>>40534880The fact that the planet has tons of water doesn't change that Hoenn has too much water. Humans live on land regardless of how much water there is on Earth.
Being the best-selling game on the GBA doesn't mean anything, it still sold less than its predecessors. That speaks more about the popularity of other GBA games than the popularity of RSE. DPPt also sold more then RSE- or, in other words, RSE are the first games in the series to sell less than their successors.
The Hoenn map sucks. Not only is there too much water, but even on land, it's nearly impossible to avoid wild pokémon while trying to go somewhere. Other games do this thing where as you progress through the game you get new abilities or items that removes roadblocks and let you travel between towns easily. In Kanto for example, once you've cleared the Team Rocket, you can easily travel between Cerulean, Saffron, Celadon, Vermilion and Lavender. In Hoenn it's impossible to get anywhere without going through grass, a forest, a cave or surfing. The only easily travel is between Verdanturf-Mauville-Slateport, and that still requires the bike to easily travel between Mauville and Slateport. What this all means is that the game feels like an adventure when playing through it once, but other than that every road feels like a pain to go through a second time and the game just isn't fun to be in; you'll likely not travel beyond what's necessary during a playthrough until you can just use Fly to get around.
