Pokemon Sword / Shield Dual Pack

 Switch
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 404 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 151 out of 404
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 404
  3. Negative: 229 out of 404
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  1. LuckyAbsol
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Your average pokemon game that'll probably be fun for the casual fan. The story is below par compared to past pokemon games, suffering from clear pacing issues towards the end. The graphics were only slightly better while some of the animations are also lacking. Clear pop ins and low resolutions textures litter the game while severals bugs are also present. For example, the battleYour average pokemon game that'll probably be fun for the casual fan. The story is below par compared to past pokemon games, suffering from clear pacing issues towards the end. The graphics were only slightly better while some of the animations are also lacking. Clear pop ins and low resolutions textures litter the game while severals bugs are also present. For example, the battle backgrounds not always matching up with battle. The quality of life changes were very welcomed but the EXP Share was still too strong and could not be turned off. It's not worth getting both games, get one and trade what you need from someone with Sword. I'm giving it a 4/10 instead of a 5/10 simply because there's no reason to get both as not much changes between them bar a few pokemon.

    I must also add that the soundtrack was very forgettable this time around which is strange for a pokemon game, the postgame is also extremely short with it only being about 1-2 hours long. The battle tower makes a return but it's been stripped down to it's bare bones.    … Expand
  2. Conas
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The good about this game is the same that can be said about other Pokemon games. Exploring is fun, battling is fun, and training is fun. But the wild area was suppose to be a trade off for little routes, but the wild area is fairly small. Pokemon in the over-world don't interact with the over-world save for chasing after the trainer. The weather changes in the wild area are way too sudden. And have the bike become the hm replacer is bad, should've sticked to how SM and LGPE did it. The routes are fairly short and route 7 especially takes less than a minute to cross including trainers. The story is very bland. I don't expect much from Pokemon but after SM I at least wanted to interact with more personal stories characters had. There is no evil team in the game. Team Yell are just Marine fans who like to get in your way. Then turns out they are actually the gym trainers for the 7th gym, Piere's gym. Marine's older brother. It seemed Marine was gonna have a small story arc when we got to the seventh gym, but it was shafted after we beat Piere. The League got rid of the Elite Four and replaced it with a tournament. Not bad , it's execution in this game sucks because it's against Gym Leaders and characters you didn't really bond with. The twist in the game was Chairman Rose wanted to awaken a pokemon with infinite energy for dynamaxing. Dynamax energy runs out in 1000 years btw. He decides to awaken it during the tournament, we literally would've helped after the tournament. But he was too impatient to wait 1 day for a problem that wouldn't happen for 1000 years. The battle against Eternatus sucks, you don't fight whatsoever. The two box legionaries are the only one's that can damage him, and you don't even control them. You're just in the battle was picking whatever move, because it doesn't matter. YOU can't hurt him. After the battles the legionaries jump into the sunset, you don't get to catch one until post game. The game has so much potential, but it just fell flat for me. Also gamefreak, this is scummy releasing the same game so metacritic score is different… Expand
  3. WorriedDenizen
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    From my Sword review:

    Sword and Shield is a shameless, rushed cashgrab. These games are easily one of the biggest disappointments in 2019, and one of the worst JRPGs in recent years, and perhaps one of the worst switch games thus far. The positives of SwSh are few, but they're there. For one, the moveset availability is a lot better since while it sucks to have the good attacks go    From my Sword review:

    Sword and Shield is a shameless, rushed cashgrab.
    These games are easily one of the biggest disappointments in 2019, and one of the worst JRPGs in recent years, and perhaps one of the worst switch games thus far.

    The positives of SwSh are few, but they're there. For one, the moveset availability is a lot better since while it sucks to have the good attacks go back to the 1 use TM system known as TRs, at least moveset potential is still flexible.

    The new pokemon is always a good addition to the ever increasing size of the amount of pokemon that well... would have existed.

    SwSh also brings back the smug @sshole rival archetype that wasn't seen since Silver in gen 2 and it's remakes.

    Yet these are a few compared to the few of many huge downsides below:

    SwSh most common and biggest problem is the cut pokemon. You can't transfer any pokemon from previous games that aren't in the Galarian dex into the games. You have to wait for that potential cashgrab known as Pokemon Home as well. Plus you can't even inject, or even attempt to play as the missing pokemon. Only some of the ones not part of the dex are programmed in, and they're the starters and some legendaries. At least in gen 3, the missing pokemon were programmed in, and you could use gameshark to play with them.

