Hoenn Region Discussion Thread

[vespiqueen]

The most interesting part on the map to me is that dark cloud looking thingy. I can't wait to see what that holds..
I'm pretty excited for the new add ons to the region, but tbh even if they wouldn't have added anything it would still be fine with me. This is Hoenn afterall; the best region of them all imo.

 

[Endless]

Actually, I think it was more realistic if the poke center has everything. As we've seen in the anime, the poke center is this huge all in one hotel/hospital/mart/battle practice field thing that contains everything a trainer could need for his journey. Of course the anime isn't always the same as the games, but still, this is a fantasy game, there are no such things as poke centers in real life and you cant judge the reality of the situation too well. minor point.

See the part that really annoys me is that this is also a sign of laziness. To me it feels like instead of using this as an opportunity to revamp all the cities to the new standards, they've kept it the exact same as it was before, which shows no improvement. They could easily merge the mart and have something else there because frankly, some of the cities were mighty bland in the originals. Mauville had two regular houses, and it was a major city in the game. If you check bulbapedia and the likes, the cities are given actual populations (39 in the case of mauville). Where are the rest of these 37 people? It would be far more realistic to revamp the cities and have more of the expanded cities we have in kalos. The fact that they are keeping the mart just means to me they were too lazy to add some extra houses and npcs for the sake of what, nostalgia? I would feel much more nostalgia if they made the cities more life like as I imagined they were when I was 7. If anything, that would be far more realistic than the separate mart idea. Of course, if the marts also become boutiques, I can live with that and it would serve a higher purpose, so long as the rest of the city was revamped.
TL;DR: Keeping the marts shows laziness in some ways and makes me fear that they wont take the opportunity to revamp all the cities. I hope that this map is just a parallel to the overworld version of the old map to show whats new and the real game has much more content in some places.

edit: as another example, slateport is one of the largest cities in hoenn with a population of 76, only lilycove is higher. It has only one house, two if you count the name rater as a normal house, granted it has other stuff as well, but it could really use some more regular houses, which would also serve as places for things like move tutors and hidden power type tellers and all the extra stuff we see in regular houses in the newer games.

Adding regular houses just for the sake of expanding the town doesn't sit right with me.
Sure NPCs make the world more realistic with their mundane lines. However I don't see a reason for adding more of that in a remake.
I also don't think that every region needs to have large metropolises. I find Hoenn being so in touch with nature charming.
Most of the things you mention that can be noteworthy in regular houses already exist in Hoenn anyway.

 

[Zoldakin]

Adding regular houses just for the sake of expanding the town doesn't sit right with me.
Sure NPCs make the world more realistic with their mundane lines. However I don't see a reason for adding more of that in a remake.
I also don't think that every region needs to have large metropolises. I find Hoenn being so in touch with nature charming.
Most of the things you mention that can be noteworthy in regular houses already exist in Hoenn anyway.

I don't suggest metropolises for hoenn either, just something more realistic than one house. It makes the game more fun and gives more of an exploration feeling to it. Otherwise, it doesn't feel like a town, it feels like a checkpoint with a center and a mart, which is boring. Also, there are a lot of features found in regular houses that were missing in RS, especially since a lot of them came out after gen 3. Also having some back story or such for the npcs and then getting random gifts from them is always interesting. IMO, it's one of the things that brings the newer games alive. I don't think them being remakes has anything to do with that.

 

[Pilpulp]

*Sigh* - Looked at some stuff from HGSS and noticed that they didn't try to cover up routes 47-48 & the safari zone. Post-game areas.

This leads me to believe we'll have no new post-game areas.

Which means the only post-game areas will be;
+ Battle Frontier/Battle Tower
+ Sky Pillar
+ Event Islands (Maybe, I think they've moved off of downloadable event locations, probably because kids OHKO the Pokemon they only ever had 1 shot at getting and got mad)
+ The dark hole (Which might not even be a place, let alone post-game)
+ And some other small things like Trainer Hill, Regi locations etc...

I was hoping for full fledged routes and towns.

Unless there's some islands, or a battle island (which have both been done before) I don't think we're getting much.

Because there's no signs of any new routes or towns on the current map, or even any signs of clouds hiding any, which by looking at HGSS's map, didn't even happen.

Yay for full remakes.

 

[diakyu]

*Sigh* - Looked at some stuff from HGSS and noticed that they didn't try to cover up routes 47-48 & the safari zone. Post-game areas.

They were no such thing. Accessible after the lighthouse quest.

 

[Excitable Boy]

*Sigh* - Looked at some stuff from HGSS and noticed that they didn't try to cover up routes 47-48 & the safari zone. Post-game areas.

those weren't post-game, though

you're thinking of that big ol' thang called Kanto, and Mt. Silver

 

[Pilpulp]

They were no such thing. Accessible after the lighthouse quest.

those weren't post-game, though

you're thinking of that big ol' thang called Kanto, and Mt. Silver

Oh I always thought they stopped you when you tried to pass.

