Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver

[vegeta1215]

Anybody playing these?

I had Pokemon Gold when it first came out and I really enjoyed the game, catching nearly all the Pokemon possible. Unfortunately, the internal battery died, rendering the game unplayable. Just last year I managed to sell all of my Pokemon games and guides on eBay (original Red and Blue, Gold and Silver, Pokedex and guides for both, plus a Pokemon TV comic). I was actually surprised someone wanted Gold and Silver since they didn't work anymore. I guess someone was willing to attempt to install a new battery, or maybe they just wanted the guides.

I sold them knowing these remakes would eventually come out, and with the DS interal clock, I wouldn't have the same problem as I did before. So, what do you guys think? Is the game worth buying and playing again? I know a lot of things have been upgraded, but underneath it all it's the same basic game. Did any of you buy Heart Gold or Soul Silver even though you had the originals? I'm not sure how well the formula has aged, and how much I would enjoy playing the game again since my distaste for random battles has grown over the years.

[Thunderbird]

I have Crystal (which was still working when I last played it), and I intend to buy one of these (haven't decided which one). The main reason being the online options.

[Petoe]

In my opinion the GBA and DS Pokemons were crap, and I have started to lose hope for this franchise. But I did enjoy Gold/Silver, and I will most likely get Pokemon SoulSilver on my DS because based on what I've heard and read, it's pretty much the same game, but better in every way. :)

[Anthus]

I agree about random battles being irritating. At least in the Pokemon franchise, they have been limited to certain terrain/ areas.

I have read good reviews for it, and they all generally say "It's the same car, with a new coat of paint." It does have some Tamaguchi tag-a-long type thing where you can "beam" Pokemon to it, and "walk" them via some sort of odometer. One thing however, I have not been able to find out is if it just has the 252 1st/ 2nd Gen Pokemon, or if it has all 5 billion of the new dumb ass ones. That'll be THE deciding factor for me. I want a remake of the original game. The main reason I never really got into Fire Red or Leaf Green was because they added a bunch of new Pokemon. However, I know that was more because they needed a way to get the GB Pokemon into the GBA/ DS realm.

Either way, I am still without DS. I don't want to risk borrowing one, since I know the other DS Pokemon games required you to use the same DS/ Game set for online stuff.

[Petoe]

One thing however, I have not been able to find out is if it just has the 252 1st/ 2nd Gen Pokemon, or if it has all 5 billion of the new dumb ass ones.

I cannot find the info anywhere, but if any of those awful and craptastic new Pokemon are in these games, I will probably not buy neither one of them. :(

[Thunderbird]

Either way, I am still without DS. I don't want to risk borrowing one, since I know the other DS Pokemon games required you to use the same DS/ Game set for online stuff.

As far as I know, pretty much every online game for the DS requires this. However, if you end up using the game in a different DS than originally used, online data is usually the only part that is deleted (friend code and any online statistics). But it may affect other things.


I cannot find the info anywhere, but if any of those awful and craptastic new Pokemon are in these games, I will probably not buy neither one of them. :(

The 3rd/4th generation Pokemon are most likely on the game itself (for trades and whatnot)...but it is an interesting question whether they'll be obtainable prior to obtaining the National Pokedex.

[Anthus]

The 3rd/4th generation Pokemon are most likely on the game itself (for trades and whatnot)...but it is an interesting question whether they'll be obtainable prior to obtaining the National Pokedex.

Hmm. Maybe. See, I thought the inclusion of all 1,256,421,899,001^6 Pokemon in The 'Emerald' series was to get the older Pokemon into the DS games. It made sense too, since the DS game could access the GBA games remotely through the slot. For taking your Pokemon from HG/SS to D/P would require old school trading. I've been thinking about it though; my issue with all the Pokemon in the newer games was that they felt rushed, and thrown, and crammed in there. But, if these are true remakes, we can go back through Kanto as well, which would open up the game for more Pokemon. I think it'd be totally rad if each new Pokemon Generation included the continents from the past games. For that reason, I kinda lost interest when R/S came out :/ I was pretty bummed actually, since Gold, and Crystal where awesome. After that, R/S felt like a step back. Furthermore (as far as I know) they even took out day/ night/ time specific events which I felt added a depth of realism.

tl;dr, the over all quality of the games has decreased since Crystal.

[Pineconn]

Bah, I liked my Ruby. :sweat: I have Diamond, but no DS. I guess I'll wait until the 3DS to play any must-have DS games.

[vegeta1215]

I cannot find the info anywhere, but if any of those awful and craptastic new Pokemon are in these games, I will probably not buy neither one of them. :(

I don't think Pokemon past the Gold/Silver/Crystal generation are in the wild grass, but I hear the legendaries from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Groudon and Kyogre) may be catchable after a special event. However, all the Pokemon can be transferred to the game via regular trading (for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) and through the Pal Park for R/S/E and Fire Red and Leaf Green.

