In the quarter century during which Game Freak and Nintendo produced Pokémon games, there were 39 releases in the main series. There are now over 1000 unique Pokémon, more than 64 Gyms to defeat, and nine Elite Four lists to conquer in the world of Pokémon – but somehow, the biggest and most adventurous entry in the franchise returned in 2000 with the release of Pokémon Silver and Gold in the United States.
Pokémon Silver and Gold were groundbreaking at the time for several reasons, introducing 100 new Pokémon never heard of before, a breeding system, new evolutions for fan favorites, and a time system that made catching them all a real challenge. But the unique aspect in the role-playing games, and something that hasn’t been repeated in any Pokémon game since then, was the inclusion of a second region to explore. This brought new Pokémon to catch, Gyms to battle, and events to hold further from home than any Trainer had seen before.
After conquering the eight Gyms in the new Johto region and then the Elite Four and Johto League Champion, all players expected the game to end (or at least all the younger players who hadn’t read anything about the new game). That’s how Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow ended; why would this entry be any different?
But once players had conquered the Johto region, they were then sent back to their home in New Bark Town where their teacher, Professor Elm gives them a ticket to take SS Aqua to Kanto and face the Pokémon League there, returning to all the towns. The Gyms that appeared in the first generation of games had basically two Pokémon adventures in one game.
Playing this game at the age of 8 was amazing. More Pokémon? For free? The sheer scope of this Pokémon game is partly why it’s being remade, HeartGold and SoulSilver, ranking high in lists of the top 50 games of all time on Digital Trends.
To this day, the multi-region adventure of Pokémon Silver and Gold continues to be praised as the best Pokémon experience after the game by gaming websites such as GamingBible and Screen Rant. Old fans still swear by these installments as the best in the entire series. This raises the question: why hasn’t Game Freak ever explored creating a Pokémon title for two regions? With the expansion of the Pokémon world since 2000, now is the perfect time to revisit the most thrilling moments in the series and reinvent Pokémon once again.
The nine regions that have been explored in the main series so far have been repeatedly linked in countless ways, and the original region-exclusive rules of Pokémon have slowly faded over time. Throughout all installments, players have fought numerous evil organizations to save the world, and faced legendary Pokémon of divine rank that created all forms of life and inhabited the world artistically. We have explored the old path when Pokémon was considered dangerous and untamable, the Pokémon Legends: Arceus era, and looked into the future where Paradox Pokémon is born from irresponsible time travel, Pokémon Scarlett and Violet.
At this stage, it’s not really farfetched for Pokémon Trainers to move to another region to battle Pokémon. It would actually be quite daring for them not to, wouldn’t it?
