>>43369764>>43369618I don't think so. The Pokemon main series game are built to ensure that the fundamental baseline content can be easily digested at the skill floor and that the campaign can easily be completed by as many people as possible.
The Wild Area doesn't seem like a weak or beta attempt at an open world, but as a compromise between what some old fans have clamored for and the core design. We've seen a free camera asked for for a while as well as some exploration. These things would warrant heavier path divergence, and building layout/orientation changes to have a point. Unfortunately, the result of this could be muddling some players. Instead of integrating those things directly, GF relegated them to the Wild Area and made the content mostly optional to limit snags. The Critical Path of the game does not necessitate going to the Wild Area often, and the two times it is necessary illustrate that the layout is deliberately set so each destination is explicitly northward and prominent.
While we might see a bit of an expansion to the concept, I don't believe that it will necessarily be to the ends of having true Open World gameplay. We might get a hint of what an expanded exploration focus looks like with the Crown Tundra's Wild Area towards the end of the year.
