Kanto, for Sickos (New Side Quest! #10)

Game Played: Pokemon FireRed (2004)

The big, locked door that GameFreak keep the older Pokemon games behind has finally opened in celebration of 30th Anniversary, with the Generation 3 Kanto remakes FireRed and Leaf Green seeing ports to modern hardware. Kanto was the last region I hadn’t played in an original format (Did Hoenn through ORAS) so I was excited to tick it off of my list. Now, I love Pokemon but I’d be lying if I said the series hadn’t seen significant quality of life improvements over the years. I played it, played all the way until the Elite Four before deciding I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. How was my experience until then, considering I had only experienced Kanto through Let’s Go?

It seems a rather stupid complaint given the game I was playing but I’ll be honest, the original 151 fatigue really does start to set in. My first Pokémon game was Ultra Sun (Though I did grow up with the anime) and while I went forward to Sword, I also worked my way backwards to Platinum. I’ve seen enough of the 151 to last me a lifetime. The bizarre decision to lock the Johto evolutions like Crobat, Steelix and Kingdra to name a few behind Post Game was also a poor choice. 

There were some interesting changes between FireRed and Let’s Go which I was obviously experiencing for the first time. Having a Safari Zone instead of the Let’s Go park in Fuscia City was cool until I realised I don’t like the Safari Zone. Cycling Road was actually Cycling Road in FireRed, something Let’s Go changed for the better with it’s version of Route 17. Interest in the playthrough faltered towards the end, heading into the 7th Gym. That being said, the Sevii Islands are interesting, remind me of Hoenn. I just wish there was a little more to the first three islands you have to explore as part of the main journey. 

I always try to cover all my Type bases when I play Pokemon. In Gen 3, Fairy doesn’t exist, there’s no Dark types in Kanto and a small handful of steel types without access to Steel moves which leaves 15 types of Stab. Since Bug is a non entity, that leaves 14 which is still more than the 12 max but oh well. The Team covers 11 types, with 6 stab. Admittedly I forgot to get the levels before I stopped playing, whoops.

Big Hoppa – Venusaur (Grass/Poison) 

• Solar Beam (Grass)

• Poison Powder (Poison) 

• Razor Leaf (Grass)

• Leech Seed (Grass)

Nessie – Lapras (Water/Ice) 

• Surf (Water)

• Ice Beam (Ice)

• Psychic (Psychic) 

• Thunderbolt (Electric) 

The Mould – Parasect (Grass/Bug) 

• Spore (Grass)

• Giga Drain (Grass)

• Dig (Ground) 

• Cut (Normal) 

King Kanto – Nidoking (Ground/Poison)

• Earthquake (Ground)

• Strength (Normal) 

• Rock Slide (Rock) 

• Brick Break (Fighting) 

Nuke – Flareon (Fire) 

• Quick Attack (Normal) 

• Bite (Dark) 

• Fire Blast (Fire) (Accidentally overwrote Shadow Ball (Ghost)) 

• Fire Spin (Fire)

Scarecrow – Fearow (Normal/Flying) 

• Drill Peck (Flying)

• Fly (Flying)

• Steel Wing (Steel) 

• Pursuit (Dark) 

I was happy overall with the team, even if it wasn’t my favourite of the ones I’ve made and was generally a bit scuffed. The limited movesets for Pokemon, Odd restrictions (Why can Golduck learn Psychic via Egg move but not TM??), lack of Physical/Special split for individual types 

The original team was going to have Snorlax and Golduck instead of Flareon and Lapras respectively, but Snorlax felt like he overlapped with Nidoking in terms of utility and Golduck was available a little too late into the game, so Lapras ended up filling in the role. The aforementioned psychic problem was also a deal breaker. 

Special was split into Attack and Defence in Gen 2 but Physical/Special split for all types didn’t happen until Gen 4, something I constantly forgot and probably affected by move choices. 

For a bit of self-inflicted challenge, I play Pokémon games (on the second time around onwards) by not exceeding the level of the Gym leaders ace, matching the team size, no healing in battle and no items. This was serving me quite well, with most bosses being a breeze, with only Misty requiring a second attempt with a third team member, I think Kohga made me use one extra and I lost to my rival once pre Indigo Plateau. I dropped this rule during the Elite Four, not that it did me any good. The cheesy strategies of Double Team/Toxic/Confuse Ray from Agatha’s Gengar really did trigger me. I think the problem came from not exceeding the gym leaders ace, I didn’t like grinding and the gaps between gyms didn’t offer enough levels, leading to an underlevelled Elite Four team. I ended up giving up – or in anime terms, I was beaten, onto the next region. 

I may end up going back or I’ll try again with a more efficient team in Leaf Green but for now that’s the end of my Kanto journey. Depsite my misgivings, glad I got a chance to try it if nothing else.