>>36769643Well, it DOES feel much different being blocked by nature itself than by some random dude.
But more than that, what matters is WHERE that block is placed. BW's way of putting keys and their respective locks right next to each other just completely removed any player agency. You had no room to choose or make mistakes, if you went even one comma out of script, the game goes out of its way to stop you and force you into the "right" path.
>And you also wouldn't have any reason to advance as far as Saffron City while skipping literally every gym and Team Rocket fightI actually did that back in 2000. I had a choice between exploring the scary hideout or trying out that schoolyard advice about buying fresh water. t went with the latter and got myself a hitmonchan ahead of time (which I procceeded to use exactly once)
>Also, you wouldn't be able to face Team Rocket in Johto with a team of level 20s like you'd have after winning the Fog BadgeHaha nope. Have you forgotten Johto's level scaling? The highest level in that place is 25, that being a murkrow with peck and pursuit. Morty is a harder fight than anything in the Rocket HQ.
And while we're at it, even though the game leads you to Olivine before Mahogany, Jasmine's levels are HIGHER than Pryce's, so there's no real advantage about which way you choose to go first. And even if there was, if the player can choose and overcome the harder option that's entirely on them and there's no reason to punish or restrict them.
Up to Ecruteak, GSC is entirely linear (Falkner to remove an NPC, Bugsy for cut, Whitney for sudowoodo), but once you set foot on Ectruteak and beat Morty, you're free to go anywhere for a long time (you could technically get to Olivine and climb the Lighthouse first but you'd need to backtrack anyway), it doesn't bottleneck until you want to free the Radio Tower/fight Claire which won't happen until you get all other 7 badges.
