>>43306858BotW had over 4 years of development from a studio highly experienced in making HD console games with additional help from another studio highly experienced in making HD console games.
Sword and Shield were made in ~2 years by a studio that had never made an HD console game before and was also working on other games throughout development.
The problem isn't Gamefreak so much as TPC causing short devtimes and rushed deadlines to keep the anime/tcg/merch cashcow flowing. A yearly release cycle works okay when you're making 2D, relatively low fidelity sprite-based handheld games. It's fucking horrible when you're dealing with 3D and especially HD development.
Gamefreak certainly has their problems, with things like the dozens of Lillie models in SM, but to anyone who's played Sword and Shield it should be evident that they most certainly did try to create something good - it's obvious for example that the main story was very rushed hence why so many events happen offscreen.
