Why put the regions on Japan?

[1cec0ld]

When we started the Build Server, Kanto was at the far right, connected to Johto on its left. Logically, the next region in the series should go to the left of that, yeah? So we did that.
Once or twice we realized that we put the regions too close together, and had to move entire regions farther left, but it worked well enough.

Then, we were inspired by The PokeCraft Project.
They had a similar goal: build the Pokemon Games in Minecraft, so anyone could play on it. Their methods were different, scaling at 1:1, and mostly for exploration purposes. But most importantly, they mapped everything onto a giant island of Japan.

I was skeptical, but upon doing some research, realized it made sense. The creators of the first 4 regions clearly intended it that way, with the major cities even lining up with major Japanese cities.


The following image shows a fan-made rendition of what Japan would look like, with every location they believed would fit on it:



We haven't copied Sevii over yet, but the intention is to use the above image as a guide for future Japan-based work.