Yeah while I didn't feel it as bad as Black and White the railroading was a bit much even then.
I also really hope Sun and Moon gets better pacing compared to X and Y, the gap between the 1 and second gym was ridiculous and the Team Flare plot at the end just fell apart. Seriously 2 dungeons at the end of the Flare plot back to back, what the hell was the point? We should have just went to Geosenge at the end and do the Lumiose base after taking on Clemont or hell maybe even during the part when we were fixing the Power Plant. That would fix half the pacing issues at least.
But yeah I would like to explore more, I mean I know it's never going to be as open as Gens 1 and 2 but I would at least like a Sinnoh like game in terms of exploring/railroading. I mean as cool as choosing what gym to do next was in terms of Saffron/Fushia and Olivine and Cianwood/Mahogany I prefer having actual gym progression in strength than sweeping the other because certain gyms have certain similar levels due to non linearity.
Or if they had something like that the Gym Leaders would scale and become harder depending on if you took one first over the other. That would have been great.
Also for the love of god less friends and a better rival would be nice. I like Shauna, but Trevor and especially freaking Tierno were pretty pointless, especially since we only battled each twice. We could have had more Shauna battles instead of a boss gauntlet at the end, I mean I would have loved that. Hell none of them even had a full team, at the end they each only had 3 Pokemon, that's just ridiculous!
But Calem and Serena were just boring, I mean being aloof was kind of okay, but it wasn't executed that well. Characterization was all over the place, they were just boring 'Ace' and 'Leader' characters that didn't really do much to earn that beside from the fact that the new chacters just moved to Kalos, so by default they would be that 'Leader'.
I don't mind not having a jerk rival like Blue and Silver, and I actually like Brendan/May and Wally, especially the ORAS versions, Barry, Cheren, Bianca, arguably N, and Hugh because they were good characters and each of them had amazing growth as characters, though I felt Cheren's could had had better writing and execution because he just felt odd to me, but it could be that I like Bianca and N better. But Serena/Calem were easily the worst rivals ever.
I mean X and Y, and Gen 6 overall, did a lot of amazing and awesome things, but it also did some pretty lackluster things too in many areas. I mean it's not as bad as my least favorites like the Kanto games, Gen 2 Johto, and certain parts of Sinnoh, but it is middle of the road in terms of good and bad.
Sorry for the rant, especially since I'm pretty sure I already said a lot of this before.