• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Most annoying regional layouts in any game?

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
I don't really remember his gym so well in OR/AS but the fracturing ice puzzle in Emerald (and I believe Ruby/Sapphire if I remember correctly) was great. It forced you to plan your route out in advance but if you thought it through for a minute it wasn't hard to find the right path.

The holes in the floor in the interior of Mt. Pyre and the Sky Tower too. I think there was a silly and untrue rumour back then that if you fell down even one of the holes, your save would be deleted and you'd have to start a new game all over again.
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
The holes in the floor in the interior of Mt. Pyre and the Sky Tower too. I think there was a silly and untrue rumour back then that if you fell down even one of the holes, your save would be deleted and you'd have to start a new game all over again.
I wasn't a huge fan of these puzzles as much because timing was also an issue with them, as you needed to be going full speed on a Mach Bike and still make sharp turns that were delayed by a square. I doubt I'd have as much of a problem with them now as I did back them but 11 year old me was very frustrated by them, and I recall it taking me over an hour to clear the Sky Pillar in my first playthrough simply because I couldn't get the hang of the timing of the pitfall puzzles.
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
Is this about having the worst layout or the most difficult to navigate? Because if it's the former, then Galar 100%.

I would say it's even worse than 1st Gen. It felt like nearly the entire region was made up of corridors with someone stopping you every 4 seconds.
The wild area being the exception, but at the same time it was so empty, ugly and boring with barely anything to do other than fight dynamax pokemon. Overall, the very narrow routes just killed most of the game's exploration, which to me is essential for rpgs, especially when it comes to world building.

Now if it's just the hardest to navigate, then Hoenn, since you need a lot of HMs, there are lots of water routes and the map doesn't help you that much.
Still if you have beaten the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire story it's a good idea to have Latios/Latias and the Eon FLute to travel around most of those HM obstacles on the overworld.
 

Orphalesion

Well-Known Member
There's ways to salvage it by filling the area with more islands and landmarks instead of making it giant empty sea, but aside from that, again it's more an issue with random encounters. If you can see and avoid the wild Pokemon swimming around instead of being forcibly ambushed by them, it becomes MUCH easier to traverse.
I agree with this. The bad thing about water routes isn't the surfing itself, it's the constant barrage of wild Pokemon. Plus, as a kid I didn't understand how repel works, so I had to fight through all those wild Pokemon. And if I remember correctly they were all just Wingulls and Tentacools. Yuk!

If they like overhauled the water routes so that they are more like land routes where you can avoid the wild Pokemon, it would have been a lot better.
Like, they could have made it so that in Hoenn you only encounter Pokemon in "kelp forests" (you know like patches of water with a lot of kelp and seaweed in it, like they appeared on some dive routes. Kelp is often big enough to reach up to the surface). You'd be able to see the top of the kelp drifting in the water and avoid it, like you avoid tall grass. And the open sea would either have been without Pokemon, or would only have had very few encounters.
It owuld have also helped if there had been more species of Pokemon you can encounter by surfing.
 
Last edited:

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
I wasn't a huge fan of these puzzles as much because timing was also an issue with them, as you needed to be going full speed on a Mach Bike and still make sharp turns that were delayed by a square. I doubt I'd have as much of a problem with them now as I did back them but 11 year old me was very frustrated by them, and I recall it taking me over an hour to clear the Sky Pillar in my first playthrough simply because I couldn't get the hang of the timing of the pitfall puzzles.
I've seen much worse levels when it comes to timing than those Mach Bike puzzles. Like, play any linear Mario game and the Mach Bike puzzles in RSE feel like a cakewalk. Plus all the areas they're used in are optional, so it feels appropriate to have a tough puzzle to reach the rewards they're hiding.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
I've seen much worse levels when it comes to timing than those Mach Bike puzzles. Like, play any linear Mario game and the Mach Bike puzzles in RSE feel like a cakewalk. Plus all the areas they're used in are optional, so it feels appropriate to have a tough puzzle to reach the rewards they're hiding.

There were also some parts in the Sinnoh games where you had to change your bike's gear to get up those muddy slopes, or ride on the Cycling Road. What's annoying there is that if you accidentally venture onto the Cycling Road and end up at the bottom, you can't go back up since it's one-way only, which means you have to go all the way around the mountain back to Hearthome City. It's not too much of a problem if you have Fly, though.

Sinnoh was probably one of the harder regions to traverse because of all the mountains and water (though it's nowhere near Hoenn's level), and the sheer number of HMs needed to get to certain places, like that lake near Snowpoint City. They might probably take the Let's Go route with BD/SP and do away with HMs all together, instead using something like the Poké Rides.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Kanto because it's so boring to explore and Hoenn because of the vast ocean on the eastern part of the region. Also Kalos was confusing to me back when I first played X because the region was weirdly shaped and I got lost tons of times lol.

