I don't know if it really returns to the franchise's roots. The Team Rocket content felt central to the main quest after reaching Celadon City despite blocking progress. Giovanni's role as a gym leader also helped to tie Team Rocket to the main plot. I also think that the league itself was central to gen 7's story since one of the core storylines is crowning Alola's first champion. Other storylines took the spotlight in gen 5, mainly Team Plasma's story in B/W and Team Plasma's return and the recurring three musketeer legendaries in B2/W2, though.
Gen 1's main story didn't even really have any legendary involvement outside of Mewtwo destroying Cinnabar Island's lab in the backstory while the dogs are recurring elements in one of this game's subplots. The dog appearing early in the game feels somewhat similar to ash seeing ho-oh, but the similarities largely end there since he didn't learn anything else about it during his first journey. The tournament formula definitely feels similar to the anime, though, and is a nice change of pace (at least for me).
A few kids waiting in line for the game at my local Best Buy were hyped for camp.
I wish game did more with it. Camp gives you so few options that it feels barren despite technically having more content that amie and refresh.
