So I had been thinking about this the other day but it was pretty late when I was so I didn't really have time to make a blog about it but I want to look over the first Routes in the Pokemon Games, specifically from Generations 1 through to 4 since I feel Gen 5 and 6's first Routes aren't worth talking about and Alola's first Route has a different design philosophy. Also unlike the last time I did something like this I'm going to score each route on a few factors.
So let's begin with Route 1 of Generation 1.
Route 1 of Kanto is going to be the base line for this comparison and what I'm talking about is the layout and what is taught to the player on this first Route. We should start with the obvious, Tall Grass, Route 1 on Kanto is important compared to other Routes since to simply enter the Route you need to walk on Tall Grass, this was never repeated with later generations until Generation 5 and hasn't been replicated since.
To progress through this Route the player needs to walk through 5 patches of grass that zig-zag along the Route, if you were to sketch a line of the critical path of Route 1 from Pallet to Viridian it would perform 5 S-Bends, this is pretty important since it allows the Route to feel longer without physically making it longer in a one of the two dimensions. Another thing that Route 1 introduces to the player and this is replicated with the other three Routes is the jumpable ledges, so far in the series Generations 1-4 are the only ones to use these ledges with some importance, since the player needs to travel from a destination beyond the first Route back to the hometown. These ledges also create what I like to call one-way loops in the path, Route 1 in Kanto actually has a lot of these with five, basically one for each S-Bend.
So overall here's how I'd rate Route 1 from Kanto;
- Tall Grass Layout - 4/5 (Due to the blocky appearance it is brought down slightly)
- Effective Use of Space - 3/5 (The Route is still fairly long vertically despite the number of S-Bends if uses)
- Looping - 5/5 (Undeniably a very well done Route for this allowing the player to easily backtrack on parts of the Route with ease
Moving on let's continue to Route 29 of Johto.
It is perhaps apt that Route 29 like most of Johto makes itself appear more wild and more natural than Route 1 in Kanto does, Route 29 is for the most part largely the same as Route 1 although is noticeably easier to traverse with the player only needing to go through 3 patches of Grass to get through the Route. It should also be noted that unlike Route 1 in Kanto where the player must go through at least 1 patch of Grass if they're travelling from Viridian City to Pallet Town, on Route 29 the player doesn't need to travel through any patches of grass when going from Cherrygrove City to New Bark Town. Route 29 also includes Cuttable Trees which while basically useless on this Route since the player isn't likely to return to Route 29 after they've completed the errand for Professor Oak & Mr. Pokemon, it is still a good detail to include and could've lead to interesting design later on where the player would be rewarded for visiting a Route again after obtaining the necessary HMs to find hidden sections of the Route.
Route 29 has 5 S-Bends like Route 1, however only has 4 loops, uniquely one of these loops is actually in the New Bark -> Cherrygrove direction (right at the end you can either jump off the ledge onto the path or simply walk between the ledges to the path's beginning for Cherrygrove City).
So overall here's how I'd rate Rotue 29 from Johto;
- Tall Grass Layout - 4/5 (again while more natural overall the Route is still quite blocky in appearance from the Tall Grass)
- Effective use of Space - 2/5 (Wastes more space than Route 1 does and also has pointlessely open areas that don't benefit the layout of the Route)
- Looping - 5/5 (While inferior in quantity to Kanto's Route 1, Route 29 succeeds in having a new type of Loop)
Next up is Route 101 from Hoenn.
Route 101 is definitely the smallest of these four Routes although that's not necessarily a bad thing, for one Route 101 is perhaps the purest form of the Route layout there is meaning it makes almost no compromises on the space it's given. This Route contains only two patches of Grass the player must run through and has 3 S-Bends, the layout also only allows for one true loop, you may argue that the lower ledge counts as a loop as well however there is no outright benefit to the player for taking that ledge since there's no tall grass that ledge skips you having to walk through.
Unfortunately the cut trees from Route 29 do not return here nor in any capacity do HMs, this is a trend that Gens 4 and 6 continued while 5 and 7 decided to follow Gen 2's method. Route 101 also is where we start to see the hardware limitations on these Routes fall away with the Route being much more natural looking than Route 1 or 29 from Kanto and Johto respecitvely, the only thing that somewhat urks me about this Route is the layout of the trees, the fact they don't overlap with one another and are lined up in formation for the most part is rather artificial.
Onto the results for Route 101;
- Tall Grass Layout - 3/5 (While more natural in its appearance there simply isn't enough of it to post much to the player, there are only 12 tiles of Tall Grass you need to run through in Route 101)
- Effective use of Space - 5/5 (By far the best Route to use its space wisely, despite its small, quite literally square shape it's able to have three S-Bends where Route 1 and 29 take nearly three times the size just for two additional S-Bends)
- Looping - 1/5 (More or less non-existent in this Route which is unfortunate and perhaps its greatest flaw)
Lastly let's take a look at Route 201 from Sinnoh.
For its layout Route 201 is perhaps the most simplistic of the four with only 1.5 S-Bends in total and again like Hoenn only 2 Patches of Grass to run through, perhaps fortunately then the Rotue also permits for two loops effectively making this Route a Figure-8 when looked at, it's also important to note that like Route 29 this Route isn't simply a connecting Route between two towns/cities but instead also connects to Lake Verity giving it a more unique design, the Route is overall weaker however and simply lacks many of the better aspects of Routes 1, 29 and 101 despite the improved graphical design the Route also suffers from looking overly blocky as a result.
For the results of Route 201;
- Tall Grass Layout - 1/5 (Most Tall Grass is mandatory to be run through and the layout is extremely blocky and artificial in appearance)
- Effective Use of Space - 2/5 (This Route for the most part uses slightly less space than Route 29 although given how much more simplistic it is in design it's arguable as to whether that's actually beneficial)
- Looping - 2/5 (An improvement over Route 101 although still quite inferior to both Route 1 and Route 29)
So overall I believe that the Routes are from best to worst in the order they were introduced, this is perhaps due to the changing design philosophy in Game Freak at the time, we know that by Generation 5 the evidence of the simplification of Pokemon was in full-swing and Generation 5's Route 1 proves that rather definitively, however that's not to say all Routes in the first 6 generations are incrimentally inferior to their previous generation's counterpart (note, excluding Gen 7 because of the different nature of that game's Routes). the second Route in each game for instance would dramatically alter the perspective one would have for the games with Kanto Route 2 being very simplistic in comparison to Route 1 whereas Route 30, Route 102 (I know you visit Route 103 second but just humour me) & Route 202 are improvements (in the case of Route 202 a vast improvement) in the complexity of the Route layout.
Anyways what do you guys think, do you agree with my thoughts on the first Routes in the first four generations of Pokemon or do you have different thoughts on them, let me know and what is your favourite early game Route in the series (basically anything before the 1st Gym).