When it comes to regions, what makes one perfect in your eyes?

I wouldn't consider any of them perfect but I like Johto the most because of its balance of rural and urban feeling really good to me. Everything feels like it belongs together and transitions well.

Map-wise I like Johto the most

Plenty of ramifications and different kinds of areas.

>>32439419
Is there similar maps like this for other regions?

Sinnoh
>Crags
>Meadows
>Marshs
>Beaches
>Snow Fields
>Grasslands
>Water
More than most regions. Also excellent pacing and route linking.

File: Yellow perfect color.png (1MB, 5440x5760px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 5440x5760px

>>32439573
Here's Kanto from Yellow.

>>32439615
best

>>32439419
Being visually interesting, easy and fun to travel and good theming and lore.

Kanto falls flat in almost all of these. Nothing is fun to look at, even some towns like Fuchsia and Cerulean are a pain to get around in, and there's almost no theming or lore outside of a couple of towns like Lavender or Cinnabar. Bad overall.

Johto is surprisingly good at most of this. It's not great in any one category, but okay in all. Azelea, Ecruteak or Blackthorn are the okay with lore and theming; while most of it isn't particularly beautiful, it provides a change of scenery quite often; there's no place that's just a pain to travel through except Whirl Islands, which was optional until Gen 4. Pretty good overall.

Hoenn is the same as above, except a few routes are just a pain due to being unnecessarily long. The sea routes, the one after Mauville City, the one before Fortree etc. Good overall.

Sinnoh is visually the most interesting one yet, and the town theming gets better, but it's even worse for getting around. The level design is a mess, simply put. The long routes increase in number, the layout makes them slow to get around, even the caves are more "complicated", which some will see as a good thing, but adding more HM puzzles is just annoyance to me. Better than Kanto, but not good.

Unova is great with all of these. Good theming and lore, easy to traverse, visually interesting. Even the desert, with similar mechanics to snow, is easy to get around. Ideal region for me. Best overall.

Kalos was visually interesting, but it falls flat in lore, and it was the worst to travel, mostly due to GF's incompetence at making 3D world. Like the route with stones jutting out. Yes, it's interesting, but if I'm going to bump into something the moment I move, it's not fun. Worse than Sinnoh, better than Kanto.

Alola was great with lore and theming, and easy to traverse, but not special visually. It changes scenery often, but that's it. Pretty great overall. Second to Unova.

>>32439606
this

>best environmental diversity
>best exploration
>dive is the best HM
>dense, content everywhere
>plenty of areas with side content

File: Alola.png (2MB, 2950x1850px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2950x1850px

Cutting together the in-game maps gets a similar image for Alola.

File: 1990-Color-Overlay.png (3MB, 5440x5760px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 5440x5760px

>>32439611
Also, here's the 1990 in development map overlaid onto Kanto.

>>32439771
do you know what T on saffron means or what the C was going to be?

>>32439689
I'm surprised you put Alola that high given what you said about it and Kanto. They're both small regions.

>>32439759
The removal of the majority of Brooklet Hill from the ingame map will never not piss me off.

>>32439794
dont forget about the inaccessible golf course north of hano resort

>>32439796
Definitely. Anon, there a a LOT of things about inaccessable Alola areas that I'll bitch about, and what makes matters worse is that we all know that Game Freak will never update Alola or Kalos, and especially not to the extent they did with Unova.

>>32439782
It could've been a cut town, I think it might've been the unused fly reference in gen 1. The gym leader order is known to have been slightly different and there's that thing of some unused extra badges in the inventory. As for the C or T I'm not sure but maybe it has to do with how they don't necessarily have an exact order that they're supposed to be visited in. Since you can see the linear route towns go 1->2->3 etc.

File: Sugimori Twitter Gym Leaders 1.jpg (24KB, 600x338px) Image search: [Google]

24KB, 600x338px

>>32439805
Whoops, forgot this. Also, I think Giovanni wasn't originally supposed to be in the first gym so that changes the town stuff a bit.

>>32439803
aside from those two and the fenced off part past the power station what else is there?

>>32439786
Size is mostly not a big deal to me. As long I like what I got, I'm okay with whatever size I get it in. Of course, I would also prefer bigger region over a small one. I was also disappointed with the size, and how some areas like the Mount Lanakila were handled. But just adding more areas for the sake of increasing the size is not something I would like. If every area isn't going to be made distinct and given a clear purpose, it might as well not exist.

>>32439689
I count long and diffictult routes as a positive, not a negative. They give a stronger feeling of struggling through the wilderness, making the region feel more alive, which I really like.

>>32439890
Matter of preference. That's literally what OP asked for, your preference.
I also find difficulty fun when it requires skills to get through, and the more skilled you are, the easier it becomes. But that is not the case with these routes. The long route connect Fuchsia with Lavender will be the same, regardless of your skill level. Same applies to every other route. They're "easy" as far as skill goes, but difficult as in they're just going to consume unnecessary time. There is no skill involved, and I don't like that type of "difficulty".

