Welcome To My Awful Dragon Gym: Replay Value Part 3
Welcome to Replay Value! In collaboration with Aidan Moher, this four part miniseries will explore one of the most consequential games I covered in my book, Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught A Generation To Catch Them All: Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition!
Replay Value is a cross-newsletter series hosted by Aidan and myself where we’re each replaying a childhood favorite— Pokémon Yellow and Chrono Trigger, respectively—and asking each other pointed questions along the way. For the next three Fridays, you’ll track our progress in the game and get an inside track on just why we love these games so much. Head on over to Aidan’s terrific newsletter, Astrolabe, to check out his progress on Chrono Trigger. And consider checking out his wonderful book, Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West.
For this initial installment of Replay Value, I chose Pokémon Yellow, and this third part details the portion of the game from Silph Co. to the final gym fight with Giovanni. (You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here!) I’ve been working my way through the final badges here, and I really appreciate the amount of options you get as to tackling the latter half of the gym challenge. Skip Sabrina for now and travel South to tackle Koga and Blaine? Take on Koga, head back North for Sabrina, and then round off the map with Blaine and then the straight shot up to Viridian City? Go the anime-approved route and skip Erika in order to take on Sabrina first? I don’t know why you’d do that last one, but it’s an option!
Aidan: What do you think of the Kanto region, all these years later? How do later regions compare?
Daniel: Compared to later regions which definitely center around a more specific climate, Kanto can seem a little scattershot. But I still adore the feeling of newness and just how much of it is devoted to a vision of a natural world developing and evolving alongside human progress. Everyone seems to be working out the kinks of their own existence in relationship to these monsters and it allows for a lot of endearing quirks. I also, as I mentioned above, enjoy the amount of options the game gives you in tackling the second half of the game. It doesn’t really mandate a set path to follow, so there are a few different routes (That said, many of those routes are based around how confident you are in tackling Sabrina’s level 50 Abra, Kadabra and Alakazam.) But it’s still neat!
Aidan: What's the hardest part of going back to an early Pokemon game?
Daniel: So, I’m gonna be honest here: There is no real hard part. These games fit me so well that I don’t miss any little slice of life or mechanical upgrades that later games offer. No running shoes? That might be the only thing. I find myself holding B down in vain sometimes.
Aidan: If you were a gym leader, what would your gimmick be? What Pokemon would form your team?
Daniel: So, this would be super easy if I went the normal route of just picking my favorite monsters from a specific type and crafting an effective team from them. But this is Gen 1, with all the weirdness that comes with it, so I’m gonna make a Gen 1 team. So please enjoy my Gen 1 Dragon gym (My gym is located by the sea in the East, just South of Lavender Town) in which I’d have a level 28 Horsea, a level 30 Seadra, and a level 32 Dratini that knows Dragon Rage, a move that it can’t learn until level 40 but knows it here because GEN 1, BABY.
Aidan: I generally prefer Pokemon's older, 2D-based games, and haven't jived with its transition to 3D. What are your thoughts on the recent games, and what do you see for the series in the future?
Daniel: I feel the same way. I just think the Pokemon art style, in general, is more pleasing when presented in 2D. Especially the sprite work, which I think struggles to find a vibrancy even when presented in bouncy 3D fashion. Recent games are a mixed bag (However, ask someone who didn’t grow up dedicating their whole lives to the first two Gens and you’d likely hear that those original titles were hit or miss.) The main thing I see for the future is Game Freak toying with a lot of the little stuff they started introducing in Scarlet/Violet. They’re working on a social aspect like the one found in Fire Emblem in the latest games and I have a feeling that in the next Gen, this is gonna be way more prevalent among both human and Pokemon characters. I’m curious to see how it works out!
Feel free to leave a comment before with your own answers to Aidan’s questions and subscribe to make sure you get the next instalment of Replay Value: Pokémon Yellow in your inbox next Friday!