It’s a little funny, really. I’ve played practically every major Pokemon game to ever exist, but only now did I play Pokemon Gold and Silver. Of course while I played specifically Silver, I think it fair to describe it as Gold and Silver, since the differences aren’t as noticeable as compared to other versions of Johto. Coming from someone who mainly played Crystal, the differences were really interesting seeing what the original version of Johto is like, especially since the remakes kept a lot of what Crystal changed. But as well, it’s interesting how Pokemon Gold and Silver really evolved Pokemon mechanically. Even though Gold and Silver especially are flawed games in their design, I still really enjoy them, though I don’t think I’d likely return to the original Gold and Silver.
Now, the first big notable change brought about in Gold and Silver are the new types first introduced. Dark and Steel are great types to add, though in this game especially, they’re rather flawed. Dark is meant to be a counter to psychic types, being immune to psychic types completely. The problems that arise though is that only 2 Dark types can be obtained before postgame, Umbreon and Sneasel. Both of these are physical attackers, while Dark is a special type. Steel is a primarily defensive typing and it’s solid overall, though there’s very few Steel type Pokemon possible to obtain. These types are great additions, and it does at least help somewhat in balancing things, but these types definitely become a lot better in later generations, especially once gen 4 rolls around.
There’s also two other additions that change the game mechanically in interesting ways. First, while there aren’t many options in gen 2 for this, this is the generation that introduced held items. Honestly, I didn’t really utilize held items at all, I know in later generations I do, but there’s not really many useful held items in gen 2 specifically. I’m unsure if this is an actual critique or just a personal preference but I think it’s important to note. The other slight mechanical change which is actually quite big is the change to the special stat. In gen 1, special was a singular stat, counting for both offense and defense, now we have 2 unique stats, Special Attack, and Special Defense. This really helps balance a lot of Pokemon, specifically the ones that were too powerful, since having high special would make them have high offense and defense. It’s a great change, really.
And of course the last big change brought about in gen 2 and one that probably had the largest impact on Pokemon as a series is the introduction of Shiny Pokemon. Rare Pokemon with different color palettes that sparkle upon entry to battle. While later, the odds were brought down to 1/4096, the original odds were 1/8192. Shiny Pokemon in general are really fun to find, and especially in later games when they brought methods to hunt shiny Pokemon easier is really fun. In this run of Pokemon Silver though I was ridiculously lucky, finding 3 shiny Pokemon completely naturally throughout the game. Particularly I found a Shiny Rattata, Nidoran Male, and Tentacool. It’s also nice that the game gives you a free shiny as a way to sort of introduce Shiny Pokemon to the player, and it’s nice that it’s a pretty solid Pokemon in Gyarados.
Now onto to the game itself, I really love the new Pokemon introduced in these games, but that comes with a big caveat. While I didn’t use a full team of Johto Pokemon, I had a really fun team for it. Particularly, my team was Typhlosion, Ledian, Ampharos, Quagsire, Bellossom, and Raticate. Honestly there were some great surprises with this team. With easy access to TMs like Ice Punch, Ledian was genuinely an amazing Pokemon, and it helped take out half of Lance’s team. I also found Bellossom to be a struggle to get to, Gloom is kind of bad until level 44, unless you get the TM for Sludge Bomb, which for me, is right before the 7th gym. And for a third note, Raticate with Shadow Ball, since this is pre-Physical Special split, and Ghost is physical, is a really good combination. But this all comes with the caveat that I mentioned prior. A majority of really cool Johto Pokemon are either tied to trading, or can only be caught in the postgame. This includes some Pokemon like Houndoom, Magcargo, Misdreavus, even this region’s pseudo-legendary, Tyranitar, are all locked behind postgame. It really sucks because these are some awesome Pokemon, and even though the remakes allow for certain Pokemon to be obtainable before postgame, some are still not, which sucks (I’m looking at you Houndoom). As well, I recognize it’s just a me-issue here, but I much prefer the encounter tables of Pokemon Crystal, as it allows you to obtain Pokemon like Teddiursa and Phanpy really early, and they’re super fun to use.
Now, when it comes to Johto, and this is an issue that occurs in every version of Johto, the biggest issue comes from the level scaling. Typically when I play the Johto games, I get to level 50 to beat the game, but of course that requires a lot of level grinding. The rate at which wild Pokemon levels scale is so minimal, and trainer battles have a similar issue as well. Even late into the game, the highest level of wild Pokemon, even trainer battles really peaks around mid-30s. It means that if you don’t level grind at all, you’re gonna be quite underleveled for certain fights if you have a full team. And as well since random encounters are very low level, it means level grinding takes a long time. I really do think that the Johto games would be so much better if the level scaling was improved, and I’m someone who has Crystal as one of their favorite games ever.
I didn’t do it for this version, but I remember it from Crystal, but it really is a nice thing that they had the entirety of Kanto in this game. They didn’t really need to in order to make gen 2 a great generation for me, but doing so really is the icing on the cake. Though being used to Heartgold and Soulsilver, going back to gen 2 Johto, the Kanto postgame is a lot emptier. Especially looking at Viridian Forest. As well, as someone who mainly played gen 2 through Crystal, it’s odd how certain things that are standard to me weren’t introduced until Crystal. The whole section with Dragon’s Den is first that comes to mind, the whole quiz and getting that special Dratini was only in Crystal, which I never knew of until finally playing Silver. These parts of the game, alongside the encounter tables I mentioned earlier are why I gravitate towards Crystal more than Gold and Silver personally.
