What I got from the video was just how inspired by the Kansai region Gold and Silver were. It’s not just the map layout and the cities being analogues to real cities; it’s also things like certain Pokemon being inspired by the real animals of the region and only showing up in the Pokemon world in the same places they’d be found in Japan, or that the Ruins of Alph are directly inspired by real ruins in Japan that contained ancient mysterious murals depicting mythological creatures including a sun bird that is straight up Ho-oh. He’s talks a lot about the ruins and myths and how the Unown fit into it all, and about how the earlier games were more artistic and full of love for Japan and nature and stuff and not just geared towards selling games or catering to the competitive battling crowd. That last part is maybe more my interpretation of what he was saying.

I just spotted my first in person yesterday and I agree completely. My kid said “It’s shiny” and I said “Yeah, because the alternative to that is to be covered in rust”.