# Chapter Select, [[S6E1 - Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen]] Transcript
This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model.
My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy.
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I'm my stomach has been giving me problems lately.
*00:00*
I don't know if I need to go see a doctor.
*00:03*
Please include this in the
*00:05*
In the expansive post in the in the pre-release show s yeah.
*00:09*
Okay.
*00:14*
I didn't know if you did or not.
*00:14*
Let's talk about my stomach problems and how I need to go to the doctor to get checked out or sort of thing.
*00:16*
Uh let me see the Pokemon so the post Pokemon TV show in English also premiered in nine
*00:22*
I would assume.
*00:30*
I wonder I wonder when in proximity to the games though.
*00:31*
So if the games came out in September 98, I mean it was all really close.
*00:37*
So the Indigo League started first started airing in 97.
*00:45*
How did they know?
*00:48*
Hold on.
*00:50*
So Pokemon Red and Blue came out in okay, February 96, and then
*00:50*
April ninety-seven was when the TV show came out initially.
*00:57*
So I wonder how long like
*01:01*
That's really surprising to me because maybe not really surprising, but it's pretty incredible that this thing came out of nowhere
*01:05*
Became like the biggest game in the world, and then fourteen months later there was also a TV show for it and stuff like that that was just in syndication and never really stopped.
*01:15*
Because like nowadays everything feels like it moves so much slower, you know?
*01:25*
It's like, oh, this thing's big now.
*01:30*
The Witcher's really popular.
*01:32*
Let's make a TV show on that.
*01:33*
And I know that's live action and stuff, so maybe it's a little different episode.
*01:35*
Got anime too.
*01:38*
You're telling me within a fourteen th fourteen month span in Japan.
*01:39*
Smash hit that then got a TV show like they had to have known behind the scenes like hey this is probably gonna be pretty popular Bro they totally
*01:51*
Bro, they totally did not skip a beat.
*02:01*
Holy crap.
*02:04*
Let me see where the first break is here.
*02:05*
Okay.
*02:08*
Original run of Pokemon TV show.
*02:09*
Uh, it ended on January 21st, 1999.
*02:12*
Literally the next week that Orange Islands season two started.
*02:15*
That ran until October.
*02:19*
Literally the week after that ended, Johto started.
*02:21*
Then that ended.
*02:23*
And then the next it like it does not like it aired every single week until there's got to be a break sum at some point
*02:24*
Dude, if we're getting into dude, it literally hasn't stopped.
*02:32*
We're into Okay, okay, they took a two-week break in between Bat Hohen and Diamond and Pearl.
*02:37*
And then
*02:45*
They took another two-week break at some point there.
*02:47*
Dude, it just never it just doesn't stop airing.
*02:53*
Why do you think it's the most successful
*02:56*
Franchise.
*03:00*
Now at the most, the only time it's the longest it's been off air is
*03:02*
Two weeks.
*03:08*
Okay, finally, you get into the gap between black and white and X and Y, and they go off the air for about a month.
*03:09*
Gas.
*03:17*
A month?
*03:18*
That's unacceptable.
*03:19*
A single month.
*03:20*
Unacceptable.
*03:22*
Yeah, dude.
*03:24*
It just it just is never not airing a new episode on a weekly basis.
*03:25*
I wonder if there's someone who has been watching every week since it started.
*03:30*
I don't know.
*03:35*
At the most it looks like there has been about two or three week gaps or a month.
*03:35*
But that's about it.
*03:40*
Between seasons.
*03:42*
It has aired it has aired nonstop pretty much since April of 1997.
*03:44*
That's pretty dope.
*03:50*
Twenty-five seasons.
*03:54*
Probably a thousand episodes or more here.
*03:58*
Uh I saw the my phone notified me and said new episode of Barry.
*04:01*
And I went, oh.
*04:07*
Barry.
*04:09*
That show.
*04:11*
I'll have to watch it next week.
*04:12*
Are you not getting screeners for those?
*04:15*
I don't think so.
*04:17*
Let me check real quick and I'll tell you.
*04:17*
And then we'll repeat.
*04:20*
That would be that's pretty dope if they're not giving the press any screeners to the last two.
*04:21*
Uh give me a m
*04:28*
AMC keeps putting out teasers for Better Call Saw.
*04:31*
They're like, it returns on July 11th.
*04:34*
Better Call Saw will honestly return so quickly for me, because this week I'm out of town.
*04:37*
Next week's Eve 3 craziness.
*04:41*
Week after I'm out of town again.
*04:44*
Week after I'm out of town again.
*04:45*
Week after I'm out of town again, I think it's just gonna be like You're so fly busy.
*04:47*
Yeah.
*04:52*
June's been busy for
*04:52*
It's all of sudden gonna be back on TV.
*04:55*
Yeah, that'll be nice.
*04:57*
I'm so excited.
*04:59*
I still want to rewatch the episode.
*05:00*
And I still haven't started Stranger Things.
*05:04*
Oh.
*05:07*
Hold on one second.
*05:11*
I'm gonna do
*05:12*
Yeah, you're you're suddenly very busy.
*05:18*
Yes.
*05:21*
You're gonna screen share in Discord?
*05:22*
Yeah.
*05:24*
Uh committing crime.
*05:27*
Still don't have it, no.
*05:30*
Got it locked up tight.
*05:33*
What I do have access to though
*05:35*
And I don't watch the show and I don't think you do either, but I got a ping in my email the other day that was like, uh You can watch all of the boys now
*05:37*
I'm like, oh I don't even watch this show, but I feel like I would try to Yeah, I was like I feel like people would try to kill me to watch this though right now.
*05:46*
I uh a friend was like, you gotta watch the boys here.
*05:55*
Let me put on an episode right now while we're hanging out instead of actually hanging out.
*05:59*
And I was pretty miserable.
*06:03*
That's like my least favorite thing when people do that.
*06:05*
They're like, you gotta watch it.
*06:08*
Let's do that.
*06:09*
This three-hour movie?
*06:11*
You gotta watch The Godfather Part 2, bro.
*06:13*
We're just gonna watch it right now.
*06:15*
It's like, oh no.
*06:16*
I like recommendations are fine, but don't force me to do it in the moment.
*06:17*
Speaking of Godfather part two, I'm actually actively watching that film.
*06:22*
Wait, what?
*06:27*
Wait, hold on.
*06:28*
Hold on.
*06:29*
You've never seen the
*06:30*
Godfather Perks.
*06:31*
No, I have.
*06:32*
Oh, okay.
*06:32*
It's just been a long time.
*06:33*
Okay.
*06:34*
I haven't seen that in a while and I just watched all The Godfather last night.
*06:41*
That's a good that's a good Sunday night.
*06:45*
It was good.
*06:49*
It's fun.
*06:50*
I like those movies.
*06:51*
I think I'm gonna play I will say I'm very much in like uh
*06:52*
Hey Gabagoul, I'm gonna shoot you up with the Tommy gun, eh?
*06:55*
Have you ever seen the Sopranos?
*06:59*
No
*07:01*
I mean I woke up this morning, got myself a gun.
*07:03*
I I c
*07:09*
I recommend it.
*07:11*
I think it's I've heard people I have like I'm in like a mob like I don't know why, but I went through my mob phase early I went through my mob phase last year.
*07:13*
I watched all the sopranos
*07:21*
I saw Goodfellas for the first time.
*07:23*
I saw um what's that Leonardo DiCaprio n um
*07:25*
Jack Nicholson.
*07:31*
Uh yeah the the Departed Departed.
*07:32*
I watched that.
*07:34*
Good fellas.
*07:35*
Did you watch the new one from Scorsese?
*07:37*
The Irishman?
*07:40*
Yes.
*07:41*
No, I did not watch The Irishman.
*07:42*
I've seen that.
*07:44*
That was a hard like three and a half hour sell for me.
*07:46*
I was like, uh it's pretty meandering too.
*07:49*
I need to be in the mood for this one.
*07:52*
What what is the other big famous
*07:53*
I also watched the Sopranos movie.
*07:56*
Casino is a pretty big one.
*07:58*
I didn't see Casino.
*08:00*
I did see Heat, which isn't necessarily mobbed related, but I saw Heat.
*08:01*
Both the Godfather movies, Goodfellas, Casino.
*08:08*
I like how you say both the Godfather movies
*08:11*
What do you think?
*08:15*
It's like one thing?
*08:16*
Oh, I don't say part three.
*08:18*
I've never seen it.
*08:20*
Have you?
*08:21*
Really?
*08:22*
You've never seen it?
*08:23*
No, I've just heard people continually be like, it's god awful, don't watch it.
*08:24*
And I'm like, okay.
*08:27*
But that's the one where they go, uh, when I thought I was out, they pull me back in
*08:28*
Yeah, I might watch it this time.
*08:33*
I might watch it this time.
*08:34*
Now I start I started part two again this morning, so I'm watching that now.
*08:36*
And I'm like, okay, maybe I'll just watch part three after this.
*08:40*
We'll just do the full saga and I can finally say I've watched them all.
*08:43*
I'm curious if
*08:46*
Paramount Plus has this, but they just did a new cut of part three.
*08:48*
They did.
*08:53*
I saw I saw that.
*08:53*
It's called and uh what's his name was the one who did it.
*08:54*
So maybe I watched the trailer for it and it was like
*08:57*
The director's true vision finally realized.
*09:01*
Like that was exactly what they said in like the advertising for it.
*09:05*
I'm like, okay, sure.
*09:08*
Yeah.
*09:10*
I'll watch this now, I guess.
*09:10*
Yeah, they have that's the version they have.
*09:11*
It's not the Godfather 3.
*09:13*
I think it's called the Godfather.
*09:15*
It's called the Godfather.
*09:17*
I just saw it last night.
*09:18*
I think it's called the Godfather C
*09:19*
Budda, yes, coda
*09:21*
The death of Michael Corleone.
*09:24*
Corleone.
*09:26*
Yeah.
*09:27*
Yeah.
*09:28*
Mario Puzo's the godfather coda, the death of Michael Corleone.
*09:28*
Wow, what a I'm interested in watching part two again though because I know people usually say part two is better, but I like part one way more.
*09:33*
Interesting personally.
*09:44*
What do you like more?
*09:46*
Oh too.
*09:47*
Well you like probably like part two because it's a little bit more.
*09:48*
Maybe I think one of the cool things about just
*09:52*
I just think more than Brando.
*09:58*
One of the like fact things about part two is uh who is it?
*10:00*
Yeah.
*10:04*
De Niro and Al Pacino like had no scene they'd had zero scenes together, so they were rarely on set, but I just find that like a fun fact.
*10:05*
Because De Niro was the young one.
*10:13*
Were you trying to think of the other guy uh the the other mobster movie?
*10:16*
I have not seen Scarface.
*10:21*
I've not seen that either.
*10:23*
Ma movies.
*10:25*
I there's one other movie I watched.
*10:27*
No, mafia movies.
*10:30*
Let's see if Google doesn't betray me here.
*10:32*
Infiltrator no.
*10:35*
Come on.
*10:38*
Gangster Squad.
*10:40*
Departed.
*10:44*
Yes.
*10:45*
It's another like Maybe I'm thinking of just the Sopranos movie.
*10:47*
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.
*10:53*
Which I saw in theaters.
*10:54*
Is there another Scorsese movie that's a mobster movie?
*10:56*
There has to be.
*10:59*
Irishman, Departed, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street.
*11:01*
Casino's the other one he did, so no.
*11:06*
I have not seen Casino.
*11:08*
I've not seen Casino either.
*11:10*
I have not seen Casimo.
*11:11*
His mobster movies I have seen that.
*11:13*
I that's in my I have that ordered.
*11:15*
Criterion's putting out a 4K master of that.
*11:17*
Uh it's in my It's okay.
*11:20*
And I I remember not liking it very much.
*11:22*
much.
*11:24*
I think maybe I watched that during like how is Scorsese involved with uncut gems?
*11:24*
Was he a producer?
*11:32*
I have no idea.
*11:34*
Yeah, I don't see anything else.
*11:37*
That's just crime.
*11:48*
Raging Bulls okay.
*11:52*
Yeah, I don't know.
*11:54*
I yeah, but I enjoyed those.
*11:55*
Good cinematography, well shot film.
*11:57*
But I don't know
*12:00*
like the story really did anything for me too much so who did uh not to get too in the weeds here but who did the other one I'm thinking
*12:01*
of.
*12:10*
Oh, that was him too, taxi driver.
*12:11*
I thought that was him, but it wasn't the joke.
*12:13*
Yeah, it wasn't popping up here.
*12:15*
It was under his credits.
*12:17*
And I was gonna say I know he did something else with De Niro, but
*12:18*
Yeah.
*12:22*
I did do my my mob my map kick was strong last year.
*12:24*
Yeah, I might watch
*12:28*
The Sopranos.
*12:31*
But this would require me to stop watching Breaking Bad, which I'm fine with.
*12:32*
Because I can't juggle both of those.
