>>38654896> Favorite—VI do wish that there were more non-battling attractions. Musicals were a pretty major step down from Contests and Pokéathlon in the games immediately before them, and I don't think it takes a big explanation to establish why; the next-closest thing to side content like them is PokéStar Studios, which IS an underrated feature with a surprising amount of depth and associated concept (significantly more than Contests in particular), but I don't think it fills quite the same niche, what with the focus being on rental Pokémon and still built around battle mechanics. It's a really cool way to give a sort of "obscure battle mechanics tutorial" in a context that's more fun than a straight explanation, is fairly self-contained from the rest of the game and has more varied win conditions than actually winning a battle, all of which I'd LOVE to see emulated in other games—but it's still not an *alternative* to battling, and it's not something else to do with *your* Pokémon (you're required to use rentals until you've already done the story once, which absolutely serves its purpose better, but it does cement the feature as something other than a Contest/Pokéathlon analog).
Basically, there's too little to do with your own Pokémon other than battling with them—and my favorite part of Contests and Pokéathlon is the fact that your Pokémon's individual moves (Contests) or species (Pokéathlon has species-specific stats) have a direct impact on the gameplay and provide you with different options, and you're able to optimize a dedicated set or team for them other than your standard battle Pokémon. Musicals don't have this, and PokéStar Studios relies on rentals because you could so easily circumvent the intended mechanics by using your own team, so that's a niche that could still be filled in Gen V.
