It’s a shame the player’s house in the original mystery dungeon couldn’t be mentioned. The houses being shaped like the player’s Pokémon was cute and the water starters getting a small pond inside their house was my favorite part. That music is permanently in my brain
Sharpedo's Bluff honorable mention too 'cause I could never get over the idea of getting to see the sunrise _right there_ in your face. The mystery dungeon's environmental design was always so captivating to me, especially the world in Time/Darkness/Sky.
@@tama3162 the beach the player washes up on in those games my favorite video game beach. That opening scene with the krabbys blowing bubbles during sunset is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about that game
@@dreddick1235 _Right??_ Can't forget all the areas effected by the Time Gears either. Like the top of Steam Cave, where it's just a giant basin of water that flows down into waterfalls off the edges and the Time Gear that's being kept there makes a water spout in the center of the lake constantly flow up like a fountain! That whole guild expedition takes place like midway through the game and it's always a highlight whenever I replay it again- it's SO GOOD!! Same with the Crystal Cave areas and the Shaymin area added in Sky. Honestly ,so much of the Mystery Dungeon games made me in love with their pixel art. The landscapes they could render with such detail coupled with all the little Pokemon animations made me want to learn how to do pixel art so bad as a kid.
I never in my life suffered from running nose but when I got to that part of the video I felt so nostalgic for some reason like “do you remember when…? Yeah! Yes I remember splashing my shirts every time yes I remember yes” 🤣
Except I seen to have had 95% of the same experiences. 90's anime and JRPG's, Pokemon, old internet memes and secrets; I was there for it all, this channel doesn't stop fucking slapping. Hell, we both even live in Seattle so I even get all the local references.
I'm surprised National Park wasn't brought up. That always seemed like an area tailor made by the devs for hanging out and enjoying the music. Floaroma Town also fits that bill.
For me personally it's actually the anime- in Gen 7 for the Sun and Moon anime they completely broke the format- Ash had a home, a school, and the core cast consisted of a large group of friends. The region wasn't just a changing backdrop for episodes but a home, a place with spaces, everything could breathe and unwind and the animation staff got really into it so the whole experience was magical. The last episode when Ash finally decides to return to travelling after truly becoming part of his homestay family's life was extremely, brutally emotional in a way I struggle to describe. The whole ending of Ash waking up early in the morning, being driven to the airport, getting on the plane alone but for Pikachu and there's this tangible feeling of loss and character growth that really hit home. It was very fitting that the series after Sun and Moon was Ash's final season because at that point I felt like he'd reached a turning point. The new, non-Ash series also kind of channels that sense of home too. The protagonists live on an airship as a found family and it's full of spaces that feel lived in and have meaning, I'm really happy they went back to the same sense of physical and emotional space that made Sun and Moon sing.
I used to pretend I lived in Verdanturf Town in Emerald, and have legitimate conversations with the townsfolk. I even used to travel to Mauville city to get groceries for my mother. I loved Hoenn
Even though I cannot stand the beach irl, Hoenn and Alola are my favorite regions. Idk, maybe surfing is just really fun. Also, my favorite spot in Hoenn has to be that one spot outside Sootopolis City where you have to dive to get in. I know it may actually be the most random spot possible in a game that has so many varied environments, but it's just neat
Verdanturf really feels more like a home than your actual home, uh? The beautiful serene music adds to this, but it feels like a place where you could live
@@Bighomie39 Aww, I love the beach... :( Sigh... or so I want to anyway. :? Something about it always felt cozy and at home to me for some reason... which is strange because I get sunburned and stung by jellyfish or something pretty easily. :( I love some of the more harmless sea critters or their shells though and stuff. :? Their cute and pretty. :3 (I'm a natural born Cancer. ^^;). Sigh... it's funny though, sometimes I kind of wish I could just deal with the tranquility of the beach all alone, which I sort of did when my family tried to rent out beach houses in Alabama twice growing up across state for some reason, as opposed to the visits in places like Houston with my dad's family or Corpus Christi in Texas. :p (Oh yeha, one time was also South Padre Island during Spring Break of all things. :? Although they also had an outdoor swimming pool/hot tub by the hotel. :O Small place, but it was nice. :? I had some cute clams in a plastic cup filled with saltwater and sand for a while. :3 I was surprised when they turned out to still be alive and had little slimy tongues sticking out to stick to the thing and you could see them and stuff! :O It was pretty cute and silly looking. ^^;). Sigh... I want to live in the Tropics some time and just sleep peacefully to the waves, and eat all the natural seafood and tropical fruit or something.. would be nice I think... :p
I used to leave the Petalburg city music playing, while vividly imagining some sort of music video about lovers longing for each other. I was about 5 and couldnt really read, but Hoenn has my heart forever. I am shamelessly one of those people who's first starter is their favorite pokemon. Blaziken ❤
This video is the first time in a long time that I've felt like I was watching "Old TH-cam." The personal stories, strange anecdotes, even the weird, reality-bending story about Pikachu the cat, it all makes me feel like I'm back at my grandmother's house watching TH-cam for the first time at 12 years old. I love your narrative style so much! You've earned a sub just from the way you tell stories. Keep it up!
I think art style-wise Gen 5 really blew my mind in that regard. The Village Bridge is an absolutely beautiful little area, with a handful of NPCs who add to the background music, adding extra instruments and vocals and building off of each other to create a song so much bigger than themselves. And the BW2 Gyms have different versions of the Gym theme for each Gym...so perfect. The changing of the seasons in the Gen 5 games are also chef's kiss. I live in the NYC metro so living in the IRL region of Unova makes me appreciate Gen 5 even more because I know the inspiration behind the things they chose. Nacrene City for example was based off the area around Dumbo and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The warehouses and tracks reference the fact the Navy Yard had 30 miles of track used for moving freight. The Yard's self-contained railroad moved raw materials, ship sections, and other components from workshops to assembly area. Dumbo is known for being an artsy little community, which is accurately reflected by the Café Warehouse and Gym Leader Burgh's frequent visits to the city. Mistralton on the other hand is based off Teterboro Airport in NJ, which is the oldest operating airport in the New York City area, and also had among the highest rate of bird strikes in the nation back in 2009, so it's ironic to have bird Pokémon there.
Gen 5 were the games were the pixel art was at the peak. The swap to 3Dcgi in my opinion made the games look worse, even if they gained a lot in time spent in animating all them pokemons.
Village Bridge was extremely memorable. Recently I took a stay there to catch a Lapras, rested in a nice lady's home. I would walk along the river searching for a rippling water spot, with only a 5% chance to encounter one. It took me three hours of knocking out Basculin until I had my first encounter with a Lapras. And on the first encounter, it was a SHINY LAPRAS. Caught in a net ball, it had an Adamant nature and my less preferred ability. However, it has been taught four HMs and has been a reliable teammate on many journeys. Whenever I see my purple Lapras sprite pop up before I surf, my heart fills with joy.
WoAAh!! Imagine my surprise when I was watching this and the rom hack I worked on was mentioned!! I was one of the pokemon designers n dex writers for Fools Gold, so I really appreciate the kind words! I’ve been watching your vids for a while so it means a lot
Synchronicity is real!!! The mind and the things we live change the world!!! I'm, joking, by the way. But that's an outstanding coincidence. Kind of scary ngl.
I like how old games look WAAAAAY more than highly polished, graphically impressive, busy environments. Also, the more video-like a video game becomes, the less you have to use your imagination.
I read the adventures manga all the way until the beginning of Gen 5 and I love it, is something else entirely ❤ My favorite thing is how they portrayed the Main Characters growing in time (Red and Yellow being my favorites).
I remember going to a comic store with my dad when I was young and getting Adventures and also the Electric Tale of Pikachu. It was one of my first exposures to Pokémon along with the cards. I remember that Christmas getting Silver version and I played it on my GBC daily lol. Amazing memories of my early childhood.
The beach or sharpedo bluff in mystery dungeon really is this for me. No music just ambient ocean sounds. There’s a bunch of other areas, like fogbound lake and a lot of the mid-dungeon save areas
probably not all that related, but i've always lowkey liked the aesthetic sensibilities of the pokemon series despite never being an actual fan. older pokemon has that coziness to it that i've grown to appreciate over time, not just in those games, but in video games in general. part of me is and was scared to play the games as i feel like it would ruin that blurry nostalgic comfort i associate with the series, only vaguely interacting with it through friends i had when i was a kid.
"BELLCHIME TRAIL AUTUMNAL FUNNY MOMENTS" is an activation phrase jammed into my matted neurons that I cannot pinpoint the corresponding action to. One day I will report back with whatever that is when the conditions are met. I can't stop thinking about it.
I loved the vibes in pomemon games , the towns seemed like cool places to hang out with friends and your mons. I really loved when we could pet our pokemon too
this video feels so cozy and comfortable. i stared watching in the morning then got busy and had to go to work but just thinking about my similar memories or my favourite locations and what the rest of the video would be like really helped me get through the day. i’m definitely gonna watch it again probably for sleep aid or whenever i just want a nice peaceful thing to listen to. thank you
I love these nostalgic-esque videos you make on things you love. It reminds me that no matter how old you are, you can always love and enjoy things that were from your childhood without embarassment or feeling like you're too "old" to be enjoying it. Thank you so much for your channel Hazel.
