I like alola as a region in that is has a lot of culture and

Each town barely has any enterable buildings and there aren't even that many towns
Dungeons are mostly tiny single paths or sometimes even non existent like the volcano area that warps you to the exit
Areas that look interesting on the map are either fucking nothing or inaccessible when you actually play the game

>>30740568
part of it is the decentralization of urban areas, part of it is the fact that there are like 4 cities in the entire game and one of them is fucking Po Town

Not counting Royal Avenue as a city

>>30740844
Even if you included Royal Avenue that still only makes it catch up to the amount of towns Kanto has.

Hell, Sevii has more routes than Alola.

>>30740568
Ironically, Melemele is my favourite, because even though its small, it isn't made smaller by transition screens and inaccessible areas.

>>30740568
Because you don't actually travel from island to island, you teleport everywhere

Because just about every route is a straight shot to the next area with side-grass-areas if you want to see the local pokemon
Because even surf-areas are tiny ponds instead of vast waterways

>there were people who were denying that Alola looked like a small region

When will the technological limitations be minimal enough to have cities and towns on the same scale as the anime and Lumiose City?

>But then the cities would be a pain to get through!!!!
The only problem with Lumiose was that it had no in-game map. Plus if you needed to go anywhere specific there were cabs and that lady from the press.

>>30741169
This. Every Route was a straight line with small areas to a side to make it seem larger.

Actually similar to Unova's problem where almost every Route was a paved road. But with less side areas.

>>30741213
I've literally seen someone say "does it feel like Alola is the biggest region even though its small?"

>>30740568
>Running from seafolk village to the battle tree only takes about a minute.
after you've cleared everything and use repels, sure

Yes, it's fucking small, but there is so much detail on the routes.
No, it doesn't totally make up for it, not in the slightest.

>>30740568
>Poni Island.
The "victory road" place was cool but everything else is so disappointing on that stupid island.

File: Sinnoh Gyms.png (31KB, 300x252px) Image search: [Google]

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This is one of the reasons I love Sinnoh

>>30742906
>>30742914
Really should be using the updated maps, though it doesn't change much besides add extra path to the Johto section

>>30742992
The Gym order doesn't change though

>>30743016
True. I just like when all the maps used are the "up to date" ones. More of a personal thing

>>30742906
You can actually do 7 before 5, or 7 between 5 and 6. I did it in Soul Silver.

>>30742880
You can do 4-7 in any order, with the exception that you must do 5 before you do 7.

not making the islands connectable with Surf is one of the greatest atrocities of gen 7

>>30743081
I regret doing Kanto's FRLG map because it isn't consistent with using the first map for each other region. Same with not using Sinnoh's actual Town Map.

>>30743104
>>30743135
A lot of the middle Gyms in Generations I-IV can be done in different orders.

>>30743197
I don't hate that, I hate how outside the first trio, we get no awesome sailing cutscenes. Hell, HGSS and BW2 had those and they were DS games. Now we just zoom in on a docked boat and fade to black. Lame.

>>30743217
Yeah. Though for the thread we do get the idea. Still, I also just have a bias for the town maps in HGSS, which looks fucking great

>>30743197
>Can't surf between islands
>The few water routes that exist are extremely tiny; the only one that's even remotely explorable is the bit on Melemele island, and even then it's still pretty small
>Can't dive underwater
>Don't get to explore exotic coral reefs or sunken ships, despite there being pokemon based on animals that live in coral reefs and a fucking sunken ship pokemon
>Fishing is ruined for no real reason, requiring you to go to specific spots to fish
>Since there's only one fishing rod, there's only one pool of pokemon, so the VAST majority of pokemon are garbage, leaving anything of interest ranging from 5% to 1%

I could go on but I'm just gonna stop myself right here.

>>30743394
Is this the FF13 of pokemon? Very pretty but lacking in almost every way.

>>30743429
As someone who hates Final Fantasy as a franchise, that's an insult to Final Fantasy.

I can't really think of a game that fails in as tremendous of a magnitude as Sun and Moon. It baffles me that there are people who can stand these fucking games.

>>30743429
It doesn't fail in every way, but it shits the bed just as much as it has standout moments. I can't imagine walhy anyone has this as the best games. Or the worst even. It is a rollercoaster of experiences that evens out at about B-.

>>30743544
>>30743476
The only big improvements I can name are the pager, pelago, and removing the circles that appear under pokemon in battle.
That last one really fucked with my OCD in every game until now, I'm so happy they're finally gone.

>>30743830
Like, it has a region where locations and NPCs have the basics if a lot of personality, but then makes the overworld small, disconnected and empty. Distinct looking towns with nothing in them. Cool SOS lore and horrible mechanics. Returning Join Avenue and making it a lot more obtuse.

Right next to the game doing something right is the game trying to make itself shit.

>>30740568
>running from seafolk village to the battle tree only takes about a minute
except it fucking doesn't?
unless you mean after you've cleared it and while using repels
in which case you could say the same thing about everywhere in every game

>>30741237
apparently, people complained about this with Morrowind and Oblivion.

>>30740568
Realistically though: would these islands be better if they were say... Doubled in size and more of the buildings were enterable?

>>30740568
The game is pretty fucking tiny. Remember the slog through mt.moon or trying to get through those fucking caves where articuno is having a picnic?

>>30740568
At least caves are simpler than ever to navigate through. Seriously, who even needed an Escape Rope for this game?

>>30744033
I argue Mt. Moon is terribly designed, it's fucking huge with nothing in it. Even the Seafoam Isles are better. The only place in the franchise that comes close might be Whirl Isles.

