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. sgillan
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    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 post game content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game deserves a 0 out of 10. 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 post game content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game deserves a 0 out of 10. 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's the worst game ever made.… Expand
  2. Redx
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    No Dragonite nor other people favorites. Vote with your wallet people! If enough people see this and contribute changes can happen.
  3. danuffo
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    This review is in spanish (The second most spoken language in the world)

    I LOVE THIS GAME but everyone hates it Me encanta el juego pero los demás lo odian, y eso no es nada bueno. El juego está diseñado para alguien que no le gustan las batallas aleatorias, yo soy uno de ellos. Si fuera por mi le daría un 8 pero a la mayoría, a los verdaderos fans de Pokemon no le gusta, a la gente    This review is in spanish (The second most spoken language in the world)

    I LOVE THIS GAME but everyone hates it
    Me encanta el juego pero los demás lo odian, y eso no es nada bueno. El juego está diseñado para alguien que no le gustan las batallas aleatorias, yo soy uno de ellos. Si fuera por mi le daría un 8 pero a la mayoría, a los verdaderos fans de Pokemon no le gusta, a la gente que tienen años jugando Pokemon desde su infancia no les gusta, conocen mejor la saga por lo tanto ellos son de la razón. Ningún juego merece cero, lo menos que puedo dar es un 2, por respeto a su comunidad de fans y también para no caer en la inmadurez de un cero porque el juego costó en hacerse y funciona.
    A mi personalmente me parece buen juego, pero no es para fans de Pokemón.    … Expand
  4. Treacle
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Rule number one of being a game developer should be that you never LIE to fans, but GameFreak doesn't believe in that rule.

    Unfortunately due to the laziest of the developers this games does not hold a candle to the previous versions of the game. Over half of the pokemon have been removed, the given reason being that there was not enough time to remodel every single character. Despite    Rule number one of being a game developer should be that you never LIE to fans, but GameFreak doesn't believe in that rule.

    Unfortunately due to the laziest of the developers this games does not hold a candle to the previous versions of the game. Over half of the pokemon have been removed, the given reason being that there was not enough time to remodel every single character. Despite this, the same models used in XY and all other recent games are used here, although retextured. Due to this massive culling of designs, you will no longer be able to transfer your teams from previous games to this one, unless you somehow predicted which designs would be 'approved' for continued use. They have given the possibility of holding your characters for you in the subscription service 'Pokemon Home', but with no guarantee of them showing up again in a game again. Even if they do it could be 10+ years down the line.

    The Pokemon designs themselves are as great as ever, about the only redeeming factor of the games. Some of my personal favourites are Appletun and Wooloo. Dynamax and Gigantamax are a cool new feature, but not really worth the removal of Megas and Z-Moves. As always, GameFreak favourite Charizard gets a Gigantamax form while all other starters (including the new ones) are ignored. Charizard is the only returning starter in the game, with only the other Kanto starters and Alolan starters even having the option of being transferred.

    Gameplay wise it is your standard pokemon game, fight trainers, get badges (while wearing an ugly football kit this time), defeat the villains. As usual with every game 3DS era and onward, there are no true dungeon like areas or puzzles (too hard for modern children apparently), and the postgame is basically non-existent. No Battle Frontier here or even legendary hunting here. Previous games had features like Contests, Secret Bases, the Underground. Despite being on a much more advanced console, all of these side quests and postgame content has been cut to make the games more 'streamlined'. According to the developers, this is due to having to compete with mobile games.

    Overall it is a pretty shallow version of what the game should be. It was promised as a game for long time fans, but if you have played anything older than XY, there isn't much here for you. If you want a great Pokemon experience, any of the original main series DS or GBA games are where you should look.    … Expand
  5. aleqhz
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    I was very eager to see Pokémon on a home console after decades of handheld version. I even rushed through all previous Gen just anticipating this one, but .. Simply put, I'm disappointed.

    There was so much potential for a great game but it turned out into a game with rehashed and up-scaled 3DS graphics, very poor animation, very bland environment and extremely short playtime (finished    I was very eager to see Pokémon on a home console after decades of handheld version. I even rushed through all previous Gen just anticipating this one, but .. Simply put, I'm disappointed.

    There was so much potential for a great game but it turned out into a game with rehashed and up-scaled 3DS graphics, very poor animation, very bland environment and extremely short playtime (finished the game in 18 hours..) saying 40~50 hours is really stretching it. I didn't even mind the cut in the Pokédex eventhough my favourites didn't make it out to Galar region, but I was at least hoping there will be more post-game content than a 1~2 hours mini-story.

    I don't believe this game deserves the high metascore, nor its price.    … Expand
  6. MEPWAYNINTENDO
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Utter garbage and one of the worst games ever made. Nintendo is a worthless, lazy company who doesn't care about what they put out at all and they just take advantage of little children and people with mental disabilities because they don't know any better.
  7. PokeFan1988
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    >Characters are generic
    >Story is really bad, even worse than XY
    >Cutscenes and handholding everywhere >Open world is bland and soulless >Graphics and animations are still garbage despite that being used as an excuse for dexit >Overworld Pokemon literally phase into existence when you walk near them >Pokemon scaling is horrible, Wailord still looks tiny >Moves like Return and Pursuit have    >Characters are generic
    >Story is really bad, even worse than XY
    >Cutscenes and handholding everywhere
    >Open world is bland and soulless

    >Graphics and animations are still garbage despite that being used as an excuse for dexit
    >Overworld Pokemon literally phase into existence when you walk near them
    >Pokemon scaling is horrible, Wailord still looks tiny
    >Moves like Return and Pursuit have been deleted for no reason, even signature moves of Pokemon that are in the game like Heal Order Vespiquen.
    >Assets have been proven as reused despite Game Freak saying they had to remake everything
    >Megas and Z-Moves have been deleted
    >Permanent EXP share
    >Charizard shilling


    Utter garbage, and I'm a huge Pokemon fan    … Expand
  8. Alberto_Barbosa
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Was it really hard for gamefreak to copy/paste models from 3ds games?
    But lackluster pokedex it's just a tip of the iceberg. This game is lacking half of the features from previous games. Instead, gamefreak added some **** ones like dynamax, that can only be used in some(!) raids and gym battles.
    This is just sad and pathetic, and there's no excuse for this kind of laziness. Gamefreak    Was it really hard for gamefreak to copy/paste models from 3ds games?
    But lackluster pokedex it's just a tip of the iceberg. This game is lacking half of the features from previous games. Instead, gamefreak added some **** ones like dynamax, that can only be used in some(!) raids and gym battles.

    This is just sad and pathetic, and there's no excuse for this kind of laziness. Gamefreak released unfinished product, and even if i wanted to, i can't defend pokemon SnS. So far, worst game in the series.    … Expand
  9. Regunner
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Podria haber sido en 2d que no cambiana nada el juego.ni la camara podes mover ,el juego es miy corto y no tiene buena historia
  10. HonestGear
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    This is the first time that my disappointment was so great that I felt like a needed to write a review. Sword and Shield overall is bad. Like its new Dynamax mechanic, its all show and no substance.
    Let's start with the good points first since the bad ones greatly outnumber them.
    -The only good points I can think of is that the game makes it easier to change the EV and IV of your    This is the first time that my disappointment was so great that I felt like a needed to write a review. Sword and Shield overall is bad. Like its new Dynamax mechanic, its all show and no substance.
    Let's start with the good points first since the bad ones greatly outnumber them.
    -The only good points I can think of is that the game makes it easier to change the EV and IV of your pokemon. Previously invisible and tedious to control, there are now items that make it easier to make the perfect pokemon you want.
    -Greatest trainer customization so far, although that's to be expected.

    Unfortunately that's the only good thing about the games.Here's a list of its bad points
    -The game is graphically bad. It looks like a 3DS game only with a shiny coat of paint,or in this case filters and bloom, to distract you from that. Characters spin in place to turn, Pokemon float and hover endlessly, the animations are recycled from earlier games, the battle animations are lacking in all departments.
    -Characters and Pokemon suddenly pop into existence in front of you.
    -The infamous Pokemon cut debate. Pokemon were removed from the game with no intention of them being added back. They promised a higher quality models and animations for it but that is clearly not there. Models are reused exactly the same with just higher textures, the models are off-scale, a lot of characters animations are reused and battle animations dont line up properly, e.g kicking to headbutt, the model just moving up and down with no movement to attack, fire and water attacks just coming out from somewhere on the model and not lining up with their mouths or wherever the attack is supposed to come from.
    -The game is piss easy. Not that other pokemon games werent easy but they offered a challenge. It's so easy that there is no gratification from winning. It is also very short.
    -The pokemon designs are bad. Everyone has some designs they dont like but these ones just felt a whole lot of miss rather than hit. A lot of them are so overly humanoid and uninspired that they dont feel like pokemon. You cant just draw a human, replace it's head and feet and call it a pokemon. A lot of them also feel like they were made just for the purpose of a joke and a pun. In the end the majority of the new pokemon feel like they were created as a singular cartoon character for a show specifically made to be likeable instead of being designed as members of a species of animals.
    -The greatest problem is the immersion. Pokemon is a role playing game. Immersion is a great deal in these kind of games. Their goal is to make the player feel like they are part of their world. Sword and Shield problems, even some minor ones I didnt list, all come together to ruin it.
    --The new Open Area feels like a mismatch, Pokemon suddenly appear from underground even if it makes no sense for them to do that, they spin in place and their movement does not sync up with their walking animations, they hover instead of moving. Crazy weather patterns 10 steps next to each other dont make sense.
    --The overworld pauses in time when traversing the Z axis.
    --The jump to 3D wasnt kind to pokemon. The routes are so linear that they railroad you to place. From the 3D vantage point you can see whatever is up ahead removing any dungeon-like challenge. You are railroaded in place by knee-high ledges that act as barriers leaving you only to imagine what the rest of the world is like, out of the tiny path you are forced into.
    --The world is small and empty. In earlier games you could interact with a lot of stuff, books, people, tvs and more. They gave you tidbits on the story, the background or even just gossip. This made the world feel alive. Instead in this game, a lot of it is removed, which along with the small railroaded world make the world feel dead.
    --The battles feel off, as said before the pokemon are off scale and their attack animations dont line up properly. The bad animation are even shown in the new camp feature allowing you to see up close items suddenly appearing in your pokemon's hands and their movement not syncing up with their walking animation.
    --Bad textures.
    --No "dungeons".
    All of these could be insignificant on their own but combined they ruin the feeling of immersion. The world feels fake, hurriedly stitched together and bursting at the seems.

