EHHHHHHHHHHH. I had a hard time ranking this one. I beat it a few weeks ago and have just been mulling my thoughts.

I started a run of this game years ago when I got it but I got so bored after gym 2 I stopped. I felt it was too easy.

I beat the game doing a semi blind nuzlocke run. I'm sure most of you know what that is but if you don't: you can only catch the first pokemon you encounter in each new named area, and if your pokemon faints, it's dead and cannot be used. I throw it into the PC in a graveyard. Because Shield is a bit weird with the wild encounters being static in the overworld, I did not count any static overworld pokemon. Only grass patches. Also I played on Set mode which is way harder.

So ok, I felt the game was too easy so I added self imposed rules to make it harder. And it DID make the game more enjoyable. I didn't lose a ton of teammates, maybe around 8-9. For a mostly blind run (since I've never gone past gym 2) I thought that was pretty good, I got pretty decent encounters and variety as well. And there were a lot of moments since I was on Set mode where I really had to think about my next course of action.

There's other general stuff I like about the game. All the gym leaders are pretty cool. I love the stadium as the backdrop for everything. The new Pokemon are actually awesome and I liked a lot of them. My Greedent which was one of the first encounters I had ended up being the MVP of the entire run. Super tanky and body slam two shot basically everything. Also, it has great music like most Pokemon games.

So there's a ton of issues that bog down the experience a lot. First, Hop is mad annoying. Even with the nuzlocke rules, he was honestly super free until the very very last battle. Probably one of the weakest rivals in all the games. He feels like a way worse Barry. I get what they're going for that he's weak on purpose, but I don't think it worked because the character is still too arrogant for most of the experience. I will say that the story of his Wooloo going in and out of the team was cool.

The game is just bloated with a lot rival type characters like Hop who are way too easy and don't really contribute much. Marie is alright and she has a decent design, but she dossnt do anything other than battle you. Bede is also mad annoying. Here it felt like they were trying to do Silver again, but it also didn't work. Whatever arc is intended here, Bede is barely in the game, so it feels hollow.

To go back to Marie. Easily the worst team in all of the games. Team Yell might as well not exist, like all they do is serve as a very minor inconvenience. It's legit a team of simps.

The story in general is pretty bad. Basically anytime anything interesting happens, it's in the background and Champion Leon with his Charizard that they 100% do not make clear enough that he has a Charizard, yeah he shows up and says "I got it, you just go get the next badge." And then the stuff with Chairman Rose is so horribly forced in. And also right at the end: it felt like they just forgot about the character and were like "oh yeah, he's in the game..."

The game also feels REALLY cheap. That body slam on Greedent is strong but the animation is laughable. I think they spent most of the budget on Dynamaxing animations.

So where do we rank this? I was hovering around a 3 because I did enjoy the game as a Nuzlocke. But that's a personal decision I made. I think the game as is is just average. Not AS bad as I remember, but not great.

after finishing the pokedex, and the main story line + the epilogue, have to say this game is just ok. i had fun playing it, just because i like finishing the pokedex, but the story was honestly not great, predictable plot and unnecessary long texts of dialogue, it feels like they werent even trying to write a proper story. characters have such great designs but so much potential wasted, some of the cool characters barley have any personality or dialogue (marnie) . The overworld, and the camping mini games feel unfinished, like it was half baked and they had to release the game as quick as they can. is this game worth $80? absolutely not. there are better pokemon games out there but if u got this game really cheap, just play it to get Galar Pokemon to add to your pokemon home collection.

I'll get around to finishing my living dex some day. But not because SwSh is enjoyable. While I very much appreciate the easier leveling, easier breeding, easier competitive breeding I hated the wildly linear gameplay and story. I was not a fan of the complete lack of dungeons, the repeated Hop cutscenes for shit I already knew, the super easy gyms, the weak storyline, the near total dearth of postgame content, the 5 FPS Wild Area, paying $90 for the same content (a little less even) that used to be in a $40 game + $30 for Bank/Home subscriptions to keep my mons.

A total mess that has me very nearly unconcerned with Pokemon at all anymore.