I hate to be such a negative nancy after my positive views of Gen 1, but I feel like I have to Let's Play HeartGold / SoulSilver to really drive home all the problems I have with them. I feel like regardless of which version you play - Gen 2, Gen 4, this is a game that shot for the stars conceptually, but only succeeded in being less fun to play overall than the preceding generation. I personally prefer GSC and I'd love to continue the awesome 8-bit sprite gushing I did last time, but I think I found a way to remedy that, and HGSS just has so many fundamental issues unique to it I want to cover it instead. I think this playthrough is going to be a lot more text-oriented than Blue was, since, while Gen 1 was fairly basic and I feel like everyone knows how outdated it is, I want to show why Johto just doesn't wok for me. To everyone who loves this region, I'd advise you to probably stop reading now unless you can handle something you love being nitpicked to death. I'll try to throw in some humor to lighten the mood. We might go to Red, but don't count on it. If you like Johto, original or otherwise, that's amazing and I wish I could share that viewpoint, and you're not wrong for having that opinion!
I'm going to be placing my text BELOW the related pictures this time, to contrast Blue where I did text first.
y tho? also this has the file select music for some reason
Let's start with a positive: HGSS looks and sounds great for a DS game. Gone are the Sinnoh days of everything looking slightly off, in are the days of things looking pretty clean with a pretty good soundtrack. We play as a boy and get into the game.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, you used the name Luke instead of a joke name? Why is that? It's because that with Gen 1, it was fun to riff on in a loving way. Gen 2 I feel like is going to be a lot more unfiltered opinions, thus, I want to use my natural name.
(ok I kinda lied, just forgot to come up with something clever this time)
Frame is an underrated gameplay thing no one talks about. I might change them occasionally for flavor.
hello darkness my old friend (dw, it's not that bad in this game!)
In fact, that's another thing I'll praise HGSS on: it runs better compared to Platinum. It's rare you'll have to save a lot of data. It's not super fast like BW1 is, but it's better and I appreciate that.
Lyra gets her Marill and runs off. She's bland and there's really not much to talk about. When Blue looks more interesting compared to you in 2010, you done messed up guys. Granted, Silver was already the rival character, so whatever.
We get our unusually wordy intro from Professor Elm. You know what, that's another compliment: Elm feels distinct from Oak. Elm is a lot more...dorky and casual compared to the largely straight-laced Oak. It's a small thing, but one I appreciate.
Cyndaquil is my choice this time! Believe it or not, when planning my team, this was one of the last Pokemon I picked out! Also, again, love the graphics here.
We rolled Sassy. Let's pretend that didn't happen.
This is weird, because this is like, the ONLY game where you can heal at the local lab. I don't think you heal at home at all, only save money if I recall too? Not sure.
We named our Cyndaquil Egon and rolled Hasty this time. I won't Nature reset for everything unless it's particularly bad.
We get 5 Potions from the nearby Aide. Actually, that's another great design decision. Pokemon games early on are often the scariest part, so it's good the game gives you these. Off the top of my head, no other game showers you in healing items like this game does.
How did you get that? It's a 1% in Mt. Mortar!
In all seriousness, this is where I feel like HGSS's first problem presents itself, in the following Pokemon mechanic. These sprites look great for the DS, no doubt. But, besides the Shiny Leaves, something I'm betting a good chunk of you didn't know existed, it serves no real gameplay purpose, and even then, the Shiny Leaves' locations are actually based on Nature, so good luck figuring that out without a guide.
But back to my actual point. Yes, it's cool to see your Pokemon following behind you. But it's a mechanic I'm largely indifferent on, because it prioritizes aesthetics over gameplay. Like I said earlier, this game looks and sounds great! But when you have something that just looks nice so it can serve as a bullet point on the back of the box rather than touching up the numerous other playability issues the original had, that's where I take issue. This probably took a lot of work to implement and is purely a background detail, so I won't rag too much on it. It's cool to see your Pokemon change field sprites when they evolve at least!
Also, you get blocked if you head out of town without the Pokegear. We get Elm's number then head onto the next route, missing our first Tackle in the first battle. Amazing. Also, we turn battle animations off and get the items on the route before heading to Cherrygrove.
I didn't know this text box existed, actually.
Running Shoes toggle! My favorite feature in the game! No, really. This is fantastic. Not having to hold the B button is an amazing quality of life upgrade and one of the few design decisions I think isn't implemented haphazardly. Also, this implies this old man had two pairs of Running Shoes since these are new...it's played for laughs, but it's still weird.
Honestly, I like Cherrygrove City! It's one of the better second town locations in my opinion. Looks beautiful and you get some tutorial features here. The Guide Gent gives us the Map Card as we make our way out of town. We also get the Apricorn Box, which in my opinion is a pretty forgettable mechanic outside of crafting Friend Balls. I just don't see the use when Quick Balls and Ultra Balls are more easily available.
We get our Mystery Egg and get Professor Oak's marvelous music remix, as well as the Pokedex. That's another thing I like actually, the journey to Mr. Pokemon. I feel like it invokes a great call to adventure other than wandering a store and randomly getting a Parcel the game doesn't tell you about in Gen 1.
The Pokemon fandom is posting angry takes about the modern state of the series on Twitter again? I won't stand for it!
We head back toward the lab, and...
I like how the game immediately doesn't tell you what happened at the lab and instead has Silver show up with a Pokemon shortly before that is revealed later.
As for my opinion on Silver as a character, he's a tiny bit more interesting than Blue, but not by much. I like Blue's development in this game more than I like Silver's personally. I feel like with Silver, they went so all in on making an outright mean character, and it went horribly right.
