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. Akayomi
    Nov 19, 2019
    7
    I got Pokemon Shield but since they're pretty much the same game, I'll paste my review here as well.

    Short version: The Good: - Refreshing feeling overall - Good character designs - Good looking graphics and animations (Half of the time, more on this down on the 'bad') - Wild Area is amaizing The bad: - Lazy animations on a lot of attacks (Which makes it even worse, considering    I got Pokemon Shield but since they're pretty much the same game, I'll paste my review here as well.

    Short version:
    The Good:
    - Refreshing feeling overall
    - Good character designs
    - Good looking graphics and animations (Half of the time, more on this down on the 'bad')
    - Wild Area is amaizing

    The bad:
    - Lazy animations on a lot of attacks (Which makes it even worse, considering some attacks have beautiful animations)
    - FPS drops on the Wild Area, even in Docked mode
    - Cutting the National Dex to "include better animations". Animations that are not in the game.
    - General unpolished feel to the game. This game needed at least 3-6 more months of development, and it could've easily been the BEST pokemon game of all time. Instead, we get a half-baked, mediocre pokemon game.

    Overall: If you enjoyed pokemon games, you will have fun. The game lacks in a lot of aspects, but it's still an enjoyable experience. I wish GameFreak would've taken more time to polish it a bit more, or at the very least that they adress the issues on patches down the line.

    Long version:
    I'm glad I bought this.

    Yes, the game has issues (FPS drops, some animations are cheap as **** it's generally unpolished, unnecesary dexit) but the game really ISN'T as bad as leakers and naysayers would have you believe. It pisses me off because if they had a few more months (say, 3 months, like Animal Crossing) this game could have been the BEST pokemon game ever. Instead, we get a half-assed mediocre game, but with enough fun stuff that it guarantees a huge profit for GameFreak, therefore they will not learn, and will continue to half-ass games, most likely. That's pretty sad.
    Also, anyone saying "the game is short!!! you can beat it in 8 hours!!" is full of **** I haven't even finished the main story and check it: 26hs and ticking. And I haven't even started doing max raids or anything endgame like that.
    The XP share turned on all the time is a pain in the ass, and we SHOULD have an option to turn it off.
    The difficulty is... very low. You can just mash A and you will probably win most fights. That being said, difficulty does spike in a few battles here and there. But most of the time it's very easy.

    Is this game perfect? No, not at all. Is it bad? Not really. It's average, or mediocre, whatever word you prefer to use. But it's fun. If you walk into the game wanting to hate it, you'll nitpick and hate every part of it. If you walk into the game wishing to have fun... well, you'll have tons of fun.

