Pokemon Red's Mundane, yet Bizarre World

Pokemon Red and Blue and Green and Yellow are weird to return to after so long. I don't know how long it's been since I played the original games, but I found myself missing a lot of quality of life stuff from later games. Like the bag having different sections for different item types??? Bag management sucks in Gen 1. The locations are cool tho. Whenever I inevitably cover generation 2, it'll be interesting to compare Kanto in that game to this game. I didn't realize it when I played Crystal as a kid, but they made a good amount of changes to the playspace. Though it'll feel weird to spend a lot of time focusing on Kanto when there's all of Johto to see. Not sure how I'll do that video when I get to it. Wait. I should finish the other Pokemon Red video before thinking about a potential Crystal video. And you should be watching this Pokemon Red video instead of reading this.
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Patreon: / pertzel
Twitter: / pertzel_
Discord: / discord
Second Channel: / @pretzelunsalted
www.pretzel.cc/
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Music Used:
Intro - Opening (Pokemon Red/Blue)
00:38 - Theme of Pallet Town (Pokemon Red/Blue)
03:11 - The Road to Viridian ~ From Pallet (Pokemon Red/Blue)
06:12 - Theme of Pewter City (Pokemon Red/Blue)
07:31 - Mt. Moon (Pokemon Red/Blue)
08:38 - The Road to Cerulean ~ From Mt. Moon (Pokemon Red/Blue)
09:22 - Theme of Lavender Town (Pokemon Red/Blue)
09:53 - The Road to Cerulean ~ From Mt. Moon (Pokemon Red/Blue)
10:28 - Theme of Cerulean City (Pokemon Red/Blue)
13:25 - Going to Bill's House ~ From Cerulean (Pokemon Red/Blue)
14:50 - The Road to Viridian ~ From Pallet (Pokemon Red/Blue)
15:43 - Theme of Vermillion City (Pokemon Red/Blue)
17:52 - The St. Anne (Pokemon Red/Blue)
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[@PretzelYT]

I was going through a nasty cold or flu or something during the making of this video. 😭 Sorry for the rough sounding voice. It'll still sound a little weird in the next video, but it'll be good after that. Few Corrections: - I say the rival's mom gives you the town map. Its actually his sister. I make a correction on screen but some people have commented about it so I'll mention it here too. - Same thing with me saying "southwest" instead of "southeast" when talking about the Viridian City gym. - I mention that you need to beat two more gyms to go back to Pewter, but that's not correct. You get Cut from the SS Anne at which point you CAN do the gym in that town. But you can also head back, you don't need to beat the gym to go to the earlier parts of the game. That flu or whatever really messed me up and I just wanted to get this video out 💀

[@ThommyofThenn]

You have nothing to apologise for :) you did a terrific job

[@Cyntaria]

Hey even with flu brain you not only made a great video that I can really appreciate while replaying gens 1 and 2 AND corrected the few mistakes you made in the actual video as well as in the pinned comment! I was just listening so i didn't see them but your pinned comment says everything. Besides, with your knowledge, I assumed it was a mistake you were aware of. My boyfriend and I have been correcting each other constantly where I don't remember much about the world as I haven't played in over a decade, but I know more of the mechanics and gen 1 mistakes than him 😊

[@welshlout3400]

Don’t want to belabour the theme going on here but…I just got to the part in the video where correct yourself (correctly) on the position of Viridian City’s gym. So I think the one you might be referring to in this comment is Vermilion City’s gym, not Viridian’s?

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@welshlout3400 I'll see to it Pretzel gets your feedback

[@miche1df]

No, you were right to start with; you have to beat Misty to use cut outside of battle.

[@Tai-Rex]

The design of Pallet Town also feels like a memory of a location more than an actual location. Kind of like how, thinking back to when I was a kid I mostly just remember home, school, and my friend's houses rather than the entirety of my town.

[@stewietk]

Big facts

[@juugmanyopsss]

Nostalgia is so fuckin cool

[@Headspr0uter]

I feel like even when I'm 90 years old and completely senile I'll still know that I can grab a rare candy behind that guys house in Cerulean..

[@WodkaEclair]

I will be 900 and will have played the game 9000 times and and while I will always remember there's a rare candy, I will never remember *which* tile it's on

[@mavis4299]

And the one in mt moon 😆

[@Supertaldo916]

@@WodkaEclairI haven’t played the games in a while, but I vaguely remember it being the the tile before the “wall” to the right, in the center row.

[@bloodnivel70]

Imagine your daughter/son visiting you in their early 40's and telling you "I will be busy this week and won't come back until next week, do you need anything else before i go?" and you reply to them "bateries for my game boy color and my raisin brans, please"

[@angrybobking5083]

Or the Full Heal in the "empty" underground

[@cr103]

Pretty much every time you described an area as pointless there was a hidden item to be found there with the item finder, lol

[@TheFloodFourm]

If youtube video responses were still a thing I’d love to see a video response pointing every one off

[@jason6569]

The place with the backyard a bald guy. I was just screaming "RARE CANDY, YOU ARE F***ING MISSING A RARE CANDY!!!" 😂. That one hurt lol

[@JamSparing]

To be fair, this is not about the ingame merits of the places, this is an in-world exploration. In real life, you don't usually have places around specifically for finding hidden items like some weird Easter egg hunt.

[@dekade420]

@@JamSparing what about Geocaching

[@JamSparing]

@@dekade420 Places in the real world are not usually not built specifically for the purpose of geocaching.

