What I mainly didn't like about the plot was that Team Flare's plans would have completely fallen apart if the game didn't force you to be a complete idiot at times. I really hate how it didn't even really matter when you beat someone. Battling Lysandre for the first time comes to mind. He fights you as soon as you enter the hidden area in his café and when you win he just walks away.
That makes no sense whatsoever. I mean think about it. You have a team of powerful monsters at your command and all that's stopping you from cutting him into ribbons is the fact that he has such a team as well. But once that team is dealt with, he has no protection anymore. He should be at your mercy. The notion that he gets to nonchalantly walk around after that, acting all smug while you can't do anything to stop him is ridiculous. I mean if you don't want him to be disposed of as a villain right there, at least come up with some sort of semi realistic justification for his ability to escape. Have him stall you somehow, idk. Send out a bunch of grunts, anything but doing nothing at all while relegating my character to a vegetable.
The by far biggest example of plot-induced stupidity is at the end of the café hideout in Lumious City. You defeat the boss who kinda looks like he's trying to cosplay as Blaine but forgot what he looked like, but again they somehow manage to defy all reason and make demands, despite not being in any position to do that. They then force you to press a button, which again you would have to be an idiot to press a button just because a clearly evil scientist bent on the destruction of the whole country told you to. But instead of the logical thing happening and your character being like "Man screw your button, I'm turning you in to the authorities, or into shish kebab if you don't stop making demands", the game won't let you progress until you fulfilled your moron quota for the day and pressed the button, without anything really forcing you plot-wise. And oh surprise, you defeated everyone in charge, but the big evil plan gets put into motion anyway because you're playing as a potato and really everything you did was pointless anyway.
Another thing I didn't like happened in the Geosenge hideout place. You meet up with your neighbor and Shauna, and you encounter a locked door that is secured with a code mechanism of sorts. Now Shauna notes that such a door is esentially an advanced form of a puzzle, and it has been established before that she is really into puzzles and considers herself to be good at them. They could have given her some time to shine here, using her puzzle-solving skills to save the day and prove that while she might be a ditz, she has some serious skills of her own. But instead of being allowed to fix the problem with her own abilities, she uses a puzzle solving machine that some guy built for her because ha ha ha you thought you'd get character development, Shauna? Well screw you! She then receives praise that amounts to: "You have proven you are able to carry an item, Shauna. Good job." Seeing her character wasted like that was really disappointing.
I guess there is also another instance of forced stupidity in that you, as the player, can most likely see Lysandre being evil coming from a mile away, but can't do anything about it. Now this instance I give a pass because it makes SOME amount of sense. Lysandre is a very influental, respected person, and if a random shmuck tried to walk up to someone and tell them the well-liked and famous president of the telephone company is secretly evil, they'd get laughed at. It would be nice to have a scene like that actually in the game, but oh well.
Now all of that said I actually like the game. It makes some nice additions to the formula, the music is decent, it has Furfrou decent new mons with cool designs and performance, the battles are now gorgeous, the professor is ultra fancy, and despite of how underdeveloped most of the characters are, the ending is actually kind of cute. It's just that the plot is struggling to keep up with the other improvements, and it shows in places.