>>30744033
Man i remember fighting fifty zubats with the occasional paras, so much fun

>>30743964
>>30744033
At least it was a step up from Kalos.

Every region feels fucking tiny and flavorless after playing Black 2 though.

>>30742880
Everyone makes such a huge deal out of being technically able to skip Celadon Gym, even though the game forces you to clear a dungeon in that town to proceed with the story. It's really only Saffron City that you can do at your own leisure.

>>30744176
>>30744115
Not necessarily arguing it was good, I did specifically use the word 'slog' after all.

But these were very large areas in comparison. I will say it really did feel like a relief when you finally escaped. Unlike in sun/moon where you wonder if you were ever on a journey at all.

>>30740568
I didn't like that there wasn't a dungeon before the pokemon league, that was really disappointing.

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>>30744505
The Canyon was basically already it. But that was still a disappointment.

Also:
>Snowshrew and Vulpice shown early on
>hyped for major part of the game to be snowy, maybe a snow town
>nope it's just a two-room joke cave before the E4

>>30744176
You still fight a million shitmons in SM, so losing out on all the interesting dungeons didnt help at all

>>30744389
A region can feel tiny if it has a lot of nice locations and personality. Like Johto. Alola feels like a worse executed Johto.

>>30744545
Even worse, that is our Victory Road. At least Johto isnt the second worst VR anymore (as Sinnoh still has the worst)

>>30744426
I agree. It didnt help that I was excited for a nuber of places.
>Diglett TUnnel ends up being tiny
>Lush Jungle ends up being tiny
>Wela Volcano Park ends up being non existent
>we are only ever at the base of Brooklett Hill
>we dont explore much of Hano Grand Resort
>Mount Lanakila ends up being one ice cave followed by brown grass. No real snowy area

the overworld was a real disappointment

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>>30744389
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWvGkaoHavc

Unova was amazing.

>>30744559
>>30744628
Some more Alolan missteps:
1. The "spooky area" is just part of a really dumb linear trial. No Hex Maniacs or anything.
2. Can't go on the Golf Course.
3. Can't go in the Lighthouse, even though that would have been a really cool reward for going through the Machamp exit.
4. In general, the Machamp backtracking exits should have been more extensive and fun, like going back to find the Karate Master and get Tyrogue in Johto. I was hoping for some really big extra sections but they're usually just one room with a TM.

>>30744748
Oh, I was so disappointed that the secret Machamp exit did nothing but show just how small the region is as Konikoni is just a few feet away from Heahea. Felt like I was in Batman V Superman. 7 Generations and Glitter Lighthouse is still the only lighthouse we can extensively explore.

Also, all the Trials were linear. I was excited at the prospect of gym puzzles that took up a whole dungeon but they went backwards and made the dungeons smaller rather than the puzzles larger.

>>30744105
That's not really a compliment. Yeah, Sinnoh was too much. But Alola was not enough.

>>30744024
it's not as simple as making it larger, but more enterable buildings would greatly help Po Town and Paniola Town.

>>30744389
>At least it was a step up from Kalos
every fucking region is a step up from kalos.

I've been complaining about this since XY, since the series went 3D the scale has just felt off to me. Part of what ruins it for me is the constant loading gates you have to deal with, so it doesn't feel like one big open world to explore but a bunch of tiny levels

But having to model everything in 3D is obviously the biggest problem, its a lot harder to make the world expansive when you can't just lay down a bunch of tiles

>>30742924
>>30742949
>We'll never get maps like these again
>>30742975
>Maps like these are now the standard

>>30742949
i need to play platinum again

>>30746732
I hope the switch port fixes that.

>>30746812
I'm more apprehensive about the Switch port/the future Switch Pokemon. I don't think it's a problem of hardware-limitations but that they just don't know how to create worlds in a 3D space.

They better be partnering up with other Nintendo studios for the switch to the Switch, because hell, even Nintendo's borrowing staff from other departments for the new Zelda.

>>30740568
Alola's size is in line with other regions. It feels smaller because it's split in 4 submaps. You spli Hoenn or Sinnoh in 4 and you'll get the fame effect

Now, sonething truly dissapointing are mountains and dungeons

>In wela Volcano everytime you step inside the volcano, you just wrap to the exit
>Blush Mountain is grass and an observatory
>Mount Hokulani is just a road with grass on the side
>Mount Lanakila is the most dissapointing Victory Road ever

At least Vast Poni Canyon was nice

>>30740697
This desu
I like the way everything looks but there needs to be more to the towns and dungeons. I love Malie City and and Hau'Oli City but there's so many buildings that are just there. And that'd be fine, too, if there was more to see. Also, there's construction plots in each one. I assume they'll do something with them in Stars but as of right now there just big empty plots that just take up space for no reason.
What they had was really good, I just wish there was more of it.

Why can't any of you faggots learn the names of Alola places, I mean SERIOUSLY.

>>30746884
This desu. Vast Poni Canyon is the only dungeon in the entire game that feels like a proper dungeon. I came back to pokemon after being out since gen 4, and it might just be nostalgia, but I seem to remember most of the games having at least 4 or 5 decent-length dungeons.

>>30740568
Melemele is literally just a circle.

I have a feeling this has a lot to do with the removal of grid based movement, the upgrade of overworld models to full blown characters, and the 3DS's limitations. The combination of these things meant they had to cut down the size of the areas and on the number of areas themselves. If you brought back a grid, stuck in chibi models in place of the full size models and chibi sized the manmade objects too, that'd at least double the region size.

blame the 3ds