On an ordinary playthrough, the level jump up to Koga and Sabrina from Erika feels quite significant, at least in my experience. The developers seemingly expected people to do Koga first, so to help players make up the gap without too much grinding against wild Pokemon, they put 2 paths to Fuchsia and densely populated both with trainers. The idea being that basically, if you reach Fuchsia and aren't leveled highly enough, you can go back through the route you didn't take previously to catch up. I'd say it makes sense! South Eastern Kanto is very annoying in my opinion, but I do honestly think that function it serves is a valid one, even if it could've been designed to be of more substance

I think the devs didn’t see this area as being optional, rather as a choice the player could make if they did not get the bike in Cerulean. Only now with speedruns and such now is it seen as "optional".

I would say that SE Kanto is best for training. Especially when you are training a full team of pokemon and not what we do nowadays with single pokemon runs.

It is a pretty good representation of what that part of Chiba prefecture is like in real life. It really isn't interesting in the slightest.

i think when analysing the gen 1 games as adults some decisions seem to make no sense when viewing the games 'logically' - ie. some decisions were made primarily with the experience of a kid in mind the example i think of is onix - it's a Really bad pokemon to actually use, but its main purpose is to be an intimidating challenge for kids facing brock. then later on when you find onix in rock tunnel and have the opportunity to use it (and find it's bad), the takeaway is the feeling of having gotten much stronger since fighting brock likewise, i think a main reason for SE kanto being what it is is to give kids the feeling of exploration and discovery, even though both roads ultimately end at fuschia. and then past the experience of actually making it to fuschia, kids on the playground get to talk about how some of them went down a crazy steep hill (exciting!) and others found an entire fence maze and got the super rod (exciting!) (i do think the super rod is a very important reason to at least go a little down route 12 - no pokemon in r/b are exclusive to SE kanto but plenty require the super rod all over the region, again prompting more exploration and discovery) from a more practical perspective, i think packing routes 12-15 with so many trainers was an attempt to address the weird level curve in the mid-late game - they're monotonous but provide loads of exp to both train up your existing team and train up new pokemon to try out, so that ultimately if kids are feeling stuck on a gym there's trainers to fight before they're forced to grind wild encounters they also give out a decent amount of money - if kids want to grind money for vitamins, TMs, game corner etc., they can do it here (on a separate note, in yellow farfetch'd is exclusively found here (routes 12-13 iirc) which gives it more value, which you could take as an acknowledgement that they knew the wild pokemon here sucked ass) i do agree the final product is a long and boring slog to fuschia, but ultimately i think it really adds to the non-linear feel of kanto and overall it has a useful purpose :)

I'll be honest, Cycling Road is usually the path I ignore when heading to Fuchsia City, Fly is basically the only reason to go to the West of Celadon City, plus you get cool encounters at the end, more interesting looking routes, and the trainers are a bit more interesting than Koffing, Grimer and Machop. And as a kid I used to remember that being the more interesting way to go because of the battle it was to try to get through the routes without going back to heal. Getting to the end with no PP on some moves, and no PP on some Pokémon entirely, it was like the gauntlet path, but very rewarding for XP

To me, the purpose of this area is having a lot of trainers and helping you train your pokémon for the Fuchsia City gym. I always try to fight every trainer in the game in order to get exp, so this area is a good place for that.

I like that it has lots of trainers. It helps me train my newly caught Venonat and Staryu

My first thought is that, for many, this area was likely required to progress, as they never bothered learning how to get the bike, at least their first time. And I think when viewed as "a path that can be avoided with knowledge of the game" instead of "optional" it takes a new role. This is the Gauntlet of the game. This is the only real point on the game where i can see myself whiting out. Not because it forces you to do it all at ince, but because backtracking it takes so long. Runming out of PP on your typical moves is not only possible but probable. Your pokemon getting chipped at slowly across the routes makes you ask "did I make sure to bring healing? I dont want to walk all the way back, I'm so close, maybe i can just scrape by with whats left." This area is a slog, and thats really its best trait. It is a type of area that the game severely lacks, outside of maybe Victory Road itself, and maybe Viridian if your Poison Sting luck is bad like mine. It is the only part in the game where backtracking to the Pokemon Center is at its most punishing, and where the game pushes you to do it the hardest. Its the prep check, the gauntlet, the struggle bus, whatever you want to call it. It is where you are forced to push your limits, even if its in a rather mundane setting.