*12:36*
I can't juggle two hour long dramas.
*12:38*
I may finish watching the first season of Breaking Bad here again because I'm like f four or five episodes in.
*12:41*
I mean you only got a couple left.
*12:48*
I know it's only six episodes here.
*12:50*
Or is it seven?
*12:51*
Seven.
*12:52*
It uh Sopranos is.
*12:54*
What is it about it that's so good?
*12:58*
Is it just like shocking or It's the characters
*13:00*
In the the lifestyle, the drama.
*13:03*
Is it like one of those shows where it's like people get killed off left and right and you aren't expecting it?
*13:05*
I mean, I don't know if that obviously it's not like that.
*13:10*
It's just the characters and dynamics and
*13:13*
Inside it's it's what's in a mob movie, but detailed and expanded upon.
*13:17*
It's not just
*13:23*
He I mean the real pitch is it's it's a it's a mafia boss going to therapy.
*13:25*
I know the other pitch too is like he's a part of the mafia, but the mafia is really not a thing anymore.
*13:33*
It's like the 90s and it's like just kind of falling apart.
*13:37*
The West is dying, yeah.
*13:40*
The mafia age is dying.
*13:42*
But it
*13:44*
It is the people in the relationships and the situations they get themselves into.
*13:45*
Okay.
*13:49*
Cause yeah, I've always heard people talk so highly of that show, but they're they never specify like
*13:50*
This one part, like if you hear people say, like, dude, you gotta watch Game of Thrones.
*13:55*
The Red Wedding, oh my gosh.
*14:00*
Like there's never anything like that with like the Sopranos where they're like this one episode
*14:02*
I guess if there's one thing that everyone talks about is the ending.
*14:07*
It's the finale.
*14:10*
Yeah.
*14:11*
But it's really good.
*14:12*
I think the character of Christopher
*14:14*
Christopher, he's really great.
*14:17*
But James Gandalf yeah, he is next level.
*14:19*
A lot of the actually pretty much the entire cast is next level, but
*14:25*
It uh the Sopranos made shows like Breaking Bad possible.
*14:32*
Like it's kind of what paved the way in this era of television, so
*14:38*
Look at what this man just put out on the internet.
*14:42*
I've never seen this.
*14:45*
You didn't see No, I don't really want to.
*14:47*
Worried?
*14:52*
No, the last girl I dated was really into Bo Burm and she talked about him a lot.
*14:53*
And as you can see, I immediately think of that now.
*14:57*
I apologize, but
*15:01*
Not that it's like a sore subject, but I just think of that girl.
*15:03*
Now you're automatic Yeah, I get that.
*15:07*
It's like, oh Bo Burnham.
*15:09*
I took me this girl now.
*15:10*
It took me a very long time to get over
*15:13*
um to listen to Coldplay again.
*15:16*
Because that's yeah, I can in Maroon Five.
*15:18*
It was Coldplay and Maroon Five I could not listen to for years.
*15:23*
There are still certain uh like
*15:26*
Like very strange things that every time I get I think of uh my girlfriend from high school and college.
*15:29*
Uh that's a weird one I think of
*15:37*
Every time I go to Chick-fil-A I like to get the honey smoked barbecue sauce, you know what I'm talking about?
*15:40*
Like the one on their dressing
*15:45*
No, I don't think so.
*15:47*
Um anyway, it's one of their 5,000 condiments that they have there that you can get.
*15:49*
Anyway, the main reason I get that
*15:54*
Or got turned on to that at least was because of that girl I dated.
*15:56*
So every time I go there, I'd get that.
*15:59*
And by proxy, I every time I get it, I'm like, oh yeah, her.
*16:01*
And it's not like a sore subject or anything, but it's just like
*16:06*
People it's weird how you associate certain things with certain people.
*16:09*
Like just I associate Skyward Sword with my ex-girlfriend because she destroyed my box.
*16:14*
For Skyward Sword?
*16:20*
Yeah, like the Collector's Edition.
*16:21*
I let her borrow the I let her borrow the game.
*16:24*
And she like decided to travel with it and put it in her suitcase and it just got crushed.
*16:26*
A buddy of mine set actually has it, the box.
*16:32*
He said he was gonna he would give it to me because he doesn't care about it.
*16:34*
For some reason I associate Assassin's Creed 3 with my own girlfriend too.
*16:38*
I don't know why.
*16:42*
Oh I do know why, because I went to the midnight release and then after that I went over to her house and I was like, hey, I got this game.
*16:43*
She's like, oh cool.
*16:49*
And then we like hung out for a little bit.
*16:50*
And so now I'm Assassin's Creed 3.
*16:52*
I went to the midnight release for that game, went home, installed the game, and it took forever, and then I woke up and played it the next day.
*16:55*
That was like in high school, so I would have
*17:02*
Went and got the game, went to her place, hung out for a little bit, went home, installed it, played like the opening stuff, and I was like, where's where's the assassin man?
*17:05*
Probably went to bed at like three AM, woke up there at seven for school.
*17:14*
You're telling me you weren't invested in Desmond's story?
*17:17*
Can't say I was.
*17:21*
No.
*17:22*
Who doesn't love Desmond?
*17:22*
Or maybe I didn't play it that exact night, but I remember playing that game.
*17:23*
That was back when midnight releases were at midnight.
*17:26*
Yeah.
*17:31*
The good days.
*17:32*
Uh I liked it more.
*17:34*
Nine.
*17:36*
Yeah, as an old man, yes, but there was just something.
*17:37*
I remember the Destiny midnight launch.
*17:40*
That was a party.
*17:45*
I remember Skyrim the most.
*17:48*
They set up rock band.
*17:50*
They had like fighting games, trivia.
*17:52*
It was nuts.
*17:58*
I sang Down with the sickness.
*17:59*
I was the only one in that GameStop that would sing.
*18:03*
And I was like, I don't care.
*18:06*
I'm gonna play Destiny.
*18:07*
Whitest thing I've ever heard.
*18:08*
And I had Down with the Sickness.
*18:10*
Ooh, wa uh uh that was me.
*18:12*
Yeah, I remember Skyrim the most.
*18:14*
Cause it snowed.
*18:16*
And I was like, this is cool.
*18:18*
This is a good sign.
*18:20*
Then went home, played that game till 6 a.
*18:23*
m.
*18:25*
I think.
*18:25*
I think we had we didn't have school the next day though, because it was a Friday release for summer.
*18:27*
Eleven eleven, right?
*18:32*
It was 11-11.
*18:33*
Yeah, I think it it was a Friday release.
*18:34*
And then Uncharted 3 was 11-1-11.
*18:36*
I remember that.
*18:40*
I didn't get that until Black Friday, I want to say I bought it cheaper.
*18:41*
I got it that Christmas when I got the PS3 bundle.
*18:45*
But yeah, Skyrim, we had the day off of school the next day for some reason.
*18:48*
And yeah, stayed up.
*18:55*
Stayed up to like six, went to bed, woke up at like nine or ten, played more.
*18:57*
Went over to my friend's house, played more.
*19:02*
Yeah, that was the night we all grouped up in one of my friends' basements and we all had separate TVs and we just were all playing Skyrim on different TVs.
*19:06*
It was a Friday, so yeah, you would have just got the game played
*19:13*
I think I played like thirty hours that first weekend of that game.
*19:19*
Remember when we could do that?
*19:25*
Now that sounds miserable.
*19:27*
Now it's like oh my gosh.
*19:28*
But yeah, back then that's what you've lived for.
*19:33*
Yeah.
*19:36*
I don't know.
*19:37*
I guess the last game I was even close to that was the last was part two.
*19:38*
Cause I got it three days early and basically beat it within that uh stretch.
*19:44*
Those were like our sessions
*19:51*
So, and I'm sure whatever they put out next that's new, I'll be like that too.
*19:55*
Alright, we've talked so long, and now I have to pee.
*20:02*
Let me pee, and then we will seriously start.
*20:06*
Yeah, we'll seriously do it.
*20:08*
Yeah
*20:09*
Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series of games exploring their evolution, design, and legacy.
*20:10*
For the season we are covering
*20:21*
Pokemon.
*20:24*
We are finally doing a really big season with a lot of games.
*20:24*
I am one of your hosts, Max Roberts, and I am joined as always by Logan Moore.
*20:30*
Hi Logan.
*20:35*
Hi.
*20:36*
Uh yeah, this is definitely our biggest venture to date so far with this show.
*20:37*
Uh doing all the Pokemon games.
*20:43*
We talked about all the way back in season one with Paper Mario how
*20:45*
Uh that was pretty uh that was that was a somewhat of a tall task in the moment to play that many like fifteen to twenty-ish hour games in a row there.
*20:50*
And this time we're doing Pokemon, which are all about
*20:59*
What twenty to thirty hours of pop, if not more, depending on how much we're going to play.
*21:02*
Yeah, so that's about between two and three hundred hours of gameplay alone.
*21:07*
For sure.
*21:11*
But it's gonna be fun.
*21:12*
Yeah, I I think it will.
*21:14*
This is this is I think one of the first ones we kind of had an idea for when we started doing chapter select a couple years back, but we just realized it would be a tall order to do it.
*21:15*
Uh so we've been
*21:27*
Preparing for this and we're ready to go, and we hope that you enjoy uh this episode that we've got here for you today, which is going to be all about uh fire red and leaf green, which is what we are dubbing
*21:28*
The first gen this time around.
*21:39*
Is the first gen.
*21:42*
It is the first gen.
*21:43*
Uh so I know a lot of people we talked about this in our episode introducing the season, structuring the season this time around with Pokemon in such a way that
*21:44*
Uh the remakes are the ones we're going to play predominantly rather than the the original games and we have access to I guess red, blue, and yellow via like what
*21:53*
3ds eShop would have been the easiest way to play those games if we wanted to play them in their original states.
*22:03*
Or even I guess our analog pockets if we wanted to do that.
*22:08*
Right, yeah.
*22:11*
I've still got my blue cart.
*22:12*
But yeah, we decided to do the remakes uh just because we feel like it gets a lot of the core elements of what we want to talk about with these games in a
*22:14*
fresher state.
*22:21*
Um we still ended up relying on our analog pockets this time around to play fire red and leaf green.
*22:22*
I think we'll talk about that maybe here in a bit.
*22:27*
But yeah, so we're playing fire red and leaf green, and this is our gen one.
*22:29*
No let's go, no red, blue, or yellow original.
*22:33*
But I think a lot of the things we have to talk about here will be, you know.
*22:36*
Is represented in those other versions of these games as well.
*22:41*
Exactly.
*22:44*
That being said, let's get into the history of
*22:45*
Fire, red, and leaf green or red, blue, and yellow.
*22:49*
It's hard it's hard to say.
*22:51*
We're playing fire red and leaf green, so we're gonna call it fire red and leaf green from this point onward.
*22:52*
Right.
*22:56*
But the the history of the original Pokemon gen, the OG 151.
*22:56*
For sure.
*23:01*
And we will list here the other we do want to list since this is a remake we're playing, we we do we do want to acknowledge all the different people that played a part in creating this game in any sort of fashion.
*23:01*
So we will be acknowledging all of them here.
*23:10*
That being said, uh every version of this initial Pokemon generation has been developed by Game Freak over the years.
*23:12*
It is released across Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and the Nintendo Switch.
*23:19*
Uh the original release date in the United States we should specify for red and blue was on September twenty-eighth, nineteen ninety-eight
*23:24*
Uh Fire Red and Leaf Green came out roughly six years later on September 9th, 2004, and then Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu, and Eevee released on November 16th, 2018.
*23:31*
The original game director on Red, Blue, and Yellow was Satoshi Tajiri, and then Junichi Masuda, who is kind of the Pokemon
*23:44*
Wonder Kind uh ended up being the director on Fire Red, Leaf Green, and Let's Go.
*23:53*
Uh so he has done pretty much everything Pokemon
*23:58*
Since then, which is kind of interesting that we'll get into.
*24:01*
The producers on the original games were Shigeru Miyamoto, who I think we all know.
*24:04*
It's interesting to see him pop up there on those original games.
*24:09*
Takashi Kawaguchi and Sunikazu Ishihara.
*24:13*
The producers on Fire Run Leaf Green were Hiroyuki Janai, Takahiro Izuchi, and Hirowaki Su
*24:18*
And then on Let's Go, the producers were Shigeru Omori, uh Hitoshi Yamagami, and Akira Kinashi.
*24:26*
And then the composer for all of these games, because obviously the music is recycled through all of them, even though it's a little bit different each version, is once again Junichi Masuda.
*24:35*
The Metacritic score for Fire Red and Leaf Green, they each scored at an 81 out of 100.
*24:46*
The Let's Go games scored an 80 out of 100 on Metacritic.
*24:52*
And then Red, Blue, and Yellow were
*24:57*
Too early on before Metacritic really started aggregating scores, so there's really not a lot of data on how those games scored
*25:00*
Based on the cursory research we did though, a lot of them were 10 out of 10s, or at least IGNs we know was for sure.
