Kanto

[Jayrodd]

Each region is unique and brings something new to the table for the world of Pokemon, and what better way start discuss this than from starting from the beginning. Of course Kanto sets up a lot of things that will be continued on through the rest of the series, but there are plenty of things that are its own.

• Discuss aspects of Kanto that are unique, or done better here than in other regions.
• Explain ideas you liked from the region that could be expanded on in later titles
• Share a memory of something you really liked about Kanto!

 

[PurpleZaffre]

It was pretty cool to have your rival as the Champion :P I mean, it was kinda done in BW with N too, but he wasn't really your rival. I think it'd always be cool to see something creative about the Champions in the next generations, since we already got a surprise with gen. 7 :D

 

[Dawn Bronze]

Honestly, I think that Kanto is kinda a boring region. Most other regions have interesting towns and landscapes, but to me Kanto is just kinda like the same sort of landscape for the whole region, and most of the towns don't really have a strong identity (in terms of their look, not things like story). I guess that could be down to the limitations of the Game Boy graphics, though. I remember seeing some old promotional art for RBY that sort of portrayed the region as a grassland habitat, which I think would have been interesting to see expressed in FRLG, but all we got was standard forest everywhere.

 

[manta]

Kanto was boring. No real myths or legends apart from the Mew(two) stuff. The area was generic Tokyo, with forest and grassy plains throughout the entire region. Each town and city was quite similar, with only a couple special buildings to really put them apart. The Pokémon residing inside weren't that interesting. In Gen I, this is excusable because it's the first game. FRLG could've fixed the blandness of Kanto, but it didn't because "remakes have to be exactly like the originals!".
If there's ever ANOTHER visit to Kanto, I hope they radically change it, reimagine it. It's just boring to me (the countless games in it don't help).

But I do like the legendary birds and the Radio Tower. Oh, wait. That was Johto.

 

[Dragonite]

Kanto was rather boring, but I'll let them off on the "it was their first try" excuse. On the Game Boy in particular, I imagine making nice, distinct-looking cities would be been a bit much on top of all of the other work they had to do (the development cycle was something like six years to begin with).

Cycling Road was pretty cool though tbh, I wish we had a Cycling Road in gens 6 and 7 (at least 5 had bridges).

 

[Evan]

Everyone talks about Kanto being boring, but I personally think it adds to the charm. It's based off of the Tokyo metropolitan area and gives an experience akin to someone growing up in that area. Cities that were divided by wooded areas. You fought off the mafia. It was a very suburban area.

Now, it wasn't tropical like Alola or colorful and diverse like Hoenn, nor did it have the cultural punch that Johto packed, but it gave a very distinct vibe as a region, and while that vibe could be described as "boring", it was very real for a lot of people. I was hoping they'd do the same for Unova when they did the NY metropolitan area--they added in superfluous biospheres though--(and I get it, it would have been boring otherwise to people who knew what Hoenn had to offer).

But the general vibe of Kanto made the things like Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower, or Cinnabar Island, or Saffron's Silph Co., stick out so much more, and I think that was what made it memorable.

My first memories of Kanto were actually from the back-half of Silver, and so most of the references probably went over my head, but I really enjoyed it as a companion region to Johto--Johto had color and culture and Kanto was more regimented and metropolitan.

 

[Dawn Bronze]

@Evan What you're describing sounds interesting, like a whole region that's basically set in a city environment. I really don't feel that Fromm Kanto though, as far as I'm concerned it's still a series or completely separate small towns with quite a decent amount of space in between them. When was the last time there was a huge mountain right in the middle of a 'metropolitan area'?

 

[Riddle]

Honestly, I think the simplicity of Kanto is just what made so much of it memorable for others. The town names were simple, the gym leaders were simple, but it just stuck out. Even though I'm completely biased towards Johto as I'm blinded by nostalgia glasses, I can honestly remember more of Kanto then it. The other regions definitely have much more unique lands and terrains and the cities are given much more depth, but for some reason it just flies over my head and I instantly forget about the name of the place, even though I still can picture a generic or even bland part of Kanto with sharp memory.

