With another pair of remakes on the horizon, we take a look back at the first pair, Firered and Leafgreen, to see what made them stand out. Follow me on Twitter! / jprpt98 Join my Discord server! / discord
Something you forgot is that FRLG was the first game to give us a higher leveled E4+champ rematches. This was awesome, and it gave these trainers a much more needed expanded roster.
The sevii islands honestly make this game for me. Sure you can technically complete it really fast but I like taking my time and doing everything there. Exploration is key for me with these games and I enjoyed exploring every inch of them. I just wish Hooh and Lugia weren’t event only.
Considering that Firered was my very first Pokemon game, I'd say that they did a good job for a newbie like I was then. The only other things I knew about Pokemon was either from side games like the Ranger games, Mystery Dungeon games, and Conquest (tho Conquest came a little later I think). I did also watch the anime alongside it so I did know of other regions but kid me didn't mind that certain Pokemon wasn't in FR. I was too busy being happy with my Charizard, Dragonite, and Arcanine on my party (my other 3 Pokemon were Raticate, Pidgeot, and Buttefree).
Hey JPR I’ve been a sub for about half a year and this has been my favorite video so far. Really brought back that nostalgia and I can’t wait to see the other remakes covered. I only wish this video were longer. Great work!
I have a feeling the new Gen 4 remakes will likely take inspiration from these faithful remakes, as opposed to going down the HGSS and ORAS which made significant changes.
I grew up with Red and Blue, played the hell out of these games and still enjoyed FRLG so much! As the first remake of the series I found the addition of the Sevii islands extremely cool and to me it was more than enough.
I liked The first Moltres location for exactly what you said, you witness this god bird on your hike and that’s it, most players won’t have the supplies to think of fighting/catching it. Great video though I subbed!
Fire red was my first Pokemon game and I love it. My only problem is low team diversity caused by only 150 and need for trades when it comes to some pokemon evolution. Also crobat to locked to national dex.
My biggest complaints about Kanto games after gen 1, is that we never get to use pokemon outside of the 150. Alolan forms are nice and the Sevii Islands are amazing but I'm tired of just Kanto. There are mons I never use like Venomoth, Golbat, Wiggilytuff, Onix, Sandslash.
Not a fan of forcing the player through the Sevii islands just to get to Mewtwo. They are cool for being able to get more levels, but that's all I really enjoyed personally. I also don't get why very little was done to fix the psychic imbalance that is still somewhat prevalent in the remakes. Yes ghosts now are super effective, but the only main story ghosts also get koed easily by psychic too since they're poison types. They honestly should've just let you evolve into gen 2 pokemon for more coverage. Having more steel and dark in FRLG just makes sense, given they were created to fix the issues in the originals to begin with. Otherwise they are pretty faithful and solid remakes.
Other than the poor movepools for many pokémon (seriously, no bug moves for pinsir?) and the exclusion of other generation pokémon & characters, it is an excellent game and even better remake.
god the stupid failed evolution screen every time my Golbat leveled up used to piss me off so much as a kid. HGSS had the right idea by letting the player use the Gen IV cross-gen evolutions in their playthrough, it made no sense to lock the Johto evolutions like Crobat and Scizor behind the National Dex and it would have made FRLG so much more enjoyable if you could use them pre-E4
I always hated that I couldn't evolve and use the newer Pokemon in my playthrough of this. I always thought a Kanto Dex should have been a thing even as a teenager. Overall this game just never felt as fun as the original games, though I do like it much more than yellow version, I'd rank it among my 3 lowest-ranked mainline Pokemon games(unless we count Let's Go! which I'd put last). That being said this game has the best graphics in any Pokemon game released, perfecting the mix of simplicity and detail. If I could pick just one Pokemon game to model all Pokemon games after in terms of visuals, it would be this one. The VS Seeker and Fame Checker were also nice additions.
Some guy got a Shiny chansey with a lucky egg in the safari zone and caught it. It's on youtube. (I can't give you a link because I'm on mobile but just search "Pokemon FRLG shiny chansey".
I beat Pokemon Red 2 days ago and I only had 2 slots for potions and stuff because I had the hms and key items that you can NEVER get rid of. You have all the fishing rods and can't get rid of old rod. So I had to buy full restores and revives but I mean come on only 2 slots ?!?! Can't get rid of my master ball oh wait maybe I can🤦
The shade thrown at Junichi Masuda is overplayed and undeserved. That man contributed more to Pokemon than probably anyone else; I get that you're just making a joke, but I think Masuda deserves better. He's responsible for so many iconic pieces of the soundtrack and he directed (among other games) RSE, FRLG, Diamond and Pearl, AND Black and White. Gens 3-5 are considered the prime of Pokemon and nobody contributed more to that prime than Masuda.