When I first played Pokemon Yellow, I was at such a young age that I don't think I could read that well and I needed my older sister's help to get Pikachu to show up at "Pikachu's house" and then once I had Pikachu I couldn't register that the grass at the top of the town was something you could walk through, so my entire conception of the game was that you were just hanging out with Pikachu in this small town and trying to become friends with it. I spent a LOT of time doing this. Just walking around Pallet Town and talking to people, talking to Pikachu, hanging out down by the water and pretending I was skipping rocks, watching TV with Pikachu in my house, and so on. I can laugh a little about it now but I think that was a really special experience and it's one I think the vibes that you hit on in this video were perfectly suited to provide. Thanks for reminding me of this!
Since you brought up one of the movies, the 3rd movie with entei is just. Full of beautiful locations. Deadass I still watch that movie as an adult just to look at it. My particular favorites are the flower field entei dashes through after kidnapping ash’s mom, the waterfall they scale to get into the crystal castle, and the pavilion in the water in the end credits. It’s genuinely such a beautiful movie and then you turn on the sound or pay attention to the story for 3 seconds and you remember it’s one of the absolutely insane Pokémon movies.
That movie really disturbed me sometimes... :( And I'm not even sure how to feel about the first two seasons either or the third arc when Brock and Misty got replaced with new characters for the most part. :? I kind of just ended up loving the games, although never actually playing them for some reason past Gen 1 and 2, just reading up on stuff. :p Didn't the little girl's (Molly?) dad die or get transformed by the Unown into Entei permanently just for trying to be an archaeologist? o.O Dude, that is seriously so messed up... D: For a Pokemon movie, that's actually kind of one of the darkest and saddest things to me still... :( Or perhaps just the strangest... almost nothing seems as unexpected and strange to me as that. :? I wish this girl got her life and sanity back after the movie ends, but I can't really remember much...
Snowbelle City in XY is quite a comforting place. Sitting on a bench by the Gym and just chilling while listening to the majestic music is so cozy. The vibe is "Yes, you've made it to your eighth and final Gym, take a breather before the Elite Four". For the Gyms, I love the Kalos Gyms and the BW2 Unova Gyms the most. Like the fact the first ever Fairy-type Gym was a giant DOLLHOUSE, how magical the Coumarine tree was, that the Anistar Gym transforms into somewhere outer space, how chill the Humilau Gym is, or the Nimbasa Gym is now a runway for the queen...they all go so hard. On the topic of Gen 7/Alola, I appreciate the relaxing vibes of Paldean locations in Gen 9 as well like Alfornada based off Portugal's Algarve with its chimneys and decorative dishes. Porto Marinada is based off Portugal's Costa Nova. The striped houses of Costa Nova are known as “palheiros”, which in Portuguese means haystack, and refers to their looks. They were used by fishermen as storage for fishing nets and other materials. The houses were already striped (mostly with a mix of black and dark red stripes), but since they only served as deposits, the inside didn’t have any divisions or infrastructure. With time, the fishermen started bringing their families to spend the summer by the sea, and the storage houses started being turned into holiday houses.
Honestly your discussion about how handheld games, especially Pokémon ones, make for great spots for “idling” made me think of my own childhood experiences, playing on my Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS while my family would drive from place to place during summer vacation. Not to mention my overall feelings of comfort I associate with handled games, past and present, as I play my favourite games in my favourite places (which is why I generally prefer to play my Switch in handheld mode). It’s a great feeling.
When I was a kid playing pokemon emerald, I got so immersed in the story that I just didn't proceed with the main plot. I rested in bed a lot bc we'd just moved, I talked to my mom, pretended to do the dishes, that kind of thing. This video encapsulates something I really like about the series, which is that to me pokemon at its best can kinda feel like playing with dolls lol
I loved the Gen III secret base mechanic; it’s one of the most nostalgic mechanics in the games for me. My favorite place to set up my secret base was at the southwest corner of Route 120 between Fortree and Lilycove. I was really disappointed when the secret base mechanic in Gen IV just didn’t hit the same, even though I liked the underground overall
The first pokemon game I ever owned was Emerald, and while Hoenn might be my favorite region, when I think about memorable spaces in Pokémon to just... hang out, my mind immediately goes back to when I was four or five years old, watching my older cousin travel through Johto. Deprived of any context of what the game was really about, or how video games even worked, it felt as if at the same time that we were sitting on the porch, she was simultaneously sauntering down the boardwalk talking with the local fishermen or mosying past the craggy mounds where the unowns live, ready to do some archaeology. Oh, and Pokémon Heroes left me obsessed with Venice for the next 10 years
Hi Hazel! I absolutely love the way you look at and experience these types of games. Your appreciation for the little things in these series is brilliant- which is why I would HIGHLY recommend the Yokai Watch games (2 specifically, any version) for 3ds. There's so many simple and cute details such as the small countryside towns that you don't experience but get a such good impression of them from talking to people and their train stations. And not even to mention the trains that are kind realistic in how they're done. They don't take as long as real life trains but they're are these simple short trips where you get to pause with your characters who ride the train. Sometimes on the train, yokai will walk past you and want to fight or give you items, other people will sit down to talk to you, but sometimes (and this is my favourite) nothing happens. You and your two yokai pals just sit there, not talking to each other, not any music blasting , just you guys sitting and looking out the window. A lot of people hate this feature because they view it as a waste of time but I'm the opposite. I thoroughly enjoy my time sitting with the characters and just existing. It reminds me so much of what you like and I'd love it if you at least looked into it. No need to buy it or put your time into it but these games have such beautiful moments and I genuinely think you would love them.
Your way with words is just so... unlike any other TH-camr I've come across and it's such an experience to watch one your videos. You meander in way that is somehow appealing, and whisks the listener away to another place before they've even realize it's happening. Your simple observations and tongue-in-cheek humour pair with your incredibly deep observations and high brow humour in such a way that I actually feel smarter having watched one of your videos. Your quiet moments or reflection frequently crack my armor and force me to get in touch with emotions I didn't know I had or have been trying to repress or maybe just forgot about. Whether it's about Pokemon, or Cryptids, or some anime I've never watched, you just have this indescribable quality to your presentation and personality that makes you exceptionally fun to "be around" as it were. I'm so glad I found your channel, and I look forward to many more videos. You're friggin awesome and I hope you know that.
I just want you know that seeing the title "my favorite places in pokemon" and then seeing it was from you, one of my favourite TH-camrs to listen to, it absolutely made me giggle with joy. You are such a fantastic video creator, and I love your voice, and I love the research you do, and your little jokes, and just everything about your channel and your vibe is super awesome and I love it. But Pokemon is like... in my blood. I grew up with it like so many others and I also gazed out the windows or trains and busses imagining the little critters existing in our world and our biomes and our cities. It's so important to me, and YOU are such an important channel to me, and seeing those two topics combine makes me so happy. You are incredible and this video was incredible. Thank you for your efforts.
Absolutely adore this video topic. It’s one I’ve been thinking about myself for sometime. The concept of “idling by” in a video game and just being one with its atmosphere like you’re really living in it is actually something I factor in for if I can consider a game a favorite or not haha
My favorite spot in all of pokemon has to be Viridian Forest in GSC. In gen 1 it's this spooky dark forest with creepy music filled with weedle that poison you and force you to run all the way back to the pokemon center. Then in gen 2 you approach it from the opposite direction and the creepy music starts... and then turns into a jazzy remix that's somehow upbeat and nostalgic and a little melancholic. And this huge forest that once took you hours to go through on your first go isn't even a speedbump anymore. It's not a seperate map, there's no encounters, it's like this forest that was so huge and scary to you before has now become a pleasant jaunt through the woods. Maybe it's a metaphor for growing up. Or maybe they shrunk the forest to free up some memory on the cartridge 🤷♂️
I'm a complete bitch for Unova, that place is genuinely like a second home to me. Such an incredibly well designed region. It's hard to pick just one location, but Village Bridge genuinely shakes me to my core whenever I listen to the full music track. It's so serene and I earnestly love how it has nothing to do with the story, you just stumble onto this little self sufficient community with plenty of people to talk to and little events to partake in.
My favourite spot in DPPt is partway through Mt Coronet on the way to Spear Pillar. After several winding rooms of caves, you emerge into this brief snowy area on the side of the mountain. It always felt so strange, wild, remote and lonely - like if you were to walk out of bounds the snow would stretch on for miles. It's so time-consuming to reach that you're unlikely to ever go there again after this part of the story, unless you really want an Absol, but that just makes it feel more special. Whenever I replay Platinum I look forward to revisiting it. As for Black and White, this is a basic one but Castelia City. God I love the vibe of it so much. The towering buildings, bustling people, all the little spots to explore - it felt like such a vibrant, exciting place. The cinematic camera on the bridge you cross when you arrive there for the first time absolutely blew me away the first time I played it too.
