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5th Gen I don't live here, I just work here

What are you in Unova?

  • I'm just a tourist.

    Votes: 24 52.2%
  • Resident - native and loving it!

    Votes: 17 37.0%
  • I'm not so sure...

    Votes: 5 10.9%

  • Total voters
    46

Kip

🔥 Fluffy Fire Fox
926
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 32
  • UK
  • Seen Mar 17, 2024
More and more recently I've been finding myself going back to SoulSilver and the GameBoy Advance games rather than playing Black. And for a while I couldn't really explain it. I just assumed it was for nostalgia value, but I've recently realised that it's actually something else:

I am just a tourist in Unova.​


I don't feel like I live there. I'm just here to see the sights. I can hardly remember or know how to pronounce most of the city names ('cept Black City, ha ha ha.). I have to constantly look at the map to see where I'm going and remember where I am. I find myself taking cruises and flying to places just to walk over the bridges rather than battling or exploring. I queue up to get an ice creme and go and ride elevators. I sit there fiddling with my C-Gear and scrolling through my PokéDex, and not actually doing anything.

This isn't because I don't like the game or I've gotten bored of it - far from it: I have a team of 6, all of whom have reached Level 80, still in training and whom I think are fantastic. I've been to every bit of the region, have a Battle Subway record and I've caught a lot of Pokémon. I love the music, adore the scenery, the story, the much improved battle system (still not as good as the GBA's imo but that's a different kettle of fish).

And still - it doesn't feel like I live there. With other games it does. Feels like I've been a resident of those parts and I don't have to look at a map to know where I'm going. And I know that because each time I switch from Black to one of the other games I feel like I'm coming home after an increasingly mediocre holiday. It's like Unova's charm was fantastic in the beginning but after a while it's simply worn off. I can play post-game in Kanto, Johto and Hoenn for years (even Sinnoh at a stretch but not so much), and I have done since I never usually start new games.

Is it possibly a lack of expansion after the game has ended? Kanto had the Sevii Islands, the legendary birds, the caves and the league to play with afterwards. Hoenn had it's massive maps to explore, the Gold/Silver games had more expansions than all of them put together - heck even Sinnoh had the underground and that battle island... place... thing. But Unova... you've explored half of it already when the story ends, and everything else after that just seems... well, easy. And now there's just nothing to do anymore. :(

Or is it because Unova is cold and soulless... in the sense that it was created for the sole purpose to be different from the other games. It's charms are there but that X factor that you can't quite define isn't, and after a while the whole region just feels dead. It looks appealing, but feels impersonal. Kanto, Johto and Hoenn felt, and still feels, like an adventure. Unova just feels like a story that's been told already, like I've been watching a film and it's finished.

Basically every time I go to Unova in Black I feel that I'm just visiting, and when I go to the other games, I'm back at home. It's curious, isn't it?
 
Last edited:

Melinda

[b][i][color=#fff]#teamsonia[/color][/i][/b]
2,269
Posts
15
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Sep 18, 2022
I see myself pretty much as a native of Unova.
I know where almost everything I need is, items/Pokémon/npcs.
Where as I need guides now just to play the old games.
I do go back and play the older gens, but I can't stay away from Unova for too long.
It makes me home sick for Undella. x]
 

WishCookie

ヽ(*・ω・)ノNo berries for you!
465
Posts
12
Years
I know exactly what you mean Kip. Its just something with Unova that doesnt have the same feeling as the older games. I mean i'm playing the older games more often then pokemon black. But it isnt fun when then skipped the Battle Frontier and they also dont have any PokeNav/Phone or VS.seeker.

Then only thing you can do after beating the game is to collect all of the rest pokemon and then you're done. You only got the Subway left but nothing more.
 

Musica

PPPPPDPPPPP
719
Posts
13
Years
Actually, I think I am lost (tourist) in Unova. You know, I have to check serebii to look for NPC's. I only remember Day-care. But, BW is still fun. I still have much to explore.
 

Oryx

CoquettishCat
13,184
Posts
13
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Jan 30, 2015
I strongly disagree with a lot of your points, tbh. I personally feel like I'm a part of Unova more than I've felt a part of other Pokemon games, and although I don't play much anymore, with other Pokemon games it was sometimes a chore to even get me to finish the main story of older Pokemon games.

Is it possibly a lack of expansion after the game has ended? Kanto had the Sevii Islands, the legendary birds, the caves and the league to play with afterwards. Hoenn had it's massive maps to explore, the Gold/Silver games had more expansions than all of them put together - heck even Sinnoh had the underground and that battle island... place... thing. But Unova... you've explored half of it already when the story ends, and everything else after that just seems... well, easy. And now there's just nothing to do anymore. :(

I think a lot of people disagree that the rest of the map is easy, considering the level jump and such. I would argue that there's a lot to explore still in Unova after you've finished it, but that doesn't necessarily imply a post-game. It really doesn't take that much time to explore something, especially in Pokemon. And once it's explored, there's really no need to explore it again; post-game usually implies more of a longevity than that. But as far as Unova, it has a Battle Subway which is comparable to Sinnoh's arenas, and it has Black City/White Forest, Abyssal Ruins (a game in itself), Dream World, etc.

Or is it because Unova is cold and soulless... in the sense that it was created for the sole purpose to be different from the other games. It's charms are there but that X factor that you can't quite define isn't, and after a while the whole region just feels dead. It looks appealing, but feels impersonal. Kanto, Johto and Hoenn felt, and still feels, like an adventure. Unova just feels like a story that's been told already, like I've been watching a film and it's finished.

