Its really funny to me how the internet kept saying "There's no point complaining to Game Freak about Sword and Shield, they won't improve the games anyway" when, in terms of the core gameplay, this game fixed nearly every complaint I had. Everything about the gameplay and UI is now so much faster. The menus don't stop you after a battle to make you slowly watch your Pokemon level up. It just happens in the background and you can keep moving. All of the UI elements have been heavily improved in similar ways. Battling and catching Pokemon has been much more streamlined, and because of this, the game feels way less sluggish.

Gyms have been completely scrapped in this game, and while some aren't a fan of this change, I'm all for it. Gyms essentially just boil down to "Pick a Pokemon with a type advantage and you win", making them seem painfully easy. In Legends Arceus, the new Noble Pokemon are much better. They aren't that difficult, but having to fight the boss with your player character as well as your team is way more engaging. Needing to avoid the boss's attacks in real time and having to quickly decide whether you should risk throwing another attack and potentially getting hit is more fun than just pressing the A button over and over.

The game's story isn't amazing, but I already prefer it to Sword and Shield's story because the writers remembered "Hey! We can actually have plot relevant events happen before the last 20 minutes of gameplay! Woah!"

This game isn't perfect, but it portrays an exciting new direction that I hope the series continues to develop in the future, and it blows the other entries on Nintendo Switch out of the water. Highly recommended, even if you've been disappointed by modern Pokemon before.