*25:08*
IGN gave it 10 out of 10, uh the EGM issue.
*25:14*
Uh let's see, one of the scores was nine, nine, eight, eight, nine, definitely up top.
*25:19*
You know, this is an upper echelon of games.
*25:27*
EGM wasn't uh so cavalier with those high scores, I don't believe, as far as I remember it.
*25:30*
It the original games ranked very, very highly.
*25:35*
They sold
*25:39*
millions of copies.
*25:41*
Yeah.
*25:42*
I I think and I think that kind of sets the stage for what I wanted to say here, which is we're gonna talk about each of our own personal histories and experiences with these games.
*25:43*
And and I I want to keep most of the conversation on fire red leaf green, since that is what we have played.
*25:53*
But I feel like for this episode in particular, it's almost impossible to do that.
*25:58*
Because at least for me, I d I don't know if you I know your Pokemon story is a little bit different, but it's almost impossible to talk about Gen 1 Pokemon here without talking about
*26:02*
Like how we each got into Pokemon initially.
*26:12*
Because for me, I was very much in at the ground floor when this came to the United States and
*26:15*
Pokemania started running wild here.
*26:20*
Um and I can talk about that.
*26:23*
I don't know if the same is for you.
*26:25*
What what's your kind of your own history with not only Fire Red and Leaf Green, but maybe the original games as well?
*26:26*
So my history with po Logan, you've heard this story before.
*26:32*
We I've shared this on podcast before.
*26:35*
I think I even produced like a vlog of it.
*26:37*
But I'll share it here for posterity as we get ready to play a whole season of Pokemon games.
*26:39*
But
*26:44*
The only Pokemon games I have ever played before starting this season was Blue and Diamond and Platinum.
*26:45*
And that's it.
*26:53*
And the reason for that is as a kid, I had blue, I had the toys, the cards, watched the show, you know, all of it.
*26:55*
I remember I probably was in kindergarten on the bus, uh living in Ohio, so it would have been around five years old, and I missed my stop because I was like trading Pokemon cards with the kids in the back.
*27:03*
The bus driver made me wait on the bus while she dropped every other kid off and then took me home.
*27:16*
Never m and then she made me sit behind her for the rest of uh the school year.
*27:22*
Uh yeah, uh still traumatized to this day from that.
*27:26*
But then uh playing so much Pokemon Blue, I think my parents thought I was obsessed with it, which I probably was.
*27:30*
It was probably an unhealthy obsession, not really dealt in moderation.
*27:38*
And so their response to this was to make me get rid of everything.
*27:41*
uh the games, the toys were thrown away, but the real kicker was they took all my Pokemon cards and made me shred them.
*27:44*
Like put them in the paper shredder one by one.
*27:52*
I have since, you know, I send them articles every time a Pokemon card sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars because I know I had that card, and I'm a stickler for keeping things in pretty nice condition.
*27:56*
But around the eight, I was getting ready to turn 13 was when Pokemon Diamond came out.
*28:07*
And I
*28:15*
made the case to my parents I was old enough to play Pokemon again.
*28:16*
This was also in tandem with the Legend of Zelda because I couldn't play Zelda as a kid either because Link's Awakening had a witch.
*28:19*
So I pleaded my case and I got diamond and ranger for my 13th birthday because the ranger was the only way you could get a mana fee in the game.
*28:27*
And so
*28:35*
That's like the my whole history of Pokemon is summed up there because after Platinum I did get X.
*28:37*
I played maybe ten hours of that
*28:44*
but I haven't played or really beaten anything since then.
*28:47*
And with Leaf Green specifically, I remember so I'm gonna say Leaf Green 'cause that's what I played and I'm sure Logan will say Fire Red because that's what he played.
*28:52*
No, I had Leaf Green originally.
*29:01*
Is what I did?
*29:03*
Okay.
*29:04*
I but I remember seeing that game all the time at Target behind the glass, and it was cool because it came with the wireless receiver and all that stuff.
*29:05*
So I remember Leaf Green
*29:13*
At the store, I just never owned it.
*29:15*
So But Blue I played a ton.
*29:17*
I was doing the Mew Glitch.
*29:21*
I remember I didn't save before trying the Mew Glitch and I screwed it up.
*29:23*
That's when I learned to always save before you try something.
*29:26*
And then like before I moved uh out of Indiana, I bought a blue cart from a friend for five bucks.
*29:29*
And I kept it hidden from my parents so that I would uh
*29:35*
you know, wouldn't get taken away from me.
*29:40*
So Yeah.
*29:42*
But that's me.
*29:44*
I yeah.
*29:45*
Pokemon and me have a wild ride.
*29:46*
This is making me want to line up the dates here, and I I don't I I probably can't do it in uh real time, but maybe later I can try to look into it a little bit more.
*29:49*
But anyway, I I'll I'll explain what I was talking about there in a second.
*29:58*
Um
*30:01*
Yeah, for me, like I said, I I was on the ground floor of when this all started to pop off.
*30:02*
At least in some sense.
*30:08*
So
*30:09*
Uh when Pokemon really started to get big, my exposure to it was through the TV show.
*30:10*
I remember the TV show airing on
*30:16*
Uh what would now be the CW, but back then it was WB or kids WB and they had that uh programming block in the early afternoons and I used to get uh out of school, I wanna say, out of like kindergarten or something like that, like
*30:19*
I don't know, early afternoon, one or two, so I'd get home and Pokemon would be airing there in the afternoon.
*30:31*
And I distinctly remember watching like the first episode or two of the show.
*30:36*
I was just immediately hooked on it.
*30:40*
Uh I I was not really aware that it was a video game or anything like that.
*30:42*
I just knew it was the TV show.
*30:46*
And my parents I think had heard of it though because it just became this huge phenomenon.
*30:48*
And I got really into it from there, which led to me getting into the Pokemon cards.
*30:54*
And then eventually I was like, well, well, hey, I w I wanna I wanna play the game.
*30:58*
I know the game's a thing, too.
*31:02*
Um And so eventually
*31:04*
In I actually think I got into the cards before I got into the game, which is kind of interesting, uh, because I want to say Christmas nineteen ninety-nine
*31:07*
would have been when I finally got it because that was the year I believe that I got yeah that was my big Pokemon Christmas.
*31:18*
So all on the same Christmas I got
*31:24*
A Game Boy Color, a yellow Game Boy Color, I got a Charizard Pokemon card, and I got like a bunch of like
*31:26*
uh episodes of the show on like VHS and stuff like that.
*31:34*
Like this was my pokey Christmas.
*31:37*
So my my parents talk about this still and it is probably one of the best Christmases I've ever had in my life.
*31:39*
I got the Game Boy color though, but I did not get yellow for some reason.
*31:45*
And I think I've told you this story before, too.
*31:50*
It's it immediately has come back to me.
*31:52*
I think so we had our
*31:54*
uh Christmas uh I want to say a couple days before actual Christmas and then we're going to my grandparents for real Christmas.
*31:56*
And so I get my Game Boy and I got a couple other games with it.
*32:02*
And I was like, okay cool, but like
*32:06*
I clearly wanted Pokemon.
*32:07*
Where's Pokemon?
*32:09*
What the heck?
*32:09*
And so like we go to Blockbuster and I see it there on the on the shelf.
*32:10*
I'm like, hey, uh I want to rent Pokemon Yellow Dad.
*32:14*
And he's like
*32:17*
No, I don't think we should rent that right now.
*32:17*
You you won't be able to read it.
*32:19*
There's too much text in it.
*32:20*
Blah blah blah blah blah.
*32:21*
And like I was pretty smart as a kid and I think I was like already reading at this point.
*32:22*
I was like, I I think I'll be fine.
*32:26*
Like
*32:28*
I would have only been what?
*32:29*
We would have been five, you and I both.
*32:31*
If it was in ninety-eight or it was ninety-nine.
*32:33*
And then ninety-nine would have been red.
*32:39*
Oh you did yellow
*32:41*
Yellow was what I got.
*32:42*
Yeah, because my exposure was through the TV show and that was what I ended up getting.
*32:43*
So long story short, anyway, we go to my grandparents and then they're like, here's your Christmas present, and I open it up and it's Pokemon Yellow.
*32:47*
And I'm like, oh duh.
*32:53*
This is why they
*32:54*
He wouldn't let me rent this game from Blockbuster.
*32:55*
It all makes sense now.
*32:57*
In hindsight, that was a terrible strategy, because that was the thing I wanted the most.
*32:58*
And it they separated the
*33:02*
console from the game.
*33:04*
It should have been anyway.
*33:05*
Uh so I got yellow and I played that.
*33:07*
I want to say I was like stuck for the longest time in the early hours of this game because the first gym
*33:10*
Like we're gonna talk a little bit about how I think these games are kind of difficult, especially by modern standards, but yellow is especially difficult because Pikachu just gets rocked out of the gate by literally rocks by Brock.
*33:16*
That first gym is so hard if you start with Fikachu.
*33:29*
It it is extremely difficult.
*33:32*
Um So me as a kid, I was just getting trashed by Brock there at the beginning.
*33:34*
Anyway, I think I eventually beat the game.
*33:39*
I I can't remember exactly.
*33:41*
Um jump forward to fire and leaf green.
*33:44*
I'll talk about this for a second.
*33:46*
So
*33:47*
Had a Game Boy, was huge into Ruby and Sapphire.
*33:48*
The remakes come out.
*33:51*
I want to say I got fire red and leaf green like the day it came out.
*33:52*
I want to say it came out
*33:56*
I don't know if it came out on a Friday, but it I got it that Friday of that week because I remember getting it, walking out of the store, immediately opening it up, throwing it in my Game Boy
*33:58*
advanced because I had it on me all the time.
*34:07*
I don't think I ever left anywhere and didn't have my Game Boy Advance SP on me.
*34:09*
I didn't either.
*34:13*
And I was just immediately playing it and we went next door and we were walking around
*34:14*
Barnes and Noble and the the thing the thing that I wanted to say that I wanted to try to line up and figure out the dates is I remember going next door and I also bought some new Ultimate Spider-Man trade paperbacks that had come out.
*34:18*
Um, because I was reading Ultimate Spider-Man at this point in time as well.
*34:30*
So I just remember I just remember it's intrinsically linked in my brain that I bought Pokemon Leaf Green.
*34:34*
And then I went next door to Barnes Noble and I bought a bunch of Ultimate Spider-Man comics and I went home and I read the comics and played the game and huzzah.
*34:40*
I I looked up the date.
*34:48*
So it's September 9th of 2004.
*34:50*
That was a Thursday.
*34:53*
That's weird.
*34:55*
I definitely got I definitely got the Friday after school the following day then.
*34:57*
So you were on sure.
*35:01*
But it's so
*35:03*
Thursday?
*35:04*
Yeah.
*35:05*
Weird.
*35:07*
So yeah, and then I played it I I I guess the final thing I'll say as far as my history with Fire and Leaf Green in particular
*35:08*
This is probably the Pokemon game I've played the most.
*35:15*
Um I have this game's structure kind of imprinted
*35:18*
in my brain permanently somewhere.
*35:24*
Um this is not a game I need to consult a guide for or know where any Pokemon are.
*35:27*
I can tell you every patch of grass in this game, what type of Pokemon are in it.
*35:32*
uh where you need to find certain things.
*35:36*
I guess I don't know each of the version exclusives and stuff like that, but darn near everything in this game I feel like I know for the most part in some sort of way.
*35:39*
Because I I just used to I used to play through this game, dump my Pokemon off onto Diamond and Pearl, and then just restart it and start playing more.
*35:49*
Because I didn't like Diamond and Pearl that much, even though it was the
*35:58*
new ones, so I kept going back to the Game Boy Advanced ones and replaying them a lot.
*36:01*
So yeah, I I played the heck out of this game.
*36:05*
I did my fair share of blue as a kid.
*36:09*
And I think a lot of that translates to f leave green here.
*36:12*
Even gosh, how many years later?
*36:16*
I don't know.
*36:18*
Yeah, it's it's a bit a long time.
*36:19*
Yeah.
*36:21*
It's it's funny though that like
*36:21*
2004, this game came out, and uh I'm I'm more focused on like the ultimate Spider-Man part of this where it's like, wow, I was really reading Spider-Man comics when I was like eight to ten years old and like
*36:24*
Now this is more under s like I was the kid who was bringing those comics into school.
*36:35*
This is a whole different tangent on Marvel, but you gotta realize we were living in a
*36:39*
time period where this stuff was not normal.
*36:43*
I was not probably a normal kid my age being like, oh cool, new Spider-Man comics are available.
*36:45*
I'm gonna buy these now.
*36:50*
Nowadays, yeah, maybe that's kind of normal, but
*36:51*
Back then I'd take Spider-Man comics to school and kids would be like, what are you reading?
*36:54*
What is that?
