Pokémon Gold and Silver



"“Enter a whole new world, with new Pokémon to capture, train and battle! Meet Professor Elm and get the all‐new Poké Gear, including map, radio, cell phone and clock. Set the clock then watch as day turns to night and events take place in real time — and be sure to keep an eye out for Pokémon that come out only at night!”"

- Blurb on the back of the boxes of Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions

After the massive success of the first Pokémon games, Game Freak and Nintendo realized they had a Cash Cow Franchise on their hands. So naturally, Pokémon Gold And Silver were developed for the Game Boy as the “second generation,” moving the series to a new region filled with more Mons, threats, and challenges to await players.

Set three years after the events of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, a young trainer sets out to collect the eight badges of Johto (based on the Kansai region of Japan as well as the western part of the Chubu region) and challenge the Elite Four so that they can earn their own place in the hall of fame. Along the way, however, they have to contend with a callous thief and the reemerging threat of Team Rocket.

Gold and Silver introduced many new concepts to the series, like an In Universe Game Clock (with certain Mons preferring certain times of day), the ability to equip Pokémon with items, rare alternate colorations, and the ability to breed baby Pokémon. It also expanded and reconfigured numerous other gameplay elements, like the addition of two new elemental types (bring the grand total to 17!), splitting the “Special” stat into separate attack and defense scores, and new skills designed to give other elemental types a more level field to battle against the (previously game‐breaking) Psychic element.

One year later, an Updated Rerelease appeared: Crystal. On top of a new subplot revolving around Suicune, a slight graphics bump, and other minor differences, Crystal marked the debut of the Purely Aesthetic Gender option in the series, by offering players the choice of a male or female player, instead of simply giving them a male character to assign a masculine or feminine name to (thereby bypassing the unintentional Les Yay that could’ve resulted — now it’s the result of lines written for the male player character being read to the female one).

After Red and Blue got a Video Game Remake in FireRed and LeafGreen, fans fully expected to see the “metal generation” get their own updates. In late 2009, those expectations were finally met with HeartGold and SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS. Unlike the remakes of the first generation games (which mostly updated them to Generation III’s mechanics and graphics), these remakes pulled elements from everywhere else in the series; not only did they include the added plot points from Crystal, the original storyline was further expanded upon, pulling in cameos and Continuity Nods from later regions. New minigames were added via the Pokéathlon and PokéWalker, and one of Yellow’s main gimmicks was brought into play, allowing trainers to let one of their Pokémon run free behind them and interact freely with them instead of remaining on standby like the rest of the player’s Party in My Pocket. Major changes were made to some areas as well, such as the addition of a new Safari Zone (noticeably missing from the original versions) which can be accessed even before beating the game.