    SwSh also removes mega evolutions, and z-moves and creates yet another gimmick which is inferior, and more broken to the 2 separately. Dynamax and Gigantamaxing are poor gimmicks which only benefit the fast, and powerful mons. What it does is it increases the hp temporarily, and turns all attacks in dyna/giga attacks which are powerful attacks that each one has a secondary effect. All status moves turn into protect. Essentially a temp hp boost with z-moves, and it doesn't take up an item slot.
    This sucks since it just means that in game, the ace mons that are giga/dyna often die in very anti-climatic means, and in competitive play, these mechanics force the other player to utilize it to stand a chance.

    Graphically, the game looks even worse than 3H. Water reflections are off, theres those infamous n64 trees, and the texturing is PS2 tier. Which is an honest to god achievement, how does a game manage to look worse than 3H on the same console. At least 3H has great gameplay, and decent story for the most part, SwSh has none of that.

    The technical aspects, and animations of SwSh is truly atrocious. The games have hideous draw distance, and random FPS drops. the game that does ZA WARUDO whenever the player fishes, or climbs a ladder. Horrible graphics in general, terrible scaling especially for mons like Wailord and Tyranitar. The animations look especially bad on a lot of attacks. The infamous double kick animation, and even the important plot cut scene with the box art legendaries when they just turn around in place.

    The GTS is also looking to be missing which is another huge downside, considering the GTS was pretty much a series staple, and to see it removed adds to the ever growing list of features GF introduces then throws out in the next gen.

    The main story is really short, you could probably finish it in 8-10 hours, and the intrusive dialogue from S/M makes a return in SwSh, meaning the biggest problem with S/M is back again in these set of games. No you cannot skip the dialogue, only the actual cutscenes.

    EXP Share is on permanently and is no longer a key item. This means that training up a low leveled will lead to your other mons being massively overleveled. Oh and for some reason sound settings are locked behind a key item which you have to get from a rather easily miss able NPC.

    The post game is once again barren, perhaps even moreso than XY. You get 2 hours worth of post game, and it's mostly just going to the other gyms and fighting dynamax mons, and then fighting the box art legendaries. That's seriously it. Oh and you can do a gimped battle tower if you really wanted to.

    The biggest crime of them all though. It has most of the flaws which I listed above, and it costs $60 USD. Yeah that's the same price as a triple A game, yet this game is basically a shovelware tier joke.

    Seriously this is supposed Pokemon's mainline series debut on a console? This is what it has to offer? Nothing but pure disappointment, and a total step backwards from a 3DS game? The GC spin offs, and Wii's Battle revolution were a better taste of what a main series pokemon game on a console could have been. But alas here we are, sitting here with quite possibly the worst set of pokemon games ever, and disappointed again after a slew of mediocre 3DS games.

    Stay away from these games, it's not worth your money at all.    … Expand
  4. Metagrass
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    I have also done a review for Pokemon Sword, but as both versions are more or less the same game, I've copied it here.

    This game... is not great. It's not even good. You can't imagine how much that bothers me as a 12 year Pokemon fan to say this, but I have to be honest, I regret buying these games. There is a myriad of issues with this game that give it a feeling of being rushed.    I have also done a review for Pokemon Sword, but as both versions are more or less the same game, I've copied it here.

    This game... is not great. It's not even good. You can't imagine how much that bothers me as a 12 year Pokemon fan to say this, but I have to be honest, I regret buying these games.

    There is a myriad of issues with this game that give it a feeling of being rushed. Firstly the game suffers from many graphical issues. Pokemon, trainers and objects will just pop into and out of the overworld for seemingly no reason, many battle arenas lack backgrounds and trainers will disappear and reappear from them, completely breaking my immersion. Another issue is the game is extremely short. I am already at the 5th gym and I bought it yesterday, I hope that somehow the last 3 gyms take triple the time of the first 5, but from what my friend tells me, this isn't the case. Also my friend tells me that the post game is just the battle tree from sun and moon but with no bosses. The story is extrememly basic too, it is just a carbon copy of the story from one of the other games in the series (of which I'm not going to mention as I don't want to spoil anything). If you thought they were taking a step in the right derection with Sun and Moon's story, then Sword and Shield takes two steps back. As you might expect, the game is really easy, but I don't mean as easy as some of the other games in the series, Sword and Shield is probably the easiest Pokemon game to date. Easy games aren't in themselves a bad thing, but in a strategy game like Sword and Shield, you need at least a basic level of difficulty to make it interesting. Alas, due to the forced (always active) exp share on your whole team, my entire team was so overleveled for each gym. I would just end up dyanamaxing and sweeping the entire trainer's team for each of them with no problem. I really wish you could just turn the exp share off, the game would benefit so much from this. Speaking of the gyms, the challenges for each gym are completely ridiculous. Most of them are boring and had very little effect on the gym battle itself, for example there is one where the gym leader asks you bizzare questions like what you had for breakfast, not impressed with the gyms at all. The game in general is riddled with bizzare decisions like extra volume controls being locked behind an item for some reason and not being able to pet your Pokemon anymore. I would not reccomend picking this game up.

