I had never played Fire Red;
I have played OG Red MANY MANY times. Maybe 2-3 times (or more?) on GameBoy, 4-5 times (or more?) on Pokemon Stadium with Dodrio mode for triple speed, maybe another 2-3 times on PC (ahem).
So I got FireRed and cleared it in a couple of days in March 2026.
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I chose Charmander. They would end up in a box fairly soon.
I decided very early (Route 1) this would be a ‘sub-optimal’ run wherein instead of my usual great team of say, Charizard, Raichu, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Pigeot and whoever else (maybe Alakazam) I’d go with monsters I don’t usually use. I’d been doing this a lot in recent runs; I got great mileage out of Starmie in a 2016-2017 playthrough.
This all would have been easier with better monsters, oh well!
So yeah
When Fearow swept Erika I knew I was doing good and would finish the game.
Koga was way harder, had to stop and change the party and grind a bit.
VS Seeker is so good. I used the top of cycling road for money and anywhere else I could think of.
Blaine and Sabrina were so easy after Koga;
Giovanni was easy too;
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Rhydon provided some much needed bulk and has always been one of my fave mons ever. I never ran him full time in a serious party due to the double water/grass weakness but was valuable here.
Next time: Graveller was fantastic in my Silver run after this, so could be a good substitute for the next time. Or Marowak with the club item!
Fearow started kind of weak but is ALSO one of my fave mons of all time from Gen 1, but never ran due to my belief that 3-stage evolution Pigeot was better. Fearow is probably better! Just a good sweeper when I've been deprived of good sweepers.
Next time: I like to have a flyer. Running out of options. I think I ran Dodrio before, Pigeot a million times. Farfetch'd maybe?
Vileplume provided some bulk but was not exceptional. I prefer Victreebel as my Gen 1 grass mon. I think I used Executor in my quasi-sub-optimal run previously.
Next time: I think I'm running out of options for a grass monster. I am down to Parasect or Tangela I think.
Wigglytuff was a bit bulky and had a good movepool. Had never ran them before (usually a Clefable guy if I ever bothered) but was a good addition. Also, Psychic.
Next time: Not sure of a Normal/Fairy/Psychic adjacent monster that could work in future. Porygon?
Seaking was decent; not having Peck anymore kind of sucked but was a decent Water type. I love spamming Surf so was perfect.
Next time: Still plenty of water options, Tentacruel might be fun I always liked it.
Primeape was probably the worst of the bunch, I was going to replace him with the next option:
Electabuzz was going to be my sixth mon but never played long enough; if I go back for the revamped Elite Four maybe?
Next time: There are plenty of Electric-adjacent UnderUsed/NeverUsed options I could try (I've almost always used Raichu in Gen1) so it doesn't matter what I pick. Magneton, Electrode...
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Elite Four Lorelai wiped me out with one of her monsters, so it was back to drawing board. Basically just grinded in Victory Road for ages.
Took about 4 attempts but the last 2 were serious/correct level/moves etc. I went to the Game Corner for some useful moves. I needed a bunch of Revives but my guys made it. Lance and the Rival were probably the easiest to beat after all that.
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Postgame Islands: knocked them out in a couple of hours. Was a neat little extra I guess.
Caught Mewtwo with Master ball after clearing the islands. I guess I only did the Islands to get to Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave!
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I still have Suicune and Elite Four + to do but not interested. And 151+ dex obviously. I did it once not rushing to do it again!
I think I'll do the E4+ in another playthrough in a couple of years; maybe utilise meta moves combined with bad mons.
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Observations on this remaster:
Meta moves being pushed a lot; I'm a basic bitch playing Pokemon I don't bother with Protect and Light Screen and all that stuff; I prefer to just sweep with (usually good) mons but was harder with sub-optimal team. I guess that's where moves like Swords Dance and so on would have been useful. Almost 30 years later and I still know the various Fire beats Ice, Ice beats Flying etc combos so that gets me pretty far.
If I play even more sub-optimal runs, I guess I better strongly consider these meta moves. Also, just with natures and whatnot they were being pushed a lot on me - also a lot of TMs you find on the map are mostly what I am calling meta moves.
Farfetch'd, Porygon, Parasect... sounds like a good terrible core to build around! I'll allow myself the traded one in Vermillion to level faster (the only one) and master what I'm calling meta moves like Safeguard.
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HeartGold/Soul Silver? I couldn't get it to work so just did Silver again for the billionth time. Then went onto Sapphire!