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"Me am a Team Rocket member kind of guy! Come from another country, a trainer number one, me!"
 * Aborted Arc: Expecting to find out more about the history of Dr. Fuji and Mewtwo? Nary a mention of Fuji’s past as a scientist, although there are renewed hints in FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. As for Mewtwo, the Unknown Dungeon is totally gone, and all that’s left is a hidden Berserk Gene.
 * Audible Gleam: “Shiny” Pokémon have this (in order to distinguish them for the monochrome Game Boy system).
 * Broken Bridge:
 * There is a man in Mahogany that will stop you from heading to Blackthorn until you’re done with the Team Rocket Radio Tower Takeover at Goldenrod. If you happen to try and go past Mahogany at any point before this he’ll drop hints on what you have to do, mentioning Olivine, Cianwood, and the Pharmacy, referring to the sick Ampharos.
 * You are supposed to reach Pallet before going to Cinnabar and Seafoam Islands. Until you do so, the route south of Fuchsia will be blocked by rocks from the Cinnabar volcano eruption.
 * Character Select Forcing: Not so much of pointing which starter you should pick, but pointing out who you shouldn’t choose. Chikorita is a Grass‐type starter with low offenses and doesn’t learn attacks other than Normal and Grass type. In Johto, four out of the eight Gyms have critical advantages over it, as do two out of the five Pokémon League, none of the other Leaders or League members are particularly weak to Grass, Team Rocket uses Poison‐types often, two of the new trainer classes specializes in types with advantage over Grass, and so on.
 * Outside of the starter and eventually Kadabra/Alakazam, every one of the rival’s Pokémon have an advantage over Grass. Start with Chikorita, and he gets Cyndaquil as his starter. Perhaps making up for Bulbasaur?
 * Continuity Nod: All over the place, especially once you get to Kanto.
 * The opening leitmotif to the music that plays when you battle and  is from the opening movie to Pokémon Red and Blue.
 * Copycat’s lost doll that you have to find and return? Given to her by the player character in the very first game.
 * In the originals, a house in Cerulean City was burglarized by Team Rocket. In Gold and Silver, it’s now a police station.
 * Pewter City’s Mart had a guy complaining about buying a useless Magikarp in Red and Blue. Three years later, he’s raving about his awesome Gyarados.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: There are lots of subtle details that you’ll miss if you don’t actively look for them.
 * One of the windows in Elm’s lab is half‐open, which is how the rival gets in to burglarize the place.
 * Professor Elm’s phone call to you after the burglary provides no useful details to the player. You can call him back after he’s calmed down, and he’ll explain what happened.
 * Before you leave on your big journey, Elm says in passing that you should tell your mom you’re going. If you don’t do this, she’ll call you two routes later to say how hurt she is that you didn’t say goodbye.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: You will occasionally get calls from other trainers about how they failed to catch a Pokémon because they were distracted by a passing Beauty.
 * Dub Name Change: Due to the games’ lack of kanji (which makes it easier to keep track of the Japanese language’s nightmarish amount of homophones), the Bell Tower was mistranslated as Tin Tower. The association with the Clear Bell and the fact that the remakes call the path to it Bellchime Trail and have bells on the top of the tower ended up with it being retranslated in the remakes.
 * Mr. Mime’s Japanese name doesn’t have any gender association in the original Japanese. When the translators gave it that name in Red and Blue, they joked that if Game Freak ever gave Pokémon genders they would be screwed. One generation later…
 * Experience Meter: Debuts in this installment.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Johto is a combination of the Kansai and western Chubu regions of Japan.
 * Forced Tutorial: After you get your Pokégear and set the date on it, your mother asks if you know how to use the phone feature. You could answer yes or no to this. Saying yes will only change the sentence, “I’ll read the instructions. Turn the Pokégear on and select the Phone icon,” to “Don’t you just turn the Pokégear on and select the Phone icon?” The rest continues telling how to use the phone regardless.
 * Notably averted with the trainer near the beginning of the game who shows you how to catch Pokémon. Gold and Silver are pretty much the only games in the main series in which you have the option to refuse the man’s offer.
 * Game Favored Gender: The gender of a Pokémon is based on its Attack IV, with higher values resulting in male Pokémon (unless the species is purely female). This means that generally in these games, males are physically stronger than females. Future games including HeartGold and SoulSilver don’t determine gender this way.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: There’s a rather infamous in‐game comment made by one Juggler Irwin, who, when you beat him, kindly informs you he dropped his balls. The radar caught on with the remakes; he now says, “Whew! That was a jolt.”
 * G-Rated Sex: When leaving a male and a female Pokémon in the daycare together (or some genderless ones like Ditto), they have a chance of leaving an egg, depending on their “interest” in each other.
 * An Interior Designer Is You: You could decorate your room with various dolls and such, thanks to Mystery Gifts. Your mother would also buy things with the money you sent home after battles.
 * Have a Gay Old Time: One of the Trainers in the Burned Tower (removed in Crystal) is named Dick. A trainer in the “Firebreather” class, no less. Now there’s a mental image that nobody wanted. It’s probably not a coincidence that his name was changed to Richard in HGSS.
 * Improbable Species Compatibility: Trope Maker for the franchise. Pokémon was also the Trope Namer by way of Generation III.
 * Infinite Stock for Sale: Pokémon normally plays this trope straight, but there’s a bargain shop that only appears Monday mornings, where you can buy high‐valued Vendor Trash to later sell at a profit—“but only one of each item.”
 * Intentional Engrish for Funny: Earl speaks entirely in broken English, though in his Pokémon Stadium 2 appearance, he speaks normally so people could understand him, as he gave hints and advice that were imperative to competitive battling.
 * The lone wolf Rocket grunt in Kanto.


