>>27794491Honestly, I think that's exactly what they were. They tried out 3D graphics to see if it could be done in a mainline pokemon game without completely changing the formula, and the hype was through the roof. Then they experimented even more with ORAS and got a pretty decent response. The games themselves just weren't exactly great due to lacking any sense of life in Kalos and ORAS missing some key features from Emerald that could and should have been integrated, or included in a remake of Emerald that they decided to pass on.
Alola looks like the polished final product, with way better graphics, a nicer visual style, alternate forms with new types and move pools versus battle-only megas, a shake up to the formula that, while classic, has gotten very stale over time and a return of a feature similar to Amie as well as trainer customization, despite implications that those would be Kalos only things. It's like Gamefreak *actually listened* for once and realized that we didn't want them to take away features that we enjoyed, while they're trying new stuff with things that we had only middling enthusiasm for, like the same old gym circuit, breeding for IVs and megas.
In the end, I enjoyed Gen 6 while I was playing it the first time, because the graphics made it seem really fresh and new when it really wasn't, but Gen 7 looks like it's about to blow the lid off the whole thing with awesome new gameplay and even better looks. I'm hoping that this is a good indicator of what the series will be like going forward if it's even half as good as it looks like it's gonna be.
