Pokemon Shield

 Switch
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3465 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,154 out of 3465
  2. Mixed: 587 out of 3465
  3. Negative: 1,724 out of 3465
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  1. blackwolf07
    Nov 26, 2019
    4
    This is a below average game. it's fun and has nice art, but everything else is lackluster. The pop in is hilarious, most of the towns are tiny. There is a lack of meaningful exploration, and it has one of the worst stories in the history of the franchise. Online is almost unplayable, especially when trying to max raid with others. I do enjoy most of the new pokemon designs and think itThis is a below average game. it's fun and has nice art, but everything else is lackluster. The pop in is hilarious, most of the towns are tiny. There is a lack of meaningful exploration, and it has one of the worst stories in the history of the franchise. Online is almost unplayable, especially when trying to max raid with others. I do enjoy most of the new pokemon designs and think it might be the strongest group of new pokemon since gen 5 or maybe even 3. This isn't even getting into dexit and the things the game is lacking, because I need only talk about what's there to note why the game is so behind the times. It's immature in a way that I haven't seen in years from such a major studio, especially when put next to their Nintendo peers. Game Freak needs to do better than capitalize on "fun," because this series' ceiling can reach so much higher.

    By the way, 5 is an average game on my scale. Most people will find it playable and entertaining, but very few will think it innovates or is a must play game experience. Pokemon is fun and entertaining for sure, but its technical faults are as laughable as flat-earthers in 2019, and the storytelling and overall presentation shouldn't even be permissable on a handheld system. The game is certainly below average technically, has a below average story, and below average turn based gameplay, when compared to its peers. 4 out of 10 might be generous.    … Expand
  2. Lady_Scribe
    Nov 25, 2019
    4
    Despite all the drama, I pre-ordered Shield and have sunk about 50 hours into it (I dawdled in the game, explored everything and caught almost all Pokémon). I'm a life-long Pokémon fan, with my first game being Pokémon Yellow, a game I played with my mum when I was 6 years old. I've played all the main series games and Pokémon has been quite an important part of my life. I am disappointedDespite all the drama, I pre-ordered Shield and have sunk about 50 hours into it (I dawdled in the game, explored everything and caught almost all Pokémon). I'm a life-long Pokémon fan, with my first game being Pokémon Yellow, a game I played with my mum when I was 6 years old. I've played all the main series games and Pokémon has been quite an important part of my life. I am disappointed with this latest game, even more so than Sun and Moon. Quite a few aspects of the game are slow and boring (such as forced dialogue, walk a bit, more dialogue, walk some more, etc.). The story was simply lacking depth and I was not particularly interested in it. Essentially, the main story is that the playable character collects gym badges while the true hero of the game, the Champion, did all the exciting stuff 'behind the scenes'. My character didn’t feel like the hero, she was ‘just there’.
    The whole Pokédex thing didn’t bother me, it’s not a major part of my reasoning for playing Pokémon. The designs of the new Pokémon are the best I’ve ever seen since gen III. I just wish that something like Pokémon amie, being able to pet my Pokémon had been included, rather than the slightly clumsy camping, with Pokémon sometimes struggling to interact with their toys. Camping quickly became something of a time-consuming chore rather than something to be enjoyed. Not a massive fan of the designs of the three starter Pokémon’s evolutions (with exception to Intelleon). They seemed a little lacklustre compared to previous generations. The animations of the Pokémon were about the same as the previous generations from the 3DS, just fewer Pokémon to play with.
    The designs of the settings are lovely, and as a Brit myself I could see how lovingly British culture was incorporated into the dialogue, the Pokémon and the towns and countryside. However, this is spoiled by low-res textures and lumpy rocks and hills which could have had a bit more added to them. Some of the animations of the Pokémon aren’t great (and certain scenes were nothing short of shockingly poor for a game released in 2019). The towns and cities were all small and although aesthetically beautiful, there wasn’t much to explore. The Wild Area was exciting for the first ten hours of gameplay, but after that the charm wore off. My favourite thing about the wild area is that Hop, the rather annoying character (much like Hau from Sun and Moon) wasn’t around to hound me every step of my Pokémon journey. Pokémon battles were few and far between, and there was an over-reliance on the Wild Area to compensate for that.
    I think if this game had spent a little longer in development, it would have been a truly amazing game. But this wasn’t the case, and I feel sad for those who clearly made an effort to lovingly design a game in a very small amount of time, perhaps being aware that they couldn’t put everything into it. And it really, really shows. Designs are fantastic, but the finished product feels rushed and haphazard, there’s virtually no end-game content, and the asking price of £50 is highly excessive considering that there are other games out there for the same price with much better content.
    Nintendo, GameFreak, by bringing Pokémon to the big consoles, you’re swimming with the big fish. You need to up your game if you want to get better reviews in the future. A disappointing blip on the Pokémon franchise. I hope it improves; Pokémon has gotten me through some challenges in life and it’s sad to see the franchise take a tumble. I’ve humbly learned my lesson and will not pre-order another Pokémon game again.    … Expand
  3. rogene13
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    The game feels rushed. The story is mediocre and short. There are almost no sidequests. The map feels empty. There are no voice acting even on cut scenes. The music is annoying most of the time. Graphics are outdated and it looks worse in the wild area, Almost half of pokemon and dozens of moves are missing from previous games yet they charge $60 for this.
  4. SuperWooper
    Oct 22, 2020
    4
    A step in the wrong direction for the franchise. A game with huge potential and freedom of an open world map turned out to be completely empty and uninspiring. The flaws revealed during the introduction of the games in its early stages were forgivable at first, but now show how completely incompetent and lazy the development of this game is when absolutely none of those issues andA step in the wrong direction for the franchise. A game with huge potential and freedom of an open world map turned out to be completely empty and uninspiring. The flaws revealed during the introduction of the games in its early stages were forgivable at first, but now show how completely incompetent and lazy the development of this game is when absolutely none of those issues and graphical errors were fixed by release day.

    The cuts to certain aspects of the game, such as the pokedex, movesets, etc, were foreseeable at some point with the amount being added every generation, but are completely inexcusable when its predecessors from the 3DS era seem to have much more content in it with much less room to work with. Mega evolutions and Z-moves from earlier games were also cut to make room for the lazier concept of Dynamax and Raid battles, which is just a recycled ideas from Pokemon GO.

    While the new Pokemon designs from Generation 8 are, for the most part, some of the best we've seen in awhile, it doesn't save the fact that this game is the biggest disappointment seen from the franchise to date.    … Expand
  5. Kchewz
    Jan 6, 2021
    4
    $80 price tag, $20/year pokemon home subscription, two $30 DLCs. Yet the quality and functionality from the 3DS pokemon games are equal, and these games costed $40... Both Sword and Shield have its pros such as cool new pokemon, incredible music and DLCs were more memorable and enjoyable than the base game. But poor graphics, boring dynamax mechanics and dynamax raids, the mobile camp etc.$80 price tag, $20/year pokemon home subscription, two $30 DLCs. Yet the quality and functionality from the 3DS pokemon games are equal, and these games costed $40... Both Sword and Shield have its pros such as cool new pokemon, incredible music and DLCs were more memorable and enjoyable than the base game. But poor graphics, boring dynamax mechanics and dynamax raids, the mobile camp etc. were all lacklustre. For the largest franchise in the world, expectations were much higher. For someone who grew up playing Pokemon Battle Revolution in 2006, I was expecting this type of quality at the very least.… Expand
  6. Kamarr
    Nov 23, 2019
    4
    Hot trash! Cause it's a Pokemon game it's gonna sell regardless of it being bad or great. There are many things wrong with this. 1 being Gamefreak being lazy and it shows. Copy paste trees lack luster Pokedex more than half of the Dex has been cut to bring in hot garbage Pokemon feels like a lot of the older games meant nothing. This is the best franchise in the WORLD and it doesn't showHot trash! Cause it's a Pokemon game it's gonna sell regardless of it being bad or great. There are many things wrong with this. 1 being Gamefreak being lazy and it shows. Copy paste trees lack luster Pokedex more than half of the Dex has been cut to bring in hot garbage Pokemon feels like a lot of the older games meant nothing. This is the best franchise in the WORLD and it doesn't show period. No real end game beyond online battling and Battle Tower and a tournament mode which is very dull. I'd give this a 0 but I feel they deserve a 4 cause at least the wild area and such was pretty legit beyond the copy paste tree's and water that looks like tar. Another thing to add is the fact that the Online capabilities of this game is trash and no GTS? like give me a break.… Expand
  7. Dracoshi
    Jun 21, 2020
    4
    I don't like writing this review, because Pokemon has been my favourite series my whole life, but this game is such a let-down. It has performance issues, the graphics aren't nice at all in most areas, the story is practically non-existent, the characters are mostly forgettable, the whole region is just a linear straight path, there's no post-game content, the game is too easy, over halfI don't like writing this review, because Pokemon has been my favourite series my whole life, but this game is such a let-down. It has performance issues, the graphics aren't nice at all in most areas, the story is practically non-existent, the characters are mostly forgettable, the whole region is just a linear straight path, there's no post-game content, the game is too easy, over half of the features were cut from previous games, and the DLC is a rip-off. I really think we'll never get games like the ones we had from Gen 3 - Gen 5 ever again. The only reason it gets 4/10 is because most of the Pokemon designs are great, and I can imagine it might be fun for children or people playing Pokemon for the first time ever. The game was clearly very rushed - I just hope they don't mess up the Sinnoh remakes if they ever happen.… Expand
  8. pumpkin001
    May 24, 2020
    4
    Another Pokémon game that is the same as the rest.
    Your a child running around fighting adults most of the time. Boring new Pokémon. Dumb status effect and battle system that is just slow overall, annoying NPC,s Not worth the high price tag for a game that never shows depth. .
  9. WeissSchnee
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Please don't support Game Freak, we fans deserve better games with better quality.
  10. dasada
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Its the higher note i can give for an incomplete game. Feels like a joke, what happened with the catch em all. The rest isnt enough to balance the negative feeling.But maybe mediocre is the new normal.
  11. Bullish
    Dec 11, 2019
    4
    This is my first pokemon game since the original red/blue, and when I first started it, it really did get its claws in me. But over time, the luster faded as I started to sense how rushed and lazy the game felt.

    If you don't know what I mean by rushed and lazy, please take a long look at Team Yell. Other Beef: - Identical characters everywhere - Bad translations all over the    This is my first pokemon game since the original red/blue, and when I first started it, it really did get its claws in me. But over time, the luster faded as I started to sense how rushed and lazy the game felt.

    If you don't know what I mean by rushed and lazy, please take a long look at Team Yell.

    Other Beef:

    - Identical characters everywhere
    - Bad translations all over the place. This is the first pokemon game on a major console. This thing should have been polished to a gleam.
    - Dynamax system just seemed dragged fights out, and the moves were just replicas? I never understood that
    - Sometimes there was absolutely nothing in between gyms
    - Music was completely unspecial
    - I don't know about you, but the actual pokemon have seemed to drop in originality/creativity over the years. There's an apple, a teapot, a cart filled with coal. Who thought these things up?    … Expand
  12. Miguel22
    Jun 27, 2020
    4
    Es sin duda una de las mayores decepciones que me he llevado con un videojuego:

    -Novedades: El área salvaje, idea muy buena, pero muy desaprovechada, está todo super vacío, popping excesivo, gráficos muy cutres, etc. Y la otra novedad importante es el dinamax/gigamax, que en mi punto de vista es muy inferior a las mega evoluciones/Ataques Z -Gráficos: Respecto a las rutas y a las    Es sin duda una de las mayores decepciones que me he llevado con un videojuego:

    -Novedades: El área salvaje, idea muy buena, pero muy desaprovechada, está todo super vacío, popping excesivo, gráficos muy cutres, etc. Y la otra novedad importante es el dinamax/gigamax, que en mi punto de vista es muy inferior a las mega evoluciones/Ataques Z

    -Gráficos: Respecto a las rutas y a las ciudades, está bien, sobre todo por el apartado artístico, pero los gráficos de la zona salvaje son HORRIBLES. Es embarazoso compararlo con otros juegos como Xenoblade Chronicles 2, juego más antiguo, con una empresa con menos presupuesto, e incluso con menos resolución se ve MIL veces mejor.

    -Historia y villanos: Inexistentes hasta el campeonato de Galar, el Team Yell es una porquería que solo sirve de relleno, por eso ni los cuento. El villano real del juego, el presidente Rose, es sin duda el peor villano de la saga, no hace nada interesante hasta el final del juego, su plan es estúpido, su combate es el más fácil entre todos los villanos(Usa un monotype acero, usas un Pokémon de fuego con lanzallamas y se acabó)

    -Dificultad: Excesivamente fácil, el único combate interesante es el campeón(Único combate donde hay un reto interesante, pero no llega al nivel de otros campeones como Cynthia o Iris) el resto del juego es ridículamente fácil.

    -Postgame: Basura, el Postgame real lo venden en un Dlc.

    -Puntos positivos: La música y los líderes de gimnasio(No por su dificultad, solo por su personalidad)

    -Otros datos: Las rutas son pasillos sin ningún tipo de interés. Siempre hay dos caminos, uno te lleva para una MT o un objeto, el otro sirve para continuar. El rival Paul es un Tilo 2.0, aunque se note un poco más de interés(Mejor desarrollo de personaje) resulta ser excesivamente fácil de vencer y solo molesta, los otros dos rivales están de relleno y combates pocas veces contra ellos(Igual muy baja dificultad), respecto al recorte de la Pokedex, a mi sinceramente no me importa, pero eso no quita que sea inferior a otros juegos, lo peor de todo es que dijeron que no iban a meter a los que quedaran, pero fijaos, ahora los venden en un DLC. Respecto al competitivo, está bien, pero no gastaría 60 euros para jugar con una pokedex inferior cuando lo puedes hacer en Pokemon Showdown

    -En fin, la saga de Pokémon va por el mal camino, ojalá mejore en la novena generación, pero lo dudo muchísimo con lo bien que ha vendido el juego, si no mejora de forma drástica, no volveré a comprar otro juego de la saga.    … Expand
  13. aljirik1992
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    REBUS FOR THE PLAYERS!!! SWORD SHIELD ... (LD) =T ; (S) = ( ) ; R_L_D

    Вот знаете, закидайте меня покеболами... Если с POKEMON LETSGO я был более-менее мягок, благодаря чумовому девайсу, что и придало игре шарма, то ситуацию с "мечом и щитом", кроме как мировым дерьмом не назовёшь!    REBUS FOR THE PLAYERS!!! SWORD SHIELD ... (LD) =T ; (S) = ( ) ; R_L_D

    Вот знаете, закидайте меня покеболами... Если с POKEMON LETSGO я был более-менее мягок, благодаря чумовому девайсу, что и придало игре шарма, то ситуацию с "мечом и щитом", кроме как мировым дерьмом не назовёшь!
  14. saburo90
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    This game looks like it was a 3ds game but released for Switch. 60% of all Pokemon removed. This game feels rushed.
  15. SugarHBear
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Spent $60 for Shield and my 9yo has played it once and says he doesn't really like it. Disappointing because I assume this is the target audience.

