>>35272594Pokémon will never have a decent story. And having no story is better than having a bad one.
I used to think an interesting story could make Pokemon better since Gen 1 and 2 are so shallow and Gen 3 and 4 are more of the same but with a legendary shoehorned at some point. Gen 5 was probably the best they did in this regard, and it wasn't that different either. From there on, it went downhill.
When you play Pokemon, you want to feel that you are living your own little adventure. All you need are rivals (be it gym leaders, evil team or your childhood friend), it should be about your journey, not about NPCs with problems you don't give a fuck to.
Not to sound like a gennuner, RBY have their share of bad designs and flawed mechanics, but when you replay it, you feel like you are actually exploring and doing what you want, even if the game itself is linear most of the time. That's because the game doesn't try to make you connect to NPCs nor interrupts you with long unskippable dialog sequences and cutscenes.
