Kinda Wondering What the Point of the Kanto Tour was…

So, now that the Kanto Tour is actually over and we’ve moved into the Kanto Celebration… I’m kinda wondering what the point of the Kanto Tour was. We had 12 hours of catching Kanto Pokemon, followed by a week of more Kanto. And that’s on top of all the Kanto-themed events we’ve had over the last few months. Not to mention the Kanto-themed Community Days.

It was basically GO Fest but Kanto only.

The Kanto Tour was interesting. Just like GO Fest, it was split into various hours, ‘visiting’ various towns and cities from Pokemon Red and Green. Pokemon spawned according to each city, and, for the last two hours, all Pokemon could spawn regardless of their original city. GO Fest was similar, with Pokemon spawning based on themes.

We also had various tasks and research based on all the spawns, as well as themed raids. Even the confetti and night time fireworks were present too.

Somehow though I feel like we got more for our GO Fest tickets. Those came with guaranteed shadow Birds and Mewtwo. On the flip side, the Kanto Tour only gave you a chance at them via raids. That being said, GO Fest lasted 20 hours over two days, while the Kanto Tour lasted 12 hours on one day.

The Kanto Celebration is a free continuation for everyone.

Okay, not every Pokemon is spawning, but a chunk of them are and the rest are in raids and eggs. The only Pokemon missing are regionals, but Mewtwo and the Birds are sticking around. Sure, non-ticket-holders don’t get access to the 151-catch-them-all research, nor the Ditto/Mew research. But most of it is there. On top of that, the special moves for Starter Pokemon were also available this week, just like they were during the Kanto Tour. As are Last Resort for the Eevees, Draco Meteor for Dragonite and Surf on Pikachu.

There’s also a mini research available for everyone, involving various tasks similar to the Kanto Tour. Step 2 of this today-tab research involves battling Team Rocket Grunts, very similar to battling the NPCs on the Kanto Tour. Except Grunts are generally better fights in every way, since they give you a Pokemon as a reward, and give more stardust.

I suppose the real benefits were the shiny chances.

Shiny chances were increased for the Kanto Tour for ticket holders only. But these are chances, not guarantees. The unluckiest ticket holder alive could easily not have gotten a single shiny. It’s all down to luck.

Of course, thanks to RNG, my baby account has managed to get a shiny Squirtle while I still don’t have one. Despite having boosted chances yesterday. Oh well.

Maybe we really did just pay for shiny Mew and Ditto?

Because that’s what it feels like. And the shiny Mew quest is mostly just drawn out tedium. The first stage involves sending 151 gifts and 151 great throws. The second stage (which people have discovered thanks to kid accounts, which can’t send gifts) is just as long. Sure, catching 30 dragon types is kinda tricky, but the whole thing is time-locked to one task. The dreaded “do things for x days in a row” is back. Catching a Pokemon every day is easy, but it’s an obvious time gate when you have to do this for 30 days.

Seems like we’ve exchanged difficulty for tedium, I guess.

We’re getting a make-up event for all of this though.

Yep, we’re getting a Kanto Tour Part 2. Mostly because the game was nigh unplayable in some areas, namely New Zealand. Some people managed to get the ticket for free, due to a bug, so paid ticket holders are going to get something extra, rather than taking the accidental free stuff away. So here’s hoping for better shiny chances, and maybe a second shiny Ditto or something.

That’s being overly optimistic though.

I don’t know why, but I am feeling rather pessimistic about all of this. Maybe though, when the Kanto Celebration is gone, we’ll get a break from the Kanto region for a while…