    Personally I was amazed by the complete lack of voice acting in a 2019 AAA title.
  16. Orangefizz
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    Theres honestly a lot of things the game did right. It feels like a small progression. But honestly, it just feels that they failed to innovate and it's a missed opportunity. I feel gamefreak and nintendo fail to understand that the pokemon average fan's age is growing. They cannot continue to playcate to adolescents and expect that generating a new game every year with mild updates isTheres honestly a lot of things the game did right. It feels like a small progression. But honestly, it just feels that they failed to innovate and it's a missed opportunity. I feel gamefreak and nintendo fail to understand that the pokemon average fan's age is growing. They cannot continue to playcate to adolescents and expect that generating a new game every year with mild updates is going to be acceptable on a next generation console.… Expand
  17. fishforbrains
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Where to begin..Seems like a huge money grab. Reused pokemon models, fixed camera (in 2019?!?!) Terrible terrible graphics, like n64/ps1 bad. WAY too easy and no way to change hardness. If this is what the pokemon series is now I'm over it. Plenty of amazing games out there that deserve a purchase over this garbage. Huge fail gamefreak.
  18. Otonaburu
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    What should have been a giant leap to significantly stronger hardware feels more like a port from 3DS. New features and improvements come at way too high a price, both literally and figuratively (half of the Pokemon gone, for starters). Gamefreak continues to disappoint and Pokemon as a series stands out as a black sheep among other loved Nintendo franchises on Switch.
  19. caronte69
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    de los peores juegos de pokemon que he podido jugar, bugs, menos contenido (pokemons), contenido innecesario (curry) animaciones recicladas. Con la excusa de que este juego es para niños no significa que no podamos exigir algo mejor, soy fan de pokemon desde la 1ra generación jugando con mi game boy color, y no he comprado otro juego de pokemon desde blanco y negro 2, por que sinceramentede los peores juegos de pokemon que he podido jugar, bugs, menos contenido (pokemons), contenido innecesario (curry) animaciones recicladas. Con la excusa de que este juego es para niños no significa que no podamos exigir algo mejor, soy fan de pokemon desde la 1ra generación jugando con mi game boy color, y no he comprado otro juego de pokemon desde blanco y negro 2, por que sinceramente pokemon x y, sol y luna ya no me volvieron a llamar la atención, hasta pokemon go es mas divertido y con mas contenido.… Expand
  20. GaryOakPR
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    The games have cut so many well established features in comparison to previous games in the franchise. This includes not only the infamous Dexcut, but also the GTS and moves such as Hidden Power. As for the Dexcut, 490 species of Pokemon were cut, and only 81 new species were introduced.
    There are a couple of welcomed quality of life updates, but they still don't make up for the vast    The games have cut so many well established features in comparison to previous games in the franchise. This includes not only the infamous Dexcut, but also the GTS and moves such as Hidden Power. As for the Dexcut, 490 species of Pokemon were cut, and only 81 new species were introduced.
    There are a couple of welcomed quality of life updates, but they still don't make up for the vast amount of content cut.
    In conclusion, 60% off the score for cutting 60% of the Pokemon :^)    … Expand
  21. Sinoce
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    It’s not bad. Mechanically, it’s fine. I just want to trade my friend and it is terrible. How do you have a step back from that? It was way easier to trade in other games that are older than this one. It needs fixed. A lot of online features are a mess and just clunky or just frustrating. Why even play online with nonsense like this.
  22. loserkid182
    Mar 5, 2020
    4
    Una lastima que no consigan hacer un juego decente que niños y adultos puedan disfrutar, no necesitan genios guionistas de cine, un equipo de personas competentes serian capaces de con 10 consejos hacer una buena historia, pero por desgracia tenemos otra entrega mas de la franquicia que caerá en el olvido.

    Los personajes son la cosa mas vacía que he visto en mucho tiempo, desde luego la    Una lastima que no consigan hacer un juego decente que niños y adultos puedan disfrutar, no necesitan genios guionistas de cine, un equipo de personas competentes serian capaces de con 10 consejos hacer una buena historia, pero por desgracia tenemos otra entrega mas de la franquicia que caerá en el olvido.

    Los personajes son la cosa mas vacía que he visto en mucho tiempo, desde luego la peor de la saga, o empate con otras 3 al menos. El rival es cosa intensita, y los personajes que interacciones con nosotros en la aventura dan ganas de darles una patada en la boca a todos.

    Lo de la zona central tipo mundo abierto y que los Pokemon de nivel superior aparezcan por ahí es buena idea, pero esta FATAL implementado. Los caminos entre ciudades son cortos y SUPER lineales.

    La dificultad del juego es sin duda lo peor que tiene, he subido 4 equipos de Pokemon a mas del nivel 70 solo en una primera pasada del juego y sin farmear ni nada.

    En fin, una lastima que al final la gente dejara de comprar estos juegos por la baja calidad que tienen y ya vendrán las lagrimas de la compañía.    … Expand
  23. lazy_vortex
    Dec 9, 2019
    4
    Okay guys. I'm OK with Cutdex, this would happen, sooner or later.
    But game has a lot of problem and I couldn't make myself fall in love with SwoShie.
    1. No touch-screen. Absolutely. Giant disadvantage for hand-held game. 2. Сlumsy engine. Game Freak doesn't know how to work with devkit. When you touch the staircase you also use ZA WARUDO and freeze all over the world. 3. Broken online    Okay guys. I'm OK with Cutdex, this would happen, sooner or later.
    But game has a lot of problem and I couldn't make myself fall in love with SwoShie.
    1. No touch-screen. Absolutely. Giant disadvantage for hand-held game.
    2. Сlumsy engine. Game Freak doesn't know how to work with devkit. When you touch the staircase you also use ZA WARUDO and freeze all over the world.
    3. Broken online system. Really, it is THE WORST trade in hystory.
    4. The 5-6th points will be a little bit spoiler, please don't read if you are not ready.
    4.1. The designes are totally crienge. Fossils looks like a vomit in agony.
    Impidimp looks like from Yo-Kai Watch and NOT from Pokemon.
    Eiscue is laziest design ever.
    Alcreamie, Polteageist and apple dragon? Pokemons are wild creatures, they hunt, kill and eat each other! But these dudes looks like they accidentally escaped from a Disney tea party
    5. SPOILER ALERT!
    5.1. The story is very bad. Really:
    WE HAVE AN EXPLOSION IN THE CITY, BUT YOU MUST RUN TO THE NEIGHBORING CITY TO THE STADIUM, BADGES ARE MORE IMPORTANT.
    Or how Chairman decide to defeat third legendary (awful design btw).
    Yeah, very realistic and logic.
    6. Characters are empty and worthless.
    Professor is so usless, so if you cut her out from story, nothing will change.
    Hau ew Hop is cheap copy of Hau. The only one bright moment in him it's his sorrow and fear of disgracing brother. The other is bruh moments.
    Or Team Yolo. Yeah, they were trying to create Team Skull-2, but it isn't earnestly.
    7. A lot of trash instead of content. Those collecting cards, curry dex. Who cares?! It's trash!

    I will lie if I say "there are no good side in game".
    1. Wild Areas are interesting. At least first 10 hours. I left them only for obtaining new badges and compliting **** story.
    But at one moment even the Wild Areas make me tired with their repetitiveness.
    2. Some animations REALLY are nice. My personal love -- Falinks's NO RETREAT. It cool, but not at all. Other animations are cheap and askew, like Flamethrower not from mouth but from forehead.

    IN CONCLUSION: this is not AAA-title. It is VERY raw beta but it cost like complited game.
    I suppose the main problem in fate of Pokegames is Gamefreaks. In the foreground are their general incompetence and lack of development skills.
    I am ashamed that I supported this game with a purchase.    … Expand
  24. zdemigodx
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    After playing the game and finishing the story, this is just the most average and mediocre pokemon game I've played in a while. What a huge disappointment. I Don't have to list the problems, they are all out there.
  25. DoritosGOD
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Un buen juego, pero que está incompleto y le falta muchos pokemones y te lo venden a 60U$S o 60€ como si fuera algo nuevo. Comparandolo con otros juegos de nintendo deja mucho que desear ya sea en texturas, diseño artístico, jugabilidad y mas. Yo creo que Gamefreak debería haber realizado un mejor trabajo, dejarse de excusar y ponerse las pilas.
  26. Feutti
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This game isn't the worst, I'm going to start out the review by saying that. It has some good Pokémon, some of the cutscenes look nice and the Pokémon are properly scalled in the overworld. This doesn't compare to the Pokémon cut, lackluster new gen graphics, and a game that crashes and deletes your downloaded games
  27. Demi251700
    Apr 6, 2022
    4
    Lo bueno :
    Buenos pokemon , buena música , la crianza para el competitivo, Dinamax & Gigamax

    Lo malo
    pokedex recortada, personajes planos, animaciones de batalla pobres, malos graficos, muy corta la historia, pobre postgame, mundo semiabierto mediocre
  28. KrakenOfPepsi
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    Metacritic has a pretty small character limit on their reviews, so in order to get all of my points across I'm going to split my reviews across the Sword review, and the Shield review. This is the second part:

    - The gyms are small, and feature very standard and uninspired puzzles and mechanics. Even the GBA games were doing more interesting things than this. Also, the version exclusive    Metacritic has a pretty small character limit on their reviews, so in order to get all of my points across I'm going to split my reviews across the Sword review, and the Shield review. This is the second part:

    - The gyms are small, and feature very standard and uninspired puzzles and mechanics. Even the GBA games were doing more interesting things than this. Also, the version exclusive gym leaders have the exact same puzzle mechanics, just with a texture swap.
    - The Wild area allows you access to virtually every single Pokémon in the game, this means you barely need to revisit most areas in the game, removing any importance the area might have had. Because of this you will also spend a huge amount of time here, which in turn also means that you'll get extremely bored of this area very quickly because it's just a huge field with countless random, disconnected areas and Pokémon. I can walk for less than a minute and go from walking in and blizzard finding ice types, to a sand storm finding rock and ground types. This area completely works against the exploration elements of the game, and completely removes any value the Pokémon once had in the series. I can seriously catch something like 10-15 different final evolution Pokémon within five minutes. It’s a joke, there’s a difference between catering towards more casual audiences, and simply ruining you games overall design.
    - You can camp in virtually any area in the game, this allows you to play a mini-game which lets you cook curry, this curry generally depending on how good you are, completely heals/revives your team, as well as giving them EXP. All that is required to make a curry by the way, is a single berry. The price to purchase a berry is about a quarter of the money required to buy the worst potion in the game by the way. Do I need to explain how this is poor balancing, even for a kids game?...
    - There is no touch screen use in this game at all.
    - There are no longer HMs, period. You are able to fly and you are able to surf, these are the only interactions you can have with the environment now. In all the other games, you would gain access to the fly ability fairly late in the game, making the ability to revisit areas that once felt so far away much more satisfying and rewarding. In this game however, you get access to it very early on, and you spend almost the whole game just teleporting from place to place on the map chasing the stupid flag objective marker. This makes the games areas feel even more useless as you pretty much only need to go through them once, there is no incentive to go back, there are no new areas or secrets to access with your HMs, no new Pokémon to find, you beat the area then you never return. The real kicker is that Surf is only required to progress once in the entire game. I’m not joking. You pretty much only ever use it in the horrible Wild Area as well. So the only two ‘HMs” in the game have been made infinitely worse, and the rest are completely absent. There are virtually no real interactions with the environment anymore, and there are no additional puzzles and features either. You can’t revisit older areas and remove trees blocking your way with Cut, you can’t solve boulder puzzles with Strength, you can’t scale mountains with Rock Climb, you can’t explore under water caverns with Dive – you can’t do anything. So much interactivity and decision making has been removed with nothing given back in exchange.
    - The story is so mundane and poorly executed that at times I wondered why they even bothered writing one. The team of this game have literally no importance to the plot whatsoever, they’re pretty much a group of crappy joke characters who follow around a side character and block your path for no reason whenever the game feels like it. These team characters are usually the main antagonists of these games, who feature prominently throughout the game and have some actual impact on the story. Team Yell however don’t have any other use in the game aside from what I’ve just mentioned, and honestly barely appear. The main antagonist of the game is revealed at the very end of the story, completely irrelevant to Team Yell, who you then defeat almost immediately after having him introduced. And then he’s sent to jail off-screen, never seen again. So the main-game has no antagonist, and all you’re left with is your character’s desire to take on the gym challenges – something every other Pokémon game prior to this had while also still creating an at least decent story on the side as well. All of the side characters get barely any screen time, have barely any development or arc, have barely any identifiable or memorable traits or moments in the game and are largely forgettable. The professor of this game appears twice in the entire main-game, again, I’m not joking. This level of quality is honestly laughable.    … Expand
  29. kankanbow
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    -GF cut 500 pokemons, you can only use pokemon from the regional dex. you can't use any pokemon in PvP anymore (specifically the ones you've taken hours to breed and train for online) and you can't create autistically curated teams for other story runs and such.

    -They cut moves (which is frankly worse then the dex cut), they did cut some old gen 1/2 moves that have been powercrept to    -GF cut 500 pokemons, you can only use pokemon from the regional dex. you can't use any pokemon in PvP anymore (specifically the ones you've taken hours to breed and train for online) and you can't create autistically curated teams for other story runs and such.

    -They cut moves (which is frankly worse then the dex cut), they did cut some old gen 1/2 moves that have been powercrept to pointlessness but they also cut actually good moves seemingly at random.

    -They cut features such a riding pokemon, having pokemon follow you, petting pokemon

    -The game looks like **** and worse then pokemon lets go E/P despite being on the same console this being a mainline game and the former being a quick and dirty rehash/cash in to suck money out of lets go casuals.

    -charge $20 more then a 3ds game when it's objectivly a lesser product.

    -Bugs that cause freeze and other issues    … Expand
  30. Conas
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The good about this game is the same that can be said about other Pokemon games. Exploring is fun, battling is fun, and training is fun. But the wild area was suppose to be a trade off for little routes, but the wild area is fairly small. Pokemon in the over-world don't interact with the over-world save for chasing after the trainer. The weather changes in the wild area are way too sudden. And have the bike become the hm replacer is bad, should've sticked to how SM and LGPE did it. The routes are fairly short and route 7 especially takes less than a minute to cross including trainers. The story is very bland. I don't expect much from Pokemon but after SM I at least wanted to interact with more personal stories characters had. There is no evil team in the game. Team Yell are just Marine fans who like to get in your way. Then turns out they are actually the gym trainers for the 7th gym, Piere's gym. Marine's older brother. It seemed Marine was gonna have a small story arc when we got to the seventh gym, but it was shafted after we beat Piere. The League got rid of the Elite Four and replaced it with a tournament. Not bad , it's execution in this game sucks because it's against Gym Leaders and characters you didn't really bond with. The twist in the game was Chairman Rose wanted to awaken a pokemon with infinite energy for dynamaxing. Dynamax energy runs out in 1000 years btw. He decides to awaken it during the tournament, we literally would've helped after the tournament. But he was too impatient to wait 1 day for a problem that wouldn't happen for 1000 years. The battle against Eternatus sucks, you don't fight whatsoever. The two box legionaries are the only one's that can damage him, and you don't even control them. You're just in the battle was picking whatever move, because it doesn't matter. YOU can't hurt him. After the battles the legionaries jump into the sunset, you don't get to catch one until post game. The game has so much potential, but it just fell flat for me. Also gamefreak, this is scummy releasing the same game so metacritic score is different… Expand
  31. Rardo
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    To be honest this game is disappointing, don’t get me wrong the game likes nice and all visually but this game just ain’t it. They used the exact same game models from the 3DS and they cut 455 Pokémon from the game for better animation and graphics even though it looks the exactly the same as it did for the past 7 years. I never thought GameFreak could get any lazier and incompetent thanTo be honest this game is disappointing, don’t get me wrong the game likes nice and all visually but this game just ain’t it. They used the exact same game models from the 3DS and they cut 455 Pokémon from the game for better animation and graphics even though it looks the exactly the same as it did for the past 7 years. I never thought GameFreak could get any lazier and incompetent than this. Generations 1-5 had more soul put into them than these games. Now the digital copies of these are being reported to not only corrupt your SD card and delete your Save data but it kills the console too. They should have spent an extra year or two working on these games. “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”… Expand
  32. Leix1712
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Es un juego incompleto le faltan mas de la mitad de los pokemon existentes, tiene unos graficos muy malos para una Nintendo Switch
    El area Silvestre esta vacia y los pokemons se ven muy mal. Las ciudades estan muy vacias
    . El juego es muy corto(el mas corto de la saga) y los personajes son muy olbidables no hay nada que explorar y el juego no se siente un juego de pokemon.
  33. Ok_Then
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This game feels like a port from the 3DS, not a new game built for the system

    While many fans will enjoy these games, for me, it feels like the same game as the last 7 Generations with a Graphical upgrade that is Impressive compared to the past 3DS games but quite bad compared to other Switch games
  34. PAKBOY
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    10 routes
    Virtually no difficulty
    2 endgame battle tower game modes beatable in 1 hour Roughly 12 hour story No dungeons Below average graphics, world barely interacts with objects/pokemon(especially wild area) Of course the pokedex purge Some new pokemon designs leave alot to be desired, some designs are genuinely good we must not forget, but too many humanoid pokemon(every starter    10 routes
    Virtually no difficulty
    2 endgame battle tower game modes beatable in 1 hour
    Roughly 12 hour story
    No dungeons
    Below average graphics, world barely interacts with objects/pokemon(especially wild area)
    Of course the pokedex purge
    Some new pokemon designs leave alot to be desired, some designs are genuinely good we must not forget, but too many humanoid pokemon(every starter evolves into a humanoid) and too simple designs(Eiscue)
    and most importantly, the No Man's Sky level of damage control from GameFreak instead of listening to it's customer base who have been fans long enough to know what they generally want in Pokemon games, they only need to look at their masterpieces HG/SS to know which direction to follow(good endgame, pokemon following you) and to top it off I just WISH gamefreak would include difficulty options in their games, unlockable after the first clear, why do they not do it? We grew up, the games are no longer a challenge so why not add more difficult new game+?

