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Pros
>The graphics look great in the towns (except for the low drawdistance)
>The soundtrack is awesome (as usual)
>The QoL changes (Wild encounters, Pokjobs, Exp candy, no caps in stat vitamins, etc) are really nice and makes things less of a pain
>Max raid battles and poke-camp are quite fun
>You can skip cutscenes now (fucking yay)
>Some of the characters (Hop, Bede, Opal, Piers) have decent arcs
>The setting and atmosphere are really good, the league actually feels like an organized competition as it's intended
>The gym puzzles are actually pretty good this time
>The game is at least fun to play like every other one
>Online is OK (but you have to pay for it)
Cons
>Wild areas (the game's main selling point) are a shorehorned-in pseudo-open world and feel empty and boring as shit, basically just being a giant route
>The dex cut wasn't that much a big deal, but it was still complete and utter BS that they could not import all mons like every other time
>Lame plot, most of it was complete nonsense with no real structure or pacing
>Rose being the villain was obvious af
>The Exp share is name always on
>Battles are not very challenging
>The graphics are ass outside of the towns (low drawdistance, shit models and textures, lazy animations in cutscenes)
>Short and mostly linear routes
>No dungeons (Rose tower is a literal elevator ride cutscene with battles)
>Virtually no postgame
>The main game quite short (~17-20 hours)
>Dynamax is just a lame mega rehash and feels gimmicky
>The game was obviously rushed to make a yearly release
In conclusion, sword/shield makes a lot of the right decisions but was clearly rushed and is poorly executed. It takes 1 step forwards and 3 steps back, and feels hollow overall. This game is NOT worth full price.
It is at least fun to play like any other pokemon game. If you really want to play this game, just pirate it and play it on an emulator (or buy it used for a cheap price if you really don't have the balls to pirate)
