>>47484311I just gets better the more I think about it; you're told where to go to continue the story, but you probably won't go there first thing and thus you get the explanatory NPCs and Pre-Gym in the process. Some combination of the Pre-Gym and the Trainer's school sounds ideal, a place in which you can look into the game concepts in detail if you want and then practice the game for a tangible reward for your time. More immediately engaging than a manual (though those should still exist, lest we forget most digital Nintendo come with them, for example), if that is the concern. Really Game Freak is stuck between kids getting lost because they can't deliver Oak's parcel and kids putting the game down because the dialogue doesn't let them play, with the latter meant to be a way to keep them engaged.
Now that I think about it, compare ORAS and Sun/Moon's eShop demos. The first throws you straight into mico-maps with no context to demonstrate the gameplay then introduces characters and slightly harder battles as you go, and even lets you save. Sun/Moon's is a load of dialogue with 2 nothing battles with Ash Greninja and a little trial challenge with Rockruff. Which one demonstrates Pokemon better? (Ignoring that neither of them let you catch Pokemon and thus they both fail?) I prefer gameplay-centric demos in my case (I was actually playing a PSP monster tamer not too long ago that I ended up dropping after it took most 90 minutes to actually let me play), but I can't speak for everyone.
>>47484065I think he hit the balance of just rough enough to effectively stand out from the usual player types (you're introduced to him blowing up his old haunts after all) without demanding you take him too seriously. You would have expected something like Micheal on the first go round so I'm glad he happened. The Rangers started older and then dialed back too, didn't they.