[@crimsongriffon4743]

I don't know if you played this game back when it was new, but the inaccessible area behind Bill's house was a big deal at the time. People referred to it as "Bill's Garden" and it spawned many a rumor about housing the mythical pokegods. People definitely noticed it.

[@TheAntlionGuard]

Man that’s a blast from the past. I haven’t thought about the Bill’s Garden rumors in years

[@Anthny1]

It's a zoomer deficit, back in the day there was a lack of digital information freely available as the internet was ramping up. Games today are easily datamined and some even disassembled. School yard rumors were how kids got information. I learned about Cinnabar missingno encounters from a cousin at a party. 😂

[@Freechasencobain]

​@@Anthny1So true! The Bus ride to school, and ASP, was where I also learned everything, especially the "Cloning Glitch".

[@rileysmith6030]

​@@Anthny1 My friends and I found a waterlogged Nintendo Power Trainer's Guide on the playground in like 1st grade. We all obsessed over it before we even had gameboys to play on. Got us all into Pokemon and gaming which we still do together over 20 years later.

[@ThePidgeottosNest]

Rumor had it that you could somehow catch eeve back there.

[@mkdroz91]

Okay, I feel so vindicated that I am not the only one who thought the guy outside Cerulean Cave looked like a Royal Guard as a kid.

[@fromthegamethrone]

Royal guard crew unite

[@turnkey_hole]

British thinking is a disease

[@ianfinrir8724]

Yes!

[@Cyntaria]

I only found out it wasn't a guard a few months ago.....in my mid 20s.....I never finished the game as a kid so only saw this london guard looking dude

[@treyhex628]

I thought the same thing

[@ShiitaKitsune64]

Did anyone else ever think Viridian Forest was in a building? You enter and exit the forest through one of those passing "gate" buildings that connect the routs in Pokemon games so it's hard to tell exactly where you are, outside or inside. You can't even see the forest in the near distance when you are outside of it, especially in contrast to places like Mt. Moon where you can see a good chunk of the mountain and cave entrance before you enter it. And you can see the black "void" outside of the playable "box" you are in when in Viridian Forest, which is only ever reserved for other inside places in Pokemon, like buildings or caves. Idk, just have always found Viridian Forest in the original games to be very odd.

[@angrybobking5083]

yeah like Jurassicic park, i never saw them as a kid so i didn't think that but i will forever now

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

Yhea, I thought it was like a giant in-door zoo, same with the safari

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Yes i always thought that too especially with the odd arrow markings at the start.

[@NightmareRex6]

yea if use walk thugh walls its just an empty space between it.

[@thogameskanaal]

I'd like to imagine the one-way ledge jump just before Cerulean was intentionally added because playtesters would consistently not know where to go next, backtrack, get lost in Mt. Moon and have an awful experience.

[@CWCvilleCop]

I always saw it as a sort of rite of passage. An irreversible decision that takes you from "Okay, you've mastered the very basics on your little trip out of town" to "Beyond this point, you're on a full fledged adventure in which there is no turning back. You in?"

[@kwest9747]

Further to both these great suggestions I feel it was also designed to imbue you the desire to go back - after all you’ll need cut to get that aerodactyl amber!

[@Stormkyleis]

This happens often in metroidvanias, they close a path behind you to prevent you from getting lost until you find a certain key item. (HM Cut in this case)

[@bradleywalker8642]

​@@StormkyleisMy favorite Metroidvania style game is "Ori & The Blind Forest" they do a good job of putting you on a one-way path without making it obvious that you're on a one-way path.

[@Supertaldo916]

The very best part of how good Kanto was designed, is the fact that Pallet town, despite being unassuming, is basically extremely close to one of the games final stretches. When you start, you can kind of asume that “huh, nice little pond”, when in fact it’s the path to Cinnabar Island. It’s cool because it shows that you are but a kid that can’t see past what is observable, but just because you lack experience and tools.

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

You're meant to go back to Pallet after defeating the Cinnabar Gym and then go to Viridian. Sadly, having Fly kinda ruins that. Same with how you're supposed to go back down to Newbark after defeating Claire. The first two games had an almost perfect world loop.

[@NightmareRex6]

@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 right like your ment to surf from fusia to cinnabar but can just goto palate town and take shorter route. altho theres still articuno in the seaform islands.

[@deathstinger13]

this one will never not find it interesting that the Bike Shop has a total of 5 unique tiles just for it(two for the bikes on the floor, two for the bikes on the wall, and one for the toolboxes), and yet the entire rest of the game was built to min-max tile useage. Makes one wonder if the design was leftover from an earlier rendition of the game before they were as keenly aware of memory limitations. Maybe from the time when there was an extra island within the kantonian bay near vermillion with its own city and everything. Fun fact, a leftover map of that extra city does exist in a beta version of the game, and it includes the infamous mew truck as a random fixture in town. Makes this one think that at some point, they intended the game to be more richly detailed with fixtures that served no real purpose but enriched the world.

[@PretzelYT]

It's funny you bring that up, I actually thought about the unique tiles for the Bike Shop while using it for that part of the script. I perhaps should have chosen a building that didn't have any many unique textures for that part 😅

[@hlavco]

I had that same thought during the kitchen section. Are there chefs anywhere else in the game?

[@Thebdippy]

The first pokemon games had a really compelling magical realism feel, it seemed to establish a world that was pretty much the same as our own with the exception of the pokemon. That feeling faded a lot as more outright fantasy and sci fi elements were added in subsequent iterations.

