Pokémon Green is a case of lost identity. Not an identity that has shifted and been muddied with age, but instead a forgotten relic of a different era.
It’s easy to categorize older Pokemon games in a vague idea of “it’s Pokemon, but a bit jank and rough around the edges.” It’s easy to look at all of the changes Pokemon has introduced, and to view these changes as improvements. I don’t agree with this mindset however, in considering the changes as improvements, it would be to consider it unique mechanics of Green to be a flaw. Pokemon Green is firmly a relic of its era, at least in terms of considering the Pokemon IP as a whole. However in the context of Pokemon Green as just another JPRG of its era, it is a decidedly excellent and forward thinking game.
To briefly recap, when I say Pokemon Green I’m referring to the original Japanese release of Red and Green. And when I say Blue I’m referring to the Japanese release of Blue.
Pokemon Blue released after, as a third version, in Japan. Blue introduced a plethora of graphical and mechanical changes, all of which were maintained for the international release of Pokemon Red and Blue. I played through both Japanese Green and Japanese Blue. I feel that talking about explicitly Green is noteworthy, but Blue in my mind was a considerable improvement, but mostly in quality of life changes.
The graphics of Pokemon Blue are a considerable upgrade in my opinion, but not for the sprites, but for the overworld tile graphics. Pokemon Green feels especially of era because all of the single pixel details and dithering, with grass and trees being a very notable example, feel like they were made to be viewed on a DMG. The blurry and lower contrast display of the DMG masks these harsh single pixels and turns them into a pleasing slight textured look. However on sharper displays such as those found in later Gameboy models, I find these textured tiles patterns to look very harsh and aggressive. I played on the 3DS VC versions and the pea soup green palette actually has lower contrast than the gray, almost to mimic a DMG better. I found the green palette much more pleasing to use because of this.
As an aside I find it weird that Pokemon Yellow shifted back to the original tile sets for the overworld graphics. Color does help a lot, when played on a Gameboy Color, but I still think the change in Blue is an understated improvement that really improves the visual experience when playing on sharper displays.
Blue also added sale prices for battle items which I found to be a nice addition. Money during my playthrough of Green was kind of tight and not being able to sell PP Aids or battle items for money definitely kept my finances lower than they were on Blue, where they were given sale prices. One final point to Blue that shocked me, because I didn’t remember this, but move distribution in Green is very slim. Blue and then Yellow added so many additional move options for Pokémon to learn on level up.
The experience in Blue was definitely nicer, but that’s not to dismiss what Green is. Pokemon Green very firmly feels like a classic JRPG of the era, but an incredibly forward thinking on. Where Final Fantasy went in the direction of Mystic Quest to simplify game mechanics for an international audience, Pokémon does a lot that I feel makes it a more accessible RPG for the uninitiated role playing gamers.
Pokemon Green chooses to eschew armor and equipment for simply having 5 stats, that merely grow from leveling and defeating enemies. The hidden effort value mechanic means there’s still depth here, as well as the breadth of attack and typing options.
All of this information matters, but you don’t need to understand any of this to get through the game. With a level cap of 100 but having the final battle gauntlet being in the mid level 60 range, there’s a lot of room to just out-stat your opponents. And if you’re only really playing with one single Pokémon, the EXP and level growth they’ll experience will far outpace that of opponents. So the game skews on the easy side, is mechanically simple on the surface, and allows for players to easily gain more strength over opponents. It makes for a very approachable RPG experience.
With all that said one of the strongest aspects of this game is the number of mechanics and options given to the player. Based on which Pokémon you use, how many encounters you choose to do, how you choose to distribute EXP and TMs, there’s a lot of ways to self impose challenges to make the game harder.
In Pokémon Green the move distribution for Pokémon on level up is extremely limited . Once you evolve Pokémon they basically stop learning moves, and they chose to give Pokémon their same type attacks at levels pretty far past the point where you could have evolved them. So you have to make a conscious decision whether you want to evolve Pokemon sooner for a huge stat boost, or hold out on evolving them to learn a useful move. Although the moves Pokemon learn are generally weak compared to the very high power moves that TMs can offer. TMs only being single use paired with this move distribution draught from leveling creates a really interesting dynamic. Thunderbolt is a single TM, and common electric types will never learn it from leveling up, and only learn weaker electric type moves such as thunder shock. So when you use the TM for thunderbolt you’re committing to that Pokemon.
When comparing Green to the rest of the Pokémon franchise it could be easy to view this as a flaw, a bad design choice that was rectified in later games. In my mind this is just a unique aspect of Green. It makes the decision of when to evolve Pokemon, and what Pokémon you want to commit to a much weightier decision. There’s no move tutor to teach Pokemon old moves they used to learn. So this all ends up creating a very weighty and impactful decision making process when both choosing your pokémon and their moves. Do you immediately evolve Pikachu into Raichu and teach it thunderbolt to have a very strong move on a Pokémon with boosted evolution stats early in the game, while being locked into keeping that Raichu around just because of how powerful the move is? Or do you wait to teach thunderbolt to potential Pokemon you’ll encounter later in the game who have much higher stats than Raichu, and will be better poised to take on the final encounters of the game?
This in my mind is an inherently interesting decision, it’s easy to lock yourself out of more powerful options. There’s a lot of room for potential meta gaming here, planning your team and your leveling decisions outside of the game. This level of depth feels uncommonly special for RPGs that are this approachable on the surface. I praised Paper Mario for striking a similar balance of being a simple game on the surface but with a surprising amount of depth and options for players who want to go deeper. Pokemon Green really elevates the level of depth expected from beginner RPGs.
Although even calling Pokémon Green a “beginner RPG” feels like a misnomer here. It’s an RPG that just happens to be very approachable for new RPG players, not necessarily one designed only to be played by inexperienced players.
Pokemon Green and generation 1 games really shouldn’t be viewed as flawed, janky games in a modern lens. Pokemon Green is an exceptional game that helped pave the way for Pokémon to become a phenomenon by having such a high level of gameplay depth wrapped in such an accessible package.
— Juni - March 26th, 2024 —