The Most Boring Region

[Zeostar]

Purely an opinionated topic of discussion

I've been going through Kanto in Crystal. I'm reminded that even without the cut out features (safrai zone, museum, ghost tower), I don't enjoy this region. Some routes are excessively long and are stuffed with trainer after trainer. In almost every iteration of Kanto, they isolate the region. You can only find the original 151 with some johto pokemon sprinkled in. Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee would have been way more interesting if you could find pokemon from every region. Even in Fire Red/Leaf Green you can't get Umbreon or Espeon or Crobat until the postgame.

 

[Devalue]

Galar. Interacts too little with the region. Offers no minigames, gambling, or gameplay-affecting landmarks. Presents Motostoke as a big city. What is there? Two Pokemon Centers, a stadium, two clothing shops, a hair salon, and an inn as a backdrop for battles. Recalls no houses you can enter there.

Teases a lot of potentially interesting spots. Look at that power plant along Route 3. Check out the hill and florist in Turffield. Quite a lighthouse at Hulbury, huh? Take a gander at the Stow-on-Side mural (for a brief period). Dine at Bob's Your Uncle and soak at the Hero's Bath in Circhester. What is the interior of Rose Tower like? ...Does any of this matter outside cutscenes? Squandered so much.

Appreciates the weather's effect on Pokemon. Created some interesting areas (Glimwood Tangle, Route 8, and the first Galar mine). Feels too much like a straight line elsewhere. Recognizes straight line areas in other games. Stands out more here, for whatever reason.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

For me, but it's purely personal, is Alola. I mean, I actually like the idea of a region divided into different parts to visit, but I didn't like how this idea was applied to Alola. Some islands are pretty small, there's no much room to explore and the last island is super small. There's not much exploration and u mainly just have to go straight forward. That's the general problem I have with gen 7: there are cool ideas and much innovation in the series, but it's been done in the wrong way. But that's another topic lol

 

[Sheep]

I definitely see the point about Johto - training there is an absolute nightmare and some routes do feel a little bit too long. But regardless, I'm just so attached to the region and its lore regardless, I could just never put it on my personal list!

For me? Sinnoh. The routes are really boring and wild Pokémon feel extremely repetitive despite how many Pokémon are available in the game. They choose to lock so many Pokémon behind postgame which…doesn't make much sense to me. Why limit people to using the same few Pokémon when so many more are coded into the game? Most should have been catchable throughout the story. I also find most characters not too interesting, but this is changing thanks to Legends and its lore/story. I'm feeling more positively about Sinnoh overall due to Legends but still not so much that I wouldn't call it boring at all anymore.

 

[Fairy]

Hoenn. I know I beat up on Hoenn a lot, but moving around that region was so tedious.

 

[budube]

Kanto def. It's really boring because there's nothing in there outside from a few areas of interest like the power plant and seafoam islands. It's a good region to revisit a few times but it's so uninteresting to look at because every town and city have little to no personality, with the exception of Celadon, Fuchsia and Cinnabar (maybe Saffron too). One would think that with so many remakes they would redesign the region at least a bit to make it more interesting, but the only things that were added were the Sevii Islands in FRLG and to be fair, I'm not a huge fan of them, even if they are fun to get through.

I'm constantly talking about how boring Johto is, but honestly, that's a problem with Johto games not with the region. The region is actually pretty nice to look at, but GSC are just sooooo boring, there's little pokémon variety, no story for me to actually have any interest to get through the game, and leveling up is just a pain. It feels like they added Kanto back to make up for it, but couldn't even get the whole thing in. Cinnabar apparently got destroyed by a volcano eruption, but what volcano exactly? There's no volcano in Cinnabar in any of the different versions of Kanto, except the one that is like 5 million kilometers away in the Sevii Islands.

I'm also going to give this one some slack considering the games' content and I haven't really played the game, but from what I've seen Hisui just looks so empty, and it offers too little interesting place to explore. I may be wrong tho, but it doesn't help it much that the game visuals are dreadful either. I'd rather not look at that region much tbh.

 

[Roni]

Tie between Kanto and Johto I guess? Because they were the first two regions and didn't feature as much optional areas / dungeons or breathtaking visuals for routes / cities. But that's just me.

 

[ReKoil]

As I played BDSP I remembered how repetitive the mons on the routes are in Sinnoh.
The Sinnoh region also has never had much appeal to me in the first place.

 

[Corveone]

Encompassing the region itself aesthetically, and the Pokémon diversity, I'd agree the most boring all around is Kanto. There is little variety in the locations, there are tedious areas like the bike route filled with lots of trainers using the same Pokémon over and over again, and Team Rocket hideouts, and the Pokédex with just the original 151 is so lame.

Sinnoh's Diamond/Pearl dex, and Unova's BW dex are awful too but I do find those regions well designed, interesting to explore and navigate through, and I personally find Galar the most boring and uninspired region region but can't complain about the Pokémon variety.

