Regions of the Pokémon World pt. 2: Hoenn and Sinnoh

Welcome back! When we last left off, I was taking a look at Kanto and Johto and ended up having to make a few corrections (whoops!). In this episode, we'll be looking at the other two main-series regions based on Japan: Hoenn and Sinnoh.

Hoenn is the region featured in Generation III: Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald versions. Unlike the last two regions, Hoenn is an island chain. It's based on Kyushu, the southernmost of the main islands of Japan. I'll admit; it's also the region I'm least readily familiar with. It's been a while since I played Ruby or Sapphire.

Slateport City

Hoenn has a very warm, tropical climate. It has a surprisingly wide variety of different Pokémon habitats compared to the other regions. As always, there are plenty of forests, mountains, and grasslands to explore, but there are several areas of the map that stand out. The northernmost portion of the main island contains a sandy desert surrounded by rocky cliffs, and just to the west of that is a dormant volcano well-suited for Ground and Fire-type Pokémon. But the most prominent feature of the region is its water. When you're playing these games, you'll definitely need a Pokémon that knows the move Surf so you can cross the rivers, lakes, and ocean between the towns. It should be no surprise that Water-type Pokémon are especially numerous here.

Fortree City

The Game Boy Advance allowed the creators of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire to put a little more variety into their building models, and that's exactly what they did. Many of the big cities have their own flavor compared to each other. Rustboro is a somewhat old-fashioned city with buildings made out of stone, Slateport is a bustling open-air seaside city, and Lilycove is a high-end metropolis similar to Goldenrod in Johto and Celadon in Kanto. The smaller towns stand out from each other too, especially Fortree -- a town where all the residential buildings are treehouses -- and Pacifidlog -- a town in the middle of the sea built on top of a colony of coral Pokémon named Corsola (who are also native to Johto).

Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza

Like Johto, Hoenn has a few Pokémon that feature in myths and legends. Most notable among them are Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza. Groudon and Kyogre are feuding Pokémon that can control the weather in different ways. Groudon can clear away clouds and cause sunlight to become harsh, while Kyogre summons rainstorms. Their constant fighting can only be settled by the intervention of Rayquaza, a dragon Pokémon whose presence causes the surrounding weather to become calm and mild. Other legendary Pokémon that appear in Hoenn include the three golems: Regirock, Regice, and Registeel; and the telepathic, illusionist bird-dragons Latios and Latias.

I think Hoenn would be just as good a place to live in the Pokémon world as Johto; it's hard to decide which of them is my favorite. I wouldn't mind the warm weather at all, and the selection of Pokémon to choose from is pretty good, even if I haven't played with many of them in a while. And the variety of the cities and towns should make them fun to explore.

Next up is Sinnoh, featured in Generation IV: Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum versions. It's the largest out of the five main-series regions so far. But as you can see on the map, this vast expanse is also an island. Sinnoh is based on Honshu, the northernmost of the main islands of Japan.

Snowpoint City

In terms of climate, Sinnoh is the opposite of Hoenn. It has a very cold climate, with the northern part of the island perpetually covered in snow. As such, Ice-type Pokémon are more abundant here than in the other regions. There isn't quite as much of a variety of Pokémon habitats, either. Most of the region is mountainous, making it a good home for Rock, Steel, and Ground-type Pokémon. However, there are a few forests to explore, and the southeastern part of the island has a nice beach and a swamp.

Sunyshore City

Sinnoh has some variety in its cities, though not quite as much as Hoenn. Most of the big cities are industrial and stony in appearance, especially Oreburgh, Veilstone, and Canalave. Meanwhile, there are a few smaller towns with pleasant forests and gardens. For example, Floaroma Town's specialty, as the name suggests, is producing flowering plants. The cities that stand out the most to me are the northernmost city, Snowpoint, and Sunyshore (yes, it's spelled with one "n"), on the southeastern beach. Snowpoint is the obligatory snow-covered city, and it also has a secret hidden in its ancient temple. Sunyshore has elevated walkways covered with solar panels, an electric power plant for a Pokémon Gym, and a bright lighthouse.

