The Clever Design of Viridian Forest

like many of you i grew up on pokemon specifically pokemon red red version best version but it's only recently that i've played fire red the gba era remake for the first time playing through these games again has not only let me bask in the glow of nostalgia it's given me an opportunity to revisit the design of these games i always enjoyed them as a kid but this is really the first time i've been able to look at them as both an adult and a designer rather than simply a player and right from the start of the game the thing that has impressed me the most is the clever design of viridian forest viridian forest is effectively the game's first dungeon they don't call it that it doesn't even take place indoors or below ground but it acts as the demarcation line between the tutorial zone that is pallet town in viridian city from where the real game gets going in pewter city with the first gym leader and i absolutely hated viridian forest as a kid even more so than mount moon or rock tunnel as annoying as zubats can be at least they weren't metapods and cocoonas using harden over and over again to make battles last forever the forest has a bunch of trainers blocking your way and half of the pokemon do poison damage which continues to linger even after the battle is finished i don't know if there's like a pokemon geneva convention but they should really look into that as a kid i found viridian forest to be incredibly frustrating but as an adult i can see that it was actually quite brilliant pokemon was a revolution in rpg design sure there had been experimentation in different games with recruiting monsters or using moves gained from enemies but pokemon took it to a whole new level not only creating a unique rpg but one of the most popular and lucrative brands of all time but i want you to think back to before dozens of versions of the game before the card game or the anime back to when eight-year-olds were playing this game for the first time to the uninitiated this is a pretty complicated game hundreds of abilities type advantage the logic and strategy behind when to capture pokemon and which ones to use in your team it all seems like second nature to us and now but the designers had to give careful consideration to how they were going to roll this information out to new players how they are going to teach these complex subjects without overwhelming the player the beginning of the game does an excellent job of breaking up its tutorial without ever having to call it out as one the game won't even let you leave the starting town until you talk to professor o can get your first pokemon this is followed immediately by the player's first battle against rival gary both introducing the game's combat system and planting the seeds of type advantage then the player heads north learning that tall grass is dangerous zelda be damned and are introduced to fighting wild pokemon without the ability to catch them that always annoyed me on subsequent playthroughs i mean come on i'm here to catch me some pokemon it's the whole theme of the game but from a design standpoint it's a great way to tease out the game's mechanics forcing the player to get comfortable with the combat before introducing the added complexity of capture once the player gets to viridian city they are given a fetch quest to return to professor oak and finally get the pokedex only then can the player buy pokeballs and start to experiment with catching different pokemon it's no coincidence that these pokemon are all normal types with simple easy to understand moves and clear visual design a bird is a bird a rat is a rat at last the player is free to explore fight gary one more time in a safe area and then venture onward to the game's first real test viridian forest the forest has a lot going for it right from the start even with the limited color palette of the game boy it's a visually distinct region and effect even further enhanced in fire red this lets the player know they aren't in pallet town anymore that things ahead might be more difficult there's branching paths with items hidden down them a staple of the rpg genre but an important one to teach to new players especially given the earlier linear paths of route 1 and 2. there are more trainer battles here than ever before each trainer's pokemon gradually increasing in level and thus difficulty capping off with the final trainer that blocks the exit acting as a progress gate to make sure the player has leveled their pokemon before they continue but more than its layout the really clever thing about viridian forest is the pokemon themselves up to this point in the game the player has been introduced to relatively few pokemon and even fewer pokemon types there are the three starters and a bunch of normal types like pidgey rattata and even manky if you stray far enough viridian forest is the first time the player is introduced to a new biome one populated with a single type of pokemon the bug type this is except for the rare pikachu of course but even that pikachu is further brilliance not only giving the players the most popular pokemon of the series if they are patient enough to explore the area but also fueling some serious playground talk between the players who found pikachu and those who didn't in a pre-internet pre-youtube world playground talk was crucial for the popularity of these types of games so here's where i want you to think like a designer why bug types they certainly aren't the cutest type of pokemon except caterpie we all love caterpie but why not go with water types or the far more adorable plant types i mean who doesn't like oddish they could have gone with electric types or even fire types which are always popular the designers went with bug types because they are the perfect type to introduce players to the more advanced concepts of the game remember the designers have already spent the better part of an hour teaching the player the basics of combat how to explore and how to catch wild pokemon but there's a lot more to the game than that viridian forest is essentially a second tutorial one designed