The 150 Pokémon limit until sapphire rock is honestly one of the worst aspects of the FRLG which was repeated in let's go. It actively killed the replay value for me.
They really could have at least added the Gen 2 evolutions to the Kanto dex, like how HGSS added the Gen 4 evolutions to the Johto dex. Being able to use stronger Pokémon like Kingdra and Scizor prior to the National Dex really would have made the games so much better
Even with all of the Johto pokemon they could have added, it wouldn't increase that many viable options, Maybe 20 or so, the rest are mediocre at best.
In what way lol? Original Blue and Red are a mess and don’t hold up well at all. The sprites were a mess, mechanics were not balanced at all, pc box was terrible, items storage was terrible, and there was less content overall.
The Sevii Island sidequest that pops up after beating Blaine is actually optional. You can say no and continue the game like in the originals and come back after you've beaten the Champion.
That's like the only time ever in a Pokemon game that you answering "no" would have any impact on your progression =D Pretty much all other times they just prompt you again until you say yes so I don't blame people for not realising that
@@houndofculann1793 that’s true. Makes me wonder if that’s another way that game freak likes to troll their players (and yes this does happen cuz there are design choices in at least some of the games where something didn’t need to happen but game freak programmed them a certain way anyway)
Maybe it's because I'm biased since Leaf Green was the first Pokemon game I've ever played but I still believe these games to be the best introductory games to the entire series. Pokemon isn't really a series that you need to be slowly introduced to since basically all the games play the same, but the fact that FRLG has all the wonderful dungeons and exploration aspects of Red and Blue while not being held back by the, quite frankly, appallingly broken design mechanics of those games, is great. They are perfectly intuitive while never getting overbearing with tutorials, and they have significantly better battle mechanics then what were in the original Gen 1 games. They are still without a doubt the Pokemon games I continuously suggest to new players over any other.
Started with LeafGreen as well, they were perfect to start off my Pokémon journey. The tutorials and help menus were great when I was five and knew nothing about type matchups 😂
I mean the best thing Lets Go has doing for it is that I find the games to look very pleasing on the eye. Very good use of colour and animation but yeah. Fired Red and Leaf Green are vastly superior
Firered,leafgreen has the best sprites. Except one or two back sprites, every sprites were perfect. And many pokemon like gyrados, arcanine were cooler than now
Leaf green is my favorite game of all time. The first game I’ve ever played that wasn’t like “cars the video game” or some garbage I remember being blown away by the fact that it didn’t suck. I absolutely love this game and don’t understand how anyone can say red and blue are better other than nostalgia I mean come on you can’t even run
If you compare Red Blue to FR LG then yes on paper FR and LG are better. Better graphics, better mechanics, more Pokémon, just better. However, Red and Blue are completely different games because of all their broken mechanics and faulty designs. You can catch every Pokémon in Red and Blue via glitches and still transfer them up to Pokémon home. I feel like there are a lot more challenges you can do to Red and Blue, because of glitches. There is also something about going back to the basics which I find fun. Because of glitches you have access to all 151 Pokémon regardless of which gen I game you have. This makes team building amazing. FR LG can only do this via gameshark or emulation.
@@ganjafi59 It also should be noted that transfer from gen 1 to gen 7 and home is made much easier than transferring from gen 3, and you get hidden abilities from it. I also found yellow to be a dope experience overall with the ability to get all 3 starters without even having to use glitches, the Pikachu following you around also felt satisfying having a friendship meter that was organically visible, there's also an excite bike mini game in yellow if that's anything to say.
@@rpgfanatic9719 yeah, I also love yellow as I never played it until after finishing gen II. Gen I was my first but I only had red, until I got gold and crystal. Then I found a yellow copy for 2 bucks at a yard sale in 2005. Good times :)
@@Slender_Man_186 Well LGPE was supposed to be that remake of yellow but it's just not the same experience even though you can get all the starters, and I don't believe crystal had features that HGSS doesn't cover.