The practical point (possibly also the intention of developers) is to punish you for failing to complete the optional bike voucher sub quest.

It was inspired by the least populated part of real life kanto in Japan, Chiba!

Others have pointed out that you need the bike to get to Cycling Road which is not always a given. We forget after nearly 30 years and decades of folks mining this game to its very core, that when most of us were playing as a kid this might be the only way to get to Fuschia. I take the point it might be worth putting something here that can only be got here, but I can see why it was put there.

I think one thing worth consideration here is that the seafoam islands were most likely not *intended* to be an optional area, but rather part of the critical path. It's natural to expect the player to explore the ocean to the south of fuschia immediately after getting surf. After all, the ocean is *right there* in front of them. As such, they put a lot of effort into the seafoam islands, as this is where most players would end up going. Southeast kanto is a bit different, however. The critical path involves the player returning to cerulean after vermillion, where the player is expected to pick up the bike, which will later let them on cycling road. After traveling through lavender to celadon and then back to lavender, you're finally given the choice between taking cycling road and southeast kanto to get to fuschia. The question is, which snorlax did they find? Did the player check south of lavender when they got there? Did they check west of celadon? Which snorlax they know about will influence which way they go from here. Either of these could be the critical path, and there isn't a cut and dry answer. It's even possible that the player missed the bike, making SE kanto the only option. Since any given player could easily miss either cycling road *or* southeast kanto, it's natural then that *neither* should have anything you wouldn't want to miss. This is why you can find ditto both to the east *and* west of fuschia. Having a lot of trainers on these routes is likely intended as a catchup mechanic for players who are behind the level curve, giving players a natural way to level their pokemon without having to grind on wild encounters. It's worth noting that having to fight so many trainers en route to fuschia is in itself an experience, and is an exercise in rationing resources (HP, PP, items, etc). Limping into fuschia with your beat-up party is certainly a memorable experience, and I think having a skippable area that is all about endurance does in fact add something of interest to the game. Experiencing it once is probably enough for most players, but they can ignore it on repeat playthroughs once they know about cycling road, and use it as an exp bank if they need it later.

I think this area is just a backup area, so if a kid didn't find the bike they could still continue the game.

You to go southeast Kanto to level up your team. You only have a finite amount of trainers to level up on.

Its a training area and a route you can take if you weren't adventurous enough to find the bike voucher. You can easily miss the bike voucher on your first playthrough.

Trite is correct. The bike is a side quest, an entirely optional side quest at that. There is no point in the game where you need the Bike to travel from point A to point B. Additionally, in order to get the Bike you need to: A) Find where the Bike store is and realize its impossible to purchase B) Find the Pokemon Fan building in Vermilion C) Chat with a specific NPC to get the Bike Voucher D) Head all the way back to the Bike Store and finish the quest. It is entirely possible for a player to skip that side quest and go straight to Lavender Town. This means their only available path is that Route. Additionally, I am willing to bet the higher number of trainers is to make sure such a player is ready for Koga's gym. If a player skips the bike, then it's reasonable to assume they haven't been exploring that much. And if the player isn't exploring, then their team might be lower leveled. It could be the devs put that route there as a way to allow such a player to catch up to a point where they can reliably fight Koga.

I like having it. It may seem pointless, but sometimes in a journey you go off the beaten path and thats okay.

South east Kanto is such a slog. There’s way too many trainers and nothing cool to find

South-East Kanto in the Gold/Silver post-game is the worst part of any Pokémon game, the level curve makes the number of trainers even worse than Gen1

I like the area because it feels like the middle of nowhere, like you're out exploring the ends of the Earth.

