NOTICE: No spoiler tags are allowed on Moments subpages, per wiki policy. Read ahead with caution! You Have Been Warned.
Gold/Silver/Crystal
- The moment in the originals when you're surfing across from New Bark Town, then set foot on Route 27. What do you hear?
NPC: Do you know what you just did? You've taken your first step into Kanto.- This is the moment that says "you've come this far, keep going", even in the remakes.
- The scene in Gold/Silver/Crystal where Lance storms Team Rocket's headquarters with his Dragonite. (Granted, you help him a bit, but really, Lance could have easily taken care of himself in there.)
- Extra badass and Nightmare Fuel points for apparently telling one of his Dragonites to Hyper Beam the front store's manager. At first you might think the man's Pokémon wasn't shown for some game limitation reason, but then when you speak to the guy, he sounds like he just got his ass kicked. Which he DID. By the most destructive Normal-type move in the game: Hyper Beam's base power is 150, beaten only by the suicide moves Selfdestruct and Explosion. You also run into him later having just done the same thing to a Rocket Grunt, who similarly expresses signs of a brutal beating. And just to further confirm Lance has full authority to sic his Pokémon on humans, his Dragonite saves you from getting tag-teamed by Executive Ariana by slamming her Grunt sidekick away from you. Lance very clearly channels his more savage manga counterpart while he's in that building. And the Rocket Grunts are terrified of him as a result.
- You are nearing the end of the game. You have earned 16 gym badges, facing down all of the original Gym Leaders with bolstered team in the process, with the exception of Giovanni. In his place was Blue, the rival of the previous generation. You've met all of the familiar faces. Now there's only one destination left: Mt. Silver. It's so remote and dangerous that Professor Oak has to make special arrangements for you to be able to climb it. The route is treacherous, to say nothing of the mountain itself, but at last you emerge into the sunny sanctum of the mountain. You've trained your Pokémon up really far in G/S/C/HG/SS, and now you're there to face the game's final challenge. At the end of the path, in the furthest depths of the cave, there's a single Trainer at the top:(BGM goes silent)Game: PKMN Trainer Red would like to battle!
- Also known as one of the biggest Oh, Crap! moments for many players. It's your former character from Gen 1, sporting all three starters, the Snorlax from Silence Bridge, and either the Eevee you got in Celadon evolved into the game's second best Psychic in Gen 2, or the Lapras you were given for saving Silph Co in Gen 4. And to top it off, he leads with a Light Ball-equipped Pikachu that is the highest leveled trainer Pokémon in the series (81 in GSC and a terrifying 88 in HGSS), who can probably nuke half your team on his own if you don't lead with a Ground type. And thank Arceus the little guy doesn't know Surf, otherwise even that wouldn't work.
HeartGold and SoulSilver
- You can let any of your Pokémon out to follow behind you. Any Pokémon. What more needs to be said?
- Having Arceus be your wingman on your journey is both awesome and a little funny, when you realize that only Gameplay and Story Segregation is preventing all those trainers that challenge you from taking one look at the Physical God walking behind you and running for the hills in sheer terror. By all rights, every criminal grunt, first-form Pokémon, and even most normal trainers outside of a Gym should be running from you, but it wouldn't make for good gameplay.
- If you talk to your walking Pokémon when in the Pokémon League, they'll sometimes give you a slow nod as if to say "we came this far, let's finish this". Every Pokémon does this, but it's a CMOA when your starter, which you've likely used and had follow you through the majority of the game, does this. Even more if it does this a few steps from the Champion.
- Alternatively, sometimes your Pokemon will let out a battle cry instead. Awesome either way.
- After you've beaten him in Mt. Moon, Silver goes to the Dragon's Den to train. If you visit him there, you and Silver have a tag team battle against Lance and Clair.
- A minor example: the Pokéwalker that came with these games has been verified as one of the most accurate pedometers in the world!
- Compared to the pseudo-Western setting of Hoenn and Sinnoh, and the not-quite-American setting of Unova, Johto is much more faithful to the real-life Kansai region, with a prevalent-Japanese environment, and legendary Pokemon that are actually inspired from Japanese mythology. The creators have really Shown Their Work for this one; only Kalos and Alola manage to come close in achieving a similar level of geographic fidelity.
