Mount abilities in a theoretical area without flying.

I've been having an idea hit me off and on for the last week or so that I thought I'd throw out there for your amusement.

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Imagine a small, contained series of zones set on an island, where flying mounts will never exist, and where, rather than unlocking the ability to ride your mounts, you are unlocking individual mounts from a select set.

Initially, much of the island would be off-limits to you, but the set of unlockable mounts would each feature different unique mount abilities that would allow them to traverse impassible types of terrain.

You would individual unlock mounts by doing quests and finding objects in different, initially unreachable parts of the island, unlocking one mount at a time.

Ideally, none of it would be linear, so the order you unlock your mounts in would be dictated by the order you prioritize them. There would be some early capacity to unlock individual mounts by taking very dangerous routes that would be made easier by having mounts with specific actions.

Examples:


Behemoth

If you unlock Behemoth, their mount ability would allow them to climb up sheer walls, taking you up cliffs to sections you can't reach from the starting side of the island. Behemoth's mount ability would also allow them to grip onto ceilings, crawling you upside down over certain obstacles like underground chasms, caves filled with aggro mobs that would kill you, or rivers of lava flowing through lava tubes leading to the other side of the island.

Tyrannosaur

Tyrannosaur would have the ability to bite sentry mobs, killing them instantly before they are able to call for help. A sentry would be a very high HP mob that calls down waves of aggro to kill whoever it detects after a short cast. While it's not the greatest movement ability, if you are worried about sneaking by sentries, having someone in your group who has unlocked Tyrannosaur would allow you to get through certain areas safely.

Black Chocobo

In treetop areas and in the upper mountains of the islands, there would be unstable aether currents a black chocobo could utilize to glide over gaps to set points nearby using the glide ability.

Ixion

On the thunder plains of the island, lightning strikes in random places, knocking down and dismounting adventurers within a five yalm radius, in the middle of a sea of deadly aggro. Ixion would be immune to such lightning strikes.

Ahriman

Ahriman can fly you through voidsent portals that take you to hidden parts of the island.

Adamantoise

Certain walls can be temporarily broken. Perhaps it is the will of the elementals that causes shattered stones to rise back into place after a short time, but those riding Adamantoise can use its mount ability to charge through and destroy such barricades.

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These are just a few examples. The point of such a zone would be to discover geography locked treasure. There would also be unique mounts that could be discovered on the island that would act as regular mounts in the rest of the game once you discover them.

Ideally the island would not require you to own every single mount to reach all of its secrets, but a good variety would be required for mastery of the island.