>>32092928Being fair, there are cases when its alright, like when its directly related to the game's main plot (read: the evil team shenanigans), you are killing two birds with the same stone there
I was thinking about an example of how i would have done this to improve the game, i remembered how you had to go all the way to Celestial Tower just to get Skyla and later fight her gym
Here is how i would have done this, have her in the gym when you get there, you fight her, win the badge, them she tells you about the tower and invites you to meet her there, the player can either go to the tower and meet her there or move on with the journey (she will just stand there the whole time if that matters), if you want to go one step beyond you can bring back the following trainer feature from gen 4 and have the player fighting the way to the top with her (otherwise just have her at the top the whole time), after reaching the top you have some dialogue about the tower and, as a memento, she gives you sharp beak (she already gave you the TM after the gym battle)
The gym leader still participates, the game became less linear, the player will be rewarded for bothering with the optional feature, the player will have the choice to explore the location or not and (if the gen 4 feature is back) you have a proper way of growing closer to the character, of course this is one example
