The Great Regional FRIENDLY Debate: Kanto vs Galar

Lumari

I was sort of expecting this one to be a comparison of two extremes going into Sword, but in practice, it turned out to be slightly less extreme than I assumed. Let's talk about Kanto first.

One rough trend there has been in the plots of Pokémon games is an increased focus on the storyline; anyone that's read the previous installments of this series will know that it's been a major thing especially in Unova and Alola. Kanto, however, as a region is pretty open world, which as a concept logically has trouble accommodating an extensive plot, and Kanto is a pretty textbook example. Kanto's plot is better viewed as a "situation" rather than an "event sequence," honestly; the Gym Challenge and the Pokédex are what you technically set out to complete, but Team Rocket ends up being your main priority as you go along. They really just sort of get in your way initially, but that wasn't really to be avoided with how ingrained they are in the region. I'm quoting someone else here I think, but Team Rocket is unlike any other villainous team in that at the start of the Kanto games, they've already won. They control the underworld of the region, and everyone knows it and has pretty much accepted it, except that one kid with the Bulbasaur / Charmander / Squirtle. That's the status quo you really set out to resolve, and in the end, everything basically comes back together again when the final Gym Leader is Giovanni. Yea, there's not too much active plot advancement at work here; everything that happens is your own doing, and it all turns out to be pretty cleanly woven together as you resolve what's really the Kanto region itself.

Now, Galar. Oh boy, I didn't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. Or, well, I did know what I expected; I expected it to continue where Alola left off and give us an extended adventure that would completely take the spotlight from the "official" quest. An extended adventure we got, technically, but… it's funny, really, I knew Gyms were set to make a return, but Galar's story literally being the story of the Gym Challenge was quite a surprise. It probably does make more sense to have the Gym Challenge be a widely televised and periodically organized event rather than something random kids can walk into whenever they please but no one really seems to take much note of (has there been any game before where Trainers other than you or your rival challenged and beat a Gym?), so points for Galar on that, I guess, but I kind of expected… more? Probably me being spoiled for always having been given "something else" in addition, but other than the Gym Challenge and some very short writing on the wall beforehand, the plot is pretty much limited to a short diversion during the Champion Cup; it also fits in the story pretty awkwardly because of its shortness, and Chairman Rose's lunacy coming essentially out of nowhere doesn't help things. The fact that that arc implicitly dismisses wanting to resolve future energy problems as insanity doesn't really seem appropriate in this day and age either, haha.

Galar gets the best mark it can by really considering it as "Gym Challenge: the game," and it does that decently, don't get me wrong. But all things said, its plot remains kind of shallow, and I'd take Kanto's static mission over it any day even if that one is devoid of memorable cutscenes and/or plot twists; it didn't need those to be great.

Lumari

That's another one that's increased in significance a lot over the course of the generations. Older games weren't devoid of good characters; even from RBY I'm sure we have fond memories of Bill's Teleporter mishap on Cerulean Cape or the Warden's Gold Teeth, but it's mostly just short one-off events like those, and it's really limited to them. The Gym Leaders and Elite Four are just… there (at least Misty had her own Cerulean Cape event in GSC, and Blaine had lost his Gym), and the only characters that actually drive the story are /maybe/ Blue and Giovanni. FRLG already saw that RBY could've done more with the characters it was given and added the Fame Checker, which was a really cute way to give them all some more personality.

However, that's been turned up a few notches, especially since Unova, when character depth and development became a considerably increased focus of the games and, notably, the Gym Leaders transcended their role as simple challenge roadblocks to do their part in protecting the region. It's no surprise, then, that Gym Challenge: the game saw Raihan and Opal take a similarly driving role in the plot, that every Gym Leader transcended their minimum role by taking part in the Champion Cup, or that Champion Leon took it upon himself to guide you through the adventure like Kukui did a generation earlier (fortunately in a way less in-your-face and condescending fashion, I'm still seething with rage).

Where the game mostly shines is with rivals and traveling companions; multiple rivals is something that technically goes back as far as Hoenn, we even saw five of them in XY, and this time around we have three (that are worth their while, at least). Blood truly is thicker than water, because just how Leon was a not-so-obnoxious Kukui, Hop is a less annoying Hau, who mostly serves as the "get stronger alongside you" rival and decent companionship but little more than that, though he does undergo decent character development; good for him that he got to help with capturing Eternatus, too. Bede is where things get more interesting; Cheren and Bianca from Unova already saw characters represent specific values / "types," and Bede is similar, in that he's the typical arrogant, sponsored, "coattails-riding" competitor—and ends up being completely insufferable as a result, way overstepping his boundaries, being put in his place, and making enough of a turnaround in the end. Naturally, Chairman Rose's decision to disqualify him from the challenge was the right one, and it turned out well for all parties involved. Rose's bait-and-switch turn into a villain was… kinda weird, but I think that's more due to the game's compressed storyline than a flaw with the character itself. When he was a good guy, he was a charismatic, helpful, and mostly sincere figurehead, and that's what makes the most sense to judge him off of.

