Is battling your favorite part of a Pokémon game?

It's no secret that battling is one of the main focuses of main series Pokémon games. Throughout your time playing you're challenged by a wide variety of trainers and can only progress through the games by battling.

So I ask you guys this: is battling (competitive included if that's your thing) your favorite part of the main series games? Or do you enjoy other aspects a bit more, such as collecting (catching them all, doing a living dex, etc), breeding, shiny hunting, contests, or something else?

I don't mind doing it, but it's not my fav part no.
My fav part each new gen is just finding the new mons and picking favorites from them. Also just exploring the new region with my team of mons, and in gen 8 using every chance I get to camp with them so I can play with them for a bit =3
Collecting them is usually fun too, and for the top favs so is shiny hunting them.

I loved the Hoenn contests, but I don't think it will ever return sadly.

Nope, I've always enjoyed the collection aspect more than the battling. Battling in Pokemon is miserably basic when compared to many modern turn-based JRPGs, with the complexities that come from competitive battling being completely unimportant outside of that particular sphere of interest. It's serviceable, and that's about it. I've always been more interested in exploring and filling out my dex than anything else.

It's my favorite aspect but certainly not the only one. If Pokémon games were just one battle after another I'd get bored pretty quick, I think that raising Pokémon and team-building are very important parts of the experience, as much as battling if not even more.

I also appreciate having an interesting region with exploration and cool things to find. Interesting story and characters are also a plus, although I already gave up on Pokémon games doing that well at this point.

Yes, competitive battling is my favorite aspect of Pokémon. Throughout the many years I have been playing Pokémon, I always enjoyed False Swiping and catching Pokémon, especially Pokémon with very low catch rates, but not exactly completing the PokéDex if that makes sense. I also enjoyed completing the main story with my primary and secondary team that I began my adventure with. I enjoyed battling in-game as well, (especially in Pokémon Sword and Shield's gym challenges), but battling against the NPCs was always extremely easy for me. NCPs very rarely have well-trained Pokémon and most gym leaders and Elite Four members specialize in using a single type, which makes them easy to defeat with a single type-matchup. In fact, despite me never using items during battle, I don't recall ever losing any battle to an NPC beyond battle facilities. However, when I began battling competitively, I finally found that challenge in Pokémon that I've been seeking for a long time. When battling competitively, times exist where I completely dominate my opponent, completely get outplayed and dominated myself, or have extremely close, intense battles, a dynamic that I never get to experience against NPCs. For me, competitive battling is a completely different, yet very fun experience. I have also met some good friends from battling competitively as well.

Back when I engaged in competitive battling it would've been easy enough to say that it was, but now that I don't anymore, plus how part of the reason why I liked PLA was because (while you still do plenty of battling) the primary focus was capturing Pokemon and completing the Dex, I'm really not sure what aspect of Pokemon is my favorite.

Would say so. Enjoys the planning as much (if not more) than the battle itself. How do you defeat Hala with just a Mienfoo and Magnemite? Is it possible to beat the Fire Gym with only Bellossom? What Dark Pokemon can deal with Hawlucha and Mega Gardevoir? Finds it fun to solve that.

Becomes interesting when unusual tactics come in. Relied on Flash to beat Red. Pulled out Soak for Leon's Aegislash. (Tip: Do not do that. Returns to normal upon switching forms.) Spammed Acupressure in a +6 Attack Hawlucha's face. How many times have you ever used those moves?

Appreciates some of the other aspects too. Spent some time doing minigames like the Grand Underground and Mantine Surfing. Delighted in breeding moves like Spark onto Barboach. Usually comes down to battles in the end, however.

It's been at least a decade since I've done any competitive battling. I enjoyed it, but as more and more Pokemon were introduced, the metagame became more and more complex.

My favorite part of the Pokemon games is collecting them all. I've completed the Pokedex in most of my games starting with my first, Pokemon Blue. I also like collecting shiny Pokemon because their shiny variants often have more interesting colors, such as shiny Kyogre, Rayquaza, Lugia, Ho-oh, etc. I've traded for many shiny Pokemon, but it gives me a greater sense of accomplishment if I obtain them myself. Some of my favorite methods include the Poke Radar and Masuda Method, but random encounters / soft resets are easy to do while multi-tasking. I still EV train my shiny Pokemon, but I haven't used them for online battling.

My favorite part is making a team, customizing them, and watching them grow stronger.

So I guess battling is an important aspect of that, but it's not necessary my favorite part at all.

Battling feels more like a means to an end. I like to come up with my own stories while playing. The team I pick is my group of protagonists and whatever story the game throws at me doesn't really matter. I just put the scenery into a different perspective. It does make it seem a little weird why there's trainers everywhere. xD

So, for me it's exploration, story building, maybe even some world building of my own. ^^

I'm a bit mixed on battling. It's the main challenge factor of the game, and when you get a good battle, it leaves a good experience. I don't want it to be too hard, though. I always pick my 'Mons based on what will have me covered for every option in terms of type coverage. If you have an answer for everything, nothing can stop you!

I am a bit like Ash from the series. Ever since gen 1, my favorite Pokemon has been Primeape. I always enjoy taking one with me in each game. In the first several gens I would use some new and some old but now I prefer to restrict myself to new mons. Discovering new Pokemon simply by how they look, not by their stats. I never look at the new Pokemon ahead of time. Its more fun figureing out what I can and cannot beat with Primeape. Switching different items and such. There is quite alot that Primeape can handle if used right. If Primeape is unavailable I take something else. Like Blazekin and gen 3 and Lycanroc in gen 8. It was a royal bummer I couldnt camp with Primeape in gen 8.

i think battling is one of the only parts of pokemon gaming i care about LOL. i guess it's to the point where if a post-game doesn't have a good battle facility, i lose interest in it rather quickly. been tired of battle tower-esque clones for years now zzz