"A friend told me something today that really got me thinking."

He said the Safari Zone was as much an example of an open world as the Wild Area.His case was:No defined, linear path - you are free to choose which direction you want to go, and there's no clear objective to movement (after receiving the HM/Gold Teeth).Pokemon spawn just as "randomly" as they do in the Wild Area.The only true barriers were the barriers around the whole of the area (as in the Wild Area).Exploration was rewarded both by items and in rare Pokemon spawns (in both!).If Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee had contained a version of the safari zone with its overworld spawning, it would be almost exactly like the wild area of SwSh.His overall point was that the designation of "open-world" has no strict definition and is ultimately meaningless. The thing that makes games like Skyrim, BotW, and other ""open world" games good is that the game is in the open world. For Pokemon SwSh, the game isn't in the open world. It's still the standard routes, it just has a larger Safari Zone.I think it's a stretch, but damned if I can't think of a good counter point. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/37cEAHH