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Pokémon Regions: Best to Worst


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1. Hoenn

God, this region was fantastic. My 9 year old self had a ball traveling through this region completely blind and seeing all kinds of new and unexpected things. I really like how it was so diverse, too. From the grass patches under the Cycling Road on Route 110, to the never-ending sandstorm on Route 111, to the calmly descending ash on Route 113, the Battle Frontier...it was just very awesome to explore everything and discover new things. I still remember calling my friend over the phone on school nights as we tried to decipher the mystery of the Regis. Why can't Pokemon games do that anymore? Man, it was fun. I might be blinded by nostalgia, but shit, Hoenn was fantastic.

The only annoying things about this region? ...Not the surf routes. I could deal with surfing all over the place (but fuck you Wailord), but I could not deal with Routes 132, 133, or 134. Holy shit. Being a completionist at heart, flying back to Pacifidlog Town and having to battle evey trainer and get every item and get to the Sealed Chamber was always a nightmare. Also the only ice area in the game was in the Shoal Cave, and that was only on certain days. I like my ice areas. :<

2. Kalos

Just want to say that the various Pokedexes this region had was brilliant. I'm at about 506 Pokemon registered in total in my National Dex, and there are still many Pokemon I have to find in all the dexes. The exploration feel is very fun. As for the region itself, I like how everything is close together like it was in Unova (though they did it better here), and like Hoenn, the locations and features of this region were very diverse. I question the huge gap between the first two gyms, though. I didn't expect for it to take a while to fight Grant, but alas.

Maybe a 3rd game in the series will improve this, but Kiloude City being the postgame...Friend Safaris and the Battle Maison were awesome, but there has to be more to this region then that. :t

3. Sinnoh

I personally really liked Sinnoh. I really did. I like how you just had to complete the Sinnoh Dex to enjoy the postgame to its full extent, and the game made sure that you'd encounter all 210 Pokemon in the region. I also liked how Mt. Coronet seemed to split the region in half, and thought the idea of differently colored Shellos/Gastrodon was creative. And the Distortion World as a whole was a very cool area and something I haven't seen in a Pokemon game until then.

What I didn't like? Saving a lot of data...

Platinum improved on Diamond and Pearl's flaws, but the region still felt...slow. I 'unno, it might just be me. Also being pretty much forced to use Rapidash in D/P if you didn't pick Chimchar was an odd decision. Flint's team was hilarious, though! The Battle Frontier could've been better, too, but it's hard to have one that compares to Emerald's. Maybe the 3rd Kalos game can whip something up, then again...OR/AS might (they better) bring back Emerald's Battle Frontier...we'll see.

4. Kanto

Interesting region. I like how the games gave you a little freedom in R/B/Y/FR/LG after beating Misty, because then you could fight Lt. Surge, Erika (almost typed Eirika, haha. I've been playing too much FE8), Koga, and Sabrina in any order, and then the Sevii Islands were added in the remakes (but then taken out of HG/SS grrr. I liked the Sevii Islands.). And compared to Johto, exploring Kanto AGAIN was way more interesting to me, and the tough trainers were everywhere and made things hectic.

But Kanto didn't have the features that I liked seeing in Hoenn, Kalos, and Sinnoh. Sure it was fun to explore, but it didn't really have any noteworthy areas or landmarks (Lavender Town's theme aside).

5. Unova

Playing through White was fun. Playing through Black 2 was even more fun. I really liked the plot of Black 2, for some reason, because I felt that the player character didn't really pay too much attention to badges, but helping their friend/rival stop the remnants of Team Plasma once and for all. And I liked how we could get Pokemon from generations I through IV again (lol Huge Power Azurills before the first gym). But there was nothing particularly interesting about this region that blew me away, so to speak. It just felt like, "Okay, this is here. Good to know. Moving on now to the next part of Unova and never coming here ever again." I mean, Twist Mountain seemed cool. Shame I got through it as fast as I could in White and never even visited it in Black 2 due to not giving a shit.

Yeah, Black 2/White 2 had among the best postgames in the series, but there just wasn't really anything memorable about Unova. Didn't help that X/Y were announced and made everyone forget about B2/W2 in an instant.

6. Johto

I like how in the manga, Gold didn't really care about gym badges. He cared about hunting Silver down and taking back Totodile for Professor Elm. He made several friendships and rivalries in the region, and going through Johto was an amazing adventure for him.

Didn't...really feel that way to me. Sure, it's fun, because POKEMON, but...

