The Pokemon rampage is still going on full
force, to my wonderment and delight; and after my run of White, I decided to make an audacious jump to the
monochromous roots of the series. I wanted to see at long last where and how it
all started, and so I dug up my Blue cartridge bought two years ago, my
silver GBA and dove into yet another playthrough of a Pokemon game. And
the result... Well, the result was unlike anything I'd have expected. In a good
and bad way.
I'll be blunt: from what I've played of Blue so far, I totally and
utterly fail to understand how that game could single-handedly drag the Gameboy
out of its early retirement and sell millions of cartridges around the world. I
fail even more to understand how it could take Gamefreak nearly six years to
come up with that game— notwithstanding that the development phase was an
on-and-off process. Because what I'm seeing and playing right now is nothing
more than a half-baked, clunky and overall barely decent RPG. For all the
praise nostalgic players lavish upon it, the first Pokemon generation is
shockingly unpolished compared to later generations and to other Gameboy
RPGs—and here's how:
—It takes but a glance to realize that Blue's graphics are shockingly
primitive, even by Gameboy standards. Such over-simplistic graphics would have
been acceptable in the early stages of the console's lifetime; but in 1995,
they were horribly dated. This is worsened by the fact that Tajiri and his team
obviously didn't put a lot of effort into embellishing their game world;
voluntarily or not, they did only the bare minimum in that regard and left it
at that. Trees look like boulders, tall grass looks like sprouts and so on.
Good thing that I knew beforehand that Tajiri intended to channel the lushness
of untamed nature in Blue/Red, because I certainly wouldn't have
guessed it from seeing Blue's graphics.
—The pacing is quite terrible. Blue feels like a long plodding trudge for the most part: tension and excitement are absent, goals are embarrassingly vague and there is very little incentive to move on to the next spot in line. Had I not known the Pokemon formula inside out, I'm not sure I would have been able to spell out what I was precisely supposed to achieve in that game. This impotent pacing is considerably worsened by the fake longevity-friendly bane of old-school RPGs, i.e. regular obstructions that require talking to every single NPC, scouring the whole game world and generally performing ludicrous actions to be overcome. I admit it: I resorted to internet wisdom more than once during my run of Blue. I didn't feel like fine-combing every town to find a beverage for the gate guards, nor could I bring myself to try to get my paws on a bike. And let's not even talk about the game actually forcing me to capture ten different 'Mons in order to get a mandatory item. To my dismay, there were also all too many occurrences of another annoying old-school RPG trope, the dreaded "Where do I go next?" For all their twisted retro charm, these hindrances gave me the unpleasant feeling of progressing by fits and starts without ever managing to find a flowing playing rhythm. Granted, it's a first-playthrough-only issue—but an aggravating one nonetheless.
—The inventory is absolutely horrendous. I
found myself staring at the thing in disbelief and wondering if this was a bad
joke of sorts. Twenty spots only in the bag? And fifty more only in
the PC? No subcategories? No automatic sortering? Seriously, this is a pure
ergonomic nightmare. It's nearly as bad as FFL2—except that FFL2 has the excuse of having been
released five years before Blue.
—While the inventory is horrendous, the move management is nothing short of calamitous.
I just cannot believe the fact that there is absolutely no way to check the
elemental nature of moves, their base strength and, last but not least, their effects.
What were they thinking, seriously? Were players supposed to test moves at
random and reload their save files if they were not happy with the results?
Heck, I guess that's exactly what they were supposed to do. It's pretty
obvious that elemental complementaries and strategy as a whole were but an
afterthought in the first generation and that the meat and potatoes of Red/Blue
was the completion of the Pokedex.
