of Gen 4 into Gen 5 or Gen 5 into Gen 6 in years, but I believe both can be done on a single system, correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Midorikawa]

? I haven't transferred Pokemon out of Gen 4 into Gen 5 or Gen 5 into Gen 6 in years, but I believe both can be done on a single system, correct me if I'm wrong though.

Two systems just like if you’re trading Pokémon. At least for the gen IV and Gen V transfer. I’ve never done the other so idk. It’s been a while so I could be remembering wrong but I think two systems.

Anyways I think your current play order is good. As it is you’re following the timeline.

Gen I And III happen at the same time
Gen II And IV happen at the same time
BW is alone
B2W2 happens at the same time as XY.
Then the Gen VII games.

If you’re looking for original stories only then you’re fine with the originals, if you’re looking for references then go with remakes before originals. Though I think you’ll get the most out of your current one.

 

[godiego]

drop the originals for remakes. they are across the board better and it'd provide a more consistent experience. plus, their stories fill in a few gaps here and there.

 

[Feign]

If you want a more modern experience I'd suggest replacing Red and Crystal with the Gen 3 and 4 remakes respectively, using the game of your choice. Emerald vs. ORAS is a toss up that's basically based on, do you want Megas, the Delta Episode, better graphics, and Deoxys, or the 100% third version experience and the extremely fleshed out Battle Frontier.

Regarding Gen 1 and 2 though, since they are available as VC, it might make sense from a compatibility standpoint, that is, if you don't have a DS to transfer teams up from Emerald or FRLG to the current game you're playing. Considering the VC releases have direct compatibility to Gen 7, you could do something like this, and keep as many titles on the 3DS as possible:

-Red VC
-ORAS
-Crystal VC
-Platinum
-Black
-Y
-Black 2
-Ultra Moon

This way, the only titles that aren't 3DS releases are the Sinnoh and Unova games, but you could transfer them up with PokeTransporter to current Gens, I think? I haven't transferred Pokemon out of Gen 4 into Gen 5 or Gen 5 into Gen 6 in years, but I believe both can be done on a single system, correct me if I'm wrong though.

My biggest issue is that I'm not a huge fan of Gen VI. I prefer the sprites to the sort of chibi overworld. Gen VII fixes that, but I've posted about this before where I don't find Ultra SM the complete versions of either game. It's more like they trade storylines with each other, where sometimes it's better (Hau/Gladion) and other times it's worse (Lillie/Lusamine). As much as I enjoy RR, I think I might prefer the Looker episode just for seeming more Alola focused. But it would be fun to take on all of the bosses again after beating their games, especially since Magma and Aqua seem to be from the original timeline vs. the remakes.

As for the other two remakes, I want to play them after the fact. Part of this is going back and reexamining everything I played as a child vs. the smoother playing experience. I love HGSS, but Crystal still holds a special place for me and I want to be able to compare it with the HGSS Suicune storyline. But these are good outlines for what to expect when playing so thanks! Also helps reassure me that Kanto is probably the best starting place.

 

[Feign]

Two systems just like if you’re trading Pokémon. At least for the gen IV and Gen V transfer. I’ve never done the other so idk. It’s been a while so I could be remembering wrong but I think two systems.

Anyways I think your current play order is good. As it is you’re following the timeline.

Gen I And III happen at the same time
Gen II And IV happen at the same time
BW is alone
B2W2 happens at the same time as XY.
Then the Gen VII games.

If you’re looking for original stories only then you’re fine with the originals, if you’re looking for references then go with remakes before originals. Though I think you’ll get the most out of your current one.

Yeah, the remakes of Gen I have the whole Sevii Islands chapter that helps establish Gen II, but since I already know about it I think just playing through the originals before the remakes will be a better experience for me. I should be able to use the DSi to trade between IV and V, so I just need to be careful with the dumb thing. It's such a sleek system that it's a shame it has a flaw as big as it does. It's made me paranoid about all my systems now.