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
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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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