Current Events > Kanto is a really good video game map design

(+) Yeah! (+)

The way it starts you out in a linear path, but midway through the game your options for traversing it start to increase, so the world feels bigger than it actually is. But it never feels difficult or annoying to traverse, even if you forsake Fly, because it turns out to be just one circular grid with shortcuts and different ways to get around spread all over the place. The design just feels ingenious, and invites replay value with how much it allows you to sequence break.

I like how short the route between Celadon and Saffron is.
Is that the shortest route in all of Pokemon? I've been wondering that lately.

The main issue with Kanto was that it never makes it clear how traversable it actually was. For example, the apparent true? gym leader order is Koga before Sabrina, but I believe it was found a vast majority of players fought Sabrina first, because since you're already in that area it makes sense to do everything there, vs. traveling down and then coming back up.