An interesting characteristic of the first
generation Pokemon games, is that you only
Need to beat 3 gyms in order to gain access
to almost the whole Kanto region, being the
Exceptions victory road and cerulean cave
The three only non-optional gyms are the first one,
Which allows you to get out of Pewter City,
the second one, which allows you to cut the
Bush blocking route 4, and the fifth gym,
which allows you to surf into Cinnabar Island.
The fact that five out of the eight gyms are
optional, brings a certain flexibility on
The way that one can tackle the objectives
of the game
For example, after getting the poke-flute,
the player can decide between going to Fuchsia
City, getting surf on the safari zone and
then facing Koga, or, going to Saffron city,
Beating Giovanni on Silph Company and then
battling Sabrina for the gym badge.
Or because the psychic gym is optional, the
player may decide to only beat Giovanni on
Saffron city, then go to Fuchsia city to defeat
koga and get the HM Surf, then travel to Cinnabar
Island to beat Blaine, and only after all
that go once again to Saffron city to face
Sabrina.
The combinations between getting the poke-flute
and beating the eight gym are many and, depending
If it´s the first time playing the game or
not, the reasons for choosing a specific combination
Are going to be different.
For a veteran player, the order in which it
does the objectives may vary base on the team
It has or wants to have, while a first-time
player will do different routes by the simple
Reason that it doesn’t know the game.
Now, I don´t know how much importance this
quality may have in a game like pokemon, because
I don´t believe a lot of people decide to
play a pokemon game for its replay value , but
I think that the freedom that the first generation
provided allowed the experience to be a little
More unique for each player
