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7[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon_rby_min.png]]
8[[caption-width-right:350:The games that started it all.]]
9[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:''Pokémon [=FireRed and LeafGreen=]'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon_frlg.png[[/labelnote]]]]
10
11->''"You've finally been granted your Pokémon Trainer's license. Now, it's time to head out to become the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer. It's going to take all you've got to collect 150 Pokémon in this enormous world...can you develop the ultimate Pokémon strategy to defeat the eight Gym Leaders and become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time?"''
12-->-- '''Blurb''' on the back of the boxes of ''Pokémon Red Version'' and ''Pokémon Blue Version''
13
14The first installments of the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise hit the Platform/GameBoy in 1996 in Japan (as ''Red'' and ''Green''; see below), in 1998 in North America and 1999 in most of the rest of the world. Taking place in a part of the world called Kanto, based on the Japanese region of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Kanto]], the [[ExcusePlot plot is simple]]: [[HelloInsertNameHere you, an eleven-year-old with a]] baseball cap, are offered your very first [[{{Mon}} Pokémon]] by Professor Oak, the local authority on Pokémon. He gives you a choice of three different types: [[GreenThumb Bulbasaur]], [[PlayingWithFire Charmander]], or [[MakingASplash Squirtle]]. His own grandson, your long-time [[TheRival Rival]], gets second pick, and takes advantage of this to snag [[ElementalRockPaperScissors whichever one happens to be strong against your chosen partner]].
15
16In exchange for your first Pokémon, Oak wants you to run an errand for him: [[WalkingTheEarth travel around the region]] and [[GottaCatchEmAll collect as many different Pokémon as you can]], recording all of them in your Pokédex. Of course, along the way, you're more than welcome to challenge the eight Pokémon Gyms, collect their badges, and take on the Elite Four in hopes of [[ToBeAMaster becoming the Champion]] of the Pokémon League. Then there's the emerging threat of Team Rocket, a [[CardCarryingVillain proudly evil organization]] that uses Pokémon for its own selfish ends. Somebody's gonna have to deal with ''them'', too -- and who better than an eleven-year-old and his [[FluffyTamer team of trained monsters]]?
17
18While the game's CompetitiveBalance is undeniably broken and glitches abound...it's ''Pokémon''.
19
20It should be noted that in Japan, the first two games were released as ''Red'' and ''Green''. ''Blue'' was released later as a third version, [[UpdatedRerelease with a bit of a graphical improvement over the originals]]. For the international releases, the names ''Red'' and ''Blue'' were used. Although the Japanese ''Blue'' provided the graphics, codebase and game script for translation, the Japanese ''Red'' and ''Green'' provided the wild and version-exclusive Pokémon for the international ''Red'' and ''Blue'' respectively. Aside from its codebase, this makes the Japanese ''Blue'' the only main series game to lack an international release.
21
22As evidence of its incredible popularity, ''Pokémon Yellow'' was later released as a fourth version in Japan in 1998, and as a third international version in 1999. ''Yellow'' took elements from [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries the first season of the anime]] and [[RecursiveAdaptation transported them back into the games]], however loosely. Instead of picking one of the usual trio, a wild Pikachu ends up as your starter, and [[AllInARow follows you everywhere]] rather than [[PartyInMyPocket getting into the usual Poké Ball]]. The familiar Team Rocket trio also show up, although Meowth acts as a normal mon as opposed to an equal member to Jessie and James, acting as the third member in their party alongside Ekans/Arbok and Koffing/Weezing.
23
24After a successful run, ''Red'', ''Blue'', and ''Yellow'' were followed by the Platform/GameBoyColor-enhanced (though they can still be played on a previous incarnation of the Platform/GameBoy, as well as later ones) ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', taking place three years after Red became champion and featuring a kid from Johto, a region west of Kanto, the return of Team Rocket, and improved the graphics that ''Yellow'' didn't (back sprites, etc.).
25
26Jump ahead a couple gens, and ''Red'' and ''Blue'' reappeared in the form of their {{Video Game Remake}}s on the Platform/GameBoyAdvance: ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]''. These allowed players to relive the classic games with many of the new benefits, tweaks, and balances of the second and third generations, though it took some {{Retcon}}ning here and there, and added in some new areas to explore after finishing the familiar challenge(s).
27
28These games have received two animated adaptations. The first one is the first season of ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries''. The second one is the anime special MiniSeries titled ''Anime/PokemonOrigins'', which aired on October 2, 2013 in Japan (10 days prior to the release of the tie-in games ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'') and November 2013 in the United States. This miniseries essentially serves as a more accurate depiction of the plot of ''Red'' and ''Blue'', being a TruerToTheText AnimeOfTheGame in comparison to the main ''Pokémon'' anime.
29
30On November 12th, 2015, it was announced that ''Red'', ''Blue'', and ''Yellow'' would be making their way to the Platform/Nintendo3DS's UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole in the eShop [[MilestoneCelebration in celebration of the franchise's 20th Anniversary]]. Trading and battling with other players was retained by modding them to work with the system's local wireless functionality, while the Restore Points option is disabled. Pokémon caught in the Virtual Console versions can also be transferred to future mainline Pokémon games, starting with 2016's ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', via Pokémon Bank. They were released on February 27th, 2016, exactly 20 years after their release in Japan.
31
32As of May 29th, 2018 a third set of Kanto games were announced, this time being enhanced remakes of ''Pokémon Yellow'', called ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee''. It is available on the Platform/NintendoSwitch and features compatibility with ''VideoGame/PokemonGo''.
33
34Another detail worth noting is that many of the tropes listed under ''Red'' and ''Blue''[='=]s category also apply to ''Yellow'', ''[=FireRed=]'', and ''[=LeafGreen=]''.
35
36Random trivia: the games were developed on Sun's [=SPARCstation=] 1 computer; four or five units were used in their development.
37
38----
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:Tropes used in ''Red'' and ''Blue'']]
42* AbandonedLaboratory: The Pokémon Mansion on Cinnabar Island is actually a laboratory. It was where [=Mewtwo=] was cloned from Mew, and the place has since been abandoned. Now it is infested with Fire- and Poison-type Pokémon, along with some rogue scientists and burglars picking through the remains.
43* AbsentMindedProfessor: Professor Oak can't even remember his grandson's name.
44* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap:
45** Played straight in single-player, where it's possible to take your Pokémon up to level 100, but you'll beat the game with a team in the 50s or 60s.[[note]]Or even less if taking advantage of broken CompetitiveBalance and AIBreaker exploits.[[/note]]
46** Averted for PVP purposes and taking your Pokémon to ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'', where you'll want to take them to level 100.
47* AccentAdaptation: Bill's Kansai dialect is translated as a [[DeepSouth Southern accent]].
48* AcrophobicBird: Despite having Flying as a secondary type and being depicted as flying throughout other Pokémon media or even with their in-game sprites, Charizard, Dragonite, and the Zubat line all can not learn the move Fly. Charizard would gain this ability in ''Yellow'', while Dragonite would get it in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]]'', and Zubat and Golbat would have to wait until ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]]'' to finally learn it (though their final evolution added in Gen 2, Crobat, could learn Fly in its debut in ''Gold and Silver'').
49* ADogNamedDog: In the French version, Rock Tunnel is simply called "La Grotte", "The Cave". It finally got a proper name in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee''.
50* AIBreaker: Trainers that are supposed to be highly-skilled and are given an explicit "good AI" flag in the coding, such as Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, will always use moves of a type which are super-effective against whichever Pokémon you have out... even if the move doesn't actually do any damage. Combine this with the fact that the AI will never run out of PP for their moves, and it becomes possible to beat, for example, Lance's Dragonite by sending out any Poison or Fighting-type of any level, as he will only use the non-damaging Psychic-type moves Agility and Barrier, fruitlessly only increasing its Speed and Defense until you inevitably beat it.
51* AIRoulette:
52** Standard trainers and wild Pokémon will pick their moves at complete random. The only caveat with trainers is that they'll avoid using status-inflicting moves if your Pokémon has a status condition (as you can [[OneCurseLimit only have one status at a time]]).
53** Even with high-level trainers, this is still true. The exception is if they're programmed with the "good AI flag" and possess moves that are of a "super effective" typing against one of your Pokémon's types, at which point they'll use those moves without considering whether or not those moves actually do damage or would even affect your Pokémon. This is especially noticeable with the Elite Four, where you can see several of their Pokémon use nothing but non-damaging Psychic-type moves (like Agility, Rest, Amnesia, and Barrier) simply because you brought out a Fighting- or Poison-type.
54* AllThereInTheManual: The manual explains the basic background of you and your rival, states your age, and tells of the events that lead up to the start of your adventure.
55* AlphabetSoupCans: Blaine's gym features quiz questions which you must answer correctly in order to open doors. Naturally, they are all about Pokémon. If you get them wrong, you must instead battle a trainer.
56* AlwaysAccurateAttack: Swift is specifically coded to never miss. ExactWords applies, because this also means it can hit Pokémon that are in the invulnerable phases of Fly and Dig, which is otherwise impossible and doesn't apply for later generations.
57* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Played with when it comes to your rival. Throughout the game, he is always at least one step ahead of you, such as on the S.S. Anne when he brags about having captured 40 Pokémon when you're lucky to have half that number (doing so by that point is possible, but would require massive LevelGrinding to evolve every Pokémon you can catch and/or trade from another game). However, you avert it by beating him in every battle you have, showing that you are the more skilled trainer. Even after [[spoiler:he becomes Champion]], you show up to end his reign very quickly.
58* AmazonBrigade: Erika's gym is populated entirely by female trainers. This means the (male) Gym guide can't be found there, and is hanging out in the Rocket Game Corner instead.
59* AntidoteEffect: In general, because you can only carry 20 types of item[[note]] You can carry up to 99 of a single item, like Potions or Poké Balls, but there are only 20 inventory ''slots''[[/note]], it is wise to carry as little as you can get away with. You can store up to 50 additional types of items in the PC, but this can only be accessed while in Pokémon Centers, not out in the world. A few specific examples:
60** Awakenings become useless as soon as you get the Poké Flute. It will wake Pokémon up inside or out of battle, and has no use limit.
61** Once Full Heals become available for purchase, most of the single-effect healing items (Antidotes, Paralyze Heals, Burn Heals, etc.) are no longer worth carrying. While more expensive than any of them individually, carrying a stack of Full Heals only takes up one precious inventory slot and covers any effect you come across.
62* AntiWastageFeatures: The two types of healing items are only consumed when there's HitPoints to restore or StatusEffects to remove, respectively.
63* AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter: Played with regarding your rival throughout the game. He's always a step ahead, having explored more, having caught more Pokémon, even [[spoiler:becoming ''Champion'']] before you. Ultimately subverted, as you'll need to defeat him in almost every instance in order to advance in the game, proving your skill as the superior trainer.
64* ApatheticCitizens: Starts off the series' tradition. An evil gang is stealing fossils? Running a gambling operation? Taking over Pokémon Tower? Taking over a major company and holding the workers hostage? No problem, some kid will come along to stop them.
65* ApocalypticLog:
66** The records of Mewtwo's birth, found in (the burnt ruins of) the Pokémon Mansion. Mainly the last entry:
67--->Diary: Sept. 1\
68MEWTWO is far too powerful. We have failed to curb its vicious tendencies...
69** The original Japanese entry is written more emotionally, implying it was written during or shortly before Mewtwo's rampage, and not after:
70--->Diary: September 1\
71The Pokémon Mewtwo is far too powerful. It's no use...I cannot control it!
72* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The trainers at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City. They used to be the official gym for the city until Sabrina came in, [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomped]] them with her Psychic-types, and then took over.
73* TheArtifact: Gust and Razor Wind being Normal rather than Flying is possibly this. It's speculated that the Flying type was originally known as Bird, an unfinished type that can still be encountered on glitch Pokémon (including Missingno. itself) in the finished game; as a remnant of this, only moves that are explicitly bird-related are classified as Flying.[[note]]This also applies to Mirror Move and Sky Attack, whose original Japanese names are Parrot Mimicry and God Bird, respectively.[[/note]] As the Bird type was long gone by the time the Gen II games began development, Gust was converted into a Flying move and the type became more generally associated with wind and flying creatures, though Razor Wind remains a Normal move to this day.
74* ArtificialStupidity: The aforementioned AIRoulette in general will lead to countless instances in each playthrough of the AI using blatantly sub-optimal moves, but here are some specific examples of particularly bad misplays the AI consistently makes:
75** The infamous "Good AI" flag that certain trainers have, which will make such trainers ''always'' use their moves with the best type effectiveness. The AIBreaker section already covered how it makes no consideration for if the moves are actually damaging moves, but it also ignores if a less-effective move would have actually dealt more damage. The biggest example of this is with Misty's fearsome Starmie, whose Bubble Beam is powerful even against Pokémon that would resist it, but due to her "Good AI", she will always have her Starmie use the much weaker Tackle against Grass and Water Pokémon, making it much easier to beat with Water and Grass Pokémon.
76** Some AI trainers are programmed to have a battle item like the X items, where it's then treated as another move that their AIRoulette may select randomly. This will often lead to them using the item when it's not helping at all, such as those whose item is X Defend (like Misty) using it when their Pokémon is already near death and thus will be fainted by the next hit regardless of the Defense boost.
77** When a boss trainer has a type of potion as their item, they're programmed to only use it when their Pokémon's HP drops below a set percentage-based threshold. Blaine however, who has Super Potions as his item, was not programmed with any such threshold and so can randomly use them at any time. This means he'll often randomly use Super Potions in situations where his Pokémon don't need the healing, or may even try using them when his Pokémon aren't damaged at all. Never mind that a Super Potion heals too little to be useful for this point of the game when it wouldn't even recover half his Pokémon's health.
78*** On that note, the "Rival 2" Trainer class (i.e. the rival fights from the S.S. Anne up to the one on Route 23 after the final Gym) has regular Potions (the 20 HP-healing ones) as the used item. This still applies in said fight on Route 23, where his Pokémon have around 150 HP, meaning they'll barely heal anything.
79** The AIRoulette makes no consideration for recovery moves, so AI trainers will often use them when they're barely damaged or even at full heath. In particular, this makes high-level enemy Kadabra and Alakazam (who are otherwise usually the most threatening opposing Pokémon in the game) quite a bit more manageable.
80** AI trainers don't realize that Whirlwind, Roar, and Teleport do nothing in trainer battles, so trainers that have those moves can frequently waste turns trying to use them. Even in [[spoiler:Champion Blue's]] battle, his Arcanine still has Roar and he will still try to use it as if it's any other move.
81** AI trainers don't consider the fact that Dream Eater can only work on sleeping Pokémon, so Agatha's Gengar and Haunter will frequently try to use Dream Eater even when your Pokémon aren't sleeping.
82** Selfdestruct and Explosion aren't given any special consideration for making the user automatically faint; AI trainers using Pokémon with those moves can have them blow up at any time regardless of the situation, even if it's their last Pokémon. This is most infamously seen with Koga, who will often have his last Pokémon, Weezing, blow up with Selfdestruct to auto-lose him the battle if you're not down to one Pokémon yourself, and sometimes doing so as his very first move with the Weezing.
83* ArtworkAndGameGraphicsSegregation: Almost every Pokémon in the game looks radically different from the official art -- Gastly, for instance, is simply a cloud of gas with a face rather than a black orb ''surrounded'' by gas. Reportedly, the artwork was made after the spritework was completed, and Ken Sugimori made many deviations from what was present in-game. ''Pokémon Yellow'' would redo all the Pokémon sprites to better match Sugimori's artwork, tying in with its status as a recursive adaptation of ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries''.
84* AthensAndSparta: The rivalry between the Fighting (martial artist trainers) and Psychic (trainers with psychic powers) gyms, with the Psychic gym having handily won the title of official Saffron City gym.
85* AwesomeButImpractical:
86** Moves that take two turns to charge up, such as Solar Beam, Skull Bash, Sky Attack, etc. The charge-up turn leaves you vulnerable to being attacked in the meantime -- when playing against a human opponent, it gives them the cue to switch to something that resists it before you get your attack off, and if your opponent uses something like Fly or Dig, your attack will miss anyway. Additionally, most of the time none of these moves are strong enough to outdamage using conventional 1-turn moves over those 2 turns; Sky Attack, the strongest of the bunch, has a power of 140, so you can deal more damage by just using a move with over 70 power with the two turns it would take to use Sky Attack, and most Pokémon have access to a STAB move stronger than that. Plus, if you're attacking twice instead of once, that's another chance at scoring a critical hit or getting a chance-based secondary effect to activate.
87** High-damage but low-accuracy moves, including the OneHitKO moves. While awesome when they hit, they're simply too inaccurate to be reliable. They also generally have low PP, meaning you can only use them a few times to begin with. This is why you'll see most players using weaker but more accurate/higher-PP moves, such as Thunderbolt instead of Thunder or Surf instead of Hydro Pump. Blizzard (in this generation) and Fire Blast are exceptions though, as the former with 90% accuracy and the latter with 85% accuracy remain reliable enough to be worth using with their significant power advantage over Ice Beam and Flamethrower.
88** Toxic will often be this, as stalling out opponents is rarely a viable option in the first-generation Pokémon games; stalling moves are limited, non-Rest recovery moves are scarce, critical hits are much more common, and poisoning a Pokémon [[OneCurseLimit will prevent them]] from being inflicted with the much more devastating Sleep, Frozen, and Paralysis statuses. Plus, the first-generation games both downgrade badly poisoned into regular poison when a Pokémon is switched out, and only deplete a poisoned Pokémon's health by 1/16th each turn (making it [[UselessUsefulSpell mostly useless]]). And while in-game AI opponents won't take advantage of this switching flaw to negate it, you're often able to beat them down much more quickly with conventional moves or by focusing on inflicting Sleep/Paralysis instead.
89* BackstoryHorror:
90** Team Rocket kills Cubone's mother in Pokémon Tower, leaving it an orphan.
91** Mewtwo is cloned from Mew and is subjected to "years of horrific gene-splicing and DNA experiments".
92* BaitAndSwitchBoss: Throughout the game, any mention of the Elite Four sets them up as the final boss. When you get to their final member, Lance, his dialogue makes it sound as though he is your final challenge before becoming Champion. However, after you defeat him, he reveals that [[spoiler:your Rival]] beat you to the punch and claimed the title of Champion. You must now beat him as well in order to claim the title.
93* BeatTheCurseOutOfHim: The channelers in Pokémon Tower are all possessed by Gastly and Haunter. Defeating these Pokémon brings the channelers back to their senses.
94* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: The female Gym Leaders. To wit:
95** Erika, the beauty, isn't known as "the nature-loving princess" for nothing.
96** Sabrina, the brains, is smart enough to know that Psychic-type Pokémon (which are themselves associated with brains) have virtually no weaknesses and uses an army of them in combat.
97** Misty, the brawn, uses brute force with her Staryu and Starmie (especially the latter), which can cause problems even if you came armed with a Pikachu.
98* BeefGate:
99** You can enter Diglett's Cave as soon as you get to Vermilion City. However, the wild Diglett there can be as high as level 22 (higher than the Pokémon most of the local trainers are using at that point), and there is even a chance to run into a level 31 Dugtrio whose speed and ability to hit hard can easily sweep your lower-leveled team. This is largely to discourage SequenceBreaking, but if you're strong or lucky enough, you can turn this into an advantage: capture a Diglett (or even one of the Dugtrio) and use them to curb-stomp Lt. Surge, the local Electric-type gym leader.
100** While you can engage in SequenceBreaking regarding the middle four gym leaders, the levels of the trainers and the gym leaders strongly encourage tackling Lt. Surge, then Erika, then Koga or Sabrina (who, uniquely, have teams with near-identical levels).
101* BehindTheBlack: Celadon Mansion has a back entrance that, owing to the game's top-down view, isn't immediately obvious. Taking this entrance all the way to the top allows the player to find an Eevee.
102* BerserkButton:
103** Some Lasses will take issue to your locking eyes with them alone and will use any belief of impropriety on your part as grounds for a challenge.
104--->'''Lass Janice:''' You looked at me, didn't you?\
105'''Lass Robin:''' Eek! Did you touch me?
106** The Super Nerd at the end of Mt. Moon is overprotective of his fossils and paranoid about Team Rocket stealing them, to the point where when you walk up to him, he'll mistake you for a plainclothes Rocket and challenge you.
107--->'''Super Nerd Miguel:''' Hey, stop! I found these fossils! They're both mine!
108* BigBoosHaunt: Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. The place is crawling with ghosts; your own Pokémon are too scared to fight them, and you cannot catch them until you obtain a special item that can unmask them. You can just run from most of the ghosts, but you will need a special item to reveal the ghost of a dead Marowak that haunts the top of the tower.
109* BigFirstChoice: Begins the series tradition of having you choose from one of three starting Pokémon. You have to make this choice before getting to know anything about battling or the Mons themselves (other than their type.) Your rival will immediately choose the Pokémon [[ElementalRockPaperScissors strong against]] whichever you chose, and there is no legitimate way to get the ones you did not choose unless you trade them in from another game. However, nothing forces you to use your starter at all after you catch your first Pokémon, and in fact the starters all tend to be lackluster Pokémon in these games, with many better alternatives becoming available later on. As the selection of available Pokémon is very limited and poor early on, it's probably not advisable to ditch your starter until after at least defeating Misty.
110* BigRedButton:
111** What is the game's reaction to finding the secret switch to access Team Rocket's hideout? "Hey, a switch! Let's press it!"
112** When prompted to push the buttons in the Pokémon Mansion's statues, selecting "Yes" makes the game reply, "Who wouldn't?"
113* {{Bizarrchitecture}}:
114** For some reason, exiting the Power Plant past Zapdos sends you out through the same door as the entrance... even though on the inside, the two are in separate locations. No longer the case as of ''[=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]'', where that exit instead leads to a ledge at the side of the building.
115** On Route 13, there's an inexplicable maze of fences chock full of trainers standing in place and watching down rows of empty space.
116* BlackoutBasement: The interior of Rock Tunnel is dark, though the PlayerCharacter, walls, and ladders are still visible. Using the move Flash will light up the cave; navigation without it is possible, but you'll blunder into a lot of random trainers. ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' instead reduce visibility to a tiny circle around the player character, making Flash more necessary for finding your way.
117* BlatantBurglar: The "Burglar" trainer class found in Pokémon Mansion and, oddly enough, Blaine's gym. They wear face-obscuring sunglasses and carry a ThiefBag.
118* BleakLevel:
119** Pokémon Tower is a graveyard for Pokémon with {{Creepypasta}}-inspiring music, possessed trainers, undead Pokémon, and the ghost of a Pokémon that was killed by humans.
120** Cinnabar Mansion is a blasted, decrepit ruin full of rubble, Poison- and Fire-type Pokémon (along with Rattata and Raticate), and is inhabited only by Burglars and rogue Scientists using the basement laboratory. It is also implied to be where Mewtwo was cloned and tortured, with its escape causing the damage.
121* BlindIdiotTranslation:
122** The Pokédex gives "Shellfish" as Blastoise's species, even though it's a sea turtle. This is a mistranslation of the Japanese original, in which its species was "Shell" instead. While some species names were later changed (like “Rat” to “Mouse” for Rattata), this one was not.
