>>35137634There's a delicate balance between immersion and convenience. Neither are explicitly superior to the other, and it all comes down to what part of their brains people prefer to have stimulated when they play games. I feel like if there was no deep snow on that route, then sure it would feel less restraining and you could just blow through at your own pace, but then as a result, this perilous mountain summit is just covered in 2-inch-deep snow that some kid can frolic through with ease.
In Pokemon games, you can't interact with the environment as intimately as other games, it's not a game where the player can even get hurt, all you can really do is walk around, check things, and use HMs. So the game can't portray the danger or difficulty in a wordless way by throwing spikes everywhere, using dreaded ice physics, or making difficult platforming sections. The best they can really do is make everlasting hail deal chip damage to your team, and other than that, try to hinder the player in some way that subconsciously makes them think "man, this is a slog, this is a lot tougher than a leisurely walk in the field", hence where the deep snow physics come in, and I think it succeeds at doing that without it being a particularly harmful design decision. Slowing the player down but letting them retain complete control of themselves is far from the worst thing they could have done.
Remember Kalos Route 13? Even though it doesn't always lower your movement speed, it's muuuuuch more cumbersome and an actively offensive segment, because the wind isn't just influencing your movement, it's making it harder to avoid obstacles in real time, and in this case, it's wild Dugtrio that have a very high chance of not letting you escape due to a combination of their high speed and the possibility of carrying Arena Trap. It's a part where you're going to be thinking "this is bullshit" far more than "man, nature is to be feared". I'd gladly take deep snow over this shit any day.
