I am 100% too young to feel so old.

Those Mystery Dungeon games I talked about before? The first ones came out fucking FIFTEEN YEARS AGO., holy SHIT.

I'm gonna do some threads relating to these games, specifically Red Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky

So context, I'm 24, and Red/Blue Rescue team came out November 17, 2005 on GBA for Red and DS for Blue. I was 10, I was a little egg in 5th grade absolutely head over heels in love with Pokemon, and the core marketing hook was in these new games, you played as a Pokemon

Wikipedia tells me they came out the next year in North America so I was 11 in 6th grade, whoops
I was still way into Pokemon tho

Either way. I remember being mad at my friend Dave, who may read this and also may not but I'm not gonna tag him since it's fuckin 5:30 AM, wouldn't let me borrow his game guide book or whatever, lmao

So if you've never played these games, in the first two sets they give you a little personality quiz to determine what poke you're gonna be, and I wanted to be Cubone SO BAD because Cubone wears a skull and I didn't realize it but I was a little edgelord

Your possibilities were all nine starter pokes at the time (this was late Gen 3), Pikachu, Eevee, Skitty, Cubone, Machop, or Meowth

I eventually got tired of trying to cheese the quiz and got Machop (which only boys could be for some reason)

At first I was bummed because I didn't much care for Machop, but honestly for a long time after this, Machop was my fave poke (it's Wartortle now thanks for asking)
You also got to choose a poke to be your partner, I went with Totodile and named him Bighton (sounds like bitin')

The plot of R/BRT is you are a human, who is transformed into a poke, and whisked away to a world of only pokes, and there's a series of natural disasters supposedly linked to you being there AND HONESTLY IT GETS WAY MORE EMOTIONAL THAN IT HAD ANY RIGHT BEING

Also??? The music fuckin slaps
This music will make you feel feelings
This music will melt your cold dead iced over heart
This music can achieve Left Unity

Another really really cool thing is all the characters are also pokes (duh) and their personalities make absolute perfect sense for what poke they are

Like if you've played Pokemon before you can really appreciate how much these characters fit what they are

In 2008 they dropped a sequel to Red and Blue Rescue Teams, titled Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness which honestly? Metal as FUCK

Also as fantastic as the originals are these blow those out of the water IN EVERY ASPECT

Music? BETTER
Story? ON TOP
Visuals? MILES AHEAD
I was a Meowth and my journey was full of smiles and tears and I'm getting choked up thinking about it right now

I didn't play Explorers extensively at first because I was a little shit who was like "wah it's different" but I got over myself for Freshman year of high school

Between 2006 and 2009 I had moved schools and lost contact with most of my friends and awkward angsty teenage me had a VERY hard time making new ones, also my mental health made keeping my grades up nearly impossible so my home life was in shambles

Looking back high school was four ugly years that I do not look back on fondly, even though I made some great friends who I mostly don't talk to anymore
But for 2009, I felt like I had no one, and honestly Explorers was a fantastic little escape for me

Maybe that's why these games make me feel so fuckin emotional, because both of them helped me through a pretty fuckin rough time as a youngster

In 2007 I moved away from the only place I'd remembered as home and left all my friends; moving can be traumatic and weird for a kid

Anyway I'm fuckin misty eyed and nostalgic and emotional like I always am

I'm gonna play these fuckers now, starting with Red Rescue Team

Took the quiz and got Meowth, my partner's Pikachu I named him Barnabas and myself Jessica because that's my name and I feel validated when I name myself my name in video games

This music is truly throwing me back in time

Also

The idea of coming to terms with and learning to accept yourself is applicable to being LGBTQ+

Probably not the intended message but it's lovely to feel seen anyway

Gotta represent (check out my discord, link in bio)

Yo look at my cute lil house

I know I can savestate this (I'm emulating because I can't find my GBA charger) but this makes my heart skip each time, lmao.

Anyone know what causes this?

This shit? Fuckin cute