I got into pokemon at the start of Gen 5 when I was in elementary school, and basically immediately went back and played platinum and heart gold. I’ve played them all since, and with a combination of hindsight and cynicism, I more or less got in at the peak, and have watched it coast downhill since.

My issue with pokemon sword is that it just felt insubstantial, for lack of a better word. Hop was, in some parts quite literally, a reused hau from Gen 7, the complete dead metagame of dynamaxing along with the removal of Megas and z moves, the dex cuts, the wild areas somehow managed to emphasize how small the game was, it really just ended up being a perfect storm of mediocrity to me. The new pokemon were cool as always, and I actually really loved crown tundra, but it was the first time I found myself just mashing through to get to the end of the game, and that’s when it really all hit me.

I’m still really enjoying arceus because it has just the right amount of mundane box checking to be a sort of half-focused relaxing game for me, and they absolutely nailed the atmosphere.