Since I said something about Region analysis earlier i'm going to bother going through with it for Kanto just because.
Kanto
So we begin with beginning of Pokemon itself, i'd say to start with that Kanto clearly got many things right since the rest of the series still follows its lead to this day for better and for worse (hey there Hidden Machines!). It would set up many of the tropes that are still used in the following games, yet through all that have followed Kanto still remains top of the pile for me, partly because of nostalgia admittedly but it still offers the most freedom during the main game which i'll get to later.
Progression
To start with we've got good old Pallet town, capable of letting you head off in two directions but one of those routes is surf related so you wont be heading down for a while so to kick the game off you head straight up. Being the games introductory segment this is good decision, the first set of towns and Viridian Forest are all laid out in a straight line.
Viridian City in itself plays host to some of the first interesting points in the game, you can head over to the pokemon league which throws you into an optional rival fight and more importantly in Yellow and the remakes allows you to pick up Mankey, a pokemon so awesome he broke free from being contained on red version alone for the remakes because it's too unfair to other version owners, or maybe because Pikachu and Charmander could use the help against Brock but anyway. The other thing about Viridian city is that it also contains the final gym which is the first gym the player will come across, inaccessible until the end and with the position of the pokemon league Viridian is essentially a city that bookends the main adventure through Kanto itself.
Once you've obtained the first badge you can head off right to Mt Moon which is the games first complex dungeon area, heading out of Mt Moon leads you to a brief point of no return where you can no longer head back to the games opening areas.
From here the game smartly gives the illusion of opening up a bit more once you've progressed through Cerulean, the fact is though the game is still guiding you down a single path, other routes are blocked by the need for cut, thirsty gate keepers and unbudging Snorlax, the player gets to catch glimpses of areas where they will eventually be able to reach which I feel always give off a nice adventurous feel.
Diglett's cave becomes a link so the player can return to the areas before Cerulean but it's main purpose is to pick up flash from an Oak aide as to prepare players for the upcoming slog of Rock Tunnel which is like the bane of my childhood.
Though before traversing Rock Tunnel you can help boost your levels and pokedex by searching the area around Vermilion, it also pays to fight trainers in the SS Anne though it's still optional, younger me was a wimp and would dive into a cabin to get the bodyslam TM, dig through a bin for a great ball, rub, rub, rub the captain and bail out as fast as possible, ah memories.
Rock Tunnel itself is damn brutal compared to what's come beforehand, the players endurance is tested, hell even when you get out the tunnel there's still some swines waiting near Lavender Town to ambush you, Hikers and Pokemaniacs everywhere I tell you.
Lavender Town gives you two routes to progress from but one leads you straight to that same Snorlax from near Vermillion so the path to Celadon is the next port of call, we are nearing the point of Kanto where the training wheels are truly removed and the game explodes open.
After dithering around with Team Rocket in both the game corner and pokemon tower the gates are unlocked so to speak, the poke flute and a bottle of water from Celadon department store are the tools used to bust the map wide open and I love the region for it. With snorlax out the way and possibly in your party you can head down to Fuchsia City from either the cycling road which is an easy way to dodge trainers so you blitz down to the safari zone and grab Sycther as fast as humanly possible (well at least I do) or you can slog it out across the pier path and heavily fenced routes from below Lavender town.
Also Fly is accessible just outside Celadon, Saffron can be reached through a cheap beverage which in itself is a cross section linking back to previous areas as well.
So yeah I tend to head to the safari zone as fast as possible, gotta get those rare monsters and the HMs within which in turn open things up even further assuming you beat down Koga so you can actually surf.
Once again younger me was a coward and i'd head to Cinnabar from Pallet Town because fuck the Seafoam islands, but that's the beauty of it all, clever use of jetting around the map allows you to jump around the whole of Kanto creating your dream team while also leaving tons of trainers still scattered around to level them up.
Throughout all of this you can go hunting for two out of three legendary birds, stop Team Rocket at Silph, beat the first 7 gym leaders and finally tick all the boxes to opening up Viridian City gym and it's "shocking twist" gym leader.
This all leads to the final showdown of victory road and the Elite 4 which would become series staples.
