1st Gen Kanto Safari Zone

In Fuchsia City, there is an area known as the Safari Zone. While Hoenn and Sinnoh also have Safari Zones, I wanted to talk specifically about Kanto's, as Kanto's Safari Zone is...interesting. Kanto's Safari Zone is known to have some rare Pokemon in them that don't appear anywhere else in the region, such as Chansey, Kagaskhan and Tarous.

In the original Kanto games, you needed to go into the Safari Zone at least once to be able to get the HM Surf, as it was located here. There was no other way to get it in the original Kanto games and the GBA remakes. Surf was a prize for finding the secret house, if I recall correctly.

However, in G/S/C, the Kanto Safari Zone is closed. While in the remakes, HG/SS it was moved to Jotho. The Safari Zone is instead Pal Park.

In LGPE, the Safari Zone is now GO Park instead. Here, you capture your Pokemon that were transferred in through Pokemon Go.

As you can see, the Kanto Safari Zone has gone through various changes throughout the years. What did you think of the Kanto Safari Zone? Bonus question: how many of you have found a shiny Chansey in the Safari Zone?

I love the Kanto Safari Zone! It actually really feels like a safari, with the plains, hill and water areas, it really captures what the area should be about. Plus, the type of Pokemon found there are super rare and feel like 'safari' type Pokemon. I used to always spend ages trying to catch a Dratini/Dragonair in the water, and like how we had to traverse through it to get Surf. In short, it's a really nostalgic part of Kanto for me, and although it's changed throughout the years, I think Game Freak did a great job!

I do like the Safari Zone in Kanto, but I wish it were a little earlier. Most of the time I already have a filled out team when I reach it.

I hunted for about 1-2 hours for a tauros on my physical copy, beacause of the competitive viabillity. Also, for dex completion i caught a kangaskhan, and when i was saving up game corner coins for a pinsir, in the safari zone i encountered one and caught it! the other coins went to purchasing Hyper Beam for tauros.

i like the safari zone i Appreciate what she's going for but good christ some of that shit is hard as hell like how tf y'all gettin kangaskhan from there bc...no!!! lol won't stay in the ball. runs away. god i dread the day i find a shiny in there bc nothing wants to stay in the ball ever

As a child when R/B first released, this safari zone was really difficult, but also I didn't know HMSurf was in there.
When I found out from friends it was, THEN it was hard. as I had no clue where to go, and if you go the wrong way you're basically gonna lose.

_pheebs said:

As a child when R/B first released, this safari zone was really difficult, but also I didn't know HMSurf was in there.
When I found out from friends it was, THEN it was hard. as I had no clue where to go, and if you go the wrong way you're basically gonna lose.

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There was legit chance you could accidentally softlock yourself if you beat all the trainers, toss all your items, and use up all your money in the Safari Zone before getting Surf. Glad they fixed that in the remakes via Vs Seeker.

The Roniverse said:

There was legit chance you could accidentally softlock yourself if you beat all the trainers, toss all your items, and use up all your money in the Safari Zone before getting Surf. Glad they fixed that in the remakes via Vs Seeker.

Click to expand...

Fun Fact: It was also fixed in Yellow. Having not enough money, the entrance clerk lets you in for free, but with only one Safari Ball. Luckily there's items in the Safari Zone you can sell to get a proper entry.

I will always think the Kanto Safari Zone is iconic, I always thought it was cool that you have access to so many potentially good Pokemon, like Tauros, or Nidorino if you wanted to get a Nidoking late in your journey. I remember spending hrs in the Safari Zone trying to catch as many new Pokemon as possible, as well as the rage I would experience when I couldn't catch either Tauros or Chansey.

Ah, nostalgia. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I first discovered the house with the prize HM03 surf. I already had obtained the badge at that point, so I taught it to one of my Pokemon and instantly began surfing in the Safari Zone, trying to catch more Pokemon until my time eventually ran out.

Never found any shiny Chansey in the Safari Zone, but if I did and it fled...….I would have been so frustrated. :D;

I do enjoy the Kanto SZ though. Went through RBY so much that I memorized the path to get to the golden teeth and Surf HM NPC haha, and at this point I probably know it like the back of my hand. For nostalgia purposes, the original is probably my favorite, along with FRLG.

I like then Safari Zone of the first generation. It felt so incredibly massive, especially back in the day. It was incredibly easy to get lost in it for a long time. It also had a lot of cool secrets, tons of items, some really rare Pokemon like Tauros, Chansey and Kangaskhan. You could even fish a Dratini if you had a Super Rod. That one I only found out because I read it in a guide.

In RB the Safari Zone could also be cheesed quite easily by entering it, going to the spot where you can catch the Pokemon you want and then flying to Cinnabar Island because the spots to its right always contained the same Pokemon of the last area you visited. So if some rare Pokemon gave you trouble, that's how you got an easy workaround.

I never actually took advantage of that. It's something I only realized a couple years ago.

The later iteration I never really cared about. Maybe it's because apart from Kanto the SZ was always optional. I could recite the path to the Gold Teeth and HM03 by memory to this day. But I don't even remember the slightest bit of layout from any other iteration of this feature implemented in later generations.

I also never encountered a shiny which is both sad and good: sad because it means I didn't encounter a shiny and good because it would have probably run away, anyway. xD