#zettel #gaming sourced from: [[GDC Meet 002 Outline]] # The Hoenn Pokemon games give you reasons to explore routes that lead to temporary dead ends, to show you that these routes will eventually connect to later parts in the game In Pokemon Ruby, [[Pokemon Sapphire]] and [[Pokemon Emerald]], theyer visits many routes that initially appear as dead ends, with perhaps some kind of notable quirk that might make them curious. Later, it's these quirks that allow the player to circle back to create a shortcut, thus linking the world together. This kind of reminds me of the entrance to Kraid in [[Super Metroid]], it's a similar design philosophy. ## Route 103 and Surf When you first go to Route 103, and met your rival for the first rival battle, you might think that the route is a dead end, and that there's a body of water nearby. When you get Surf, this path later acts as shortcut back to Mauville from Petalburg, thus expediting your progress towards the sixth gym in Fortree City. ## Route 116 and Rusturf Tunnel with Rock Smash The game sends the player out to Route 116 and Rusturf Tunnel to collect the Devon Goods from a Team Magma / Aqua grunt that has escaped there. they also put Mr. Briney and Peeko out there, and those two ar eyour ride to Dewford, so it makes sense to go out there anyway to get to the second gym. But assuming the captain and his Wingull aren't there, the game sends you down a dead end path that later with the assistance of the HM Rock Smash, links Verdanturf and Rustboro together, providing a quick shortcut between the Western and Central parts of the Hoenn region without the need to traverse the long way through Slateport and Dewford, which is instrumental in getting from the Lavaridge Gym to the Petalburg Gym. ## Mauville and Rock Smash AND Surf When you get to Mauville for the first time, you have a cross roads, and yet two directions are blocked off by two different HMs. you're not required to go through either of them, but the curious players might want to grind and train for the Mauville gym. In this case they might try to go North or East, only to be met with dead ends which will later be traversable. ## Slateport and Route 133 Careful players will note that Slateport connects with an Ocean route, you can later surf up and down this route to get to Pacifidlog Town.