Ok I arrived at the second island. Here are some first island impressions.
+POKEMON
+The whole area was well-designed with alternate routes, hidden areas, and teases that make you want to come back when you get the Tauros. There were some nice in-field gimmicks, like the Pokemon attacking you in the grass and the flying shadows on top of the mountain. It was definitely fun to explore, and I like how once you beat the Kahuna, more paths open up so you can traverse it more easily.
+Actually a bit of challenge. Teacher Emily wasn't playing. Totem Raticate was fairly strong (if you don't just nuke him with your level 20 starter), and the Kahuna having access to a Z Power could definitely catch people off guard. Still not blisteringly hard, but there are some moments where you can be taken advantage of if you're not careful.
+Pokefinder is much better here than in the demo. You can just press R at certain spots as opposed to having to go through some confirmation dance, and each spot has a series of different Pokemon so it's worthwhile to use more than once. I do wish you could share pictures on Miiverse, I don't want to save them to my SD card.
+Although the Dex is smaller than XY, there is still a lot of diversity. I didn't expect a Smeargle or Vullaby so early. I also like how patches of grass in one area can have different Pokemon. Past games did something similar to this with taller grass, but now it's much more ingrained.
+Festival Plaza is confusing, but there are some interesting shops and the missions are dumb yet addictive.
+General QoL things like remembering what moves are effective and the Pokeball button are really nice.
-I'm already missing the PSS. I have no idea if my friends are on, and communicating with random people is not as streamlined as it was before. I was getting requests to battle and trade all the time when I started XY, but here not so much.
-HP bar moves so slowly. I shouldn't be able to see each individual point tick down.
-Bring back hordes.
I will also say that the tutorials are not as long as many people claim they are. You can blaze through them pretty quickly, but the constant stream of cutscenes when you get to the city are a bit annoying. You can still head more or less straight to the marina to let you get into Route 2 though.