    Big Disappointment, see you in gen 9 or Sinnoh remakes, because the "complete" SwSh will most likely be the same garbage.    … Expand
  35. Jaxks
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good the style looks nice in some areas but it does not make up for the ugly new pokemon that where made to replace old ones and the lack of things to do in the game.    … Expand
  36. Isapp
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Pokémon Sword and Shield are easily the most disappointing installment of the franchise. The additions are not enough to overcome graphical issues, physics bugs and softlocks on the game. As good as Gigantamax and raids are not good enough to make up to the exclusion of half the monsters, the lack of mega evolutions, trainers disappearing, animations as artificial as on a 32 bit consolePokémon Sword and Shield are easily the most disappointing installment of the franchise. The additions are not enough to overcome graphical issues, physics bugs and softlocks on the game. As good as Gigantamax and raids are not good enough to make up to the exclusion of half the monsters, the lack of mega evolutions, trainers disappearing, animations as artificial as on a 32 bit console and constant freezes. Pokemon Sword and Shield are overpriced unfinished games and therefore I can't give it more than 4/10… Expand
  37. Cool_Fella
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    These games had great potential but for reasons unknown to me Game Freak has continued taking this series deeper into this downward spiral in quality, aiming to achieve nothing more than mediocrity and failing to even achieve that. The move to the switch making it all the more obvious where these games fall short.

    Keeping this in mind, do I think these games are inherently unenjoyable?    These games had great potential but for reasons unknown to me Game Freak has continued taking this series deeper into this downward spiral in quality, aiming to achieve nothing more than mediocrity and failing to even achieve that. The move to the switch making it all the more obvious where these games fall short.

    Keeping this in mind, do I think these games are inherently unenjoyable? No, I think someone, especially children could have fun with these titles, the classic Pokémon formula of catching, training and battling is still there, though encumbered by bad game design choices, subpar presentation and without much evolution from previous titles, I'd even argue they're a step backwards with the removal of many of the Pokémon that made this series and it is today and the removal of mechanics such as mega evolution.

    Taking a step back from the gameplay, the design of the Galar region and many other elements of the game show a lot of potential, playing through this game there were times when I honestly found myself getting pretty into and immersed in it, before being taken right back out of it by some jarring lack of quality, be it a pivotal moment in the story entirely lacking any music for no real reason, some embarrassingly bad animations or one of many other glaring issues in these games.

    The Galar region itself has some really nice elements and environmental design, of course, some parts of these environments look a little outdated such as the trees which I'm sure nobody who's been keeping up with Pokémon news online hasn't seen by now, but there were a couple of other instances where I noticed poor quality models and textures in the overworld and it took me out of my immersion a bit, though other than these issues the region has a pretty nice art direction, the main issue for me is the lack of NPCs in the region leading to even a lot of the smaller areas (which is a lot of the areas unfortunately) feeling very empty, not just out and about on routes but even in a lot of the game's towns and cities.

    Finally the story, without spoiling anything, I found the story to be pretty lackluster and sure, it IS a Pokémon game, they're not renowned for their stories, though there have been some good ones in the series' past. Throughout the game the story didn't seem too interesting, but it's not too in your face either which is an improvement from Sun and Moon, though it felt to me as though it was almost too uninvolved with so much character progression happening off screen it made it kind of hard to feel invested in the story and characters and made me care even less about the story when they tried to turn the cutscenes up to 11 late into the game, finding myself rather bored as I skimmed through a lot of mediocre dialogue from characters I hardly knew or cared about.

    My final thoughts; these games are probably the easiest the series has ever been with the exception of the Let's Go! games. If you're looking for a challenge it's not here. If you're looking to collect a whole bunch of Pokémon most of them are not here either. If you're looking for a simple, easy Pokémon game and don't care too much about substance then you might enjoy this game if you don't get bored of it too quickly, but ultimately with the amount of content cut and reused, with hardly anything added in return I don't think it's worth the money, you can find a lot of better games on the Switch for the same price or less.    … Expand
  38. DarumaTries
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    I honestly wanted to enjoy these games, which is why I purchased them despite all the controversy. After having beaten it (in a single day no less), I find it a sadly mediocre experience. It's carried only by the already established mechanics of Pokemon, which I'd say were done better in past generations.

    In retrospective, I wish I hadn't made this purchase, and I'd advise others to    I honestly wanted to enjoy these games, which is why I purchased them despite all the controversy. After having beaten it (in a single day no less), I find it a sadly mediocre experience. It's carried only by the already established mechanics of Pokemon, which I'd say were done better in past generations.

    In retrospective, I wish I hadn't made this purchase, and I'd advise others to look at past titles for higher quality.    … Expand
  39. Johan_Holland
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Graphics are mediocre than what is capable of putting out; removed more than half of the Pokemon; removal of 144 moves; removal of mega evolution / z-moves; the story is short and shallow; no "new quality" animations for older Pokemon even though that was promised; recycling of 3D models from the DS-era which would be fine if they didn't lie about it; unskippable cutscenes which makesGraphics are mediocre than what is capable of putting out; removed more than half of the Pokemon; removal of 144 moves; removal of mega evolution / z-moves; the story is short and shallow; no "new quality" animations for older Pokemon even though that was promised; recycling of 3D models from the DS-era which would be fine if they didn't lie about it; unskippable cutscenes which makes second playthroughs tedious; still a lot of handholding which could be removed if the player had an option in difficulty; games were not designed around forced EXP Share which makes the player quickly overpowered; there is no post game content outside of a rehashed Battle Tower and raid battles; dynamaxing is limited to gym battles and plot-related fights; the scaling of Pokemon is bad which makes the Pokemon seem way smaller than he really is in battle; removal of the GTS fuction; badly polished battle backgrounds that sometimes don't make sense where you character is currently fighting; sound track is uninspired; many Pokemon are shiny locked; frame rate issues; Wild Areas are underwhelming; no animations for flying or similar actions even though previous games had them; cities are devoid of any meaningful content; extremely shallow use of Britain as the main inspiration of the region; fishing is restricted to specific areas; pandering to specific region (Kanto); Pokemon in the OW do not interact with their environment in any meaningful way; game was advertised "for long time fans" which it clearly isn't; constant lying from the developers and games cost way too much for what it's giving.

    There is so much potential with this franchise but it just won't be used.    … Expand
  40. Latterain
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    As a pokemon fan who enjoys both casual and hardcore gaming since my early childhood, Pokemon Sword and Shield are not awful games, but rather disappointing in every possible sense.

    Blatant puzzling changes made by the developers have decreased these games' quality to a new standard never before seen within the entire Pokemon series. Removal of more than half of all Pokemon, removal of    As a pokemon fan who enjoys both casual and hardcore gaming since my early childhood, Pokemon Sword and Shield are not awful games, but rather disappointing in every possible sense.

    Blatant puzzling changes made by the developers have decreased these games' quality to a new standard never before seen within the entire Pokemon series.

    Removal of more than half of all Pokemon, removal of the GTS, removal of a significant amount of useful moves and fan features such as Mega evolution are only small examples of things cut with no redeemable exchange for these cuts. For comparing, Pokemon Sun and Moon, for the 3DS ( a much more underpowered system than the switch) had all of these features and more.

    As a long time Pokemon fan, this really kills a lot of the play value of the games for me. However, if I completely disregard this, I would still give the games a fair 7.5 for their content alone.

    Unfortunately, even if we only consider what is within the games, the content is completely underwhelming.

    -While the graphics aren't bad, they're the same as the 3DS games, and the animations are particularly rudimentary and hard to watch. -Bugs, glitches and even console bricking errors have been reported by a baffling significant amount lf people, and to the date, Gamefreak hasn't said anything about fixes.

    -The game has lost a huge amount of difficulty, but the gameplay itself has remained quite stale with no tradeoff.
    A lot of the freedom and choice that comes with these kind of RPGs have been lost. Notably, you can no longer toggle the EXP share feature with valid reasoning.

    -Technically, the game struggles greatly with framerates and rendering, even thought its engine should pose no difficulty to the system. In other words, the game is not properly optimized.

    Here are some positives that the games deserve to be mentioned though:

    -Many QoL changes, such as the ability to change a pokemon's nature greatly increase the amount of customization for the avaliable Pokemon.

    -The player customization is well implemented and really allows the players to play as themselves or how the see fit.

    -While the music isn't by any means my favorite in the series, it does have some good tracks that stand out.

    -There's the curry cooking minigame, and while I personally don't enjoy it, other people seem to welcome it as a feature.


    All of this, coming from a multi billionaire company is not only baffling, but definitely proof that the games could have been so much more than what they're being sold as. The franchise deserves a lot more. The games aren't bad but I definitely don't think that they're worth their retail US 60 dollar pricing.

    As such, I have no comment other than giving these games a score of 4, for not only not living to staple standards of the franchise since its inception, but also for failing to fully utilize what is available within the actual game.    … Expand
  41. JokerMain115
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    A lacklustre title, especially by Switch standards. The games graphics are fine enough (Textures are sometimes questionable), but the music is lacking, the weakest in the series of mainline games by far. The cut Pokémon, features and lack of new *Good* ideas with a predictable plot, either annoying or not rememberable characters and a general sense of the game feeling unpolished feels likeA lacklustre title, especially by Switch standards. The games graphics are fine enough (Textures are sometimes questionable), but the music is lacking, the weakest in the series of mainline games by far. The cut Pokémon, features and lack of new *Good* ideas with a predictable plot, either annoying or not rememberable characters and a general sense of the game feeling unpolished feels like a weak and lazy step into a new generation of consoles. The removal of the GTS feels frankly stupid as it was a big help for a lot of players attempting to complete the Pokédex of 400~ Pokémon. The cities feel empty due to your exploration through them being very limited, either by the camera or how you're unable to explore most of what you see. Dynamax feels tacked on and a very weak replacement for Mega evolutions, but better fleshed out than Z-Moves. The Pokémon brought back are baffling and leave the selection dry. 3 Legendaries through both versions + Silvally, lack of starters outside of Charizard and fan favourites just not appearing for seemingly no reason. The animations are nice, but a lot come off feeling extra rather than grand, and defiantly not worth the cut of 400+ Pokémon. Though, the new Pokémon designs are honestly some of the best we've seen in the whole series, outstanding on that part, and the quality of life improvements like Key Item descriptions being shown right away, IV supplements, HM's being completely discarded and the move relearner being easily accessible are absolutely wonderful changes, but don't make up for the games glaring weaknesses. Wouldn't recommend, instead waiting on the next games, or even generation seems to be the move, as the changes that matter here should make their way into the next set of games, as every Pokémon hopefully does too.… Expand
  42. Damba
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    It's better than I expected and if u play pokemon casually its probably the best entry in the series. However it feels like a slap in the face for more dedicated fans like myself. The graphics are improved but I expect that at least going from the 3ds 240p to the switch 720p. Dynmax and gigamaxing are unnecessary and feel way less fun to use the mega and z moves. Pokemon were explainedIt's better than I expected and if u play pokemon casually its probably the best entry in the series. However it feels like a slap in the face for more dedicated fans like myself. The graphics are improved but I expect that at least going from the 3ds 240p to the switch 720p. Dynmax and gigamaxing are unnecessary and feel way less fun to use the mega and z moves. Pokemon were explained also to be removed for balance yet a lot of pokemon specifically charizard just feels like it there to cash in on nostalgia. At end of the day you look at the number of pokemon in this game and there was more in the 4gen which ran on the original ds, mean while 6th gen u could catch every pokemon between 4 games, while now I can get half from 2. Also I believe it's safe to assume these games were in development longer than most with let's go games being more remakes with even less in there. Mean while my last major point is these2 games are $20 more than the old games it's not asking alot the expect more. Gamefreak and the pokemon company care more about money than they do about the product there putting on the shelves. Hgss were gr8 remakes of the johto region that had everything, oras were missing parts including the much loved battle frontier.and now in gen 8 they cut the reason ppl pay for pokemon bank while reiterating they dont have plans to add them. This company is showing it doesn't care, i dont think it my time to boycott sales but it is noted that these games should have more than what they are.… Expand
  43. Dillium
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While some areas of the game are absolutely stunning to look at, the wild area, which was the games big selling point, has graphics that would be disappointing on the wii. The trainer and Pokémon models also don’t interact well with the terrain, for example the player often floats, especially when on the bike and water Pokémon don’t make ripples when they are swimming. The game has seen very few improvements in battle animations and many battles have their backgrounds set to a colourful void. Battles also pose very little challenge due to the forces use of a full party exp share leaving Pokémon over leveled very quickly. The story is short and very simple with very little post game content, pretty much just the box legendary, eternatus and a very bland bare-bones battle tower, a world away from the ds games that had multiple post game legendaries and a battle frontier with varied battle challenges that always kept them interesting.

    The addition of certain quality of life improvements, such as the nature changing mints, which make it far easier to obtain competitive-quality Pokémon, are a welcome addition, as is the fact that the player character now has expressions instead of the horrifying blank stares of sun and moon.

    The new gimmick of dynamax and gigantamax are interesting for a while but they just seem like a rehashed version of both mega evolutions and z-moves, both of which were removed from this game. The fact that their use is also heavily limited also makes them feel less impactful.

    The rival Hop shows up a little too often and it sometimes feel like you can’t walk for five minutes without bumping into him, which makes him quickly become irritating.

    Due to this I do not believe the removal of hundreds of Pokémon was a worthwhile trade off given the other issues with the game. However the game is fun, but Pokémon games are almost guaranteed to be fun to play purely due to the premise, but it could have been so much better than it is, it doesn’t feel like playing a switch game, it feels like playing a 3ds game, it feels like GameFreak wasn’t able to take advantage of being on a new console.    … Expand
  44. WillfulFirefly
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    After having finished "Pokemon: Shield" in around 25 hours, I felt immediately compelled to type a review because this is the most disappointing entry into the Pokemon video game line-up that I had ever experienced. This is tragic for me - to say the least - because I went in with decent expectations and with hopes that this would succeed prior Pokemon video games well. Sadly, it feelsAfter having finished "Pokemon: Shield" in around 25 hours, I felt immediately compelled to type a review because this is the most disappointing entry into the Pokemon video game line-up that I had ever experienced. This is tragic for me - to say the least - because I went in with decent expectations and with hopes that this would succeed prior Pokemon video games well. Sadly, it feels more like a huge step back with some promising features that I hope future entries consider keeping and improving.

