Responding to ’s journal post.
I'd love to hear about your experience with Pokemon. What was your first game? What was your first starter? What was your first level 100? What was your first shiny?(gyarados doesn't count)
Pokemon has been in my life since I can remember honestly. I actually came to the series via my brother. He was always playing Red and I would watch. Soon after I started to watch the anime and that was my major link to the series as a kid. I remember buying toys and VHS tapes and watching the anime for the hour of tv I was allowed daily. The biggest thing that drew me in was my love of animals. As a kid all I ever did was run around in the woods collecting bugs or lizards. Once Pokemon rolled around, I was pointing my pokedex toy at them and pretending it was telling me about them even though I was just reading from kid’s biology books. I even kept bugs in pokeballs (haha how awful)! I got to play Red once my brother grew tired of it. I remember starting with charmander and then struggling against Brock very vividly. Onix crushed charmander, metapod, and pidgeotto. I was down to my last, the Nidoran I didn’t think much of. Turns out that double kick got me the Boulder badge and the Nidoran Male line has been one of my very favorites ever since. That year I got yellow with the special pokemon yellow anime themed Gameboy color. That was the first game that was really mine in the franchise and not my brother’s. I remember going as charmeleon for Halloween that same year and getting scolded by my professor that pokemon was poison for the brain haha. Well that poison kept me hooked on biology and look at me now, doing a PhD in it!
Silver was also really big for me. My brother bought both games and kept gold for himself and let me play silver so that we could trade. He had cindaquil. I, being the biggest Steve Irwin fan and Crocodile Hunter fanatic, obviously had to choose totodile. The feraligatr he became was my first lvl 100, beat Red with just that feraligatr! Silver was also a more experience for me. I bonded over it with my best friends in 2nd grade and there were sleepovers spent playing and battling all night. I also spent a lot of time with family in Europe with silver. From watching the anime there in another language to always having night time because my game was still set to US time zone (murkrow and houdour everythwer!), my adventures in Europe with pokemon were lots of fun. My cousin just got into the series so there was tons of playing by the river catching "pokemon" and trips to the card shop for non-english Pokemon TCG (still remember that off color gyarados card haha).
The first game I bought with my own money was Pokemon Ruby. That game blew my mind. I played it non-stop on the old classic GBA. With Treecko as my starter I met my first shiny in the Granite Cave, it was a Makuhita haha. I thought it was a glitch until a checked in a strategy guide! That same game also brought me a second shiny: Rayquaza. I remember seeing Rayquaza in a picture labeled “SweetBeast” in battle and became obsessed with catching one since it was so cool. Turns out I had no idea what it was or where to find it. Then a stumbled on the spear pillar. When I got to the top, there it was, that mystery Pokemon. I remember the shiver I had when I first herd it’s cry. Too bad I was under leveled and it took 2 hours to catch the darn thing. Turns out, all those resets ended up causing one encounter to generate a shiny! Too bad shiny Rayquazas are a dime a dozen nowadays due to all those event releases. The Pokemon in Ruby are also the first that I kept with me, transferring up each new generation. Not to mention the glory of Pokemon Colluseum (spent days of summer break in Europe scaling Mt. Battle).
With Gen 4 my interested waned. Sinnoh wasn’t that interesting and none of my friends in a new school system in a new state played Pokemon. I beat Diamond and then quit the series mostly. I had other series I liked, now became a major Monster Hunter fan with Monster Hunter 2 and then Freedom Unite (still am to this day). It wasn’t until college that I got back into the series.
I had staved off getting Pokemon Black, it seemed odd and I was reluctant to get back into the series. Turns out my roommate, who would be my roommate for the next 4 years, had White and was playing it. He was having so much fun that the nostalgia kicked in and I bought it only days after he did. Playing with friends brought back the old magic of the games again. When black 2 rolled around we both got it day 1, starting from the same point and competing as rivals. He had Electevire, I had Magmortar, it was great. Black 2 was also when I started to dabble in breeding and EVs and all that. Turns out some friends we made by way of a fishing hobby and same major also played.
Perhaps my fondest experience was the release of X and Y. We four friends had been hyped, following all the news, trying to stay away from leaks, having vigorous speculative debates. The night of the midnight release we all got together, blasted tunes from the anime (Johto journeys was a favorite) and waited in line with all the other fans who were wearing starter themed hats. Games in hand, we drove home with snacks and a case of Mountain Dew and played for almost 36 hours straight stopping only for the occasional class or bathroom break. XY was also when I chose bulbasaur since everyone else chose charmander or squirtle. That totally changed my opinion on bet Kanto starter, especially after Mega Venuar #teambulbasaur haha.There is some kind of magic in playing these games with friends that will likely keep me playing them until either they stop making them or I kick the bucket ha.
That was probably more than I should’ve written but I've been with the series since the start haha (and there was lot more I could've added ). I’m curious to what everyone else’ experience is.