Current Events > Pokemon gen 2 is one of the worst

(+) Yeah! (+)

Haven't played gen 7 or 8, but among all the others, 2 is the second worst, followed only by 6. Note that I'm talking about GSC specifically. The remakes fixed some things slightly, but not that much. But they're not gen 2 anyway.

The starter designs are all trash, both aesthetically and gameplay wise. They're all mono-types which is boring, and the entire Cyndaquil line literally has its stats copied from the Charmander line. The Totodile family suffered from the type-stat mismatch that all physical Water types had until gen 4. Chikorita and its evolutions were horribly boring to use in-game due to their bulky nature.

Actually, what I said holds for almost all gen 2 Pokemon. They either look dumb as hell or have stats that make them bad for in-game runs. And when there are cool ones, you can't even get them in Johto (Houndour, Larvitar).

The level curve is garbage. You become the Champion and go over to Kanto, and what level are the wild Pokemon that you run into? 20-30, even less on some routes. How are you supposed to add new members to your team when they come like 20 levels below the ones you just fought? Tough luck, anyone that wants a Houndoom. Even within Johto, the level curve is pretty bad. It's hard to feel like you're progressing when the Pokemon you catch right before the League are, on average, mid-30s.

Speaking of, people cite revisiting the Kanto region as a huge positive, but all it did was add constraints to the Johto design that made the whole region suffer. Johto is a tiny and short region compared to all the others, and like I mentioned already, some of its new Pokemon aren't even found in the region. And what's the gain? Playing through a stunted version of a region that you've likely already played through. It was cool to fight Blue and Red, and the Kanto gym leaders with stronger teams, but they didn't need to include the entire Kanto region to have those.

The games aren't all bad, of course. They introduced rematches via phone calls and the day-night cycle, both of which were positives. The bug catching contest was a cool concept, although I wouldn't want certain evolution stones locked behind it. Revisiting other regions isn't inherently a bad idea - the execution was just lacking.

And before people jump to conclusions - I loved the games as a kid. Silver was my second game, and I got it on release, Red being my first. I had as much nostalgia for Kanto as the next kid. But it doesn't hold up.

So what should they have done differently? First, made Johto longer. It was the new region and should've been the focus, not nostalgia. Add some routes and towns - including ones where you could actually find all of the new Pokemon. Balance the game so that you were about level 60 when you beat Lance. Honestly, with this change they could've cut Kanto altogether, and maybe made the old gym leaders into battle tower fights.

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it's the one i have the most nostalgia for

Gen 2 is fine but chikorita is one of the worst pokemon designs

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I realize objectively the bad points of gen 2, but damn am I nostalgic for it.
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Spidey5 posted...

I realize objectively the bad points of gen 2, but damn am I nostalgic for it.

I don't know, I played it a ton as a kid, but I can't seem to feel any nostalgia for it anymore. Probably because I realized most of that nostalgia was just displaced gen 1 nostalgia.

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I have to disagree. Trying to catch that Suicine was a blast.

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Cheese_Crackers posted...

I don't know, I played it a ton as a kid, but I can't seem to feel any nostalgia for it anymore. Probably because I realized most of that nostalgia was just displaced gen 1 nostalgia.

The music and art style are my favorite mix of modern colorful pokemon style and the nostalgic classic look.

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This is a pretty common take on CE nowadays, but it's still not a good one.

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FL81 posted...

This is a pretty common take on CE nowadays, but it's still not a good one.

Why not?

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GreatGoomba posted...

Gen 2 is fine but chikorita is one of the worst pokemon designs

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Tagging TC as Duncan alt.

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DeadBankerDream posted...

Tagging TC as Duncan alt.

Don't know who that is

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I got it for a dollar from some dumb kid in 2nd grade. Still have it and still saves. I put so much time in that game it has a special place as the best one

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GreatGoomba posted...

Gen 2 is fine but chikorita is one of the worst pokemon designs

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GreatGoomba posted...

Gen 2 is fine but chikorita is one of the worst pokemon designs

You shut your mouth Chikorita is an excellent design.

Cheese_Crackers posted...

The level curve is garbage. You become the Champion and go over to Kanto, and what level are the wild Pokemon that you run into? 20-30, even less on some routes. How are you supposed to add new members to your team when they come like 20 levels below the ones you just fought? Tough luck, anyone that wants a Houndoom. Even within Johto, the level curve is pretty bad. It's hard to feel like you're progressing when the Pokemon you catch right before the League are, on average, mid-30s.

Even after you beat the league, pokemon are lower levelled, because the only trainers who have a pokemon over level 50 are Blue and the secret-rare ultra boss Red. Since nobody has a pokemon over that level, it stands to reason you don't really need one either. So you can catch that Slugma or Houdour at level 25 and train it up without just having to have it in your 6th slot with an EXP share the entire game.

Johto are my favourite games since they were so focused on being a follow up to Kanto, and not something extra in the franchise. The whole vibe is so much more laid back and in a "go in your own pace" kind of way. Nothing is threatening to destroy the world like all the later games, so you can go back to Azalea town with your apricorns and wait for Kurt to make you some more unique poke balls.