I have always found the bike lane to be the optional route. I have always found this routes to be the highlight of the game because the game reaches its peak here, because of the many water Pokemon and fishing opportunities and the atmosphere that reaches its peak here and in Lavender Town.

i agree with the lack of unique pokemon issue (but to be fair gen 1 has a good chunk of those) Route 12 is easily the most aesthetic part of kanto though (and if we're only talking about gen 1 specifically, maybe even the only aesthetic part of kanto), and housing like a quarter of the game's trainers makes for good EXP and money grinding considering the level curve of Post-Erika, Post-Giovanni, and the fact that young kids aren't going to know the inner machinations of the code, accuracies, base powers, etc. giving them the extra EXP to help counterbalance their lack of knowledge more importantly though, the longer trek also serves as either an alternate route to delinearize and add to subsequent playthroughs, or the ability to skip it as a reward for figuring out how to find the bike, which plenty of first time players could easily miss (we don't miss the bike because we're not 10 anymore, not because the game forces it on you; when i babysat my gf's 10 year old niece last month and we played Let's Go Eevee together, the first time i saw her save file she was at Celadon but missed Lt. Surge's gym; it's definitely not a crazy idea to assume that a lot of kids missed the bike their first time)

It’s funny, I always take this route to get to Fuschia. I know cycling road exists, but I often forgo the bike and prefer to go down the coast. I actually like the design of the area- it’s more peaceful and leisurely compared to the rush of cycling road.

I think the genius of gen 1 Pokémon games was in the realistic and mundane vibe of the games. Early kanto was supposed to represent the banality of everyday life. I heard a KZfaqr describe the feeling of gen 1 games as “claustrophobic.” Kanto just looks like an ordinary everyday city based area you’d see just walking around outside. Most of the trainers are just normal people you’d see every day and the only interesting areas are deep dungeons you’d have to explore very hard to find. These two routes (26 & 27 I think) are like areas you’d see just walking around outside. They have very weak trainers that are basically just normal people with Pokémon. Last time I played it I found myself wishing they were at least 10 levels ahead because it became mindless grinding after a while. The fishermen with 6 magikarp is just a big middle finger to whoever’s playing and it’s actually kinda funny. The routes suck to grind through but I appreciate that a series like Pokémon actually tried to represent so much realism into an adventure series. Johto and hoenn are so imaginative compared to kanto, so kanto was really just a stepping stone creatively for the later gens. The realistic and grounded vibe of kanto really shows that Pokémon didn’t expect to ever get big. At that time they just wanted to make a game that took place in our world where everyday people collected small monsters they could battle with. It’s a very small concept compared to what Pokémon would later become.

I feel like pokemon fan club was going to be in fushia at some point, but they moved it so you had the bike earlier.

It's simple really, most of Kanto and especially Johto are geographically accurate to real world japanese locations and major routes to lead to them. It could be that there's an actual long alternative path to get to the city so they made this path. After all, gen 1's target audience were Japanese kids.

Primary purpose of those routes: To allow players to complete the game without the bike. If you don't have the bike, you can't go through cycling road, and in Gen 1, it's surprisingly easy to miss the bike voucher. Secondary purpose: Shortcut between Lavender and Vermillion, especially if a player didn't get around to buying a drink for the guards around Saffron yet (which can be something that can be accidentally delayed, either by missing it at first, or in Gen 1 being too broke to buy a drink) Tertiary purpose: Having an excuse to have the Super Rod somewhere. Even if it's placed in such a way that you might get it BEFORE the Good Rod. So, yes, it has a purpose, even if it's not the most exciting place to be.

I disagree it's a great design choice since it punishes unobservant players who didn't get the bike or look around for the bike voucher. it's a great bit of kanto's multipath design. you can get to fuschia either way it just takes longer and is more annoying if you go down the south east

It offers several advantages 1st, as you mentioned, some new Pokemon. Sure, they can be found at other places, but this means you can enjoy traveling around while trying to fill the dex rather than staying in one place 2nd, a chance to train and battle and earn more money 3rd, alternative routes for traveling and going around Kanto. Take it away and you have many less methods to go around and it makes Kanto much more linear. If it's too unique, then it kinda makes it feel more necessary. 4th, it makes Kanto feel more full 5th, it's just nice to explore and travel around with the items and battles being a nice bonus Personally, I think it's a great addition. Like, could they improve it??? Yes, 100%. I feel that many limitations are due to how crunched Gamefreak was when making these games.... Like maybe adding a few unique Pokemon. But overall, I think it's actually find and for me personally, having more to explore and having alternative routes was actually a great option..... I honestly don't think this is filler. This is literally an alternate route. It helps make each journey and adventure unique and different than your friend's play through. You are probably judging the route after watching tons of speedruns and no longer having the heart of enjoying and traveling around the region. Remember, these games probably weren't meant to be played THIS much... so it kinda messes with your perspective.