    In the end, Sword and Shield had great some great ideas but even those are not fleshed out properly. Instead of moving the games forward it even took steps back. The first home console release of Pokemon deserved better than this shoddily put together cashgrab.
    Buy something else and if you want your pokemon hit, play the old games because you are not missing anything of worth. Let's hope the developer goes back to the drawing board and stays there for quite a while.    … Expand
  11. Mildor
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Despite the incomplete pokedex and graphical flaws, the overall experience feels empty, with a dull story, no post game and get small difficulty level. It's just sad to see how the fastest growing franchise in the world just didn't deliver.
  12. Joaomax
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Muito ruim
    O jogo cheio de bugs, graficos horríveis, parece que nem saiu do 3ds, preguiça foi essa GF?
    OLHA A NOTA QUE NÓS FÃS ESTAMOS COLOCANDO AQUI, 3.7, PFV NÉ
  13. LotzOPixelz
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The one good thing I can see coming from these games is a wake up call to gamefreak. Pokemon as a franchise has been declining ever since x/y but I still didnt expect the absolute nozedive in ratings for this game. The lies we have been fed so that the pokemon company could make a quick buck are absurd. I hope in the future gamefreak realises that they can no longer **** out garbage onto aThe one good thing I can see coming from these games is a wake up call to gamefreak. Pokemon as a franchise has been declining ever since x/y but I still didnt expect the absolute nozedive in ratings for this game. The lies we have been fed so that the pokemon company could make a quick buck are absurd. I hope in the future gamefreak realises that they can no longer **** out garbage onto a cartridge and call it a "game for long time fans"… Expand
  14. Xd36
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I can't find something good in it, so this la the rating it deserves, you better go play Digimon instead of this ****… Expand
  15. greentauros
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    So my co-worker got this for me as a birthday present, otherwise I would not be playing it right now, nor would I have bought it in the future.

    The graphics are sub-par for a Switch, how come animations from Pokemon Stadium that had a smaller dev team look better than this games? How come Colosseum and Gale of Darkness look better than this game graphically when it came out on a system    So my co-worker got this for me as a birthday present, otherwise I would not be playing it right now, nor would I have bought it in the future.

    The graphics are sub-par for a Switch, how come animations from Pokemon Stadium that had a smaller dev team look better than this games? How come Colosseum and Gale of Darkness look better than this game graphically when it came out on a system that isn't as powerful? Just got to the 2nd badge and while some of the new pokemon are pretty adorable everything else about this game has left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels to me like they just slap a new paint of coat on it and should either hire more people to help make the game better, or instead take a break from the yearly release cycle.

    They also removed many things like TMs, one of which is "return". The attack power is based on how much your Pokemon likes you, and it feels like a slap in your face when a move like this is removed. Wasn't part of the point in pokemon to grow alongside your pokemon and treat them like a pet?

    Don't get me wrong, the game still shows a lot of promise of what could have been, but when you have other titles like BoTW which was originally a Wii U game, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and even more impressive ports like The Witcher 3. It's just depressing that this is the best they could come up with. Gamefreak if you're reading this please hire more staff or take a year off. Maybe even get rid of Masuda. Older pokemon titles use to have more adventure, even if they were graphically lacking, maybe some of that was childhood and maybe some of that is the lack of care that they seem to put into these new pokemon titles. It's been downhill since Pokemon X and Y came out, which part of that was them needing new models made in 3D for the 3DS and was understandable.. But after that, it's all felt lacking, especially when Black and White 2 were the pinnacle of pokemon games before then (Talking about mainline games and not remakes like HGSS which were spectacular.)    … Expand
  16. skido6
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Game is way too short and has very little "content" after the main story. Exemplifies all the areas recent games have received criticism such as diminished difficulty and child-like gamplay and story telling, only this time it was even more apparent given the slew of excuses and trades-offs Gamefreak made in the lead up to its release. If you don't want to waste another $80 I suggestGame is way too short and has very little "content" after the main story. Exemplifies all the areas recent games have received criticism such as diminished difficulty and child-like gamplay and story telling, only this time it was even more apparent given the slew of excuses and trades-offs Gamefreak made in the lead up to its release. If you don't want to waste another $80 I suggest cancelling your annual Pokemon subscription and waiting for the developers to get their act together.… Expand
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. g33b
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Pokemon sword and shield are woefully incomplete not only compared to their predecessors but also the developer’s very own claims about this generation’s capabilities.

    The game is not only a glitch filled mess but show a lack of compassion and care for a series that goes back more than two decades. The story itself lasts 20 hours at most when focusing on completing the game and the wild    Pokemon sword and shield are woefully incomplete not only compared to their predecessors but also the developer’s very own claims about this generation’s capabilities.

    The game is not only a glitch filled mess but show a lack of compassion and care for a series that goes back more than two decades. The story itself lasts 20 hours at most when focusing on completing the game and the wild area gets stale faster than you would expect. To give this claim context, I can spend anywhere between 40-70 hours completing any of the generation 3-5 games. Oh and post game? Post game consists of being a glorified errand boy for 3 hours.

    To buy this installment is not only to say you are ok with Gamefreak's shortcomings, but it is to promote Gamefreak cutting corners in the future. To conclude, please don't buy this game as is, it is no where near worth the $60 price tag.    … Expand
  20. Vartemis
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    To see the franchise sink to lying to players and cutting out half the content is beyond disappointing. The quality drop is apparent and I will not be purchasing future titles.
  21. Allacar
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Very disappointing game. Over half the pokemon were cut. Over 140 pokemon moves removed. Reused 3ds models and mediocre graphics. The first main line pokemon game for switch needed more development time and polish.
  22. hisoka-kun
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Pokemon Sword and Shield are the biggest disappointment I have encountered in video games. For decades we have dreamed of a mainline Pokemon game on a home console. Leading to the release of the "Let's Go" games, we were ensured that Sword and Shield would be games for true longtime fans. Excitement rose as people prepared for a Pokemon game on Switch with updated models and animations.Pokemon Sword and Shield are the biggest disappointment I have encountered in video games. For decades we have dreamed of a mainline Pokemon game on a home console. Leading to the release of the "Let's Go" games, we were ensured that Sword and Shield would be games for true longtime fans. Excitement rose as people prepared for a Pokemon game on Switch with updated models and animations. And most importantly, people eagerly awaited to opportunity to play with all their favorite Pokemon on a new system.

    These games provide the smallest and most overdue improvements while removing many of the features that make Pokemon games special.

    The ability to use all the Pokemon you've captured and trained over the years? Removed. In fact, over half the Pokemon are unplayable in these games. This is the infamous "Dexit" issue, where GameFreak decided to remove the National Pokedex. The issue is not the lack of National Dex, but the fact that data for over half the Pokemon have been removed from these games. So not only do hundred of classic Pokemon not have Pokedex entries; they cannot even be transferred to these games. It has now been confirmed that models of Pokemon in Sword/Shield are virtually identical to the future-proofed models first created for X/Y two generations ago. There was literally no reason for Game Freak to remove ANY Pokemon, except to ensure that fans will pay for Pokemon Home in a few months.

    GameFreak's excuse for such a blatant omission was that they used the time and resources to focus on animations instead. Anyone with eyes can see that this game has graphics and animations on par with games released for N64 (see the trees in the new wild area) to Wii. The game does not look on par with other current-gen games that were released at the beginning of the Switch life cycle. While series like Zelda and Mario released the best-looking entries on the Switch, Sword/Shield look like slightly upgraded 3DS games.

    The saving grace of Sword and Shield is that they have the name Pokemon in the title. The game plays like any other Pokemon game. You catch and train Pokemon as you progress to beat eight gymleaders and become the Pokemon champion. Some of the new Pokemon designs are pretty cool; but they in no way justify the elimination of over half the previously introduced creatures. This core Pokemon gameplay, which has been unchanged for decades, is the only reason that professional game critics reviewed the game so favorably. It seems a Pokemon game can score a solid "8" just because it plays like any other game in the series. Negative gameplay aspects include a permanent experience share, causing you team to be constantly overleveled with minimal effort, and rendering the game too easy for veteran players. Additionally, a cutscene-heavy and rather short story remains as linear as Sun/Moon with constant handholding which eliminates any sense of freedom or excitement. The new "dynamax" and "gigantamax" mechanics seem cool for about five seconds, until you realize they are just an inferior replacement of mega evolutions Z moves.