 * Lost in Translation: In non‐Japanese versions of Crystal, some plot elements get lost due to the missing Pokémon Communications Center.
 * It’s never explained why new Unown patterns start appearing on the walls in Crystal. The Japanese version makes it clear that it’s related to radio transmissions coming from the Pokécom Center.
 * Mad Libs Dialogue: The vast majority of phone conversations and radio shows are like this.
 * Numbered Sequels: Subverted; the Working Title of the games was Pocket Monsters 2: Gold and Silver.
 * Obvious Rule Patch: The steps taken to remove Psychics as Game Breakers: The Special stat was split into Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense (resulting in most Psychics having lower Sp.Defense), and two new types introduced (Steel: resistant to Psychic attacks, and Dark: immune to Psychic attacks and deals extra damage to Psychic Pokémon). Also Ghost attacks now did extra damage to Psychic types like they were originally intended to, and stronger Bug‐type Pokémon and attacks were introduced.
 * Olympus Mons: The originals had them, yeah, but it was in these games where they began appearing on the covers, and where they got some actual backstory to them beyond their simple rarity.
 * Organ Drops: As the set of games that introduce held items to the Pokémon series, Gold and Silver provide the first examples of… well, not organs, but you can find eggs, beaks, claws, pearls, milk, scales, and mushrooms attached to wild Pokémon, presumably all produced through their natural biology.
 * Redundant Researcher: Come on, Alph Ruins researchers. It does not take ten years to assemble a jigsaw puzzle.
 * Serendipity Writes the Plot: A lot of people think that the reason Kanto was scaled down due to hardware limitations, but Gold and Silver’s memory chips actually had plenty of free space and could have easily fit dozens more maps, events, and music. The real reason that many buildings and dungeons in Kanto have been scaled down so much is Schedule Slip—interviews reveal that Game Freak are notorious within Nintendo for failing to get things done on time. The in‐game explanation for the drastically reduced scope of caves and dungeons? Rock slides.
 * Short Distance Phone Call: Averted. “Just go talk to that person!”
 * Crystal and the remakes give each character unique dialogue for each character’s reaction when they realize that you’re calling them while relatively close. This can at times be frustrating (even if it does make sense) if there’s a specific character interaction that you can only have on the phone (such as checking to see if someone’s waiting for a battle, to see if they’re holding an item for you, or calling them for a battle as the remakes will sometimes allow you to do).
 * Spin-Off: Pokémon Puzzle Challenge features Pokémon from these games and retells a simplified version of the player’s journey to defeat Gym Leaders and the Elite Four in a Puzzle Game format.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Juggler Irwin certainly keeps… abreast of your adventures. It’s even possible that he’ll call you to gush about something you just accomplished. It’s like he can see you every waking moment of the day…
 * This is even less subtle in Crystal, when he only behaves this way if you play as a girl.
 * The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The Goldenrod Underground is a Bazaar of the Bizarre, with a different selection of shops each day of the week, providing goods and services you won’t find anywhere else.
 * Unfortunate Names: Firebreather Dick. Unsurprisingly, his name was changed in the remakes.
 * What Might Have Been: The Japanese version of Crystal had the ability to your real‐life cell phone and play against others online. The feature never saw the light of day in other regions.
 * Wutai: Although all the regions in the main series are based on Japan (except for Unova), only a few towns are actually obviously Japanese‐influenced, and they’re all in Johto. Of special note is Ecruteak City, whose music was remixed in HGSS to sound more Japanese. Interestingly, Cianwood City, which it originally shared music with, has a separate remix that does not use the Japanese‐sounding instruments of Ecruteak’s version.