I love the exploration feeling of not knowing where to go next, however the execution was not perfect

at least these areas has the best music in any generation of games, ever

I've always just referred to this area as the 'Kanto Gauntlet' given it's the longest stretch between towns in the game. Southeast Kanto is probably meant to be the '''''intended''''' route to Fuschia, with Cycling Road being a deliberate shortcut to reward explorative players. Think of how easy it would be to miss the bike; most players will try to visit most houses in each town, but it's more than plausible to miss the Fan Club in the corner of Vermillion when there's several other points of interest in the city (nevermind the small gameboy screen). Furthermore, the sheer magnitude of trainers is very helpful in bridging the level gap between Erika (29 or 32 depending on the game) and Koga/Sabrina (42, or *50* in Yellow), especially if you've caught some recent team members you're struggling to get up to speed. I won't deny, however, that this area is freakin' *weird*. Like, in-universe, what's the purpose of the picket fence maze? I did always think the area could benefit from a small, minor town (not unlike the likes of Fallarbor from gen 3 or Celestic from gen 4) as a pit stop partway through to catch your breath, or even a randomly-placed Pokemon Center like the ones near Rock Tunnel and Mt. Moon. I'm surprised none of the remakes added such a thing. A little port town on that east coast is an idea I've had kicking in my head for a long time to potentially use in a romhack. Presumably recently built, more of a business/cargo port than the tourist port of Vermillion. I know that's a weird anecdote, but I felt like sharing.

Tbh. I always thought that was supposed to be the main path. You do your buisness in Celadon, return to Lavender to clear Pokemon Tower, get flute then head south. Especially because bike technically is optional, so you potentially could not be able to get on cycling road and you had to find another way.

Every time I play a Kanto game I go like "yeeeaaaah!" then I get to that area and I want to stop playing

You kinda covered it in that it’s all about EXP… Non-E4 trainer battles are an extremely finite resource, so getting your Pokemon from, say, levels 30-50 in the mid-game is hugely important.

You have to factor in that I was 8 years old when I got this game for Christmas. Every area was an amazing experience of getting lost and smashed by trainers because alot of the games vocabulary was beyond an 8 year olds brain. I remember asking my mom what abandonded meant because i would always delete my moves on accident.

I always liked this part of the map. I spent most of my postgame walking around that area. The fact, that I didn't have to be there made that place so calming

They really should have put Moltres there, inside a cave that required flash. Only having flash be useful in one location pissed me off as a kid.

I feel like SE Kanto being interpreted as a "gauntlet" could have been pushed more to make it a lot more interesting. The simple change of having every trainer in Routes 13 - 15 be reset every time the player leaves the stretch of routes (and _maybe_ Route 12 could be included, but a decent portion of that route is accessible before the Poke Flute) would add a lot in not only making the routes a good training area, but also making it so if the player does not obtain the bike, they would have to run the gauntlet in one go else reset their progress. The main thing that I think is missing from most Pokemon games that would add a lot of value to items is having a gauntlet/endurance section be a mandatory path. The only time the main series games come close is in the Pokemon League - a well known difficulty spike due to locking the player out of PokeCenter access for five difficult battles. But by that point, the player already has access to Full Restore and Revive spam, making item management trivial apart from making sure to stack a double digit number of the aforementioned items. These routes would have been the perfect place to force players out from the safety of the PokeCenter walk, and really test their item management. Or at least, they would be if Cycling Road weren't an option. But hey, giving the players the choice between easy and hard mode wouldn't hurt. As for cool Pokemon encounters, Tangela could have been exclusive to the Cut-locked patches of grass on Routes 12 and 13 instead of only being found all the way on Route 21 south of Pallet Town (basically end-game and tucked away in a corner) or the Safari Zone in Yellow, Lickitung could have potentially been found in the grass around Routes 14 and 15 instead of being locked behind trading for _Golduck/Slowbro_ or being found in the Safari Zone in Yellow, and Exeggcute could have also been placed within these routes as an alternative to Oddish instead of being... found in the Safari Zone. Farfetch'd is another option to include into the routes, but I actually feel like this would be too late into the game to add it in; though it seems Pokemon Yellow disagrees. Routes 12, 13, and 14 being coastal routes could have also served as a reason to add Krabby, Slowpoke, and Psyduck as grass patch encounters. While the player would have already gotten the Super Rod by this point and thus could already catch them, it would at least spice up the grass encounter pool from the usual Pidgey, Oddish, Bellsprout encounters seen since Nugget Bridge.

