Greenlit: A Deep Dive On The Mythical Two Region Game

EC · Mar 17, 2019

Hey folks, just wanted to throw this proposal your way. I want to do a deep dive on the mythical two region game. Meaning, what the Generation 2 games (and their remakes) got right and wrong, why we haven't seen a two region game since, and how I would go about making a two region game in the future.

I was planning on writing something like this for a while, and then the chat last night in the Discord about Claire and her levels and such pushed me over the edge.

Thoughts?

bobandbill · Mar 18, 2019

EC said:
Hey folks, just wanted to throw this proposal your way. I want to do a deep dive on the mythical two region game. Meaning, what the Generation 2 games (and their remakes) got right and wrong, why we haven't seen a two region game since, and how I would go about making a two region game in the future.

I was planning on writing something like this for a while, and then the chat last night in the Discord about Claire and her levels and such pushed me over the edge.

Thoughts?

Neat. I particularly am interested in the "how I would go about making a two region game" bit.

With the "got right and wrong", would it be mostly objective or subjective (or a mixture of both)?

An idea as well - it could also be worth explaining why Game Freak opted for two regions; there's room to then mention how the prototype had multiple regions but each one rather downsized (Kanto extremely so) from that beta that leaked last year, and how Iwata managed to scrap Kanto into the game, with some necessary downsizing.

EC · Mar 18, 2019

bobandbill said:
With the "got right and wrong", would it be mostly objective or subjective (or a mixture of both)?

I think it will be a mixture of both. There's some stuff that a lot of people agree on that they right right and wrong, and of course, some will be my own opinions.

Judge Fudge · Mar 20, 2019

If there are two regions, there will inevitably be two Elite Fours, which is a problem in itself.
Players can grind for levels via the Elite Four, making the next region a breeze.
A simple solution would be to disable the first Elite Four until the next group is defeated.

It felt like Kanto and Johto were REALLY connected.
After all, the Pokemon team didn't know how far they'd make it so gave it their all in the beginning.
I'm assuming they noticed the workload it took to connect two regions and decided to just focus on the new regions.
Perhaps the engine differences and (increasing) memory requirements were a huge reason that they strayed away from connecting other regions.

Unfortunately, I can't say much on the topic as I haven't played the second generation games.
But I can only imagine how excited players were to discover that the game was far from ending - that a whole new adventure was about to unfold.

bobandbill · Mar 21, 2019

EC said:
I think it will be a mixture of both. There's some stuff that a lot of people agree on that they right right and wrong, and of course, some will be my own opinions.

Fair enough, that's fine - as long as you're clear which is which in the article, it'll be fine.

Platty said:
If there are two regions, there will inevitably be two Elite Fours, which is a problem in itself.
Players can grind for levels via the Elite Four, making the next region a breeze.
A simple solution would be to disable the first Elite Four until the next group is defeated.

It felt like Kanto and Johto were REALLY connected.
After all, the Pokemon team didn't know how far they'd make it so gave it their all in the beginning.
I'm assuming they noticed the workload it took to connect two regions and decided to just focus on the new regions.
Perhaps the engine differences and (increasing) memory requirements were a huge reason that they strayed away from connecting other regions.

Unfortunately, I can't say much on the topic as I haven't played the second generation games.
But I can only imagine how excited players were to discover that the game was far from ending - that a whole new adventure was about to unfold.

I agree - it was exciting to walk through Kanto. Heck, Silver was my first game but I knew about Kanto and seeing it on the Town Map after being told by that NPC about taking my first steps in a new region... Helps the music for the route was great too.

Aldo · Mar 21, 2019

I think this will be a good read, mainly because of the points you'll cover. +1

Caite-chan · Mar 23, 2019

I would love to see this as I miss having two regions to explore in one game. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

bobandbill · Mar 24, 2019

EC said:
ping

Alright, article is approved. Please PM me your desired username and email address so I can make a Daily account for you. Then you can get to drafting the article in WordPress.

EC · Mar 27, 2019

Okay, my first draft of the article is complete, and ready for the red pen of critique and correction. :)

bobandbill · Mar 31, 2019

EC said:
Okay, my first draft of the article is complete, and ready for the red pen of critique and correction. :)

I and Aldo have made some edits (e.g. minor typo, reformatting HGSS because officialling it's HeartGold without the space, etc). I've also left some suggestions in your article (https://daily.pokecommunity.com/?p=21432&preview=true) in bold and [brackets] to consider - up to you in adding them in or not. Overall it reads pretty well!

Couple other things:
- excerpt is needed. A sentence or two just giving a summary or hook for the article. They display on the index and also below the cover image of each article. Speaking of...
- images. Any ideas? Could say have the GSC map or somesuch within the article, or relevant images (e.g. of Lance's level 50 dragonite when you talk about its level, for an top-of-the-head example). We also need a cover image, which has to be decently large (refer to the wordpress posting guide sticky for the finer details on that). It's possible to have custom art made too, but that requires a bit more time and someone to do that too.

EC · Mar 31, 2019

bobandbill said:
I and Aldo have made some edits (e.g. minor typo, reformatting HGSS because officialling it's HeartGold without the space, etc). I've also left some suggestions in your article (https://daily.pokecommunity.com/?p=21432&preview=true) in bold and [brackets] to consider - up to you in adding them in or not. Overall it reads pretty well!

Couple other things:
- excerpt is needed. A sentence or two just giving a summary or hook for the article. They display on the index and also below the cover image of each article. Speaking of...
- images. Any ideas? Could say have the GSC map or somesuch within the article, or relevant images (e.g. of Lance's level 50 dragonite when you talk about its level, for an top-of-the-head example). We also need a cover image, which has to be decently large (refer to the wordpress posting guide sticky for the finer details on that). It's possible to have custom art made too, but that requires a bit more time and someone to do that too.

Alright sounds good, I'll take a look over all your suggestions today and see what I can do.

As for images, I'll also work on those today. I was thinking about doing what you said of showing the Pokemon I was talking about, but I wanted to get the words done first.

And I plan on making my own cover image, if that's alright. EDIT: Actually, I'm going to have to request one in the pinned thread. Any attempts I have made at my own cover image have gone awry.

Greenlit: A Deep Dive On The Mythical Two Region Game

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EC

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Aldo

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EC