2nd Gen Well, after four years...

[DGexe]

... I finally beat the Elite Four in my Gold game, after restarting, neglecting, and generally falling in and out of playing it...

And... Unfortunately I'm not too impressed with three-years-later-Kanto. It just seemed so... I don't know, bland? I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it really felt like something was missing. It was kind of like GameFreak put all the hard work into Johto and the E4... and then their resolve to put the same hard work into Kanto kind of died once they got to work on that part of the game.

...

Or is this just a result of there not being much to do three-years-later in Kanto? Either way, I beat the E4 yesterday, got my last badge today, and I don't feel wholly satisfied. Is it just me, or did others kind of feel the same way?

 

[ChrisTom]

Well, I understand how you feel.

If you take into consideration how the landmarks are mostly gone. The Safari Zone and Zoo, all of Cinnabar, Cerulean Cave, Power Plant, Most of Mt. Moon, Lavender Tower, Silph.co, etc.

In fact the only "Landmarks" left are the Game Corner, and Cycling Road (If you count that as a landmark). So I understand how that is a dissapointment.

But if you took the time to talk to people, you would know that at that point, Kanto has become slightly slummy. Due to vandalism, the underground is closed. Also, it seems that Johto has a propaganda. Several people moved when they heard about Johto, leaving fewer people to take care of the area. Also, the Warden decided to go on an excursion after finding out about more Pokemon.

So in the end, it is only logical. But this raises a question;

How did everyone move back in Gen III?

My guess is that after people got bored of the Johto Pokemon, they moved back to Kanto.
And because Gen IV's Heart Gold/Soul Silver is a direct sequal to Fire Red/Leaf Green, many landmarks are still open. Cerulean Cave, and the Safari Zone are open again, but Cinnabar is in ruins.

But wait! This creates a Paradox. Because Cinnabar was ruined in Gen II, but it is fine in Gen III! What about the Power Plant? How did it start bad, then Clean, then bad again, then clean again?!?!

Weird.

Anyways, I'm done ranting. Sorry you were dissapointed

 

[jigglyppuff8]

Gen III is a remake of the original, not a sequel. Think about it this way:

Gen I = Their time
Gen II = 3 years in the future
FR/LG = Their time
HG/SS = 3 years in the future


My opinions are weighed down entirely by nostalgia, so I can only say how awesome it was ._.

 

[Lord Varion]

My thoughts exactly ... ^_^_^_^

 

[Medli]

I thought the same way! I got to Kanto and beat it in no time and all and thought, "... Was that it? Y'serious? Wait whuh-"

I guess it was because there was nothing to do besides beat the Gym Leaders (who were extremely underleveled and boring, so that didn't exactly help) and get that train running up again. I mean, the Safari Zone is gone. Some idiot decided to take a graveyard of Pokemon and turn it into a radio station. The Power Plant is, well, boring. Virdian Forrest is gone. Cerulean Cave is gone. Mt. Moon, for whatever reason, is non-existent. The Cycling Road had, what? Two trainers? I actually thought the destruction of Cinnabar was sort of interesting. It makes sense. The battle with Blue was also neat. Everything else was... meh.

 

[DGexe]

*nods*
And no, I won't hold it against anyone if they liked Kanto for whatever reason-- each to his/her own opinion after all!

... On the other hand, my pal SA did mention something that makes total sense: in GCS, there might have not been enough game-space at that time to make Kanto more interesting.

Hopefully that is fixed up in HGSS, but it didn't make Kanto any less boring for me. *rubs hands in anticipation*

Although... I guess now that Mt. Silver is opened up, my Gold game has turned interesting again. Good bye Kanto, hello whooping Red's arse! ... In 30 more levels. ^^;

 

[Lord Varion]

I wish RED could of said more apart from (...) thats just boring ... he could of said something cool
but then he never sdaid anything in red blue or yellow so ... yh _^^_

 

[The Cynic]

That's why I like generation 2 the least. It all seems so rushed, like they needed to get a new game out or they'd eventually loose their fans. Kanto in gen 2 is awful. Cerulean Cave is missing. Viridian Forest is missing. Pewter Museum is missing. The underground path is missing. The safari zone is missing. Rocket's celadon base is missing. Pokemon mansion is missing. Mt. Moon has been shrunk. The power plant is there but its all done up and there are no wild pokemon. Same with Lavender Tower. Seafoam Islands were shrunk down completely to just 1 island and Blaine's gym (if you can call it that) takes up the whole thing. Where was giovanni in the plotline? Why dosn't he gelp you defeat team rocket instead of Lance (in gen 1 lance didn't seem to care)? Why is Silver (your rival) so easy to beat? Why are the elite 4 (with the exception of Lance) so easy to beat? Why is lance the champion? Surely they could have come up with a brand new one rather than recycling Lance AND Koga. In fact, why is the Johto league in Kanto? Why couldn't they have made it like the silver conference in the anime (though I'm not really an anime fan) and have it based at Mt.Silver?

