4th Gen Exploration

[Aquacorde]

The way I see it, Pokémon regions are usually pretty fun to just wander around in. I've stalled on gyms and the E4 and actually doing anything the game sees as an accomplishment in favour of just wandering around, looking in all the corners, usually with an itemfinder. So let's talk about exploration. HGSS and DPPt are pretty equivalent in terms of visuals, but Johto and Sinnoh are hugely different places for a kid to run around in. Which game do you think let you explore the most? I don't mean in terms of landmass; I mean in terms of plot restriction. Which sections did you spend a lot of time poking around in? Which game was more fun to explore? What made it so? And if you're the type to just blaze right through, go ahead and tell us why you didn't explore!

 

[Hiatus]

HeartGold and SoulSilver did offer a wider range of locations (I mean, these games had two regions in them), but I had more fun exploring the places of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. In HG and SS, I was already familiar with all the towns, routes, and cities, as I've already visited them while playing Gold and Silver. I knew my way around them in and out, and would've even been able to give people directions if some in-game character was lost. xD D/P/PT, though—that's a completely different story. I knew nothing about the places in those games, and it was quite a fun experience to journey through them.

My most favorite location of the Sinnoh region has gotta be Hearthome City. It had beautiful-looking houses, the streets were clean, the neighborhood was friendly, had access to Amity Square, and was the official home of Super Contest Hall. I also liked Twinleaf Town, as it was small and had a peaceful environment.

 

[pokemonranger109]

HeartGold and SoulSilver did offer a wider range of locations (I mean, these games had two regions in them), but I had more fun exploring the places of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. In HG and SS, I was already familiar with all the towns, routes, and cities, as I've already visited them while playing Gold and Silver. I knew my way around them in and out, and would've even been able to give people directions if some in-game character was lost. xD D/P/PT, though—that's a completely different story. I knew nothing about the places in those games, and it was quite a fun experience to journey through them.

My most favorite location of the Sinnoh region has gotta be Hearthome City. It had beautiful-looking houses, the streets were clean, the neighborhood was friendly, had access to Amity Square, and was the official home of Super Contest Hall. I also liked Twinleaf Town, as it was small and had a peaceful environment.

Well it has 3 if you count the time you go to sinnoh with Arceus to get Palkia, Dialga, or Giratina. Also Hg/SS offered more to explore and it was funner to explore, I found every Item using the finder.

 

[Aquacorde]

Tbh HGSS did offer more land and less restrictions to exploration, but I liked exploring Sinnoh more for some reason. Like, it's not even the case that I knew Johto and Kanto well- I still don't. I never played GSC and only played through HG twice. But I've done Pearl & Plat like eight times, and that's really good considering I wasn't a massive fan. I think I'm appreciating it more now that I've been playing HG. I feel like Sinnoh had more varied terrain and features and I felt like Kanto and Johto were just kind of... the same. When I think of Johto, it feels like autumn. Very similar natural tones. I can't tell at a glance which town I'm in half the time because none of them especially stood out to me- Johto is more nuanced. When I think of Sinnoh, it feels brighter. More vibrant. Which is odd, because like... Hearthome and Mt Coronet felt bland to me. But everything's distinctive.

I hardly know what I'm trying to say haha. But I guess Sinnoh is just more fun for me to wander around in because of the more varied landscapes.

 

[Aslan]

Now that I think about it, I agree with the varied landscape part. HG/SS felt pretty repetitive in terms of places. Sure, it was fun with the addition of two regions but it was city after city and the occasional cave thrown in between. Graphics were great though! In terms of gameplay though, exploration was fast paced and item hunting was always good. As for me, I tend to take my time and explore. It's not like I'm running a race or anything. I like spending a few minutes on each area, getting accustomed to new NPCS, wild Pokemon, scavenging for hidden items, looking for new features etc.

Even though Sinnoh felt sluggish in the beginning, I really like what they did with the cities. There seemed to be a different theme everywhere you went and it gave variety to the game. Swamps, mountains, volcanoes, seaside villas, you name it, Sinnoh had it. I'm glad they threw in more natural environments to balance it out. I've always found Sinnoh really interesting to explore around and unlike HG/SS, you didn't know what to expect around every corner. As mentioned before in HG/SS, the element of surprise was kinda ruined for people who had already played G/S/C.

I haven't played Platinum for ages but I remembered exploring the Survival Area a lot. I always found it really interesting. Mt Coronet. was one of my least favourite places but I spent a lengthy time in there, poking around. My favourite city would have to go to Sunnyshore actually. Not really sure why though. HG/SS was probably Mt. Silver and the water areas. I generally go back to most areas a second time, unless I really hate it. *cough* Old Chateau *cough* :[

 

[Brendino]

I'm always critical of D/P/Pt, but one thing that Sinnoh did bring were a good number of places to explore, unlike the much more straightforward Kanto/Johto of HG/SS.

Off the top of my head, the whole southeastern part of the map was fun to explore, whether it be the Hotel Grand Lake on Route 213, the varying Route 212 that included a swampy marsh and the Pokemon Mansion, to the ranch town of Solaceon that had its own ruins. Even Snowpoint City and its surrounding areas were exciting to explore, as this was the first time we'd seen snow in a main series game, which really added to our experience.

So if we combine all of this varied terrain to explore compared to a mostly unchanged Johto and Kanto regions in HG/SS, I'd say that Sinnoh is easily the more interesting region to explore.

 

[Typhon]

D/P/Pt for sure wasn't plain post-game. There's a ton of stuff to do, especially Platinum. The stuff you could do was great. I wasn't exactly expecting that much on my first playthrough of Sinnoh.

The south side of Sinnoh was definitely the most fun to explore. You can take your time slowly going around, and it's amazing! :) Also, the areas in Platinum such as the Fight Area had tons of stuff to do. You could rematch the Gym Leaders, which would help level up your Pokémon. Fun and beneficial :D

Everyone was expected HG/SS to have a good post-game. Turns out; it is good, but after around 150 hours of gameplay there isn't much to do. Sinnoh mainly focused on one region, similar to the others. There was some fun stuff early post-game though! The Pokélathon was great; the lack of a variety of Pokémon was really bumming though.