"The void" is absolutely a memorable location! I have great memories of playing Kirby Air Ride with my brothers and driving out-of-bounds using the one gap in the invisible wall. Good times. :)
i vividly remember seeing castelia city in black and white for the first time and being especially amazed at the 3D curved city layout paired with the whimsical town theme. the city visuals in that game make me want to replay it just to enjoy the landscape alone
You know how sometimes you’re in class trying to hide the fact that you’re watching something on your phone, and something will be funny and you’ll have to stifle a laugh lest you be ‘found out’. Yeah that, but instead of stifling a laugh, I need to make sure I don’t gasp and suddenly break out in a wide open smile, holy fuck ice baby togepi
I started enjoying Pokémon about 4th to 5th gen and my first gen was 6. I love the cozy limited 3d. I loved the creepy pastors too. They where so crap yet somehow there was something drawing me to them. Also hope to get a cassette soon when the restock comes. Love the vid keep up the good work hazel.
Fortree City forever changed my brain chemistry to the point that any time I see a foresty-town in any media for the first time, my neurons activate and I revert back to my years as a kid, frothing at the mouth at all cool combination of trees and hanging fixtures. Like, when I first started playing FF14, Gridania was my starting town and once I was able to, I just wandered around the city, taking in the details, not even caring about the main storyline. I went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in Canada recently and felt like I got transported directly into Fortree City when I got to the other side and saw the hanging bridges and treetops, completely in awe.
I really love this video! some of my favorite pokemon locations come from one of the less talked about games in the series: PokePark 2! the cover area and arbor area were my favorite spaces to just run around in without any particular goal, plus the arbor area has windmill way for that peak windmill content we all crave.
My favorite places in pokemon are usually dead ends you have no reason to return to but you do so anyways The end of a route that leads no where, a small map that only exists for some event in the story, legendary and mythical spots (especially if they're islands), etc.
I really appreciate hazels videos. Theyre so calming and peaceful and kind. I do wish the digimon video would come back cus that was my favorite vid but every vid on this channel is so special and nice. I loved showing it to my friends and chilling working and listening while i work. Keep up the great art.
When i was a kid and finally beat heartgold id always return with my typhlosion to the peak of the mountain and just interact in the overworld and hear the cry reverberate at the mountain peak, it also didnt help that due to being a kid and having misread the pokedex entry where it said "its rage peaks" and instead misread "it rages at peaks" my mind figured this was its natural habitat anyway
Crystal (and by extension Gold and Silver) is my favourite Pokemon game aesthetically. The music, the sprite work, the colours, how the little flowers dance. It's peak cozy.
HAZEL HAS THE SAME JOHTO BRAINROT AS ME LET'S GOOOO 👏👏👏 honestly i'd love to hear about more stuff like this........ it's crazy to me how even such early games in the pokemon franchise can have locations with such immaculate vibes. as the kids say i suppose. these aren't mainline game locations, but i've got so many fond childhood memories of the first pokemon mystery dungeon's friend areas :) it makes sense as to why the later pmd games did away with them, for recruitment convenience's sake, but god do i love the pretty scenic locations where your extra team members chill at. definitely one of those instances of "quirky game mechanic that's a bit unorthodox but also inseparably charming as a result" that a lot of pokemon has imo
Yo, I don't know if you will see this, but those batteries are so easy to solder in and out, I'd be happy to help. The batteries are also cheap nickel batteries, that you can find at a battery or hardware store. You can grab a very budget soldering gun because it doesn't need to get that hot at all, and it's just a touch once, remove battery, place new battery, and touch once to complete. The cartridge is held by just a single screw as well.
To me, the cozyest place is Virbank city from Black/White 2. I sometimes feel the urge to replay that game only to get there again and listen to that town theme.
Since I just stumbled across it and can't find it anywhere in these comments, the image at 5:11 is promotional art for Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Specifically, it's a variant of the bottom of the Japanese theatrical poster.
Snap was the first video game I beat in a single sitting at ~11 hours iirc. it was also the first game where the concept of "100% completion" occured to me in the intervening decade before my n64 finally pooped out on me lol
YES! The pretty petal shop clearing is SO nice! I've always imagined it like a nice clearing with light coming through the trees from the reflection of the lake and flowers hidden away. I just... imagine these places as such a nice detail. I dunno.
THIS IS SO GOOD. This is exactly a point I've been trying to articulate for so long - Pokémon is a series for hanging out and taking in the little details. I also constantly group Melee in with Gen III because I got my first Gamecube in '04. Also shoutout to BEER the Rayquaza. The Pikachu cat story is actually INSANE. X and Y has SO many of these spots for me with all the benches - imo the best spot is the bench in the gym in Cyllage city. It's so off the beaten path and has no point except for just vibing out and staring at a waterfall.
hahaha thank you so much. honestly hugely flattering. discovering your channel really broadened my image of what youtube videos can be, i always feel so energized whenever i watch a new upload from you 🙏
For me, this video is a piece of art in the most elevated sense. i haven't finished watching it but all of hazel's recollections just melt into my own experiences playing pokemon. it feels like it was my own experience due to the way she conveys every single sensory/audio/video representation and due to the fact that we're connected by the childhood love for handheld pokemon, despite me living in a different country and having different experiences as a child altogether. it just hits home, i relate to it immensely. this is peak empathic/synesthesic art.
i do really love when i replay a game i haven't touched since my childhood and its all very nostalgic and then i just reach that ONE AREA or hear that ONE SONG that stops me dead in my tracks and i can see, touch, feel, taste the exact room i was in the first time i reached that part, or heard that song. feeling so physically, so viscerally close to a space, to a time, to a mindset of my past is so surreal. it's like all the life experiences, the pain, the growing up that separates back then from now collapses in an instant, a brief state of not being weighed down by anything, feeling the same joy i felt all those years ago. but it doesn't leave me with a yearning for the past, for a simpler time, instead it leaves me with the encouraging reminder that i'm still me despite everything, and even the things that feel so mundane now can become special to me in time. sorry for the ramble :P this video is lovely! i love hearing about what little things people find special, reminds me of the days of idling on my ds, listening to songs loop over and over on long road trips :3
@hhhazel I feel Hazel is the personification of the very realm of the Liminal that exists in between memories and the nostalgia. The ward and host who guides whomever finds themselves between dreams and waking life. Love your videos!
For me, the Saffron City Dojo in HGSS is so comfy. It's nice having a place where all of the gym leaders you've met along the way can just vibe with you and hang out. Doubly so considering to get them there, you get to learn more about their day to day life, what they do in their time off. You get to learn that Janine brings her dad food during her time away from the gym, the Jasmine eats her heart out at the diner in Olivine City and so much more.
Mystery dungeon was my favorite spot, it really felt like i was on a journey and it was so so scary, but having a friend to help me through it made everything feel better
As someone who just loves *existing* in a space in video games, especially Pokémon, this video is relevant to my interests and it makes me happy :) Reminds me of how in more action packed video games I like taking my character to a hub or more peaceful area before I shut the game off and I have no idea why
Emerald was my first Pokemon game and I can confirm it hits different. Something about how wild the region feels, how whenever I seem to imagine each section of the region in terms of the colours schemes of the environment. Shout out to the way they made ponds look like these brilliant perfect blue reflective mirrors, the image of my trainer reflected in the water lives rent free in my mind.
Village Bridge from Pokemon Black and White 2 will always be my favorite hangout spot. So long have I run over its brick, activating every musician in rhythmic harmony to build up the area's song. I especially love the vocalist guy who sings. It's impossible to truly replicate on your own, but it's never stopped me from trying irl when its tune seizes me somewhere.
I really liked the resort area in Diamond. It's the area I remember the most of that game, I used to be there a lot in the evening. The two pokemon I remember the most from that game, Scizor and Victreebel, I also caught there.
The pokemon location that means the most to me personally are the gardens in pokemon the rise of darkrai. Its gorgeous, i really love how it incorporates the pokemon living there it really feels so serene
ultra sun for me is so strong, the flowers outside of your house are beautiful, the orange sea under you mantine surfing, the little sounds of the ultra wormhole. it’s genuinely hard to name a half-decent list because those 3ds visuals are so beautiful i can’t really write off any areas. even the pokepelago and battle menus ooze with so much charm im still thinking about them years later
I love sun & moon so much and I definitely think they’re worth looking into especially if you like cool locations! There’s an area with a beautiful field of flowers and maybe it’s bc there’s a cutscene there but it has stuck in my mind more than any other place in pokemon. Ultra wormholes are also one of my favorite features pokemon has ever had! I don’t want to spoil anything but there’s a surreal area involving the jellyfish ultra beast that I thought was really pretty
Top 5: Colosseum. Pyrite town, the run-down train shop, Azure town (i think?) The Underground...just baked in nostalgia. Area Zero. Toby Fox went too hard with the soundtrack. Spent so many hours down there. Kanto. Same. I wish we could go back. I miss those days. ORAS. Hearing HD versions of my favorite game's soundtrack...man...shame my 3DS disintrigrated from overuse. And the opening themes for seasons like Johto and Kanto just pop into my head randomly, as an adult. 2 be a master...pokemon master...i will be writing...a brand new chapta...
