Something About Pokemon



I’ve been thinking lately, and I’ve come to realize something. Pokemon isn’t really like other games. When we think of good games, we all have our choices. Some people like games like Earthbound, Shadow of the Colossus, or Undertale for their story and the impact it leaves on the player. Some people like games for the bright colors and fun gameplay like Mario, Okami, or Sonic. Some play for wide open worlds like Xenoblade, Minecraft, or Subnautica. Some people play games for the characters, or the music, or the design, or tons of other reasons, but Pokemon is just different. Pokemon seems to check all the boxes with each new installment.

The Music

Pokemon games always have the right music for the right situations. We have calm songs that make us feel at home when we’re starting our journey like the theme of Pallet Town. We have songs that crawl down our spine and create urban legends like Lavender Town. We have songs that create a moment of tragedy like N’s Farewell. And we have a multitude of amazing songs that pump us up for a battle. Zinnia’s Theme and Wally’s Theme sound like something straight out of the last level of a Final Fantasy game. Pokemon just seems to be able to get music right in every single place it has it. And it’s not just the main games either.

Once you hear the first Pokemon anime opening, you change a little. That tune, those lyrics, something about it sticks with you. It becomes a song that has a place in your heart. And some of the other songs in the anime are amazing too. Maybe you’re a fan of the cheesy Poke-rap. Maybe you like the upbeat tone of the Johto opening. Maybe you feel a fire inside you during the Hoenn openings. Maybe you smile a bit at the cheesiness of the Sinnoh openings. Maybe you tear up a bit at the Unova openings. Maybe you get nostalgic over the Kalos openings. We all have our favorites, but each of them gets a feeling of emotion from us. Most anime openings are just a little song before the show starts, but in Pokemon every opening makes us feel something.

And it goes beyond the anime too. Pokemon has lots of great music in the spinoff games. Nothing gets me down and groovy like Miror B’s funky theme. Nothing makes me more pumped up then Dialga’s Fight to the Finish or Dark Matter (Phase 2) from the Mystery Dungeon games. Pokken Tournament gives gems like the Magikarp Festival theme which is an oriental soundtrack with a freaking dubstep remix. And even the less intense Pokemon games can provide us with quality music. The boss battle theme from Learn with Pokemon: Typing Adventure sounds like it could go with a battle to save the world.

The sheer amount of quality Pokemon music is just too much for me to possibly write about in just one post, so I’ll move on to the next topic.

The World of Pokemon

Pokemon games might not have the most realistic graphics, but that really doesn’t matter. The world created in the games is just so diverse from region to region. Even within the individual regions, there’s tons of different biomes and areas to explore. In Kanto we get such diverse areas as the Power Plant, The Safari Zone, the Pokemon Mansion, the road to Victory Road, Seafoam Islands, and more. Johto has the epic Mt. Silver, The enchanting Dragon’s Den, The mysterious Ruins of Alph, the beautiful Ecruteak City, and the Whirl Isles.

Hoenn is in its own category altogether, Hoenn has deserts, oceans, mountains, volcanoes, tropical jungles, forests, and more. And then there’s the ever elusive Mirage Island… And the landmarks in Hoenn are defiantly worth mentioning. Pacifidlog Town is a town floating in the middle of the ocean. Sky Pillar is quite a climb, but feels completely appropriate for the dragon that rules over the sky. The Sealed Chamber was so much fun to figure out. Having to have the right Pokemon and items in the right location, and being forced to read BRAILLE is something I swear is so cryptic, yet so enticing, and I’d love more obscure puzzles like this. There’s also the amazing rainforest part of northern Hoenn. Fortree City is one of the most creative places in Pokemon, and it’s just a city built inside treetops. Of course, unique to the remakes is being able to fly over Hoenn and take it all in at once.



While flying on Latios and Latias might be a great way to show off Hoenn, there is one area the remakes touch up upon that just blows that out of the water.

The remake of the last stretch of Victory Road in Hoenn is one of my favorite places in all of gaming history. Especially when you get to the final room.

The room where you fight Wally might just be one of the most beautiful places in any form of media. The shining light on the red flowers really give the battle a feel to it that no other battle has had before or since.

Sinnoh has its fair share of amazing scenery also. We get areas as mystic as the Spear Pillar, or as intense as the Battle Area, or tons of amazing areas for legendary Pokemon, but the two that take the cake for me are the Distortion World, and Flower Paradise.

I would go on and talk about Unova and Kalos, but I feel like I’ve covered enough about the locations for now, which is a shame because the other two regions are just as if not more beautiful then what I’ve shown here.

The Characters

Man oh man the characters in Pokemon are great. And I’m not talking about the Pokemon themselves, as that will be its own topic. The humans in Pokemon are just as good as the Pokemon themselves. Let’s go over a few of my favorites. One of the first really interesting characters is Silver from the Johto Games.