    Positives:
    (+) The new Galarian Pokemons and the Galarian Variants of past-generation Pokemons
    (+) Pokemon Camp and Curry-making: Both more charming than I thought!
    (+) In-depth Trainer Customisation
    (+) A lot of quality of life improvements in comparison to past Pokemon video games: This is going to make it more accessible for a lot of players while making it more focused for long-time players. Things like mints to change Pokemon nature type to exp share being always on making the entire game less grindy and monotonous. All very much appreciated!

    Negatives:
    (-) Inconsistent Graphic Quality: Some good textures, some REALLY out-dated textures. Some battle backgrounds look pretty cool; others, not so much and repeatedly used. Towns like Circhester look breathtaking, but then there are the open world sections that look flat and ugly. Textures may pop in-and-out at times. Stiff models.
    (-) Inconsistent Animation Quality (and Missing Animations?): Some elaborate and well-done, but - for the most part - low effort. Also, Pokemons don't have a turning animation, and NPCs seem to be are missing a couple as well? NPCs look soulless at times with barely any expressions. Pokemons headbutting with their legs look weird. Some Pokemons even use the same bad animations to attack (when using different moves).
    (-) Empty-feeling Open World sections: For today's standard of video games, even some open world indie games look more livelier than this game's open world sections. The AI for roaming Pokemons is pretty dumb and non-interactive as well and is easy to maneuver and play around. Moreover, the open world sections are relatively small in comparison to a lot of other games: even those of low-budget.
    (-) Incompetent Story: Most of the important things in the story are described by NPCs rather than shown (or - you know - involving you like a game). Also, most of it is the typical Pokemon video game story (i.e. be the very best, have a rival, meet someone with an emotional complexity, etc.). Also, Hop is more annoying than easy-to-hate.
    (-) Unpolished and Unoptimised Game: This game has glitches and oddities and even some weird exploitables. Pokemon AI in camp can be a little buggy, and the game got stuck at one point when I was playing with my Pokemons. Sometimes, my frame rate would drop below in certain areas much more in comparison to other Switch games.
    (-) My Switch crashed twice: This is the first (and second) time that my Switch had ever crashed, so - to me - this is a huge deal.
    (-) No Post-game: Other than completing your Pokemon collection and , there's nothing else. Honestly, this comes as such a shock as I never not had a post-game in a Pokemon video game.
    (-) Too much hand-holding: Every NPC treats you like an idiot even past the tutorial and reminds you constantly that you can do this and that. They make it a big deal for doing minor things like walking from point A to B. It is very annoying to be blasted by so many text boxes when you just want to play the game.

    Mediocres:
    (?) Relatively Short Game: In comparison to the other Pokemon video games, this is the shortest and I really took my time exploring everywhere. I was honestly shocked that I finished this game so fast.
    (?) Easiest Pokemon video game: With all the quality of life features, I barely needed to think while playing or battling. Personally, it's a negative for me, but - for others - this might be a saving grace.
    (?) Dynamax is a gym/raid gimmick.
    (?) Raids: I was expecting much more but it's just a longer Pokemon battle - not much strategy needed. This may vary from player to player though.

    Conclusion: My recommendation is to wait for a sale - around $40; it's not worth the full price of $60 if you're a long-time Pokemon gamer. By Pokemon video game standards, "Pokemon: Shield" is the weakest entry to the franchise. However, that's not to say that it's a bad game: it's passable and this is the problem because past Pokemon video games are not "passable". I think that - for a casual gamer - this is good to waste time in and have some fun. It was fun for me sometimes and even charming. For this case, I would give "Pokemon: Shield" a 5/10, but my current rating is to reflect actual Pokemon gamers (the ones who love battling and forming teams and staying engaged and whatnot) and - personally - this was a below average experience for me. Overall, I think that this game needed more time in the oven.    … Expand
  45. Jorx
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    Como ya sabéis este juego no ha estado abstento de polémica desde el pasado E3, en gran parte con razón, y con cada declaración de Masuda más todavía.
    Desde Pokemon XY que no he jugado un juego tan malo de la saga principal. El juego lo he completado en unas 18 horas, una historia que engancha muy poco, predecible y terriblemente llevada en el tramo final pero con una mejora notoria en el    Como ya sabéis este juego no ha estado abstento de polémica desde el pasado E3, en gran parte con razón, y con cada declaración de Masuda más todavía.
    Desde Pokemon XY que no he jugado un juego tan malo de la saga principal. El juego lo he completado en unas 18 horas, una historia que engancha muy poco, predecible y terriblemente llevada en el tramo final pero con una mejora notoria en el transfondo de los personajes.
    El arte del juego es bonito en varias zonas como las minas o el Bosque Lumirintico pero que rápidamente te deja con un mal sabor de boca por culpa del Area Silvestre, la gran novedad de este juego, por ser una zona muy mal trabajada que parece estar a medio hacer, realmente tiene unas texturas terribles y por si fuera poco una absurdez los cambios de clima locos entre sus minizonas. Lo único realmente divertido de aqui son las raids aunque me parece fatal que puedas capturarlos así de fácil, como cierto legendario del juego. La idea y el concepto es muy buena, pero creo que está mal llevado a cabo y espero que en futras entregas lo mejoren.
    No es un juego a la altura de lo que se esperaba, parece más un port de los juegos de 3ds que un juego de Switch. En el E3 se dijo que recortaban la pokedex por el tema de hacer nuevas animaciones. ¿Que es lo que nos encontramos al final? Pues que la gran mayoria de las animaciones y modelos son reciclados de X/YSol/Luna y del campamento son del Pokemon Colossus. Tu rival hace los mismos gestos que Haul, el rival de Sol y Luna. Personalmente, me parece bien que hagan un corte de la pokedex si sirve para hacer un mejor juego con nuevas mecanicas, etc. Ahora, creo que después con una actualización añadiendo el resto se puede solucionar porque si no, Pokemon Home no tiene absolutamente nada de sentido.

    La curva de dificultad no es muy buena que digamos, el juego empieza bien ya que tardas casi dos horas para llegar al primer gimnasio pero a partir de ahí es todo como una carrera al tener solo 10 rutas muy cortas y gimnasios, entrenadores y liga muy poco desafiante. Otro punto más en el que Game Freak ha mentido, a medias, al decir que estos juegos están más pensados para los veteranos ya que en la parte que si que cumplen es a la hora del competitivo.
    La parte más trabajada y positiva para mí es la mencionada anteriormente, el competitivo, en este juego se nota que han hecho un gran esfuerzo por mejorar este ambito y que hace que a pesar de lo malo que es tener la pokedex recortada, esta todo bastante equilibrado.<
    Otra parte positiva del juego es que la banda sonora es genial, sobre todo en los gimnasios al enfrentarte a los lideres que parece que el público este coreandolo.    … Expand
  46. Nomorehashtags
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    It has a lot of little improvements over previous games and makes some interesting premises with some of the ideas it implements but massively cuts back on features in past games which were actually good, plus the overall game comes off as incredibly short plot wise and underwhelming in terms of girth of traditional content (route and dungeon variety). It also doesn't help that the gameIt has a lot of little improvements over previous games and makes some interesting premises with some of the ideas it implements but massively cuts back on features in past games which were actually good, plus the overall game comes off as incredibly short plot wise and underwhelming in terms of girth of traditional content (route and dungeon variety). It also doesn't help that the game more or less encourages you to just play solely with your starter since your other 'mon will get exp from battles anyhow so there's no point in swapping out since everyone will be kept at similar levels unless you pick up an exceptionally low leveled late game Pokemon which even then you can now boost with exp. candies which is a nice feature addition although makes more sense as a post-game item and should be a crutch on which the game can lean on due to a poor level curve.… Expand
  47. Silvally1
    Nov 17, 2019
    4
    These games have their faults, a lot of them. The wild area is a mess in almost all categories, new mons look goofy, region is extremely linear, story makes zero since, more hand holdy than the last Gen, level scaling is atrocious.

    But it's not all bad, Camping is cute, max raid battles are a fun way to waste your time, some gym battles can be fun, some interesting characters too. Is    These games have their faults, a lot of them. The wild area is a mess in almost all categories, new mons look goofy, region is extremely linear, story makes zero since, more hand holdy than the last Gen, level scaling is atrocious.

    But it's not all bad, Camping is cute, max raid battles are a fun way to waste your time, some gym battles can be fun, some interesting characters too.

    Is the game an unplayable mess like they claim? No. But is it any good? Eh, for a jump to home console it's pretty lackluster and if you want to go there... unpolished. If you liked the last games you might enjoy it but that's a HUGE might.

    Overall, 4/10    … Expand
  48. Huynguyen123
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Just very disappointed about this game. Through 8th generation, even 5th or 6th I feel so hopefull and love them, but seeing all those humanoid starter pokemon makes me feel bad and the story is too boring.
  49. kerrydevo
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been a fan of the Pokemon franchise since the 1990s and have played through almost all the games as a lot of other fans have. I pre-ordered both Sword and Shield with the hope that they would be a breathtaking experiences. Unfortunately it was not to be. I am not saying the games are terrible, but I expected so much more from a Nintendo Switch title, especially since it is Pokemon, a franchise loved by millions.

    To start off I will say that the National Dex cut would not have been a big deal if Game Freak were honest about having to make new models. Its been proven by many poketubers and people who work in 3D modelling that the Pokemon models are indeed the same as in Sun and Moon. The Dex was cut for the purpose of increasing the animation quality, however playing through the game for hours up to the battle with Leon, it was made clear to me that many corners were cut. Characters turn in an inhuman, unrealistic way, where they look like Lego ( most noticeable in the water type gym, as seen in the early demos). The Pokemon themselves also tend to make the same sort of turns in some cutscenes. I personally found the wild area to be bland. The weather would change in an unrealistic manner( one minute it snows and another the sun is shining) and the area itself was not as big as I expected it to be. It can be very repetitive with the same sort of NPCs scattered around the area. I did enjoy the raid battles, however some of them require wishing star pieces to activate which are really expensive, around 3,000 watts to be exact. This left me with very few activities to do apart from this weird balloon cycling game which I tried a few times and they are okay at best. The textures of the wild are are also bland and boring and it didn't feel like I was exploring a beautiful pokemon paradise. I hated how pokemon would pop out of nowhere and after taking what was just a few feet away from them, they would instantly disappear again. The NPCs are also guilty of this, even in the main cities where the games would look there best. The cities do look great and colourful but even then I feel more could be done with them.

    The pokemon camping looks like a treat at first, but then you realise that there isn't much interactivity with the Pokemon apart from playing with a ball or a stick toy with a bell on it. The curry dex has recipes that look the same apart from there effects on Pokemon (Depending on how well you cook the curry). Pokemon don't even interact with each other that much. They race each other and do basic Sim-like interactions and that is it.

    I would have appreciated more activities to do with the Pokemon such as Pokleathon sort of events or contests. Pokemon that follow the trainer could have been implemented but wasn't. There were zero eeveelutions which saddened my soul. They were put aside in favour of pokemon like stunfisk?, garbodor? This made no sense to me. New favourites like wooloo and galarian ponyta were given uninspired evolutions where there could have been so much more potential.

    Overall the game does feel like a cash grab and I will be returning Sword to my local game store today. I will keep Shield in the hopes that I can transfer them to a better game in the future. Game Freak has really let me down on this one. I hope that they will up their standards from here on out and not focus on other games like Town which had mediocre scores from reviewers.    … Expand
  50. ChocolateCrane
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Let us address the elephant in the room first. The absence of the National Dex. Yes, it is terrible, lazy, blah blah blah. I am sure you've already heard this in hundreds of other reviews. So instead of me wasting your time by complaining about something you are already well aware of, I will focus on the rest of SwSh's shortcomings. For reference, I have played every mainline Pokemon gameLet us address the elephant in the room first. The absence of the National Dex. Yes, it is terrible, lazy, blah blah blah. I am sure you've already heard this in hundreds of other reviews. So instead of me wasting your time by complaining about something you are already well aware of, I will focus on the rest of SwSh's shortcomings. For reference, I have played every mainline Pokemon game to completion and have currently sunk 40 hours into Shield; I'd imagine my criticisms also apply to Sword. In the interest of brevity, I will be utilizing acronyms: (SwSh = Sword/Shield, S/M = Sun/Moon, etc).

    The most succinct way to put it is SwSh essentially feels like a 3DS game ported to the Switch. This applies to every facet of the game: from its gameplay features to its visual presentation, to its story/characters. I believe whether or not you enjoy SwSh depends entirely upon how you view the 7th Gen games. Contrary to what the devs promised us last year, SwSh is most assuredly NOT meant for the "core" Pokemon fans. As a veteran of the series myself, I can say with certainty the abysmally low level of difficulty in conjunction with the simplification and outright removal of many features is the exact opposite of what I'd want. SwSh is nearly as simplified as LGPE, which wouldn't be an issue if the devs addressed it as such, but somehow they seem to think this is what qualifies as a satisfying mainline game in 2019. Yes, Pokemon has always been a franchise aimed primarily at children. The games have never been truly difficult when compared to many of their JRPG contemporaries. Yet, for some reason Game Freak felt the need to crank that difficulty setting from "Easy" down to "Braindead". S/M may have been easy, but it was LEAGUES more challenging than Shield. Accessibility is one thing, but this is taking it to such an extreme it nearly removes all the fun. A "Hard Mode" option selectable from the outset would have worked wonders. And of course, as is common for the past several entries in the Pokemon series, the post-game content is practically non-existent.

    So, SwSh basically fails when viewed purely as a "game", but what of the other aspects I mentioned? After all, JRPGs with subpar gameplay can still be surprisingly enjoyable if the narrative holds enough merit. I am sad to report that SwSh also completely fails in this regard. The writing is oftentimes so atrocious I've found myself wishing to skip these scenes entirely. This is par for the course as none of the mainline games (barring the "attempts" made in B/W) have really delivered anything substantive in the way of competent storytelling. However, with the majority of other Pokemon games, they at least had good gameplay to compensate for the lackluster story; a factor which is completely absent from SwSh due to its inherent simplified nature and toddler-pandering difficulty.

    Well, there is only one thing left to discuss since delving into too much detail on the above points causes me to exceed the character limit. The final point of contention is the visual fidelity and graphical offerings SwSh brings to the table. This is after all, a game made for the Switch; a console/handheld hybrid with roughly 10x the computational power of Pokemon's former home, the 3DS. Let's get the pesky numbers out of the way first. SwSh runs at a dynamic resolution on both docked and portable modes. In docked mode, the resolution fluctuates from 1080p to 864p. Likewise, during portable play, the highest res is 720p which descends to 576p on frequent occasions. This is somewhat disappointing considering LGPE was capable of running at 1080p docked/720p portable at all times. The framerate target is 30fps, which exhibits frame pacing problems and severe drops in a variety of areas. The most evident manifestation of these issues can be seen in the Wild Area, wherein both pacing and framerate are pushed to their absolute worst. This is a massive problem considering the majority of your time, especially in post-game, will likely be spent in the Wild Area.

