>>47198445I'd say the pacing was decent up until the third gym, then they try to ramp up the story without actually doing anything, it's just lore dumps and maybe a related battle.
Part of the problem is that every town has a gym. In other games, apart from gen 7 obviously, there are a few towns in the region that have little to no function. They're pretty much glorified pokecenter stops, maybe with a herb seller or something, but that random town makes the world feel more alive, rather than just existing solely around the gyms. Compare that with Spikemuth.