Once i found out that there was a glitch to just walk past the guard without a bike for Cycling road, i never went south of Lavender to go to Fuchsia. Did it maybe my first 3 playthroughs. Only thing worth getting is Snorlax number 2 if you want it and the Super Rod, which once you get Surf, you can skip all the trainers between Lavender and the fishing guru house

I never seen this area as optional. It was always the way I went, because it was the most instinctual/intuitive. I didn't have to be "motivated" to go there, or "go out of my way" to go there. It's just the natural path to take. We don't all think like speedrunners when playing games, looking for "optimal routes" or ways to cut out parts of the games we're playing. I've never even thought of this area as optional until seeing this video.

There should’ve been an area down there for moltres instead of leaving it in victory road which is kind of boring

What we really need to talk about is how that guy lost his TEETH in the safari zone. How???

It's a good area to earn a lot of money. This game doesn't let you battle again anyone, so there's a fixed amount of money to be made from battle. By adding this area they increased the battle money available in game.

I think the route south of Lavender is cute, and juxtaposes the bleak atmosphere the player has experienced. I also think south-east Kanto is a useful location for doubling back and grinding if you aren't ready for the level jumps waiting for you in Fuchsia and Saffron.

Ok so my pitch as to why they did this is even dumber. They made this route in the event that a player is unable to acquire a bike so that there’s a way to fuschia that doesn’t require a bike.

I love this part, it really feels like an adventure, leaving the town, walking a path with a lot of other trainer. Cycling road feels like using the highway: faster but boring as hell.

I liked it because it's an area without much grass and with many trainers close to a pokemon center in the late game, giving me a chance to battle a lot non stop to have fun with the recently evolved parties before wrapping up for the last few gyms and the elite 4

When I played it as a child and went down the routes, it really was harrowing. But I felt accomplished upon reaching Fuchsia, it was a challenge and getting there by the skin of your teeth and figuring out where the pokecenter was to heal up from that gauntlet felt exciting. I agree that there could have been better ways to reach a similar feeling, but it worked for me, although crossing it is really annoying in retrospect.

When I first played Red as a kid, I spammed Repel. Once I had my team I would just save, almost before every gym fight including the other trainers in the gym. I wouldn’t fight wild Pokémon to level up, mainly fought to catch to get Prof Oaks aid items. I leveled up my Pokémon battling trainers mainly and I remember that area being where I could usually get two or three final evolutions to continue the game. I’d skip a lot just to get to the point before getting the silph scope, pay off the guards with lemonade and battle every trainer I could before fight Erica and moving on. Every play through I somewhat do the same ever since. I like to look at the south east area as an area that a lot of veteran trainers go to “hide out” in nature or something battling each other and just hanging out with their pokemon. It is a bunch of nothing but I enjoy it til this day.

I think it’s just a route meant for grinding levels before Koga and Sabrina, I just wish it was more interesting and offered more things to do or more unique Pokémon to catch as you mentioned in the video.

It's no optional if you didn't find the bike. That's your answer.

Something can be more than the sum of it's parts. I think SE Kanto's slow pacing down the boardwalk and grass path are a nice, chill experience compared to the fast pacing of cycling road while still gaining EXP and money. Don't necessarily believe something has to be crammed full of "content" in order to be good. Time to enjoy the music and game ambience is a crucial part of the experience in my opinion and this are allows for that very well.