Palkia, Giratina, and Dialga

Sinnoh has many myths and legends about Pokémon, and the legendary Pokémon that appear here are deeply tied to the culture of Sinnoh. Most of these legends are related to Arceus, who is essentially the creator of the Pokémon universe. Arceus lives in the Hall of Origin atop Mt. Coronet (the big mountain in the middle of the map with the swirly black hole over it) and is in charge of two trios of Pokémon. The first group consists of three dragon Pokémon: Dialga, the ruler of time; Palkia, the ruler of space; and Giratina, who lives in the alien Distortion World and has power over antimatter. The other group is the sprites who live in the three lakes on the corners of the island: Mesprit, who represents emotion; Uxie, who represents knowledge and reason; and Azelf, who represents the power of will. And there are plenty more legends where that came from, probably too many to list here.

As much as I hate to say this, I think Sinnoh would be my least favorite choice out of the regions as a place to live. It has several Pokémon that appeal to me, but not quite as many as the other regions. Also, call me a mutant space reptile if you want, but I don't really like cold weather that much. It's certainly not a bad place; it just doesn't fit my personal taste that well. I will admit, I do like the way all the myths and legends are incorporated into the region, and the Sinnoh dragons are pretty cool.

Goodness, look at the time! See you next time, when I talk about Unova and then recap and sum up which regions are my favorite. Good luck catchin' 'em all!

(all images provided by Bulbapedia)

Regions of the Pokémon World pt. 1: Kanto and Johto

If you poke around Pokémon websites a lot like I do, you'll eventually find out something very interesting. The different parts of the Pokémon world are based on certain parts of the real world. Most of it thus far has been based on Japan, which isn't too surprising since Nintendo and Game Freak are both Japanese companies. Some parts of the U.S. have been included as well. But these places' Pokémon counterparts aren't exactly like the world we live in. Obviously, there aren't brightly-colored creatures with magical powers running around, but there are also liberties taken with the landscape and relative locations of cities and landmarks to make the area more interesting and easy for the player to navigate.

For the next few posts, I'll be describing the regions of the main series of games. I'll talk a little bit about their aesthetics, major landmarks, and maybe some of the local wildlife. After that, I'll pick out the regions that I'd most like to live in if they existed.

First up is Kanto, featured in Generation I: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow versions. This is probably the region that the most people familiar with Pokémon will recognize, as it was the only region in the series at the point where Pokémon was experiencing its initial popularity boom around the world. It's also the only region that is explicitly named after its real-life counterpart; the region of Japan that contains Tokyo is actually named Kanto.

Pallet Town

The first place in Kanto you see is Pallet Town, the home of Ash Ketchum in the animé and whatever you decide to name the player character in the games. Like the future hometowns of the main characters of the series, it's a small, peaceful, cozy, nondescript town that also happens to be the home of a prominent Pokémon researcher. What mostly stands out about Pallet Town compared to the other hometowns of the series is its real-life counterpart. It's actually based on series creator Satoshi Tajiri's childhood hometown of Machida.

After leaving Pallet, players explore the rest of the Kanto region seeking to complete the Pokémon League Gym Challenge. The region itself is mostly a mix of forested, mountainous, and urban areas. Admittedly, it's a bit bare-bones in terms of aesthetic flavor compared to the other regions, as most of the different cities look very similar in the games from the first three generations. This is understandable, since this is the first region that was made, and the hardware of the original Game Boy couldn't really produce more than one or a few different kinds of sprites for buildings and landmarks. However, it does make the regions that were made later on a bit more exciting to explore. Fortunately, in the anime and in HeartGold and SoulSilver, most of the different cities each have their own unique aesthetic, which addresses this issue well enough for me.

