Arbitrary roadblocks

>They're there to ensure progression isn't monotonous
They're literally what makes the progression monotonous because I'm forced to go in a fucking straight line and do whatever X thing NPC wants me to do.

That's not what progression means and is a separate issue relating to GF's inability to do map design for the past ten+ years. If the areas you could explore were as varied and interesting as e.g. Chrono Trigger's then no one would complain about roadblocks. On the other hand even as a six year old I stalled during the part of Pokémon Gold where everything is the same level for like a third of the game.

>That's not what progression means
Yes it is.

>Chrono Trigger
Oh, it's this faggot again.

based

>Gyms prove that you have the strength and experience required
We don't need gyms for that lets us just battle the champion, if we lose oh well just gotta train more, simple, gyms are arbitrary and a waste of time.

No. Roadblocks are always bad.

Gen 1 and 2 still remain the peak of Pokémon.

In a JRPG, progression is about accumulating exp and levels. If you let the player progress their experience in any way they want, the level curve flattens. This creates a slow, monotonous, and uniform experience rather than an engaging one tailored specifically the skills and experience the player has at any given time. The solution is Game Freak actually bothering to design a game with real maps. Asking them merely to remove roadblocks is in effect asking them to make the game even easier and more blandly uniform.
If you prefer I could use any number of Dragon Quest games, but Chrono Trigger is the gold standard in terms of creating a sense of organic progression through compelling level design, scripted encounters, and a fully usable skillset (unlike e.g. FFVI which is more ambitious but has a lot of character/skills you'll never use as well as a disappointing final dungeon due to this precise issue of allowing the player to progress their experience freely).

I don't know, I'm just going off what the mood is when this shot gets posted on twitter or tumblr (or wherever) and most of the time it seems positive. Like gamefreak was in on the joke this one time, but I do occasionally see the ones who get mad at it, like "how dare gamefreak mock this!"

I've learned over the years there's people who do not like any 4th wall jokes at all. Even 1, no matter how innocent or tongue in cheek... just sets them off.

>implying gen 1 and 2 don't have roadblocks too
cope

>RBY is pretty lenient, surprisingly lets you skip a lot of gyms after Misty if you truly want, some people even go out of their way to beat Blaine before Sabrina
>2 tries to replicate this a bit by making Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce beatable in any order, but the level curve becomes an issue due to it. At the very least Kanto is mostly freeform with the exception of Blue needing to be done after the other seven
>Hoenn doesn't allow too much out of order shenanigans, maybe just Watson before Brawly, honestly can't remember how far the game lets you go
>later games find more ways to limit your progress and ask you play the game they way they want you to
We unironically need that flexibility to come back.

>In a JRPG, progression is about accumulating exp and levels
No, it's about literally progressing through the game you dumbfuck. That's what the word means. It may or may not include getting exp and levels.

>If you let the player progress their experience in any way they want, the level curve flattens
[citation needed]

>This creates a slow, monotonous, and uniform experience
The game is ALREADY a slow, monotonous and uniform experience because of the god awful balance where every single NPC battle is piss easy and involves doing nothing but clicking whatever your best move is ON TOP of not even being able to go where I want.

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They do, but they are kept to the minimum and feel organic and there is usually a reward behind them other than just getting let past, such as the Snorlax and Sudowoodo.

Why? The interesting thing about "open map" isn't doing the gyms out of order, it's having the ability to find more Pokemon earlier. The newest games do that way better even with the plot gating.

>implying gen 1 doesn't have level curve issues because of the non-linearity
It's actually much worse in Gen 1. Stop spreading this level curve meme.

>The newest games do that way better even with the plot gating.
No they don't.

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God Unova was truly awful

Unova is like 10 years old my dude

I would understand the complaints if that blocked you from a route where you could get new pokémon or something, but they're locking a post-game facility there.

You could make the same comparison to XY and Gen 2 would still win lmao

>honestly can't remember how far the game lets you go
You can beat Wallace (and whoever the Emerald replacement was) and Tate & Liza before Winona and even go all the way to the door leading to the Elite Four.

Wow Kalos really is the worst region damn

and it has to be post-game because......?

>seething unovabort bringing up Kalos outta nowhere

>Seething discordie brings up unova out of nowhere

It’s hilarious and anyone angry at it is just plain stupid

No objective reason, they just decided they wanted an extra challenge for after the league, that's it. I don't see anything wrong with it

You're completely illiterate. 'Progressing through the game' in the context of a JRPG is just an abstract and obfuscated way of saying accumulating experience to be intentionally unclear. The precise baseline way in which one progresses through a JRPG is by accumulating experience to overcome obstacles.
>If you let the player progress their experience in any way they want, the level curve flattens
Once again, illiterate. Have already mentioned the enormous stretches of Gen I and II where the level curve flattens out, and even given a non-Pokémon example in FFVI where the final dungeon has to accommodate the lowest level you can feasibly beat it. Even Chrono Trigger's final boss is a bit disappointing for this reason.
>the god awful balance where every single NPC battle is piss easy and involves doing nothing but clicking whatever your best move
Again you bring up issues unrelated to the roadblocks to distract from your lack of an argument.
>gif
Oh you're that weird discord genwar autist lmao
This. More interesting map design with more Pokémon. That's all that's necessary. People don't care about roadblocks in most JRPGs because the game design is built around progressing through maps linearly. That the roadblocks feel conspicuous in Pokémon is an indictment of GF's poor map design, not the roadblocks.

this is the most poetic thing in pokemon

Why can't it be accessible before post-game?

>feel organic
Gen 1 has a guy making you backtrack to Pallet town because he has a hangover that magically gets cured when you deliver Oak's parcel. Very organic.