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3rd Gen Gymless

vaporeon7

My life would suck without you
    • 5,143
    Posts
    14
    Years
    Littleroot Town, Oldale Town, Slateport City, Lilycove City, Verdanturf Town, Fallarbor Town, Pacifidlog Town, and Ever Grande City

    What do all those Hoenn places have in common you ask? What do you mean you weren't going to ask D< All those places are settlements that don't have a gym. Hoenn has the most towns and cities that lack gyms with a total of nine. In contrast, all of Unova's towns and cities in the main story from Striaton City have gyms. So how did you feel about all these places without gyms? Did you feel it was pointless that you visited so many of these places? Do you think this should be done in future games, or would you prefer what Unova had with less gymless places? What would be the perfect gym to gymless ratio? I'm aware gymless isn't a word.

    Discuss

    [PokeCommunity.com] Gymless

    So Spiky~
     
    i actually liked that some places did not have gyms it kinda gave the player a bit of a break between the gyms and all those places had something to do in them
     
    Hoenn is my favourite precisely for that reason. I feel the generation overall has more character because of this. There was a lot more exploring to do and the game isn't linear.
     
    I loved having so many gymless towns- it made the region come alive a bit more and kind of gave the sense that there was more going on in the world beyond your personal badge quest. People were living their lives normally with the occasional disruption by some baddies. Life went on. You can easily imagine Hoenn as a whole just continuing on outside of your journey and the major plot events of RSE, and that makes it a very good world. Unova, by contrast- everything centres so much on the player that you can't really imagine anything else going on there. That's partially because of the constant gym cities and partially because of the linearity that Sonkitts touched on above.

    Linearity doesn't make for a good sense of world, if you know what I'm saying. Events coming one after another and being herded along by the plot without getting a chance to choose where you want to be- that doesn't really let you explore what the world around you actually is. In Hoenn you had a huge region to play in and you weren't very restricted. I mean you could save Peeko and get all the way to Route 110 without ever meeting Brawly or Steven (your plot advancement points). In Unova... you couldn't even get into Pinwheel Forest without defeating Lenora, meeting Burgh, and starting the Plasma thing. And then you weren't left alone until you got the Dragonite skull back. Such restricted pathways and forced plot advancement left little fun wandering time, which is what I feel Pokémon is more about. It's a journey, your personal journey. And there should be an element of player choice involved in it.

    So yeah, I think there should be more little towns that aren't focused on the main plot and more areas to explore without feeling obligated to do something. It gives a better sense of world, exploration, and choice.
     
    Thanks to the fact that Unova was basically designed around the player, it felt so dammed linear. Hoenn had more a sense of exploration, partly due to the towns with less gyms.
     
    Meh beats me.
    That's what's wrong with Unova, starting from Striaton City, every city/town you visit has gyms.
    Having gymless towns is cool, they give you time to train for the next gym. *Cough* Tate and Liza *Cough*
     
    EternallyAnna said:
    I loved having so many gymless towns- it made the region come alive a bit more and kind of gave the sense that there was more going on in the world beyond your personal badge quest. People were living their lives normally with the occasional disruption by some baddies. Life went on. You can easily imagine Hoenn as a whole just continuing on outside of your journey and the major plot events of RSE, and that makes it a very good world. Unova, by contrast- everything centres so much on the player that you can't really imagine anything else going on there. That's partially because of the constant gym cities and partially because of the linearity that Sonkitts touched on above.

    Linearity doesn't make for a good sense of world, if you know what I'm saying. Events coming one after another and being herded along by the plot without getting a chance to choose where you want to be- that doesn't really let you explore what the world around you actually is. In Hoenn you had a huge region to play in and you weren't very restricted. I mean you could save Peeko and get all the way to Route 110 without ever meeting Brawly or Steven (your plot advancement points). In Unova... you couldn't even get into Pinwheel Forest without defeating Lenora, meeting Burgh, and starting the Plasma thing. And then you weren't left alone until you got the Dragonite skull back. Such restricted pathways and forced plot advancement left little fun wandering time, which is what I feel Pokémon is more about. It's a journey, your personal journey. And there should be an element of player choice involved in it.

