>>57348213most people's hot takes here seem to be based in negativity, so here's one in positivity: sword and shield is actually really good.
The dex has a lot of great designs in it, and it gave new forms to pokemon that desperately needed a touch-up like Corsola, Farfetch'd, and Linoone, and it had some overall bangers in it like Grookey, Orbeetle, Drednaw, the entire Applin Line, Polteageist, Copperajah, Stonjouner, Eiscue, Dragapult, Runerigus, the Fossils, and Barraskewda.
The gym challenges were enjoyable and had some pretty unique examples in their things, even Melony's, which I dislike for being super annoying, is a great use for something they've never been able to use before, being the rumble feature.
the fact we got a dark type gym leader after so many years is amazing, and they didn't even inherently make him "evil" in any way (also emo boy is great).
Hottest take here, but I genuinely think Hop is the greatest rival (tied with tierno my goat) because in my honest opinion he's the only character in this series to truly have "growth", he went from being in his older brothers shadow, to rethinking his life, and then realised that he has other aspirations in his life than pokemon battling, and finally became his own person.
The routes were simple, sure, but the fact that we got an open-world area that doesn't feel like a giant fucking slog to traverse like S&V, alongside the traditional route system, makes exploring the region a lot better.
Seeing a cocky orphan with daddy issues getting vibe checked by an old lady was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in this series
And finally, the dex cut, while depressing, was a gigantic breath of fresh air to the metagame when the game launched. hell, shit like DURANT was viable for a few months. (then the dlc came out and ruined it, but oh well.)
