Current Events > In retrospect, Pokemon has always been a mess for completionists.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Right from the get go, you couldn't "catch em all" unless your parents drove you to a special event or you paid attention to Nintendo Power's promotions to mail your cart in.

Gold/Silver required the previous games to obtain the old starters and legendaries, and in the US, Celebi was exclusive to the New York Pokemon Center.

Then in Gen 3, you needed a minimum of six games across two platforms to catch em all.

Generation 4 initially let you catch em all with just two games...provided you had all your old Gen 3 cartridges to trigger certain spawns. And you still needed to play through some of those games anyway in order to have access to the starters and legendaries, which you could only transfer via Pal Park. And you technically still needed the gamecube games, which were the only way to get Ho-Oh and Lugia without an event. >_>

Of course, GTS made it less painful, and with the advent of HG/SS, it's become common practice to make old starters and legendaries available through post-game side-quests. But still! You've got to have a minimum of four games to catch everything.

And THATS not even counting headaches like the Friend Safari, where you have to carefully manage your friends list to unlock individual areas with like, three pokemon each, and even doing all that you still can't have em all.

SHEESH.

And watch, somehow, even with Dexit you probably can't catch every obtainable Sw/Sh Pokemon with just Sw/Sh. Maybe you can, but I'd be surprised. It'd be the first time since Red/Blue you could catch em all* with only two games. <_<

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Yup. Youre so right
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Yeah the whole business model here is that players would need to either trade very actively with friends or buy several games and wait a long ass time to fully complete the game.
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AlisLandale posted...

Then in Gen 3, you needed a minimum of six games across two platforms to catch em all.

Wait wut

No, you didn't, as long as we're excluding event-only stuff like Jirachi.
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Distant_Rainbow posted...

Wait wut

No, you didn't, as long as we're excluding event-only stuff like Jirachi.

without events/hacking, you needed Colosseum/XD for HoOh and Lugia.

and while not necessary, its a lot easier to get the Johto starters through Coloseum rather than completing the Hoenndex in emerald (and that adds a fifth game anyway) >_>

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AlisLandale posted...

Distant_Rainbow posted...

Wait wut

No, you didn't, as long as we're excluding event-only stuff like Jirachi.

without events/hacking, you needed Colosseum/XD for HoOh and Lugia.

and while not necessary, its a lot easier to get the Johto starters through Coloseum rather than completing the Hoenndex in emerald (and that adds a fifth game anyway) >_>

In other words, you need five games. Not six.

You don't need Ruby nor Sapphire for a complete 'Dex if you get the other five. And really, the only reason Colosseum is even needed is Ho-oh so it's really basically four games except for it.
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I always thought the "you could always catch em all if you wanted to" crowd were complete corporate apologist nutters.

Still different from their code literally not being in the games, though.
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I was fine with Dexit, but some of the choices of who to remove are real head scratchers
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I mean in Gen 1 you had to either buy the other game or have friends who had the other version to catch everything.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

I always thought the "you could always catch em all if you wanted to" crowd were complete corporate apologist nutters.

Still different from their code literally not being in the games, though.

That's what patches have been for since the start of this generation. Of course they're not going to use time on something that probably won't be available for 2 years or so when they can just add it in later. It's pretty much why I avoid buying anything day one if I know there's going to be dlc and additional content in a short time frame.

Still, better than Netherealm cheaping out on a bigger cartridge and forcing people to download more than half the base game with a fucking physical purchase.
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The funny thing is, the games were progressively getting better about this, peaking in ORAS where you had methods of catching previous-gen legendaries, not to mention catching Deoxys at the end of the postgame story, which to my knowledge was the first time an event legendary was able to be caught as part of normal mainline gameplay.

But ulimately, there's an ocean of difference between 'you can't do this' and 'you can do this, but it's difficult / inconvenient.' Between Dexit and this new level gating of catching 'mons, GF is taking a big unfortunate swerve towards the former.
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And even then catching feebas was more trouble than it was worth
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True. Even as a child I only bought one version per gen because there was no point buying two copies of the same game for exclusives and trading via link cable was such a pain.
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Right from the get go, you couldn't "catch em all" unless your parents drove you to a special event or you paid attention to Nintendo Power's promotions to mail your cart in.

Or, y'know, friends.

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Guide posted...