    Overall, this game is mediocre at best and insulting at worst. Here was a chance to make a refreshing and revolutionary Pokemon game as a tribute to veteran fans, after the release of the "Let's Go" games that were targeted for a more casual audience. Instead, it is a Switch game with fewer Pokemon than Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (released in 2006 on the DS), and inferior graphics/animations than Pokemon Battle Revolution (released in 2007 on the Wii). Do yourself a favor and skip this generation of Pokemon games -- not only to save yourself disappointment, but also to send a message to Game Freak and the Pokemon Company that yearly, low-effort entries with cut content will no longer yield the cash crop to which they are accustomed.    … Expand
  23. Sabor1337
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    1. Over 60% of the Pokemon were removed, that means this game has fewer pokemon than Diamond and Pearl which were released in 2007
    2. 144 moves have been removed for no apparent reason
    3. The textures are low resolution comparable to that of a PS2 game, and this game is supposed to be competing with games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 4. The    1. Over 60% of the Pokemon were removed, that means this game has fewer pokemon than Diamond and Pearl which were released in 2007
    2. 144 moves have been removed for no apparent reason
    3. The textures are low resolution comparable to that of a PS2 game, and this game is supposed to be competing with games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
    4. The draw distance is very short, you can only see pokemon, characters and objects in your vicinity, if you look out over the wild area you will only see empty fields devoid of life
    5. All Mega evolutions have been removed
    6. All Z-Moves have been removed
    7. The post-game is just battling dynamax pokemon and a battle tower, but this battle tower has fewer modes than all its previous iterations
    8. The GTS was removed
    9. The entire world around you freezes in time when interacting with certain items such as a ladder
    10. Pokemon Sword and Shield cost 50% more than its predecessors

    Not recommended    … Expand
  24. zentwii
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    low quality experience, got the game 2 days prior and beat it. story is bland, regional dex is mostly ugly with some exceptions. gameplay is same as ever but getting less and less complex with every entry of the franchise. graphically unpolished with a gamebreaking bug on release
  25. erion94
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    In 20 years following and loving Pokémon (specially in that times that people bullied who did it), this is the first time I got disgusted with the franchise.

    Theses games are nothing more than a mix of recicled Pokemon, models, animations and scripts, literally just a 3ds Pokemon game upscaled(citra did it better). And even worst, with HALF OF THE CONTENT CUTTED!!! 500 less Pokemon    In 20 years following and loving Pokémon (specially in that times that people bullied who did it), this is the first time I got disgusted with the franchise.

    Theses games are nothing more than a mix of recicled Pokemon, models, animations and scripts, literally just a 3ds Pokemon game upscaled(citra did it better). And even worst, with HALF OF THE CONTENT CUTTED!!!
    500 less Pokemon
    100 less Moves
    No Megas
    No Z Moves
    No Special Pokemon (Cap Pikachu, Cosplay Pikachu)

    And the new stuff S*CKS
    PokeCurry is just a new Pokemon Amie mini game feature.
    Dynamax is just a Mega Pokemon copycat.
    New mechanics made the game even more easier, even if you want to play in a hardcore way.

    Why bothering training, breeding and trading if you can get perfect Pokemon so easily?

    The only old Pokemon that received more attention are the gen 1 ones, again.

    Omori, Masuda LEAVE POKEMON COMPANY RIGHT NOW!    … Expand
  26. Dazar
    Nov 20, 2019
    3
    A lot of reviewers are saying this is the best Pokemon game ever. How? Look, it has the fundamental bare bones stuff, but it also has a lot of crap and cut out good parts. Lets start with the ones I have the greatest issue with. So, this game was touted as being for the long-time and competitive fans. I disagree.

    First lets look at the EV system. You can no longer see what your exact EV    A lot of reviewers are saying this is the best Pokemon game ever. How? Look, it has the fundamental bare bones stuff, but it also has a lot of crap and cut out good parts. Lets start with the ones I have the greatest issue with. So, this game was touted as being for the long-time and competitive fans. I disagree.

    First lets look at the EV system. You can no longer see what your exact EV values are. Which sucks. You can not instantly reset all EVs, you need to use berries specific to each stat. Where do you get these berries? The stupid boring Max Raid battles. You have to farm them. There is no berry garden to cultivate them in this game either. Have fun with that.

    The GTS is gone as many are aware, but now you need to use both Nintendo Online service as well as communicate with the person you want to trade with before you start. Have fun using Discord or this game's Wonder Trade (I know it is called something else) to get version exclusives that you may want (HA Darmanitan is going to be fun to try and get for shield).

    Lets talk about Max Raid and dynamaxing. They are boring. Now I never liked Z-moves all that much but they were more interesting than dynamaxing. The fact that the Megas were also cut for this
    crap sucks. The number of moves you have when dynamaxed is so limited and brainless. I believe all status moves become a glorified 'protect' as well. Even Z-moves had more varied effects. The worst part is you are pretty much forced to use it unless you want to get a lot of your guys killed in gyms.

    We already know about the dex cut so there is no reason to talk about it in too much detail. That said the animations outside of battle are nice, but very pointless and should not have had resources put into them.

    It has fun moments, but whereas there was stuff I used to enjoy (like the gym and the battles to become champ) this game has made me dread it. A majority of the new Pokemon I like, but for the first time they actually created Pokemon I dislike. Five of them. This game gets a 3 out of 10 for going backwards in too many ways and adding forced unpleasant mechanics. Hopefully, gen 9 comes out better, but I am concerned. Due to gen 8 being the basis of the possible gen 4 remakes, I have no hope for those games. I do hope they patch some problems out, but can in no way patch everything out. Also, turn autosave off for this game.

    Edit: The games sold well. Expect the drop in quality to continue.    … Expand
  27. BenzSLR722
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Game is rushed. No GTS, wonder trade, and no effort was placed here. All Game Freak cares about is money. Don't believe the critic game reviews because it seems like all those development funds were used to pay the critics
  28. lolopopo
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    From a franchise literally worth billions of dollars, this unpolished, low-budged game is nothing but an insult aimed the long-time fans.
    This is really disappointing, considering that this game is on the switch, and it is uglier and has less content than the 3ds games.
  29. Rallsop13
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    Simply not what the fans wanted. This is a rushed, rough-around-the-edges, 3DS game, with an HD coat of paint. This is not what anyone wanted or expected from the first mainline console release from the highest grossing media franchise of all time. There’s hardly a story besides the League, the battles are still just Pokémon sitting face to face, and the world textures look “last-gen”. ANYSimply not what the fans wanted. This is a rushed, rough-around-the-edges, 3DS game, with an HD coat of paint. This is not what anyone wanted or expected from the first mainline console release from the highest grossing media franchise of all time. There’s hardly a story besides the League, the battles are still just Pokémon sitting face to face, and the world textures look “last-gen”. ANY limitations that the Devs say that have are BS. They SHOULD have the funding and the time to give us the game we want. The series is moving in the right direction but it needs to cut the yearly release and give more time to craft a whole game for our current technology. I will not purchase another Pokémon game until this is achieved. Do better, GameFreak and Nintendo.

    (Note: I don’t actually think it is a 0/10, honestly it’s probably like 5/10, but I give a 0 as to keep the average score as low as possible in attempt to counteract the people that blindly throw 10/10s it’s way.)    … Expand
  30. ScottishDom
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    Incredible to think of the steps backwards made between this game and Pokemon B2/W2 (2012!!!). The missing features have been done to death, but I will never understand how cutting features can then be dressed as a good thing for any game. if reviewers were approaching this game in the wider context of standards set by the industry, it would be panned.

    Unfortunately, because these game    Incredible to think of the steps backwards made between this game and Pokemon B2/W2 (2012!!!). The missing features have been done to death, but I will never understand how cutting features can then be dressed as a good thing for any game. if reviewers were approaching this game in the wider context of standards set by the industry, it would be panned.

    Unfortunately, because these game are considered "for kids" nobody cares if the longtime fanbase of teens and adults are ripped off £60 for a game that is demonstrably inferior and less polished than both its predecessor and games the devs made 10 YEARS AGO. Ah well, I won't be buying anything else from these charlatans.    … Expand
  31. 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
  32. Jeremiahgottwal
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Have loved this series my entire life but just cannot bring myself to keep playing this one. Dex cut was bad enough but everything else is lackluster at best
  33. ILovePokem0n
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    So, for starters, I have played the game. Second of all, I'm a huge fan of this beautiful franchise ever since I first got into the series.
    That said, I have huge issues with these games. I'll list them:
    > The map is small and devoid of any meaningful content. Even compared to prior games like USUM or even XY, the map is with only ten routes and not a single real dungeon quite    So, for starters, I have played the game. Second of all, I'm a huge fan of this beautiful franchise ever since I first got into the series.
    That said, I have huge issues with these games. I'll list them:
    > The map is small and devoid of any meaningful content. Even compared to prior games like USUM or even XY, the map is with only ten routes and not a single real dungeon quite underwhelming and the hyped Wild Area is indeed almost embarrassing. The lack of any dungeon or anything to explore in this region is just sad.
    >The Wild area. It is just... so empty. Not much to do, not much to see, and those few structures that are scattered around have no or only little available interactions with the player. This is also the part of the game that looks quite awful with weird textures that could have been directly imported from Colosseum or even Stadium and some weird shaders like on the water textures where Pokémon barely look natural.
    >The plot. I see that GF at least tried to present us a villain that actually has some comprehensible intentions and motives, but the execution was a clear downgrade compared to the last four generations. Instead of building the story up with dialogues or battles, the game follows a simple 'From-A-to-B' scheme and in the end, only shoehorned the villain in. It's just sad because I actually liked the villain, but he was clearly 'dumbed' down a little bit to make it clear that he is evil. The intrusive and distracting interactions with the champ, your rival and Sonia didn't help the plot to become better.
    > The post-game. It's not existing. Seriously. After the short main quest, you only get to catch the cover legendary and an inferior version of previous battle towers. You could also do some raid battles and some rematches, but that's it. There is no new post-game route or city to visit, there is no expansive battle facility to explore, and overall, just feels bland and uninspired and a clear step back from previous games.
    > The difficulty. Like so many things of these games what you could and should expect from a game released on a home console, it is missing, the forced XP share isn't helping. Even without any raid battles, such as I did, you're usually at least two or three levels above your next gym leader and the NPCs don't use any tactics. There was only one battle where I had to seriously think about what to do next (Raihan), but overall, it's toddlers-levels of difficulty, just insulting even to children or young teens. USUM, even though also criticized for its lacking difficulty, at least had some difficult battles against Necrozma, the totems, Lusamine and the champ. So it's nothing that you can't expect from Pokémon.
    > Last but not least, the unjustified Dexcut. The game was already lacking so many things, and they've doubled-down on it by cutting out more than half of the Pokémon and some one hundred moves. They've tried to explain it with the hard work of upgrading to the animations and the models and while the former I'll mention later, the latter wasn't true and thus a lie told by GF to justify an unjustifiable offense against the very core of Pokémon: collecting.
    But there was also some good stuff!
    >The competitive scene has become more accessible and refreshing with some much-needed QoL improvements like nature mints.
    >Some of the animations look beautiful, although most of them have to fight with the bad quality of most textures used in the game.
    > It's still a mainline Pokémon game, it's very core is still fun, at least at the beginning.

