Best In-Game World Map

RODAN

Banned deucer.
(rby is the only game to have a non linear plot)

also hoenn has way too much surfing

johto is too smooshed together

sinnoh is a decent region bundled into a terrible game

i love unova its a change of pace
 
RBY and GSC routes were way too short, but GSC had a fair amount of optional areas that made up for it.

Hoenn definitely had some cool regions, but there was a lot of back-tracking in that game. Rustboro -> Dewford, Mauville -> Mt. Meteor, Mt. Meteor to 4th gym, 4th gym to 5th gym, etc. etc. etc. Yes it's cool how there were a few routes back and forth, but making you run along all of them is not always a good thing. Exploring the ocean was cool, but all of the games have had some post game area of some sort. Hoenn was the only one without a postgame cave.

Sinnoh really had problems trying to implement a 9x9 grass square in every route for using the pokeradar. Otherwise I think its one of the better maps. There are intertwined routes and everything, but they almost never require backtracking. The routes are fairly long and have a lot hidden all over the place.

I think we can all agree Unova is pretty bad as a region (BW1 at least, from what I've seen BW2 isn't much better).

I have a pretty big bias against RS, but I don't think I can argue Hoenn was one of the better maps, but its not a whole lot better than Johto or Sinnoh.
 
Differing opinions, yay.

Seems to me that the very things that made me enjoy Hoenn has caused frustration for other players. I will have to concede that the endless sea of Wingull - Tentacool - Pelipper in mid-late-game Hoenn could have had better selection, although I can attribute it to Hoenn being a reboot, and they are trying to keep the selection to Hoenn Pokemon (and the omnipresent Tentacool). But yeah, some Pokemon that can only be encountered via fishing should have been available when Surfing, if only to break the monotonous barrage of seagulls and jellyfishes. Or they could have included Mantine and the likes.

At that point of the game, I stocked up 90 Super Repels, though, so I was fine.

I don't really understand the hate for Dive, though. To me it is realistically implemented (assuming that the HM Dive includes creating a bubble of oxygen surrounding the Trainer). There are a lot of Dive spots, but they are all hit/miss, which means that there is no guarantee that every time you Dive, you will get results, much like in the real world. Perhaps other swimmers/divers have gone down and snatched the Big Pearl before you? Perhaps it is just a vast world, and there isn't supposed to be remarkable things everywhere, let alone somewhere as gloomy as the underwater? Or perhaps you'll just have to keep Diving until you find your own big discovery.

I also think that the amount of backtracking in Hoenn is justified because of the sheer amount of new things you can discover with every revisit. Some places made me revisit at least twice (Route 119, the Acro Bike-only area, and later the Waterfall area). This can be said for other Pokemon games too, sure, but Hoenn goes even further: the places you revisit become shortcuts that connect cities like how cities should be connected in a region. I mean, in comparison, how disconnected is Mistralton City, really? It's not like they let us use their planes or something, unlike how Dewford is accessible using Mr. Briney's ship.

I agree that 3rd gen in-game mechanics sucked, although that has nothing to do with the world map itself.

On a sidenote, I am finding myself walkthroughs for Pokemon Colosseum on Youtube to experience Orre. Somewhat.
 

Nix_Hex

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Hoenn is gorgeous but I'll agree with Rodan in that it's unnerving how much water there is. I'll have to disagree with Rodan on Sinnoh though; it's definitely the best map, but not the worst game.

Sinnoh.
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
Surely the amount of water in hoenn is justified by the story? A.K.A, team magma and team aqua? Team magma wanted to make more land, but it would be pointless if there wasn't a large amount of water for the land to cover! And then team aqua wanted to create more water, but without lots of water already then where would the water come from? If it came from under the earth then land would literally just disappear! And that is not what team aqua wanted, they just wanted to make it bigger, but obviously with places to live as well.
 
The really annoying thing about Dive is just how boring the selection of pokemon you can encounter with it is.
Clamperl...and Relicanth. Thats it.

Otherwise, I really liked the wide selection of environments and the backtracking was nicely done. It made it feel more like you were exploring. I just wish that the whole endgame wasn't surfing - they could have mxed the sea areas up with the land areas more.

Or maybe Game Freak knew how badly Kyogre beats Groudon and this is representative of that?
 
