Exp. Share is mandatory for some unholy reason
This wouldn't be a problem if the game was designed around it.
It's not.
A friend gave me Sword for Christmas. I was honestly going to skip out, not because of hate, but because of funds. I planned on waiting until the "inevitable second version" when suddenly instead they're adding DLC expansions. Which in my opinion is actually a hell of a lot better move. But yeah, I had enough money for one game around when this came out, and my options were this or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I picked the latter and have had absolutely no regrets.
I beat the game earlier this month. I wanted to do some of the postgame but I also recently bought a PS4 so good luck with that; I hear the postgame is meager anyway. I'll come back when the DLC releases. Now, I enjoy the wild area, some of the new Pokemon, and the camping, but the rest is... meh. It's somehow more linear than past games despite having an open wild area, the story has the pieces but doesn't connect them in a fulfilling way, the characters are bland and forgettable, the villain is obvious and their motives never fully explained... It also went by much faster than previous games, probably because of said linearity.
Towns were incredibly lacking. They'd often have cool visuals but nothing of interest. There is legit a town that's a straight line, and another that has four buildings: A Poke Center, two houses, and the stadium. Looking for buildings with multiple floors or side areas with trainers to fight and goodies to grab? Look somewhere else. The only real "hideout" in the game is one elevator and a trio of double battles along the way. Disappointing.
Hop started as an annoying rival, displayed shades of character growth, then went back to being bland. Marnie had a lot of potential to be a good character but they don't flesh her out enough. Leon feels like the only solid character overall and even he's generic. It's just enough for me to feel something when it comes down to the final battle against him, at least, which is admittedly one of the only hype moments in the game.
The music is underwhelming. Despite being on a console, it still somehow sounds like it's coming out of 3DS speakers, even on a TV screen? There's only a handful of songs I really like, and the rest are just generic or forgettable. There's a route theme, Marnie's battle theme, the "hideout" theme, and the Champion theme and... that's about it. I enjoyed the gym leader battle theme but for a specific reason: When the leader's down to their last Pokemon, the song changes and the crowd sings what sounds like a fight theme. It's a great touch for the spectator sport nature of Pokemon battles in this region. It's just that the song itself is kind of average. They reuse the same concept in the Champion theme and it's a better melody though, so...
"Unfulfilling" is a good word for this game. There's a lot of good pieces there but they don't fully come together. The balancing is all sorts of off, as I alluded to above; I was overleveled for most of the game, without even really trying to, but the Champion's levels were slightly above mine? I think I'd be more disappointed if I was the one who paid for it, but who knows, maybe the DLC will be better. I didn't hate my time with the game, but yeah, it'd be a letdown with or without the national dex.