This week is the first week of the rest of our lives. What follows can’t be like what came before. Naturally, if you’re a longtime reader who has meticulously read and internalized every last phrase I’ve written here, you’ll know I’m talking about the release of a Pokemon game. This past weekend was the US release of Sun and Moon. And while nothing will ever match the pure joy and wonderment I experienced through the first 3 games of this venerated franchise, I still crack a smile every time I step back into the ever expanding world of Pokemon. Like I said 2 years ago, we’ll see how the nostalgia compares when the remakes of Diamond and Pearl come out, but I don’t think they can match what Red and Blue or Ruby and Sapphire did.
Hold on, I’m getting a little teary eyed…
And if the new games can’t touch Generations 1 and 3, you know they’ll have a hard time holding a candle to Gen. 2, what I consider the most complete games of the entire series.
If after all this time (especially in a post-Pokemon Go world) you’re unaware of what Pokemon is and you’re too incensed that I prefer Silver/Gold over Red/Blue to go read my summary of Gen. 1 all the way back in 2014 (at which point I’m wondering… how?) here’s the Sparknotes. In a different world, not completely dissimilar from our own, humans live alongside all manner of animals known as Pokemon. Most Pokemon are highly intelligent and possess all manner of amazing powers. People live with Pokemon, collect them, trade them, battle with them, and so on, and life is generally awesome.
Silver/Gold continues the long running adventure-game theme of the silent protagonist. That is to say, the main character doesn’t engage in any meaningful dialogue other than the rare “Yes/No” “A/B” answer to a straightforward, binary question. All the real talking is handled by everyone else, including their responses to vague ideas that your character might express in response to whatever it is they’re saying. The technique is very useful in gaming for immersing the player into the world of the game by not forcing words into their mouth. In general, most players who are willing to go along with the world and the story being told to them will all have similar thoughts. But as we know, people express thoughts in many different ways. The technique of the silent protagonist allows for continued immersion by taking away the player’s ability to think to him/herself: “I wouldn’t say it that way.”
A blank slate of a character is much easier for a player to project themselves upon. Because we are able to take direct control of this character, we can effectively become this character. This is why the silent protagonist technique is really only effective in video games. From a mechanical standpoint, the audience is able to build empathy with the character by sharing the experience directly and to an extent even becoming that character. Every input receives an in-game response 1:1. In books and movies, there is a disconnect in the medium between audience and characters, so specific character development is required to generate any interest from the audience.
You, the protagonist, are a 10 year-old having grown up in the quiet town of New Bern. One morning, your mom tells you Professor Elm, your neighbor, wanted to talk to you. You go to check his lab and find he’s ready to give you your first Pokemon, who will be your constant companion through your journey. He then tasks you with completing the Pokedex (the encyclopedia of Pokemon) by catching all 250 (plus Mew and Celebi) Pokemon.
Wait. That is (nearly) verbatim the opening I gave for Red/Blue. What gives? What is it that separates this game from the originals if the premise is literally the exact same. I mean, it’s a great premise, thus the reason Nintendo has sold over 280 million copies of the games over the course of the franchise, but what is it that separates Gen. 2 from all the others, at least to the degree hyped in the intro?
Plot and Setting. And I’ll briefly tackle the latter before getting back to the former.
First of all, this game is set in a completely different setting from the original game: Johto, the neighbor of Kanto (where the first games were set). This means that there are plenty of familiar faces to go along with all the new ones. These games also introduced a 24 day/night cycle for the first time, where different Pokemon would appear depending on the time of day. While I have nice memories of the originals, my fondest memories playing Pokemon was in bed, at night, roaming around in the calm after-hours of Silver. It added this complete level of immersion I haven’t felt since. In my mind, there’s something deeply poetic about a solitary journey through the night to reach your destination as the sun is rising… my entire play-through of Silver/Gold felt like that.
So is there any reason other than nostalgia I can point out to communicate why Gen. 2’s setting is the best? Continuity. And not just in the sense that there are some old Pokemon accompanying the new ones. When all was said and done in Johto, you could go back to Kanto and run through the gyms there. It’s something no Pokemon game since has done (much to my growing frustration). Like no other entry in the series, Silver/Gold succeeded in truly capturing the scope of your journey and truly made you feel small in this wide-open world.
