Bag: Difference between revisions

The bag (Japanese: バッグ bag) is a tool in many of the Pokémon games. It holds all of the main character's items. By opening the bag, the player can change and arrange items in the bag, along with registering and tossing items.

Uses of the bag

Outside of battle

The bag has been a prominent part of every main series Pokémon game, and a vital tool in any Pokémon Trainers quest. Already given to every Trainer at the start of the game, the bag originally contains no items, however, there is a Potion usually found in the Item storage system of the PC that can be added to the bag so soon as the game begins. The bag can be opened using the start menu, outside of battle. It is usually displayed under the Pokémon menu, or can be found on the touch screen in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Once the menu is opened, a list of items that the Trainer has collected will be displayed. Most items are able to be used outside of battle, such as key items, Potions, or status ailment healing items, however not all items can be used outside of battle, such as Poké Balls, or valuable item, which can be used for other purposes, respectively, in battle or to be sold at a Poké Mart. There is also an option that allows items to be held by their Pokémon, which stores an item for later use in battle. Held items range from Berries that can be used in battle to recover to items that can be used to enhance the power of certain moves. Most other items may be held as well, such as Poké Balls and Revives, though the Pokémon will not use them.

The bag is very customizable, and can be changed and altered at the Trainer's will. By opening the bag, the Trainer can change and arrange items in the bag by selecting the item using the "select" button, then by pressing the "select" button again on the location space in the bag, the item will be switched to that location space. As of Generation II, key items in the bag may be registered, that is, registering a key item allows the player to easily activate and use the item using the select button, or Y button in Generation IV. Only one item is allowed to be registered at a time, however, in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, two items were allowed, and could be activated on the touch screen.

Items that are placed into the bag can be obtained in several different ways. They can be given to the Trianer by characters within the game, be bought at a Poké Mart for money, or found by Trainers throughout the Pokémon world. The latter form of Items are contained within Item Balls, a spherical container resembling a Poké Ball. To obtain the item, players move next to it and press A while facing it, and the item will instantly be added to the bag. However, up until Generation IV, the storage space for bags were limited, and items that are found when the bag is completely full cannot be picked up. To counter this problems, Trainers are able to store items in their Item storage system by going to any PC in a Pokémon Center, or simply toss it out. Tossing items away will delete them from the bag. However, because of their importance Key items cannot be tossed.

In battle

Bag menu during a Pokémon battle

If Bag is selected during a Pokémon battle, the menu of items that the Trainer has in their bag will be displayed. The Trainer is able to use items that they have obtained outside of battle for use inside the battle, such as Potions, and Poké Balls, where the Trainer may use one of them on their Pokémon. Once a item has been used from the bag, the battle is skipped to the opponent's move, which they are about to attack, or even use items in this case. The bag cannot be used in a link battle which is a battle held between two real players, or while battling at other facilities such as the Battle Tower.

Many items can be selected from the bag, included Potions to restore a Pokémon's HP, status ailment healing items to heal a Pokémon's status ailment, and berries to do a variety of effects. However some items can not be used inside of the battle, including key items and TMs and HMs. Poké Balls are also able to be selected from the bag to catch wild Pokémon, and cannot be used outside of battle. Generation IV games introduced a unique design to the bag menu, grouping items into Potions, Poké Balls, status ailment healing items, and Battle items, and has an option to reuse the item used last. This allows for easy access, for whether throwing a Poké Ball, or using a healing item.

Changes with the bag

Generation I

In Generation I, any items placed in the bag were in the same pocket. Ninety-nine of any item could fit inside, with only twenty different items allowed in the bag in total. When the bag was full, the player's PC could be used for any kind of item storage. Unlike captured Pokémon, found items were not sent if the bag was full.

Generation II

In the second generation of games came along a major change in the bag's design: Items could now be separated into four different pockets depending on what they are.

• Normal items, including Berries and healing items
• Poké Balls
• TMs and HMs
• Key items

Generation III

In Generation III, the player could get a visual of the bag as he or she searched through it, with different designs of the bag for the unique characters. This generation also expanded the pocket system from Generation II, with five pockets instead of four.

• Normal and healing items
• Berries
• Poké Balls
• TMs and HMs
• Key items

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

The pocket system in these two games differed from the rest. Rather than having separate pockets for Berries and TMs, the key items pocket contained two sub-pockets, the TM Case and Berry Pouch. FireRed and LeafGreen also introduced images for the items, the first time they had been pictured in the games. This feature was kept in Pokémon Emerald (though it was crudely added to the same menu structure as Ruby and Sapphire's bag system) and continued on into Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

Generation IV

Generation IV had revolutionized the pocket system even more, dividing the bag up further:

• Items (many holdable to some effect)
• Medicine
• Poké Balls
• TMs and HMs
• Berries
• Mail
• Battle items
• Key items

The player can navigate the bag by either using the face buttons on the Nintendo DS or using its touch screen to scroll through the bag and items.

Unlike previous generations, the bag has an infinite amount of space within it, meaning that the PC item storage system is obsolete and not present in the Generation IV. Thus, the amount of a single item that a player could carry is raised to 999, though if this limit is reached, they can still carry more of that item as it simply takes up a second slot in the bag. The PC is replaced within the PC menu with an option for decorating Poké Balls with Seals instead.

Key items can still be set to a hotkey that the player can press to call on that item without going through the bag each time but instead of the Select button - as has been the precedent in the past two Generations of games, this has been assigned to the 'Y' button, likely due to its better placement.

In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, the main interface of the bag was moved to the touch screen.

In the anime

The major characters in the Pokémon anime own a bag and usually keep their supplies and Poké Balls inside of it. Brock seems to carry many more items in his bag than the other characters, including a variety of healing items, books, and cooking supplies. Brock's bag seems to best reflect the ridiculously large capacity of the game's bag. In The School of Hard Knocks for instance, he pulls a table and full tea set out of his backpack.