Cinnabar Island

Saffron City

Most of the cities in Kanto are based more on prefectures than specific cities in Japan. The metropolitan area of Tokyo is represented by two cities. Celadon and Saffron each represent a different district of the city. Meanwhile, Cinnabar Island is based on an island off the coast of Tokyo that has an active volcano. An appropriate environment for the Fire-type specialist Gym Leader, at least until the volcano erupts (which it does between the time Generations I and II take place, unfortunately -- there have probably been better places to build towns).

Overall, I find Kanto has a nostalgic feel that hearkens back to the early years of Pokémon. But at the same time, it could have used a little local flavor to help it stand out. That being said, it seems to have a nice, mild climate and a selection of Pokémon that I like, with a few that I'm curious to try out. Although it's not my absolute most favorite region out of the five in the main series, I think it would be a decent place to live if it existed.

Next up is Johto, featured in Generation II: Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions. It's based on the Kansai region in southwestern Japan. It also includes parts of the Chubu region, which lies between Kansai and Kanto. Thus, Kansai and Kanto aren't quite right next door to each other in real life. However, in the Pokémon world, Kanto and Johto are only separated by a narrow mountain range. The two regions are very closely intertwined, even sharing the same Pokémon League, whose headquarters is on the Indigo Plateau.

Ecruteak City

Johto has a bit of a different feel from Kanto. There seems to be more of a traditional Japanese flavor in some of the cities, especially in Violet City (based on Nara), Azalea Town, and Ecruteak City (based on the former imperial capital, Kyoto). Some of the building designs in these towns wouldn't seem out of place in a martial arts or samurai movie. Johto also has more in terms of Pokémon myths and legends than Kanto. Johto is home to the wandering Legendary Beasts Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. The rainbow phoenix Ho-Oh is said to have lived at the top of the Bell Tower (or Tin Tower as it used to be known) in Ecruteak City. The guardian of the seas, Lugia, rests deep in the waters of the Whirl Islands off the western coast of the mainland. And there's also a small, out-of-the-way shrine to Celebi, the elusive time-traveling guardian of the world's forests.

Whirl Islands

Goldenrod City

However, Johto also has a few things in common with Kanto. The two regions' wildlife is very similar; both regions have a selection of the first 251 Pokémon in the series. While more of the last 100 of these Pokémon appear in Johto, many of the first 151 appear in both Johto and Kanto. Johto also has a major metropolis in the center, Goldenrod City (based on Osaka), which is similar to Celadon and Saffron. In addition, most of its natural environments are forests and mountains. But Johto's mountains and the caves inside them seem more prominent than the ones in Kanto, perhaps simply because there are more of them.

I think Johto would be a very nice place to live in the Pokémon world. It has a pretty mild climate, a good selection of Pokémon that I like, and a good amount of local flavor to it. While I still like Kanto quite a bit, if I was given the choice between these two regions, I'd prefer to live in Johto. But either way, I'd be able to visit both regions easily.

Whew, that was a long one! Come back next time for Hoenn and Sinnoh. Have a nice day, and good luck catchin' 'em all!

UPDATE: Upon further reflection, I realized that the original version of this post didn't accurately reflect my opinions. My opinion of Kanto is actually fairly more favorable than the original post would suggest. I have also taken into account the hardware limitations of the Game Boy. I would like to apologize for this and will make an effort to think my future posts through a little better.

(all images provided by Bulbapedia)

Intro to the Starters Part 2

Hello again! Last time, I talked rather extensively about Totodile and Snivy and why I liked them so much. In this episode, I’ll try to keep it more general and talk about my thoughts on all the starters at once.

There are two main ways to classify the starters. The first is by which region or generation they come from: Kanto (Gen. I), Johto (Gen. II), Hoenn (Gen. III), Sinnoh (Gen. IV), and Unova (Gen. V). The second is by their elemental type: Grass, Fire, or Water. This does leave Pikachu and Eevee out, since they’re Electric and Normal-type, respectively. But I will say this about them: I like them both, but I think they work better as Pokémon you catch or adopt after you’ve started the game.

