Hello, 4chan. I hear you’re hungry for some details on the Sword and Shield game. I’m a small employee helping put together some of the game’s official walkthrough guides for Nintendo.
While I can’t say much, so as to avoid some unpleasant business, I can give you small details about the game.

The first gym is run by a gym leader named Kabu. This gym is where you begin your Gym Challenge Opening ceremonies. The challenge for this gym is that you must compete with your rivals to catch a Pokémon, it’s actually a fun little elimination round challenge. Kabu’s gym type is Fire, and he uses, among other things, a Galarian Phanpy, which is Fire/Water.

The Grass and Water gyms can be fought in any order, after which you progress to the Royal Palace.

The Princess of Galar is the Dragon-type Gym Leader for this city, but you don’t fight her until you’ve collected 7 gym badges. The stadium is a royal court style arena, with the King and Queen observing the match.

4 gyms in Galar are different depending on the version. For Sword you’ll get Fighting, Fairy, Ground, and Dark Gyms. And for Shield you’ll get Ghost, Poison, Rock, and Ice Gyms. Sometimes, but not in every case, you can fight some gyms in different orders depending on where you choose to progress first. The Gym trainer’s levels adjust depending on how many badges you have.

The Elite Four is absent from this game, being replaced by the Champions League.

I won’t reveal every new Gigantamax Form, but I will say that there will be 20. I think it’s obvious to most fans who will get them. One of the most hilarious ones is Drifblim, who gigantamaxes into a huge Blimp. Most of these forms will be for Gen 8 Pokémon, with some older Pokémon getting them as well.