>>32439689
Kanto is the region that most needs a remake at this point in time in order to make the setting itself better, personally I think the layout itself for a game is quite possibly the best of the seven but as a setting it's garbage

>>32439909
motherfucker Silence Bridge is the best route in the series

>>32439909
This.
If there was some actual difficulty involved, maybe. But you WILL one shot everything. All the long route achieves is wasting time, without difficulty. It's difficult to travel through, in that it takes time, not skills. It's just adding filler.

If in Monster Hunter, you get a huge area, twice the size of a normal map, but all you will do is fight herbivores that won't even attack you, it won't be fun. Yes, you'll be going through a big area, looking for your target in many hidden places and it'll be "difficult", but not fun.

File: 1469593180628.png (1MB, 1926x1012px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1926x1012px

>>32439468
>>32439568
good taste

>>32439419
I have some

>>32439910
Kanto is old as fuck and let's just say the technology at that point didn't allow for much creativity. I suspect collecting volcanic ash for flutes around Mt. Chimney in the good old brick gameboy might have been a challenge.

File: Kalos - XY.png (3MB, 2773x2114px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 2773x2114px

>>32440039

File: Johto with locations connected.png (3MB, 2889x1518px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 2889x1518px

>>32440047
Also did this

>>32439576
Samefag

I like maps with lots of connections, variety, and ambience. Most importantly, it needs to strike that perfect balance between looking plausible while still being primarily a video game world.

Sinnoh > Johto > Hoenn > Kanto > Unova > Kalos > Alola

Unova gets a lot of shit for being linear as fuck but I really like it for how aesthetically pleasing most of the towns and routes look individually and as a whole while maintaining a level of relevance in terms of gameplay and looking like something that would work in real life. Johto and Sinnoh also are really good in that regard too.


Inversely, this is where Alola fails as a region overall.

It should be well connected. My issue with the later games is that Unova is a circle, Kalos is two circles that are joined together at Lumiose and Alola is pretty much 3 separate circles and Poni Island (which is more or less a straight line). I thought Hoenn and Sinnoh had the best regions in terms of how connected they felt. Backtracking was never an issue because there was always a new route you could take to reach an old destination. It's a shame that some children found those regions to be too confusing and now we're stuck with boring region layouts.

>>32439703
Came here to post this.

>>32439703
my nigga

>>32439419
For me, they should make you to stop your journey and just enjoy that place. Not something you can walk by ignoring things.
This is why I think Sinnoh is the best, everything feels big, gives you the feeling of being trapped but still being nice enough to enjoy that sensation.
This is also why I dont like Johto, towns there are just paths you can walk across like nothing, except azalea and Ecruteak.

Sinnoh was the best reason, just one reason of many that the Pokemon franchise peaked at Platinum

Big routes and caves is important to me, as well as a more "wilderness" feel. I also like having many optional places to explore. Preferably not too many normal caves and grass routes so I'm not constantly fighting the same stuff. Thanks to this thread I've noticed I have a fondness for autumn-based and swampy areas, for both routes and towns.
For towns I really like traditional ones like a few Johto towns and Konikoni City from Alola. I don't like when towns are just full of big open space. Multi-level towns like Dendemille Town and Snowbelle City from Kalos are really nice imo since they make use of the space between houses, and honestly a lot of Kalos towns are really fucking nice, like Laverre City and Anistar City too. A little thing I really liked in Unova was the little cafe in Castelia City. Actually, cafes in general are pretty comfy.

For my favorite region, I think I'd clearly have to go with Kalos. It has a nice variety of areas with a wilderness feel in many of them, and the later towns are unique and actually feel like places I'd love to go to in real life.

>>32439606
Too much water

>>32441658
To be honest, I don't like the water routes and Hoenn had so much of them. Probably the reason why it's my least favorite.

>>32441658
>>32441671
>tfw I love Hoenn's water routes
>only time in the franchise it felt like you actually were lost in a big sea
>only adventure that comes close is the snow route on Sinnoh
Fix the pokemon variety, reduce the encounter rate and add better exploration for the diving and it would have been 10/10.

>>32439419
Lots of optional content, lots of exploration, lots of hidden things to find. If a region doesn't have this then it's frankly not that interesting. Hoenn had all of this as optional content so if you wanted to blitz through the game you could ignore it all which is why it's my favorite region.
>>32441671
What's wrong with sea routes?

>>32441760
>>32441671
Not quoted but:
My only problem with the water routes is not the water. Its the fucking Pelliper/Willgun spam.

Being a Halfwater/Halfground region, hoenn only needs more watermons on watersections.

File: freebattle.jpg (26KB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 320x240px

>>32439419
I like long routes, lots of dungeons, comfy towns, and the ability to explore with at least a bit of freedom without getting railroaded. Too much sequence breaking can hurt the flow of the game regarding level curve but I want to be able to at least be able to enter part of the next route when I go to a town, catch some Pokémon and battle a few trainers if I want before following the plot.
Sinnoh and Johto are both high-tier regions. I also like the land half of Hoenn, it has some great routes.

>>32439689
>>32439909
Agreed with this.
I don't like Kanto, Sinnoh or Kalos, love Unova and Alola. Alola gets too much shit for just being small, but it was still a fun region. Po Town, for example, had almost no houses, but it left a better impression on me than any of the big cities in first four generation did.

