people who know me know how much of a HUGE pokemon nerd i am. seriously. it's really bad. pokemon is one of those things that i feel like will never leave me. it always, without fail, comes back into my thoughts. even when i'm currently obsessed with something else, i'll somehow insert pokemon into it!!!! take for example, my current gravity falls obsession. oh boy i do wonder what kind of AU i'm cooking up in my head right now!!!!! BUT... i'm not talking about my gravity falls pokemon AU today (FUCK) TODAY i want to talk about my favorite routes in pokemon!! like the title says. before anything i want to preface that i have NOT played through johto... which is crazy because i constantly proclaimed that it was my favorite region when i was younger LOL. so no johto routes will be mentioned because of that. although to be honest kanto, alola, and galar will also not have any entries because no routes from those games really stood out to me idk!! i have REALLY big complaints about galar's routes but i'm saving that tangent for another day maybe...
so i'd like to start off with routes that are held in high regard amongst the pokemon community. (LMFAO NERD)
LMAFAOOO WAIT OK OK STOP DONT CLICK OFF I KNOW THIS ISNT A POKEMON ROUTW BUT THIS STUPID FUCKING VIDEO POPPED UP IN MY UTUBE RECOMMENDATION DOES. DOES ANYONE ELSE RMEMEBER THIS LAMOFJGHIU HEELPP HEELPP THE END WITH THE ZOOM IN ALWAYS FUCKIGN GETS ME OH MY GODDD I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THIS HEELPP OK. IM SO SORRY FOR THIS WEIRD TANGENT. but guess what. this is MY diary and i GET TO WRITE WHAT I WANT. stay mad nerd.
fuucckk route 209... OF COURSE IM INCLUDING ROUTE 209 EVERYONE FUCKING LOVES IT AND FOR GOOD REASON. ouugghh is it obvious i grew up with the ds era of pokemon. he grew up with the ds era of pokemon and hasn't even played hgss... broken heart. STOP. ok so route 209 isn't really a route where much of anything is happening?? except like for spiritomb AND the lost tower... ok nvm ignore me this route is pretty notable. but yeah ever since little barri played platinum when he was like 7 he's fallen in love with this theme... i mean hasn't everyone??? it's so good IT'S ADDICTING. it oozes nostalgia, so much so that the mere mention of it is enough to make pokebros orgasm... here's the thing. i don't really have any special memories attached to this route. i just really love the theme!!!! that's literally all i gotta say OH AND ALSO before anyone says anything YES i am aware of BDSP and PLA. HUGE SHOUTOUTS to pla's rendition of this route. HOWEVER...BDSP CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES. yeah sorry i have a HUGE vedetta against bdsp like. it's really bad. it's the one thing that i get really annoying about sooo i'll just stop talking about it there.
did you guys know route 209 got a remix in ssbb? i don't think it's better than the original but it's still pretty neat in its own right!!
if i was asked what my ALL TIME FAVORITE route in pokemon is, i'd say route 10 from BW. here's a fun fact! pokemon white 2 was my first pokemon game EVER!! i played it when iwas like... 6 or 7?? idk i dont remember BUT. even though the BW2 games were my first exposure to pokemon, it took me a while to play the original BW games. i was 14 years old when i finally got my hands on a copy of pokemon black!! it was part of a christmas present that included a pastel pink DS lite... this was in 2020. HELP yeah so during covid i was going through it. like genuinely. and i had regressed back into things from my childhood because i just wanted to escape... everything!! i was SUPER ULTRA MEGA REALLY big on pokemon at the time, and i believe i had recently finished replaying both white 2 and platinum! when i completed white 2, all i could think about was pokemon BW. i was interested in seeing how different BW was from BW2. was it like SM and USUM where changes were minimal? or was it a completely different game?? I HAD NO IDEA!!! when i played through pokemon black i was a changed person. forever. unova had already been my favorite generation, but this game had skyrocketed my love for it to lengths unimaginable. when i first walked into route 10, i sat down and listened to its theme for a while. like i said before, i was going through something really personal, and the bittersweet melody comforted me through my pain. i know that sounds cheesy but i feel like route 10 was the culmination of sementing this game into my heart forever. pokemon black brought me interesting characters and a phenomenal story that i desperately needed during a time when i felt like i couldn't go on for much longer. i remember writing tons of things about this route on an app that's (sadly) long gone. i wrote a huge paragraph about why i loved it so much and why it was my new favorite route in pokemon. route 10 is the final route you go through before the final stretch of the game. despite that, it doesn't feel celebratory at all. it's interesting to compare route 10 to other final route themes in pokemon. when most choose to go for something upbeat to remind you of the accomplishments you've made throughout your entire journey, BW's final route theme is somber. it's melancholy. it reminds you of your journey but it doesn't feel like something to commemorate. there's no confetti or fireworks, no big grand display, nothing. and when you take BW's story into account, it makes sense why route 10's theme is like this. at this point, team plasma has yet to be defeated. in fact, the protagonist is heading towards the pokemon league knowing full well that N has probably already taken it over, and if he hasn't, he sure is close to. the weight of the fate of the entire region has yet to be lifted off of the protagonist's shoulders. in this miniscule route, the protagonist isn't left to reminisce about their adventure, but is instead left to take their beliefs into account and prepare to have the most infulential battle of their life.
