>>37048457Character design, be it human or Pokémon, is all aesthetic. Same with music. It's important to have it good, and you can say something looks and sounds good, but that doesn't make it good.
Level design is extremely important in a JRPG. It determines the overall feeling of playing the game along with the battle system. In Johto, you never had to go to Dark Cave, Sprout Tower, the second half of Union Cave, the Whirl Islands (except in SS), the Tin Tower (except in HG), the Burned Tower, Mt. Mortar, Route 45, Route 46, etc.
These are all optional areas, and the player is rewarded for going out of their way to explore them. You'll be able to get Gastly early, or trade a Bellsprout for an early Onix, or get Raikou, Entei, and Suicune to start roaming, or find Dunsparce and later Wobbuffet, or find Jigglypuff, Skarmory, or Gligar, or Lapras, or find Ho-Oh and Lugia. And it's not even just Pokémon, but also items, TMs, Trainers, and even NPCs like the days of the week siblings. And finding all this on your own makes you feel like it's your adventure, like you're finding these cool things because your curiosity was rewarded over somebody who only ever did the bare minimum. But optional content feels like an afterthought in recent games, and post-game counts as optional content.