Well it was still a new area, they covered up the new cities on BW2's map.

 

[Eeveemaster]

My take on the new map:



1. Longer route
2. New building?
3. Changed cave entrance
4. Another cave opening...probably the dark glasses guy
5. One extra cave opening
6. Bigger ship maybe on an island?
7. New house?
8. Walled Mauville and it does look greener...green energy?
9. Looks like a team building activity, a parcour?
10. New cave opening?
11. Changed Jagged Pass and bigger cable lift building
12. New hidden route?
13. It looks like you can walk over Meteor Falls...probably not but it does look strange
14. New route?
15. Route changed in an ultimate rain forest
16. A hill, a new hill?
17. New top of Mt. Pyre
18. Dark Island, or distortion world, or fairy kingdom?
19. New something
20. Also new something
21. Bigger and brighter space center
22. Sea temple, do I smell a Manaphy?
23. Jacuzzi Sea Pass, dive spot
24. More houses at Ever Grande
25. Looks like giant dive spot + a small town?
26. The same but with museum esque buildings...ruins...Regigigas?
27. New cave and land?
28. Bermuda triangle
29. Faraway island?

Numberless red triangle: Sky Pillar

30. Probably nothing but who knows?
31. Battle Tower or Frontier, if it is a tower than maybe... Delta Emerald?
32. Cave route?

33. Extra house to the right of the berry master...the orange building or is it a rock formation?

That's it I guess!

I think #7 is the trick master house.. Number 10 is the entrance to the cave where you have to enter before having access to the desert place.

 

[Aetius]

I am really eager to see that route! The Weather Institute is there, along with it being the Feebas route! I can hardly wait to see what they've done to it!

I too am looking forward to it, in fact if my impression of that route is spot-on, I'll be really happy to cross it.

Well, it always did, it's just that it was limited by the GBA's graphical capability. Now that they aren't bound by that so much, they have far more capability for creating something memorable.

I do remember that this route had that tropical feeling, in fact I said that this time around it looks like a tropical jungle, while years ago it just had tall grass.

 

[zhixun]

My take on the new map:



1. Longer route
2. New building?
3. Changed cave entrance
4. Another cave opening...probably the dark glasses guy
5. One extra cave opening
6. Bigger ship maybe on an island?
7. New house?
8. Walled Mauville and it does look greener...green energy?
9. Looks like a team building activity, a parcour?
10. New cave opening?
11. Changed Jagged Pass and bigger cable lift building
12. New hidden route?
13. It looks like you can walk over Meteor Falls...probably not but it does look strange
14. New route?
15. Route changed in an ultimate rain forest
16. A hill, a new hill?
17. New top of Mt. Pyre
18. Dark Island, or distortion world, or fairy kingdom?
19. New something
20. Also new something
21. Bigger and brighter space center
22. Sea temple, do I smell a Manaphy?
23. Jacuzzi Sea Pass, dive spot
24. More houses at Ever Grande
25. Looks like giant dive spot + a small town?
26. The same but with museum esque buildings...ruins...Regigigas?
27. New cave and land?
28. Bermuda triangle
29. Faraway island?

Numberless red triangle: Sky Pillar

30. Probably nothing but who knows?
31. Battle Tower or Frontier, if it is a tower than maybe... Delta Emerald?
32. Cave route?

33. Extra house to the right of the berry master...the orange building or is it a rock formation?

That's it I guess!

The Faraway Island should not be appearing on the Hoenn map I guess. Also I think in 30 and 31 there is nothing more than a cloud rather than a Frontier.

 

[Endolise]

Oh I always thought they stopped you when you tried to pass.

Well it was still a new area, they covered up the new cities on BW2's map.

Yeah, but they covered up almost everything on B2W2's map.

 

[Lorde]

Are we sure that Granite Cave now has two entrances? Because to me it looks more like there's just a dark brown patch on the terrain that might be an aesthetic quirk.

 

[Zoldakin]

Are we sure that Granite Cave now has two entrances? Because to me it looks more like there's just a dark brown patch on the terrain that might be an aesthetic quirk.

technically, we're not sure of almost anything, if theyd just release a bigger map for god's sake. They know all the fans are gonna pour over this for a week straight, they're spiting us by making us squint the whole time as well.

 

[Lorde]

technically, we're not sure of almost anything, if theyd just release a bigger map for god's sake. They know all the fans are gonna pour over this for a week straight, they're spiting us by making us squint the whole time as well.

Touché. I was just wondering since Granite Cave looks the same to me from the outside, as do a couple other areas of the new Hoenn map.

 

[Hydrohs]

technically, we're not sure of almost anything, if theyd just release a bigger map for god's sake. They know all the fans are gonna pour over this for a week straight, they're spiting us by making us squint the whole time as well.

I don't think the fans factored into the size of the picture at all.