I don't understand this. This may be because you're already attached to the older games, but I don't understand how it being different implies it being 'soulless'. I find the difference freeing; I was in a whole new story, not some side-story of an old region written to appeal to people that can't move on from the older games.
 

Yoshikko

the princess has awoken while the prince sleeps on
3,065
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Apr 27, 2020
I think it might be because all the other regions were more traditional and .. folksy? I don't really know how to explain, but they were more like little home villages and with one or two big cities which put even more emphasis on the smaller villages/towns, which do make them feel more like home to me than Unova, which is just all around very urban.
 

Kotowari

Will be back eventually
4,449
Posts
18
Years
I think the region where I felt most at home was (and is) Jotho, if I wanted to live somewhere it'd be there.

But that doesn't take away that I love Unova. It's a region which is very much alive, considering the amount of exploring you can do before the E4. The many people you meet on routes that aren't trainers willing to battle, the shaking grass...
While playing, I felt very eager to explore the region, being overwhelmed with every step I took. I used to feel like a tourist, but after a while I felt home at Unova. I'm not a native, but I like it there.
 

LegendaryFSK

I control my own fate.
82
Posts
12
Years
At first, I kind of did feel like a tourist in Unova. However, I now feel like Unova is the region where I feel most at home. I think there is plenty to explore in Unova and I love the urban feel to it.
 

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'
9,875
Posts
16
Years
Well, Unova felt a lot like my *current home.* By which I mean a cold unfamiliar place that I was forced to visit and that I do not want to return to. Name any place there besides Castelia and Nimbasa and I'll probably have no clue where it is or what goes on there. I felt little connection with the region or its inhabitants. And it certainly doesn't help that I felt completely disconnected with the pseudo-hooker character I controlled on my DS screen. I ended up selling White to GameStop so I can be assured I don't have to go back there. If only I could do the same with my RL home...

I feel a much stronger attachment to Kanto, Sinnoh and Orre, and feel most familiar and at "home" with those regions. Of course the Charlotte, NC metro region is the region I feel most at home :P
 

XEL

Lorem Ipsum
491
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 30
  • Seen Nov 20, 2022
I felt most at "home" in Hoenn, tbh. But in Unova, I don't have to search for guides for locations like I did in past games. I just know where everything is. I guess that makes Unova my "home?"
 

Houndoomed

Battle Master
887
Posts
12
Years
I feel like a tourist in Unova, Black and white are not the same, still good, but different in their own ways. I just recently played through white to expand my trading abilities but couldnt wait to get back into platinum. Sinnoh is home for me.

Zeus
 
3,655
Posts
16
Years
Oh wow. You're so right Kip. I barely know any of the B/W city names lol. I'm probably just a tourist too then. Unlike you though, I am pretty bored with the game. Haven't played it in ages myself. Don't even have the drive to breed my new team onto the game either. I've just given up with it until they release the third game.
 

Ghiaccio

Ace Trainer
63
Posts
12
Years
Eh, I would have to say Unova is closest to home for me in the games. I've just loved exploring this place and I know most of the places, and it's just gotten me more involved than any of the other games. I love all the places here too, it's a great place in my opinion.
 

PlatinumDude

Nyeh?
12,964
Posts
13
Years
I'm not so sure about living in Unova. Sure, it has the Battle Subway, the amusement park and the Royal Unova, but I still feel at home in some regions (Hoenn and Sinnoh in particular).
 

curiousnathan

Starry-eyed
7,753
Posts
14
Years
Tourist. Like you mentioned Kip, it just doesn't have the X-factor feeling, nothing really keeps me there as to HG for example. :3
 
Last edited:

Ho-Oh

used Sacred Fire!
35,992
Posts
18
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Jul 1, 2023
I AM A RESIDENT. UNOVA IS MY HOME.

I dunno but I felt really foreign in other regions,, sure I've visited them a lot but they've never felt like "home". Unova, however... there's something about how the characters were designed, or how the cities were set up, everything just feels tight-knit there, and I know basically everything there, as opposed to other regions where I can't really remember. It might also be because it was the most recent but I definitely did feel better in Unova than I did in Johto with the recent remakes.

However, as for your post, I don't think Unova is really souless. I think there's a lot about it that gives it "life", whether it actually be the storyline or the fact that the characters got along so well together... it's just so welcoming!

This region is my region and I love it and if I have my way I'm gunna stay here for life, for life, for life.
^ I just happened to be listening to it okay!

Either way as I said before, wonderful thread idea Kip. 10/10 for you!

It sucks that only a few of us are residents. :(
 
17,600
Posts
19
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Jan 1, 2024
I certainly don't live there either. I don't remember most of the names of the region and, despite playing through the game multiple times, I still don't know where most things are. I only know about three or four town names. Something about it is very disconnected for me, and I can't exactly pinpoint why. I'm a lost tourist, like a few others.
 
50,218
Posts
13
Years
You can basically say I am a resident of Unova.

Most of my fave Pokemon inhabit the region and the locations are awesome.
 

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire

10000 year Emperor of Hoenn
17,521
Posts
13
Years
I'm then same, I still don't remember most of the names of Unova's cities except for Nimbasa, Castellia, and white/black forest/city...
I also felt that the post game was soulless..eastern Unova lacks the fun western Unova had...maybe it was cause we had no reason to be there other than to capture pokemon unlike the west half which had plasma, and Gym badges, subway, pokemon league,ect....
 
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