Which has the best Kanto experience?

[WaterTypeStarter]

You can explore the Kanto region in each of these games. Graphics all differ. Which is your favorite Kanto experience? Why?

 

[Red and Blue]

Fire red and Leaf green simply because it has much more content with the addition of the Sevii Islands. Yeah the Gen 2 games technically had Johto but for the complete Kanto experience I'd go with the Gen 3 remakes

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

FRLG. We are allowed to actually use post-Kanto pokémon and even post-gen 1 evolutions of them. Unlike LGPE which, despite the good graphics and the partner bits, is a glorified genwunner wet dream.

 

[KyogreThunder]

FireRed/LeafGreen, for adding the Sevii Islands and many Generation II Pokemon.

 

[OshyHikari]

I'd say FR/LG, mainly due to the Sevii Islands and the addition of several Johto Pokemon.

 

[Ubermuk]

FireRed/LeafGreen were fun to play unlike the Let's Go games which were crap by comparison. Plus I never liked the original Red/Blue so I gotta go with the GBA games.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Honestly, I don't think any Kanto game has been particularly good, but the best worst option is FRLG. The Sevii Islands take the traditional Kanto experience and add the Sevii Islands onto it to give it a lengthy postgame campaign and more content. While HGSS does some of this too, it's not very fleshed out and even with HGSS adding some areas back in, there's still some areas that aren't as fleshed out as they used to be (The Rt. 7-8 Underground Path is still permanently closed, Mt. Moon is still a lot shorter than RBYFRLGLGPE, Cinnabar Island is still a mound with a Pokemon Center on it, Rocket Hideout is still closed, and Silph Co. and the Radio Tower are still restricted to the first floor). And the less said about LGPE the better, I'd rather just pretend that game doesn't exist because it offers nothing positive to the series, and especially nothing positive that isn't done better in another game. So FRLG wins less because of what it does right, but because of what it doesn't do wrong.

Really though, no game has entirely done Kanto justice. Game Freak's insistence on faithfully recreating every tile of Kanto to the way it was in 1996 and sticking to the terrible variety of the original 151 (as well as other things such as failing to adequately flesh out the plot and characters and not adding any substantive sidequests or gameplay features) has held every Kanto game back from being truly great. Kanto really needs a BW2 type of experience to put it on par with more recent Pokemon games. Not FRLG which tacks on a post game to an otherwise untouched experience, not a GSCHGSS which tacks on an equally shallow and archaically designed region like a conjoined twin, and not a Legends Kanto which would turn Kanto into a giant empty field (although Legends Kanto would probably be a step in the right direction). An actual BW2-esque reimagining of Kanto that uses modern design philosophies. Areas that aren't short, flat, blocky grasslands and display a variety of terrains and environments. A modernized Kanto Dex expanded with 100+ extra Pokemon that doesn't have terrible type varieties to the point where gym leaders/Elite 4 members have to spam duplicate lines or random Pokemon not of their type to pad out their teams. A story that's more than "Team Rocket is doing bad stuff, go stop them!". Characters that are more than hollow punching bags to battle and generic NPCs that do little to nothing. Lengthy sidequests that offer a large variety of extra content after the story is over. Gadgets and QoL features that actually bring Kanto up to par with more modern games. Until they make a game like that, Kanto will always feel mediocre and dated.

 

[Leonhart]

FireRed/LeafGreen, although I did like HeartGold and SoulSilver's take on Kanto since they kept many of the areas that had been scrapped in G/S/C. But FireRed and LeafGreen's Kanto seemed more cohesive and complete.

 

[Luthor]

I never played yellow or FRLG so that limits my choices here. I also wouldn't pick a Johto game as while it was cool to be able to visit Kanto there wasn't really much story and while it was more a very fun extra but not what I would call a Kanto experience (Heartgold was a lot of fun as a Johto game). That leaves only red and blue or the let's go games. I do like a lot of the additions in the lets go games such as the partner Pikachu/Eevee, Mega evolutions and the Alolan forms (especially in the rematches with the elite 4) however I'm less of a fan of the catching mechanic and the lack of battles so I'll give it to Red/Blue.

 

[Ignition]

FRLG. The Johto games’ interpretations of Kanto are so underutilized and boring once you get pass the easy boss rush. The originals are outdated and I just don’t like how LGPE is presented.

 

[ToonsJazzLover]

I’m going with FRLG as the best Kanto game (then again, I grew up with Gen 3 the most).

 

[UltimateNinja]

The best Kanto experience I had was actually in a fangame that changed a lot of routes and added new places.
Since it's not official, FR/LG is my pick.

 

[TwilightBlade]

LG/FR by far. Those games made Kanto a little more fun than it was in R/B/Y. The Kanto in LGPE looks better but it feels smaller than the Kanto in LG/FR because of the lack of Sevii Islands.