to introduce the players to the more advanced aspects of the game book types have everything needed to teach the player the rest of what they need to know they're so well suited to the task that i have to wonder if the creators didn't design them that way from the start on purpose i wouldn't be surprised to learn they built bug types around the tutorial rather than creating them as is and deciding they'd be good for the tutorial later the eagle-eyed among you will notice that bug trainers tend to be children and the game has several lines of dialogue mentioning how easy bug types are to train even the game world knows they're good for teaching one of the most useful things bug types bring to the table is that super annoying harden move yes it is beyond frustrating when metapod keeps using harden to raise its defense making the battle last longer and longer and jesus just die already but you know what that metapod isn't doing attacking metapod and cocuna are essentially punching bags they sit there and allow the player to hit them over and over again without ever hitting back this may seem like boring gameplay but remember this is meant to be an advanced tutorial at this point in the game the player has several pokemon with varying moves some of which do damage some of which alter stats metapod and kokuna give the player an opportunity to test all of these moves out in a relatively safe environment free to experiment without having to worry about getting hit back annoying and slow maybe but critical for allowing the player to feel comfortable as they try out new things and shows the player how powerful stat alteration can be stat alteration is kind of a hard sell as the player isn't dealing damage if they're altering stats but harden shows the player that by investing a few turns and raising their defense they can make a pokemon nearly invulnerable and there's one final bonus lesson tucked away in harden the player can catch both caterpie and metapod in the forest with metapod being a higher level in later evolution if the player only catches metapod they're stuck with a pokemon just as useless as the one they've been fighting caterpie on the other hand knows tackle a damage dealing move evolving a caterpie to a metapod takes longer but creates a far more useful metapod that has both moves tackle and harden this teaches the player that it might not be in their best interest to skip the leveling process by catching higher level pokemon an advanced lesson that could otherwise take a lot longer for players to figure out speaking of leveling as the game is eager to tell us bug types level up and evolve faster than other pokemon types they can take a pokemon well into the upper levels to evolve into all three of their forms but butterfree evolves at what like level 10 level 11 a caterpie is likely to evolve into all three of its forms before the players even reach the first gym leader not only does this get the player used to one of the more fun aspects of the game training their pokemon into stronger and newer forms it gives us butterfree in the early game you all know how overpowered butterfree is and finally viridian forest teaches us the most important aspect of pokemon as a whole it teaches us the true secret to how pokemon actually works it's not about catching pokemon and it isn't about leveling up as no early as those things are it's about status effects and the altering of stats see pokemon's combat is kind of a slog when it's working properly sure there's type advantage and all that to do a lot of damage but when two balanced teams are going against each other the real combat reveals itself pokemon's combat revolves around status effects like paralysis poison sleep and confusion in addition to a handful of moves that raise or lower certain stats like growl lowering the enemy's attack sand attack lowering their accuracy or harden adding to their defense most bug types come with moves that introduce these concepts butterfree gets both sleep powder and paralysis powder early on and weedle can cause poison poison is one of those status effects that is a staple of the rpg genre and one i've always hated as i suspect most people do it's an effect that's more annoying than challenging and can often feel pretty cheap but it's actually kind of brilliant here unlike sleep or paralysis poison allows the affected pokemon to keep fighting the only penalty is that they'll take additional damage each round poison lingers even after battle doing additional damage as the player walks around this is really smart because not only does it introduce the player to status effects but it reinforces the idea that the poke center is never far that players shouldn't over extend themselves when exploring and the importance of buying and carrying status clearing items from the pokemart as we all know wealth is the true type advantage as annoying as viridian forest can be it's a really effective teacher of some pretty complicated mechanics they could have made viridian forest a biome of electric types and taught paralysis but that would lack the sting that makes the poison lesson stick they could have used water types and had magikarp be the punching bag instead but it wouldn't level up as easily as caterpie or as quickly to butterfree verdean forest is uniquely designed from the ground up to be a memorable eff a bit strict teacher so go pick up one of those old pokemon games see what other design lessons you can find hidden in there buried under the warm blankets of nostalgia i'm michael aguero thanks for watching if you want to support the channel you can buy one of my books on amazon kindle or google play i've got some new releases that will be coming out in the near future but in the meantime you can pick up one of my other many existing titles they cover a variety of genres and styles and there's something in there for everyone thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next video you

Channel: Michael Aguero

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Id: VypeQ_PUY2s

Length: 13min 37sec (817 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 04 2021