As of now I'm about halfway through and will update my review as I continue on. So far, this game has proven to be one of the best I've played in the series. It feeds me all sorts of information and allows the player more freedom in terms of exploration, something that I've always wanted in a Pokemon game. I was a bit hesitant on playing at first due to the formula's change; I wasn't familiar with it and I was a bit scared of what this new change would mean for the series as a whole (even with the current formula being LONG overdue for a change). I eventually caved in and I'm SO glad I made the choice of playing. It is genuinely the most fun I've had playing a Pokemon game in years!
The open-world aspect and mechanics make gameplay more fun and I actually have an incentive to complete the PokeDex - I've never had a reason to complete one previously due to how tedious it was to go into battle and find pokemon needed for completion. With overworld spawns, battles, and other tools, you can mix up your methods for catching Pokemon, making it 10x more fun compared to the set battles and Level Ball spamming. Not to mention the characters and storyline are great so far, which is something I always look for in games. This could be a wonderful direction for the series and I can proudly say this is one of the best entries in the series. I'm looking forward to future games and hope to see more like this in the future from Gamefreak.
EDIT: I have now completed the game and I was SO SAD I didn't want it to end,,, it was so great and the soundtrack made it so much better too. Love this game loads and will now try and complete all tasks and dex entries :) Post-game seems to be promising to, so I'm pumped.