That was always my favorite part of kanto as a kid bc defeating all the trainers was really fun for me. Also, i just liked all the fences for some reason, lul. I just thought they looked cool for some reason.

I always used it to finish grinding for the Elite Four or to play level catchup for gift pokemon like the fossils or Lapras.

I mainly Nuzlocke now. The extra XP before fighting Sabrina, rival 5 and Giovanni 2 are well worth fighting these extra trainers for me in addition to getting new pokemon. Even if not Nuzlocking, the extra XP and money from fighting so many trainers could be well worth it. In glitchless casual plays I use the extra money to buy some vitamins.

Given how this area is based of Sotobo Railway Line it's clear they didn't know what to do fauna wise. We could've had a marshland since Safari Zone is nearby, or maybe at least 2 more towns in-between. It's clear this part of the map was designed as a training arc is mind since Gym aces go from 29 to 43.

One point that may not be a part of the creators’ intent- money. In Gen 1, you have to go into the Safari Zone to get Surf, and you have to have money to get into the Safari Zone. If you run out of money, battle every trainer up to that point, and don’t have surf, the game is soft locked. Having an optional area full of trainers near the Safari Zone makes that less likely. Then again, the fixed it in a much simpler way in Yellow.

I think we have to consider how without the 30 years of experience with these games, when these games came out, the bike was relatively pretty hidden and pretty easy to miss

Idk. I mean, I havent played this since I was a kid, but I did enjoy it. It kind of feels like a gauntlet, a huge open area that you have to defeat so many people to get through. There is something thrilling about that, but those are the opinons of a child.

It's literally there because of having a choice at which path you travel to get through Kanto, it's why multiple paths connect on the map. I always found cycling road boring and have gone multiple playthroughs without even going there. I personally found that path more pleasing than an empty downward path

Slightly off-topic, but damn, you went out strong with that crit-para Thunderbolt clip

The reql crime is not fixing this area up in any of the remakes. Could have easily added a new city with a Contest Hall in FRLG or HGSS. And its a downright sin they didnt add anything to this area in Lets Go. At least GSC added that Aerodactyl trade, lol.

Cant imagim kanto without these routes They contribute so massively to the non linearity of kanto its not really and optional area because you are forced to either take it or the cycling road you just have the option to only take one of then instead of being forced to do both Most playtroughs i go with south east kanto and barely touch the cyling road manly because i think its more fun Not every area in a game needs to be the most important shit ever or need to have some kind of porpuse

Tbh, when I play old Pokémon games, I make sure to fight every trainer so I’m not under level by the time I reach the league. Somehow I have gotten to that point many times and it’s annoying.

First playing FireRed i actually never got a bike before the game completion. So it was my only route.

It’s really not so bad. Honestly, it reminded me of traveling the sprawling countryside here in Texas. Not everything in the world has to be significant to the story beats, the home of some legendary, or some gorgeous landmark. I think that an area can just be plain, be recognizable, relatable. Green, sprawling, serene in its simplicity.

The purpose was likely to give players a second chance to catch a Snorlax as well as an alternate path to Fuchsia City. They just failed to make it interesting.

Even as a little kid playing this I thought this area sucked

While I think it isn't peak game design, there's something interesting in adding content that isn't mandatory. One of the reasons I enjoyed gen1 back in the day was the freedom, the beginning is linear and simple but as the map expands, your options expand in kind. Southeast Kanto isn't memorable or charming, but the contrast makes you appreciate other areas way more. The little islands with items seem like foreshadowing, telling the player they'll get to traverse water in the future, which blew my mind when I was first playing this games.

It seems like they could’ve fit in another town and they had to figure out how they were going to get from where lavender town was or east of Vermilion city to Fuschia besides cycling road. I don’t think it was a mistake. I think it was good to put in all those trainers, but I guess they could’ve added a few more rare Pokémon if they didn’t have the safari zone.

The bike shop should've been programmed in Fuchsia rather than Cerulean so that SE Kanto is required to go through.

SE Kanto has a purpose: XP, without all those trainers, it'd make getting to a high enough level for Blaine, Giovanni, Elite 4 & Champion (& even the Legendary Birds) that much more tedious as you get more XP from defeating the Pokémon if it's a Trainer's Pokémon rather than finding it in the wild, as well as in Yellow you can find wild Farfetch'd on Route 12.