123** The Celadon Mansion is not a mansion in the English sense, but an apartment building. In Japanese, it is called a ''manshon'', which does derive from the English ''mansion'' but has acquired a different meaning. Later games corrected it by translating it as "Celadon Condominiums".
124** The Spanish translations have a lot of examples. An infamous one was the message displayed after hooking a Pokémon with a fishing rod ("The hooked (Pokémon) attacked"), which was mistranslated as "El malvado (Pokémon) attacked" ("The evil (Pokémon) attacked").
125* BonusDungeon: There are a few areas you're never required to step foot in to progress in the game, but can reward you if you do:
126** The Fighting Dojo in Saffron City, which in-universe was Saffron's Gym until Sabrina and her Psychic-type trainers defeated the Dojo's Fighting-types and took the official Gym status in the process. Beating the Dojo's master will have him give you your choice of Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee, which cannot be obtained anywhere else in the game.
127** The abandoned Power Plant south of Rock Tunnel, which can't be accessed until you can Surf. It's full of Electric Pokémon at rather high levels for the midgame and has some valuable items, while additionally having Zapdos at the end of it.
128** The Seafoam Islands between Fuschia and Cinnabar's water routes; you can go through them to reach Cinnabar from Fuchsia, or skip them entirely by Surfing to Cinnabar from Pallet Town instead. They're full of high-leveled Water Pokémon and some evolved ones you won't encounter elsewhere, while additionally being the home of Articuno.
129** The postgame Cerulean Cave, home of [=Mewtwo=], which is blocked off until you become Champion. It also contains the strongest wild Pokémon in the game.
130* BoringButPractical: The [[ComMons bog-standard]] Normal/Flying type Spearow and its evolution, Fearow. You can catch one on Route 22 west of Viridian City, its Peck attack will make short work of the Bug-types in Virdian Forest while allowing for easy grinding, it evolves quickly (at level 20) to get you a Pokémon significantly stronger than the typical mid-evolutions shortly after you reach Cerulean, and Fearow's powerful STAB move Drill Pick and getting STAB off of strong Normal moves (plus its decent Attack and Speed) will allow it to remain viable late into the game. It can be swapped out for the superior Dodrio when you reach Celadon, but on its own it only starts to fall behind around the time of Victory Road, and by then you'll have had the opportunity to catch at least one of the legendary birds to replace it with.
131* BossCorridor: The second battle with Giovanni has a long corridor in front of it. Each stage of the final encounters with the Elite Four except for the battle with the Champion also has a corridor before the room the trainer is in.
132* BossInMookClothing:
133** There's a Rocket in Mt. Moon with a Lv. 16 Raticate that knows Hyper Fang. While Raticate isn't that strong for a fully evolved Pokémon, it's a powerful foe due to Hyper Fang's 80 BP and the [=STAB=] bonus making it hit incredibly hard relative to everything you've fought up to that point. ''Yellow'' and the remakes replaced it with a Rattata and Zubat.
134** The Bug Catcher just outside Vermilion City with a Lv. 20 Butterfree can be a huge pain too, thanks to it knowing Sleep Powder.
135** Enter Diglett's Cave at your own risk: usually you will encounter the relatively harmless Diglett with levels around 20. Rarely though, you will encounter a '''level 31 Dugtrio'''. This is six levels higher than the strongest Pokémon of the nearest gym leader (Lt. Surge). Dugtrio is also very fast, and fast opponents reduce your chances of escaping, the Dugtrio is very likely to send you back to the last Pokémon Center. If you can catch it, however, it can and will steamroll the whole of Vermilion Gym.
136** The first Juggler you are likely to fight in the Fuchsia City Gym only has one Mon, but that Mon is a level 38 Hypno (which is a higher level than two of the Gym Leader's Mons.) It is also of the broken Psychic-type, so your options to counter it are relatively few.
137* BossRush: ''Red'' and ''Blue'' begin the tradition of ending a main Pokémon game's story by facing the Elite Four trainer group at the Pokémon League. Once you enter the room with the first member of the Elite Four, you're locked in and have to face all the trainers plus the League Champion (who is [[spoiler:TheRival]] in this game) in a row to beat the game.
138* {{Bowdlerize}}:
139** The grumpy old man in Viridian City who initially won't let you pass because...[[DisproportionateRetribution he hasn't had his coffee yet]]. In the Japanese version, it's because he's drunk.
140** One of the Hikers on Route 10 is constantly having a laughing fit in his dialogue. After beating him, in the Japanese version, he says it's because he [[MushroomSamba recently ate some magic mushrooms]]. The English versions eliminate the drug reference by rewriting the line to him saying that he's not laughing, but rather sneezing due to hay fever.
141* BreakingTheFourthWall:
142** In the French version, the burglar Rocket will do so if you don't have room for [=TM28=], mentioning that it's written in the story that he's supposed to hand it over to you before he takes off.
143--->'''Rocket:''' Tu portes trop d'trucs! Je dois te donner ça avant d'fuir. C'est écrit dans l'histoire![[labelnote:Literal English translation]]You're carrying too much stuff! I must give it to you before I take off. It's written in the story![[/labelnote]]
144** One of the video games in the Celadon Department Store's TV Game Shop reads "An RPG! There's no time for that!".
145* BreakoutCharacter:
146** Charizard is the face of the ''Red'' version and one of the most heavily marketed {{Mon}}s, even receiving two [[SuperMode Mega Evolutions]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY''.
147** Pikachu's the biggest one, as it replaced Clefairy as the mascot of the franchise and can be found on just about everything ''Pokémon''-related in one form or another.
148** Meowth to only a slightly lesser extent as a result of becoming one of the lead villains in the anime. Expectedly, the anime's version made a cameo with Jessie and James in ''Yellow''.
149** Jigglypuff was popular enough in Japan to be a semi-recurring character in the anime and is in every entry of the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' games as a playable fighter.
150** The original {{Olympus Mon|s}}, Mewtwo, got not [[Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie one]], but [[Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened two]] movies about it, is playable in three of the ''Smash Bros.'' games, and got two [[SuperMode Mega Evolutions]] in ''X and Y'' like Charizard. Said Mega Evolutions also have the highest base stats of any Pokémon, matched only by Mega Rayquaza.
151* BrokenBridge: In addition to the NPCRoadblock examples mentioned below, there are the two Snorlax blocking your way south to Fuchsia City after falling asleep in the middle of the road.
152* ButThouMust: When Bill asks for your help in returning to human form, you can refuse. However, even if you do, he'll just beg you to do it for a little bit before proceeding with the dialogue that would've been shown immediately had you agreed to do it at first.
153* CantDropTheHero: Averted, perhaps surprisingly given the number of other classic RPG tropes the game plays straight. You're free to stuff your starter in the PC as soon as you've caught one other Pokémon; you can even release it into the wild, never to be seen again.
154* {{Cap}}: ''Red'', ''Blue'', and ''Yellow'' only allow carrying up to 20 kinds of items in your Bag, in stacks of up to 99. ''[=LeafGreen=]'' and ''[=FireRed=]'' expand your bag to 30 slots and add a couple more pockets for items like Poké Balls and Key Items, but you still have a somewhat limited carrying capacity.
155* CaptainObvious: The Team Rocket member in the hideout who says, "The elevator won't work? Well, duh, it needs a key. Who has the lift key?" He asks as if he doesn't know, then after you beat him he says, "Oh no, I dropped the lift key!"
156* CassetteFuturism: In this setting with spray-on healing medicine, handheld ball devices that can hold creatures several times their size, and cloning technology, the actual appearance of technology is usually contemporary real-life tech from the time of the game's release. Personal desktops are CRT monitors with big, chunky PC towers, certain overworld tiles resemble reel-to-reel wall-spanning computers, and the protagonist's game console of choice is the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem.
157* CharacterSelectForcing: Downplayed, but extant in the beginning with your starter choice:
158** If you choose Charmander as your starter, you're going to have a tougher time against Brock, as his Rock Pokémon will resist Charmander's Fire and Normal moves and the pool of available Pokémon is extremely limited to ComMon Normal types, weak Bugs, and Nidoran. The ''intended'' strategy is to rely on your Pokémon's various stat-reducing moves to weaken Brock's Pokémon, but it's downplayed as Brock's Pokémon lack any actual Rock-type moves, reducing the difficulty significantly. Additionally, since both Geodude and Onix have low Special while their only attacking move is Tackle, Charmander's Special-based Ember still does decent damage to them and will outdamage their Tackles; if you're lucky, it can even inflict them with the Burn status to make Brock waste a turn using a Full Heal. You can win against Brock by just spamming Ember with a decently-levelled Charmander; you only need to be wary of Onix's Bide (avoid damaging him during the turns he is Biding or else Onix will inflict double the damage it sustains back at you). If you chose Bulbasaur or Squirtle as your starter, you just level them up enough to learn Vine Whip and Bubble respectively, and then you just one-shot sweep (or two-hit sweep with Squirtle if you take on Brock immediately after learning Bubble) Brock's team with their respective STAB moves.
159** Against Misty, the available Pokémon pool has opened up some but is still quite limited. If you picked Bulbasaur as your starter, then you can rely on it against her; considering how strong Starmie is while Vine Whip is quite a weak move, however, it'll need to be levelled up some and preferably evolved into Ivysaur by then. Squirtle/Wartortle can handle her pretty easily too, since her AI will make her just use Tackle against them, but you'll need to level up a bit more than you would with Bulbasaur/Ivysaur to make up for not having the type advantage. If you picked Charmander, then you're pressed to go across Nugget Bridge and get either Bellsprout (if you're playing Green or International Blue) or Oddish (if you're playing Red or Japanese Blue), as those will be the only Pokémon available that can both resist Water moves and hit Water-types back super-effectively. Otherwise, your strategy will come down to relying on your numeric advantage and status moves, or just over-levelling a Pokémon to be stronger than her Starmie.
160** Beyond Misty, your starter choice becomes irrelevant, as the available Pokémon pool widens significantly and Pokémon better than your starters are numerous, so you don't need to depend on your starter as the crux of your party anymore and can even ditch them completely for better alternatives.[[note]]In fact, they're all left in the dust ''long'' before you ever get that far with your starters, potentially even before you challenge Misty. Flying-types function similarly to Fire-types typing-wise, and you'll have a Fearow with Drill Peck long before you get Charizard's Flamethrower at ''Level 48''. Then the Victreebel line obtainable at this point outclasses the Venusaur line. And even just freshly-evolving the purchased Magikarp gives you a Water-type that puts Blastoise to shame in every regard, while you can get plenty of other better Water types soon after.[[/note]]
161* ChekhovsGag: One ''20 years in the making'', no less. When Bill fuses with a Pokémon, it's just a humorous reference to ''Film/TheFly1986'', and he tells you to run the "Cell Separation System" to de-fuse him. Then in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', [[spoiler:Bill and the Cell Separation System are revealed as the only things that might save Lusamine, as she fuses with an Ultra Beast and ends up getting a lot of toxins from it in her body]].
162* ChestMonster: Several Voltorb and Electrode can be found in the Power Plant, looking like the balls that contain normal items. Bzzzt!
163* ColorfulThemeNaming:
164** Starting in Generation II, the Gen I PlayerCharacter is canonically named Red, and TheRival is named Blue (Green in the original Japanese release). Initially, though, neither of them had an official name, though early materials (such as Nintendo's official strategy guide) tend to use "Ash" and "Gary", like the anime.
165** Each of the towns is named after a color, except for Pallet Town which is instead named after the item where different colors of paints are stored while painting. In the original Japanese, Pallet Town is called Masara Town (from "masshiro", which means pure white).
166** The badges in the original Japanese games are named after colors: Gray Badge, Blue Badge, Orange Badge, Rainbow Badge, Pink Badge, Gold Badge, Crimson Badge, and Green Badge. It’s anyone’s guess why these weren’t left as-is in the localizations.
167* ColorWash:
168** Even though the games were originally monochrome, this applies when playing them on a Platform/GameBoyColor (or Platform/GameBoyAdvance). As with other original Game Boy games, a person can select from one of twelve color palettes that were built into the Game Boy Color. In the case of ''Pokémon,'' if no palette is already chosen, then the games will use a default palette that is assigned depending on which version you're playing:
169*** ''Red'' uses a predominately red palette, with characters and objects highlighted green.
170*** ''Green'' uses a predominately green & blue palette, with characters and objects highlighted red.
171*** ''Blue'' uses a predominately blue palette, with characters and objects highlighted red, similar to ''Green's'' palette.
172*** The Japanese ''Yellow'' uses a predominately yellow & red palette. International releases of ''Yellow,'' meanwhile, were specifically designed with the Game Boy Color in mind.
173** Playing the games on a Platform/SuperGameBoy enhances the color palette even further, and is roughly tied with ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' for one of the best uses of this trope in a Super Game Boy game. Tying in with the ColorfulThemeNaming of Generation I, each area of the game uses a different tint for the overworld, with specific towns getting palettes based on the colors they're named after. Pallet Town is a very pale teal in ''RGB'' or a very soft purple in ''Yellow'' (as it's the closest one can get to white without blanking out most of the area's features), Viridian City is green, Pewter City is greenish-gray, Cerulean City is blue, Lavender Town is a soft purple, Vermilion City is deep orange[[note]]the color vermilion is actually a deep shade of red identical to cinnabar; the reason why Vermilion City is orange however is because its Japanese name is "Kuchiba City", with "kuchiba" referring to a shade of orange reminiscent of dead leaves[[/note]], Celadon City is pale green, Fuchsia City is pink, Saffron City is yellow, Cinnabar Island is burgundy, and Indigo Plateau is deep purple. All routes use a yellow-green tint, while all cave areas are brown. Pokémon battles especially show off the SGB's potential by shading the bottom-left and top-right portions of the screen different hues based on the characters/Pokémon present, and the top-left and bottom-right portions where the life bar changes from green to orange to red depending on the amount of health a given Pokémon has.
174* CombatExclusiveHealing: The healing moves Recover and Rest can only be used in battle. Softboiled can be used in battle or out, but has different effects. In battle, it will heal the user. Out of battle, it instead transfers some of the user's HP to a chosen Mon.
175* CommonplaceRare:
176** A simple Bicycle costs ''1,000,000'' Pokédollars, one more than you can even carry. Luckily, you get a voucher to acquire a bike for free.
177** Beverages can only be purchased at one place: on the roof of the Celadon Dept. Store.
178** Simple fishing rods aren't available for purchase anywhere. You can only get them as gifts from specific [=NPCs=].
179* ComMons: Just about anything you can catch up through Mt. Moon qualifies. In particular are the Pidgey, Rattata, and Spearow you can catch around Viridian City as well as the Bug-types in Viridian Forest.
180* CompetitiveBalance: Broken in a number of ways:
181** Psychic effectively has no weaknesses, as nothing resists or is immune to it, its supposed weakness to Ghost is an immunity thanks to a coding error,[[labelnote:*]]And even if it wasn't, the only Ghost moves that do damage are the [[FixedDamageAttack level-based Night Shade]] and the weaksauce Lick[[/labelnote]] and damaging Bug-type moves are both low in number and very weak (the strongest being Pin Missile that hits up to five times for 14 power each). Even worse, many Bugs and ''every'' Ghost-type also have a Poison-type, meaning they're ''weak'' against the things they're meant to shut down.
182** The Dragon-type was supposed to have two weaknesses; Ice-types, and itself. However, that latter weakness never comes into play because the only Dragon-type move is Dragon Rage, [[FixedDamageAttack which does 40 points of damage no matter what]].
183** Normal-types are supposed to be at a disadvantage against Fighting, Rock, and Ghost types, and held back by having no real resistances (only having an immunity to damaging Ghost moves, which practically means just Lick). However, the one type super-effective against them, Fighting, is uncommon, countered hard by the aforementioned Psychic-type, and only has a few poor moves available; the best one, High Jump Kick, is exclusive to the awful Hitmonlee, and the next-best and only widely-distributed Fighting move, Submission, is an inaccurate move that deals recoil damage to the user and only has 80 power for such significant drawbacks. Rock-types resist Normal moves and Ghosts are immune, but Normal types tend to be able to learn a large variety of [=TMs=], and many can get Water or Ice moves to take down Rock- and Ground-types that could withstand their Normal moves, and many get Earthquake and/or Dig to hit both Rock-types and Ghost-types hard (with the latter all being part Poison as covered prior). Then, while most types tend to have lackluster and/or limited options for STAB in Gen 1, Normal types have a lot of good moves to use, most notably the 85 power 100% accurate Body Slam that inflicts Paralysis 30% of the time (except to other Normal-types, another significant advantage for the Normal-type), and the terrifying 150 power Hyper Beam that skips the recharge turn in this Gen if the opponent is knocked out by it. In competitive play, Normal-types ended up even more prevalent than Psychic-types, with three omnipresent GameBreaker Pokémon that are on nearly all teams being Normals (Tauros, Snorlax, and Chansey).
184** About half the types in the game have been shortchanged. Besides the questionable balancing of strengths and weaknesses, many types are only represented by a handful of mons while Water and Poison Pokémon together consist of nearly half the entire Gen 1 roster. Additionally, most types have few moves of their typing available, while nearly half the types don't even have a move of at least 80 power with no drawbacks, significantly weakening their damage output.
185** Whereas physical Attack and Defense are separate stats, their special counterparts are one stat. This means that any intended SquishyWizard also receives a high resistance to special attacks, unlike their physical counterparts (this is another reason why the aforementioned Psychic-type is so game-breaking in Gen I).
186* CompositeCharacter: A geographical example. Route 1 tends to be merged with Route 22 in adaptations.
187* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
188** NPC Pokémon have infinite power points for their moves.
189** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with status moves and debuffs, which have 75% accuracy when used by the AI. This means that some of them, such as Hypnosis (55% accurate normally), are more accurate than when used by the player, but also means that others, such as Growl and Leer (100% accurate normally), are less accurate.
190** The AI decides and makes its actions when it's their Pokémon's turn to move, not before the turn starts like the player. As such, if you're fighting a trainer with the "Good AI" flag and switch your Pokémon out to one they have a super-effective move against, they'll get to pick the super-effective move after your Pokémon has been sent out. Additionally, this means when their Pokémon acts second in battle, they can use items and switch out their Pokémon after your Pokémon has already made its move, when normally these actions are supposed to occur at the start of the turn before everything else. The latter will rarely come into play as few AI opponents are programmed to be able to switch at all and those that can do it randomly, but the former means if your Pokémon goes first and brings their Pokémon's health low or inflicts a status, the AI can immediately respond with an item to recover their Pokémon's health or heal the status.
191** Lance's Dragonite knows Barrier when there's no way for Dragonite to legitimately learn the move. Some of the trainers' Pokémon can also know moves at levels they normally couldn't know the move by, such as all the trainer Gyarados you fight having Hydro Pump even at levels far before it learns it.[[note]]This is due to a programming quirk where each evolved Pokémon is programmed to know certain moves by default at level 1, even moves that they learn naturally later on, and each trainer's Pokémon has its moveset treated like it's a wild Pokémon, giving them these "level 1 moves" that the player wouldn't get. Though if the player glitches an evolved Pokémon to appear in the wild at low levels, they too can get Pokémon with these moves early.[[/note]]
192* TheCon:
193** An NPC in Vermilion City offers to trade you a one-of-a-kind Farfetch'd for an ultra-common Spearow. Spearow can evolve into the much-better Fearow, while Farfetch'd is a little on the weak side even when you get it (and only falls farther behind as you continue). Ultimately Subverted though, as you can easily catch another Spearow but there is no other way to get a Farfetch'd if you're going for 100% completion. Also, Farfetch'd can learn the much-maligned Cut HM (which you conveniently get in the same town) as well as Fly, making it a good option for an HM slave.
194** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with the Magikarp salesman. For 500 Pokédollars (which is a significant sum at this point in the game), he'll sell you a "swell Magikarp", which quickly turns out to be absolutely worthless in battle. Only a few towns later, you can get the Old Rod, which allows you fish up more of the things than you'll know what to do with, and the salesman even tells you he doesn't take refunds after the deal. However, if you have the patience to [[MagikarpPower grind it up all the way to level 20]], it will evolve into the monstrous Gyarados. Say hi to your new DiscOneNuke!
195* ConcealingCanvas: The switch to open the secret door to the Team Rocket hideout in the Celadon Game Corner is hidden behind a poster.
196* ConsoleCameo: There is a [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] ([[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] in the original Japanese and the remakes) in your bedroom where you first start the game. All future games continue this trend and feature a console from their generation.
197* ConspicuouslyLightPatch: Koga's Gym has "invisible walls" that you have to find your way around to get to the Gym Leader. They're not so invisible in ''Red'' and ''Blue'', where they're clearly visible as dotted lines. They're a little more well-hidden in ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'', but the tiles with invisible walls on them have four white dots in the corners, still allowing you to find the right path fairly easily.
198* ContinuingIsPainful: Losing a battle means losing half the money you are currently carrying. This can be painful to the point of crippling since there are few reliable ways to make the money back.
199* ContractualBossImmunity: The storyline dictates that the Marowak ghost found in the Pokémon Tower must pass on via you beating it up, so don't even think of trying to catch it. Not even the Master Ball (if you use cheats to get it at this point) will work on it[[note]]though due to an oversight, a Poké Doll can be used to complete the battle without actually fighting[[/note]]. And of course, Pokémon owned by Trainers can't be captured either.
200* ConvenientWeaknessPlacement: Some gyms are located quite close to places where you can easily catch Pokémon which are strong against them. For example:
201** Diglett's Cave outside of Vermilion City is full of Ground-type Diglett, who are immune to Lt. Surge's Electric-type attacks.
202** Just east of Celadon City is Route 7, where you can find either Growlithe or Vulpix (depending on your version), Fire-types who can deal a lot of damage to Erika's Grass-types.
203** Blaine established a Fire-type gym ''on an island''. Granted, it makes sense since Cinnabar Island is also the site of an active volcano, but still, he's literally surrounded by his greatest weakness.
204* CoolOldLady: Agatha of the Elite Four. She is a formidable Ghost-type trainer and was friends with Prof. Oak in their youth.
205* CreepyCemetery: Pokémon Tower is a massive cemetery tower where people all over pay their respects to Pokémon who have passed on. Team Rocket infiltrates the tower, disturbing the restless spirits, one of them a mother Marowak who was killed by Team Rocket Grunts.
206* CripplingOverspecialization:
207** Parasect (and its pre-evolution Paras) is the only Pokémon in the game with Spore, the only 100% accurate Sleep-inducing move (other Sleep-inducing moves have no better than 75% accuracy). Unfortunately, Parasect has awful stats, including being tied with Snorlax and Slowbro for the slowest fully-evolved Pokémon in the game, but without anywhere near the durability they have to afford taking hits. Parasect also learns few other worthwhile moves -- the only Bug-type move it learns is the pitiful 20 power Leech Life, and it doesn't learn the only good Grass-type attack Razor Leaf, preventing it from making real use of its STAB and any possible type advantages. Plus, while its dual Grass/Bug typing gives it a valuable double resistance to Ground moves and a resistance to Water moves, it comes with a slew of exploitable weaknesses, including a crippling double weakness to Fire- and Flying-types. So all Parasect can really do is put an opposing Pokémon to sleep with certainty... if it can get a move in at all, that is.
