Recently, there were a bunch of negative posts about Johto in the unpops thread… followed by several positive posts about Johto in this thread. I want to continue on that track, so here’s some more positive things about Johto! No, this is not a joke.
First of all, let’s talk about the Johto episode of Pokémon Evolutions: The Show. I really like this episode. As said in the unpops thread, I think it is a great example of how Johto is at its best outside of the games.
There is a lot to like about this episode. One thing I noticed was how it made use of colors regarding the Kimono Girls and their Pokémon.
The first Kimono Girl has a Moon Ball in her hair, she wears a black dress with yellow rings and she uses Umbreon.
The second has a Fast Ball in her hair, she has a orange/yellow-ish dress with a somewhat zagged pattern, she uses Jolteon.
The third has a Level Ball in her hair, she has a dress with a fiery pattern, and she uses Flareon.
The fourth has Lure Ball in her hair, she wears a blue dress with a watery pattern, and she uses Vaporeon.
The fifth has a Love Ball in her hair, she wears a pink dress, and she uses Espeon.
I really like the way they made use of the colors here.
I also like how they used the Eeveelutions to symbolize the events of the story.
Umbreon: The night when it happened
Jolteon: The lightning that struck the Tower
Flareon: The fire that started afterwards
Vaporeon: The rain that put out the fire
Espeon: The morning after
That was really cool.
Another thing I like is how the episode showed a little “behind the scenes” with various Pokémon helping with the special effects on the theater.
I also like how this episode focused on Lugia instead of Ho-Oh. While it would have felt more natural for them to go with Ho-Oh instead as it resides on the top of the Bell Tower (as opposed to Lugia living at the bottom of the Whirl Islands), I feel like Lugia has gotten a bit shafted over the years so it was great to see it get some attention once again.
Let’s continue with saying more nice things about Johto! Another thing I like, which has been talked about before, is the atmosphere of Kanto in G/S/C and how it is ultra-industrialized to the extreme. I believe green_typhlosion was the first to bring this up in the past.
I decided to take a more in-depth look at G/S/C Kanto to see how it is. Here’s everything I could find:
- The Power Plant is back up and running, compared to being closed in R/B/Y
- The Safari Zone is closed
- Viridian Forest is gone, it is replaced by a small maze of bushes
- Seafoam Islands is just one very small cave
- Mt. Moon is much smaller and it has a square with a house, which wasn’t there in R/B/Y
- Cerulean Cave is gone
- In Lavender Town, the Pokémon Tower is replaced by a Radio Tower
- The Magnet Train between Saffron and Goldenrod has been built (though it is up to the player to get it up and running)
- Celadon City seems to have been polluted as the ponds are inhabited by nothing but Grimer and Muk. FR/LG seems to have made a minor reference to this as in those games, you have a 1% chance of encountering Koffing while Surfing, and Grimer when fishing with the Super Rod
- Route 23 has been shrunk down to almost nothing. In comparison, it was a quite long natural road in R/B/Y
- Some changes in the overworld design tiles, one of the most notable changes is the borders around the water routes are plastic things instead of the more natural rocks and cliffs
- The Pewter Museum is closed for renovations (it may not be completely related to this, but it was something I noticed and I just wanted to mention it)
Another notable thing is how Kanto is a lot smaller in G/S/C. Upon taking a closer look, it seems like the majority of the more natural areas (routes and dungeons) are smaller than in R/B/Y, the majority of them have been shortened or shrunk down. But most of the actual settlements are as big as they were in R/B/Y. This contributes to making the region feel industrialized.
I found a map which compares the overworld of Kanto in R/B/Y and G/S/C:
https://i.redd.it/gq6guoea8q661.png
It makes it very clear that Kanto is considerably smaller in G/S/C.
Looking back, Kanto in G/S/C was really unique. While it was very heavily flawed from a gameplay perspective, the atmosphere was really special. I guess that a lot of areas had to be removed or get smaller because of technical limitations in the games, but seeing how most of these were the more natural areas, I wonder if it might have been at least partly intentional. Either way, I think it created something very unique. I never thought the day would come when I would say something positive about Kanto in the Johto games, but here we are. Unfortunately, HG/SS decided to get rid of the atmosphere but keep all of the gameplay flaws, which is a shame.
