>>46213617>b-b-but these areas!!Sure, just like SWSH has boundaries in East Lake Axewell, Hammerlocke Hills, the Giant's Cap, Route 7, Route 8, Route 9, Glimwood Tangle, Galar Mine #2, Slumbering Weald, Motostoke Outskirts, Motostoke Proper, and Stow-On-Side that are not only completely optional, but easily missable unless you go out of your way to see them be it after you get the bike upgrade or whatever.
Yet no one dares praise SWSH, do you know why? Because even though I can list a couple dozen areas with substantial items or side content, the fact remains that all of them are shit and the way they're integrated is so poorly that they are the exception and not the rule.
Alola is the same exact shit. Just because you shit your pants and started listing every little area you could stretch that the game doesn't explicitly railroad you through doesn't change the fact that the game practically railroads you through it anyway.
You literally cannot praise Alola without also praising Galar since they do the same exact shit throughout the campaign. NONE of these locations matter if the player is strung along to the point where it feels like a chore to go out of the beaten path because the entirety of the game has beaten it into you that you'll be punished for doing so.
The player NEVER gets the same agency that they had in Gens 6 and below. You could argue the railroading started in Platinum but that's still neglecting how there were large segments of the game that the player could go without any major interactions even all the way up until ORAS. You were never "authorized" to go places like you are in Alola and Galar. If there was an obstacle, it was something the player had direct control of which at the very least still made it feel somewhat rewarding to unlock a new area.
Alola will never not be nu-Pokemon and you will never be a real woman no matter how many times you try and defend its complete shift in gameplay.
