As it stands the normal Pokémon franchise is in a lot of aspects limited in what it can do. If it stays as it as from combat to Pokémon collecting it's running the risk of eventually all games blending into one because they are all the same. If it changes it runs the risk of becoming too different from the rest of the other games and suddenly it doesn't belong in this list of Pokémon games and it should instead join Pokémon Ranger or become it's own thing.

Pokémon Arceus found an healthy middle it's not too similar from all the others and it isn't too different either. But this one? This one is the same as it has always been except it has a drawback. The story's bad.

It sets up something interesting right at the right but soon enough it becomes, ridiculous and dare I go as far as to say cringe? Compared to other games like the well loved Pokémon White/Black this one feels insulting.

Then we have the added fact that the game looks ugly, it wasn't as buggy as later releases but it is just as ugly. With it's bad rendering and non interesting looking well, anything. It's hard to stay engaged on anything but the Pokémon themselves really.

All this to say I think this should be where this type of Pokémon games stop. Because at the moment what do we have to look forward to? Arceus aside, all next games will look like this one (if not worse) and the gameplay will be exactly the same. It's a wonder how people can keep buying these games every other year instead of just sticking to the one they think is the best (the one they played as a child).