Makes me happy to see Kanto way in the back where it belongs
Kanto: I WTF whenever I decide to look closely at Kanto. The entire Region fails :<. First off, generic Pokémon. There are precious few Pokémon in Kanto that aren't based off of some common, everyday creature.
The few exceptions are Pokémon like Magmar, Ditto, and Tangela(all of which happen to be some of my favorite Kanto Pokémon. Go figure ¬_¬), which aren't entirely dull and actually have a bit of creativity in them. But, to counteract the momentary strokes of brilliance, we have the blasphemies to the name of Pokémon, like Farfetch'd, Scyther, Electrode, Charizard, and many, many, MANY more.
Then, there's the place itself. The entire Region is just boring. Every last route is the same, and the only cities that are in any way different from the others are Cinnibar and Fushcia. The rest of them are mere carbon copies of their predecessors, which is horribly boring, IMO.
And last, we have the plot. And whaddya know? It's ALSO bland and unoriginal. Oh, good times
. FR/LG made me relive the horror I was too young to recognize back in 1998, and it wasn't pleasant. When I turned on my new Fire Red version, I was expecting fond memories to come flooding back on to see all my favorite Pokémon again. It was right around that time when I realized how misguided I was =/.
I found the game to be boring and spineless. The entire plot was, "Go to City, get badge, go to next city, get next badge." Sure, that's the plot of G/S/C/R/S/E, but at least they add some interesting things in here and there.
The only thing Kanto had to offer was Team Rocket, and a poor compensation it was. TR is pathetic, to be blunt. They came nowhere near accomplishing what was a pointless goal in the first place. All they did was harrass some innocent Pokémon and steal a Silph Scope.
Is that the criminal syndicate we're supposed to fear? To respect? To admire? No, most certainly not. For one thing, all three TR encounters were consecutive. First there was the Game Corner. Then, without a moment to spare, they moved onto the Pokémon Tower. Then we all had to put up with them one more time, and this time it was the longest and most stupidly drawn-out mission of all. Traversing and entire corporation to face down so weak-as-sin leader is scarcely the stuff of legend.
Not to mention Giovanni was doing nothing to accomplish his goal...again. He was just calmly discussing whatever it was he was planning with the President. No kidnappings, no death threats, and no challenge, in short. Congratulations, *insert anme here*, you just conquered one of the weakest criminal gangs ever! Your nonexistant father must be so proud! -_-
Then we had the Sevii Islands, which were easily the best part of the game. For one thing, they were new terrain to explore, something we hadn't gotten since the release of Colosseum some 6+ months prior. And second, there were Johto Pokémon, which, for me, at least, was a welcome break from the monotony of Kanto. While they were missing some vital Pokémon(GLIGAR FTW), it was still a great idea.
The Sevii Islands took some of my favorite G/S/C music and gave it a great twist to make it sound much cooler. Plus, TR actually became a minor challenge here. I found myself struggling to get through that Warehouse, and it isn't all that easy acquiring the Sapphire. Shame, though, that the thing was rather short as whole, and that it didn't extend into the mainland, where it was most desperately needed.
OK, now that that's done:
Johto: I love Johto. The plot is fairly good, and, while the continuity may have made Johto suffer as an independent Region, it was still a good idea(just handled a bit poorly).
Johto set the standards for R/S with its many new additions to the game, including Hold Items, Breeding, and Shining Pokémon. It also gave us 100 awesome Pokémon, some of them just too useful to go without in the current metagame(Skarmory, Blissey, Raikou, Celebi, Suicune, Jumpluff, to name a few).
Kanto scarcely contributed anything of worth, and what it did was either outclassed in G/S/C/R/S/E or just ruined in the upgrade from G/S/C to R/S. Alakazam used to be a miracle until the infinitely superior Gardevoir came along and trounced it totally. Dark and Steel Types also ruined the broken Psychic Types of R/B/Y, and the addition of Heracross and Megahorn was nothing to laugh at. G/S/C sewed up all the loose ends of Kanto, basically, leaving only a few places to be improved upon, most of which were, in fact, in R/S/E.
Hoenn: Hoenn is amazing, to be blunt. Johto shall always be my favorite, but I can't help noticing Hoenn, and that's because there's so much to notice. It's right up there with Johto in Pokémon creativity, and the geography surpasses both of the two without a doubt(Johto was still decent though). Instead of bird-bug-rat, like we always see in Kanto, we got advancements to that formula. Now we have swallow-moth-raccoon, which is better than the outdated Kanto formula.
And it's not just the primary Pokémon. Pretty much everything in Hoenn is more inventive than Kanto, and most of them were better than their counterparts in Kanto(Some exceptions being Butterfree>Beautifly and Jolteon>Manectric).
And if they can't battle properly, the rejects of Hoenn are awesome merely for the aesthetics. Who cares if Exploud is a woeful battler? It looks a heck of a lot cooler than anything you'll ever find in Kanto. Exploud's not the only one, either, Huntail, Chimecho, Tropius, Castform, and Banette are the same way.
So overall, I say Johto is barely better than Hoenn, and Hoenn(and Johto) is far better than the failure we call Kanto.
~*CB*~
The 8th Champion