I think the devs wanted to offer another way to travel to Fusia. It does do that.

I always felt like it was literally just there to serve the purpose of grinding levels. Trainer battles give much more experience than wild battles. Also, lots of extra money there to be made for the games money sinks (game corner, celadon department store, and safari zone). Just how I always viewed it.

As others have said before, it’s the way to get to Fuchsia if you don’t have the bike. I have come to really appreciate this route during randomizers for that reason.

The only reason I go southwest in Kanto is to get levels on my Pokémon

At the very least, and I think this actually is genuinely important, it does make the world feel bigger and more populated in a way that another Sea Foam islands wouldn't. Like, if the area simply weren't there or was replaced by a sea route (when we already have two of those) then Kanto would feel lacking in size and scope. This also served to make the world less linear, which it definitely would feel if it didn't exist (similarily the guards blocking Saffron City didn't need to be designed that way, Vermilion could have been a straight shot from Cerulean, but by putting Saffron in the center and (somewhat contrively) blocking it off, you make the world feel more spread out and open. Even if you never go to south east Kanto, simply existing impacts the feel of the map and world. Could something more interesting have been put there? For sure, just like something more interesting could have been put in many parts of the game, but the question is, what? Would taking away the unique pokemon locations from other locations help? Would less be more? Maybe it would feel more special, but , again, it'd also make the world feel a bit more constricted. Ideally they should have tried to fit Moltres somewhere in there, as Moltres just being put in the mandatory Victory Road always felt like a cop out to me, but if it were all replaced with a Sea Foam Island like location then it'd step on the lived in aspect I mentioned before. Honestly, probably the best thing to do would have just been to put a small town in there where you can acquire a key item for unlocking something else.

Honestly loved that area tbh. I just found the simplicity in that area relaxing from the bustling parts of Kanto

I don't like your analysis. This has always been one of my favorite part of the game, because it's the one that feel the most like an adventure. You don't know where you're going, there's a lot of trainers, the scenery is nice, and yeah, you have the time to wonder "what's for me at the end of the route ?". And that's, in my opinion a core element of pokemon identity and success. It is rare enough that a game gets you with a genuine sense of discovery, and that part of the game, to me is pretty convincing at doing that. The fact that the road is so long and so filled with adversity makes ariving to the next town feel like such a relief, and a very real sense of pride in your accomplishment. Your team was, in the end, strong enough to win every battle, and you were prepared enough to take on the challenge. Pokemon has never been a game about rushing from point A to point B, it's about the journey and the friends you make all along (that would be your pokemons), and South East Kanto is exactly that.

Along with non-linearity, RBY actually gives you enough trainers for good level curve. This option route from Lavender Town to Fuschia gives a whole gambit of trainers to level up your Pokemon. In GSC, the biggest complaint is there is not a consistent level curve. GSC would have benefited from some more optional areas filled with rushes of trainers to level up your Pokemon smoothly. Instead you get to the two final gyms, and your levels get pretty nerfed. One reason is because gym 5 to 7 is keeping player choice in mind. But also there's just not a lot of space to fit trainers to level up on. Before you know it, you're at the Elite Four and you had to be pretty focused on the team you were training to make sure those sparse trainer battles counted toward your teams levels. (And Rocket Grunt hideout just isn't going to be enough - and before Lance show ups - it's not really fun either.) So Southeast Kanto serves as another free and open grind to get your team leveled up as well!

The only real purpose of that southeast area is to level grind before getting the Fuchsia and Saffron badges.

It exists so you can get more experience for the upcoming gym battles. If you're not just leveling the starter and are actually playing as GameFreak intended by raising a party of six, you end up pretty under leveled for that part of the game and are encouraged to go east of Fuchsia to battle some extra trainers.

the weird thing is every cycling roads are locked road without bikes but not mandatory. There are less dedicated cycle roads in Gen 5 onwards but Alola has Ride Pokemon where paths like Taurus is needed to break rocks or Mudsdale is needed because "the road is spiky" In gen 5 there are are a few bridges but they are just "very long" without bikes

Given the non-linearity, one could say that the bicycle path is optional because you don’t need the bike to get around the region. Just continue to walk at a snail’s pace. Though with glitches, you can still get to Cycling Road without a bike, but the point still stands. It’s a different route to take to get to Fuchsia City. “Optional” is in the choice you take to get to Fuchsia City.

