>>56286108that's the problem with modern pokemon: anything that might be inconvenient for the player has been smoothed over in the name of "quality of life".
unlocking fly? nope, pause the game and teleport
getting the bike as a reward for exploring? nah, you just have it.
walking inside buildings? LOL it's just a menu.
we've come full circle; back in the days when RPGs were text only, people dreamed of walking around towns and going inside buildings, but hardware couldn't support it back in those days, because computers were relatively primitive. in 2024, the biggest RPG series on the planet has removed the ability to walk inside buildings because it's inconvenient to do so and takes tiktok brats away from catching pokemon and sweeping with their overlevelled starter.
yes, it is more convenient to have a pokecenter as an outdoor quick-heal and shop combo. yes, it is more convenient to make shops menus instead of interiors. yes, it is more convenient to give you faster movement, fast travel, day care, etc from the very start, but the tradeoff is *immersion*. the world design has never felt worse.
i never thought i'd say it, but *galar* had more immersive world design than paldea; at least galar let you go inside a few places.
everybody remembers kanto route 5, johto route 34, etc because the daycare is there; it's a major landmark and gives those routes something memorable; without it, they're straight lines with 0 personality(average galar route).
player inconvenience is okay as long as it serves a purpose; it's okay to make people wait to unlock things, or take a few extra seconds to interact with the world.
yes, this is a series about monsters, but the series isn't *just* monsters. the "*world of pokemon*" is a phrase in every game. the world should *feel like a world*.
i'll get a lot of hate for this but gen 2 is the most real feeling generation because of its day/night system, day of the week events, etc.
sorry for the rant.
