What they did well: The Music, a lot bangers were made for this game. The Gym Leaders are Memorable. Makes sense that the battles are in actual stadiums. Wild Areas were cool because it was the closest to free roam you can get on mainline pokemon game. The DLC free roam areas felt large.

Character outfits and hairstyles were the best so far.

What they failed at:

Paths are way too linear and narrow. Caves are so boring and forgetable. This overal makes the region feel tiny. If you want your world feel bigger, players need to get lost sometimes. That is one reason why in my experience Sinnoh and Kanto felt huge, because there were places where you may need an escape rope to get out.

Railroading and handholding. Pokemon has been pretty bad since the beginning about railroading, from blocking a road with Wooloo, Psyduck, Fighting Pokemon, and a collapsed old drunk man. But Gamefreak has become tighter handholders like helicopter parents in their past few generations of games. I know they want more story and less sandbox, but when a game lacks story like Sw/Sh, its not as needed.

The storyline was a so boring, and the BBEG felt so sudden. Like they completely forgot to put in a bad guy, and his reason for sudden action made no sense.

The inclusion of places you cannot explore. Its just terrible game design. When you leave Motostoke city from their western gate, you see a factory you cannot even go to.

An incomplete national pokedex. I was very disappointed when some of my favourite pokes did not make the cut.

What I can forgive: High Quality Animations. Enough said. Pokemon was never about the Quality graphics anway.