Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are some of the most interesting games to look back upon. During the time of their release, and long after, they were regarded not only as “the best Pokemon Remakes of all time”, but many considered them the best Pokemon Game ever. And it’s hard for me not to be biased here in some regard, Generation 4 was when I first played Pokemon, and Heartgold and Soulsilver were some of my early Pokemon games. This is to say that I hold a lot of nostalgia, and a lot of love for these games. I replayed through Heartgold particularly cause I hadn’t played Johto in a while, so my thoughts on the game proper are refreshed. And in full, I still think Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver are some of my favorite Pokemon games, but man, they have some serious design issues.
I’ve always loved the Johto region itself. Due in part to childhood nostalgia, but there’s something just relatively cozy of going through the Johto region. Heartgold and Soulsilver aren’t my particularly favorite version of Johto, as I absolutely the spritework in Crystal. However, these game’s version of Johto is still really nice. I particularly love how they do Ecruteak City, and Bellchime Trail.
Now, though this the series of games that introduced this, but Generation 4 overall fixed a noticeable issue that came with a lot of Pokemon, through the Physical-Special Split. Making it so moves being physical or special weren’t tied to the move’s type made a lot of Pokemon more viable. One of course notable example of this is the Pokemon Sneasel, a Dark/Ice type with low special attack, but high physical attack. The problem is though, Dark and Ice were Special types, meaning that Sneasel could not utilize its much higher physical attack.
And my time with this replay of Pokemon HeartGold was… rather interesting. It was far from perfect, and I ended up making a lot of the early game ridiculously difficult because of my team. My team particularly ended up being Meganium, Ariados, Magcargo, Espeon, Lanturn, and Steelix. While the early game was hard, it was very much an uphill climb for me, and I’m really happy I stuck through with things. Once I got Espeon, I felt like I reached that top of the hill, and I was now on an equal footing. Though even then, Ariados and Magcargo themselves were uphill climbs as well, as they were a struggle to use for a long time, but once they got certain requirements, they became super useful to me. And while Espeon was just objectively the best Pokemon in my party, I absolutely loved using Lanturn, it had so much versatility, and it helped me get through a lot of the ending fights.
The gyms in Johto though are a bit so-so for me. The early gyms were hard because of my team, but the teams they the gym leaders have I’ve never been a big fan of. Whitney is infamous for her difficulty, but she has a pretty solid team all things around. And then trainers like Jasmine, Pryce, and Clair have some great teams for what gyms they’re meant to be. The remaining 5 I’ve always been iffy on, solely because they feature no Johto Pokemon at all.
Of course, I can’t talk about Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver without mentioning probably the most beloved thing introduced in them. That being walking with your Pokemon. It’s a little silly how minor of a thing it is, and how massively beloved it was to the point that people begged for it in every subsequent title. But at the same point, I understand why. It was a great way to become attached to your team, and having one of them walk behind you grows a noticeable emotional bond with them. It in part made me realize how a lot of the older games made it easier to emotionally connect to your Pokemon, and how somehow, that connection is lacking in the more modern releases.
And much like walking with your Pokemon, I also can’t talk about HeartGold and SoulSilver without mentioning the postgame Kanto region. And from mainly playing Crystal, myself, HeartGold and SoulSilver do a lot to properly liven up the region itself. The gyms are somewhat harder now, increasing their levels by about 10 in order to properly scale them to what your Pokemon levels should be. It doesn’t entirely solve how easy they are, as I was able to beat all of them in a single sitting. Even then, it was a nice step forward, and I appreciate it regardless. HeartGold and SoulSilver, due to having enough space to do so, properly allow locations to exist at times, like Viridian Forest, which was just a route in the Gen 2 titles. It’s just nice being able to explore the entirety of Kanto in the postgame, especially since a lot of modern Pokemon have serious lacking, if any postgame at all.
But even though I really love these games, there are two somewhat noticeably design issues that I have with them. The first, and most obvious one is the atrocious level curve the game has. Though, I want to make it a point that this isn’t a HeartGold and SoulSilver issue, I find that every version of Johto has this issue, and none really ever fixed it. But with that though, while the gyms in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are scaled rather neatly, everything else isn’t. While the final gym leader has level 40s, trainers and wild encounters will just be reaching the mid-20s. That’s to say that you will have to grind a lot of levels just to stay on par with the gyms and eventually, Elite 4. By the time I beat the Champion, I already had logged over 40 hours into the game, and I can safely imagine that half, if not over, went to level grinding. I find it unfortunate that this remake never solved that issue in any way, especially since Diamond and Pearl’s VS Seeker would’ve helped remedy it some.
The other main issue that I have with HeartGold and SoulSilver is the variety of Pokemon you encounter, and of course like the last one, this is just a Johto-wide issue. When I play Pokemon, I particularly like to try and have my teams consist of Pokemon introduced in that region, so for any Johto game, I would use Gen 2 Pokemon. An issue with that though, is that a good number of Generation 2 Pokemon are locked behind Postgame. Though I want to point out, this number was greater in the Gen 2 titles, Heartgold and Soulsilver created new areas and methods of obtaining Pokemon previously only found in the postgame, however there are still some trapped there. In particular, Houndour has always been the first one that comes to mind. This may just be me as well, but I prefer how encounter tables were in Pokemon Crystal, allowing you to get Pokemon like Phanpy and Teddiursa early on allowing for some really fun teams.
