>>38486553This is probably my least favorite Route in the series, or at least the worst *kind* of Route even if it's not the only one that does this. As a player who tries to fight every Trainer, talk to every NPC, get every item, et cetera, it's so much more interesting to go through a Route with proper map flow (obstacles to go around, maybe something of a maze, detours that loop back on the critical path, et cetera) than one where I just have to comb every screen-width segment top to bottom and then move east or west and repeat. The use of tall grass to cover *every single non-path tile* is also boring as all heck compared to creating deliberate detours with well-placed obstacles - sometimes, less is more. I just like having a purpose when I'm exploring (for example, this grass or this Trainer is blocking the path to the next Route, or the side path to that item over there) rather than a random sprawl of enemies to fight at once.
And for people who DON'T try to fight every Trainer... I suspect they find it equally boring - while navigating around a Trainer or facing the occasional forced one is theoretically its own kind of obstacle, you can literally just walk around anyone on this Route with no trouble.
It's the worst of both worlds and I can't see how anyone but people who don't actually like playing the game could derive pleasure from it? I mean, if you do like this style of Route, feel free to share your thoughts, but I'm definitely not a fan myself.
Please tell me this isn't what people want when they ask for "more open routes" for the sake of exploration. This is the single worst possible execution of such an idea and the least fun kind of map to explore. 