    Aside from the quantifiable metrics highlighted above, there are plenty of other visual shortcomings to boot. Terrible terrain detail, awful textures, constant pop-in, stilted animations, low polygon count for both the human character models as well as the Pokemon, and countless other issues such as these result in a game that resembles something released over a decade ago. Many detractors claim SwSh looks like a PS2/GC game, which is definitely an exaggeration, but what we got is by no means acceptable for a non-indie game released in 2019. And yes, many of the animations and ALL the returning Pokemon models have been copy-and-pasted with negligible improvements for SwSh.

    It's one thing to sacrifice content for a more polished, higher quality game, but that is very clearly not what happened here. I genuinely hope these issues can be sorted out in future releases; I am not ready to give up hope on Pokemon just yet.    … Expand
  51. justinpeoples13
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Story is too basic and streamlined. There is nothing by the way of side quests like in all other games. Your rivals are laughable and all the gym challenges pose little challenge if you are familiar with the battle mechanics. There is a lack of interesting things to do besides the main quest like previous games. Gambling, beauty contests ect. The lack of mysteries to explore and the scaledStory is too basic and streamlined. There is nothing by the way of side quests like in all other games. Your rivals are laughable and all the gym challenges pose little challenge if you are familiar with the battle mechanics. There is a lack of interesting things to do besides the main quest like previous games. Gambling, beauty contests ect. The lack of mysteries to explore and the scaled down size of the Caves/Routes is really disheartening. The lack of world interaction with buildings and npcs is sad aswell feels very dry and like you're just pushed into a linear story. Sure you can play around in the wild area but you can explore all of that rather quickly and then it becomes stale and boring. In the end I felt like I was playing a glorified Pokemon Stadium with a story and the wild area to make up for the lack of depth implemented.

    I hope they improve upon what they have going on for the next installment but if they take the same route it will surely be another disappointment to longtime fans of the series. Here's to hoping for a remake of Pearl and Diamond to see what a real classic pokemon experience can feel like on the Switch.    … Expand
  52. dandan791
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    I have been a long time Pokemon fan, and I totally feel the disappointment in the negative reviews. I originally gave this a rating of 2 simply because I’m horrified by some of the choices that were made in creating this, but I decided to change my rating to a 4 because even though it’s a “bad“ game compared to other pokemon games it’s still a Pokemon game. I wish they had simply focusedI have been a long time Pokemon fan, and I totally feel the disappointment in the negative reviews. I originally gave this a rating of 2 simply because I’m horrified by some of the choices that were made in creating this, but I decided to change my rating to a 4 because even though it’s a “bad“ game compared to other pokemon games it’s still a Pokemon game. I wish they had simply focused on really showcasing what they could do with a Pokemon game on the Switch, but rather they chose to cut corners where they IMO really shouldn’t have (especially considering the promises that were made during the creation of the games). I don’t know why, but Let’s Go seemed more polished than this.

    You have 8 preset character designs to choose from, all of which are really really boring, and I wish a more thorough character customization tool (besides hair, eyebrows, and eye color) were in place. They cut a ton of my favorite Pokemon (all in all they cut 400 pokemon out of the games completely). The graphics are bad compared to other switch titles (but obviously good compared to the 3DS versions of Pokemon, but that should go without saying). The story is flat, the characters are uninspiring, and the conversations are dry. “Dynamaxing” and “Gigantamaxing” seem gimmicky. The latter was slightly more intriguing, but I cannot understand the big difference between this and the Mega X&Y forms, so to release it as a “new” feature seemed a bit odd to me. Also, why spend time on that and not time on including all the Pokemon and polishing the game? I managed to ignore other annoyances like the occasional stuttering, lifeless 3DS style animation in trees and greenery, and the odd bug here and there. However, my disappointment peaked towards the end of the main story (no spoilers) when they chose to suddenly change the typical 3D movie scene of people talking to a few still images of blatantly obvious concept art with subtitles running below. It felt random, out of place, lazy, and like a total break from the general art style in the rest of the game. It literally only happened once in the entire game, but during a pretty important conversation. The concept art images were pretty ambitious, so I assume they just didn’t have time to finish the actual scenes. It made me see just how rushed this game was, and it also made me critically look at just how many corners they cut (and promises they broke) in making this game – it’s a lot.

    If they release updates and DLCs in the future I am more than willing to change my review, as I feel like there is a solid skeleton in place here. It just feels hollow compared to other titles. So... as a Pokemon fan I’m incredibly disappointed with these two games, but it seems obvious to me that this is not a proposal to the core fan base. This is to all the parents that want an easy holiday present for their kid and it will sell like hot cakes regardless of the reviews. Kids will gobble this up and be happy, as is the case with every single Pokemon game.    … Expand
  53. Weegee400
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    -Graphically terrible
    -Story is a mess
    -No national dex
    -No battle frontier

    +new pokemon are cool
    +raid balttles

    Below average pokemon games
  54. GemsofStarlight
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    So many cut corners, barely any animation or customization. Wish my character didnt have to look 12. All Pokemon not present or able to be imported to the game. Animation is lackluster, dialogue is cheap and superficial. They just want to pump out half games to make money and they will literally kill the franchise if they keep this up. The fans are OVER it.
  55. Silv3r1997
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    Purtroppo è un gioco con molte mancanze. A livello grafico inaccettabile (dopo aver giocato a BOTW). C’è una differenza abissale tra la grafica su tv e sullo schermo della switch. Nelle terre selvagge ci sono lag a non finire. Alcune mosse sono state fatte in maniera approssimativa e palesemente di fretta. A livello contenutistico sono state introdotte sicuramente delle novità (terrePurtroppo è un gioco con molte mancanze. A livello grafico inaccettabile (dopo aver giocato a BOTW). C’è una differenza abissale tra la grafica su tv e sullo schermo della switch. Nelle terre selvagge ci sono lag a non finire. Alcune mosse sono state fatte in maniera approssimativa e palesemente di fretta. A livello contenutistico sono state introdotte sicuramente delle novità (terre selvagge principalmente), ma con il famoso “vizio” della Game Freak di non discostarsi, manco dopo vent’anni, nemmeno di un millimetro dai canoni per quanto riguarda la “trama” (sempre scontata e banale). Altra mancanza, appunto, è il classico proseguire linearmente dall’inizio alla fine del gioco facendo azioni ripetitive e a tratti addirittura alienanti (sconfiggere gli 8 capipalestra, sfidare allenatori deboli nei percorsi privi di qualunque originalità, fatta eccezione per pochissimi[La difficoltà del gioco non è regolabile]). Da questo punto di vista la Game Freak ha cercato di introdurre elementi di novità, come le missioni nelle palestre, e sono state ben accette. Ma ciò non toglie la noia di sapere già prima di iniziare il gioco come sarà tutto il gioco successivo (uguale a quelli degli ultimi 20 anni). Alcune città sono state davvero ben fatte, ma sono piccole, molto piccole. Troppo piccole.
    In conclusione le idee c’erano ma sono state mal sviluppate a mio parere rendendo il gioco una sorta di beta di quello che avrebbe dovuto essere. Secondo me il più grande difetto di un gioco è che possa annoiare, e a me questo, da grande fan del brand, mi ha annoiato in molti punti.    … Expand
  56. geldshot
    Nov 21, 2019
    4
    New pokemon are great and the wild area is a sign of what we want going forward. Getting into competitive pokemon is easier than ever and that is good. Overall though the game is sorely lacking in depth so anyone looking explore the world is deeply disappointed. The online features barely work for me and the story still completely hand holds you the entire way. The world is a shallow placeNew pokemon are great and the wild area is a sign of what we want going forward. Getting into competitive pokemon is easier than ever and that is good. Overall though the game is sorely lacking in depth so anyone looking explore the world is deeply disappointed. The online features barely work for me and the story still completely hand holds you the entire way. The world is a shallow place and max raid battles are already getting old there's fun to be had but i can't help but feel frustrated at the same time.… Expand
  57. Gjones91
    Nov 22, 2019
    4
    Very disappointing game that new game feeling wears off quick and you quickly realize how lazy the game freak team put the game together
  58. Djarjb
    Nov 24, 2019
    4
    Has the makings of a good game. The environments are awesome and the "gym challenge" adds a great tournament air the game. Pokemon on the overworld makes the environments feel alive. But game is far to easy with only one battle in the whole game keeping me on my toes. Furthermore the new mechanics of dynamaxing and camping are gimmicky and add very little to the game. Also I suggest neverHas the makings of a good game. The environments are awesome and the "gym challenge" adds a great tournament air the game. Pokemon on the overworld makes the environments feel alive. But game is far to easy with only one battle in the whole game keeping me on my toes. Furthermore the new mechanics of dynamaxing and camping are gimmicky and add very little to the game. Also I suggest never using half the items from Max raids if you ever want to have even a modicum difficulty. Plays like a tutorial the wholeway though the game. The greatest sin in this game is the fact that it feels like a tech demo. It shows of what the switch is capable of but does little else. The Story is bland and short. The post games is a joke that can be completed in under an hour. There are no vastly explorable area or even side quests. It's feels small and compact yet somehow empty. I was prepared to like this game and enjoyed my first three hours but it disappointed. It pains me to see such a potentially entertaining entry in the series so poorly executed.All in all would not recommend. Go play fire emblem three houses instead.… Expand
  59. albinopanda77
    Nov 26, 2019
    4
    While I actually enjoyed the series like the rest of them, I can’t say this game deserves anything higher than a 4. The game was rushed and looked like a direct port from the 3DS. The animations, while some looked nice, were better a decade ago on the GameCube. The graphics were sloppy and rushed. The plot was linear and lacked substance. I had high hopes for the first 1080p mainlineWhile I actually enjoyed the series like the rest of them, I can’t say this game deserves anything higher than a 4. The game was rushed and looked like a direct port from the 3DS. The animations, while some looked nice, were better a decade ago on the GameCube. The graphics were sloppy and rushed. The plot was linear and lacked substance. I had high hopes for the first 1080p mainline Pokémon game, but was quickly let down by the negligence and greed of Gamefreak.… Expand
  60. SpeedHunter
    Nov 27, 2019
    4
    Pokémon Sword and Shield are undoubtedly the worst games in the series, and are a step back in almost every way when compared to even the 3DS games. I could go on a tangent but you've heard it before. If GameFreak isn't going to give us a high quality Pokémon game that deserves the full $60 at least give us a game on par with Emerald, Platinum, HGSS, BW and BW2
  61. Termitt
    Nov 29, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I had an ok time playing it and wondered if I should give it a 6, but it felt wrong all things considered. As of writing this, I've put in 40 hours of gameplay.

    The good:
    -It looks pretty! I'm not one to harp on graphics as long as a game is good. Overall, the graphics are fine and do their job. In the overworld, at least.
    -The character designs are pretty neat! I can always say that the gym leaders always look good and they're always fun to see.
    -The gyms were a blast! I loved the focus on the gym and everything the game built up for the first 2 gyms and how important they made the gym challenge feel! But the game felt completely empty afterward and I can't say I enjoyed it all that much after that point, which is a shame since I had such a good time at the start...
    -I can't say that I liked a lot of the new Pokemon from what I saw at the start, and some are still bad... but they grew on me a lot, and I like that I had to play with pokemon I usually wouldn't use to normal.
    -The camping stuff was fun, not something I used a lot, but it was cute.
    -The music is nice
    -I had fun. I'm not going to deny that at all. This was a fun game and I'll play it some more. While I have a lot of grievances it's not the worst thing I've ever played. It's ok.
    -The customization feature is back - though I found the outfits rather bland it's nice to see it return.

    The bad:
    -It's under 15 hours long if you speed through it.

    -The games, like most in the pokemon series, are pretty hand-holdy. There are no challenges and you constantly get directed towards the main path no matter how much you want to do other things. Which is fine enough, but I only wish the games let me explore some more without the game spelling it out to me that I need to go to X because of reasons. Almost every time, almost every route, an NPC would tell me to follow them or go somewhere.

    -And to make it worse, the roads are small and short. There's very little to discover and see. While it looks pretty what little there is, there's next to no substance in the routes with how short they are.

    -The free camera is only usable during the Wild Area when I REALLY wanted to be able to use it in other places as well. Every time I left the Wild Area and wanted to look around in certain towns and routes, that want got squashed because of the fixed angles. Some of the angles they used are garbage.

    -The towns
    The first big town we enter is built in a straight line to make the fixed camera work. The camera decided the town layout, essentially. And that's pretty bad for a game that offers such a vast 3D environment. And in some places, the camera was placed in an odd way, like a sky-high birds view, or try to show off an angle of a big building... things that would have been fixed completely if the camera had been free at all times.

    -They removed the national dex...
    I don't mind that they keep a small dex during the main game, but let me at least transfer my old pokemon post-game. There's really no reason to remove it completely if they wanted me to use the new pokemon they added to the game during the campaign.

    -The Dynamax mechanic is rather uninspired.
    I didn't enjoy it and would rather avoid it as much as possible. Sadly impossible, though. Blowing up the pokemon just screams lazy to me.

    -The story is non-existent.
    The Pokemon series has never been well known for their masterful storytelling, but the plots got their charm. This game had a good start but tethered out already at the third gym. After that, the plot might as well have been discarded entirely with how little it wanted to have my character in it. When something exciting happened, we were ushered aside to ignore the plot. There were times where the plot demanded me to help the professor's assistant, but it constantly felt like her story more than my character's.

    -The battle animations suck.
    They are lifeless, soulless. They just jump there. There's nothing interesting going on.

    -Team Yell
    They were... there... I guess? I wish more was done with them. They just ended up feeling like a discount Team Skull without the charm. There was potential for them to be proper hooligans, but not fully realized potential. You probably wouldn't have noticed it if you removed them out of the game.

    -The wild area is an empty hill with nothing to do in it. The roads are linear, and there's little to explore. I wish they had dome more interesting things with the concept, widened out the other routes to feel similar to it.

    -They removed way too many features and cut too many corners and it shows...
    Like... Some background areas in the game weren't animated. When you fight indoors, there are some places where it's just a white background with nothing there. If you fight on a bridge in a town, you're suddenly in a grassy patch outside of the town.

    The game is fine, I'd give it a 6, mediocre at best on normal. But there's more going against it than what builds it up.    … Expand
  62. solarhorse
    Nov 30, 2019
    4
    Are you looking to get back into Pokemon after losing interest several years ago, eager to see how the franchise has changed? This game isn't for you.

    Are you a die-hard Poke-fan excited to see what a mainline Pokemon game looks like on a home console? This game still isn't for you. Pokemon Sword and Shield, the latest installment in the Pokemon franchise, marking the start of the    Are you looking to get back into Pokemon after losing interest several years ago, eager to see how the franchise has changed? This game isn't for you.

    Are you a die-hard Poke-fan excited to see what a mainline Pokemon game looks like on a home console? This game still isn't for you.

    Pokemon Sword and Shield, the latest installment in the Pokemon franchise, marking the start of the 8th generation of core game titles, is tacky, uninspired and offers little of the wonder and adventure that the franchise used to be celebrated for.

    Like previous entries, the game sees you, a young aspiring Pokemon trainer from a quiet town, setting off on an adventure with a starter Pokemon of your choosing through a large region as you catch, train and battle Pokemon to earn all 8 gym badges and defeat the regions champion. Nothing much is new here, except that now the region is based on England, very loosely.

    But the lack of originality could be forgiven if the game could at least excel in what it had to offer, and for a while the tried-and-true cycle of discovering, catching and raising brand new Pokemon was enough to keep me hooked for a while. There's nothing quite like the excitement of discovering a new Pokemon for the first time, hence why I always go into these games blind.

    But the excitement stops when you realize that there are only 80 new Pokemon, not that much considering previous installments typically add over a hundred of them for the first pair of games. And when the excitement stops, the disappointment sets in. But what's so disappointing about this game? Is it all just a lot of non-issues cherry-picked by fans who got too caught up in the "Dexit" controversy leading up to release? I'll let you decide if the following complaints are "cherry-picked".

