Why are there so many sea routes in Hoenn?

Question

I noticed that there are often two or three routes filling the space between two cities. Why didn't they just have one long route? The Pokemon found in these routes are almost the same.

Comments

I think its because everytime you enter a route it loads the next one, and having one huge route could make the game lag or have to load longer for the route to appear. Also combining routes can cause confusion when  looking for items or people, maybe they wanted players to be able to find things more specifically.

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Can you add this as an answer? I like it better than the current answer.

Answer 1

I think its because everytime you enter a route it loads the next one, and having one huge route could make the game lag or have to load longer for the route to appear. Also combining routes can cause confusion when looking for items or people, maybe they wanted players to be able to find things more specifically.
commented Sep 2, 2015 by afsy
Can you add this as an answer? I like it better than the current answer.
commented Sep 4, 2015 by sumwun

Answer 2

The Hoenn Region is a island region with many sub islands, due to this it has an abundance of water which is why there are so many sea routes. The Hoenn Region is inspired by the real life Japanese island region Kyushu.

For more info: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Hoenn#Geography

Comments

there's also the whole land vs water theme for those games so having the map be about 50/50 for area makes sense

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But if that's the case, why does marine life lack diversity? Every route is 60% Tentacool, 35% Wingull, and 5% Pelipper. They should have at least come up with more Pokemon to be found by surfing.

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Because it was Gen III and they only had ~300 Pokémon, divided into a dozen or so types. Magikarp, Remoraid, and Luvdisc are usually reserved for fishing, as are Gyarados, Barboach, Whiscash and Octillery. Wooper and Quagsire are more marsh Pokémon, not sea Pokémon. Same with Lotad / Lombre. Marill / Azumarill are rabbits — land animals. Corphish is a lobster, which lives at the bottom of the water, so you wouldn't find that while Surfing. Clampearl, Gorebyss, Huntail, and Relicanth are all based on fish that live at the bottom of the sea. The Pokémon that you find regularly while Surfing — Tentacool, Tentacruel, Wailmer, Chinchou, Spheal, Sealeo, Wingull, Pelipper, Carvanha, and Sharpedo are all based on aquatic fauna that lives near the surface.

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But wailmer, spheal, and sharpedo are never found by surfing. (at least in gen 3)
Oh, and chinchou was based on an angler, which lives in deep oceans.

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Sorry… I've never actually played Gen III and I haven't played OR in months. You get my drift, though. There weren't enough Water-types to go araound.

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There are 46 water type Pokemon on the RSE Hoenn Pokedex. Also, Pokemon that live in grass aren't always grass type, so why do Pokemon living in water have to be water type?

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They couldve done it to make it more of a challenge, needing to constantly be on a surface where theres the possibility of an encounter

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Because Water-types are basically the only ones that swim? There are a few exceptions, like Stunfisk, but still. It wouldn't make sense to run into a wild Magcargo while Surfing.

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Yeah, and Ponyta don't burn the grass around them?

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Game Freak logic, man. Please stop arguing for the sake of arguing :|