>>46900398Any game can be reasonably enjoyable but overall these were among the weakest entries, if not *the* weakest entries, in the series.
Main game: You were playing your rival’s story. This was Hop’s game, not yours. You are not a character but an opposing force to Hop’s dream. Hop was the one who grew over the course of the game, not you. He came to terms with not being his brother and actually becomes better than his brother by understanding the pain of failure and defeat, helping him become kinder and smarter. Hop’s goal changes because he learned from Sonia that information and knowledge are true power. That saved the region, not Arthurian doggos. Every other character in the game fell flat, however. The gym leaders were nonexistent one dimensional archetypes, the other two rivals had little to no development, the villain teams were a joke and shoehorned at the end, respectively. The plot is extremely linear (go to gym, Team Yell or tourist attraction, clear a route, rival battle. go to gym, repeat). It is the gym challenge and Darkest Day. Postgame is the same but heavily abridged. These are the most boring Pokémon games. At least XY had diverse routes and sidequests in between each gym. Not every Team Flare encounter was the same. At least Sun and Moon humanized the side cast and each of the captains had their own quirks and personality. You got none of that in SWSH.
DLC: Isle of Armor aesthetically was pleasing but the story was incredibly straightforward. The rival character was a jerk but aside from that had no real development. They just become slightly less annoying at the end. Mustard is a better character than Leon, but he was barely utilized. Crown Tundra dealt with Legendary Pokémon lore but they all fell disjointed and artificial. The writing was iffy and there was barely gameplay aside from catching Legendary Pokémon. Galarian Star Tournament is mediocre. Dynamax Adventures are okay for getting rare Pokémon, but feel lazy.
