Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: kanto, Niantic, Niantic Labs, pokemon, pokemon go

Looking Ahead: Is Pokémon GO: Tour Johto Next For Niantic?

Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto has ended. It brought us Shiny Ditto, the first Masterwork Research that will award Shiny Mew, the introduction of non-villainous NPC battles, the largest set of Collection Challenges we've ever seen, and the Shiny release of every Kanto Pokémon that hasn't already had one. Now, this experience is being called some of the best events in Pokémon GO history. In our Bleeding Cool review, we compared it positively to 2020's remote GO Fest. Now, we Pokémon trainers are left to wonder… is this just the beginning? Will there be a Pokénon GO Tour: Johto in 2022?

This is purely theoretical, but I fully believe that we will see future Tour events based on the subsequent generations. Will it be an annual thing? It's impossible to say but it does seem like a good bet. An annual event with annual Masterwork Research would be a very clever way to release the Shiny forms of both unique Pokémon like Ditto (and Smeargle in Johto for example) and Mythicals like Mew.

The release of Shiny Celebi, which happened in December 2020 as part of a tie-in event to the upcoming Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, does make it seem like a similar event based around Johto would have less of an impact. However, all subsequent generations have Mythicals without Shinies released that would make terrific subjects for Masterwork Research.

Shinies aside, it would be nice to see Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto make an impact on the game beyond just similar events. The NPC battles were fantastic and would be welcome as a regular aspect of Pokémon GO. Also, the structure of the event being themed to the original game and anime's narrative rather than random typing parings was one of the main reasons the Kanto Tour was so much better than GO Fest.

What would you like to see in a potential Pokémon GO Tour: Johto? Let us know in the comments.

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