>>45961385>Pokemon exploration died with Gen 6.I played through all of the games in order, and this. I had always held the opinion that XY was the main start of the decline of the series and for the most part I stand by that, but after replaying it I have to say at the very least the region and locations were fantastic, and they put serious effort into a lot of the background that you can just go around and explore, talk to NPCs, check out buildings, art etc.
I feel like in terms of content XY was severely lacking and SM was better in this regard, but holy fuck the exploration took a nosedive. The first island takes several hours and barely anything even happens aside from dialogue and cutscenes, and throughout the game instead of interesting roadblocks they just use barricades from the trial workers like you're on a controlled, guided tour of the region. Even linear adventures aren't this bad. The early games, even though it wasn't realistic, are about a young kid going out in the world completely free, and SM takes that away from you. It's a little patronizing. Not to mention all of the BS with barebones routes that even though I know what to expect I still say "What the fuck" every time I see it. Specifically,
>Hau-oli has almost nothing but they interrupt you every 10 steps>Fucking Wela Volcanic Park>The bus for Mt Hokolani because you can't be trusted to go up a mountain alone>Empty Lake of the Sun/Moon that only exists for a cutscene/giftmon>Mt Lanakila a shitty victory road>Ultra hallwaysThis really was the beginning of the hallway phenomenon, although SM has some great areas.
>>45961388Also this, the consistency is completely out of whack in all of Galar and its side areas. You'll have one area with lots of great backgrounds and some that are completely empty, almost gutted. And even in the best areas you can barely interact with the world or do anything interesting, it just looks pretty.