Johto felt so cramped. I just now realized this. Now, the Johto+Kanto combination made for quite an adventure, but Johto by itself is...not so great, in all honesty. There weren't many noteworthy places in the region (Ruins of Alph puzzles were fun, though), the level curve was pretty bad, the Victory Road was barren (Silver you fucker let me fight the trainers), and I feel Kanto blew it out of the water, as well as every other region. Yeah, they added a Safari Zone as well as Routes 47 and 48, but...that's it? I think that Whitney's Miltank is remembered more than the region itself.

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1. Kanto.

man this is probably nostalgia. R/B/Y was my first pokemon game and I loved it. The Gen 1 pokemon are still my favorites. I just liked exploring kanto

2. Hoenn.

you said it best bro

3. Unova

I really like the story in B/W B2/W2. and it has the PWT which was awesome. I liked facing all the champions

4. Johto

Johto was cool. I liked Silver and that champion theme is just so great. Fighting Red at the end was awesome

5. Sinnoh

6. Kalos

these two are just alright i guess.

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Hoenn

Sinnoh

Kalos

Kanto

Unova

Johto

I basically agree with everything you said, ZM, but i think i prefer the way sinnoh is designed over kalos

Edited by Nobody
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1: Hoenn: SO PRETTY. It had a lot of water, yes, but the land bits are some of the most interesting in any region: Every route feels unique, and there are plenty of little out-of-the-way areas with their own gimmicks and rare encounters. It drops off near the end, of course, but that isn't enough to ruin it completely. Especially since it looks like ORAS might improve on some of those issues.

2: Kalos: Pretty much what Unova should have been. Almost all Pokemon main series games are linear, but this one doesn't really feel like it. You have an incredible amount of diversity available from the very start, and though the region is pretty much just a straight path without any branches, it doesn't really need them because most routes have two or three different encounter tables: you basically have access to two regional pokedexes worth of mons before the fifth gym. Of course, it makes up for this by having both an incredibly awkward level curve, and an item that trivializes the game in spite of that if you don't bother controlling yourself.

3: Johto: A very interesting region hindered by its gameplay. It's the closest the series has come to being open world, but they gave it a really bad level curve. Still, it's basically an improvement over Kanto in every way, and it's got one of the biggest regional dexes in the series and a postgame that doesn't really feel like an extension of the main game (until you have to grind for Red).

At this point, I should mention that I don't like regional dexes with ~150 Pokemon. An iconic number, yes, but the variety pretty much always drops off during the midgame. Naturally, these last three regions have dexes around that size.

4: Kanto: The original! ...Hasn't really aged well. It's actually pretty cleverly designed, pretty much just looping around without really forcing you to stay on the path (at least to the same extent as the last three generations), but it's basically a bare-bones Pokemon region, and they've spent the last eighteen years polishing the formula it introduced.

5: Sinnoh: ...When your regional dex has to be expanded in the third version because it doesn't include most of the mons your generation introduced, you've done something wrong. That expansion helps, of course, but since so many of those mons are ones you'd never see in the wild anyway, it feels kind of wasted: The last time I tried Nuzlocking it, I basically gave up on catches after Celestic Town because there were only one or two new mons available.

I'm not fond of the level curve or power curve, either: A second gym leader whose ace has 125 base SpA and 60+ power STAB is something you'd find in a bad rom hack... A FIRST leader having something with offenses just as high and pursuit/headbutt is just brutal. And that's before getting into how transparent the blocked paths were. On that note...

6: Unova: Because I pretty much have to force myself to make it past Clay. The earlygame is just bad: you basically have a handful of mons available at any given time and most of them are bland at best. In addition, a lot of routes share encounters, which makes them really same-y since there aren't many side areas or unique treats to look for. The fact that the half of the map that has a lot of those missing features is postgame-only (or just lategame in BW2) doesn't really help. Nor does the fact that you're not really given a chance to explore more than a route ahead at a time, even if there's nothing to look for.

The worst part, I think, is that BW2 doubles the size of the regional dex... And then restricts many of them to the postgame. Including a lot of the more interesting Unova native mons. So you have a dex that's second only to Kalos... and routes that still have basically the same encounters as they did in the first games? Blah. I know the games have so much else going for them, but this is about region-related things and I'm still bitter about that one. I want my crawdaunt damn it

Edited by Alg
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1. Sinnoh, no contest. It just had the best overall design and I loved all its towns and the history behind it! I also liked that it was divided in two by a giant expansive mountain. I also liked that it's big and it has a lot of my favorite Pokemon!

2. Kalos. FRANCE! I had wanted the new region to be based either on that or my home city. And we got France, YES. I loved the multiple Pokedexes and all the nods to actual French landmarks!

3. Kanto. Liked the colorful town names and all, though the glorification lately has started getting old.

4. Unova. Really nice place, but far too linear.

5. Johto. Again, really nice, but too small, imo.

6. Hoenn. The only region I genuinely dislike. Really annoying water routes, not a fan of a half land/half water concept, terrible Pokemon designs for the most part, etc.