If you were to ask me which elemental type of the starters was my favorite, I would have said Water hands-down until relatively recently. Now, however, it’s kind of hard to say. I like Totodile, Snivy, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle enough that I’d prefer Grass and Water to Fire. But out of those two types, I’d have to say I like them both about equally.

But don’t despair, Fire-type fans. Since there are so many Pokémon, that means there are plenty I haven’t tried yet. I would be curious to try out Charmander and Cyndaquil sometime if I could. I also remember liking Torchic and Tepig when I chose them in Sapphire and White.

That does leave Chimchar, though. I said in my last post that there was only one starter that I disliked. That would be Chimchar. But to be perfectly honest, it’s not for the best reason. I don’t really like Chimchar’s design. In addition, out of the three Fire starters who gain Fighting as a second type when they evolve, the chicken and the pig appeal to me more than the monkey. I kind of wish my reason was better, but in the end, I still like the other Fire-types a lot more.

Now for my preferences by region. These are a little clearer than my type preferences, but not much. I like the Johto starters best. Johto has Totodile, which definitely tips the scale in its favor. I’m also curious to try out Chikorita and Cyndaquil, especially since Cyndaquil’s evolved forms Quilava and Typhlosion look really cool.

After that, I can’t decide whether I prefer the Kanto, Hoenn, or Unova starters. Granted, Unova has Snivy. But out of the rest of them, there’s a huge group of Pokémon that I like about equally: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Treecko, Torchic, and Tepig. I haven’t really tried Mudkip yet, and Oshawott is pretty good but doesn’t jump out at me as much as the others.

This puts the Sinnoh starters last on my list. I’m not a big fan of Chimchar, and I’m ambivalent toward Turtwig and Piplup. That being said, my Turtwig in Diamond was a pretty strong partner in the end, especially after she evolved into Torterra.

Well, that’s all I have to say about the starters in general. Like I said before, let me know if you want to know more about each starter Pokémon specifically. I might make a series on that later on if there’s any interest. See you next time, and good luck catchin’ ‘em all!


(once again, all images were provided by Bulbapedia)

Intro to the Starters

Pokémon enthusiasts know these particular species well. At the beginning of most of the games, you are given the choice of three Pokémon. They’re different between the regions of the Pokémon world, but they are almost always a Grass-type, a Fire-type, and a Water-type. Whichever one you choose will be your first partner on your journey to win the Pokémon Gym Challenge and become the League Champion. As you get farther along in your quest, these loyal partners may evolve into bigger, stronger, and more mature creatures. These are the famous “starter” Pokémon.

I’ll admit, I’m one of those weird people who get attached to their starters. I don’t like to put my first Pokémon in the PC Box when I catch more than six. It’s silly and sentimental, I know, but I like the idea of sticking close to a loyal partner for the whole journey. This doesn’t really apply to all Pokémon that happen to be starters, though. If by some miracle I had multiple starters on my team, whichever one I picked at the beginning of the game would still stay out all the time. But the rest would still get “vacation time” in the PC.

Thus far, there have been 15 starter Pokémon that follow the usual Grass-Fire-Water pattern. Pikachu and Eevee have also been used as starters in Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, respectively. Naturally, with so many choices, different people have different favorite starters. I actually like most of the starters. There’s only one that I really dislike and only a few that I’m ambivalent toward. But two choices in particular stand out as my favorites:

These are Totodile, the Water-type starter from the Johto region, and Snivy, the Grass-type starter from Unova. This is partly because I’m a bit of a reptile fanboy. Crocodilians and snakes are particularly appealing to me for some reason. On top of that, aesthetic appeal is a big factor in my Pokémon preferences. Thus, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’d go straight for the water gator and the vine snake when presented with my choices.

