>>46846052Games before Alola at least give the player agency in where they're going. Roadblocks never blocked off side paths and always blocked off entire areas that the player isn't equipped to go to yet.
Meanwhile Alola and Galar shove these in the player's face despite the next cutscene being a literal straight line away. It's grating and there are numerous instances like such on Akala where NPCs block off areas of the TOWN YOU'RE ALREADY IN just to make you go do some inconsequential exposition before you can finally explore.
It doesn't help that every single optional area in Alola requires you to backtrack after you've already done a pass through the entire region. There's no agency in that, it's just the game arbitrarily letting you go through when it decides it's time to do so even though places like Ten Karat Hill are perfectly manageable for even players that are in the area for the first time.
This is only further compounded when you have even more linear regions like Unova and Kalos that don't do any of that shit and have entire routes and towns that the player is able to progress through on the first time without any major fuss or roadblock. You'll never see side paths like Route 16/17/Lost Hotel/Lumiose/Dendemille or Lentimas/Reversal Mountain/Strange House/Undella again.
Jesus Christ you Alolasomes are grating. The entire gameplay formula is barely recognizable from SM to ORAS.
