Road block just for road block's sake.

FakeNate0

FakeNate0

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    Road blocks are meant to keep the player from going into over leveled battles, but which one do you think was the most ridiculous 1? I'm going for b2w2's road block of NPCs "line of NPCs blocking the way to the post game area, just standing there just to stand there!"
     
    I think the guy investigating his own footprints in Hoenn, between Oldale Town and Route 102 before getting the Pokedex, has got to be up there somewhere.

    But the most annoying ones to me are the various "beat the first Gym Leader to pass" NPCs. A lot of the time, I want a wild Pokemon that lives in the next route to fight the gym leader in the first place, but these jerks won't let me catch it.
     
    Something recently occurred to me about the road block where Snorlax is just sleeping really hard. Theoretically, it would make sense to just chuck ultra balls at it until you catch it, so you can dominate the surrounding areas. This might actually be the most famous "No, Red, you're not supposed to go this way yet" in the main series.

    Most of the hardcore fans who talk about Red's team in Johto agree that Red specifically caught the Route 16 Snorlax, but I always caught the Route 12 Snorlax south of Lavender Town (since it's closer to Mr. Fuji's house). I once heard a theory that Lt. Surge purposely moved the Route 16 Snorlax in front of Diglett's cave between Gens 1 and 2, so people couldn't get a Diglett to solo his gym. This theory does not ruin my habit of rebelliously grabbing the Route 12 Snorlax. It only enhances it because it's funny that Lt. Surge would move Snorlax through three different towns just to be petty... or maybe he lost so many battles to a freshly caught Diglett, it broke him!

    I actually find the RSE version of the "Hey, you should challenge the first gym leader. Let me drag you over there like you're stupid." is with Norman. It's just the catching tutorial, but honestly, I forgot about it a couple times in recent memory and was like "Hey, I wonder what dialogue I can get at Wally's house!"

    This reminds me of another amusing point of contention. This guy in Pewter City drags you over to the museum, but there's nothing to do there unless you enter the back passage (which doesn't require money) to get the Old Amber and (I think) a move tutor. It's a waste of 50 Pokemon dollars, but I usually pay it anyway (unless it's a challenge run) cuz I like that there's a little girl who wants a Pikachu from her dad, and I like to head canon my player as flexing their Viridian Forest Pikachu at the little girl just to be a jerkface.

    The weirdest one for me is when you can't challenge Winona until you go meet Steven Stone and battle a Kecleon. I'm not even 100% sure what niche Kecleon has (since it has a useless version of Protean as its signature ability). To make this a bit more insulting, Steven immediately thereafter uses Fly to leave, and I'm like "Uh, yeah, that's what I was trying to do: use Fly outside of battle." In all honesty, I think Winona would be kind of tough (relatively speaking) for younger me if I immediately challenged her after reaching Fortree City. It's just kind of weird as someone who's played Gen 3 Hoenn so much.

    I know some of these are kind of tangentially, but I wasn't sure when I'd get to talk about some of them outside of this topic.
     
    There's something to be said about the RageCandyBar man in Mahogany Town. NOT ONLY does he try and sell you stuff, he also refuses to budge in HGSS even after he admits he has nothing more to sell you and no reason to move. Yes, it works, but it's pretty hilarious that this one guy stands in place for an entire third of the game to block you for no good reason.
    As an added bonus there's actually an extra NPC in front of Blackthorn who blocks you from entering without enough badges, but you would never see him because you can't access Blackthorn before Radio Tower.
     
    Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire's roadblock between Fortree City and Lilycove City. There's 2 reasons why it stands out so much to me: first of all it didn't exist in Ruby/Sapphire, they actually went through the effort of creating a NEW roadblock for no reason. And secondly the in-game reason given is just so bizarre: you get warned of some super-dangerous maze, ooooh spooky! But when you get there and it's just a straight road??? Well, OK, there's a bridge you have to cross in the middle and then a bit further you have a T-crossing, but that's very straight-forward, where did the maze go? When I first saw that roadblock I thought there was going to be something new that Ruby/Sapphire didn't have, but nope: just the normal road.
     
    GamerXYZ said:
    Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire's roadblock between Fortree City and Lilycove City. There's 2 reasons why it stands out so much to me: first of all it didn't exist in Ruby/Sapphire, they actually went through the effort of creating a NEW roadblock for no reason. And secondly the in-game reason given is just so bizarre: you get warned of some super-dangerous maze, ooooh spooky! But when you get there and it's just a straight road??? Well, OK, there's a bridge you have to cross in the middle and then a bit further you have a T-crossing, but that's very straight-forward, where did the maze go? When I first saw that roadblock I thought there was going to be something new that Ruby/Sapphire didn't have, but nope: just the normal road.
    Click to expand...
    I 100% do not remember this at all. I can't find anything about it on Google, and it's got me more than a little confused. I'm not calling you a liar, but I actually can't find anything about a maze between Fortree and Lilycove, at least not on Google. I did find on the Article for "Hoenn Route 120" on Bulbapedia that there's a new roadblock, but it's just a Bird Keeper who prevents you from progressing without the Feather Badge.
     
