Revisiting Kanto - Pallet Town Recaptured My Passion For Pokemon

thegamer.com:

Welcome class to your Introduction to Bible Studies! It's actually my weekly Kanto column, but I'm sure regular readers are tired of this preamble by now. In short, for the past few months I have been playing Pokemon Blue all over again, imagining myself less as a trainer and more as a tourist, detailing whatever it is that makes Kanto so special. This week, we've been around the world in 80 pixels and find ourselves back in Pallet Town. You can read up on my first steps in Pallet here, and on the complete journey so far here. Without further ado, let's dive in.

You know, they say you can't go home again, but actually it was pretty easy. All I had to do was swim north from Cinnabar Island, where I spent last week, and boom - I was back in Pallet Town. It doesn't look any different, and most of the time, it doesn't feel different. Hell, most of the time I don't even complete the cycle of Kanto and instead Fly straight to Viridian. It's for this reason that I've often thought the strait between Pallet and Cinnabar is a better fit for Articuno's hiding place than having the Seafoam Islands between Fuchsia and Cinnabar, where everyone passes through, but also catching Articuno was the most magical part of the journey so far, so perhaps I shouldn't critique the Seafoam Islands too much.

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I feel like my mission has waned a little bit as my journey has gone on. Pokemon is an easy game, but still requires a little bit of grinding and tactical choices. For the first three gyms or so, I was going into this adventure fresh faced and optimistic. Though Cerulean was a let down - Nugget Bridge aside - I remained buoyant about my exploration. The longer it has