>>51741369>The entire desert area on the third island is optional.That "desert area" was awful, it was Turnback Cave 2, there was nothing to actually explore, you were just coinflipping on near identical screens till you got an item.
>So is the graveyard area on the first islandWhich was also tiny.
Both of these are a far cry from things like
>the extended surf path of route 1 >all of desert resort >Anville Town>Lostlorn Forest>Moor of Icirrus>that spooky house in bw2>that secret area from the Castelia sewers>the ruins under Driftviel with the optional Volcarona bossfight>Mistralton cave with Axew>that one postgame cave with the stupid strong veteran trainersAll of these available during the main story aside from the last example, the list gets bigger when you factor in postgame, though I guess that's all optional. So that gives you
>the entire second half of Unova + Black City/Treehollow versus...
>one route off Poni Island + Battle Tree 