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Despite the self insert complains, Crystal Clear is nice proof of concept that a non linear pokemon game is somewhat possible. Just the idea of exploring a region with no roadblocks, battling gyms in any order and that trainers will scale based on how many badges you have really encourages replayability. Also you still need to beat gyms to get HMs so you're not able to explore everything immediately.
Unlike main titles where you have to through the game the same way every time. I know you make a different team or do a nuzlocke but you know about everything is going happen and lack of openes makes it less fun. I myself rarely replay the games because of how predictable everything is. Also the fact that games uses the same story with different coat of paint or tries to raise the stakes with destroying the whole world or interdimensional stuff. Also when the game wants a more in depth story you're constantly stopped listening to a ton of dialouge and if you to replay the game you forcet to listen to it all again.
I'm not saying that pokemon can't have a plot, memorable characters or moments. But for me if you just want to beat the gyms and go straight to the leauge, you should able to do that. If you want more story and characters you can just explore the region and talk to people. More like the game has a story but if you don't care, you can just beat the gyms and go straight to leauge, it's more of an side quest. It could be like a normal ending and perfect ending if you go through the story. I know it sounds kind of sick that you don't want to stop the villains but the villians shouldn't superhero villian that can destroy the world anyway, but rather just make the region having trouble like Team Rocket. The biggest problem with all of this would be level scaling and that. I'm just so tired of this series about choices don't let choose how you want go through your adventure
