Hoenn Region Discussion Thread

[The Mustache]

I love the fact that hoenn as more jungle. You can see that in every picture mainly in the map. That explaind the sporty customization of the characters. They are packed and ready for adventure: sailing the seas, expliring forests, entering caves, volcanos, diving... etc. HOENN IS ALL ABOUT HABITAT AND ENVIRONMENT and I think they did a great job in that way. In the picture of slateport and the beach you can see the amount of trees and jungle hoenn has It looks like a tropical paradise just like the trailer showed when the kid was in the beach, then in the jungle, then in a cave

 

[Smeargle1987]

Haha, I was pretty impressed, until you said it was from 4Chan. After playing around in Photoshop, it's clear that it's a fake image. This is what I managed to get:

Spoiler: Image

So does that mean theres stuff hidden under there then?

 

[The Mustache]

So does that mean theres stuff hidden under there then?

Seems so! IT Looks like a long house... o.o

 

[WaterMasterDD]

Anyway am I the only one who thinks that the route leading to Fortree city will look like a tropical jungle?
They seem to have completely changed it to make it look like one.

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!

 

[Fayh]

So does that mean theres stuff hidden under there then?

There probably is, but the image posted earlier that revealed a new island with a tower was fake.

There s most likely SOMETHING under there though.
It's way too ugly and badly done to be a lens flare effect considering the quality of the map artwork.

 

[Smeargle1987]

Ohh the mystery deepens!

 

[Firebrand]

Anyway am I the only one who thinks that the route leading to Fortree city will look like a tropical jungle?
They seem to have completely changed it to make it look like one.

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.

 

[Taylor516]

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!

If I'm thinking of the right place, I believe number 14 was in the originals. You had to surf to it north of Rustboro but I always put my secret base in the tree on that island. It was never really on any maps but you surfed past the exit to meteor falls then kept going to a second island with the tree, an area of tall grass, a cliff with several other spots for secret bases, a handful of trainers and few berry trees. I may be wrong but I think that's what it is. But other than that, excellent eye. I didn't notice most of what you pointed out. This is very interesting.

 

[WaterMasterDD]

I wonder if they'll "reveal" the existence of Secret Bases before the launch, or will they even make a return?

 

[Flame Haji]

I wonder if they'll "reveal" the existence of Secret Bases before the launch, or will they even make a return?

I talked about this in a different forum. But I hope they do. With the friend code and wireless it could end up being really cool.

 

[Zoldakin]

I think you might have missed a few.

South of Meteor Falls, South-West of the volcano, there appears to be a clearing in the forest area with a structure of some sort.

East of Route 1, the forest has a lot more detail than in other forest areas.

Similarly, directly south of Fiery Path, the area seems to have a lot of extra detail.

South of meteor falls has always been that way, I remember exploring there several times. They did add that island on the way up the left though. I did miss the structure in the forest, will add it to my map. The other two routes u mentioned don't look too changed to me.

This was in the originals. Part of Mt. Pyre was a trail that led outside of the cave/graveyard towards the top. It looks larger but that's almost certainly just the artwork.

No in the originals, you go inside and come out once and climb up. If you look closely, now there's two additional entrances on the right side, as if you would go back inside and come out again before continuing up.

 

[Acherhar]

If I'm thinking of the right place, I believe number 14 was in the originals. You had to surf to it north of Rustboro but I always put my secret base in the tree on that island. It was never really on any maps but you surfed past the exit to meteor falls then kept going to a second island with the tree, an area of tall grass, a cliff with several other spots for secret bases, a handful of trainers and few berry trees. I may be wrong but I think that's what it is. But other than that, excellent eye. I didn't notice most of what you pointed out. This is very interesting.

The area you're describing is indeed correct, and it was one of my favorite areas in the entire series, as it was of notable size and interaction, and yet remained very well hidden. I've actually referenced it multiple times in discussions with my brother as a place whose secrecy I want to see replicated. It would be fantastic if most routes contained "camouflaged" branched paths that are inaccessible until after certain criteria are met, such as unlocked HMs. I realize most routes already have small splits which are revisited post game, usually with rock-climb, cut, or surf, but most of these areas are trivial in size and only contain an item or such. I can't remember the last time I "discovered" a huge new area that wasn't blatantly advertised or marked on a map.

 

[Taylor516]

The area you're describing is indeed correct, and it was one of my favorite areas in the entire series, as it was of notable size and interaction, and yet remained very well hidden. I've actually referenced it multiple times in discussions with my brother as a place whose secrecy I want to see replicated. It would be fantastic if most routes contained "camouflaged" branched paths that are inaccessible until after certain criteria are met, such as unlocked HMs. I realize most routes already have small splits which are revisited post game, usually with rock-climb, cut, or surf, but most of these areas are trivial in size and only contain an item or such. I can't remember the last time I "discovered" a huge new area that wasn't blatantly advertised or marked on a map.

