I actually started playing through ポケットモンスター緑, or
/Pokémon Green Version/ outside of Japan, once again. It's
the game I started with, getting an imported copy from a
local used game store in back in 1997. I know it was 1997,
because that store had a standee for Final Fantasy VII on
the counter just above the game itself, which I remember
quite clearly since I hadn't heard anything about the game
until that day...I mean both of them, but regardless. I
picked up that copy of /Pokémon Green/, a copy of
/Final Fantasy/ for the NES, and a copy of
/Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity/ for MS-DOS, before heading
home.
Yes, before most Americans joined the craze and started
with Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur, I had my
/Fushigidane/ and was stumbling through a game in a
language I didn't even remotely know at the time. But I
loved it. I absolutely fell in love with the series that
first day, and I ended up with both /Pokémon Red/ and
/Pokémon Blue/ when the English versions made it to the US
in 1998. I mean, sure, I'd already beat the Elite 4 and
Champion Green in my first game, but I couldn't really
read Japanese without a guide, and I knew there'd be
translation differences (see /Final Fantasy VII/, which I
bought because of that standee).
I didn't get a Japanese copy of the second generation
games (Gold and Silver), but I did for the GBA games
(Ruby and Sapphire), the fourth and fifth generation games
on the DS (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold,
SoulSilver, Black, White, Black2, and White2), but that's
where I stopped.
See, when the games started focusing more on the
competitive battling with Gen5, and removing most of the
in-game features, I lost interest in the mainline games.
X and Y brought nothing that pulled me in, and while
OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire were remakes of my favorite
games—and I do own a copy of OmegaRuby thanks to a
friend—I never played them because they just didn't feel
like they had anything I wanted. Even the epic battle with
your true rival Wally, getting a unique backdrop and its
own music track, just couldn't get me to play. Then I lost
interest in owning Nintendo consoles and handhelds
entirely, and that's where I left off.
I still love the Pokémon themselves, and the concepts, but
GameFreak's push toward more of the online spaces and DLCs
just killed any chance of me continuing to play newer
games. I still go back to the old entries, but...there's
nothing for me past Gen 5. Really past Gen 4, considering
how amazingly well-made and feature-packed HeartGold and
SoulSilver were in comparison to its successors. The
PokéWalkers, the Pokéthlon minigames, the unique
Safari Zone... All of that just got dropped for
competitive online battling and eSports.
But, I still have access to older games, and that means I
can still have my fun while others enjoy the newer games.
And now that I have at least some understanding of
Japanese, I can enjoy the first games a bit more. Move
over, drunk old man. There's a MissingNo out there ready
to be slapped down by my Clefable.
