POKEMON GEN 6 ANNOUNCED

[Koh]

By the way, you may not notice now, but Pokémon was never an open-world game, and probably never will be. Oriental game design strive for a more goal oriented approach. You'll never get an equivalent to, idk, Skyrim "freedom" in Pokémon. Nor you'll get to really choose your own path, the game is set in progression, so stronger gym leaders will have stronger Pokémon that you can't possibly win yet. An open game would be just a design headache

But they showed they could make it possible WITH the second region from Gen II/IV remakes. The Gym Leaders in Kanto were far too underpowered IMO, since you finish the League roughly in the late Level 40s-mid Level 50s, and they Leaders were all in their late 30s, as well as the trainers. All they had to do was power them up the way they powered up the trainers in Black and White's post-game, and it could totally work. You go around the entirety of Kanto on your own whim at that point, visiting Gyms in any order you want. The only thing they'd have to worry about is having the cutscenes play out respectively after each Gym like normal (rival wants a challenge, evil team does something in town, etc.), and scale things up to your level the moment you finish a Gym. It isn't as hard as people are making it sound, it just takes a bit more planning ahead.