    So yeah, I think there should be more little towns that aren't focused on the main plot and more areas to explore without feeling obligated to do something. It gives a better sense of world, exploration, and choice.
    Click to expand...
    This. I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I don't think I can put it any more adequately than you did.
     
    It is one of the things that makes me love Hoenn so much.The gymless towns gives you a little break and a bit more grinding time without there being any real plots to the main storyline being involved.In the newer generations you really don't get any time alone, there's always some random person, your rival and the gym leader of the week forcing you into some plot advancements.But in Hoenn you're allowed to do a little exploring of your own without having to care about gyms, villainous teams etc.Also, most of the gymless towns have their own attractions so you can just enjoy the game without being bored.
     
    I felt that the number of Gymless towns and cities throughout Hoenn gave it a much more realistic feel, especially compared to somewhere like Unova (and it even happened as far back as Kanto, with Lavender/Pallet being the only Gymless towns).

    I think it gave a lot more character to the region, since you could go to a place like Slateport that still had a lot to do, but didn't need a Pokemon Gym to keep it lively. If we can see a return to this format in future games, I'd be quite pleased, as we shouldn't feel as we're being shoved through the story in one direction.
     
    This is one of the reason I love Hoenn/Gen III so much. The cities and towns without gyms give you more a chance to rest up between gym battles. It just makes sense that a trainer would do more than battle gym leaders all the time. If I were a trainer, I'd want to explore smaller towns in between the ones with gyms so I can train before my next battle similar to what Ash and his friends do in the anime. I've always wanted a game with more towns in between gym towns like in the anime. These towns in Hoenn made the region feel more real and not linear. One thing I didn't like about Unova was how linear the region was. There most cities with gyms in it and I fell like I was trudging along through each on forcefully.
     
    I thought the large amount of towns and cities without gyms was awesome. It really made the games go for longer and let you visit a lot more people in a lot more places. Unova was a great region, but it annoyed me on how little different places and how linear it was. I loved stopping off in places like Slateport City and just having a nice time instead of worrying about gym battles.
     
    it was a nice change to have gymless towns as it felt like it was the Anime,
    as Ash visits so many town with out a Gym. plus it gives you a chance to enjoy the region with out the story coming in to play.

    So yeah I enjoyed havibg Gymless towns in a whole.
     
    Tell you what, all these Gymless towns are etched to the fond memories of our minds when we play this game. They give you breathing space, yeah, but more importantly it feels more like a region. Lilycove, for example, a first look will tell you it's the most important port of Hoenn, apart from a Department Store, Master Contest Hall and the museum. But to your surprise : No gym! Even the Safari Zone is there. This tells you they became architectural genii when they made this region. Even Petalburg doesn't open it's Gym until later; which means that it's also a phantom Gymless town.

    Most importantly, it elongates the journey, and also removes that feeling like "it's just a stupid GBA world where we have to go and battle gyms to gain power and brainlessly go along to beat the league, and then all the fun's gone." This was ensured by Team Aqua and Magma, and a first-time good storyline and CONTESTS. Yeah. Good enough to be pseudo-gyms.
     
    I liked the gymless cities, they made the game feel more about adventure than just those badges. It made it feel like you had more places to go and more routes to get there, passing through a "pointless" town now and again.

    Honestly, I would love to see these types of towns in the future. They aren't pointless, they're adding to the world.
     
    I loved having the "gymless" towns. I don't like when I got to every city/town and I find out that there is a gym right away. I liked all of the gymless towns except for probably Ever grande City since it was pretty useless because all it had was a Pokemon Center, A Cave and The Pokemon League. Didn't feel like a city to me. I liked how they made most of the important towns gymless. Like Lilycove a city with a department store, a port and even the Safari Zone and Slateport City with an Outdoor Market, Museum, and a Port. Unova was a nice region but going to every town/city and finding out that there was a gym in every town disappointed me.
     
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