My earliest memories of it were when I first stepped into Kanto from the Johto region, and how excited I was even though I didn't know anything about it. It just seemed incredibly cool, even without any nostalgic memories to back it up with me.

 

[Shgeldz]

I played in Kanto before I could read, so I'm always biased. My imagination at the time allowed me to really turn a simple map into a sprawling city, dense forest, or vast ocean. I kinda lost that in FRLG, but was surprised to find when replaying Yellow on VC that I was able to dive back into that world. I think Kanto is a simple region and simpler graphics serve it best.

 

[Aki]

I can remember Red and Blue coming out, but I didn't get to play them untill after gen 3.

I think yeah, the region definitely wasn't as visually interesting as others we've gotten, and personally I feel Kanto has gotten really stale having gotten the most remakes (GSC, FRLG, HGSS,). What I do like about Kanto is the kind of flow through the region it setup. There's a lot of routes that spiral back to places the player has already been, with some obvious examples being going back to Pallet town to reach the last gym at Cinnabar Island, or Silence Bridge connecting Fuchsia City (5th gym) back to Lavender Town (which is early game, just after the second gym).

 

[doof]

I have honestly nothing better to contribute to the Kanto discussion than that nice fond memory of the time I caught my first shiny - a Rhyhorn - in the Safari Zone. I was pretty scared that it was going to run away, but I caught that sucker.

 

[Domiok]

In light of newer regions and games, Kanto has its notable problems. As others have mentioned, the lore and plot around the region are both pretty lacking. You as a player just know that you want to see the region, catch and train Pokémon, and knock down the baddies. It works as an introduction to the series; however, when looking at the other regions that do themselves a service with attention to lore and plot, Kanto looks bare bones.

@Aki put it well, but the layout of the region is just neat and, geographical features aside, one of the most interesting to traverse. Sneaking below towns to other ones and actually visiting the skipped towns later feels different and right. I don't know how many people cared for the point of no return at Cerulean City, but I always appreciated that. It made me feel like the stakes had ramped up and that I was heading toward bigger and better places. It also made the return trip to Pallet Town through Diglet Cave all the more satisfying. Touching on base with the Gating Content thread, Kanto had enough variance with roadblocks that made conquering them all a giddy time. You got to get past the impossible Cerulean ledge, Snorlaxes, bicycle passes, and more, and combined with the twisty map design, it makes you feel like you're really unlocking the region as you go through it.

My favorite memories include exploring the Seafoam Islands and Unkown Cave for the first time as a kid, and in my recent playthrough on the e-Shop copies, I surprisingly had a blast with hunting down the Safari Zone Pokémon and striving for Pokédex completion (which never quite happened since my roommates/classmates stopped playing, :worried:). And of course, I enjoyed every sneaky moment when your rival challenges you out of the blue.

 

[Maruno]

I like that progression through Kanto isn't a straight line. Sure, Pallet to Viridian to Pewter to Cerulean was, but that's the start of the game (and you could wander off west of Viridian for a bit). When you get to Cerulean, where do you go? There are four routes branching away from it, so which one are you going to take? None of them! Let's pop down an underground tunnel and appear two towns over.

You could also tackle a couple of Gyms in whichever order you wanted. Want to get to Fuchsia City? There are two completely separate ways to get there (and one of them has two different starting points). The same goes for getting to Cinnabar Island.

I appreciate not sticking straight to the drawn routes when progressing through a game. I also appreciate seeing features and possibilities before being able to access them - this encourages exploration. And then there are tunnels and caves which span different locations and can't be confined to a single section of the Town Map.

As far as Legendary Pokémon go, I'm never that keen on apocalyptic stories surrounding them, especially when they're literally true. I'm of the old ilk which just considers them rare and usually stronger than average. It sort of breaks immersion a bit if you're capturing the literal embodiment of time and/or space and using it to fight Pidgey. I also like it when Legendary Pokémon aren't signposted much, which is definitely how Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres/Mewtwo are treated. Moltres doesn't even get its own dungeon, and none of the others have dungeons whose only purpose is to house them - they all contain unique Pokémon and fill a niche even without them (a home for Water/Ice Pokémon, a home for Electric Pokémon, and a home for powerful Pokémon as a post-Elite Four challenge). They're also interesting locations, and not "just another cave with something at the end".