Reasons to play Fire Red: Arcanine with Extreme Speed Reasons to play Leaf green: Super saiyan Starmie with Surf, Thunderbolt, Psychic and Ice Beam I have both so I just trade a Arcanine from my Fire Red cartridge to my Leaf green cartridge and I can have both Arcanine and Starmie on the same team along with Venusaur having Toxic, Leech Seed, Growth and Razor leaf while having a Flyer (normally Dodrio or Fearow) and a Nidoking then finishing my team off with Snorlax. My go to team is as follows: Venusaur (Toxic, Leech seed, Growth and Razor leaf) Starmie: Surf, Thunderbolt or Thunder, Psychic and Ice beam or Recover Nidoking: Thrash, Earthquake are must have for my nidoking and the rest does not really matter for me that much as I usually use nidoking to brute force things and the rest of my team cleans everything up. Arcanine Extremespeed, Flamethrower or Fireblast, Dig, and maybe some other coverage move but these are the core 3 I like to use Snorlax: Body Slam, Strength(I need to use strength and I don't want to ruin my team with a hm slave so I put it on snorlax but it is still a really good move with 80 base power) Shadow Ball and Brick Break. Dodrio: Steel wing, drill peck, fly and Tri Attack. Overall I think that the games give you a really fun and good experience of kanto and a very good team diversity even if you only have 1 of the 2 versions.
Nice team. Very cool. I've made it through the game twice with 2 different teams which was fun. I don't remember their moves but I'll still give a rundown and any moves I do or think I do remember. My first team consisted of: Venusaur (Vinny): Tried and true partner who was a big help early game but kinda struggled midway through for obvious reasons. It had Stun Spore, Leech Seed, Razor Leaf and Sludge Bomb. Arcanine (Growlie): Always great to have on the team. Reliable Fire mon and very much useful for the Sabrina gym (thank Arceus for Bite. It had Bite, Flamethrower, Double Edge and some other fourth move. Nidoking (Ned): Absolute monster. Always smashed stuff up and won against Koga which isn't easy to do with Dig at the time and stupid Minimizing Poison types. It had Earthquake, Megahorn, Thrash and Brick Break. Vaporeon (Pupper): Great tank and couldn't have a better surfer. Blaine didn't stand a chance. It had Aurora Beam, Surf, Quick Attack and Acid Armor. Dodrio (Dutri): underrated bird. Tri Attack was kinda broken ngl. And it was funny to have a flier who didn't have wings. It had Fly, Drill Peck, Tri Attack and some fourth move. Raichu (Piko): I do love me a good Thunderbolt and no one does it better than these electric rodents. They used Thunderbolt, Quick Attack and that's all I can remember. Well that was my first team but like I said before I had 2 the next one being a nuzloke team. I think I wrote enough in this comment but I'd be happy to share team 2 another time.
First pokemon game I played was LeafGreen, and it's been ages since I've played anything pokemon related since, but I think I remember my main team Venusaur, Raichu, Hypno, Lapras, Farfetched, and Hitmonlee
I wasn't playing video games when Gen I and Gen II were first released. So, Gen III (more specifically, Fire Red and Leaf Green) were my first games. And honestly, it was a great introduction into the series. I'm actually grateful looking back that things were as faithful as they were to the originals so that I could focus on learning about the first 151 Pokemon and not needing to learn about ~390 of the immediately. That's why I'm ok if the Diamond/Pearl remakes don't offer any sort of Pokemon from Gen V and onwards until maybe post-game like how FRLG did. I'm thinking about the kids who'll be picking up these games as their first Pokemon games and their experiences with them. That being said, I do hope that they maintain the difficulty levels from the original games. I remember having to train my Pokemon and actually coming up with strategies to defeat the Elite 4 and Cynthia and how rewarding it was! I still remember where I was and the exact moment that I beat them! I didn't feel that with Gens Vi, VII or VIII. I have felt that way about some of the fan made games though and also when I went back and played some of the older games. I want kids to also have that experience of feeling like things were earned and not that they had an easy win given to them. Plus, it helps to have a regional Pokedex that you feel attached to so that you have some nostalgia going into other games about your past teams and Pokemon you've already used.
Pokémon Fans: MASUDA ruined Pokémon MASUDA: directs all the games they claim are better than modern Pokémon, hasn’t directed since XY until co-directing BDSP which are probably safe becuase GF wants proof Ilca can make a basic Pokémon game before trusting them
I think it has to do with how Masuda makes the most public appearances so people associate behind the scenes stuff with him. Its a shame so much vitriol is aimed at him when technically, it isn't on him.
8:32 why do zoomers want this? every pokemon game having the huge focus of the plot be on the cover legendary for 6 gens straight is dumb and annoying, it was better when you weren't the chosen hero that had to tame the legendary or whatever and you actually had to go out of your way to explore and find them yourself.
