The Great Regional FRIENDLY Debate: Sinnoh vs. Unova

Lumari

I guess it helps if we establish something here first: I don't really play Pokémon games for the plot in the same way as with, say, Professor Layton; I play Pokémon for the adventure. I don't expect the games to be plot heavy, because, let's be real, they kind of are not—I'd like to play a nicely set-up adventure, with the actual "plot" to be found primarily in some engaging pivotal arcs.

And as far as pivotal arcs go, Sinnoh (more specifically Platinum) completely nails it. The moment the explosion at Lake Valor is heard in Canalave Library marks the beginning of my favorite story arc from any video game, and it won't end until we're all the way at the bottom of the Distortion World. The reason why I like this arc so much is... the urgency, if that makes sense. Throughout our adventure in that sleepy, autumnesque region, it becomes increasingly clear that the world is about to change drastically, and not for the better. The buildup is slow but steady, until the plot bursts open with a literal bang.

It's the textbook example of a rat race. You're dashing towards the lake where the explosion came from, and naturally you're too late. Next order of business: make sure your friends are alright. Some of them are. But that other one had gone allll the way to the north. So you chase him alllll the way to the north, straight through a freaking blizzard, casually beat the Gym because that's what you need to do before you can access the lake where he is now, and find him. He lost, but he is safe. And then, when your main goal in your friends' safety has been achieved, it's time to defeat the villains. You corner their lunatic boss, who you absolutely have to stop, in their hideout. You beat him, but he gets away, going to the most epic location in the entire region. You corner him again. He flees again, into a freaking alternate dimension, where chase him all the way to the bottom, cornering him again—and now that he finally finally finally cannot get away anymore, the battle for the safety of the region ensues. And it's actually a tough one, haha.

Similarly, one thing that warrants highlighting about Unova is their integration of the final faceoff with the villainous team within the Pokémon League. Which really wasn't too surprising when viewing the series as a whole honestly. In Kanto and Johto, Team Rocket was more like a bunch of sidequests, though admittedly in Johto they at least had the Champion team up with you—only in Hoenn they got a more prominent plot role by targeting the legendary Pokémon. However, in Sinnoh a complete Gym Leader pretty much got buried in the "adrenaline rush", and the fact that the same thing happened with the Pokémon League Champion in Unova really is a logical culmination to that pattern. And I honestly really liked it, if only for the deviation from the standard formula. Though I found Unova's plot in general to be just a tad bland compared to the other main series games, N's takeover of the Pokémon League is a biiig saving grace. And in more than just a diamond-in-the-rough sort of way. Not all the ways they tried to revisit Kanto were to my tastes, but the leader of the villainous team beating the Pokémon League Champion definitely was not the throwback to Gary I was expecting.

Adventure-wise, one thing worth highlighting is the map, if that makes sense. Take Unova. Unova is just... so... linear. The region is almost set up like a race track that we have to walk towards the Pokémon League. No side turns possible. Not a hint of freedom in deciding your own path either. Like, it's not even subtle. Every town has some dude blocking the path to the next route who just miraculously disappears when you've cleared whatever quest you have to clear in said town. On a tangent, this is actually a reason why I very much do think HMs serve a purpose—when you've got a tree blocking your way, you need the Cut HM to get past it, and in order to be able to use it, you need the Gym Badge. See? Easy. Everything serves a clear, immediate, logical purpose—unlike the dude blocking your way out of Castelia City for whatever reason deciding to go home the instant you defeat Burgh. Another very neat example of more natural progression is from, indeed, Platinum—during the adrenaline rush when you're chasing your friend through a freaking blizzard just to make sure he's alright, when you finally arrive at Lake Acuity, you see him stand there, ready to challenge Jupiter... right atop a cliffside you need Rock Climb for. So what do you do? You dash right into the Gym to get that badge that allows you to use Rock Climb. Easy. And everything just follows so naturally from everything. So much more effective than in Diamond and Pearl, where we've got some random grunts blocking the way.

Now take Sinnoh. "Random dudes blocking paths" exist here as well to an extent, true—but just how many times do we have to pass through Veilstone and Hearthome in order to beat this game? The region is set up beautifully with tons of backtracking, revisiting places, junctions, and all things not linear, and just the bare fact of having to figure out where you have to go, and even the semblance of somewhat being able to determine our own path, adds so much to Sinnoh. It doesn't go quite as far as in Kanto and Johto, where actual sequence breaking is possible (pretty sure it isn't in Sinnoh), but we're on an actual adventure, not on a guided tour like in Unova.

One final point: Sinnoh plot is apocalyptic, Unova's plot is philosophical. Sinnoh exudes history from top to bottom, and there's really no better way to make the region go along with a plot like that. Sinnoh's plot is complemented by the region, whereas Unova's plot is complemented by the characters.

Conclusion: Sinnoh. Love Sinnoh.

Lumari

Unova did some things suboptimally. This is not one of them. I don't think there's a single game where the Gym Leaders are given this much personality—from the friendly yet eccentric Burgh to the rowdy sweetheart Clay to Skyla and the distant Brycen, they all are intriguing characters in their own right. And they all exist outside of the doors of their gyms too, haha, which is actually really rare in the rest of the games. On the subject of breaking with traditions, having two rivals in Cheren and Bianca was kind of unprecedented as well. It was not entirely unique, since Hoenn had Brendan and Wally, but Cheren and Bianca provide two different, contrasting perspectives on what it's like to be on the journey they're on, with Cheren providing the determined (blindsighted?) outlook and Bianca the naive one. A depth of perspective that would've been unattainable with a singular rival.

