Go for it! Galar was a great region.

Thank you for telling me! It's definitely one of my favourite regions, but I understand that it can be quite a shock if you've just come from gen 9, especially due to lack of open world.

Yeah true. Maybe Legends Arceus? It's pretty open.

I've already completed Legends Arceus. I think I'm gonna go with Pokemon Sword.

Honestly i’d pick Shield over Sword ‘cause i prefer the more of the version exclusives but i mean whichever you want, i’d just look at the list of exclusives before you decide.

I don't mind too much about the exclusives, but I personally prefer the legendaries exclusive to sword, as most of them are the ones exclusive to the off-line scarlet dlc (eg Ho-oh, groudon, reshiram, solgaleo, etc)

I feel like sword is better since zacian is broken

I’ve bought Sword, I’ve just entered the first wild area! Any suggestions for a good team? (Btw, I chose Grookey as my starter)

Ooooh! rillaboom has a good attack stat. When it evolves, it'll hit like a truck!

I always like having a flying type on my team. Corviknight, or whatever good birds you can get are great.

I also reccomend getting a fire type at some point. Kabu's Gym let's you catch a good selection of them. They'll be good for Chairman Rose's fight,

As for the rest of your team, it can be pretty much whatever you want as long as it's pulling it's weight.

Thank you everyone for the help! I’m now on Route 3, and my team is something like:

1. Grookey

2. Machop

3. Butterfree

4. Chewtle

5. Vulpix

6. Tympole

Gigantamaxes I’m hoping of getting are Rillaboom, Centiskorch, Drednaw, Corviknight (I’ve got a Rookidee in the boxes for later game), Machamp, Snorlax, and the Kanto starters.