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The Most Memorable Moment/Experience from Your First Playthrough of a Pokemon Game

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Hello everyone! With Pokemon Sword and Shield less than a month away, I have been thinking about what my first playthrough of the game will be like.

Pokemon games are always wonderful for multiple playthroughs, but there is always a sort of magic that comes with the very first one. It's the first time you're experiencing something, and it can produce some amazing memories, or sad ones, or even silly ones.

So, thinking back to your first playthrough of a Pokemon game, what memory sticks out the most of any particular title? Feel free to post multiple for one game, one for multiple games, or multiple for multiple games. These moments also don't have to be in the game per say, it's just a moment that's inspired by the game, or maybe something you were doing during your first playthrough.

I have a few, from different games.

Pokemon X
It was in the later game, and I had just beaten Lysandre. Now, the writer in me always likes to create little character headcanons, as they help make the games more interesting for me, though I make sure the headcanons do have hints leading to them and aren't completely random (most of the time at least). So, my personal headcanon for Lysander was who he meant by "beautiful people" when he said he wanted to destroy the not beautiful ones. I took that as him wanting to destroy the corruption in the world, but since so many people thought he was crazy, he knew sacrifices had to be made. In my own story headcanon, my character understood wanting to be rid of that corruption, but she thought Lysandre's plan was crazy. So after Lysandre's ultimate weapon exploded with Lysandre down inside, implying that he was buried under all the falling rubble, I wrote a poem using the voice of that character called "Ode' to a Dead Man". I had only just played through that part earlier in the day, and I was sitting at my theatre rehearsal just trying to pass time. Then, the idea came to my head, so I wrote that poem. I still have it somewhere actually, but I can't remember what notebook it's in.

Pokemon Omega Ruby
This next memory is definitely more of an experience that lasted (on and off of course) for around 9 months. It was release day, my boyfriend at the time and a mutual friend decided to plan a small party for release day. After picking up our copies of the game after school, we went back to my ex' house and started up our adventures. I caught a Ralts early own, knowing I wanted to use one and named her Sugar. When I proclaimed her name to my ex, he started making jokes about her really liking sugary sweets. This later evolved into an entire comic that we started planning of a Veteran Trainer being dragged by a Newbie and her snack stealing, hat thieving Ralts. So yeah, this playthrough inspired a comic that my ex and I planned a decent amount of. Whenever I think of my first playthrough of Omega Ruby, I think of this.

Pokemon Sun
This memory is actually in-game this time and is more of a moment. Pokemon Sun and Moon are some of my favorite Pokemon games to date, but out of all the most fun and memorable things from them. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my first playthrough was sitting inside my Mom's car while we were at my sister's marching band competition (in the wait time before the band was going up), running around in Lush Jungle trying to catch a Passimian FOR AN HOUR! I'm not even kidding. I encountered 8 Comfey (who have the same encounter rate), during that time. That Passimian just did not want to show it's face. And then when it finally did it nearly took all of my Pokeballs to catch it! If I wasn't planning to use it and did not have a naming theme for that playthrough, I would have definitely given it some terrible name that represented how annoying it was to find.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu
Another one that was just a moment, but I always think about this when it comes to thinking about my first playthrough of this game (only playthrough actually). It was when I encountered a Shiny Butterfree in Viridian Forest. I had been playing around with the chain mechanic, but I only had it up to 10 or so so the shiny odds weren't up that much, if at all. But rare Pokemon showing u was up. So when I was running by, seeing a lot of Butterfree, I actually wasn't that shocked when a Shiny one ran past. In fact, I glanced at it, thinking that was just normal, to only realize that it wasn't. Then I ran into a couple of other Pokemon trying to get to it. I thought the shiny odds must have just been greatly increased for the game or something. It didn't really hit me that I encountered a Shiny till I actually caught it.

There we are, there's just a few examples of my memories from my first playthroughs of different Pokemon games. Let me know what memories you have, I would love to read about them!
 
