I'm going to check back on this post in a couple of days, see what the consensus seems to be, and play that game through.
Little background: I've never liked Pokémon. No idea why. I generally enjoy JRPG's. I tried one of the first Gameboy games when it came out. And I had some friends that liked it so general sentiment around me was positive. I've also tried one on the Gameboy Advance games (don't recall which) and Pokémon Go when that first came out. Neither hooked me. But it's been years since I gave it a chance.