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. Gelider
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Un juego q aburre desde el minuto 1... faltan pokemon , errores gráficos graves ( parece un juego de ps2 y no de esta generación ) animaciones recicladas , juego muy monótono . No veo la innovación por ninguna parte, solo en los pokemon grandes, q a mi parecer son un coñazo
  2. 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.
  3. Feraligabriel
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    As bad as sword or perhaps even worse, the changes between the games are almost minimal, so there isnt much to enjoy kn buying both copies, i would advise a player to only purchase one of them, but honestly i advise them to not purchase this garbage.
  4. KinMonteste
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    60 bucks? never 10 bucks? maybe, it have less content than any indie game you can have with that, better idea? download a fakemon game, it will be more "for fans" than this cashgrabbing bull***t
  5. kennyiscool
    Nov 15, 2019
    9
    Awesome revitalization of the franchise. Losing the Dex sucks, but everything else is worth it.
  6. Feutti
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This game isn't the worst, I'm going to start out the review by saying that. It has some good Pokémon, some of the cutscenes look nice and the Pokémon are properly scalled in the overworld. This doesn't compare to the Pokémon cut, lackluster new gen graphics, and a game that crashes and deletes your downloaded games
  7. HentaiLover69
    Nov 15, 2019
    10
    Freaking fantastic Game
    I love the Designs And story GF you rock
  8. QuarterLife
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Imagine making ~40% of a game, and then charging ~120% for it. That's Pokemon right now. This game is rushed, buggy, and overall an insult to anyone that has enjoyed the series before. You might consider it if it's your first Pokemon game, but if you have others in your library just keep playing them -- they're better.
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. tencentk
    Nov 15, 2019
    10
    I have been playing Pokemon from red and blue, at 10 hours in this has been one of my favorite of the series.
  12. carloscoffanni
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Um jogo tenebroso , depois de tanta espera para um jogo de pokemon para um console de mesa esse jogo é incrivelmente decepcionante e tem tantos defeitos que eu posso ficar horas para listar todos
  13. AnotherPerson77
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The cutting of Pokemon was a change that I had expected (albeit dreaded) to come sooner or later as the series total Pokemon and alternate forms would continue to grow, I have never had an interest in the competitive landscape or catching every Pokemon so the reveal of the decision was disappointing to me, but somewhat understood. However I still believe this was a poor decision given thatThe cutting of Pokemon was a change that I had expected (albeit dreaded) to come sooner or later as the series total Pokemon and alternate forms would continue to grow, I have never had an interest in the competitive landscape or catching every Pokemon so the reveal of the decision was disappointing to me, but somewhat understood. However I still believe this was a poor decision given that this is the first mainline Pokemon game to be released on a console, this is a big moment for the series and should have been taken far more seriously. I also believe that with a sacrifice this major, something of similar or greater value must be given in return. The cutting of Pokemon could have given Game Freak the opportunity to greatly develop the animations and personalities of the Pokemon kept in the game, perhaps reintroducing following Pokemon or having more dynamic interactions with them. Alternatively, the story and world could be more developed and based around the Pokemon that inhabit the region. Or the graphical prowess of the development team could be shown in the environment, with their time being spent on designing a more interesting world instead of reworking the Pokemon.
    Unfortunately, none of this came to pass. While it is undeniable that the visual design of the game is better than what has come before (with the exception of some poor texture mapping on trees and rocks) I and many others do not believe that it has reached an acceptable level given the superior hardware the games are using. The games feel like an upgrade to Sun and Moon but lack the style that made Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee visually pleasing and still have some incredibly poor textures. Not to mention, the animations for the game have been shown to be reused and to freeze whenever a player climbs a ladder. For a game that had 3 years of development (1 for concept and 2 for production) and is charging £60/$60 at launch (going up against Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey) combined with being a part of the most profitable series in the world, this is completely unacceptable.