Tropes appearing in HeartGold and SoulSilver:

 * Aerith and Bob: The protagonists. Ethan (Hibiki), Lyra (Kotone) and the rival, whose default name is Soul in HeartGold, and Heart in SoulSilver. He doesn’t have an official stated name, but the defaults definitely make him stand out. His in‐game data has him as “Silver,” the accepted Fan Nickname, which isn’t any more conventional.
 * And then there’s the other Fan Nickname, ???, due to the placeholder for his name before it his name is chosen, though the remakes changed his placeholder name to “Passerby Boy.”
 * Apathetic Citizens: Subverted. At one point you There is also a brief mention of the trainers at the Gym trying to stop Team Rocket when they, but they are completely ineffective.
 * The Artifact: Subversion. A guy in the first PokéMart claims his Pokémon nearly fainted on the field because of poison, as in Generation IV, Poison will automatically wear off after the Pokémon’s HP reaches 1.
 * Lampshaded when you get to Indigo Plateau. In the original games there was a nice man who would have his Abra teleport you home, since you couldn’t fly between Kanto and Johto and thus your only other way back until you beat the Elite Four was walking back. In the remakes you can now use Fly to get back, but the old man is still there offering his services… only to note that because of Fly most trainers turn him down. (In fact, the game doesn’t even let you take him up on his offer, not offering a Yes/No choice after he’s finished talking.)
 * The games however does manage to find a use for Abra’s Teleport. A guy and his Abra (possibly copycats of the two at Indigo Plateau or the actual two) are the only way to leave the Sinjoh Ruins (from the nearby cabin) without going thru the whole ceremony with Arceus in the Sinjoh Ruins.
 * But Thou Must!: As of Crystal and continuing into Generation III and Generation IV, you’re required to face the version mascot due to the plot. The remakes force you to do the same before you can set out for the Indigo Plateau, though there’s no real reason why you can’t put it off.
 * The Hoenn and Sinnoh games at least had some justification for this, but the Johto remakes don’t even bother. Ethan or Lyra will just block your way to Kanto until you go meet with the Kimono Girls and battle Ho‐oh/Lugia.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The random candy bar you got in Mahogany Town in Johto can be traded to a Kanto NPC for the TM for Explosion, the most powerful (albeit suicidal) move in the game.
 * In addition, in the Gen V games, this otherwise useless candy bar is used to wake up a Zen Mode Darmanitan. However, the item cannot be transferred from HGSS.
 * Circling Birdies:
 * In the minigames, the player’s Pokémon get circling Psyduck when stunned.
 * In the PokéWalker, the player’s one Pokémon gets circling stars when KOed by a wild Pokémon.
 * Chiptune: While the original games had this by definition, here in Generation IV, after acquiring all 8 Kanto Gym badges, an NPC in Game Freak HQ will reward you with the “GB Sounds” item that allows you to switch to remakes of the original chiptunes at will while exploring Kanto or Johto. (It even includes chiptune renditions for areas that were added since the originals, like the Johto Safari Zone and Global Trade Station.)
 * Copy Protection: ROMs randomly freeze up within minutes of beginning gameplay, making progress in the game nearly impossible for would‐be pirates.
 * Save Scumming is a simple way to make this just annoying
 * Disc One Nuke
 * Many Pokéwalker Pokés can become this, easily allowing the player to obtain a good variety of Pokémon with great moves early in the game. if you’re lucky, you can get a powerful Kangaskhan on your very first stroll.
 * The impossibility to lose coins and higher use of skill in the international versions of the game corner turn Dratini (normally quite expensive/hard to gamble for) into one of these. They start with Thunder Wave and Dragon Rage, has a typing that resists most early game attacks, and has the Shed Skin ability, giving it a chance to cure standard stats effects each turn. It can also later on evolve into one of the more powerful Pokémon in the game.
 * Not to mention that if you trade over an event Arceus, it’s possible to get one of Sinnoh’s legendary dragons before the first Gym. A legendary dragon that shares your ID number, in fact, meaning that it will never disobey you. Like Dratini above, the Sinnoh dragons stay useful throughout the whole game, on account of being legendary and all.
 * Thanks to the Pal Park you can trade over your end‐of‐game level Pokémon teams from FireRed/LeafGreen as soon as you set foot in Kanto (provided you’re willing to walk/bike to Fuchsia first thing), allowing you to blow through the majority of the region’s Gym Leaders fairly easily.
