Developing Responses to Media Products

The type of media text Ive decided to develop a response to are video games.
One of the gaming franchises that has been a huge part of my life has been
Pokmon. The franchise has been going strong for over 20 years and I have
played almost every game in the main series. The Pokmon games all follow a
similar premise and story enough so to discuss every game in the franchise.
However, I can offer a brief overview of Pokmon. There is a world much like our
own that houses people alongside these weird and wonderful creatures with
powers and abilities called Pokmon. These creatures co-exist with humans and
overtime, humans began to form partnerships with them and would work
together to complete various tasks. Eventually, humans and Pokmon would
participate in tournaments to hone their skills and get stronger in the form of
battles. Until the present, where humans would travel across the world and
different regions to participate in the sport known as Pokmon battling. It
became such a key foundation to their society that everyone by the age of 10
would receive their first Pokmon partner and begin their journey. Battling isnt
the only thing human trainers and their Pokmon can do; but the games focus
on the journey of the player, a 10 year old about to start their journey as a
Pokmon trainer to build a team, battle gym leaders and become the champion.
Their universe thrives on their relationship with Pokmon and the lore expands
more than the games provide. So far, there are 7 different regions called Kanto,
Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos and Alola which are the main locations of the
main series games. Other regions exist but none of which have been explored in
the main line.
The game I have chosen to discuss is the first game I played in the franchise;
Pokmon Soul silver and Heart gold.

Soul Silver and Heart gold are the remakes to the games Pokmon Gold and
Silver, which are the sequels to the first original games in the franchise, Red,
Blue, Yellow and Green. Pokmon Yellow is a game that takes the original three
games but follows the story of the Anime adaptation of the games. Characters
from the games sometimes make appearances or play key roles in the anime but
very rarely are presented in the same way or style as their counterpart. In the
original version of the games Soul Silver and Heart Gold, the main character of
Gold and Silver is a 10 year old boy named Gold. With the first two generations
of the Pokmon games, the role playing games involved controlling the
characters of Red for the games Red and Blue, and Gold for Gold and Silver. Like
with the Soul Silver and Heart Gold, the first generation of Pokmon games
received remakes being FireRed and LeafGreen. With that, Red gained a female
counterpart named Leaf after Game freak, the company behind Pokmon
realised their high numbers in female players/fans.

The original games for the sequel received a third addition called Crystal which
also had the opportunity to play as a female character called Kris.

Heart Gold and Soul Silvers main characters were Ethan and Lyra and their rival
Silver.
Ethan/Lyra are the main remake characters to the original Gold and Kris and are
referred to as either/or. However, the main story for Soul Silver and Heart Gold
occurs three years after the events of Red, Blue/Green, FireRed and LeafGreen.
10 year old Ethan/Lyra lives in the Johto region with their mum and their best
friend/rival Lyra/Ethan (depending on the gender the player chooses, the other
character will be their friend/rival and supporting character). Ethan is tasked with
collecting a package for his neighbour and the regions Pokmon Professor,
Professor Elm after receiving his first Pokmon, choosing between Grass type
Chikorita, Fire type Cyndaquil and Water type Totodile. When returning, a boy
named Silver steals one of the professors Pokmon and is then your rival
throughout the game. Ethan then sets off on his journey defeating 8 gym leaders
to gain gym badges before he can challenge the Elite 4, a team of elite trainers,
and the Johto Champion to become the new champion. All of this while fighting
against the beaten but slowly returning evil Team Rocket after their leader was
defeated in the previous games by Red. Ethan basically follows in the shadow of
the legendary Trainer Red until he becomes both the Johto and Kanto champion,
and battles against Red on top of Mount Silver.
The Pokmon games all have a story but are driven by gameplay and team
building as well as strategizing and battle composition. The games flow rather
smoothly without the need for levels or segments to go to the next level. It
keeps a steady pace with opponents gradually gaining in levels that are used to
determine the strength of a Pokmon, and with every battle the players team
also gains levels. The difficulty is determined by the players ability to train and
their opponents strengths and abilities. The player has the option to change the
name and gender of the character they play as; only in recent games are they
given the option to customise them and change features. Aside from that, not
much about Pokmon allows the player to make their own decisions aside from
their teams and the moves their teams have. The story of the games all revolve
around the events of the region, the rivals and evil teams and the journey of the
played character. With Heart Gold and Soul Silver, the games narrative follows
the events after the first game whose story was very limited to the basic premise
of what Pokmon is. The games in Pokmon normally conclude with the player
becoming champion. However, in Soul Silver after the main game is completed,
it allows players to go back to the Kanto region which was the main region in
Red, Blue, Green and yellow. Each Pokmon game has an after game feature
but as of currently, Soul Silver and Heart Gold/ Gold and Silver are the only
games to allow the player to visit other regions form other games. The biggest
enigma existing in Soul Silver and Heart Gold has is the story and motivation
behind the rival Silver and the whereabouts of Team Rockets leader Giovanni. All
these answers as well as more can be answered by obtaining certain Pokmon or
legendary Pokmon like Mew or Celebi. By having those Pokmon and travelling
to specific locations, various cut scenes and events are triggered revealing either
an extra portion of the game or some more story/character development.

