1st Gen I find these games very frustrating

So, I recently bought all the original Pokemon games on the 3ds e-shop in fear Nintendo may shut the e-shop down by next year.

I started playing Red, Blue and Yellow (also G/S/C but I don't find these games frustrating) and honestly? I find some parts of Red/Blue (and Yellow) to be rather frustratingly difficult in many areas. Especially because these games don't have the modern conveniences in them like unlimited bag space and special attack/special defense.

What I find most frustrating, by the way was that I had a Weedle/Kakuna/Beedrill (I lost to Brock multiple times okay), on my team and every time I tried to use Poison Sting on his Geodude and Onix, it would somehow always miss. Every single time. Isn't Poison Sting a 100% accuracy move? I'm obviously aware the 1/256 glitch exists, but it's definitely not the reason Poison Sting misses every single time? So this is a big anomaly to me. I know Poison Sting sucks, but how is it possible for it to miss every turn? His Geodude and Onix don't have any accuracy lowering or evasion raising moves, so I'm going to consider this either a bug or just really stupid gen i bullshit.

Also, for some weird reason, Brock can use Full Heals on his Pokemon when it isn't even his turn. Which is really weird to me. Since I started with Charmander in Red, and I burned his Geodude (it was already after he took his turn btw) and out of nowhere, Brock was able to use a Full Heal when it was not his turn. That's probably just weird Brock Ai quirk, since Misty uses X Defenses and only on her turn, but Misty was pretty frustrating too, her Bubble Beam Starmie destroyed me way over 30 times. I also lost to a lot of the unimportant npc trainers, but I'm still early game rn so I can let it slide.

I'm not struggling as much with Squirtle and Pikachu, though in my Blue/Yellow playthroughs, but I guess picking Charmander just makes the game harder, but I didn't expect Brock and Misty to be this especially frustrating, especially to the extent of losing to her for nearly three hours until I had to literally just get lucky one time to beat her. My Charmeleon was level 28 by the time I was done there.

TL;DR the AI in this game is driving me absolutely up a wall with some of the things it does. I'm honestly not sure if the rest of the game will be this ridiculous for me. I know I just have to find good or better Pokemon, obviously, but most, if not all generation I learnset movepools are trash. TMs are limited, and so is bag space, so that frustrates me as well.

And, I guess you'll never know when or if something will glitch out on you. Gen i is basically just held together with scotch tape.

alright, I'm done now.

Gen 1 games are a glitchy, broken, unbalanced, barely playable mess. It's not rare that things sometimes don't work as they should for whatever issue is going on in the game's matrix.

They were also designed in a way that the only reason to pick Charmander is to challenge yourself, while with either Bulbasaur or Squirtle the early game is a joke. Fire types in general aren't worth using in Kanto (No Steel type, and Fire also doesn't resist Ice in Gen 1, which means Charizard being actually weak to Ice, and not being able to hit Ice types for super efective damage other than Jynx and Articuno because the others are part Water)

Oh, and because of how the Special Stat worked, Gen 1's Fire starter has only 85 Base special attack in its final stage, instead of its 109 from Gen 2 onwards. So basically, Fire types were just good to check Grass and Bug, two types that were non-threatening in Gen 1 and which you had way better alternatives for anyway.

they're messy and honestly, if you don't have the nostalgia for them or enjoy working with a game's mechanics (in this case, very weird and broken mechanics), then i can't in good faith recommend them. i enjoy them because i find them fun to work with for their simplicity (and even complexity in some cases) but yeah. lol sucks you bought them all and don't enjoy them. i find them pretty easy tbh, but it might just be a matter of having played them so many times and eventually you learn how to work with the weirdness and use the glitches to your advantage. best of luck as you continue ur journey tho. ps: catch a diglett :)

I played some Yellow on an emulator a while back. I don't think I got around to finishing it, and yeah it was primitive, but I kinda enjoyed the simplicity of it all. There aren't all these additional mechanics and story beats and all the other stuff the later gens have. You just wander vaguely in the direction of the next gym and fight some pretty primitive battles. I think I caught a Mew. It's all fun in a quaint and relaxing way.