    My first complaint, the game feels lifeless. The design of the towns and cities lack any depth or character, populated only with small groups of NPCs standing around doing nothing, (and the numbers seem even smaller when you factor in the pop-in issues). Buildings, walls, rivers and roads look like they're built out of cardboard. You never feel like you’re exploring a living, breathing world as much as you’re watching a stage play with cheap props.

    The lifelessness doesn't end with towns or people, it also extends to the Pokemon themselves. If the animations in battle seem frigid, wait until you try out "Pokemon Camp", a feature which allows for all six party members to interact with one another. What could have been a great device for building character turns out to be a complete mess, with Pokemon sliding all over the place like bumper cars as animations fail to sync with motions and AI fails to find appropriate paths around other characters.

    Second complaint, the story. Pokemon has never been known for daring stories, but they're at least functional. There's an evil team with an agenda, a legendary Pokemon gets involved, the world ends, there's stakes, there's urgency, etc. Sword and Shield has this, technically speaking, but decides to cram it all at the very end of the game, leaving the majority of the campaign with no antagonists, no tension and any hint of danger washed over as other characters deal with issues that in any other game you would need to deal with yourself.

    My third complaint, the formula is stale, particularly the combat. There's nothing wrong with turn based combat per se, and anyone who says it's outdated clearly hasn't tried out the Shin Megami Tensei games, but it has to be done right. The combat here, however, plays exactly like every other Pokemon game has played since Red/Blue. What worked fine for a Game Boy feels out of place on a modern console, particularly when played on the big screen. It's slow, it's cumbersome and it needs to change.

    My fourth complaint, the purging of Pokemon, the source of the infamous "Dexit" controversy. I'm less bothered by not having access to all Pokemon from previous titles and more bothered by what the design philosophy behind this game is. The game isn't a "fresh start", as discussed above. It isn't reinventing the wheel, it's building on the established foundation. But it also removes from the foundation by not having all Pokemon available. If a lack of technical expertise or manpower are the reason for this, then it would've been a better idea to give Pokemon a hard reboot and "re-invent" the franchise instead. At least that vision of the game would've been achievable.

    It's not all gloom and doom though. For example, the gym battles are easily the best in the franchise, with giant "Dynamaxed" Pokemon, music that escalates as battles progress and gym leaders that ooze personality. It's as though the gym battles and the Dynamax gimmick were what Game Freak started with before adding in a half-hearted game afterwards. It's a shame they couldn't start by imagining how to recapture what made Pokemon such a wondrous experience to begin with.    … Expand
  63. teroblepuns
    Dec 1, 2019
    4
    Pros:
    - good Pokémon designs
    - some beautiful shots (starter town, snow town, legendary shrine) - new Pokémon nature-changing gimmick - great simplistic user interface design - customizable league (or "trainer") card - rival Hop shortly has a character arc from an annoying optimist to a depressed loser back to an annoying optimist (similar to Hau's character from Pokémon Sun and    Pros:
    - good Pokémon designs
    - some beautiful shots (starter town, snow town, legendary shrine)
    - new Pokémon nature-changing gimmick
    - great simplistic user interface design
    - customizable league (or "trainer") card
    - rival Hop shortly has a character arc from an annoying optimist to a depressed loser back to an annoying optimist (similar to Hau's character from Pokémon Sun and Moon)
    - smug rival Bede has a kickass battle theme
    - the soundtrack is overall good
    - league theme is inspired by the UK's love for football/soccer and gym leaders dress accordingly
    - Marnie rival is somewhat interesting as a character
    - breeding has improved, you can now pass egg moves from one Pokémon to the other partner without breeding a completely new one
    - Pokémon boxes are now accessible from your inventory
    - waifu material
    - wild area touches the idea of an open-world game with a moveable camera
    - defeating a raid boss will give you EXP candies which level much better than rare candies, reducing grinding for lvl 100

    Inbetween:
    - Surf has been replaced by a water bike and Fly by a flying taxi, it makes it much easier to travel but removes the interactivity of your Pokémon with the environment
    - camping is just like Pokémon-Amie and all the spin-offs and encourages you to interact with your monsters which can be cute for those who like that kind of stuff but strengthening your bond with a Pokémon will result in extra animations during battles and make your team OP - as if the forced EXP share didn't overpower you enough, camping also gives your mons EXP
    Cons:
    - awful graphics for a 2019 Switch game, textures look ridiculously low res
    - only half of the national Dex "for better animations"
    - animations are bad and reused over and over again (characters turn on the spot, Double Kick is a simple up and down of the entire model, same character encounter poses)
    - rival encounters are inevitable and happen every 5 minutes
    - cutscenes are lackluster and rare
    - wild area is a mess: bad graphics, tiny LOD (level of detail = "viewing distance" -> subjects pop in and out very often, also on routes and cities), hefty frame drops, very limited interactivity with other players, it takes ages to find other players for raid battles which then take just as long to wait for one turn to be over - oftentimes the raid boss triggers its ability once for each of your ally's Pokémon and then resets it after some turns to repeat the madness, level cap for capturable Pokémon which depends on your badge number, entire area feels more like a big field with a lot of grass than an open world
    - flat characters with no arc
    - minor improvements and changes from previous titles, the formula of the game hasn't changed a bit
    - time occasionally freezes when climbing ladders
    - a LOT of handholding, there is not a single moment you don't run into a forced cutscene or steamroll through a gym with one pokemon
    - EXP share is mandatory
    - team yell is forgettable and has no charm
    - the story does not involve you, most of the time you are a bystander, giving opinions and then catch the legendary ultra beast-like creature with 100% succession rate for any Pokéball
    - some TMs have been reduced to one-time use TRs
    - link trade is no longer that simple to perform
    - no voice acting, dialogues only consist of speech bubbles, text and repeating simple animations
    - curry dex (is this to mock the removal of the national Dex?)

    Verdict:
    Not worth $60. Even $15 indie games provide better quality than this. I hear praise from some fans and outrage from others. I feel terrible for those at Game Freak who poured their hearts into this franchise, only to realize that someone with high power decided to rush it and drag the company through the mud. The entire drama is unnecessary. But, this game is a joke and there is no denying. Get the game to experience it yourself but be prepared to laugh at how bad it can get. Also, even though they rushed this title to hell, this game had the highest box-office of all Pokémon games and received high scores from game journalists (#notsponsored). Embrace the absurdity of our world.

    "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy    … Expand
  64. Solarhands
    Dec 2, 2019
    4
    This game had so much potential and expectations were high, unfortunately it failed to meet any of them. On much more powerful hardware I expected to see some brand new assets and graphics for the series but was dismayed to see a huge amount of assets reused or half finished. The cinematics excluding the introduction to the starters were lazy and unfinished, with stiff rotating modelsThis game had so much potential and expectations were high, unfortunately it failed to meet any of them. On much more powerful hardware I expected to see some brand new assets and graphics for the series but was dismayed to see a huge amount of assets reused or half finished. The cinematics excluding the introduction to the starters were lazy and unfinished, with stiff rotating models looking like a grade-schooler tried to animate them. The story was mediocre at best but the constant hand-holding from the minute you begin your adventure to the final battle was irritating, the lack of freedom in an rpg with an open-world aspect was disappointing. The cities looked fantastic however the routes between them felt tiny and lackluster, the only saving grace being the glimwood tangle.

    On a positive note, all the brand new pokemon look fantastic, they have excellent designs, interesting type combos and a lot of them have cool and unique evolution methods. The starter evolutions unfortunately failed to impress and were sent to the box as I'd rather have a rattata. The music was fantastic and the ability to customise your character with a wide variety of clothing was refreshing.

    Overall I don't think the game is worth its retail price and as a mainline pokemon series it was extremely disappointing. Lacking a true post game and having seemingly unfinished graphics and animations has left a sour taste in my mouth. I would only buy this game again if it was on sale for 1/2 price.    … Expand
  65. Homelessbrian
    Dec 5, 2019
    4
    Could have been great but it's almost like they came up with the story in the last few days of production. Gamefreak needs to hire some new people who aren't stuck in the Gameboy development days and some better writers.
  66. jimmya0
    Dec 16, 2019
    4
    This has been the worst pokemon game in the franchise by far:

    - They have cut many features which were available in previous games. - Not all pokemon are available in the game. - Difficulty is WAY too easy specially with the multi-exp you have from the start. - End game is basically non-existent - Graphics look like the ones you'd expect in a 3DS game. - Your rival is the most    This has been the worst pokemon game in the franchise by far:

    - They have cut many features which were available in previous games.
    - Not all pokemon are available in the game.
    - Difficulty is WAY too easy specially with the multi-exp you have from the start.
    - End game is basically non-existent
    - Graphics look like the ones you'd expect in a 3DS game.
    - Your rival is the most incompetent I have seen in the pokemon franchise.

    Basically it is a rushed game which shouldn't have released in this state. I hope this serves as a wake up call to Gamefreak and the next installment is much better    … Expand
  67. Oscote
    Jan 19, 2020
    4
    A company / franchise that is worth more than almost any other franchise and this is the garbage they feed us? Don't get me wrong, the game is passable and functional but the graphics are subpar, the animations are subpar, the story is subpar...

    The fading animation of the camera clipping through objects looks like it was ripped from a ps1 game, the trees look like they were ripped from    A company / franchise that is worth more than almost any other franchise and this is the garbage they feed us? Don't get me wrong, the game is passable and functional but the graphics are subpar, the animations are subpar, the story is subpar...

    The fading animation of the camera clipping through objects looks like it was ripped from a ps1 game, the trees look like they were ripped from an n64 game, the animations don't fit the pokemon half of the time. I just completed the game and during the last battle where you catch the legendary, there is no hype music or environmental sound effects (which there should at least be those... you are on top of a building). All Gamefreak gives you is quiet, echoing footsteps as you walk around. After this, you find your rival befriended the other legendary who randomly wants to be his pokemon (and give up it's hundreds of years of independence... but whatever), Hop walks 2 steps away from it, then throws a pokeball (that you can see his hands are empty) full force. Nothing says friendship like a 100% effort throw from 2 feet away.

    I enjoyed it, it brought back some nostalgia, but this is more of a 40 dollar game than a mainline, premier, 60 dollar game.    … Expand
  68. MisoraHibiki
    Jan 23, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played the series from the very beginning. I've invested hours into each installment. While SwSh are good, they're far from perfect.

    The good: smaller UI means being able to give more room for the gameplay.

    The bad: Nat Dex. This is the first entry where past Pokémon were not programmed in: before, any given game would have all the known (and unknown Mythicals) Pokémon that were released by that point.

    Low-tier graphics. While they are sleeker than USUM, SwSh's graphics fall on the very low end in terms of what the Switch is capable of. If the 3DS wasn't retired, SwSh would have ended up there. Using textures that can be compared to a N64 game also doesn't help, either.

    Re-used models and animations. GameFreak claimed that all the animations and models would be brand new. That's not the case. Many, if not all, of the 809 Pokémon released before these games use the same models that they used in USUM. Only thing that was changed is that the models look more sleek. Other than that, no changes.

    Too easy. Never before have I had such an easy time finishing a Pokémon game. With "permanent EXP share" giving an equal amount of EXP to all party members (without dividing it by the number of party members, which is how past games did it) and easy-to-farm EXP crystals (which are far more effective than Rare Candies during the earlier level ranges) makes this game extremely easy.

    Another disposable gimmick. Mega Evolution, first appearing in Gen VI, and Z-Crystals, first appearing in Gen VII, have been replaced by a new gimmick: Dynamaxing. Essentially, making pokémon giant for three turns. Aside from an HP boost and slightly stronger moves, the gimmick is practically useless, as many Dynamaxed Pokémon used by trainers still can't survive even a single hit (especially with the easy sources of EXP). The only clear question is what will replace in in Gen IX.

    Lack of story. While the Pokémon games in general have usually gone with the same story structure, there was always a secondary objective for the player: putting an end to whatevernthe villainous team of the region was planning. It reached the peak in Gen VI when the villainous organization planned to use a weapon capable of killing all life on Earth. Such a story is absent from these games. The closest thing to a villainous team composed of fans of one of the Gym Challengers: their nost heinous act is simply being a nuisance that even their idol becomes angry with them over. The closest thing to an actual villain tries to reawaken a Pokémon responsible for a doomsday event that has happened before, just so he can "provide Galar with enough energy" for the next millenia. The actual threat, though, is nonexistant, and there's no real sense of accomplishment, either. The one battle involved is also scripted, meaning its impossible to actually lose.

    I could say more, but i believe what I've wrote is sufficient enough. GameFreak had a chance to make an astounding game, but due to a yearly deadline they've inflicted on themselves, it seems like future entries will just continue the downhill trend that SwSh has started.    … Expand
  69. HipSGuinness
    Feb 3, 2020
    4
    This game is just an other pokemon game. DLC are joke, they need to be on the game at the start of for free.
    The main history are very easy and clean on less than 20h if you collect just normaly. And if you finish the game all pokemon on the central zone jump lvl 55/60 wtf oO
    The help on typ and you can see if your attack is effective or not... (the gigamax evolution are nothing more    This game is just an other pokemon game. DLC are joke, they need to be on the game at the start of for free.
    The main history are very easy and clean on less than 20h if you collect just normaly. And if you finish the game all pokemon on the central zone jump lvl 55/60 wtf oO
    The help on typ and you can see if your attack is effective or not... (the gigamax evolution are nothing more than a boost)

    Maybe the DLC can improve the game, but the game are expensive for nothing more.    … Expand
  70. Smoothhands
    Feb 6, 2020
    4
    Pokemon is a very unique franchise. No matter how much they half-ass it, people will still buy it.

    This game adds nothing of value. The graphics are just upscaled 3ds graphics. I did not expect them to put any work into it. It's just not how they do things. I don't care about the national dex. I think it's low to lie about why. The story is blegh. Again... To be expected. It's    Pokemon is a very unique franchise. No matter how much they half-ass it, people will still buy it.

    This game adds nothing of value. The graphics are just upscaled 3ds graphics. I did not expect them to put any work into it. It's just not how they do things.
    I don't care about the national dex. I think it's low to lie about why.
    The story is blegh. Again... To be expected.

    It's Pokémon, they can continue slapping something together and it will be fun or at least a nice way to kill time for a short while.

    What I think is almost unforgivable is sticking Hard-Mode into a freaking paid DLC that adds nothing of value except that hard mode.