    Overall, sadly, one of the worst and most controversial entries of the series, after my honest experience. The good and bad sides of the games must be honestly discussed without any toxicity or harassment of either side, and I hope GF will for once listen to its consumer base. There are other, far better games out there for the Switch, and they should be used as a Christmas present for children or those who stayed a child inside. But not this one, the negatives far outweigh the positives, and with honest corporate reviews gone, I tried my best to showcase the good and the bad of the game.    … Expand
  34. Kwafka
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    An embarassingly terrible RPG built on lies and cut content. Go play dragon quest or something
  35. jack1077
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Utter trash. This game is so god awful and poorly developed that it is deleting ALL save files from some players switches. The developers have lied to the consumers regarding the models and animations as an excuse to get away with culling the full dex (so it can be charged later). The only silver lining is that this game is so terrible the Pokemon company might finally get rid of GamefreakUtter trash. This game is so god awful and poorly developed that it is deleting ALL save files from some players switches. The developers have lied to the consumers regarding the models and animations as an excuse to get away with culling the full dex (so it can be charged later). The only silver lining is that this game is so terrible the Pokemon company might finally get rid of Gamefreak from this series. #gamefreaklied… Expand
  36. loldave87
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This game is a true wake up call how low the bar actually is for Pokemon games. Even if GF released this game is this sorry state and included all Pokemon there would be very little amount of complaints. This only proves the entire series is just being carried by the Pokemon that are available. Aside from 65% of the Pokemon from previous generations being cut and also some very popularThis game is a true wake up call how low the bar actually is for Pokemon games. Even if GF released this game is this sorry state and included all Pokemon there would be very little amount of complaints. This only proves the entire series is just being carried by the Pokemon that are available. Aside from 65% of the Pokemon from previous generations being cut and also some very popular Pokemon being excluded this game falls flat in a lot of aspects. This game didn't meet some of the very basic expectations. This game is very short, almost no content for post game, no GTS. This game proves how incredibly lazy GF has been.

    Content cut: They have removed 65% of the Pokemon in this game including some very popular and liked ones. They have removed 144 Pokemon moves and excluded 99 moves. Reused models, reused animation etc. GF has been caught lying to their fan base they couldn't put all Pokemon in their game because they couldn't reanimate and remodel all Pokemon while they have never remodeled or reanimated any of the Pokemon in this game. All of them were reused work.

    Performance: Constant graphics issues. Game looks extremely mediocre at times. Game is being constantly downscaled making the game look extremely bad at times.

    Content: Game is extremely short. First streamer beat the champion around the 14 hour mark, while he did skip a fair amount of trainer battles. Other streamers are clocking around 16-20 hours. Post game is almost non-existent. Almost no extra content. This game from a gameplay/post-game stand point is inferior in almost every way to the previous Pokemon games. There's also no GTS. 20 dollar increase for less constant than their 3DS or DS games with subpar graphics and removal of features.    … Expand
  37. carreracarrera
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    Le pongo un 1por que el juego no inova en nada...graficamente nos quieren dar el mismo atole con el dedo como si de have dos generaciones se tratara. Los personajes en pelea ni tienen movimientos acordes a nuestro tiempo y las batallas siguen igual de dodas
  38. 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.
  39. 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.
  40. theoftime12
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Gracias de nintiendo 64, un juego muy pixelado, un diseño muy infantil me encontré el juego muy aburrido, gracias a Dios que no lo compre y mejor lo conseguí pirata
  41. Zasfe
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Tiene gráficos muy malos, muchos bugs, sin pokédex completa, fallos con el autoguardado, sin Megas, sin Movimientos Z, mucho curry que no se pidio, una historia muy mala y aburrida, no explican el lore de eternatus.
  42. Rikyun
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    As a Pokémon game it has the core mechanics every other Pokémon game has: battles and catching pokemon. However this is not the only thing a console Pokémon video game should have. This however makes the game trigger the nostalgia, but this feeling fades too soon due to all the lacking aspects, the glitches and the intrusive "story" plot, which is basically your "rival" telling you to goAs a Pokémon game it has the core mechanics every other Pokémon game has: battles and catching pokemon. However this is not the only thing a console Pokémon video game should have. This however makes the game trigger the nostalgia, but this feeling fades too soon due to all the lacking aspects, the glitches and the intrusive "story" plot, which is basically your "rival" telling you to go to another gym.

    Pros: Nice looking exteriors. - Nostalgia trigger when spotting old and loved Pokémon spawn and watching them HD. - Dialogues during battles are new and brings a little of life to the action - Dynamaxing is a cool concept - Camp and feeding your Pokémon is funny, more so when you bake a bad food.

    Cons: No story at all - The main events from a story feel distant as you can´t join them - Straight lined game play - Easy leveled - No post game - Unfinished settings - No dungeons nor challenging Puzzles - 10 -15 hours of Gameplay - No post Game - Glitches - No high quality animation - non memorable characters- Intrusive dialogues and cinematics - No real challenge - Not a $60 worth game - No real villain - No real rival - Dynamxing, even tough feels cool at first, gets boring too soon - No visible shynies on the outer world - Void world for in door battles - No animation for flying - One use only technical moves - Wrong animation setting for fishing - No free fishing - No interaction with pokemon in the outside world like swimming, running or riding.    … Expand
  43. Ravnard
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game Is interesting, and I don't mind Dexit too much. But the graphic quality is subpar, cutscenes are annoying. Wild zone is a nice gimmick but three level cap is annoying. The story is too linear. Some towns are less interactive than Pallet on Gameboy. It's a fun game but it just wears out too quickly and could have been made so much better.
    I can't understand how in 2019 there are some blank screen battles. And not having speech is just ridiculous and annoying in a console game...

    Hopefully the next one will be better, because I know they can improve it.    … Expand
  44. Roidberg
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Scroll to the bottom part of my review and read the first sentence for the "In A Nutshell" version of it.

    The game has 0 of the pokemon I love from older games, the EXP share forces me to bank pokemon in the PC so I can individually train their EVs. That's nothing but a huge inconvenience. The starters are bland, I personally chose Sobble so I could say "Isn't it SOBvious" when people ask    Scroll to the bottom part of my review and read the first sentence for the "In A Nutshell" version of it.

    The game has 0 of the pokemon I love from older games, the EXP share forces me to bank pokemon in the PC so I can individually train their EVs. That's nothing but a huge inconvenience. The starters are bland, I personally chose Sobble so I could say "Isn't it SOBvious" when people ask me who I chose. That's the only reason this game got a 2 instead of a 1. The game lacks ALL of the charm a pokemon game should have on Switch. The main rival is still way too disgustingly cheerful. I gave the game to my 6 year old niece at the third gym and she beat it without losing any of my pokemon, proving how easy the games are. The game literally never stops holding your hand. The graphics aren't even subpar. A lot of the pokemon models are just way too stiff and difficult to even look at.

    This is less of a pokemon game and more of a game with pokemon in it. I wanted a game that "GOES BEYOND"(props if you get the reference.) What I got was a game that was rushed out onto the market to hit holiday deadlines. I have never experienced disappointment of this level before.    … Expand
  45. Randomscrub420
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    As I fan I’m crushed by this entry. Such a sad attempt made to be “fresh”. This entry will need a ton of post launch updates to be worth buying. I’ve been looking forward to a hard core Pokémon rpg on on a console, I feel like game freak stole money. I hope one day we get a game with competent A.I. Even if I need to beat the game on the original difficulty. I would like to see game freakAs I fan I’m crushed by this entry. Such a sad attempt made to be “fresh”. This entry will need a ton of post launch updates to be worth buying. I’ve been looking forward to a hard core Pokémon rpg on on a console, I feel like game freak stole money. I hope one day we get a game with competent A.I. Even if I need to beat the game on the original difficulty. I would like to see game freak not to add half baked idea like the dynamax feature. This has been the saddest battle mechanic I’ve ever seen! How ever shedinja made the snap this is solid, but the nerf him buffwondergaurd… Expand
  46. Mieszko
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Pokemon Sword and Shield, where to begin... First we need to understand this is a mainline Pokemon title and needs to be reviewed and compared to all those that came before it. You cannot base the review solely on this game in and of itself. With that said let's begin.

