I finished the main story, kind of (credits rolled but there's still stuff after).
My thoughts broken down to what I didn't care for, some QoL improvements I think that could be made, and what I liked:
THE BADI actually didn't care for the battle system. I think it's really boring and less strategic than the turn based games. Status moves don't really do much in this game (can you even inflict the megas with status effects?) and the stat changing moves take too much time to use for how short they last. Given that in trainer battles, knocking out your opponent basically resets your CDs, I never found a use for them and even when I tried I would get knocked out or taken to a one-hit scenario. Also with the lack of abilities a lot of Pokemon lost their identity in the game, in my opinion.
I don't like the dodge mechanics of the game, either.
Also the way the environment can block your moves (both literally AND the fact that your own Pokemon will get "stuck" on it) is actually insane, unintuitive, and unfun. It hurts my heart that my Pokemon are idiots.
THE QOLsI think some QoL changes to be more fluid with gameplay are
- having an "auto heal" function. Unlike past entries, you're going to take damage, you're going to get status'd, and it's going to happen frequently. A way to quickly heal would be nice.
- A quicker way to get around. I really like exploring Lumiose but towards the end of the game I just wanted to get it over with. I wish there were a bike/skateboard or something to make movement speed a little faster.
- If a Pokemon evolves through an item, it should still show in the party list but when you go to evolve that's when it prompts you for the item. This one's kinda small but I feel like it made sense to me (and perhaps to kids playing that might not want to go through their stones or look things up)
- Please make it more obvious when a Pokemon learns a new move and doesn't have space. I feel like every level up I just glued my eyes to the left column because I didn't want to accidentally miss a useful move. Also on the subject of moves, they should really do a move pass with TMs (Flaaffy can learn Ice Punch... but not Thunder Punch? And Feraligatr can't learn Ice Punch at all? Huh?)
- I think Pokemon that are fainted should be guaranteed captures. It's really annoying that they're not, especially given that Pokemon don't continuously respawn (they should).
THE GOODI loved exploring Lumiose City/having the whole game take place there. It felt really cozy and I loved going up on the roofs and jumping around with Rotom. The only critique I'd have is that there's so much loot piling up that it never felt exciting to find. I never felt "oh wow I'm glad I went here" it felt kind of repetitive after a while.
The way side quests were presented is probably my favorite aspect of any Pokemon game to-date. It was really cool, felt like you were living in the city and making friends, and gave many forgotten/overlooked Pokemon a little moment. It really made me think about how some people say "every Pokemon is someone's favorite Pokemon!" and a lot of the side quests made me smile. Definitely the highlight of the game for me.
Overall it was pretty fun, but by the end I was getting kind of bored. Also I was going to use spoiler tags but I don't actually think anything I wrote was particularly spoiler-ish. If anyone disagrees I can edit my message. I'd give it a 7.5/10 overall.