Emerald was the least "smooth" run I had as it was my first, some memories from it:
-Two days after I started my run I decided to show my mom the game by starting her save file and I saved...All games I had played until them had at least two savefiles so I can't be blamed. I had to restart my run.
-That epic feeling when Kirlia evolved into Gardevoir while training.
-I didn't know what to do in Fallarbor Town and at that time I didn't know a lot of English so I had to translate a lot of NPC lines.
-My Marshtomp could have evolved in an epic way beating Norman but he fainted after reaching Lv 36. :cry:
-I wanted a Feebas, so after looking on the Internet that it could be found on Route 119 I surfed it from over a month, leveling up all my mons even the PC ones in the process.
-I used the Master Ball on Groudon after a very long battle.
-I killed Latios, Kyogre and Regirock and forgot to turn off :cry:
-I had to spam Revives at my final battle in the league so Wallace's Milotic would run out of Recover and I could have a chance to kill her. I started the league with 99 Revives and ended up with 30-36.
-A few months later, a friend bought Ruby and was stuck in Granite Cave. I had to help him via phone telling him where to go while I was playing my game.
 
Emerald was the least "smooth" run I had as it was my first, some memories from it:
-Two days after I started my run I decided to show my mom the game by starting her save file and I saved...All games I had played until them had at least two savefiles so I can't be blamed. I had to restart my run.
-That epic feeling when Kirlia evolved into Gardevoir while training.
-I didn't know what to do in Fallarbor Town and at that time I didn't know a lot of English so I had to translate a lot of NPC lines.
-My Marshtomp could have evolved in an epic way beating Norman but he fainted after reaching Lv 36. :cry:
-I wanted a Feebas, so after looking on the Internet that it could be found on Route 119 I surfed it from over a month, leveling up all my mons even the PC ones in the process.
-I used the Master Ball on Groudon after a very long battle.
-I killed Latios, Kyogre and Regirock and forgot to turn off :cry:
-I had to spam Revives at my final battle in the league so Wallace's Milotic would run out of Recover and I could have a chance to kill her. I started the league with 99 Revives and ended up with 30-36.
-A few months later, a friend bought Ruby and was stuck in Granite Cave. I had to help him via phone telling him where to go while I was playing my game.

Wow! That sounds like an experience. Oof yep, I never knew that pokemon games could only have one save file when I was a kid. My brother must have hated me with how many times I restarted his copy of Pokemon Yellow.

And that revive story is insane! That sounds like such a rough fight. Sounds like something I would do too lol.
 
-A few months later, a friend bought Ruby and was stuck in Granite Cave. I had to help him via phone telling him where to go while I was playing my game.

This reminds me of my first ever run in pokemon red. My friend came all the way to my house just to get me the surf hm in the safari zone. Hated safari zone as a kid!
 
I've got two from my first play through, and a bit of a run up to how I got there. I got my first gameboy, and Pokemon Blue, Christmas Eve of third grade... so like, 1998 or 1999. I got to open one gift before Christmas day. I had wanted Pokemon for ages - in second grade, my Japanese friend had given me pokemon stickers (growlithe and pidgeotto) and shown me a bunch more. I came up with stories about how pokemon worked, and I was wrong about EVERYTHING! I assumed they talked, I thought Gengar was a hedgehog, I thought there'd be good and bad ones (like autobots vs decepticons) and I thought they were fighting over eggs to increase their ranks - which we in fact the pokeballs. So when I learned Pokemon was coming out as a thing in the US from an advertisement on back of a Nickelodeon magazine I got at a supermarket checkout while I was on vacation with my family, I was SO excited. But like I said, I didn't have a gameboy! So I bought the guidebooks. I got almost every one I found. I read them without having the game, and I drew all the Pokemon. The art was what got me. They looked so cool! So when my nanny (who was like a cross between a mother and an older sister to me, very important person in my life - she's passed away now, but I'm glad this question gave me the chance to unearth this memory) gave me a hint what to open, she had a big grin on her face. I opened the wrapping and had a FIELD day when I saw the Pokemon Blue box, and I was let to open the box with the gameboy. I had NO idea how to actually play it on a BASIC level. I couldn't figure out how to get out of the naming section, I played the whole thing with my name as "David;W." I knew everything that was supposed to happen in the game, and where all the pokemon were, but I made all sorts of missteps. I thought I'd somehow let the St. Anne leave the harbor too early and felt lost where to go. I spent AGES in Silph until I FINALLY found that ONE warp panel in the thin back hallway. And I remember hacking away at the Elite Four over and over, until the night I won. I was too distracted to go anywhere else, so I'd just parked myself on the stairs in the entryway in my house and pounded away with my Blastoise and Articuno until I'd won. Goddamn loved that game.

