The Great Regional FRIENDLY Debate: Johto vs Unova

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Being a GBC era game and building off the Gen I games, Gen II saw its plot kept relatively simple. You're a rookie Trainer initially tasked with doing a small chore for Professor Elm and afterwards encouraged to participate in the Pokémon League challenge. While adventuring around the region, you run into the returning Team Rocket, who are trying to call back their boss, Giovanni, who abandoned Team Rocket after losing to Red in Gen I. After a few more encounters with Team Rocket, you eventually face and defeat the admin leading them, putting an end to Team Rocket for once and for all (or did you?...). You then challenge the Pokémon League and become Champion. Simple, right? Huh? You're saying I'm missing half the game? Silly, this is about Johto, not Kanto. The most I can say about the postgame is that at the very end you climb Mt. Silver to have a final showdown with Red to prove who is the best. This is going to be the main problem for this article when judging Johto: should Gen II's version of Kanto be considered part of it? Johto heavily leans on Kanto and the Gen I games, and you could even argue that Johto only makes up half the experience of the Gen II games. For my contribution, I'm going to be more strict and stick with only what the Johto side of Gen II offered. And sadly, for the plot, it didn't offer (and this is also true if you count Gen II's Kanto, as it's just a random assortment of stories and catching returning players up with what's been happening since Gen I).

It's kind of unfair to compare Johto's plot to Unova, as all of the Gen V games were solely based in Unova, and it had two paired versions (the second pair being direct sequels taking place 2 years later) to flesh it out. You get a new region and also got to see how it changed in a couple of years; the best of both Johto and Gen II's Kanto all in one package! Unova also had another advantage: it was going to be the last sprite-based Pokémon game before the series made the 3D jump. Wanting to end this era of Pokémon with a bang, a lot more focus and thought went into Gen V's plot than in past generations. As you start your journey you immediately run into Team Plasma, but instead of doing criminal activity they're instead preaching to a crowd about Pokémon freedom from human control. This is also when you encounter N, seemingly a third rival at first, but he's revealed to be the king of Team Plasma and wants to become Champion so he can order everyone to release their Pokémon. To do so, N is going to awaken one of the Legendary Dragons of Unova. This is where your character comes in. Yes, unlike past games where your character was "a wrench in the works," this time the villain team had taken into account that there would be another Trainer to stand in their way and that they'd awaken the other Legendary Dragon. N tells you as such and, with no other choice, you play along: finding and awakening the other Legendary Dragon and battling N for the Championship at the Pokémon League, which gets overtaken by Team Plasma and their mobile castle. You defeat N, of course, which forces the true villain, N's father Ghetsis, to take matter into his own hands. He reveals Team Plasma was all just a ruse by him to take over the Unova region unopposed, as he and Team Plasma would be the only ones with Pokémon. You defeat Ghetsis, who is then arrested while N, discovering Ghetsis was only using him, decides to leave Unova to do some soul-searching and find out who he really is. And all of this is JUST Black & White's plot! Black 2 & White 2 takes place two years later with a new character and, while the Pokémon League challenge and villain team plot mostly stays separate, that doesn't stop it from having a deep story. To list a few elements: your rival is a friend looking for revenge against Team Plasma for kidnapping his sister's Pokémon. There is a new faction called Neo Team Plasma, who turn out to be followers of a returning Ghetsis. Many of the other old Team Plasma members who are loyal to N are now trying to redeem themselves and stop Neo Team Plasma, resulting in a civil war between the two. We learn more about the Legendary Dragons and their connection with Kyurem, and so much more between and after. Unova took daring decisions with its plot and themes resulting in the most complex plot the Pokémon games had up to this date; Alola, the only other region that tried to do more with its plot in a sequel, still falls short of Unova. If it's not obvious yet, Unova wins this question.