However, I think there is one area where HG/SS really nailed it. Cinnabar Island. They captured the atmosphere here so well. This island was once bustling with life and featured a city, then the volcano erupted and everything except the Pokémon Center got wiped out. The music in HG/SS is also perfect. It suits the situation so perfectly. When I played HG/SS, I would often Fly to Cinnabar Islands to listen to the music and relax after being frustrated by all the issues in these games. While I think HG/SS changed many things in Kanto for the worse compared to how they were in G/S/C, I think this is one of the few things (maybe even the only thing) they actually changed for the better, if only ever so slightly.
The above made me think about another thing. Cinnabar Island has a volcano, but it is never visible anywhere in the Kanto games, only in the Johto games. But it is clearly shown in other media like the anime and Pokémon Adventures. No idea why. To make it suitable for this thread, I guess I sort of like how the volcano on Cinnabar exists in the Kanto games without being visible... or something.
Onto something else. In Gen 1-3, getting certain badges would boost one stat of all the player’s Pokémon (for pure in-game use). But it seems that in Gen 2, each badge would also boost the power of the moves used by the same type. I just randomly learned this yesterday. In Gen 2, every Badge boosts the power of the type it is associated with. For instance, the Zephyr Badge boosts Flying-type attacks. And so on. While there isn’t a Ground-type Gym in the Johto games, the Earth Badge still boosts Ground-type moves. I guess Dark misses out on this boost as there is no Dark-type Badge in Johto. Though I’m not sure, maybe Dark-types get boosted through some other means, like after beating Team Rocket.
Moving on from Johto, another thing I really like and that I have always liked is how Pokémon evolutions are showcased in the anime. When I was a kid, I saw the anime before playing the games, and I always thought that evolution looked a lot cooler in the anime than in the games. Even now in Gen 8, I still think evolution looks much cooler in the anime than in the games. It feels like despite how it has evolved (pun intended) in the games throughout the years, it still hasn’t reached the level of coolness it has always had in the anime.
I have continued playing Emerald, and one other thing it made me think about that I like is how OR/AS kept most of the NPC designs from R/S/E for the new trainer artwork in OR/AS. For instance, here’s the sprites for Pokémon Breeders in R/S/E and the art for them in OR/AS.
Their art in OR/AS is clearly based on their sprites in R/S/E, but with some minor changes. I think it is really neat. The same goes for most/all other Hoenn trainer classes as well, which is cool.
OR/AS also did some updates to the more important NPCs (Gym Leaders, E4 and Champion) as well, and I think those are great. My favorite is Roxanne, I think her OR/AS design is much better than her original from R/S/E.
First of all, let’s talk about the Johto episode of Pokémon Evolutions: The Show. I really like this episode. As said in the unpops thread, I think it is a great example of how Johto is at its best outside of the games.
There is a lot to like about this episode. One thing I noticed was how it made use of colors regarding the Kimono Girls and their Pokémon.
The first Kimono Girl has a Moon Ball in her hair, she wears a black dress with yellow rings and she uses Umbreon.
The second has a Fast Ball in her hair, she has a orange/yellow-ish dress with a somewhat zagged pattern, she uses Jolteon.
The third has a Level Ball in her hair, she has a dress with a fiery pattern, and she uses Flareon.
The fourth has Lure Ball in her hair, she wears a blue dress with a watery pattern, and she uses Vaporeon.
The fifth has a Love Ball in her hair, she wears a pink dress, and she uses Espeon.
I really like the way they made use of the colors here.
I also like how they used the Eeveelutions to symbolize the events of the story.
Umbreon: The night when it happened
Jolteon: The lightning that struck the Tower
Flareon: The fire that started afterwards
Vaporeon: The rain that put out the fire
Espeon: The morning after
That was really cool.
Another thing I like is how the episode showed a little “behind the scenes” with various Pokémon helping with the special effects on the theater.
I also like how this episode focused on Lugia instead of Ho-Oh. While it would have felt more natural for them to go with Ho-Oh instead as it resides on the top of the Bell Tower (as opposed to Lugia living at the bottom of the Whirl Islands), I feel like Lugia has gotten a bit shafted over the years so it was great to see it get some attention once again.
Let’s continue with saying more nice things about Johto! Another thing I like, which has been talked about before, is the atmosphere of Kanto in G/S/C and how it is ultra-industrialized to the extreme. I believe green_typhlosion was the first to bring this up in the past.
