[Sword & Shield] What does Sword and Shield need to be a great game?

I think we all have our opinions on what makes a game great and makes you want to replay it no matter how many times you've completed it. What would make these games an insta buy for you?

A good plot,difficulty and interesting characters

Be either more open-world non-linear game with story that's not utterly bad, characters that just fulfill their role in the story and wide variety of choices where to go next or be linear game with awesome story, full of cutscenes, flesh-out characters and dialogues. Alola games tried to be both at the same time and failed in every aspect, so I would like to see GF learn a lesson and never do that again.

Difficulty settings and Skippable cutscenes is something most RPG's have that Pokémon really should have.

L'Belle said:

Difficulty settings

Click to expand...

Yes.

In another topic I highlighted some of my dreams for the ideal Pokemon game, but honestly I would settle for difficulty settings.

Although I fear that these settings will be 'extremely easy', 'easy', and 'still too easy'.

To me, they game is already great as most of my wants have been answered already. I think the big thing that I would want the most is a great story. I want the games to be more story driven than other games, but still have a lot of gameplay and not 10 hours of cinematics that can't be skipped, especially if it is your second play through.

I want the story to be on par with BW and BW2.

Having exploration and post-game being relevant (for the latter, something like Kanto in the Johto games, the Sevii Islands, or the Battle Zone; as for the former, Sinnoh did it best imho), cutscenes which can be skipped, and a good mix of older and newer Pokémon (RSE is my model here, but DPPt also did that well, as the older ones were nearly equally from all previous generations, and new Pokémon still stood out).
And honestly I don't really care much about the story, still I would even strongly prefer a nearly plot-less Gen I/II kind of thing rather than having once again a plot that can be summarized in "evil team wants a legendary in order to rule the world".

Dexnav.

And a way to change the nature of your Pokémon if they're sticking to natures. They made it so easy to do EVs and bottlecap IVs, but a bad nature still makes a Pokémon useless.

just for these games to have an enjoyable post-game. or at least, something interesting to do after the elite four is the absolute minimum.

Actual exploration, less focus on Generation I Pokemon/stuff, difficulty levels, returning the National Dex.

I have pretty low standards when it comes to gaming, so I'd be at least 98% satisfied if Sword/Shield had a breathtaking story in addition to what has already been revealed! :D

^ But indeed, actual exploration would be really nice!

I am happy as long as they keep making Pokemon.

Characters that aren't forgettable or bad
A good plot
Respectable difficulty
Balanced Pokémon spread
A postgame that doesn't end too quickly and doesn't pander to the competitive scene
SKIPPABLE CUTSCENES.

Being realistic, I think that if SwoSh end up having a plot that is at least as interesting as the Alola games' as well as a gimmick that has to be eons better than Z moves, something more akin to Megas perhaps, then I might consider an actual buy.

a proper backstory. ez problem solved.
jk
but really, a good backstory would be awesome. actually, scratch that, a good overall story would be 10/10.
and return of cool features such as night/day cycle and following pokemon etc.

ooh and the PWT please. i've been begging for it since xy :(

1. The option to skip cutscenes.
At this point, it's a no brainer as to why so many players (myself included) want this option implemented. I've already brought up Mario & Luigi's 3DS remakes to invalidate SuMo and USUM's inability to bother with a necessary feature for multiple playthroughs.

2. A rival that's not your friend.
The friendly rival has been done to death. It would not hurt to have another Blue/Silver, but a wealthy female snob or jerk can really motivate players to be the very best.

3. A lengthy postgame.
There should be plenty of Trainers with sufficient Pokémon to battle daily besides an employee of Game Freak or the Elite Four and Champion.

It would be even greater to get to explore Ireland by surprise. Ireland can house additional new Pokémon, since USUM introduced new Ultra Beasts and another Mythical.

4. Restraint from revealing over half the game to the public.
Players have every right to be surprised and discover new Pokémon and secrets of Galar and it's inhabitants by themselves. Sun/Moon went way overboard by revealing almost the entire PokéDex and Ultra Beasts before release. Since we've been encouraged not to spoil Endgame upon release, there's no excuse for Game Freak to reveal nearly the entire games out of potential paranoia over data-mines.

All I want is a healthy competitive scene. Now that Pokebank is confirmed, everything else is unimportant.

I just want a good story. Something like the Unova games.
I mean, The story of practically all pokemon games is kinda like "bad guys take over the world" and the only game to be something different was BW and BW2. It's a competition between truth and ideals, and that is all I need in SwSh.

a) Good Plot
b) Great Replayability
c) Wonder Trade (reasoning: WonderLockes are my favorite way to replay Pokemon games)
d) Nice variety of Pokemon! (which I'm sure they will have)
e) Classic Wild Battle system

For me either skippable cutscenes or them cutting back on them from SM by a lot. I play... other games for their story. It's a Pokemon game so it's very likely going to be extremely easy but a challenge would be nice. The trailer seemed to have LGP/LGE style wild Pokemon which I like a lot. Lastly, a good post game and a healthy competitive scene like someone mentioned above.