Have you ever wanted to live in an alternate timeline? Have you ever wondered what the Pokemon games would have been like if Gold and Silver had been the last games in the franchise as originally intended? Thanks to the work of a brilliant coder, now you can.

I've been playing Pokemon since launch, and like many of the original early adopters, I have found that the recent games lack the heart and soul of the earlier games. And I have a working hypothesis for why that is. I played the first three launches on Switch, Let's Go Pikachu (awful), the remake of Diamond and Pearl (serviceable), and Pokemon Sword (hated it so much I stopped playing Pokemon). None of these games were as fun to play as the older entries in the series. And, I disliked Pokemon Sword so much I found that I could not justify spending more money on a series that just did not hold my interest in the way it had in the past. It felt like it had gone downhill. And, again, I have seen this sentiment echoed by others who have been playing since the release of red and blue three decades ago.

So what is causing this? I had several hypotheses. The first is that Pokemon is a game with a target audience of children, and I turned 40 in August. If I was the target audience in 1996, when I was 11 years old, I simply aged out of the target audience. That's certainly a possibility. I used to love the 1980s version of the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles cartoon, but upon recent rewatch I noticed several glaring issues that made me realize that I had simply aged out of my ability to enjoy the series. So, did I get too old for Pokemon?

I don't think so. Because I replayed the remake of Red and Blue, and found that I enjoyed them. I replayed the remake of Gold and Silver, enjoyed them. I replayed Pokemon Emerald, enjoyed it. So I don't think it's me. I don't think it's a nostalgia factor, or that I was no longer in the target audience for the games, because I got Pokemon Sapphire at launch, when I was 17. In terms of maturity level for media consumption, 17 is not wholely different from 40 in the way that 11 is. I still enjoy much of the media now that I enjoyed at 17. I don't think this is the answer.

I think that there has been a real, objective, noticeable drop in quality, and that even younger consumers have noticed it. And I think that this is a variety of reasons, and some of those reasons are connected to my being there from the beginning, and having a pre-established idea of what a Pokemon game could or should be, my personal preference, and other things like that that the target audience would not be affected by. But not all of them. And, it's my review so I do what I want, biases and all. You're on my website. You're in my house.

I was there, in the trenches, during the height of Pokemania. I played the games, read the manga (illustrated for whatever reason by an artist more well known for his pornographic manga), I collected the cards and actually still have those and they probably are work money. I was there. I lived through it. And, in hindsight, I think this was a problem. I think that Pokemon has become a victim of its own success.

Gamefreak was once an indy developer. The first Pokemon game was, believe it or not, an indy title. It had a dedicated team who wanted to tell a story and invent a concept. And it showed, not just in the heart of the game, but in the buggy nature of the first Pokemon game. These games were a labor of love, and played more like "real" RPGs than collect-a-thons. They told simple stories and focused on worldbuilding, building a world through storytelling, through Pokedex entries and NPC dialogue, using subtle clues to hint at what this world was. The people who made these games had a world to build and a story to tell, and they told it. There were all kinds of things that were hinted but never fully explained, like the Pokemon War that Lt. Surge (directly stated to be an American, from the US) was part of, where his electric Pokemon saved his life, or the research being done to clone Mew, which eventually produced Mewtwo, or trying to figure out what Team Rocket was doing at the graveyard.

Then, Pokemon became a major hit. There were TV shows and movies and merchandise to sell sell sell. There is now no time to produce this level of worldbuilding, because as part of the development team on a new game, you are the only thing holding back the walls of new merchandise to release, the only thing standing the way of building up this media empire, and you need to have this game out this year, no excuses. So you have to make sacrifices. You have to change aspects or delete them entirely. You have to rely so heavily on your predecessors that the brand recognition is on point, and if you don't, the fans will release wave after wave of critical Youtube videos bitching and complaining that you didn't perfectly render all 1000 monsters or however many there are now, in stunning 3D graphics that push the Switch's hardware, running their mouths about "pop in" or whatever. The pressure is real, the crunch time is real, and it is simply impossible to put the same level of care into each game in that environment. It can't be done. It's not humanly possible. So the priorities have to shift. You have to move from crafting a world to pushing out a product for consumption to sell plushies of the new starters. You have no choice. And every pokemon has to be adorable or cool and marketable.

