Got burned from Pokemon after White. Well, I mean I played White for about an hour and realized it's just the same formula over and over and over.
Yup, that's why I cannot understand how Pokemon lasted so long as a franchise. it's the exact same **** over and over and over. The peak was Ruby and Sapphire imo, it was all downhill/or should I say the same hill from that point on. That was the last one that really felt like a true sequel and upgrade to the series.
You're a 10-year-old kid with one/no parent(s). You begin by getting your first Pokemon from the main professor of the town. Mom kisses you goodbye and you leave.
You meet one/two main friends who help you throughout the game. You catch weak Pokemon, level them up, battle six gyms, then the Elite Four. All the while an evil/misguided gang is trying to capture/use Pokemon for their evil/misguided ways.
And throw in some gimmick to change the appearance of the older 'mon to make it seem "new."
All of the games I've played are like this. The other mainstream RPGs I played (e.g., Dragon Quest, FF, etc.) at least have different storylines and different kinds of characters. True, you start weak and grind up like any other RPG, but, as I mentioned, it's the story that keeps me engaged (and the attacks with flashy effects).
I started to feel the same way for TLoZ during
Skyward Sword. In one of the levels, I even asked myself (alone in my living room), "Why am I even playing this game?" Didn't play a game in the franchise after that until BotW. I wasn't even excited for BotW until I started seeing streams of it after release. What a breath of fresh air for that series.