Maybe the south east was supposed to have more, perhaps moltres original location? But they cut for whatever reason and filled with copy paste content

Maybe because its a kids game, and as 10yo kids, we looked everywhere. They didn't expect grown chilsren to have all this knowledge 20 years later

I don't know I just always saw this as "the right way to go" as you loop back around to Pallet Town to fight Giovanni then go to the league. I'd go so far as to say this was intentional :)

I always saw this area as a way to go back to Sliph Co since usually, I visited Fushia via cycling road before doing anything in Saffron

I have a personal anecdote, that doesn’t really counter anything you’ve said but, I’ll always remember route 15 because when was a kid I went to catch a ditto only to have it transform into my Charizard (who was my only high level Pokemon) and dumpster my team.

Oh man, first I hear that you don't need to go to Pacifidlog Town to beat Hoenn, and now this? I've never beat the game without going down there, because it was a wide open place after Lavender Town, and it just made sense to complete the loop.

People like going down cycling road? Weird. I always hated it because you move to fast downhill to avoid trainers and you move to slow up hill to get back to Celadon.

It just reminds me of those old lengthy stretches of areas on overworlds like the Ancient Ruins in Link's Awakening. But it definitely aged poorly because it doesn't even have any new enemies or a cave or dungeon to explore there to justify being so lengthy and winding with the fences.

Funny that I’m seeing this after going through that exact region on a play through

Definitely an interesting video! I agree with most of the points, but I do like the fact that the play has multiple choices for how to get to fuchsia city, and then additionally having the extra spots for grinding if needed with all of the trainers of the path that wasn't taken. Then instead of flying to pallet and surfing south they have the option to go through seafoam island. I hate all of the water routes around seafoam island so I totally get your criticism there. I also enjoy the boardwalk route esthetically so that's one plus. Anyways, overall a great video! I love hearing interesting opinions like this.

I always saw that area as extra training. Sometimes id keep that area untouched so if i wanted a different pokemon i could just train there, great for your newly caught safari zone catches

I feel like Southeast Kanto was meant to be the "intended" path to Fuchsia City, hence the lower route numbers compared with Cycling Road. You said it was Routes 12-15, but what you actually circled was Routes _11-15,_ and that one extra route makes all the difference. Route 11 is east of Vermillion City, and seeing as how you first entered Vermillion City via Route 6, it's only natural to want to exit via a different route. You grab the third badge, head east, maybe grab the Itemfinder from Professor Oak's aide if you have enough Pokémon registered in your Pokédex, and step out the other side of the gatehouse onto Route 12...and immediately hit a roadblock, the sleeping Snorlax. So you have to backtrack to Cerulean and loop around to Lavender Town that way. Many people remark that the Lavender Tower rival battle is weirdly easy, but you look at the levels and you realize that the developers expected that a first-time player wouldn't go straight to Celadon. They'd climb the tower, run into the rival, and try to continue up the tower and get stopped by the ghosts. Again, it's leaving a hook, something you'll have to go back to. So you finally get to Celadon, and it seems like you're getting all the answers. You can finally get into Saffron City, and you've found the Silph Scope to allow you to solve the troubles at Lavender Tower. Sure, there's a _chance_ that you tried to leave Celadon via the western exit and found the second Snorlax, and then cut the bush and found the HM for Fly. But there's also a chance that you didn't, because the allure of the lingering plot hooks drew you back towards Lavender Town. And what do you get in Lavender Town? The Poké Flute. And conveniently, Route 12 is just to the south, no need to use that Fly HM that you may or may not have found.

I find this route to be perfect for training and grinding levels due to all the trainers, it's great for training electric types due to all the bird keepers

I alwaus forget to grab the bike, so this is actually the main route I take to Fuchsia. It is still quite tedious though, but good to get your levels up!