    Now lets address the donphan in the room, the dex cut. Around 60% of the Pokemon were removed from this game along with a handful of moves for the reason of "improving the animations an models". The dex cut wouldn't be much of an issue for your average player, but the animations and models weren't improved at all. The models are just ported from Sun and Moon, scaled up for the Switch and there are less new animations in this game than Sun and Moon due to the lack of Z-Moves. So in short the dex was cut down for absolutely no reason. The smaller dex also limits people's options in online matches and competative, but I haven't played online yet and don't know anything about it so it wouldn't be fair for me to judge it.

    Now that I've finally gotten through the bad things I should list the good. Some of the designs of the new Pokemon are amazing. In typical James Turner (the man who designed many of the Pokemon in this game) style, they're very hit or miss. But the ones that hit, hit hard. The final evolutions of the starters in particular ooze personality, I love them all. The wild area is a great concept, though it's fairly poorly executed it is still fun to explore. The addition of overworld encounters from the Lets Go games is a great idea and makes the world feel way more alive. Sadly though, the good is outweighed by the bad in this game.

    In conclusion, I would not reccomend these games. They are definately the worst in the series and do not justify the Switch price tag. Avoid these at all costs, there are many, far better games on the switch this year, get one of those instead.    … Expand
  5. GFLied
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    From cut Pokemon and moves to cheap graphics, this game does not feel like it was made in 2019. It feels like a budget title as well.
  6. MrJohns
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Another rushed, disappointing mess for longtime fans of the series. Its a short, buggy and way to easy Game. They cutted and removed a lot (Dexit, Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves). Graphics are bad, and there are several Technical Issues. And then they Reused a lot and added boring Gimmicks like Dynamaxing. Don't support this kind of Greedy Garbage!
  7. Fanfo
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Decepcionante. Si te haces llamar fan de la franquicia no apoyes esta mediocridad.
  8. wetrode
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    For too long the Pokemon company has gotten away with rehashing the same game and selling it like a sequel. Game Freak not only has lied during the release of this game, but they have shown absolute incompetence in the transition from the 3DS to a console more capable than the PS3 or Xbox 360. This is the release we would expect from companies like EA and Activision. If you've played anyFor too long the Pokemon company has gotten away with rehashing the same game and selling it like a sequel. Game Freak not only has lied during the release of this game, but they have shown absolute incompetence in the transition from the 3DS to a console more capable than the PS3 or Xbox 360. This is the release we would expect from companies like EA and Activision. If you've played any Pokemon, you've played sword and shield, except all previous titles just packed more content for a better price. If these games were $29.99 each, it would be passable, but for the most profitable IP in history to deliver an empty husk of it's previous titles for $20 more than it's 3DS releases, is ashame. Don't waste your money.… Expand
  9. Silvally1
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    These games have their faults, a lot of them. The wild area is a mess in almost all categories, new mons look goofy, region is extremely linear, story makes zero since, more hand holdy than the last Gen, level scaling is atrocious.

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

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

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

    Overall, 3/10 since it's not worth 120 for two.    … Expand
  10. thvbh
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    After "it all comes together" and "ultra changes", generation 8 adds more lies to GameFreak's pile of shame. They promise a lot, and they again fail to deliver in almost every single aspect. This time, however, the technical shortcomings, lack of polish, and shortage of ambition is covered up by a veil of scam-level dishonesty from the developers themselves and a blanket of praise fromAfter "it all comes together" and "ultra changes", generation 8 adds more lies to GameFreak's pile of shame. They promise a lot, and they again fail to deliver in almost every single aspect. This time, however, the technical shortcomings, lack of polish, and shortage of ambition is covered up by a veil of scam-level dishonesty from the developers themselves and a blanket of praise from "unbiased" game critics, whose reviews sound more like advertisements than genuine reviews.

