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Your Favorite Victory Road?

What's your favorite Victory Road?

  • Kanto (Gen I/III/VII)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Kanto (Gen II/IV)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hoenn

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • Sinnoh

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • Unova (B/W)

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • Unova (B2/W2)

    Votes: 4 26.7%
  • Kalos

    Votes: 4 26.7%
  • Alola

    Votes: 2 13.3%

  • Total voters
    15
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
24,025
Reaction score
48,980
Which Victory Road is the best one in your opinion? You can base your opinion on the design, the Trainers, the music, your own experiences, or any other factor you wish.

PS. Alola's Victory Road is Mount Lanakila.
 
I focus primarily on the design and atmosphere, so for me I'd have to choose B2W2, and it's not even really much of a contest. We get a much more varied mix of environments and colors - the hi-tech monochrome Badge Check entryway seated next to some dilapidated ruins that form a mini-maze, then a dark, torch-lit, flooded old castle basement, then a small green grove, and then the more warm-toned cliffside with a real sense of steepness to it, all in addition to some of the usual standard cave fare. The music is really good too (although I do think it was a slightly better fit the tone of BW's Victory Road). And all of this is even better coming in right on the heels of one of the best routes in the entire series.

To rank the rest:

2. Kalos - Based, fun and cool. Sizable, looks great, music is great, castle remnants are rad. I appreciate the use of hopping stones as a puzzle at one point to create problematic terrain without relying on HMs. You can also tell they're relishing in the 3D graphics with the perspectives used on the cliffsides. (Case examples: 1, 2, 3) I'll also never forget getting jumped by a Hydreigon from above once! (Bonus image: *drool*)

3. Unova BW - Unforgettable by virtue of the unique cliff-sliding mechanic and the pure, unfiltered kino of the musical buildup as you proceed through the Badge Check gates; the pinnacle of Black & White's dynamic music experiments. It doesn't even matter that the interior looks like a basic cave; those other elements handily make up for it. Bonus points for being preceded by Route 10. :bulbaLove:

4. Alola (kindly forget SM's unfinished beta version existed) - I'm not... ssssssssuper-keen on it all being a big ice cave, but it's also the only icy location in Alola, which gives it some distinction in the context of the actual game, as well as some encounters you won't have seen until now. It's not actually composed of very many chambers, but I always feel like there are more than there are, which I guess I credit to the layout choices. The music is pretty good, and I like the Necrozma encounter that occurs here.

5. Hoenn - Not actually much bigger than the Kanto Victory Road in terms of substance, and frankly I'm annoyed that Rock Smash is required, but in the remakes it has really good music and some extra visual flare which has never been afforded to Kanto's Victory Road, and I do like the elevation changes that are involved throughout it; the bridged levels and such. This is clearly the point at which they decided to start making Victory Roads feel more like a final dungeon.

6. Sinnoh - Even though it has Sinnoh's perennial HM overdose and I despise the music and think the visuals all look same-y and like actual mud, it's a decent-sized dungeon with a reason to come back to it in the post-game. So, this one's middle-of-the-road.

7. Kanto - A pretty average cave dungeon. It serves its purpose, but there's not much to be excited about here other than Moltres.

8. "Johto" - Okay so Victory Road being a completely empty abandoned version of the one from Gen 1/3 "because Silver already beat everyone" is dogshit; thank heavens there's the two routes leading up to it which serve as somewhat of a functional replacement.

9. Alola (SM original recipe) - staaaaahp with this "in-universe excuse for not even trying" business :bulbaFacepalm:

10. Galar - :bulbaFacepalm::bulbaFacepalm:
 
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I haven’t played most of the ones on the poll, so I’m just going to go with ORAS. It’s an okay challenge, as far as I’m aware, and the emotional fight at the end with Wally amongst those beautiful flowers cemented it in my memory.

Edit: Wait a minute, where’s Galar? I’m not going to vote for it, but I want to be comforted by the fact I can think that 4 trainers in a row, on a path smaller than most of the routes in the game, barren of any puzzles, and with no rivals, plot, or emotion is the best Pokémon victory road ever. /s
 
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Generally I'm not a fan of Victory Road because I just find them boring and sometimes a slog to get through. Though if I had to pick which one I like layout wise, then it'd be a tie between BW2 Unova and Kalos, because at least the layout/scenery varies and actually looks nice. And I really like the ancient castle/fortress-like ruins that Kalos' Victory Road has, I'm a sucker for stuff like that. ORAS's extra bit of greenery compared to the original RSE was nice too, but not enough for me to really like it more though.
 
