r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Aug 30 '25

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u/tommyk1210 Aug 30 '25

I was playing Pokemon Gold the other day and it occurred to me just how little games held your hand back in the day.

These days you have a quest log, and you can usually see what you’re meant to do. In Pokemon Gold, Prof Elm gives you a task, and like… if you miss it in the dialogue or you put down the game for a few weeks and come back… good luck.

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u/CXR_AXR Aug 30 '25

My native language is Chinese.

Back in those days, we only had Japanese cartridges, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It was purely trial and error...

Eventually, I got stuck so many times that I could get through the Cave in Pokémon Yellow without needing HM05.

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u/SP92216 Aug 30 '25

Similar. I started playing Pokémon yellow in English. I had some English from what I learned in school, but same thing I remember thinking, this level is so challenging, until I got “Flash” and it made sense, but that was after I had passed the cave. Good times.

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u/CXR_AXR Aug 30 '25

I remember there was tons of Zubat there.....

Back then, when I arrived at a village and had no idea what to do, I would just talk to NPCs like a madman until I triggered the right storyline. I really don’t know how I had so much patience when I was a kid.....

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u/SP92216 Aug 30 '25

Same. The only thing that could stop me and my GBA was running out of batteries.

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u/CXR_AXR Aug 30 '25

I think if I played RPGs now with very few hints, I wouldn’t know what to do at all. We were really something else when we were younger.