I'll never understand the massive hatred Pokemon gets on Neogaf, Arceus was amazing and Sword/Shield was the best gen since 3. But I know that I'll be called a shill or blind fanboy for having a positive opinion on Pokemon. Temtem looks whatever, I find it hard to get excited for another monster catching game if it doesn't have all the great monsters and nostalgia that Pokemon brings with it
As someone who didn't grow up with Pokemon, I can give an unbiased opinion
First of all, the order I started playing in 2018. Note these are just the ones I mostly completed, I've tried and dropped others
Black > Sword > Arceus
The story, character development and dialogue are horrible
Presentation has no effort (graphics, enviromental effects, NPC/Pokemon animations, empty worlds with nothing to explore). Before arguing about the Switch's weakness, please check out the Witcher 3 port
Gameplay is very unbalanced, difficulty is non existent.
A lot good Pokemon designs backed with their roles in the world itself. But also a lot of bad designs that aren't helped by having bad move pools and stats
I could say more, but I don't want to spend too much time here. Pokemon are mediocre games with low budgets, backed solely by marketing and nostalgia. There is nothing redeemable about them, the amount of low effort in their development is insulting. Especially since people out of their free time have balanced the games through mods far better than Gamefreak (difficulty, encounters, move pools etc).