>>44285193No, I don't think so. GameFreak's lazy execution of 3D is more the issue here. The 2D games were very abstract in how they represented the world: You were never supposed to see Pallet Town as actually having two houses or the routes as being maybe thirty feet across. The maps were just trying to communicate what the towns/cities were basically like. And the reason why those games managed to be so immersive is because they cut corners in just the right way and included just enough to where it all felt relatively real.
But the 3D games (and indeed, the later 2D games) continued doing that when technology has advanced to the point where you could very easily include more detailed towns. GF just kept doing the same thing instead of adapting and improving. You've still got towns in SwSh where there's nothing that actually matters to the player except for the Pokemon Center, PokeMart, and Gym. And now, it's clear that you're supposed to be looking at actual city streets. Hell, the dungeons have only gotten less and less complex over time, and now they're just straight-up gone.