Pokmon is a role playing franchise that allows players to experience the solely
between adventuring and forming a connection with the creatures you take on
your adventure. It also involves experiencing the world and how it operates with
the cooperation of the creatures. In the world of Pokmon, its all about how
people can learn more or build relationships with them which is why from the
young age of 10, children of both genders are able to go out in hopes of learning
more about the world and becoming great trainers. With this premise, the world
of Pokmon seems safe and friendly. However, the society that exists in this
world is incredibly dangerous and unpredictable. Pokmon themselves are
incredibly dangerous creatures considering they possess abilities and powers
that allow them to do things like shoot electricity or various levels of poison. This
is why people are encouraged to train their own Pokmon to protect them from
wild ones who could easily kill them. Not only that, but the world is inhabited by
a large amount of criminals and overall dangerous people. What strikes as one of
the most concerning is that in the games the character people play as are
roughly around 10 years to 14 years old and are regularly attacked by these
gangs and criminals, and are tasked with sorting them out minus any interaction
with the police force. Because of the way their society is presented, the games
appear to be represented rather negatively in terms of the worlds laws general
way of the people exist. But due to Pokmon being a kid friendly game franchise,
the world is rather positive expressing more about friendships and forming
connections as well as growing as a person to choose and lead your own destiny.
Because of the genre of Pokmon being adventure to role playing game, having
the playable character explore all of those areas of the world despite the logic of
them being a child adds to the adventure part of the genre and allow the for
more exploration in the Pokmon world.
 Because the Pokmon games are made using the vintage RPG format,
everything in the game is displayed from a birds eye view. This gives the player
a clear look view of their surroundings, the background and their character as
well as capture the retro look that most games had within the 90s and earlier.
Like many Nintendo games as well as other gaming franchises, Pokmon was
one the main franchises to stick with the traditional style of video game displays
up until their latest games in the series titled Sun and Moon which incorporates
more camera angles and multiple camera views. However one of Soul Silver and
Heart Golds strong points along with other Pokmon games was their music.
These games took place in the Johto region, a fictional area in the Pokmon
universe based on the real location of Johto in Japan. This ties into the fact that
the first generation took place in the Kanto region and only after the Hoenn
region they branched out to basing regions off of other real world locations
across the world. Along with the inclusion of real world landmarks, the music and
general designs all connect with the region making the game more immersive for
the players especially since the story isnt the main factor of the Pokmon games
despite existing. The game also tends to use a palette with hues and saturations
of the colours used in the logos as well as warm and cold tones that add to the
immersion when the scene turns from night to day and back again. The games
normally react to real world time in order to allow the player to catch certain
Pokmon that only show up at certain times as well as being a way for players to
feel like theyre existing in their world while playing. As Ive frequently
mentioned, Pokmon is a franchise that takes the RPG genre to a new level.
Instead of immersing players through top quality graphics, the games have
simple stories, freedom of choice in terms of what team and what style of
battling you want. The only similarity between each time any one of the games is
replayed is the base story that each game has. Earlier games in the franchise like
Gold and Silver focus less on having a plot driven story and allows the player to
spend more time building and training their teams and challenging gyms for
badges. The only inclusion of story are really for character development and
exhibition for important characters that interact with the players character.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver is noticeably one of the most popular games in the
Pokmon franchise due to the different elements theyve incorporated into these
games. One of the main things is that they allowed players to visit another
region after the main game is finished which is the only game in the franchise
that does that. Another element in this game that solidified its popularity is the
inclusion of having your Pokmon walk with you while exploring and the ability to
interact with them to see how theyre feeling. Other Pokmon games have
regional exclusive features which makes each game unique and enjoyable along
with the different species of Pokmon, but Heart Gold and Soul Silver had
something that most fans wanted out of the games. By having the Pokmon walk
by the playable character, the player gets to see the Pokmon react without the
need of facial expressions. All of the emotions presented in this game are all
done through speech bubbles/expression bubbles and basic character
movement. Some of the most symbolic things found in any Pokmon game are
the legendary Pokmon and the mysteries/law behind them. Those Pokmon as
well as the three starter mons chosen at the start of the game to join the player
on their journey. Those three represent the region and the games almost as
much as the Legendries due to the fact that theyre rare and can only be
obtained once. This also applies to the PokBall and all its predecessors because
of how symbolic it is to the franchise. These can all be considered as valuable
codes to the game; they can also comply with the conventions of the Pokmon
franchise which are catching, battling and befriending the creatures. It adds
nothing special to the RPG genre but has become a beloved franchise to
popularised turn based combat and including strategizing in video games.