Let's Guide: Pokémon Yellow #001 – Pallet Town

Huh, I'm greeted by Professor Oak, the Pokémon Professor who has turned his hobby into a career. After entering Ash as my name and also the name of my rival, Gary, I slip into the role of the protagonist.

Game Mechanics

In this world, you catch and train Pokémon. The game mechanics are like those of an RPG (Role Playing Game), it even reminds me of the RPG Maker engine, but Pokémon was first released in Japan in 1998, while RPG Maker 95 was released for the PC shortly thereafter.

People who train and own Pokémon are called Trainers. When it comes to battle, there are only four menu options to choose from, followed by four attacks per Pokémon. Each Trainer can carry up to six Pokémon. These four menu options are called Attack, Items, Pokémon, and Run. You catch the Pokémon with special Poké Balls. Everyone is allowed to carry a maximum of 6 Pokémon.

Trainers can compete against each other and challenge each other to battle in order to train and also earn money. One of the game's goals is to become a Pokémon Champion.

Since catching and collecting Pokémon is so addictive, the focus is on traveling the world and visiting it, which is why the Pokémon games are successful. The game is based on the grandfather-child principle, which is based on Japanese, but also German culture, where children are supposed to help their grandfathers.

Mother's House and Children's Room

I see myself in my sparsely furnished childhood bedroom; I only see a TV with a Super Nintendo. The bed and the PC are in the corners.

I went to the PC and opened the menus. Aha, this is supposed to be an item storage system? So I picked up POTION. But wait a minute, how does that work with PCs and objects in reality? Simply POOF, POTION materializes in reality as if by magic and then gets stored in my backpack.

Phew, relieved, I recover from the shock and went down the stairs at the other corner, and there I see my mom, who says that all boys have to leave home sometime. So, Professor Oak asked for me.

I watched the TV first. The game says many people already know the film; it is a reference to the film "Stand by Me" from 1986 by Rob Reiner, where four boys walk along a train track.

Pallet Town

I look around outside, but I don't see Professor Oak anywhere. I spoke to the resident, and she says she wants to raise a Pokémon to protect her. Huh? Does she think the Pokémon are slaves or something?

So I went north. Suddenly Professor Oak appears and shouts, "Don't go out! Don't go out!" He ran up to me. "Wild Pokémon live in the tall grass, and you could get hurt. You need a Pokémon to protect you," Professor Oak warns.

He takes me to his lab, where my rival is also waiting.

Professor Oak says I can choose a Pokémon. But there's only one Pokémon on the table. The rival is out of patience and also wants a Pokémon. Professor Oak assures him that he will get one too.

I went over to the table and want to look at this Pokémon, which is in the Poké Ball. Suddenly my rival came running up and overwhelmed me. He wants this Pokémon, he shouts.

I stood up again, and Professor Oak calls me over. He has caught another Pokémon for me, but it is an untamed Pokémon. It's Pikachu. Finally, there is a battle with Gary, who wants to test his Eevee.

Route 1

I then went to Route 1 to Viridian City. In the middle of the road, a supermarket employee gives away POTION as a promotional gift, and I went to the Pokémon Center first. The nice lady at the reception says that she thinks she can heal my sla...uhh...Pokémon. She immediately took my Pokémon and placed it in the device.

The Poké Balls charge up like an electric battery. Wait a minute, are Pokémon in Poké Balls digital? Poké Balls are very powerful capture devices for catching innocent Pokémon and brainwashing them so that they must obey their owners without resistance. The Pokémon materialize in red light rays into the balls, and the connection between the Pokémon and the Poké Ball is like an umbilical cord.

Phew, that's news to me... A guy in the corner says I can also store my Pokémon via PC, even over the wide internet. Huh... is that possible? Now I want to know how that works, but I don't know the inventor.

Relieved, I went outside. I look in one direction towards Viridian Forest; I'd like to visit it sometime, so I walked in that direction.

But an old man stopped me, and I'm not allowed to go through there. "Private property," the old man roared. His daughter tried to calm the choleric man down just because his coffee was all gone.

Well, I can't go through there, so I'll look around in the store next door first. The seller calls out to me, asking if I'm from Pallet Town. He says that a delivery has arrived for Prof. Oak, and I should bring the package to him.

With a sigh, I accepted the package, and I set off in the direction of Pallet Town.

