3rd Gen Kanto vs. Hoenn Poll #1 - Rock Steady 1st Gym Leader

So, with given permission, I'm introducing a series of polls that will compare and contrast the Pokemon LeafGreen/Fire Red Games with the Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald games as all part of the 3rd gen of pokemon, to see where members stand when it comes to those games! At any rate, here is the first poll: Rock Steady 1st City, 1st Gym.

So basically, if you've noticed, the games in the 3rd Gen both have Gym Leaders who uses Rock Type pokemon as the first Gym that you'll come across, but both also are housed in different cities. In which those two is of course, Brock from Pewter City in the Kanto region, and Roxanne from Rustboro City in the Hoenn region.

So, just to compare and contrast the two:



Brock has a Geodude and an Onix, and he's also pretty respected in his hometown because he's one of the more 'serious' pokemon trainers out there, and at times, he likes to dig for fossils!


Roxanne has a Geodude and a Nosepass. She's an honor student at the local Pokémon Trainer's School in her area and from what she learned, she aspires to battle challengers to hone her skills and learn different strategies!


This is Rustboro City:


This is Pewter City:



So! Now it's time for the Polls; If you had to pick one ( between Brock & Roxanne) who would you say is your favourite Gym leader? Between Rustboro and Pewter, which City do you like better?

Feel free to share your thoughts. :3

I think I had a harder time with Roxanne on my first playthrough of Sapphire than I did with Brock when first playing FireRed. Now if this were about the original RBY, this would be a whole different ballpark, but I digress. I find both to be pretty uninteresting characters in the gameverse, but at least Roxanne has more story to her in the games than Brock. People talk about her quite a bit and not only in Rustboro, but in other towns. She seems to have higher regard because of her status in the Trainer School. Brock is Brock...he may be more iconic overall, but in the games, he's kind of just there. Granted, I haven't played FRLG in a long time and recently did a run of Sapphire so...RSE is more fresh on the mind.

As for the cities, I prefer Rustboro. I just like the look of it more. Pewter is pretty bland and strangely designed. I like the structure and design of Rustboro more. It's coherent and doesn't look like the designers plotted houses in random spots. It looks like it had more care and thought put into it. Pewter does have a museum going for it, but Rustboro has Devon Corporation, fossil revival, trainer school, and a few nifty items around like HM01 and Quick Claw.

Looks like it's Roxanne and Rustboro for me.

Both of these leaders are definitely easy to defeat if you went with either the water or the grass starter, and they've been taught a water-type/grass-type move.

I definitely remember going into the field and training my Pokémon before I challenged both leaders, because I've had trouble with them just from all that running and avoiding of trainer battles I used to do when I was younger and didn't have as much knowledge on Pokémon. I consider both Roxanne and Brock to be generally the same when it comes to strength and how much of a challenge they were. However, I'll side with Roxanne for the leader because IIRC, her Pokémon were lower-leveled, which meant you didn't have to spend as much time in training as you would have with Brock.

City-wise, Rustboro is also my choice. At least in Rustboro, you have the choice to explore surrounding routes and new areas before challenging the gym leader. Who needs a museum anyways? You're short $50 just for exploring the museum and it's not even cannon to the story. At least with Rustboro, its attraction, the Devon Corporation, plays a role in the games' story. Also, Rustboro City itself looks like a regular city, compared to Pewter. The streetlamps were a nice touch to Rustboro City, and even the designs on the buildings.

I voted for Roxanne and Rustboro City as well.

I find Roxanne's Rock Tomb strategy very challenging given the move slows you down with every hit, and her Nosepass is bulkier than you think it is. Her design is also much cooler than Brock's, along with her being the only Rock Gym Leader I actually like. Rustboro also has some nice stuff like the Trainers School and the Devon Corporation, which is much more interesting than Pewter City's museum.

I've always tended to use water starters, so I never had much trouble with either of the rock gym leaders. However, I've always liked Brock, while I tend to forget that Roxanne exists most of the time, so my vote goes to Brock. He was the first gym leader I ever encountered, and he has always been one of my favorites. Even though it's not strictly game-relevant, I did watch the anime for quite a few years when I was younger, so Brock definitely grew on me from that, and that translates back to how I perceive him in the games.

I'm much more of a Kanto fan than a Hoenn one, so a vote for Pewter City shouldn't be too surprising. I liked how it was situated between a forest and a cave, and how it even had its very own museum. Even though the museum isn't terribly functional, it's a nice touch. I also liked the landscaping and topography a little better in Pewter City than in Rustboro City (Rustboro is a little too urban/doesn't have enough trees and flowers around for my tastes).

Brock was a pain. I had a Charmander, and I had no idea Metal Claw would kick it's butt years ago when I first played the game.

In Hoenn I'd mostly start with a Mudkip so Roxanne wasn't so hard to beat.

In both games I started off with the fire type on my first playthrough, so both of these guys were a complete pain. I feel like Brock presented more of a challenge, though - I always seemed to have some kind of an issue with him. I also prefer his design, so Brock wins out over Roxanne.

In terms of the cities, I feel like Pewter is two things:
a. Bland
b. Weird
Honestly, I never really understood its design at all.
Rustboro, on the other hand feels much more sensical - that's aside from the fact that it actually resembles a city, as opposed to a really strange town.
Overall, I'm not really fond of either of the options, being a bit on the strange side in terms of design (Pewter being ridiculously open and Rustboro being scattered all over the place, sticking a few buildings close together for good measure).

My votes go to Brock and Rustboro.

I went through a phase where I was sort of obsessed with Brock, haha. I like Brock more than Roxanne but I like Rustboro City more than Pewter City.

In terms of difficulty, Roxanne was definitely harder. I blazed through Brock multiple times with just Charmander using Metal Claw, but Roxanne's Nosepass was a huge pain in the ass.

Roxanne is, to me, the harder Gym Leader. The Geodudes in both Gyms can be OHKOd easily, but it's the fact that Nosepass is much trickier than Onix to defeat. Even with a Treecko or Mudkip, I have had a Nosepass stand in the way between me and that darn badge.

My favourite would still be Roxanne, however, she's probably one of my top 3 Gym Leaders. I like the way she is designed and her dialogue, she's not one of those annoying people like Brock. I also prefer Rustboro City over Pewter. I don't think there is much going for Pewter, it's quite dull in my opinion. Rustboro looks like a nice city, it has a bit of brightness about it and it looks Gym-worthy. Plus, I like how Roxanne is linked with the School in the city, I think it's a nice touch. I would say that Rustboro is more aesthetically pleasing, too :3