2nd Gen Second generation pokédex only

[moon]

In Unova, they completely got rid of the old pokémon in the first run and only had new ones. If they had done that in GSC and only had these guys be the obtainable pokémon until you reached Kanto, do you think you would have enjoyed the games?

Johto was pretty much an expansion to Kanto, with a lot of old Gen 1 pokémon featured as well. I personally think Johto might have seemed a bit empty if the Kanto mons weren't there, because they weren't that many iirc o: but at the same time, maybe it would have given Johto an even more unique feel. I somehow think all the Johto 'mons are so cute c:

Johto pokémon:

Spoiler:

 

[LexAnarchy]

If they had done that in GSC, I reckon I still would have enjoyed it, as 2nd Gen is by far my favourite Gen. Any other game besides GSC would have sucked if they had done it in my opinion. That's actually the main reason why I didn't enjoy 5th Gen as much. To me, 5th Gen Pokes aren't as bad as everyone says.

 

[illumine]

This seems like a strange question, as part of the point with G/S/C is to emphasise some of the more neglected Pokémon earlier, as well as base itself off the previous game in a way which made the transition to Kanto more convincing and interesting, so in a sense you'd be abstracting from a lot more. I mean, I guess they could make an off-beat variation with Mareep, Stantler, Yanma, and Murkrow, etc., in possible positions, but that's about it. It wasn't designed for that, but it could adapt better than most more recent ones, where the Pokémon are designed to stand alongside hoards of friendly rivals, features, and so on, and hence not to stand out on their own, which would be to oppose this or be an 'evil team.' In this sense, that legendaries have increasingly had to be associated with such more and more directly needn't be a surprise. Nonetheless, G/S/C seems to be alright if you just remove one dimension of it, although it would be misleading to pretend that you weren't doing that.

Something's wrong because I
Find the glamour in the dark side,
In the dark side.

Where'd I go wrong?

Cheap regrets, can't forget,
Falling victim to the debts still,
Unpaid in my mind.

 

[SaniOKh]

Personal preferences aside, I don't think a game with only Johto Pokémon could work.

Unova got away with it (and, IMHO, did so brilliantly) by having an ensemble that was designed as a completely separate thing from the other Pokémon, it was well balanced on its own. IIRC, they put so much emphasis on it that they upset one of the designers, the one behind Frillish and Jellycent, when they told him they turned his Water Pokémon into Water/Ghost Pokémon just for the sake of balance.

Johto Pokémon, for all intents and purposes, were designed from the start as "Kanto Pokémon, part 2", not as a separate ensemble, but as a complement to the original 151. Balance-wise, the original 151 Pokémon were a mess (Psychic types were truly kings back then) , and the idea for most of the 100 next Pokémon was to fix the problems they had. But just like the original 151, the new 100 Pokémon, on their own, would be an incomplete and unbalanced ensemble. And what would become of cross-generational evolutions?

 

[Flowerchild]

Johto Pokémon are my favorite overall, so many of them are absolutely adorable and I can't really point to any whose designs I dislike. I think the region would feel cooler with them alone, honestly, though like SaniOKh said, they weren't designed that way and there would probably be some balance issues.

 

[Lavits]

Gen II was the best. It was a time when EVERY Pokemon was interesting and could be raised into a unique and powerful creature. I can't count how many times I would raise a pokemon I thought was no good only to find that it really was fun to have as part of my team. Gen III and beyond really lost touch with that.. Don't get me wrong.. I LOVE some of the new ones.. but there are a lot of duds.

I think G/S/C had the perfect balance of Gen I and Gen II in both Johto and Kanto... just miss Viridian Forest, Cinnibar Island, Legendary Birds, and Cerulean Cave/Mewtwo..

G/S/C were the best, though. I still enjoy Crystal more than any other game.

 

[.:CoralSoda:.]

As a kid, I don't think I really would have cared. Pokemon was still so fresh and new at the time that I was ridiculously excited for anything new about it. So the games still would have been great. But as an adult now, I would find it a bit lonely without the first generation pokemon that I loved.

 

[Disturb Not The Harmony]

I don't think it would have worked with Johto because so many of the Pokemon are evolutions/de-evolutions of Kanto. Say goodbye to Tyrogue, Hitmontop, Steelix, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Kingdra, Bellossom, Crobat, Smoochum, Scizor, Espeon, Umbreon, Slowking, Porygon2, Elekid, Magby, and Blissey.

There's not much left. Bruno has what left? Heracross? Will has to make do with Xatu, Girafarig, and... Unown and Wobbuffet? Koga has Ariados, Forretress, and... Qwil...fish...? Karen can make do with Sneasel, Murkrow, and Houndoom, I suppose. What about Lance, however? The poor man doesn't have a single Dragon-type, though I suppose he has a custody agreement with Karen over their Tyranitar.

I just don't think there are enough Pokemon. There's probably a hack out there that proves me wrong, but I just don't see how the Johto Pokemon with no Kanto connections can be made to stretch over eight Gyms and the Elite Four unless there were multiple type overlaps (like Chuck and Bruno, Clair and Lance, etc.).

 

[classiccartoonsftw]

A Johto Pokedex with only gen 2 Pokemon wouldn't work. Unless they'd only add the gen 1 cross evolutions, like Pikachu, Zubat, Onix, Oddish, etc.

 

[moon]

Oh yeah, I agree with you guys, if they would have made a more Johto-ic pokédex without so many Kanto pokémon, it would still have been natural to have cross-evos there. Pikachu, Cleffa, Scyther etc.

 

[Guest123_x1]

I don't know if Johto featuring only the new 100 Pokémon introduced then would have helped or hindered my enjoyment. I do, however, remember reading in a gaming magazine before Gold and Silver's US release that players would have to trade with R/B/Y for most of the original 151 Pokémon (which turned out instead to be just the Kanto legendary birds, Mewtwo and Mew, the Kanto starters, and water fossil duo that needed to be traded in from the previous generation's games.)

 

[Hikamaru]

A Johto Dex with only the new Pokemon can't really work given how few Pokemon we had introduced in this generation. The best thing I could see happen with such a thing would be the cross-gen evolutionary relatives of Johto Pokemon being included.

 

[RegalSin]

Jhoto took away my ability to use Charizard with Fire Spin or Blastoise with Whirlpool. Creating a combo that would keep the player from moving. It made original Evee more or less useless unless you had Baton Pass, with Smergel. It made Nintendo's BS specials the only way to truly refine your pokemon with the ultimate moves. Otherwise you had to find an alternative Egg method just to retain your pokemon ( which is annoying ).

In the original game they had the Missingno glitch which allowed you to max out your items. In the G/S games you had the deposit pokemon with item glitch that allowed you to duplicate your pokemon, and the item it held ( which also made the save battery drain faster ).

Personally both games was great and all. Jhoto vs. Indigo/Kanto. The original games had a bigger world and Jhoto had more mountains and fields while the other game had more caves. However the caves are mostly gone in G/S.