Honestly I'd just prefer a literal remake of emerald in sprites with an expanded world and featureset. I'm actually pretty okay with sword as it is now though ive only gotten to the second gym and nothing that i hear actually makes me care. This isnt likely parallel to what a lot of other people think but I disliked pokemon after gen 4. While gen 5 felt still slightly inspired it felt a lot less focused in terms of featureset with things I didnt really care to elaborate my own play on, the final area that you can grow through interacting with others and the dream shit, and some of the designs felt like retarded ass to me.
Gen 4 I could really enjoy but felt disappointed with but gen 5 just felt like it was being played by me solely for the sake of ritual. I played gen 6 and stopped far into gym battles, the presentation was fucking obnoxious and I couldnt tune it out like I could before. Gen 7 felt like literal baby shit that I really genuinely regret buying and disappointed me so much that I only bought this gen as what felt like a joke and to see what the fuck has happened to this franchise.
I think with what I know so far and what I've played so far in terms of base mechanics this might be the most enjoyable one for me since gen 4. I think my reason for liking this is because pokemon isnt pokemon anymore or at least not what pokemon was for me and this title seems to take that mindset and instead of building off of a broken foundation has just made a facsimile with what they wanted instead of just pointless uninspired reiteration as is their fucking trademark as a developer.
https://youtu.be/kFC6mDKF-0cTo preemptively answer any question as to why I kept buying the games, curiosity.
