>>56265348I don't think its a hot take.
I don't think Game Freak are quite ready for what Open World game development entails. They only started making fully 3D games a little over a decade ago and HD games 7 years ago and their indie game mindset where they want smaller teams just doesn't gel with how much you HAVE to expand a company by the very nature of these types of games.
The fact they even made an open world game at all is honestly impressive, but personally I think between their comparatively recent recruitment drives and the lack of willingness (be it GFs or TPCs) to take more than 3-4 years to properly polish and debug their games will only amount to mediocre slop that feels poorly designed. What's the point of a non linear RPG that doesn't have progression based level scaling?
Personally I think given their current resources and level of ability a linear experience is better. It's better designed and their linear games have always looked better too. They don't even necessarily have to go back to routes, an an anon mentioned earlier, Legends Arceus got it right. An Open Area game with multiple biomes to explore would definitely be appropriate for them, but I think they should leave Open World games until they have more experience with optimising the games, debugging them and decluttering things like the sheer number of spawners they have operating at any given time. And for fucks sake, what's the point of an RPG where you can't invade peoples houses? Skyrim and BotW/TotK are on the Switch and have no issues allowing the player to do this. I want to be a fucking home invader and get that sweet, sweet flavour text.
