The story line takes place at the same time as Pokemon X and Y versions. The relationship between Galar and Kalos is heavily mentioned throughout the story, at one point in the story, you will even see the firing of AZ's weapon (the climax of XY) in the sky from the Galar region. The story is also a bit more grown up than previous entries, but not too much so. Its still a game geared for children, but rest assured, everyone can enjoy these games.

Historically, Gamefreak tended to craft their own stories the way that they wanted without much input from fans, but this time around Gamefreak made it a point to go back and use past criticisms as a template for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Many people in the Pokemon community felt that XY was "unfinished", so they are striving to make Sword and Shield a good bookend to XY.

If you were hoping for regional variants, unfortunately there are none this time around. Gamefreak felt they would not fit the Galar region because of its proximity to the Kalos region which also has no region variants.

Someone from Kalos' Elite 4 makes an appearance. I wonder who that could be.

If you wanted Mega Evolutions to return, well once again you're unfortunately out of luck. Megas do not return, but the "leak" about Armored Forms is correct, but they are called Sword and Shield Forms. As you can imagine, one form is more Offensive in nature, the other being more Defensive. They work similarly to Mega Evolutions in-battle, and are essentially Galar's way of "keeping up" with Kalos' Mega Evolutions. And yes, Flygon finally gets the loving it deserves.

So by a show of hands, who here is excited for the first Dark Type gym?