One of the "better" games in the series but still barely leaving mediocre. These games are far better than their predecessor "Sword and Shield." but the experience while being fun at times, is lackluster in terms of trainer battles, exploration of the region and boring characters. The game is open world but still feels empty and lifeless majority of the time, something that even Red/Blue on the gameboy had more of a sense of adventure and scale to it. The level design is also atrocious seeing as the game is promoted as an open world non-linear experience yet the Gyms and Star bosses are obviously intended for you to be doing them in a certain order and the levels dont scale with your party, which completely takes away from the main reason people enjoy open world games; to have the freedom to decide how you want to progress through the game at any time you want. The amount of performance issues and bugs this game has is pathetic and makes you wonder how Game Freak thought this was acceptable to release to the public at all. The story atleast this time attempted something unique but it was practically non existent till the very end of the game, which just makes for really only one exciting moment that just comes and goes as quickly as it came. The character designs this time is completely atrocious except for a select few characters which is baffling in a franchise known for its great character designs. The pokemon design this time around also taken a hit, though alot of designs and new evolutions to some old pokemon are fine. In short, this game is a step above the previous entry but completely falls short in every other aspect, you're better off skipping this one.