So, now that all is said and done, I had a pretty good time.
There are a lot of missteps in this gen. The handholding is real, and the cutscenes are way long and dominant (especially when there are items sitting in the background in the scenes that I really want to grab, but the game won't let me. There's one scene that particularly got on my nerves for that). I defended the amount of new pokes before, but you really don't see half of them wild in normal play. I never saw a Confey, or a Stufful, or a Dewpider to name a few. In part this is because they're hidden at the trial sites after you're done with them, but they also have a low spawn%. This means that most of the game you're running into older pokemon (I swear I ran into more Ledians's and Golbats than actual gen 7 mons). Small things I mentioned like the menus are pretty bad, and there's hella lag in the big battles. Oh yeah, Crabrawler and Charjabug, two pokemon you're likely to have pretty early, and might be inclined to keep, can't actually evolve until you bring them to some really late game locations. I had like 25 hours clocked in before I could get a Vikavolt lawl. Also, regarding some endgame stuff:
! I was really excited to see the Aether pres merge with the Ultra Beast, since I wanted to fight that thing, but it turns out it's just a tease. That let me down so much, even though the final battle against her mons was pretty good.
On the other hand, I'd say that this is one of the most memorable Pokemon games to date. I don't think I'll be hurting to replay it, since it is really slow, but it does have a lot of standouts. The world is pretty beautiful and takes advantage of 3D movement the way we've been wanting since 3D first became an option. The plot, while I do have some major issues with it, feels like a Pokemon movie played out in a game, and is definitely better than anything the series has done before (well, I didn't play B2/W2, which people say is good, so who knows). Lots of fun characters that, while they don't really get fleshed out enough, are way more memorable than they were in other gens (standouts to me are the fire captain and the 3rd island kahuna). Team Skull are the best villain team in Pokemon history (and they really shouldn't have been treated like bad guys throughout, because they really just come off as looked down on and shat on by the world around them).
In terms of battle, I had a lot of fun this gen. The totem battles, and some of the late game fights are actually a decent challenge. The SOS stuff is bad and should feel bad, but it does add a challenge to the totem battles, which I enjoy. Otherwise I agree with everything MetaMario said on them. The new moves are fun, and a lot of the move animations are great. I really like the addition of Z moves. They're a little cheesy, and exploitable in non-trainer battles, but they can make for some really climactic moments in fights. They're cool because, unlike mega forms, almost every pokemon can access them, so it can give the sense of any pokemon being ultimate in some sort of way. They have a real presence to them that's fun to see in action. I have no clue how they'll affect the meta, but I don't care, so whatevs.
My final team:
[hide]Ozzie (Ribombee)
Joubin (Vikavolt)
Leder (Exeggutor)
Melty (Muk)
Slow Dancer (Mudsdale)
Gundham (Decidueye)[/hide]
I had a lot of fun, definitely more than gen 6 (besides Gogoat existing and being awesome). I'd probably rank this 3rd or 4th for gen games?
5>2>7>3>6>1>4
I'm sure this will settle more in time, and it might drop to a steady 4 depending on how a gen 3 replay goes.
So yeah, time for post-game wrap up, legend hunting, and so on. If anyone wants me to breed them a Sun Pokemon or a Rowlet, I'm not invested in perfect IVs or natures, so don't expect that, but I'll be happy to give you one. I'm looking for any moon things, and the other two starters, for collection purposes.