That was the point of the joke I was making.
a “/s” at the end of a post indicates sarcasm
Oh. I didn't know what it meant.

Anyway, my favorite Victory Road is probably the one from Black 2/White 2 as well, due to how expansive it is. I also like how it incorporates the B/W Victory Road's exit into itself. Honorable mentions to the X/Y and US/UM Victory Roads.
 
As for Galar, I'm more than fine with the omission of Victory Road (not to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed some toothier environmental challenges elsewhere in the game, mind). Having the League situated out in the sticks makes sense for regions where battling feels more like a secondary pursuit rather than a way of life, but it's such a big social, cultural and economic deal in Galar that it wouldn't make sense to have it anywhere other than in the region's largest city, attracting the greatest crowds. Can't have travelling spectators disappearing down the gullet of a Steelix camped near the cave exit.
 
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I would have to say either Kalos or Unova (B2W2). Both aren't just caves and have beautiful outside sections. I am not a fan of caves and slogging through them is a chore especially when each three steps is a wild encounter if you don't use Max Repel. But I would really like to see a Victory Road completely outside. But not something like Alola's Victory Road. That was poor.
 
As for Galar, I'm more than fine with the omission of Victory Road (not to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed some toothier environmental challenges elsewhere in the game, mind). Having the League situated out in the sticks makes sense for regions where battling feels more like a secondary pursuit rather than a way of life, but it's such a big social, cultural and economic deal in Galar that it wouldn't make sense to have it anywhere other than in the region's largest city, attracting the greatest crowds. Can't have travelling spectators disappearing down the gullet of a Steelix camped near the cave exit.

Would that really be a factor though? Surely spectators already just rely on the rail system or the Flying Taxis to get to Wyndon, while only Trainers are obligated to take the icy path (there should have been like a certification booth or something though to confirm this; as it is, Route 10 feels like it's thrown in there just because they don't want it to be a complete wash). The icy path thus could have been more complex without impinging on spectators' accessibility to Wyndon, and I would think that a more challenging obstacle would ratchet up the tension for the viewers, too - "Will my favorite challenger be able to weather Victory Road?"
 
Would that really be a factor though? Surely spectators already just rely on the rail system or the Flying Taxis to get to Wyndon, while only Trainers are obligated to take the icy path (there should have been like a certification booth or something though to confirm this; as it is, Route 10 feels like it's thrown in there just because they don't want it to be a complete wash). The icy path thus could have been more complex without impinging on spectators' accessibility to Wyndon, and I would think that a more challenging obstacle would ratchet up the tension for the viewers, too - "Will my favorite challenger be able to weather Victory Road?"

That would work just fine, too. I guess 'challenging area' is a difficult vibe to convey in SwSh given that all the wild encounters themselves can be avoided in the overworld, but you could lengthen the area and pack it with puzzles and fellow badge-holders - or, if you wanted to world-build a little more, it could be teeming with League staff deliberately placed there (with the added bonus that you would feel like you already have previous with Macro Cosmos' mini-horde when you reach them).

The more I reflect on it, Victory Road is a slightly strange concept in the first instance, because it is ultimately just another dungeon filled with trainers, and that feels like a slight deflation after many of the larger-than-life, hyped-up eighth gym leaders. I suppose it's a limitation of the entire format; you need something to punctuate the space between the gym challenge and the Elite Four, because otherwise it's just a sequence of trainer battles... but by the logic of the world, surely no one expects yet another cave to be a challenge for someone who just beat Giovanni?
 
I'll go with the Sinnoh one. I don't enjoy its music theme at all, but I love its maze of waterfalls and the fact it has a post-game section (even though I rather dislike that random Collector blocking it until you beat Cynthia). I also like the Hoenn, Kalos and B2/W2 Unova versions. The rest are rather dull, though.
 
Still doesn't count as a Victory Road.

I mean, technically, Mount Lanakila isn't a Victory Road either, since it isn't called as such (Unlike the first six generations). So if Route 10 doesn't count, so doesn't Mount Lanakila, since there is also the thing that you can acces it before the third grand trial in USUM, while you can't acces the Victory Road (Or route 10 in Galar for that matter), after completing all the gyms.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
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