Pokemon Sword

 Switch
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5909 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,997 out of 5909
  2. Mixed: 852 out of 5909
  3. Negative: 3,060 out of 5909
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  1. IcyLucario
    Nov 21, 2019
    0
    Released with serious SD card formatting bugs, immensely disappointing content cuts, mediocre graphics, poor animation and outright lies to the fanbase.

    I have never been so disappointed with not only Game Freak, Pokémon, but also Nintendo themselves. The only reason this game isn't being treated worse is the favoritism Nintendo and Pokémon gets; and that's coming from a big fan of    Released with serious SD card formatting bugs, immensely disappointing content cuts, mediocre graphics, poor animation and outright lies to the fanbase.

    I have never been so disappointed with not only Game Freak, Pokémon, but also Nintendo themselves.

    The only reason this game isn't being treated worse is the favoritism Nintendo and Pokémon gets; and that's coming from a big fan of both no less.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. Ryuseii
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Problems with Sword and Shield:
    Digital versions have had occurences of all saves on the switch being deleted.
    They removed 66% of the pokemon. They removed moves. The main game is very short. 8 gyms beaten within 12 hours, post game short as well. Catching pokemon restrictions based on badges. Many towns being literal hallways Especially the 7th one. Villain team is an afterthought    Problems with Sword and Shield:
    Digital versions have had occurences of all saves on the switch being deleted.
    They removed 66% of the pokemon.
    They removed moves.
    The main game is very short. 8 gyms beaten within 12 hours, post game short as well.
    Catching pokemon restrictions based on badges.
    Many towns being literal hallways Especially the 7th one.
    Villain team is an afterthought not even villains.
    No shinies on the overworld which even a game like Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee can do.

    Positives about Sword and Shield

    It has Joltik, and Joltik is adorable.    … Expand
  4. Tarasios
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    This game is like an uncooked unseasoned potato: Bland and simple.

    It lacks the depth of any other game, being a straight line through. No hidden paths or secrets. And once you finish the main story that's it, you are done. You unlock the "battle tower" which has even less features than any prior simple "battle tower" and absolutely nothing else. The only positives are some good new    This game is like an uncooked unseasoned potato: Bland and simple.

    It lacks the depth of any other game, being a straight line through. No hidden paths or secrets. And once you finish the main story that's it, you are done. You unlock the "battle tower" which has even less features than any prior simple "battle tower" and absolutely nothing else.

    The only positives are some good new Pokemon designs, but the excitement over new Pokemon is dulled thanks to the National Dex cut meaning that I can't even be sure that I can keep them with me.

    Dynamaxing is fine but ultimately hollow. It combines mega evolution and z moves and manages to capture the worst of both. Even those who enjoy it can look forward to it being cut from the next game.

    Curry and Camping are barely even relevant to gameplay, and serve no purpose aside from being something they can add to the games "features list". As though they were added to meet a quota.

    This is a disgrace to the franchise, and it saddens me to see my favourite brand doing so poorly.    … Expand
  5. 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!
  6. ChicoGamer
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Esta es la nueva experiencia RPG Pokémon de la que se hablaba? Sigue siendo la misma fórmula de siempre que a estos vagos de GameFreak les encanta, sólo que con menos Pokémons, con un apartado técnico LAMENTABLE para ser una Switch y unas animaciones recicladas de otros juegos y ya no hablemos de la duración del juego y el Lategame, una decepción total y dinero tirado a la basura.
  7. cruzathor89
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    ¿Pero esto que es? no hay ciclo día noche, se han gastado más en personalizar al personaje con ropa que en los detalles del juego.

    Mapeado de botones totalmente vacío. En 2019. Skins repetidas... El tercer entrenador que te encuentras es el mismo que el primero... Vamos a ver... Que no estamos en 1998 por dios. Pokémon totalmente reciclados de generaciones anteriores.,simple, sobre    ¿Pero esto que es? no hay ciclo día noche, se han gastado más en personalizar al personaje con ropa que en los detalles del juego.

    Mapeado de botones totalmente vacío. En 2019.