But there are so many ledges that I can jump down from, so I can get back to Pallet Town faster. I'm destroying my knees by jumping off ledges so often, but the adventure shouldn't stop me.

Back in Pallet Town

Having arrived in Pallet Town, I'll go to Prof. Oak's lab again and speak to Professor Oak again. He asked how my Pokémon Pikachu is doing and noticed that my Pikachu is fond of me. Immediately, he said that I'm very talented as a Pokémon Trainer. I immediately handed him the package. "Ah! I've been waiting a long time for these special Poké Balls," Professor Oak rejoices.

I wonder what these special Poké Balls are, but Professor Oak is also hiding something from me. Suddenly my rival came running up and shouted, "Grandpa! My Pokémon has become stronger!" I looked at him with a grim face, but Prof. Oak interrupted the celebration and was happy that we both came at the right time.

Pokédex

It's about the Pokédex, which Prof. Oak is talking about, that a lexicon is created with all the Pokemon I have seen or caught. His dream is to have a complete Pokédex, but he can't do it alone anymore because he is too old.

Therefore, we were entrusted with the task of completing the Pokédex for him. Prof. Oak happily hands us the high-tech devices called "Pokédex."

So I have to catch as many Pokemon as possible so that Professor Oak is happy. So I have to travel all over the world and catch different Pokemon.

One thing I notice is that there are no animals, only Pokemon in the world, which means that all fish and edible things are Pokemon. Pokemon are waiting for me everywhere in the world.

Item "Map"

The rival is determined to help his grandpa, but he doesn't need my help, and I shouldn't get the MAP from his sister either, he laughs.

I ran over to his house, and I'm relieved that it's not like that, and his sister gave me the MAP because Prof. Oak had asked me to run an errand.

The MAP will help me find my way around the world.

You can find the item "Map" in the rival's house.

Catching Pokemon

In Route 1 you can catch Rattata and Pidgey. First, I buy Poké Balls in the Pokémon Supermarket, which is next to the Pokémon Center in Viridian City.

Then I go back to Route 1 and caught some Pokémon. The opposing Pokémon should be weakened first so that they can be caught more easily. Status changes such as Sleep or Paralyzed also make it easier to catch them.

West of Viridian City there are also Nidoran and Spearow, with Spearow having a useful Peck attack that is very effective against BUG and GRASS types.

But be careful, as soon as I get closer to the Pokémon League, the rival comes running up and challenges me to a battle.

Viridian Forest and the Caterpie

After a long training my Caterpie has finally evolved into a Butterfree, he immediately learns CONFUSION as an attack, which will help me a lot against ROCK Pokemon.

The advantage is that if the training starts with Caterpie instead of Metapod, he keeps the attack Tackle and is still useful, because when you catch Metapod, he only knows Harden, which does not cause any attack damage.

Now I'll go back to the Pokémon Center and heal the Pokémon. Now we can compete against Gym Leader Brock and easily defeat them because Pikachu doesn't have to fight; Butterfree makes it easier for us.

Gym Leader Brock and Pewter City

After challenging Brock to a battle, Butterfree can easily defeat him because the CONFUSION attack depends on the Pokémon's Special stat and not on the opponent's standard defense stat. Since Rock Pokémon naturally have high DEF stats and Geodude also hardens itself with Defense Curl, the attack is very useful.

From then on, the game is easier with Butterfree and Pikachu because we still have to go through Mt. Moon, which consists entirely of Rock Pokémon.

Mt. Moon

In the Pokemon Center next to the entrance of Mt. Moon, there is a businessman who wants to sell me a Magikarp for a measly 500 Poké Dollars. I bought it immediately without thinking about it, since I had the change for it.

I can't guess whether he's a con artist or a hero. But Magikarp can learn Tackle at level 15 and only evolves into Gyarados from level 20.

So, the purchase is worth it if you have the Magikarp early in the game and want to train it, because later in the game you have Gyarados on your team. It also masters powerful Water attacks. From level 25, Gyarados learns the move Dragon Rage, which always causes 40 HP damage, regardless of the target's weaknesses and resistances.

But if the opponent is immune to the DRAGON type, it is ineffective. The attack can be powerful, because after 5 rounds it is already 200 HP damage together, which practically defeats every Pokemon.

By the way, 500 Pokédollars is roughly equivalent to 3 US dollars if it is based on Yen.

Soon it will continue with part #002.