I absolutely love Kalos. There's like 5 towns that are like, straight up useless and serve nothing aside from eye candy. Normally that would be a bad thing and it is in terms of region design, but looking past that, I love it all. Kalos is just chock full of areas that you can just *partake in*. Courmarine is definitely a favorite of kine. I love that GF just randomly decided "Haha, train town!" but they did and it makes it distinct. Amberette is a divider between this massive cliff and the beach, the route before that town also being a favorite area. Snowbelle just has this random massive forest maze that you have to go through twice and then only return for like, trashcan spawns. I think a really underrated "Cozy" game is the Etrian Odyssey series. After a certain point when the game finally has you by the balls and you've sunk too much time to just drop it, everything just feels home-y. The first few floors of the grassy labyrinth are basically universally familiar to anyone who's played any EO game for even an hour. EO2's stratums especially are cozy, all being season-based and fairly distinct from the rest of the series. EO4 especially cranks up the coziness, with all of the sub-dungeons that occasionally have that one little thing that sticks out to you.
A memory just unlocked. Back in my long lost cart of Pearl, I really wanted a Frostlass but didn't know how to get one. After buying a gen 4 pokedex book from my school's bookfaire, I got home and instantly check to see if I had a dawnstone. I caught a Snorunt and evolved her. I think she was one of the few 'mons to have survived me losing that cartridge having been moved to my later copy of Platinum (avoiding the fate of the dropped Wii's Ranch save with my Empoleon, Togekiss, and Fire Red Charzard). I think she's still in my copy of Moon.
For years it never struck me how much I cherished the memories of these locations of these games until this video. I have distinct memories of going on car rides with the music from these games playing. Johto's National Park is a vibe, the seaside locations of Hoenn felt lively, the frigid peaks of Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh felt isolating. There are times I wish I could be as easily impressionable again.
I love this video. Your editing is so nice, it perfectly ties together your voiceovers, the footage shown, the music playing. The audio is nicely balanced and the music never too loud, and your voice is very calm and nice to listen to. Hearing you talk about your memories makes me feel a profound feeling of nostalgia for things I've never experienced, which is awesome. It's very clear from the way this video is made just how much you love and cherish this series. It's wonderful to hear someone talk about something they love, and this video is put together really nicely. I'm sure I'll be watching this again soon :]
I always loved chillin in the little hot spring in lavaridge town. hoenn especially was chock full of little elements like that- stuff that made the world a fun place to hang out in even if no pokemon were involved. also, the heroes movie was my FAVORITE as a kid, and its very nice to see that its just as visually dazzling as my inner 9 year old remembers :]
So for Christmas one year, I got a Game Boy Advance SP and a copy of Pokémon Leaf Green. I didn't get very far and it disappeared along with my Game Boy at some point until like a year later we found it was for some reason in the battery compartment of my little brother's toy firetruck that he could ride. I had just beaten Brock, and my character's name was for some reason "ABABUUC". Ended up playing over 200 hours on that file.
A personal favorite for me has always been Ilex Forest. There's something so serenely beautiful about it, and its odd random shrine that 90% of players will never be able to interact with. It's just there, its purpose largely irrelevant, but still important. Also a shout too oreburgh mine, something about the conveyer belts of stone really spoke to me as a kid
I think artstyle-wise Gen 5 changed my brain in a way I still don't quite understand, and has made so many little areas and moments stick with me. I hadn't even played B or W 2 until this year, but White is still one of my most important games. The Village Bridge is a beautiful little area, with a handful of NPCs who add to the background music, adding extra instruments and vocals and building off of each other to create a song so much bigger than themselves. Castelia City was, to a young and isolated country kid like myself on those game's releases, a taste of what the big city was, bright and busy and shady and confusing. It evoked the feeling of a big city in a way that I can only compare to Shenmue 2, my favourite game ever for a similar reason. And while I have way less emotional connection to the sequels. Roxie's little dingy band set-up, Burgh's weirdly eerie cocoon gym, and the almost abandoned feeling Lentimas Town all add more of a unique feeling to the region. There are certainly areas in all the other Pokemon games I like, and Black and White while being my favourite games aren't even the ones I'm the most nostalgic for, but I do think White influenced me as a person the most. Pokemon's really neat in that respect I think.
I've spent so many time in Village Bridge experimenting with all the different versions of the music! Environmental music is such a huge part of the Gen 5 experience, and this is the culmination of it!
I have never played a Pokemon game and, watching this video, I see that you really have to grow up with it to have all these feelings, so I think I never will :3
Oh man, Pokemon meant so much to me growing up, lemme think about a list here... in no particular order: - Pokemon Square (Pokemon Red Rescue Team): I adored the main hub area in that game, when I was little I'd speak to every NPC one by one as if I was having a conversation with everyone :) sometimes I'd just chill at the Pelipper Office looking over the body of water to the east. Or hang out at the Whiscash Pond just to hear the special music. - Agate Village (Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness): There are a ton of locations in this game I love but I distinctly remember hanging out here, probably because of the Purification Chamber but also just for the music. The woodland aesthetic made it so relaxing, I live both near the coast and in a pretty green state so anything remotely evergreen or coastal makes me feel comfortable. Gateon Port with its puzzle-like outer section and the entirety of Phenac City also just makes me happy to exist in. - Gathering Place Area (PokePark Wii): Literally every playable space in that game, even the final area with Mew, the Sky Garden, all give nostalgic tingles! Since I can't really pick any one of them to highlight specifically, I think the central treehouse in the Gathering Place is the best mention. There's something about the saturated color pallete, smooth geometry, and soft looking textures that just scream cozy kid's game :') (I feel too lazy to complete this comment with mainline Pokemon games. If you do a Part 2 I'll have to finish it then. Loved this video!)
The part about the advent of 3D making you feel like there should be places to explore beyond the boundaries was interesting to me because I felt that way in the SNES still not 3D era, too. For example, in ALttP I’d always wonder what was behind the barriers around Hyrule and I’d look longingly down at the forest you could see north of Death Mountain beyond the world the game let you see.
YOURE SMILING BROADLY WHAT THE FUCK?????? I'vwe been listening to yr new release non stop since my digital acquaintance cecily renns rt'd it it's genuinely some of the best music i've heard in a while. The sheer whiplash I received after getting nostalgia blasted by a cute pokemon video and randomly half way through figuring out that you're also my favourite musician of the past month is ???? idk a little absurd i might be exploding
This one really hit home for me. While places in pokemon don't have that much meaning to me, music in pokemon does. Listening to Gen 2 music while you speak about its architecture and how it was your real first pokemon experience resonated with me as I felt the same growing up. Thank you.
On the whole I think Alola's my favorite region, but if I had to pick a specific location, it's Unova's Village Bridge. The fact that you can increase the amount of instruments and singers by talking to all the NPCs in the area is incredible.
Ah man, this video scratches such a specific itch for me. I spent so long growing up just hanging out in certain areas in Pokémon games, especially gen 2. The amount of time I spent in Ecruteak City, talking to the NPCs about the legend, pretending to dance with the Kimono Girls at the dance theatre, is criminal. The National Park also hits at the right place. I spent so long in there searching for a Scyther for my playthrus. Hell, just surfing in those games was a hang out spot for me. The surf music is engraved in my brain forever. I love gen 2 games so much. And someone else mentionned this in the comments, but I can absolutely vouch for the third movie with Entei having some beautiful hangout spots. There's a dream-like quality to it, it really stuck to me as a kid. Absolutely worth a look if you're going to continue this serie :)
new hazel music album: smilingbroadly.bandcamp.com/album/smiling-broadly-ep
also on youtube: th-cam.com/video/rX9ykAory9Q/w-d-xo.html
this ep goes hard
If you like Pokemon Fools Gold you might flat out love Pokemon Coral 🪸
i like to think the gated park sections in that alola city are to keep the local school children safe from level 5 murder rats.
i think i cut a joke in the script about whether or not it could be called a wildlife preserve.
How am i supposed to protect my children from 30-50 feral rats
@@EazyTigerwith Safari brand rocks I mean mudballs
@@EazyTiger just kick em
I mean it's canon that pokemon will maul children, that's a thing in the games.
It’s a shame the player’s house in the original mystery dungeon couldn’t be mentioned. The houses being shaped like the player’s Pokémon was cute and the water starters getting a small pond inside their house was my favorite part. That music is permanently in my brain
Sharpedo's Bluff honorable mention too 'cause I could never get over the idea of getting to see the sunrise _right there_ in your face. The mystery dungeon's environmental design was always so captivating to me, especially the world in Time/Darkness/Sky.
@@tama3162 the beach the player washes up on in those games my favorite video game beach. That opening scene with the krabbys blowing bubbles during sunset is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about that game
@@dreddick1235 _Right??_ Can't forget all the areas effected by the Time Gears either. Like the top of Steam Cave, where it's just a giant basin of water that flows down into waterfalls off the edges and the Time Gear that's being kept there makes a water spout in the center of the lake constantly flow up like a fountain! That whole guild expedition takes place like midway through the game and it's always a highlight whenever I replay it again- it's SO GOOD!!
Same with the Crystal Cave areas and the Shaymin area added in Sky. Honestly ,so much of the Mystery Dungeon games made me in love with their pixel art. The landscapes they could render with such detail coupled with all the little Pokemon animations made me want to learn how to do pixel art so bad as a kid.
all the friend areas were neat
The twist in that stray cat story made my jaw drop, I'm glad Pikachu safely found their way home.
