>>45229526Main story was the worst in the series, aside from a couple locations most of the map in the base game was bad and clearly rushed, there were a few locations where it looks like they didn't have time to work on so they blocked access to it. The Wild Area was admittedly refreshing and it's my favorite part seeing all the Pokemon move around a map was great. The DLCs were fun while they lasted, I wish there was more story and more trainers to fight, the maps were also a massive improvement over the base game. Raids, Restricted sparring, and Dynamax adventures are the best combination of battle modes since the Battle Frontier. As for competitive, I like how they made making comp ready mons so easy but then they took two steps back with the introduction of TRs and Dynamax candies adding back some tedium to the process. Lastly overworld encounters are the best change to the mainline games in a long time and well overdue. I rate SwSh this way:
Main Story: Worst in the franchise
Region itself: Mostly rushed and uninteresting locations. IoA and CT make up for this somewhat.
Additional Battle modes: 3rd behind Gen 3 and 4's Battle Frontiers
Raising Pokemon: Best in the series even with the tedium of TRs and candies
Online: 2nd best behind XY
Overall while it has some aspects I abhor, there are still elements of it to be appreciated.