LogFAQs > #930731972

There are 8 gyms, but in terms of the other things you mentioned it's definitely lesser than the previous entries.

The characters are good as is most of the dialogue, but are barely there at all. You get some nice potential but no payoff because the game basically doesn't have a story. Towards the end especially it feels like large swaths of the game were cut. It's the shortest game in the series.

I did like it well enough, but if you're the kind of person who just plays a Pokmon game until you beat it and then stops, it's probably the worst one. Definitely the worst value on that front at the console game price tag, too.