    Whether or not this game is worth 60$ is up to you to decide. For me, it should be 40$ and not a cent more. But I still bent over and paid full price. Even tho I reckon it shouldn't be full price, I personally am having lots of fun, and that makes it worth my time and money.    … Expand
  2. MathSlompo
    Nov 21, 2019
    6
    This game is really nice comparing with the previous ones, but comparing with the potencial it has, omg. It just seems like they didn't finish the game or they really didn't care much about it. The game isn't deep, it doesn't have the realism we always wanted, the nature, habitats, mystery, exploration, challenges, CHALLENGES. It's all too easy and i can't even contemplate the landscapesThis game is really nice comparing with the previous ones, but comparing with the potencial it has, omg. It just seems like they didn't finish the game or they really didn't care much about it. The game isn't deep, it doesn't have the realism we always wanted, the nature, habitats, mystery, exploration, challenges, CHALLENGES. It's all too easy and i can't even contemplate the landscapes and the pokemon living, because it's unreal and sometimes looks really bad. It's still making the same mistakes of all the other pokemon games. This is more of the same, but a little bit better.
    It could be so much better, but i'm playing anyway, because it's pokemon and i love it, the game is awesome, but i was expecting something new, something real, something better.
    Sorry about my english.    … Expand
  3. Mimikyu
    Nov 27, 2019
    7
    It's not a bad game, but also not amazing.
    Graphics are a bit mixed: I have experienced a bit of graphical glitches, like problems with shadows and saw Sonia's hair acting on it's own, however in battle the graphics are pretty great. The starters do have more animations, while not being as great as last gen.
    The starters are ugly imo, but some designs are weird, but not bad. it is a case    It's not a bad game, but also not amazing.
    Graphics are a bit mixed: I have experienced a bit of graphical glitches, like problems with shadows and saw Sonia's hair acting on it's own, however in battle the graphics are pretty great. The starters do have more animations, while not being as great as last gen.
    The starters are ugly imo, but some designs are weird, but not bad. it is a case of getting used to it.
    There IS less post game content and hunting for gigantamaxed pokemon is kind of tedious and unnecesairily grindy, but it keeps you from getting bored from the game.
    The pokedex IS ofcourse decreced, but i don't have any problems with it. Some pokemon i would have like to be in it were scrappe, but by thinking back. Most of these pokemon were broken (always in competetive teams) some pokemon were nerved like mimikyu, but it does make the game more balanced.
    The wild area is a place to catch pokemon in a 3D setting ,but this place does feel rushed. I often get a lot of framedrops and pokemon keep popping in a way I will accidentally battle them unwantedly.
    Especially when connecting online are these problems noticable bad.
    They also need to go back to the old trading system the y-comm is a very bad system, where you need to make a code to trade eventhough the switch has a working invite system. They also removed the GTS which was a great place to trade pokemon you needed for your pokedex, but removing it did make me more active in catching them myself.
    The story, while predictable is very pokemon like. I would've wanted it to be a bit more in dept like in gen 5 and a little bit darker. The evil team (team yell) wasn't even evil, but more like foothball (sOcCEr) supporters are in reallife.
    I didn't haven any problems with the autosave (due to being only in the Japanese versions, with a faulty SD card)
    But the game could have been harder or at least, they could have added a challenge mode like in gen 5.    … Expand
  4. alio828
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Early access game.

    Lots of potential, poorly executed.

    It is myself to blame that I gave my money to this insufficient game developer again, so I am giving generous score to this insufficient thing.
  5. Pardner
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    Very disappointed. While many issues have already been pointed out, there are a few major ones that few, at least from what ive seen, have pointed out.
    1. The handholding. Everyone hates hand holding, from kids to adults alike. Unfortunately, Hop, the "rival" is literally everywhere and won't let you take a few steps before he needlessly tells you what you already know. There's hand    Very disappointed. While many issues have already been pointed out, there are a few major ones that few, at least from what ive seen, have pointed out.
    1. The handholding. Everyone hates hand holding, from kids to adults alike. Unfortunately, Hop, the "rival" is literally everywhere and won't let you take a few steps before he needlessly tells you what you already know. There's hand holding everywhere. We aren't idiots. The handholding makes us feel like one, however, and it very quickly makes you hate Hop. 2. The lack of challenge. This game is incredibly easy. The EXP share is always turned on, so your Pokemon are usually overleveled. Along with that, there's zero puzzles or dungeons. The old games had plenty, and completing these made you feel accomplished. There's none of that here. Without challenge, are you truly playing am JRPG? Challenge is what makes Pokemon games fun. So no challenges or puzzles really hits hard here.
    3. Shiny locked and gigantamax locked Pokemon. Unfortunately, there are shiny locked Pokemon again. This time, it's not only legendary Pokemon, but gift Pokemon as well. Keeping shiny Pokemon locked behind events doesn't feel like you earned it. There cheap grabs. It's insulting. Not only that, but you can't just give the gigantmax trait to any Pokemon. You have to catch them. This means any Pokemon you have been with for a long time cannot gigantamax. You must replace them if you want a gigiantamax version of your Pokemon, even shiny versions. This feels cheap to me.
    4. Lack of new Pokemon animations. While Gamefreak did have to create new textures and tweaks to the wireframes, it doesn't excuse about how they lied about new animations. While the moves are wonderful to look at, the Pokemon themselves aren't wildly animated like this. It's all the same. It seems the animation budget went towards moves and not Pokemon. Now that all the moves have new animations, hopefully the Pokemon themselves will get more animated in the next games.
    5. Non Scaled Pokemon. I gripe I have is that Pokemon aren't properly sized in battle and in the campsite. Pokemon that should be massive are the size of the player. An example of this is tyranitar. Hes proper size in the overworld, but he's absolutely short in battle and the campsite. Same is true for the third legendary. Absolutely giant in cutscenes and in the overworld, but it's the size of a charizard in battle and the campsite. It makes no sense.
    6. Mediocre wild area textures. The textures in the wild area are awful compared to the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the wild area is a large part of the game, so you can't escape it. The trees look like they came from the 64 era, the grass looks like it was smothered on, the water looks a bit glossy and doesn't even have water ripple around swimming Pokemon, it's just bad.

