>>34741546I'm unsure about it. I feel like a lot of the slightly more interesting characteristics of random encounters would be lost entirely. Things like honey on trees, stuff jumping from bushes or trashcans, the general risk of tall grass at earlier stages and during slogs, or deciding between the random encounter route or the trainer infested route. Those things have been integrated to the design of the games world.
I do, however, think a middle-ground can exist. Have signs of Pokemon in tall grass by showing them moving through it, but have them out in the open in larger, more exposed areas. In the water you only need silhouettes. And have rarer Pokemon with low spawn odds that behave differently. One type that flees, and requires being 'hunted', and the other that is aggressive and actually poses as a challenge like a better version of Totem pokemon.
The major issue that does arise from this is scale. Some pokemon are massive, and that needs to be acknowledged or you risk creating a dissonance between world and player. To do that, you need to create a larger space, which would also require being kinda bland to give room for these things to move around. And this would effect encounter quantity. Do you have some move in packs? How does that effect performance? Do you make a variety encounter the same space and have varied spawn odds? How does this effect immersion and enjoyment of exploring?
It's really not as simple as 'just put them there to be seen'.