    Graphics: 5/10 This is a Nintendo Switch, first party AAA title and it definately does not look like it. The    Pokemon Sword and Shield, where to begin... First we need to understand this is a mainline Pokemon title and needs to be reviewed and compared to all those that came before it. You cannot base the review solely on this game in and of itself. With that said let's begin.

    Graphics: 5/10 This is a Nintendo Switch, first party AAA title and it definately does not look like it. The framerate runs at 30FPS and due to this you would think that the game would look at least on par with something like The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. It doesn't. The shadows are low resolution and update slowly and infrequently. The textures are basic and lackluster. The animations are dry, boring, predictable and repetitive. Considering GameFreak promised graphical fidelity and Nintendo backs them and this franchise with everything they have, this is a massive dissapointment. The framerate cannot even hold 30FPS at times and because of the aforementioned graphics there is no excuse for choppy framerates.

    Gameplay: 6/10
    What can I say? This is a Pokemon game and it delivers on that, but it is the same Pokemon game it always has been. Choose your starter Pokemon, beat eight gyms, catch some Pokemon along the way, grind them up in level, beat the champion of the region. Game complete. The only reason it gets a 6 and it a 5 is because of the Wild Area. The Wild Area allows you to roam around and actually see Pokemon live around you. This was every childs dream in 1995 and kw its here. But it's one area of the map and nearly separate from the story. So it's underwhelming.

    Story: 2.5/10 I wont spend much time here because I dont want to spoil anything. But - Spoiler Alert- there is nothing to spoil. It's the same game we have come to expect as stated in the gameplay section. Meet your rivals, battle your rivals, beat some gyms, find the villainous team. Capture some legendary pokemon and defeat the team to save the world. Defeat the region Champion. Yay, incredible...no. The story is not doing this game any favors.

    Multiplayer: 1.5/10 Multiplayer? What multiplayer. Of course you can battle other players online but aside from that established standard from over a decade ago what else can you do. Encounter some random players in the Wild Area, that's pretty much it. You cannot rome the Wild Area with your friends, you cant battle wild Pokemon with your friends, you pretty much cannot do anything with your friends except for battle them of course. But that is a feature we expect and they dont get any points here for giving a Pokemon game Pokemon battles because without them it isnt a Pokemon is it?

    Replayability: 5/10 This is where Pokemon usually shines. But in Sword and Shield it really stabs you where it hurts. The game features 50% of the Pokemon in the franchise. This means that you lose out on using some of what may be your favourite Pokemon in battles both online and in singleplayer. You cant catch them all, you cant breed them all, you cant battle them all. This doesnt sound like Pokemon anymore, this sounds like a sideshot. The multiplayer game suffers greatly because of this for obvious reasons and breeding pokemon for fun or competitively takes on a terrible new face. If you have a favorite Pokemon make sure its in the game before you buy it. The story offers no replay value and the post game has taken a real beating in this title. You can still battle to your hearts content but this is a very very mediocre Pokemon game in this department.

    Corporate Transparency: -1 Review Point Normally I would end a review here and give a final rating but this game deserves one last paragraph dedicated to it. GameFreak promised us graphical fidelity. They promised new 3D models for everything in the game. They promised us this at the expense of cutting 50% of the creatures we grew to love since the 1990's. They lied. The models are reused, the animations are terribly lifeless, the story is empty, the game is choppy and feels very incomplete. This only matters because they took a franchise and milked it for the name. So for corporate transparency this game loses one point off the final review.

    Graphics: 5
    Gameplay: 6
    Story: 2.5
    Multiplayer: 1.5
    Replayability: 5
    Total: 20/50

    Which equals: 4/10 minus 1 point due to corporate transparency. Giving this game a solid,

    3/10    … Expand
  47. Duelz
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I am disheartened and very disappointed. I can’t believe this is the path Gamefreak chose to go down.
    Pokémon Shield is an unfinished and unpolished pile of crap.
    Save your money don’t buy this game!
    Return the game while you still can!!
  48. naashinashi
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Aside from the most polarizing controversial decision ever made in the Pokemon History in not allowing to transfer many pokemons you've caught by only permitting the ones seen in Galar region in, there are several other flaws on this game that just makes it really frustrating and not worthy only playing for people expecting a more robust pokemon adventure. The game feels at many timesAside from the most polarizing controversial decision ever made in the Pokemon History in not allowing to transfer many pokemons you've caught by only permitting the ones seen in Galar region in, there are several other flaws on this game that just makes it really frustrating and not worthy only playing for people expecting a more robust pokemon adventure. The game feels at many times incomplete, lacking in many areas as seen from many of the buildings and specially large landmarks such as a church not being able to enter, cities being just large corridors with its really usefulness being the pokemon center and the gym.

    The change into a very linear game and the large amount almost empty cities hurts the charm of it. Your rival interrupts you several times and the amount of cutscenes is comparable to Sun and Moon if not larger. You can skip movies, but cutscenes are not skippable(except the tutorial one). The linearity increases when you realize routes are just corridors and there are essentially NO dungeons in the game. There are caves but nothing with a more or equal complexity like Mt. Moon, Rock Tunnel, Silph Co. Mt. Coronet etc. There is not even a Victory Road in the game.

    Another point I want to touch is the Wild Area, which is the biggest main feature in the game. The Wild Area just as the trailers showed and I have experienced; is a large slob of terrain with open camera and its own weather system (that tends to change quite abruptly). You can meet several pokemons in there (many of them are very high level, which you cannot catch until you have a gym badge for its equivalent level). The problem with wild area is that it's rather barren, with not much to do besides catching some pokemon and doing max raid battles. While going around the wild area, at times it laggy just as if there were some frame drops( and even worse if you go online with your friends there) the pop up distance for pokemon is very short, so a lot of times pokemons and berry trees can pop at a point blank distance or extremely close from your location which is pretty jarring and it can have you unwillingly bump into them.

    There are many other aspects I've disliked on this game and very few I actually liked, in overall it's just your normal pokemon experience, a new region, new pokemon to find except there is much less to do and even more baby first game than let's go pikachu and eevee and other previous entries, also there is not much to do post game. I just wished that there was more investment and ambition put in this game, because as it is right now, it's not worth $60.    … Expand
  49. Calvinsoryu
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    By far the worst and most dissapointing Pokemon game of all time.

    Remember how Game Freak announced these Games? They said: " This is not a normal Pokemon Game" and "This is something fans waited a long time for" Spoiler: Its not Game Freak cut out over the half of all Pokemon because: "They improved the character models and the animations" Too bad dataminers proved them wrong. The    By far the worst and most dissapointing Pokemon game of all time.

    Remember how Game Freak announced these Games? They said:
    " This is not a normal Pokemon Game" and "This is something fans waited a long time for" Spoiler: Its not

    Game Freak cut out over the half of all Pokemon because: "They improved the character models and the animations" Too bad dataminers proved them wrong. The character models and the animations are just copy pasted from the sun and moon games.

    Cuting over the half of all Pokemon is bad enough. But LYING about the real reason makes it even worse!

    So much about the Netaional dex.

    The game itself doesnt look good at all. It looks exactly like the 3DS games just in HD now. Theres no improvement at all.

    The big new feature of the game, the wild area is one big mess. The wheater and even the daytime changes if you switch between certain areas in the wild area itself. Pokemon spawn right infront of your face and the whole part of this game is just buggy and doesnt run on a
    constant framerate.

    There are also other issues like:

    - The story is only about 15 hours long
    -Theres no post game
    - The EXP Share is overpowerd
    - Your constant overleveld
    - You cant catch certain Pokemon if you dont own the right badge
    - Apart from the wild area, all routes are linear
    -The story is linear
    - The handholding is just as bad as it was in sun and moon

    But there are also some good things like:

    - The characters are good
    - Gym battles are back
    - Some towns have a really nice designs

    Overall is this are these the worst Pokemon games of all time. If you want to play a good Pokemon game play one of the DS or 3DS Pokemon games. These games have way more content, better and longer stories and are worth the money.    … Expand
  50. Smartins2000
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    these are the same game and deserve the same review

    got the game as a present from a friend as he did not want to be playing it alone the gameplay is the same as ever, this is not bad but its everyting else that bogs the experience down like the cutscenes with your "rivals" or the drawn out fights that made me actually fall asleep at some points (granted i worked that day, but im a    these are the same game and deserve the same review

    got the game as a present from a friend as he did not want to be playing it alone
    the gameplay is the same as ever, this is not bad but its everyting else that bogs the experience down
    like the cutscenes with your "rivals" or the drawn out fights that made me actually fall asleep at some points (granted i worked that day, but im a programer so how tired can that be?), some music was B A D normally pokemon has decent to godlike music and to have some tracks this horrendous is unaceptaple
    the final nail in the coffin for this game is the inflated price tag, you wont feel like you got your moneys worth out of the game, this game is inferior to ultra sun and moon and even those games where unaceptable to some degree witch was excused because the 3ds was a underpowerful system, but now?
    TL;DR: buy soulsilver, still SS but much better    … Expand
  51. CrunchyShadow
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Do not buy this game. GameFreak misled and took advantage of the fanbase. This game, along with its counterpart Pokémon Sword, are little more than upscaled 3DS games. Models for many Pokémon are confirmed to be identical to those in Sun/Moon. The animations are garbage. The environments are barren. The fans deserve better.
  52. CriticalCanadi
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Removed all the features. Removed most of the pokemon. **** graphics.