I don't have nostalgia for them either, I started the series with LeafGreen.

I like replaying through these games, but yeah, I hadn't realized just how glitchy they were until maybe last year when watching videos talking about glitches in gen I. It's pretty crazy haha. I honestly do enjoy them a lot still, minus the really bad things back then like a single bag pocket for all items (god it fills so quickly ugh!!), but can understand others finding them frustrating. They were....a mess tbh.

You have to put into perspective that there the first and game freak were still learning and had only been a third party developer for Nintendo so had just a couple of games under there belt and they didn't even do much of the work on said games. Pokemon really was just a passion project for them if I remember correctly.

But yes they were a mess. Someone said the games were held together by nothing more than love and ductape

Palamon said:

What I find most frustrating, by the way was that I had a Weedle/Kakuna/Beedrill (I lost to Brock multiple times okay), on my team and every time I tried to use Poison Sting on his Geodude and Onix, it would somehow always miss. Every single time. Isn't Poison Sting a 100% accuracy move? I'm obviously aware the 1/256 glitch exists, but it's definitely not the reason Poison Sting misses every single time? So this is a big anomaly to me. I know Poison Sting sucks, but how is it possible for it to miss every turn? His Geodude and Onix don't have any accuracy lowering or evasion raising moves, so I'm going to consider this either a bug or just really stupid gen i bullshit.

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What's happening here is a known glitch. Poison Sting is so weak that the game calculates it as doing 0 damage; therefore, it automatically misses.

Palamon said:

Also, for some weird reason, Brock can use Full Heals on his Pokemon when it isn't even his turn. Which is really weird to me. Since I started with Charmander in Red, and I burned his Geodude (it was already after he took his turn btw) and out of nowhere, Brock was able to use a Full Heal when it was not his turn. That's probably just weird Brock Ai quirk, since Misty uses X Defenses and only on her turn, but Misty was pretty frustrating too, her Bubble Beam Starmie destroyed me way over 30 times. I also lost to a lot of the unimportant npc trainers, but I'm still early game rn so I can let it slide.

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In Gen 1, NPCs "cheat" and make their decisions when their Pokemon would attack. Brock's Pokemon was slower than yours, so when you burned it, the AI chose to use a Full Heal. Misty's Pokemon was faster than yours, so she used a X-defense before you attacked.

Gen 1's AI falls into basically 3 categories: Random AI, "Smart" AI, and switch AI. Random AI is completely random, up to the point it will do stuff like using a super potion on a full health Pokemon. Smart AI uses only moves of a SE type if given the chance. Switch AI has a 25% chance of switching to another Pokemon at any time.

Palamon said:

TL;DR the AI in this game is driving me absolutely up a wall with some of the things it does. I'm honestly not sure if the rest of the game will be this ridiculous for me. I know I just have to find good or better Pokemon, obviously, but most, if not all generation I learnset movepools are trash. TMs are limited, and so is bag space, so that frustrates me as well.

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The limited bag space is probably my number 1 complaint with gen 1. It sucks to use.

That said, Gen 1 gives you a lot of great Pokemon on a silver platter. It's very easy to have an overpowered team with stuff like Snorlax, any Psychic type, any Amnesia user, Gyarados, Jolteon/Vaporeon, etc.

Gen 1 is actually quite stable. You aren't going to crash the game and ruin your save by accident. 90's Nintendo had really strict QA requirements against that kind of thing. Most of the wonkiness is not immediately noticeable.

Everyone bags on gen 1, but few people realize that red/green was coded for a 512kb cartridge. That's half the space of what was released overseas. A lot of issues we see today are the result of coding tricks to save space (and the occasional typo). Pokemon was notable at the time for pushing the limits of the old DMG gameboy. It was incredibly ambitious and some thought it couldn't be done on a handheld.