 * Also, the Safari Zone in Johto opens after defeating Chuck, and by completing two very easy tasks you can catch a Larvitar, Gen II’s pseudo‐legendary, MUCH earlier than it appears in the wild. Raise it diligently and you’ll have a very powerful Tyranitar before the Elite Four or even the eighth Gym.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: One man in Goldenrod considers himself a bad guy, but says he won’t hang out with someone in Team Rocket.
 * Feelies: The Pokéwalker.
 * Forced Tutorial: Just like in the originals, your mother insists on telling you how to use the phone. Just like in every Pokémon game, someone has to show you how to catch Pokémon. This gets very tedious, because your pseudo‐rival will show you how to catch Pokémon, realize that you weren’t in battle mode and therefore “didn’t see it,” and then you have to stand around some more while he/she shows you again.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * A double battle with a young couple on route 47 is a rather tongue in cheek version. The girl sends out an Onix, while the guy sends out a Cloyster. Unfortunately, the infamous one from the original version (i.e. Juggler Irwin saying he dropped his balls) is no longer present (see the Gold and Silver section above).
 * It’s probably no coincidence that a Firebreather (of all things!) in the Burned Tower named Dick in Gold and Silver had his name changed to Richard.
 * Guide Dang It:
 * Gym Leader rematches. Before you can request another fight, you have to get them registered in your Pokégear. To do that, you have to talk to them after meeting certain criteria. Problem is, you have to meet them at certain locations (some of which are rather obscure) at a certain time on a certain day of the week, instead of simply talking to them at their respective Gym. There’s even a couple that are gotten from an NPC other than the Gym Leader. Good luck finding all of them without a guide, even with the NPC that will randomly call you to give info about a random Leader. A good example of this is Jasmine, who appears at the Olivine City Diner between 13:00–14:00. Said diner is not important in the least outside of this one time and looks like a normal house, so you may not have just overlooked it every time you were in town.
 * Want to find a specific Pokémon in the Johto Safari Zone? Unlike previous generations, your Pokédex area listing doesn’t include the Safari Zone, so you’re on your own. After acquiring the National Pokédex, you can customize the Safari Zone using “blocks” to attract different species (mostly Hoenn or Sinnoh region Mons) that wouldn’t normally appear at all, but again, good luck trying to attract a specific one without consulting a strategy guide for help.
 * Lampshade Hanging:
 * The starting favor from Elm is changed from the player fetching an object that turns out to be an egg from Mr. Pokémon for Elm, to Elm asking the player to walk a Pokémon for him. When contacted by Mr. Pokémon in the scene, Elm thinks he is just bugging him about “another egg” (as Pokémon eggs are common knowledge since Generation II–III). This is a holdover from the Crystal version, where Elm asks a similar favor before he gets Mr. Pokémon’s email.
 * The man before the Elite Four offers to teleport you back to New Bark Town, but notes no one takes him up on his offer because everyone wanting to go there just flew there. Completely true. It doesn’t help (or, for the player character, hurt) that the Indigo Plateau seems to be the one place in the entire game from which a person can fly to any region in Johto or Kanto. Sorry, !
 * Steven from Ruby/Sapphire makes a cameo in this game; when you first meet him, he mentions how all the trainers who gave him a hard fight looked very similar to each other.
 * Kansai Regional Accent: Numerous characters speak with either a Kansai–ben accent or another sort of accent. Kurt, Whitney, Bill, etc.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: In the original Gold/Silver, you only found out you could revisit Kanto from Red/Blue near the “end” of the game when an NPC stops you on your trip to Victory Road to tell you “you’ve just taken your first step into Kanto! Check your map!” In the remakes, everybody knows that Johto and Kanto are neighboring regions. It’s pretty obvious after examining the world map (moving the cursor to the right side changes the “Johto” text to “Kanto” even if there are no Kanto locations marked yet), and not too far into the game people start mentioning places in Kanto you may come across during your travels. Even before the remakes were released, one of the trailers showed the protagonist taking the Magnet Train along with images of Pallet Town and other famous landmarks from Kanto.
 * Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club: “Just a Souvenir Shop. Nothing Suspicious About it. No Need to be Alarmed” in Mahogany Town.
 * Lost Forever: Mr. Pokémon gives you the Exp. Share if you trade him a Red Scale obtained from battling the Red Gyarados. If you happen to NOT talk to him in between the time you battle the Red Gyarados and receive a Kanto Starter Pokémon from Professor Oak, he’ll give you the orb needed to catch Kyogre/Groudon instead, leaving the Exp. share unobtainable. However, another Exp. Share can be obtained from Goldenrod Radio Tower Lottery if the player can match 3 digits.
 * Luck-Based Mission: Voltorb Flip, bring something of a cross between Picross and Minesweeper, can become this. A little logical deduction can improve your chances of avoiding the Voltorb, but clearing the board (which is required to earn higher payouts) almost always ends up requiring a guess between two or three cards, and hoping you pick right.
 * Remake Difficulty Spike:
 * The Gym Leaders are noticeably more difficult than they were in the second generation, thanks to abilities (Bugsy’s Scyther has “Technician,” increasing its Quick Attack by 50%, and Whitney’s Miltank has “Scrappy” (how fitting), enabling it to hit Ghosts who would otherwise be immune to Normal attacks) and better AI tactics (like the “Spore Punch” combo, where Chuck’s Poliwrath puts your Pokémon to sleep so they can’t disrupt its powerful Focus Punches) or simply because the elemental types are better balanced than originally, and this works out in the AI’s favor quite often. Even the physical/special split introduced in Generation IV seems to favor the AI (for example, “Flame Wheel” now relies on Cyndaquil’s physical Attack, which is lower than its Special Attack).
 * Kanto received a huge difficulty spike in the remakes, compared to the original where everyone was level 30 or so: All trainers are now in the Lv.45–50 range, and the Gym Leaders are in the 50–60 range. Pokémon are in the 80's, with his Pikachu being level 88, the highest level Pokémon used by a non‐player Trainer in the entire main series!
 * Retcon: A lot of it due to the story being reworked to be taking place around the same time as Generation IV and after Generation III.
 * Retraux: HeartGold and SoulSilver have a key item called the GB Sounds (which is unlocked by getting all 16 badges) that, when activated, makes almost all overworld and battle music 8‐bit, even for (some) tracks that didn’t exist in any 8‐bit Pokémon games (i.e. music originating in those games, other DS games, or the GBA games). Every Sunday the music radio station plays 8‐bit tracks not accessible with the GB Sounds (i.e. music that only plays prior to obtaining the GB Sounds or music from radio stations, which aren’t affected by the GB Sounds).
 * Shout-Out: There’s a Super Nerd on Route 8 in Kanto who asks “How does the magnet train work?” before the battle begins.
 * Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Voltorb Flip, which the Japanese can’t play on their copies. Even in‐universe, as the character that usually advises you about the local gym leader is too busy playing the game to show up at the Celadon City gym.
 * Spear Counterpart: The Bird Keepers in the remakes seem to be this to Bird Keepers of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, which had female Bird Keepers instead of male ones like the rest of the series (including these games), as they have the same clothing and hair color. However, since the Vs. Recorder upload data is shared with Platinum, the female Bird Keepers still appear in the Battle Frontier.
 * Stop Poking Me: Talking to your Pokémon too much leads to it getting angry and defiant, even if it’s at maximum happiness.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the remakes, the shop that’s a front for Team Rocket features a sign on the door that reads “Just a Souvenir Shop. Nothing Suspicious about It. No Need to Be Alarmed.”
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Done with the Walking Pokémon feature. You can’t help but feel warm and fuzzy when you check on your Pokémon’s status and they spontaneously hug you.
 * Villains Out Shopping: If you enter the department store while dressed as a Team Rocket member, one of the people remarks, “I never thought about it, but Team Rocket does go shopping…” Not a literal example of the trope, but close enough to count.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: What became of the Murkrow that opened the door to the radio transmitter and then ran off?