[@PlayMadness]

Ken Sugimori, director of the first three Pokémon games, intended for these games to take place in the real world, only a short time after the discovery of Pokémon. This is why Professor Oak knows so little despite being a leading expert, why basic things like Pokémon reproduction are mysteries (remember that the original Gold and Silver script had the egg from Elm's assistant being a MAJOR discovery), and the existence of real world locations mentioned in things like Arcanine and Raichu' Pokedex entries or the dialog of Lt. Surge. Masuda took over after Sugimori's departure and changed the world of Pokémon to be its own, separate world. And it's been worse off for it.

[@looloopaa]

Hmm... I'm not sure this is true. After all, there are fossils of polemon, and in the 2nd gen games the apricorn balls are mentioned to be the old way to capture pokemon, as well as Bellsprout Tower and the burnt tower seeming to be pretty old structures.

[@bEtHeSdA_LAME_sTuDi0s]

Gen2 gad that mythical fantasy feel. Priceless for me. Magic every time

[@The_Scouts_Code]

Used to daydream of catching a Charmander when I was in school.

[@CoolMagmar]

​@@PlayMadness I think you are misremembering stuff, yes at first pokémons were to be seen as a new thing to the world but even in gen 1 they gave up on this idea and we only get some crumbs of that and was quickly removed with just some small comments, in gen 2 have even less of that, with only the egg and this was more to introduce to the players that eggs exist and how they work, and they put so much focus on it being special so most players don't end up boxing the egg and teaching them how they hatch before they get close to the Day-Care, for me this was a fantastic way to teach players of a new mechanic than really real lore. Also in gen 1 we already had Pokémons being legends, and pokémon fossils so they weren't to be seen as a new species even in gen 1, and the only reason the dex was empty was just to incentivize kids to collect the mons and learn more about them, if Professor Oak thought they were a new species wouldn't you think the dex would have a static number for each pokemon? Like how could he how much space each mon needed from each other if they truly new. And like Pokémon in this era were more focused in making easy tutorials that you learned by playing so this why many lore stuff doesn't make sense.

[@Spudmay]

To this DAY the sight of the Anne leaving always mad me feel sad. I felt the same when i was in the navy and watched any ship set sail. The Anne was with me forever

[@bradleylovej]

This literally feels like in-game dialogue. Which makes me smile

[@ThommyofThenn]

Those little garden areas are so important for vibes.

[@DorkN313]

I absolutely love that the video is of right aspect ratio. I frequently watch KZbin on my crt and it's a treat to have a 3:4 video for a 3:4 topic

[@lizardizzle]

I also love that the footage isn't filtered into becoming a blurry mess. It hurts my heart to see videos that use bilinear scaling and such on pixel art

[@jakeman52]

But why bruh

[@Zalazaar]

People who willingly use a crt screen have unchecked mental illness

[@cool_bug_facts]

​@@jakeman52Old content just looks right on a CRT. Now this obviously doesn't apply to pokemon as they've always been handheld games, but old pixel art is often designed around CRT scanlines and artifacts, so it actually looks better that way. It's not just nostalgia. You can find plenty of comparisons on google.

[@LeonardoRodrigues-uj1sm]

The gameboy is 10:9

[@mpg272727]

So much about Gen1 has been retconned yet it's the things I loved. The world being darker, with all the elite trainers and even gym leaders using whips on their Pokemon, References to real world events, Pokemon dying, Team Rocket being the Mafia and taking over companies and selling Pokemon, the fact one of the gym leaders fought in a literal war, animals just being a thing that exist alongside Pokemon.. Honestly Gen1 feels like a whole different world and canon to all the other games

[@PretzelYT]

I've played a little bit further since making this, and right after hitting Lavender Town, I thought about that too. Like they straight up say that pokemon DIE. I feel like the whole series talks about pokemon fainting, but you very rarely deal with one dying. Like you say, it feels like it tackles pretty mature themes, and it's kind of a shame that the series leaned away from that a bit.

[@CWCvilleCop]

Agreed wholeheartedly. Being unafraid to show the darker side of the world really helped make Gen 1 feel like a much more fleshed out world than later gens. It feels like an actual world with actual history and problems that you get a chance to make yourself a name in. Many, many later gens just feel like an on-rails amusement park ride where everything is a stage piece to sell you on how "wonderful" the place is, while never diving into any actual depth.

[@krucifikz]

Many of the monster designs are pretty horrifying as well, especially considering the sprites were made before the more kid friendly artwork and cartoon appearances. The starters were a frog dinosaur with a plant growing out of its back, a genetically modified lizard able to grow wings, and a cyborg turtle. Pokemon that came from the regions pollution like muk, weezing, and magneton, and because of the pollution you had monsters with multiple heads like dodrio and dugtrio. Some of the heads/eggs of exeggcute disappearing upon evolving. Swapping arms upon trade evolution with graveler to golem and machoke to machamp. The failed cloning attempts of mew resulting in ditto. Some pokemon needing "stones" to force them to take on other forms. Ancient fossils able to be revived as creatures you can fight with. Gengar being the ghost of a clefable. There are a lot of examples, but you can make your own theories by forgetting what you know about the series and looking at the games as a unique spin on the rpg genre. The first generation was the only one to truly feel like "pocket monsters" in my opinion.

