Pokémon LeafGreen made me realize how spoiled I am

A recent Pokémon Presents stream celebrating 30 years brought FireRed and LeafGreen to the Switch family, and replaying LeafGreen for the first time in 20 years reminded me how grindy the originals were. Newer entries have smoothed many of the franchise’s rougher edges.

Modern games let your entire six‑Pokémon team earn experience and even give XP for catching wild Pokémon, but LeafGreen doesn’t. Training a level 5 Magikarp into a Gyarados at level 20 means leading it into battle and swapping immediately so it still gains experience — a slow method that becomes worse when you’re also trying to raise other team members.

The Exp. Share you get later only splits experience between the active Pokémon and the one holding the item, and you can’t move Pokémon between your party and the PC on the fly; Bill’s PC is only accessible from computers at Pokémon Centers. Other quality‑of‑life changes stand out, too.

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