*36:58*
And I'm like, oh, Spider-Man.
*36:59*
Spider-Man, come on, don't you know?
*37:00*
And now you know about how I am, how I am
*37:02*
Max, okay, so let's talk more specifically about fire run leap green here.
*37:05*
Um I I guess the first jumping off point with our discussion this episode is just
*37:09*
These games launched a whole series, uh, and we'll get into the legacy talk about this like we do with in every episode here, more towards the end.
*37:16*
But it's almost hard not to
*37:23*
uh at least touch on it a little bit up front because all the core pillars of what the Pokemon series have been and what they would become, whether you know
*37:25*
You gotta run around the this given world and catch Pokemon and train them up and fight eight gym leaders and then go to the Pokemon Championship and then you've got a rival and there's a professor.
*37:34*
Like all these like core things that have
*37:45*
been have now become synonymous with with synonymous with Pokemon and are in every entry in the series, all started here.
*37:47*
And I I I guess maybe just to start the conversation off myself, playing these games now
*37:54*
Um again fire red and leaf green are a little bit newer by comparison, but the this series is 25 years old now, getting close to 30, and I don't feel like the structure is aged by modern standards.
*38:00*
Like in the slightest really.
*38:14*
Like I I feel like these games are still pretty accessible nowadays and feel
*38:16*
I don't wanna say I don't know if I wanna say relevant, but it it doesn't feel that old to me.
*38:22*
Like I I don't know.
*38:27*
And again, maybe that's just my own blindness because I've played this so many tim this game so many times and I know so much about it, but I I really feel like this holds up
*38:28*
surprisingly well for a game that's pushing twenty to twenty-five years.
*38:37*
I think that stems from
*38:41*
It being a d you know, kid's first JRPG.
*38:45*
Yeah.
*38:50*
It's this I mean Final Fantasy is
*38:51*
You build a team and you fight enemies and you level up and things like that.
*38:55*
It's the same mechanics just with monsters that you take with you all the time.
*38:59*
And these monsters are cool and you can name them and they have special abilities.
*39:03*
And all that sort of stuff, and it it captured the audience.
*39:06*
And then you have characters and things.
*39:09*
So I think that's part of why it still feels relevant because the JRPG isn't irrelevant at this time.
*39:11*
Yeah, like this very much boils down a lot of the core pillars of what RPGs are, I think.
*39:20*
Um especially with the grind, which I don't think is something that we see a whole lot of
*39:27*
nowadays in most RPGs, whether they be turn-based ones or even uh action-centered RPGs, but there is like a grinding element to this game and uh in a in a in a progression of
*39:33*
You feel yourself getting better over time, which is the thing that I like the most about this game.
*39:44*
Right.
*39:49*
There's improvement over time.
*39:50*
Which is satisfying.
*39:52*
And I mean I guess I can I'll I'll say this up front, and this is probably gonna be a refrain that you hear me say, I don't even know how many times over the course of this season.
*39:54*
We'll and we'll see if my opinion changes as the season progresses.
*40:02*
here, but uh something I love about these old Pokemon games is that there is like an intrinsic challenge to it to a degree.
*40:06*
Like you there is a you feel a personal connection to the Pokemon that you are training.
*40:14*
A little bit more because I feel like these games are difficult to a certain degree.
*40:19*
And that's not to say that any Pokemon games later on after this weren't difficult, but I do feel like at some point in the series, maybe around
*40:24*
the 3DS era.
*40:33*
Specifically I I wan I wanna say like X and Y was the first time that I really thought in my own head.
*40:35*
And again, I know you haven't played these games, but X and Y personally is the first time I was like, wow, I don't feel really challenged here in any regard.
*40:39*
Um these older games though there is like an element of grinding, but it's done in such a way that is
*40:46*
Typically satisfying to me?
*40:54*
I don't know.
*40:56*
How how did you feel about that?
*40:56*
Because I know our experiences kind of differed, especially once we got to the Elite Four and stuff like that.
*40:57*
I looking at my notes under gameplay, I have words.
*41:03*
Words that stand out to me.
*41:08*
Grueling.
*41:10*
Struggle.
*41:14*
That's what happens when you run out of PP on all your moves.
*41:15*
You struggle.
*41:17*
Very good.
*41:19*
Very good.
*41:20*
Um what other some difficulty curves.
*41:21*
Yeah, I this game is hard.
*41:27*
And I didn't think it was going to be hard, especially given that I at least have played a version of this game.
*41:30*
But I was hard.
*41:38*
I was having a very tough time and I was getting pretty frustrated.
*41:40*
Let me ask this on your behalf.
*41:44*
Um, because I know we we're actually gonna release an episode about this that you can listen to
*41:46*
uh as part of bonus content if you're sc subscribe to this season where I kind of talk about my own process of putting teams together before I play each one of these games.
*41:51*
Um
*42:00*
And that's one thing I do ahead of time, just to give you a peek behind the curtain, to make sure that I have somewhat of a balanced team, that I'm prepared to take on maybe anything that comes at me in any situation, no matter what typing might be uh
*42:00*
Dispatched against me?
*42:14*
I know you mentioned Dami, I want to say when you got to the final battle against quote unquote Gary or whoever you whatever you name your rival's name in the Logan.
*42:15*
Yeah, you named yours Logan, I name mine Max.
*42:24*
Yes.
*42:26*
But anyway, yeah, I know you mentioned like, oh, this Alakazam that he has is like destroying my whole team right now.
*42:27*
And like, I think your team was pretty weak against psychic types based on what I remember.
*42:33*
Maybe you have you did have some weaknesses there to psychic types.
*42:38*
Do you feel like your own
*42:41*
experience in this game was amplified by the fact that it maybe you didn't have a super balanced team, or was it just the fact that the game was just hard?
*42:43*
Or you didn't really know what type of team you wanted to put together until maybe
*42:51*
Very late in the game, whereas I kind of had a good idea of the Pokemon I wanted to look to catch and immediately start training up pretty early on.
*42:55*
My
*43:06*
My team really I kind of knew like three of them going through the game.
*43:08*
And then the the remaining three were
*43:13*
this weird just odjpodge.
*43:16*
And by the time I got to the Elite Four, I had to completely pivot and go catch a few legendary birds.
*43:19*
Simply because I just didn't have high enough levels.
*43:24*
And it wasn't even that I was avoiding fights.
*43:26*
I did every trainer fight I came across.
*43:28*
I wasn't
*43:32*
You know, my typical strategy in RPGs is to avoid combat, which usually bites me in the butt.
*43:33*
Look at Persona 5.
*43:39*
I couldn't beat that.
*43:41*
Final boss without dropping it to easy.
*43:42*
Yeah, I had to drop it to easy because I just couldn't do it.
*43:44*
And I wasn't gonna grind it out.
*43:46*
I'm not, I guess I'm just not a big fan of grinding in general, but
*43:48*
I'm like in the upper 40s and the Elite Four and the mid 50s and they're kicking my teeth in.
*43:55*
And I was I need to go catch Moltres and Zapdos to deal with
*44:01*
Some of the types I'm going to encounter here simply so I have something close to 50 to help carry my team a little bit.
*44:07*
And it's
*44:14*
I think that's part of it, a lack of intentional vision.
*44:16*
I wasn't really planning on catching the birds.
*44:20*
I except Moltres because
*44:23*
I thought Moltres would still be on Victory Road.
*44:25*
Did you use your master ball on Moltres?
*44:27*
I know you mentioned that you were thinking of doing it.
*44:29*
No, I well, no, I use an Ultra Bowl.
*44:31*
It was funny, I complained to you that I couldn't catch Moltres.
*44:34*
And then the next through caught him.
*44:38*
Cause he had one health and was paralyzed.
*44:40*
And I was like, come on, this is
*44:42*
This should be a 100% success rate.
*44:46*
I didn't, but I thought I would be able to use my master ball on mute too, but
*44:49*
didn't get the opportunity to do that.
*44:54*
And we can talk about that later.
*44:56*
But I I do think part of it was just a lack of vision.
*44:58*
I kept like a level twelve sand shrew around for a really long time.
*45:01*
Uh because of cut?
*45:05*
Because of cut and um I think I gave Gyarado strength.
*45:07*
I wasn't I tried leveling up my team pretty consistently, so I didn't have one major
*45:13*
power Pokemon that was just cleaning up everyone.
*45:20*
I remember as a kid my Venusaur was level 70 or whatever, and it was just like blowing through everything.
*45:23*
It didn't really matter type necessarily.
*45:30*
And so I think because I was doing an even cadence and s leveling up is slow, I didn't feel like leveling up was very f
*45:33*
fast in this game at all.
*45:41*
You're getting 200 XP.
*45:42*
It depends on who you have, yeah.
*45:44*
Cause some cause some level if you keep them I I know you mentioned this because you were talking about how you were
*45:46*
wanting to get a Dragonite at one point.
*45:51*
You're like, oh, but I'm not gonna let my Dratini evolve into a Dragonair, so that the XP that it gets s
*45:53*
levels it up faster.
*45:59*
And that is that was a part of it.
*46:00*
And it learned Hyper Beam uh a Dratini learns hyper beam at level fifty five instead of level seventy something for Dragonite.
*46:01*
So it's like this is a 20 level difference.
*46:08*
I can't
*46:10*
Like I can't give that up.
*46:11*
Yeah, there are some weird things with the older games like that, um, for sure.
*46:12*
And that's not true across the board for every Pokemon, but there are some like
*46:17*
uh differences like that where if you just stunt their growth it almost works out better in your favor in some instances.
*46:21*
But yeah, I mean so I mentioned this, but I think again, just the way I play these games is like
*46:27*
Borderline Obsessive, so so I know ahead of time which Pokemon I want to capture and which Pokemon from the early stages I want to start training.
*46:35*
And I go out of my way to ensure that I can train them.
*46:42*
And that I'm pretty well balanced.
*46:46*
Like this time around I got to the Elite Four and I was pretty well equipped to face them right away.
*46:47*
Uh but I do I do totally agree with you in this sense um
*46:52*
faced everything in the game, faced every trainer, faced every gym leader, faced pretty much any person I could find prior to the Elite Four.
*46:57*
And I still rolled up with a team that I want to say was like
*47:06*
roughly about level 45 on all six of the Pokemon in my party.
*47:09*
That was probably the median level that I had there.
*47:15*
And then you get in into these fights and they've all got
*47:19*
First chicks thrown out level 50 Pokemon, and you're like, okay, wow.
*47:22*
And then you get the and they and it scales through all the five people you have to face.
*47:25*
I think by the time you get to like the
*47:30*
Um you get to Gary and he's got like level 60 something Pokemon for sure.
*47:32*
Or in my case it was Charizard was my sixties.
*47:36*
Yeah, for sure.
*47:40*
And you and you are not gaining ten levels between the start of the Elite Four and the E.
*47:41*
You are gaining maybe two.
*47:46*
So it spikes really
*47:48*
Crazy at the end.
*47:50*
I and I always have found that the Elite Four is pretty unbalanced in that regard.
*47:51*
But I appreciate the challenge of it.
*47:56*
Um
*47:58*
But at the same time it's it's straight up not something that you can do unless you go to the Mart and you just pack up on potions and revives.
*47:59*
And you just prepare in advance and you know that it's a gauntlet and you're going into this gauntlet and
*48:09*
That's about it.
*48:14*
Um because yeah, it's it it it spikes really hard because yeah, even Giovanni, the boss beforehand or the gym leader beforehand
*48:16*
Like I I didn't feel like his Pokemon were uh maybe a couple levels higher than most of my team, but not not to such an absurd degree that, you know, like you get to Gary at the end and a lot of his Pokemon are 10-15 levels higher than you in some instances.
*48:24*
So it it does it does scale to a ridiculous degree.
*48:37*
And when I say that I like the challenge of the game, that is not what I'm referring to.
*48:40*
I do enjoy that it pushes back on you a little bit more.
*48:46*
Because I think when you do eventually win, it feels that much more satisfying.
*48:49*
But I think that could be curbed a bit.
*48:53*
Like if Gary, for instance, you got to him and most of his Pokemon were, let's say, level
*48:56*
55 and up or something like that.
*49:00*
Like I feel like that'd be a little bit more I I feel like that'd make more sense for sure.
*49:03*
But sixties and up is a is a is a bit
*49:07*
Asinine.
*49:09*
Um it's hard.
*49:11*
Yeah.
*49:13*
Other than that though, I I think I we have to talk about the Pokemon.
*49:14*
I mean, one thing we need to do with each um
*49:18*
with each episode this season and t is talk about the unique Pokemon within each generation here.
*49:21*
And
*49:28*
I don't know, man.
*49:30*
Maybe it's just the nostalgia in me, and obviously we have not played through all of these games, so uh it's hard to speak comparatively across the whole franchise.
*49:31*
I've played a lot of them, yeah.
*49:40*
But I still think this might be
*49:41*
I don't I don't know if it's the best.
*49:44*
It's near the top.