    The decision to cut over half the existing Pokémon from the game under the pretense of filling the game with content and quality animations wouldn't be so bad if the results could be seen in the game. However, the games are just as hollow as their predecessors, if not even more. Complete lack of difficulty, constant hand-holding, horrible plot, insufferable cutscenes and barely anything to do post-game is something that seems we will have to get used to, as it's apparently the new standard from now on, and any future games will probably be evaluated with regards to the bar set this laughably low.

    Pokémon is finally dead. As an avid fan since red and blue, I say it with a heavy heart. What started six years ago, with the release of Pokémon X and Y, finally came to fruition - a game so hollow and dumbed down, that even the awful past two generations look full of content compared to it. What was once a flawed, but ultimately fun franchise with a mediocre, but really passionate team of developers behind it, finally succumbed to the disease of brand-loyalty blinded fanbase that can see no wrong in the games as long as they have the Pokemon logo stamped on. This tremendous fall in quality is entirely their fault and no one else's - this is the best time for GameFreak to implement egregious monetization schemes in their next games, as not only will they evade any criticism from game critics, but will be largely praised for it by a large group of fans, which is truly asinine.

    What's left is to hope that a team of talented developers will see the growing disenchantment with the series and decide to step in, fill the void and dethrone the corrupted king of the monster catching genre.    … Expand
  11. veteranplayer88
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I never think i would give a bad rating to a pokemon game. I'm really dissapointed... that's what happen when you make a lazy game only thinking about money, not listening the players, long time fans. This game is buggy, graphics are mediocre comprared to other switch games, pokemons models are from 3ds, except new ones. But they really lied to us. And the worst, they excluded alot of content. No mega evolutions, no zmoves, lots of excluded moves, more that 400 pokemon excluded. Thats so so bad. I would like to give a good rate, but this is just bad. This game could be good, some new things are cool, but isnt enough. I hope they dont do this again, or i will not buy any more.… Expand
  12. 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.
  13. Ray-Zide
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Overall not worth it excepically for only 400 out of the 890 pokemon and the removal of core features
  14. 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
  15. Vartemis
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    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.
  16. 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
  17. DobleC
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    If we were facing a GameCube game, the game would probably have a 7 (due to Dexit and lack of content and animations). But we are faced with a game of the most successful franchise in history (ergo a franchise that generates a lot of money) and sincerely it is shameful the technical work it has. Anyway, if you're not very smart (as with the vast majority of Pokémon fans) you probably won'tIf we were facing a GameCube game, the game would probably have a 7 (due to Dexit and lack of content and animations). But we are faced with a game of the most successful franchise in history (ergo a franchise that generates a lot of money) and sincerely it is shameful the technical work it has. Anyway, if you're not very smart (as with the vast majority of Pokémon fans) you probably won't even notice. As good points, the music is great, the game (when it is not frozen or terrible laggin) looks nice too and you can also finish it in less than 10 hours if you rush, so you can go play any other game of Pokémon that is good (from DS and earlier).

    Lazyness :/    … Expand
  18. thrwycr
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Enormous amounts of cut content, bold-faced lies from developers used as excuses, incredibly poor use of the hardware, overall an obviously unfinished game. Definitively the worse in the history of the franchise.
  19. Shillmons
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I mean, cmon its twice the trash for double the price, at this point its just your fault if you are falling for this
  20. christiansmith
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I don't understand how you can be expected to give a score higher than 0 for a game that not only repeatedly wipes its own save data due to critical bugs, but can also erase save data and game content from *other* games as well.

    Some people defend Game Freak by claiming that this is Nintendo's fault for having built a system susceptible to this sort of error; Nintendo is at fault, in    I don't understand how you can be expected to give a score higher than 0 for a game that not only repeatedly wipes its own save data due to critical bugs, but can also erase save data and game content from *other* games as well.

    Some people defend Game Freak by claiming that this is Nintendo's fault for having built a system susceptible to this sort of error; Nintendo is at fault, in fact, for having left such an absurd vulnerability in their hardware, but Game Freak is perhaps far more idiotic to have designed their game in such a way to allow this sort of damage to be done regardless.

