The Pokemon games have already had open world game design. I consider the 2nd half of pkmn gold very open world since you can take on the gyms in pretty much any order.
And every pokemon game, once you beat the elite four, becomes open world.
This is an important point. The games are only "linear" until the Pokémon League.
Yeah sure, "only" the main game. Way to glaze over the bulk of the content. Post game being open really isn't much in the grand scheme of things, maybe a few areas open up but in general the bulk of the game is done. Being able to progress freely through areas you've cleared doesn't really satisfy the itch for open world gameplay because open world is about exploring
new areas. Open world gameplay needs to remove the barriers on your first visit to an area to really work because that's the point where the player doesn't really know what's in store for them or what the game is hiding, and by not having those barriers it gives the game a sense of wonder and that allows the player to drive the game based on their own curiosity and make their own discoveries. If you just open things up in the post game when you've already cleared most of the game, there's really not much left for the player to discover for themselves.
To put it another way, open world games are the video game equivalent of a buffet. You get in and then you can go eat whatever you want. Want to go straight for the entree? Want to have a salad first? Want to eat dessert? They don't really stop you. You just pick something and eat. The current design, though, is like a more traditional restaurant, they have you eat a salad/soup/appetizer, then the main course, then dessert. Now if they said after dessert you could go back and order what you want, would you be happy with that if you were looking for a buffet? They've already dictated what order you eat the food for most of the meal, it's almost over and you're probably getting full by now, is that really going to be enough? Can you really call that a buffet? I think most people would agree that it wouldn't be.
And by the way, we have seen instances of "Open World design" even during the main game. Just look at the Eastern half of Hoenn (after Lilycove City). You can visit the water routes in whatever order you want.
Not quite, because you still need to beat Tate & Liza and get Dive to get the full run of those areas. And even if it was, that's only a small part of the game. It's the entire game that needs to be open world.
