>>39766497>OW encountersThis one is OK, but it's not a selling point or anything. If they had gotten rid of wild encounters entirely then this feature wouldn't be as excusable.
>Raid battlesBattles against Wild Pokemon AI (aka bad) where you get to inflict them with status, set up screens, lower their attacking stats, etc. all on the first turn will make every Raid battle a cakewalk. Doesn't help that you can also Dynamax, and that the Raid Pokemon's Def/SpD lowers by two stages after its barrier breaks. It's just going to be a chore to get Gigantamax-compatible Pokemon or ones with Hidden Abilities.
>Megas being removed>Z moves being removedThese aren't positives, being cut content. Plus, they were only removed to make way for another bleh mechanic.
>New region/story>New PokemonThese are expectations and apply to every new region, so they're not even worth mentioning as positives when compared to previous games. Plus the story can't be all that great, being Pokemon, and the new Pokemon revealed so far are collectively average/underwhelming. There's more stinkers and meh designs than there are winners.
>Hosting tournaments onlineDecent enough, but I wouldn't bank on getting enjoyment out of any online meta for long. Might be fun if everyone mutually agrees to run gimmick shitmons.
The only positive I can say about Sword and Shield is that the colors on the Pokemon look a lot less washed out, and there's no Rotom constantly bugging us.
