1st Gen RBY Plot Discussion

[Imperator161]

On that note, has anyone else's perception of the games changed as they've gotten older? I feel like I care a lot more about things like story and less about the battling critters nowadays than I did as a kid. The lack of story in RBY bothers me a lot more as an adult.

To a degree, the plot seems simple, and less high-stakes than some of the later plots, and it does seem like it's lacking something. However, for whatever reason, that doesn't bother me. If the games were released today, I wouldn't be surprised if it bothered me, but I suppose my nostalgia goggles leave me in a state of semi-bliss. In some ways, I think of it as fitting that the games are simpler, though, not just because they came earlier, and there were more limitations on what the designers of the games could realistically produce, but because I was younger and my worldview was narrower. If you think about it, Red is the silent protagonist, and in many ways (gender aside), he's an open slate for the player's ideas and aspirations. As an eight year old playing through Red Version for the first time, my knowledge of both the real world and the world of Pokemon was relatively limited, and the information laid before me by the plot was captivating enough. Oak's "Welcome to the World of Pokemon" speech was novel, and like you, I was mainly interested in battling critters and plowing through gyms with my Blastoise. The dungeons seemed harder, so that captured far more of my attention than it does today. An evil organization of mobsters did seem sinister enough (though I can't recall if I understood that Team Rocket murdered Cubone's mother in cold blood, or if part of that went over my head), and just as I was only beginning to learn about the injustices of the real world, Red only reached the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding the forces of "evil" in the Pokemon world. I defeated Team Rocket, sure, but ultimately, the plot in Red is more about me, about a silent protagonist who starts out as a naive kid, starts to learn about evil (and stops it, like any good video game hero), and continues to work towards his dreams. It's a simpler, more self-centered journey than the later plots, but in my case, it made sense to start there. As an eight year old, my life was (mostly) all about me, with the occasional bit of community involvement. As I grew up, and started to pay more attention to the rest of the world (and began to focus on making a positive impact on it), Pokemon protagonists, too, turned somewhat more outward towards more global-impact plots.

Did GameFreak intend to have their plots evolve over time? I doubt it. Just like me, they grew up as a company, and the video game industry grew. But I guess rather than allow myself to be bothered by the simplicity of RBY (or GSC), I look back on them as a reflection of how I've grown over nearly two decades. So yes, my perspective on the games has changed, but more in an introspective, let's-think-back-about-who-I-was-as-a-kid sort of way rather than in a this-game-is-so-old sort of way. I do care about plots, but my caring about the plot simply makes me think about the RBY plot in a different way than I did when I first played it.

Of course, this particular approach doesn't work as well for players who began RBY later in life, but we've all grown over years.

 

[curiousnathan]

To be fair, while G/S became very open, the later games were based on a conception of plot-based games à la Final Fantasy where this was railroading and either lacked or actively discouraged openness in the game, and hence came to lean on the gyms and conventional aspects perhaps a bit more than the early games, which could be more cynical and detached. The opening of D/P, for instance, is an example of them wanting a plot or progression and forcing a player into it to a degree which pretty much immediately violates the nature of the game itself and the relation implied in creating a 'player-character.' It must be noted, pleasantly, that while such plots may occur at times in other games with real cutscenes at that time, or movies, they were mostly not present previously in these games.

Yeah, I was referring to GSC/HGSS. I found Black and White incredibly linear which restricted my enjoyment levels. I can't say the same for RBY, even despite moving from GSC to RBGY having picked up Gold as my very first Pokemon game. You'd expect the difference in "openness" to be quite considerable transitioning from GSC to RGBY (and likewise the other way), but I didn't find it that unpleasant. Again taking me back to my original point, that I didn't find RGBY that restricted, even comparing it to and having transitioned from GSC to RGBY.

 

[BettyNewbie]

To a degree, the plot seems simple, and less high-stakes than some of the later plots, and it does seem like it's lacking something. However, for whatever reason, that doesn't bother me. If the games were released today, I wouldn't be surprised if it bothered me, but I suppose my nostalgia goggles leave me in a state of semi-bliss. In some ways, I think of it as fitting that the games are simpler, though, not just because they came earlier, and there were more limitations on what the designers of the games could realistically produce, but because I was younger and my worldview was narrower. If you think about it, Red is the silent protagonist, and in many ways (gender aside), he's an open slate for the player's ideas and aspirations. As an eight year old playing through Red Version for the first time, my knowledge of both the real world and the world of Pokemon was relatively limited, and the information laid before me by the plot was captivating enough. Oak's "Welcome to the World of Pokemon" speech was novel, and like you, I was mainly interested in battling critters and plowing through gyms with my Blastoise. The dungeons seemed harder, so that captured far more of my attention than it does today. An evil organization of mobsters did seem sinister enough (though I can't recall if I understood that Team Rocket murdered Cubone's mother in cold blood, or if part of that went over my head), and just as I was only beginning to learn about the injustices of the real world, Red only reached the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding the forces of "evil" in the Pokemon world. I defeated Team Rocket, sure, but ultimately, the plot in Red is more about me, about a silent protagonist who starts out as a naive kid, starts to learn about evil (and stops it, like any good video game hero), and continues to work towards his dreams. It's a simpler, more self-centered journey than the later plots, but in my case, it made sense to start there. As an eight year old, my life was (mostly) all about me, with the occasional bit of community involvement. As I grew up, and started to pay more attention to the rest of the world (and began to focus on making a positive impact on it), Pokemon protagonists, too, turned somewhat more outward towards more global-impact plots.

Did GameFreak intend to have their plots evolve over time? I doubt it. Just like me, they grew up as a company, and the video game industry grew. But I guess rather than allow myself to be bothered by the simplicity of RBY (or GSC), I look back on them as a reflection of how I've grown over nearly two decades. So yes, my perspective on the games has changed, but more in an introspective, let's-think-back-about-who-I-was-as-a-kid sort of way rather than in a this-game-is-so-old sort of way. I do care about plots, but my caring about the plot simply makes me think about the RBY plot in a different way than I did when I first played it.

That actually makes A LOT of sense, especially when you consider how the later games actually have been increasingly geared towards an older audience. Ever since BW, the player characters have all been teenagers instead of 10-12 year olds, and the Unova games had a very dark, complex plot that would've been difficult for your average 8-10 year old to fully understand. Gens 5 and 6 also openly pushed and promoted competitive multiplayer more than any other previous Gens (suffice to say, Smogon has never been a haven for little kids).

Even HGSS and ORAS were very obviously made more for the older fans who played GSC and RSE back in the day rather than youngsters who missed out on the originals. Contrast this with FRLG, which were overloaded with tutorials and dumbed down everything about RBY that was even remotely hard, clearly made more for brand new fans who missed out on RBY rather than seasoned veterans.

Platinum/HGSS seemed to be around the point when GF started aging the games more with the fans, only becoming more evident with BW onwards.