    This is a bland game from an amazing franchise made by a lazy company.
    You should do yourself a favour and pick up TemTem.    … Expand
  71. Lightning_Chasr
    Mar 1, 2020
    4
    More of the same, with less of what makes the series special to so many. Ugly open world area but beautiful towns. Spotty online. The most cinematic the series has ever been, sadly ruined by a lack of voice acting.
  72. Howtomesup
    Feb 22, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. - game after 10 hours is boring.
    -Too easy. Like you can beat this game with three or four Pkmn and spamming a single attack, you even need to bother to buy potions or items at all because you can beat the opposing trainer with one hit and they barely damage your team, like why not put a hard or challenging mode where you can have to be more aware of items and attacks, etc. Overall it was underwhelming Rpg experience
    -Lack of content. Not minigames, boring battle cafe thing, boring battle tower, no rematch, boring, forgetable and too small region with nothing to do in it. No sidequest, no other activities like Battle Frontier, contest or visiting other islands.
    -Horrible graphics. The grass, the trees and that berries trees, oh boy that berries trees looks out of place with the other trees also in the Wild Area there three berries trees that are arranged in a way that doesn't look well in a "natural/wild" space.
    -This game has lazy animation. I remember a section near the final of the game that they don't even bother to animate the Pokemon using a move to turn on a switch. The water looks so bad and doesn't feel real that the Pokemon doesn't even interact with it. Pkmn lack like good animations, most notably flying type Pkmn like their just has their wings open, without flapping them that doesn't make sense. Moves and attacks looks awful.
    - This games have too much recycle stuff. Every item sprite and descriptions are the same as old titles, same with some moves and Pkmn sprites and descriptions, also the same old chimes and sound effects are old and it felt off and outdated. So this basically is copy and paste and it was no much effort in it.
    - The story is forgettable, unmemorable, predictable and boring, like there is no character motivation, same with the antagonist, and that thing of the Darkest Day what even concludes or is important.
    - The lack of voice acting in places where it should. The introduction and where Piers is "singing" is cringy and painfully to watch.
    -The unnecessary cut of Pkmn. If you are already copying and pasting everything why not cut and paste the rest of the Pkmn. Ohh i know because you want a Dlc that doesn't even include all the remaining Pkmn.
    The only decent thing of this game is the music and there is not a lot of it.
    But I know this is a very small indi company and like they are not obviously the owner of one of "THE HIGHEST GROSSING FRANCHISES".    … Expand
  73. JRobson
    Mar 5, 2020
    4
    As the latest entries in the Pokemon video game series, "Sword" and "Shield" are as generic and tired as their subtitles would suggest. As video games, they are a master class in how not to plan, develop or market your product. To the average Pokemon fan, they are so-so games that do just enough to scratch the itch. To longtime fans who have spent the majority of our young lives growing upAs the latest entries in the Pokemon video game series, "Sword" and "Shield" are as generic and tired as their subtitles would suggest. As video games, they are a master class in how not to plan, develop or market your product. To the average Pokemon fan, they are so-so games that do just enough to scratch the itch. To longtime fans who have spent the majority of our young lives growing up with this beloved twenty-four year old series, "Sword" and "Shield" are an insult and a misstep so hideous and poorly-conceived at every step of their execution that they do not merely scrape the bottom of the barrel, nor can they be described as the bottom of the barrel: these games do not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with the barrel.

    For the uninitiated, Pokemon is a series in which players explore a vivid world and discover a diverse cast of monsters. Players form a close bond with these monsters by capturing, evolving, and training their skills in turn-based battles. In contrast, "Sword" and "Shield" invites players to vainly attempt to explore a lifeless husk and discover a limited selection of 3D models T-planing their way across an unambitious, empty world reminiscent of video game worlds two decades its senior (with worse lighting). Pokemon float aimlessly with no sign of intelligent AI beyond simple walking and "player noticed" animations. Shamefully, no interaction between Pokemon and the environment is to be found, nor is any world-building tell that would give players the impression the world is occupied by powerful creatures -- a particularly disappointing fact given how much focus was dedicated to the open world section during the game's promotion.

    Seemingly tacked on mid-development, the open world section features a surprisingly solid if janky player-controlled camera (a series first and a marked improvement over past entries). Despite this, the majority of the game bizarrely does not make use of it, instead employing the automated camera seen in past entries. The resulting conflict in gameplay is the most glaring fundamental flaw of "Sword" and "Shield"; half-heartedly teasing players with the illusion of freedom only to take it away for the majority of the game (think Super Mario Bros. but with a jump button that stops working after the first jump). Coupled with lackluster level design, "secret" items that predictably spawn at the same spots within the world, and a lack of player-world interaction, and players are left feeling punished rather than rewarded for exploring -- a perfect microcosm of Game Freak's decades-old development strategy, a "more of the same thing" development rut which allows for changes only if they come half-baked and ten years late.

    Graphically, 2019's "Sword" and "Shield" are somewhere between 2001 and 1996. Compared to titles released on the same platform (the most powerful Nintendo console to date), textures range from passable to hideous. Lighting is poor overall, with over-exposed whites in bright conditions and color blending so poorly-implemented that cave Pokemon encounters can easily be mistaken for rare "shiny" events. The art style is especially appalling in how little stylistic continuity it features. Even experienced players may find themselves confused by the contrast between ordinary trees and Berry Trees, which feature a repetitive cartoon-like design with vivid colors that contrast dramatically with the muted greys and greens of their non-interactive counterparts (assuming those players can forgive the jarring close range pop-in). The resulting effect makes one feel like some art assets have unceremoniously "glitched in" from an entirely different game. Equally jarring are the open world section's weather events, in which sunny, flowery fields adopt the ambiance of tornado-stricken disaster zones in the blink of an eye, with no visual indicator from a distance.

    Gameplay is unworthy of a mention, with the same slow, clunky cycle players have endured since 1996 in full effect. The latest gimmick to be introduced (and will almost certainly be disappointingly forgotten by the next entry) is "Dynamaxing", a temporary battle gimmick which allows Pokemon to become giants with preset movesets replacing their player-given moveset. As with past gimmicks, many players ignore this feature in competitive play. The "Curry Dex" exists in the way the letter 'Q' exists.

    Sporadic quality of life changes do little to improve the overall UX of these titles, with battles still encumbered by meandering "It's super effective!" messages that could be communicated more eloquently with a quick on-screen visual.

    Players are advised to treat these titles with the same reverence Game Freak's art director James Turner holds for Pokemon fans (Turner publicly "liked" a social media post calling passionate fans who voiced criticism of his project the C-word in the weeks leading up to the game's release).

    Dynamax your wallet instead.    … Expand
  74. fanmadeendings
    Feb 4, 2022
    4
    It's about as entertaining as any cookie cutter pokemon game, but never more than that. By far the most disappointing entry in the series, made by technically incompetent developers, and devoid of any meaningful content.
  75. aurel14
    Mar 10, 2020
    4
    a really poor game outdated graphics and a empty story my last pokemon game was silver and i have not felt the gap
  76. dfq
    Nov 21, 2021
    4
    First of all I wouldn't recommend any parent to buy this game for their child or anyone for themselves. I regret having to write this review as I definitely wanted this game to be the best it could, just like the "professional" game critics wrote in their reviews, but Pokémon Sword and Shield just don't deserve to be praised like that. Not only did the developers of this game lie aboutFirst of all I wouldn't recommend any parent to buy this game for their child or anyone for themselves. I regret having to write this review as I definitely wanted this game to be the best it could, just like the "professional" game critics wrote in their reviews, but Pokémon Sword and Shield just don't deserve to be praised like that. Not only did the developers of this game lie about making new models and animations for every Pokémon from scratch (which they didn't do, because they just reused the EXACT models and animations of the 3ds, which are really bad to nonexistent btw), but they also filled the game with filler cut-scenes, slow-animations and barely any story. There is no real story in these games. At least nothing with any love put into while creating it. After beating the game I felt disappointed and couldn't believe I'm done already. There is almost nothing fun to do except the obvious catching of pokémon and beating gyms. Catching pokémon was still a fun grind in the beginning, but the really bad animations and the obnoxious slow speed of the battles sort of overwrote most of the fun after a while, especially with the boring background battle music, which is the same in every battle, for a couple of exceptions later in the game. In contrast to almost all previous games before and including Pokémon Black & White which I've loved, this game was bland and felt generic. Except for the fact that you can now play Pokémon on a big screen which is exciting and all, there is just barely anything good to say about Pokémon Shield (and Sword). The things I did like were the new Pokémon (even if some of them aren't very creative or exceptionally well designed, but they honestly don't have to be in my opinion, they were still cool and looked like Pokémon) and the fact that they have ported the game to a not exclusively portable game console. The central characters introduced in these games like Hop, Leon, Bede and Marnie felt strangely awkward, fake and most importantly shallow and didn't convince me at all. During the little bit of story there is I didn't sympathize with any of these characters and felt indifferent towards them which is unlike the Pokémon games before Satoru iwata's unfortunate demise.
    If I could exchange the current developer stuff of Game Freak, I definitely would, because playing these honestly bad successors to my favorite game genre breaks my heart and I just kept playing because I hoped it would get better which it didnt. This is sad for Game Freak and I hope that they realize this themselves and improve in the future.    … Expand
  77. ChesterField
    Apr 27, 2020
    4
    Another pokemon game similar to the previous ones, for some reason they refuse to add mechanics of the previous ones like megaevolutions. It is inconceivable that in 2019 a pokemon game will come out in which there are only half to catch and more when your main motto is to 'catch them all'. How is it possible that they didn't even add voices to the game when 15 years ago games like PokemonAnother pokemon game similar to the previous ones, for some reason they refuse to add mechanics of the previous ones like megaevolutions. It is inconceivable that in 2019 a pokemon game will come out in which there are only half to catch and more when your main motto is to 'catch them all'. How is it possible that they didn't even add voices to the game when 15 years ago games like Pokemon Stadium did. Even these games had more difficulty than this. It is a pity that in 20 years of saga there has not been a single progress in the pokemon or mechanical battles. graphically the game has improved but not even close to the level of great titles of Nintendo, again a shame. In short, more of the same but easier and a little more beautiful. a purchase only mandatory for the most fanatics of the saga (among which I include myself) but in turn very disappointing.… Expand
  78. TRAHANATOR
    May 1, 2020
    4
    In all of the entries in the main series of Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield are by far the most polarizing. There are so many positive things to say yet some major negative things to say about the game. Some of the new Pokemon designs are great and offer interesting match ups in battle. Obstagoon being my personal favorite in the entire game. Yet, there are some Pokemon that areIn all of the entries in the main series of Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield are by far the most polarizing. There are so many positive things to say yet some major negative things to say about the game. Some of the new Pokemon designs are great and offer interesting match ups in battle. Obstagoon being my personal favorite in the entire game. Yet, there are some Pokemon that are straight up boring. All 3 starter Pokemon are the lamest starters in the entire series, I had never felt more compelled to box my starter when I saw what it evolved into. The story is also bland. There are some great characters like Leon, Marnie, Piers, Opal, and the legendary Ball Guy. But, other characters are straight up lame. Hop is by far the poorest rival in all of the games, Chairman Rose being evil was the easiest read since the invention of the "ABC's" book, and Swordward and Shieldbert are the worst designed and dumbest characters Pokemon has ever seen. Team Yell is in the same boat as Team Skull; they do not have some evil plan, they are there to just distract the player. At least Team Skull was funny and didn't take themselves too seriously. The real evil team, Macro Cosmos, has the lamest motivation in Pokemon since Team Flare. The narrative of "energy crisis can only be solved by drastic means" is too played out in media. Some of the cities are cool to go to, but this game is so restrictive on exploration that it kills the feel of discovery. Character customization is better than ever, but the fact that you cannot wear different uniforms in the gym battles is still lame. But out of all of the negatives this game has, exp candies are the biggest sin. One of the rewards of winning a max raid battle is at least 2-4 exp candies. These candies completely break the game's balance. If you use candies during your gym challenge, it becomes the easiest Pokemon game in the entire franchise. I am not even joking, one of the games newest mechanics and source of identity rewards with items that remove all challenge. When I got to the champion, I was almost 20 levels ahead of his strongest Pokemon. I would say to a new player to just don't use exp candies, but why should a player just ignore what essentially becomes the game winning strategy. Post game it is find to get candies for competitive. The second worst sin of this game is the laughable lack of post-game content. You beat the game, and not a single new or significant area is opened up. Obviously this is mostly because of future dlc, but you have to put content in your launch if you want your game to be great. In short, if I was given the entire main series of games and I could only choose one to play, Sword and Shield would be the last possible games I would pick.… Expand
  79. routerlite
    May 4, 2020
    4
    NPCs are extreamly stupid and annoying in wild Dynamax Pokemon. They are the opposite of normal battle.
  80. Aldredo
    May 5, 2020
    4
    1. Mala historia
    La historia es casi inexistente hasta casi el final, para presentar una supuesta crisis que nunca se es mostrada en lo más mínimo y que de todos ocurrirá dentro de tanto tiempo que resulta irrelevante hacerlo hoy, encima que la idea para solucionar el disque problema es estúpido y el villano te sonríe cuando le derrotas y frustras sus planes, dando por hecho que no le    1. Mala historia
    La historia es casi inexistente hasta casi el final, para presentar una supuesta crisis que nunca se es mostrada en lo más mínimo y que de todos ocurrirá dentro de tanto tiempo que resulta irrelevante hacerlo hoy, encima que la idea para solucionar el disque problema es estúpido y el villano te sonríe cuando le derrotas y frustras sus planes, dando por hecho que no le importa. Además de contar con los mismos diálogos infantiles y repetitivos de siempre con la típica historia del entrenador en casa de mami que quiere ser el mejor.

    2. Malos gráficos y trabajo técnico en general.
    En cualquier lado podemos ver como las gráficas del juego son bastante malas, solo de ver cosas como el área silvestre.
    Malas animaciones como la mayoría de las de combate, así como simulaciones para aplaudir o los movimientos de personajes que primero deben girarse sobre sí mismo para avanzar al frente, con movimientos súper robóticos.
    Cantidades absurdas de poppin especialmente en el área silvestre que te salen en la cara.
    Más de 30 años y no implementa nada de doblaje en un juego que ni tiene diálogos y una historia significativa, hasta los juegos más infantiles de nintendo como mario, AC o kirby le ponen aunque sea ruiditos a los personajes, pero aquí salvo los pokemon no dicen nada.

    3. Poco contenido.
    La duración es demasiado corta, solo apuesta a lo típico de la aventura y una post historia de unos reyes o lo que sean bastante mala, y hasta ahí termina todo. El resto solo es capturar shinies u online que lo has hecho desde siempre en juegos pasados. Y ya de paso mencionar que las rutas de este juego son las más cortas y flojas que han existido siendo puros pasillos.

    4. Casi nada de novedades.
    Además del área silvestre que es extremadamente mediocre por razones como que es el área que peor está técnicamente de todo el juego, ser solo una planicie sin mayor exploración y sin mazmorras ni nada, lags cuando estas online, también se tienen las incursiones que tampoco son la súper novedad, y los gigamax o dina que solo son un copypaste de z moves y mega evolution mas desbalanceados. El resto del juego es lo mismo de siempre, mismos combates sin nada realmente nuevo cambiando una mecánica por otra que fue una copia, prácticamente es lo mismo que los de 3ds.

    5. Baja dificultad.
    Los enemigos irán abajo de tu nivel por lo fácil que es sobrelevear con el área silvestre y las incursiones, además que te curan a cada rato, un rep experiencia que no se puede desactivar, te curan a cada rato, te regalan objetos por doquier y tienes revivires con mucho dinero apenas el inicio, el juego hasta se puede pasar casi solo con un pokemon con uno tan roto como cinderade y su movimiento característico.

    6. Recortes innecesarios.
    La pokedex fue recortada solo para venderte bichos en el home y el dlc, quitaron z moves, megas, movimientos, el juego en general es corto y sin postgame mas que lo mismo que puedes hacer siempre de shinies y online, online que ahora es de pago y con el home se pone pero encima.

