Topic: FireRed & LeafGreen general discussion

I've been having a lot of fun with my first Pokemon game, Pokemon LeafGreen. I don't care if you're playing on Switch, Switch 2, GBA, or Virtual Console. You can share opinions, stories, which version you chose and why, how far you are in the game, what console you play on, information about your Pokemon, or whatever.

I may be a little late to make this thread. I also hope I didn't miss a forum with this purpose. I couldn't find one.

Some info about my save right now:
Version: Leafgreen
Console: Switch 2
Starter Pokemon: Charmander
Badges: 5
Pokemon seen: ~100
Pokemon caught: 35
What I named Gary: Quincely
What I named myself: Cobalt

I’m really happy they re-released this game since I never completed any of the GBA Pokemon games back in the day. My main concern is that since they released the remake, they will probably never going to re-release the Gen 1 games which I really want them to. Even though I have the games on my 3DS, I don’t want to erase the files just to play it again and a re-release on the Switch is really the only way I can officially play it again and still keep my save data in the 3DS VC games. I hope Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald get a re-release as well.

My current progress:
My name: Shao
My rival's name: *sshat (yes, I did manage to name him that despite the addition of the word filter)
Badges: 1
My current Pokémon team:
Bootysaur (Ivysaur)
MURICA (Pidgeotto)
NutsNBolts (Pikachu)
Dwayne (Geodude) 😏
Plus a Charmander and a Squirtle that don't have nicknames because my Pokémon fan uncle traded them to me

Yeah what the heck, I'll go ahead and post my current team too. I've just arrived at Celadon and added a sixth 'Mon to my party.

Trogdor (Charmeleon, Lv. 31)
Wormy (Butterfree, Lv. 29)
Got Horns (Nidorino, Lv. 29)
Whiskers (Gyarados, Lv. 29)
Goomba (Gloom, Lv. 29)
Zippy (Jolteon, Lv. 26)

Nidorino's nickname is referring to a scene/character from the movie Hoodwinked. "Wormy" is a SpongeBob reference; "The Monster That Killed Wormy" was too many characters 🤣

I'll probably kick Butterfree off eventually once everything starts evolving, but it's fun to use for right now. Gyarados and maybe Nidorino might go at some point too, we'll see.

I also an HM slave Raticate named I, it gets pulled out of the box as needed. ("I used Cut!")

Here are my party pokemon:

NtThChosN1 | Charizard | Lv49: Going into this game, I wanted a Bulbasaur as my starter, but I wanted to look at the pixel art of the other ones. I perused the three but accidentally selected the charmander. I was a little frustrated (cause there wasn't really an 'Are you sure?' kind of thing,) but I thought it was funny anyway. I named him Not The Chosen One. He knows CUT, SLASH, FLAMETHROWER, and SEISMIC TOSS.

Zesty Chin | Golbat | Lv 35: I was pretty particular about who I let join the team at first, but this Zubat that I found in Mt. Moon spoke to me. I was floored by the utter brilliance of how his facial structure looks on the GBA. He was my 2nd pokemon I caught, so I trained him well. He now is a Golbat, and I taught him the move ATTRACT. (It's part of his character.)

Town Flyer | Fearow | Lv 23: Kind of self explanatory. I keep him on me to take places. He used to be a spearow.

Lipster | Gyrados | Lv 27: I caught her while fishing because I needed a pokemon to surf me places.

Diddley | Ditto | Lv 23: I caught it because I thought it would be a fun pokemon. It turns out it's kind of boring to use him ngl. I'll be replacing him, but it's good to have him in the collection.

Plonkley | Magneton | Lv 31: Magnemite is my favorite Gen 1 pokemon, so I was very eager to get to the powerplant to get this guy.

Some notable boxed pokemon:

Lemon Bar | Slowpoke
Frenzy | Eevee
Numparwan | Pikachu
Tunnela | Diglett
Numbartu | Voltorb
Dread | Tangela
Finn B. Vu | Vulpix
Two York | Slowbro
Webby | Dewgong
Pluto | Abra
Wounds | Rattata
Side Pillow | Venonat
Number 9 | Weepinbell

@Nep-Nep-Freak Please...when I was playing Pokemon Gold back then...I named my rival "Butt"...like literally considering how his personality is...That was my own funny moment during that time.

