I've always loved the "top down RPG" genre. I wanted to solve the problems that building these kinds of games face for myself by implementing a classic game. I learned a lot about the limits of the map and spritesheets from building this and already have a multi-cart solution that includes the main menu and then leads into the game.

pokemon classic game gameboy

What a nice recreation!

You may be interested in things added in recent updates to pico-8, from small things like 'deli' function to custom font!
This video even shows the pokémon font as example: https://youtu.be/N7s2KIy3MZQ?t=4382 (new things are documented in the manual and in BBS threads for each release).

You are in good company, @ink_golem:

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=4046