Hazel's videos always have that "nostalgia for the experiences you've never had" vibe. And I love that shit so damn much
For me it's "I never stopped to think about it, but now that you bring it up, I am nostalgic for it"
Yatsoba and Non Non Biyori make me cry because of this
I never in my life suffered from running nose but when I got to that part of the video I felt so nostalgic for some reason like “do you remember when…? Yeah! Yes I remember splashing my shirts every time yes I remember yes” 🤣
"Anemoia" as it's called
Except I seen to have had 95% of the same experiences. 90's anime and JRPG's, Pokemon, old internet memes and secrets; I was there for it all, this channel doesn't stop fucking slapping. Hell, we both even live in Seattle so I even get all the local references.
I'm surprised National Park wasn't brought up. That always seemed like an area tailor made by the devs for hanging out and enjoying the music. Floaroma Town also fits that bill.
I listen to a version of National Park multiple times a week
I LOVED jubilife city. I would use fly there whenever I play platinum just to walk around and vibe
National Park was a reason to log in every Thursday and Saturday. The music makes me cry.
For me personally it's actually the anime- in Gen 7 for the Sun and Moon anime they completely broke the format- Ash had a home, a school, and the core cast consisted of a large group of friends. The region wasn't just a changing backdrop for episodes but a home, a place with spaces, everything could breathe and unwind and the animation staff got really into it so the whole experience was magical. The last episode when Ash finally decides to return to travelling after truly becoming part of his homestay family's life was extremely, brutally emotional in a way I struggle to describe. The whole ending of Ash waking up early in the morning, being driven to the airport, getting on the plane alone but for Pikachu and there's this tangible feeling of loss and character growth that really hit home. It was very fitting that the series after Sun and Moon was Ash's final season because at that point I felt like he'd reached a turning point.
The new, non-Ash series also kind of channels that sense of home too. The protagonists live on an airship as a found family and it's full of spaces that feel lived in and have meaning, I'm really happy they went back to the same sense of physical and emotional space that made Sun and Moon sing.
I used to pretend I lived in Verdanturf Town in Emerald, and have legitimate conversations with the townsfolk. I even used to travel to Mauville city to get groceries for my mother. I loved Hoenn
Even though I cannot stand the beach irl, Hoenn and Alola are my favorite regions. Idk, maybe surfing is just really fun. Also, my favorite spot in Hoenn has to be that one spot outside Sootopolis City where you have to dive to get in. I know it may actually be the most random spot possible in a game that has so many varied environments, but it's just neat
Verdanturf really feels more like a home than your actual home, uh? The beautiful serene music adds to this, but it feels like a place where you could live
@@Bighomie39 Aww, I love the beach... :( Sigh... or so I want to anyway. :? Something about it always felt cozy and at home to me for some reason... which is strange because I get sunburned and stung by jellyfish or something pretty easily. :( I love some of the more harmless sea critters or their shells though and stuff. :? Their cute and pretty. :3 (I'm a natural born Cancer. ^^;).
Sigh... it's funny though, sometimes I kind of wish I could just deal with the tranquility of the beach all alone, which I sort of did when my family tried to rent out beach houses in Alabama twice growing up across state for some reason, as opposed to the visits in places like Houston with my dad's family or Corpus Christi in Texas. :p (Oh yeha, one time was also South Padre Island during Spring Break of all things. :? Although they also had an outdoor swimming pool/hot tub by the hotel. :O Small place, but it was nice. :? I had some cute clams in a plastic cup filled with saltwater and sand for a while. :3 I was surprised when they turned out to still be alive and had little slimy tongues sticking out to stick to the thing and you could see them and stuff! :O It was pretty cute and silly looking. ^^;).
Sigh... I want to live in the Tropics some time and just sleep peacefully to the waves, and eat all the natural seafood and tropical fruit or something.. would be nice I think... :p
I used to leave the Petalburg city music playing, while vividly imagining some sort of music video about lovers longing for each other. I was about 5 and couldnt really read, but Hoenn has my heart forever. I am shamelessly one of those people who's first starter is their favorite pokemon. Blaziken ❤
I listen to Verdanturf when I want to wind down
This video is the first time in a long time that I've felt like I was watching "Old TH-cam." The personal stories, strange anecdotes, even the weird, reality-bending story about Pikachu the cat, it all makes me feel like I'm back at my grandmother's house watching TH-cam for the first time at 12 years old.
I love your narrative style so much! You've earned a sub just from the way you tell stories. Keep it up!
I think art style-wise Gen 5 really blew my mind in that regard. The Village Bridge is an absolutely beautiful little area, with a handful of NPCs who add to the background music, adding extra instruments and vocals and building off of each other to create a song so much bigger than themselves. And the BW2 Gyms have different versions of the Gym theme for each Gym...so perfect. The changing of the seasons in the Gen 5 games are also chef's kiss. I live in the NYC metro so living in the IRL region of Unova makes me appreciate Gen 5 even more because I know the inspiration behind the things they chose.
Nacrene City for example was based off the area around Dumbo and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The warehouses and tracks reference the fact the Navy Yard had 30 miles of track used for moving freight. The Yard's self-contained railroad moved raw materials, ship sections, and other components from workshops to assembly area. Dumbo is known for being an artsy little community, which is accurately reflected by the Café Warehouse and Gym Leader Burgh's frequent visits to the city. Mistralton on the other hand is based off Teterboro Airport in NJ, which is the oldest operating airport in the New York City area, and also had among the highest rate of bird strikes in the nation back in 2009, so it's ironic to have bird Pokémon there.
Gen 5 were the games were the pixel art was at the peak. The swap to 3Dcgi in my opinion made the games look worse, even if they gained a lot in time spent in animating all them pokemons.
Village Bridge was extremely memorable. Recently I took a stay there to catch a Lapras, rested in a nice lady's home. I would walk along the river searching for a rippling water spot, with only a 5% chance to encounter one. It took me three hours of knocking out Basculin until I had my first encounter with a Lapras. And on the first encounter, it was a SHINY LAPRAS. Caught in a net ball, it had an Adamant nature and my less preferred ability. However, it has been taught four HMs and has been a reliable teammate on many journeys. Whenever I see my purple Lapras sprite pop up before I surf, my heart fills with joy.
girls love the void
these last few videos have been so fun visually, i’m loving all the camera footage and stuff. so much texture! so stylish!
24:03 i especially like this part
@@chickengogo1683it’s really nice, i love the color composition :> i’m a sucker for pink & white
WoAAh!! Imagine my surprise when I was watching this and the rom hack I worked on was mentioned!! I was one of the pokemon designers n dex writers for Fools Gold, so I really appreciate the kind words! I’ve been watching your vids for a while so it means a lot
The cat's name being Pikachu honestly sent me reeling!!! Amazing things happen sometimes!!
Synchronicity is real!!! The mind and the things we live change the world!!!
I'm, joking, by the way. But that's an outstanding coincidence. Kind of scary ngl.
I like how old games look WAAAAAY more than highly polished, graphically impressive, busy environments. Also, the more video-like a video game becomes, the less you have to use your imagination.
The idea that Hazel has read adventures fills me with so much joy, that manga, especially the gen 2 arcs, mean so much to me.
I read the adventures manga all the way until the beginning of Gen 5 and I love it, is something else entirely ❤ My favorite thing is how they portrayed the Main Characters growing in time (Red and Yellow being my favorites).
Adventures is so good I love it with my heart. Shoutouts to the RBY, BW, and X&Y arcs in particular, those are incredible.
The gen 3 arcs are by far the best ones for me. I just love Ruby and Sapph, the cutest couple in Pokespe.
Gen 2 arcs were INCREDIBLE.
I remember going to a comic store with my dad when I was young and getting Adventures and also the Electric Tale of Pikachu. It was one of my first exposures to Pokémon along with the cards. I remember that Christmas getting Silver version and I played it on my GBC daily lol. Amazing memories of my early childhood.
The beach or sharpedo bluff in mystery dungeon really is this for me. No music just ambient ocean sounds. There’s a bunch of other areas, like fogbound lake and a lot of the mid-dungeon save areas
probably not all that related, but i've always lowkey liked the aesthetic sensibilities of the pokemon series despite never being an actual fan. older pokemon has that coziness to it that i've grown to appreciate over time, not just in those games, but in video games in general. part of me is and was scared to play the games as i feel like it would ruin that blurry nostalgic comfort i associate with the series, only vaguely interacting with it through friends i had when i was a kid.
"BELLCHIME TRAIL AUTUMNAL FUNNY MOMENTS" is an activation phrase jammed into my matted neurons that I cannot pinpoint the corresponding action to. One day I will report back with whatever that is when the conditions are met. I can't stop thinking about it.
I loved the vibes in pomemon games , the towns seemed like cool places to hang out with friends and your mons. I really loved when we could pet our pokemon too
Ye pomemon games are amazing
Oh. I can't stop playing the 3ds games because i need to pet my pokemon from time to time 😢😢
@Lover_of_ebrietas LOL I just realized my typo today and scream 😅
this video feels so cozy and comfortable. i stared watching in the morning then got busy and had to go to work but just thinking about my similar memories or my favourite locations and what the rest of the video would be like really helped me get through the day. i’m definitely gonna watch it again probably for sleep aid or whenever i just want a nice peaceful thing to listen to. thank you
I love these nostalgic-esque videos you make on things you love. It reminds me that no matter how old you are, you can always love and enjoy things that were from your childhood without embarassment or feeling like you're too "old" to be enjoying it. Thank you so much for your channel Hazel.
