One of the flaws of Pokemon as a franchise, especially as an adult, is that everyone in the game worlds and everything in their world revolves around Pokemon. They don't live lives except through Pokemon. Go into a house of a family? The daughter says,"dad loves Pokemon too!" That's so surprising, kid. Someone in this world that likes Pokemon? I'm legitimately shocked. The scientists you meet only ever study Pokemon. Kids, boys, girls, women, men, old and young just only care about these pocket monsters. They don't have lives that exists outside of them. What sports do they play besides watching these monsters fight? What job is there besides Gym Trainer or Pokemart Assistant? It's a horrifically sterile game world due to its inherent simplicity that seems to have been done to achieve nothing but sell more toys. I mean, it's fun and charming, but this is a massive flaw I've seen that embodies the entire brunt of the series. I've never seen any other RPG series like it in how small and clinical the world feels.
Take Final Fantasy. Let's use one example, oh say, FFVII because it's the most popular. People really like Materia in that game. It's useful. But they don't live their whole lives around materia. There's more to it than just Materia despite it being a central part of the game story. You've got resorts where people enjoy the beach, geo-politics, slums where people are just trying to survive, Cetra and the Ancients, themes about the nature of man and what makes a cause good and worthy. Then you look at Pokemon and....
Don't get me wrong. Pokemon Yellow is a great game and I don't begrudge it too much because after all, it's a Game Boy game and given the constraints, what they managed to achieve on the hardware is nothing short of awe inspiring. But later generations never got out of this Pokemon obsessed hole where anything and everything revolves around Pokemon. It makes me question how or why an adult could find such a world charming much less good. It's so sterile, cold, and one-dimensional as if its very creation is meant to sell you something.
The copy I brought up was just a cart.
Always check old cart-based games (especially DS) for whether or not it's a repro.
Oh, you're absolutely right. I've since learned my lesson. I was foolish enough to assume that GameStop wouldn't resell a counterfeit copy.