[@CoolMagmar]

@@krucifikz The anime was lauch in 1997 while the games are from 1998 so they always wanted the kid-friendly look, all starters look quite cute even in the original sprites and their last evos are just cool looking for that generation of kids, look at Digimon Adventure most of its designs can be see as creepy for today standards but in that time they are seem as cool this is a reason you rarely will see people saying they found any of these designs creepy or that it scared them as a kid. So don't really understand were you coming from of the horrifying designs, muk is literally generic slime monster but purple, multiple heads monsters weren't uncommon and little to no kid would think pollution = multi head mutations, like again for today can be seem as far removed for kids show but like look up Power Rangers monsters costumes and you will start noticing that kids shows in the past rarely cared making messed designs and most kids simply accept it as ok and normal, and this not even going how even educational programs had creepy and scary characters for no good reason too.

[@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes]

⁠@@CoolMagmarThe games are from 1996. Granted the initial release did have different sprites than the later American one. I wouldn’t necessarily say they were scary or monstrous though. In fact official art showing how they are meant to look predates the anime. The sprites are just kind of shoddy and deformed in a way that gives them their unique uncanny edge.

[@DeepWeeb]

To me the most bizarre part of the Kanto map has to be the Cycling Road: Firstly because you are pushed downwards by a mysterious force, apparently the road is meant to be a slope, which is fair enough but it's hard to make sense of Celadon somehow being at a higher altitude than Fuschia when seeing the map from above But the biggest one has to be those pools of water in the middle you can't surf in? Well, even though the graphics in the GB original and the GBA remake make them seem pretty shallow still water, in the anime and in HGSS is better conveyed that the road is actually a bridge suspended above the sea (based on the real-life Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line bridge-tunnel, which would actually not be finished until _after_ the release of Red & Green) so it makes sense In the Let's Go remakes however they flattened the road so players are no longer pushed downwards agains't their will (as the game is focused in being casual-friendly), but this creates a massive geographical oversight: *where are ships like the S.S. Anne supposed to get out into open seas?* Now the harbor is completely self-enclosed Another weird one is the whole Cinnabar Island's "volcano" deal (better said, the lack of) which destroys the Gym in Gen 2. You could argue the Gym was built on top of a volcanic chimney that one day rose from the ground, but in all of the promo art the volcano is present but has never actually shown in-game. In Let's Go they cop it out by making the volcano be off-camera on the _west_ side of the map, when the crater in Gen 2 comes from the _east_ side of the island. Weird stuff

[@robertoquintero5200]

I think the island have more volcanos that affected all the city...

[@CWCvilleCop]

I remember hitting the cycling road as a kid and not realizing at first why I was constantly going downwards. I thought my game had broken, but I had to turn it off for the rest of the day halfway through. So I agonized, not knowing if my game was broken or not, until I got back to it and made it to the end and breathed a BIG sigh of relief.

[@willowparker-ct3pq]

One thing that does add some interest to the underground cave is the fact that one of the NPCs outside it says people sometimes drop items in the dark down there. Because of that, I spent a ton of time as a kid just checking random tiles for hidden items, but it felt too big for me to ever commit to systematically checking every time one by one. I know there’s at least one hidden item but can’t remember if there’s more than just the one.

[@TheTuerespendejo]

Same

[@Muhahahahaz]

Yeah, I assume that’s why they didn’t put anything else down there (like he was asking for in the video)… It makes it harder to find the hidden item, or keep track of where you are

[@tatoferret3167]

The simple graphics and spaces are what made it great. It's like reading a book. What you see with your eyes is basic, but what your mind and imagination fill in is what makes it all the more vivid. We have amazing graphics now but in this and other oldschool games it was the possibilites and unknown that made the experiences much deeper.

[@RachelRichards]

I absolutely love your comment and agree completely. The simple 8 bit graphics didn't stop my childhood imagination from going wild with curiosity and ideas.

[@CAGEMETAL]

@@RachelRichards this

[@SirBobson]

I really appreciate these laid-back, more relaxed videos. Just such a chilled change of pace from 95% of YT.

[@pablodelgado7919]

Same, over the years i've prefered more the laid back yet well informed and documented channels over the hyper active "omg guys did you knew this !? I bet you didn't" kind of videos from most youtubers and poketubers alike. Idk why but as soon as it starts i quickly shut it off, it kinda annoys me.

[@MrIronJustice]

The way you describe being 'trapped' in Cerulean at around 10:00 really resonates with me because when I played this as an unknowing kid, I struggled to figure out some of the graphics. It took me hours, literally hours, to figure out that you could exit the house on the right side of the city through a unique hole in the wall. On black and white gameboy graphics its not super obvious. I remember suspecting I did something wrong and agonizing over if I should restart the whole game. But finally getting out (with my super overleveled pokemon) was so incredible.

[@TheEmpireDabsBack]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who couldn't figure out how to pass Cerulean because of the way the wall texture looked on the old Gameboy. I swore it was just some sort of poster or something, I was ready to give up and I started pressing A on all the tiles on the north wall and when you click on the hole it says "Team Rocket left a way out" and I was like 😱😱😱 "ITS A HOLE IN THE WALL?!" 🤣

[@EuroMIX2]

It's definitely not the most intuitive part of the game. I think there's a reason why this is one of the only times I think they've ever set up a town exit like that.

[@edgarjrsanmartin5304]

I remember being a bit stressed too, I thought I wouldn’t ever be able to get back to the earlier towns and I wasn’t done exploring them lol

[@cr103]

9:50 you can go back if you black out, you'll go back to the last pokemon center at the start of mount moon as long as you dont go into the cerulean pokemon center. Learned that the hard way doing the nugget bridge when i was a kid

[@_Majoras]

gen 1's pokemon towns are feature rich lush environments with, at the time, unprecedented attention to detail inside each individual building, house or cave

[@cryotek3624]

The most surreal area in all of gen 1 kanto is the indigo Plateau with its bizarre layout and architecture that makes it hard to descern what sort of structure you are looking at or whether or not its indoors or outdoors

[@CWCvilleCop]

Always been one of my favorite parts of the game. It's huge and stratified by number of gym badges, allowing you access to only what worthiness you can prove through your accomplishments, leaving the rest a mystery. Such gravitas.