When I first played Pokemon Yellow, I was at such a young age that I don't think I could read that well and I needed my older sister's help to get Pikachu to show up at "Pikachu's house" and then once I had Pikachu I couldn't register that the grass at the top of the town was something you could walk through, so my entire conception of the game was that you were just hanging out with Pikachu in this small town and trying to become friends with it. I spent a LOT of time doing this. Just walking around Pallet Town and talking to people, talking to Pikachu, hanging out down by the water and pretending I was skipping rocks, watching TV with Pikachu in my house, and so on. I can laugh a little about it now but I think that was a really special experience and it's one I think the vibes that you hit on in this video were perfectly suited to provide. Thanks for reminding me of this!
Since you brought up one of the movies, the 3rd movie with entei is just. Full of beautiful locations. Deadass I still watch that movie as an adult just to look at it. My particular favorites are the flower field entei dashes through after kidnapping ash’s mom, the waterfall they scale to get into the crystal castle, and the pavilion in the water in the end credits. It’s genuinely such a beautiful movie and then you turn on the sound or pay attention to the story for 3 seconds and you remember it’s one of the absolutely insane Pokémon movies.
That movie really disturbed me sometimes... :( And I'm not even sure how to feel about the first two seasons either or the third arc when Brock and Misty got replaced with new characters for the most part. :? I kind of just ended up loving the games, although never actually playing them for some reason past Gen 1 and 2, just reading up on stuff. :p
Didn't the little girl's (Molly?) dad die or get transformed by the Unown into Entei permanently just for trying to be an archaeologist? o.O Dude, that is seriously so messed up... D: For a Pokemon movie, that's actually kind of one of the darkest and saddest things to me still... :( Or perhaps just the strangest... almost nothing seems as unexpected and strange to me as that. :? I wish this girl got her life and sanity back after the movie ends, but I can't really remember much...
Snowbelle City in XY is quite a comforting place. Sitting on a bench by the Gym and just chilling while listening to the majestic music is so cozy. The vibe is "Yes, you've made it to your eighth and final Gym, take a breather before the Elite Four". For the Gyms, I love the Kalos Gyms and the BW2 Unova Gyms the most. Like the fact the first ever Fairy-type Gym was a giant DOLLHOUSE, how magical the Coumarine tree was, that the Anistar Gym transforms into somewhere outer space, how chill the Humilau Gym is, or the Nimbasa Gym is now a runway for the queen...they all go so hard.
On the topic of Gen 7/Alola, I appreciate the relaxing vibes of Paldean locations in Gen 9 as well like Alfornada based off Portugal's Algarve with its chimneys and decorative dishes. Porto Marinada is based off Portugal's Costa Nova. The striped houses of Costa Nova are known as “palheiros”, which in Portuguese means haystack, and refers to their looks. They were used by fishermen as storage for fishing nets and other materials. The houses were already striped (mostly with a mix of black and dark red stripes), but since they only served as deposits, the inside didn’t have any divisions or infrastructure. With time, the fishermen started bringing their families to spend the summer by the sea, and the storage houses started being turned into holiday houses.
you know it´s a good day when hazel uploads, saved for my bedtime tea
Honestly your discussion about how handheld games, especially Pokémon ones, make for great spots for “idling” made me think of my own childhood experiences, playing on my Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS while my family would drive from place to place during summer vacation. Not to mention my overall feelings of comfort I associate with handled games, past and present, as I play my favourite games in my favourite places (which is why I generally prefer to play my Switch in handheld mode). It’s a great feeling.
When I was a kid playing pokemon emerald, I got so immersed in the story that I just didn't proceed with the main plot. I rested in bed a lot bc we'd just moved, I talked to my mom, pretended to do the dishes, that kind of thing. This video encapsulates something I really like about the series, which is that to me pokemon at its best can kinda feel like playing with dolls lol
I loved the Gen III secret base mechanic; it’s one of the most nostalgic mechanics in the games for me. My favorite place to set up my secret base was at the southwest corner of Route 120 between Fortree and Lilycove. I was really disappointed when the secret base mechanic in Gen IV just didn’t hit the same, even though I liked the underground overall
Yes, that exact spot above the flower shop captivated me as a kid! Something about the holes in the grass patch scratched my brain real nice
The first pokemon game I ever owned was Emerald, and while Hoenn might be my favorite region, when I think about memorable spaces in Pokémon to just... hang out, my mind immediately goes back to when I was four or five years old, watching my older cousin travel through Johto. Deprived of any context of what the game was really about, or how video games even worked, it felt as if at the same time that we were sitting on the porch, she was simultaneously sauntering down the boardwalk talking with the local fishermen or mosying past the craggy mounds where the unowns live, ready to do some archaeology.
Oh, and Pokémon Heroes left me obsessed with Venice for the next 10 years
Hi Hazel! I absolutely love the way you look at and experience these types of games. Your appreciation for the little things in these series is brilliant- which is why I would HIGHLY recommend the Yokai Watch games (2 specifically, any version) for 3ds. There's so many simple and cute details such as the small countryside towns that you don't experience but get a such good impression of them from talking to people and their train stations. And not even to mention the trains that are kind realistic in how they're done. They don't take as long as real life trains but they're are these simple short trips where you get to pause with your characters who ride the train. Sometimes on the train, yokai will walk past you and want to fight or give you items, other people will sit down to talk to you, but sometimes (and this is my favourite) nothing happens. You and your two yokai pals just sit there, not talking to each other, not any music blasting , just you guys sitting and looking out the window. A lot of people hate this feature because they view it as a waste of time but I'm the opposite. I thoroughly enjoy my time sitting with the characters and just existing. It reminds me so much of what you like and I'd love it if you at least looked into it. No need to buy it or put your time into it but these games have such beautiful moments and I genuinely think you would love them.
YESSSSSS YO KAI WATCH SWEEPPPP
Your way with words is just so... unlike any other TH-camr I've come across and it's such an experience to watch one your videos. You meander in way that is somehow appealing, and whisks the listener away to another place before they've even realize it's happening. Your simple observations and tongue-in-cheek humour pair with your incredibly deep observations and high brow humour in such a way that I actually feel smarter having watched one of your videos. Your quiet moments or reflection frequently crack my armor and force me to get in touch with emotions I didn't know I had or have been trying to repress or maybe just forgot about. Whether it's about Pokemon, or Cryptids, or some anime I've never watched, you just have this indescribable quality to your presentation and personality that makes you exceptionally fun to "be around" as it were. I'm so glad I found your channel, and I look forward to many more videos. You're friggin awesome and I hope you know that.
Hazel enabled story time - everyone to the sitting circle ☺️
I just want you know that seeing the title "my favorite places in pokemon" and then seeing it was from you, one of my favourite TH-camrs to listen to, it absolutely made me giggle with joy. You are such a fantastic video creator, and I love your voice, and I love the research you do, and your little jokes, and just everything about your channel and your vibe is super awesome and I love it. But Pokemon is like... in my blood. I grew up with it like so many others and I also gazed out the windows or trains and busses imagining the little critters existing in our world and our biomes and our cities. It's so important to me, and YOU are such an important channel to me, and seeing those two topics combine makes me so happy. You are incredible and this video was incredible. Thank you for your efforts.
Absolutely adore this video topic. It’s one I’ve been thinking about myself for sometime. The concept of “idling by” in a video game and just being one with its atmosphere like you’re really living in it is actually something I factor in for if I can consider a game a favorite or not haha
My mouth fell agape at the Pickle cat being PIKACHU. Thats some serious fate shit. Cat distribution system destiny mode omfg, amazing
My favorite spot in all of pokemon has to be Viridian Forest in GSC. In gen 1 it's this spooky dark forest with creepy music filled with weedle that poison you and force you to run all the way back to the pokemon center. Then in gen 2 you approach it from the opposite direction and the creepy music starts... and then turns into a jazzy remix that's somehow upbeat and nostalgic and a little melancholic. And this huge forest that once took you hours to go through on your first go isn't even a speedbump anymore. It's not a seperate map, there's no encounters, it's like this forest that was so huge and scary to you before has now become a pleasant jaunt through the woods. Maybe it's a metaphor for growing up. Or maybe they shrunk the forest to free up some memory on the cartridge 🤷♂️
I'm a complete bitch for Unova, that place is genuinely like a second home to me. Such an incredibly well designed region. It's hard to pick just one location, but Village Bridge genuinely shakes me to my core whenever I listen to the full music track. It's so serene and I earnestly love how it has nothing to do with the story, you just stumble onto this little self sufficient community with plenty of people to talk to and little events to partake in.
My favourite spot in DPPt is partway through Mt Coronet on the way to Spear Pillar. After several winding rooms of caves, you emerge into this brief snowy area on the side of the mountain. It always felt so strange, wild, remote and lonely - like if you were to walk out of bounds the snow would stretch on for miles. It's so time-consuming to reach that you're unlikely to ever go there again after this part of the story, unless you really want an Absol, but that just makes it feel more special. Whenever I replay Platinum I look forward to revisiting it.
