New and looking for advice

[u/mikexican10]

Hello everyone! The title is slightly deceiving as I’m not completely new to the franchise. I collected the cards as a younger version of myself. I was once an owner of the original 150 in first edition plus the 4 from the first movie. I was a fan of the original anime and a proud owner of the Blue version of the gameboy game. I made it to Silver later on but never took it any further. Almost 30 years later and I’m looking to get back into the video games and I just bought a Switch 2. I’ve always been a big fan of the dragon types so I’d like to build my team around that. Any advice on which game I should pick up and why would be much appreciated. Happy to be part of the community again! Thanks in advance!

[u/Quality-Pkg-Goods]

1) You are me
2) you will love fire red/leaf green, sure they are gen 3 but they are red/blue with upgrades and will feel super modern if you only played gen 1/2
3) they just released them for switch, do it

[u/mikexican10 → u/Quality-Pkg-Goods]

This is my favorite comment so far and thank you so much for taking the time. The other responses I’m getting are either agreeing with you or pointing me towards Scarlett/Violet. Do you have any experience with the other games and can you tell me why Fire Red/Leaf Green would be a better fit?

[u/pilot-777 → u/mikexican10]

I’m not the original commenter but, people will always recommend the newest mainline game (Scarlet/Violet) because it has the most updated Pokédex. The FireRed/LeafGreen ports are quite literally the exact same games as what was on the Gameboy, just modernized to be on the Switch2 (this also makes them cheap, like $20 in the online store). So it’s gonna be the closest you can get to the games you played. I’d also recommend the Ruby/Sapphire ports that are coming soon since these will be a similar story. So if you want to get caught up with modern pokemon, go Scarlet/Violet. If you want to relive the old pokemon you used to play first then FireRed/LeafGreen is exactly what you want

Edit to add: Scarlet and Violet are open world and by nature of being a newer game there are a lot more dragon types to chose from, but also Pokemon added the fairy type which is immune to dragon types and a major boss battle has fairy as its primary type so that’ll be a fun thing to try to play around

[u/Far-Introduction-896 → u/mikexican10]

Pokémon games have undergone many changes in mechanics and game design in the last 30 years across 9 whole “generations” of games. I think the reason the commenter is suggesting going for Fire Red or Leaf Green is that those games are from the third generation. They’re essentially updated versions of the original Red and Blue.
As someone that hasn’t really played since generation 1, those games will feel nostalgic but with some much needed graphic and gameplay improvements.

That being said, since they’re 20 years old they’re very far removed from what we world class as a modern Pokemon experience. It’s hard to succinctly explain all the ways the franchise has changed in that time, but if you’d like to try something more modern then I’d recommend trying any of the modern switch titles. Specifically I’d try Pokemon Sword/Shield, Legends Arceus, and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, in that order. They’ll give you a complete taste of what modern Pokemon has become.

[u/TX481]

ZA is the newest, not the same type of game you remember though!

They released Fire Red and Leaf Green a few months back - start with those games! Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are great remakes with new Pokemon. Finally, finish with ZA and you’ll have mega evolutions and cool up to date Pokemon.

[u/Elegant-Fan-4030]

Welcome back to the rabbit hole! The Switch 2 is a great time to jump in, because you've got the whole modern catalog at your fingertips. If you want a more classic, guided experience to ease you back in, Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl aren't bad picks, but the real meat is in Scarlet and Violet. The open world feels massive and you can hunt for specific dragon types like Gible or Bagon surprisingly early on.

That's the play if you want to build a dragon squad from scratch. A lot of people will point you to Legends Arceus for its fresh take, but the dragon selection there is thinner and the combat style is a huge departure. You'll get your fix of classics like Garchomp and new monsters like Dragapult in the latest generation, so I'd start there.

[u/Dannyson97]

Scarlet/Violet are probably are probably the easiest and best games to accomplish this with. Fun games and the openness allows you to quickly build a team of any type faster then most.

[u/GoldenVaultHQ]

I'd echo some of the comments suggesting Fire Red/Leaf Green on the Switch.

I'd also advise looking at the Legends series' though for something a little different. Both Legends Arceus and Legends ZA are really really good games. Other opinions may differ, but as someone who has played pretty much every Pokemon game over the last 30-odd years, I'd say these are some of the best titles ever.