Haven't played Leafgreen in a long, long time. But I'm gonna buy a reprinted copy off ebay. Granted not authentic but cheaper & I can play on my OG DS. Darn thing is still kicking & going strong.

@CobaltFan this is your first time ever playing a Pokemon game? How are you finding starting with FRLG in 2026?

I’m currently on 5 badges, about to head down to Cinnabar Island. My team is all ~Lv 40:

• Blastoise
• Golem
• Weepinbell
• Dodrio
• Ninetales
• Jolteon
• Jynx

Doing what has become a common strategy of mine in the older games: train up 7 Pokemon and naturally end up dropping one of them before the Elite 4.

@Buizel I've been finding it fun. It's not the most streamlined experience, and there are some annoying things about it, but I've tried to stay patient with it. Stopping your progress with a mandatory pokemon battle is annoying, the battles take a lot longer when you have to wait for battle animations and text, (I hate how it has to do the spinning ducks thing every time with confusion,) I had to look up where to get the silph scope, and I find it silly that you can't really fill your pokedex with just firered or leafgreen.

Despite that, there's a lot to love about pokemon. I used to be into the cards, so revisiting familiar guys like magnemite and such is amazing. Building up a team, making stories, forming connections with these silly 64 x 64 pixel blobs, training them and teaching moves, it all feels pretty unique to pokemon to me. I always stop for a bit when I see a new pokemon, just to look at the pixel art. I really love this game, and I think it kind of holds up in 2026 if you have a bit of patience.

@CobaltFan There are settings for turning off battle animations and increasing text speed if you haven't checked them out yet.

Game Freak does this two version system with exclusive Pokemon as a way to promote communication with other players, they want Pokemon to be a very social experience. They're encouraging you to find a friend and trade with them. That's why you have some Pokemon that are only in one version or the other and why you have some Pokemon that only evolve by trading.

Honestly this factor is one reason why I chose not to buy this version of the game, not having online for this is kills the experience here. I live in rural Delaware, which is basically a glorified retirement community, so it's highly unlikely I'll be able to find someone around here to trade with locally. I need online to complete the dex, period.

It's also worth noting, that the dex situation will get even worse in the post game. Without spoiling too much yet, there's an expanded dex in the post game that includes every Pokemon that every existed at the time this game originally released, but many of those Pokemon aren't in FRLG at all. You'd have to trade them from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and those games aren't on Switch yet (there are leaks indicating RSE are coming). Honestly I wouldn't even worry about completing the dex right now. It's difficult, and in some aspects impossible, to complete right now and the reward for doing so is completely insignificant. You do need 60 Pokemon to unlock the expanded dex in post game (and there's also some post game areas locked behind it), but that shouldn't be too hard, anything after that doesn't really matter at this point.

I have already turned up the text speed, but I had no idea you could turn off battle animations. Thank you. I will turn them off immediately when I get the chance.

@Bolt_Strike
I knew there was a reason my Golbat kept trying to evolve but couldn't. I wonder if they're waiting to make FRLG connect with pokemon home for something they haven't announced yet. It feels like they may be hiding some connection features. (Maybe it has to do with some previous generations coming to the switch.)

@CobaltFan Your Golbat won't be able to evolve until you get the National Dex in post game (that's the name of the expanded dex you get), it has nothing to do with HOME. That was a very controversial feature in FRLG, they wanted to stick to the original 151 Pokemon in the main game, but some of them have new evolutions in later games so they just outright stop the evolution to prevent you from using the new Pokemon. Golbat is one of those Pokemon, it evolves by reaching a certain friendship level (friendship being a hidden mechanic measuring how much your Pokemon likes you) which can happen pretty much any time during the game, so it's probably the most infamous casualties of that mechanic

As far as HOME, all we know is that transfers are one way. Once you put a Pokemon into HOME, it can't come back to FRLG. Again, there are rumors that RSE are coming later and they may need to make some changes to facilitate that, but beyond that it doesn't seem like there's anything else planned for FRLG.

@CobaltFan Yeah these things were all pretty normal back then, but totally understand them being a shock playing the game first time in 2026. Good to hear you're having a fun time though. Someone I know IRL is considering using FRLG as a gateway into the series, and I've been torn on whether to recommend it to them tbh!