Just for fun, I’d like to go ahead and counter-argue all the points I remember from this annoying fuck’s “Johto bad” video.
1. all the Johto Pokémon are weak besides the ones that evolve from Kanto Pokémon
This problem isn’t exclusive to Johto. In fact, the average base stat total of Pokémon from Hoenn is lower than that of Johto. Hell, this problem still applies to some of the newer regions like Alola and Paldea (aside from movepool, Spidops is outclassed by fucking Kricketune, for example). I’d argue the only truly unusable Johto mon is Unown, because even things like Ledian and Ariados have interesting support moves.
2. Gold and Silver were rushed because of things like the Cyndaquil line having the same stats as the Charmander line or Feraligatr missing an O
Okay, I can agree that I’m not a big fan of how Typhlosion has the exact same stats as Charizard, but I think it’s still not as obnoxious as the time we got 3 Fire/Fighting starters in a row. The Charizard stats also fit Typhlosion’s movepool pretty well, as its main strategy is to spam Eruption. As for Feraligatr, this point is simply a nitpick that Jan chose to draw attention to; Victreebel has a similar issue where the name was supposed to have 2 Ls, but it didn’t fit.
3. Johto Pokémon are too rare/the game relies too heavily on Kanto Pokémon
I honestly don’t see a problem with wanting to keep the new Pokémon in a generation “secret.” Plenty of other games in the series have done this to varying extents, such as Sinnoh having a similar distribution of new mons as Johto, or certain mons simply being exceptionally rare in their debut game (Chimecho, Mareanie, Gholdengo). If anything, the rarity of Johto Pokémon encourages the player to try out new gameplay mechanics like the day/night cycle or the Pokégear (some trainers can tell you when a rare Pokémon outbreak is occurring).
4. Johto is compromised in order to include Kanto, while Kanto itself is also compromised
While it would’ve been nice to see Johto have its own Elite Four and Champion, I don’t think this is a major issue considering how much the league has changed between RBY and GSC. Although Johto may lack areas like a Safari Zone or a power plant, it has unique side areas of its own such as the National Park, Whirl Islands, or Bell Tower. It’s also worth noting that various Kanto areas were stripped down out of necessity due to the storage limitations of Game Boy cartridges, and said areas were restored in HGSS.
5. Team Rocket plot makes no sense/is weak and forgettable
Admittedly, the portrayal of Team Rocket in the Johto games is nothing special, particularly in GSC where the executives aren’t even given names. However, I like the idea of the gang not knowing what to do after the loss of their leader and desperately trying to bring him back. I also don’t see how their actions in this game “make no sense”; cutting off the Slowpoke tails fits with the common Team Rocket motive of stealing Pokémon for the sake of profit, and using the Radio Tower to evolve Magikarp makes sense when you consider the idea of them trying to rebuild their strength.
TLDR: Pro Nuzlocker uses weak arguments to trash a game because, despite his title, he can’t figure out how to Nuzlocke a main series Pokémon game.
