Pokémon Violet and Scarlet are the vast open worlds the series has been building to

The Pokémon games evolve at a leisurely pace. This can be frustrating for fans looking for the latest and greatest but does make it easier to chart how the games progress over time. Take the series’ relatively recent fixation with offering players an open world. It started small, with Pokémon Sword and Shield adding a wild area in 2019 that let players freely explore. At the beginning of this year came Legends: Arceus, a spinoff that…