6th Gen Kalos felt like Kanto

This is something that I've been noticing since the first week that X and Y were released. The Kalos region has many aspects to it that it just made me feel like I was playing a Kanto based game in 3D. Here are the reasons why I feel that way.

- You go through Santalune Forest as your first dungeon which is pretty much identical in layout to the first dungeon in Kanto, Viridian Forest. Not to mention it also houses Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, and Pikachu just like Viridian Forest.
- You get to choose a Kanto starter just like in well, Kanto.
- There's a Snorlax that blocks your path to a bridge and you need to wake it up with a flute in both regions.
- You 'share' fossils with someone in both Kanto (nerd NPC) and Kalos (Calem/Serena). In Hoenn, you chose one and the other sank or you waited til later on in Emerald to get both and in Sinnoh, you only got them by going underground. In Unova, you were only allowed to get one fossil and the other choice wasn't shared with someone else.
- The evil teams' base has spinning tiles as part of the puzzle.
- You had the ability to get one of the Legendary Birds who originated from Kanto.
- You are able to catch Mewtwo inside of a cave only after beating the Elite Four. (Unless it's FR/LG where Sevii Islands is a requirement)

I'm sure there's more but these are off the top of my head.

I get the feeling it was done on purpose to try to attract older fans to the games....

I appreciate the throwbacks they've made here; I feel they were enjoyable. Alongside, they also managed to maintain originality, which is even better. In my opinion, this had made Kalos feel like a region of its own, in a way, while still reminding us of the past.

Nah said:

I get the feeling it was done on purpose to try to attract older fans to the games....

Click to expand...

Yep, she's right on the money. ;)

I personally dislike these shout outs. I know RG is where it all began, but Game Freak has been favoring Kanto/Gen I fans too much throughout 6 Generations.

I'm with Nah and Unapologetic here, I feel like all these 1st Gen shoutouts are nothing but fanservice to attract older fans into the games again given it's likely these veterans have skipped a generation or two and want to get back into Pokemon again.

One of the reasons I like Kalos is because it's similar to Kanto. With so many regions and Pokemon, it was nice to get something that felt new, but also familiar. I also like how they only made a few new Pokemon for this region. It was a nice change of pace after the amount of Pokemon they gave us in Unova.

I don't think it felt particularly nostalgic to me, but I did enjoy it. I guess it did feel like it had an originality feel to it.