OK i've already talked way too much about route 10 so i'll try and keep this short but man... the smash remix really is something else. violins are one of my favorite instruments, so of course i'm obsessed with this rendition. you already know i have this TURNED UP ON MAX for every pokemon stage on ssbu. this recreation brings out the gloom from the original track to its highest potential. amazing amazing AMAZING theme i cannot get enough of it.
route 113 but specifically the ORAS version!! i grew up with ORAS, i've never played the original RGE games unfortunately :P when i think of ORAS i think of my childhood. i played many pokemon games when i was a kid, but ORAS is the game that really defines the most dumbfun i've had with pokemon in my whole life. in my original copy of omega ruby, i think i had about 200 hours in? i was really obsessed with the PSS, and i was specifically engrossed in trading with randos on there. doing this is how i got a full team of (totally legit) shiny arceus! does anybody remember the weird voice chat system? i remember me, my brother, and a few of our friends would use it to troll people... i was like 9 give me a Break. route 113 really is a nothingburger of a route in terms of content. it has spinda i guess??? in the content this route lacks it makes up for in its design. the TOXIC VOLCANIC SOOT makes the route the most unique one in the game!!! even though the air quality is hazardous, the place looks magical. when i was a kid, i didn't understand the concept of poisonous particles, (despite having asthma) so i just thought the place looked really cool. i wanted to step inside and hop into the gigantic soot mounds and frolick around and have fun!! i probably would have suffered a severe asthma attack. like route 209, i really love this theme. it's not sentimental to me like unlike route 10, i just think the theme is neat! when i think of ORAS this route and its theme is one of the first things to pop up into my mind. it makes me miss the memories i made as kid in this game. sometimes i wish i was back in 4th grade, laying around with my 3DS and playing pokemon all day. i can't go back, but it's better that way. if i stayed in the past forever, how could i ever make new memories with other games?
if you asked me to name my top 3 favorite pokemon route themes, this would be my pick for second place. this is my FAVORITE route theme from sinnoh. it's perfect. so perfect. i feel so happy whenever i hear it. i replayed platinum during 2020, the year where i was at rock bottom. i was looking for solace and i found it through pokemon games from my past. platinum was my second ever pokemon game. the story of how i got the game is really embarassing but i'll tell it anyway!! i was like 6 or 7 and i was OBSESSED with pokemon, so when me and my family walked into a gamestop and i saw platinum there in a display case it was over for everybody. i threw a tantrum to get it. YEAH I KNOW. EMBARASSING FOR ME. BUT I WAS LIKE... A KID!!! give me a break... i still feel bad about it but what can i do?? of course, like every other pokemon game i've collected over the years, i still have this cartridge! anyway, i did not remember this route from my first playthrough when i was a kid. it was only when i replayed platinum in 2020 that i was made aware of route 216. this glorious son of a bitch. i think this route can be really tedious at times because of the whole snow mechanic, but its theme makes me completely disregard all my complaints. i love route 216 and you will Love it too. people who know me know i hate winter with a burning passion. this theme makes me yearn for snow in a state where the only snow accessible is like 10,000 feet up into the air. it makes me experience the coziness that people always praise winter for. i feel no coziness during winter. it's the perfect theme for a snowy route, what else do you want me to say? i stayed in the route for a good while, listening to its theme over and over and over again. i was stressed beyond belief but route 216 provided me with a few minutes of precious comfort. this next thought is part of a whole thing that nobody cares about but i headcannon that the protagonist of DPP would have a house in this route. also DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT BDSP'S RENDITION OF THIS THEME I DONT WANT O HEAR ITTTTTTT.
