>>49348531To better articulate anon's points, most of the gameplay is filler. You run around empty fields without interesting landmarks for two hours, throwing pokeballs at mons you don't actually have to fight, until you meet some arbitrary quota and are allowed to advance to the next area. Then you do that for two more hours, and then something will actually happen. The only trainer battles in the game are along the main story path, so there's like maybe 15ish total? And they're incredible easy, one of them throws a Zubat at you while you're like level 30-40. Only after doing repetitive tasks for four hours do you actually get to fight a boss, which is kind of cool actually, but the grind to get there just isn't worth it. Also as a fun bonus, the final act of the game is literally just nonstop cutscenes a la Sword and Shield, just in case you thought you were free of that.
There are some really nice quality of life changes, like being able to rename and change the moves of your Pokemon wherever you want, and that's good! But the actual game is some of the most shallow and repetitive Pokemon has ever been. Even the battles don't have as much life to them, the dynamic angles of the previous 3D games battles being replaced with standing there watching two pokemon stand there, with all intense screen changing attack animations being removed. The few trainer battles you do get feel trivialized, since they basically come down to trading one hit blows using strong style.
