That comment about The Riddler having a hand in making these games, the puzzle ridiculousness didn’t stop there. Because there WAS a Riddler IN GAME.
On Route 110, on the end closest to Slateport, there was a house to the left of Cycling Road called the Trick House. Inside this house, an older man lived, who called himself the Trick Master.
This guy, upon walking in, seems invisible, but is just hiding. There are several random locations he can be hiding in, although these locations were set for everyone, but changed every time you returned. If you manage to find the man, he’ll then disappear into the deep pits of his hell house and say “COME FIND ME AT THE END” and then you had to traverse through eight different puzzles, each one unlocking after a new badge was obtained.
Now here’s where it gets crazier because three out of eight of these will require HMs. Puzzle #1 requires Cut. Puzzle #2 required Rock Smash, and #3 required Strength. But to make this WORSE, Rock Smash isn’t given to you by any significant character. It was given to you by an npc inside of a house in Mauville City on the southeast corner of the city. If you didn’t find him, you could never progress because Rock Smash is required to reach the next city, as well as many other locations, including Mirage Tower on Route 111.
And speaking of that neat but fucked up place! Another puzzle would be the return to Sky Pillar, and the visit to Mirage Tower. Mirage tower was Emerald only, but acted as training for Sky Pillar. Sky Pillar was a location in R/S/E where you could go to find Rayquaza at level 70 either post game (R/S) or after the Sootopolis Incident with Kyogre and Groudon (Emerald). Mirage Tower was a tower located on Route 111 that appeared only once in the game, the first time you visit it after getting the Goggles from your rival and friend.
Now what is so upsetting about these places? The fucking floors. At many segments throughout the towers’ floors have cracks in them. To get over them, you had to ride your Mach Bike at max speed and if you stopped, slowed down, or hit a wall while still on a cracked tile, you fell to the first (or previous) floor. The patterns and difficulty of each cracked floor increases as you go up. One example of this is the 2nd floor for Mirage Tower, which forces you to go through the whole room at max speed without stopping or else you failed, and requires sharp turns.
For Sky Pillar, well… look at this and tell me this isn’t the devil’s work.
YET ANOTHER PUZZLE! Was Shoal Cave. At predetermined times a day, every six hours (YES THIS STOPPED WORKING IF YOUR INTERNAL BATTERY STOPPED WORKING), the tide will shift. Because of this, half of the cave is unavailable during either time of this. If your schedule didn’t match up with the time frame, you’re SOL.
The entrance room at the different times.
AND FINALLY, FOR MY LAST INPUT! Remember how you needed both Relicanth and Wailord to get the Regis? Well that isn’t the whole of it. Routes 132, 133, and 134, where you go to GET to that place, were almost totally covered in tide tiles. Long story short, you had to Surf going west from Pacifilog and had to follow a very specific path which took several tries to remember. And if you failed to get the right path? YOU ENDED UP IN SLATEPORT! WHERE YOU HAD TO FLY ALL THE WAY BACK AND TRY AGAIN! Look at THIS shit and say that isn’t some Riddler shit.
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