The Regions and their representing Pokédex

[Pendraflare]

Each main series Pokémon game gives you a Pokédex to go through the region with and catch different kinds of Pokémon before the completion of the main story, allowing for various team possibilities for you to go with. The ones we have are:

Kanto: (Red/Blue/Yellow and Fire Red/Leaf Green) - The original 151 that started it all, some of the Pokémon here started out with limited moves to use in Generation I, but Fire Red and Leaf Green fixed it and gave them more capabilities. Several of the Pokémon here have been regarded as too similar, but they were first in line.

Johto: (Gold/Silver/Crystal and Heart Gold/Soul Silver) - In addition to the 151 from the original games, Johto added 100 new Pokémon, some of which were not obtainable before the end of Johto, but there were some good ones in this one. Heart Gold and Soul Silver expanded on this slightly by adding the evolutions of a few specific Pokémon that required certain moves to evolve, such as Ambipom, Tangrowth, Yanmega and Mamoswine.

Hoenn: (Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire) - Ruby and Sapphire introduced over 130 new Pokémon to the scene, while stripping us of all but 1/4 of the Pokémon we were used to from the previous games. Emerald didn't add anything new to this, unfortunately, but you were able to get the National Dex after beating the game and could then access some older ones. Similar to HGSS above, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's only expansions were adding new evolutions of previous Hoenn Pokémon, such as Roserade, Gallade and Dusknoir.

Sinnoh: (Diamond/Pearl and Platinum) - As with Hoenn, Sinnoh introduced some new Pokémon to the party while keeping out a bunch of old ones. It did feature several evolutions of Pokémon from previous generations, such as Rhyperior, Porygon-Z, Glaceon and Electivire, but they were unobtainable in the main story...until Platinum came around and threw in all those evolutions, as well as a handful of other old Pokémon, upping the total of that Pokédex from 150 to 210.

Unova: (Black/White) - For the first time since Kanto, this game goes one route: 156 Pokémon, all completely new to the scene and with nothing else. With a lack of options, this one was meant to have the feel of starting from a new beginning, as opposed to the previous adventures that mix things up. Not only that, but it arguably makes certain opponents here a good challenge. It even has some Pokémon that have been deemed as callbacks to previous generations.

Unova 2: (Black 2/White 2) - Then we have Black 2 and White 2, which adds another road to the picture with 144(?) previous Pokémon that came into Unova with the expansion over the two years between the games, giving us almost 300 (not counting event Pokémon). Although there were a handful of Pokémon that actually were not obtainable in the main story (such as Corphish, Durant and Croagunk), this Pokédex still provided a nice chunk of options similar to Platinum, so the excess of options here definitely makes it different from its predecessor.

Kalos: (X/Y) - Kalos, unfortunately, introduced not even 70 new Pokémon to the world. But it excels in the amount of old Pokémon featured. With over 400 Pokémon available for capture before even completing the main storyline, XY has by far the largest regional Pokédex in any main series game. In particular, it features a good chunk of Pokémon from Kanto and Unova, and the other regions too. If you're one that likes variety, you'll probably dig this, but not if you're only about new Pokémon. Despite being short on newbies to the scene, there are several Pokémon with Mega Evolutions, and you're bound to find a handful of your favorites scattered about here.

Which ones would your favorites be and why? Least favorite(s)? What do you hope future games will do? Discuss.

 

[Bellsprout]

I think Kalos did it the best. They introduced the least amount of Pokemon, but I thought for the most part they were decent and they were actually obtainable without having to defeat the game. In the case of Kalos quality not quantity.

I found gsc to have the most annoying distribution of Pokemon. All the ones that really interested me you couldn't get until towards the end of the game or worse: POST GAME. Pokemon that you can only get post game that debut in that same game (not counting legendaries) are one of my biggest pokemon pet peeves.

 

[Arc]

Kalos. Hands down, Kalos has the best regional Pokedex to date. With 450 Pokemon available to catch, it's pretty hard to dispute that it has one of the best variety in choices in teams. Heck, there was so much Pokemon I had a hard time deciding who should be on a team of TWELVE. It's sort of hard to find much fault in such a diverse Pokedex, especially with 450 Pokemon, the chances of at least a couple of your favourites or preferred Pokemon in it are high.

Unova's regional dex is my second favourite. It was a sort of a nostalgia trip with going into a brand new region and discovering new Pokemon, without the experience being ruined by LOLZUBAT AND LOLTENTACOOL; as a side note, Tentacruel and Crobat are still awesome despite my previous comment.

Easily, the prime candidate for worst regional Pokedex is Sinnoh's D/P. You want a fire type? Here are your grand choice of Infernape and Rapidash. Oh, you want to use one of the new evolutions for past Pokemon? Too bad, they're National Dex only. Thankfully, Platinum resolves both these issues, but still.

 

[Hiatus]

When it comes to favorites, for me, Hoenn's would probably have to be one of them.

In Hoenn Dex, we've had the likes of Salamence, Milotic, Flygon, Metagross, Skarmory, and so forth, all of which are my favorite Pokémon. Hoenn PokéDex was also the one I've ever tried finishing, which was in Emerald version. Sadly, however, I wasn't quite successful at it, as I wasn't able to get a hold of Feebas and Bagon. If it weren't for these two, it definitely would have been a different story.

As for second, I would say Sinnoh, mostly due to similar reasons as above; it consisted of many Pokémon that I'd consider my favorite, such as Magnezone, Lucario, Togekiss, Garchomp, Infernape, and much, much more. Third is Kalos, for sure, with fourth being Unova. Unova, however, had some decent amount of Pokémon I found myself disliking, with Garbodor family being one. Put that aside, it wasn't totally bad.