Thanks for asking. This was nice to remember.
 
Traveling by Ship, from Johto to Kanto, in Pokémon Silver.
Also, first arriving at the Hoenn Battle Frontier, in Pokémon Emerald.
 
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Pokemon Emerald is my pick, here.

my memory is fuzzy at best because it's been so many years since i've played it, but i will never forget trying over and over again attempting to beat Pike Queen Lucy and Dome Ace Tucker. it really is such a shame that Emerald's Battle Frontier is never replicated in subsequent games because i think those kinds of limitations are the most fun i've ever really had.

also, Battle Palace is super underrated and i wish something like it would make some sort of return in the future.
 
Playing Emerald, on my way in the Battle Pyramid to face Brandon. I've got a Salamence, a Slaking, and a Starmie.

Salamence gets knocked out on the way up but I reach Brandon. Starmie manages to drop Regirock, but goes down to Regice (I think...?).

So Slaking comes out. He's got a Choice Band on so I have no choice but to use Earthquake because Hyper Beam wouldn't do enough when Registeel comes out.
Slaking beats both of them.
I don't care how bad Slaking is at Competitive he became my hero that day.
 
Pokemon road in LGE is jinxed :I've lost 2 shinies in it, being ponyta(it despawned before I reached it) and raticate (I failed to catch it), luckily ,I've got them later, I found rattata and ponyta in pokemon road while ..... doing something I can't remember
 
Finding my first shiny Pokémon (Ryhorn) in LG, Carvanha in Emerald and Zubat, Graveler and Rattata in HG!
Aside from that I was really surprised when I was just enjoying very much Sapphire and loved Nincada and watched it evolve into a Ninjask and found out Shedinja: Looking back at it, there was no hint to it and so it was truly a discover to me.
 
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Back when BW were first out, I really felt a sense of bliss at how fresh everything felt, as I went in completely blind (outside of pre-release stuff). No more relying on old Mons, you're starting out with a completely blank slate with nothing familiar to fall back on. Just getting thrust into a brand new region with brand new Mons gave me a very refreshing feeling. Throw in a amazing plot (for Pokemon, anyway) that targets the very core of the franchise, well-developed characters, actually threatening villains, the first mainstream female Professor, reusable TMs and overall great Mons really left a very good impression on me. They instantly became my favorite Pokemon games because of all those factors, and my overall favorite Gen, as it was nearly flawless (there were some gripes I had, but they were minor compared to the real meat of the games). What a way to end the DS-era games with the outstanding Gen V games. Talk about going out with a bang. I feel it was GameFreak's best performance yet and has not been topped since.
 
FireRed: Catching my first legendary ever (Moltres) using a Poke Ball, beating Blue for the first time, catching a shiny Ponyta, exploring the Sevii Islands 4-7.
Ruby: pretty much everything about the region and its Pokemon, catching Latios in an Ultra Ball because I used the Master Ball on Groudon.
Platinum: exploring the Distortion World and hearing Giratina's theme.
White: encountering and catching a Jolly Axew with Mold Breaker on my first visit to Mistralton Cave, and the climax, of course.
 
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I think the most memorable moment was when I was playing Pokémon Sapphire as a kid. It was a game I shared with my brother at the time and when I was training by myself in Fallarbor Town our whole team got Pokerus!