Agreed. I think Legendaries became an easy plot device for the story. But that means they dont get to be so "legendary". They show up in front of you and now even sometimes have 100% catch rates. If legendaries are going to go back to being mysterious, the stories can't rely on them anymore.
@@sirmel11 no it's not. If they are "legendary" then it makes way more sense that no one has ever actually seen the pokemon before with their own eyes, they shouldn't be flying around doing plot relevant stuff
I wish we had gotten the Sevii Islands in LGPE. I played LeafGreen back in the day but stopped after I caught Mewtwo cause I thought that was it story-wise. Now I wanna play it on Switch. Maybe we can get some Switch ports of the previous remakes, if not just making them available on NSO.
Fire Red and Leaf Green are Pokemon games I had a lot of fun playing. Do they have flaws? Yes but they are ver servicable remakes of Kanto and my go to if I ever wanna play through Kanto.
In my opinion, FRLG has the best sprites of Pokémon games! It is amazing how this feels good even more than 15 years after his release date! Pokémon sprites has its peak in this game!
I’m pretty sure Gen 3 is the Gen that added event exclusive Pokémon like Navel rock with Ho-Oh and Lugia which kinda ruins the game later on when you ya know can’t travel back to 2004 so it’s abit annoying.
Another thing i would've loved for a Gen 1 remake despite more expansion of the Sevii islands, especially for post game Is exploration and lore over the Johto region, basically a prequel of gold and silver
The link between Victory Road and Indigo Plateau is why Moltres is there, I feel. It reminds me of the anime where Moltres' flame was used to light the torch. So it made sense when connecting the games to the anime.
I hope they do remakes of the older games again but like how they did HG and SS, by expanding the game. Essentially remaking fire red and leaf green, but I would like to keep it as though it is pre gen 6 so no megas or anything of the like. Just for the main story to keep it the same then they can go ham in postgame.
The "definitive" experience is FRLG IMO. You have abilities, held items, breeding, more than 151 Pokemon, post-game quests, legendary hunts, and a relatively challenging maingame. Way better move pools, added content, VS seeker.
Fair enough, I like yellow for the interactive Pikachu, the long range trainer glitch to get you any Pokemon, and lastly the excite bike mini game, I also like how transferring into USUM from gen 1 is made way smoother now because of VC gen 1 being connected to bank.
I personally still prefer Pokémon Yellow to FRLG. The new gym leader and rival teams are generally far more challenging and I like that you have access to both Blue and Red version exclusives in many cases: e.g. Oddish and Bellsprout, Scyther and Pinsir
What these games really need imo is a rom hack that specifically does the following: >Make L/R extra dedicated buttons for mapping items to >Add in much needed battle themes for Team Rocket, one unique to Giovanni, a theme for Mewtwo, and a toned down version of the rival's champion theme used for his standard battles throughout the game >Make version exclusive mons all obtainable in 1 game (and have all 3 starters and roaming legendaries obtainable) >Make trade evos instead require, say, evo. stones (that are scattered throughout Kanto if lack of other reasonable in-game ways to obtain) >Make those "event" features not accessible anymore simply accessible in-game >Add another Giovanni fight or 2 in the game to make his presence better felt >Get rid of unnecessary "handhold-y" elements like the Teachy TV, being taught how to catch Pokemon, Oak's tutorial during 1st rival fight, not being able to run until getting running shoes, etc. (The blue/red text for male/female npcs can stay, it's a neat little detail to me) >Maybe add optional patch for physical/special split if it doesn't mess with the game's balancing (if it does, maybe add in Gen 4 moves and movesets, tweaking npc Pokemon moves accordingly) To any potential hackers out there, please make this a reality. Also, if I ever figure out how romhacking works, mark my words, I will make this definitive version. I'd likely call it "AquaBlue." Definately sounds like the official name GameFreak would use for a theoretical "Blue version" in an alternate reality instead of LeafGreen.
What these games really need imo is a rom hack that specifically does the following: >Make L/R extra dedicated buttons for mapping items to >Add in much needed battle themes for Team Rocket, one unique to Giovanni, a theme for Mewtwo, and a toned down version of the rival's champion theme used for his standard battles throughout the game >Make version exclusive mons all obtainable in 1 game (and have all 3 starters and roaming legendaries obtainable) >Make trade evos instead require, say, evo. stones (that are scattered throughout Kanto if lack of other reasonable in-game ways to obtain) >Make those "event" features not accessible anymore simply accessible in-game >Add another Giovanni fight or 2 in the game to make his presence better felt >Get rid of unnecessary "handhold-y" elements like the Teachy TV, being taught how to catch Pokemon, Oak's tutorial during 1st rival fight, not being able to run until getting running shoes, etc. (The blue/red text for male/female npcs can stay, it's a neat little detail to me) >Maybe add optional patch for physical/special split if it doesn't mess with the game's balancing (if it does, maybe add in Gen 4 moves and movesets, tweaking npc Pokemon moves accordingly) To any potential hackers out there, please make this a reality. Also, if I ever figure out how romhacking works, mark my words, I will make this definitive version. I'd likely call it "AquaBlue." Definately sounds like the official name GameFreak would use for a theoretical "Blue version" in an alternate reality instead of LeafGreen.
