>>45857162The rigidity of the story directly affected the the way progression works in the game. I get to Akala and I want to go east, but there's the girl with the Stoutland searching for items. I follow the simplistic story path instead until after the second trial. I'm able to loop back around, but now I can't go further east to the hotel because the Stoutland girl is blocking that. I can't go south to the cave because Olivia is blocking that and suggests I do Kiawe's trial. So I do the story stuff to that, return, and Olivia says to do Mallow's trial. I do the story stuff up through that, and Olivia says to check out the lab for fun. I do more story stuff and wow, Olivia has moved because now the story wants me to go to the cave. If you somehow managed to cheat your way past the Stoutland girl near the beginning before doing the second trial, Olivia is still blocking the way and even has dialogue telling you to try Lana's trial. The very FIRST time in the game where you can go ahead of the story comes after the cave, where you can approach the ruins instead of going to the next city, not that it does much. But I appreciated that. The entire first island was also a joke, with the Tauros blocking every path, Lillie and Hau calling you back if you wander away, the painted fences, and the fucking gall they had to force every player into what should have been a hidden optional area to find Nebby. Not only that, but you have Clippy on the bottom screen at all times with a map and goal marker while he repeats exactly where to go next.
I fucking hate it, this isn't fun. The best I can get out of this is Pokémon writing, and Pokémon writing will never measure up to other JRPGs. Why should the region exist in service of the story when the story is milquetoast? What happened to the way I played being the story?