 

[RadEmpoleon]

Of the regions I've been to, Hoenn. Just like IGN said, too much water. All the water routes (which is almost half of them) blend together, which wouldn't be as bad if you could encounter more than Tentacool, Wingull, and the occasional Pelipper while surfing.

 

[Drayton]

Hoen, literally too much water not much fun about it. Galar as nothing much to offer either. Kanto is VERY BOOORING nothing much to do there after all roaming and mewtwo caught, just another dex fliller..

 

[Orion☆]

Tie between Hoenn, Hisui/Sinnoh and Unova for me. Hoenn, because of the constant need to move around on water plus the Dive segments. Hisui/Sinnoh because of how empty and repetitive it can be. BW!Unova because I find it more linear than even Kanto, Johto and Kalos, plus, I don't like most of the real-life US. (Thankfully, BW2 makes up for that a little bit with the new towns and cities.)

 

[Duck]

I've played so much Pokemon that they all just ... kinda blend in together, lol.

At this point in time I'd say they're all kinda equally annoying in parts, if I had to choose, it'd be Unova. The lack of diversity, and slower grinding makes you kinda have to battle more instead of avoiding battles which helps with the bogged down feeling imo.

 

[Amore]

Galar. Interacts too little with the region. Offers no minigames, gambling, or gameplay-affecting landmarks. Presents Motostoke as a big city. What is there? Two Pokemon Centers, a stadium, two clothing shops, a hair salon, and an inn as a backdrop for battles. Recalls no houses you can enter there.

Teases a lot of potentially interesting spots. Look at that power plant along Route 3. Check out the hill and florist in Turffield. Quite a lighthouse at Hulbury, huh? Take a gander at the Stow-on-Side mural (for a brief period). Dine at Bob's Your Uncle and soak at the Hero's Bath in Circhester. What is the interior of Rose Tower like? ...Does any of this matter outside cutscenes? Squandered so much.

Appreciates the weather's effect on Pokemon. Created some interesting areas (Glimwood Tangle, Route 8, and the first Galar mine). Feels too much like a straight line elsewhere. Recognizes straight line areas in other games. Stands out more here, for whatever reason.

I've only got 1 gym badge but I'm definitely feeling like I'll agree with you on this. There literally isn't a non-Poké Mart store in Turffield! Loving running around Wild Area picking up random pokés in raids and surprise trades (think I'm over 100 Pokédex now and I've only played 4 days) though.

For me? Sinnoh. The routes are really boring and wild Pokémon feel extremely repetitive despite how many Pokémon are available in the game. They choose to lock so many Pokémon behind postgame which…doesn't make much sense to me. Why limit people to using the same few Pokémon when so many more are coded into the game? Most should have been catchable throughout the story. I also find most characters not too interesting, but this is changing thanks to Legends and its lore/story. I'm feeling more positively about Sinnoh overall due to Legends but still not so much that I wouldn't call it boring at all anymore.

I like the route design in Sinnoh. I'm not sure why given south of Route 216 they're either "wet" or "dry" but I do. Nostalgia perhaps. I've only played Platinum since 2013 but your comment got me thinking and if I were to actually play BDSP rather than just getting to the first badge so I have the Darkrai event for later, I'd be a bit stuck - I have a Platinum team from 2020 / 2021 of Empoleon, Staraptor, Luxray, Roserade, Lucario, and Rhyperior. Starters aside, for the DP dex that's every pokémon I actually care about that can be found until I get an Explorer Kit! Putting all those new pokémon in the post-game / transfer-only was just a bizarre choice, as was GF not telling the new studio to use the Platinum dex instead on the remakes.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I was never a big fan of the Sinnoh region, at least in terms of its appearance and landmarks. It doesn't really stand out, it has too much open space and woods, it has an ugly design with its canyons and bridges and whatnot, and none of the cities really stand out in any way because they simply look really plain. The only city in Sinnoh that I can say I enjoyed was perhaps the port city Canalave City where the Darkrai event existed. However, I do admit that I liked the Distortion World, Turnback Cave, Newmoon Island, and The Old Chateau for their creep factor.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

Kanto is definitely a first attempt region with not much going on.
Kalos absolutely upsets me with how boring it is, because it does have neat things just doesnt do anything with them. Galar has the same problem

 

[Palamon]

Probably Kanto because it's already been done to death so many times that I'm tired of seeing it. Can you blame me, though?

And Kalos. Kalos was just...meh? Like, completely unfinished games that needed DLC or a sequel and maybe it'd be less boring.

 

[Janp]

Galar. It's just a line with no charm or interesting places.

 

[Harmonie]

I found Alola to be not so exciting. I'm biased because tropical settings just don't do anything for me, so I was biased against it from the beginning. However, playing the games certainly did nothing to change my opinion. Nothing at all. =/

Kanto is also boring looking back on it. It was the very beginning of the series, so it is what it is.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

The Hisui region was pretty boring because it mostly just a big open space.