>>56875554the pokemon that need special mechanics to unlock need to be better than what you can catch by default to make the system work
i'll be the first to say sinnoh has a huge distribution problem, arguably worse than johto's, and the issue isn't so much that pokemon are hard to find but that the pokemon which are hard to find are not all that better than the ones that are easy to find. i'm not going to slather a honey tree to catch a cherubi or wait for the safari zone to give me carnivine when budew has been available since before the first badge and roserade is better than both.
that being said, i think this would be a good way to balance encounters if pokemon is to remain open world. it gives encounters natural progression again instead of an arbitrary "fuck you go get more badges".
