This game has a great RPG formula that works on all fronts and it doesn't have any issues just because it's handheld.
The Pokémon series, I suppose, is quite revolutionary, obviously there had been RPGs before it, but none that had used such a system of having something fight for you, rather than fighting as the player. It is also different from other RPGs, in fact most other games as it gives you so many playable characters, dozens of separate Pokémon, each with a specific move-set, totalling hundreds of moves. All of this alongside a type affectivity chart, stat alteration and critical hit ratios shows how much depth and detail has been put into this game, in fact the series in general.
This new chapter in the Pokémon saga is quite a brilliant one and some people argue better than that of prequel and of sequel, for RPG lovers this is likely to be a compelling and addictive game for you, and for those who like to do every little thing in games, this game should keep you going for quite literally hundreds of hours. This review is designed for those who know absolutely nothing about the game and so there are some explanations of basic things which those who have played the game would know anyway.
This game is set in a location called Johto, next to the Kanto region from Pokémon red/blue/yellow. The game begins three years after your last adventure and throughout the game there will be references towards this but it you don’t have to have had played any of the original three to get the full force of gold or indeed silver. This time your quest begins in a different way but you’ll end up doing the same things essentially, you start your game setting the time and date, which is actually rather important as the time of day determines the Pokémon you can find, however Nintendo decided not to include this in later games. After you sort everything out at home you leave to go to professor Elm’s lab to choose one of three Pokémon to be your ‘starter’. And yes all Pokémon profs are named after trees.
These Three Pokémon are the same three types as always: water, grass and fire, which fit into a rock-paper-scissors type hierarchy, meaning grass beats water, water beats fire, but fire beats grass and which ever you choose your ’rival’ will always choose the one that will beat yours. After you receive your Pokémon, Elm asks you to do an errand for him, to go see his friend about a discovery, when you leave the town you will encounter your very first wild Pokémon, the battle system is easy to pick up, you have four options: fight, Pokémon, bag/item and run. Starting with the most simplistic option, run, this essentially means flee from battle, you might not always be successful and you can NEVER run from a battle with another Pokémon trainer. The option bag/item allows you to access your Pokéballs, potions and other items in battle and you can also do this out of battle if need be. The Pokémon option allows you to access your party Pokémon, that is after you have caught them. Finally, and most importantly, the fight option is what the battle scene is all about, you select this and you have up to four slots for various moves, you learn a new move occasionally as your Pokémon grow in level, when you learn your fifth move and beyond you must erase an old one of your choice or not learn the new move to continue. Some moves will harm your opponent, other rise/lower stats, while others cause status affects such a burn.
No matter which Pokémon you choose they all start with essentially the same two moves, one that either rises/lowers stats and a normal type move that hurts your opponent. As this first attack is normal type it means it won’t count towards the rock-paper-scissors triangle and so you are not at a disadvantage, yet; because later you will learn moves of many types to help topple different foes.
So who exactly is your rival? Well after you do Elm’s errand, you will get note of an emergency via the cell phone system, yet another thing that got cut in the next game, so on your way back to your home-town you will meet up with a guy who tells you he just stole a Pokémon from Elm’s lab and is running away from the police, the Pokémon he steals just happens to be the type that beats yours every time, like I said before, this can be an easy fight if you have some potions or if you are lucky, after the battle he will run off (that is if you beat him, if you don’t then you must rematch) and you must head back to Elm, and after discussing some things with a police officer you get to make up the criminals name, you can go nuts here.
As I briefly mentioned earlier there is a levelling system, this is the same as all RPGs where you gain experience from battles and after getting enough experience your level goes up by one, the amount of experience needed to conquer each level gets larger and larger every time, making it harder each time obviously. As I stated before, at certain levels you learn new moves, the level and moves differ greatly between Pokémon and its quite easy to see that the later the level you learn a move the stronger or more useful it will be (usually). There is another thing affected by level and that is the evolution system, when certain Pokémon reach a certain level they evolve (after battle), when they evolve they become a stronger monster yet similar to its pre-evolution, the evolution process takes many seconds because at any time you can simply stop your Pokémon evolving at any time by pressing the B button. Now you are probably thinking there is no way you would want to stop it from evolving, but there are actually two pros with stopping evolution alongside the cons, the first is that it will learn moves a few levels earlier if in its premature state, there is no major reason for this, its just there. The second reason is for people who really do ’wanna catch ’em all’ and this is only to do with ’one of a kind Pokémon’, for example you cannot find any of the starters in the wild, and when you evolve your starter, there’s no way of getting it back to its original state, other than to start a new game. The reason for keeping these special Pokémon is in case you want to trade them with another friends starter, so in turn you both fill each others Pokédex.
