Some of the improvements Gamefreak makes with Pokemon games is for competitive play, and while it’s really appreciated they’ve made it easier to get into the scene, I’m sad as a lifelong fan at the quality dips in other areas, particularly the performance and the open world design. I personally feel they should have never gone the open world route, if they weren’t going to get the extra dev time they desperately need to really flesh it out. People THINK they want an open world game without asking why and if it has any reason for existing for the type of game it is. Open areas like Monster Hunter or going back to the linear style would help tremendously, and I don’t believe a game where you collect gym badges with a linear narrative as the focus needs an open world experience, period. The open world experience to me should be reserved for an entirely different style of game, and that’s Legends Arceus. That being said, the best part about this game was the competitive being pretty fun, and the Area Zero story is some of the best writing since B/W. I wish we had more of that mature and though provoking story throughout the entire game.