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When I think of the most interesting characters for Johto I really only think of your rival Silver, the Team Rocket admins, and Champion Lance. For a while Silver had the most complex character arc of rivals, and he still does in some ways. Starting out as a thief, he's later revealed to be Giovanni's son who hates Team Rocket, as Giovanni spent more time running it than raising him. Through harsh losses against the player and a lecture from Lance, he learns to become a better person. The Team Rocket admins are more interesting as a group than individually, and it wasn't until the Gen II remakes they were given actual identities. They all have their own personality quirks, but having a singular united goal prevents much growth outside of that. Lance helping the player deactivate Team Rocket's Lake of Rage HQ was the first example of an NPC actively helping the player and cemented Lance as one of the most badass Champions and characters in the Pokémon franchise. But Lance also brings back Johto's major problem: relying on Kanto and Gen I. Yes, Johto has its own set of eight Gym Leaders and introduces two new Elite Four members, but the other two Elite Four members are returning characters from Kanto. The Johto Gym Leaders are an interesting batch, though only two stand out: first is Whitney, but only because she doesn't give you your Badge at first (and her Miltank is considered one of the toughest Pokémon in the early game). The second is Clair, who also withholds giving you your badge but also has some more character development outside of just being a boss. The rest of the Gym Leaders were still mostly bosses waiting for you to defeat them, though the remakes did somewhat remedy this by giving them more of a background life. The only other Johto-exclusive figure that comes to mind is Eusine, who is hunting Suicune, though aside from a few battles he doesn't offer much else.

Where do I begin with Unova's characters? Your rivals Cheren, Bianca, and Hugh all have their own different story arcs with twists, turns, and revelations. Since the Pokémon League challenge and villain team story were combined together, the Gym Leaders had an active role in the story helping the player stop Team Plasma (moreso in Black & White than in Black 2 & White 2, but even in the sequel games some of the Gym Leaders got involved). Champion Alder played a significant role as a sort of mentor figure and "first line of defense" against Team Plasma's plans while having his own complex background (sadly Iris, after becoming Champion in Black 2 & White 2, wasn't given as much of a presence). And then we have Team Plasma and the major figures associated with it, especially Ghetsis and N. Ghetsis proves to be a frightening villain, cruelly manipulative and raving mad. N has become a very popular character due to his complex views and morals while also still being charismatic and endearing. And that's not going into the Sages, Shadow Triad, Anthea & Concordia, and Colress. Then we have a lot of memorable side characters like Professor Juniper and her father Cedric, the heartbreaker Charles, the enthusiastic Pokémon Musical director, and the Neo Team Plasma Spy, to name a few. The only characters who fall kind of flat are the Elite Four and the Battle Subway Bosses, but even they have interesting quirks to not leave them completely dry. Because Gen V had a more complex plot and a pair of sequel games, the Unova characters were given so much characterization and development. Unova wins again.

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Now some may think I'm picking on Johto's reliance on Kanto as if it was a bad thing, but it can also be a positive. With the Kanto Pokémon so readily available, the Johto Pokémon had sort of free reign when it came to designs. And it wasn't just a freedom to be based on more animals, which some certainly were; Johto was a bit more experimental with their designs, probably trying to separate their Pokémon from Kanto's. To name a few: a hatchling still in its shell evolving to a fairy, a totem pole bird, a sheep that evolves into a lighthouse dragon, a Rock-type that thinks it's a tree, the Latin alphabet, a punching bag that counters back, a two-headed giraffe, a flying scorpion bat, whatever Shuckle is supposed to be, a gun that's a fish that evolves into a cannon that's an octopus, a Santa Claus penguin, an elephant that spins like a tire, a reindeer with hypnotizing horns, and a painting beagle that can copy any move. Not only that, but it also introduced evolutions and pre-evolutions for Kanto Pokémon that have remained very popular: Crobat, Pichu, Bellossom, Espeon, Umbreon, Steelix, Scizor, Porygon2, Elekid, Magby, Blissey, and a handful of others. Gen II also introduced the Dark and Steel types, got us Murkrow, Sneasel, Forretress, Skarmory, the Houndour family, and Tyranitar, and granted new typings to some Kanto Pokémon. With the combination of new and creative designs, expanding upon popular Kanto Pokémon, and introduction of two new types, it's easy to see why many trainers say Johto is their favorite region for new Pokémon introduced to the franchise.

Unova has an advantage over Johto by having 50 more Pokémon introduced. But there is a reason for this: the main game of Black & White did not include any Pokémon from the previous generations. Because of this, Unova has more designs inspired by past Pokémon than any other previous generation, mainly to Kanto Pokémon: the Blitzle family are inspired by the Ponyta family, the Roggenrola family by the Geodude family, the Woobat family by the Zubat family, Audino by Chansey, the Timburr family by the Machop family, Throh & Sawk by Hitmonlee & Hitmonchan, the Trubbish family by the Grimer family, the Klink family by the Magnemite family, and other more subtle examples. Not to discredit the Unova Pokémon; they all add their own spin and have different stats, types, and/or abilities to make them their own individual species. However, Unova's problems don't end there. There are a handful of questionable design decisions: the Elemental Monkeys felt like lesser Starters and only exist to be a "gotcha" for the first Gym Leaders of Black & White. While all generations had object-based Pokémon, Unova really pushed it by having Pokémon that were essentially a trash bag, ice cream cone, gears, lighting fixtures, and a snowflake with a face drawn on it. While Johto experimented with its Pokémon designs, they always felt like they were still living creatures. Johto also did a better job fusing an animal and a concept together, while in Unova, a Pokémon was either just the animal or a concept given form. Because of Unova's design problems I have to give Johto the win for its tighter designs.