    Absolutely unplayable.
  53. pkmn1_5genfreak
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Corporate greed should not be rewarded. You need to recall this game and let the developers make what they wanted to make, Game Freak. You stand to lose a very sizable core of your fanbase, many of us have started as children from 1-4 gen. We hate to see the series we cherish so much be treated as some showpony. Fix it.
  54. Volkthas
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Bad animation, bad graphics, low of content (shortest game of the franquicy) and the well know Pokedex cut. Unacceptable for a 60usd switch game. An involution of this IP.
  55. Melgill
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. #bringbacknationaldex
    #gamefreaklied
    Every pokémon is someone's favourite, this is just unacceptable!    … Expand
  56. ellub
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Straight and clear, they cut dex, promised amazing animations, said the models were all redone and what did we get? a wild game with textures from Nintendo 64, the Wild Area is horrible, animations and models completely recycled from 3DS, junk post game, Pokémon designs seem to have come out of Cartoon Network, cut over 100 moves being some key to the competitive, tehy cut megaStraight and clear, they cut dex, promised amazing animations, said the models were all redone and what did we get? a wild game with textures from Nintendo 64, the Wild Area is horrible, animations and models completely recycled from 3DS, junk post game, Pokémon designs seem to have come out of Cartoon Network, cut over 100 moves being some key to the competitive, tehy cut mega evolution, they cut z-moves, junk movements, looks like characters are inside a microwave in cutscenes, junk story, and worse, the game costs $ 60, the same price as Zelda Breath of te Wild :)… Expand
  57. Pedrosky
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    una real porqueria en verdad no se esforzaron nada es un juego de 3ds en hd las animaciones mal echas recortes en items, tm-hm, pokemon etc etc y como si fuera poco un pooping horroroso
  58. Capcom_X
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    no hay nada que destacar es un juego muy inferior a sus entregas anteriores es malisismo y con ese pooping es todavia mas malo el juego parece un juego de ps2
  59. Khan2308
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    una real mierda pero claro los CONFORMISTAS y CASUALS diran lo contrario, 3 años segun ellos desarrollando estos titulos para que? para ver ese asqueroso popping? para ver las animaciones y modelados reciclados? para ver los fallos con los npc? todo mal. gamefreak a caido en la mediocridad.
    quiero un pokemon de calidad y no en estas condiciones, se merece todas las criticas negativas por    una real mierda pero claro los CONFORMISTAS y CASUALS diran lo contrario, 3 años segun ellos desarrollando estos titulos para que? para ver ese asqueroso popping? para ver las animaciones y modelados reciclados? para ver los fallos con los npc? todo mal. gamefreak a caido en la mediocridad.
    quiero un pokemon de calidad y no en estas condiciones, se merece todas las criticas negativas por lo mal echo que esta el juego.    … Expand
  60. FirstMx
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Un véritable scandale en 2019 que de proposer un jeu à peine fini comme celui-là. Les graphismes sont dignes de la Nintendo GameCube, le gameplay n’est pas plus amusant que sur game boy color il y a pourtant 20 ans de cela. C’est une grosse arnaque qui profitent de l’aura commercial extrêmement efficace de la licence Pokémon pour nous vendre un « jeux » qui est bâclé et même pas digne desUn véritable scandale en 2019 que de proposer un jeu à peine fini comme celui-là. Les graphismes sont dignes de la Nintendo GameCube, le gameplay n’est pas plus amusant que sur game boy color il y a pourtant 20 ans de cela. C’est une grosse arnaque qui profitent de l’aura commercial extrêmement efficace de la licence Pokémon pour nous vendre un « jeux » qui est bâclé et même pas digne des **** studios indépendant au budget pourtant réduit. Quand on s’appel GameFreak et que l’on a les moyens presque illimité qu’ils ont, c’est un véritable foutage de gueule.
    A fuir !    … Expand
  61. GIN11341
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    D O N 'T B U Y IT !
    #Gamefreaklied
    There is too much Pokemon to catch them all.
    Please cut more dex and Pokemon.
    And the quality of this game is too high to run on my Nintendo Switch, so it keeps crashing again and again.
  62. GFLied
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Even ignoring the terrible graphics, the cut content is unacceptable, especially considering the new gimmicks are pointless and forgettable. The game is way too easy. And the cutscenes are annoying.
  63. Shinku002
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    pokemon escudo la peor basura de titulo de pokemon en la historia!,sin megaevoluciones!(lets go pilachu y eevee si tenían), sin movimientos z,reciclado de manera vaga,recortadisimo en pokemones ejem no esta squirtle,bulbasor solo chardmander por charizard :v,recortado en movimientos,los pokemons mas feos que eh visto nuevos!,la hitoria mas corta de todos los juegos de pokemon,el lets go depokemon escudo la peor basura de titulo de pokemon en la historia!,sin megaevoluciones!(lets go pilachu y eevee si tenían), sin movimientos z,reciclado de manera vaga,recortadisimo en pokemones ejem no esta squirtle,bulbasor solo chardmander por charizard :v,recortado en movimientos,los pokemons mas feos que eh visto nuevos!,la hitoria mas corta de todos los juegos de pokemon,el lets go de switch dura 25h, este 15 :v,el diamante y perla 41, esta lleno de bugs,los graficos son de lo peor para una switch!,un arbol y las montañas que ellos enseñaron presumiendo parecian de n64 por dios!, etc,ademas los de nintendo(si los de nintendo quien es el que manda en su querida consola?) presumian de la obra y oda de este pokemon!,en fin, por algo la nota… Expand
  64. Noraver
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    What can I say that hasn’t already been said?
    Nintendo/The Pokémon Company need to give the rights to another company. Game Freak has grown lazy, complacent, and puts no effort or passion into these games anymore.
    It definitely is sad when a game 20 years old on N64 (Pokémon Stadium 2), or a game on the Wii (Pokémon Battle Revolution) have more character/personality in their Pokémon    What can I say that hasn’t already been said?
    Nintendo/The Pokémon Company need to give the rights to another company. Game Freak has grown lazy, complacent, and puts no effort or passion into these games anymore.
    It definitely is sad when a game 20 years old on N64 (Pokémon Stadium 2), or a game on the Wii (Pokémon Battle Revolution) have more character/personality in their Pokémon than the mainline games do.
    Not to mention, better animations.
    This is no longer the company/game line I used to know and love.
    The highest grossing franchise in the world, and they can't produce a decent game on the newest console hardware?
    Pathetic, absurd, and genuinely disappointing.

    #GameFreakLied    … Expand
  65. Harveyr
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    A Pokémon game without Pokémon, what's even the point? It's clear gamefreak needed at least another year on this to get the game in a play ready state. Unfortunately for us fans it's been released anyway with this game feeling more like a quick cash grab more than anything else
  66. Buttfart
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Lack of content and communication while the core games remains the franchise has become a former shell of what was accomplished during the DS Era.
  67. Shinob1
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolutely dissapointed, the game it's horrible, a lot of bugs, no national dex, less pokemons, horrible gameplay, horrible graphics. It's not worth pay 60 bucks for this, please, don't waste your money.
  68. HectorHbo
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Wea malaaaaaaaaaaaa game freak chupala hasta que la dejes brillosa, wea malaaaa
  69. Gevlyn
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    This is no longer Pokemon at it's core. The brain dead easiness of these games combined with bugs and graphical disasters left and right are insulting. From a 20+ year fan and current competitive player, this has been the biggest disappointment in my gaming career. We deserve better.
  70. ReyGar97
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    A lot of technical problems and awful animations, ir crashed on my switch and I lose my progress and the one from Luigis Mansion too
  71. Ridly
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The story is very lackluster. The story is also very short being only 15 hours. The post game is also very lacking because the cities are very narrow and their are less Pokémon to catch and train. The wild area was fun it is about the size of 2 regions in breath of the wild which is nice but it starts to feel small when you explore it for a while. The new dynamaxing feature is very lame itThe story is very lackluster. The story is also very short being only 15 hours. The post game is also very lacking because the cities are very narrow and their are less Pokémon to catch and train. The wild area was fun it is about the size of 2 regions in breath of the wild which is nice but it starts to feel small when you explore it for a while. The new dynamaxing feature is very lame it only makes the Pokémon bigger and even the giganticmaxing is also lame it hardly even changes the Pokémon. It is basically just a Mega Pokémon with every attack as a zmove. It is a Op gimmic it basically makes the Pokémon indestructible for 3 turns and all your moves one shot everything. Luckily though you can’t use this gimmic when every you want unlike megas and z moves because of how broken it is which is good. But not being able to use the gimmic when ever feel restrictive. Around 60 percent of Pokémon were taken out of the game which runs n the competitive more because it restricts the variety of Pokémon you can use and mix up your team it limits you to the Pokémon that is available in the game. Which doesn’t help give a chance for other Pokémon to shine because no one is going to use a Pokémon just because their is less to pick from there are just going to use their favorite. The lack of Pokémon also shortens the post game because there is less Pokémon to catch. They said they did it to improve the graphics but the graphics are nearly the same just more polished up what they should have done was redone the animations like the double kick move they should have at least made the Pokémon move to the Pokémon and actually kick instead of showing to feet on the enemy Pokémon. Removing the Pokémon to balance out the competitive is also dumb because we can just ban the Pokémon from use or only let certain Pokémon be used in tornment like ubers only or RU Pokémon only. Not only that megas and z moves were removed from the game which is a much better, more balanced, and cooler gimmic. The enemy team is just a remake of team skull but worse. Instead of being a bunch of gang kids with Guzma as their leader now it’s just some Fans of Marnie. Another problem is this game is now worth 20 dollars extra for a game that just removed good features from older games or replaced features that some are arguably worse… Expand
  72. 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
  73. McCreeSun
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    After 20 hours of playtime my review is a resounding “meh”.

