Do you feel a Xenoblade-type overworld would fit the series well?

[MetroLSD]

There’s been a lot of debate on whether the series should become openworld similar to BotW or stay linear like Sun and Moon. However, there is a middle ground option that i don’t see many people discussing and that option is a Xenoblade-styled overworld.

For those who haven’t played them, the Xenoblade games(excluding X) featured a linear point A to B design but with the areas being large and open enough to encourage exploration

I personally feel that this type of region design would fit the Pokemon series nicely as it would allow the series to keep it’s point A to B format without sacrificing player freedom like SM did.

 

[Dieter]

I haven't played Xenoblade, so I can't quite compare it but... I have a feeling older Pokemon games did do this. Up to and including Gen V, you could still progress quite a bit before hitting some kind of roadblock (be it a person, an obstacle, or the requirement of a HM).

Like, in R/S/E and ORAS, you can explore Rustboro, go to the gym immediately, or you could chose to explore parts of the routes beyond the city. So you weren't directly forced into a single actions, rather there were several things you could do and doing most/all of them would result in further progression. The same goes for Nacrene city iirc. You can head to the Gym first thing, or you can explore Pinwheel Forest (which is a fairly large area) first. And that's something that especially SuMo and USUM have reduced.

Granted, the examples I named are not incredibly large areas, but progression in older regions also meant that parts you could access before now become accessible, and often these were pretty sizeable parts. And I do think these 'bubbles' of explorable areas could be bigger, especially now the progression to 3D has made the overworld look so much bigger.

 

[QueenAria]

Yes.I just don’t want a boxed in world.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Yes, a Xenoblade style world would be fine for 8th gen. Really anything that isn't as hallway like as Kalos and Alola is fine by me. I'd prefer full on BotW open world, but if that's too much for Game Freak right now then this would be acceptable.