[@Travis_DeGee]

I agree I think you're outside when you go through it.

[@nousukas]

@@Travis_DeGeeIt's outside with huge walls around you.

[@JAMESYQ24]

I was so determined to get past those walls as a kid, imagining all the areas that exist outside of it. No wonder we all believed in Bill’s Secret Garden.

[@ArtUniverse]

Fun fact: after getting the HM01 from the captain, if you lose any battle aboard the S.S. Anne (intentionally or not), you will get teleported back to the Pokemon Center and the ship will remain docked in Vermilion City.

[@PlayMadness]

Be careful! It won't take you back to Vermilion, it'll take you back to the last center you used! If you haven't gone to a center since the one before Mt. Moon, you'll have to do the whole dungeon again.

[@umbreonpokemon8190]

Well duh it’s the only way to push the truck off of mew later when you acquire strength

[@kamenrob8500]

​@@umbreonpokemon8190or trade for a cut pkmn while having the badge to visit surge and bypass the St Anne entirely

[@Kita-Ragna]

​@@umbreonpokemon8190you can use the surf save glitch to surf past the guard!

[@Saber_Nico]

if you do end up there and got cut already, you can just go through Diglett's cave from Pewter to Vermillion.@@PlayMadness

[@sagawahx3]

The cuttable tree at the beginning is supposed to be a way around the guy laying on the floor without his "coffee". However, when you get there, you're still blocked by another obstacle.

[@angrybobking5083]

i spent so much time looking for CUT. (not knowing what cut was) Oh maybe i have to buy it at this Mart....

[@jcKobeh]

I don't know how you captured the game to look so good upscaled, but that and just the chill walkaround and sightseeing are very nice. I've aeen many people commenting on how you missed secret items on those hidden areas, or how back in the day something was playground rumour, or whatever. Please don't let those comments affect the way in which you make these videos, or the decision to make a second part; there will always be fans that are Like That, and given the sheer size of pokémon, there are a lot of them. But also, you're not making a completionist guide, or an in depth analysis of gameplay mechanics and design in the 90s- there's plenty of those out there for whoever wants to find them, but there is only one you sharing the way you see and feel about the gameworld. So thank you, this is probably the video ive most enjoyed about pokémon in many years.

[@TylerBonenfant]

one of my favorite things about playing heartgold in 5th grade was going back to places i havent been to since the beginning of the game and exploring areas that i previously wasnt able to. i miss the wonder i felt as a kid playing games

[@MangusMangoman]

I remember that when I was young and playing Pokémon Yellow, the underground tunnel gave me the creeps. You talking about it made me realise that it was probably how liminal it felt. Even with how archaic the whole game design is, every place feels lively, even the lavender tower ironically. Even places with no people, like the cerulean cave, would be filled with Pokémon. But not the underground tunnel, it is just a long and completely emptied space for no good reason.

[@hlavco]

I always got that feeling in Saffron City. That place feels like it's all buildings and no people. But hey, the underground tunnels pass beneath Saffron, so I guess that whole area of the map is just Kanto's Bermuda Triangle.

[@Begeru]

@@hlavcosame as a kid I felt scared going into Saffron City for some reason

[@AlexanderFarley]

The back-tunnels

[@micabryant4513]

As a child I always saw the trees lining the sides of the routes as rocks and to be fair even to this day knowing that they are trees I still look at them and they kind of look more like a rock to me than a tree. Gen 1s map is...uuuugly 😅

[@FadedPhoenixYT]

I've always been a sucker for the feel of the original games, but couldn't put it into words. Great video! I've always loved how this game stands out as strange and eerie

[@WilfredCthulu]

Shoutouts to the devs of the recently released kanto expansion rom hack. Not only did they add the cut beta pokemon and cross evolutions but they also added new areas some being from playground rumors like Bill's secret garden.

[@iRazenrak]

What's the name of that rom hack?

[@WilfredCthulu]

.........Kanto expansion.

[@NecromancyForKids]

It has a lot of weird decisions made for the games IMO, and there's stuff like soft locks in new areas, but for a rom hack it's not bad.

[@DCol]

1:35That's not Gary's mom, that's Gary's sister. Gary's parents aren't ever in the series..

[@EddieSpaghetti69]

Gary doesn't have parents, I suspect that when the universe was created Gary was there and when it inevitably ends Gary will be there as well.

[@orsonzedd]

Well it's not Gary's mom because it's Blue's Sister

[@CursedLink666]

You can actually use glitches to get into inaccessible areas of the game, it's a well-ish known trick. Using glitches to play around is actually pretty easy in Pokemon Red, just don't save when doing certain ones.

[@Jahjaga]

This is like if Mr. Rogers played Pokémon, and I mean that as a compliment.

[@PhilipMurphy8Extra]

I like this laid back style of this KZbin video for sure

[@hassanxnassah3953]

You said everything I felt when I first played this game on my Gameboy.. I just feel so related and this video just made me happy and relaxed.. thank you for this content.. I miss my generation so much.

[@MegadeathAdams]

The first two gens have a very charming rustic feeling, Johto especially. It's a vibe that I would like for the series to revisit someday, though it's very unlikely.

