ポケットモンスター (Pokémon)

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.