Gen 1 was the ground work
Gen 2 improved upon it a little
Gen 3 jumped the shark narratively speaking but improved on gen 2
Gen 4 was a big step up from gen 3
Gen 5 was also on the same level as gen 4
Gen 6 was a decline in the main game and post game but had a lot of good features added
Gen 7 removed a ton of them while not improving much
Gen 8 will probably be as bad or worse than gen 7