33 years old and just discovered Pokemon - Where to Start?

[marlowe221]

Marlowe221 You absolutly must start with Pokemon Red or Blue for the original gameboy they are by far amazing. Now if you want something a little newer I'm sure you already know you can do leaf green or fire red they are remakes of the original. You really dont need to worry about Yellow since i feel its the same as Red and Blue but more geared toward people who watched the tv series and wanted to emulate ash ketchum all that junk. So if you enjoy the TV series hit Yellow if not just forget it. The emulator for them are great if your not able to find them for cheap. I have yet too (but im trying to find complete in box versions so ) Yea but after that Silver and Gold are great (or its remakes yet i havn't played them so i cant really recommend them) Its a great series but the originals just have this magic that is hard to explain. Goodluck and Enjoy

That may be good advice. I am 12 hours into the new Alpha Sapphire and.... there is a lot going on in this game. There a TON of items and I'm not really sure what I need and what I don't need so I am just keeping everything. My pokemon are learning new moves and having to forget others and I don't really know which are worth keeping or getting rid of for that matter.

I started with the water pokemon but am beginning to wish I had started with the grass one since I am always going up against Team Alpha who is pretty water oriented. I am enjoying the game but there are a lot of mechanics that I don't really understand.

Btw, does anyone know if the GB/GBC games got a lot of bootlegs like GBA/DS?

[noiseredux]

I never watched the show, but I enjoyed Yellow quite a bit.

[Tanooki]

Yes the GB/GBC games are bootlegged, but from what I've seen they're very obvious fakes since I guess the large majority of them were made when pirates cared less or had less quality knockoff making materials on hand. The GBA stuff is the most worrisome if you really can't spot one with a really high quality image or in person. I'm not really up on DS frauds, sure they exist, but Nintendo found ways to lock those out and GBA titles too with system updates.

And yes the newest games are overwhelming. The guides made for the games over they years only really started getting thicker in the last generation or two. The latest is over an inch thick, and you can get it hard bound or not but it's phonebook depth in size. Again why I recommended balance with FireRed/LeafGreen as the basics are all intact with just some modern fluff in to bring them up to 2001~ standards.

[marlowe221]

And yes the newest games are overwhelming. The guides made for the games over they years only really started getting thicker in the last generation or two. The latest is over an inch thick, and you can get it hard bound or not but it's phonebook depth in size. Again why I recommended balance with FireRed/LeafGreen as the basics are all intact with just some modern fluff in to bring them up to 2001~ standards.

I am definitely in the market for a copy of FR/LG.

This weekend I did happen to find a decent deal on a copy of Soul Silver in the case so I decided to go ahead and grab it since that one seems to go for a pretty penny.

I think I may keep plowing ahead in Alpha Sapphire though. I have made a lot of progress in the game (5 out of 8 gym badges now). It would be nice to have the grass-type starter as I don't find Marshtomp to be all that great, but I'm not sure I want to play the whole game over again either.

[Tanooki]

I wouldn't, it would be a waste of time at this point being more than 1/2 through the badges. Just be aware going back the complexity drops, but that could end up being a plus since you get the fun of the hunt with less of the baggage.

[darsparx]

That may be good advice. I am 12 hours into the new Alpha Sapphire and.... there is a lot going on in this game. There a TON of items and I'm not really sure what I need and what I don't need so I am just keeping everything. My pokemon are learning new moves and having to forget others and I don't really know which are worth keeping or getting rid of for that matter.

I started with the water pokemon but am beginning to wish I had started with the grass one since I am always going up against Team Alpha who is pretty water oriented. I am enjoying the game but there are a lot of mechanics that I don't really understand.

Btw, does anyone know if the GB/GBC games got a lot of bootlegs like GBA/DS?

With items usually it's a good idea to keep stocked on potions, and antidotes(some of the others are nice but I usually had problems with poison more often). Then moves usually it shouldn't be too hard to decide since in most cases that I recall they are usually upgrades of previous moves and sometimes it's best to just skip certain moves(some are just a waste of space though I wish they'd expand it to over 4 moves after this long ).


I'm still contemplating getting the new ruby/sapphire even though I still think emerald back on gba was much much better...

[Key-Glyph]

Catching up on old threads.

And yes the newest games are overwhelming.

It's kind of a relief to see other people saying this. I thought maybe I'd hit some kind of wall where I was just too old to comfortably hold all the information in my head. Although I guess that could still be true.

I enjoyed Y all right, but it felt like for every task I wanted to accomplish the game was constructed to compel to get three other things squared away first. I'd feed my hungry pokémon, which was nice, but then they'd be bored, so I'd play with them -- which would make them hungry again. I had to come up with the precise order of caring for my party members (pet, play, feed) so that each subsequent action didn't detract from the work I'd already done. Then I'd realize I'd sunk a half hour into this routine care just because I felt bad that one of my pokémon was dreaming about cupcakes. It felt like a lot of busywork. Optional busywork, yes, but it really felt like something I was supposed to do. Alas, I am easily emotionally manipulated by the needs of my digital dependents.

I think another thing that overwhelms me about the newer games is that most of the mini-games and connectivity don't quite make sense in-universe. Or was I just not paying attention? You've got Super Training, but where is that even occurring? In a pokémon's pokéball? Then there's a sports stadium component whose premise seemed out of the blue (again, where is this taking place?), "O-Powers" to bestow upon online strangers, decorations to put around some limbo parlor room where my pokémon are somehow meeting and chatting with other trainers' pokémon... I guess it's just difficult for me to get a handle on this stuff because I don't see how it all connects together in the story. I guess too many of the gameplay mechanics acknowledged that I was using a 3DS and playing a game to successfully sustain my immersion.

Gold/Silver made sense to me. I have a cell phone and those worthy of my number can call me on it. In Heartgold/Soulsilver my pokémon can compete in sports events if they want to, and there's an actual physical arena we visit for that. And so on.

Or, I am old.

I just want to clarify that I'm not actually complaining about the newer games; I'm just seconding that I feel overwhelmed by them and interested to know I'm not alone.

[Tanooki]

I don't think it's age, it's Nintendo being stuck. They are in this spot where they're expected to keep pumping them out, but so people will buy them and feel justified for it, they keep having to add yet more pocket monsters, more areas, more optional and non-optional fluff, and so on. It's to the point now you more or less need to solely dedicate to learning the game and it being THE game and only game you focus on if you want to actually win at it let alone complete the stories involved. It's getting into this cuddly skyrim or whatever type thing where it's so big you can just do this and only this and if you can't keeping up won't be fun perhaps or easy at all.

Busywork, all you said there in that second block of text is it, the game has turned into a title of not just pokemon but pokemon busywork along with just more to do in the world and more of those things to capture, though finally with the exp share not so bad to raise them at least in pocket. That next block of text, none of that much made sense to me either and the online elements I ignored as I have always done Pokemon just for the 1P experience.

I don't think any of us feeling less comfortable as Pokemon bloats up is a sign of being old, it's just the cracks showing for those with it since the 90s as they've bloated it out a lot. It is far more involved, too involved really, even as a lone player, and far more if you take it online. That's why I said the earlier GBA even some DS stuff back is where it was pushing the tops of before it just got to be too much without some big dedication.