Because the rival of the Kano games was just a shallow trainer who wanted to get stronger, Silver plays a really good follow up. You expect another shallow trainer who just wants to get stronger, but you actually get a surprisingly deep backstory to who he is and why he does what he does. Unlike most of the other rivals, by the time the game is over Silver has done a COMPLETE 180. His character development through the game is done really well, and makes him a really interesting character.

On the polar opposite side of the spectrum, we have Wally.

Wally starts off as a weak and frail boy, who has a sickness that makes breathing hard for him. And while you don’t battle him often, it’s the final battle against him that makes him one of the best characters in the series. At the end of Victory Road, you meet up with Wally, who even with his disability has made it this far just to challenge you.

Everything about this battle, from the music, to the environment, just show how much stronger Wally has gotten over the course of his journey, just as you have.

I’m not going to go as in-depth as I did with the previous two, but I really do want to talk about some of the other characters. We get… “Charming” characters like Professor Sycamore who actually battles you and shows that even professors can kick butt, and amazing champions like Lance and Cynthia who help you out throughout your journey. Even the villains are well written. We have characters who try to do the right thing like Archie and Maxie, but end up doing evil. We have power hungry, yet cunning villains like Ghetsis. We have villains who believe that what they do is right, even if it’s not pretty like Cyrus and Lysandre. And each of them feels interesting and unique. And then there’s N.

N barely feels like an NPC. He’s so well written he almost feels like he’s another person playing the game with you. His character is so good, that I won’’t write much about him because it really is something you should just see for yourself.

The Pokemon

The name of the franchise itself. With over 700 Pokemon in the game, Gamefreak has done a really good job at making each of them unique. Every person who plays through the game while play through it with a team that’s completely different from someone else. With so many different Pokemon to train, replaying the games feels like a brand new experience each time. Everyone has their favorite Pokemon, and their own bonds they’ve made with specific Pokemon throughout the years. Panpour is own of my favorite Pokemon for personal reasons, and because most other people don’t have the bond I have with it, and it makes that Pokemon that much more special to me. Odds are that each time you play through a game, you’ll surprise yourself when a Pokemon you didn’t even think twice about pulls you through a tough situation and suddenly lands in your top 5 favorite Pokemon.



With over 700 Pokemon out there, it really is amazing how many great designs there are. Dragon Pokemon can be cute like Goodra, Flygon, and Dragonite, epic like Rayquaza and Garchomp, or elegant like Dragonair and the Lati@s. Very rarely do two Pokemon feel like carbon copies of each other, and if they do it’s because they’re part of a pair. With so many Pokemon out there, it really shows just how talented the designers are.

The Culture

Out of every video game I can think of, none even come close to the impact Pokemon has had on the world. Almost everybody can recognize Pikachu. Everybody knows the words “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”. Countless shows make parodies and references to the series.

Pokemon has created so many urban legends. The stories of Lavender Town and Hypno’s Lullaby come to mind, but there’s also one of the most famous glitches in gaming, Missingo. Perhaps some people remember trying to get into Bill’s Garden as a kid, or Ho-oh in the first episode of the Pokemon anime. Playground rumors of Pikablu, or the Mist Stone, or getting into space in Ruby and Sapphire. And who hasn’t heard of the truck that may or may not have a Mew under it. I remember seeing a fan-made evolution of Charizard in a Pokemon magazine when I was little, that said Charizard evolved again at level 98. I remember training for hours on Cycling Road in Leaf Green, not realizing it was a fan made Pokemon. Imagine my surprise when X and Y gave me my 4th evolution of Charizard in the form of a mega.

Beyond the references and myths, we can find AMAZING fan works. Remixes and remakes of music, animations, entire games complete with their own fan-made Pokemon. Theories, Fanfictions, Fan-Arts, Youtube Channels. While other game series have their own fanbases, none quite reach the sheer dedication of a Pokemon fan. Pokemon fans are hyped and spend hours speculating over even the smallest information. Whenever a Pokemon game is announced, I immediately set aside money for it, regardless of when it comes out. It may be a single player game, but it’s hard to feel alone when you’re playing the same game at the same time as thousands of other people of different races, ages, jobs, nationalities, or other things. It creates a form of unity. When I see someone playing Pokemon, buying the cards, or watching the show, it creates a common ground for us. It brings people close together.

And all of was made possible by one man, who as a kid collected bugs, and wanted to share the feeling with the world. And share he did. Satoshi Tajiri created a series beloved by all. A series with countless shows, manga, parodies, and most importantly countless fans. And that’s what Pokemon is to me. It’s a bridge to connect with others. It’s a way to feel a pure, childish joy again. It’s a way to show that by sharing what you love with others, you can leave a huge impact on society. To me Pokemon is all that and more.