Are the original Pokemon games worth visiting for the first time? I know there is some nostalgic reasoning to play them, but should I try it as someone who hasn't ever played one?
They are hard to play because they lack a lot of QOL stuff and one big motivation to play them is nostalgia.
If you are open minded and want to visit them for the history go ahead, if you think you could invest your time in something better then don't.
I finished Pokémon Yellow recently but for me it was easier because I played Pokémon Red in its day, and this time I used a Miyoo Mini which has some perks on its own, like fast forward, rewind, save states and fast shutdown and quick resume (basically all good things emulators have but on the go) I could say I abused of FF except to listen its great OST, also there are the GBA remakes which improve them a lot... so there are my two cents 😀
As someone powered by nostalgia that’s about halfway through Red, it’s definitely rough. I’d personally recommend playing one of the remakes (Fire Red/Leaf Green, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, or Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire) if you’re interested in the earlier games but want something that’s a little friendlier to a modern gamer.
The Let’s Go games are also the same story (generally) as the Gen 1 games and more modern. It’s also available on the Switch, which is nice since it can be hard to find some of the older games (for not a ridiculous price).
A lot of it was to capitalize on Pokémon Go’s success (the catching mechanic is nearly identical), but also people had been asking that wild Pokémon be visible in the over world for years
In the original games you can't run, the battle system is not as polished as the newer entries, your inventory is way limited, to the point you won't be able to pick up things unless you get rid of stuff first, and even your PC is limited so you need to ration stuff, those are some that come at the top of my mind.