>>44044416FireRed/LeafGreen are definitely superior games overall outside of some stuff that you could argue is subjective. For instance, I have a very strong preference for the aesthetic style of Gen 1 and 2, as well as for the GB sound chip compared to the GBA sound chip, but since I don't know the first thing about art or music, I can't really back that up in any concrete way.
However, taken on their own merits, the single-player campaign in Gen 1 has a very unique design philosophy that I don't think the later games can match. The interconnected routes and layout of the towns really makes Kanto feel more grounded, like it could actually exist aside from the superpowered monsters. And while the towns themselves feel a bit samey, what I think is really cool about Gen 1 is that each dungeon feels totally unique and brings something new to the table in terms of gameplay. Pokemon Tower features Pokemon that can't be hit by Normal moves in a game where that accounts for like half of your attacks, while the Power Plant uses Voltorbs as Mimics, just to give a couple examples.
Regarding Gen 1 feeling more grounded, the towns themselves have a lot more stuff that make them feel real. You've got museums, laboratories, shady casinos, alleyways, etc. Even the villains are basically just the mafia/Yakuza, with their big plan amounting to a takeover of a corporation.
The only problems I have are the lack of QoL improvements and the lack of a postgame (I see Stadium as the Gen 1 postgame, but you can't really count that given that you had to buy a completely separate game for it). I really don't think it's reasonable to count the glitches as major strikes in this case, given that most of them are things that don't impact the single-player much. Me and my friends didn't notice any of them as kids until rumors started spreading about Missingno, and we all thought that was the coolest shit anyway.
>>44044664You're nuts, this sprite is great.
