FireRed/LeafGreen: Faithful Remakes?

[bigfatcarp93]

Someone about to dive into the Pokémon games for the first time here, with a simple question: Are FireRed and LeafGreen faithful to their namesakes? I want the experience of the original Red and Blue, but I'm in a position where the remakes will be much easier to acquire. So... WILL I be getting that experience?

Do opine, Escapist, I crave hearing what you have to say...

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Its been years, but most of the stuff from Red and Blue are in the game, though there are quite a few extras added. Able to play as a girl, new area to sail to (I think it is called the Sevii Islands), and some pokemon from later generations show up too. Most of the actual gameplay is just the same, though there are a few things changed, such as the differences in type advantages from Gen 1 (notably Ghost-types), some changes to pokemon spawns (Moltres spawns somewhere on the Sevii Islands IIRC), and the levels of the Elites Four's pokemon being lower (though it reverts back once you go through it again). Overall, it has the same basic gameplay of the early games with a few extra bells and whistles, all of which frankly help extend the life of the game in my opinion. I especially loved the ability to challenge tougher versions of trainers again with some item (I can't remember). When I was younger, I definitely though it was a good experience.

captcha: black and white

Wrong generation.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Hah, good, thanks.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Oh yeah, it has everything from the original games, but is far better in every way. The originals have so many problems, you will be glad to know you are playing the good versions of Gen 1.

I do hope they spur you to play the other games in the series, FireRed and LeafGreen are great, but the newer games have a lot more to them.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Definitely yes they take everything that made the first games good and improved upon them in every way while adding in tons of more content.

 

[Taylor Becktold]

They're better. The sprites won't give you nightmares, the VS Seeker makes the game so, so much better than Red/Blue, a post-game, better TMs available, and Pokemon now have abilities, which really varies gameplay strongly. Its better in every way than the original, and only somebody blinded by nostalgia goggles would say otherwise.

Kind of off topic but I found the remakes to remind of how I remember the old versions. I would rather play Heartgold over Gold unless I am feeling CRAZY nostalgic.

 

[Alex Baas]

They're better. The sprites won't give you nightmares, the VS Seeker makes the game so, so much better than Red/Blue, a post-game, better TMs available, and Pokemon now have abilities, which really varies gameplay strongly. Its better in every way than the original, and only somebody blinded by nostalgia goggles would say otherwise.

Kind of off topic but I found the remakes to remind of how I remember the old versions. I would rather play Heartgold over Gold unless I am feeling CRAZY nostalgic.

Why do you think I am so excited for the Hoen remakes?

OT: I played LeafGreen before I played Red. I'd say LeafGreen and FireRed are the freaking textbook on how to do an HD remake of anything.

 

[Kotaro]

The originals were excellent games, but they had tons of problems, many of which are listed here:

Spoiler

The remakes fixed these.

 

[Supdupadog]

The originals were excellent games, but they had tons of problems, many of which are listed here:

Spoiler

The remakes fixed these.

I like how that goes into all the game play snafus, but IMHO, the only thing that needs to be said is you have save the game EVERY BLEEDING GOD DAMN TIME to manage your boxes.

and this is the ol' gameboy save time which is TOO GOD DAMN LONG FOR HOW MUCH YOU WILL BE DOING IT.

Also, no TM/HM names are listed. You don't know until you try teaching the Pokemon it. Pre-internet, no play-guide, that was some heinous shit.

Those old games on those puny GB cartridges where so very ambitious, but they aged as well as wheat bread.

Just get FireRed and/or LeafGreen. You wont miss anything but some old pain in the butt issues we veterans just get to laugh about now.

 

[JoJo]

The originals were excellent games, but they had tons of problems, many of which are listed here:

Spoiler

The remakes fixed these.

Ha, nice list, though I'm surprised they miss out one of the greatest problems of all: the type match-ups. The Generation I metagame was ridiculously skewed towards Psychic types, with the only super-effective attacks on them being weak-as-shit bug moves. Perhaps due to an error, Ghost moves did nothing to Psychic types rather than being super-effective and of course Dark and Steel types did not exist at-all. They were great for their time but yeah, FRLG are better in every way.