I have been playing the Pokemon series ever since childhood, with many experiences throughout the series. Despite this, I had never completed a Gen 1 game until this moment. And this playthrough explained why.

I feel like I was only invested in playing because of the storyline I invented in my head involving my Pokemon team, and because I was doing a Nuzlocke run. Even then, it was probably the easiest run I did, as I only had a single death, at the very end.

Now for personal things aside, I will say that this game has some great Pokemon designs, such as Vulpix, which is one of my favorite Pokemon to this day. But the sprites aren't so great at times. The game design is very awkward compared to later games, with most level up movesets being bad and the movesets of many bosses being embarrassing (the final boss uses a Rhydon that still knows both Leer and Tail Whip, and many characters use moves that can't hit Ghosts). Even with my team, I felt like most of my team members spammed one attack for most battles, so in a way, I'm being hypocritical by dunking on the enemy teams.

Despite all that, I like the tone this game had which was different compared to future ones. Ideas like human-Pokemon fusion, ghosts that you can't fight unless you have a certain item, the idea that Pokemon are a mysterious species, the lack of world ending stakes, the references to real world locations. I wonder what an alternate continuity modern Pokemon game that had this game's tone would be like.

I have a lot to say on this one.

So, this is a game I really liked when I was 15. Even playing it now was like a comfort for me. Looking now......well, I still like it, but there are definite flaws. The storyline is......odd. It has the feel of a kid's movie for a lot of it, but then there are incredibly dark scenes. And not like Ringing Bell, where the tone is firmly dark. We get a torture scene that the victim recovers from with just some magical healing. Yeah........and some of the voice acting isn't the best either. There's also the whole thing about the ending being a little too convenient without foreshadowing the particular element.

But despite all this, it's still a game I can still say I like even without the "comfort characters", as the gameplay is fun, and I like how you get to either look around the level or just speed through it, even if the later levels don't have as much of this. The soundtrack is great, with a lot of excellent tracks and I have a hard time deciding a favorite (Relic Maze 1, Fortune Night 1, both of the Thermal Base tracks and Final Dreadnought 1 are five I quite liked though, I can say that). And the final battle, though the first two phases are bit annoying, the final phase is one of my favorite final battles in a game.