Which game would you recommend to someone who’s never played Pokémon before but doesn’t want a lot of “hand-holding”?

As the title states!

I want to get an adult friend Pokémon to start them on a similar journey that I’ve had since I was younger. However, a big turn off to the series has been how handholding the game series has become. I’ve tried to explain to them that since it’s a child’s game it’s always going to have that type of set up, but I’d still really like to try to get them into the series.