>>49458442Like
>>49458780 put, Galar feels worse because it's just a concentrated form of what SM/USUM went for but without trying to disguise it as something new or interesting.
From the hyper-linear story and routes, babysitter NPCs, useless map markers coupled with the incessant roadblocks, and same shitty director, SWSH is for all intents and purposes an evolution of the formula Alola went with but trying to disguise itself as a proper Pokemon game with gyms instead of cutting them out at the last minute to be replaced by trials like Gen 7 did.
The first six gens thrived because the gameplay formula was concrete and they all had the same feeling of "exploring a new region at your own agency." But Alola and Galar don't have this, they're built more like Orre where there's little to nothing connecting each area together and the only real "roadblock" (aside from the droves of NPCs preventing you from going anywhere other than the map markers) is the trainers you fight and the amount of A mashing it takes to get through those pitifully boring fights and dialogue.
Alola was just "okay" because it at least tried to trick you into pretending it wasn't doing the same thing-- and for the most part in comparison to the first 6 gens, it wasn't. Galar feels even worse because despite being on a console it's just the same shit with a different skin to which at this point everyone was exposed to and normies thought it to be par for the course for a Pokemon game having only played Sun and Moon since it was the game at directly succeeded GO.