As for Black and White, this is a basic one but Castelia City. God I love the vibe of it so much. The towering buildings, bustling people, all the little spots to explore - it felt like such a vibrant, exciting place. The cinematic camera on the bridge you cross when you arrive there for the first time absolutely blew me away the first time I played it too.
"The void" is absolutely a memorable location! I have great memories of playing Kirby Air Ride with my brothers and driving out-of-bounds using the one gap in the invisible wall. Good times. :)
the fact you have mareeps accompanying you in this video makes me feel so happy I love mareep so much it's my absolute favorite pokemon ;A;
i vividly remember seeing castelia city in black and white for the first time and being especially amazed at the 3D curved city layout paired with the whimsical town theme. the city visuals in that game make me want to replay it just to enjoy the landscape alone
undella town will always have a special place in my heart
Fortree city always felt so cool to me as a kid, a city of treehouses is peak childhood fantasy
You know how sometimes you’re in class trying to hide the fact that you’re watching something on your phone, and something will be funny and you’ll have to stifle a laugh lest you be ‘found out’. Yeah that, but instead of stifling a laugh, I need to make sure I don’t gasp and suddenly break out in a wide open smile, holy fuck ice baby togepi
I started enjoying Pokémon about 4th to 5th gen and my first gen was 6. I love the cozy limited 3d. I loved the creepy pastors too. They where so crap yet somehow there was something drawing me to them. Also hope to get a cassette soon when the restock comes. Love the vid keep up the good work hazel.
Fortree City forever changed my brain chemistry to the point that any time I see a foresty-town in any media for the first time, my neurons activate and I revert back to my years as a kid, frothing at the mouth at all cool combination of trees and hanging fixtures. Like, when I first started playing FF14, Gridania was my starting town and once I was able to, I just wandered around the city, taking in the details, not even caring about the main storyline. I went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in Canada recently and felt like I got transported directly into Fortree City when I got to the other side and saw the hanging bridges and treetops, completely in awe.
My lord, your soothing voice mixed with this subject matter has me feeling such an overwhelming nostalgia. Thank you!
I really love this video! some of my favorite pokemon locations come from one of the less talked about games in the series: PokePark 2! the cover area and arbor area were my favorite spaces to just run around in without any particular goal, plus the arbor area has windmill way for that peak windmill content we all crave.
My favorite places in pokemon are usually dead ends you have no reason to return to but you do so anyways
The end of a route that leads no where, a small map that only exists for some event in the story, legendary and mythical spots (especially if they're islands), etc.
I really appreciate hazels videos. Theyre so calming and peaceful and kind. I do wish the digimon video would come back cus that was my favorite vid but every vid on this channel is so special and nice. I loved showing it to my friends and chilling working and listening while i work. Keep up the great art.
Hazel giving us a video on labor day truly for the people
When i was a kid and finally beat heartgold id always return with my typhlosion to the peak of the mountain and just interact in the overworld and hear the cry reverberate at the mountain peak, it also didnt help that due to being a kid and having misread the pokedex entry where it said "its rage peaks" and instead misread "it rages at peaks" my mind figured this was its natural habitat anyway
me at 0:05: Oh, it's a cat
33:09 hey dont tilt your head back when you get a nose bleed, that can cause the blood to enter your sinuses and literally cause you to drown in blood
Crystal (and by extension Gold and Silver) is my favourite Pokemon game aesthetically. The music, the sprite work, the colours, how the little flowers dance. It's peak cozy.
HAZEL HAS THE SAME JOHTO BRAINROT AS ME LET'S GOOOO 👏👏👏
honestly i'd love to hear about more stuff like this........ it's crazy to me how even such early games in the pokemon franchise can have locations with such immaculate vibes. as the kids say i suppose. these aren't mainline game locations, but i've got so many fond childhood memories of the first pokemon mystery dungeon's friend areas :) it makes sense as to why the later pmd games did away with them, for recruitment convenience's sake, but god do i love the pretty scenic locations where your extra team members chill at. definitely one of those instances of "quirky game mechanic that's a bit unorthodox but also inseparably charming as a result" that a lot of pokemon has imo
hazel with the absolutely elite hyper-specific vibey topics, love it so much
Yo, I don't know if you will see this, but those batteries are so easy to solder in and out, I'd be happy to help. The batteries are also cheap nickel batteries, that you can find at a battery or hardware store. You can grab a very budget soldering gun because it doesn't need to get that hot at all, and it's just a touch once, remove battery, place new battery, and touch once to complete. The cartridge is held by just a single screw as well.
ok swag I'm gonna try to bust out my soldering iron for this then B)
To me, the cozyest place is Virbank city from Black/White 2. I sometimes feel the urge to replay that game only to get there again and listen to that town theme.
Since I just stumbled across it and can't find it anywhere in these comments, the image at 5:11 is promotional art for Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Specifically, it's a variant of the bottom of the Japanese theatrical poster.
hazels ability to find such joy in tiny things like this is always inspiring to me :)
Snap was the first video game I beat in a single sitting at ~11 hours iirc. it was also the first game where the concept of "100% completion" occured to me in the intervening decade before my n64 finally pooped out on me lol
God two hazel videos within a month of each other, plus a new ep. We're eating good 🤤
YES! The pretty petal shop clearing is SO nice! I've always imagined it like a nice clearing with light coming through the trees from the reflection of the lake and flowers hidden away.
I just... imagine these places as such a nice detail. I dunno.
THIS IS SO GOOD. This is exactly a point I've been trying to articulate for so long - Pokémon is a series for hanging out and taking in the little details.
I also constantly group Melee in with Gen III because I got my first Gamecube in '04.
Also shoutout to BEER the Rayquaza.
The Pikachu cat story is actually INSANE.
X and Y has SO many of these spots for me with all the benches - imo the best spot is the bench in the gym in Cyllage city. It's so off the beaten path and has no point except for just vibing out and staring at a waterfall.
i still have no clue why it’s named beer.
hahaha thank you so much. honestly hugely flattering. discovering your channel really broadened my image of what youtube videos can be, i always feel so energized whenever i watch a new upload from you 🙏
For me, this video is a piece of art in the most elevated sense.
i haven't finished watching it but all of hazel's recollections just melt into my own experiences playing pokemon.
it feels like it was my own experience due to the way she conveys every single sensory/audio/video representation and due to the fact that we're connected by the childhood love for handheld pokemon, despite me living in a different country and having different experiences as a child altogether.
it just hits home, i relate to it immensely.
this is peak empathic/synesthesic art.
i do really love when i replay a game i haven't touched since my childhood and its all very nostalgic and then i just reach that ONE AREA or hear that ONE SONG that stops me dead in my tracks and i can see, touch, feel, taste the exact room i was in the first time i reached that part, or heard that song. feeling so physically, so viscerally close to a space, to a time, to a mindset of my past is so surreal. it's like all the life experiences, the pain, the growing up that separates back then from now collapses in an instant, a brief state of not being weighed down by anything, feeling the same joy i felt all those years ago. but it doesn't leave me with a yearning for the past, for a simpler time, instead it leaves me with the encouraging reminder that i'm still me despite everything, and even the things that feel so mundane now can become special to me in time.
sorry for the ramble :P this video is lovely! i love hearing about what little things people find special, reminds me of the days of idling on my ds, listening to songs loop over and over on long road trips :3
@hhhazel I feel Hazel is the personification of the very realm of the Liminal that exists in between memories and the nostalgia. The ward and host who guides whomever finds themselves between dreams and waking life. Love your videos!
For me, the Saffron City Dojo in HGSS is so comfy. It's nice having a place where all of the gym leaders you've met along the way can just vibe with you and hang out. Doubly so considering to get them there, you get to learn more about their day to day life, what they do in their time off. You get to learn that Janine brings her dad food during her time away from the gym, the Jasmine eats her heart out at the diner in Olivine City and so much more.
This is so different from the standard video game essays that I see and I loved every moment
Mystery dungeon was my favorite spot, it really felt like i was on a journey and it was so so scary, but having a friend to help me through it made everything feel better
you know it's gonna be a good day when hazel posts C:
As someone who just loves *existing* in a space in video games, especially Pokémon, this video is relevant to my interests and it makes me happy :)
Reminds me of how in more action packed video games I like taking my character to a hub or more peaceful area before I shut the game off and I have no idea why
Majula from DS2
Emerald was my first Pokemon game and I can confirm it hits different. Something about how wild the region feels, how whenever I seem to imagine each section of the region in terms of the colours schemes of the environment. Shout out to the way they made ponds look like these brilliant perfect blue reflective mirrors, the image of my trainer reflected in the water lives rent free in my mind.
Village Bridge from Pokemon Black and White 2 will always be my favorite hangout spot. So long have I run over its brick, activating every musician in rhythmic harmony to build up the area's song. I especially love the vocalist guy who sings. It's impossible to truly replicate on your own, but it's never stopped me from trying irl when its tune seizes me somewhere.
I really liked the resort area in Diamond. It's the area I remember the most of that game, I used to be there a lot in the evening. The two pokemon I remember the most from that game, Scizor and Victreebel, I also caught there.
