It's been a while, but I've been thinking about what Codraroll said about not giving the player enough choices some time ago and have come to somewhat agree, although my angle of reasoning is different.
I've been playing Zelda - Ocarina of Time recently, and there's a magic spell you can get pretty early that, while useful offensively and for some puzzles, isn't actually required until much later in the game. At the point you can learn it, you're advised to get it and where to find it exactly once. It's not that out of the way, you're sure to have run by the location earlier and you've just aquired the item necessary to access it. It's also pretty useful to have, being strong offensively. But at no point are you forced to make that trip if you don't feel like it and want to put it off until much later in the game, when you actually do need it.
Contrast that to everyone's favourite XY item, the Experience Share. Early game, Alexa, the NPC that gives it to you, has two functions: she acts as a roadblock to make you fight Viola, and rewards you with the Experience Share if you do. My problem here is that, seeing as how broken many perceive it to be, a lot of players won't even use it at all during their normal playthrough and will immediately turn it off. And yet it's still in your inventory, cluttering up your key items pocket along with so many other key items you never use. You not only have to go through the cutscene with Alexa everytime you play through the game, but even have to turn it off manually if you don't want to use it. The game forces the item on you even if you don't want it, and it's not even required for the game at all. Compare that to Din's Fire from Ocarina of Time, which you can get sooner or later, whenever you want and that's something that's necessary for beating the game.
Combined with so many other similar examples that not only take the 3DS out your hands everytime something "important" happens to decide for you, but slow down your play at the same time (looking at you catching tutorials), things like these just take the fun out of the games. And THAT is why the games seem to be focused on battling so much - it's the only part of the game where you can actually decide for yourself what you want to do.
To get back to the Experience Share for a second, they could have had Alexa walk up to the player when they try to enter the gym, tell them to come talk to her once they beat her sister, and take her usual place in front of the Santalune City exit after that to block anyone who tries to sequence break and not battle Viola. The player is given the choice now: Do I get the Experience Share now? Or do I just get it postgame when I actually want to use it? The player is encouraged to get the item, but they are never forced to.
Maybe that's just me, but with the game handing such powerful stuff to me without me even doing anything for it, I just feel babied. And if you think about it, the game does that a lot, forcing you to take certain routes, talk to certain people, watch a fucking catching tutorial everytime and all that. You're free to use whatever Pokemon you like with whatever combination of moves, ability, items and whatnot you can think of. That's in sharp contrast to the rest of the game, where your hand is held pretty much every step of the way.
I've been playing Zelda - Ocarina of Time recently, and there's a magic spell you can get pretty early that, while useful offensively and for some puzzles, isn't actually required until much later in the game. At the point you can learn it, you're advised to get it and where to find it exactly once. It's not that out of the way, you're sure to have run by the location earlier and you've just aquired the item necessary to access it. It's also pretty useful to have, being strong offensively. But at no point are you forced to make that trip if you don't feel like it and want to put it off until much later in the game, when you actually do need it.
Contrast that to everyone's favourite XY item, the Experience Share. Early game, Alexa, the NPC that gives it to you, has two functions: she acts as a roadblock to make you fight Viola, and rewards you with the Experience Share if you do. My problem here is that, seeing as how broken many perceive it to be, a lot of players won't even use it at all during their normal playthrough and will immediately turn it off. And yet it's still in your inventory, cluttering up your key items pocket along with so many other key items you never use. You not only have to go through the cutscene with Alexa everytime you play through the game, but even have to turn it off manually if you don't want to use it. The game forces the item on you even if you don't want it, and it's not even required for the game at all. Compare that to Din's Fire from Ocarina of Time, which you can get sooner or later, whenever you want and that's something that's necessary for beating the game.
Combined with so many other similar examples that not only take the 3DS out your hands everytime something "important" happens to decide for you, but slow down your play at the same time (looking at you catching tutorials), things like these just take the fun out of the games. And THAT is why the games seem to be focused on battling so much - it's the only part of the game where you can actually decide for yourself what you want to do.
To get back to the Experience Share for a second, they could have had Alexa walk up to the player when they try to enter the gym, tell them to come talk to her once they beat her sister, and take her usual place in front of the Santalune City exit after that to block anyone who tries to sequence break and not battle Viola. The player is given the choice now: Do I get the Experience Share now? Or do I just get it postgame when I actually want to use it? The player is encouraged to get the item, but they are never forced to.
Maybe that's just me, but with the game handing such powerful stuff to me without me even doing anything for it, I just feel babied. And if you think about it, the game does that a lot, forcing you to take certain routes, talk to certain people, watch a fucking catching tutorial everytime and all that. You're free to use whatever Pokemon you like with whatever combination of moves, ability, items and whatnot you can think of. That's in sharp contrast to the rest of the game, where your hand is held pretty much every step of the way.
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