The real reason why Pokemon sucks now isn't because of the lack of a national dex, or the ugly graphics or whatever. Pokemon Red and Blue were great because they presented a pretty effective illusion of a grand journey. You traveled across a world that felt large, even though it wasn't. You encountered plenty of dynamic and interesting monsters, even though they were really just static sprites. You crossed fists with a lot of powerful opponents - even a mafia, but there was no real depth to any of these characters.

It was a game designed to LOOK like a great adventure, designed to SEEM like an incredible quest. But that's all it was, an effective illusion. Nowadays we have REAL adventure games. Things like BotW, Xenoblade, the Witcher, etc. These games aren't just making you FEEL like you are traveling across a huge world, you ARE traveling across a huge world. They have deep characters, incredible events, and so much to see and explore. With so many options to experience the real deal, the fake just doesn't cut it anymore.

Pokemon is a cardboard cutout of an adventure, it's a hollow, shallow experience meant to imitate something greater. That worked when that greater thing was unobtainable, but now it just looks laughable. When you travel across a small linear cave you don't think "Wow this is amazing, it's like I'm really going on an adventure in a dark cave!" You think, wow this fucking sucks, why couldn't they make a real cave?

Pokemon is a relic of the past, a dinosaur that should have gone extinct ages ago, kept alive purely by nostalgia. It can't stand up to new games and it needs to either reinvent itself or fuck off.