Another reason Totodile appeals to me is that they’re decently powerful. Not the strongest Pokémon in the game, but they have a pretty good offense. A lot of it comes from their teeth, of course, but that’s not the only thing they can attack with. Even though their arms and tail seem stubby compared to their heads, they do pretty well with Aqua Tail, Ice Punch, and Waterfall. This sort of fighting style is good for me. Even though I should probably be smarter and take advantage of non-offensive moves, I like to show off my Pokémon’s power and take advantage of the elemental rock-paper-scissors most of the time.

Snivy, meanwhile, tends to be faster than Totodile but isn’t quite as powerful. They’re more suited to defensive strategies most of the time. They can learn a few powerful Grass-type attacks like Leaf Blade, Leaf Storm, and Energy Ball, and the serpentine move Coil gives those attacks a decent boost in power. But admittedly, Snivy could still use a better offense. Even so, they can be very helpful, so that's not really a crippling weakness to me. It also seems like Snivy would have a more docile temperament, making them easier to get along with. Plus, they’re vine snakes decked out in royal garb. That’s still pretty cool.

Come to think of it, I find it interesting how different Totodile and Snivy’s aesthetics are. Totodile brings to mind a loyal, tough, dedicated fighter. Ash’s Totodile in the anime also adds a lot of excitement and playfulness to my mental image of them. On the other hand, Snivy is more calm and intelligent, with a hint of pride and refinement. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Snivy using mystical magic in a story from the Pokémon world. Despite their differences, both of these aesthetics are very appealing.

Wow, this is getting longer than I thought. I might finish up my general thoughts on the starters in a second part next time. To anyone who happens to be reading this, let me know if you’re curious about more specific thoughts that I have on each particular starter. After I’ve covered a few more subjects, I might just come back and do that if anyone’s interested. But until then, I hope you enjoyed this, and good luck catchin’ ‘em all!

(once again, all illustrations were provided by Bulbapedia)

Saying Hello and Other Introductory Stuff

Hello there! Welcome to the world of Pokémon! My name is Gator. People call me the Pokémon Professor. But that's enough quoting the opening of Red and Blue. I'm just a nerdy college student who happens to like Pokémon. I decided to make this blog to share my random thoughts on the series and see what other people think. I might make posts about other games from time to time, but it'll mostly be Pokémon related.

That all being said, I should probably start out with how I got into Pokémon. When I was about 7 years old, Pokémon was still relatively popular after its initial boom, but I didn't really pay much attention to it. It wasn't until I read The Official Pokémon Handbook that I started getting into it.

(image provided by Bulbapedia)

For some reason, I found the Pokédex entries that the book gave really interesting and entertaining. After that, I mostly watched the anime, since I didn't have a Game Boy at the time. As a result, I skipped the Generation I games entirely but was intimately familiar with Ash Ketchum's adventures in Kanto. In retrospect, it's a bit of a weird perspective.

(image provided by Bulbapedia)

It wasn't until my 9th birthday that I played the games for the first time. My big present that year was a Game Boy advance and Pokémon Crystal. From what I remember, I was attached to Squirtle at the time, so I picked Totodile because it was a fellow Water-type. Totodile has since become one of my favorite starters, but that's another story. I also played the game a bit clumsily because I wasn't sure what I was doing at first. To give you an idea, I thought that "super effective" and "not very effective" hits were random things like critical hits. But somehow, I was lucky enough to make it through the game and beat Red at the end of Mt. Silver.

Since then, I've played Sapphire, Ruby, FireRed, Diamond, HeartGold, and White. Out of those, I've only finished Sapphire, Diamond, and White - I tend to get distracted from finishing my games a lot. I've also played a few of the spinoff games, and out of those, the Ranger series is my favorite. I also want to try out Pokémon Puzzle League and Pokémon Snap sometime.

Well, I suppose that's enough for now. Next time, maybe I'll talk about what I think of the starters. I hope you enjoyed this blog, and remember: Gotta catch 'em all!