This might sound like a good thing but since we had never gotten this in the Gen 1 and Gen 2 games that we owned, my brother freaked out. I had accidentally skipped Nurse Joy's dialogue because I had been spamming the A-button like usual. I had been collecting a lot of soot because I wanted that glass table for our secret base so we came to the (wrong) conclusion that our team had gotten sick because of that.

Now my brother was convinced that our whole team was doomed and isolated all of the Pokémon with Pokerus in their own box "to prevent the virus from spreading". He caught a new team and started documenting the team's condition by using the in-game letters. These letters were really emotional. :giggle:

I remember being worried about my Skitty and called Club Nintendo and asked for help how to save it but they were just confused and said I should buy an antidote for some reason. I tried this but it obviously didn't work and I cried sad bitter tears LOL. :p

Later I found information about Pokerus on the Internet and realized that it was actually a good thing. I confronted my brother about this and he tried to save face by saying that he knew this all along. He didn't know I had seen all of the letters in the PC! :ROFLMAO:
 
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Finding Latias in Sapphire, and having it escape since I didn't know what roaming Pokémon were. Also, being confused at the fact that it kept changing areas.

I think the most memorable moment was when I was playing Pokémon Sapphire as a kid. It was a game I shared with my brother at the time and when I was training by myself in Fallarbor Town our whole team got Pokerus!

This might sound like a good thing but since we had never gotten this in the Gen 1 and Gen 2 games that we owned, my brother freaked out. I had accidentally skipped Nurse Joy's dialogue because I had been spamming the A-button like usual. I had been collecting a lot of soot because I wanted that glass table for our secret base so we came to the (wrong) conclusion that our team had gotten sick because of that.

Now my brother was convinced that our whole team was doomed and isolated all of the Pokémon with Pokerus in their own box "to prevent the virus from spreading". He caught a new team and started documenting the team's condition by using the in-game letters. These letter were really emotional. :giggle:

I remember being worried about my Skitty and called Club Nintendo and asked for help how to save it but they were just confused and said I should buy an antidote for some reason. I tried this but it obviously didn't work and I cried sad bitter tears LOL. :p

Later I found information about Pokerus on the Internet and realized that it was actually a good thing. I confronted my brother about this and he tried to save face by saying that he knew this all along. He didn't know I had seen all of the letters in the PC! :ROFLMAO:
That's kinda similar to what happened to me, also on Sapphire. Sadly, unlike you, I ended up resetting the game because I had a panic attack. In hindsight, I feel it was pretty dumb move on my part since I only read the "your Pokémon got a virus" part of Nurse Joy's speech.
 
Just a few things I remember in particular...

Pokémon Blue - Finding my first waifu in Erika.
Pokémon Silver - Having my mind blown at beating the game then discovering you could go to Kanto. (The internet wasn't a thing back then so I was unspoiled).
Pokémon Ruby - Beating the Champion after so long whilst waiting at the dentist for a check-up.
 
Back then my English was quite terrible, internet wasn't a big thing, i was pressing A all the time. As you can guess i did so many stupid things. So here a brief list what happened on my first ever game Leaf Green :
1- Tossed all vitamins because i didn't know what they were
2- Didn't catch legendary birds because in the anime you can't catch these and i thought you can't catch them in the game too
3- Spent more than 10 hours in Victory Road because i get lost
4- Spent more than 5 hours in Rock Tunnel, i missed HM Flash
5- Couldn't find HM Surf for a month
6- Never used revives because i didn't know what they are for
7- I couldn't gen in Saffron for 2 months, i hate those gate guards
8- I thought being confused is something a pokemon get used to and in time it won't it hurt itself in confusion because it will learn how to manage it. Same for being infatuated. Because of that i made my pokemon confused on purpose.
9- I didn't know about accuracy, when my pokemon misses a move, i thought they didn't master that move yet and i believed when they master it moves will never miss.
10- Search for Viridian Gym leader for days.
11- Never give my pokemon held items.
12- Never used repels. Same reasons.

And many more stupid things.
 
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