I totally agree though about the craptastic Pokemon though. I haven't played any of them past Gold/Silver, but I've seen pictures, and the Pokemon have gone from looking slightly like animals (good), to looking more alien (bad) with every iteration. I don't like it.

[Thunderbird]

From what I've read, some of the later Pokemon are obtainable wild, the only one I looked up (Bidoof) required special means.

[Twilight-Prince1002]

I do intend to get HeartGold sometime soon myself. I really did like Gold/Silver/Crystal.

[vegeta1215]

I think my main interest in getting Heart Gold is the nostalgia factor. But I'm the kind of person that doesn't like change, so all the new extra stuff might bother me.

When I did have the original Pokemon Gold, I managed to get all 251 Pokemon (with the help of a Gameshark to get Mew and Celebi). With no one to trade with, I wound up playing through a copy of Silver (don't know where I got it, maybe from a friend) and my old copies of Red and Blue to get the ones I was missing, esp extra Eevees and the starter Pokemon. I think I would still have the desire to "Catch 'em all" if I got Heart Gold, being the completionist that I am, but I don't think I have it in me to do all that again, esp since there are over 400 Pokemon now :(

Maybe I'll just wait for the new Pokemon game for the 3DS, whenever that comes out. I'm hoping they start over, so that the next game does not connect with any of the current or previous games. Whatever they do, I hope they make some changes to the formula to entice a former Pokemon fan like me to get back in the game.

[Twilight-Prince1002]

I finally got my hands on HeartGold thanks to a friend of mine. ^^

So far, I have 7 badges, and I have to say that they kept the game very close to the originals, which is how a remake should be done. The remixed music is pretty good too (some noteworthy ones are the battle music for Team Rocket and Ecruteak City's music), and I know later on I'll be able to unlock an item that allows me to play the original GB music, so that'll give me some nice nostalgia.

I think so far my only slight complaint is that the Gym Leaders (other than Whitney...that...accursed cow Pokemon....!) seem dumbed down. Besides the aforementioned Whitney, I have had little to no trouble beating them, even when my Pokemon were like 5-7 levels under their strongest one.

I am looking forward to the postgame stuff though. ^^

[vegeta1215]

I finally caved and ordered Heart Gold. I know I won't be able to "catch'em all", and the slightly OCD aspect of my personality will hate that, but I really want to check it out. I kept reading stuff about it, and I've been checking the prices online, and I had to pick it up when Amazon had it for $27 today. (their price has been going up and down the past few weeks). If I get real into it again, I may have to get up with some of you to trade for some Soul Silver exclusives and do some trades (and trade backs) for link evolutions. Gotta get my Golem and Gengar for sure ;)

[Thunderbird]

I got HeartGold a few weeks back. I never finished my copy of Crystal (and now I'm not sure where it's hiding), and since I was never able to trade externally in it, I couldn't get the trade only evolutions then.

[vegeta1215]

I got the game the other day. I haven't gotten very far thouh, just up to the first gym. I chose Chikorita cause I wanted a challenge (Grass is does not give you an advantage against the first few gyms), but I forgot how small of a selection of Pokemon you can capture at the beginning of the game. Thankfully, that's where the Pokewalker comes in! Seriously, when I first heard about the Pokewalker, I thought it was a cheap gimmick to entice people to re-buy a game they played 10 years ago. But I was wrong. I really like the Pokewalker, and am carrying it with me everywhere. I've already caught almost 20 Pokemon in total without trying much in game and with the walker. And best of all, you don't have to buy Pokeballs to catch the Pokemon with the walker. Having this many Pokemon available early on is definitely going to allow me to mix up my team, but I don't know who I'll choose yet.

In the future, I'll definitely be up for trading with some Soul Silver players for some version exclusives, and to help with mutual trade evolutions. But right now I'm taking my time. Plus Mario Galaxy 2 should be at my doorstep today, and that will keep me busy too.

[Thunderbird]

I'm making my usual effort to obtain all of the starters. At this point I'm only concerned with getting ahold of all of the Johto starters, but there is one wrench in the gears: Apparently the starter that you'd have a type advantage against doesn't seem to show up anywhere (even though it eventually disappears from Elm's lab). In my case that's Cyndaquil. Since I don't have a way to ask for it over GTS (since you have to have seen a Pokemon to ask for it), anyone here want to help me out? I'll be happy to pass you one of the starters that I have on me (my Pearl copy has all 4th gen starters, all 3rd gen save Mudkip (who I chose on Emerald if I could ever find it again), and I have the other 2 2nd gen starters on HG).

