I've had the argument about the map before. Trust me, it is anything but linear. Because it is on a mountain, there are a whole lot of caves. You can get to almost any city from a cave.
The design of the rival looks pretty stylin', but DAMN the pixel resolution looks horrid. If you are going to resize a sprite, it's best to go over it to keep the pixel sizes consistent. Right now it looks messy and it doesn't deserve to be.
Er... what map are you referring to?They look either too big or there's just not enough happening within those cities.
Not all of them you can enter. There have been a lot of missing people, if you read the first post. Missing people= empty houses.Also remember not every building needs to be part of the game, like you have to enter it, and can be used as just filler. A great example of this is Saffron City, where some of the buildings are just placeholder and used to fill up the space to make it more city-like.
Also I don't know why you're using Wild Pokemon grass in some of your city maps, since that just seems quite odd. Maybe replace those patches of grass with some sort of flowers or something, and fill up your city map a bit more.
The tileset is still a work in progress. This will be fixed before it is released[1] Maps
I like the look of your newer maps. I think they would benefit from being a bit smaller and would certainly benefit from some consistency in the tilesets used; switching between R&S, HGSS etc ruins their visual appeal. My advice would be to stick with a purely HGSS based tileset.
[2] Fakemon
The fakemon you posted here is one I have seen you post before in the Pixel Art section. If as you say, "you can't do scratches" then you at least need to work on improving your fusions. Here are a few pointers:
-- STOP MAKING YOUR FAKEMON THAT BIG! Pokemon only look good at their original size, please stop magnifying them by 200%.
-- Your colour palettes are WAYY OFFF. As I mentioned in the Art thread, if you decide, for example, you wish to use the colours red and green then pick two real Pokemon which have those colours and use their colours instead of trying to make up your own palettes.
-- Finally, for some further reading, I suggest you look at some of the tutorials in the Pixel Art section for further tips and advice on creating Fakemon.
A few suggestions...I am working on simplifying them. They look more confusing than they really are.
Update: The new herro city, with my edited tileset.
http://min.us/mvjsHea