@.access:
Current team is Thwackey (no nickname yet), Wooloo (Beige Phillip), Thievul (Renarto) and Dottle (Doktor Meister). Intend to have Frosmoth and Grimmsnarl in it eventually.
Thing is, if you include Wooloo because of its Fluffy ability, 4 of my team are weak against Fire… one of them 4x. And none of them can hit a fire type super effectively (originally my team would have Drednaw instead of Orbeetle, but then I fell in love with the little guy). Kabu and Leon will be interesting fights.
Anyways, just finished Milo Gym (andre wasn't exaggerating, the city is really just a bunch of cardboard buildings as you can only enter the Stadium and the PokéCenter). I had decided I would only use 2 pokémon in the fight to be fair with him, but Thwackey managed to beat him alone without even Dynamaxing.
Yeah, I want to be as fair with my criticism as possible, but I searched for an extra 10 minutes just hoping there was some other building or something. It's a pretty town too, as most of the game's art direction is wonderful, but it could really use some fleshing out. I am enjoying myself and enjoying the game, but I really wish it was more. That Eurogamer review has basically summed up my feelings about it up to where I am. There are no chunky side paths, caves, or places to explore. Every location in the game is mandatory to go to or get through, and any branch off of it leads into an immediate dead-end. Every area is also distinct, well thought out, and full of unique pokemon. The game could clearly be much more, but what we have is only disappointing in if you're an old fan and/or a fan of games with lots of places and areas to explore and find loot/pokemon.
I feel like I can write more about this, and I will.
A lot of people have praised the removal of HM's in the game, and while on one point, I understand how they hampered team flexibility and play style, I don't think the replacement was sufficient. The early games worked in a way that was pseudo-metroidvania, in that you'd find HM's that would open up the world to you. Some of them were in random locations, others were given to you by completing tasks, but they always allowed you to go back and explore places earlier in the map that you couldn't before. Of course, the games don't totally fit the metroidvania mold, but what worked about this system was how it allowed you to use your pokemon to interact with the world in meaningful ways.
The rental system in SuMo was decent, especially the parts of it that let you ride pokemon for reasons, but I think it would have worked better if they weren't rentals, but gift pokemon that you could use for the needed tasks whenever you needed them, but also could be put into battle. You would have to find the pokemon by doing a certain thing, or fighting a hard to reach person, or reaching a certain milestone, but they wouldn't be essential to moving forward the plot (or they could, but making them not lets those who enjoy the game casually not feel like they have to get lost in dungeons or caves to do everything). Sun and Moon's rental system was as linearly applied as the routes and story progression and I think there is much room for improvement. Sword and Shield has a rotom bike (to where I am at least) hold the function of at least 1 hm. I think the Rotom Dex and Rotom bike would mean a lot more if we could use rotom in battle as well, though I understand how another gift pokemon so close to the starter could feel a bit off (since rotom in the dex seems to be law at this point).
TLDR: I think Pokemon should be re-integrated into the experience of traversing the world, with the option of using those pokemon in battle as well. I also think the game should be built with much more explorability than SuMo and especially Sword and Shield currently allow, but that it should be optional so that casual players can enjoy the game as they see fit.