After finishing Ruby and Sapphire, Game Freak realized that not every Pokemon could be captured in the game anymore since these were no longer compatible with the previous two generations. And so from that came FireRed and LeafGreen, faithful and complete remakes of the original Red/Blue/Green versions. Because these games were remade from scratch on the GBA games’ engine, nearly every single bug the original had was fixed up and the visuals get a very noticeable update. There are also the added features of the past two generations of Pokemon which means hold items, running, new moves and movesets (in exchange for the existing TMs, tutors around the region teach you some moves from the originals), female protagonist choice, all that stuff. The game was also noticeably changed to be easier in some ways (for example you can catch a Mankey before Brock and Charmander can learn Metal Claw, making him a breeze with any starter). There is the addition of the Sevii Islands; a set of new areas for both towards the end and at postgame that enable Pokemon from the Johto region to be captured. This is also the first game to include the VS Seeker, a key item that allows you to challenge almost every minor trainer in the game again.

It’s not all shiny and cool however; though FR/LG are major improvements Game Freak had a weird notion of what in this game should be updated and what shouldn’t. A boatload of all-but-needless tutorial functions were put in these remakes, and there are some odd regressions from previous installments like the trainer not turning to face an opponent when challenged, newer evolutions being completely barred until postgame, censoring of Gamblers to Gamers, and no internal clock (meaning no berry growing, though you can find these as hidden items in darker patches of grass or trade them over from another game).

However these flaws are all minor, FR/LG is a straight and complete upgrade from the originals in almost every way.

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