See, now this makes me not want to buy it. I like Pokemon because I enjoy the challenge of battles and breeding, etc. But I beat X/Y in three days and the story sucked, which was very disappointing.
I am very curious to see what kinda story Nintendo has churned out now that the Gym system is gone. Plus, I don't wanna miss out on the next gen. I really don't have money to be throwing around on games I'm never gonna play, though.
It seems I have a lot of thinking to do.
Sun/Moon (and presumably US/UM as well because they're very similar story-wise to the originals from what I hear) does have a "handholdy" feel to it in many areas which is unfortunate, but in my opinion the battles were decently challenging at times - definitely more so than X/Y, which even without using the EXP Share can be breezed through lol
I think X/Y had the worst story of any Pok?mon game by far so S/M doesn't have to do much to be better than that, but even without the comparison it's still an all right story, though completely nonsensical at points and there are a few anti-climaxes that kind of take away from it. Like (*spoiler* I know you said you don't mind spoilers but I'll put that anyway haha) when the "ultra beasts" first appear, you get a cutscene of a few of them like dropping from the sky and a bunch of build up that they're going to destroy Alola and need to be fought off, but you don't get to actually do that or see any of the havoc they allegedly wreak. All you get is a weak post-game event where you can go find the UB's in the grass and catch them incredibly easily using special beast balls. Pbbfft.
In regards to the trial system replacing the gyms, I honestly found the change up refreshing, but I've been wanting to see a different-style Pok?mon game for awhile (I'm a big fan of Colosseum/XD for the GCN which also don't follow the traditional Pok?mon formula) and I think they executed it fairly well. Although, many of the trials which sound like they're going to be interesting at first, you discover you're more or less walked through the entire thing once you get there which isn't that fun, but the Totem Pok?mon battles are cool at least.
There are many small changes made in Sun/Moon that I appreciate A LOT but they won't mean much if you don't do a lot of IV/shiny breeding or EV training etc.. like:
-Ability to view all a Pok?mon's IVs from the PC, instead of bringing it to a random guy who will "judge its potential"
-You can take eggs from the daycare even when you have a full party so you can fill boxes with eggs and hatch them later
-With Pok? Pelago you can leave Pok?mon there for a few hours to be EV trained, rather than have to buy the special items with BP and then go battle specific Pok?mon to get the EVs you want
-Introduction of Bottle Caps, which can actually "fix" a Pok?mon's IVs, which I've found super helpful time and time again with my shinies who sometimes hatch with one or two awful stats
maybe more I'm not thinking of... anyway, all that said, I'm also an adult player who's been playing since Gen 2 and I personally enjoyed Sun/Moon even with its many flaws. It does not have the charm and replay value of its predecessors but it's good for a single playthrough of the story and then lots of Pok?mon collecting afterwards, if you're into that part of the game. When you play the older games the difference in the quality of the story/characters/gameplay is literally staggering though LOL but I'm a pretty casual player who loves the series to death so it doesn't take much to impress me!
