After finishing the main storyline of Pokémon Red, I decided to continue my journey into the realm of Pokémon by playing Pokémon Gold, the next game in the series. Pokémon Gold was released with Pokémon Silver in 1999 in Japan, followed by North America and Europe in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

Pokémon Gold was also released for both the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, although the difference between Gold and Red was so pronounced when I started playing Gold that I for a second I thought I was playing on the wrong emulator.

Gold and Silver, while not exactly the most popular or iconic games in the series, represent, at least to me, a great deal of technical advancement, if not that much of an expansion from a plot and worldbuilding perspective.

Storyline and Plot

Pokémon Gold and Silver follow a similar concept to that of Red and Blue. The player controls a character from a small, sleepy town in the corner of their region of the world that, after some prodding by the local Pokémon Professor, starts an adventure to collect all the Pokémon, fighting Gyms and collecting legendary Pokémon along the way.

Gold and Silver don’t take place in Kanto, instead mainly playing out in the neighboring Johto region, which is filled with its own unique brand of Pokémon. However, the key factor of consideration here is that, although Gold and Silver introduce a brand new 100 unique Pokémon, the 151 Pokémon from Red and Blue exist in the same universe opening both the Kanto and Johto Pokémon to exploration and collection by the player.

In fact, near the end of the game, the Kanto region is actually revealed to be included in the game, letting players return to the Kanto region in Gold, and exploring all the locations from the first game again. The Pokédex in Gold and Silver is nearly twice the size of that of Red and Blue, giving players immense variety in playable Pokémon.

Besides the addition of the new Pokémon, not a small addition by any measure, Gold and Silver also feature a larger map than that of Red and Blue and the progression of the story is different. In contrast to Red and Blue, the player has no rival, only an antagonist which appears at different critical points of the story to fight the player and pretend to delay.

More an annoyance than anything, to be frank. Other characters from Red and Blue appear although I won’t say any more to avoid any spoilers. In general, Gold and Silver are bigger than Red and Blue, although they also feel drier for some reason, as though the game was just a repeat of the first.

A lot of the towns felt repetitive and lacking character that Red and Blue had. But, to be fair, Gold and Silver did have more creative aspects to some of the cities, like the towers in Mahogany Town or the radio tower and train station in Goldenrod City. It’s a bit strange, but the map does remain immersive, regardless of the comparison with Kanto.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Gold and Silver is a massive improvement over the gameplay experience in Red and Blue. While Red and Blue were very much minimalist in color, Gold and Silver on the Game Boy Color are almost blindingly colorful in comparison. All surfaces are colored, with very few menus or background being a plain black.

Very little art was recycled, with most of the disappointing Pokémon sprites from Red and Blue being redesigned to actually become comfortable to look at for long periods of time. The gameplay issues I talked about before were almost completely resolved, with a bicycle feature added to help move the player faster, a larger backpack for carrying more items (with compartments to organize them and make them easier to access), instant Pokémon selection for in-world usage of Pokémon moves like “Cut”, and even an updated Pokédex with actually useful game information about the Pokémon in question, not just flavor text and the Pokémon’s sprite.

I was actually quite surprised at how fast all those issues were resolved, especially considering that only one generation had passed, but Nintendo is world-class for a reason, I guess.