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Forums - Gaming - If I had to play just ONE Pokemon game, which one should it be?

EnricoPallazzo on 12 June 2025
CourageTCD said:

Pokémon Emerald is the game you should play. HearGold/SoulSilver are great games, but they are sequels to FireRed/LeafGreen. Not that they are super connected, but still, you would enjoy HeartGold/SoulSilver more if you had played FireRed/LeafGreen before

Why? is there a story that start in red and then is concluded in gold/silver?



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EnricoPallazzo on 12 June 2025
Paatar said:

100% Black or White.

They’re the best story wise, you can get all the Pokemon, it has a direct sequel if you love it. Seriously. Gen 5 is where it’s at.

Heartgold/Soulsilver are of course great options too, and Emerald is wonderful if you have a GBA. 

oh thats interesting. having a story that is a least serviceable would help as I heard these games have basically almost no story. Of course I am not expecting xenogears style of story, but having something to push you to see the end would be nice.



CourageTCD on 12 June 2025
EnricoPallazzo said:
CourageTCD said:

Pokémon Emerald is the game you should play. HearGold/SoulSilver are great games, but they are sequels to FireRed/LeafGreen. Not that they are super connected, but still, you would enjoy HeartGold/SoulSilver more if you had played FireRed/LeafGreen before

Why? is there a story that start in red and then is concluded in gold/silver?

No, the story in FireRed/LeafGreen doesn't end in a cliffhanger and continuous in HeartGold/SoulSilver but you will enjoy more the things that happen throughout HeartGold/SoulSilver knowing what happened back in FireRed/LeafGreen. Also, you will meet characters and places from FireRed/LeafGreen so, you will enjoy more feelings like "oh, hey, you!"


If I were to begin playing Pokémon, I wouldn't like to have played HeartGold/SoulSiver before FireRed/LeafGreen at all. But your question is "If I had to play JUST ONE pokémon game", so people suggested HeatGold/SoulSilver because it is considered better than FireRed/LeafGreen. But I wouldn't restrict myself to choose just one game because you may end up wanting to play more than one. FireRed/LeafGreen are awsome games to beginners. I personally prefer Pokémon Emerald, but begining with FireRed/LeafGreen is also a godd option.

In the end, if you want to play just ONE pokémon game, the best games of the franchise are imo Emerald, Black 2/White 2, HeartGold/SoulSilver, Platinum, FireRed/LeafGreen and Black/White, each one having their particular strengths and weakness. You can choose any of these

but if you want to have a game to start playing Pokémon I'd begin with the games from GBA and then go to the DS, for the sake of following the improviments of the franchise throughout time. I would leave The GameBoy games aside as they can be a little bit outdated and their remakes in the GBA and DS are the definitive version. That being said, the order would be:

Emerald>FireRed/LeafGreen(or FireRed/LeafGreen>Emerald)>HeartGold/SoulSilver>Platinum>Black/White>Black2/White2



CourageTCD on 12 June 2025
Pemalite said:

I owned Pokemon Blue and absolutely loved it back in the day on the OG Gameboy in 1996. (And upgraded to the Gameboy Pocket that same year, much better display.)

....And then I never touched a Pokemon game until Pokemon Sword/Shield on the Switch.

And the TLDR is... I felt like I was just playing a rehash of the original Pokemon Blue game from several decades prior.
The tropes, the mechanics and so on hadn't really progressed... Sure it looked prettier, but look beneath the surface? Same game.
Originally I thought it might have just been Sword and Shield playing homage to the original titles... I could even guess how the story would unfold before it happened, almost like I wrote it.

So I started hunting down other games like Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon on 3DS and Pokemon Black/White on DS...

And the result? They are Pokemon games. If you played one, you have essentially played them all... If you are expecting a massively complex, invigorating story with unique characters that have personality between the different releases... Then you might be disappointed.

That doesn't make them bad by any means, it clearly appeals to some, but it does mean that there really isn't any reason to play more than a couple of games in the franchise unless collecting Pokemon (which is playing on peoples addiction) and transferring them around is your thing. - It's just not mine.

For phone emulation I would probably jump into one of the GBA games like Emerald, it's light, easy, has visually aged well and Emerald was probably the definitive GBA release.

I've never agreed with this type of argument. It's like saying I played Super Mario Bros. Wonder and it is just a rehash of Super Mario World and all the other 2D Super Mario Games, if you played one of them, you played them all. The mechanics of the games mantain the same throught the franchise, but each game have a lot of things that set them apart from the other. 



Pemalite on 13 June 2025
CourageTCD said:

I've never agreed with this type of argument. It's like saying I played Super Mario Bros. Wonder and it is just a rehash of Super Mario World and all the other 2D Super Mario Games, if you played one of them, you played them all. The mechanics of the games mantain the same throught the franchise, but each game have a lot of things that set them apart from the other. 

That's perfectly fine. I would argue Super Mario World is better than most of the 2D Super Mario Games anyway.

But we need to keep in mind and consider what 2D Super Mario Games are and aren't.
They aren't a story driven RPG. - They are a game where your primary focus is to perfect timing of runs and jumps through various obstacles and challenges, requiring a degree of trial and error as well as memorization... But I also would also argue they are all a rehash of prior entries as they haven't really evolved mechanically or story-wise.

And like I said in my prior post, it doesn't make them bad games, some people prefer to stick with the familiar.

Pokemon definitely drives the dopamine reward center with it's collect-a-thon mechanic, that's it's main draw card... But it's tropes. characters, story are all predictable which is what I don't want in an RPG.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--