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How about instead of a full open-world Pokemon game, they just design one where the route system is done away with or widened and outside of towns/caves/forests/dungeons there's an actual sort of world or "Hyrule Field" Pokemon equivalent with lots to do. The game would largely still consist of point A to point B's (with some small potential for variation in gym order) but there would be 3 or 4 different ways of getting from each A to B.
I'm not saying bring back Kanto but to use it as an example, when you leave Pallet Town you can travel the well-beaten path, or you can travel through either of the expanses of trees each side of it to still get to Viridian City. You could even cut through the trees on one side to get straight to Route 22 and the encounter with Blue. You could go through Viridian Forest to get to Pewter City, or you could travel the equally tough mountainous paths on each side to get there instead. If there's still a set path through the game but with a few more sub-paths, you give people the illusion of true freedom while still letting Game Freak have full control over the levelling and difficulty curve (unlike with a true open world).
I dunno. Just something to think about, I guess.
