Why do I get the message "You missed the Pokémon!"

Question

I recently started playing Pokémon Blue again from where I left off. I had just beaten Erika and I was off to Lavender Town to get the Poké Flute. After receiving the flute, I immediately woke up a Snorlax.

I managed to get Snorlax down to an HP level that would kill him if I landed one more move. I had no moves that would freeze, paralyze, or put Snorlax to sleep, so, naturally, I started to throw pokéballs.

On my first throw, I got the message "You missed the pokémon!" to which I tried again with the same result. I threw all 8 of my pokéballs with no luck.

I thought at first that Snorlax could not be caught, like the Marowak you fight before getting the Poké Flute, but it turns out, getting the message "You missed the pokémon!" is the same as the pokémon breaking out as explained in this forum post.

Why do I get this message as opposed to the conventional "The Pokémon broke free"? Could this be because Snorlax is not randomly encountered? Or does this have something to do with catch rates?

Answer 1

That's normal, it is just the lowest possible result of attempting to capture a Pokémon.

While in later games wild Pokémon always get inside a Poké Ball and then shake 0, 1, 2, or 3 times before breaking out, in first generation games the worst result was not getting the Pokémon in a Poké Ball at all.