The pokemon location that means the most to me personally are the gardens in pokemon the rise of darkrai. Its gorgeous, i really love how it incorporates the pokemon living there it really feels so serene
ultra sun for me is so strong, the flowers outside of your house are beautiful, the orange sea under you mantine surfing, the little sounds of the ultra wormhole. it’s genuinely hard to name a half-decent list because those 3ds visuals are so beautiful i can’t really write off any areas. even the pokepelago and battle menus ooze with so much charm im still thinking about them years later
I love sun & moon so much and I definitely think they’re worth looking into especially if you like cool locations! There’s an area with a beautiful field of flowers and maybe it’s bc there’s a cutscene there but it has stuck in my mind more than any other place in pokemon. Ultra wormholes are also one of my favorite features pokemon has ever had! I don’t want to spoil anything but there’s a surreal area involving the jellyfish ultra beast that I thought was really pretty
Top 5:
Colosseum. Pyrite town, the run-down train shop, Azure town (i think?) The Underground...just baked in nostalgia.
Area Zero. Toby Fox went too hard with the soundtrack. Spent so many hours down there.
Kanto. Same. I wish we could go back. I miss those days.
ORAS. Hearing HD versions of my favorite game's soundtrack...man...shame my 3DS disintrigrated from overuse.
And the opening themes for seasons like Johto and Kanto just pop into my head randomly, as an adult.
2 be a master...pokemon master...i will be writing...a brand new chapta...
I absolutely love Kalos. There's like 5 towns that are like, straight up useless and serve nothing aside from eye candy. Normally that would be a bad thing and it is in terms of region design, but looking past that, I love it all. Kalos is just chock full of areas that you can just *partake in*. Courmarine is definitely a favorite of kine. I love that GF just randomly decided "Haha, train town!" but they did and it makes it distinct. Amberette is a divider between this massive cliff and the beach, the route before that town also being a favorite area. Snowbelle just has this random massive forest maze that you have to go through twice and then only return for like, trashcan spawns.
I think a really underrated "Cozy" game is the Etrian Odyssey series. After a certain point when the game finally has you by the balls and you've sunk too much time to just drop it, everything just feels home-y. The first few floors of the grassy labyrinth are basically universally familiar to anyone who's played any EO game for even an hour. EO2's stratums especially are cozy, all being season-based and fairly distinct from the rest of the series. EO4 especially cranks up the coziness, with all of the sub-dungeons that occasionally have that one little thing that sticks out to you.
A memory just unlocked. Back in my long lost cart of Pearl, I really wanted a Frostlass but didn't know how to get one. After buying a gen 4 pokedex book from my school's bookfaire, I got home and instantly check to see if I had a dawnstone. I caught a Snorunt and evolved her. I think she was one of the few 'mons to have survived me losing that cartridge having been moved to my later copy of Platinum (avoiding the fate of the dropped Wii's Ranch save with my Empoleon, Togekiss, and Fire Red Charzard). I think she's still in my copy of Moon.
For years it never struck me how much I cherished the memories of these locations of these games until this video. I have distinct memories of going on car rides with the music from these games playing. Johto's National Park is a vibe, the seaside locations of Hoenn felt lively, the frigid peaks of Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh felt isolating. There are times I wish I could be as easily impressionable again.
I love this video. Your editing is so nice, it perfectly ties together your voiceovers, the footage shown, the music playing. The audio is nicely balanced and the music never too loud, and your voice is very calm and nice to listen to. Hearing you talk about your memories makes me feel a profound feeling of nostalgia for things I've never experienced, which is awesome. It's very clear from the way this video is made just how much you love and cherish this series. It's wonderful to hear someone talk about something they love, and this video is put together really nicely. I'm sure I'll be watching this again soon :]
I always loved chillin in the little hot spring in lavaridge town. hoenn especially was chock full of little elements like that- stuff that made the world a fun place to hang out in even if no pokemon were involved.
also, the heroes movie was my FAVORITE as a kid, and its very nice to see that its just as visually dazzling as my inner 9 year old remembers :]
So for Christmas one year, I got a Game Boy Advance SP and a copy of Pokémon Leaf Green. I didn't get very far and it disappeared along with my Game Boy at some point until like a year later we found it was for some reason in the battery compartment of my little brother's toy firetruck that he could ride.
I had just beaten Brock, and my character's name was for some reason "ABABUUC".
Ended up playing over 200 hours on that file.
A personal favorite for me has always been Ilex Forest. There's something so serenely beautiful about it, and its odd random shrine that 90% of players will never be able to interact with. It's just there, its purpose largely irrelevant, but still important. Also a shout too oreburgh mine, something about the conveyer belts of stone really spoke to me as a kid
The clip of Alyssa's thousand Rika screenshots is the highlight of this video for me
I think artstyle-wise Gen 5 changed my brain in a way I still don't quite understand, and has made so many little areas and moments stick with me. I hadn't even played B or W 2 until this year, but White is still one of my most important games. The Village Bridge is a beautiful little area, with a handful of NPCs who add to the background music, adding extra instruments and vocals and building off of each other to create a song so much bigger than themselves. Castelia City was, to a young and isolated country kid like myself on those game's releases, a taste of what the big city was, bright and busy and shady and confusing. It evoked the feeling of a big city in a way that I can only compare to Shenmue 2, my favourite game ever for a similar reason. And while I have way less emotional connection to the sequels. Roxie's little dingy band set-up, Burgh's weirdly eerie cocoon gym, and the almost abandoned feeling Lentimas Town all add more of a unique feeling to the region.
There are certainly areas in all the other Pokemon games I like, and Black and White while being my favourite games aren't even the ones I'm the most nostalgic for, but I do think White influenced me as a person the most. Pokemon's really neat in that respect I think.
I've spent so many time in Village Bridge experimenting with all the different versions of the music!
Environmental music is such a huge part of the Gen 5 experience, and this is the culmination of it!
Pokemon peaked in Gen 5
I have never played a Pokemon game and, watching this video, I see that you really have to grow up with it to have all these feelings, so I think I never will :3
No wonder you didn't mind the water in Gen 3. The whole second half is water, and you said you stopped midway through
Oh man, Pokemon meant so much to me growing up, lemme think about a list here... in no particular order:
- Pokemon Square (Pokemon Red Rescue Team): I adored the main hub area in that game, when I was little I'd speak to every NPC one by one as if I was having a conversation with everyone :) sometimes I'd just chill at the Pelipper Office looking over the body of water to the east. Or hang out at the Whiscash Pond just to hear the special music.
- Agate Village (Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness): There are a ton of locations in this game I love but I distinctly remember hanging out here, probably because of the Purification Chamber but also just for the music. The woodland aesthetic made it so relaxing, I live both near the coast and in a pretty green state so anything remotely evergreen or coastal makes me feel comfortable.
Gateon Port with its puzzle-like outer section and the entirety of Phenac City also just makes me happy to exist in.
- Gathering Place Area (PokePark Wii): Literally every playable space in that game, even the final area with Mew, the Sky Garden, all give nostalgic tingles! Since I can't really pick any one of them to highlight specifically, I think the central treehouse in the Gathering Place is the best mention. There's something about the saturated color pallete, smooth geometry, and soft looking textures that just scream cozy kid's game :')
(I feel too lazy to complete this comment with mainline Pokemon games. If you do a Part 2 I'll have to finish it then. Loved this video!)
The part about the advent of 3D making you feel like there should be places to explore beyond the boundaries was interesting to me because I felt that way in the SNES still not 3D era, too. For example, in ALttP I’d always wonder what was behind the barriers around Hyrule and I’d look longingly down at the forest you could see north of Death Mountain beyond the world the game let you see.
YOURE SMILING BROADLY WHAT THE FUCK?????? I'vwe been listening to yr new release non stop since my digital acquaintance cecily renns rt'd it it's genuinely some of the best music i've heard in a while. The sheer whiplash I received after getting nostalgia blasted by a cute pokemon video and randomly half way through figuring out that you're also my favourite musician of the past month is ???? idk a little absurd i might be exploding
and american football reference i think you may be the best person to exist this video was lovely and i appreciate it immensely
Not beating Ruby due to struggling with distractions and directions is a massive mood haha
This one really hit home for me. While places in pokemon don't have that much meaning to me, music in pokemon does. Listening to Gen 2 music while you speak about its architecture and how it was your real first pokemon experience resonated with me as I felt the same growing up. Thank you.
On the whole I think Alola's my favorite region, but if I had to pick a specific location, it's Unova's Village Bridge. The fact that you can increase the amount of instruments and singers by talking to all the NPCs in the area is incredible.
Ah man, this video scratches such a specific itch for me. I spent so long growing up just hanging out in certain areas in Pokémon games, especially gen 2. The amount of time I spent in Ecruteak City, talking to the NPCs about the legend, pretending to dance with the Kimono Girls at the dance theatre, is criminal. The National Park also hits at the right place. I spent so long in there searching for a Scyther for my playthrus. Hell, just surfing in those games was a hang out spot for me. The surf music is engraved in my brain forever. I love gen 2 games so much.
And someone else mentionned this in the comments, but I can absolutely vouch for the third movie with Entei having some beautiful hangout spots. There's a dream-like quality to it, it really stuck to me as a kid. Absolutely worth a look if you're going to continue this serie :)