>>40274777When someone points there was no exploration in BW, that only confirms they haven't played the game and they've just seen an image of the map.
Game's main path is a line, yes. But you can use HMs to access various places you would normally skip because they are out of the path.
Just because a line is a wiggly line in other regions (Hoenn, Kalos, Alola mainly) that doesn't mean it's less linear. Unova actually favors exploration, as it's up to you for example, use Surf upstream a river to get to a cave where you can get Axew. There's no other way.
HMs in BW aren't mandatory except Cut at the beginning of the game to explain the player what a HM is. Other than that ALL HM usage is optional and ALL of them have a little reward. You can even go back to the first town and use HM to access a new place that you don't have to get into for anything (only in post-game anf if you want to do the "Sage-catching" side quest).
It's like Fuego Ironworks in Sinnoh, almost nobody knew it was there.
BW is the last game that rewarded exploration.