[vegeta1215]

I'm making my usual effort to obtain all of the starters. At this point I'm only concerned with getting ahold of all of the Johto starters, but there is one wrench in the gears: Apparently the starter that you'd have a type advantage against doesn't seem to show up anywhere (even though it eventually disappears from Elm's lab). In my case that's Cyndaquil. Since I don't have a way to ask for it over GTS (since you have to have seen a Pokemon to ask for it), anyone here want to help me out? I'll be happy to pass you one of the starters that I have on me (my Pearl copy has all 4th gen starters, all 3rd gen save Mudkip (who I chose on Emerald if I could ever find it again), and I have the other 2 2nd gen starters on HG).

Really? That sucks. I picked Chikorita for my starter cause I wanted a bigger challenge. (Cyndaquil makes for the easiest game since the first few gym leaders are weak to fire, and there aren't any fire Pokemon you can catch in the wild for a while... unless you use the Pokewalker of course) I beat the first gym leader, but haven't played at all the past week or two. I'm concentrating on Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (awesome btw!).

When I get far enough, I suppose I will breed my Chikorita so I can have a fresh baby one to trade someone for one of the other starters or something else. Overall though, I don't think I'm going to go through the pain of catching them all, cause it would be impossible with so many legendaries that you can't get anymore.

[Thunderbird]

If anything, this game seems to be heavy on the legendaries. Maybe not as many as D/P/Pt had, but I've managed to catch Ho-Oh, the three beasts, and two Gen 1 legends so far, with others still out there. I don't like the fact that one of the legendary targets essentially requires you to trade with the other version to get the legendary exclusive there (and you can't simply use one migrated from the older games).

[vegeta1215]

If anything, this game seems to be heavy on the legendaries. Maybe not as many as D/P/Pt had, but I've managed to catch Ho-Oh, the three beasts, and two Gen 1 legends so far, with others still out there. I don't like the fact that one of the legendary targets essentially requires you to trade with the other version to get the legendary exclusive there (and you can't simply use one migrated from the older games).

Yeah.. you can get Ho-oh, Lugia, the 3 dogs, the 3 birds, and Mewtwo on one cart, but you can only get one of the legendaries from the other games on your own. But like you said, as if someone you don't know is gonna trade you their Groudon for your Kyogre and visa versa. I know I wouldn't. That's why I'm not even attempting to finish the Pokedex. In fact, I don't know when I'll start playing again. I've been really busy, and not up for the grind right now. It's sad that the Pokewalker was the most interesting thing about this game aside from the nostalgia for me.

[Anthus]

Finally got me a new DS (Cobalt blue DS lite) and Heart Gold. I'm at Clair, and about 30 hours in. I must say, the spike in difficulty from the last gym to her is a but higher than I remember. I like it. I might end up getting Spirit Tracks next Friday. Dunno yet.


And... goddamn, Whitney and her Miltank. I wanted to hate fuck her...

[DigiPro31279]

I got me the new red ds lite about almost a month ago. I can see things a bit brighter now than I used to with the OLD BULKY DS. Fits easier into my pocket though the GBA game tends to stick out a bit now. However, I just got my 16th badge the other day. I had some low level pokemon to do it too. I am now just travelling around with very low level pokemon like bulbasaur/squirtle/cyndaquil/pichu and level them up to higher levels. Something to do and a few of them were trades so they boost level up so we'll see how well that goes. I do have my Lugia to help out if the going gets tough...that's almost lv 60 my highest level pokemon.

[Orithan]

Why the hating on 4th gen? I very much liked Diamond even though some of the pokemon were... a bit weird (Bidof family, the Ulxie-Merspirt-Azelf trio and Heatran) and I have trained many of my pokemon to Lv100 there (Empoleon, Infernape, Lucario, Honchkrow, Dialga, Giratina and Mewtwo are notable examples) and still (rarely) playing it. BTW, I got Mewtwo from my copy of LG.
Aside on that, because this is a HG/SS thread and not a D/P/Pt thread, I also like Heart Gold and still play it regulary to train up my party (no legendaries this time!) who range from Lv 71 - 77. This is my current party.

Feraligatr - Lv71
Ampharos - Lv73
Blaziken - Lv74
Altaria - Lv75
Sceptile - Lv76
Togekiss - Lv77

I've also beaten the Elite Four twice (Pwnd Lance second time through) and beaten Red/Ash (why am I not suprised that my Altaria survived Lapras' Blizzard), right now I am working on getting Blue's/Gary's phone number and I am certainaly not going for Latias because she is too weak to be of a target. Caio!

[Skulkraken]

I'm holding out on the GS remakes (I'm fine with Diamond and Platinum, thanks) and am instead awaiting the arrival of the next set of games: Pokemon Black and White.