[@Travis_DeGee]

They remade gen 2 and they remade gen 1 twice lol

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

​@@Travis_DeGee But it's a different vibe, Pokemon moved away from realism to fantasy by the time they re-made them

[@CWCvilleCop]

These certain aspects are what make Gen 1 my FAVORITE as far as world and set design in Pokemon games. Yes, every other generation has better graphical quality, but as time goes on, they embellished the aesthetics of the buildings more and more until today when they're bordering on high fantasy, of all things. Gen 1 feels like an actual place. Most of its buildings are not glamorized beyond what they need to be because most of the buildings are practical buildings. Just like real life. The underground path is bland... and an underground path similar to it in real life WOULD be bland. The cities have a mostly brutalist style that emphasizes their importance with their imposing size, but they feel appropriately scaled in the world and grittily realistic, not glammed up with decorations to make it LOOK important, or blown up to a larger scale than the less important buildings. Walking through a city or a building in Gen 1 feels pretty much just like walking through such a place would in real life. There are countless buildings, malls, hospitals, plazas in real life that remind me of Pokemon just because their design matches many of the buildings in Gen 1. That, coupled with the fact that it was made as a portable game you can take with you everywhere made Gen 1 feel like an extension of real life, not an escapist fantasy that only exists in your head and on your break hour.

[@DakotaofRaptors]

Imo I think Sinnoh was peak world building

[@thearmyofgreatness]

This felt like how i was playing as a kid. Like wondering why the gym was locked, viridian forest being annoying and feeling accomplished leaving it, always wondering what was on the other side of the the path with my squirtle and pidgy lol

[@LyritZian]

The Underground Path was, like, my first experience with a liminal space. I barely actually played this game, but that path has been ingrained into my head.

[@renakunisaki]

When I was a kid, one of my favourite things was to use Game Genie/Shark and explore places I wasn't supposed to be able to go. That means not just out of bounds, but silly things as well, like being on top of a normally unclimbable mountain, or on a roof, or behind a counter. Places you could always see, and you knew there wouldn't be anything interesting back there because you're not supposed to be able to reach it, but for whatever reason, it still felt really neat to go there. I think the backyard in Cerulean has that kind of feeling to it. It looks like a place you can see but not go. Then you discover a cheeky way to go there. Now you're somewhere "off limits". There's nothing here (except, in this case, a hidden item), and the game did just let you go there, but the lack of any visible entrance and anything you can interact with imply that it's one of those walled-off just-for-show areas, which makes it feel neat when you actually can just go there if you want, even though there appears to be no reason to do so. Sometimes you make a world feel big and alive just by letting the player walk around in a place even though they can clearly see it's empty.

[@theprinceofawesomeness]

The british royal guard guy, that was the absolute first thing i thought the first time i saw him (i was around 5 at the time). when i finnaly managed to beat the game and went to talk to him to get mewtwo, i was so bewildered and caught of guard when it turned oout his hat was not a hat and just a cave entrance, i allways thought he waould reveal the entrance after talking or defeating him in battle (i was about 7 at that time).

[@TheObserver3]

The garden where the farmer/caretaker is spraying repel to keep the pokemon out isn't completely pointless as it points out to the player that there is a way to keep pokemon away from you and avoid battles at times by getting some Repel (repellent) yourself which you'll find at many of the poke marts.

[@owlbusdumbledork9966]

One thing that's apparent to me after watching some videos on liminal spaces, is that Red and Blue were full of them. So many places devoid of any purpose, other than being there for you to pass by, and the color palette gave it a very surreal and unique vibe. Never paid attention to that as a kid, but I see it now.

[@wombatpandaa9774]

This series reminds me a lot of "odd and unremarkable place in ___" by Any Austin and I love that

[@incineroar9933]

And I always assumed those fields outside of pallet town in rby were Oak's fields where your and other trainers' mons roam when not on your team.

[@heypeterReal]

Congrats on 30k! Knew you could make it touring bizarre video game worlds

[@BLAzinStRipePiPes10]

This is such a simple, yet cool and relatable theme for a video! I just subscribed... can't wait for part 2! After you finish Red Version, you should totally do gen 2! Keep up the great content creating! 😎

[@joemck85]

They got the vibe right -- the stuff before Mt. Moon is the village you're growing up in and surrounding small towns, and then the 5 cities in the middle is the metropolitan center that's growing and encroaching on the small towns and nature. The selection of Pokémon in these areas reflects the theme too. That last ledge before Cerulean is significant. Back when I was first playing the game and had no real experience with RPGs, I'd hopped that ledge and later spent quite a while trying to figure out how to get back there to catch a Jigglypuff when I was paging through my dex and saw it.

[@agentofforce3467]

every town you reached felt like a massive accomplishment.

[@tymime]

I was always fascinated by the sprites of things I can't readily identify in RBY. Like, what are those seemingly metallic cylinders that come in two sizes? Or the weird low path borders with the spheres on the end?

[@fountainfaerie]

This is such a nice video, I really like the bit at the start comparing how the original has just the grass surrounding it and it makes it feel really...lonely and on its own. So secluded! I feel like as a kid I would walk around the early towns so often and imagine so many things. It's nice to question the choices and admire why they're the way they are. The trees surrounding in FRLG is a totally different, cozier vibe for sure.

[@N3Selina]

i love gen 1 the world always intrigued me. the grass fenced off in pallet town, the truck, the caves. my imagination would go wild

[@AmandaTheJedi]

Even with missing some hidden items, there’s just something so calming and nice about these videos. Thank you!