Closing the ranks is Marnie, who has earned the popularity she's gotten since the games' release. The game pulls a bit of a bait and switch with her as well; her status as Team Yell figurehead makes us expect an edgy and troublesome rival, but she turns out to be genuinely likable and helpful and actually not all that appreciative of Team Yell's support. Bonus points for her bond with Piers, too. Team Yell pulls yet another bait and switch in that the rival team for a change really is just that; it was refreshing to have a "villainous" team that, while it admittedly tries its hardest to slightly inconvenience you over the course of the story, has zero part in the "villainous" part of the story (Team Skull kinda went there but eventually failed) and actually ends up helping you.

Galar really doesn't do much wrong in this area and gives you a bunch of good companions for the road. I haven't gotten around to the postgame yet; I hear that Sordard and Shielbert are pretty decent as well?

Lumari

I've been having some trouble answering this question because I… like plenty of Pokémon from both? Kanto has several of my all-time favorites like Starmie, Ponyta, Kabutops, Marowak, and Zapdos, while I also was pleasantly surprised by Galar's roster and was happy to include Pokémon like Drednaw and Corviknight in my team; other standouts include Centiskorch, Dragapult, and Copperajah, and the game also did a good job incorporating the cover legendaries into the storyline. Kanto certainly has more standouts than Galar, but it also receives criticism for being too basic (a literal Poké Ball Pokémon), which, to an extent, is justified but in other ways also works out well: the other extreme is overdesigning, which Galar hasn't been immune to (Zamazenta…) but overall did a decent job avoiding.

So then let's take a look at this from another angle. It doesn't make sense to judge Galar's Pokémon solely off the new species it introduced, since there's relatively few of them, meaning we also need to take a look at the two major groups of new formes it added: regional formes and Gigantamax formes. Both have given us several great designs—think Galarian Ponyta, the cross-generation evolution Sirfetch'd, and Gigantamax Butterfree—but the regional forme thing was already done earlier by Alola, and Gigantamax formes have many similarities to the now-defunct Mega Evolutions. Admittedly, Galarian formes are a clear improvement over Alolan formes—not limited to Kantonian species, innovatively opening the door to a long-awaited new batch of cross-generation evolutions, doing a great job giving underrated lines like Ponyta, Darumaka, and Yamask some new time in the limelight—but the fact that the region introduces not one, but two major groups of new formes and both are "been there done that" does not reflect well on it. Kanto, on the other hand, while it (obviously) didn't give us any alternate formes of existing Pokémon, did provide us with several staple concepts right away that, for the most part (Pikaclone fatigue…), have stood the test of time well, which really no generation since was able to do. Every game has its own early-route bugs and rodents, most games have given us a set of fossil Pokémon, pseudo-legendaries, or a legendary trio, and I always look forward to seeing what they come up with. Yea Kanto's roster isn't perfect by any means and probably does receive undeserved praise for nostalgia alone, but give it a break, people had to start somewhere.

Lumari

I'm answering this question from the perspective of someone whose first game was Silver, when I was barely sentient, and who also used to collect TCG cards back in the day. I remember first playing Red and feeling that it was so… primitive, without essentials like the Waterfall HM, the SELECT button, a (real) way to hit Psychic-types super effectively, and the ability to interact with HM targets rather than having to go through the menu (reasons why I blasphemously prefer FRLG over the original RBY, too), yet I figure that's exactly how someone that started out with DPP would've felt while playing GSC. And I honestly wouldn't disagree with them; abilities, natures, physical / special split, and actually existent STAB Bug-type movepools are good mechanics that never felt overly complicated and for sure would've added something to earlier games. There is a tipping point, though; I'm not saying it's already been hit, but it's becoming harder and harder to avoid.

The TCG had already sort of lost me by the DPP days; PokéBodies were something I could still keep up with, but EX cards already felt like fan service more or less, and that would be only the tip of the iceberg. I'd already promised myself I wouldn't try collecting any new cards for… financial reasons anyways (allowance isn't exactly a six-figure salary), and recent cards always make me wonder just how steep the game's learning curve has become in this day and age; I guess that's how a returning genwunner looks at recent metagames. The games stayed clear of extravagant gimmicks a while longer, but after XY introduced Megas and SM brought us Z-Moves, it was no surprise that having those coexist alongside Dynamax would be simply too much or that Game Freak somehow managed to come up with a power creep gimmick that turned out to be outright unsustainable in 6v6 singles.

Dexit fits well in that pattern of the games possibly collapsing under their own weight, since it's clearly an (arguably inevitable) attempt by Game Freak to scale back when they felt enough was enough. It is funny, honestly, since from a competitive or balancing point of view, the huge number of available Pokémon has been tough to handle for a few generations already, to the point that I actually was kind of surprised about the outrage even among competitive players. Does that mean Dexit was necessary? Well, no… competitive balance arguments are legit but Game Freak has the power to limit usable Pokémon pools as they please for their competitions anyways (see every regional Dex VGC format ever), and they're really no grounds for removing the Pokémon from the code outright. I sympathize with it from a competitive point of view (and actually don't disagree with Movexit), but from a holistic point of view, I don't understand it and doubt I ever will. Let's hope this generation's other games will give us access to the currently missing Pokémon, at least.