And the writing got ridiculous. I have even seen, "playing Pokemon for the story," used as an insult, as if that is not something a fan or consumer should expect. From a JRPG. For the first few Pokemon games, the story was the important part. Learning about this world, speculating about it, was the important part. Yes, obviously you wanted to, "Catch 'em all,"; no one can deny that, but the writing was amazing and subtle, and built this world in a way that is completely lacking in the newer games. And, there was an aspect of seriousness throughout. People talk about how Pokemon is, "surprisingly dark," citing pokedex entries about monsters that lured away children using hypnotic powers and being created out of pollution to poison people the way people poisoned their environment.

News flash: That was not originally surprising. Pokemon used to be a real work of art with real messages to send to children about the dangers of pollution and going off with strangers. Pokemon used to stand for things and mean something. This is only surprising to new players because they got so used to the corporate, friendly, later games that were more interested in selling dolls than standing for anything with compelling worldbuilding. The priorities shifted, and now this type of worldbuilding is considered "surprising" because it obviously won't sell toys. Because it tells a story of a world much darker and more intense than what newer fans are used to. This saddens me and I think it was the wrong direction to go.

This rom gives a look into a world where none of that happened, where Pokemon kept it's original indy soul and kept up with their original themes. I, personally, think this was a much better direction to go.

Pokemon Reforged is built on an early build of Pokemon Gold and Silver playable at Spaceworld in 1997. It is built on the Pokemon Crystal image and takes all the assets from that build to reconstruct that build of the game as closely as possible, with the original plot, map layouts, and pokemon. Many of the pokemon were cut from the final release of the game, and others were completely reworked. It is rumored that Gold and Silver were originally meant to be the last entry in the franchise, and it shows in this game. Many of the ideas here were scrapped for the final game, and reworked into later games, but others were removed entirely. Including what has become my favorite new Pokemon.

This is Kotora, who evolves into Raitora at level 35. Mine was male and I love him with my entire being. He's a pure electric type, but learns dark type attacks, and was an integral part of my team from the first time I encountered him. And he's adorable. Look how fat he is. Pokemon, for some reason, wants to slim down their fatass Pokemon now (look what happened to Pikachu) and I, for one, am not here for it. Actually, Pokemon really did start making a bunch of buckwild design choices and this game illustrates that well.

I am not the first person, nor will I likely be the last, to point out how drastically the art style has changed in the Pokemon series. The art development has completely changed the design language away from simple, organic designs that I opine would appeal more to children towards increasing complexity, to the point that some newer Pokemon could not even be rendered in the original watercolor style with any degree of aesthetic authenticity.

Like, for example. I'm over here playing Sword and Shield in a fairy forest, and this shit jumps out at me.

What the fuck is that? It's some manner of creature, for sure, but it sure as shit ain't a Pokemon.

It's fairly obvious that these overcomplicated designs are there to show the power of the hardware of whatever new system the game is on than to be consistent with the original design language built over decades. You can find plenty of people online who make this comparison, and even some who have attempted to render these new, ridiculously over complicated designs in the original watercolor and pixel style with predictably mixed results. And that seems to have started in Gold and Silver.

Here are the beta designs for the legendary dogs alongside their final counterparts. Look at the difference in design language. The first row is instantly recognizable as dogs with obvious elemental typing. The bottom row is some manner of creature, indistinguishable at a glance to the point that many players automatically think that they're felines, rather than canines. The design fails to convey what it needs to convey to the player, and I have no idea why this choice was made. And we see that over and over again when we compare the beta designs to their final counterparts. Sometimes the changes even completely lose the plot and destroy the cohesiveness of evolutionary family lines.