208** Onix has an insane Defense stat (at 160, it's the second-highest in the game after Cloyster's 180), but other than that, its only other remotely decent stat is a below-average Speed of 70. Its other stats are ''awful'', with an anemic 45 Attack, very low health of 35, and barely-existent Special of 30. So Onix isn't doing much damage, and Special hits will destroy it, with even resisted ones still doing a lot of damage. On top of that, being a Rock/Ground-type gives it a plethora of weaknesses, including double weaknesses to Water and Grass moves, which with its low Special means it'll get one-shotted by Water and Grass moves unless it's ludicrously over-levelled (and still maybe not even then). Electric moves can't hurt it and Onix can tank Normal and Flying moves all day, but if the opponent has anything else, then Onix isn't doing much of anything.
209** Electrode is the fastest Pokémon in this generation, with a base Speed stat of 140 while nothing else is faster than 130, and since this is in the days before held items, limited EV distribution, and natures, Electrode will ''always'' go first on equal grounds against any Pokémon but another Electrode. Plus, as Gen 1 based critical hits off of raw Speed, this also means Electrode has the highest critical hit rate, with it critting 27.45% of the time. However, [[FragileSpeedster Speed is all Electrode has]]; its Special is a mediocre 80, it is very frail with HP and Defense stats of 60 and 70 respectively, and it has an anemic Attack of 50. Electrode falls quickly to both Physical and Special attacks, it doesn't hit hard in return, and its movepool consists of just Electric and Normal moves, the latter of which, with its awful Attack, will be barely hurting opponents. Plus, with Speed being its only advantage, a paralyzed Electrode is practically useless. Jolteon pretty much just outclasses it; it trades a mere 10 Speed (allowing it to still outspeed or speed-tie everything but Electrode) in exchange for much better Special, less pathetic Attack, and access to Double Kick and Pin Missile to deal greater damage to Rock/Ground and Grass Pokémon that are immune to or resist Electric moves. Electrode's only real use is being the fastest Pokémon with Explosion (which coming off its 50 Attack still isn't going to hurt that much), and if you're fighting someone's Mewtwo, it's the only thing that will for sure be able to outspeed and paralyze Mewtwo to give the rest of your team a shot against him.
210* CriticalAnnoyance:
211** Low health makes a constant beeping sound. It even affects the cries of the Pokémon that are sent out, since the sound channels overlap.
212** Walking while a poisoned Pokémon is in your party causes an irritating sound to play each time it loses health.
213* CriticalHitClass: Any Mon with a high-crit move ''will'' crit all the time when it's used, assuming their species' base Speed stat is high enough. For regular moves, faster species have a crit rate of at least 20%, more than 3 times the universal rate later games had.
214* CrutchCharacter: See the [[{{CrutchCharacter/Pokemon}} series' page here]].
215* CutAndPasteEnvironments:
216** Virtually all environments fall into this. House interiors are pretty much all the same with some of the furniture rearranged, Pokémon Centers and Marts are identical save for the random [=NPCs=] inside, etc.
217** The Celadon Hotel appears to be a hastily-redesigned Pokémon Center. You can even access a PC in the upper right corner (where one would normally be in a standard Center), even though the space is technically empty.
218* DarkReprise:
219** The Team Rocket Hideout theme is a more intense version of that of Viridian Forest.
220** The Victory Road score is a foreboding arrangement of the evolution theme.
221* DeathMountain: Subverted. Mt. Moon is a mountain, but all you explore is the cave within.
222* DemonicPossession: All the Channelers in Pokémon Tower are possessed by Ghost Pokémon (until you defeat them). You'll find Channelers in the Saffron City Gym as well, but they are not possessed and act like normal enemy trainers.
223* DepthPerplexion: Being a classic ThreeQuartersView game, you cannot walk behind anything, including tall buildings.
224* DesperationAttack: If a Pokémon runs out of [[ManaMeter PP]] for every one of their attacks, they will be forced to use a move called Struggle. It's a Normal-type attack with a weak Base Power of 40 and [[CastFromHitPoints causes the user to hurt themselves]].
225* DevelopersForesight: Has its own page [[DevelopersForesight/{{Pokemon}} here]].
226* DevelopersRoom: There is one in Celadon City.
227* DieHardOnAnX: The Silph Co. Team Rocket takeover plays out this way.
228* DirtyOldMan: One is outside of the Celadon City Gym, which is populated entirely by female trainers.
229-->'''Old Man:''' Heheh....This GYM is great! It's full of women!
230* DisappearedDad: You never meet your father in the game, and there is only one offhand comment made suggesting that he exists at all. The same is also true for your Rival, who appears to live with his sister.
231* DisconnectedSideArea:
232** On Route 2, you may notice an inaccessible area on the other side of the line of trees. This area is first accessible only as an extension of the Diglett Cave dungeon until you obtain the Cut HM and get the corresponding badge.
233** Just south of Pallet Town, there is a body of water. If you come back here once you're able to use Surf, you'll find a small patch of grass which is the only place in the game to find wild Tangela.
234** In the Silph Co. building, the elevator and the stairs to the top floor only lead to a walled-off area, with the CEO's office (where you fight [[TheDon Giovanni]] to stop Team Rocket's "hostile takeover") only acessible via a Warp Tile.
235* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Lance, the final Elite Four member who specializes in Dragon-types. He even says that you're the champion, before saying that your rival, the real final boss, has become the champion before you.]]
236* DiscOneNuke: See the [[{{DiscOneNuke/Pokemon}} series' page here]].
237* DoesNotLikeMen: The all-female trainers in the Celadon Gym, to the point that the Gym Guide is found in the Game Corner instead. It's unsure what Erika herself is thinking about barring males to challenge her Gym however, though that would likely have been in violation of League regulations were she to do so.
238* DownloadableContent: Mew is the first in a long line of Pokémon who are only available via events. Since the games were released before Wi-Fi existed, obtaining Mew officially meant attending a physical event or otherwise sending the cartridge away, whereupon Mew would be downloaded into it. Thankfully, Mew can still be obtained in-game via glitches.
239* DubInducedPlotHole:
240** There's an NPC on Cinnabar Island who offers to trade you his Electrode for a Raichu; if you speak to him afterwards he claims "the Raichu you traded me went and evolved!", which of course, isn't possible. In the Japanese ''Blue Version'', which provides the script and engine for the international releases rather than having them directly based on the original ''Red'' and ''Green'', the NPC traded you a Graveler for a Kadabra, both Pokémon that evolve by trading, and his line afterwards was meant to be a hint on how to obtain their final forms. For the English release, the localizers changed the Pokémon being offered to what they were in ''Red'' and ''Green'', but simply forgot to alter the rest of the dialogue to match. The ''Red'' and ''Green'' trades were used in the remakes: while this meant that Westerners never got a chance to experience Japanese ''Blue'''s trades, the mix-up was at least fixed, and there’s no mention of Raichu evolving.
241** Tail Whip. The name suggests that the user would smack the enemy with their tail to lower their Defense, but it is actually far less hardcore then that. Its original name is actually "Tail Wag", which is apparently used cutely to lower the enemy's guard. Later games would support the original depiction more in its description and animation. The later-introduced move Tail Slap is exactly what it sounds like.
242* DudeWheresMyReward: In the Celadon Mansion (the building where you get Eevee), there is an NPC who offers you a "rare item" if you show him a completed Pokédex. After completing this gargantuan task, you show him your Pokédex and all you receive is an uneventful congratulations screen with your name.
243* DungeonCrawling: All of the "cave" levels, including Mt. Moon, Rock Tunnel, the Seafoam Islands, Victory Road, and Cerulean Cave. Less traditional but still qualifying examples include Viridian Forest, Pokémon Tower, the Game Corner basement, the Silph Company, the Safari Zone, and Cinnabar Island's Pokémon Mansion.
244* DynamicLoading: "Gates," also known as guardhouses or lookout stations, play this role. Thankfully, they usually have something interesting inside, such as an NPC to trade with or one of Prof. Oak's Aides to give you an item. Less interesting are the two Underground Paths which are just long corridors with a hidden item or two, but those are still necessary to get around [[NPCRoadblock Saffron City]] early on.
245* EarlyBirdBoss:
246** Brock plays this role, but only if you started with Charmander. With the only other Pokémon available that early being ComMons with mostly Normal-type attacks (which his high-Defense Rock-types are highly resistant to) and CrutchCharacter Bug-types (if you bother to level-grind them), your options to counter him are relatively few. A careful trainer can take advantage of his Mons' lack of actual Rock-type moves and poor Special stat by using Charmander's Ember, though you must be careful not to damage Onix while it is using Bide.
247** The second fight with your rival near the start of the game, on Route 22, is this too. You likely don't have any fighting-ready Pokémon at this point other than your starter, while his starter has been levelled high enough that it has learned Bubble (Squirtle) or Ember (Charmander), giving him a type advantage over you. You can't buy Potions in Viridian City, either, so you have to make do with the few freebies available to you (one in the PC in your bedroom, one from an NPC on Route 1, and a hidden one in the tree by the old man in Viridian City). Just to make matters worse, your rival's Pidgey knows Sand-Attack too, which can be a real headache this early on.
248* EarlyGameHell: The most difficult part of the game is the early part up until you beat Misty, the 2nd gym leader. In terms of Pokémon, you're limited to your starter, CrutchCharacter bug Pokémon (if you bother to [[LevelGrinding grind up their levels]]), and ComMons such as the early-game bird Pokémon and Rattata, with Nidoran the only good non-starter Pokémon line available before Cerulean. There are also only a limited number of trainer battles, meaning you'll be low on money and won't be able to afford many Potions and status-healing items, while you will have to grind mostly against weak wild Pokémon. Viridian Forest is a blatant NoobCave full of very weak Bug Pokémon you'll stomp easily regardless of what you use, but you run the constant risk of being poisoned by Weedle's Poison Sting, and as your Pokémon have such low total HP, the gradual HP drain of 1 point every few steps becomes dangerous if you don't have an Antidote. Brock will be a breeze if you start with Squirtle or Bulbasaur, but will be more challenging to a Charmander trainer (though a few Embers each can floor both of Brock's Pokémon with little trouble as long as you don't damage Onix while the latter is using Bide). Then you get to Mt. Moon, a labyrinthine multi-level cave full of trainers, Geodude (who will resist the Normal-type moves most of your low-level Mons will be using at this point[[note]]Though, like with Brock, wild Geodude can still be taken out by a Charmander using Ember. Their difficulty can be also be mitigated if you can pick up [=TM12=] (Water Gun) inside of Mt. Moon itself which can be taught to Nidorino/Nidorina, Rattata, Jigglypuff, and Clefairy.[[/note]]) and Zubat (which are fast enough that you might not be able to flee and can inflict Confusion so you'll hurt yourself half the time trying to damage them). Eventually, you get through Mt. Moon... only to encounter your Rival in Cerulean City, followed by several trainers on a bridge that must all be defeated to move forward to Bill's House, which you need to visit to leave the city and continue with the game. Finally, you battle Misty, whose Starmie is ''extremely'' powerful for the part of the game you fight it in due to its very high stats. Survive all of that and the game then opens up, becoming much friendlier and giving you more options in terms of Pokémon to catch, trainers to battle, and places to explore. Additionally, as you progress through the game, your Pokémon will build up [[StatGrinding stat experience]] (this Gen's equivalent of [=EVs=]), which will significantly improve your stats while opponents' Pokémon will never have any, and certain Gym Badges will give a permanent 12.5% increase to a corresponding stat for all your Pokémon, so eventually your Pokémon will have ridiculously better stats than the opponents even if underlevelled. Plus, opponents have just awful movesets in ''Red/Blue'', with endgame trainers still using early game moves (we're looking at you, [[spoiler:Champion Blue]]), so you'll get a significant moveset advantage as you progress as well.
249* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
250** The appearances of many Pokémon were codified by the anime and the later ''Yellow'' version. In ''Red'' and ''Blue'', some of them are unrecognizable from how they're widely known now. Take a look at [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Spr_1b_074.png Geodude]], [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/4/45/Spr_1b_091.png Cloyster]], and [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/c/ce/Spr_1b_092.png Gastly]], for example. {{Downplayed|Trope}} because the designs of the Pokémon in the anime and the later ''Yellow'' version are actually based on the concept art drawn by Ken Sugimori. [[DependingOnTheArtist Sugimori apparently took the time to unify the styles of many, many different spriters and designers.]]
251** Prior to ''Yellow'', Red and Blue have slight differences in their designs that don't match their official art released at the time, though Red's finalized design can be seen in the title screen of ''Red'' and ''Blue'' (which was carried over from Japanese ''Blue'').
252** These are the only games in the series in which Gym Leaders (save for Erika and Giovanni) share the same overworld sprites as random [=NPCs=]. All later games would give each Leader their own unique sprite.
253* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Enough to [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/PokemonRedAndBlue warrant its own page]].
254* EarthDrift: There are several references to real-world countries littered throughout the game. Lt. Surge's gym title was "The Lightning American", Mew is stated to have been previously discovered in the jungles of Guyana, and one Silph Co. scientist explains that he was sent to the company's Tiksi (Ponaya Tunguska in the original Japanese) branch, "in Russian no-man's-land," among others. The official real-life Pokédex, [[NoExportForYou which was never localized]], even claimed that the study of Pokémon originated in 18th century France through the efforts of one Baron Tajirin. While these references were kept in the remakes until Generation VI, references to real-world places have been entirely dropped by the following generations.
255* EasterEgg: If you {{Sequence Break|ing}} so that the S.S. Anne doesn't leave, and you come back with Surf, you'll find a truck to the right of the ship. While it doesn't do anything in the original games, [[spoiler:there's a Lava Cookie hidden near it in the remakes]].
256* EasyLevelTrick: Erika's gym can easily be defeated by any Grass/Poison or Bug/Poison dual-typed Pokémon thanks to the AIBreaker described above. Every trainer in her gym will attempt to spam Poison-inflicting moves due to your Mon's part Grass- or Bug-type, but your Mon will be immune due to its Poison-typing.
257* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Team Rocket's Game Corner hideout.
258* EldritchLocation: The infamous Glitch City, accessible through several glitches. It's essentially a pile of glitched tiles that can only be escaped via warping abilities.
259* ElementalRivalry: Your Rival always chooses the starter Pokémon of the elemental type strong against whichever you chose.
260* EliteFour: The TropeNamer and, at least in the west, the TropeCodifier. They serve as the [[FinalBoss Final]] BossRush in the game.
261* EmptyRoomPsych: There's a singular truck in the game by the S.S. Anne, that's only reachable if you learn Surf before the S.S. Anne leaves. Since decoration in the game was rare, there were [[UrbanLegendOfZelda loads of rumors]] about it holding a Mew. It ultimately held nothing.
262* EndangeredSpecies: Lapras and Farfetch'd are specifically mentioned to be these. In a nice case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, only one of each is available in the game to reflect their rarity; Lapras as a gift, and Farfetch'd in trade.
263* EndGamePlus: After becoming Champion, the credits will roll and you'll be returned to your home in Pallet Town. Cerulean Cave will now be open, and you're free to challenge the Elite Four again or battle against your friends. Stops short of being a PlayableEpilogue (like the later games in the series have) because no one will recognize your achievement as Champion. Other than the NPCRoadblock in front of Cerulean Cave being gone, the game world is exactly the same.
264* EscapeRope: The TropeNamer. Escape Ropes are items that will return you to the last Pokémon Center you visited. The moves Dig and Teleport can be used outside of battle to similar effect, with the former working in dungeons and sending you to the entrance and the latter sending you to the last Pokémon Center you used when used in outdoor areas. The move Fly expands on Teleport's function, allowing you to fly to any town (and, in some games, any rural Pokémon Center, such as the one outside Mt. Moon in ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'') you've set foot in, essentially making it a more flexible upgrade to Teleport (with the catch that not all Pokémon that can learn Teleport can learn Fly).
265* EternalEngine: The Kanto Power Plant located on Route 10. It is big, abandoned, and crawling with Electric-type Pokémon and the legendary bird Zapdos.
266* EvenEvilHasStandards: Team Rocket may be a band of criminals and murderers, but they display a strong sense of MookChivalry and will never [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat go out of their way to cheat in a Pokémon battle]].
267* EveryoneOwnsAMac: The PC's sprite bears a close resemblance to the original Apple Macintosh.
268* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Pokémon Tower, which serves as a cemetary for deceased Pokémon and is full of ghosts, possessed trainers, and Team Rocket.
269* ExcusePlot: There's really no overarching plot other than "Become a Pokémon Master!" The only real subplot is Team Rocket, which has virtually nothing to do with your main quest other than Giovanni being the last Gym Leader. Likewise, the Legendary Pokémon are completely divorced from the plot and pretty much just optional treasures to collect.
270* FakeDifficulty: In the form of withholding critical information from the player. Examples include the following:
271** The most blatant is unlike all other future Gens, nowhere in-game can you see what a move's power and accuracy is, nor any actual effects they have. Information about how type effectiveness behaves with dual-typed Pokémon is also withheld (which isn't helped by the in-game messages displaying hits that are super effective against one type but resisted by the other type as "It's super effective!" or "It's not very effective" even though it equals out to neutral damage), and the existence of the same-type attack bonus isn't told to the player either outside of a single random Bird Keeper who tells you about it if you talk to him again after beating him.
272** When it comes to stone evolutions, the game never tells you that the stone evolutions (besides the Eeveelutions) don't learn any more moves naturally (or only learn one in the case of the Nidos), so many players back then had their stone evolution Pokémon left with crappy moves as they naturally evolved them as soon as they got to Celadon, not knowing they would be losing out on crucial moves like Flamethrower with the Fire types.
273** Information about other battle mechanics like what the stats actually do, what moves are physical and what moves are special, by what degree stats are increased/decreased in battle by stat increasing/decreasing moves, and what each of the status effects actually do is additionally withheld from the player. This esotericness with the game's mechanics is probably why a lot of kids back in the day had any difficulty with these games their first time through, as anyone playing these games nowadays who knows what everything does or at least knows how to browse Bulbapedia to find out will blow through these games with ridiculous ease, even with self-imposed challenges tacked on.
274* FakeUltimateMook: There is a reason this trope was formerly named "Level Five Onix." Despite being a massive, menacing snake made out of boulders, Onix has awful stats across the board except for Defense (which is negated by its low HP) and has a double weakness to Grass and Water. Brock's Onix in particular could be taken out easily by those who started with Bulbasaur or Squirtle, and even a Charmander trainer could take it out with relative ease while being cautious not to attack while Onix was using Bide.
275* FakeWeakness: The game will tell you that Psychic-types are weak to Ghost- and Bug-types, but in practice, this is a lie.
276** Due to a bug, Psychic-types are actually ''immune'' to Ghost-type moves. Even if they weren't, there are only two damaging Ghost-type moves: Night Shade is a FixedDamageAttack that ignores weaknesses, and Lick has a measly 30 base power. Additionally, the only Ghost-type Pokémon in this game are the Gastly line, which are also Poison-type and so take super-effective damage from Psychic-type moves.
277** Unlike the total failure of Ghosts against Psychics, Bug-type moves will actually hit and deal double damage. However, the three damaging moves of that type have even lower power than Lick (although Twineedle, despite its 25 power, ''approaches'' viability since it can hit twice), and ''again'' most Bug-Type Pokémon are also Poison-type.
278* FantasticScience: Prof. Oak studies Pokémon; specifically, the interactions between Pokémon and humans.
279* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Kanto is equivalent to the Kanto region of Japan, and eastern Chubu as well, with Johto from [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Generation II]] being based on the western part of Chubu in addition to Kansai. Kanto is the only region in the ''Pokémon'' games to share its name with the Japanese region it is based on.
280* FantasyCounterpartMap: The map of these games' Kanto region also looks like the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin real-world Kanto region.]]
281* FirstTown: The game starts in the quaint Pallet Town, the place where the player and their rival grew up. There isn't much to it outside of Professor Oak's Lab, the only important landmark.
282* FlyingFirepower: The first-generation games introduce the Fire/Flying-type Charizard and Moltres.
283* ForcedLevelGrinding: There is a major level jump between the eighth gym leader [[spoiler:(Giovanni)]], whose strongest Pokémon is a level 50 Rhydon (with four others at level 45 or less,) and the first Elite Four member, Lorelei, who has a team of five all at level 53 or above, while the levels go up to the 60s when you fight the champion. You don't actually need to grind in a normal playthrough despite this big level jump, due to extreme deficiencies with the AI and their teams, as well as Stat EXP and the badge boosts more than making up for any level deficiency with the player's Pokémon (you can be over ten levels lower and still have better stats). However when doing challenge runs, particulary solo Pokémon runs, this often proves to be a point in the game where the player will have to grind up to progress.
284* ForcedTransformation: Bill manages to combine himself with a Pokémon, and he begs you to undo the process. [[ButThouMust You don't really have a choice in the matter]], since you need to do so to leave Cerulean City.
285* FourIsDeath: When a Pokémon is lingering after being poisoned in battle (if the player fails to use an antidote), they lose HP with every fourth step taken.
286* GameBreakingBug:
287** While Missingno and M Block were safe to encounter, catch, and use beyond messing up your Hall Of Fame data, other glitch Pokémon could end up crashing your game or worse. Generally, the more effort it takes to encounter a Glitch Pokémon, the more dangerous it is.
288** Trying to use certain glitch moves will crash the game.
289** You can go into the Glitch City without it affecting your game, but if you travel too far in the Glitch City the game will crash. Additionally if you go into the Glitch City without a Pokémon that knows Fly or Teleport, you'll be trapped there permanently and will need to reset your game, and if you save the game in that state, well your save file is [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable permanently stuck]].
290** Buying too many Ultra Balls or Great Balls at once causes a bug that can lock you inside of the Poké Mart unless you restart or remove your Gym Badges. If done a certain way and saving, this will even corrupt the save file.
291** Using Psywave or Counter during a [[PlayerVersusPlayer Link Battle]] may cause the games to no longer sync up properly due to wonky RNG rolls. The battle will continue, but the actions will not match up between the games and both players will eventually be forced to restart their systems.
292** In the original Japanese Red and Green versions, if you evolved your starter BEFORE delivering Oak's parcel and thus before getting your Pokédex the game will think you have your Dex already but still won't let you progress beyond Viridian City.
293* GetOnTheBoat: Subverted with the S.S. Anne. You'll need to board the boat in order to get [=HM01=], Cut, to clear trees that [[BrokenBridge impede further progress]], but the boat doesn't go anywhere until you get off.
294* GiveMeYourInventoryItem: In order to get past the Gate Guards to enter Saffron City, you'll need to give them a beverage purchased on the roof of the Celadon Department Store.
295* GlitchEntity: The infamous [=MissingNo.=] (and the closely related 'M) is created by the game trying to access data that doesn't exist, so it takes on a glitchy appearance which can vary depending on which methods are used to encounter it.
296* GlobalCurrencyException: The Game Corner operates using coins, which can only be won from the slot machines or purchased directly for ridiculous sums (50 coins for 1000 Pokédollars.) Expect to be playing a ''lot'' of slots if you want that Porygon, which costs 9999 coins (6500 if you're playing ''Blue Version'') and is only available through the Game Corner.
297* GratuitousEnglish: On occasion in the Japanese version. For example, if you tell the old man in Viridian City you're in a hurry:
298-->'''Old man:''' "Time is money"...[[LampshadeHanging Time becomes money, eh?]]
299* GratuitousNinja: The Fuchsia City Gym is full of them, led by the ninja-master Koga who specializes in Poison-types.
300* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: While Mr. Fuji is a kind old man whose biggest role in the story is giving the player the Poké Flute, hints on Cinnabar Island[[labelnote:*]]As well as Faraway Island in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Emerald]]''[[/labelnote]] suggest a greater history: [[spoiler:that he was once known as Dr. Fuji, founded the Pokémon Lab, lived in the Pokémon Mansion, was the one to discover Mew... and ultimately used horrific genetic engineering to create the violent and dangerous Mewtwo, the aftermath of which seemingly [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone shamed him]] into showing kindness towards other Pokémon [[TheAtoner in repentance]].]] And not once is any of this directly brought up in the main story by anyone, least of all the man himself. In fact, it took over seventeen years before [[Anime/PokemonOrigins an adaptation addressed it]].
301* GreatOffscreenWar: Lt. Surge mentions having fought in one, where his life was saved by his Pokémon. Notably, this is the only mention of such a war in the series to date (except for the remakes where the line was kept exactly).
302* GuideDangIt:
303** If you didn't add any new caught data to the Pokédex nor bought any Poké Balls by the time you beat Blue on Route 22, you can go to Prof. Oak for free Poké Balls. Outside of ''Yellow'', this will probably need grinding. In ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'', however, Oak gives you the Poké Balls as soon as he gives you the Pokédex.
304** Nowhere in the game itself does it tell you what certain moves actually do. This is especially frustrating when a Pokémon is trying to learn a new move. All you get to know is the name of the move, the type of the move, and the move's PP. Is it stronger or weaker than another move your Pokémon already knows? Can it inflict any status effects? Who knows?
305** The game does not specify, anywhere, the attack power of any moves. You actually will need a guide if you want to know the power of, say, Tackle as opposed to Body Slam. A particularly bad example of this is Wing Attack. In every generation since, it has 60 power, but it's a paltry 35 in this generation, which can screw up those who were introduced to the series later on.
306** The location of the Lift Key in the Game Corner hideout. In order to get it in ''Red'' and ''Blue'', you have to beat a specific Rocket and then talk to him after the battle, prompting him to drop the Lift Key. He's the only trainer in the game who drops an item in this fashion, and the only trainer that requires you to talk with them after being defeated. In ''Yellow'', the Rocket drops the Lift Key automatically, with no need to talk to him again.
307** Despite constant mention of the game's ElementalRockPaperScissors, neither the game nor the manual specify that a Pokémon with two types that are ''both'' weak to a certain type will take ''quadruple'' damage from that type's moves. Likewise, none of the game materials mention that a type weakness and a type resistance cancel out to neutral damage, and to make matters worse, the algorithm responsible for the text message ''doesn't work properly'' (though the damage is still calculated as it should be).
308** The "same-type attack bonus" isn't mentioned anywhere in the manual nor the game outside of a random Bird Keeper NPC, who tells you if you talked to him again after beating him; in short, if you use a move that's the same as one of your Pokémon's types, it does 50% more damage.
309** Neither game nor manual mention the difference between physical and special moves, either, despite it being central to the battle system. The damage dealt by each move is determined by either the Attack or Special stat of the attacking Pokémon; ''which'' stat the move runs off depends on whether the type of the move is physical or special. Here's the breakdown: Normal, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Bug, Rock, and Ghost moves are physical, while Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Psychic, and Dragon moves are special. The game never mentions which types are physical or special, nor does it even indicate that types are split in this way. ''Additionally'', the game fails to mention that the Special stat covers ''both'' offensive and defensive damage for special-type moves.
310** Entering Saffron City. The first time the player attempts to enter (from Cerulean City) the only path into the city will be blocked by the security guard, and the player has to go around, and every other guard on every other path to the city says the same thing. The only hint as to how to get in is that the guards mention that they are thirsty before telling the player to wait because the road is closed. Later in the game, the player can buy drinks, but only at a single set of vending machines which only exist on the roof of the Celadon Department Store, which a player could easily overlook. Even when the player gets them, nothing in the game says that they can now enter Saffron, and so the player might well avoid the city until they can do nothing else. This means that a first-timer could wind up fighting Blaine (the seventh Gym Leader) before Sabrina (the sixth).
311*** It's even worse in the remakes, because instead of getting a drink from the vending machines, the player must instead get a Key Item from an old woman in the Celadon Mansion, when there was nothing important on the ground floor of the Mansion in the originals. This is especially true since this is the only thing changed in the main story.
312* HeavySleeper: Snorlax, which leads to two of them acting as {{Broken Bridge}}s until you get the Poké Flute.
313* HeroicMime: Played with. You never hear your trainer speak (in the overworld, that is; your trainer is implied to be plenty chatty in battles, since you'd at least be calling out the name of the Pokémon you deploy and they'd need to get orders on what move to use ''somehow''), but attempting to talk to the "Copycat" girl in Saffron City produces dialog, subtitled as your own, of a one-sided conversation; it's the Copycat's dialog, mimicking the things the trainer implicitly said to her.
314* HubCity: Saffron City and Celadon City. Saffron is actually connected to four other cities ([[ItMakesSenseInContext as long as the gate guards aren't thirsty]]) and is the largest city in the game. Celadon is the second largest, and includes the largest store and the Game Corner. With Kanto being based on the real-life Kantō region of Japan, these two cities both represent Tokyo: Celadon for the culture, Saffron for the commerce.
315* IneffectualLoner: Your Rival toward his Pokémon. It isn't until after you've defeated him as Champion that he finally starts to understand the advantage conferred by ThePowerOfFriendship with his Pokémon.
316* InfinityPlusOneElement:
317** The Dragon-type was probably intended to be this, being equally effective against ''all'' other elemental types. Despite this, there is only one evolutionary family of Dragon-types, and the only actual Dragon-type attack, "Dragon Rage", is a FixedDamageAttack exempt from ElementalRockPaperScissors altogether.
318** The Psychic-type has no meaningful weaknesses due to bad CompetitiveBalance, nothing resists it except itself, and it has a type advantage against Poison, the most common type in the game.
319** Normal only has one weakness (Fighting, which is easily covered by having a Psychic-type teammate) and it does regular damage to everything except Ghost and Rock, both of which can be hit with the widely-distributed Earthquake (every Ghost at this point was part Poison).
320* InfinityPlusOneSword: Mewtwo is massively powerful on his own, made even more powerful by being a horribly broken Psychic-type. Only available after becoming Pokémon League champion and comes at the massive level 70, when 50-60 is about where you'll be when the credits roll.
321* InfinityMinusOneSword:
322** Alakazam is basically a slightly weaker Mewtwo -- it has the second-highest Special stat, top-tier Speed, and the [[InfinityPlusOneElement Psychic type]]. Unlike most examples of the trope, it can be obtained relatively early; if you have someone to trade with, you can evolve your Kadabra right after its first evolution at level 16.
323** The three Legendary birds, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. The former two are far from the main path and only available beating Koga, while Moltres appears close to the end of the campaign. In practice, only Zapdos lives up to the trope -- the other two have extremely powerful STAB special attacks, but their typing can be easily countered, while Zapdos is a better defender and uniquely gets the powerful physical STAB attack Drill Peck.
324** Dragonite is intended to be this. It is tied with Mew for the second-highest base stat total, and it has the highest Attack stat in these games and a diverse Special move pool. However, it is only obtainable by evolving the rare (and weak) Dratini, which can be rarely caught in the Safari Zone or bought at the Game Corner. After [[MagikarpPower babying it until it hits level 55]], you'll discover that Dragonite doesn't quite live up to its in-game hype as the only true dragon. It has surprisingly lower damage output than one would expect of the effort required to get it since it can't take advantage of STAB at all -- its only Dragon-type move is the weak, [[FixedDamageAttack fixed-damage]] Dragon Rage, and it doesn't learn ''any'' Flying-type moves (not even Fly, as in later games). Its Speed is mediocre, and its typing gives it a crippling weakness to Ice. It does have a wide coverage of elemental TM moves, and the high Attack means it can either abuse Wrap or, more commonly, fuel a monstrous Hyper Beam, but by the time you can get evolve a Dragonair, other Pokemon, especially the example right below, have been doing roughly the same thing for far earlier and not really any worse about it.
325** By contrast, Gyarados is a better contender for this trope than Dragonite. Its stat distribution is lower but in the same neighborhood, and it has a more common double weakness (Electric versus Dragonite's Ice). However, it enjoys many benefits that Dragonite wouldn't receive until the remakes, such as several reliable STAB moves and high enough Special to do them justice. Most importantly, it's a ''much'' more lenient example of MagikarpPower than Dragonite, with its base form Magikarp being available near the beginning of the game and evolving at level 20.
326* InnocentFlowerGirl: Erika, a Grass-type gym leader, combines this with TheOjou.
327* InterpolSpecialAgent: An unnamed NPC on the SS Anne claims to be one seeking out Team Rocket.
328* InventoryManagementPuzzle: In your bag, you are limited to 20 individual slots for unique items. For instance, whether you were carrying one Potion or 99 Potions, it only takes up one inventory "slot". Because of this, it is wise to carry as few unique items as you can get away with. You can store an extra 50 unique items in the PC to help alleviate this somewhat, but the PC can only be accessed in a Pokémon Center, meaning those items won't be available to you in the game world.
329* InvisibleWall: The Fuchsia City Gym has them, forcing you to go around and fight all of the trainers instead of going to Koga directly.
330* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Averted for the only time in the series to date. The Kanto region here shares its name with the real life Kantō region of Japan, on which the game map is based.
331* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: Quite a few buildings with plenty of stairs appear: Pokémon Tower, Celadon Mansion (especially if one goes in the back to get an Eevee,) the Celadon Department Store (though this also has an elevator,) and the Silph Co. Building (which also has an elevator as well as warp tiles between floors.)
332* IWasQuiteALooker: Prof. Oak, according to Agatha.
333-->'''Agatha:''' I hear Oak's taken a lot of interest in you, child. That old duff was once tough and handsome. But that was decades ago. He's a shadow of his former self.
334* JackOfAllStats:
335** Nidoking and Nidoqueen. In this generation they don't reach 100 in any base stat (Nidoking's highest is 92 in Attack, Nidoqueen's is HP at 90), but no stat dips below 75 either. Additionally, none of the other early Pokémon rival their move pool for size and type diversity. This generalist nature (and their weakness to omnipresent Psychic, Ground, and Ice moves) makes them less than ideal for competitive PVP, but is a boon in PVE, and their utility in combination with their early availability has made Nidoking a darling of the one-Pokémon speedrunning scene.
336** Mew started the trend of the mythical Pokémon that was good but not great at everything, with all its base stats being an even 100. Mew took it a step farther though by being able to learn ''every'' TM and HM in the game, and to this day Mew remains the only Pokémon with this distinction.
337* KubrickStare: Giovanni's sprite has one.
338* LampshadeHanging: On Route 8, you'll find a rather conspicuous row of Trainers standing around for no apparent reason. The Lass at the bottom (and the last one in line if you fight them all starting from the topmost one) says "We must look silly standing here like this!" before battling you.
339* LeakedExperience: The "Exp. All" item. If you have it in your inventory, it distributes a fraction of the experience gained from a battle between all of the Pokémon in your party.
340* LeapOfFaith: Cinnabar Island's Pokémon Mansion has a couple of spots where you will need to jump. Only one of the spots allows you to advance, so it becomes a bit of TrialAndErrorGameplay.
341* LevelGrinding: Expect to be doing quite a bit of it throughout the game. The most flagrant case comes after beating the 8th gym but before taking on the Elite Four, where you'll need to gain about 10-15 levels with each of your Pokémon in order to stand a chance.
342* LimitedSoundEffects: Due to the software limitations of the day, two sets of two Pokémon had the exact same cry - Charizard and Rhyhorn shared one, and Poliwag and Ditto shared another. Even more Pokémon had cries that were just sped-up or slowed-down version of the each other - Caterpie and Goldeen, Fearow and Cloyster, Jynx and Exeggutor, etc. Future games did away with this, meaning no two Pokémon introduced in Generation II and beyond have the same cry.
343* ALizardNamedLiz: In Vermilion City, you can trade for a Farfetch'd, which is a Pokémon based on a duck. The nickname its original trainer gave it? ''Dux''.
344* LostInTranslation:
345** Mewtwo's Pokédex entries make mention of a single scientist creating it, and various hints are dropped across the game that subtly imply Mr. Fuji was that scientist. Despite this, the English localization altered the journals so that they refer to a ''group'' of scientists rather than just one, while also keeping the mention of a single person in Mewtwo's Pokédex entry intact, thus the idea of Mr. Fuji alone creating Mewtwo is somewhat lost. This is retained in the remakes, which doesn't help.[[labelnote:*]]Nor does the greater prominence of Mewtwo's backstory in ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'', whose incarnation there actually ''is'' created by more than one scientist (and while ''a'' Dr. Fuji leads them, he's clearly not the same character as Mr. Fuji).[[/labelnote]]
346** The only time the word "Kanto" is mentioned prior to Generation II is when viewing the rival's map in his house before taking it from his sister... and it is only in the Japanese version.
347* TheLostWoods: Viridian Forest, which also functions as the NoobCave since the very first trainers appear here and the forest itself is a maze.
348* LuckBasedMission: [[LuckBasedMission/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise]].
349* MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap: Potions of various strengths which can be used to heal HP can be purchased from [=PokéMarts=] and found all over the game world. Ethers and Elixirs, which restore PP, cannot be purchased and are extremely rare to find. It's best to save them all for the Elite Four, where you'll have to fight several difficult battles in a row without being able to restore the PP of moves at a Pokémon Center in between.
350* MagikarpPower:
351** TropeNamer. Magikarp can be purchased in Mt. Moon's Pokémon Center very early in the game, and it's completely pathetic even compared to the local ComMons. Get it to level 20, though, and it'll evolve into the ''very'' powerful Gyarados, which can proceed to steamroll everything in its path.
352** When you encounter an Abra, it only knows one move: Teleport. Teleport allows it to flee battle, making it very hard to catch without putting it to sleep first or getting lucky will a full-health catch. It will effectively be useless in battle for you, but grind it to level 16, and it evolves into the much more useful Kadabra. You can then immediately trade Kadabra to a friend and then trade it back, giving you the very powerful Alakazam.
353** The rare Dratini, which could only be captured by fishing in the Safari Zone or purchased at the Game Corner, is also extremely weak. If babied until level 30, it evolves into the only-slightly-better Dragonair. Get it to 55, however, and it evolves into the mighty Dragonite. Dragonite has the second highest base state total in the game, the single highest Attack stat, a vast movepool from [=TMs=], and only two weaknesses to the rare Ice type and weak Rock type. The complete lack of good STAB moves (including no Dragon moves besides the weak FixedDamageAttack set damage Dragon Rage) limits it, however, and makes it less effective than several other fully-evolved Pokémon, so in practice it's not really worth the effort.
354* MarathonBoss: The various [[OlympusMons Legendary]] Pokémon, particularly if you're trying to catch them. Due to their incredibly low catch rates, they can shrug off dozens of catch attempts even if they are reduced to extremely low HP and inflicted with a status effect. Meanwhile, they'll be blowing away your Pokémon with high powered attacks. Should you knock them out and need to reload a save to try again, you'll have to start all over again, making this a very time consuming process.
355* MarathonLevel:
356** Mt. Moon is a labyrinthine multi-level cave full of trainers (including a BossInMookClothing Team Rocket member with a Raticate), Geodude (who will resist the Normal-type moves most of your low-level Mons will be using at this point), and Zubat (which are fast enough that you might not be able to flee and can inflict confusion so you'll hurt yourself half the time trying to damage them). The latter two show up in roughly equal numbers, which makes it challenging to choose a Pokémon to lead with. Anything strong against one tends to struggle against the other. Expect to make deeper and deeper forays while retreating back to the Pokémon Center outside for healing.
357** Routes 12, 13, 14, and 15 combine to make for a long trek connecting Lavender Town to Fuchsia City. It's full of trainers with nowhere close by to heal along the way. Thankfully, it's optional as you can take Cycling Road instead to reach Fuschia City, but you'll need to get through at least part of it if you want the Super Rod.
358* MarketBasedTitle: The original games were released in Japan as ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Pokémon Green'', with a third version called ''Pokémon Blue'' bringing minor fixes and changes to the table. This version served as the basis for the overseas releases, titled ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Pokémon Blue''.
359* MasterOfAll: Mew has a solid 100 in base stats across the board, and can learn any TM or HM, allowing it to fill any role on a team.
360* MerchantCity: Celadon City, which has a multi-floored department store that sells a far greater variety of goods than the Pokémarts in other towns, including some goods (such as the Evolutionary Stones) which can only be purchased there.
361* MetalSlime:
362** Abra. While only a slightly uncommon encounter, it has the annoying habit of using its only move (Teleport) to flee from battle, making it incredibly difficult to catch. If you are able to catch one, you can evolve it into the much more powerful Kadabra (and, if you can trade it, [[InfinityMinusOneSword Alakazam]]), giving you an ''extremely'' powerful Pokémon.
363** Chansey is extremely rare, appearing at a 4% encounter rate ''at most'' in the Safari Zone (and only in a certain area; elsewhere the rate is ''1%''), and at a 5% encounter rate in Cerulean Cave. They're hard to catch and in the former, they will almost always flee the first chance they get. Beating one, however, will give out the most experience you can get from wild Pokémon, and catching it gives you perhaps the best Special-oriented StoneWall in the game.
364* MinusWorld: "[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Glitch_City Glitch City]]", accessed by flying somewhere while the game thinks you're still in the Safari Zone, is a mess of tiles that can only be escaped from by Fly or Teleport. Depending on where the glitch is activated, the layout will look different.
365* MissingSecret:
366** There is a one-of-a-kind truck in Vermilion City which can only be accessed if you never allow the S.S. Anne to leave as it is scripted to do. Once you reach it, you find nothing there.
367** One of the machines in the Game Corner is unplayable, with the text "Someone's keys! They'll be back." This was rumored to be connected to the truck, but in reality it's just FlavorText.
368** There appears to be a pathway behind Bill's house that leads somewhere but is impossible to reach.
369** There are two patches of grass along Route 1 which cannot be reached.
370** There's a pair of [=NPCs=] (Eric and Sara), one just inside the Safari Zone and one just outside it, who [[NominalImportance are explicitly named]] and are looking for each other. But there's no sidequest to reunite them.
371* MookChivalry: Team Rocket, despite being an outright evil organization, still obeys the rules of a Pokémon battle. Even if they have dozens of mooks present (such as in Silph Co.,) they'll never attack more than one at a time.
372* MundaneMadeAwesome: The [[BubbleGun BubbleBeam]] animation is accompanied by the visual flashing negative with dramatic sound effects.
373* MundaneUtility: The HM moves allow your Pokémon to perform actions outside of battle.
374** Obtaining Mew through glitches allows you to obtain the single rarest Pokémon in existence (at the time). You can then fill its entire movepool with worthless HM moves and use it just to get around the game world, thanks to its ability to learn every HM in the game.
375* MusicalSpoiler:
376** The first dungeon you go through is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wufz_8FOMzE Viridian Forest]], not too far from the FirstTown of Viridian City which had an absent Gym Leader. Later on, the forest's theme is remixed for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kiKM2f2j_o Team Rocket's Hideout]] under the Celadon Game Corner and where you first encounter their leader, [[BigBad Giovanni.]] Eventually, Viridian City's gym leader returns after you get 7 badges and [[spoiler:it's revealed to be none other than Giovanni himself.]]
377** Anyone who'd played enough RPG games by then may be able to figure out that [[spoiler:Lance]] is merely the DiscOneFinalBoss as soon as the fight begins, since the normal Gym Leader music is played during the battle, and by this point in video game history it was standard for RPG {{Final Boss}}es to have their own unique battle music.
378* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: Without trading them in from another game, receiving them from Pokémon Stadium, or using exploits, you can only have one of the starters, one of the Eeveelutions, one of the Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan duo, and one of either the Omastar or Kabutops line.
379* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: In the Japanese release, the realistic optional names for the PlayerCharacter and TheRival are all derived from important figures at Game Freak or Nintendo--Satoshi for Creator/SatoshiTajiri, Shigeru for Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, Tsunekazu for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunekazu_Ishihara Tsunekazu Ishihara]], and Hiroshi for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_Yamauchi Hiroshi Yamauchi]].
380* TheNeedless: On Routes 19, 20, and 21, you will encounter swimmers who do nothing but swim and float around. Given the fact that ocean water is very salty and a poor conductor of heat, it's a small wonder how they will never expire from hypothermia and dehydration.
381* {{Nerf}}: International releases reduced Blizzard's chance to inflict [[HarmlessFreezing Freeze]] from 30% to 10%.
382* NewSkillAsReward:
383** Gym Leaders start series tradition by handing out Technical Machines teaching their SignatureMove once you beat them.
384** Hidden Machines ([=HMs=]) are each given out as rewards, and each allows you to perform a new action outside of battle. The sick captain of the SS Anne hands out [=HM01=] for talking to him, [=HM02=] is given by a woman who lives just north of Cycling Road, [=HM03=] is the reward for reaching to the final lodge in the Safari Zone, [=HM04=] is exchanged for the Safari Zone warden's missing gold dentures, and [=HM05=] is from one of Professor Oak's aides for catching a specific amount of Pokémon.
385* NoCampaignForTheWicked: There is no option to take up the offer of the Team Rocket recruiter on Nugget Bridge.
386* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: A corporate example. Given the placement of Saffron City in Kanto, Silph Co. is essentially a stand-in for Mitsubishi.
387* NoFairCheating: If you use a glitch to spawn and catch a Mew in the Virtual Console version, you will be unable to transfer it to newer gen games through Pokémon Bank. [[SubvertedTrope Unless you use another (very long and very, very convoluted) glitch to force it to have the appropriate Original Trainer and ID number, which fools the system into thinking it's a legitimate Mew from an event. Or you know, having said Original Trainer and ID number before you caught the Mew.]]
388* NonDamagingStatusInflictionAttack: This game has the first in the franchise, and are used for later games. Some examples:
389** Growl: Lowers attack.
390** Tail Whip: Lowers defense.
391* NonIndicativeName: While all badges have names related to their elements, the poison and psychic badges are called Soul Badge and Marsh Badge respectively, names which probably would make more sense if switched around.
392* NoobCave: Viridian Forest is the first area of the game that isn't just a straightforward Route, and it's where items lying on the ground and NPC trainers besides Blue first appear.
393* NoSell: Legendary Pokémon can flat out evade Pokéballs if they haven't been sufficiently weakened. This was dropped in all future games.
394* NotSoAboveItAll: Even the plainclothes Rocket at the end of the Nugget Bridge partakes in the DoubleEntendre madness in the Japanese version, using such innuendo-laden phrases (roughly translated here) as "beat" and "give you".
395* NPCRoadblock: All over the place. There's the old man in Viridian City who won't let you pass until he's had his "coffee" (which he has only after you deliver Oak's Parcel), the guy in Pewter City who won't let you pass to Mt. Moon until you beat Brock, the gate guards who won't let you into Saffron City until you give them a drink, the cop in front of the burgled house in Cerulean City who only moves aside after you talk to Bill at Cerulean Cape, the guy who stands in front of Cerulean Cave until after you beat the Elite Four and the Champion, etc.
396* ObviousRulePatch: The UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole release does not allow Restore Points to prevent players from cloning Pokémon.
397* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: A Rocket grunt threatens you with this when you refuse to join Team Rocket.
398* OldMaster: Prof. Oak was quite the trainer in his youth according to Elite Four member Agatha. If his dummied out battle can be counted, he possesses the highest-leveled Pokémon in the game (5-11 levels higher than even the champion).
399* OldSaveBonus:
400** Any player who beats the Master Cup in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' or its sequel with a Pikachu in their party will have said Pikachu learn Surf (a move Pikachu otherwise cannot legitimately learn). ''Pokémon Yellow'' took this unlockable a few steps forward in that not only is there a special overworld sprite for when Pikachu uses the move outside of battle, a house south of Saffron City allows the player can play an ''VideoGame/ExciteBike'' clone called "Pikachu's Beach". Since the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole release can't connect to any version of ''Stadium'', it lets you play the minigame with your starter Pikachu instead.
401** Beating the Elite 4 and rival in ''Stadium'' gave players who hook up their ''Red'' or ''Blue'' cartridge access to one of the following at random: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Eevee, Omanyte, or Kabuto. Note that all of them are Pokémon that are {{permanently missable|Content}} (in Eevee's case, its evolutions) for anyone who does not have a friend to trade with, due to having to pick between two (Hitmons, fossils) or three (starters, Eeveelutions). This allows players to fill their Pokédex up entirely, outside of version exclusives from the other version.
402* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: The only major difference between the games is that some {{Mons}} are version-exclusive, requiring more than one to get OneHundredPercentCompletion and setting the trend for all future installments.
403* OneOfTheBoys: Route 3's Lass Sally uses Pokémon more typical of a Youngster (specifically, a Rattata and a Nidoran♂).
404* OneStatToRuleThemAll: "Special" dictated both attack ''and'' defense power in regard to special-based elements (FireIceLightning, Psychic, etc.). It was toned down a great deal in Generation II, wherein it was divided into separate Special Attack and Special Defense.
405** A Pokémon's base Speed stat was at its most important in this Gen, as besides Speed governing the important aspect of who goes first in battle, base Speed also deteremined a Pokémon's critical hit chance, with it ranging from around 5% and below for the slowest Pokémon to over 25% with the fastest Pokémon. Being able to hit these crits was also important as there was little you could do to boost your Pokémon's attack power, with there being no held items and setup moves being scarce, so unlike in later Gens hitting crits was often the only way for a Pokémon to deal more damage outside of type effectiveness. Plus with how Sleep and trapping moves work in this Gen (with waking up from Sleep taking a turn and trapping moves not letting you act during their duration), being slower than a Sleep or trap move user can doom a Pokémon if they're not lucky enough for those moves to miss.
406* OneTimeDungeon:
407** The S.S. Anne sets sail once you heal the captain and leave, taking any items you forgot or trainers you didn't fight with it. Since there's quite a few trainers and [=TMs=] in there, you might want to check it thoroughly before healing the captain.
408** Downplayed with the Team Rocket base below the Game Corner and the Silph Co. building. While you can return to each to acquire any items you may have missed, all of the Rockets will clear out. If there are any you didn't battle, you miss out on the experience and money you could have earned. With the only sources of unlimited money coming from refighting the Elite Four at the end of the game and the rare move Payday, skipping trainer battles isn't advised for the average player.
409* OpenEndedBossBattle: The first battle with your Rival can be lost with minimal consequences. Losing in any other battle after this leads to the standard GameOver, forcing you to return to the last Pokémon center ''and'' lose half your money.
410* OpeningBossBattle: Once you get your starter Pokémon, your very first battle will be against your Rival.
411* OverflowError: [[GlitchEntity MissingNo.]] will always be at an absurdly high level due to the nature of the variables being read - characters in the player's [[HelloInsertNameHere name]] always having a hexidecimal value above 100, the normal {{Cap}}). Attempting to level up your Level 255 [=MissingNo.=] with a Rare Candy, however, will reset its level to a pathetic 0, and attempting to train it at "legal" levels past this will prove difficult because without the advanced level multipliers, it's quickly found out the hard way that it has the 6th lowest base stat total of all Generation 1 Pokémon, only being beaten out by Magikarp and the not-fully-evolved [[ComMons bugs]].
412* OverlyLongGag: In order to obtain the Bike Voucher, you'll need to endure a long conversation with the Pokémon Fan Club President.
413-->'''Chariman:''' My favorite RAPIDASH...▾\
414It...cute...lovely...smart...plus...amazing...you think so?...oh yes...it...stunning...kindly...love it!▾\
415Hug it...when...\
416sleeping...warm and cuddly...spectacular...ravishing... ...Oops! Look at the time! I kept you too long!
417* PathOfMostResistance: In nearly every gym, there is a path to get to the gym leader while only needing to fight a few of the gym's other trainers. Most players deliberately go out of their way to battle every trainer for the experience and money. In fact, most guides advise battling ''every trainer you come across'' to aid in leveling-up and earning money.
418* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: See the [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling/{{Pokemon}} series' page here]].
419* PercentBasedValues: The move Softboiled can be used out of battle to transfer 20% of the user's Max HP to another Pokémon.
420* PermanentlyMissableContent:
421** You can only encounter Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo once. Run from them or knock them out, and they disappear, never to return. Hope you didn't save afterwards, 'cos then your only recourse is to start the entire game all over again! This also applies to Snorlax, but the game is at least kind enough to give you two in case you fail to catch one of them.
422** Anything onboard [[OneTimeDungeon the S.S. Anne]], including Trainers and items, sets sail with it once the captain is healed. This also applies to seeing [[EasterEgg the truck]] ([[spoiler:and the Lava Cookie south of it in the remakes]]), since you're not even allowed back onto the dock.
423** Any undefeated Trainers in a Gym can't be challenged after the Leader is defeated, thus you're losing out on experience and prize money. This also applies to the Team Rocket grunts in Silph Co., all of whom disappear after Giovanni is defeated.
424* PersonWithTheClothing: The first edition of the first generation of games, where opposing trainers other than unique ones weren't named. All are LostInTranslation:
425** Lasses are "Miniskirts" (ミニスカート) in Japanese.
426** Youngsters are "Shorts Youngsters" (たんぱんこぞう) in Japanese.
427* PhenotypeStereotype: "The Lightning American" Lt. Surge is blonde-haired and blue-eyed.
428* PlaceOfProtection: A non-possessed Channeler in Pokémon Tower has "purified" a square which which instantly heal your Mons if you step inside. The best part is that it can be used as many times as you want, making it a [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling great spot]] for some mid-game level-grinding.
429* PlotTunnel: After exiting Mt. Moon, there's a ledge with no ladders or stairs going back up. Once you jump down, you're effectively locked out of the Pallet Town-Mt. Moon area until you're able to learn and use the HM Cut, which requires some non-trivial progress[[note]]Defeat your Rival, cross Nugget Bridge, visit Bill, beat Misty, beat your Rival again, then heal the captain on the SS Anne[[/note]]. If you haven't been capturing a variety of Pokémon and/or are under-leveled, you may find yourself struggling with these parts while being unable to go back.
430* PoisonIsEvil:
431** Played straight with the Team Rocket Grunts, who primarily use Poison-types (Zubat, Koffing, Ekans, Grimer, etc.) along with non-Poison-types who can use Poison-type moves (Sandshrew and Drowzee) as well as the [[YouDirtyRat Rattata-line]].
432** PlayedWith in the case of Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket. While he prefers Ground-types [[spoiler:and is the Ground-type gym leader]], his Nidoking and Nidoqueen are part Poison.
433** Averted with Koga, who is the actual Poison-type gym leader but isn't evil.
434** Played straight with the Biker-class trainers, who are implied to be motorcycle gang types, and use Poison-types along with Fighting-types.
435* PoliceAreUseless: A police officer in Cerulean City blocks a house's front door in the northeast of town because it was vandalized by a Rocket and he is "investigating" the scene. After talking to Bill, the player can enter the house... where they find that the Rocket in question is ''still in the back yard''.
436* PoorPredictableRock:
437** Every gym leader and Elite Four member devotes him or herself to one particular type. Justified, since they are meant to test trainers by providing them a challenge.
438** When it comes to a Pokémon's level-up movepool, they'll generally only learn Normal moves and moves of their respective type(s) -- and sometimes, such as with [[BigCreepyCrawlies Scyther and Pinsir]], not even that! This makes [=TMs=] more essential for giving Pokémon diverse movesets, though later games would give most Pokémon at least one move of a different type in their level-up movelist.
439* PopQuiz: If you don't want to fight the trainers in the Cinnabar Gym, you can also answer the questions provided by each computer to open the doors to progress.
440* PortTown: Vermilion City. A world famous ship named the S.S. Anne docks here when not cruising the world and the ship is quite a destination spot for trainers.
441* PreexistingEncounters: The two Snorlax, the three legendary birds, and Mewtwo are non-random and battle is initiated when you interact with them. There are also several Voltorb and Electrode [[ChestMonster posing as item balls]] in the Power Plant.
442* PressurePlate: Victory Road uses these as part of a BlockPuzzle.
443* PressXToDie: There's no safeguard against depositing or releasing Pokémon in such a way that the only Pokémon remaining in your party are/is fainted, something that has absolutely no benefit. Upon doing so, you'll faint about three steps later. Later games fix this.
444* PrivilegedRival: Your Rival is the grandson of the world-renowned Prof. Oak, while you are the son of [[DisappearedDad an apparently single mother]]. While you do get first pick of the three starter Pokémon, this puts you at a disadvantage, as he will choose whichever one is strong against the one you chose.
445* ProfessorGuineaPig: Bill accidentally merges himself with a Pokémon while working on his teleportation system.
446* {{Projeggtile}}: Egg Bomb, which remains exclusive to the Chansey and Exeggcute lines to this day.
447* ProperlyParanoid: The Super Nerd at the end of Mt. Moon (called Miguel in later generations) who is very protective of his fossils will assume you're a plainclothes Rocket. A bit later on, you'll find a plainclothes Rocket at the end of the Nugget Bridge, so Miguel clearly wasn't about to take any chances.
448* PuniPlush: Just about every Pokémon sprite is done in this style, even when it ''really'' clashes with the design.
449* QuietingTheUnquietDead: The Marowak ghost who was killed by Team Rocket in Lavender Tower blocks entry to the tower's highest floor, where Team Rocket holds Mr. Fuji captive. Beating the Marowak calms her down and sends her to the afterlife, allowing the player to continue.
450* {{Railroading}}: Along with the plethora of [[NPCRoadblock NPC Roadblocks]], this is done via the required use of HM moves (Cut, Flash, Strength, and Surf) as well as the need for key items (Pokéflute, Silph Scope) to advance past various obstacles.
451* RainbowMotif: In effect for the Japanese versions when it comes to gym badges. The names were changed for the international releases (except for Erika's Rainbow Badge.)
452* RareCandy: The TropeNamer. Rare Candies are rare items which, when given to a Pokémon, increase that Mon's level by one instantly.
453* RatStomp: The games' early routes are infested with ComMon Rattata. They're not particularly challenging in the least.
454* ReallyGetsAround: The Japanese version appears to imply that Bill gets some rare Pokémon through TheWorldsOldestProfession. Naturally, international releases instead simply say he'll do anything for rare Pokémon.
455* ReassignedToAntarctica: A turncoat Scientist in Silph Co. mentions he was sent to the Tiksi Branch, which he clarifies is in some isolated part of Russia when you beat him. It's all but stated to be the reason why he betrayed the company.
456* RecurringBoss:
457** Your Rival is fought seven times (with an optional encounter early on to make it eight) over the course of the game.
458** BigBad Giovanni is fought three times.
459* RequiredPartyMember: Downplayed in that there are only a few points in the game where HM moves are required to advance, but you'll still need a Pokémon in your party to know them to get through those areas (as well as to access a handful of optional areas. Addtionally, Fly is extremely convenient for getting around the map). Out of the five HM moves, only Surf is actually worthwhile in battle towards the end of the game, meaning you'll need to handicap some of your good Pokémon to learn the others (which will permanently stick them with the HM moves as there isn't a Move Deleter in this Gen to forget HM moves) or handicap your overall party by keeping an "HM Slave" Pokémon on hand to use the moves and not much else.
460* RhymesOnADime: As if the boy who escorts you to Pewter Gym wasn't annoying enough to Charmander users, the French version makes him combine an advertising jingle with a Advertising/WilkinsCoffee pastiche!
461-->''Si t'es fort...T'as pas tort...''\
462''Alors...Bats Pierre...Ou t'es mort!''[[labelnote:Literal English translation]]If you're strong...You're not wrong...So...Fight Brock...Or you're dead![[/labelnote]]
463* RivalDojos: The current official Gym in Saffron City is dedicated to the Psychic-type under Sabrina. Immediately next door is the Fighting-type dojo, which used to be the sanctioned Gym until Sabrina and her followers crushed it, though they still devote themselves to the practice. And then ''the Player'' comes along and sacks the Fighting-dojo ''a second time'', forcing the Karate King to beg him not to take their emblem, instead offering up one of their prize Pokémon.
464* RivalFinalBoss: Quite possibly the "Crowning Example" in gaming. The page image even comes from the remakes.
465* RoaringRapids: Present in the Seafoam Islands. You can disrupt them by [[BlockPuzzle pushing boulders around]] so you can navigate the cave.
466* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Given the {{Color Motif|s}} ThemeNaming, the opening town is meant to invoke the range of potential colors. Unfortunately, the correct word for this is "palette"; the game instead uses "pallet", which is a large platform for moving goods and has nothing to do with art or color.
467* RuleOfThree: The three starter Pokémon. The three legendary birds. The three options for evolving Eevee. The three units/heads some Pokémon get upon evolution. The maximum of three stages of evolution a Pokémon can have.
468* SameContentDifferentRating: In Europe, the Virtual Console version is rated 12 due to the retention of gambling elements.
469* SchmuckBait: A likely unintentional example, but the game and the surrounding media at the time heavily tries to steer you towards using Ghost-type Pokémon to battle Psychic opponents, who in actuality will slaughter any Ghost Pokémon in short order thanks to the only three Pokémon of that type also being Poison-type, which is weak to Psychic, while the Ghosts aren't dealing any strong super-effective damage back. A NPC additionally mentions Bugs as being something Psychics "fear", but most Bug types are part-Poison too, and even then the available Bug moves are all very weak, so even when inflicting double damage they aren't out-damaging strong neutral moves. The ''actual'' best Pokémon to use were dual-typed Psychics like Starmie or Exeggutor who could resist the Psychic moves and then hit back with strong STAB or other moves for neutral damage, Pokémon that could hit hard physically to exploit the Psychic-types' typically poor Defense while being able to outspeed them or having enough HP and Special to take multiple hits from them, or if you were lucky enough to get one, Chansey, whose ludicrous HP and good Special stat made it nigh-unkillable by special-based moves.
470* SchrodingersQuestion: Professor Oak "forgets" the name of his own grandson, allowing you to choose your Rival's name.
471* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: How Prof. Oak acts toward your Rival when you defeat him as champion. Never mind that, despite his flaws, he was still skilled enough to defeat all of the gyms and the Elite Four, and would still be champion if you hadn't shown up.
472* SecretAIMoves: There are a couple instances where trainers have Mons with moves they cannot legitimately learn or shouldn't be able to have yet. In particular, all the trainer Gyarados you fight will know Hydro Pump even when far below the level requirement to learn Hydro Pump (due to a technicality where Gyarados is programmed to also know Hydro Pump at level 1, and the movesets of trainer Pokémon functioned like wild Pokémon in that they have the last four moves the Pokémon is programmed to naturally know at their level), and Lance's Dragonite knowing Barrier, a move which it has never been able to legitimately learn even in subsequent generations (though due to this move not being that useful in general and what was described in the aformentioned AIBreaker section, this just does him more harm than good).
473* SeeThruSpecs: The Silph Scope works in this fashion, allowing the wearer to see the true form of Ghost Pokémon.
474* SelfDamagingAttackBackfire:
475** Confused Pokémon have a 50% chance of damaging themselves while trying to attack.
476** The moves Jump Kick and High Jump Kick deal damage to the user if they miss.
477* SequenceBreaking:
478** The Seafoam Islands can be skipped entirely by surfing down Route 21 from Pallet Town instead of surfing down Routes 19-20 from Fuchsia City.
479** Lt. Surge, Erika, Koga, Sabrina, and Blaine can be fought in nearly any order. The only constraint is that you have to beat Koga to get to Blaine, since Surf is required. You can also delay fighting Misty for a bit, as to progress beyond Cerulean you just need to help Bill, where you can then go to Vermillion City and complete the S.S. Anne, but you'll need to beat Misty before you can fight any of the other gym leaders as you need to be able to use Cut to reach them.
480** Due to a lack of DevelopersForesight, while the ghost of Marowak in the Pokémon Tower cannot be caught and cannot be battled (without the Silph Scope), it ''can'' be distracted with a Poké Doll, which will end the battle and let you pass. This lets you skip the Team Rocket Hideout in the Game Corner, which is only needed for the Silph Scope.
481** In general, trading Pokémon from other games that know HM moves like Cut and Surf can save a lot of time, as you don't have to go out and grab the necessary [=HMs=] anymore (unless you want to teach HM moves to more Pokémon, but that can be done afterwards at your leisure).
482** The PC in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' and the Color Case in ''Pokémon Stadium 2'' allow you to freely transfer items between Generation I games (if you only have one game, starting over after saving the items in the Case works as well). Thanks to this, it's possible to bring a Fresh Water or other drink to the Saffron City guards right after helping Bill, enabling access the rest of Kanto before beating Misty and completely bypassing Rock Tunnel. You can even defeat Lt. Surge before Misty, provided you beat Koga and gain Surf in advance. There is still no way to access the Celadon gym without Cut, so you'll still need to beat Misty before you can fight Erika. This is what led to the developers implementing Green Tea as a key item in the remakes, to prevent new versions of this exploit[[note]]While the remakes couldn't connect to Pokémon Stadium (and thus couldn't use it to transfer items), trading in a Pokémon that was holding a Fresh Water, etc. would have accomplished the same thing[[/note]].
483* ShipLevel: The S.S. Anne in Vermilion City. Your rival is fought there, and the player needs to visit it to obtain the Cut HM needed to access Vermilion's Gym.
484* ShoutOut:
485** When you first start the game, watch the TV in your house. [[Film/StandByMe It shows four boys walking along railroad tracks, and based on your mom's dialogue about children leaving home...]][[note]]The French translation replaces it with a ''Manga/DragonBall'' reference.[[/note]]
486** Bill merged with a Pokémon as a result of a failed experiment with a teleporter in reference to ''Film/TheFly1986''.
487** When you first encounter him, one Hiker trainer in Rock Tunnel says, "Hit me with your best shot!" After the battle, he says, "[[Music/PatBenatar Fired away!]]"
488** In the Rock Tunnel, Pokémaniac Ashton's introduction quote is "[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Pokémon fight! Ready, go!]]"
489** The '''Dragon''' master is named '''Lance'''. As in [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} the book series.]]
490** One of the Gym Leaders is a teenage girl with magic powers named [[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch Sabrina]].
491** Checking the TV in Copycat's house references an earlier [[VideoGame/MarioAndWario Gamefreak title]].
492* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: In an in-universe example, every Gym has an NPC standing near the entrance who offers general advice about the Gym's leader -- except in Celadon City, where he's too busy playing slots at the Rocket Game Corner.
493* SinglePaletteTown: Every town (except for Pallet Town) is named after one particular color. If played on a Platform/SuperGameBoy (or, in case of ''Pokémon Yellow'', on a Platform/GameBoyColor), the screen changes its pallete to match the current town.
494* SkewedPriorities: The Saffron City guards care more about them needing a drink than about Silph Co. being taken over by Team Rocket, and will actively bar the player from entering Saffron City in the first place until they give one of them a drink.
495* SkippableBoss: It is possible to skip a couple of the battles with your Rival. First, by not exploring Route 22 and later, by trading in a Pokémon who already knows Cut so you can skip the SS Anne.
496* SleepyEnemy: The games introduce Snorlax, which often appears in the series as a sleeping BrokenBridge that requires special means to wake up. Once you've done so, it proves to be a MightyGlacier that likes to use "Rest" to restore its health. Later generation games give it additional moves like Belly Drum (maxes out its attack at the cost of half of its HP, which it restores easily with Rest) and moves it can use while asleep like Snore and Sleep Talk.
497* SocializationBonus: Like many monster collecting games, trading is necessary to catch 'em all and ''Pokémon'' took a step further by having four Pokémon (Machoke, Graveler, Kadabra, Haunter) only evolve when traded. There is no other reason for this to be implemented other than to encourage trading among players.
498* SpitefulAI: Due to AIRoulette, Trainers may have their last party member use [[TakingYouwithMe Selfdestruct or Explosion]].
499* SpoiledBrat: Lass Ann behaves like this after you defeat her, flat-out ''demanding'' you heal her Pokémon.
500-->'''Lass Ann''': You hurt my poor Pokémon! I demand that you heal them at a Pokémon Center!
501* StandardRPGItems: Pretty much every one listed on the trope page has an equivalent here. Potions heal Hit Points, Revives heal Fainting, Antidotes heal Poison, Awakenings heal Sleep, etc. There are also items which cover multiple effects, such as Full Restores which heal all damage and status effects.
502* StarterMon: Kicks off the series standard of offering you three options: a Grass-type (Bulbasaur), a Water-type (Squirtle), and Fire-type (Charmander).
503* StealthPun:
504** The Fire Type move Fire Blast is [[BilingualBonus based on the real life Kanji DaiOo, meaning "big" or "great"]] [[spoiler:(its power is great, its size is big, and, if used on your Pokémon, your opponent wants it to die in a fire)]].
505** Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket, the Pokémon world's equivalent to TheMafia. [[spoiler:Meaning he's a [[TheDon mafia don]]. Meaning he's Theatre/DonGiovanni.]]
506* StinkyFlower: Gloom is a Pokémon that resembles a flower and it drools honey that is said to smell terrible. Its pistil is said to have a foul smell as well. Also to note that in japanese, its name is "kusaihana" which literally means stinky flower.
507* SuicidalOverconfidence: A Bug Catcher on Route 9 says, "Go, my super bug Pokémon!" before he fights you. By this point, your Pokémon have been through at least two Gym Leaders, meaning Bug-types stand almost no chance against you, especially if you use a Fire- or Flying-type.
508* {{Superboss}}:
509** You aren't required to battle any of the [[OlympusMons legendary Pokémon]] in the game, but each provides a big challenge if you choose to do so. Attempting to catch one makes the battle yet more difficult due to their sheer power and incredibly low catch rates.
510** Professor Oak has battle data programmed in and can be battled with cheats or glitches. His Pokémon are even stronger than the champion, seemingly supporting Agatha's claim that he is a RetiredBadass of a trainer.