>>32441804
Yeah. I remember thinking the fact you could find pokemon in the seaweed was incredibly cool.
Then you find out there's only like 4 pokemon you can get that way.

>>32439568
the open map is ironically the same reason the levels are fucked up badly.

>>32439689
Kalos has no coherence either.

>swamp route next to snow city

>>32439817
The volcano has weird doorways that don't line up with each other and seem like they skip past an area that should be between them.

>>32439468
My thoughts exactly. Ecruteak is still my favorite city in any game. Close second is Village Bridge but Ecruteak is just perfect for me.

>>32441788
>What's wrong with sea routes?
They are similar to each other, require a lot of HMs to get through (Surf, Waterfall, Dive) and the constant wild pokemon encounters bother me so much.

>>32439910
>Kanto is the region that most needs a remake at this point in time
It already got one. And frankly I don't want to know what horrors Game Freak would do to little old Kanto after seeing the cutscene density of Sun and Moon.

>>32441862
It didn't really need one back then. Now the tech is there for them to seriously improve Kanto in a meaningful way, and I hope they do.

>>32441857
Repels exist and almost every region requires HMs to travel everywhere. I'll accept that you don't like water routes but I think your reasoning is pretty poor.

>>32442048
Sinnoh is more criminal with HM abuse than Hoenn will ever be for that matter.

>>32442048
Repels cost money and are a pain to use (go in the bag each time it runs out).

I'm not talking about regions right now, I'm talking about water routes in general and yes most routes requires you to use HMs but not as many as water routes.

Don't know why you think my reasoning is poor, those are pretty legit reasons to me.

>>32442072
>Johto
Strength, Surf, Waterfall, Rock Climb.
>Hoenn
Strength, Rock Smash, Surf, Waterfall, Dive.
>Sinnoh
Cut, Rock Smash, Strength, Surf.

>>32442105
>forgets about Rock Climb
>forgets about the Defog route

>>32439419
They have yet to do one perfect.

I feel the themed areas are too small. Every forest has been a walk through with a few turns in it and takes up less space than a city park.

Towns feel pointless outside the gym. Lumiose City was a great addition, just needed to have more fluff such as urban decay and related Pokemon appearing. Tell me a muk wouldn't live there, or that they don't have an industrial sector riddled with problems.

Personally hate the hand holding guided journey that makes the entire map a hallway simulator.

I feel catering to the younger crowd is stifling the genre (is there an adventure cock fighter genre?)

>>32442115
>implying you really need Defog

>>32442082
>whining about money in game
Holy shit Shekelstein would it kill you to stop thinking about money for one second?

>>32442133
>enjoying shitty low acc battles

>>32442138
Better than wasting a moveslot on fucking Defog

>>32442105
>Unova
Strength, Surf.

>>32439703
Pretty much. Exploring Hoenn felt the most like an actual adventure.

>>32442138
>What is Run?

>>32442162
something disabled in trainer battles

File: 9yK9OAD.jpg (317KB, 1200x1200px) Image search: [Google]

317KB, 1200x1200px

>>32442162
A COWARDS OPTION

>>32439419
>diverse terrains that still feel cohesive
>comfyness
>being Hokkaido shaped

Johto's cool too

>>32442082
Because they're not good reasons. Money is never an issue and you rarely need it for anything else. Well, HM use is an okay reason but I tend to carry a slave around so it makes no difference to me (though I do enjoy being able to carry a six-mon team without being crippled by HM use).

>>32442477
Surf and Waterfall should be on any team regardless. Anyway, there doesn't need to be any reason, much less what another person thinks is a good reason for something to rub someone the wrong way.

Only thing that comes to mind is linking different regions like gold and silver.

The maps themselves aren't perfect, but more maps to explore and more things to do make it more fun and interesting.

>>32439689
>sinnoh is the visually the most interesting
eh, could you explain what makes you say that?
Oreburgh, Snowpoint city and Hearthhome stand out I suppose, but I remember being a little dissapointed that pretty much every cave had the same tileset. Hoenn still sticks out as my book as the prettiest, with the volcano, undersea, the best graveyard level yet, and especially Slateport, Fortree, and Pacifidlog.

>>32441844
>coherence
>fantasy game how the enviroment can be whatever the fuck you want, where you can travel across cities in a matter of seconds

>>32443490
I remember playing Pearl and thinking that the Battle Resort/etc area would be a whole new region.

>>32439615
>upper right corner
kek, what a time waster.
A fun map, though. Heading north into a totally different climate felt really rewarding.

File: 1482269173763.png (118KB, 540x304px) Image search: [Google]

118KB, 540x304px

>>32439606
>have all that water
>spam the same two pokemon
blown opportunity, they hardly did anything with it in the remakes either. A half land half sea region makes sense in context to the plot and there's shitloads of water pokemon. Just stuff them all in the water routes, change the encounter rates and you fix the main problem with Hoenn.

The only respectable ones are Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh.

>>32445996
This. The water isn't the problem. It's the encounter tables.