AlphaTangoFoxtrot
Johto-vah's Witness
- 122
- Posts
- 8
- Years
- The Windy Potato
- Seen May 3, 2016
Just because THAT story ended, doesn't mean another can't start there.
If you want to break down the games, really, there is nothing truly different about any region. They have 8 gyms, an elite four, some legendaries, and a villainous team. The difference is the skin they put on it. Hoenn's tropical, Johto's extra Japanese, Sinnoh's snowy, Unova is New York, Kalos is French. So your argument that its a "rehash" rings false when every region at its core is a rehash. As they say, there are only seven stories. What changes is the variations on each of those seven stories.
Why revisit Kanto? Because you can use Kanto elements to change that story as need be. Kanto elements are pretty iconic for the series, including outside of the fandom. Take Professor Oak, he's getting up there in years. His death, from old age or because a reborn Team Rocket takes him out, could be the catalyst that starts the story, or it can be used as a twist, that age got to him before he saw his dream of a completed national dex made true.
Let's look at Black and White, imagine if that story had been in Kanto instead of Unova. You could replace Alder with Red. Its Red's starter that has died (maybe that's why he was on Mt. Silver?), his retort to Cheren of "then what?" to "I want to be the very best!" carries more weight because you were once him. You put Blue in Aurea Juniper's place with Oak the elder in her father's. The Gym Leaders' line up has changed because of an increase in immigration and a population boom. Saffron takes the place of Castelia, as the first majorly 3D city in the series, letting you appreciate it from another perspective. And Team Plasma's story could work just as well, just with them being a new team whose usurped the power vacuum that Team Rocket left.
And the thing is, you can do this with any of the games' stories and they fit (mostly) perfectly with the others. Oh sure, some like the Hoenn games have thematic elements that might not work contextually in another region, but the baseline story elements can work anywhere, with tweaks.
Lastly, there is another reason to go back: to see the effect our heroes had in the past. We saw this briefly in the Johto games, but 3 years isn't alot of time. Heck, three years feels like a blink of the eye anymore. But two decades? Something minor can, in a few decades, change everything. Maybe Red's capture of the Kanto legendary birds resulted in the Kanto government banning the capture and use of legends, leaving the villainous team to take over? Did Red make public the origins of Mewtwo after capturing it? What happened to all the towns we left behind? How did Ethan/Lyra/Kris affect the region as that Johtoan who took the region by storm? What is Giovanni doing now? What about Mr. Fuji? Who's Red's Dad? Who's Silver's Mom?
You can work alot with what we have not had answered, but more importantly, you can make it a tale about continuity vs a whole new tale about people we probably don't care about.
My entire point is still eluding you, though. Of course the core gameplay elements and layouts are the same. That's not rehashing an idea. That's called a serialized franchise. The format of the gameplay is bound to stay the same because it's at the core of the series. The "skin" they throw over a series is what makes the games their own, which is exactly why Kanto should be left for what it was. Your argument seems to be that a lot can change over twenty years, so Kanto should be revisited, yet you also say creating a new community and story would be something we don't care about. Those two ideals contradict themselves. The only things that would remain the same in a present-day Kanto would be the town names. It would basically be an entirely new community. That is what I'm saying. Why waste time with this revisiting of an old region just so we can have a story that would only be minimally related to a past story? Not to mention the issues that causes with the Pokedex and growth of the game's core elements. How would they explain an entire regional dex-worth of new Pokemon suddenly existing in Kanto that have never before been seen in any of the other regions? It's story-breaking.
What happens in the first generation, and subsequently in the second generation, also doesn't lend much to the idea of continuation of the story with a lasting impact some two decades later. You mention that a story of continuation would be exciting and brilliant, but what story is there to continue? The concept of bringing the story back to Kanto after twenty years as if Red's conquest of the league had some kind of lasting impact on the region is absolutely ludicrous. It would make for awful cliches and a story completely devoid of creative thinking.
Why on earth would Red's conquest of the league have a lasting impact on the region? What makes what he did different than what Lance did, or Blue did, or anybody before them? What government would be enacting laws and sanctions on the people? There has been absolutely zero sign of government in any of the Pokemon universes save for small town leadership. The closest thing to a government is the Pokemon League, which, as far as we know, doesn't enact laws. That idea is completely devoid of supporting facts. There would have to be some sort of immense turmoil throughout the entire Pokemon world that would lead to the installation of regional governments, and that would cross way too many lines of complexity, politics, and maturity Pokemon would not be willing to approach.
What villainous team? Rocket is gone and if the Legendary Pokemon are gone as well, what incentive exists for a new team to rise up? There isn't one.
What about Mewtwo's origin would impact the story? It's in written records. It was most likely already known, and if it isn't, what new story does that bring to the table?
What about the towns Red left behind? Outside of Team Rocket occurrences, Red left absolutely zero impact on any town in the entire region. He was just another trainer. Whatever happens to them is of no consequence of Red's tale. The exact same thing is to be said about Gold/Ethan or Crystal/Lyra. They're just Pokemon trainers, if really good ones. They aren't these remarkable characters. Heck, they really aren't even characters at all in the game universe. They're just vessels for the player to be able to play the game through.
As for Giovanni, he'd be like 75 or 80 years old. If he isn't dead, he's probably just existing honestly. He lost his will to pursue his evil goals at the end of the Johto story and just fell off the grid. End of story.
Mr. Fuji is probably dead, honestly. The dude was old twenty years ago.
Why does it matter who Red's dad is? I always assumed he was dead. Same goes for Silver's mom.
If the games followed the manga more closely, there'd be generations worth of story to tell, but that just isn't the case. They just don't have heavy amounts of story.
I don't mean to sound confrontational, but people seem to cloud their judgment over Kanto because it was the first installment of the series and it is natural to want more. The fact of the matter is that a story doesn't exist to be told, and creating one specifically formed around Kanto's past would handicap the creative possibilities for said story. Everything there was to do in Kanto has been done. It's nothing against the region or the games, it's just that creating new plot elements and story for a return to Kanto is a waste of energy. It would only fulfill nostalgia and would be a stagnant investment of creativity as opposed to crafting a whole new world for us to explore. The mysteries and the unknown in every new region is what keeps Pokemon fresh and exciting. Kanto's story has been told. It's done its part. The story was tied up with a pretty bow in Gen II. It's at peace. Going back to it would only disrupt that.