Hello, and welcome to my attempt to liveblog a Pokemon game. I have done liveblogs before under my old account (which I lost the password to in what can only be described as a bout of utter stupidity on my part), but they mostly ended poorly. Perhaps the fact that I'm dealing with something I actually like will make this one go better!
Anyway, this liveblog will be a fairly standard run of FireRed. It will not be a Nuzlocke, Wedlocke, or any other type of challenge run. I will be catching as many Pokemon as my sanity will allow, but I do that anyway. All captures will be nicknamed with the exception of legendary Pokemon, which will keep their actual names.
One more thing: this liveblog will be written to hopefully be somewhat beginner-friendly. Therefore, I'll be providing information on moves, abilities, and so forth. I'll also link to Bulbapedia
for info on the various Pokemon I encounter and train. I won't go into detail on everything, though. If you need a basic overview of what Pokemon is all about, the page for the series on this very wiki is a good place to start.
So, let's get started!
All right, the first thing to do is start a new game. I'm not losing a whole lot—the previous file on this cartridge only got as far as getting one badge anyway.
The game then feels that it needs to give me a tutorial on how to use the controls and gather information by talking to people. I guess they got tired of people complaining that they didn't know how to play the game because they hadn't read the manual.
Anyway, we then get to the Standard Pokemon Introduction Sequence. Except that since this is Kanto, it's the original Standard Pokemon Introduction Sequence. Professer Oak introduces himself and explains how people call him the Pokemon Professor, a title that is becoming less unique by the minute. He then explains, to nobody's surprise, that the world of this game about catching and raising Pokemon contains Pokemon.
Next, it's time to enter player info. Now, typically people tend to choose the female option for whatever reason, so I'm going to go against that trend and be male for this run. I then have to name my character, which is slightly more difficult here than in previous Pokemon games because there are no longer any defaults. I, however, already have a name picked out for our young hero: He shall be cakked Mike.
Oak them famously forgets the name of his own grandson, giving me the chance to call him something stupid and/or vulgar. The game actually gives me options for what to call him! I could call him Green or Blue, but the part of me that recently bought the entire first season of the anime on DVD tells me to call him Gary instead.
(Note that both of those names are in ALLCAPS ingame because that's how these games display NPC names and I don't want to make the text look weird.)
So, with the introduction out of the way, Mike finds himself in his room. There's an NES, but this is no time for Final Fantasy. Remembering to take the Potion from my PC, I head downstairs.
Mike's mother offers little useful advice, except to mention that Professor Oak is looking for him. Therefore, the only correct course of action is to leave the building and explore...
Pallet Town -Shades of your journey await!-
Not that there's a lot to explore seeing as this is the first town in the game. There's two NPCs outside, exactly three buildings (Mike's house, Oak's house, and the lab) and nothing else. Oak also happens to not be in any of those buildings, so I have to try to leave town to get him to show up. This causes Oak to enter the scene and drag me back to his lab.
At the lab, Oak has three Pokemon, and he's letting Mike and Gary each pick one. Naturally, Gary's going to wait until I've already chosen to get his (that way he can take the one whose type beats mine). Anyway, here are the choices, in reverse order of preference for me:
- Bulbasaur: A Grass/Poison-type that's designed to be the easiest to raise. It beats three Gyms outright, resists two, and is only weak to one. It's also the best according to competitive players. However, it is a lizard with a plant on its head and will remain such as it evolves (only really getting bigger with each stage) so I'd rather not take it.
- Squirtle: A Water-type that doesn't get any more types on evolution. Squirtle is the middle-of-the-road choice, beating 3 Gyms like Bulbasaur but only resisting one and being weak to two. It's a turtle that evolves into a bigger turtle, then again into an even bigger turtle with giant water cannons on its back.
- Charmander: Charmander starts out as a Fire-type, then gains the Flying type in its final form. It's designed to be the toughest choice—it only beats and resists one gym each, and four gyms use types that can beat it. It's also the least popular of the three competitively, thanks mainly to the existence of Stealth Rock (which luckily doesn't exist in this game). However, I think it's the coolest of the three thanks to its last evolution: a ''giant fire-breathing dragon-thing'' (not a real dragon without an item that doesn't exist yet).
I think you can tell which one I went for.
Anyway, I then get to nickname my new Charmander, who I dub Furnace.
Making my choice prompts Gary to take Squirtle, thereby realizing the benefits of choosing last.
Before I go on, let's take a look at Furnace!
Furnace has a careful nature, which isn't the best for him—it lowers his Special Attack (which is something he wants a lot of) in return for raising his Special Defense (I'm not restarting just to get a good nature, though, so he shall remain Careful). His ability is Blaze, which raises the power of his Fire moves when he's critically wounded (all starters have abilities of this variety that boost their primary type when they're weakened). He only knows two moves, both of which are Normal-type: Scratch (just a generic damage move) and Growl (lowers the target's Attack one stage).
Anyway, the moment I try to leave Gary challenges me to a battle!
Since neither of our Pokemon have any interesting moves the fight basically consists of two small reptiles wrestling each other to the ground. Furnace is a bit faster than Gary's Squirtle, so the fight is basically mine (as is the prize money of $80, which will buy 80% of a status curing item).
After that, I'm free to explore any of the one route available to me! I think I'll call it here for now, though. Next time, we'll take on the horrors of...Route 1!
Current team:
Furnace: Level 6 Charmander
- Type: Fire
- HP: 22
- Attack: 11
- Defense: 10
- Special Attack: 11
- Special Defense: 12
- Speed: 14
- Nature: Careful (Special Defense up, Special Attack down)
- Ability: Blaze (Powers up Fire-type moves when the user is critically wounded)
- Moves:
- Scratch: Basic Normal-type attack (40 power, 100 accuracy)
- Growl: Normal-type move to lower the opponent's Attack by one stage (100 accuracy)
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