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1. Hoenn. Because Emerald/Sapphire bias has taken hold of me.

2. Unova. Unova suckered me in so much that I bought Black and White. I'll always love the Gym Leaders, Professor, and you, Serperior~.

3. Kanto. Gotta love Kanto.

4. Sinnoh. Felt really slow.

5. Johto. Meh-est region.

6. Kalos. I liked X/Y, but didn't love it. I feel it's cool for Nuzlockes, but not much else. That postgame hurt.

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1. Sinnoh, for the main reason that Pearl was one of the first games I played. Considering that myths and such intrigue me, Sinnoh won my heart no contest. It has a lot of interesting myths, and solves a lot of things that other regions and their history couldn't.

2. Unova, again for its history and myths. Unova myths are based off of the Chinese myths of Ying/Yang/Wuji and the factors of the gods of weather and harvest(See Tornadus and Thundurus and Landorus) All in all, its pretty good.

3. Hoenn, for the fact of bias and it was my second Pokemon game. For the fact that I got stuck on most parts of the game, its a very good one at that. Though the one thing I dislike is that the Pokegear is a bit too annoying. But it allowed Gym Leader rebattles.

4. Johto/Kanto, for the fact I never played Kanto until Firered and never played Johto until Heartgold/Soulsilver came out. Its not a memorable region for me, and though its interesting to me, I skip and forget it often. Though the Sinjoh Ruins are always interesting to me.

5. Kalos, not that I dislike it, there are a lot of things missing from it. The fact that there are only 6 legends in Kalos makes me a bit disappointed where Unova and Sinnoh has ranges of 8-12. The pokemon count for Kalos is INCREDIBLY low, and that's a bit irking. The only thing I like is how they used the graphics and the way how the cries are different. Other than that, its story is somewhat a parallel to Sinnoh and Xerneas and Yveltal are very...lacking.

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1)Hoenn-I just found it charming with all the water and beaches. Diving added a new depth, and the way the weather changed on different routes (Particularly when legendary hunting on emerald) was so cool at the time.

2)Kalos-It's probably just because this is the newest and prettiest pokemon game, but it just looks so nice... Mmm... Plus, dog grooming.

3)Sinnoh-Mt. Coronet was cool, splitting the region in half. A lot of what made this cool for me was the fact that east and west shellos/gastrodon were different...

4)Johto-Some nice places like the burned tower and twin tower.

5)Kanto-Just meh. Not much truly memorable stuff for me, aside from the pokemon mansion

6)Unova-I just didn't like the lack of any pre gen 5 pokemon before the end of the game, and haven't played B/W2 to follow up. I do think it's cool that the region changed in the sequel though.

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Diving added a new depth

I see what you did there. lol

But I actually agree with this, diving was nice. Even if I do find three Water type TMs to be kind of overkill.

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In terms of actual region :

1. Kanto, the classic that started it all, with fun areas like the Safari Zone while the music did make some areas such as Viridian Forest feel more intimidating.

2. Unova, especially the updated one. There's a little bit of everything, the bridges are gorgeous, the electric cave was pretty innovative and the seasons were an interesting addition.

3. Hoenn, other than the parts after the sixth gym, it was pretty cool.

4. Kalos, kinda feels like a bland Hoenn without the water parts, but I liked the marshy areas and Victory Road a lot.

5. I'd probably put Sinnoh there but I never really bothered to play it.

6. Johto, which didn't have that much interesting scenery to offer.

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I see what you did there. lol

But I actually agree with this, diving was nice. Even if I do find three Water type TMs to be kind of overkill.

That was an accident...

It is, but it makes sense, seeing as how most of the travel in game is to do with water. Maybe making waterfall/dive a TM, in the vain of flash, but still having a use out of battle could help.

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Sinnoh

Johto

Kalos

Unova

Kanto

...

Hoenn

I must say, Hoenn needed a rehash, 3rd gen aged terribly. IMO Crystal had superior art and that was an 8-bit game.

I see everyone (me included) are voting on game features... If we're doing that, then Kalos is the best, because it's the most updated Pokémon game. Ironically, IMO Johto would beat Hoenn since its games had several things Hoenn didn't (day and night system, proper animations for Pokémon, etc.).

Edited by Bird Jesus
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How do people complain about hoen sprites when R/B sprites exist? It truly puzzles me. I also don't get how the designs were unoriginal, but whatever...

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Hoenn at least had things to do and wasn't cramped as Johto was.

Every region has an advantage over Johto because they didn't have to share ROM space with another one.

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