>>51472869It seemed to be quite close to being added, then got cut last minute in favour of the National Park which contained Scyther and Pinsir. All the other Safari Zone encounters from Gen 1 could be found in the wild in Gen 2, so there was probably no reason for it to exist in GSC and thus removed entirely. There was no encounters programmed for the area but I believe it used one of the default fishing tables (fishing encounters in Gen 2 used a set of predefined tables), however I couldn't find the data for it anywhere. By the way, the Safari Zone music in Gen 1 was also the Evolution music, so that probably wasn't even a placeholder.
All in all, I'm glad we got the National Park over the Safari Zone, I'm sick of people crying about it. It's an extra location in Johto, it has possibly the best music in the entire series, and it has a unique and comfy minigame. I mean, if the Safari Zone was to stay in Gen 2, what encounters would it even have? Pretty much all 251 Pokémon can be caught in Gen 2 apart from the Kanto Starters, Legendary Birds, Mew + Mewtwo, Kabuto + Omanyte, and Celebi. Only thing I can come up with is the GS version exclusives, as a nice little postgame treat.
Gold would have Meowth, Vulpix, Ledyba, Delibird, Skarmory and Phanpy, Silver would have Mankey, Growlithe, Spinarak, Gligar, Mantine and Teddiursa, and Crystal would have Mankey, Vulpix, Mareep, Girafarig and Remoraid. Maybe Ledyba and Spinarak too to pad out the encounters. Hm, you know what, those options aren't too bad. They make up a surprisingly fitting roster for the Safari Zone.
