>>38625645People don't give the world map of Gen 1 enough credit because frankly it's a masterpiece. It's the perfect example of working around technical limitations. You'll notice that the world map is actually pretty small since it had to fit on a GameBoy cartridge, but they make it feel huge because of how they plan the layout. The cornerstone is how Saffron exists right in the middle as a hub linking the whole region, but the checkpoint guards who want drinks necessitate you to keep taking underground tunnels and other assorted detours to hop around the other cities surrounding it. This hides the actual small size of the game world from the player and allows the underpowered gameboy to present a "large: world to adventure through while simultaneously making the games linear progression appear no-linear, leading to a sense openness despite still being a single path.
