Pokémon Gold and Silver explore the Johto region after Kanto.
Released for the Game Boy Color in Japan in 1999, Gold and Silver introduced Johto as the main setting and added 100 new Pokémon to the series. Players travel through Johto’s towns, routes, caves, and Gyms while pursuing Team Rocket and working toward the Pokémon League.
A distinctive feature of Gold and Silver is that the games also let players return to Kanto after completing the Johto League. This makes the games’ world substantially larger than the setting of Red and Green and gives the story a direct geographical and historical connection to the first generation.
Johto is inspired by the real-world Kansai region of Japan, while Kanto draws on Japan’s Kantō region. The names are therefore not arbitrary: both fictional regions reflect Japanese geography. Hoenn follows Johto in the release sequence, but it is the setting of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, not Gold and Silver.