I don't think I got lost in Kalos too much when I played X, but Lumiose City was pretty tricky to get around the first few times. Maybe because A) it was the first proper "big" city in a Pokémon game, B) it goes all around in a circle, C) the blackout that happens when you first arrive there, and D) I was usually used to rather small, linear cities that were easier to traverse.
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
I don't think I got lost in Kalos too much when I played X, but Lumiose City was pretty tricky to get around the first few times. Maybe because A) it was the first proper "big" city in a Pokémon game, B) it goes all around in a circle, C) the blackout that happens when you first arrive there, and D) I was usually used to rather small, linear cities that were easier to traverse.
It also had a dreaded glitch when the game was new. It could softlock or ruin your save. Nintendo even supplied a map because of it before it was patched.

 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
If I remember correctly, isn't the reason why all the pre-Gen 5 cities are so linear is because they're based on the Japanese street system?
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
If I remember correctly, isn't the reason why all the pre-Gen 5 cities are so linear is because they're based on the Japanese street system?
Yeah most of them are very linear. You could still challenge some of Gen 1 and 2 Gym out of order for before tackling Saffron if you feel you aren't ready.
Later game tried to limit this

Gen 3: The big ammount of moves being used in Gen 3 are conveniently unavailable without progressing the story so you can only use the current HM moves you have so you can't do gyms in random order.

Gen 4: Fantina and Hearthome City are encountered Gym early, 3rd City after you beat Gardenia in Diamond/Pearl. But the game circumvents this by saying Fantina isn't home and she doesn't return before you defeat Maylene 3rd Gym Leader and Crasher Wake 4th. What cruel and evil joke.
In Platinum you get to fight her earlier as the 3rd but her gym was buffed with her Mismagius to compensate for this but you need to be prepared.
 
Last edited:

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
I hated climbing Mt Cornet to reach Spear Pillar and then battling Cyrus which is a total nightmare as the Pokémon you actually have that are best suited for battling him are most likely in the PC because they can’t learn all of the HMs necessary to reach the summit and even if you do, you’re stuck with Rock Smash which doesn’t do much damage and Strength which is okay but can’t cause a lot of damage from being a STAB super effective hit since it is a Normal type attack. And Surf hardly does a thing to his Gyrados.
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
I hated climbing Mt Cornet to reach Spear Pillar and then battling Cyrus which is a total nightmare as the Pokémon you actually have that are best suited for battling him are most likely in the PC because they can’t learn all of the HMs necessary to reach the summit and even if you do, you’re stuck with Rock Smash which doesn’t do much damage and Strength which is okay but can’t cause a lot of damage from being a STAB super effective hit since it is a Normal type attack. And Surf hardly does a thing to his Gyrados.
Thats why Generation 8 PC Box Link is a must have if the Distortion World and HM Moves return. Then you just switch out what you need for the fight.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I hated climbing Mt Cornet to reach Spear Pillar and then battling Cyrus which is a total nightmare as the Pokémon you actually have that are best suited for battling him are most likely in the PC because they can’t learn all of the HMs necessary to reach the summit and even if you do, you’re stuck with Rock Smash which doesn’t do much damage and Strength which is okay but can’t cause a lot of damage from being a STAB super effective hit since it is a Normal type attack. And Surf hardly does a thing to his Gyrados.
I remember always having a hard time arranging my team for that part of the games since I didn't have any Pokemon on my main team that knew Rock Smash and Rock Climb, and the idea of teaching those moves to an "HM slave" irked me since it meant that one of my battler Pokemon would have to stay behind to make room.
 

janejane6178

Kaleido Star FOREVER in my heart <3
For me annoying layout means a linear, simple, and un explorable. Which is the description of Galar. Wins even alola in that department:)
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
For me annoying layout means a linear, simple, and un explorable. Which is the description of Galar. Wins even alola in that department:)
My concept is both confusing and annoying

Distortion World is good example version complex with HM moves. But the first time i encountered route 5 in Alola i was perplexed. That windy figure 8 pattern and if you fly there you realize that Lush Jungle is only connected through one of those hills that can only jump over from one side in the northern corner. The only way to reach Lush Jungle is from the pokecenter, up the street and next to the fossil restoring place and flying to Route 5. The only good purpose it has is a a connection point to Brooklet Hill to the west.
 
Last edited:

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Gen 3: The big ammount of moves being used in Gen 3 are conveniently unavailable without progressing the story so you can only use the current HM moves you have so you can't do gyms in random order.

In the original R/S, you could theoretically get past the guards at the Ever Grande League without having Winona's badge, although this was fixed in Emerald and OR/AS.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Sabrina’s Gym layout in all of the games it appeared in other than LGPE was just awful. The warp panels aren’t the problem. It’s the fact that on GB and GBA hardware several of the separate rooms look identical and even trying to memorize the panel set up by looking how close or far apart they were there was no way of letting you know that you’ve already been to that section. It all looks the same!
 
Top