"I don't like how the Pokémon fandom is in its "linearity sucks" phase"

So it has come to my attention that the fandom is calling for "open world." There are calls for the gyms to be attackable in any order, for there to be no item gates (whether it be for HMs or Pagers), and for everything to be tacklable in any order.I've seen it all before. I was part of the Zelda fandom when this was happening for that series, and I got caught up in it too. But I'm past that. I don't think open world is exactly the direction that the series needs to go in.The reason why I think this is progression. It's just too difficult to capture the feeling of raising these little, adorable creatures and taking on bigger and bigger challenges with them in an open world game. Either you'll randomly wander into an area where everything's too strong for you, or late in the game you'll finally get to the low-level area you've been skipping and steamroll everything with no effort."But what about level scaling?", you may ask. That would kill the feeling of raising Pokémon from a low level to a powerful fighter. Yes, it's level grinding, but Pokémon has always done a very good job of making you feel for your monsters and want to raise them. Catching a weak wild Pokémon and raising it remains ever satisfying because you're raising what feels like a living being. Sure, there will always be breeding, but leaving the "raising from weak to strong" to that mechanic would be frustrating for those who otherwise don't like it or breed infrequently.If there's anything that Pokémon can be more open in, they just need to remove those arbitrary story gates that railroad you onto the plot. But there's no need to go all the way with it. I'd say a good upper limit would be the original Xenoblade: linear, but with very wide paths around the linearity. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2CAHHdv