My friends are claiming that Sword and Shield are good games, and I think they're retarded. However, I'm not buying this to verify their idiocy, so I'm going to ask here if they're wrong or not.

One of the things they claim is that the game is difficult, specifically that you need the exp. share to be leveled enough. How true is this? If you just fight all the trainers and don't go out of your way to grind or switch your pokemon constantly, how would your level be compared to the gym leaders and such? Because I doubt it would be significantly lower.

Another thing they claim is that the story is less obtrusive, unlike how Lilly and all the cutscenes were like in Sun and Moon. I think they're saying this because I said pre-release that you could skip certain cutscenes, but it seems to me that the story is the same bullshit constant barrage to me.

One of them also says the game looks good, but I don't need any verification to know that that's fucking retarded.

So, any help on clearing these things up for me?