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It doesn't hint of "more area you don't get to explore yet". you get a quest to go there and the path to get there APPEARS.
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Namely, if I need you to come back to a location later 'cause there's something new to do there. I hate it to the extent that I don't use it in my games. I prefer the game not break my immersion by announcing, "You can't go here yet!". My opinion falls in line with as unpopular as it may be.
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I'd probably only do this once, though that's a lot of data to remember for the rest of the story if the player could do this every time. Cue them running back to find that the bad guys succeeded because they walked right past the seal like a bunch of idiots and gave them enough time to do the job. If they find the exit to the dungeon before the seal, there's nothing stopping them from just leaving and moving on to the next town.only for the characters to realize upon arriving at said town that they didn't find the seal. There was one idea I'm considering for my current game for a semi-roadblock, where at one point the player's going through a dungeon with the goal of stopping the bad guys from releasing one of the world's elemental seals. You can't pass" (another line from Pokemon Gen 5) without being given an actual reason.Īs a designer, I'd also prefer to just design my games in such a fashion that the roadblocks aren't strictly necessary (as in, the player won't find the place to move on until after they've done everything necessary to continue in the current area), but I'll admit that's a tall order if one's not going for an open world. That being said, I am mildly bothered if I'm just told "There's something ahead. "We're dancing for no reason! Someday, we'll disappear for no reason."). I also don't mind roadblocks played for absurd humor (for example, those dancing guys in Pokemon Gen 5. Like, if trying to leave the hub town of a dungeon crawler results in the player character wondering why they're leaving when they have unfinished business in-town. Like Fernyfer and Millennin I don't mind most roadblocks that are adequately explained. I've always felt that the 'frustrating' outweighs the 'tantalizing', personally, but the argument in favor of it is very reasonable. One of the most compelling arguments I heard was that the tease is actually a positive - the idea that it gives you a glimpse of something you'll get to explore later, and makes you look forward to it. A lot of players seem to be perfectly fine with dinky obstacles like fallen trees or party members saying "Eh, I don't want to go there yet". However, I've discussed this with other players and designers in another forum several years ago, and I remember my opinion was much less popular than I expected. In short, if you can see a place, you should be able to go to it. Therefore, I feel it's the best design practice to take any areas that you don't want the player going to yet and make them literally inaccessible - not by a dinky sign or fallen tree, but by something like an ocean, or an impassible mountain, or physical separation (like being on the other side of the continent in a game without a quick world map), or reasonable obstacle (think like an entire lava field or a rockfall that destroys half a mine or a truly behemoth monster) that would stop nearly the whole world's population from crossing the point, with the player learning an ability later on that can help them overcome the obstacle. If I as the player want to step foot somewhere, I feel the game owes me that opportunity, and should allow me to find a way to step foot in that place (without waiting for "when I'm allowed to" in an arbitrary 60-hour plot). I've always considered this strictly bad design - I feel it teases and then frustrates the player as they think they can visit an area that looks interesting, and then are promptly and arbitrarily denied that opportunity.