    But the biggest and most insulting aspect of these games is Game Freak’s dishonest marketing of the games, only serving to further stoke the flames between the developers and consumers. Not only did Game Freak avoid mentioning the cutting of previous Pokemon until being directly questioned about it by a reporter and later confronted by the angered fan-base, they have also provided blatantly false reasoning for why the cutting was necessary. The studio claimed that the cutting of previous Pokemon was due to them being forced to remodel them for the new hardware, however this was shown to be a malicious lie by data-miners, who discovered that they were re-using the previous models. This also brought their statement that the reason for the cutting of 50% of the previous Pokemon, mega evolution and Z moves was to improve the online and competitive matches into question, with many people believing that these features were cut either out of laziness or as a result of trying to release a new game every year since 2016 (I personally believe the former). While the re-use of previous models is accepted as an industry standard and shouldn’t be criticised, blatantly lying to consumers about your product should never be excused.
    But even with all of the controversy aside, the games still fall short even as Pokemon games. There is very little experimentation, with many of the story elements being reused from Sun and Moon (such as the fake evil team, the main mechanic being the result of a powerful Pokemon radiating a mysterious energy and even many of the character design sharing similar design elements to those seen in previous games). Most of the new elements of the game, such as dynamaxing, feel hollow and meaningless as they were clearly created with the intention of being abandoned next game rather than being included out of a genuine passion to develop and improve on the mechanics of the previous games. No effort was taken to improve on the storytelling of the series (which suffers from an overabundance of cut-scenes) or the difficulty curve (which is pathetically easy), showing a huge disconnect between the studio and their fans.
    The only area of the game that warrants praising is the soundtrack, which is of excellent quality as always and deserves a large amount of praise for the variety of styles and use of soundscapes in some of the tracks.
    Unfortunately, even if you are a hardcore Pokemon fan, their isn’t much this game offers to warrant it’s £60/$60 price. I don’t even believe that £30/$30 wouldn’t be acceptable. I would recommend giving this game a skip, Game Freak should not be rewarded for poorly managing a project and producing a lackluster product (whether by intention or not). By not buying these games, we can hopefully encourage them to produce a better quality game next time.    … Expand
  14. Demolitionman5
    Nov 15, 2019
    9
    This is a great first step into new hardware and HD for gamefreak, the idea of reused assets and animation help them work a game the caters to the competitive side of pokemon. A streamlined story saves time and combining of mega evolution and zmoves while limited the length f the feature creates a different level of strategy.
  15. mrfrank79
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    a pesar de reciclar todo el contenido de 3ds, utilizar la misma bases de Lets Go, y tener un desarrollo de 3 años el resultado es la mediocridad en estado puro
  16. 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
  17. MadViolinist
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Lamentablemente Gamefreak sigue con la mentalidad de desarrollar juegos para la 3DS. Este juego está pensado para esa consola, pero no para la nintendo switch.
    Cero innovación, cero mejoras.
  18. SomberlySober
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    It's a bland game even by Pokemon standards. They removed a LOT of features (old Pokemon, the Dex, the global trade system, proper trading etc..) just to out them in their $20 a month Pokemon Home app. It's absolutely pathetic and not even close to worth the $60 they are trying to charge you for it.

    The games look very poor for a switch game in general, there is lag all over the place,    It's a bland game even by Pokemon standards. They removed a LOT of features (old Pokemon, the Dex, the global trade system, proper trading etc..) just to out them in their $20 a month Pokemon Home app. It's absolutely pathetic and not even close to worth the $60 they are trying to charge you for it.

    The games look very poor for a switch game in general, there is lag all over the place, the frame rate is not stable and my biggest issue is how random objects and Pokemon pop in so close to you. The traditional Pokemon gameplay is fun but completely ruined by everything else. Save yourself some money and wait for their sharp sword sturdy shield release where they will hopefully fix at least 20% of what is wrong with these games.