    The game is alright. That’s all. Not the world ending calamity we all thought it would be. I have the same good things to say as everyone else and I have the same bad things to say about everyone else. So I’m not going to bore you with the same old. The problem I have though is “meh” is not good enough for a Pokémon game. Full    After 20 hours of playtime my review is a resounding “meh”.

    The game is alright. That’s all. Not the world ending calamity we all thought it would be. I have the same good things to say as everyone else and I have the same bad things to say about everyone else. So I’m not going to bore you with the same old. The problem I have though is “meh” is not good enough for a Pokémon game. Full stop. We’re talking about a $60 billion franchise here, not some indie studio’s passion project. If this were some no name studio I’d say it was a solid game, probably still not deserving of the high 9s and 4s we’ve seen on review sites, but still an attempt was made.

    But the fact remains that the game is still clearly unfinished. The team wasn’t allowed to iron out the wrinkles to fit holiday release and it shows in the worst way. But I digress. The one complaint I do have that I haven’t seen come trough the network is the convoluted ways some Pokémon evolve. It seems entirely inaccessible to the casual audience they’re clearly pandering to. That’s just a very specific nitpick however.

    tl;dr: SwSh is a good video game, a terrible Pokémon game.    … Expand
  74. Nikox96
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Deja mucho que desear. Historia lenta y mala, gráficos muy poco pulidos, animaciones y modelos reciclados de 3DS, se siente poco natural y vacío.
  75. Kylekid
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Worst pokemon game I've ever played, I'm not even kidding! I'm a huge pokemon fan and that's why I can say this is the worst one, it's empty, boring, has subpar graphics, bad animations and such. The only thing I liked was some new pokemon designs, but they cut half of the pokedex so it's not worth. Don't buy it if you like pokemon, but if you want to play buy an used copy and see forWorst pokemon game I've ever played, I'm not even kidding! I'm a huge pokemon fan and that's why I can say this is the worst one, it's empty, boring, has subpar graphics, bad animations and such. The only thing I liked was some new pokemon designs, but they cut half of the pokedex so it's not worth. Don't buy it if you like pokemon, but if you want to play buy an used copy and see for yourself. Don't support gamefreak for making bad games like this!… Expand
  76. ThatOneGuy14
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was super hyped for this game and i couldent bring my chums over because i found out about #BringbackNationalDex until release day, i felt the game was too easy. Its ok to hand hold but not for the whole game.… Expand
  77. rob_innes23
    Mar 14, 2020
    3
    I’ve been a Pokémon fan for a very very long time, more or less my whole life.

    I can’t say I’ve fully enjoyed an instalment in the franchise since Black and White 2... 8 years ago. Even still, I put up with X and Y’s vapid storytelling and Sun and Moon’s mediocrity because the core elements of the game were still fun to me. Sword and Shield truly excited me conceptually as it was the    I’ve been a Pokémon fan for a very very long time, more or less my whole life.

    I can’t say I’ve fully enjoyed an instalment in the franchise since Black and White 2... 8 years ago. Even still, I put up with X and Y’s vapid storytelling and Sun and Moon’s mediocrity because the core elements of the game were still fun to me.

    Sword and Shield truly excited me conceptually as it was the first time GameFreak would be delving into a proper home console with a substantial increase in horsepower over the handhelds.

    My imagination and hopes ran wild at the possibilities of a new Pokémon game on the Nintendo Switch. But as footage of the game was leaked and the developers started discussing and showcasing it, my honest hopeful excitement turned to confused ambivalence.

    The wild area looked cool sure, but the graphics looked exactly like they did in Sun and Moon, with a HD facelift. The animations looked dreadful and considering that creating “higher quality animations” was their excuse for axing more than HALF of the Pokédex from the game, doubt and dismay began to replace my anticipation for these games.

    They came out. I played Shield. I finished it and felt totally and utterly cheated. The narrative is non-existent, the characters are rehashed from previous entries and are more two dimensional than the games from 1996. The battle formula of course is more or less set in stone and can’t really be changed but there is such an utter lack of innovation, they play and look exactly like they have for the last 7 years, just with slightly more polished graphics. The wild area is a buggy, unfinished mess that still harbours the games most fun elements. The idea is fantastic conceptually but the execution is so haphazard and rushed, that it fails to achieve anything it sets out to do on an immersive level. The enemy team are completely un-intimidating, uninteresting and uninspired. A bootleg Team Skull. The twist villain is the most predictable part of this thin storyline and literally just allows himself to be apprehended upon defeat. The game is just unbearably simplistic in every conceivable way. Dynamaxing is such a lame gimmick, the novelty wears off after the fourth time seeing it. Mega Evolution was so much more interesting and had way more potential, hell even Z moves are cooler and more unique than this. It’s just scaled models with the occasional unique change, but these unique “gigantamax” models are very few and far between, not to mention a pain in the ass to get for yourself.

    Not to mention that the game is just feebly easy, with every opponent in your way getting utterly flattened with little to no effort for extra training. The constant and fixed use of the exp share mechanic makes training Pokémon feel so much less fulfilling. You could catch one and literally never use it, but if you keep it in your party it will just raise itself via piggybacking off of the exp that it’s teammates gather. I practically sleepwalked through this bore fest, as my input made little difference to the inevitable outcome of victory.

    This game feels like it was phoned in. Nothing more than a shoddy port from 3DS era technology that’s been rushed out and shipped for full price in time for the Christmas shopping.

    And after all that disappointment and GameFreak's broken promises, they now have the blatant audacity to try and make us give them even more money for an expansion pass full of content that should’ve been in the initial game at release. Especially considering I spent £50 for a game that took me 15 HOURS to complete blind, from start to finish including the pathetic amount of endgame content. The handheld games that cost nearly half the price took me at least double the time to complete on my first play through because I took my time and actually cared about the actions I took while playing. I didn’t to care in these games because they pretty much played themselves.

    This expansion pass is the final straw for me and this franchise I think. I can’t take this constant disappointment anymore. Something needs to change dramatically and fast for me to continue caring about this creatively bankrupt, once great franchise.

    Thanks GameFreak, for ruining something I used to hold dear for the sake of monetary gain.    … Expand
  78. jyweee
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    IMPORTANT: Switch system software bug may cause data loss on microSD cards using exFAT file system!

    0 minutes into the game and my switch started to act strangely. First my joycon started to disconnect and then the switch freezed. I tried soft and hard resetting but the problem won't go away. Here are some of the error's code i got: 2144-0001 / 2107-0445 / 2143-0811 I called the    IMPORTANT: Switch system software bug may cause data loss on microSD cards using exFAT file system!

    0 minutes into the game and my switch started to act strangely. First my joycon started to disconnect and then the switch freezed. I tried soft and hard resetting but the problem won't go away. Here are some of the error's code i got: 2144-0001 / 2107-0445 / 2143-0811

    I called the assistence and they told me that i'll have to pay for my repair.

    So they are bad at making a good pokemon game + you get your switch busted by this trashcan game.    … Expand
  79. 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.
  80. Harrison17
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    Un juego incompleto, lleno de bugs y con demasiadas precariedades. Se nota que no le pusieron ningún tipo de empeñó o ganas
  81. Lersotakus
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Pokedex no no no noooooooooooooooooooooo potencia diabloooooooooooooooooooooo
  82. Alex214
    Nov 19, 2019
    2
    #GameFreakLied fans already put all the pokemon you haven't been able to put and also they put actual trees, not Nintendo 64 trees, fans do what gamefreak doesn't.
  83. Videogamer7800
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Pure **** Fire masuda and let nintendo deal with pokemon. These games are as fun as a dead dog. And all the gamefreak apologists suck too
  84. IICapN
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolutely sad excuse for a game, this is quite possible the worst game from any top developer in the past decade (not just GameFreak). Nintendo should be ashamed to be associated with this garbage. A very short list of issues:
    - Graphics are OBJECTIVELY worse than Let's Go Pikachu and I would argue they're worse than Pokemon USUM. This terrible excuse for graphics is why we lost over    Absolutely sad excuse for a game, this is quite possible the worst game from any top developer in the past decade (not just GameFreak). Nintendo should be ashamed to be associated with this garbage. A very short list of issues:
    - Graphics are OBJECTIVELY worse than Let's Go Pikachu and I would argue they're worse than Pokemon USUM. This terrible excuse for graphics is why we lost over half of all Pokemon in the game? What a load of garbage.
    - We lost over half of all Pokemon in the game. Not just uncatchable, but they're not even in the game, you can't transfer into the games because they excluded excluded metadata for them and decided to exclude EXISTING Pokemon models from the game, which is what they did for other Pokemon.
    - Only 80 new Pokemon overall. They didn't even try.
    - Their new Pokemon battle concept is essentially: "Look, the Pokemon is now bigger! See how big it is? Pretty cool, huh?" No creativity, it sounds like a throwaway idea someone said jokingly during a meeting that they took as a serious comment and went with it. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.
    - You'd think that Pokemon becoming bigger versions of themselves would mean Pokemon size would be an important thing to scale. Nope. They have Wailord shown as being slightly smaller as the 4'10" trainer (~150 cm). Wailord is supposed to be a 50 ft (~15m) long behemoth. But nope, huge (literally) details are no longer important.
    - Finally, the straw that broker the camel's back: the game froze when I was battling in the Ice-gym. I had auto-save on, but also kept manually saving anyway because I couldn't trust anything in the game at that point. When I restarted the game after it froze, the save point there was in Route 6, basically half the game ago.