 

[Zoldakin]

I don't think the fans factored into the size of the picture at all.

I mean, it would've been relatively simple matter to release one that was 150% the size. I feel like they do this every time because they want ppl seeing things that aren't there or getting their hopes up to increase the hype.

 

[Hydrohs]

I mean, it would've been relatively simple matter to release one that was 150% the size. I feel like they do this every time because they want ppl seeing things that aren't there or getting their hopes up to increase the hype.

I think they do it this way because this is the size that fits onto the official site or on Twitter nicely.

 

[Zoldakin]

I think they do it this way because this is the size that fits onto the official site or on Twitter nicely.

that might also be a very good reason lol

 

[Endolise]

Oh come on: you can't compare the difference between RBY and GSC to the potential differences between RSE and ORAS. For a start these are remakes, intended to be updates and upgrades of the previous game. There would be no purpose for them to just destroy areas and replace them with nothing.
In addition, lets not forget that they struggled to fit everything in the cartridge of GSC and that's why they had to get rid of several areas (Viridian Forest and Cinnabar Island are the best examples). This is not even mentioning the fact that in HGSS, many of these areas were upgraded and actually had more of a function as Game Freak had more space.

A better example would be the most recent one - the differences between BW and BW2. Many areas were added, upgraded or updated. If an area was removed (E.g. the Cold Storage) it was for a good reason, with a purpose behind it and it was always replaced with something else instead of an empty area. (In this case, to make way for the PWT)

They aren't going to have areas that have no function in ORAS that did have a function in RSE; it just won't happen.

You're right about GSC Kanto being gutted to fit the cartridge, I'll give you that.

However, B2W2 did cut out some areas entirely for seemingly little reason. Challenger's Cave was closed off, as was Route 10 and the original Victory Road. Now, Victory Road, I can see being closed off in order to save data space, but Route 10 and Challenger's Cave weren't very large areas at all. In fact, in BW, it almost seemed as if they were setting up Challenger's Cave to be the location of a Legendary Pokémon, judging from a comment made by one of the Trainers in the Cave, and Route 10 had such a distinctive theme on the soundtrack that they still bothered to squeeze it in B2W2 in a house in Icirrus City.

I'm not that bothered by the Mart/Centre split, but you can't deny the repel thing was different. No-one liked going into the bag to get out a repel as it was fricking annoying, but some people liked the split between Pokemarts and Pokemon Centres as it was arguably more realistic. I accept that not everybody is going to favour the change, but its not something that is worth getting annoyed about, IMO.

And yet, they merged the liked Pokémon Center/Poké Mart split sooner than they fixed the unliked lack of a Repel solution. What's the logic in that? To make it more convenient, of course.

Think about this: What if they were to put PCs in a separate building as well? They would only be making the game slightly more tedious by having us go to three separate locations for services that had previously been unified under one roof. No, walking to the PC institution would not be asking anything unreasonable of the players, but would be making them spend an unnecessary amount of extra time and effort, and that's not good game design.

But this is a remake. All they are doing is keeping it in line with the old games. I think its highly likely that Marts may double function as boutiques.
This is the first time that we have a remake since the change so it isn't like Game Freak are taking this Major step back, it's just a choice they've made between convenience and nostalgia. This isn't a big statement GF are making - I honestly don't see why its such a big deal.

I would be pleased if the Marts turned out to be these games' version of Boutiques, but that seems unlikely to me. Kalos' Boutiques were spread apart - if I recall correctly, there were only six Boutiques in Kalos, and one of them only sold hats, whereas these Marts appear in just about every major location in Hoenn.

Anway, it's not that it's a particularly big deal. I just don't like the reasoning for the decision. I feel that, as game-makers, their focus should be on making the gameplay as quality as they can make it.

What's wrong with fan service? It's not going to hinder the gameplay (In any serious major way) and it's just one thing. Trainer Customisation, Mega Evolutions and (IMO) Amie and Super Training are all returning, its just one little feature that they're changing.
I agree with you on the Tabitha design change complaints, but I've never been that fussed about character design anyway.

Because it bothers me when they sacrifice gameplay improvements for the sake of fan-catering. There are plenty of ways to please the fans without abandoning stronger or more streamlined mechanics, and these games would have had loads of nostalgic value even without the segregated Marts. Why do they need to make an extra effort to add more nostalgia in an already nostalgia-laden game at the cost of a good setup?

It may not hinder the gameplay in any serious way, but I would prefer that it didn't hinder it at all.

The reasoning behind it is that with each remake, the next gen's box legends have been in it. First gen remakes got second gen's Lugia and Ho-Oh; second gen remakes got third gen's Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza; following that, third gen remakes would get fourth gen's Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.

I can't remember; was the Embedded Tower shown on the HGSS map?

 

[Wulava]

I can't remember; was the Embedded Tower shown on the HGSS map?

On the official map, yes. It's the southwestern-most cave on Route 47.