In truth, trading is severely vital to fill about 20% of your Pokédex, because of cartridge specific Pokémon. These are Pokémon which can only be found in gold rather than silver and the same vice versa. Now at first you may think that’s going to be tedious and very annoying, but that isn’t so. Filling your Pokédex with at least 249 pocket monsters is something very few gamers do without cheating. There are, in truth, 251 Pokémon but two of them: ‘Mew’ and ‘Celebi’ are or in fact were available at Nintendo special events, however as the game does now have sequels, these can not be achieved without a cheat cartridge. Linking with friends has two other uses other than to trade to another gold/silver/crystal game cart. One of which is to trade to red/blue/yellow versions of the game which were available for the original Gameboy, this is called ‘past trading’ and it is how you obtain Pokémon from the originals that are not available in Gold/Silver/Crystal, this feature requires a fair portion of the game to be completed for it to become active, but it’s not exactly top priority for this game before that point and quite a while after.
The other use of the link cable is the battle system, where you use your strongest and most well-trained Pokémon to fight a friend, this is an enjoyable feature as you are facing a human opponent who will be a better thinker than that of the inbuilt computerized trainers.
With that said, the trainers, especially the gym leaders, are quite a challenge and the first time you face them, if you have no help from guides, they may better you. There are 16 gym leaders in total, 8 of which are in the new Johto region while the other 8 are in the region from the Blue and Red versions: Kanto, the first eight will be used to train while the later ones are basically an after game challenge. Once you defeat the first set of gym leaders, you face the elite four and the champion, which are effectively the strongest trainers in the Pokémon world. After defeating them it opens access to the Kanto gym leader, Kanto region and a hidden location which contains the real strongest trainer that it is possible for you to face.
Only 6 of the Pokémon you have caught can be carried around to fight wild monsters, those who are not in your party are stored in computers located in the Pokémon centers, Pokémon centers are also where you heal injured Pokémon and trade with others, which are located in every large town/city. There are also Marts in many places, where you obviously buy supplies. Most other buildings are peoples homes, where they may give you something but usually it isn’t important to the main quest, there is the odd different building and these will be explained in game if they are of major importance.
Graphically this game can seem a little rusty at times, though this is to be expected for the time it was made, and as players back then know, the introduction to color in this magnificent series was truly amazing. All of the Pokémon look vibrant and well drawn, and usually the color of the Pokémon reflects it type, making the game even more accessible for everyone. The look of the legendary Pokémon shows you that these Pokémon are so magnificent, with a certain ’wow’ factor.
The overall look gives off some fantastic textures, very clear, with nothing hard to see throughout. Though a lot of sprites are re-used in the game, this won’t ever make you feel like the game is cheap, in fact there is quite enough to give the game rather a lot of variety. In fact The background really stands out from the foreground a lot in Pokémon gold, and sometimes this is used to make secret exits more tricky to see, which is terrific for a handheld game of two generations ago.
As for the movement aspect of the game, it can seem rather basic, as in battle the two Pokémon onscreen don’t move and have their attack animation around them. I found this suits the game quite well as it helps you learn the moves quicker, using a visual effect as well a name of move, so you can perfect all your monsters move sets.
Each unique city has its own unique feel; as well as the visual layout, each one has a specific musical tune, these tunes are each, in their own way brilliant. The music really sets the mood, whether eerie, heroic or sad, Nintendo perfected the sound for each area, making it so you can really divulge yourself in the game. Other than these fantastic musical tracks the sound is pretty scarce, but that’s only in the field. The in-battle tune is repetitive but it never gets boring, it is face paced, again it fits the scene, and in turn, the more important the battle the more amazing the music.
In summary, this game is a magnificent RPG, and it’s handheld which means you can play on the go, and trust me, you will be doing a lot of playing. This game will kept you stuck to your console for hours at a time, and if you have only just started playing you will be playing months, maybe even years from now. If you are thinking about getting this game, then I advise you get it now! It has just as much packed into it as any of the sequels, so if you could only own one Pokémon game, out of all of them, this is it. Buy it now, you won’t regret it.
-Grigrog.