Part of why gen 2 saw such a jump in features is because, "Hey guys, we got 1mb carts now! Whooo!"

After beating Misty, I had a lot less of a struggle with these games, apart from Koga having level 50 Pokemon in Yellow, for some reason. I didn't know about the Poison Sting thing, by the way, so that's an interesting tidbit. I do still think I won't revisit generation i ever again after beating these games, though. I do not forsee myself doing so.

Pokemon Gen 1 isn't perfect, but it's almost a masterpiece in comparison to games like 7th Saga and Dragon Quest I and II. After going through the older JRPG library, my tolerance for any shenanigans or dated mechanics in Pokemon has gone up incredibly high.

I actually like the unplayable and glitchy mess of Generation I compared to the Sword and Shield environment.

I think that Gen 1 shouldn't be seen differently from other games. First reason is that it was GF's first game, so I find it normal that some ideas weren't clear to them yet. Also we're talking about an old game, in a past where the video games industry was quite different and I think that despite all the glitches and errors, those were still good games at the time. Anyway, just to give an example, there's an Italian YouTuber I follow, that read an interview of how the games were translated and this woman said that it was a terrible job and everyone was disorganized. Many Italian players actually wander wtf happened with the translation of the game, because some sentences and words just didn't make much sense. In this interview the woman said that they weren't given the game but just a bunch of lines with words and sentences not in order that they had to translate from English and they didn't know if those words referred to pokemon, people, items, currencies. A fun and classical example is the move "pound". Italian translators thought it referred to the English currency, so they translated it to "libbra" which was the literal translation of the currency lol. For so long Italian players were like "translators can't translate", but thanks to that interview we understood how hard it could have been to work in that way. Also, fun stuff, I don't remember exactly why but it was again connected to translation issues (probably the fact that the first translators in Italy and Spain weren't qualified to translate from Japanese, but just from English), but this is how it also started the trend in Italian games of pokemon having the same name of English ones. For some other European languages this doesn't happen, for example French and German. Spanish is the same as Italian. Example: Japanese ソーナンス So-nansu English Wobbuffet Italian Wobbuffet Spanish Wobbuffet French Qulbutoke German Woingenau.

This is just to give a glimpse of how pokemon was before actually becoming an important brand. So I am not surprised the games weren't these good and ideas about the brand weren't clear yet. I still think gen 1 games represent the most important example of the original idea of the pokemon world, that kinda differs from what it is now. Pokemon world was intended as way closer to our world and it was probably more violent and realistic. For example, in a very old official (yes, official) book (the name should be: "Pokédex: an Illustrated book of Pocket Monsters"), it is said that pokeballs are basically tranquillizers given to pokemon that lets them reduce themselves and fit into the pokeball. When a pokemon is caught it's basically in overdose. Kinda creepy and really not children friendly lol. But this is just an example. So, gen 1 is the only game that contains these original ideas, so it's quite an important and unique game. Sorry I made it this long, but I hope you'll find it an interesting read :)

I like the gen 1 games but I'm very aware that you kinda needed to grow up with them in order to do so. I've done many playthroughs and enjoyed every one of them. The movesets aren't limiting to me. It just means I have to plan TM use for my team carefully, but also means I can try out different Pokemon every time, adding replay value. Bad movesets also mean every Pokemon is equal(-ly bad) acting as some sort of balancing mechanic (as bad as your Pokemon are so are the opponent's).

I don't know if there is a necro posting policy here. If there is sorry.

As a generation one and two veteran who was inducted with Yellow, I can attest that it's natural for even those who once lived with them in their time, when there was nothing else to find it difficult to regress after experiencing modern conveniences such as the bottomless bag, HM performing items and types such as Dark and Fairy.
Not long ago I started a new file in Diamond because I wanted to give the contests which I didn't like when the gen was introduced, another try, and upon the first need for an HM move to progress, I found myself quite frustrated with the relic HM move system. I hate teaching HM moves especially with the Move Deleter not being accessible until near endgame and feel HM slaves are a waste of a party slot.
It's called human evolution; the world's advancements are constantly forcing humans to adapt to be able to continue meeting our needs until something we once lived without, couldn't even imagine, becomes essential.

