After just under 86 hours, I've finally decided to give up on a true 100% run. Came so close, but the Path of Solitude is just way too fucking grindy. My completion progress at the end:
- Completed pokedex (with research level 10 for all Pokémon)
- Full Star rank
- Nearly all requests done
- Bought all recipes/Rotom machines/satchel upgrades
- All old verses
Also still have some of the Path of Tenacity + all of the Reverie battles, but I really don't think I can be bothered at this point. This is the first time I've ever completed the pokedex in a mainline game and I don't think I've ever caught this many shinies in a single playthrough (Happiny, Drifblim, Paras, Geodude x2, Luxio), so there's that at least.
Overall, I'd say this is an
okay game with some great mechanics for catching and traversal (that battle system will hopefully never return). All the padding really started to wear down on me even before I was done with all the main missions, and the objectives/story are pretty meh, but I had a great time exploring each area for the first time.
Also, while this is an actual mainline game, it has that same kind of "mainline-adjacent" feel that the Orre games did, and it felt pretty similar to those games because of that. Felt weirdly nostalgic even though this is a new game, and it's very different from Colosseum and XD. I guess it mostly felt that way because more conventional RPGs that deviate from the Pokémon formula have been so rare.