Regarding HMs, I really like how the majority of them (all except Cut) aren't thrust down your throat. You have to seek them out if you want them (you only need Surf and Strength too; you could make do without Flash and Fly). Again, it's exploration, and it gives the player control over their game. If you have a friendly rival or the region's Champion popping up each time you enter a new town, giving you vital new pieces of equipment that you don't even earn, you start to wonder why they even exist in the first place. Fortunately, Kanto avoids this, even in its remake (Johto wasn't so lucky).

And of course, the strip of water down the side of Cinnabar Island full of item-duplicating Pokémon was great. :yum

 

[Djaco75]

I personally thought that Kanto was a bit boring and quite tedious to play through. Also, I was a bit annoyed at the confusion between Saffron and Fuscia cities, as you obtain Sabrina's badge first, even though Sabrina is higher ranked. Also, Team Rocket has to be my second least favourite team simply due to lack of creativity in their motive. Also, I really disliked Blue and how he is still the Champion after you defeat him.

On a more positive note, I liked the Sevii Islands and the three Legendary Birds. I am a fan of the Elite Four in Kanto, and I see the actual playtime of the game quite lengthy for a game created in that generation. Overall, Kanto is, as I said before, quite a boring game, but it does have a few good points to it.

 

[Wootius]

Gary is still the best rival, not trying to hug you every ten feet and generally trying to be competent. Team Rocket not trying to destroy the earth space time the basis of the series itself everything ever is nice, the series was a little more grounded when things hadn't escalated to "And this Pokemon created reality itself."

I think it work better if they alternated Gen 3 level, then went to a quieter group for the next gen.

 

[Deo]

I can appreciate the simplicity of Kanto and how it wasn't linear in places, but otherwise I don't feel like Kanto is a very strong region for me personally. It does what it sets out to do, but when the newer regions have more of a variety in the locations, atmosphere, etc, it's hard for it not to feel a little lacking in that regard. I'm not sure I have a favorite memory from the region, I guess Pokemon Tower was pretty neat as a kid.

Something I do want to ask: what would you want out of a 'reboot/remake' of Kanto?
I guess the second point in the first post does cover this a bit, but if they were to rework Kanto: what would you add/change/remove?

This sort of leads into something I really like about the region: the different interpretations/twists on it from the Pokémon community. Be it fan games, ROM hacks, or other works, the community always seems to be tweaking the region or reworking on it. You have projects like Kanto Stories that re-imagine the region with influences from other sources, such as the anime. I love projects that do it well and do something unexpected with the region.

 

[Evan]

Something I do want to ask: what would you want out of a 'reboot/remake' of Kanto?
I guess the second point in the first post does cover this a bit, but if they were to rework Kanto: what would you add/change/remove?

This is actually something I've thought about a lot. To not go into too much detail, if they were to do a new game in Kanto, I think it would give them far more free reign to tell a new story. I would absolutely love to see a Kanto that's been advanced 20 years--with a new narrative but with a familiar twinge. I wouldn't be thrilled with another straight remake, but something that would mix a Colosseum type experience with Kanto, like a more spin-off type feeling, would definitely be what I'd want to see.

 

[RayDrive25]

I really don't wanna that guy again but, Kanto was boring and it lacked in multiple areas such as its plot, environment and characters. While Gary was a one trope character what I liked the most about him that he was actually a rival. He wasn't just talk and claiming to just wanna beat you. He showed through his efforts and actions by always being a few steps ahead of you. The freedom to tackle multiple gyms cut the linearity to an small extent but I would give it props for what it's worth. It gave a sense of freedom and the ability to choose which is kinda limited in the later gens.

One of my favorite memories would be Lavender Town. The chilling music and environment give me an uneasy feeling everything I ventured in the town. Well when I was younger. The creepy/paranormal vibe hasn't been fully replicated in any other later gen to date. Probably one of the very few unique locations in Kanto.