And now you know why Gen 5 to gen 6 caused that much conversation in the fandom and still does. Just the side activites and gyms are enough to contest about a drop in quality, but then its also stuff like the little details in the world, the story, seasons which added another level of depth to the world, and so much more. Especially the overworld. There hasn't been anything on the level of finding the Castelia City Sewer detours with the Eevee Garden or the back Alleu bike gang, going back to the Relic Castle and finding an early game Larvesta, finding all the goodies and being creeped out by the Haunted House in Lentimas Town, finding the seaside cave, and also going back to early areas to find a nice chunk of new trainers and areas to discover again. Then the post game throws all the old areas you didn't explore already back at you to have some fun with, and there is a huge, entirely optional dungeon with Clay's Mines, one of the best dungeons in the entire series. Don't worry, not spoiling anything, just the names which are already on the map . You are gonna love it later on. Gen 5 just knocked it out of the park, and Gamefreak completely tossed it to the side only to pick up some of its nuaces again in Gen 7, but still muddled with Gen 6s baffling choices. Gen 8 needs to pick up the slack and take off from where Gen 5 left off, no doubt about it