    At that point I juts gave up on the game. I lost half the progress because this terrible-developed game couldn't bother to QA their garbage product. I'm going to try to return the game, but doubt I'll be able to. This left a bad taste in my mouth and I may never buy another Pokemon game again unless management changes and they start making respectable games again.    … Expand
  85. Liamvida
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    In short, this game is awful for advanced players, mediocre for casual player and it's desirable that this is nobody's first Pokémon game, least they get the wrong impression. It is the worst Pokémon main duo ever released and the only positive aspects are derived from the standard Pokémon formula. Being understaffed isn't even remotely enough to explain the unacceptable low quality ofIn short, this game is awful for advanced players, mediocre for casual player and it's desirable that this is nobody's first Pokémon game, least they get the wrong impression. It is the worst Pokémon main duo ever released and the only positive aspects are derived from the standard Pokémon formula. Being understaffed isn't even remotely enough to explain the unacceptable low quality of these games; GameFreak has serious leadership issues.

    This trash heap is the result of complacency, and a lack of effort and dedication. If it had been developed with care and the consumer's satisfaction in mind, it would have been a polished title with a lot of content complementing the new features. Sadly, this is not the case.

    Bugs, no endgame, half pokedex, mediocre graphics, less features than previous games...should I keep talking? Save your money and don't but this dumpster fire of a game    … Expand
  86. 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
  87. Drezziks
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Game feels 50% incomplete. Horrendous draw distance, pixelated shadows, empty Wild Area, and a practically non-existent post game. This is not a game for veteran players, like GameFreak stayed it was.
  88. Zazash
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Just the worst pokemon ever. 5xx pokemon, linear story, tiny map, no more mega evolve, useless dynamax, less moves, ugly charadesign
  89. Kophice
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Really bad game!! Game Freak is literally making fun of his fans! They think you're going to buy it whatever the crap they make! Don't buy this game! If you want to try yourself, wait a friend who already has the game finish it and borrow from him. Just not give give your money to Game Freak, they don't deserve it! At least they don't deserve for this game! But im warning you, it's not good!
  90. JakePlayZ_OG
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Unfortunately, these games were review bombed & very underservingly so too.

    As these games *in my opinion* are in the top 3 Pokemon games EVER. Ranking among Diamond/Pearl & Ruby/Sapphire. The story is easy & straight to the point, not including some mega person who wants to end the universe *Thank the heavens* & the gameplay is overall a lot more fun than some other main-line Pokemon games.
  91. Picklez888
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    While I bought this game,as I have for every generation of pokemon, I regret it for the first time. The first console entry should be bigger, not smaller. There is no excuse to cut SO MANY pokemon. I can understand removing legendaries for lore reasons or others but this is just laziness. This is the biggest media franchise ever...what is their excuse again? It surely can't be a lack ofWhile I bought this game,as I have for every generation of pokemon, I regret it for the first time. The first console entry should be bigger, not smaller. There is no excuse to cut SO MANY pokemon. I can understand removing legendaries for lore reasons or others but this is just laziness. This is the biggest media franchise ever...what is their excuse again? It surely can't be a lack of resources.… Expand
  92. annslow41
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    As a fan who's bought (sometimes both version) and played every single mainline Pokemon game and was even in the hardcore training & battling scene for years, I will NOT be buying this game. I will NOT support lazy developers. Both game freak a Nintendo know they COULD have made a great game - the game we've all wanted - the Breath of the Wild of Pokemon.

    But let's face it, they knew    As a fan who's bought (sometimes both version) and played every single mainline Pokemon game and was even in the hardcore training & battling scene for years, I will NOT be buying this game. I will NOT support lazy developers. Both game freak a Nintendo know they COULD have made a great game - the game we've all wanted - the Breath of the Wild of Pokemon.

    But let's face it, they knew people were going to buy the games like hot cakes regardless of how much effort they put in. The promise of an "open world" Pokemon game will be too much to resist, full-well knowing their fanbase will be expecting so much more. But the bottom line is it's going to sell, so they'll deliver the bare minimum on that and on everything else. It's going to sell and they're going to make their money. Why put the extra effort in? It's a business decision, and as far as their profits are concerned, a pretty good one.

    It's still bullsh*t: a huge disservice to their fans. They know it. We know it. But it's not going to stop them from making their money. Still, I won't be contributing to that because that's not the kind of developer I want to support.    … Expand
  93. MattAttack218
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    As a video game it’s ok...as a Pokémon game it is by far the worst main line generation ever. If you’re new to the series you may not be as bothered but if you’ve been around awhile it’s blatantly obvious how much corner cutting there was in creating this game. Models are pulled directly from the 3DS and they don’t use the switch to anything near it’s full capabilities. It’s the most handAs a video game it’s ok...as a Pokémon game it is by far the worst main line generation ever. If you’re new to the series you may not be as bothered but if you’ve been around awhile it’s blatantly obvious how much corner cutting there was in creating this game. Models are pulled directly from the 3DS and they don’t use the switch to anything near it’s full capabilities. It’s the most hand holdy game I’ve ever played with basically no difficulty and they took the ability to self impose a higher difficulty level away. Almost half of all Pokémon are cut from the game with no real reason ever given by Gamefreak. This series has been in a steady decline since gen 5 (although the gen 3 remakes on 3DS are an exception). Almost no post game content at all and a very short game which lacks replay ability because of how much of a cake walk it is. I have so many complaints that I can’t get them all in a line. By far the worst Pokémon game I have ever played and I’ve been around since gen 1. Gamefreak doesn’t care about quality anymore. I’m sure this time next year they will release another “Ultra” type version that is closer to a complete game but still utterly lacking. #GameFreakLied ****… Expand
  94. Draco901
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolutely pitiful. Half of the entire dex is cut, megas and z-moves are gone meaning far less strategical diversity, the main game is only about 14 hours long, exp share was buffed to make the game stupidly easy, there's practically no side content in the least, practically no post game at all, no elite 4, bland and uninspired Pokemon designs, and a new battle "feature" which is not onlyAbsolutely pitiful. Half of the entire dex is cut, megas and z-moves are gone meaning far less strategical diversity, the main game is only about 14 hours long, exp share was buffed to make the game stupidly easy, there's practically no side content in the least, practically no post game at all, no elite 4, bland and uninspired Pokemon designs, and a new battle "feature" which is not only limited to a handful of battles in the entire game, but fundamentally adds no amount of strategical variance in the slightest. This piss poor excuse of a game isn't even worth the dirt on my shoes. Free fan games have done better and will continue to do better.… Expand
  95. Thunder103093
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Once again just like LGPE i have to skip this. Been playing Pokemon since 1999-2000 & i cannot except how this game has screwed up & no one else should too. The most obvious problem is acorse the removal of the national dex. Along with lying to us about why they did it. That needs to be resolved immediately & them saying they "aren't going to" is both likely a lie & also. not acceptable.Once again just like LGPE i have to skip this. Been playing Pokemon since 1999-2000 & i cannot except how this game has screwed up & no one else should too. The most obvious problem is acorse the removal of the national dex. Along with lying to us about why they did it. That needs to be resolved immediately & them saying they "aren't going to" is both likely a lie & also. not acceptable. The game has graphical issues & bugs & glitches, including the good old delete save date glitch from XY came back. That is not acceptable for that to be in the game, especially when it happened before & Gamefreak deserves criticism for letting it happen again & no, people saying the issues were lies & people were forcing them to happen, that isn't true & i saw numerous poketubers doing videos & streams on this game all day today & those problems were happening to them also. So gamefreak can't make a game right anymore apparently. along with the non existing "graphics & animation improvements" that were suppose to happen with the national dex removal. Forced EXP Share on us, Removing moves, Z-Moves & Megas, higher price for less gameplay & how Gamefreak lied to us for months now & Poketubers blindly defending them. If you really love pokemon as much as i do. do not buy this game, wait until the problems are fixed in the future versions. But right now you should do your wallet & the series a huge favor & ignore this game… Expand
  96. KlariNoX
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Don’t buy it, burn Pokémon, they only want our money, it’s a scam, let Pokémon brand finish, it’s all trash, stop Pokémon stop them
  97. CodyVCalderwood
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    this was supposed to be Pokemons time to shine, all these people making console games on Nintendo platforms for years finally make games that are big change UPS to the formula to better suit the switch. And this is when Pokemon should have stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun but instead they lied to fans, divided the fan base, and watered-down The experience. My largest issue us thatthis was supposed to be Pokemons time to shine, all these people making console games on Nintendo platforms for years finally make games that are big change UPS to the formula to better suit the switch. And this is when Pokemon should have stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun but instead they lied to fans, divided the fan base, and watered-down The experience. My largest issue us that they cut Pokemon and raise the price. They told us years ago that Ultra sun and Ultra Moon asre $40 worth of Pokemon, yet this game will have less features and less Pokemon but it's $60? It just doesn't add up to me… Expand
  98. KaptainKlench
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Perhaps the worst entry in the series. Constant graphical glitches, the inability to import my favorite Pokemon from previous games, and the lack of a national Dex, have all served to make me hate this game. Waste of money. Do yourself a favor, skip this one.
  99. Error-404
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Un épisode vide et sans intérêt. Après le médiocre Let's Go, Game Freak devait sortir le premier grand jeu Pokémon sur console de salon, mais le résultat est un jeu avec environ 60% de contenu en moins que les versions 3Ds ou DS, (nombres de créatures, type de combat, end game...). Un fiasco totale.
  100. Ramiro0318
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Mal diseñado, es un reciclaje de sus juegos anteriores pero peor programado
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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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