511* SupportPartyMember: Many of the best "status spreaders" fall into this role, as they lack the power and defenses to hang around late in the game. However, having a Pokémon in your party that can reliably put wild Pokémon to sleep (or, less effectively but better than nothing, paralyze them) makes it far easier to fill up your Pokédex and acquire all of the items from Prof. Oak's aides. Butterfree is the [[CrutchCharacter earliest available and comes with the widest variety of status-inflicting moves]], but falls well behind the power curve by mid-game. A Haunter or, if you can manage a trade, Gengar with Hypnosis and Night Shade is a solid late game option as it can both put wild Pokémon to sleep and, since Night Shade [[FixedDamageAttack deals damage equal to the user's level]], gives you more control in whittling its health down while being immune to the very common Normal-type attacks. Its part Poison-typing makes it vulnerable to the broken Psychic-types, however. Going the full CripplingOverspecialization route, you can raise a Parasect until it gets the 100% sleep-inducing Spore attack at level 30. Its low Attack and weak movepool allows you to carefully whittle away a wild Pokémon's health while being able to put it back to sleep at any time. Its typing leaves it with several major weaknesses, however, so it won't last against Fire or Flyers.
512* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial:
513** One of the Rockets gives us this gem.
514--->'''Rocket:''' Don't touch the poster at the Game Corner! There's no secret switch behind it!
515** A burglar in Cinnabar Mansion:
516--->'''Burglar:''' A key? I don't know what you're talking about!
517* TakeThat: When starting a new game within the English versions of the game, before entering the characters' names, the player's name is initialized to [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} NINTEN]] and the rival's name to Creator/{{SONY}}.
518* TeaserEquipment: The bicycle. When you first arrive in Cerulean City, it is on display for one million Pokédollars (one Pokédollar more than your carrying capacity). After advancing the plot in the next town, you get a voucher to acquire one for free.
519* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman:
520** Mimic is a neat move that lets you copy one of your opponent's moves at your choice, but is normally AwesomeButImpractical, as even if the opponent's Pokémon will have a move that your Pokémon will benefit from so much to be worth giving up the turn to copy it, it's usually better and simpler to just switch to a different Pokémon to cover a bad matchup instead of trying to patch up a moveset defiency with Mimic. However for [[SelfImposedChallenge solo Pokémon challenge runs]], Mimic becomes an extremely valuable move for most Pokémon. When switching your Pokémon out for another is no longer an option and when most Pokémon lack the movepool to tackle every endgame trainer without significant overlevelling, Mimic can cover those crucial moveset deficiencies and allow you to win at significantly lower levels and more reliably. It typically gets used to copy a vital stat-boosting move (particularly to exploit the [[GoodBadBugs Badge Boost glitch]]), a very useful status-inflicting move, or a vital coverage move a solo Pokémon needs to beat the opponent's team.
521** Bide is normally [[UselessUsefulSpell worthless 99% of the time]], but if you're doing a solo run with Eevee or Scyther in Red/Blue, it's necessary to get past the Pokémon Tower without breaking the run and using another Pokémon. Eevee and Red/Blue Scyther can only learn Normal-type damaging moves and can't learn any passive-damaging status moves besides Toxic, while Mimic can't be obtained until after you beat Team Rocket in Silph Co. (which can't be accessed until you complete Pokémon Tower), so Eevee and Red/Blue Scyther would have no way to damage the Ghost-type Gastly used by some mandatory trainers in the Tower. However, (in Gen 1) Bide ignores type immunity and can damage Ghosts, so the move makes a pure solo Pokémon run with Eevee and Red/Blue Scyther possible.
522* TierSystem: Pokémon Gyms are subtly tiered by size, and [[RuleOfThree there are three gyms in each tier]]. The earliest gyms, Pewter and Cerulean, are the smallest (as is the disgraced Fighting Dojo); the middle gyms in Vermilion, Celadon, and Fuschia are longer; and the last gyms in Saffron, Cinnabar, and Viridian are twice the size of ''that''.
523* TomboyAndGirlyGirl:
524** Among the Gym Leaders, Misty (the tomboyish mermaid) and Erika (the nature-loving princess). Their strategies and their types also make the distinction between their personalities clear: Misty wields a Staryu and a Starmie, the latter especially that can wipe the floor with your Pokémon rather easily if you're not prepared, and Erika uses comparatively easy Grass-type Pokémon that, if you have a Fire-type, a Grass-type that knows at least one non-Grass-type move, or a Flying-type, should be a breeze to defeat by comparison.
525** Picnickers and Lasses also share this dynamic; it even shows in their battle sprites.
526* TooAwesomeToUse:
527** The Master Ball, which you obtain after defeating Giovanni for the second time, will catch any Pokémon without fail, but you only get one. Guides advise players to save it for Mewtwo in the post-game, as it's the hardest Pokémon to catch.
528** Some rare healing items like Max Revives and PP restoring items like Ethers and Elixirs cannot be purchased from any store, only found in the overworld lying around.
529** Some [=TMs=] count due to the comparatively barren level-up movepool most Pokémon have in these games, and only a few of the [=TMs=] have more than one copy you can obtain. For example, Rock Slide is the stronger of the only ''two'' offensive Rock-type moves in Gen I, but no Pokémon learn it naturally and there's only one TM of it per game.
530** Probably the TM that most exemplifies this is the Dig TM. It's a 100 power Ground move with 100% accuracy that you can get before Misty, and it taking 2 turns to use isn't much of a detriment when fighting AI that will never take advantage of the digging turn to switch out or do something else to get an advantage. However for any Ground-type that isn't part of the Dugtrio or Marowak line (who get Dig naturally and the exclusive Bone Club early respectively) it'll be their only opportunity to get a STAB move early, as the only other damaging non-exclusive Ground move, Earthquake, is learned much later (if at all, quite a few Ground types don't learn Earthquake naturally either). Then Dig can be learned by many non-Ground Pokémon, where it makes a great coverage move as Ground is the second best offensive type after Psychic and will cover gaping holes in one's moveset (for example the Charizard line can be taught Dig to beat Rock, Electric, and other Fire types that would otherwise be a problem). So deciding between whether to give your Ground type desperately needed STAB or give one of your other Pokémon some desperately needed coverage they wouldn't get otherwise can be a really difficult decision to make.
531* TutorialFailure:
532** This set of games and all of its associated media insist that ghost types are the best choices against psychic types. One trainer in Sabrina's gym even says "Psychics only fear ghosts and bugs!", which is, at best, a HalfTruth in the original Pokémon generation. Not only are the only ghosts in these games weak to psychic attacks due to their secondary poison type, and not only are there no strong ghost attacks, but psychic-types are outright immune to ghost attacks thanks to a programming bug. Furthermore, there are no strong bug attacks, and many bug Pokémon are also part poison. Ghost and bug types are thus in many ways the ''worst'' choice against psychics.
533** A LostInTranslation example; one NPC in the international ''Red'' and ''Blue'' offers to trade his Electrode for your Raichu. After the trade, he comments that the Raichu you traded him "went and evolved". Raichu did not evolve ''at all'' in Gen 1 (and still doesn't, as of Gen 8) -- what happened was that in the Japanese ''Pokémon Blue'', from which international ''Red'' and ''Blue'' derive their scripts, this man traded a Haunter for a Graveler, both of which ''do'' evolve, and as this was ''intended'' to hint, they evolve after being traded. However, the ''trade'' was edited during localization to match the original ''Red'' and ''Green'', just like every other in-game trade, while his ''dialogue'' was not.
534* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: There are certain chokepoints in the game where, given a dedicated player and a {{Zany Scheme}}, the player can make it impossible to progress to the end of the game.
535** There are a few occasions in the game where a player must spend money to proceed, and so will permanently block progress if the player is bankrupt - which it is technically possible to do, given that unlike in future games, there are no trainers you can rematch until the Elite Four and no replenishable sources of items to sell, giving the player a finite amount of money until the Elite Four. (There is the option of catching and using a pokémon that knows Pay Day to generate cash, but only Meowth learns it naturally, which is Blue exclusive, and that requires the player to have pokéballs to catch them).
536*** If a player cannot purchase a drink from the soda machine in Celadon City, the player cannot enter Saffron City, which means they can't resolve Team Rocket taking over Silph Co nor obtain the Marsh Badge.
537*** Surf is only available in the Safari Zone, which requires five hundred poké to enter. If you can't afford it, you can't progress to Cinnabar Island, where the Volcano Badge is.
538** In certain places where AbilityRequiredToProceed is in play, it's possible for a player to strand themselves by getting rid of the ability.
539*** Cinnabar Island is water-locked, so the player can't leave without a pokémon that knows Surf or Fly--so if a player releases all Pokémon that have or can learn those moves and bankrupts themselves such that they have no pokéballs and cannot purchase more, they can trap themselves on the island permanently. (If a player ''really'' wants to make it inescapable, they will also rid themselves of every Pokémon except one, so that they cannot even trade for Pokémon that can use the needed abilities).
540*** A player can likewise trap themselves at the Indigo Plateau by ridding themselves of all money, resources, and Pokémon that can learn Surf and Strength to progress back through Victory Road, while leaving themselves with only Pokémon too weak to defeat Lorelei or any of the wild encounters in Victory Road (which then prevents being able to grind up to escape by defeating the Elite Four).
541** A player who wishes to can trap themselves in Lorelei's room by ridding themselves of all but one Pokémon, either a Fighting-type or Poison-type, whose only usable move is Rage. Players must defeat Lorelei to proceed to the next room, which is impossible because Rage will never muster the power to beat Lorelei's Dewgong, which will always use the Psychic-type healing move Rest against a Fighting-type or Poison-type because the "smart" A.I. of the game prioritizes ElementalRockPaperScissors over all other considerations, and then Rage locks the player's Pokémon into only using it until it faints or the battle ends, while also never running out of PP. This Rage vs. Rest issue will inadvertently lock the game into a HealingLoop that cannot be escaped from.
542** [[DesperationAttack Struggle]] is treated as a Normal-type move, so Ghost-types are immune to it. This can potentially make a [=PvP=] battle unwinnable if both players' last Pokémon is a Ghost with no PP left (since AI opponents have unlimited PP in Gen 1, this cannot happen in single-player.) Future generations make it a typeless move to avoid this. The recoil damage from struggling is also treated differently, with the Pokémon taking half the damage they managed to deal. Gens II and III would reduce it to a fourth of the damage, while Gens IV onward would make it a fourth of your max HP, regardless of how much damage you inflicted.
543* UniqueEnemy: Each member of the Elite Four has a Pokémon that only appears on their team within the entire game. Lorelei has Lapras, Bruno has Machamp, Agith has Gengar, and Lance has three (Aerodactyl, Dragonair, and Dragonite).
544* UnitConfusion: The Camper in Brock's gym tells you that "you're light years from facing Brock!" After you beat him, he'll acknowledge the mistake.
545* UnprovokedPervertPayback: Lasses and some Picnickers in Kanto have a thing for overreacting to things you may or may not have done before battle.
546-->'''Lass Robin:''' ''[after approaching the player from a few steps away]'' Eek! Did you touch me?
547* UselessUsefulSpell:
548** Psychic's only weaknesses are Bug and Ghost-type attacks, but the only Bug moves in these games are incredibly weak and are only available to Pokémon that are part Poison type (so they're weak to Psychic) or Pokémon with a weak Attack stat like Jolteon, while Ghost is bugged so it has no effect on Psychic-types. Even when the bug is removed, Ghosts only have two offensive moves here; the feeble Lick and the FixedDamageAttack Night Shade, while the only available three Ghost Pokémon are all part Poison too.
549** Flash is a HM move that only has use in one area in the whole game (Rock Tunnel), and its effect is only lighting up the cave so it isn't almost pitch black. If you don't mind bumping around a lot or looking at a map (or just have the Rock Tunnel memorized), you really don't need to ever get Flash and teach it to someone. In battle, it just reduces the opponent's accuracy by one stage and has an appaling 70% accuracy. Oh, and Move Deleters don't exist in Gen I, so HM moves can't be forgotten.
550** Roar and Whirlwind's only effect is to end battles with wild Pokémon. The "Run" command does it for free without requiring a moveslot and will usually work unless your active Pokémon is slower than the opponent, in which case you would have to take at least one hit anyway before using Roar/Whirlwind. Later generations improved these moves by making them {{Switch Out Move}}s in trainer battles.
551** Similarly there's Teleport, which just lets you escape any battle with a wild Pokémon, and has no effect at all in trainer battles. Teleport additionally has its overworld use where selecting it in the overworld will bring you to the last Pokémon Center you visited, but this again often isn't worthwhile and is rendered obsolete when you get Fly. Though unlike Roar/Whirlwind, it would continue to have no effect in trainer battles until finally in Gen 8, where it switches the user out of battle with negative priority.
552** Focus Energy is supposed to increase the chance of the user landing a CriticalHit by 25%, but it's glitched to instead lower it to 1/4 of the original value. This glitch was fixed in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'', so the move can have usage there.
553** Anything that afflicts the normal Poison status effect; unlike in future games where it depletes 1/8th of the target's health each turn, here it only depletes 1/16th, which on its own is going to do little to help you beat opponents, while also preventing them from able to receive the other, much more detrimental statuses. Moves that inflict standard Poison also have poor accuracy and terrible damage, so even Poison-types don't want to rely on them. It is more dangerous to the player for maingame play however, as it persists after battle and will gradually drain a Pokémon's health as you walk around with them poisoned.
554** Substitute, unlike in later games, doesn't block status moves here, removing much of the effectiveness it has in the future (in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'', however, Substitute does block status moves). Additionally, recovering the HP the move uses without items is a lot harder; hold items aren't a thing, recovery moves outside of Rest are scarce, and the LifeDrain moves are all weak.
555** Rage is an extremely weak Normal-type move (having only 20 power) with the perk of raising the user's Attack stat if it takes damage. In Gen I, however, using it locks the user into using the move until it faints or the battle ends, not even allowing for the option to use items, switch Pokémon, or run away. It can't even run out of PP (as only the initial use will use PP) or be knocked out of it by sleep or paralysis, and a glitch involving accuracy/evasion changes can reduce Rage's accuracy to a pitiful 0.4%.
556** Razor Wind is a move that requires two turns to use, with the first turn requiring charging up the move while leaving you vulnerable. However it's just a Normal type move with 80 power and an awful 75% accuracy that has no additional effects, even beginning moves like Tackle would be better to keep on your Pokémon over teaching them this move. Skull Bash is another Normal type move that takes 2 turns to use and leaves you vulnerable, while it's quite a bit better than Razor Wind with 100 power and 100% accuracy, it's still far from good enough to justify the 2 turn requirement and every Pokémon that learns it can get a Normal move with more than 50 power, which will deal more damage over the two turns than Skull Bash would.
557** Bide, the TM move you get from Brock. Your Pokémon sits there for 2-3 turns and then at the end will inflict double the damage they took in their Biding turns to the opponent. Problem is, in an even matchup you'll risk your Pokémon getting fainted before your Pokémon even gets to act by giving your opponent 2-3 free attacks, in an unfavorable matchup you probably will just get your Pokémon fainted, and in a favorable matchup you should KO the opponent by just attacking it for 3 turns and taking less damage in the process. Plus, for playing the game normally, using Bide will just mean you'll have to keep healing your Pokémon after using it, and in PVP a human opponent will just not attack you during your Biding turns and may even take the opportunity to get a free setup or free switch to a more dangerous Pokémon.
558** Metronome, which will have your Pokémon call upon any move in the game randomly to use. You might be able to get something good your Pokémon wouldn't normally be able to use, but with over a hundred moves and most being rather lackluster, chances are you're just going to end up using moves worse than what your Pokémon already knows. It can even have your Pokémon use Selfdestruct/Explosion when you absolutely don't want your Pokémon to blow up, or the completely useless Splash.
559** Psywave, the TM you get from Sabrina. It's a FixedDamageAttack that will randomly deal between 1 damage to 1.5X your Pokémon's level. But each point of damage has an equivalent chance of occuring, so two-thirds of the time your Pokémon will be dealing set damage less than their level, potentially as low as single-digit damage even at high levels, and you should always be able to deal significantly more damage through conventional moves. Then if you want a set damage move, Seismic Toss and Night Shade are much more reliable options that always deal damage equivalent to the user's level, and the former is a TM learnable by nearly every Pokémon that can learn Psywave. Plus Psywave has a very shaky 80% accuracy, making it even more unreliable as if the purely RNG damage wasn't bad enough.
560** Disable sees niche usage in later games since it can lock down a move the opponent relies on for a few turns. In ''Red and Blue'' however, it picks a random move to disable instead of the last one used, meaning more often than not (if it even hits through iffy accuracy) it'll shut off something unimportant. It mostly exists for AI trainers to use, being too unreliable for a human to find success with.
561* UtilityPartyMember: Rather than permanently weakening one of your good Pokémon by teaching it a lousy HM move, you can instead choose to bring along what the fanbase has coined an "HM Slave" to learn the moves instead. While it takes up a party slot, you won't be using it in battle if you can help it, leaving your other five completely geared for battle. Once you hit the Pokémon League, you can safely deposit the HM Slave and bring out a sixth true battler.
562* UtilityWeapon: Several moves have uses outside of battle that can be utilized to get around obstacles, as transportation, or even healing.
563** [=HM01=] Cut removes certain trees and tall grass that is in front of you. The trees and grass will grow back after you leave the area.
564** [=HM02=] Fly [[WarpWhistle will transport you to any town you've visited before]].
565** [=HM03=] Surf lets you move across water.
566** [=HM04=] Strength allows you to push certain boulders.
567** [=HM05=] Flash lights up dark caves.
568** [=TM28=] Dig will take you to the last Pokémon Center you visited if used in a cave.
569** [=TM30=] Teleport will take you to the last healing spot (Pokémon Center or your house) you visited when used outside (but not in a town/city).
570** [=TM41=] Softboiled will transfer 20% of the owner's HP to another Pokémon.
571* VideoGameDelegationPenalty: You may choose to leave one of your Mons at the Pokémon Day Care. Pokémon in Day Care gain one experience point per every step the player takes. While its nice to have a Pokémon leveling-up while you simply walk around, there are several drawbacks to this method. For one, Pokémon in Day Care will not evolve. Two, if a Pokémon reaches a level where it can learn a new move, it will always learn that move; if the Pokémon already knows four moves, its first move will be forgotten and the new move will be placed last. This can lead to your Mons forgetting moves you wanted while learning moves you do not. Third, the Mon will not gain Effort Points as it would have if you leveled it up yourself through battle. This will leave it with somewhat lesser stats at higher levels than it would have had if you leveled it up yourself.
572* WakeUpCallBoss: Misty poses as the first true challenge of the game, due to her Starmie being strong enough to KO about any appropriately-levelled Pokémon in two turns [[OneHitKill or less]] with Bubble Beam, and its high Special allowing it to survive two or three or even four super-effective attacks, even if you chose Bulbasaur and/or caught a Pikachu back in Viridian Forest.
573* WaltzOnWater: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUTW3hJx52U The theme]] that plays when the S.S. Anne departs from Vermilion Harbor and any time you use Surf in the overworld has a distinctly waltz-like rhythm to it.
574* WarmUpBoss: Brock. Due to type advantages, a Squirtle or Bulbasaur trainer will be able to wipe the floor with him. Even a Charmander trainer can [[ScissorsCutsRock get around the type disadvantage]] due to both of Brock's Mons having a low Special stat and no actual Rock-type moves. You just need to beware of damaging Onix while using Bide.
575* WarpWhistle: The move Fly will allow you to return to any Pokémon Center you've already visited when used outside of battle. It can only be used outdoors, however.
576* WeCanRuleTogether: The Rocket grunt at the end of Cerulean Bridge wishes to recruit you into Team Rocket after seeing you battle.
577* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The third possible starter, the one neither you nor your rival picks, will remain on Oak's lab table for the entire game, never to be acknowledged again. DummiedOut data suggests it might have been used in a fight against Oak himself, but this idea didn't make it into the final game.
578* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Due to the unbalanced Psychic-type having no real weaknesses, you basically have few real options for countering Sabrina other than over-levelling. The simplest is to just send out your strongest physical attacker who isn't weak to Psychic-type attacks and has the Speed to outspeed them or the Special to tank multiple Psychic hits, then bludgeon her [[GlassCannon physically-frail]] Psychic Mons over and over until you win.
579* WhereItAllBegan:
580** The map is naturally designed to send you back to your hometown of Pallet after you get the Volcano Badge.
581** Viridian City, the first town you arrive at after Pallet, is also the location of the 8th Gym and where the road to the Indigo Plateau starts.
582* WorthIt: The NPC who tells you about the Pewter Museum ends his spiel by admitting that you do have to pay to get in, but promises that it's worth the price of admission. Given that that price is a mere 50 yen/Pokébucks, this is not actually a difficult bar to clear.
583* YearsTooEarly: In a corruption of this trope, The Camper/Jr. Trainer in Brock's gym mistakenly claims you're ten thousand ''light years'' from facing Brock before battling him, only to realize his mistake after the fact.
584[[/folder]]
585
586[[folder:Tropes used in ''Yellow'']]
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588%%Image incorporated in main pic per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1642803960062139300
589%%Please don't add a new image or change the format without starting a new thread.
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591
592* AdaptationalBadass: Team Rocket's Meowth level grinds as much as Jessie and James' Pokémon, and, depending on how well you raised your team, can pose as much more of a challenge than he did in the anime. He even manages to learn Pay Day, an ability he officially sacrificed for human language skills in the anime.
593* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The trainer who gives away his Charmander is a CanonImmigrant version of Damien, the CharacterOfTheDay from "Recap/PokemonS1E11CharmanderTheStrayPokemon". Unlike the original Damien, who was a colossal {{Jerkass}} who put his Charmander in life-threatening danger essentially as a prank, this version knows he's a lousy trainer and figures his Charmander deserves better.
594* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The American boxart has a Pikachu with a face that means serious businesses; the Japanese art is just a happy normal Pikachu.
595* AntiFrustrationFeatures: As Brock's Rock/Ground types are resistant/immune to the starter Pikachu's Normal/Electric attacks, several Pokémon are made available with improved movesets before Brock's gym as compared to ''Red/Blue''. The Nidoran line learns the Fighting-type Double Kick much earlier, the Fighting-type Mankey is added and learns a Fighting-type move much earlier, and Butterfree learns the Psychic-type move Confusion immediately upon leveling up.
596* ArtShiftedSequel: This is the first game where the sprites for Pokémon are closely modeled after Sugimori's concept artwork, which the anime brings to spotlight. All future games would follow suit.
597* BalanceBuff: To somewhat make up for the inability to evolve your starter Pikachu, Pikachu's natural learnset is improved some in ''Yellow'', with learning Quick Attack and Thunder 5 and 2 levels earlier respectively, learning Thunder Bolt and Double Team fairly early (level 26 and 15 respectively) without having to expend their [=TMs=] to learn them, and gets a decently powerful Normal-type move in Slam at level 20. This does help make Pikachu a bit more useful early in the game, but unfortunately nothing else was done to improve Pikachu to make it more viable later on.
598* CanonDiscontinuity: Pretty much every change in this version was ignored by ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', which instead derived everything Kanto-based from ''Red'' and ''Blue'' aside from Red's team (Pikachu + three starters). ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' also incorporate very little of ''Yellow''[='=]s gameplay. Among the few exceptions would be Pikachu's "relationship" with the player character, which served as a prototype of ''Gold'' and ''Silver''[='=]s Friendship mechanics, and certain elements of the revised move sets.
599* CanonImmigrant: A handful of characters are more or less obviously based on characters from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries''. Because of the relatively primitive engine, sometimes the only clues to a character's identity are in their Pokémon lineup and character dialogue.
600** Team Rocket's Jessie and James confront the player character at or near the end of each Rocket-infested dungeon.