    The game itself is pretty terrible, too, of course, but the technical issues I feel are far more relevant.    … Expand
  21. 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.
  22. Atmoslink
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    A shadow of it’s former self, Game Freak continues to demonstrate that they have no idea what makes a game fun and run well too. Large features were removed from past generations and in return we see a price increase. Everything from the graphics to the gameplay points and Sword and Shield being a lazy port of a terrible 3DS game.
  23. Nacaruh
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This "game" have a lot of problem, short and irrelevant history, horrible animation, a lot of cut content and with all that we have to pay $60 DOLLAR for a "3DS game"??? Sorry but this game was a mistake
  24. 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 buy this dumpster fire of a game.    … Expand
  25. Sneakybreeze
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolute scam. Buy two rushed, unfinished games at the same time.

    Do not support such a poor excuse for a game.
  26. 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
  27. KinMonteste
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    i love pokemon, thats why this hurt me so much, i dont care about pokedex, or metagame, or anything, i came for a game, and for an INDIE GAME this still medyocre 5/10 maybe 4/10, but for a BILLIONAIRE COMPANY THAT IS THE MOST MONEY MAKER TOY COMPANY EVER, THAT ALSO HAVE MANGA, MOVIES, ANIME, TOYS AND 8 GENERATIONS BEFORE THIS is 0/10
  28. Noctis_Strife
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    "Here you can buy the same unfished game twice" - Game Freak
    The First Pokemon I wont buy. First, whats negative: - Over 400 Pokemon were cut, so much less variation in battles against other players - several technical issues like spawning and despawning NPCs, Trees and Pokemon right in front of your eyes all the time, framerate issues in the wild area, the whole game world is freezing    "Here you can buy the same unfished game twice" - Game Freak
    The First Pokemon I wont buy. First, whats negative: - Over 400 Pokemon were cut, so much less variation in battles against other players - several technical issues like spawning and despawning NPCs, Trees and Pokemon right in front of your eyes all the time, framerate issues in the wild area, the whole game world is freezing when u climb ladders .. etc. - the highly praised new feature the wild area is empty af, much smaller than trailers suggest and a graphical and technical mess - the post game is extremly blunt and not much to do - the "story" of this game is the worst and thinnest in the franchise - the game is easy af, Game Freak really doesn't care about long time fans - Exp share among the whole team should be optional - some of the music tracks are really annoying and not enjoyable - the pokemon franchise is stagnating, you really see no revolution at all, on the other site there is Zelda and Mario who tried sth new and the games were amazing
    Whats postive: some cool pokemon designs, that's all
    Can't recommend this mess of a game, Go and buy the 3DS Pokemon games, when you haven't played theam already, much more content much more everything    … Expand
  29. Shinku002
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Es el misml juego repetido x2 :v y encima no hacen compatible el banco pokemon(ni el nuevo ni el viejo:v) vale,el mismo analisis va: 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 enEs el misml juego repetido x2 :v y encima no hacen compatible el banco pokemon(ni el nuevo ni el viejo:v) vale,el mismo analisis va: 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
  30. SaiyanPride89
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The game cut over 100 battles moves!?! What the hell. Over 500 got Thanos’d. No post story. Some textures look like N64 graphics(seriously Gamefreak rehire Genius Sonority to help you make 3D models like they did with Colosseum/XD/Battle Revolution. Story is mediocre. And most importantly Gamefreak lied. I hope the Diamond/Pearl remakes don’t suffer this same fate. As a die hard PokémonThe game cut over 100 battles moves!?! What the hell. Over 500 got Thanos’d. No post story. Some textures look like N64 graphics(seriously Gamefreak rehire Genius Sonority to help you make 3D models like they did with Colosseum/XD/Battle Revolution. Story is mediocre. And most importantly Gamefreak lied. I hope the Diamond/Pearl remakes don’t suffer this same fate. As a die hard Pokémon fan that owns every game from Gen 1-7 and loves competitive battles, I will pass on this game. This Fallout 76 style of controversy. Do better Gamefreak.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

73
#73 Best Switch Game of 2019
15
#15 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 86 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 86
  3. Negative: 0 out of 86
  1. Nintendo Insider
    Mar 1, 2021
    80
    Pokémon Shield is a warm and familiar experience with some interesting twists and ideas thrown into the mix. The presentation left me disappointed – the game still showing its handheld roots – but, the hook of capturing and training Pokémon is as addictive as it has ever been, while the Wild Area teases an exciting new direction for the series.
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  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    100
    Another great game in the Pokémon series. It holds back when it comes to technical design and it doesn´t offer the opportunity to catch the old familiar faces, but fortunately most of the new additions are more than satisfactory for many hours of gameplay. [Issue#300]
  3. 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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