>>37674448You had neat new pokemon (even if they were all fucking slow and had shit encounter rates) and (status) z-moves are fun. The flat removal of HMs was also a good move. That said, despite your raw battling elements being more of the usual, your actual region design and "story" were a fucking joke composed of good ideas executed in the most obtrusive inefficient way possible. "friendly rival" is a self-defeating, your refusal to let us see the new stuff and burying us in ENDLESS yungoos, rattata, and peliper is a fucking insult. Your plot is ass because you didn't have the balls to commit to it, instead giving the bog standard "8 'major' boss fights with a huge interruption right before/after the 8th one". Sure, totems are more fun than gyms BUT THEY DO THE SAME FUCKING THING YOU GODDAMN HACKS. ALL YOU DID WAS SOLVE THE FACT THAT POKEMON DOES NOT ALLOW FOR CHALLENGING FIGHTS WITHOUT CHEESE BECAUSE YOUR AI AND TEAM SELECTION IS ALWAYS GARBAGE AND YOU REFUSE TO HAVE US FIGHT THINGS SPECIFICALY DESIGNED TO ONLY BE FOUGHT AS AN ENEMY.
Map wise your whole region is just a goddamn hallway. It may be a twisty one but its still a paved path that goes from point a to point b with no deviation. Your series is moving onto the same console that gave us Oddesy and BoTW, give us a large open map we can explore and travel far and wide across in search of pokemon. Thats all we want. thats all you have to fucking do. just drop the player in one corner and tell them "go find the biggest monster and make it fight for you".