*49:46*
There's just so many great designs in this generation.
*49:47*
This this really
*49:52*
Like, there's been a lot made out of like kind of what Pokemon have become the past couple gens in the past couple uh new generations that have released, and that's not to say that there's
*49:54*
bad Pokemon or anything like that.
*50:05*
I still think Game Freak has a good eye for design with a lot of the Pokemon that it has.
*50:07*
Uh but this gen, again, this is totally just nostalgia speaking, probably ninety percent of it.
*50:12*
But I really do feel like this is one of the most
*50:17*
unique lineups of a hundred and fifty or so Pokemon uh that they've ever released.
*50:20*
It is
*50:26*
I mean, granted, my allegiance lies here and with Diamond and Pearl, so y you're not gonna find me like standing up for
*50:28*
Anything else?
*50:39*
I mean I do like some of the legendaries in other generations, but again, those are because they're legendaries, they're mostly known.
*50:39*
I have a huge soft spot for like Jirachi.
*50:45*
So there's
*50:48*
I it's hard not to give it the respect it deserves as the original one fifty one that kicks everything off to and really
*50:50*
pushes makes Pokemon what Pokemon is.
*51:00*
Pikachu is fat Pikachu in particular.
*51:03*
Iconic.
*51:06*
Yes.
*51:07*
Iconic.
*51:08*
But
*51:09*
They had a skinny that little mouse.
*51:09*
canto well constantly.
*51:20*
Like look at all the pr the most recent Pokemon games where they just are like, Hey, how about Alolan Executor?
*51:21*
It's got a long neck.
*51:28*
How about this Alolan Meowth?
*51:29*
It's it's dark and looks funky.
*51:31*
Uh like they've got I don't know if that was a low line or whatever.
*51:34*
I I don't know a lot about the new games.
*51:37*
We'll find that out here as the season progresses.
*51:39*
Anyway, I mean they've continued to bring back these original Kanto Pokemon and
*51:41*
display them with new typings or new looks or things like that.
*51:47*
And I think that is because they are the most iconic of the bunch.
*51:50*
And even look at things like when Pokemon Go started.
*51:53*
Yeah.
*51:57*
Predominantly that was the 151
*51:58*
Which absolutely made sense for that type of game as reaching a wider mobile audience.
*52:01*
Um, because those are the ones people know and the ones that people like.
*52:15*
They are the ones again that people are most nostalgic for, but I think that
*52:18*
They're they're the ones that people just have the soft spot for.
*52:23*
And I think, again, most of that is nostalgia, but I think it the designs in this lineup here are largely the best of the best in a lot of ways.
*52:26*
Uh like
*52:35*
I can't think of other Pokemon like Snorlax in any other generations that I'm really just like, oh I love I love how this looks.
*52:37*
Uh this is such a great idea for a Pokemon, just this big, huge fat thing.
*52:45*
Big old sleepy boy.
*52:50*
Exactly.
*52:51*
Um I feel like they got the most inventive in this generation without necessarily going off the rails like they do in some later games where it's like, hey, uh
*52:53*
You like ice cream?
*53:03*
Here's an ice cream Pokemon where it just gets kind of very bizarre.
*53:04*
Yeah.
*53:08*
What's the chandelier one?
*53:08*
I think it's literally called chandelier, yeah.
*53:10*
Anyway, I I guess the one other thing I want to talk about here with uh with gameplay and stuff like that before we we move on too much is
*53:15*
I guess how do you feel like the game plays as a turn-based RPG?
*53:25*
Um, and how do you feel about the deeper systems and such that are in this?
*53:29*
Uh with whether it be
*53:33*
I don't know, all the different stats and stuff like that that your Pokemon have and how each of the different Pokemon specialize in different ways.
*53:34*
I don't know how deep you look into that stuff when you play it.
*53:41*
Uh like for instance, I when we fought, we had a battle.
*53:44*
You can watch this uh also as part of our bonus content for this season.
*53:48*
When you and I fought, like I had a muck that knew flamethrower
*53:51*
And you were like, what are you teaching a muck flamethrower for it?
*53:54*
I'm like, it's not very good though, because muck doesn't have a super high special attack.
*53:56*
So like that doesn't scale with it very well.
*54:00*
How do you feel about those things?
*54:03*
And I know they're core to how the other Pokemon games are as well, but do you feel like that that general core mechanical nature of Pokemon still holds up well?
*54:04*
I have never paid attention to that stuff.
*54:14*
Okay.
*54:19*
I have no idea how any of this ties in.
*54:20*
All I know is health.
*54:23*
And I'll read what uh the attack number is on a move.
*54:25*
And if the attack is higher and it makes sense strategically, the Pokemon will learn the move.
*54:28*
I've you and I, we've talked about this, which kind of
*54:35*
spawned this idea of it you know at least as we're making these now of you talking me through these pre-game like study sessions almost but
*54:39*
I don't the type stuff doesn't I can't keep all this in my head.
*54:53*
I have no until my Venusaur was getting wiped out by Alkazam, I had no idea that poison was weak.
*54:57*
to psychic or whatever.
*55:04*
And that could even be a wrong statement there, but my Venusaur is getting its teeth kicked in.
*55:05*
Poison is weak to psychic.
*55:09*
Can confirm.
*55:11*
All I really know is water beats fire, fire beats grass, grass beats water, and then there's some movement in there, like grass was strong against like rock or ground.
*55:12*
Why is there rock?
*55:21*
and ground.
*55:22*
Those two need to be the same thing.
*55:22*
That makes zero.
*55:25*
I disagree with that.
*55:26*
Well they do have the same weaknesses though, which is kind of the weird part.
*55:27*
And then steel gets thrown in the mix later.
*55:30*
I
*55:33*
I have never been good about keeping the type stuff in hand.
*55:33*
I I will go into a fight and go, I think this works against it.
*55:36*
And then it'll be like, nah, that wasn't very effective.
*55:41*
And then that's when I've burnt a turn because I don't know these typings.
*55:44*
And when I played Pokemon Arceus, that game tells you right there, effective, super effective, or not very effective.
*55:47*
So what you're saying is you like to be babied.
*55:57*
by Game Freak and the Pokemon Company.
*55:59*
I like it when the game assists.
*56:02*
I don't like it.
*56:04*
It means I don't have to remember.
*56:05*
You gotta have the whole rock, paper, scissors chart in your brain.
*56:07*
Mm-mm.
*56:11*
Again, this is one of the big things that's been kind of interesting for you and I because obviously we've been talking about this back and forth as we've been playing this game and you're like, Oh, I'm having such a hard time trying with the typings, I can't remember this.
*56:12*
I'm like, bro, I've had this
*56:23*
emblazoned upon my s brain since I was six years old.
*56:25*
Like I I just know all of this.
*56:29*
And I I do not.
*56:31*
I've never
*56:33*
been good about remembering it and that's mostly because my Pokemon I was beefing up my Venusaur and it was just blowing through stuff.
*56:34*
So it didn't matter.
*56:41*
Yeah.
*56:43*
And I didn't
*56:43*
I wasn't remembering it.
*56:45*
I b dark, ghost, psychic, that's like a swirl I don't r fully understand.
*56:46*
Ground, where's electricity, fighting, normal, but normal and fighting don't I don't even know.
*56:51*
It's
*56:59*
It's so much for my brain to comprehend.
*57:00*
And maybe over the course of this season, you know, we'll get to the end of our season and I will be saying I'll be a Pokemon master.
*57:02*
I'll have my cap and my Pokedex, and I'll be like, let's go
*57:09*
Maybe I'll get into a competitive Pokemon.
*57:13*
You never know.
*57:15*
But I'll tell you this.
*57:17*
RCS just telling you the type strength and weakness, just in the move.
*57:19*
It's not like
*57:23*
I'm out here, it tells me exactly what you know this Pokemon is really good against this.
*57:24*
It's just these moves may or may not be effective.
*57:30*
So, like, here you go.
*57:33*
That's super helpful.
*57:34*
So
*57:36*
Please going forward.
*57:37*
You know, I haven't played Diamond and uh the Diamond and Pearl remakes yet, but I kind of hope that's in there.
*57:38*
Or Scarlet and Violet.
*57:45*
I hope that's in there.
*57:46*
Well, I I I would really hope that we get to the end of this of these ten episodes here that we're doing for this season and you have a better idea.
*57:48*
I don't know how this all works.
*57:55*
And you've played Arceus and you s you've said like, oh, it tells me what's effective.
*57:56*
How does that not help you know more directly?
*58:00*
That doesn't tell me what the other type Pokemon is, though.
*58:05*
It just says
*58:08*
Flamethrow is effective against this grass thing.
*58:10*
Just gotta remember.
*58:14*
Yeah, and where's bug and all this?
*58:15*
I don't know.
*58:17*
No.
*58:18*
It's too many different things that are too close.
*58:18*
I I think the best way Bug in my brain is grass.
*58:21*
This should these should be the same.
*58:26*
We might have another bonus episode where we talk about all of it.
*58:28*
Too, so keep on the lookout for that.
*58:31*
But yeah, you need to group certain things in your mind together.
*58:33*
Like rock and ground basically can go together because they're largely they're not strong against the same things, but they're weak against the same thing.
*58:35*
So you can kind of put those largely in your mind the same in somewhat of a similar way.
*58:43*
We'll see how it all goes.
*58:47*
I I I like the whole I still love the whole rock, paper, scissors mechanics.
*58:49*
And I think it's been duped in a lot of ways as well
*58:54*
um by many other games I've copied this sort of grass beats uh water, water beats fire sort of circle.
*58:56*
Right.
*59:04*
Um
*59:05*
The one other thing before we get uh into anything else.
*59:06*
How do you feel about the gyms and stuff like that and how those are structured and how you're going from town to town and
*59:10*
Trying to find this other gym leader, but then you've got another thing going on here too.
*59:15*
We can start talking about Team Rocket here and maybe how this larger story of this game plays in here as well.
*59:18*
But
*59:23*
Uh let's focus on the gyms first.
*59:23*
I guess how do you feel about that structure?
*59:25*
Do you feel like that's still a good structure for Pokemon games in general?
*59:27*
And how do you feel like it's implemented here within it as uh more
*59:30*
I guess we can talk about this too as like a general flow of the game, because I feel like the gems are all these tent poles that you are uh coming across as you go throughout Canto.
*59:34*
I guess there are three
*59:44*
pillars to then the narrative push.
*59:46*
And I I I say narrative push just like your goal going from place to place, not necessarily straight up story.
*59:49*
It is see and catch Pokemon to fill out the Pokedex, which is what Professor Oak in this game sets you out to do.
*59:57*
is go to town and get these gym badges so you can become the best Pokemon trainer in the world and then whatever the villain is doing in the game, you know, deal with that confrontation in in whatever capacity that may be.
*01:00:05*
But the gym The gym is a physical structure and you can always count on the gym
*01:00:20*
being in that town or vicinity, you know, the Pokemon you see may be the same between two towns or maybe one or new one or two different things in between.
*01:00:29*
Who knows what they may, you know
*01:00:38*
This type shows up here or whatever.
*01:00:41*
But there's always a gym, pretty much, in every major town.
*01:00:43*
Not Lavender Town, but you get the idea.
*01:00:47*
And so you always that's the first maybe the Pokemon Center is the first building you go to, but then you go look for the gym.
*01:00:49*
And I can't get in here right now, or I need to figure out this puzzle.
*01:00:56*
And so that
*01:01:00*
I think is great because at least you're not necessarily confused about where you want to go or what you want to do.
*01:01:01*
Yeah.
*01:01:09*
And
*01:01:10*
I think it's really great.
*01:01:11*
Sorry to butt in.
*01:01:13*
I was gonna say I like the first one they introduced to you straight up just can't go into.
*01:01:14*
It's a T and it's a great payoff at the end because that is
*01:01:19*
Where you end up right before.
*01:01:23*
The ge the great thing I noticed this time around as a
*01:01:26*
20.
*01:01:31*
I've actually forgotten.
*01:01:33*
I think I I'm 27.
*01:01:34*
I turned 28 fairly soon as of this recording.
*01:01:35*
But as a 27-year-old, the thing I realized is this map is just one giant clock.
*01:01:38*
And you are moving clockwise around it.
*01:01:43*
And when you get back to where you start is when you get to gym eight, what they've teased you, and then you just go left and you go up and you're at the Elite Four.
*01:01:46*
So it's this great flow of a path.
*01:01:55*
And you see the end from the beginning.
*01:01:58*
And it's really rewarding.
*01:02:01*
And then the how that eighth gym ties into the th
*01:02:03*
threat of the world is really satisfying and a fun twist as a kid and I still think as an adult as well.
*01:02:09*
So the gyms are a great anchor for the player.
*01:02:16*
Yeah, they keep the ki the carrot somewhat on a stick.