    Reginald Cosmic said:
    I 100% do not remember this at all. I can't find anything about it on Google, and it's got me more than a little confused. I'm not calling you a liar, but I actually can't find anything about a maze between Fortree and Lilycove, at least not on Google. I did find on the Article for "Hoenn Route 120" on Bulbapedia that there's a new roadblock, but it's just a Bird Keeper who prevents you from progressing without the Feather Badge.
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    Found it. See this video at 14:52 to see it in-game. Quoted the person blocking you below:
    Ahead waits a natural labyrinth, far more fearsome than this route. I'm afraid I can't let you pass if you're not at least as strong as Fortree's Gym Leader, Winona.
    Click to expand...
    Stops you at 04 on the map below. Likely refers to the section of tall grass just beyond. (Ignore all the different orange lines. Used the map from Bulbapedia.)

    [PokeCommunity.com] Road block just for road block's sake.

    Agrees on that being a pretty flimsy reason for stopping you. Just ran through a big patch of grass on Route 119 with the Mimic Kids and beat up an evil team at the Weather Institute.
     
    FakeNate0 said:
    Road blocks are meant to keep the player from going into over leveled battles, but which one do you think was the most ridiculous 1? I'm going for b2w2's road block of NPCs "line of NPCs blocking the way to the post game area, just standing there just to stand there!"
    Click to expand...
    To be fair, at least they were upfront and honest that they're just standing to block the player. I have a headcanon that they're facing in different directions because they were having lunch in Black City / White Forest and had to rush to their positions after hearing the unmistakable noise of the living WMDplayer destroying all the trainers in the area. Outside them, the most ridiculous roadblock I can remember are the various NPCs stopping you from going into parts of Lumiose City because of a "power outage" while you can clearly see other pedestrians walking in just fine and the power on behind them.
     
    Lysander said:
    I always enjoy seeing gifs of this 10/10 Pokémon X and Y road block on Twitter:

    [PokeCommunity.com] Road block just for road block's sake.
    Click to expand...
    To add insult to injury and make it a true 10/10 in lumiose city, show the gif when it's night time in the game. The lights are on and the NPCs still pass through. They should've just went with Clement's science experiment exploded in the plaza and or remodeling construction is underway, they still won't have an explanation why NPCs can still pass through the northern part of lumiose city and you can't. They should really fix this discrepancy in remakes or keep it in just for laughs for the "human player." Or simply put, construction worker's custom quote, "I'm not going to let you pass until you get 4 badges, all these other people obtained 4 badges." Or "I'm not going to let you pass because I don't like you."
     
    The main reason that the specific excuse is the blackout is so that the player's actions directly resolve the crisis as they visit the Power Plant just in time to then reenter Lumiose and battle Clemont. If it was just a failed science experiment, it would be resolved by sheer chance wholly unrelated to the player's actions. A similar complaint can be lodged towards the Sunyshore blackout as there is no apparent road work being done.
    It's hysterical that NPCs were not given alterate routing to walk around the blackout area instead of through, but it's also not a fault of the excuse in question
     
    My least favorite roadblock occurs at another point in Lumiose City, after the Power Plant has been cleared.

    When I returned to Lumiose, I wanted to explore the city in full. I was especially curious about the "members-only" clothing store and wanted to get started on earning style points to unlock it.

    But nope, the second worst "rival" in the franchise stops me and forces me to go with her to see the tower get lit up. It's especially annoying since a) this sad excuse for a carbon-based living organism has been annoying me with her infantile drivel - and latching on like a parasitic worm - for this entire game up to this point. It's not like a nameless NPC that I haven't interacted with is blocking me, it's a character that's already gotten under my skin during the game. And b) it's not like the city is blocked off anymore. It's a roadblock to force the player to watch a stupid and pointless cutscene that only wastes time.

    She and her posse of idiots do this elsewhere for time-wasting cutscenes, but I had very specific things I wanted to do and unlock in Lumiose, so this instance was especially egregious.
     
    In all honesty, I love the B2W2 dancing men. It's so shameless, and even as a younger player I knew exactly what the devs were up to. Gotta give them props.

    With that said, sometimes I do wonder why roadblocks are in place. I've got a Diamond playthrough on the go, and I remember the route below Hearthome is blocked off by a reporter; can't quite think of why that's the case, because the level curve isn't super severe there, and it'd open up Sinnoh for the player. I know Platinum is a bit looser in that you can battle Fantina straight away, whereas DP directs you through Hearthome to Solaceon, then Veilstone and then Pastoria.

    Special shout-out to the "cranky" old man in Kanto who won't let you leave Viridian.
     
    The we're standing here for some reason and we'll leave one day for some reason roadblock in b2w2. 👎
     
    I had a thought about the Snorlaxes in Kanto. It doesn't make sense why you can't just attack the Snorlax while it's asleep. I say this because I was doing a playthough of Blue the other day and after I woke the Snorlax up, I used Sleep Powder on it.
     
    giradialkia said:
    Special shout-out to the "cranky" old man in Kanto who won't let you leave Viridian.
    Click to expand...

    I love how oblivious I was to the real reason he was there as a kid. I only found out his true issue wasn't about coffee as a young adult.

    The dancing guys in Unova irritated me. It's like, "go take your dancing elsewhere!"
     
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