>>37743491Why would I imagine that when it's not something that makes sense for this series?
There is nothing wrong with having Routes, they just need to be way more open for exploration and there should also be winding dungeons beyond the very basics. Mt. Mortar was a great example of this. There was a basically straight path both inside and out but plenty to find inside and nearby if you care to.
A game doesn't need to be a giant square to be open world. Open world is a design philosophy which can encompass the actual map but doesn't need to. Gen 1 and 2 openness was just fine save them not having shit like level flags to force level everything based on badges obtained.
So you, say, get to Mt. Silver having everything in the cave be Level 80 or so and level 75 outside rather than 40 - 50-ish.
