/vr/ - Retro Games

>>9435215
The out of reach stuff is just scenery, if you're comparing playable areas, that kind of stuff doesn't matter.

Not that it makes much sense to compare a turnbased RPG to an adventure with realtime combat and platforming. Feels like comparing Ultima Underworld to Doom, both are first person 3D games, and there's fighting and exploration in both, but they're pretty radically different titles overall with very different goals and gameplay.

>>9435248
Depends on what you like in a game. The scenery isn't all that much to look at, but there's people out there, some which you can fight, some who maybe can do other things, like give you hints or even provide an item or service (there's a guy who can give you the best fishing rod in house in the south east corner of the country, to name just one).
There's also a number of dungeons in Pokémon, which are less straight corridors, some are even outright labyrinths to varying degrees, literal ones at times, and often the more interesting Pokémon to catch are in those places.
There's also the unlocking abilities to progress thing, cutting through shrubbery, moving boulders, surfing on water, or getting a special flute to wake up a big fatass sleeping Pokémon who is blocking the road for you and everyone else, stuff to open up new areas and routes.

This is before getting into the whole building up a party of of useful fighters part, the original Pokémon games were a LOT harsher on that point, if you just mindlessly coast on your starter because they're strong initially, and then never catch or train anything else, you WILL get fucked.
This isn't really hard to do or anything, but the later games are a lot more forgiving on that point, the second Gym Leader isn't the strongest by any metric, but if you approach her carelessly she can become one of THE hardest fights in the game, there's not really any great new Pokémon to catch nearby, and you can't leave town to find and train other ones until you beat her.