    All in all, Pokemon Sword (and shield) is a mediocre Pokemon game. It feels like this should have come out on the 3ds. It just isn't as good as it should have been. I mean, it's a decent game, but it's not a great game. Hopefully with the reported longer development time for future titles, we can get the Pokemon game that truly earns the title of #1.    … Expand
  6. ponns15
    Dec 5, 2019
    5
    Un juego bastante regular, la historia es algo predecible, no innova en nada, excepto que por fin no hay muchos tutoriales cada 5 min, fuera de esos los movimientos como doble patada, azote, bola sombra o un simple chorro de agua no estan a la altura, la zona salvaje esta llena de lag y popping, los gimnasios me parecieron bueno, comparten emocion y buena seleccion musical, pero noUn juego bastante regular, la historia es algo predecible, no innova en nada, excepto que por fin no hay muchos tutoriales cada 5 min, fuera de esos los movimientos como doble patada, azote, bola sombra o un simple chorro de agua no estan a la altura, la zona salvaje esta llena de lag y popping, los gimnasios me parecieron bueno, comparten emocion y buena seleccion musical, pero no justifica que quiten a muchos pokemon con los que creci por segun meter calidad en los que metieran que algunos si tienen movimientos muy trabajados, pero otros se ven muy genericos...… Expand
  7. Kechosz
    Nov 28, 2019
    6
    Big pokemon fan here. Well first of all the new pokemon are really interesting. Not the usual kind of montsers and i like it. The graphics are meh... Some stuff looks great like the textures of pokemon are better and the routes are nice but the wild area is something like in the early 2000.t The animations are horrible. The story is really dumb nothing really interesting. Altough i enjoyBig pokemon fan here. Well first of all the new pokemon are really interesting. Not the usual kind of montsers and i like it. The graphics are meh... Some stuff looks great like the textures of pokemon are better and the routes are nice but the wild area is something like in the early 2000.t The animations are horrible. The story is really dumb nothing really interesting. Altough i enjoy the game like battleing and shiny hunting i must say this is not something you put out on anewish console. It could've been much better and nicer.… Expand
  8. riverkev95
    Jun 17, 2020
    5
    Es un juego con muchas ideas interesantes pero ejecutadas de una forma cuestionable.
    Muchas decisiones del juego son polémicas y definitivamente se nota que le hicieron muchas horas de desarrollo para obtener una experiencia decente.
    El juego brilla por sus mecánicas clásicas, accesibilidad a nuevos miembros y curiosas innovaciones, pero falla terriblemente en quitar cosas de    Es un juego con muchas ideas interesantes pero ejecutadas de una forma cuestionable.
    Muchas decisiones del juego son polémicas y definitivamente se nota que le hicieron muchas horas de desarrollo para obtener una experiencia decente.

    El juego brilla por sus mecánicas clásicas, accesibilidad a nuevos miembros y curiosas innovaciones, pero falla terriblemente en quitar cosas de generaciones anteriores que ya estaban muy bien recibidas por los jugadores.
    Un gran error fue recortar casi la mitad de los pokémon y carecer de un post-Game decente. Este contenido faltante se venderá en un pase de expansión de $30.00 que contendrá más de 200 pokémon y el post-game que le hizo falta, aún así no se completará la pokedex nacional.

    En conclusión, Pokémon Sword/Shield no es un pésimo juego, pero está lejos de ser un buen juego. Es un juego entretenido, pero mediocre. Los más fanáticos, aquellos que compraban ambas versiones desembolsarán mucho dinero ya que pasarán de gastar $80.00 a $180.00 ya que el pase de expansión es ligeramente diferente para cada juego y se vende de esa manera.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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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