2nd Gen Kanto/Johto gym orders: was this intentional?

[Corveone]

Perhaps this has been talked about ages ago, but I've never seen it being mentioned. There's a pretty consistent pattern when you look at Kanto's and Johto's gyms (in the official badge order) that I've allways been curious about :

Kanto:
Rock < Water < Electric < Grass < Poison < Psychic - Fire < Ground

7 of the Kanto gyms have an offensive or defensive advantage against the previous gym's type. Only exception being Fire, which is completely neutral against Psychic.

Johto:
Flying > Bug - Normal - Ghost > Fighting > Steel > Ice > Dragon

6 of the Johto gyms have an advantage against the next gym's type (Not counting Normal and Ghost since they're just immune to each other)

 

[Sheep]

Well, I can say I learned something today - I didn't notice this at all! That's really interesting and does make me feel like it was intentional. A minimum of 6/8 seems like too much to be a coincidence!

Was curious, so I looked over the RSE gyms and it doesn't have nearly as many going in either direction.

 

[Nah]

If it was intentional, kinda have to wonder why they chose to do it

 

[giradialkia]

Part of me really wants to believe it's by design - I'm sure to some extent it was, in Kanto at least.

Brock could be a difficult Leader to overcome if you didn't choose Squirtle or Bulbasaur. Let's say you choose Squirtle, though. Okay, Brock's handled. Next Gym - Water. Uh oh, it resists my Squirtle. But I caught this Pikachu in Viridian Forest, finally it's an advantage!
Onto Gym 3 - dang, super effective against Squirtle and totally resists Pikachu. I'll catch a Diglett in this cave - easy!
Onto Gym 4 - holy hell, Grass counters Squirtle, Pikachu AND Diglett with ease!

I know that's a really specific example and I've probably read too much into it, but it is kinda cool how (in this example) you're prevented from powering through with one method, but presented with options around the place to overcome each of the early Gyms.

 

[Bellsprout]

I always assumed in Kanto it was intentional.

 

[Fairy]

Huh, I never noticed that! With Kanto I can see it being intentional, because your starter is almost like an early game "choose your own difficulty" toggle. But with Johto, to have the inverse, is a really interesting observation!

 

[Megan]

Gen 1 actually continued this trend right into the E4
... < Ground < Ice < Fighting < Ghost = Dragon (the "strongest" type)

And it kinda makes sense when you want to teach people how the type chart works and you want a sort of ingame explanation why a Gym Leader is considered better than the one before. At least in terms of game mechanics.

I don't think it's as relevant in later games, anymore. Simply because those games have more of a focus on story, anyway. And it also gets harder to not repeat the same order over and over again.

 

[bez850]

I really like this theory. And it definitely has to be intentional.

Kanto and Johto are the only regions directly connected.

Their combined 16 gyms features all 16 typed at the time.

The E4 featured what was considered to be the strongest typings (Ice, Fighting Ghost, Dragon and Psychic, Poison, Fighting, Dark) with Lance respectively having some of the strongest early game pokemon possible.

I'd say you are probably as close to hitting the nail on the head as possible.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

Well thats interesting, but im not sure how intentional this couldve been

 

[bez850]

Well thats interesting, but im not sure how intentional this couldve been

Why do you say that? It's common knowledge by now that GSC were supposed to be the final inclusions of the series. And that a good chunk of the pokemon and world designs had already been decided for GSC by the time RB hit American shelves.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

As an incredibly casual pokemon enjoyer, i did not know any of this. And with that knowledge sure probably intended