The Pokémon Version you are meant to play

[Narckarth]

Pokémon generations have always come out with multiple version of their respective regions. Disregarding Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, two versions are released side by side each with slight tweaks in the story and events generally in order to suit that version’s legendary mascot. This begs the question. In each generation which of the two versions is the one that “you are meant to play?” The one that makes more sense in the game's story and fits better than its counterpart in the world.

Red/Fire Red VS Blue/Green/Leaf Green

Charizard takes the first win in Kanto.This is due to the fact that the protagonist is canonically named Red just like the game. It’s pretty safe to assume R/FR are the games you are meant to go with.

Gold/Heart Gold VS Silver/Soul Silver

Ho-oh wins the gold in Johto. Morty the gym leader of Ecruteak City shines a spotlight on Ho-oh during his declaration of being the rainbow-hued Pokémon’s chosen champion and The trio that Ho-oh is considered responsible for the Legendary Beasts are a factor through nearly the entire game while Lugia’s Trio the Legendary Birds don’t appear until the after game. In the Generation IV remakes the evidence even more strongly supports G/HG. The Kimono Girls who are instrumental for summoning either Ho-oh or Lugia are based in Ecruteak City. The city also being home to Ho-oh’s perch. The girl’s kimonos are a bright vibrant red, green and gold matching the colour scheme of Ho-oh. The item used to summon the legendaries is a bell and Bell Tower is where Ho-oh is found. This all strongly suggests the G/HG is the version you are meant to play.

Ruby/Omega Ruby VS Sapphire/ Alpha Sapphire

I hope you have a raincoat because Kyorge is the winner for Hoenn. The evil team base is found on the shore line. It can be argued that the only reason Team Magma is there is so that they can get to Groudon in the underwater cave easier. However that raises the question “why the hell is Groudon under water?” Admittedly the activity on top of Mount Chimney does lean more towards Team Magma than Aqua. Cooling the volcano so that a lake can form in the creator is not something that an evil team desperate to expand the ocean would have the patience to do in my opinion. However the legendary is found so deep underwater that you would need to take a special designed submarine in order to reach it really doesn't help Groudon's case. The location of the legendaries leads me to conclude that you are meant to play S/AS

Diamond VS Pearl

Palkia the star player wins in Sinnoh. When trying to reconstruct the universe control over the physical make up of the universe is probably a bit better than control over the flow of time in the universe. By my understanding P is the one you are meant to play.

Black & Black 2 VS White & White 2

I’m not lying, Reshiram is the winner in Unova. This is the one most open to debate because it is more subjective than any other regions. It comes down to the simple question, is N fighting for ideals or truth? I would say ideals. The truth is that people and Pokémon live together and have been living together for thousands of years. By the events of B/W the truth is that they are interwoven and the affect one another very heavily. It is N’s ideal to separate the two and create a world of black and white where one cannot influence the other. B&B2 are the events you are meant to play through.

X VS Y

Yveltal killed it out there and takes the victory in Kalos. Team Flair aims to kill everything. It could be argued that the exact type of energy gathered to fire the weapon doesn’t matter. But it does make a bit more sense to charge your WMD flower with the incarnation of death itself. The giant egg is meant to be on that podium not the tree you are meant to play Y.

I am not by any means suggesting that these games are more canonical than their counterparts this is just an interesting thought that has been rolling around my head. Feels good to have gotten it out. Hope you enjoyed

[FairFamily]

Red in the manga has a bulbasaur. Also I didn't play ORAS but isn't team magma's base inside the Volcano in the old version? You needed an isgnia to enter it if I recall correctly. I know they have a dock as well but that seemed to be for their submarine.

[Masquerain]

TBH, I disagree with he RSE one. For me, Magma always made more sense as a villain team due to the fact that Maxie wanted to expand the landmass in favor of humanity, whereas Archie apparently only gave a f about water type pokemon in a world that's 70% water. I mean, if you flood the world, it's not like non-water types would have it any better, especially fire types. That seems less logical to me so I've always considered R/OR to be the "chosen one"

I also found it quite confusing about gen 5 games but in the end, I think that N is the hero of truth, hence, canonically belongs with Reshiram, thus making White and White 2 the "chosen ones". I believe that N is somebody who has always known a false truth induced on him by Ghetsis, and as such, has always been searching for the real truth, whereas we, the protagonist, don't know any truth but go on based on our ideals.