—The narrative is weak, superficial and childish to a fault. Take resident rival Red: why does this guy even challenge me in the first place and why does he resent me so vehemently? Sure, I guess I wouldn't be happy either if my own grandfather couldn't remember my name and if he offered the kid next door a 'Mon before offering me one; but honestly, Red's dislike is fickle at best and totally baseless at worst. You can also forget about the gentle holistic vibe introduced by latter entries of the series, with their emphasis on human/pokemon collaboration: pretty much everybody in Kantoh is an immature prick whose sole joy in life is to use their 'Mons as mere tools to challenge random passerby to glorified rooster fights. Jeez, now I understand why the series was initially accused of promoting animal abuse. Also, I don't know if this is specific to the french traduction I'm playing, but the language used by NPCs is pretty sloppy and aggressive, with abbreviations that shouldn't be seen in written text, invasive slang and insults thrown at my face on a regular basis. Bloody obnoxious Red routinely calls me a punk and a loser—despite the fact that I pulverize him every time we fight, which is quite laughable—and random people rebuff me way too often for my taste and comfort. I could have done without all that callousness, thank you very much. Dialogues are also incredibly vapid compared to latter entries, in which even the most insignificant NPC is granted interesting and instructive lines that give a better understanding of the local region.
—The level design is quite poor. Wild areas between towns sport an uncanny
amount of empty space whose monotony is broken solely by the rows of Trainers
standing around idly. Towns, on the other hand, are annoyingly labyrinthine,
with a ridiculously high number of ledges, fences, bushes and other obstacles
whose sole purpose seems to be to force the player into detours. (I'm looking
murderously at you, Fuschia City.)
Let's wrap this up: I'm not impressed by the early stages of the Pokemon series.
I'm so totally not impressed that Blue can now claim the dubious honour
of being my least favourite Pokemon entry. While this game obviously
delights the retro gamer in me with its old-school trappings, it leaves the
Poke aficionado in me pretty unsated. Without nostalgia to make the heart grow
fonder, the first generation is nothing more than a passable try with a lot of
room for improvement. And boy, was there indeed improvement! Playing Blue made
me fully realize the extent of the vertiginous progress that took place
throughout the series. The Pokemon formula has been beautifully and
cleverly refined over time; and with all due respect to nostalgic players who
discovered the series with Blue/Red, the latest Pokemon instalments
are the pinnacle of sophistication compared to these coarse beginnings. With
that, dear fellow gamers, I rest my case. Thanks for reading, and be my guest
anytime!
It's really
hard to believe that Blue/Green and Red single handedly saved a entire portable
console and created a giant cashcow that's 20 years old now, isn't it? They
really aged horribly. I admit the games were clunky and terribly coded (all
those bugs and weird stuff like the MissigNO) but that was part of the charm
back then. But one of the decisive factors wasthat everyone played the games.
Back when I was in the 3rd grade everyone that had a Game Boy had Pokémon and
we'd battle between ourselves and just talk about Pokémon. Even when the GBA
released, everyone still played all the GB Pokémon games until Nintendo
released Ruby/Saphire (although, I still think Crystal is superior in some ways
to R/S). And even today, you can easily find hacking projects for Pokémon
Red/Blue.
I guess it's a "you can't understand it if you didn't witness it"
thing. The games are objectively poor but they had some unique factor that made
them grand back then and, even today, still makes people feel nostalgic about
them.
It's MOST
definitely a "you can't understand if you didn't witness is" thing,
just like the first Final Fantasy instalment rescuing Squaresoft from the jaws
of bankrupcy despite being an average and unimpressive RPG. And just like when
I played FF1, I found myself thinking "Is that it? What was all the fuss
about?" on a regular basis while playing Blue.
This makes me glad that my first foray into the series was with Diamond and not
with Blue/Red. Had I played Blue first, I could very well have ended up disliking
the series and not bothering to play it any further, missing great games in the
process. Although I would probably have given the series another chance at some
point, like I always do... :P
Ahah, yeah I
understand. As it stands today, Blue and Red are really unimpressive. I'm very
curious how a remake of the first generation will end up, but it seems like
they won't get a remake after all, at least for now.