601** Nurse Joy is naturally found at every Pokémon Center.
602** The two trainers in a huddle on Route 6 are replaced with [[Recap/PokemonS1E9TheSchoolOfHardKnocks Joe and Giselle]]. Notably, while Joe and Giselle had a largely antagonistic relationship before they reconciled, the Joe and Giselle of the game [[AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul are an item]].
603** A Jr. Trainer on Route 9 is replaced with a Youngster who proves to be [[Recap/PokemonS1E8ThePathToThePokemonLeague AJ with his sandshrew]].
604** The player character can receive Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle from [[Recap/PokemonS1E10BulbasaurAndTheHiddenVillage Melanie]], [[Recap/PokemonS1E11CharmanderTheStrayPokemon Damien]], and [[Recap/PokemonS1E12HereComesTheSquirtleSquad Officer Jenny]], respectively. Damien, notably, is an AdaptationalNiceGuy who gives his Charmander away for its own benefit.
605* ClairvoyantSecurityForce: In the beginning of the game, you are presented with a Pokéball in Professor Oak's lab, intended to be your starting Pokémon. However, as soon as you touch it, your Rival bursts in and takes it for himself. As a result, you're given Pikachu instead.
606* ColorWash: The game was enhanced not just for the Platform/SuperGameBoy, but non-Japanese versions were also enhanced for the Platform/GameBoyColor. It uses a similar color palette to how ''Red'' and ''Blue'' looked on the Super Game Boy, but applied even more garishly in ''Yellow.'' The in-battle trainer sprites, instead of a subdued grey-purple/pale, are now colored bright yellow and red, even though yellow and red are notoriously clashing colors. ''Yellow'' features redrawn Pokémon battle sprites as well, which likewise use more vibrant colors. There's also the rosy brown tint used for some Pokémon being changed into deep olive of all things, which looks out of place for blue and purple Pokémon using that color scheme. Strangely enough, the Machop line retained that color for the entirety of Generation II.
607* ConvenientWeaknessPlacement: Those mentioned from ''Red'' and ''Blue'' are still present, but more are added here. In particular, you can now catch a Mankey on Route 22 near Viridian City, and the Nidoran in the same area can now learn Double Kick a lot sooner. These changes give the player access to invaluable Fighting-type moves, ''extremely'' helpful when battling Brock, whose Rock/Ground-types are immune or resistant to all of Pikachu's moves. Thus, the player now has a fighting chance against Brock, since you cannot proceed to Mt. Moon without the Boulder Badge.
608* CrutchCharacter: See the [[{{CrutchCharacter/Pokemon}} series' page here]].
609* DevelopersForesight: Has its own page [[DevelopersForesight/{{Pokemon}} here]].
610* DiscOneNuke: See the [[{{DiscOneNuke/Pokemon}} series' page here]].
611* DynamicDifficulty: Subtle example in the form of what your Rival evolves his Eevee into depending on how you do in your first two battles against him. Win both, and he evolves it into a Jolteon, which is resistant to your Pikachu's electric attacks. Win the first but lose or skip the second, and he evolves it into a Flareon, which is neutral to your Pikachu's electric attacks. Lose both, and he evolves it into Vaporeon, which is weak against your Pikachu's electric attacks.
612* EasterEgg: The Pikachu who follows you has a number of context-specific interactions.
613** If you interact with the Jigglypuff in the Pewter City Pokémon Center, Pikachu will fall asleep. However, you won't be able to heal your party until you wake him up by talking to him, or exit the Pokémon Center and come back in, as Nurse Joy will just say "It looks very content asleep." Trying to deposit him in the PC will also result in the message "There isn't any response...".
614** If you talk to Pikachu after using a fishing rod, he'll have a bucket on his head.
615** If you talk to Pikachu immediately after he learns Thunder or Thunderbolt, he'll shock you. Oddly, the sound effect used is for [[StoryAndGamePlaySegregation Thunder Wave.]]
616* EasyLevelsHardBosses: The latter half of the game; while wild Pokémon and the trainers generally remain about as strong as they were before, the last four gym leaders all have had their Pokémon levels boosted into the [=50s=]. Additionally, the Pokémon of the gym leaders and Elite Four actually have decent movesets now, as they utilize TM/HM moves instead of just having the last four moves their Pokémon naturally learn at their level (e.g. Giovanni's Pokémon actually have Ground-type moves, and Lance's Pokémon aren't just stuck with Normal-type moves and Dragon Rage for damaging attacks).
617* FourIsDeath: You will run into the infamous Jessie & James a total of four times in this version of ''Pokémon''. They take the place of several Rocket Grunts in key TR operations, including the first two instances where you meet their boss Giovanni. [[note]]Specifically, Jessie & James first pop up at Mt. Moon, just past the Super Nerd with the Pokémon fossils and right before the exit, in an attempt to take the fossil you earned; the Rocket trainer prior to the Super Nerd is no longer there as a result. They then replace the two Rockets guarding the door to Giovanni's office at the bottom of the Team Rocket hideout in Celadon City (the door will already be open, but Jessie & James will rush you once you step off the elevator; you need to defeat them to even explore the floor, much less challenge Giovanni). Their third appearance is at the top of Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town after you get past the ghost Marowak, taking the job of the original three Rockets of holding Fuji hostage (at this point, Ekans and Koffing will have evolved, but they are still pushovers). Their final appearance is in the hallway to the Silph Co. boardroom and the second encounter with Giovanni, past the room with Blue/Gary waiting to fight you (his Eevee will be evolved at this point) and the employee holding the Lapras, replacing the sole Rocket in front of the door; again, they will ambush you once you start down the hall. They do not return for the final encounter with their boss in Viridian City.[[/note]]
618* GameBreakingBug: Missingno. in ''Red'' and ''Blue'', while it corrupted the player's Hall of Fame data and using it in battles was ill-advised, was still very helpful since it duplicated the 6th item in the player's Bag. Missingno. in ''Yellow'' will normally freeze the game, and that's one of its more harmless effects on the player's game. Other glitch Pokémon tend to be even more dangerous
619** One of the most infamous glitch Pokémon in ''Yellow'' is Female (a Pokémon whose name displays as just the female symbol). If it is encountered through a battle, it will severely corrupt the game's sound and its battle cry will be an infinitely-looping glitchy melody that will never end, forcing you to reset the game. Female can actually be obtained through trading a matching glitch Pokémon from ''Red'' and ''Blue'' or glitching a Meganium through the Time Capsule to ''Yellow'' from ''Gold'' and ''Silver'', where then it can be used by the player without the infinite battle cry (with it just having Raticate's cry). Its back sprite however will obscure the battle menu in a black block.
620* IdleAnimation: Pikachu will start to look around randomly if you leave your character alone for a while, or jump or spin around after you jump down a ledge and leave Pikachu above.
621* LoveAtFirstSight: Pikachu falls in love with a Clefairy at the Pokémon Fan Club.
622* MythologyGag: Due to being a RecursiveAdaptation of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]], references to it are everywhere.
623** The second default name listed for the player character and rival are Ash and Gary, respectively.
624** Brock and Misty use their anime designs. If you talk to Brock after defeating him, he says he's [[Recap/PokemonS1E5ShowdownInPewterCity in training to become a Pokémon Breeder]], while in the original Japanese version, Misty will say "[[{{Catchphrase}} Go! My Steady!]]" before battle.
625** Pikachu is your starter and has numerous behaviors derived from the anime.
626*** Pikachu will [[Recap/PokemonS1E1PokemonIChooseYou distrust the player at first]], but will grow to like the player over time. He also doesn't like being in his Poké Ball, and will instead follow the player around.
627*** Pikachu will [[Recap/PokemonS1E14ElectricShockShowdown refuse to evolve if you attempt to use a Thunderstone on him]][[note]]You can force it by trading Pikachu to another game[[/note]].
628*** If you talk to Pikachu right after catching a Pokémon, he'll make a VSign, something Ash's Pikachu is prone to do.
629*** Pikachu will [[Recap/PokemonS1E39PikachusGoodbye complain if you try to release him]].
630** The Gym Leaders' teams have been edited to match their anime counterparts.
631*** Lt. Surge's team is now [[Recap/PokemonS1E14ElectricShockShowdown only Raichu]].
632*** Erika now uses [[Recap/PokemonS1E26PokemonScentsation Gloom]], Weepinbell, and Tangela.
633*** Sabrina's team is now a sequence of Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam to mimic [[Recap/PokemonS1E22AbraAndThePsychicShowdown the mid-battle evolution]] from the anime.
634*** Koga's team is [[Recap/PokemonS1E32TheNinjaPokeShowdown three Venonat and a Venomoth]] to imitate the same effect.
635*** Giovanni [[Recap/PokemonS1E15BattleAboardTheStAnne uses a Persian]] for all of his battles.
636** The game sneaks in several anime characters.
637*** Nurse Joy appears and always has [[Recap/PokemonS1E2PokemonEmergency a Chansey next to her]].
638*** Jessie and James appear as a single trainer. Their team consists of an Ekans, Koffing, and Meowth. During the later encounters, [[Recap/PokemonS1E31DigThoseDiglett Ekans and Koffing are replaced with their evolved forms, Arbok and Weezing]].
639*** The Bulbasaur is given to you by [[Recap/PokemonS1E10BulbasaurAndTheHiddenVillage a lady who says she nursed it back to health]], the Charmander by [[Recap/PokemonS1E11CharmanderTheStrayPokemon a boy who wants to release it because he hasn't raised it well]], and the Squirtle by [[Recap/PokemonS1E12HereComesTheSquirtleSquad Officer Jenny]].
640*** There's a Bug Catcher in Viridian Forest who [[Recap/PokemonS1E4ChallengeOfTheSamurai explains how cool Metapod is]].
641*** There are two Junior Trainers on Route 6, one male one female, that have [[Recap/PokemonS1E9TheSchoolOfHardKnocks a Cubone and a Weepinbell on their team, respectively]].
642*** There's a Youngster on Route 9 with a sole Sandshrew on his team, if you talk to him after you defeat him, he'll say he'll [[Recap/PokemonS1E8ThePathToThePokemonLeague restart his 100-win streak with his Sandshrew]].
643*** There's a house on Route 19 called "Summer Beach House". In it houses a trainer who also has a Pikachu [[Recap/PokemonS1E67ThePiKahuna that can surf]].
644** Pokémon distributions have been updated.
645*** [[Recap/PokemonS1E3AshCatchesAPokemon You're able to catch Pidgeotto in Viridian Forest]].
646*** The Weedle evolutionary line is not available--Ash [[Recap/PokemonS1E4ChallengeOfTheSamurai failed to catch one]].
647*** The Ekans, Koffing, and Meowth lines cannot be caught since they are owned by [[TerribleTrio the Team Rocket Trio]].
648*** The Safari Zone [[Recap/PokemonS1E35TheLegendOfDratini increased the encounter rate for Tauros and now has rare Dragonair]].
649*** [[Recap/PokemonS1E30SparksFlyForMagnemite You're able to catch Muk at the Power Plant]].
650*** [[Recap/PokemonS1E37DittosMysteriousMansion You're able to encounter Ditto at the Pokémon Mansion]].
651* NonstandardCharacterDesign: A retroactive example with Jynx. In the Platform/GameBoyColor release, Jynx's color palette consisted of four colors like every other sprite in the game (for Jynx, it's red, black, yellow, and white). For the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole release, an extra color (purple) was added to change Jynx's skin color to avoid the accusations of {{Blackface}} that have plagued the Pokémon for decades. This is notable as the Game Boy Color could not support sprites with more than four colors; it was done by changing the palette for only part of Jynx's sprite. [[note]]Pokémon sprites are actually composed of several sprite tiles. In the Virtual Console version, the tiles corresponding to Jynx's face and hands were given a different palette than the rest of her, mostly identical other than black being replaced with purple.[[/note]]
652* ObviousRulePatch:
653** Some UnintentionallyUnwinnable scenarios that were possible in ''Red'' and ''Blue'' had an escape hatch added in.
654*** The Safari Zone lets you get in with insufficient money (and even ''no'' money, once ever), to make sure you can get Strength and Surf.
655*** Lorelei's Dewgong has its own AI routine added to prevent you from getting Rage-locked.
656** The interaction with the Old Man in Viridian City who shows you how to catch Pokémon is changed. He can no longer be used to trigger the Missingno glitch, as he disappears after the demonstration due to running out of Poké Balls.
657* PrivilegedRival: Played up even more than in the original games, as now your Rival will force his way past you to take the Pokémon (Eevee) that was supposed to be yours, leaving you with a freshly caught, completely untamed, and, at least in terms of long-term battle potential, weaker Pikachu.
658* RecurringBoss: In addition to the two from the original two games (Blue/Gary and Giovanni), this installment adds Team Rocket's Jessie & James as a recurring opponent. They replace a few unnamed Team Rocket grunts in certain parts of the game, including both times you confront Giovanni when he's leading Team Rocket (Jessie & James will not show up for your final encounter with Giovanni in the Viridian City Gym, when you face him for the Earth Badge and the ability to proceed to the end of the game). These two aren't that much better than their anime counterparts at this point of the show's run or the regular grunts (they have Ekans, Koffing, and Meowth for each of their fights, with Ekans and Koffing evolved for later), but they will always show up without warning, though viewers of the anime can anticipate when to see them.
659* RegionalBonus: Even though it's still marketed as a Platform/GameBoy title, the international release includes a Platform/GameBoyColor mode that uses saturated versions of the Platform/SuperGameBoy palette.
660* StarterMon: Pikachu, just like the anime. Also, uniquely for the series to date, you can get the ''Red'' and ''Blue'' starters as well (which also follows the anime).
661* SurferDude: If Pikachu knows Surf (which is unlockable by using VideoGame/PokemonStadium), his field sprite for using the move will be him on a Surf Board. This also unlocks an VideoGame/{{Excitebike}} clone titled "Pikachu's Beach", which is accessible from a house on Route 19. In the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole release, you instead use your starter Pikachu.
662* TutorialFailure: The tutorial for catching Pokémon, the Old Man in Viridian City, is next to no help whatsoever. He throws a Poké Ball at a wild Rattata at full health, the catch will always fail, he never even hints at the fact that weakened Pokémon are easier to catch, and then just walks away.
663* UpdatedRerelease: ''Yellow'' improves on ''Red'' and ''Blue'' with updated sprites, some bug-fixes, improved boss lineups and AI, a handful of anime character appearances, the ability to collect all three starters, and a mostly[[note]]Pikachu's friendship needs to be at a certain level before Melanie gives you Bulbasaur.[[/note]] aesthetic friendship mechanic for Pikachu.
664* WakeUpCallBoss:
665** Hope you didn't walk into Brock's gym thinking that the game mechanics would be suspended like in the anime. Sorry, this time the Ground Type is actually immune to the Electric. Luckily, there are AntiFrustrationFeatures in place to give you access to Butterfree who now learns Confusion upon level up, both Nidoran who learn the Fighting-type Double Kick much earlier, and even the Fighting-type Mankey so you have workarounds.
666** Misty is still an EarlyBirdBoss and her LightningBruiser Starmie still threatens anything at a low-enough level. Don't presume Pikachu's type and attacks will carry you; it still takes hits like a glass ornament.
667* WatchingTheSunset: The hi-score screen of "Pikachu's Beach" shows Pikachu on the shore watching the sunset under a palm tree. The player can print this out using the Game Boy Printer.
668* WelcomeToCorneria: No matter how many times you try to enter the Safari Zone for free, and no matter how often the guard tries to deny you entry, he'll always give in after what is always three tries at a time, give you a single Safari Ball, and tell you, "OK, you can go in for free, but just this once!"
669[[/folder]]
670
671[[folder:Tropes used in ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'']]
672%%
673%%Image moved to labelnote per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1642803960062139300
674%%Please don't add a new image or change the format without starting a new thread.
675%%
676
677* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: In ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'', Professor Oak claims to be 50 years old. Factoring in the three year TimeSkip, Oak would've been 47 years old at the time of ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]''. At the same time, it's AllThereInTheManual of the first generation games that his grandson, TheRival, is eleven years old. Assuming these ages are constant for each VideoGameRemake, Professor Oak must've been a mere thirty-six years of age when his grandson was born and even younger when the rival's older sister was. This means the Oak family has managed to squeeze two whole generations into about thirty years.
678* AdaptationExpansion: We get to learn more about Lorelei in the remakes, including getting to see her home, as well as learning where she obtained her Lapras on Four Island.
679* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Both in these games and the originals, a Bug Catcher on Route 3 says that he met you in Viridian Forest. But in this game, said trainer does not possess a name that matches with any of the ones in the forest during the player’s run through it.
680* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: You find one of the Sevii Islands which has been taken over by a Hells Angels style biker gang and naturally, it is up to you to get rid of them.
681* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
682** In these games (and ''only'' these games[[note]]though it can still get it through breeding[[/note]]), Charmander learns Metal Claw at level 13, giving players who chose it an easier time against Brock.
683** Losing any Pokémon battle no longer penalizes you by taking away half your money. Instead, you now lose a set amount of money based on your number of Gym Badges multiplied by the level of your highest-level Pokémon. Though the original penalty for losing remains in ''Emerald'', this new system becomes standard starting in Gen IV.
684* TheArtifact:
685** One NPC still says her old line from the originals, wondering what Pokémon would look like if they had distinct genders... despite them having them since the second generation.[[note]]In her defense, Pokémon having distinct appearances between genders would be introduced in Generation IV.[[/note]]
686** Altering Cave, a cave to the north of Six Island where you find nothing but low-level Zubat, was meant to work in tandem with Mystery Gift, where a player could visit kiosks at specific Nintendo events to replace the cave's standard encounters with any one of a set of Generation II Pokémon that were otherwise not available in the third generation.[[note]]Namely Mareep, Aipom, Pineco, Shuckle, Teddiursa, Houndour, Stantler and Smeargle[[/note]] No events to alter the encounters in the gave were ever hosted because its function was rendered redundant two months before the game even launched with the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', which allows you to catch all of the Pokémon that would have been available in the Altering Cave. Even more weirdly, ''Emerald also'' includes an Altering Cave despite that by the time it launched they'd already decided that they would do nothing with it, as all of the encounters that would have been available through events were added to the regular game (Smeargle can be found in a cave in the Battle Frontier, all the rest were added to the Safari Zone).
687* ArtisticAge: While still stated to be 11-years-old like in the original games, Red and the rival both look at least a few years older with their slender, somewhat adult-like proportions and less childish facial structures. Leaf as well seems to be a bit more developed in official artwork than most 11-year-old girls.
688* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The Saffron City Gate Guards won't let you pass until you give them Green Tea to quench their thirst. The problem with this is that Green Tea is a ''diuretic'' which doesn't hydrate your body but instead stimulates it into urinating sooner and thus ''takes away water'' and makes you ''more thirsty''. So Green Tea is not really a good choice for quenching thirst, especially when it's served hot.
689* AscendedMeme: Many new features and secrets seem to call back to the wild rumors that surrounded the original games. For instance, Bill granting you access to a new area (in this case, the [[SideQuest Sevii Islands]]) and the ability to find something by the truck near the S.S. Anne (in this case, a Lava Cookie).
690* AutomaticNewGame: These games are the first in the series to automatically proceed to a new game from the title screen if there is no save file is present.
691* AwesomeButImpractical: The glitch in Gen 1 that allowed a Pokémon using Hyper Beam to skip its recharge turn if it KO'd the opposing Pokémon with it has been fixed by Gen 3, so Hyper Beam and its derivatives Blast Burn, Frenzy Plant, and Hydro Cannon are rendered this here, as giving up a free turn to the opponent is often not worth hitting with one super powerful attack.
692* BalanceBuff: The starters all do much better here than in the original games thanks to buffed stats from the Special split and movepool additions.
693** ZigZagged by the Bulbasaur line. It learns the status-inflicting Powder moves much sooner, and later on, get stronger STAB options like Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb, as well as Earthquake for coverage. Plus, Venusaur is one of the few Pokémon that had a 100 or higher Special stat in the Gen 1 games that didn't get one of its Special stats nerfed in the Gen 2 Special split (with both Special stats remaining 100), making its stats relatively better compared to other Pokémon, especially compared to the competing Victreebel and Exeggutor lines, who had their Special Defense drastically nerfed from the Special split. However, it's harmed by the {{nerf}} to moves with an increased critical hit rate, so its Razor Leaf isn't anything like as powerful as it was in the original, and the changes to trainer movesets and AI mean that Venusaur will find its weaknesses being exploited more than in the original game.
694** The Charmander line gets Metal Claw very early on to help players out against Rock Pokémon, and learns Flamethrower considerably faster, while learning more coverage moves like Iron Tail and Rock Slide from [=TMs=]. It also has a significantly higher Special Attack stat than in the Gen 1 games after the Special split, allowing it to better fulfill its GlassCannon design and making it the best offensive Pokémon of the starters.
695** The Squirtle line gets some utility moves like Rapid Spin, Protect, and Rain Dance, to help support its team. It also has a significantly higher Special Defense stat than in the Gen 1 games after the Special split, allowing it to better fulfill its StoneWall design, and making it stand out better from the numerous other Water types that outclassed it before.
696* BeefGate: The Diglett's Cave example from the originals returns and is even harder this time around. Not only are the Diglett and Dugtrio just as strong as before, they may now come with the ability Arena Trap, which prevents you from fleeing unless your leading Pokémon is either Flying-type or has Levitate. You still need to get through it in order to get the Flash HM for navigating Rock Tunnel.
697* BehindTheBlack: In some cases, a Trainer that's barely onscreen will still be capable of spotting the player. When this happens, the camera will pan over to them briefly before shifting back to the player.
698* BossOnlyLevel: The event-exclusive Navel Rock and Birth Island have no wild Pokémon, save for the OlympusMons residing on them. They are also devoid of Trainers and items, except for Sacred Ash (which is hidden in the spot where Ho-Oh stood).
699* BossRemix: When battling a legendary Pokémon, the standard battle theme is played at a higher pitch.
700* {{Bowdlerize}}
701** Gambler-class trainers had their titles changed to ''gamer'', leading to things like Route 8's Gambler/Gamer Rich exclaiming, "I'm a rambling, gaming dude!" That {{subverted rhyme|EveryOccasion}} aside, the change is less jarring considering that gambling is often referred to as "gaming" nowadays (i.e. Indian ''gaming'', the Las Vegas ''Gaming'' Commission, etc.).
702** Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower had a possessed woman say "Give...me...your...all"; contrast with the original line, which is "Give...me...your...soul." This particular instance of Bowdlerization seems a bit [[ZigZaggingTrope unpredictable]], as there's another woman whose line remains as "Give...me...blood." in all versions.
703** Rocket Grunts called you a little rat in the original version, which was changed to a little mouse in the remakes.
704** Juggler Shawn's line in the originals upon defeat was "Dropped my balls!" Here, he instead says, "You're more skilled than I'd thought!"
705* CharacterSelectForcing: Zigzagged from the originals when it comes to Charmander. Brock's Mons now get actual Rock and Ground type moves, but Charmander in turn has access to Metal Claw to even things out. Picking Charmander also causes the legendary beast that appears later on to be Suicune, who lacks Roar and thus isn't prone to the GameBreakingBug that causes it to [[PermanentlyMissableContent disappear forever]] if it uses it.
706* ColorCodedSpeech: The games have an aesthetic feature not in any other Pokémon game: male characters have blue text, while female characters have pink text.
