I was a bit saddened to see it leak and there be a free for all. Then I tried the game and its a hot mess. They really don't deserve all the adulation. Pokemon is so absorbed in selling its mobile apps, trading cards, and merchandise they just don't give a

To even make a good base game. With the small amount of time I demoed it, even the battling seemed janky. Like if there was one quality to save it, it would've been having the battles be ultra smooth without filler animations (gigantimax taking forever with no option to shorten it)
I did buy both because Lets Go, Sword/Shield, Diamond/Pearl, Legends Arceus was sold out at retail for the longest times.
But seriously if the game was not called pokemon and it was called something like BattleMon (and it was the same exact game without the charizard) it would be getting a 4/10 score from non-shill reviewers based solely on the performance.