Sadly, the Pokemon series is stuck in a situation where it doesn't 'need' to innovate or do anything ambitious to sell well/get good reviews, so its creators basically don't bother and coast along without trying too hard. It's kinda like YouTube under Google to be honest.
Extremely high levels of popularity + no competition + unambitious creators that are out of touch with their audience/userbase can equal a mediocre product or series that just ticks along without any attempt to live up to its own promise.
Re:Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?
by garfieldnate on Saturday December 26, 2020 @06:34AM
(#25542792)
It's kind of funny being 30 and loving Pokemon. I have been dying for a good Pokemon game since I was a kid. The GBC games were addictive, but I wanted something that would feel more interactive and require realtime battle skills. The RPG-style battle mechanics got really old. Pokemon Snap was and still is magical, but the user was stuck on rails. Pokemon Stadium was at least 3-d, but the battle mechanics were the same. I fantasized about having an open world with the battle mechanics of Super Smash Bros. A BOTW-style Pokemon game would be just incredible!
Really funny how that works out.