    Last bit not least be careful if you have the eShop version     … Expand
  19. Gus42
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This game is clearly neither a 10 nor a 0 and I'd even say it could be great without all of the clear issues which are the result of a rushed launch. And while I feel that this level of hate is pretty necessary I also believe that it's pretty unacceptable for pokemon (literally the biggest franchise in the world) to cut corners and release a sub par entry to the series with the excuseThis game is clearly neither a 10 nor a 0 and I'd even say it could be great without all of the clear issues which are the result of a rushed launch. And while I feel that this level of hate is pretty necessary I also believe that it's pretty unacceptable for pokemon (literally the biggest franchise in the world) to cut corners and release a sub par entry to the series with the excuse that it's not manageable for them especially as the price has been increased to that of all other big AAA titles.… Expand
  20. Sneakybreeze
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Poor excuse for a pokemon game. Unfinished and undeserving of any sort of praise.
  21. Parmoking
    Nov 15, 2019
    9
    Such a great pokemon game! The world looks stunning and the animations are so good! If you like pokemon you will love this.
  22. Eddieman
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Not worth the 60 dollars! You're paying for a couple of incomplete and glitchy games! Its just a copy and print 3ds version of the Pokemon games, but without the whole National pokedex
  23. Darksun
    Nov 15, 2019
    9
    No tiene graficarros,pero tampoco es tan malo como nos ha hecho creer,divierte mucho,tiene novedades,los nuevos Pokémon los mejores desde la primera generación.a pesar de no exprimir la consola al máximo se nota mucho el salto de 3ds y el área salvaje engancha
  24. WeihanZhang
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    My friend I am advise please avoid bad game. Not allow purchase support Game Freak Masuda insect bottom coomer.
  25. Revoltado
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    - ~400 pokemon
    - movimentos apagados
    - Pokemon com tamanhos desproporcionais - Modelos antigos, por preguiça não mudam nem a posição dos pokemon desde a gen 6 - Soundtrack ruim no geral, com algumas exceções - 99% dos pokemon tem o grunhido do game boy - Endgame curto sem muito o que fazer - Gráfico bom, animações ruins e muitas vezes reaproveitadas - Pior liga de todas as    - ~400 pokemon
    - movimentos apagados
    - Pokemon com tamanhos desproporcionais
    - Modelos antigos, por preguiça não mudam nem a posição dos pokemon desde a gen 6
    - Soundtrack ruim no geral, com algumas exceções
    - 99% dos pokemon tem o grunhido do game boy
    - Endgame curto sem muito o que fazer
    - Gráfico bom, animações ruins e muitas vezes reaproveitadas
    - Pior liga de todas as gerações, e como resto do jogo também utiliza reaproveitação
    - Cooking system (gosto pessoal, odeio essa mecânica em todos os jogos)
    - Sem legenda pt-br
    - Preço alto pelo baixo conteúdo
    Estranho as revisões de sites "especializados", pois o jogo parece ser produzido para jogadores novos, minimizando os custos e priorizando os ganhos reaproveitando e cortando conteúdos    … Expand
  26. FilthyActs88
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Pokémon sword and shield is a game of pure mediocrity when discounting all of the technical issues. It does not do anything exceptional or ground breaking and it is another entry that coasts off the brand name. The main story is just ok, its filled with unskipable cutscenes that often have slowdowns due to poor optimization. The story suffers from the same issues as sun and moon where itPokémon sword and shield is a game of pure mediocrity when discounting all of the technical issues. It does not do anything exceptional or ground breaking and it is another entry that coasts off the brand name. The main story is just ok, its filled with unskipable cutscenes that often have slowdowns due to poor optimization. The story suffers from the same issues as sun and moon where it truly doesn’t feel like your characters story which defeats the point of it being an rpg. The draw distance is genuinely abhorrent and further shows that gamefreak have shown themselves to be incompetent game developers. The game is ridiculously easy and “streamlined” which in this case means dumbed down. The game is short only being around 14-17 hours long which is a ripoff. Most industry standard rpgs range between 60-80 hours long while sword and shield is only a fraction. The graphics are bad there is no other way of putting it, they are low poly and the texture are hilariously low resolution. The colors are washed out and this looks like someone first attempt in unity trying to make a game. You have to compare this game to other games in the industry, gamefreak needs their feat held to the fire and should no longer be allowed to coast off the Pokémon name. I do not recommend purchasing these games, they are cash grabs made by developers who can’t even program a game right and that is just pathetic how a company can’t even do their job right because they are that incompetent. The two version gimmick is tired and should not be done anymore especially for games 20$ more.… Expand