Can't really say much about Johto and Sinnoh because I never really played HeartGold so I don't know the details from that one, and Gen 4 in particular never struck me as anything being more logical than the other so -shrug-

Kanto is Kanto, not much to say there, I guess Red it is.

As for Kalos, yeah, I'd agree Y is the more logical choice because Team Flare's initial goal was to commit mass genocide with the ultimate weapon. In the case of X, that energy from the weapon would grant eternal life to the world and force them to live forever in an ugly world which seems quite..underwhelming.. If that's not what it would do, then those games are full of plotholes and retcons, but we already knew that much...

We know nothing about SunMoon yet so we can't really tell which game is more logical, but we'll see

[Ironbound]

I don't think one is 'meant' to play any specific one of the paired games. That's the point. You simply pick whichever one appeals more to you, whatever your motivations (competitive availability of exclusive Pokemon, the coolness of the boxart legends, or merely a random whim) and enjoy that parralel version of it. The combined game usually has a comprehensive story that includes both pairs, excepting BW2 which empgasized the split of opinion between Reshiram and Zekrom all the more, breaking the mould.

I respect this as your opinion, though I cannot bring myself to agree with it in any objective respect. For instance, Dialga makes as much sense as Palkia, because Cyrus in Diamond has a slightly different idea of controlling the universe than Cyrus in Pearl or in Platinum.

I could also make a case of N fighting for truth as much as for ideals, since truth is most often a prevarication that is subjective to the believer. N being a child who was raised by Ghetsis only to believe that people are evil to Pokemon, is true in his belief, even though his knowledge is blinkered. It is the power of innocence that makes his ideals his truth, and his truth his ideals, so to speak. The two are not opposites. He is made aware of a greater truth and is shown a stronger ideal, in both games and not in any one. So once again, the question is not "which version is meant to be played?" but rather, "which version are YOU meant to play?"

[Narckarth]

Red in the manga has a bulbasaur. Also I didn't play ORAS but isn't team magma's base inside the Volcano in the old version? You needed an isgnia to enter it if I recall correctly. I know they have a dock as well but that seemed to be for their submarine.

The volcano base is only in Emerald, they are in the shoreline cave and Groudon is underwater in Ruby

[Samalet]

I agree with Narckarth for Gen 2, 3 and 6. It's not so much about 'what you are supposed to play', but 'what's the better story'. Gold, Sapphire and Y win in that category, they just make more sense in-game. Of course the 'true' story is always told by the third game anyways.

[Chase]

First of all, I like to hold the theory that each version (and each game copy for that matter - irrelevant here) is it's own dimension, and therefore the rules of one don't apply to the other.

Kanto - Red was the game that was gifted to me, and I've always liked Charizard either the most or equally with Blastoise, so it gets the nod as being the one that speaks to me.

Johto - Gold only because the details make more sense and the build up to the legendary encounter is presented better.

Hoenn - Look - I take special stock in the word "You" when reading the question. If answering the question "What version were YOU meant to play" to me that's Ruby over Sapphire. I've always been more associated and related to heat and warmer colors, and magma is about as heat as you can heat....ya heat what I'm heatin? Logic doesn't prevail over appeal.

Sinnoh - Pearl calls out to me more, although not enough to make me want to finish a game in the fourth generation that isn't a remake.

Unova - I think you missed the mark on this one too - there are people that do use Pokemon for selfish reasons just as truthfully as pokemon have been living with humans. N's right in both accounts, and by personal choice, White fits better with me.

Kalos - Y makes a lot more sense to me. You can't -destroy- a world with the energy that -SUSTAINS- life...unless the beam is powerful enough to cause the planet to fall apart. Then it's just living forever in space.....bad news.

[YoshiofRedemption]

I noticed in your breakdown of the games, you excluded Platinum. Any particular reason?

[Shadow Roxas]

I noticed in your breakdown of the games, you excluded Platinum. Any particular reason?

He also excluded Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald.

[Deleted User]

Red (CHAWIZARD)

Silver (Lugia)

Ruby (I thought Kyogre was the final stage of water starter and I thought it looked lame)

FireRed (Had red, so this)

Diamond (Dialga > Palkia)

SoulSilver (Had silver, so this)

White (Zekrom)

White 2 (Had White, so this)

X (MegaZard X)

OmegaRuby (Had Ruby, so this)

Sun (Praise the Sun)