This was also my favorite location. I was actually surprised to see how few people knew of it. My fiance had never seen it before about a month ago because I pointed it out to him and he's a lifelong Pokemon fan as well so I found that odd. I'm excited to see it appears to have been kept and what it will look like in 3D. I'm glad someone else loved this little place!

 

[Zoldakin]

"Superior" in the sense that it was previously a more convenient and streamlined setup. Not "OMG BWXY ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BETTR BECAUSE THEY HAVE MARTS IN THE POKEMAN CENTRS OMGUMDROPS!11/1111!!!!!!"

And playing to the fans' nostalgia is undeniably a form of fanservice. And, would you not have gotten just as high on the nosty regardless of whether or not Pokémon Centers and Poké Marts were merged? These are full-blown remakes of Ruby and Sapphire; they're inherently going to excite players' nostalgic feelings even if the smaller features are brought up to the current standard. People complain to yonder and back about Tabitha's redesign, but is that really any more significant than segregated Poké Marts? I would argue that it is, in fact, less significant, because Tabitha's design has absolutely no tangible effect on the gameplay.

Come on, guys. Look past the fact that what I am saying is not a glowing, positive, "EEEE IM SO THRILLED TO HAVE THESE CHILDHOOD MEMORIES BACK1!!!!" declaration of unwavering love for these games and actually read what I am saying.

This as well as the fact that the whole point of remakes is that you get a sense of nostalgia from the fact that you get to play a game you were fond of but brought up to current standards so that it has all the things you dreamt of it having back then. I see no point in fan service or nostalgia when it creates a hindrance. Of course im not devastated, its just a poke mart, but it is a step in the wrong direction and the principle of it is wrong, and I am worried they will do it for other things that need to remain as they are now for the sake of nostalgia that will be there regardless.

If I'm thinking of the right place, I believe number 14 was in the originals. You had to surf to it north of Rustboro but I always put my secret base in the tree on that island. It was never really on any maps but you surfed past the exit to meteor falls then kept going to a second island with the tree, an area of tall grass, a cliff with several other spots for secret bases, a handful of trainers and few berry trees. I may be wrong but I think that's what it is. But other than that, excellent eye. I didn't notice most of what you pointed out. This is very interesting.

This was such an awesome place and I loved discovering it, one of the better moments of the games in my opinion, especially since I didn't use internet back then lol. The surf route along there has been upgraded and has an additional island os im hoping it will be even more awesome now.

2. New building?
7. New house?
9. Looks like a team building activity, a parcour?
13. It looks like you can walk over Meteor Falls...probably not but it does look strange
16. A hill, a new hill?
19. New something
20. Also new something
23. Jacuzzi Sea Pass, dive spot
28. Bermuda triangle

2 and 7. didn't see that, good catch, 7 might be wall texture who knows.
9. I thought that might be something then I thought it might just be the texture of the mountain wall, who knows.
13. that was always there, its an extension of the route on the left that no one seems to know about, although its been updated.
16. always been there, not new
19 and 20. there not new, just a little different. actually, 20 used to be shoal cave, but they moved mossdeep to the right a little and moved shoal cave all the way back to the corner.
23. also was always there, you could come up from dive in to it and there was an item, I think a green shard or something.
28. lol, good name for it.

 

[diakyu]

My bet for the large dark area is that it's linked to Primal Reversion. My guess is that you track down Team Aqua/Magma trying to locate their legends respective stones before they go to awake their legendary (meaning that you would go there before the events at Sootopolis). Also you probably team up with Steven since he's all about that mega evolution now. I'm pretty confident it's linked to the new Mega Evolution arc that they have seemingly added in this game.

I don't see why it would be the distortion world like some have speculated. Yeah we got the RSE box legends in HGSS but they didn't get their onwn major location like this seemingly is.

 

[Shiny Espeon0429]

Uh-huh. That's great. Except I wasn't speaking to the quality of those areas' layouts. I was simply saying that paving out a former area into an empty lot is not something that they haven't done before.

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.

Let me be clear: This is a matter of principle. Yes, I realize that it is just an extra fifteen steps and that I have done it a billion times before in pre-Gen V games. But a more convenient feature, for no reason other than pandering to the fans' nostalgia, has been downgraded, and it concerns me that Game Freak is willing to do that. Maybe it isn't quite the same thing as infinite-use TMs (even though those are far from a necessity and could be removed at any time), but what about the Repel prompt? Would having to go back into your Bag every time a Repel ran out so that you could spray them one-by-one really authenticate your nostalgic experience by that much? Why make something more inconvenient for yourself just so you can get that warm, tingly feeling? Or, as I mention below, the menu screen. Would Diamond and Pearl remakes really benefit from the "nostalgic" removal of the P.S.S. in favor of the older multiplayer interfaces? Or could they get by just fine with the superior P.S.S. system? They have taken backward steps with menu screens before, so even the P.S.S. as a feature is not necessarily safe from removal.

