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.