Well, I completely disagree with you regarding the neighbor-, gym leader- and elite four music. Those are the best tracks in the game in my opinion (along with team Flare/Lysandre).

It should also be mentioned that I find the game's entire OST beyond fantastic. Even surpassing the older entries.

What they need to do is give you an HM Bot like three quarters of the way through the game. I think the idea of having your Pokemon learn moves that help you progress is a good thing, but past a certain point it just becomes pointless and annoying. That's when you should get a little device that takes care of all that stuff for you without you needing a Pokemon to know all the moves. Best of both worlds.

HMs aren't as bad as they used to be, Flash is gone, Waterfall is the best accurate Water type physical attack, Fly got boosted to 90 power (it was 70 before) and Strength is ok-ish as always. Only Cut still sucks.

You can delete HMs at the the move deleter and have pokemon remember old moves at the move remainder (the latter requires an item).

And some pokemon like Linoone are only useful as HM slaves...

Ive given it plenty of chances, I just cant figure out whats so good about the gameplay.

Not to mention that TMs can be used as many times as you want. So replacing a move learned by TM temporarily to use Cut and the likes is completely harmless.

No one plays main-line Pokémon games for the gameplay. That's ridiculous.

It's all about the strategy and/or adventure aspect, depending on who you're asking.

Yeah, I loved a lot of things about the game, but there are still a few tweaks that need to be made. All in all, Pokemon X is still my favorite Pokemon game ever but I wouldn't be surprised if whatever comes next tops it!

In a game like Mario Kart, the gameplay is all about optimally driving through a stage while dodging pits, items and other racers. In a game like Smash Bros., the gameplay is all about fast, strategic reactions to your opponents movements and being able to keep the momentum once you've gained it.

In a game like Pokémon though... the gameplay itself is all about moving your cursor to the best strategic option, and moving your character to the place that you'd like to explore next or have a need to visit.

Hopefully I've made myself clear.

Only Wonder Trade and GTS. Wonder Trade is really fun, I have traded a lot of Trapinch and got lot of new pokemons that I didn't have. I also tried I few battles with random people but my only competitive pokemon is Flygon so I got my ass kicked.

By the way, seeing your avatar reminds me of something I forgot while writing the OP. Since Gen 3 I´ve seen a few  pokemons resembling Pikachu (Electric Rodents) but they are not part of the advertising campaign or they are somehow useless in the game. Wouldn't be a good idea to promote those pokemos? (assumig that Pikachu is still popular among kids).

And pokemon is all about gameplay isn't? Strategy, collecting and the adventure feeling are all part of the gameplay, I couldn't care less about the stupid story.

Edit: Read IIIIITHE1IIIII last post after posting. Lets stop it right there, discussing what gameplay is in a pokemon game is not the purpose of this thread.