I actually enjoyed Diamond and Pearl so back then I kept buying new Pokémon games thinking I could get back into the series, but I really couldn’t.

Not bad, but I don't know if the world really needed a dark, thinky Pokemon game. Were they trying to make a point with this??? Maybe, I guess, but they politely excuse themselves from the premise partway through.

Absolutely hated the weather mechanic in this game - it made the meta centralized on who can control the weather first, which limits variety. On the other hand, I did like some of the improvements made to certain abilities like sturdy and the dream world buffs for certain Pokemon is pretty cool. As for the main game itself? The story has decent beats and does some above average world building for the series, but the twist around end hampers a lot of the themes the plot conveyed up to that point.