Post game is pretty weak but as the first game it's forgiven i'd say, Cerulean Cave and Mewtwo remain the only challenges left to conquer along with catching them all if you're hankering for a worthless diploma. Remakes added the Sevii islands to try and counter this but when I think about it there wasn't a lot there to be excited about but I appreciate the addition, in fact the first 3 islands can be visited before the elite 4 and Moltres moved out there from victory road taking Magmar from the pokemon mansion as well.
Dungeons
Right from the top of my head we've got 6 cave areas, 3 instances of team rocket punchups, one forest, optional power plant and the pokemon mansion.
2 of these caves are actually optional I believe as you don't need to got through Diglett's cave or the Seafoam Islands. The caves themselves aren't overly complex though Seafoam and Victory Road toy around more through the use of strength which by the way is boring as hell. Oh and of course the fianl cave in Cerulean is post game so of course that's another optional one.
The Rocket Dungeons come in mostly maze like form, none bigger than the Silph Co which is the games biggest "dungeon" area. Pokemon Tower is very simple by comparison as it's a vertical climb. All these area types would get reused across future pokemon games.
Attractions
Safari Zone is the big one, it's also still the best as far as i'm concerned, littered with items including Surf itself, contains many rare pokemon otherwise unobtainable elsewhere and most are around a respectable level to boot.
The Fighting Dojo offers you a choice of one unique fighting type, Celadon department store is a shopping spree with a TM bonanza available through the store itself and the thirsty kid on the roof, Celadon also has the game corner and a free Eevee to swipe from the central tower block that's also the first instance of the game designers hiding around in game.
Then you've got some lesser things that pop up across other games as well like the Pokemon Fanclub in Viridian where you can listen to the chairman's burning passion for Rapidash for a free bike and the name rater in Lavender.
The SS Anne is sort of borderline, part dungeon, part attraction, it's also a one time only deal as it departs forever once you get cut.
The Pewter Museum and Cinnabar Lab as well which will finally bring your fossils to life if a little too late to be much use.
Pokemon distribution
Very well done i'd say, the 150 are all scattered around, some are quite well hidden off the beaten path like Tangela and Electabuzz, others can unfortunately only be gained through trades like Jynx, Mr Mime and MARC THE LICKITUNG! I never forget Marc, what a guy. As mentioned previously the Safari zone has a horde of exclusive pokemon, the super rod opens up more water type and even dragon type availability. Some gyms have a weakness pokemon located nearby, Mankey in Yellow and the remakes, Oddish/Bellsprout for Misty, Diglett or even Dugtrio for Surge, Growlithe/Vulpix for Erika, it's quite well set up.
And then there's the more event like pokemon that are obtained by being found, forced to battle with or earned such as Eevee, Snorlax, Hitmonchan/Lee and Lapras.
Point is that Kanto distributes the pokemon across the map pretty well, if you want to experience the opposite for some sick reason play original Gen 4 through Diamond and Pearl and weep at the awful selection.
Problems
Design wise Kanto is rather small, being the first region will do that but it also lacks anything to really do post game which would become a big aspect of pokemon as soon as the sequel where in a sort of twist Kanto becomes the postgame itself.
But here's one you might not have thought of, poison, poison EVERYWHERE! Between the many Team Rocket encounters, pokemon tower, Koga's gym and the barrage of bikers there is an absurd amount of battles with koffing, zubat and chums, more aggravating is that the most common poison types (koffing, Zubat, Gastly) all levitate in the remake meaning it's pretty much Psychic spam since ground is worthless now, good thing I like Hypno, oh and that bloody smog always hits me, GRRRRR. It can make battles grow tiresome across the game, a better distribution of pokemon types in trainer battles would be much preferred.
Summary
Kanto isn't huge but it's well put together, with a bunch of criss crossing paths that all open up around the mid point it becomes an enjoyable game to replay as it offers plenty of choice as to what order you may tackle things and the pokemon you can catch, it's arguably been bettered by more content rich follow ups as you'd expect yet it still stands tall on its own merits, i'd say the new games could still learn a thing or two from Kanto, plus even the HM's are at least pretty minimal on this first journey.
See isn't that more fun than just a straight up list, hey is anyone still here? nope? anybody?
