Board 8 > So uh why is Gen 2 'so good'?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I agree Gen 5 is the absolute peak and I've only played Black 2! I'm actually really hyped to play White version, when I get around to getting it.

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When I played Silver I just couldn't get into it at all. I don't know if it was just that it came out right when I was starting college and all my old Pokemon pals from HS weren't around anymore, or if it was the new designs I didn't like (for reasons I can't quite explain I absolutely HATE Delibird in particular) or if it was just being burnt out on the idea of starting the Pokemon journey over again after sinking so many hours into the first game (the same thing derailed my interest in Mega Man Battle Network 2 a few years later), but I disliked it so much I stopped playing Pokemon games for about 5 years, until Emerald came out.

But SoulSilver is just about my favorite Pokemon game there is.

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it's kanto. and it's the fact that they added a bunch of stuff without making the game overwhelming.

new pokemon weren't the best set to be fair.

also agreed with @pjbasis and @banananor - good summations on how it was an incredible improvement
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Gen 2 changed my perception of what a sequel could be. The Pokemon series has earned a reputation for playing it safe, but Gen 2 stands out to me as one of the most ambitious sequels in gaming.

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It was a pretty large improvement over gen 1, which itself was impressive for a gameboy game. So it was great at the time, albeit not really great now.

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Gen 2 is my favorite Pokmon generation (although maybe Gen 3 is tied, and Gen 3 is the one I've replayed the most >_>)

Really it all boils down to having an extra region to play around in, and the cool aesthetic/music Johto has. The level scaling is pretty wack, but that's to be expected of the series as a whole.

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I genuinely don't understand why returning to another region never happened again considering how popular it seemed to be.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

I genuinely don't understand why returning to another region never happened again considering how popular it seemed to be.

I imagine the remakes are to blame for that.

Also I would love a huge Pokemon MMO with every region. It makes too much sense for them not to do it eventually.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

I genuinely don't understand why returning to another region never happened again considering how popular it seemed to be.

Aside from remakes (likely the primary reason), theres also the issue of visual style. Gens 1 and 2 were graphically very similar. Later gens dont mesh so easily, with character model proportions and other things which could take a lot of effort to conform.

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Polycosm posted...

Aside from remakes (likely the primary reason), theres also the issue of visual style. Gens 1 and 2 were graphically very similar. Later gens dont mesh so easily, with character model proportions and other things which could take a lot of effort to conform.

Yeah, this. They were able to basically copy and paste Kanto into Gen 2, whereas since then they would've had to basically make things from scratch, and if they're gonna do that, they're gonna do it for remakes.

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IIRC it was quite the work to get Kanto into gen 2. They scrapped the idea at some point, but then Iwata stepped up.

Would it really be that different from putting Sinnoh, Kanto or Johto into BW? Or putting Galar or Hoenn into SM? I doubt they couldn't get it working if they wanted to, though I'm sure they'd make it sound harder than it is after they "had to remake all the models from scratch in SS". Money is probably the answer, so yeah, save it for remakes.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

IIRC it was quite the work to get Kanto into gen 2. They scrapped the idea at some point, but then Iwata stepped up.

Would it really be that different from putting Sinnoh, Kanto or Johto into BW? Or putting Galar or Hoenn into SM? I doubt they couldn't get it working if they wanted to, though I'm sure they'd make it sound harder than it is after they "had to remake all the models from scratch in SS". Money is probably the answer, so yeah, save it for remakes.

It wasn't a matter of a lot of work as much as they sucked at compression and couldn't fit Kanto's map on the cart until Iwata stepped in and was like "...Dudes, compress this shit."

What makes it different than putting Sinnoh/Kanto/Johto in BW is that putting Kanto into Gen 2 was almost literally a copy and paste job with a few alterations. Sinnoh/Kanto/Johto/etc. don't exist in BW's art/graphic style, so they'd have to be recreated. And if they're going to do the work to recreate it, they're just going to make full blown remakes since remakes sell.

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It's a good point, but after discussing it, I seriously doubt they would have put in another region in the games today even if it was just compression they needed to do. It'd be a waste of something they could make us all pay full price for (and I would!).

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Well yeah, they definitely wouldn't do it today because people eat remakes/remasters up like crazy, so it'd be kinda dumb to from a business sense.

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I don't think copying Kanto/Johto/Sinnoh over to Gen 5 would be that hard. Gen 4 and 5 are probably the most similar in art style of any post gen 1 to 2 transition (well, it's actually 7 -> 8, but the resolution bump between them is bigger than the small differences between 4 and 5). The main differences were that Gen 5 used a more dynamic camera and the sprites were taller, but they already made sprites for most of the important characters from those regions for the PWT anyway. If it's like Kanto and Johto in gen 2 and 4 they'd just reuse the random trainer sprites anyway, so those wouldn't have to be redone. BW2 didn't even come close to hitting the capacity of a DS cart, so space wasn't the issue either. It's more of a time or money issue than anything.

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