I decided to take a more in-depth look at G/S/C Kanto to see how it is. Here’s everything I could find:
- The Power Plant is back up and running, compared to being closed in R/B/Y
- The Safari Zone is closed
- Viridian Forest is gone, it is replaced by a small maze of bushes
- Seafoam Islands is just one very small cave
- Mt. Moon is much smaller and it has a square with a house, which wasn’t there in R/B/Y
- Cerulean Cave is gone
- In Lavender Town, the Pokémon Tower is replaced by a Radio Tower
- The Magnet Train between Saffron and Goldenrod has been built (though it is up to the player to get it up and running)
- Celadon City seems to have been polluted as the ponds are inhabited by nothing but Grimer and Muk. FR/LG seems to have made a minor reference to this as in those games, you have a 1% chance of encountering Koffing while Surfing, and Grimer when fishing with the Super Rod
- Route 23 has been shrunk down to almost nothing. In comparison, it was a quite long natural road in R/B/Y
- Some changes in the overworld design tiles, one of the most notable changes is the borders around the water routes are plastic things instead of the more natural rocks and cliffs
- The Pewter Museum is closed for renovations (it may not be completely related to this, but it was something I noticed and I just wanted to mention it)
Another notable thing is how Kanto is a lot smaller in G/S/C. Upon taking a closer look, it seems like the majority of the more natural areas (routes and dungeons) are smaller than in R/B/Y, the majority of them have been shortened or shrunk down. But most of the actual settlements are as big as they were in R/B/Y. This contributes to making the region feel industrialized.
I found a map which compares the overworld of Kanto in R/B/Y and G/S/C:
https://i.redd.it/gq6guoea8q661.png
It makes it very clear that Kanto is considerably smaller in G/S/C.
Looking back, Kanto in G/S/C was really unique. While it was very heavily flawed from a gameplay perspective, the atmosphere was really special. I guess that a lot of areas had to be removed or get smaller because of technical limitations in the games, but seeing how most of these were the more natural areas, I wonder if it might have been at least partly intentional. Either way, I think it created something very unique. I never thought the day would come when I would say something positive about Kanto in the Johto games, but here we are. Unfortunately, HG/SS decided to get rid of the atmosphere but keep all of the gameplay flaws, which is a shame.
However, I think there is one area where HG/SS really nailed it. Cinnabar Island. They captured the atmosphere here so well. This island was once bustling with life and featured a city, then the volcano erupted and everything except the Pokémon Center got wiped out. The music in HG/SS is also perfect. It suits the situation so perfectly. When I played HG/SS, I would often Fly to Cinnabar Islands to listen to the music and relax after being frustrated by all the issues in these games. While I think HG/SS changed many things in Kanto for the worse compared to how they were in G/S/C, I think this is one of the few things (maybe even the only thing) they actually changed for the better, if only ever so slightly.
The above made me think about another thing. Cinnabar Island has a volcano, but it is never visible anywhere in the Kanto games, only in the Johto games. But it is clearly shown in other media like the anime and Pokémon Adventures. No idea why. To make it suitable for this thread, I guess I sort of like how the volcano on Cinnabar exists in the Kanto games without being visible... or something.
Onto something else. In Gen 1-3, getting certain badges would boost one stat of all the player’s Pokémon (for pure in-game use). But it seems that in Gen 2, each badge would also boost the power of the moves used by the same type. I just randomly learned this yesterday. In Gen 2, every Badge boosts the power of the type it is associated with. For instance, the Zephyr Badge boosts Flying-type attacks. And so on. While there isn’t a Ground-type Gym in the Johto games, the Earth Badge still boosts Ground-type moves. I guess Dark misses out on this boost as there is no Dark-type Badge in Johto. Though I’m not sure, maybe Dark-types get boosted through some other means, like after beating Team Rocket.
Moving on from Johto, another thing I really like and that I have always liked is how Pokémon evolutions are showcased in the anime. When I was a kid, I saw the anime before playing the games, and I always thought that evolution looked a lot cooler in the anime than in the games. Even now in Gen 8, I still think evolution looks much cooler in the anime than in the games. It feels like despite how it has evolved (pun intended) in the games throughout the years, it still hasn’t reached the level of coolness it has always had in the anime.
I have continued playing Emerald, and one other thing it made me think about that I like is how OR/AS kept most of the NPC designs from R/S/E for the new trainer artwork in OR/AS. For instance, here’s the sprites for Pokémon Breeders in R/S/E and the art for them in OR/AS.
Their art in OR/AS is clearly based on their sprites in R/S/E, but with some minor changes. I think it is really neat. The same goes for most/all other Hoenn trainer classes as well, which is cool.
OR/AS also did some updates to the more important NPCs (Gym Leaders, E4 and Champion) as well, and I think those are great. My favorite is Roxanne, I think her OR/AS design is much better than her original from R/S/E.
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