Demon Pigeon

Dear Noel,

I am so glad that you have picked up the gauntlet and accepted this quest – I wasn’t sure how you would take to the game, it being a mechanically stereotypical JRPG with a story aimed at children. I was half expecting a reply along the lines of “FUCK OFF”, which would have made this second letter much more difficult to write. Personally, I expected my fifth play-through of the game – without the bells and whistles of later sequels – would be be quite boring, but actually I’ve had a Wailord of a time! I think I associate the crappy graphics and repetitive music with some of the happiest moments from my teenage years. So, where should I start?

It will not surprise you to learn that all Pokémon games share a single broad design. You always start in a small town where you live with your parents, there’s always a condescending academic living nearby who gives you your Pokédex and sends you out into the world, you always have some childhood friend who runs around on a parallel quest to your own, you always collect eight badges (an auspicious number in Japanese culture) and then take on the Pokémon League… I could go into much more depth, but it would spoil the surprises that are to come.

That said, one minor detail unique to Red/Blue jumped out at me immediately. The story begins with your character playing on a games console in his bedroom, sending an obvious message to players that this is a kid just like YOU! It’s as if the act of playing children’s computer games is a bridge between your worlds – you check in as your character checks out. But more importantly, in order to start the game, you must walk away from your console and go outside! It’s a beautiful ergodic image, and an immediate nudge in the ribs for young kids to put down their damn GameBoy and go running in a field somewhere. Appreciating the natural world is one of the core themes of the game and you will see it crop up absolutely everywhere.

Your mentor, Professor Oak is a curious character! He is revered by the most educated characters in all branches of the franchise, but you’re right in saying that his supposed great work is always referred to retrospectively. He is present for many important events during the games, but I’d struggle to think of anything he actually does – as you have already discovered, his main function in Red/Blue is to evaluate your Pokédex and offer suggestions on how you might raise your capture total. In the second generation of games (Gold/Silver) he is best known as the celebrity host of a radio show about Pokémon facts, effectively making him the Carl Sagan of Pokémonology.

His grandson – your rival – is a complete dickhead, yes. He will remain one step ahead of you throughout the game – did you notice the signs hanging under the statues in the Pewter City gym? Everywhere you go, he’s already been; everything you achieve, he’s already done. You will eventually develop a Pavlovian reaction to his theme music as he repeatedly jumps out from nowhere to throw down a boss battle when you least expect it. Fun fact: In the Japanese version, the list of default names includes options to name your character after Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri, and your rival after legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto. In this sense, the relationship between you and your rival can be read as a joke by Tajiri about being trapped in Miyamoto’s shadow.

I think you’re supposed to regard your rival with a mixture of fear and envy, but his dialogue makes him out to be quite a pathetic character – when (if?) you defeat him in Oak’s lab he cries “I picked the wrong Pokémon!” as if he has any right to pass judgement on this wonderful creature he’s known for all of three minutes. I have never understood why the two of you would ever become friends in the first place, except in the sense that you’re the only kids living in that pokey rural town and have nobody else to hang out with. I wonder, is that related to the theme of growing up? Realising your childhood friend is actually an awful human being, and heading out into the world to meet new people? I’ve never thought of it like that before!

Your rematch, west of Vermillion City, was entirely optional – I normally power my way north and skip it, which I now see is a little stupid when he provides so much money and experience. Speaking of Vermillion City, doesn’t it seem strangely lifeless? That gym in the north-east corner holds so much promise, but I’m afraid it will remain closed off to you for a long time yet. The Pokémon Centre and Pokémart are the two main supportive touchstones for Pokémon trainers and can be found everywhere except your home town, as if to emphasise what an obscure hick backwater it is. The most interesting building here has to be the schoolhouse. Like the games console/bedroom opening scene, this is another early-game reference to the daily life of the average child, which will soon be left behind in favour of museums, lighthouses, office blocks, and other ‘grown up’ locations.

Pewter City is a much more happening town. Once you’ve escaped the awful background music of the Viridian Forest (Did you see any Pikachus? They look really fat and ugly in this game – the cute character design we know today was created for the manga spin-off some years later), you emerge into this lovely, safe, open space, full of people to talk to. Around the town you’ll find a man who is spraying Repel on his garden to keep Pokémon off his lawn (one of many examples of characters teaching you about game mechanics within the context of their ‘normal life’) and the underused PEWTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE (did you check it out?), but I think every player’s attention is inevitably drawn to the looming brick warehouse containing the Pewter City Pokémon Gym.

Your battle against Brock (incidentally, don’t you think he looks like a potential Demon Pigeon reader?)  is actually one of the toughest in the game – and I mean particularly your battle, as someone who picked Charmander as your starter. Without looking it up, I can tell you that at this stage the only other Pokémon available for capture are Pidgey, Ratatta, Caterpie, Weedle, Nidoran (Male), Nidoran (Female) and Pikachu, along with (most of) their evolved forms; I suppose you could trade in other Pokémon from a friend, but let’s put that to one side. My point is that all of these Pokémon are terrible against the Rock-type Pokémon used in the Pewter gym! The other two starters – Bulbasaur and Squirtle – are both very effective against Rock-types, which really dicks on players who choose Charmander. I’ve always felt like the scene where you choose your starting Pokémon is, in a faint sense, a difficulty selection screen. Congratulations! You chose Hard mode. Your reward – if there is one – is that there are dozens of other Grass- and Water-type Pokémon available to catch in the wild, but relative few Fire-types. Eventually your little Charmander will grow up to be a raging, fire-breathing dragon without equal!

Speaking of which, this seems like an appropriate point to give you your first battle lesson: All Pokémon, and all attacks, are associated with particular elements – Normal, Fire, Water, Psychic, etc. Elements relate to each other in a vaguely Rock-Paper-Scissors style – Water attacks are super effective against Fire Pokémon, Normal attacks cannot damage Ghost Pokémon, etc. Most of these relationships are obvious, although some seem a bit weird: Grass is strong against Rock? Psychic is strong against Poison?! Experience will teach you how these relationships work, although I wouldn’t object to you consulting an elemental table for advice (NB. The Dark and Steel types were added in the sequel and are not present in this game)

For the record, my preferred method for dealing with Brock is to train up a Caterpie so it evolves into Butterfree – after a brief period cocooned as a Metapod – and then cut through his team’s unyielding defences with the basic Psychic attack, Confusion. I’m actually very impressed if you beat him without one! It must take a lot of patience to whittle down an Onix with Poison Stings and Embers.

This is something you should bear in mind as you head through Mt. Moon and on to Cerulean City! It’s a good idea to diversify your Pokémon collection, so you can jiggle your party round and adapt to different challenges. Don’t worry about catching more than six – as you will find out, any excess Pokémon are put into storage and can be accessed from any Pokémon Centre. I don’t want to put any expectations on your Pokédex completion – I’d be far more interested to see what you do of your own accord. I wonder, will you hunt out any legendary Pokémon? Will you visit the power plant? How will you use your gift from the Silph Co. president? I am trembling with anticipation!

Yours,

Owen

PS. One final word of advice before you enter the caves of Mt. Moon: Buy some Escape Ropes! If you get into a bad situation while in a dungeon, you can use them outside of battles to teleport back to the safety of your last visited Pokémon Centre.

Hooray for computer games, they enrich all of our lives and make every day a fresh, juicy adventure, just waiting for our incisors! Have another exciting day this time next week when we bring you Chapter Two of The Pokémon Letters. 

Don’t come back.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2011 at 13:56 and is filed under Games, Poop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.