i don't see these being talked about as much as the ones above soooooo
OK SO i know this theme isn't techincally "underrated" but so many people have such unnecessary hate towards kalos that themes like this often get ignored most of the time. like i have my complaints about kalos but its ost is NOT one of them!!! i replayed pokemon X about two years ago i think...? FUN FACT!!! i lost my original pokemon X cartridge.somehow. IT'S THE ONLY POKEMON GAME IVE LOST EVER AND IM STILL SO DEVASTATED ABOUT IT TO THIS DAY. pokemon X was my third ever pokemon game and i remember it for the dinosaur (tyrantrum shoutout) and the cool mega evolutions. there was also the anime but uugghhhhuhiuigeno so many fans of it have been off-putting so i just distance myself from it now... when i think about the XY ost i think of lumiose city, ANOTHER route that i won't mention cause it's a surprise, and THIS ROUTE. it's my favorite route theme from these games. route 15 is close to the haunted house where some guy tells a story about faceless men. taking into account the other spooky shit in this game, (hex maniac girl) this didn't stand out to little me at all. this whole route really reminds me of route 10 in BW. both the aesthetic and the theme feel similar to me. it's got the same melancholy sound and they're both orange. i know route 10 isn't orange but it reminds me of orange. it feels like fall. both of these themes feel like fall to me is what i'm trying to say. the XY ost is so underrated i cannot emphasize this enough. hate the game itself all you want, but DO NOT bring the ost into this.
OK AGAIN AGAIN IM SORRY. this ALSO isn't considered underrated BUT. it does not get talked about as much as POPULAR route themes so like uhhh. this would be like medium popularity y'know. YEAH OF COURSE IM BRINING THE FINAL ROUTE OF BW2 INTO THIS. DUDE. THIS THEME GOES SO HARD. i replayed BW2 in 2020 and that is when i became aware of route 23. like ive said PLENTY of times before, white 2 was my first ever pokemon game, but little me DID NOT remember this song. all i needed was iris's theme and i was good to go. the contrast between this and BW's final route theme is like day and night. i talked about it above, but i'll briefly mention it again. in BW2, the villain has already been defeated at this point. there's no uncertainty, no sense of dread. team plasma has been officialy defeated FOR GOOD and will not be returning to unova ever again. hugh, your rival, has finally completed what he had set out to do: find his sister's purrloin. (which is now a liepard!) the protagonist is free to march into the victory road and take on the pokemon league as they please. they've finally overcome the worst and are filled with a dopamine high they've never experienced before. it's like they're on crack or something. the intro FEELS like crack. ALSO this theme, along with iris's theme, feel like a huge celebratory sendoff to the DS era of pokemon games. in fact, this theme references professor rowan's theme! in my whole pokeverse headcannon universe that nobody cares about, this theme perfectly aligns with the protagonist. i COULD go on a tangent as to why that is, but then i'd be getting off track. so i can't. FUCK. i remember when i replayed white 2 in 2020 and walked into route 23 i got jumpscared. those drums in the beginninig blew me away. like literally i flew away up into the air, above the clouds and into space, said hi to saturn and relished in this theme's optimism. this song makes me really happy.
also apparently this route theme got a smash remix? seems like they just made it faster and called it a day.
there's a lot of parallels between XY's routes and BW/BW'2s routes. doesn't this sound like route 23? the route i talked about above??? and they're both final route themes like That's Crazysauce. anyway this is another theme i wasn't made aware of until i replayed the game again! it's another upbeat final route theme, like route 23, how can i not love it? that's quite literally all there is to it. when i heard this theme, i thought about it for a while. i just couldn't get enough of it!! i really love it, that's all i have to say! you've just finished defeating team flare and are now headed straight towards the pokemon league. it's similar to BW2 in that the evil team has been defeated and you're all set to focus on becoming the champion. anyway WHY DOESN'T THIS ROUTE THEME HAVE MORE RECOGNITION. i desperately need more people to listen to XY's route themes. all of them are so good...
ok so this one's kind of funny. this isn'e necessarily one of my favorite route themes but the memories attached to it have forced me to put it on this list. when pokemon XY released, i got a copy of pokemon X while my brother got a copy of pokemon Y. for some ungodly reason, my brother decided to complete the national dex this generation. this theme plays for routes 4-7, and in route 7, (also known as riviere walk) the daycare resides. completing the national dex = LOTS OF BREEDING. i would hear this song constantly blasting from my brother's 3DS. and it didn't stop with the completion of the national dex, because after he completed it, he got really big on shiny hunting. which also required the daycare. most of the time, i was hearing either this theme or lumiose city. tbh kind of glorious. peak kalos nostalgia.
AND THAT'S ALL I GOT FOR TODAY!!!!! it's 10:00pm over here right now soooo goodnight everypony...
now let's all listen to what pokemon WISHES they had in their games