Those are just a few of my problems with Kanto in gen 2. In fact, this has inspired me. Maybe once I've finished my current hacking project (which you might like to check out in my sig.) I may make a proper remake of gold and silver. although I dislike any GS remake hack other than ShinyGold I might just do it just to make me a little bit happier.

Toodles! Sorry for the rant!

~The Cynic~

 

[Myles]

I thought this too. It seemed somewhat aimless and repetitive, since it was all just Gym Battles really. And not difficult ones at that. The horrible wild battle music didn't help either.

I wish RED could of said more apart from (...) thats just boring ... he could of said something cool
but then he never sdaid anything in red blue or yellow so ... yh _^^_

Inside jokes are win.

In fact, why is the Johto league in Kanto?

Because it isn't the 'Johto League'. It's the Indigo Plateau.

 

[Masterge77]

That's why I like generation 2 the least. It all seems so rushed, like they needed to get a new game out or they'd eventually loose their fans. Kanto in gen 2 is awful. Cerulean Cave is missing. Viridian Forest is missing. Pewter Museum is missing. The underground path is missing. The safari zone is missing. Rocket's celadon base is missing. Pokemon mansion is missing. Mt. Moon has been shrunk. The power plant is there but its all done up and there are no wild pokemon. Same with Lavender Tower. Seafoam Islands were shrunk down completely to just 1 island and Blaine's gym (if you can call it that) takes up the whole thing. Where was giovanni in the plotline? Why dosn't he gelp you defeat team rocket instead of Lance (in gen 1 lance didn't seem to care)? Why is Silver (your rival) so easy to beat? Why are the elite 4 (with the exception of Lance) so easy to beat? Why is lance the champion? Surely they could have come up with a brand new one rather than recycling Lance AND Koga. In fact, why is the Johto league in Kanto? Why couldn't they have made it like the silver conference in the anime (though I'm not really an anime fan) and have it based at Mt.Silver?

I agree with that, they rushed so much so that they could release the games on time, luckily, since Game Freak has more employees than they did back then, they managed to turn the old safari zone to pal park, and even kept Viridian forest, Cerulean Cave, Seafoam Islands, and the Pewter Museum (even though it really had no significance in any of the four generations except getting the old amber) when they made HGSS, I also like how in HGSS that they expanded the gyms, as they did not have much uniqueness (in fact, the gyms in gen 1 and 2 had very little variety, just the type each gym used made that gym unique, it was not until gen 3 where the gyms were given uniqueness and made their physical appearence match the type each gym used, gen 4 drilled this concept even further, giving us more complex gyms and gym puzzles)

 

[The Cynic]

I agree with that, they rushed so much so that they could release the games on time, luckily, since Game Freak has more employees than they did back then, they managed to turn the old safari zone to pal park, and even kept Viridian forest, Cerulean Cave, Seafoam Islands, and the Pewter Museum (even though it really had no significance in any of the four generations except getting the old amber) when they made HGSS, I also like how in HGSS that they expanded the gyms, as they did not have much uniqueness (in fact, the gyms in gen 1 and 2 had very little variety, just the type each gym used made that gym unique, it was not until gen 3 where the gyms were given uniqueness and made their physical appearence match the type each gym used, gen 4 drilled this concept even further, giving us more complex gyms and gym puzzles)

Yes the gym revamps and HG/SS are exquisite. In Kanto I especially like Erika's, Brock's and Green's gyms. They all suited their pesonalities perfectly and gave them a much needed makeover. I mean, Brock's gyms have always just been a few rocks!!!

I wasn't looking forward to HG/SS as I thought Game Freak would just be remaking the second gen for a quick cash-in. I have been pleasently surprised at the quality. My one disapointment with HG/SS is that with all the new DS technology they could have at least given Cinebar a volcano! This time around they've made it more volcano-like but its still just resembles a bunch of rocks with a small pool of water. Come on Game Freak!

All in all HG/SS has helped me get over my Gen 2 disapointment but not completely. Maybe 90%.

~The Cynic~