They were great games, but had their faults.
If I were to judge them based on criteria, it'd go something like this -
Gameplay: 7/10
Good old Pokemon, but the excessive handholding and unnecessary cutscenes did nothing but holt the experience. Game was genuinely hard though, which made a welcome change. Totem Salazzle wrecked my shit as did the Champion. Z moves were interesting and it's cool to see Pokemon have their own exclusive attacks. Between this and their abilities, they're really becoming unique.
Story 7/10
It was an engaging story buy didn't need anywhere near the amount of cutscenes. I get that Haus a good guy and likes malasadas. No need to break me off my adventure every ten minuets to hammer me over the head with it.the experience was definitely the most linear to date and I don't think any of the characters were interesting enough to make that pay off.
However Lillie had clear development and I liked Gladion as three best rival we've seen in a while. The photo of Lillie hugging Lunala at the end was genuinely moving. Team Skull were the best villain team we've had thanks to their low stakes and believable goal, as well as being goofy as all hell.
Music: 9/10
Outstanding in every way. The town and battle themes are among the best with some of my favourites including Hau'oli City Night and Royal Avenue (gives me those jazzy Sinnoh vibes) and the Tapu and Elite Four battles which are pretty heavy by Pokemon standards and portrays the intensity very well. The only thing that stops it being perfect is the lack of diverse route themes. Their were too few, and all pretty generic barring Route 01. It was an ace OST though. Heck, even the salon theme has a lot of video game music beat.
Pokemon: 9/10
Again, brilliant in almost every way. Each one was uniquely designed and truly took after Kalos' concept of quality over quantity. In fact it stands as my second favourite dex right after gen 6's. They all represented Alola down to the bone, and the genius behind some such as Decidueye who uses his hoodie tassle as a bow string, or Alolan sandshrew's igloo inspired ears and shell were brilliant. It's only let down by the fact the starters are seemingly becoming more humanoid in appearance which I'm not a fan of, and the Alolan forms being reserved for Kanto mon who have seen enough pandering recently. Though Kanto is my least favourite dex, it did make me like a few if them, so that counts as something.
Overall, it's a solid 8/10 in my books. As for rankings, it'd place right here-
1. DPPt
2. HGSS
3. ORAS/RSE
4. SM
5. BW/2
6. XY
7. GSE
8. FRLG
9. RBY
Not too shabby.