The Sun/Moon hype period was pretty high, even though the actual games themselves turned out crap. I believe the X/Y period was pretty high too because of Megas, a new type, 3d pokemon, customization, etc. B/W had some neat moments with the silhoutte of zoroark and the starters, but b/w2 notably had the PWT which was great. Sword/Shield, by contrast, have had a fucking awful hype period. Hardly any info compared to previous gens and the whole Nat. Dex fiasco (+Megas and Z-Moves getting culled, too, though I personally couldn't care less about Z-Moves) are part of the reason. Stuff like the whole '18 gyms!' and 'more new pokemon added than ever before!' also got people's hopes up for nothing and it was kind of funny, but that admittedly wasn't really Gamefreak's fault.
Maybe this'll turn out to be a reverse Sun/Moon scenario, though. Either way the inevitable shitstorm will be hilarious to watch.