When we look at the remoraid line, we see that the beta design language clearly makes sense, a gun evolving into a tank. But the final designs are just a fish evolving into an octopus. This was a buckwild design choice. The beta designs are clearly superior.

And I feel this way about many of the beta designs. So many, in fact, that I think I can now say with confidence that this was the point where Pokemon's core design language changed and began to move in a direction that I, personally, dislike. Feel free to peruse them at your leisure here.

The world map is also what I would consider to be a great improvement. Instead of taking us to a new region, the game has simply expanded to cover all of Japan, and the Kanto region is but one region in this much more expansive world. This frees up the post-game to take place in a new region, and allows Red to take his rightful place as a Gym leader, replacing Giovanni, who has, interestingly enough, moved on to the Elite 4.

Which is another interesting thing about the story. Being defeated in battle a few times by a child did not completely destroy Team Rocket, which makes far more sense for a national crime syndicate, and Team Rocket is still a huge part of the game and the main antagonists. They're even the main antagonists of the post-game.

Also, I would like to add that pretty much every NPC is this game is, if not a kind person, at least not a complete asshole, which I enjoy because I never understood why we really needed that. Your rival is just another kid who wants to be a Pokemon master, and is nice to you, frequently teaming up to help you in your adventure. The battles are framed as friendly tests of strength. Even Professor Oak, well known for assholery, is a much better person with a much nicer personality. It completely shifts the tone of the game and makes it a much more enjoyable experience. We already had the asshole rival in Blue, we didn't really need another one. And yet, this doesn't drop the difficulty. People don't go easy on you just because they like you the way they do in later entries. This is the absolutely perfect balance for the world Gamefreak is building.

In addition, this world map works really hard to take in the feedback about the flaws of the first game in the way the final Gold and Silver don't. They go out of their way to let types who were originally pushed to the side (largely in favor of psychic) really have time to shine. Many of the first locations in the game center on ghost and ice type pokemon. These were 2 types that were available in the first game, but were largely sidelined. Here, their rosters are expanded, and they have unique locations early in the game. It really feels like a direct response to feedback, and is an example of what I talked about earlier, an indy development team who is making a work of art, rather than a product, for people who appreciate it, rather than customers.

I've been singing this game's praises for so long now that I may have mislead you into thinking that I believe it to be perfect. That's simply not the case. This game has a few glaring flaws that I'll get into now.

First of all, I have spoken at length in other reviews about how I dislike when video games are so difficult it makes a casual playthrough impossible. This game falls firmly into that camp, being, "Nintendo Hard,". This was such a flaw that I abandoned my original save file, which I was playing on my phone, at the climb to Mt. Fuji, after obtaining all 8 gym badges. This flaw is especially egregious on turn-based RPGs where the solution to the problem of, "being way to fucking hard," is simply to grind up your party. I don't want to walk back and forth in tall grass beating high level pokemon for hours to level up my party. I don't find it fun. So I restarted on a PC emulator so that I could cheat and just feed everybody rare candies until their stomachs ached. I suggest that everyone do that, because I see this as a lack of balance rather than a true, enjoyable challenge. It's built off of Pokemon Crystal, so Pokemon Crystal cheats work with it. Max out your money and use it to buy rare candies and just bulk up your team.

Secondly, though I praised the decision to give types such as ice and ghost the chance to shine, I hadn't caught a single fire Pokemon early in the game while I was in the ice cave. Now, I don't think that this is a problem unique to this game, because it was an issue in the first game as well, and creates a difficulty spike based on who you chose as your starter. I had chosen the grass type, but if I had chosen the fire type, it would have been a breeze. In Red/Blue, if you chose the fire type, it makes the battle with Brock more difficult. So this may have been an attempt to make up for that, but it aggravated the shit out of me, so it's going on here as a flaw.

Overall though, I really, really enjoyed my time with this game, and heartily recommend it. And, for the low low price of absolutely free, it's difficult not to suggest it.

Download the game here:

Silver

Gold

And, check out this Unofficial Prima Strategy Guide here.

And for the love of god, Cheat like your life depends on it.