>>58480527No, Kalos is even more linear and you easily get overleveled with even the highest evolution level (64) being reached by the player most going out of their way to not overlevel. So clearly Unova being linear has nothing to do with it. Platinum also doesn't have this problem. RS has some high end evolution levels as well, notably Walrein and naturally the big fuck off dragon, and while the game is mostly linear in progression it has even more optional areas than BW. That leaves Johto and Kanto for the more non-linear titles and while they don't have many unusually high evolution levels, they have like three combined Pokemon that evolve above level 40 at all.
>>58480523It's more that grinding to that level that isn't fun, but as with most things in Johto if you just take your time with it it's not so bad. HGSS adding the gym leader rematches at least makes the grind actually fun.
>>58480593Sure, let's use over level 40 as that's on the high end
Gothorita/Duosion: Route 5 for pre-evo, Route 9 at the latest
Litwick: Celestial Tower
Elgyem:Celestial Tower
Golett: Dragonspiral Tower
Vanillish: Cold Storage at the earliest for pre-evo, Dragonspiral Tower at the latest
Fraxure: Mistralton Cave for pre-evo, Victory Road at the latest
Klang: Pre-evo at Chargestone Cave
Mienfoo: Dragonspiral Tower at the earliest
Deino: Victory Road, plus it's a pseudo-legendary so it was always going to evolve late
Pawniard: Route 9
Rufflet/Vullaby: Route 10
Larvesta: Route 18
On the other hand, we've got the also excessively linear Kalos only coming in at 3 new Pokemon that evolve over 40 (it probably has most of the ones that existed before too, given how bloated the Pokedex is). So it's not about how linear the game is, clearly, because BW is so excessive with it that other even more linear games like XY, SM, and SS don't have that many.