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Let's mix things up by starting with Unova, as it's ahead. Gen V has it easy connecting Black & White with Black 2 & White 2, as it all takes place in Unova; the only difference is BW2 takes place two years later. It had its work cut out for it, so much so that BW2 had to teleport the player across the region two times just so they wouldn't be following the same linear path they did in BW. BW2 also created many new locations that weren't in BW so even players who played the initial games would have something new to explore: new towns, routes, buildings, caves, even sewers and a flying pirate ship. They even created a new Victory Road because the rise of Team Plasma's castle caused stability issues in the old one—one of the ways they showed there were lasting consequences to Team Plasma's actions in BW. While we get to see how characters from BW have changed after two years, including previous rivals Bianca (now Professor Juniper's assistant) and Cheren (now a Pokémon School teacher and Gym Leader), it's anything involving Team Plasma that gets major focus. Your journey starts because your rival, Hugh, asks you to help find his sister's Pokémon that was kidnapped by Team Plasma. You later discover members loyal to Ghetsis formed a new Team Plasma to continue causing trouble while those loyal to N can be found in Driftveil trying to redeem themselves. Both old and new Team Plasma get into conflict with one another, creating a civil war-like situation. At the climax, both N and Ghetsis are present to show how one had grown from the previous game's experience while the other has remained the same, which drove him mad. While the Pokémon League challenge has plenty of its own connections, such as showing what the ex-Gym Leaders are doing and Iris becoming Champion, it's the complexity of the Team Plasma plot that makes it all come together.

In comparison, Johto has it hard. It has to make connections between two regions while also giving each region its own unique identity. The way Johto does this is quite interesting and almost opposite what other series might have done. Instead of trying to make Johto feel newer and more "hip" than Kanto, Johto based its region on history and folklore. But not all of Johto is like this; Goldenrod City is much like any modern city, even having a Radio Tower and Magnet Train, two things that directly connect it to Kanto. Another connection is that, while both regions have their own Gym Leaders, they share the Indigo Plateau as their Pokémon League (where Bruno and Lorelei remain Elite Four members, Koga was promoted to one, and Lance is now Champion). Johto's connection with Kanto is with the few things the regions share with each other, features that stand out due to how differently each region is themed. Though the most important connections are with the characters. We have small ones, like how Bill is originally from Goldenrod City, where most of his family still live, Falkner has a rivalry with Koga's daughter Janine, Clair is Lance's cousin, and the Fighting Dojo's Karate Master Kiyo has started to train in Mt. Mortar. However, the biggest one is, much like with Unova, the returning villain team, in this case Team Rocket. After Giovanni was defeated by Red and disbanded Team Rocket, a majority of Team Rocket members following the Executives retreated to Johto and started making plans to call back Giovanni. However, unlike Team Plasma, which had members with separate allegiances that caused conflict, all Team Rocket members you meet are loyal to Giovanni and are doing what they normally would have done. The ending of the villain team story is also nearly identical; you defeat Archer, who realizes Giovanni isn't coming back, so he disbands Team Rocket for good (or does he?...). You can also play Gen II without having played Gen I and still follow what's going on in the world, while BW2 does depend on the player having some knowledge on what happened in BW.

Taking this into account, between Johto and Unova, the Gen II games are the better ones to pick up if you're new to Pokémon, as you don't really have to worry about what happened in Gen I. There are connections, for sure, that only those who played Gen I would get, but Johto can stand alone as its own region. HOWEVER, that's not what this question is about. For which one is the better "chronological sequel" it almost defaults to Unova. Yes, you can go back to Kanto in the Gen II games and see how it changed, but we're talking about Johto, and honestly Kanto seems pretty okay, as Team Rocket mostly left it behind. Meanwhile Unova is by itself, so all of its changes are more apparent; the villain team story needs to move on and evolve, as there's no way it could repeat itself with the old Team Plasma still around. If you're looking for a game that has a strong chronological sequel so that you can stay with the region and its characters a little longer as well as see the direct effects of the villain team story, then Unova are the games for you! Unova wins by a landslide!