So I finally got around to play PLA, and I'm very pleasantly surprised. This definitely is the response to all the criticisms people had - the game feels free instead of restrictive, the usual linear routes are replaced with expansive areas to actually explore (and not a boring backdrop of the Wild Area either, but something more dynamic), the protagonist feels agile and completely unlike the non-functional robotic dolls we had before, catching is much more fun now, and battle menu options are actually fucking mapped to the face buttons, and you are an active participant. I know this game has a ton more and I just got started with it, so I'm excited to play it.
The question is - where the fuck is all this stuff in SV? In the trailer, we see coop, which is neat, and apparently the game will finally be more open-ended, but otherwise, it feels like a SwSh sequel as if PLA never happened. Even the fucking menus went back to fucking cursors. Why?