*01:02:20*
Um and the way that this crosses over with the other storyline, which is you've got plot A, which is get all the gym badges and become the best
*01:02:24*
Pokemon Trainer Encanto, and then that crosses over with plot B, which is got this nefarious group that's trying to kidnap Pokemon.
*01:02:33*
Team Rocket over here off to the side that you're trying to
*01:02:39*
Thwart the plans of.
*01:02:42*
I I think the thing that is funny, and I don't I don't know if you feel the same way.
*01:02:45*
Again, I know you've played fewer Pokemon games than me.
*01:02:49*
Um I mean you don't even have to play a fewer Pokemon games, but
*01:02:52*
We look at Team Rocket as this group of like, uh, oh, these these are the best Pokemon villains, these are the most iconic Pokemon group.
*01:02:56*
And a lot of that probably stems from the television series, to be honest, with Jesse and James and Meowth and all that stuff.
*01:03:04*
So they're the ever-present villains in a sense because of that TV show.
*01:03:10*
In these games though, their inclusion is kind of awkward in some senses, because they show up a couple times early on, uh, in the first cave I believe you're in
*01:03:15*
uh they show up on the way to Cerulean City.
*01:03:27*
Um and then there's the whole Nugget Bridge stuff.
*01:03:31*
Uh like they're they're they they drop in this Team Rocket stuff kind of early on.
*01:03:33*
But then they don't ro don't really show up again in a big way until
*01:03:37*
you get to uh I I what is the gym with uh the fourth gym with the big uh Mart
*01:03:41*
If you remember that town.
*01:03:49*
Sylph?
*01:03:50*
No, Sylphco is the second place.
*01:03:51*
Sylphco's Saffron.
*01:03:53*
Yeah.
*01:03:54*
Oh, it's not Saffron there.
*01:03:55*
Cerulean?
*01:03:56*
I think Cerulean's the or no it is Cerulean.
*01:03:57*
What's the what's the Misty's one then?
*01:04:01*
Can't remember.
*01:04:03*
You're asking the wrong guy.
*01:04:04*
See um anyway, when you get to like the gay the game corner and stuff like that, and then Team Rocket's there.
*01:04:05*
I guess my point is like Vermilion.
*01:04:12*
They're m vermillion, thank you.
*01:04:14*
They're
*01:04:17*
Their purpose?
*01:04:18*
Is it Celadon?
*01:04:19*
Celadon.
*01:04:20*
Celadon.
*01:04:21*
Yes.
*01:04:22*
Celadon is the one with the big mars.
*01:04:22*
Cerulean is Misty's.
*01:04:23*
That's what I thought.
*01:04:25*
Okay.
*01:04:25*
Tripp myself up.
*01:04:26*
Sorry.
*01:04:27*
I'm dumb.
*01:04:27*
I don't know.
*01:04:28*
I don't have this game it whole game imprinted on my brain like I thought I did.
*01:04:29*
I guess the the thing I'm trying to say is Team Rocket's motivations are never really fleshed out that much in this game, which is funny because we think of them as like the ultimate
*01:04:32*
Pokemon villains or whatever.
*01:04:41*
Uh but they're in a game corner and you go there and you kind of thwart what they're doing there.
*01:04:43*
And then later on you go to the Sylphco and they're just like, oh, they're trying to
*01:04:47*
capture this thing from us and you find out it's the master ball or whatever and you thwart that and then Giovanni's just like Garr thwarted again by a kid and then you face him as the gym leader and that's about it.
*01:04:51*
There's really a lack of
*01:05:03*
like overarching goal or strategy by them in this game.
*01:05:06*
They're just kind of the grunts of Kanto.
*01:05:09*
They're just kind of the around and they're kind of trying to do some things in some different towns.
*01:05:12*
And you thwart them a couple times, but they really have no like a large overarching plan like you do in some of the later games where Team Magma's like, We wanna wipe out all the water, land only or like what like crazy things like that that happen.
*01:05:17*
And Team Rocket has a little bit more of a a plan in the sec in the sequels in the Johto games, but in this one it it kinda struck me this time that they're just kind of there.
*01:05:31*
And they're just sorta doing things.
*01:05:41*
Well
*01:05:43*
I think each thing, maybe not each thing, but most of the things revolved around containing or controlling Pokemon in some way.
*01:05:45*
I mean, there's the fossils that they're trying to get in that first cave, which presumably they would use to revive um and have like, you know, extinct Pokemon on their side and use them.
*01:05:55*
Saffron City, they lock down like the whole town.
*01:06:09*
I guess it's to get the Master Ball and the technology of Sylphco.
*01:06:11*
Also they're the Sylphscope, which lets them see haunted Pokemon.
*01:06:17*
And they would
*01:06:21*
I think they murdered Cubone Marsh mom.
*01:06:22*
Yeah.
*01:06:26*
Marowak.
*01:06:27*
So that's you know, that was a plot there.
*01:06:28*
They us they fought so hard and she died.
*01:06:30*
And so it's all about controlling Pokemon, but really the key is they are not, they use Pokemon aggressively and they do not show them, you know, love and friendship and kindness.
*01:06:34*
and your character does to all Pokemon, and even that's what your rival struggles with and Professor Oak calls out at the end of the game is you didn't, you know, love and have companionship with these Pokemon, and that's why you were only a champion for a whopping fifteen minutes.
*01:06:47*
And so Team Rocket, I think, just provides that foil to that motive of your character and shows you as a good person who helps out wherever they go.
*01:07:02*
And that I think is distilled into the game.
*01:07:11*
I mean, I wrote down
*01:07:13*
The when I booted up the game the the first time you're playing it, at some point it says the biggest objective is the player experiencing personal growth.
*01:07:16*
Like talking to me, the player.
*01:07:25*
That was their goal.
*01:07:27*
It's just heartwarming and simple.
*01:07:28*
You could say childish, but I think that's a
*01:07:34*
Cynical way to look at it.
*01:07:38*
It's just wholesome.
*01:07:40*
And that is part of what I think has been a constant in Pokemon, even as someone who's been observing it.
*01:07:42*
I'm adjacent to the, you know, being a fan and someone who is invested in the video game industry, I'm adjacent to Pokemon all the time.
*01:07:49*
And I think that's one of the constants.
*01:07:57*
And Team Rocket is a good cartoony antithesis to that wholesome nature that you like.
*01:07:59*
Thorian.
*01:08:07*
They're not evil.
*01:08:07*
They're just bad.
*01:08:08*
They're sort of like mustache I mean they're they're kind of evil.
*01:08:10*
But yeah, they're sort they they they're more like mustache trolling villains.
*01:08:13*
Like they're like Vod million almost.
*01:08:17*
It like there you don't really take them serious, mostly because the only things they ever try to attack you with are Radicates and Zubats, uh, and not a whole lot else.
*01:08:20*
But yeah, it it I I just think that was the thing that really stood out to me this time.
*01:08:30*
It's like, huh, Team Rocket's kind of like a like they're kind of in the background throughout most of this game, and that's not the case with some of the other games that I think we will play where it is very much
*01:08:35*
front and center who the big organizations in these games are.
*01:08:44*
Yeah.
*01:08:47*
Um I guess speaking more to the story elements of this game, um we talked a little you talked a little bit about how you get to the end of the game and
*01:08:48*
The kind of the back and forth with your rival.
*01:08:58*
I like that back and forth a lot.
*01:09:00*
I think the rivalries um of the recent Pokemon games I have played
*01:09:01*
I like that you have a direct rival in this game.
*01:09:06*
I like that it is somebody who's always trying to get a leg up on you.
*01:09:09*
It's somebody who's always trying to beat you.
*01:09:12*
And some of the other games.
*01:09:14*
Your rival is like a pushover a lot of times and they're just kind of like oh shucks I can't beat you.
*01:09:17*
You're so good at Pokemon.
*01:09:22*
Meanwhile Gary here is like I wanna crush you and I wanna win.
*01:09:24*
This is my goal.
*01:09:28*
And I I really like that.
*01:09:29*
Yeah, I like it too.
*01:09:31*
It it makes for good it it you actually feel like there are certain moments in this game where I forgot that the rival battles were about to kick off and like I wasn't healthy and I didn't have my team ready to go and I was like, oh crap, like I was actually like
*01:09:33*
upset that I like didn't have my team poised and ready to go because you feel like you have to like gear up for those moments a little bit more because they are a little bit more difficult.
*01:09:46*
And I think most of the encounters are like that where
*01:09:55*
He tries to catch you off a step.
*01:09:59*
There's Lavender Town, there's the SSAN, the um
*01:10:03*
You know, even on the way to the Elite Four, you just left the eighth gym battle and you're like, all right, I'm off.
*01:10:08*
You hit the road and he's like, let's fight.
*01:10:15*
Oh I have a I have a I have a hilarious aside about that, if we wanna if we want to very quickly.
*01:10:17*
That battle, the one right before you go to the Elite Four, this actually jogs my memory.
*01:10:22*
So I did I mentioned before that I wasn't sure if I beat Pokemon Yellow, I couldn't remember or not.
*01:10:26*
I definitely did.
*01:10:30*
Uh but the moment when I got to that part of the game, I remember I had taken this is how obsessed I was with games and stuff as a kid, and my
*01:10:32*
kindergarten class or like preschool class we had like a show and tell day and the thing I brought to school was my Game Boy.
*01:10:43*
And I was showing it off and then I was like and this is Pokemon.
*01:10:50*
I was showing it off to people and I was like here I'll
*01:10:52*
like show ya and walk around and blah blah blah blah and I walked into that part of the map and initiated that fight and I was like, oh look and now I'm in a fight and
*01:10:55*
I got like into this fight and that's a full six-on-six battle.
*01:11:04*
Like one of the biggest late game fights that there is.
*01:11:08*
And my teacher was like, Logan, I think you need to turn this off now.
*01:11:11*
And I was like, hold on, I'm in this battle.
*01:11:14*
And I was like playing that whole fight in my
*01:11:16*
Preschool class is a kid it's like a six-year-old kid trying to beat Gary before I go to the Elite Four.
*01:11:19*
Exactly.
*01:11:24*
She didn't understand.
*01:11:25*
I think I never I think I did beat it actually in that moment in the classroom and I was like, okay, hold on, I can save now.
*01:11:27*
Cause my dad told me if I ever turned off my game without saving, I would maybe lose all my data.
*01:11:33*
So I was like, no, I can't shut this off.
*01:11:39*
I have to save.
*01:11:41*
Thank God for the invention of sleep mode.
*01:11:43*
And just being able to save wherever now.
*01:11:46*
But yes.
*01:11:49*
It is
*01:11:50*
That that rivalry is is good.
*01:11:52*
It keeps you on edge.
*01:11:56*
It's a fun surprise and you always
*01:11:57*
No, it's gonna be a good fight.
*01:11:59*
I mean even at the end, you think you've beaten the Elite Four and you're like, nope, psych, he beat you here already.
*01:12:01*
He's the champion, so now you have to fight him again.
*01:12:07*
He's always it's always just slightly unexpected.
*01:12:10*
And I think that's a a fun type of rivalry.
*01:12:14*
The one other thing I want to talk about with gameplay here, and I just wrote it down in our notes, is uh
*01:12:17*
HMs.
*01:12:22*
Let's talk about HMs for a second and how we feel about how they're implemented here.
*01:12:23*
Because I know how the way that HMs work have changed a lot over the years.
*01:12:26*
Um, you are talking about how you carried a sand true around with you for large chunks of this game, uh, because it gave you the ability to use cut, which is a bad move that you don't want to teach a Pokemon typically.
*01:12:30*
Uh
*01:12:42*
I'll tell I have to ask.
*01:12:44*
You might know.
*01:12:47*
I was too scared to try.
*01:12:48*
But in I know in blue, once you teach an HM, you can't unteach it.
*01:12:51*
Is that still the same here in Fire Red and Leaf Green beach?
*01:12:58*
Yeah, I believe so.
*01:13:01*
I think the way I was too scared to teach it.
*01:13:02*
I taught
*01:13:05*
I think it's Gyarados.
*01:13:06*
I taught Gyarados strength because I was in a situation where I needed someone to learn strength and I was like, Strength's not the worst move, honestly.
*01:13:07*
But I was like, I guess Gyarados is gonna have to learn it because I'm not gonna go swap out for a week nobody to
*01:13:14*
By the end of the game, I did take a Marow Arc that I caught and taught it strength and what?
*01:13:20*
Marowak.
*01:13:27*
Marowok?
*01:13:28*
Yeah, you're saying Marrow you're saying marrow wark or something.
*01:13:29*
You're throwing an extra R.
*01:13:35*
It looks like Mohawk to me.
*01:13:36*
It's Marrowak.
*01:13:38*
Marrow, bone marrow, that makes sense.
*01:13:39*
Anyway, I taught it strength and crush or whatever to s rock smash?
*01:13:42*
Yeah.
*01:13:48*
So that way I don't have to teach that.
*01:13:49*
And I think that's the problem.
*01:13:51*
You have to teach that to get some through some sort of cave.