Pokemon Gold and Silver aren’t games I’d typically come back to. I’m more likely to play Crystal or the Remakes, as I prefer the changes they’ve made to the originals, and they do help with certain aspects that the original Gold and Silver struggle with. Even then, Pokemon Gold and Silver are still great games, even with the flaws they have. I had a really fun time playing through this game, the gen 2 games are really pretty, and even though I don’t see myself replaying Gold or Silver anytime soon, I’m glad I finally got around to playing them.
Now, the first big notable change brought about in Gold and Silver are the new types first introduced. Dark and Steel are great types to add, though in this game especially, they’re rather flawed. Dark is meant to be a counter to psychic types, being immune to psychic types completely. The problems that arise though is that only 2 Dark types can be obtained before postgame, Umbreon and Sneasel. Both of these are physical attackers, while Dark is a special type. Steel is a primarily defensive typing and it’s solid overall, though there’s very few Steel type Pokemon possible to obtain. These types are great additions, and it does at least help somewhat in balancing things, but these types definitely become a lot better in later generations, especially once gen 4 rolls around.
There’s also two other additions that change the game mechanically in interesting ways. First, while there aren’t many options in gen 2 for this, this is the generation that introduced held items. Honestly, I didn’t really utilize held items at all, I know in later generations I do, but there’s not really many useful held items in gen 2 specifically. I’m unsure if this is an actual critique or just a personal preference but I think it’s important to note. The other slight mechanical change which is actually quite big is the change to the special stat. In gen 1, special was a singular stat, counting for both offense and defense, now we have 2 unique stats, Special Attack, and Special Defense. This really helps balance a lot of Pokemon, specifically the ones that were too powerful, since having high special would make them have high offense and defense. It’s a great change, really.
And of course the last big change brought about in gen 2 and one that probably had the largest impact on Pokemon as a series is the introduction of Shiny Pokemon. Rare Pokemon with different color palettes that sparkle upon entry to battle. While later, the odds were brought down to 1/4096, the original odds were 1/8192. Shiny Pokemon in general are really fun to find, and especially in later games when they brought methods to hunt shiny Pokemon easier is really fun. In this run of Pokemon Silver though I was ridiculously lucky, finding 3 shiny Pokemon completely naturally throughout the game. Particularly I found a Shiny Rattata, Nidoran Male, and Tentacool. It’s also nice that the game gives you a free shiny as a way to sort of introduce Shiny Pokemon to the player, and it’s nice that it’s a pretty solid Pokemon in Gyarados.
Now onto to the game itself, I really love the new Pokemon introduced in these games, but that comes with a big caveat. While I didn’t use a full team of Johto Pokemon, I had a really fun team for it. Particularly, my team was Typhlosion, Ledian, Ampharos, Quagsire, Bellossom, and Raticate. Honestly there were some great surprises with this team. With easy access to TMs like Ice Punch, Ledian was genuinely an amazing Pokemon, and it helped take out half of Lance’s team. I also found Bellossom to be a struggle to get to, Gloom is kind of bad until level 44, unless you get the TM for Sludge Bomb, which for me, is right before the 7th gym. And for a third note, Raticate with Shadow Ball, since this is pre-Physical Special split, and Ghost is physical, is a really good combination. But this all comes with the caveat that I mentioned prior. A majority of really cool Johto Pokemon are either tied to trading, or can only be caught in the postgame. This includes some Pokemon like Houndoom, Magcargo, Misdreavus, even this region’s pseudo-legendary, Tyranitar, are all locked behind postgame. It really sucks because these are some awesome Pokemon, and even though the remakes allow for certain Pokemon to be obtainable before postgame, some are still not, which sucks (I’m looking at you Houndoom). As well, I recognize it’s just a me-issue here, but I much prefer the encounter tables of Pokemon Crystal, as it allows you to obtain Pokemon like Teddiursa and Phanpy really early, and they’re super fun to use.
Now, when it comes to Johto, and this is an issue that occurs in every version of Johto, the biggest issue comes from the level scaling. Typically when I play the Johto games, I get to level 50 to beat the game, but of course that requires a lot of level grinding. The rate at which wild Pokemon levels scale is so minimal, and trainer battles have a similar issue as well. Even late into the game, the highest level of wild Pokemon, even trainer battles really peaks around mid-30s. It means that if you don’t level grind at all, you’re gonna be quite underleveled for certain fights if you have a full team. And as well since random encounters are very low level, it means level grinding takes a long time. I really do think that the Johto games would be so much better if the level scaling was improved, and I’m someone who has Crystal as one of their favorite games ever.
I didn’t do it for this version, but I remember it from Crystal, but it really is a nice thing that they had the entirety of Kanto in this game. They didn’t really need to in order to make gen 2 a great generation for me, but doing so really is the icing on the cake. Though being used to Heartgold and Soulsilver, going back to gen 2 Johto, the Kanto postgame is a lot emptier. Especially looking at Viridian Forest. As well, as someone who mainly played gen 2 through Crystal, it’s odd how certain things that are standard to me weren’t introduced until Crystal. The whole section with Dragon’s Den is first that comes to mind, the whole quiz and getting that special Dratini was only in Crystal, which I never knew of until finally playing Silver. These parts of the game, alongside the encounter tables I mentioned earlier are why I gravitate towards Crystal more than Gold and Silver personally.
Pokemon Gold and Silver aren’t games I’d typically come back to. I’m more likely to play Crystal or the Remakes, as I prefer the changes they’ve made to the originals, and they do help with certain aspects that the original Gold and Silver struggle with. Even then, Pokemon Gold and Silver are still great games, even with the flaws they have. I had a really fun time playing through this game, the gen 2 games are really pretty, and even though I don’t see myself replaying Gold or Silver anytime soon, I’m glad I finally got around to playing them.