Some short thoughts here as well.
The release date. January 28th is considerably earlier than I had expected. It is also the day after my birthday! And it is another true worldwide release, really great. The last time we got a new Pokémon game within the first three months of the year was with B/W, which was 10 years ago. It is also worth noting that L:A will be released just 2 months after BD/SP. What does it mean? Does it even mean anything at all? I guess we’ll have to see. I also wonder if we will get another main series game later in 2022 or if L:A will be the only one. Guess we’ll have to see about that as well.
Then there’s the cover art. I have to say that this is IMO the best cover artwork the main series Pokémon games has ever had. Is it perfect? No. But it is really, really great. I love it. It reminds me of other more open games, notably BOTW and XC2. I really hope that the cover art for future games will follow in the footsteps of this one instead of just sticking to the boring old concept of having a starter/legend and nothing else on the cover.
Regarding the game itself, I am a little more interested in it than BD/SP, but I am still far from convinced about getting it. I really need to know more about how the gameplay works before deciding whether it is worth getting or not. I have some hopes for the game, but also lots of fears. Open World as a concept is not exactly something Game Freak has been good at in the past. Kanto could have been much better, Johto (and Kanto in the Johto games) was a mediocre mess, and the Wild Area was okay, but it really needs a better execution in order to truly shine. Both DLC packs improved upon it a bit though, so that’s great. I think an Open World Pokémon game can work if they just execute everything well, but the question remains whether they will actually do that. And like I said in the BD/SP thread, I feel mostly satisfied with Pokémon on the Switch after having played Sword. So I might skip this game as well, but I’ll wait for more pre-release info and see what is shown before making a decision.