Rather depends on your preferences tbh. It plays far different from a 'normal' mainline Pokemon game.
In PLA you can hide in bushes and sneak up on Pokemon. You can also get chased by them and take damage, potentially losing items if you get knocked out.
There's also crafting, but you only really need it for the higher end items, you can just buy the more basic stuff after doing the related quests.
I haven't finished the story yet myself, but it's no worse than any other Pokemon game so far. It does actually have some nice side quests that you can do, that shed a bit of light on certain bits of Pokedex info from various Pokemon... probably inspired by them.
Battling is a bit different as it has Agile & Strong style moves. Agile decreases power but will let you move extra every x amount of turns. Strong style increases power and accuracy, but you're basically getting hit twice before being able to move your Pokemon again, potentially even 3 times if the opposing Pokemon spams 3 Agile style moves.
You also can run away from wild battles. Game does not have a lot of trainer battles btw.... which is either a bad thing or a good thing if you like them or don't like them =P
Should also note that Legends Z-A is coming out late this year. If tight on cash you might wanna consider getting that instead of PLA.
Anyway imo it is a fun game, just plays really different from a normal Pokemon game.
