>>58279642Biggest issue with Johto is the faggot that blocks Ice Cave. Just because Masuda was so scared of having babies walk into the final area of the game before they're ready for it he blocks off Johto in a way that makes the game frustrating instead of as diverse and interesting as it could've been. If you removed that faggot and gave the opportunity to go to Blackthorn as early as you could, that would fix Johto tremendously. You don't even need to let the Gym be accessible, just the city so you can actually go down Route 45 as soon as possible. This would also allow the player to have a LOT more freedom in Johto and would remove two of the colors possible, streamlining the game to being actually open instead of the fake open that it is (there's no reason to do Pryce before Chuck/Jasmine as is)
I don't know why HGSS didn't fix this, routes 45/46 are one of the worst optional routes next to half of Hoenn (which is also a linear nightmare but better at masking it)