But as we should all know, a colorful world don’t mean anything if there aren’t even more colorful characters to fill it. I got you covered.
Starting with our primary antagonist… uh…
So in the first games, we had Blue. As far as I am aware, the rival in Gen. 2 has no canonical name. Off to a great start painting him as a great character, I know. But when you get down to it, he’s a far more complex and developed character than Blue was. All Blue had going for him was he was a braggadocios and was always 1 step ahead of you. He had memorable lines and always showed up when you were at your most vulnerable to try and break you, and in beating him, you could feel yourself growing stronger. But there was nothing malicious about him. He was on the exact same quest as you, a true rival rather than an enemy. There’s a sort of shared experience to Red’s and Blue’s journeys.
Not the case here. Your first battle with your rival is a very abrupt one. You don’t even know his name at the time, he’s very rude, and you’re in his way. It’s not until afterwards that you discover that he actually stole his Pokemon from Professor Elm. He’s an admirer of Team Rocket and as such only desires one thing in this world: strength (no not just the HM you silly Zangoose). Throughout your journey, you butt heads repeatedly. Sometimes he’s a little ahead, sometimes he’s just catching up. Rather than being constantly at different points along the same path (like the relationship between the player character and the rival in Gen. 1), this iteration feels more like two characters on distinctly different journeys, whose roads just happen to intersect violently from time to time.
Even more so than the originals, it leads to this iteration of Pokemon feeling lonelier. There is no shared experience. You, the solitary trainer, walk your path alone. And I love that. Not enough kids’ stories are brave enough to explore loneliness in my opinion, at least not for any length of time.
And as your paths intersect, and as you beat him time and time again, he comes to question his beliefs and his values. He comes to see a bit of strength in love and compassion. And maybe, just maybe, by the end of the game you’ve actually changed a heart for the better… something other games in the series tend to lack (at least, without the heavy handed approaches of say X/Y or Black/White)
But what about Team Rocket, the true villains of this series? Rather than appearing as an international organized crime syndicate, Team Rocket this time around is in total disarray. Their bosses have disappeared, leaving them to perform small-time tasks like selling Slowpoke tails, hijacking radio broadcasts, and driving Gyrados insane. And yet, they are somehow able to feel more menacing, more real. This time around, they are a villainous organization not in principle, but in action. In the first game, they run casinos, try to take over corporations, and steal fossils. Their ends are obscure, their grand scheme is a mystery. In this game, they cut off the tails of still living animals and sell them for food! Yes the Team Rocket of Red/Blue killed a Pokemon, but you don’t catch them until after the act. Here, they’re in your face.
That’s actually the best way to sum up the differences between Team Rocket in Gens. 1 and 2. In Gen. 1, you get told a lot about Team Rocket. In Gen. 2, you are shown a lot about Team Rocket. And as the classic rule of story-telling goes: show don’t tell.
On top of all that, you have to battle your way through 8 gyms, foiling Team Rocket every chance you encounter them, and delivering medicine to a sick lighthouse worker once. Though the journey may be a lonely one, the world is far from empty. And at the end of the road sits the Elite Four, based on the slopes of the mountain range that divides Kanto from Johto. So once you’ve defeated them, you guessed it, you can cross into Kanto and beat the 8 gyms there (including Blue, who took up residence at Gym #8), come back and defeat an Elite Four that’s grown even stronger after losing to you.
And that’s that right? You’re the champion of both regions and have no other mountains to climb.
Wrong! You get to climb that dividing mountain range now. And who do you find at the top? The protagonist from Gen. 1, Red. And he is no slouch. More so than any other game in the franchise, Silver/Gold allows the player to explore a brand new setting, plays to nostalgia with a chance to go back and retrace your steps, and then ultimately exceed whatever you were the first time around. Like no other Pokemon game, Silver/Gold expects you, no demands of you, to be better than you were last time.
Because that’s like real life. There are no true restarts. Even if you change jobs and change towns, the world doesn’t reset and what you left behind endures. We’re always left to strive to be greater than we were yesterday. We can climb that mountain and exceed what even we thought was possible when we first set out. Don’t stop being surprised. And don’t let fond memories keep you from making even fonder ones.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some fond memories to make in Alola.
For further playing:
Pokemon Silver and Gold on the Gameboy Color (1999/2000) AND/OR Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver on the Nintendo DS (2009/2010)
Samuel G Whitesell 