Man, it's only been 2 years and yet you _still_ sound quite different compared to nowdays. I even remember watching this video several times when it came out. Is 2 years really that much? Or have you just changed (for better) really quickly?
They should have put mew in the post game. I think firered and leafgreen should have had access to all 151 of pokemon. But I love gen 3 I play emerald and firered more than any other pokemon games.
The only mainline game I haven't beaten yet (I'm on it right now) except from the originals (who are so dated, I cannot even really play them, other than to glitch them as much as I can). Even never being a fan of Kanto, I think the Pokémon selection is definetly their worst aspect, it's the only thing I would say is really holding this game back. The original 151 Pokémon are a horrible selection of Pokémon to have and, considering many gen 2 Pokémon were locked to Kanto, it wouldn't have been crazier to put them in Kanto along with a day/nigth cycle. Plus, the elite four is really hindered by the Pokémon selection which is weird considering that Fausto had the same problem yet they fixed it in Platinum (and I assume they will in the remakes). The lack of ghost, steel and dark types is a very big thing and these games could have solved it (gicing Agatha a Misdreavous, a Dusclops and a Banette would have spiced her up quite a bit, similarly Lance could have gotten a Kingdra and a Flygon or Altaria, at the very least a Seadra to break the flying type and the Charizard he has in the gen 2 games would have been better than two Dragonairs). The original Kanto Pokémon selection is the worst part of Kanto, I'm here waiting for a mainline Pokémon game that is a Kanto remake with this specific problem solved. I don't even mind if not the full rooster of all Pokémon are in there, but al least an expanded dex to include a more balanced set. Like, virtually all of the flying types are normal types or bug types, with Charizard, Gyarados and Aerodactyl being the big exceptions, for example.
You can't expect them to update teams with non-kanto Pokemon within a remake of the original mainline games. whereas other remakes may have that luxury (because they had already introduced the concept of other region Pokemon), Kanto didn't, but part of the appeal of Kanto was that fact that it was closed off, limited/recognizable, and idea of Catching them All was far more plausible. Maybe for post-game content, but certainly it would never happen nor should it happen within the context of it being the classic.Call it "nostalgia-baiting" all you want, but that's the point. The originals should be nosaligic at least in the first run of the game. Post run I agree with you.
@@TheRed02151 I mean, I disagree with you mainline because I think the point of a remake is not to be nostalgic. That's more of a re-release or a remaster, a remake should try to offer a similar experience to new players. But a good remake should understand and try to sell itself to a new audience, not to nostalgic fans, that's what remasters are for. A reamke is there to squeeze more juice from the original idea that wasn't possible due to technical limitations or to expand it with a new creative direction. That's my vision, which is why I don't think being the first region is an excuse not to expand the Pokédex. After all, from now on, it won't be possible to have every single Pokémon in every single region anyway.
@@aesir1ases64 I disagree with you, heavily. Kanto has the weakest designs personally, they are generally too bland, uninspired and not well though out or flesh out, even some of the most iconic ones have some of these flaws to me (Blastoine who just does not fit with it's previous evolutions well and feel like the developers just wanted to include it for no reason is an example). It's also the generation that makes evolutions just the previous form but bigger or a multiple most often. I know some point of that are personal opinion and don't give it much though. More so considering they were the first batch of Pokémon so I can give them some slack. The region is interesting and well design for a Pokémon game. It lacks some extra dungeons for me and the aesthetics of it are too similar, but other than that it's a good level design.
I'd say the Mewtwo story in FireRed/LeafGreen was just about perfect the same way it was in Red/Blue. You have to poke about in the mansion on Cinnabar, but there is a pretty interesting story there and the way it's left in a sort of apocalyptic log format really was pretty cool. It's not something they've done since and I think that helps it to stand out.
4:21 You're not required to go to the Sevii Islands after the 7th gym, so I wouldn't even call it an intrusion into the main game. You have the option to decline Bill's invite and come back after you beat the pokémon league.