    En general es un juego extremadamente mediocre, no resalta en nada salvo la música que es lo único bueno, además de no resaltar resulta ser bastante malo en cuestiones como gráficos o la historia, la jugabilidad es lo mismo de siempre, el juego en general esta recortado, pésimo trabajo técnico que incluso está detrás de otros juegos infantiles que no apuestan a ser la gran cosa técnica como mario o AC. Y encima se trata de una saga con millones más recaudados que muchas otras sagas incluso que las que más dinero tienen. Y de paso hay que pagar un total de $110 para tener este juego completo (juego + dlc + home + pokebank) sin contar el online que es necesario en este juego y sin contar los raros que compren la otra entrega. Si no fuera porque es pokemon y sus fanboys compran lo que sea el juego ni de cerca hubiera vendido lo que vendió.    … Expand
  81. Ageman20XX
    Jun 18, 2020
    4
    Pokemon Shield

    “Okay” at best. , but for me - someone who has played and owns at least one game from each generation for the last 20+ years - this entry was hugely disappointing and may have killed my love for the franchise overall. This isn’t the first Pokémon game to cut fan-loved features and content included in previous entries, but it’s certainly the most egregious. In addition to    Pokemon Shield


    “Okay” at best. , but for me - someone who has played and owns at least one game from each generation for the last 20+ years - this entry was hugely disappointing and may have killed my love for the franchise overall. This isn’t the first Pokémon game to cut fan-loved features and content included in previous entries, but it’s certainly the most egregious. In addition to cutting the roster of compatible/playable species down by more than half, the usable moves afforded to the remaining ones have also been culled by a considerable margin. Mega evolution (Gen 6-7) as a mechanic has been dropped entirely (reducing the amount of unique designs even further), Z moves (Gen 7) are gone, following Pokémon (appeared in the Let’s Go games a year earlier) have been dropped (though re-added behind a paywall in the latest DLC for a single area), rideable Pokemon (also from the Let’s Go games) have also been dropped, and the various special skills / field moves (Let’s Go upgrade to HMs) have been removed as well leaving the uninspired stamina-based bike as the only unique traversal/exploration method in the game. Shiny Pokémon appearing in the overworld (another Let’s Go improvement) has also been removed, and the new method for finding shinies in tall grass is bugged at the code level with no acknowledgement from the devs or any fix in sight. This list of dropped features is only in comparison to the most recent games before Sword/Shield - if we were to go back further the list would expand tenfold.

    In terms of what the game does offer, there isn’t much. There’s a barebones single-player campaign where you collect badges from the gyms (like every other mainline Pokémon game), and then a mini tournament at the end. The story for the entire game could be condensed to a single paragraph and doesn’t go much further than “bad guy tries to use legendary for bad stuff at the end”. The writing is flat, all the interesting events happen offscreen where your player can’t see them, the animations in battle/cutscenes/etc. are very inconsistent with a few being nice but the rest looking like they were made for a handheld. There’s also the weird choice of characters moving their mouths but no voices coming out - especially awkward when you attend a rock concert where a character plays a guitar and “sings” but the entire scene is silent. The new Dynamax mechanic is flashy and interesting for one, possibly two battles and then becomes tiresome. The raid mechanic is more frustrating than fun with all its limitations, and the online component is infuriating to use and rarely works as intended.

    When I finally beat this game (and the 1 hour “post-game” quest it included) I was happy - not because I enjoyed it but because it was over. I put in my time like a good little consumer and now I was allowed to offer my opinion on it. It was a bad experience that I paid twice the price for compared to previous entries and barely got half the enjoyment.    … Expand
  82. jotade86
    Jun 27, 2020
    4
    Por partir el juego en trozos y venderlo a precio de oro, por traer una generación tan corta, por no mejorar los gráficos que parecen de 3DS, por la pokedex nacional incompleta por no llevar megaevoluciones, este pokemon no merece la pena.
  83. Goatab
    Aug 10, 2020
    4
    Decent for the first 50 hours, but then there is no replay ability after that
  84. Maattio97
    Aug 30, 2020
    4
    Llevo jugando a este juego desde pokemon plata, y puedo decir que soy un gran fan. Tenia muchisimo hype con esta entrega, la decepción fue gigante. Ni termine el juego de lo aburrido que era, solo tienes que clickar sin parar y te lo pasas todo, la historia aburrida, 0 dificultad, la falta de los pokemon de generaciones anteriores, el dinamax no hace falta ni opinar de el... no saben conLlevo jugando a este juego desde pokemon plata, y puedo decir que soy un gran fan. Tenia muchisimo hype con esta entrega, la decepción fue gigante. Ni termine el juego de lo aburrido que era, solo tienes que clickar sin parar y te lo pasas todo, la historia aburrida, 0 dificultad, la falta de los pokemon de generaciones anteriores, el dinamax no hace falta ni opinar de el... no saben con que innovar y se estan cargando la saga. Es triste que prefiera jugar a juegos de hace 10 años antes que a las nuevas entregas. Parece que prefieren sacar juegos con los que contentar a niños de 6 años en vez de hacer un punto medio y gustar tanto a gente nueva como a los que llevamos amando esta saga desde hace mas de 20 años.… Expand
  85. NakedWizard
    Sep 7, 2020
    4
    Pokemon Shield has great new pokemon designs, a few beautiful places and some nice new mechanics. But, overall, this game has so many problems that I simply cannot recomend it to anyone.

    Graphics and animations: It looks and feels exactly like a HD version of a 3DS game. That's not a metaphor, that's not a joke. Pokemon sword and shield are upscaled 3ds games. It is really disapointing    Pokemon Shield has great new pokemon designs, a few beautiful places and some nice new mechanics. But, overall, this game has so many problems that I simply cannot recomend it to anyone.

    Graphics and animations: It looks and feels exactly like a HD version of a 3DS game. That's not a metaphor, that's not a joke. Pokemon sword and shield are upscaled 3ds games. It is really disapointing to see those battles with almost no movement on the TV screen, and the characters animations are robotic and unatural in a way I've never seen in a console game.

    Difficulty is inexistent in this game. This is the easiest entry in the franchise and that says a lot. It is also one of the most handholding entries (comparable with sun & moon) and sometimes it seems like you are only pressing A.

    The wild area was the biggest promise of this game (and for god sake, it's only an open 3D area), but turns out it's only another big disappointment. This part of the game has big performance issues, including heavy pop-in, frame rate drops and terrible textures. Besides that, the area seems empty and there's not really much to do after you try the dinamax raid battles a few times (spoiler: these battles are boring too).

    Overall, the game feels empty, childish and unfinished. Unacceptably bad for a console game, even more if you consider it's one of the biggest and more profitable game franchises.    … Expand
  86. JackReviews
    Dec 20, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I bought both Sword and Shield and was very underwhelmed. The game could be very ugly at some points, there was 0 game after catching the legendarys, and half time game was DLC. The game was also VERY easy I only lost twice once to Leon once to the dragon gym leader. Yes you can do a nuzlock and it’s very fun but that’s self imploded rules not the game. I don’t think it was worth the 60$ price tag and I wish I hadn’t bought both. If you want to play it be my guest but if I were to recommend a Pokémon game it wouldn’t be this one.… Expand
  87. Traumvita
    Sep 6, 2023
    4
    Baby hand holding simulator. Looks like an up res 3DS game. Limiting options. Can’t explore without someone telling me where to go. Worse Pokémon game to date. A shame because the setting was interesting
  88. snocown
    Jun 1, 2021
    4
    A heartbreaking experience. Not even counting the Pokémon cut from the dex. Such a hand holdy experience. Too linear.
  89. EasyGamerBoi
    Jun 10, 2021
    4
    I’ve never experienced a game that brought out such vivid anger & disappointment from me until this one. Pokémon has been on a steady decline for years in terms of quality but this was undeniably the breaking point. I know it’s all been said before but Dexit should have NEVER happened. Cutting major content while increasing the price of your product is always an L & I don’t care how manyI’ve never experienced a game that brought out such vivid anger & disappointment from me until this one. Pokémon has been on a steady decline for years in terms of quality but this was undeniably the breaking point. I know it’s all been said before but Dexit should have NEVER happened. Cutting major content while increasing the price of your product is always an L & I don’t care how many Nintendo apologists throw themselves into the fire over this pile of crap. This game should have been delayed for another year at most to get it right & it’s incredibly frustrating because there’s glimmers of hope in this trainwreck. The gym battles are actually an event this time & got me hype everytime, the visuals don’t always look terrible in spots, the new Pokémon roster took some getting used to but there are many gems among them like Appletun & Toxtricity, & I did enjoy the max raid system a lot more than I thought I was going to. At this point in the game’s lifespan I’m completely burned out on just about everything though. Despite my criticism, I played this game for 400 HOURS. That’s mostly from shiny hunting in max raids & being the only new Pokémon game out in a while. The DLC is overpriced tbh but the Crown Tundra alone was infinitely better than anything else this game had going for it. My biggest problem with this game’s existence is the pitiful excuses the developers gave for its shortcomings. Focusing on “higher quality animations” as a reason for cutting over half the Pokémon in the dex is a load of bull, especially since we got very few of those animations in the final product. Then adding some of them back later saying “it was always planned this way” is damage control 101 & y’all know it. Pokémon is a stagnant bubble waiting to burst & the sooner they get GameFreak’s crap together, give them a workable budget & timeframe, then they can maybe avoid a potential Pokècrash. Because this is unacceptable. I can’t believe this is the same studio that gave us classics like Platinum, HGSS & Black n White. While the game can be fun at times & has things going for it, it pales in comparison to the rest of the series (I’d still rather play this than any Gen 1 game though). Pokémon, GET YOUR SH*T TOGETHER.… Expand
  90. Jullai
    Jul 10, 2021
    4
    I tried to enjoy it, but I ultimately found it to be too easy and linear. Parts of the game seem lazily slapped together, and the story is lackluster. It's OK because it's still a pokemon game where you can fight and collect, but it needs some love put into it.
  91. Foxylary
    Apr 3, 2023
    4
    A lot of good ideas poorly executed. The idea of ​​the dynamax is not so bad, the new creatures are cool, fighting in stadium is great, gym leaders are charismatic, character customisation is pretty good and the country has a good atmosphere. But it's extremely ugly and empty. The npc's are all the same (there are often clones next to each other), there are no voices, no cutscenes, theA lot of good ideas poorly executed. The idea of ​​the dynamax is not so bad, the new creatures are cool, fighting in stadium is great, gym leaders are charismatic, character customisation is pretty good and the country has a good atmosphere. But it's extremely ugly and empty. The npc's are all the same (there are often clones next to each other), there are no voices, no cutscenes, the game is designed as a 2D game. The "main story" unfolds by itself without us havin any role to play. There is no epic moment, no plot twist, no real story after all. The game is much too easy, so much so that I tried to add more difficulty by myself. When I remember Pokemon Blue or Silver, even Black... Did they try to makes peoples dumb and lazy by avoid the frustration of difficulty ? And what about difficulty options ?! There is no options to organize Pokemon Boxes. It's that hard to make ?! The list is long and it really is a beautiful mess. Because of laziness, lack of time or developers ? I don't care. Releasing a product like this is insulting. When I see that they added content that should be in the base game for 25€, I find it disgusting. There are no excuses, Game Freak don't put any effort on it, it's just easy money. I bought it second-hand years after its release because it's the only game on Switch that has all my favorite creatures and despite everything, it's not so bad next to Pokemon Scarlett Violet, that's to say the level of this last game. Looks like they want to see what the players were willing to accept.… Expand
  92. SnorlaxGeek
    Jan 29, 2022
    4
    Jogo feio, e pouco original. É um absurdo o que a Gamefreak está fazendo com a franquia Pokémon.
  93. Lil_Caucasian
    Jan 29, 2022
    4
    Very disappointingly dated for a Pokemon game. It feels like something that I would play on the 3DS, and even then that system had much better games. Sad to see such a great franchise stagnate like this.
  94. dragonblade
    Feb 1, 2022
    4
    A bunch of half baked ideas put into one package. I will put as much effort in this review as gamefreak has put into this game.
  95. Xaboss
    Jul 19, 2022
    4
    A simply bad game, bad graphics, dynamax sucks, bad pokedex, horrible plot...
  96. Ihtayt
    Aug 16, 2023
    4
    Summing up some bulletpoints on my thoughts of the game below, for reference this is after beating both ScVi 3 times and going back to SwSh after. I did not get / play the DLC as the base game offered so little there was no incentive to prolong this.

    Game is always on local wireless, this massively hinders connecting to wifi as it will frequently bug out and fail to connect to network    Summing up some bulletpoints on my thoughts of the game below, for reference this is after beating both ScVi 3 times and going back to SwSh after. I did not get / play the DLC as the base game offered so little there was no incentive to prolong this.

    Game is always on local wireless, this massively hinders connecting to wifi as it will frequently bug out and fail to connect to network after the game is open. This feels like a massive oversight for something that the developers forced on the game.

    Gameplay is very linear, moreso than Gen 2 and possibly even more linear than Gen 1 which is a very sad downgrade. The main story only took me roughly 20-24 hours to beat and the postgame did not offer much more; at what I feel was a moderate play pace.

    Postgame- After beating the game, gameplay massively falls off and feels very unmotivating. Farming the battle tower may appeal to some, but its gatekept behind needing to clear the BT for the currency (BP) to get the items that you need to clear the BT; which feels very outdated and counter-intuitive. You can clear all / most of the tower with provided rental teams which further detracts from the experience as by time you can make your own team with your own mons, you already beat everything. You can aim to complete the pokedex, breed, and shiny hunt; but this is nothing new or exciting from previous games really; and aside from team building for the BT it feels pretty pointless to build up mons. The game introduced raid dens, but they didn't feel at all appealing personally.

    Performance - I've encountered more performance issues with SwSh (~40hrs) than I ever did with ScVi (>1000hrs).    … Expand
  97. SoManyGoblins
    Jul 23, 2020
    3
    Looks and plays worse than any other AAA switch game, the popping is terrible. Somehow animations don't look any better than Pokemon Stadium. Everything annoying from the old games UIs is still here, it's like a game from over 10 years ago. Plot has always been silly in past games, but this is pathetic and senseless. Music is somehow the best and the worst in the series.
  98. streame
    Jun 21, 2020
    3
    This game was the biggest disappointment for me. They announced many new features, but it's literally the same game we have been playing for 20 years. The wild zone is useless and I have a feeling they just added it to make it 'different' from other parts. Even the story is THE SAME!!! The only pasrt of the game I enjoyed was these 2 hrs after beating the last gym, with these 2 stupidThis game was the biggest disappointment for me. They announced many new features, but it's literally the same game we have been playing for 20 years. The wild zone is useless and I have a feeling they just added it to make it 'different' from other parts. Even the story is THE SAME!!! The only pasrt of the game I enjoyed was these 2 hrs after beating the last gym, with these 2 stupid "royals". aside from that - I was charged 60 bucks for the same old game. Disappointed.… Expand
  99. Coaltergeist
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    While there are many issues with Pokemon sword and shield, I don't think they warrant giving the game a 1 out of 10. The missing pokemon, the cut moves, the lack of postgame content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game fails, which is disappointing. I am a huge fan of previous pokemon games, and I don't want to see theWhile there are many issues with Pokemon sword and shield, I don't think they warrant giving the game a 1 out of 10. The missing pokemon, the cut moves, the lack of postgame content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game fails, which is disappointing. I am a huge fan of previous pokemon games, and I don't want to see the series fail. I cannot overlook the sloppiness present in this game, however. In the end, it isn't the worst game ever made, but it doesn't come close to being good.… Expand
  100. LuisFRBplus
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    No tengo ningun incentivo para seguir jugándolo, atrápalos todos? Hace mucho que quedo atras!!
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Awards & Rankings

76
#76 Best Switch Game of 2019
3
#3 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 89 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 89
  3. Negative: 0 out of 89
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 30, 2020
    90
    Sword & Shield have a lot to love for old and new fans, and they're pure quality from top to bottom. [Issue #44 – January/February 2020, p. 72]
  2. GameCritics
    Feb 6, 2020
    75
    I enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword and Shield, but I ended feeling conflicted. I appreciate many of the changes and felt that it generally respected my time, but I almost felt like a passive participant. The more complex gym challenges had a meatier role, but the narrative shouldn’t have been shoved to the side. Overall, I would recommend it to players who want to have a Pokemon experience, but this one won’t stick with me the way the older ones have.
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  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Jan 14, 2020
    78
    Pokemon Sword/Shield is uncharacteristically user-friendly: now there’s no need to backtrack half across the world to heal your entire team of pokemon or to get to a particular city, for example. [Issue#242, p.66]
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