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.

It is going from something that was less convenient, to something that was more convenient, to going back to what was less convenient. "True to the game," authentic or not, that is fundamentally a backward step, just as the reversion from HGSS's streamlined menu screen to the older model of menu screen in BW was.

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.

And playing to the fans' nostalgia is undeniably a form of fanservice. And, would you not have gotten just as high on the nosty regardless of whether or not Pokémon Centers and Poké Marts were merged? These are full-blown remakes of Ruby and Sapphire; they're inherently going to excite players' nostalgic feelings even if the smaller features are brought up to the current standard. People complain to yonder and back about Tabitha's redesign, but is that really any more significant than segregated Poké Marts? I would argue that it is, in fact, less significant, because Tabitha's design has absolutely no tangible effect on the gameplay.

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.

 

[OnceUponATime]

I don't see why it would be the distortion world like some have speculated. Yeah we got the RSE box legends in HGSS but they didn't get their onwn major location like this seemingly is.

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.

 

[diakyu]

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.

Yes but none of them got their new location paraded out on the map. They were all shoved off in a very small location. That dark area looks like a pretty important locale. Not to mention you gain access to the distortion world via portals. That dark area's a bit big for that no?

 

[Zoldakin]

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.

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.

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.

 

[Pilpulp]

My take on the new map:

Spoiler: Image

1. Longer route Yup, not sure what implications this will have as it's a starting route.
2. New building? Just looks like a relocated Devon Corp.
3. Changed cave entrance Looks like the same spot?
4. Another cave opening...probably the dark glasses guy Yup
5. One extra cave opening Either that's just the trees, or just a short-cut from after talking to Steven

6. Bigger ship maybe on an island? Maybe, it does look a bit different.
7. New house? No, I don't think so, that area was just a elevated optional route that had some trainers with some pokeballs scattered around that you needed cut to access.
8. Walled Mauville and it does look greener...green energy? It does look different, I don't know why they would change it though, maybe its the new Luminose/Castelia?
9. Looks like a team building activity, a parcour? I think that's just rock.
10. New cave opening? Don't see a reason for a cave there, maybe it's just the colouring.

11. Changed Jagged Pass and bigger cable lift building Looks relatively the same.
12. New hidden route? I don't think so, there seems to be not much there + not cave entrance. I think if they're making any surprising changes we'd see clouds over it.
13. It looks like you can walk over Meteor Falls...probably not but it does look strange I noticed that too, but yeah, probably not
14. New route? Not new, I don't think, it's route 115.
15. Route changed in an ultimate rain forest Yup, or they're being sneaky hiding stuff under the clouds. But probably just a rain forest which is unique and I like it.

16. A hill, a new hill? Just a hill I think.
17. New top of Mt. Pyre I'm squinting but I can't tell, probably just to emphasize the key role of the Blue/Red Orbs
18. Dark Island, or distortion world, or fairy kingdom? Distortion world if anything I think. Then again, if they're hiding the Sky Pillar you'd think they'd hide that too, so probably not.
19. New something I think that's probably just part of the route.
20. Also new something Same as above

21. Bigger and brighter space center Maybe it'll be more useful this time
22. Sea temple, do I smell a Manaphy? Looks like a rock, but Manaphy does need to make an appearance soon.
23. Jacuzzi Sea Pass, dive spot Yup
24. More houses at Ever Grande I don't know why people keep saying there's more houses, all I see is a Pokecenter, the only other thing I think they would put up there is a Pokemart, but then again, I don't see anything, and I'm squinting as best as I can.
25. Looks like giant dive spot + a small town? I don't really see a town, but if there is one, again they'd probably use the clouds.

26. The same but with museum esque buildings...ruins...Regigigas? Just a dive spot I think. I don't see any buildings... and I think Regigigas will go in the Sealed Chamber.
27. New cave and land? I'm pretty sure that was in the original map art, and had no use there either.
28. Bermuda triangle Ok...
29. Faraway island? Possibly, I'd say Southern Island before that though.

Numberless red triangle: Sky Pillar

30. Probably nothing but who knows? You're probably right just like the other two corners.
31. Battle Tower or Frontier, if it is a tower than maybe... Delta Emerald? Delta Emerald isn't happening.
32. Cave route? No, just a surf area.

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

That's it I guess!

I just put what I said/thought in bold.