707* CompetitiveBalance: Improved in comparison to the Gen I games, but the Psychic type still has a tremendous advantage owing in large part due to the sheer lack of Dark- and Steel-type mons. Further, while more and better Ghost-type moves are present, the only Ghost-type line (Gastly) is part-Poison and thus weak to Psychic type moves. A good Psychic-type Pokémon can still run roughshod over most of the game, with only the odd Dark or Ghost-type ''move'' being used to worry about. Even then, this was before the physical/special split, so the aforementioned Gastly line couldn't really take advantage of either of their [=STABs=] due to being special attackers, and Psychic types could tank the few offensive Dark-type moves easily since they still ran off the Special Attack stat (most Psychic types have high Special Defense).
708* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: There are trainers with evolved Pokémon at lower levels than they actually evolve at. For instance, your [[TheRival Rival]] has a Pidgeotto at level 17 when you battle him in Cerulean City. Pidgey evolves into Pidgeotto at level 18 (which was its level in the original games).
709* ConsoleCameo: Instead of an SNES in the player's bedroom from the original ''Red'' and ''Blue'', there is now an [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]]. The SNES still appears at Celadon Department Store.
710* CrutchCharacter: See the [[CrutchCharacter/{{Pokemon}} series' page here]].
711* DeathMountain: This time, Mt. Ember on One Island is an actual mountain. Since it is a volcano, it combines this with LethalLavaLand.
712* DevelopersForesight: Has its own page [[DevelopersForesight/{{Pokemon}} here]].
713* DiscOneNuke: See the [[DiscOneNuke/{{Pokemon}} series' page here]].
714* DownloadableContent: Two items given out at Nintendo events, the [=AuroraTicket=] and [=MysticTicket=], grant access to two extra Sevii Islands: Birth Island, which contains Deoxys; and Navel Rock, which has both Lugia and Ho-Oh. Both of these locations were also added to ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Pokémon Emerald]]'' with minor visual changes.
715* DueToTheDead: On Five Island, there is a memorial for a dead Onix nicknamed Tectonix. The Player can set down a lemonade next to the one that is already there. This earns gratitude from the Trainer next to you, and he gives you [=TM42=] Facade as thanks.
716* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
717** When it comes to the music, ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' are two of only four games post-''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby and Sapphire]]'' to not have the Poké Mart theme or the expanded portion of the Hall of Fame theme that were both introduced in ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' (the other two being ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee''). Even the remakes of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' use them to the point that there's a GB Sounds equivalent of the Poké Mart theme. It's also the only set of remakes to recycle the gym theme from the mainline generation games. All the other remakes either have their own remix of the theme (in the case of ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'') or uses an updated version of the original game's incarnation (in the case of ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'').
718** The ability to teach the final forms of your starter Pokémon Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn or Hydro Cannon was introduced within these games. Unlike within later generations, only the Kanto starters could learn them.
719** ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' are the only remakes not to include a duplicate of the main game's Battle Tower/Battle Frontier analogue. ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' has the resident Battle Tower replaced with the duplicate of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier while ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' replaces the Battle Tower of the original games with a replica of Kalos' Battle Maison[[note]]The Hoenn Battle Frontier's still canon, as well as Hoenn's original Battle Tower. They had just been retconned into being under development by the time the games take place[[/note]].
720** These are the only remakes where the opposite gendered player character doesn't appear in-story, and thus, the only games where you don't get to see the {{canon name}}s of both playable characters in-game until ''Sun'' and ''Moon'', where both protagonists don't get a canon name. ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' adds the opposite gendered playable character into the story (as well as retconning the canon name of the male playable character) and the original opposite gendered playable character of ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' reprises their role as a rival in ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''.
721** These are the only remakes to make some non-native legendary Pokémon event exclusive (as Ho-Oh and Lugia can only be captured in these games via an event).
722** These are the only remakes not to alter the HM list and the only remakes that don't give field effects back to moves that previously had them. {{Downplayed|Trope}} as the original games are the only ones not to have moves with field effects exclusive to them and the first games that don't have [=HMs=] unique to them.
723** Attempting to evolve a Pokémon with a non-Gen I evolution, trade in a Pokémon not native to Gen I, or even trade with one of the Hoenn games all before the National Dex is obtained will result in the evolution being cancelled and the trade being rejected. Later remakes would retcon most new evolutions into their regional Pokédexes and have no restrictions on trading, and even ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' (which outright removed all Pokémon past Mew) allowed the non-Gen I Meltan and Melmetal to be used, as well as Alolan forms.
724** Deoxys's alternate formes, which are first introduced here, are version-exclusive: ''[=FireRed=]'' gets the Attack Forme, and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' the Defense Forme. There is no way to change it in-game unlike in later games, and a Deoxys traded from another version will always assume the forme specific to the game it is sent to.
725* EasterEgg: An NPC near Lorelei's house will tell you that she comes back with plushes whenever she returns from the Pokémon League, which is something that actually happens in-game. If you rematch and beat the Elite Four many times, her room will gradually start filling with more Pokémon plushes, with the last being a large Lapras plush after ''225'' rematches.
726* ExtendedGameplay: After defeating the Elite Four, the Sevii Islands start opening more so than after Blaine was defeated. The islands are one of the few places in the third generation games where you can capture Johto Pokémon. This will also open up a daycare where you can breed your Pokémon. Your reward for traveling through and completing the Sevii Islands is the ability to trade with ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire''.
727* FanservicePack: Just about every character was upgraded in attractiveness from the originals, but especially Red and Blue. They went from being two average looking, if maybe a bit scrawny, looking eleven-year-old boys to {{bishonen}} who look [[ArtisticAge at least a few years older]] than their listed age.
728* FauxlosophicNarration: The cave in Mt. Ember where the Ruby is found contains the following inscription, in braille: "Everything has meaning. Existence has meaning. Being alive has meaning. Have dreams Use power." This doesn't relate to the game's plot or themes in any way at all, and just seems there for the sake of it. Contrast the braille inscription near the Sapphire, which is an elaborate metaphor for cross-version trading, which the gems enable you to do. This could be a hilarious subversion as within the confines of the game, unlike its counterpart, the text has absolutely no meaning despite what it preaches.
729* ForcedTutorial:
730** Professor Oak insists on explaining how a Pokémon battle works during your initial battle with your Rival, and before you even play the game, there are mandatory introductory screens showing you which buttons do what and telling you about the world of Pokémon in even greater detail than Professor Oak.
731** In Pallet Town, a certain woman wants to show you what's written on a newly-placed sign near the lab. You will not be able to leave Pallet Town unless you either read the sign or hear her recite what it says -- and all it says is "Press Start to open the menu".
732* {{Foreshadowing}}:
733** After defeating Team Rocket in their warehouse on Five Island, the admin-in-charge swears that he will continue running Team Rocket until Giovanni returns. A nearby laptop also mentions Team Rocket conducting experiments with radio waves to forcefully evolve Pokémon. Both these events come to pass in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' and their remakes.
734** Defeating the final Scientist in the warehouse has him ask the player character if he is Giovanni's son, but corrects himself and remembers that he had red hair. It's implied that Giovanni's son is Silver, the main rival Trainer of ''Gold and Silver'', which is eventually confirmed in ''[=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]''.
735* FunWithPalindromes: The passwords for the Rocket Warehouse on Five Island are "GOLDEEN need log" and "Yes, nah, CHANSEY".
736* GameBreakingBug: There are two such particular bugs with the roaming Legendary Beasts. One is if they use Roar on you to end the battle, they [[PermanentlyMissableContent disappear permanently on your file]] and can no longer be caught, when normally them using Roar is supposed to be functionally equivalent to them running away, where the battle ends but you're able to find and catch them again. Then for the second bug with them, instead of being able to be generated with an IV up to 31 for each stat as it is normally, due to a glitch with how their [=IVs=] are handled they can never have an IV higher than 7 for their Attack stat and the rest of their non-HP stats will always have an IV of 0, meaning it's impossible for you to catch one in these games that doesn't have completely gimped stats.
737* GameplayAndStorySegregation: There's one ranger on Seven Island who claims that city trainers (meaning trainers from Kanto) "sure are tough". This is despite the fact that the Sevii Islands are the ExtendedGameplay, so any trainers living on them are guaranteed to be inherently better than nearly any Kanto trainer.
738* GrandfatherClause: Inverted -- the lack of a special song for rival battles and Team Rocket battles is allowed because the games they are a remake of didn't have such songs to begin with. It was after the first generation that the main games started using customized trainer battle tunes for rivals and criminal gangs.
739* GuideDangIt:
740** Certain hidden items, like the Leftovers a defeated Snorlax drops, can only be found by using the Itemfinder while standing on the ''exact'' tile the item is on. The game will say there's no response if you're even one tile off, and it never tells you about this odd mechanic.
741** Players who head to the top floor of the Celadon Department Store to buy drinks for the thirsty guards will be confused on why it doesn't work. They accept Green Tea instead, which is a key item obtained from an old lady in the building next to the Pokémon Center.
742* HealingSpring: One exists on One Island.
743* InconsistentDub: In the corner of Fuchsia City is a young girl named "Charine", who self identifies as Koga's daughter in training. [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Janine]], you mean?
744* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Lorelei threatens some Rocket Grunts with an Ice Beam from her Lapras to this effect.
745* LastDiscMagic: These games started a trend of including a late-game move tutor who will teach your fully evolved starter (and ''only'' your fully evolved starter) an elemental version of Hyper Beam depending on your starter's type. In ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'', the tutor in question is located on the Sevii Islands which are inaccessible until you defeat Blaine, the seventh gym leader.
746* LethalLavaLand: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Mt. Ember on One Island. It's stated to be a volcano and various Fire-types can be found there, but there is no lava present.
747%%* LevelGrinding: Albeit nowhere near the frustration of the originals, you're still going to spend the bulk of your playtime just grinding.
748* TheLostWoods: The Berry Forest on Three Island. You have to venture out here to find a girl with an unfortunate name -- Lostelle.
749* TheMaze: Lost Cave in the Sevii Islands. One wrong move will send you right back to the entry room.
750* MissingChild: Lostelle's father is sick with worry that she hasn't returned home yet. You find her weeping, lost deep in a forest, being pursued by a wild Hypno.
751* MissingSecret: Altering Cave is a small cavern with nothing in it but Zubats with a 100% encounter rate. It was intended to swap out Zubat with one of several Johto Pokémon via using Mystery Gift at a specific event, but no such event was ever held anywhere.
752* MythologyGag: During the credits, the Generation 1 mascots are shown changing from the in-game sprites to poses they had on the Japanese boxart of their respective games.
753* {{Nerf}}:
754** The Pickup ability was greatly overhauled to keep it from being the DiscOneNuke that let players coast through the first half of ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire''. Almost all of the valuable items that could be obtained in its first appearance were removed, and the ones that remained had their frequency lowered. In exchange, various berries were possible to obtain. It was still possible to use it to farm for funds to make the game easier, but it would take way longer, and still not be as effective. In addition, not only is the only Pickup user native to the game (Meowth) not available until after you reach the second gym, but its evolution loses the ability, so a player has to use an underpowered 'mon if they want to keep taking advantage of it.
755** Being Gen 3, the old stat experience system of the original game was replaced with the modern EV system. The nerf is the old system only had a limit to each stat and not an overall limit to the amount of stat experience you could accrue, and the maximum stat exp would increase each stat by 63 points at level 100 (half that at level 50, the typical endgame level range), so you could go max out the stat EXP of every stat and make your Pokémon significantly better at everything. The new EV system, while far more streamlined and easier to work with, now has an overall limit to the amount of stats you can gain from it; each stat can still gain enough to max out at getting 63 points by level 100, but you can only get enough overall [=EVs=] to get an overall 127 points to your stats. As a result you can't get your Pokémon far better in every stat, you have to either specialize as you can only max out two stats and then only increase one other stat by a single point if you go that route, or get more modest boosts to all your stats from a more generalist approach, so your Pokémon will have much less of a statistical advantage over the opponents than they did in the original RBY.
756** The Badge boost system is still intact, but the increase to your stats the Badges grant was slightly reduced from 12.5% to 10%, farther weakening the statistical advantage your Pokémon had over opponents.
757** While most Gym Leaders give you considerably more useful [=TMs=] compared to what they gave in RBY, Lt. Surge now gives you a Shock Wave TM instead of Thunderbolt, a much weaker move with 60 power compared to Thunderbolt's 95 power. This removes another DiscOneNuke move the original game handed you.
758** A bunch of changes that occured in Gen 2 and in the prior Gen 3 games were carried over to here to nerf stuff compared to the original RBY games:
759*** The Psychic type is the big one; there's now the Steel type to resist them and the Dark type that is both immune and super-effective against them, while now Ghost is super-effective against them like it is meant to be and there's an improved variety of Ghost and Bug moves. And with the Special split that occured in Gen 2, most Psychic Pokémon either have worse Special Attack (the Hypno line) or worse Special Defense (the Alakazam, Starmie, and especially Exeggutor line). However most of this is only relevant in competitive Gen 3 PVP and not for playing through the game; Until you beat the game Dark types aren't around at all and the only Steel types around are the Magneton line, you still have the Gen 1 problem of the only Ghost types and most Bug Pokémon being part Poison type (and an overly large proportion of Gen 1 Pokémon being Poison type), the widely-distributed Dark moves are weak-to-mediocre in power and being Gen 3 they're all Special-based so they won't hit the Psychic types with above-average Special Defense hard, Bug moves still have very limited distribution and the two strong ones in this Gen (Megahorn and Signal Beam) can't even be learned by any of the Gen 1 Bugs, and the TM for the one good Ghost move that is widely-distributed, Shadow Ball, can only be gotten as an expensive prize from the Game Corner. Overall the Psychic type isn't outragously broken like it was in the Gen 1 games and opposing Psychic Pokémon have more options to be handled with, but they still have an unfair advantage in context of just playing through FRLG.
760*** Normal types were similarly nerfed by the Fighting type being improved so much since Gen 1, with the available Fighting Pokémon being improved and there being a variety of decent-to-good Fighting moves among both Fighting Pokémon and are more widely-distributed among non-Fighting Pokémon. Additionally many of the better Normal Pokémon were nerfed by the Special split (in particular notorious Gen 1 game breakers Chansey and Tauros have much worse Special Attack now), the Gengar line got Levitate so Normal types can no longer easily cover their inability to hit Ghosts with their STAB by learning a Ground move, and other types having a better variety of moves means Normal types no longer have such an unfair advantage in available STAB options over most other types. There's also the Steel type now existing as another type to resist Normal moves, but as covered in the prior section, Magnemite/Magneton being the only available Steel Pokémon until you beat the game means this is mostly moot.
761*** Several other Pokémon that weren't Psychic nor Normal with a high Special stat got a lower base Special Attack or Special Defense after the Special split. Some of the most notable examples includes all the Legendary Birds, all the Eeveelutions, and the Gengar line.
762*** The base critical hit rate is now a universal 6.25% and is no longer determined by a Pokémon's base Speed. Besides making critical hits drastically less common (as very few Pokémon in Gen 1 had a lower crit rate than that), this took a big advantage away from faster Pokémon.
763*** Similarly moves with the effect of having a higher critical hit rate only have their crit chanced doubled, instead of being increased eightfold. This means high crit rate moves like Slash and Razor Leaf are only critting an eighth of the time now instead of practically every time.
764*** The trapping moves (Wrap, Bind, Fire Spin, and Clamp) are completely different in function, unlike in the original RBY they hit just once (with their same pitiful power and accuracy issues) and only prevent the opponent from switching out/fleeing instead of preventing them from making any moves, and then they deal weak residue damage equal to 1/16th of a Pokémon's HP for 2-5 turns. This nerfed them from being game breaking to being [[UselessUsefulSpell not especially useful]].
765*** When a Pokémon is put to sleep, waking up no longer requires a turn and so they can make a move immediately upon waking up, preventing faster Pokémon from being able to repeatedly put their opponent to sleep without the opponent getting a chance to retaliate. The maximum length Sleep can last was additionally nerfed from 7 turns to 5 turns.
766*** The Frozen status was similarly nerfed, as it's no longer permanent without items or being hit by a Fire move, with Pokémon being able to dethaw themselves at a 20% chance every turn. Pokémon will also now be able to make a move immediately upon dethawing.
767*** X Accuracy only raises a Pokémon's accuracy by one stage (which works out to a 1.33x increase from a neutral state), instead of granting the Pokémon perfect accuracy with everything regardless of all other factors. This nerf mostly applies in that you can no longer use X Accuracy to sweep entire teams with perfect accuracy OHKO moves.
768*** OHKO moves working or not is now based on level instead of Speed, with OHKO moves not working at all if the opponent is of a higher level. This means you can no longer cheese higher levelled opponents with OHKO moves by being faster or after paralyzing them.
769*** Dig's power here is significantly lower at 60 instead of the 100 power it had in RBY, making it no longer a DiscOneNuke move.
770*** The move Psychic's secondary effect only reduces Special Defense instead of effectively both Special Attack and Special Defense like it did in the original RBY, and the chance of this effect activating was reduced from 33% to 10%. This also serves as another nerf for the Psychic type, since for all of them this was their main STAB move, and makes switching into them a lot less scary.
771*** Similarly after the Special split, Growth only raises Special Attack now by one stage, and Amnesia only raises Special Defense now by two stages.
772*** Blizzard's accuracy here is now 70% instead of 90%.
773*** Hyper Beam will no longer skip its recharge turn when it [=KOs=] an opponent, turning the move from a GameBreaker to AwesomeButImpractical.
774* NoFairCheating: If you hack Mew or Deoxys into the game to skip having to need the events for them, since they don't get a special flag otherwise, they will disobey your every command regardless if you have the Earth badge. {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the sense that the anti-cheat measure only worked if you directly hacked them into your game. Hacking to teleport to their location and catching them there wouldn't.
775* NoNameGiven: The female player character doesn't have an official name. Most fans have settled on "Leaf" to avoid the Blue/Green confusion between the rival and the female character in ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' and ''Let's Go''; this name has been canonized in ''VideoGame/PokemonMasters''.
776* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: Resuming your saved game gives you a quick recap about some of the things you were doing before you saved and quit.
777* OptionalStealth: If you run, you will draw the attention of most trainers. They will turn to the side you are about to pass them by and challenge you to a battle. Walking allows the player a chance to slip by them.
778* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: See the [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling/{{Pokemon}} series' page here]].
779* PermanentlyMissableContent: Due to a bug, if a roaming Entei or Raikou uses Roar to escape battle (Suicune mercifully doesn't know Roar), it permanently disappears as if it fainted.
780* PinkGirlBlueBoy: The speech text for most non-player characters in non-Japanese versions is color-coded this way - males will have blue text and females will have red text.
781* PlayableEpilogue: Upgrades the original games' EndGamePlus into one. Cerulean Cave still opens the same way, but there are other changes as well. More of the Sevii Islands open up for exploration and you can start to catch Pokémon not native to Kanto.
782* PreviouslyOn: A new feature allows you to review the most recent things you did the last time you played.
783* ReadTheFreakingManual: The sidequest to trade with the other Gen III games, which also served as a requirement to enter Cerulean Cave and capture [[OlympusMons Mewtwo]]. It involves interpreting Braille puzzles ''visually'' by comparing the Braille symbols against the manual's Braille alphabet.
784* {{Retcon}}:
785** In the original versions, there were only 151 known Pokémon in the ''whole world''. In the remakes, this was changed to there being only 151 Pokémon known to inhabit the Kanto region.
786** Elements introduced in Gen II such as the Dark- and Steel-types and Pokémon Eggs are now retconned to have always existed. These retcons also carry over to ''[=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]'', and dialogue is changed accordingly.
787* RuleOfSeven: The Sevii Islands are seven normally accessible islands (though a certain event lets you access two more) and they were all created in 7 days, according to a lady on Quest Island, the seventh island. Quest Island itself also houses the seven botany-themed Tanoby Chambers, which are chock full of Unown and shrouded in mystery. Additionally, there are seven beta "Sevii Islands" that are not accessible during normal gameplay.
788* SchrodingersPlayerCharacter: Along with ''Crystal'', and ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', these games are one of the few in the series to date that play this straight. Whoever you do not choose out of Red and Leaf does not appear in the game at all.
789* ShoutOut: The one to ''Film/StandByMe'' from the originals remains if you play as Red. You'll instead get one to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' if you play as Leaf.
790* SignificantAnagram: "Tanoby" is an anagram of "botany" and the Tanoby Chambers are named after plants. The Japanese name is an anagram of Nanakusa and the chambers are named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanakusa-no-sekku Nanakusa-no-sekku]].
791* SinisterGeometry: The event-exclusive Birth Island, which is not only shaped like a triangle, but has a strange black triangle that moves around once inspected. Solving the puzzle with it triggers a battle with Deoxys.
792* StationaryEnemy: The two sleeping Snorlax still act as roadblocks on Routes 12 and 16, and can still only be engaged and forced to move by playing the Poké Flute at them.
793* {{Superboss}}:
794** The legendary Pokémon from the originals return in this role, and are joined by one of the Johto legendary beasts once you've received the National Dex. The one that appears is the one which is strong against whatever starter you chose (Entei for Bulbasaur, Suicune for Charmander, and Raikou for Squirtle).
795** When you first beat the game you won't be able to refight the Elite Four and the Champion like you could in the originals. But once you complete the Sevii Islands postgame plot, you can refight them again, where all of their Pokémon are 12 levels higher, have improved movesets, and their teams have swapped a Pokémon or two out for their final evolution or a superior Gen II Pokémon. Beating this harder Elite Four doesn't give you anything more though than some really good experience and money, but they can be refought as many times as one wishes.
796** If the event-exclusive [=MysticTicket=] and/or [=AuroraTicket=] is on a player's save file, Lugia and Ho-Oh and/or Deoxys can be battled after access to the remaining Sevii Islands is granted. It's less overt with Deoxys, however, as it is found at level 30, while the two Johto legendaries are both level 70.
797* SupportPartyMember: Just like its status as a CrutchCharacter, Butterfree gets an upgrade in this role as well thanks to the addition of its Compound Eyes ability, making its status-inducing moves even more accurate and allowing it to provide value by crippling tough Pokémon and helping to catch wild Pokémon deeper into the game.
798* TempleOfDoom: The Tanoby Ruins. Once again rather tame, because after completing a small puzzle, the player has access to a series of seven shrines, where they can encounter 28 different forms of the Pokémon Unown.
799* ThirdPersonPerson: Lostelle speaks like this.
800* WakeUpCallBoss: Misty is still this, as Starmie is still a strong Pokémon and you still won't be able to reasonably have anything close to as strong as it when you reach her (besides the type-disadvantaged Nidoking and Nidoqueen). She also has actual AI, too, so you can't depend on getting lucky with her using Tackle or wasting turns using X Defend. However, after the Special split Starmie has substantially less Special Defense, so you'll be hitting it quite a bit harder with your Grass and Electric moves.
801* WouldHurtAChild: One of the Team Rocket grunts threatens to punch you at Celadon City.
802* YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: Most mechanics from Generation III games are applied to the Generation I based remakes. However, the game will outright prevent evolution of Golbat and Chansey by friendship level-up, as the player isn't supposed to be aware of the Johto region or National Pokédex until after becoming the Champion.
803[[/folder]]

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