*01:13:52*
Yeah, but I don't think it's mainline.
*01:13:57*
It's not.
*01:13:59*
That's supposed, but I needed it to get my uh my mole trace, I think.
*01:13:59*
So Yeah.
*01:14:06*
Yeah, I'm not a fan of them
*01:14:07*
Especially in the permanent capacity.
*01:14:09*
That's the problem, is that there are certain there are certain HMs that this game throws at you that you don't know that you don't need.
*01:14:11*
Like, for example, cut's a good one.
*01:14:19*
You need cut in like a couple instances on the main line.
*01:14:20*
If that, no, there are definitely a couple.
*01:14:24*
Because one to get to the gym, one to go get the fly HM, I guess if you want to consider that part of the main line, and then That's largely about it off the time I had.
*01:14:27*
Yeah.
*01:14:39*
Until the very until I had already gotten through the eighth gym.
*01:14:39*
I was like, when do I get fly?
*01:14:43*
Yeah.
*01:14:45*
Um
*01:14:46*
That's the thing, is they they put these things in your path that you don't know that you don't necessarily need to teach to your Pokemon.
*01:14:48*
And that's the thing that kind of sucks because then you're taking up a
*01:14:54*
one of your four abilities on one of your Pokemon.
*01:14:58*
And aga again, I knew which things to avoid and which ones to get an HM slave for, but
*01:15:00*
That is the one element of the game that I have never been a huge fan of, and I know that the again, I know the way that they work has changed in recent entries, and that's
*01:15:06*
Probably for a better thing.
*01:15:15*
That's one of the modernizations that I think is probably for the better.
*01:15:16*
Because you get into these later games like Alpha or just Sapphire and Ruby.
*01:15:20*
The remake's two, but uh where there's like three or four different water specific HMs in the surf waterfall whirlpool
*01:15:25*
Well, I don't even know about that one.
*01:15:36*
Yeah.
*01:15:38*
So you get into like it gets a little crazy.
*01:15:38*
That's where the hashtag or not hashtag, but that's where the too much water comes from.
*01:15:41*
And it is too much water.
*01:15:45*
Uh-huh.
*01:15:47*
Thanks, Dan Stapleton.
*01:15:48*
Yeah, HM's not great.
*01:15:50*
Uh
*01:15:52*
Again, while we're talking uh I want to talk about the music and the sound design and stuff and we'll we'll get into that in a second.
*01:15:53*
But I uh while we're just talking broad strokes of these games
*01:15:58*
Uh I did want to mention some of the new things that are in Fire Ride and Leaf Green since these are remakes.
*01:16:01*
They are for the most part pretty straight remakes of red and blue.
*01:16:07*
Uh but they add a whole the main thing I guess would be the addition of uh Johto and Ho in Pokemon, which you can get in post-game, or then you can transfer over after you do a couple things.
*01:16:12*
But then the main new addition I guess would just be the island.
*01:16:24*
The seven islands.
*01:16:27*
Um which I know is something all new to me.
*01:16:29*
I had no idea they did this.
*01:16:31*
They moved my Moltres from Victory Road.
*01:16:33*
They did, yes.
*01:16:36*
Which I like more, personally.
*01:16:37*
I was very surprised.
*01:16:39*
Honestly, I thought these were one-to-one remakes.
*01:16:41*
I had no idea.
*01:16:43*
And then
*01:16:44*
You defeat Blaine on Cinnabar and it's like, whoa.
*01:16:45*
Bill's like, what's up, bro?
*01:16:49*
I'm here.
*01:16:50*
Come with me.
*01:16:52*
Yeah.
*01:16:54*
And you go to these islands and you gotta do a task on the first three and then later on in the postgame you could unlock others.
*01:16:54*
Um I I know that I I guess for the purposes of our conversation, you and I did not fully explore all seven islands.
*01:17:02*
Um I
*01:17:09*
I have in the past, obviously, with previous playthroughs of this game, but I did not do that this time around.
*01:17:10*
The other thing I know you were put off by is that there's like a post-game quest that you have to complete that then allows you to go.
*01:17:15*
Get Mewtwo, so they kind of soft lock Mewtwo this time behind extra activities that you have to engage in, which sucks.
*01:17:22*
They robbed me.
*01:17:29*
Because I was so ready.
*01:17:30*
I was like, the the game ends when you catch Mewtwo.
*01:17:32*
And then they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
*01:17:35*
You can't catch me too right now.
*01:17:37*
No, no, no, no.
*01:17:38*
Go to these islands.
*01:17:39*
Find a ruby.
*01:17:40*
Find a sapphire.
*01:17:42*
Very cute by the way.
*01:17:43*
Find these two gems and then you can spread it.
*01:17:45*
Yeah, connect to other games that you can use.
*01:17:49*
You can trade with your other games that you might own.
*01:17:51*
Yeah.
*01:17:53*
And
*01:17:54*
Do all this.
*01:17:55*
Oh, Team Rockets on this island.
*01:17:56*
You gotta you gotta fight them off too and collect all these things.
*01:17:57*
Oh now you can trade.
*01:18:01*
Oh now you can go get me two.
*01:18:02*
And that's when I said, no, I'm not doing the rest of this postgame.
*01:18:05*
I just wanted to get me to, but I did not want to go through all of that right now and I'm pretty
*01:18:08*
Did you feel like any of that was bad though?
*01:18:13*
Or did was it just like an instance where you were just like, I don't feel like doing this right now?
*01:18:15*
Because I I fought I always liked the island stuff personally.
*01:18:18*
I it frustrated me because I wanted Mewtwo and I didn't know that had changed.
*01:18:22*
And we were I was in somewhat of a rush to like beat this game just to catch up with you so that we could record this very episode.
*01:18:33*
And so
*01:18:41*
I had just gone through this grueling grind to beat the Elite Four, which I was not having fun with.
*01:18:42*
So my my fun meter with Pokemon was, you know, here.
*01:18:48*
And then the difficulty happens and fun goes all the way down.
*01:18:52*
And then it's like, ah, now the thing you really want to do is behind gated behind all this new content.
*01:18:57*
I'm like, come on.
*01:19:02*
This is
*01:19:04*
Ridiculous.
*01:19:04*
And so my fun meter was low.
*01:19:06*
As a kid, I'm sure that probably was super exciting because you think you've beaten the game and they're like, haha, now there's more game.
*01:19:08*
Which is And then there's Johto Pokemon on some of the islands which you can capture, which was something that was literally impossible to get from Game Boy Color to Game Boy Advance at the time, so
*01:19:17*
That was great that you had some ease of access to certain Pokemon from Johto there, which I really loved.
*01:19:28*
Um, I I I think the things I like about some of the islands too is that they all have a little bit of a different flavor and a different taste to them, whether some of them just be as simple as like very
*01:19:35*
Quiet towns where people live in and there's maybe like, oh, there's a little forest over here that you can go to, or another one like you mentioned with uh like Moltres at the top of a mountain that you can go climb to.
*01:19:46*
Uh one of the things I don't know if you may have seen on one of the islands that I remember, uh, you run into one of the people in the Elite Four.
*01:19:56*
I believe it's the Ice Lady.
*01:20:04*
I think her name is Lorelei.
*01:20:05*
I believe it is.
*01:20:07*
She's at one of the islands.
*01:20:08*
She's like, I grew up here.
*01:20:09*
This is where I trained.
*01:20:10*
This is how I learned everything about Pokemon.
*01:20:11*
And I thought that stuff was kind of cool that they fleshed out like these people that you really don't know.
*01:20:13*
Much about otherwise other than they're just like, hi, I'm part of the Elite Four, let's fight.
*01:20:18*
Um I thought that was something cool that they did with that.
*01:20:23*
Um I don't know, there's just some cool character moments that I like here.
*01:20:26*
And it
*01:20:29*
continues the whole Team Rocket saga, not in a very notable way, I don't believe, but uh I don't know.
*01:20:30*
Add some more Team Rocket content there if you're if you're down for it and
*01:20:37*
Yeah.
*01:20:41*
Nothing on these islands is too extensive, but I don't know.
*01:20:43*
It was nice to have there when I was a kid and I was looking to
*01:20:47*
Get every drop out of these games as I possibly could.
*01:20:50*
Is there anything else about these remakes that you can think of that is worth talking about necessarily?
*01:20:53*
I like the visuals.
*01:20:58*
I think the visual style is nice.
*01:21:00*
I think this is I wanted to bring it up because we played on Pockets this time too.
*01:21:02*
We talked about this.
*01:21:06*
This never looked better.
*01:21:07*
Like this was a really great experien play playthrough this time because we have to play on high-end sharp voice.
*01:21:09*
It's the
*01:21:15*
I think it's one of the golden ages of the like the aesthetics and the visual design of Pokemon.
*01:21:17*
I think it this scales nicely to what we'll see on the DS later as well.
*01:21:22*
Yeah.
*01:21:28*
I think kind of this GBA DS era is really the prime of visual design for Pokemon.
*01:21:28*
And so
*01:21:34*
That that was really nice to finally see and play through because my experience has traditionally been Pokemon Blue on the Game Boy, which does look good as well, just it's a different type of style.
*01:21:36*
So it was fun to see
*01:21:48*
You know, full color, more of a widescreen type layout, and this the details.
*01:21:51*
There was some stuff that just really caught me off guard.
*01:21:56*
Like if you're standing above a pool of water, you can see your reflection in the water.
*01:21:58*
And it waves and stuff.
*01:22:03*
There's just a level of detail here that I really didn't expect and it was nice.
*01:22:04*
It's a very yeah visually appealing game still
*01:22:09*
The one other thing before we touch on music, which is a thing we'll touch on because I think feel like it is obviously vital that we do, uh, we mentioned Mewtwo.
*01:22:12*
I just wanted to have a quick aside and talk about
*01:22:20*
the world building that they do with Mewtwo in this game, which I think is so freaking cool.
*01:22:22*
Uh the whole mansion section of Cinnabar Island when you are I don't know if you did this.
*01:22:27*
You know you can read the books on the tables in there and it tells you about like
*01:22:33*
Dude, that is something you need to do or you need at least go look up uh but it's like hinted that that mansion was like a big research facility for Pokemon and things like that.
*01:22:37*
And they were researching.
*01:22:47*
I did pick up on that.
*01:22:48*
That was pretty for Yeah and and they were researching Mew and they talk about how Mewtwo was created and things like that.
*01:22:49*
So they like lay these breadcrumbs so that later on when you do find Mewtwo, you're like, Holy crap, it's this Pokemon that
*01:22:56*
Like this abandoned mansion they were talking about earlier.
*01:23:03*
Uh I I think that's some of the coolest like lore and story stuff that they do in this game.
*01:23:06*
The statues in there as well are designed after Mew and Mewtwo.
*01:23:12*
Um
*01:23:15*
I I just had to give a shout out to that.
*01:23:16*
I don't know if you have much else to say about that since you didn't read those little books that are on the tables and things like that.
*01:23:18*
But yeah, it's like a it's like a diary-documented journey of these
*01:23:25*
researchers.
*01:23:29*
They're doing collectibles like narrative pickup collectibles like Bioshock.
*01:23:29*
Kind of.
*01:23:34*
Yeah, they're dated and everything and uh
*01:23:34*
Who doesn't love a good lore back?
*01:23:38*
U2 was created.
*01:23:39*
It's it's cool.
*01:23:40*
It's one of the cooler things in the game.
*01:23:41*
I really love it.
*01:23:42*
Um okay, let's talk about the music because uh
*01:23:43*
I I don't think it's outside I I don't think it's crazy to say that this game's soundtrack might be one of the top five like most iconic and of all time.
*01:23:48*
Like I think it's like Zelda, Mario
*01:23:58*
maybe this game, honestly.
*01:24:01*
Like I know that's yeah.
*01:24:03*
I know that's crazy to say in some ways, but I really also don't think it is whatsoever.
*01:24:06*
Um the music in this game is
*01:24:11*
I I feel like the word iconic is overused, but it really is.
*01:24:15*
Like this whole soundtrack is in my head.
*01:24:19*
Just yes.
*01:24:24*
It's so good.
*01:24:25*
There are some songs that really
*01:24:26*
go pretty hard in for a Game Boy game and then later Game Boy Advance it's pretty wild.
*01:24:29*
And this only grows, you know, I mean we'll get to
*01:24:37*
Diamond and Pearl eventually, but you know, Cynthia, her theme, like the Pokemon series is known for epic battle themes
*01:24:40*
And this is really good.
*01:24:48*
The one um the one song in particular I noticed this time around outside of the generic stuff.
*01:24:50*
Not generic, but the the usual, the, you know, battles, towns, that sort of stuff.
*01:24:56*
Was the Team Rocket hideout theme
*01:25:01*
was very like sinister, but also I wrote dank.
*01:25:04*
It's dank's a good word.
*01:25:09*
They're very moody and fun and it's captivating in a way.