[@Dragondan1987]

Man, this sounds like if somebody is doing a Sheldon cooper impersonation

[@ksdtsubfil6840]

Conclusion: Kanto is an Urban and Regional Planning nightmare.

[@Cavlo]

I remember when I was a kid how exhausting and rewarding it was just to get through mt moon lol

[@artysalt]

12:49 YES! As a kid, for a long time I thought he was wearing a hat too! Until I discovered the Mewtwo cave.

[@wachimol]

9:45 that ledge was so unnecessarily cruel

[@tobiasw7260]

Very nice video, I always like the minimalist approach of achieving a certain atmosphere even with small technical capabilities. But I was honestly a bit surprised that you didn't mention the legendary truck at the SS Anne

[@RurouniPedro]

This is lovely. After so many years of gaming, I feel like I lost the ability to slow down and appreciate a game in this way. The minute I start a game I feel in a rush to learn it and "progress". It's actually kind of stressful, and I've come to avoid playing games all together. The simple fact of exploring, getting lost, trying silly things has become alien to me, so I felt a deep sense of nostalgia and loss when watching this.

[@corystarkiller]

The point of the first Cut Tree, is to teach you that Cut Trees are for exploration. You see it, and are signposted to want to return to discover the mysteries. The first is to teach you how they work.

[@CWCvilleCop]

Exactly. Seeing that the first cuttable tree was blocking an alternate route (even if it's pointless by itself) made me realize "Oh, these are basically obstacles to parts of the game and I guess I"ll be able to cut it at some point". Always thought it was a brilliant design decision.

[@corystarkiller]

@@CWCvilleCop It really is brilliant, because it's teachable without any language. The game designers, taught it without needing any words. It works no matter where you lived.

[@TheBradRules]

I really love these tour videos. They're very cozy and thought-provoking! I'm about to watch part 2!

[@BoldMold]

I love the way you talk and analyze things, I was instantly transported to my childhood memories. Man, I spent way too much time walking in circles on random places in this game.

[@typ0z]

Im so glad you pointed out the Cerulean ledge. Always freaked me out as a kid! It was like “Well… no going back.” It almost felt symbolically like I had kind of grown up a little bit. Like that was a milestone moment.

[@ASMRstates]

This was really interesting and relaxing to watch. The world has some wide spaces. The tall grass outside Pallet Town, I always thought you can go there at some point

[@daliinhiscoffin2493]

I absolutely love this video ! gets to shine a light on all the 'slice-of-life-esque' bits of pokemon, mundane yet bizarre is a really good pick of word! can't wait for part 2

[@incineroar9933]

Gotta wonder if parents with children about ready to set off on their journeys deliberately move to "starter" towns like Pallet town.

[@psykomantis65-qh8dm]

Even more interesting in regards to reds house is if you interact with the tv it makes a direct reference to the film Stand By Me. If you have not seen it highly recommended, my favorite Stephen King based movie alongside Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile.

[@victor24437]

It's so good to know that I'm not alone in this, I always hated not being able to walk along this path too. Whenever I notice a lack of symmetry in something I get uncomfortable lol

[@bronzeagemindset]

I love the aspect ratio of this video

[@botchedoperations3485]

Red is nostalgic for how it left somethings to imagination. Thinking you can get a charmander, bulba, squirtle in those inaccessible areas in the pallet town grass. To thinking bill had a special cave behind his home were you can catch rare Pokémon.

[@79licorice]

I don't know how I was lucky enough to come across this video, let alone in the first 24h of it's posting... but dang I loved it. This is such an interesting take on something so important to my childhood and it's such a niche topic. Not something I would've imagined someone would make a video covering, but I'm very glad you did. And I believe you are the right person to do it as well. The way you observe things that everyone else simply sees and moves on from, never to think of again.. or doesn't even register as something to observe.. it's awesome for lack of better word. Thank you, and I look forward to the next part, and more videos to come from you ^-^ P.S. you've earned a new subscriber c;

[@danielhunt5007]

16:31 "Later Pokemon games have conditioned me to think when I see something like this, I'll be able to come back and see the completed project." Which games, and how? The only times I saw environmental storytelling like this was Pokemon Snap and some of the Titan Battles in Scarlet/Violet.

[@redacted_lol]

Wow, I never knew SS Anne had a deck area or a kitchen! I really left it way to early, but I suppose it's nice I at least got to battle all the trainers in the rooms. Made me feel quite immersed

[@AlexanderFarley]

I found the opening scene to be quite well-done. You wander around town, trying to talk to everyone and figure out who's going to assign your first task/mission/start the game. It seems like everything is on pause since your rival is missing. You wander around, eventually becoming frustrated and wandering out into the grass despite not having a real introduction to the story - and then, bam! Prof Oak pops out of the woodwork.

[@brapcast]

This is such a lovely nostalgia walk and really explains the feelings that we felt and do feel still about these formative places from our childhood

[@danmorris1117]

Fun fact, the mt moon pokemon center guy who sells you a magikarp, if you trade it via time capsule up to gen 2 it will be shiny

[@alancarr1056]

Yeah .....no.

[@alancarr1056]

There is a way to get a shiny ditto by trading back the gen II red gyarados, getting it to transform then catching it. Shinyness is IV/DV based. The magikarp you receive has random DVs, so normal shiny odds.

[@DCol]

naw, you just got lucky. The gen1 pokemon has the same 1/8192 odds of being shiny.

