I grew up with Pokémon red and gold. In those games, you can kind of just ignore the story and play through the game.
At some point Pokémon seemed to switch, and have so much more dialog forced upon you, especially in the early game.
When did this start? Was it with Pokémon X and Y or did it come later? I know Sun and Moon felt that way to me.
It was White version for me. I quit halfway through because of the story stuff and didn’t touch the series again until Sword was a few years old. The last straw was the 3rd or 4th time I got to a gym and the leader told me to go do plot crap with Team Villain before I could challenge for a badge. I don’t care and it’s not my job, I’m fuckin 10.
With Scarlet you can take hours getting to school while you collect everything in the first couple of areas, then after 20 minutes of plot you’re back in an almost completely open world (barring the post-game area). It’s the best it’s ever been if you’re just into collecting stuff.
I dunno. Ive only played white in japanese and didnt notice any real difference