>>45067886The reason why the older games had a sense of adventure was because the devs actually focused on having solid region and level design. Regardless of whether you liked it or not, you cannot deny that the area design in the older games were significantly more involved than in Alola or Galar where 95% of the locations are just pretty hallways, and that's not even touching on the lack of any meaningful side areas or dungeons whatsoever. There's also the fact that characters in Gen 7 and 8 interrupt you every route and town, making your "adventure" feel more like a guided tour at best.
Yeah abstraction may have played some part into it, but abstraction alone didn't carry a sense of adventure in the older games, it was the presence of proper level and region design that played a huge part into it.