I want to reiterate that I still absolutely love Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Though not my favorite version of the Johto region, I really respect them, and I understand why someone would say it’s their favorite. While it improves some of Johto’s issues, it doesn’t either, which is ultimately just kind of unfortunate. Either way, they’re great remakes, through and through.
I’ve always loved the Johto region itself. Due in part to childhood nostalgia, but there’s something just relatively cozy of going through the Johto region. Heartgold and Soulsilver aren’t my particularly favorite version of Johto, as I absolutely the spritework in Crystal. However, these game’s version of Johto is still really nice. I particularly love how they do Ecruteak City, and Bellchime Trail.
Now, though this the series of games that introduced this, but Generation 4 overall fixed a noticeable issue that came with a lot of Pokemon, through the Physical-Special Split. Making it so moves being physical or special weren’t tied to the move’s type made a lot of Pokemon more viable. One of course notable example of this is the Pokemon Sneasel, a Dark/Ice type with low special attack, but high physical attack. The problem is though, Dark and Ice were Special types, meaning that Sneasel could not utilize its much higher physical attack.
And my time with this replay of Pokemon HeartGold was… rather interesting. It was far from perfect, and I ended up making a lot of the early game ridiculously difficult because of my team. My team particularly ended up being Meganium, Ariados, Magcargo, Espeon, Lanturn, and Steelix. While the early game was hard, it was very much an uphill climb for me, and I’m really happy I stuck through with things. Once I got Espeon, I felt like I reached that top of the hill, and I was now on an equal footing. Though even then, Ariados and Magcargo themselves were uphill climbs as well, as they were a struggle to use for a long time, but once they got certain requirements, they became super useful to me. And while Espeon was just objectively the best Pokemon in my party, I absolutely loved using Lanturn, it had so much versatility, and it helped me get through a lot of the ending fights.
The gyms in Johto though are a bit so-so for me. The early gyms were hard because of my team, but the teams they the gym leaders have I’ve never been a big fan of. Whitney is infamous for her difficulty, but she has a pretty solid team all things around. And then trainers like Jasmine, Pryce, and Clair have some great teams for what gyms they’re meant to be. The remaining 5 I’ve always been iffy on, solely because they feature no Johto Pokemon at all.
Of course, I can’t talk about Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver without mentioning probably the most beloved thing introduced in them. That being walking with your Pokemon. It’s a little silly how minor of a thing it is, and how massively beloved it was to the point that people begged for it in every subsequent title. But at the same point, I understand why. It was a great way to become attached to your team, and having one of them walk behind you grows a noticeable emotional bond with them. It in part made me realize how a lot of the older games made it easier to emotionally connect to your Pokemon, and how somehow, that connection is lacking in the more modern releases.
And much like walking with your Pokemon, I also can’t talk about HeartGold and SoulSilver without mentioning the postgame Kanto region. And from mainly playing Crystal, myself, HeartGold and SoulSilver do a lot to properly liven up the region itself. The gyms are somewhat harder now, increasing their levels by about 10 in order to properly scale them to what your Pokemon levels should be. It doesn’t entirely solve how easy they are, as I was able to beat all of them in a single sitting. Even then, it was a nice step forward, and I appreciate it regardless. HeartGold and SoulSilver, due to having enough space to do so, properly allow locations to exist at times, like Viridian Forest, which was just a route in the Gen 2 titles. It’s just nice being able to explore the entirety of Kanto in the postgame, especially since a lot of modern Pokemon have serious lacking, if any postgame at all.
But even though I really love these games, there are two somewhat noticeably design issues that I have with them. The first, and most obvious one is the atrocious level curve the game has. Though, I want to make it a point that this isn’t a HeartGold and SoulSilver issue, I find that every version of Johto has this issue, and none really ever fixed it. But with that though, while the gyms in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are scaled rather neatly, everything else isn’t. While the final gym leader has level 40s, trainers and wild encounters will just be reaching the mid-20s. That’s to say that you will have to grind a lot of levels just to stay on par with the gyms and eventually, Elite 4. By the time I beat the Champion, I already had logged over 40 hours into the game, and I can safely imagine that half, if not over, went to level grinding. I find it unfortunate that this remake never solved that issue in any way, especially since Diamond and Pearl’s VS Seeker would’ve helped remedy it some.
The other main issue that I have with HeartGold and SoulSilver is the variety of Pokemon you encounter, and of course like the last one, this is just a Johto-wide issue. When I play Pokemon, I particularly like to try and have my teams consist of Pokemon introduced in that region, so for any Johto game, I would use Gen 2 Pokemon. An issue with that though, is that a good number of Generation 2 Pokemon are locked behind Postgame. Though I want to point out, this number was greater in the Gen 2 titles, Heartgold and Soulsilver created new areas and methods of obtaining Pokemon previously only found in the postgame, however there are still some trapped there. In particular, Houndour has always been the first one that comes to mind. This may just be me as well, but I prefer how encounter tables were in Pokemon Crystal, allowing you to get Pokemon like Phanpy and Teddiursa early on allowing for some really fun teams.
I want to reiterate that I still absolutely love Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Though not my favorite version of the Johto region, I really respect them, and I understand why someone would say it’s their favorite. While it improves some of Johto’s issues, it doesn’t either, which is ultimately just kind of unfortunate. Either way, they’re great remakes, through and through.