Exploring the Wild Area
Sword and the Shield is the first mainline Pokemon game on a home console, and it takes advantage of that in aspects like the Wild Area.
While you have the typical routes and caves to explore like in any Pokemon game, Wild Areas are massive new regions that you can run around and explore.
The Wild Area connects multiple towns and regions together, and has dozens of Pokemon roaming around. Based on the time of day and the weather, the Pokemon you find can be completely different, meaning you’ll want to visit the Wild Area multiple times.
On top of this, you can find shining holes in the ground that let you take on Max Raid Battles with other players, pitting four of you against one ultra-powerful Pokemon.
While Sword and Shield aren’t open-world games, the Wild Area presents the game’s world on a larger scale than we’ve ever seen in the Pokemon series before.
