What would really top it off is, if a fan game of such quality was able to afford Paul Robertson.

Well, Sun and Moon finally apply the old visuals that until now were only in the Console games (Colloseum and XD Gale of Darkness), where you can see the actual battlefield, including trainers, so they've got that going for them!

I think that working on a handheld system has been encouraging them to hold back. Now that they're making advances in the style, there's bound to be more improvements by the next game, if they aren't as good as wat you're asking.

I'm hoping the change in visual style is a cue that they'll be taking more risks and doing different things with the series but... who knows? I love Pokémon and would really like to see them try new things with it. Pokémon Insurgence is good, there's actually difficulty settings for it, too!

Game Freak is so risk-averse that they would have folded by now if they didn't have such a successful franchise in their portfolio. It's been the same story where Team [Insert Name] wants to take over the world, and a little kid with a Pokémon given to them by some professor (and with the same choice of starter types since for 7 generations) saves the world. Oh also there's always 8 gym leaders and an Elite 4 that don't participate in the outside world at all (and they're always good guys). Also I hope you have HM slaves in your party because you're going to need them. etc. etc. etc.

Well, in the Sinnoh games, Flint, a member of the Elite Four does leave to convince Gym Leader Volkner to continue being a gym leader... although he ends up procrastinating it and leaving it to a kid to handle. I think all of the games have the Champion running around with you leading you to little secrets and helping you advance towards victory road, but they never seem to actually be involved with saving the world, at least in the main story. In the Bonus chapter of Alpha/Omega, the champion is actually trying to do something, but why doesn't he do anything before then about Team Magma/Aqua?

They're involved but only in a very superficial kind of way. And yeah I wondered that, too. There's criminal syndicates out there using pokémon to terrorize the population/take over the world/destroy the world ... where in the hell are the supposed strongest trainers in the land? Seems kinda weird.

The Delta Episode was so stupid and so awesome. Alternate dimensions? Ride a dragon into space to blow up a meteor. Engage in fisticuffs with an alien. Prophecy over. It was so weird, I loved it.