My favorite Pokemon country, state, whatever, is Sinnoh. Not because I am the champion of Sinnoh, but it has the underground digsites, as well as a long mountain range that extends across the country, state or whatever (similar to the Rockies)
 
Differing opinions, yay.

Seems to me that the very things that made me enjoy Hoenn has caused frustration for other players. I will have to concede that the endless sea of Wingull - Tentacool - Pelipper in mid-late-game Hoenn could have had better selection, although I can attribute it to Hoenn being a reboot, and they are trying to keep the selection to Hoenn Pokemon (and the omnipresent Tentacool). But yeah, some Pokemon that can only be encountered via fishing should have been available when Surfing, if only to break the monotonous barrage of seagulls and jellyfishes. Or they could have included Mantine and the likes.

At that point of the game, I stocked up 90 Super Repels, though, so I was fine.

I don't really understand the hate for Dive, though. To me it is realistically implemented (assuming that the HM Dive includes creating a bubble of oxygen surrounding the Trainer). There are a lot of Dive spots, but they are all hit/miss, which means that there is no guarantee that every time you Dive, you will get results, much like in the real world. Perhaps other swimmers/divers have gone down and snatched the Big Pearl before you? Perhaps it is just a vast world, and there isn't supposed to be remarkable things everywhere, let alone somewhere as gloomy as the underwater? Or perhaps you'll just have to keep Diving until you find your own big discovery.

I also think that the amount of backtracking in Hoenn is justified because of the sheer amount of new things you can discover with every revisit. Some places made me revisit at least twice (Route 119, the Acro Bike-only area, and later the Waterfall area). This can be said for other Pokemon games too, sure, but Hoenn goes even further: the places you revisit become shortcuts that connect cities like how cities should be connected in a region. I mean, in comparison, how disconnected is Mistralton City, really? It's not like they let us use their planes or something, unlike how Dewford is accessible using Mr. Briney's ship.

I agree that 3rd gen in-game mechanics sucked, although that has nothing to do with the world map itself.

On a sidenote, I am finding myself walkthroughs for Pokemon Colosseum on Youtube to experience Orre. Somewhat.
Actually, in BW2, you can use the mistralton planes.
 
I always liked Johto the most, but the best region environment is Hoenn. It also atches with the story, which is so far, in my opinion, the best story in the game series.

(Except for Orre, I haven't played Colosseum or XD, so I can't judge them).
 
Surely the amount of water in hoenn is justified by the story? A.K.A, team magma and team aqua? Team magma wanted to make more land, but it would be pointless if there wasn't a large amount of water for the land to cover! And then team aqua wanted to create more water, but without lots of water already then where would the water come from? If it came from under the earth then land would literally just disappear! And that is not what team aqua wanted, they just wanted to make it bigger, but obviously with places to live as well.
Supporting this, there's an equal amount of land and water routes-17 each.

3rd gen is definitely my favorite, and the ingame maps had a lot to do with that. Hoenn and Orre were both awesome.
 
Actually, in BW2, you can use the mistralton planes.
Sorry, I should have been clearer about my point. What I wanted to say is, Mistralton is sandwiched between two kinda hard-to-navigate dungeons, and it would be nice to have a transport system (if shortcuts are impossible) to access the city. Instead, the only transport is available only AFTER you reach the city, and the only place it arrives at is Lentimas Town, which is also just as inaccessible.

Let's imagine living in Unova. People who want to visit Mistralton will have to go through either Twist Mountain or Mistralton Cave, or take a plane from Lentimas, which requires them to get past Reversal Mountain. All three dungeons aren't exactly the easiest places to navigate.

When I mentioned Dewford - because I understand how disconnected it is compared to other cities in the region - I imagined people living in Hoenn. If they are to take a ship to Dewford, all they need to do is reach Petalburg, which is accessible from Rustboro and Oldale, and by extension Fallarbor, Mauville, and Verdanturf, all with shortcuts that are not too hard. Or they can use Slateport to reach Dewford too. In other words, Dewford, despite being quite the remote, small island, is accessible to more than half of Hoenn.

I will give credit where it is due, though. IMO, the best Victory Road easily goes to Unova (in BW, especially). It manages to not be too easy *coughJohtocough* even without necessary HM usage, and because you climb it vertically, you really feel that you are "reaching for the top". Plus, the music progressively gets more instruments as you pass through the badge check gates, until you get the complete music by the time you passed the last gate. It is a nice touch that makes you feel a strong sense of achievement.
 

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