>>47279888first 2 gens had very little dialog. multiple routes, quests that you had to talk to npc to progress. very little handholding or really anything besides catching pokemon and progressing.
3 and 4 had evil teams talking at you about their evil plans and then rivels bumping into when you enter a new town to chat and battle. still had some backtracking though.
gen 5 and then 6 had more forces on story and characters and a more liner map design. let go to explore after the mashing a.
gen 7 had a overlong tutorial, linear routes, no backtrack, talking characters that never left you the fuck alone, cutscenes, a stupid map thing that told you were to go every single time. and waiting their is one of the friends.
feels like you never go let off the leash. i actually use to get lost as a kid playing pokemon. now that is literally impossible. great.