Naturally, Unova's standout character is N, and he really is one of the most intriguing characters of the entire series. Right from the get-go, it's obvious that this villain is not evil, just... weird haha. The further we progress into the story, the more sympathy we're getting for him—he really does mean well, he just doesn't really know what he's doing. He cannot be the real villain, and indeed, he's "just" a brainwashed puppet, as we're showing more accurately than words can do in N's castle. And the actual evil genius, Ghetsis? Right from the beginning, it's clear that this is the dude we truly should be aiming to bring down. And we're right. Classic concept, masterfully executed.

Nothing is perfect, though. Alder just... isn't the right person to be making the point he's trying to make, if that makes sense. He's been called weak. And that's accurate. His message is a good one, and one that's possibly even better coming from an old and relatively weak trainer. But at the end of the day, he is the Pokémon League Champion, and he is supposed to be the strongest Trainer in the region, and he just clearly is not. There's just some friction here that puts a damper on what on their own are a bunch of good ideas. And as excellent as N and Ghetsis are, the whole premise of Team Plasma is just... kind of dumb lol. It fits into the story remarkably well, but in isolation, it's kind of silly, and then I'd actually prefer the bog standard power hunger of other teams.

Other teams... such as Team Galactic. Team Galactic's premise (at least of the members that actually know what they're working towards!) is just good, old, plain, simple, and unimaginative world domination. Exemplified by their leader, Cyrus. He wants more than the world, he wants a new world. Emotions are suboptimal, so let's get rid of them. He's mad, plain and simple. And he will do absolutely anything to get what he wants. Including chasing the embodiment of antimatter all the way to the bottom of an alternate realm, with the express goal of destroying said realm. You're trying to beat a man with so much determination complete incapable of feeling remorse, or anything at all? Good luck. You'll need it. Cyrus is not a profound or well-rounded character, but he's a phenomenal foe. And to me, that deserves just as much praise.

Cynthia, in a way, fits into that pattern. She's quite possibly the strongest of all Champions, also accompanying the player all the way to the final battle and being someone they can be happy to have around in the depth of the Distortion World, not to mention collected and—can I just say badass? However, in addition to this, she's perfectly capable of proclaiming the standard protagonist wisdom as well. She's both a strong and wise character, and a Champion to look up to. Maybe she is what Alder used to be, who knows.

Something that I sort of missed in Unova is cute side characters, of the category Copycat from Kanto and Johto, of which Sinnoh did have a couple ones. Take Cynthia's grandma, and take nice little easter eggs in Flint and Volkner's friendship, as well as the dude in charge of the hardest battle challenge in the game being... your rival's dad. Not that Palmer needed to be Barry's father in order to be cool, though.

Conclusion: Two winners really, but gotta give this one to Unova.

Lumari

I... have very mixed feelings towards Unova's Pokémon. On the one hand, the region's got several original designs and concepts that I really like—think Chandelure, Sigilyph, Scrafty, Galvantula, the Swords of Justice; but on the other hand we have an ice cream cone, we have one, two, and three gears (this was cute with the Magnemite line, but it's one of those things that just aren't funny anymore when you keep doing them), elemental monkeys (another concept that gets worn out and just really doesn't fit here), and a literal garbage Pokémon. I can keep going, but it's really the same group of Pokémon that people keep holding against Unova's roster. It's almost as if they tried to do too much and stretched themselves, really. On a similar note it's kind of funny just how many unique or semi-unique typing combinations Unova threw down at once—all at the same time, we got out first pure Flying-type, we got two more Electric / Flying types in addition to the mere one we used to have, Bug got some quirky secondary typings in Electric and Ice, you name them. And it's too much at once, basically. If everyone is special, no one is. Compare this to Sinnoh, where the innovation worked on a much more subtle level—there was still the standard early-game bird, but suddenly it got a Fighting-type attack.

And there's also the fact that Conkeldurr is a lot like Machamp. Gigalith is a lot like Golem. Beartic is a lot like Ursaring. Garbodor is a lot like Muk and Weezing. Munna is a lot like Drowzee. Tympole is a lot like Poliwag. You catch my drift. However, there's a notable insight here in that this ties back into the whole "throwback to the past" thing Unova tried to accomplish. Some people can appreciate it, but... when the designs don't really stand out to me in their own right, the "homage to the old days" just doesn't end up working out properly for me.

Compare that to Sinnoh, which has... remarkably little to point out about the main roster, really. The main roster has been called bland, and I can definitely understand where people are coming from. The games themselves covered this nicely, though, by using older Pokémon as well in the regional dex, whereas Unova had nothing to fall back on. And while Unova had some designs that I found notoriously bad, for all its blandness, Sinnoh really had none. On the other hand, there weren't that many standout designs in the main roster either (aside from like Weavile and Lucario and a couple more). That is, until we get beyond the main roster, where we find a ton of new evolutions. Controversial as that move was, and admittedly extraneous as some of them are (Electivire, Magmortar, Dusknoir), so many of those designs are just so gorgeous :> It has two of my favorites in Gliscor and Gallade, there are more excellent ones in the likes of Froslass and Tangrowth, and (with the notable exception of Magmortar and Lickilicky) pretty much all of them are good. I like most of Sinnoh's legendaries too, but at the time, I (alongside many other people I'm pretty sure) thought they went too far here and ended up shooting themselves in the foot. Kanto's and Johto's legendaries were really nothing too influential in the greater world, but Hoenn's showed that they had the power to control the elements—and Sinnoh took this a lot further by literally introducing the creationist God of Pokémon. It was the end of the line, really, and there was no way a next generation could have continued on that way. And, fortunately, Unova didn't, but it ended up taking a step back and rescaling everything to local myths. Which worked.

Conclusion: It's much closer than the Klinklangs and Vanilluxes of this world would have me think, but I'd still go with Sinnoh here.