>>47967318The argument of Unova being linear completely ignores every single side area that branches off into separate dungeons that are only shown on the map as the small green dots. Nearly every route has one and there's tons to do in almost every route of the game.
Kalos has some of these too, many of which being Surf-exclusive areas, but very few actual optional areas. There's the Lost Hotel's extra floors, Lumiose's Cafes, Sea Spirit's Den (one small cave for the legendary bird of choice), Terminus Cave, Kiloude City and Pokemon Village. I may be forgetting some but that's all I can come up with for optional areas.
For Black/White (ignoring BW2 for sake of argument), there's Abyssal Ruins, Challenger's Cave, Giant Chasm, Mistralton Cave, Anville Town, Village Bridge, Lacunosa Town, Undella Town, Abundant Shrine, Black City/White Forest, and the new areas of Dreamyard and Relic Castle.
The actual shape of the region has nothing to do with how much content is in the game, and you'd know that if you were to play it.
