Let's Play Pokémon FireRed Chapter 2: Second Verse, Same As The First

 Previously on Pokémon FireRed:

Let's Play Pokémon FireRed Chapter 1: Shades of My Journey Await

I had a weird dream last night...

Let's Play Pokémon FireRed: Intro

I was going to try to spread some of the word around when we went a week with only one vote, but as it got nearer I saw the narrative potential of the one major vote and where to expand the series from here.

I decided to do FireRed because, while my original plan would have been to go through the Generations in order, the available movesets here fit better with the particular challenge. 

FireRed (and its counterpart LeafGreen) is the 2004 remake of the original 1996 Pokémon Red and Green (Red and Blue in the US). It follows the same basic story with some slightly updated translations, a new set of lategame/postgame areas, and most importantly all the gameplay mechanic and quality-of-life improvements of Generation 3. It is for this reason that I usually reccommend players new to the Pokémon franchise start with these games rather than the original releases in spite of having a bigger personal connection to those older games.

For anyone who has gotten this far without having any idea what is going on, Pokémon is an RPG where you collect semi-magical creatures for research and competative fighting. The original games had 151 individual monsters to catalogue and choose from, and each successive generation has added at least a hundred more per game.

The reason the games come in pairs is because certain monsters are exclusive to one version or the other. The developers wanted to foster social interaction via trading with friends, and Nintendo wanted to simultaneously double their sales and hock their fancy new Game Boy Link Cable. This philosophy has continued on as the generations have gone by.

Because of the nature of how I will be paying this game, there will be a few edits to the file that make it differ slightly from how you would play this on a Game Boy. Specifically, since trading is impossible, I have made it so that evolutions that involve trading will be accessible by other means. Otherwise, this will be an authentic experience and I will point out for those playing along where a such a change may occur.

I still have a few scheduling and mechanical kinks to work out, but I should be able to post Part 1 a week from today and have an update ready every Saturday.

7-Foot Frame, Rats Along His Back

Of course a week after I post my Disney Animated Canon list, Encanto would be made available for Disney+ Subscribers.

I'm not going to go too in-depth here, but there will be some spoilers ahead.

So I'm Thinking of Doing a Pokémon Let's Play

To start this new year, I'm thinking of doing a weekly screenshot Let's Play of one of the Kanto Pokémon games - specifically either Red or FireRed - in the style of the classic SomethingAwful LPs. Basically I would be posting screen-captures of the game and create a fun little narrative from the protagonist's perspective, chiming in as myself once in a while to explain a game mechanic. If you've never played a Pokémon game before, and/or want to see the games from a new perspective, my goal is to make it a fun and educational ecperience.

The twist being that I want to do some sort of fun challenge run which will not only affect the voice of the protagonist but also the team we are using.

To that end, I wanted to put up a poll picking Starting Pokémon that would influence which run I did, but I ran into two problems setting it up:

1. Apparently during my hiatus Blogger did away with the poll feature so I would have to once again find a suitable third party program, which frankly I have no interest in at the moment (and incidentally further kills my desire to restart Geekdom Madness next year)

2. First-Past-The-Post voting is fine in an elimination-style bracket where it's 1v1, but for so many options I believe it is far better to do Rank Choice Voting - something the real world needs a lot more of HINT HINT NUDGE NUDGE

AAAAAAAnywho...that's what this post is about! Letting anyone who cares to vote in the comments by listing the options from most-wanted to least-wanted. I'm going to do a points-system variant to save time:

1. Four points

2. Three Points

3. Two Points

4. One Point

5. Zero Points

And after about two weeks, I'll add up what I have and then post the winner. Then I'll start the game and try to post a weekly update - that's about as much as I have energy for right now especially after last month.

Here are the Starter Options:

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BULBASAUR

(Gen1 Sprite Challenge - Create a team using only Pokémon who match the menu sprites in the original Game Boy games)

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CHARMANDER

(Gym Leader Challenge - Create a team using all 8 Gyms' types, teaching and keeping the TM moves rewarded from beating them)

* 

SQUIRTLE

(Early Monster Challenge - Create a team of Pokémon available before the first Gym and keep them through the whole game)

*

EEVEE

(Gift Pokémon Challenge - Never throw a Pokéball, use only Pokémon you can recieve from people and places in the game. While this run will not start with an Eevee, it is the only run where I will definitely use one.)

* 

DITTO

(Random Practicelocke Challenge - All wild encounters are randomized and I may only capture and use the first Pokémon I meet in each area. There is no telling if a Ditto will appear but its signature Transform ability is the perfect representation of this chaos)

Once more, list the Starter's names in the comments from most-interested run to least-interested run, and we'll see who wins. Also comment whether you want to see me play the original Generation 1 Red for the Game Boy, or its Generation 3 remake FireRed for the Game Boy Advance.