*01:25:11*
And you
*01:25:17*
They immediately set the tone, literally, for where you're at atmospherically, and it it it never really wears down on you even after you're in battle after battle after battle.
*01:25:18*
It's a it's engrossing and this sets the foundation for the series to come.
*01:25:32*
It's again, I mean
*01:25:39*
We'll talk about that later, but this is important stuff, and it's good.
*01:25:42*
I mean, you're talking about how it sets the foundation, and I just think that this soundtrack on, I mean, forget the foundation.
*01:25:47*
This is still
*01:25:53*
the most popular soundtrack of any of them, I feel like, of any of the Pokemon games?
*01:25:55*
I can't really quite speak to that.
*01:26:01*
I I know I know the Johto games have beloved soundtracks and I like those soundtracks a lot too and then you got the Hoenn scores with
*01:26:03*
the trumpets and all that stuff, which I know you don't need to do.
*01:26:11*
You know me, I'm partial to Sinnoh because that's the one I've spent on the case.
*01:26:13*
Yeah, and the Sinnoh yeah I mean all of the Pokemon games have good music, obviously.
*01:26:17*
But this is the one like
*01:26:21*
I don't think this is the one that is uh I mean yes it's built off of it in the sense that like this kind of set the tone for how the music sat the sound and the style of the music that you can expect in these games, but like
*01:26:23*
Dude, this is the Pokemon soundtrack.
*01:26:34*
Um.
*01:26:37*
This is where all of the most popular Pokemon songs pretty much ever come from.
*01:26:38*
Uh and I just th yeah, the thing I the thing I like the most about it is how the songs grow over the course of the game, specifically the battle theme
*01:26:44*
Obviously, there's the main battle theme, but then you've got variations which are somewhat similar for the gym leaders and then for the Elite Four, and then for the champion theme is its own fight and stuff like that.
*01:26:52*
And that and that's just really cool because they're similar, but they start doing they start getting more complex.
*01:27:02*
It starts ramping up how like what's going on within these tracks.
*01:27:07*
And it it feels like a bigger moment because you've heard the typical battle theme no telling how many times throughout the course of this game.
*01:27:12*
Um but then when they start uh tweaking it just a little bit later on, you're like, oh man, like
*01:27:19*
This is this is getting that much cooler.
*01:27:25*
This is getting that much the this is a big moment because the music's changed just a little bit.
*01:27:26*
This is one of the things I love about the Phoenix Wright ace attorney games.
*01:27:31*
is you're in trial and suddenly, you know, when you're getting closer and closer to figuring out the truth, the music amps up and changes in different ways and there's good
*01:27:37*
just a really good hype music and I think Pokemon does that as well.
*01:27:47*
There's your regular battles like you were saying and then when you get to a gym and the dump
*01:27:53*
Dun dun dun dun dun like the comes in so good.
*01:27:58*
It's so hard.
*01:28:01*
Very good soundtrack and
*01:28:03*
I love it.
*01:28:06*
Yeah, I agree with you.
*01:28:07*
Um the one thing I have to say here, and the one thing I have to acknowledge and I have to make myself a complete
*01:28:08*
buffoon and an idiot, and I don't know if you knew this either.
*01:28:13*
Um, because Pokemon has been something that I've been exposed to since such a young age
*01:28:17*
I've never really given thought to who like who makes these games really.
*01:28:23*
Like I've always known like, oh, just Junichi Masuda, he's kind of like the main director guy behind these games.
*01:28:27*
Okay.
*01:28:32*
But like I've never really done
*01:28:33*
deep dive research into like who makes these games in any specific way.
*01:28:36*
Uh and today before we record this episode, I found out that Junichi Masuda is not only the director of most of these games, but also the composer.
*01:28:41*
And I know that that is a revelation that pretty much everybody else has probably had at some point in their lives, but this is something that has only really struck me within the past
*01:28:48*
Two hours, and that's baffling to me.
*01:28:57*
Kind of crazy.
*01:29:00*
You don't you know you don't really see composer also being the director andor producer of the game, which is really cool.
*01:29:01*
Which is crazy because
*01:29:07*
Hit him above, I mean, obviously he is the probably the most important component in these Pokemon games becoming as big as they have been.
*01:29:10*
I mean, there's there's a lot of people behind the scenes who work on this stuff, but this guy
*01:29:19*
program the games, he's been the director of all these games, he's created the soundtracks for all these games, which are just known around the world.
*01:29:23*
Like
*01:29:31*
When you think of how big Pokemon is, it really is, a lot of it comes down to the flair that he has put on it through the uh this music that he's composed for all these games and stuff like that.
*01:29:33*
And we'll and we'll talk about the different scores in
*01:29:44*
Uh I I want to make sure that we have different conversations with each of the games.
*01:29:46*
Um because we will talk about the music in each of the different games that we're going to play, and I want to try to have some different conversations other than
*01:29:51*
Uh just being like, yeah, and more good people.
*01:29:59*
Yeah.
*01:30:02*
But uh I I think for this one there's really not a lot you can say about it other than just
*01:30:03*
It is the Pokemon music, and it is still the Pokemon music that is probably played the most often, and it is still amazing by today's standards.
*01:30:10*
Um people have
*01:30:19*
been inspired by this soundtrack, whether that be like even somebody like I I I guess the uh it's funny that I'm invoking this person because he's really the only other composer director I can think of, but somebody like Toby Fox with Undertale is
*01:30:21*
Like you can tell he was totally inspired by these early Pokemon games with that with how with the that game soundtrack and Deltarune as well at this point.
*01:30:33*
Um
*01:30:41*
But yeah, anyway, Masuda.
*01:30:42*
God tier composer.
*01:30:46*
And also director.
*01:30:49*
What do you mean Arceus tier composer?
*01:30:50*
Yeah, Arceus tiered composer.
*01:30:52*
Ah, you're one of those people.
*01:30:55*
Or maybe I'm one of those people.
*01:30:56*
No, I actually am an Arceus person, uh, but I heard the trailer so much in the commercials for it where they're like Pokemon Arceus and I'm like, oh no.
*01:30:57*
Now you're gonna ch this is like when uh it's like a thanos thanos situation.
*01:31:07*
I will always say thanos, but people say thanos, and that's what they say in the movies.
*01:31:11*
I'm like no no no no no it's thanos, thank you very much
*01:31:16*
Yeah, I guess the legacy of this game, and the legacy I think is something we've touched on quite a bit here over the course of this episode, so I don't know how much there is really left to say
*01:31:22*
about this game.
*01:31:32*
It launched a multi-bajillion dollar franchise that still exists and is still hugely popular around the globe.
*01:31:33*
That's the legacy, I guess, in a nutshell, but
*01:31:40*
I mean, what do you think?
*01:31:43*
Under Legacy I only have one bullet, which is what else can you say?
*01:31:44*
Yeah.
*01:31:50*
Like it started everything.
*01:31:50*
We've said that multiple times this this particular episode.
*01:31:52*
I remember
*01:31:55*
watching uh the 25th anniversary direct that they did last year and there's this video kind of
*01:31:57*
summarizing the last 25 years of Pokemon.
*01:32:06*
It's five and a half minutes.
*01:32:09*
It'll be in the show notes.
*01:32:10*
And I remember getting a little emotional.
*01:32:12*
And you heard my story at the top of the show.
*01:32:14*
I've played two of these games, but the reach that Pokemon has had and the lives it's touched and the money it's made, all of these things, it's astounding.
*01:32:16*
And it all
*01:32:27*
Started here with red and blue in the States, but you know, red and green out in Japan, and then blue came along in yellow and the show and the board games and the spin-offs.
*01:32:29*
All this stuff.
*01:32:41*
The movies.
*01:32:42*
The movies.
*01:32:43*
Which I guess are kind of part of the show, but yeah.
*01:32:44*
It's just this is the
*01:32:47*
And I don't think there's a more fitting discussion for legacy when it comes to this particular game and generation.
*01:32:52*
Sure, we when we get to the other games, it will be more interesting to see how it's evolved.
*01:32:59*
from this core concept.
*01:33:06*
Yeah, this is a game that uh like we were talking earlier about how there's not really any
*01:33:08*
Uh there's not a Metacritic score for this game.
*01:33:16*
There's not really any reviews from that day and age, and the ones we could find were very high and things like that.
*01:33:18*
I think this game is one of the few
*01:33:23*
video games I can think of off the top of my hind uh off the top of my head.
*01:33:26*
Wanna say head and mind at the same time.
*01:33:31*
I said hind instead.
*01:33:33*
Anyway, d this game is one of the few I can think of that's kind of on a pantheon of
*01:33:34*
greatest games of all time that people are never really going to question or think twice about.
*01:33:40*
Maybe not necessarily with the remakes or whatever.
*01:33:45*
I mean just this this game, I mean whether whether you're citing Fire Red and Leaf Green or Red, Blue, and Yellow, whatever.
*01:33:48*
Um, let's go, maybe not so much.
*01:33:53*
They changed too many things.
*01:33:55*
But um this core can't this core the core of this game, what this game is, I think is up there with you know Super Mario Bros.
*01:33:57*
Like what?
*01:34:06*
Ocarina of Time.
*01:34:07*
Like if you think of like a short list of like the five to ten most iconic popular games ever, like this game's always going to be near the top and no one's ever going to question or think twice about it.
*01:34:08*
And it's for all the reasons you said it it launched a
*01:34:18*
I mean, Pokemon is has gotta be, I mean, video games aside, it's gotta be one of the most profitable, most well-known media.
*01:34:21*
franchises in existence.
*01:34:29*
Like I I can't think of much else that's bigger.
*01:34:31*
Marvel, maybe?
*01:34:33*
Disney?
*01:34:34*
But like like it's it's up there.
*01:34:35*
It's it's it's huge.
*01:34:37*
And it and it all spawns out of this game.
*01:34:38*
So yeah, it is.
*01:34:40*
You're right.
*01:34:41*
No, Pokemon is factually the highest grossing media franchise of all time.
*01:34:42*
Exactly.
*01:34:49*
So again, as you said, what else is there to say?
*01:34:50*
Like this is this game's legacy is that right there in a nutshell.
*01:34:53*
According to Wikipedia.
*01:34:57*
Uh 110 billion, second place, Hello Kitty at eighty-eight point five billion.
*01:35:00*
I mean it's Japan out here raking in the money.
*01:35:05*
It's like twenty, you know, twenty billion dollar difference.
*01:35:08*
Um Mickey Mouse
*01:35:11*
is behind is third.
*01:35:13*
Like this is surpassed Mickey Mouse by thirty billion.
*01:35:14*
We need the poo.
*01:35:19*
Star Wars.
*01:35:20*
Like
*01:35:21*
Mario Princess.
*01:35:22*
It's just it's unbelievable and we're living it.
*01:35:24*
Yeah, still.
*01:35:30*
Our kids will live it.
*01:35:31*
You're about to have a kid at the time we're recording this.
*01:35:33*
I'm sure they will grow up and probably be exposed and like Pokemon at some point or another.
*01:35:35*
Why do you think I'm collecting making sure I get all these games?
*01:35:40*
So someday the child can play them.
*01:35:43*
I thought it was y you're telling me you don't want your kid to play ROMs on your PC of them?
*01:35:46*
Hey.
*01:35:50*
No.
*01:35:51*
Real hardware, baby.
*01:35:51*
Real hardware.
*01:35:53*
And I think that does it for our very first episode of the Pokemon season here, a chapter select.
*01:35:54*
Gen 1, the correct gen 1, which includes Fire Red and Leaf Green.
*01:36:01*
Get out of here.
*01:36:05*
fake fake believers.
*01:36:07*
Um you can follow the show on Twitter at chapter select.
*01:36:09*
You can follow Logan
*01:36:13*
on Twitter at Moreman12 and his writing over at comicbook.
*01:36:15*
com.
*01:36:19*
You can follow myself on Twitter at Max Roberts143 and my writing over at maxfrequency.
*01:36:19*
net.
*01:36:27*
You can
*01:36:28*
uh find the show, chapterselect dot com, see all our previous seasons and future plans.
*01:36:29*
And then uh thank you to our members who support us directly.
*01:36:36*
You can learn more by going to chapterselect.
*01:36:39*
com forward slash join.
*01:36:41*
So thank you very much for listening to this episode and until next time.
*01:36:44*
Adios.
*01:36:47*
Bye everybody.
*01:36:48*
Chapter Select is a max frequency production.
*01:36:49*
Chapter Select is supported by you.
*01:36:53*
You can gain access to longer episodes and bonus content by going to chapterselect.
*01:36:55*
com forward slash join.
*01:37:00*
This episode was research, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts.
*01:37:02*
Season six is hosted by Logan Moore and myself
*01:37:07*
Season six is all about Pokemon.
*01:37:10*
For more on the season, go to chapterselect.
*01:37:12*
com forward slash season six.
*01:37:15*
You can follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at chapterselect.
*01:37:17*
com
*01:37:22*