Right from the get go, you couldn't "catch em all" unless your parents drove you to a special event or you paid attention to Nintendo Power's promotions to mail your cart in.

Or, y'know, friends.

This mentality always gets me. Some of us had friends with varying interests. Not all of them were on the Pokmon hype train.
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Guide posted...

Or, y'know, friends.

I had friends.

Nobody that had a legit Mew was giving it away lol.

though this topic is purely from a mechanical standpoint. In actuality everyone I knew either had a gameshark, or knew somebody who had a gameshark. >_>

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WerewolfPaws posted...

This mentality always gets me. Some of us had friends with varying interests. Not all of them were on the Pokmon hype train.

Fair. Since I was a kid among kids when Pokemon first hit the states, it was extremely easy.

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Even back in the day it could be hard. Even if your friends were into Pokemon and had a gameboy and another Pokemon game they may not have had the link cable.
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Southernfatman posted...

Even back in the day it could be hard. Even if your friends were into Pokemon and had a gameboy and another Pokemon game they may not have had the link cable.

Literally hundreds of kids, the vast majority playing Pokemon. Someone's gonna gave a link cable.

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Thanks for this topic.

I've been considering getting into Pokemon lately but I didn't know it was total BS and completion is impossible in present day.
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Guide posted...

WerewolfPaws posted...

This mentality always gets me. Some of us had friends with varying interests. Not all of them were on the Pokmon hype train.

Fair. Since I was a kid among kids when Pokemon first hit the states, it was extremely easy.

I was too, I was just the only one of my friends that played Pokemon. If my friends did play games it was stuff like Twisted Metal or wrestling. They collected the cards but that was really it.
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Guide posted...

Literally hundreds of kids, the vast majority playing Pokemon. Someone's gonna gave a link cable.

Maybe where you live. Kids liked pokemon here, but most were playing by themselves because they're parents wouldn't or couldn't get the cable for them. Even in the rare case that they did have it, they weren't going to let others borrow it for fear of it getting stolen or lost, and then getting an ass whipping by their parents. Doing it at school was out of the question because you'd get your stuff taken away form you and then face punishment at home. Trust me, I tried.
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It's mostly funny because of how much they were pushing pokebank the last few years to future proof your collection, yet here we are, in the future, with pokebank being pointless.

Southernfatman posted...

Maybe where you live. Kids liked pokemon here, but most were playing by themselves because they're parents wouldn't or couldn't get the cable for them. Even in the rare case that they did have it, they weren't going to let others borrow it for fear of it getting stolen or lost, and then getting an ass whipping by their parents. Doing it at school was out of the question because you'd get your stuff taken away form you and then face punishment at home. Trust me, I tried.

Sounds like you had a properly staffed school. Mine was overcrowded to hell and back, and during lunch we basically had free to leave the school as we pleased.

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Guide posted...

Sounds like you had a properly staffed school. Mine was overcrowded to hell and back, and during lunch we basically had free to leave the school as we pleased.

Yep. My teachers were hawks and nobody wanted to take such a huge risk with their gameboys/games. Although during recess, me and my friends would go towards the back of the playground where there were many trees and play with our little Pokemon toys. Those we would risk. Only very rarely did someone bring their gameboy to school. I do remember us taking a trip on a charter bus somewhere and we were allowed to bring them. Now that day there were many trades and stuff. Ah, memories.
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Southernfatman posted...

Doing it at school was out of the question because you'd get your stuff taken away form you and then face punishment at home. Trust me, I tried.

Oh man schools waged all-out war on Pokemon, lol.

Literally every day in the morning announcements, the principal would declare "This is a reminder, there are no Pokey-man cards or other toys allowed at skoo."

If the bus driver found out someone had Pokemon cards, the bus came to a screeching halt for confiscation.

It was madness.
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You needed two game boys, a link cable, and a copy of red and blue from the outset. Pokemon has always been aggressive with the sales tactics.
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DevsBro posted...

Oh man schools waged all-out war on Pokemon, lol.

Literally every day in the morning announcements, the principal would declare "This is a reminder, there are no Pokey-man cards or other toys allowed at skoo."

If the bus driver found out someone had Pokemon cards, the bus came to a screeching halt for confiscation.

It was madness.

lol yeah. I heard many horror stories at the time about kids getting their gameboys and cards taken away from them on the bus or in the halls. Schools seemed to think it was all some big gambling thing on top of the usual "no fun allowed" rules.