I don't agree with you on FF1 at all though. FF1's story, at the time, was
extremely groundbreaking. I honestly didn't expect that twist at all
(everything that leads to the first and last boss being the same character). I
played it back when the GBA remake released and had very low expectations for
it but I ended up loving it (more than other FFs that came afterward) and
buying the PSP remake right after and already replayed it with several
different classes on my party.
By the by, if you're interested in other Pokémon-esque games on the Game Boy
Color, I suggest you pick up Metal Walker. It's something like a Pokémon/Metal
Max/RPG/Pinball hybrid. It's pretty fun and relatively well polished for a GB
game (it came out in 2000, so it is to be expected). One of my favorite games
on the GBC, for sure!
Don't get me
wrong, I liked FF1! :) Sorry if my perfunctory and off-hand sentence about it
was offensive. ^^ Like I stated in my post about FF1, I'm sure that game was
groundbreaking at the time of its release, but the innovations it brought to
the table couldn't really be appreciated fully when playing it for the first
time three decades later. And the mystique around it didn't help either, since
it led to lofty expectations that were bound to be unmet.
Thanks for the advice! You're quite the game connoisseur, as always. :) I'll
make sure to check Metal Walker!
Don't worry,
Isleif! I perfectly understand why you would be disappointed with FF1. I admit
that the game isn't anything special by today's standards, but I have some sort
of unusual love for it.
No problem! It's just that the game is barely known and I happened to remember
it, so I figure I'd suggest it to a hidden gems appreciator such as yourself!
Oh, and if you're going to look for a physical copy be warned that it can fetch
over 100+ dollars, at least since the last time I checked, so I suggest you either
emulate it on the PC or on a GB emulator on the PSP.
I just checked prices on Ebay and north-american cartridges are indeed prohibitively expensive, so I'll either go for emulation or a japanese cartridge! Oh, and I dig the "hidden gem appreciator" title. It sound wonderfully fancy! ^__^
Damn, just
checked and seems like the price got even higher since I last checked out. A
shame, since I really wanted to own the game box of Metal Walker... Oh, and
remember that reading kanji on the GBC's screen (and even on the GBA sometimes)
is pretty hard sometimes. Or the game uses 100% kanas, making a hard gibberish
to read.
Gotta admit that digging around for quality games underneath a heap of
mainstream and average to bad games is indeed fun. More so if we end up finding
a great game that was completely ignored and forgotten!
Ha, maybe I'll
just try it on emulation first and then purchase a japanese copy if I really
love it. Unless I find a super-cheap copy, of course! :P
Digging around for hidden gems is our duty as retro gamers! There are so many
great games that slip by unnoticed, either because they are too cutting-edge
for their time, at odds with the current trends or poorly advertised. The
brightest and most dazzling hidden gem I've found so far has to be Avalon Code
on the DS, but there are countless others in all console generations! What's
your most prized hidden gem of a game, if I may ask? ^^
Too many great
games fall into oblivion and too many games rise to greatness without deserving
it. It's just a matter of how lucky the game is at the time of release and also
how good or bad the word of month is. And I agree on the cutting edge thing. Being
too "avant garde" can also help by making a game too unfriendly to
new players and, consequently, turn away potential buyers and fans. Specially
nowadays, when most modern gamers just want formulaic or generic easy games
full of content, but lacking in substance, and with easy to understand UI and
controls.
Anyway, to point out some hidden gems is rather hard... But, from the top of my
head, I'd say Riviera the Promised Land (GBA), which you already had the
pleasure of playing. It was a game that really pushed beyond the usual formula
at the time and left me a very strong positive impression. Although maybe not
as hidden as many other games I've played, at the time of release it was barely
known and only years later did it actually won cult-classic status and a
fanbase. To be fair, though, even today, the whole Dept Heaven games are hidden
and underappreciated gems, even in Japan.
Indeed, Riviera is another perfect example of a dazzling hidden gem. It managed to pull out an amazing synthesis of the essence of RPG while still being innovative and "avant-garde", and I wish more games could achieve that kind of feat!
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