[@DanielSantosAnalysis]

I used to play Blue and Yellow obsessively as a kid, watching this was a shot of nostalgia into the veins.

[@mikesevcik2591]

Used to think as a little one that the path rails you see on the southern most border of cerulean were flag poles, as well as the aforementioned royal guard at the cave. Ah yes, 90s, I miss you so.

[@korossyl]

This is the first video I've seen that really, truly captures the magic of the Pokemon games. It wasn't special because it was an amazing game; it was an amazing game because it was an entry point into a real, living world. Thanks for making this.

[@WindowsXPFrog]

I was expecting more a video essay from the title but this was a nice little surprise. I don’t see many chill videos like this on KZbin. I like it.

[@drygnfyre]

The Gen 1 games had such a weird aesthetic. Just the way all the seas were blocked off by huge rocks, and then the caves also had endless huge rocks serving as boundaries. Combined with the monochrome colors, there's actually something unsettling I find about the design of Kanto. Later generations improved greatly upon the design of their regions but I've always had this weird appreciation for the limitations of the original games.

[@ArtRebelsBloc]

great job and this is a good video on the merit it has a nice personal touch to it i relate to many of your points

[@hyruleflower5695]

unironically love content that hyper-analyzes games like this

[@SolracCAP]

Playing this game in particular brings me back to my child mentality and reflect on the ways I've changed since then.

[@MattRoszak]

Very chill video, looking forward to browsing more of your channel.

[@ma.2099]

So many strange dead end and unanswered questions in these games. Makes the mystery so much better tbh. I have always believed that when you play the game, you play “following the journey of Red”. Which explains how different trainers have different Pokémon that evolve seemingly illegally or illegal moves or even why paths just die off for no reason. Similar to Assassins creed.

[@FrostDrive]

This was so cozy. Please continue!

[@Pixsylver]

New to the channel, but I love these types of videos, can’t wait for part 2

[@riatsila144]

Haven't finished, but you keep alluding to something that is why I personally think older Pokemon games are simply better than the new ones. And that is what I call their "abridged world". Pallet Town having so few buildings, Cerulean having buildings with no doors, the S.S. Anne only having 16 rooms. None of this makes sense in reality, but in a game where everything is so symbolic? Your imagination gets to fill in the blanks. You imagine the majesty of Mount Moon looning over you, and it's glorious! Once Pokemon stepped into a full 3D world, they had to present to you exactly what you're supposed to see, and I think that's a weakness. Same with the battles. You could have monsters duking it out in an actual field, and it's fine, but kinda dead with the way they just stand there. Or you can have just two sprites, and they may shake a little, or have some other effects on screen (unless you turn off the move graphics), but what you get in exchange is imagining how that Hyper Beam just ripped through your opponent. Even a well placed tackle, in your mind, will always look cooler than the fully rendered 3D Pokemon models going through their generic motions. I'm not meaning this as a "All New Pokemon BAD", but more about, look what they had, and gave up. Maybe I'm overly nostalgic on it, but given how you're explaining all this, I don't think I'm out of line. I think letting the player imagine some of it really made the games stronger. *I guess I did finish the video. Didn't realise I paused RIGHT at the end.

[@JaxontheOkay]

i really like the edge of cerulean being ledges too steep to climb to mount moon. it is a city at the base of a mountain, kinda makes sense you wouldn't easily be able to just climb up it

[@Xylarxcode]

9:20 The guide I had as a kid actually warned you about this ledge and asked you to make sure you've finished up all the business you wanted to do in Mt Moon and Pewter City, because once you jump this you won't be able to go back there for a while. It then went on to describe Cerulean City as 'your prison (for now), but at least it's a beautiful prison'. I'm paraphrasing a bit, because I no longer have this guide so I'm reciting from a memory I made well over 20 years ago. I always thought it was kinda weird for the guide to describe it like that, but it is kinda accurate. Once you enter Cerulean, the only way out is to get to Bill's place and acquire the SS Anne ticket, which makes the guard that blocks the way into the robbed house stand next to the door instead of in front of it and this gives you access to the route that leads to Vermillion to carry on. It just felt weird to describe it as a 'prison'.

[@Karmy.]

I love how calming this series and your voice is

[@HenRab1]

When I first played Pokemon Red over 20 years ago, I made it past Cerulean without getting a Pokemon poisoned and not having it faint in battle. Sometime before travelling through the Underground Tunnel, I must have fought something with Poison Sting or Poison Powder. I'd never seen the overworld BLIP tok say your Pokemon has taken damage. I'd never before noticed the PokeBall turns black when it's occupier is Poisoned. I had no clue what on earth was going on. A NPC at one of the entrances had warred me that trainers lose items in the Path...I paniced! I thought I had lost a PokeBall with a Pokemon in! Like the King's Guard I love it when we added our own stories to the game. Like, I also assumed the Long Grass around Pallet Town was home to the starter Pokemon.

[@BansheeNT-D]

The little flowers on the ground need attention, this tiny animation brings so much life in the scenery.

[@luxrayblast]

Daisy Oak is actually Blue's Sister. He even says he'd tell his SISTER not to give you a Town Map. I'm sure it was already pointed out, just wanted to mention that Daisy is NOT Blue's Mom. Oh, my bad I just saw you have it in the list of corrections in your comment.

[@Elias-alva]

I wish I never got rid of my Pokémon games, I want to replay them. Great video, can’t wait for part two.

[@CAGEMETAL]

emulator

[@Elisabeth-tq3jr]

The title sounds like the title of an anime