>>29833991No, RBY gets an awful lot correct. It's mind blowing that this is a Gameboy game.
The game is vastly non-linear without ever stopping and telling the player, "Now do A or B" outside of the first choice of Pokemon. The newer games don't have this for the most part. They may have backtracking, but progression is still linear.
RBY and GSC also have a great sense of exploration, with optional areas you don't have to progress through or may never even know exist.
The story is mostly minimal, which depending on tastes can be a good or bad thing, but considering how awful the stories have been (I'm looking at you in particular BW) this is probably for the best.
A larger portion of the Pokemon were unobtainable by a single player in Red and Blue than any games that came after, which both led to the individualiztion of the experience, and also to the sense of community (you needed lots of friends to complete your dex). Out of the 150 'mons that could be obtained
>6 were the starters and their evolutions you didn't pick>2 were the fossil and its evo you didn't pick>11 were version exclusive>2 were the evolutions you didn't pick>4 were evolutions only available by tradingThat's 25 out of 150 Pokemon that you needed another player to get, and you'd need at least two other players minimum to get a complete dex.
This is under appreciated in modern times, but Pokemon had intentionally shitty learn sets, meaning you'd have to use your 1 use TMs on them to make them any good. This also created a series of non-linear choices that changed each playthrough, and also helped with the perception that a trainer-raised Pokemon was much better than any wild 'mon. It also helped with variety in battle since not every guy on your team could know Thunderbolt etc.
Sure, there are quality of life things that could be better about RBY (saving between box changes, glitches, etc) but the core design is much stronger than most gens.
