1st Gen Did Pokémon Yellow follow the anime enough?

vaporeon7

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    As we all know, Pokémon Yellow was based off the Pokémon Indigo League of the anime. This is seen through such things as starting off your journey with a Pikachu, battling Jessie and James and obtaining all the starters. But did it follow the anime enough? What else should have changed from the originals? Should have Brock and Misty travelled with you? What were your favourite references to the anime?

    Discuss!

    [PokeCommunity.com] Did Pokémon Yellow follow the anime enough?

    :)
     
    As much as I thought the player character in Yellow should've had Misty and/or Brock travel with him, Yellow is close enough tied with the anime as it is without radically altering the basic gameplay that had been in place since Red/Green/Blue.
    My favorite references to the show were getting all three of the normal starters at various points throughout the gameplay, and Pikachu not wanting to be in his PokéBall, following the player around and being really cranky at the start of the game.
     
    I thought it followed the anime enough. If Misty and Brock followed you, I think it would be way too much, but it might have been cool if they popped in once in a while. I really liked being able to battle Jessie and James, and finding Pidgeotto in Viridian Forest.
     
    I think they copied the anime as close as they could without straying too far from keeping it like Red and Blue. I liked the inclusion of Jesse and James and getting to battle them and Meowth, but it honestly didn't feel the same without Misty and Brock. Still, I loved how Pikachu followed you.​
     
    I'm ok with Brock and Misty not following you, because it would've complicated gameplay and double/triple battles didn't exist yet so there were no advantages to be had. One thing I would've liked to see though would be more encounters with Jesse and James, but GF didn't change the actual storyline or key events in Yellow, so there were very few moments to write them in.

    Maybe if they had a N64 spinoff game where you played as Ash instead of Red, events in the anime could be better portrayed, but the cartridge game is fine the way it is.(And is the easiest Pokemon game to do a Nuzlocke challenge in. :P)
     
    I felt the encounters with Jessie and James were somewhat shallow, but aside from that, Pokémon Yellow followed the anime to an acceptable degree.

    I am in agreement with most people that having Brock or Misty accompany you would have been far too in-depth and technical for the game; it would probably have intruded with your experience and necessitated the early development of double / triple battles, which probably wouldn't have been feasible with the Game Boy hardware.
     
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    For the technology at the time, and without heavily changing the game around, I think that they did a pretty decent job at following the anime. I would have to agree that it would've been nice if Misty and Brock had a bit of a larger role in the game (not neccessarily following you around, but maybe they show up during key events), but all in all some of these exclusions didn't stop me from enjoying the game.
     
    With the technology available in the Game Boy at the time, I say they did decent job. As much as I wanted Misty and Brock to follow you around, I know they wouldn't be able to pull off something like that with the limited capabilities of the Game Boy. There would be too much sprite work involved and the fact and triple battles didn't exist yet is also a factor cause they would be able to program them from RBG's original programming and would also throw off the original story. I would mind some more part of the anime's story expanded on, but it could never work too well. I really like they kept most of RBG's story in tact and incorporated some stuff from the anime at the same time. Such as Team Rocket having the team they had in the anime. And also the fact that Pikachu stayed out of it's ball and followed you everywhere. You can't evolve him either and while you can put him in a box, his friendship level decreases and if you try to release it, the game won't let you. Basically you're stuck with a Pikachu but I didn't mind that as kid cause I loved having Pikachu follow me.
     
    I think Yellow had even a bigger and better effect on the player if played BEFORE watching the anime (that's not the way the developers thought it but it's what happened to me)... I was about 7 at the time and I couldn't watch the anime because of the school T_T but I knew about its existence, maybe I had managed to watch one ore two episodes. Then I bought Yellow and saw that it was "like the anime", and played it very happily!!
    But, once I started to watch some of the anime a bit more seriously, in every episode I could remember the equivalent position in the game for example of a city, and in some episodes (like the one in Cerulean if I'm not mistaken) the anime had even the same musics, which obviously I perfectly memorized after two days!! It was like the Paradise for me, little kid... :)
     
    I liked a lot of Yellow version. The fact you could obtain the three starters, Pikachu following you and several encounters against Jesse and James were enough to be based on the anime. Making Misty and Brock follow you wasn't that necessary in my view, though, but it was going to be good, I think.
     
    wtf pinball sprite lmao

    Anyway, the only thing I really liked about it following the anime is that I was able to get all three starters and Jessie and James being there. It bothered me that they battled with a Meowth though omg. I was like UMMMM MEOWTH DOESN'T BATTLE GET OUT. Oh and I was pissed that an Eevee, my favorite Pokemon at the time, was TAKEN and I got stuck with my least favorite Pokemon, Pikachu. When I first played Yellow, I thought the goal of the game was to beat the hell out of your rival and get your Eevee back. I'm not even kidding lmao.
     
    Personally I think they were really lazy with Yellow, it's so similar to Red and Blue that every "third game" since has been... not that different to the other two.
     
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