Speaking of more 90's cultural stuff, my school banned everything regarding the NWO (from wrestling). All the kids would have the logo (either the traditional black and white or the Wolfpack red and black). The school said it was gang related.
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Gobstoppers12 posted...

You needed two game boys, a link cable, and a copy of red and blue from the outset. Pokemon has always been aggressive with the sales tactics.

Hell, I adhere to the slogan, but even that is a marketing message: "Gotta catch 'em all."

Spend your money to get them all, motherfucker!

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Guide posted...

WerewolfPaws posted...

This mentality always gets me. Some of us had friends with varying interests. Not all of them were on the Pokmon hype train.

Fair. Since I was a kid among kids when Pokemon first hit the states, it was extremely easy.

I got into it when Red/Blue were released but my parents moved around a lot. Felt bad, man. Now Im in my mid-20s with like four great friends who all live in different states lol
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DevsBro posted...

Southernfatman posted...

Doing it at school was out of the question because you'd get your stuff taken away form you and then face punishment at home. Trust me, I tried.

Oh man schools waged all-out war on Pokemon, lol.

Literally every day in the morning announcements, the principal would declare "This is a reminder, there are no Pokey-man cards or other toys allowed at skoo."

If the bus driver found out someone had Pokemon cards, the bus came to a screeching halt for confiscation.

It was madness.

Mine fell out of my backpack one morning and I broke a sweat shoveling them back in before teach noticed.
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DevsBro posted...

Oh man schools waged all-out war on Pokemon, lol.

Literally every day in the morning announcements, the principal would declare "This is a reminder, there are no Pokey-man cards or other toys allowed at skoo."

If the bus driver found out someone had Pokemon cards, the bus came to a screeching halt for confiscation.

It was madness.

This is true. I remember my school principal catching me with Pokemon cards and fucking tearing them up right in front of me. Dawwwwwg
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Southernfatman posted...

Schools seemed to think it was all some big gambling thing on top of the usual "no fun allowed" rules.

Where I live, they were convinced it was some satanic ritual disguised as a card game or something.
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DevsBro posted...

Where I live, they were convinced it was some satanic ritual disguised as a card game or something.

Alabama right? I've heard that same stuff here in Mississippi although my city is relatively less superstitious and more liberal (for lack of a better term and I stress the word relatively) so there wasn't a huge amount of panic here.

My best friend at the time had his Pokemon stuff taken away from him because of his overly religious parents. I guess they didn't read about how evil Pokemon was at first or something.
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I just remembered, my 4th grade class had some special occasion and we were able to get some fast food for lunch and eat it in class. It was around when the first Pokemon movie came out so we all got those little Pokemon plush toys in those little plastic pokeballs. Some of us were able to pay extra and get those gold plated cards too. I still got mine somewhere.
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Southernfatman posted...

DevsBro posted...

Where I live, they were convinced it was some satanic ritual disguised as a card game or something.

Alabama right?

Yep, AL.
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Blessed be my glorious east coast liberal elites.

Nah back then it was just an awful mess. I was the second kid to nearly bleed out from a rock before they started enforcing the park with police.

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Found my golden Pokemon card. It has a little plastic case too.

https://i.imgur.com/gwJoljY.jpg

DevsBro posted...

Yep, AL.

Ah thought so. Well hello neighbor.
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lilORANG posted...

And even then catching feebas was more trouble than it was worth

They made it easier to get in gen 5
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I thought it was obvious from the first couple games. The fact that they made two games such as red/blue and only way to get all the pokemon was you needed both games and you need to trade some pokemon for them to evolve. Kinda made it obvious it was never meant for you to catch every pokemon with one game.
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Guide posted...

Right from the get go, you couldn't "catch em all" unless your parents drove you to a special event or you paid attention to Nintendo Power's promotions to mail your cart in.

Or, y'know, friends.

Lmao nobody I knew had a link cable

In retrospect yes, but that was 20 years ago. Not to mention they have the power of a console at their disposal.

pokemon was banned at my school (both games and cards) but other toys were ok...until a kid got hurt and got it banned

RIP Beyblade

Pokemon trading was very cumbersome, at least in gen 3. Took like 5-10 mins to trade 6 pokemon.

GTS was a nice option, but it was always littered with "want this pokemon? give me a high level legendary"
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