  27. TheAmazingBot
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    The game does have its charm in the fun pokémon designs and flavortext. The gameplay has teken a step back since the 3ds days removing Z-moves an mega-evolutions to the simpler "dynamax". There are pokemon fan games out there I enjoy more than this newest entry and withe the power of the switch I was expecting a lot more. This game is great for someone who hasn't played a pokemonfame for aThe game does have its charm in the fun pokémon designs and flavortext. The gameplay has teken a step back since the 3ds days removing Z-moves an mega-evolutions to the simpler "dynamax". There are pokemon fan games out there I enjoy more than this newest entry and withe the power of the switch I was expecting a lot more. This game is great for someone who hasn't played a pokemonfame for a couple of years, but lacking for people who played the latest 3ds entries.… Expand
  28. Kiohara
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    jogo pokemon desde o game boy, essa minha nota não tem nada ver com natinal dex, é apenas uma critica pela preguiça de uma desenvolvedora gigantesca como a GF de fazer o jogo nas coxas e vender pelo olho da cara, zelda Breath of the wild é um exemplo do que se pode fazer no switch se tiver vontade, pokemon teve muita coisa reaproveitada das versões anteriores como movimento dos personagen,jogo pokemon desde o game boy, essa minha nota não tem nada ver com natinal dex, é apenas uma critica pela preguiça de uma desenvolvedora gigantesca como a GF de fazer o jogo nas coxas e vender pelo olho da cara, zelda Breath of the wild é um exemplo do que se pode fazer no switch se tiver vontade, pokemon teve muita coisa reaproveitada das versões anteriores como movimento dos personagen, pokemons e a câmera fixa da rotas do jogo ( apenas a wild área é mundo aberto), o que não é o problema, e deveria ter dado tempo de sobra pra melhorar outras questões do jogo, como, ataque dos pokemons, e polimento gráfico, um exemplo é o double kick, o sprite do pokemon simplesmente da dois pulinho sem movimentação alguma, parece um papelão a versão digital do jogo é leve, cerca de 9gb e pouco e o switch ja demonstrou que aguenta o tranco, então sem desculpas, pokemon let`s go tem um gráfico MUITO melhor que o sword and shield… Expand
  29. 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
  30. Jota20
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Juego mediocre: graficos de ps3, corto (14h), postgame nulo, diseños de pokemon peores de lo normal, personajes planos, historia mucho peor que la de sol y luna, inestable, bugs; y todo ello recortando el contenido de anteriores entregas: quitando la mitad de los pokemon, todas las megas y z moves, eleminando movimientos... gamefreak espabilad por favor!!! Os estais cargando la saga deJuego mediocre: graficos de ps3, corto (14h), postgame nulo, diseños de pokemon peores de lo normal, personajes planos, historia mucho peor que la de sol y luna, inestable, bugs; y todo ello recortando el contenido de anteriores entregas: quitando la mitad de los pokemon, todas las megas y z moves, eleminando movimientos... gamefreak espabilad por favor!!! Os estais cargando la saga de nuestra vida… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 89 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 89
  3. Negative: 0 out of 89
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 30, 2020
    90
    Sword & Shield have a lot to love for old and new fans, and they're pure quality from top to bottom. [Issue #44 – January/February 2020, p. 72]
  2. GameCritics
    Feb 6, 2020
    75
    I enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword and Shield, but I ended feeling conflicted. I appreciate many of the changes and felt that it generally respected my time, but I almost felt like a passive participant. The more complex gym challenges had a meatier role, but the narrative shouldn’t have been shoved to the side. Overall, I would recommend it to players who want to have a Pokemon experience, but this one won’t stick with me the way the older ones have.
    Read full review
  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]
See all critic reviews »