>>42510313It is a shame that something that really helps break up the monotony of battling has been essentially excised from the series. Puzzles were a really nice diversion from battling imo and yeah they weren't the greatest, wasn't some Prof. Layton levels of puzzles going on or Legend of Zelda spacial awareness going on but they were nice regardless.
Strength Puzzles I think were always a tried and true approach and had they expanded them so you were dealing with strength objects that weren't just 1x1 or 2x2 objects would've made it pretty interesting (like having logs that are 2x1 or objects with pointy out bits that give them an unusual shape). Ice Puzzles I'd also argue were really the cornerstone of the better gyms in the series, Pryce and Candice's gyms were really solid in how they used it as a physical puzzle.
Though I think the main thing that the series really lost, partly in Gen VI but especially in Gen VIII was the labyrinth dungeons, multi-floored dungeons with circular pathways, one-way passages and an abundance of dead ends are lost on the newer games. Gen VI and VII still had at least one each left (Terminus Cave & Vast Poni Canyon) but Gen VIII really was lacking for exploratory dungeons especially given how small the four actual dungeons (Weald, Mines & Tangle) were in comparison to Mt. Moon, Rock Tunnel, Seafoam Islands, Mt. Mortar, Whirl Islands, Union Cave, Mt. Pyre, Abandoned Ship, Granite Cave, Seafloor Cavern, Mt. Coronet, Wayward Cave, Iron Island, Mistralton Cave, Challenger's Cave, Giant Chasm & the first five Victory Roads.
