The gyms are nothing but a giant tutorial to teach newbies the complicated system of types in a structured progression. They shouldn't be mandatory parts of the game. Pokemon hasn't been about "catching them all" since the 90's. It's about catching your favorites, and that's it. That's why we fill our Pokedex's with seen Pokemon now, not caught. Non linearity effects absolutely none of that. That's not streamlining. That's lazy game design. Instead of having the game scale the Pokemon you encounter to your level, they force you through a linear path so you can learn types in the right order.

Who the hell cares about the story? This is a video game. I want to go on an adventure and explore a vast and interesting world. I don't give a shit how nice this one bit of scrolling text reads.

Pokemon is already open world, but it's limited by handheld tech that only allows it to be a topdown game, or risk sacrificing it's map size. That's why it needs to be on consoles. That limitation is no longer there.

Good for you.

The gyms are nothing but a giant tutorial to teach newbies the complicated system of types in a structured progression. No they are not. Every RPG needs boss fights, and that is what the gym leaders are. If they were just over-glorified tutorials for the type system, they would not create memorable moments like the Whitney battle or the Giovanni reveal.

Who the hell cares about the story? This is a video game. Eeeeh... Tell that to the fans of the Bioshock series, The Last of Us, To the moon, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Akura's wrath, Heavy Rain, Chrono Trigger, Pokemon Mistery Dungeon, SpecOps the Line, Catherine, every MGS game ever created, Super Mario RPG, the Paper Mario series, Half Life, Deus-Ex, the Mario & Luigi series, Portal, Mass Effect, Batman games, The Elder Scrolls, Silent Hill,  Final Fantasy series, Shin Megami Tensei series, every single interactive novel ever created, every single point and click adventure ever created... Most games need a story. RPG especially need a story. And even if you are talking about pokémon, there are a lot of people that buy the games mainly for the story.

Pokemon is already open world, but it's limited by handheld tech that only allows it to be a topdown game, or risk sacrificing it's map size. And if the game allowed tridimensional gameplay, what would it change. It would still be the exploration on caves, sea depths, forests, deserts and mountains, only with the need of more HM and more unnaccessible to newcomers.

"The gyms are nothing but a giant tutorial to
teach newbies the complicated system of types in
a structured progression. They shouldn't be
mandatory parts of the game"

Ha ha, what. You haven't even played the games, by your own admission. They're a huge part of it.

"Pokemon hasn't been about "catching them all" since the 90's. It's about catching your favorites, and that's it"

They brought back gotta catch em all for gen 6, and the game is now designed around catching and getting as much as you can.

"Who the hell cares about the story? This is a video
game."

Double. What.

"Pokemon is already open world, but it's limited by
handheld tech that only allows it to be a topdown
game, or risk sacrificing it's map size. That's why
it needs to be on consoles. That limitation is no
longer there."

And here, I'll just repost from my previous comment that already argues most of your points.

"The 3DS has the power to make a 3D Zelda. Yet
Nintendo decided to still make another top-down
Zelda, because more power didn't mean they did
not see validity in the style of play. South Park
was only animated like that to be cheap. Now
they can afford to animate it fully, but kept the
limited style anyways. More power doesn't mean
the series is obligated to change, and so, just
because they have a Wii U now doesn't mean
they are obligated to go to it."

You are only proving to me more and more that you don't actually want Pokémon, you want something wholly different.

You are only proving to me more and more that you don't understand what Pokemon is.

go protest on Miiverse. I learned last week on here that apparently they listen on there..

What lol..You didnt even argue my point about gyms being necessary, you just made a cranky old man metaphor. Plus, you said the most you played from a pokemon handheld was pokemon pinball, but apparently not I guess. Oh well, honestly.

If gyms arent present in the game it will no longer be a main series pokemon game, but a spinoff. But what you want sounds like a spinoff, so whoo hoo 4 u I guess.

They brought back the "Gotta Catch Em All" slogan. I dunno about that random "for two weeks" or whatever, but it has definitely returned. And like I said, the games are designed around getting everything. EXP share is more helpful so you can train up more pokemon. The pokedex is bigger than ever. You can wonder trade near the beginning of the game.Trading is faster than ever. It is easier to get all pokemom in gen 6 than it is in gen 5.

The Zelda comment makes no sense because top down Zeldas were standard because the handheld's lack of power. The handhelds became more powerful for a 3D zelda (OoT 3D is a thing) but they made a concious effort to continue that style of play anyways, especially since top down puzzlers are dying. There was no need to change there, even though they could, or in South Park, or here, in pokemon.

All you dismantled was my interest in this debate.

And I did say why the games benefited from being on a handheld already, and a bunch of other stuff already in this thread, but have no desire to type that again using a phone.

The End.