Sure, Silver is intended to be disliked, but that doesn't really make him that better of a character to me even when his development rolls around, especially since the battles in the postgame with Silver are 100% optional and the Team Rocket Celebi stuff that COULD HAVE made an impact was event only, instead of being in the main game proper like it should have been. I think Gladion from Alola is Silver done right, because Gladion has more depth and onscreen reasons to be a jerk than Silver does.
If anything, I think Silver's best moment is actually...right here, when you first meet him. Silver's introduction establishes this is a person you want to beat not because he'll "smell you later," but because he's a legitimately horrible person with an out of control ego. Blue was a jerk in Gen 1, but he never did anything outright criminal like stealing a Pokemon that Silver does.
Remember this line right before Blue's Champion battle in the last game?
"Hey! I was looking forward to seeing you, <player>! My rival should be strong to keep me sharp!
This implies Blue has a begrudging respect for the player at the end of Gen 1. He knows that even though he's the best, you're no pushover, and I like that.
Let's compare this to some of Silver's postgame stuff. He does change in the postgame and gets a Crobat by training in the Dragon's Den to show he's bonding with his Pokemon more. He also tries to return his starter later with Elm letting him keep it. But let's still look at the rematch quotes:
"Hold it. You're going to take the Pokémon League challenge now? That's not going to happen. My super-well trained Pokémon are going to pound you. <player>! I challenge you!"
He does cheer you on afterward, but I think the games actually lost a bit of nuance from the originals.
Here's the Mt. Moon stuff from GSC:
And here's the Mt. Moon stuff from HGSS:
Notice how in GSC, he talks about what HE lacks as a Trainer. In GSC, he says you won fair and square and says he is going to become the greatest, keeping his personality consistent while slightly respecting you, also saying his Pokemon are behind him. But in HGSS, he says his Pokemon are "weak."
Now let's look at his quote in Azalea Town:
"I hate the weak. Pokémon, Trainers. It doesn't matter who or what. I hate to see them hanging around. That goes for Team Rocket, too. They think they are big and tough as long as they are in a group. But get them alone, and they're weak. I hate them all. You stay out of my way. You won't be an exception if you get in my way."
Notice something? That's right, the original had a subtle focus on what Silver lacked in his dialogue, not his Pokemon. While HGSS makes this more apparent by him visiting the Dragon's Den, he's still plenty arrogant even post-development.
He does apologize at the Pokemon League, but only after he loses. If Silver had said something like "I know I can't beat you, but I might as well believe in my Pokemon anyway!" before challenging you, that would have made all the difference in the world. He's still an arrogant blowhard by the end, so he's ultimately Blue 2.0 with a couple small background details.
WHERE WAS THIS IN THE MAIN GAME???
Anyway, back to the actual game! That was longer than I thought, so I guess Silver is fairly interesting now that I stopped and thought about it.
Yeah, this is what I meant when I said I was still gonna show off the old sprites! For nostalgia purposes, we're going to be focusing on the GSC ones. At least we have actual rival music this time, so that's an improvement!
Also, fun fact: "In Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, if the player blacks out after taking the Mystery Egg from Mr. Pokémon but before visiting any Pokémon Center, they will be returned to Cherrygrove City's Pokémon Center (even if the player has never visited this Pokémon Center). This prevents the player from skipping the first battle with their rival by blacking out and returning directly to the player's house."
We grow to level 8 and see Silver's name, which will in fact be his name for this playthrough. We head back to New Bark Town.
I like how Elm jokes with you about how the Gym Challenge won't be easy. Again, it adds to his dorky jokey personality and I like it.
We're going to be saving money this playthrough.
She actually buys some useful stuff for you in HGSS (best thing in GSC is a Moon Stone which is meh), so I recommend it. Another pretty good mechanic, honestly. In GSC, this was nice, as you still lost half your money upon losing back then as opposed to it being dependent on Pokemon levels + badge count prior to FRLG / the Gen IV games and onward. You know what, even in GSC, this is a nice quality of life improvement.
We leave town and get the catching tutorial from Lyra, which I think was given by Guide Gent in the original and on top of that, you could skip it. Why not make it skippable in HGSS?
We catch a Sentret for HM Slave purposes, with it strangely taking three Poke Balls to do so, so I buy some more. Back on the next route...
We get into some battles with both trainers critting me because of course they do! Great sprite work from GSC for Youngsters and Bug Catchers respectively.
Let's head inside Dark Cave for a little bit. Cyndaquil gets to level 10, so we get Ember and snag a Potion.
We get the Vs. Recorder from Lyra and make our way to Violet City, but I'm going to head onto Route 33 and catch some new things before ending the part.
I catch a Mareep because I'm unoriginal. This will probably be the only typical catch this playthrough: I promise the rest of my team will be very interesting.
Time for the Pokemon I'm pretty sure none of you expected at all.
Yep, it's Hoppip, oddly with the opposite nature Mareep had. Considering this thing is stuck with Splash and Synthesis until level 10 and takes forever to get good moves, I chose this for its synergy with another party member down the line and because we're going to be using a very quirky team that would appreciate its support. You'll see.
I'm going to train both Mareep and Hoppip up to level 10 to get Thundershock and Tackle respectively. We head to the nearby Ruins of Alph to potentially do so.
Ruins of Alph is a neat area with nice puzzles and good music, I just feel it's wasted on a Pokemon no one ever seriously uses. The wild Unown give good EXP and hit bizarrely hard for this point.
We also get the Rock Smash HM on the nearby route, so that's nice. Hoppip gets Tail Whip which helps Mareep deal more damage with Tackle.
We get to level 10 on both. Now our team is looking pretty good.
Next time, we explore Violet City and take on our first Gym Battle!
