Are Pokémon meant to understand humans and are they smart or is it an abstract concept for the sake of gameplay and storytelling? What I mean is u know how Lassie the dog seems to understand what humans are saying but dogs actually can’t. It’s just written that way so the audience can follow along more easily and the plot can move along more smoothly.

The lore of this game seems to heavily imply most Pokémon can’t understand nor are intelligent and this has even been said during one interview where Ohmiri and Masuda implied Pokémon aren’t very sapient. Yet most media at least has it that Pokémon can understand humans. Is it because they actually can or is it done for the ease of the audience and the plot despite the lore starting the opposite