I, however, can understand that it is still a bit easier for veterans who experienced the first generations in their time to appreciate them and how their limitations forced more thoughtful strategy because we remember it when it was new and exciting.
As with most things, the first generation was impressive for its time and even then, it was quite a mess full of glitches that ended up being at least half the fun (Mew, Missingno, Glitch City etc).
Someone on Youtube has even demonstrated several methods one can legit soft lock just by being careless. It's been a while but one I remember well was that he managed to get himself trapped on Cinnabar Island because he made choices that left him with no Surf Pokemon, Fishing Rod or Money or something along those lines. It was fascinating.

When compared to modern games, problems in Generation One's AI and other mechanics have become more prominent.
For example, I once read of someone's experiencing Sabrina's Kadabara spamming Recover on their own psychic type because Psychic had no weaknesses in Generation One and the AI's logic to prioritize type advantage moves didn't seem to account for non-damage inflicting moves. On top of that, she seemed to have infinite PP because she most definitely used Recover more than 10 times.

That's the point though, along with the limited technology, this was their first attempt at the mechanics of these games, more or less the beta stage and each proceeding generation fixed the original flaws and improved upon them.

That said, Charmander is indeed hardcore mode in first gen because it's at a disadvantage in the first two gyms. The first badge arc is the hardest with Charmander because the pre-Brock options are absolute garbage against him, just bugs, Pidgey, ratatta and Nidoran for the most part whereas there is Pikachu, Oddish and Bellsprout before Misty.
The same is so of Chikorita in the second gen but some folks find that challenge to be the most exciting and rewarding way to experience the game.

Gen 1 benefits from being the introduction to the series and the crazy hype that Nintendo built up around it. I tried playing it on my old OG Gameboy recently and I have no clue where I got all that patience from.

Gen 1 pokemon is one of those games that you just need to have prior experience with for it to be enjoyable, mainly through nostalgia. Personally what I find limiting are how the pokemon are balanced all around. Why use the pigey line-up when the Spearow line-up exists in close by. Not to mention that Spearow has better stats and move pool overall. Several types lack good moves, like dragon, bug, ghost, grass, and flying. Distribution of certain moves is also a problem like how the best damaging poison move, sludge, can only be learned by 2 poison pokemon, Muk and Weezing; so Nidoking, Venasaur, Vileplume, Tentacruel, Venomoth, etc., all have to settle with acid or poison sting. Other problems include the AI having unlimited PP for moves, learned that from a Pikasprey video. You also cannot attack the turn you are freed from wrap or wake up from sleep.
What I think the appeal of Gen 1 is, like other people have pointed out in this thread, is that it is easy to pick up and is simplistic. It's a simple dungeon crawler that is about 15-20 hours in length if you know what you are doing. It plays like an old school RPG first (like an easier Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Shin Megami Tensei), and a pokemon game second. Game is also easy to break and make yourself OP with raising the right pokemon, like my personal favorite gen 1 pokemon, Nidoking.

To say the truth, I think the original generation games are rather easy to play with. You don't have to worry about abilities or EVs there and the overall battle mechanics are super quick to get into. Fighting, ghost and bug are very underpowered types as they have almost no moves, with the exception made for Machamp and maybe Pinsir. Ice being broken as death on the other hand - good luck getting out of the frozen status condition, just saying...

These games have their fun in their simplicity, same for the second generation's.

I think it's frustrating how they don't learn decent type moves early on.. but it is very simple, which is good..

I think the main frustration in Gen 1 is the limited bag space - that's the one thing that makes me grind my teeth every so often. HMs were an issue for several games to come, so I don't lay that squarely at the door of Red/Blue/Yellow/Green... But the fact you have limited inventory space is a little annoying. But otherwise, the Gen 1 games are charming, I think.