My honest thoughts on Pokemon Sword/Shield (SPOILERS AHEAD)

My honest thoughts on Pokemon Sword/Shield, after playing for ~24 hours total and beating the game/post-game.

NOTE: There are major spoilers ahead, so turn back if you don't want to see them.

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Positive:

- Fun theme/setting that feels fresh and engaging, yet traditional and familiar.
- The intro "tutorial" stuff doesn't feel overbearing at all, and I think it was actually my favorite part of the story honestly.
- New Pokemon designs are great, with cross-generation evolutions for Pokemon with new Galarian forms (Sirfetch'd, Cursola, etc.).
- Gyms felt like a great mix between Island Trials from Gen 7 and traditional gyms.
- Great soundtrack, reminiscent of Gen 4/5 with a modern flair.
- Many great quality of life features for both casual and competitive players.
- Clean yet charming UI design.
- Pokemon look great in HD?  This isn't really like an actual factor or anything, but it *is* honestly neat getting to see Pokemon beyond Gen 1 in an HD mainline game for the first time.

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Mixed:

- The progression of the story is fairly linear and doesn't have a lot to break up going from one gym to the next.  It's also the shortest story of any mainline Pokemon game by far.
- Town/route/wild area music doesn't have night variations like past gens, unless the changes are so subtle I didn't even notice.
- Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing is neat, but not worth completely replacing Mega Evolutions/Z-Moves.  It's only available for one Pokemon per battle, only lasts 3 turns, and can only be used during raid battles and gym leader/other stadium battles, which are a small portion of all the battles in the game.  Would've at least been a bit better if all existing Mega Evolutions were added as Gigantamax forms.
- Most routes and towns feel lively and scenic, but there aren't that many houses in most towns, and the ones that do exist are mostly complete clones of one another, with most of them not serving any purpose or feeling unique at all.
- Pokemon Camp is cool, but interacting with Pokemon doesn't feel as natural as Pokemon Amie/Refresh.
- Forced bike/gym challenger outfits that look extremely ugly.  Bike outfit can only have part of the color changed, but nothing else.
- Y-Comm stamps on the side of the screen are ugly and distracting, and can't be disabled at all.
- Some battles do not have an actual background setting, including Gym Trainers, and instead use a generic colored backdrop.  Likewise, some battles have unfitting backgrounds, such as fishing battles using a generic field rather than water.

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Negative:

- The Wild Area, which takes up a significant portion of the region, is an ugly, barren wasteland with no real sights to see, and an awkward weather mechanic.  Half of the Pokemon in it are also so small that you can barely see them in the tall grass, taking away from the charm of seeing them walk around.
- The only actual post-game content consists of a short quest for catching the box legendary, and the generic Battle Tower.  Of course, there's shiny hunting, completing the Pokedex, etc., but those are arbitrary tasks that can be done at any time.
- The usual "evil plot twist" doesn't occur until the VERY end of the game, which makes it feel kind of pointless and thrown in for the sake of it.  You have some weird occurences that happen off-screen leading up to it, but you're just told that "the adults will handle it" and have no involvement with it at all, until you battle Chairman Rose and catch Eternatus out of the blue.
- Lots of framerate drops when playing online in the Wild Area, loading a battle, during cutscenes/battles, etc.
- Low graphical fidelity for a $60 console game.  Pop-in with a fairly low render distance for NPCs/Pokemon, low quality textures for battle backgrounds and other areas, awkward lighting on things like berry trees, etc.
- The time of day is stuck at daytime outside of the Wild Area until after you beat the game (Where it goes back to using the system clock), and only temporarily changes for a few story events before then.  Kind of killed any immersion I might have had with the story.
- No GTS, Y-Comm interface is confusing, and having to use a 4-digit code to battle/trade with friends rather than just using the friends list is dumb.
- No way to turn off Exp. Share, despite other niche options being included for various features.

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All in all...It was just okay.  I had fun with my very short playthrough for the most part, but the game really isn't much of a step up from Gen 7, and is worse in some regards.  To me, it feels like effort was misplaced into poor features that will likely never even return, and existing features should not have been cut in favor of them (Assuming they were).

Also, I didn't want to mention the Pokemon/move cuts, because it technically doesn't affect the game in its current state (As Pokemon Home is not available for transferring yet).  But, I do not agree with Game Freak's decision to cut them at all.  The series has so much potential to be something greater, but it's just been going one step forward and two (Or more) steps back since the transition to 3D, and we shouldn't be so eager to fork over money for something that's average/mediocre just because it's Pokemon.  I guess I'm technically part of the problem for buying the game, but I knew what I was getting into at least, and I just wanted to form my own honest opinion on it.