    Skins repetidas... El tercer entrenador que te encuentras es el mismo que el primero... Vamos a ver... Que no estamos en 1998 por dios. Pokémon totalmente reciclados de generaciones anteriores.,simple, sobre explicado, creo que el equipo de Game freak necesita unas vacaciones después de esto. De verdad, soy seguidor de la saga desde la game boy. Y aunque la banda sonora y se salve... Por dios la cámara fija, el mapa totalmente lineal... Vamos que es el equivalente a final fantasy XIII pero para la saga pokémon. Un auténtico despropósito. 1/10    … Expand
  8. SomaKurusu
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Este juego sin dudas es un paso atrás en la saga. Fácilmente puede pasar por un juego de 3ds con mejor resolución. Graficos regulares con animaciones pésimas, Pokedex recortada sin justificación alguna para der un juego de 2019. Mismas mecánicas de hace 20 años sin innovar en nada, historia muy cutre y una banda sonora que cumple y ya. Una decepción para una de las compañías que más dineroEste juego sin dudas es un paso atrás en la saga. Fácilmente puede pasar por un juego de 3ds con mejor resolución. Graficos regulares con animaciones pésimas, Pokedex recortada sin justificación alguna para der un juego de 2019. Mismas mecánicas de hace 20 años sin innovar en nada, historia muy cutre y una banda sonora que cumple y ya. Una decepción para una de las compañías que más dinero recauda al año. Pokemon se ha convertido en el nuevo Call of Duty.… Expand
  9. Ruandro
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    too pricy for such an unpolished game. seen some improvement but far far away than enough improvement. Gamefreak should sell this IP to better company
  10. Wiki
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    La mitad de Pokémon, 100 ataques menos, no Z-moves, no megaevolución, no postgame, mecanicas para niños de 7 años, repartir experiencia por defecto, modelados de 3DS... sigo? Tiene casi los mismos bugs que tipos de curry. JUEGO PARA CASUALS
  11. lejou123
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    gamefrik are liars and thieves.

    le jeux le plus facil de la seri / des graphisme de gamcube / pokemon+ attaque suprimer avec une excuse bison / animation a chié / les starter horrible / pas mal de bug .

    the worst pokemon console games
  12. Pablo92
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    A really rushed game, not worth the time or the money. poor quality models, textures, animation an cuts everywhere, in the pokedex, in the features, etc. please gamefreack this series deserves better.
  13. Faber1996
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    You can complete the WHOLE game in less than 15 hours (Without speedrunning) which is really not enough for a GDR like Pokémon. There's not even post-game content. The graphics are terrible, It looks like an upscaled 3ds game. Models and animations are trash and they are the same of the previous 3ds games. They cut almost 500 Pokémon a and over 100 moves. The new addictions are bad too:You can complete the WHOLE game in less than 15 hours (Without speedrunning) which is really not enough for a GDR like Pokémon. There's not even post-game content. The graphics are terrible, It looks like an upscaled 3ds game. Models and animations are trash and they are the same of the previous 3ds games. They cut almost 500 Pokémon a and over 100 moves. The new addictions are bad too: Dynamaxing is just annoying, raids are boring and the wild area Is almost empty. Moreover you can't turn off the exp. share, so your pokemons are alwais overleveled and the game Is TOO Easy. This Is not worth 60€...not even 30… Expand
  14. 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, but in overall it's just your normal pokemon experience, a new region, new pokemon to find except there is much less to do than previous entries and 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 $60.    … Expand
  15. Rumin
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    They've gutted the national dex, some pokemon moves, items and reused the 3ds models, removed Mega evolutions, and many other features. And for what? Pokemon needing a 30s animation to become gigantic only to faint to one super effective move, rendering the process needless, textures that look like they have been directly copied from N64's OOT, the gameworld freezing when using anyThey've gutted the national dex, some pokemon moves, items and reused the 3ds models, removed Mega evolutions, and many other features. And for what? Pokemon needing a 30s animation to become gigantic only to faint to one super effective move, rendering the process needless, textures that look like they have been directly copied from N64's OOT, the gameworld freezing when using any ladders, save files deleted upon crashing, models of trees and other gameworld object popping up in front of you, rather than in a more illicit manner as you would expect from a multi-billion dollar franchise, I cannot even begin to fathom what sort of thinking process goes through their incompetent developers while making this game, did they skip their Object Oriented Programming classes? Laziness? Indifference?
    Absolutely shameful display. Apply yourself, Gamefreak.    … Expand
  16. Tatertodd
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    It's very clear Gamefreak did not even try when making this game. its really sad because ive always been a huge pokemon fan, I played 2 hours of this game and dont think I'll be playing any more of it.
  17. Ayaan
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Unfinished 3DS game on the switch that offers less value that previous 40$ installments
  18. frkmark
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I can't believe Game Freak can develope this type of garbage. The vast of adult public that was waiting for this game can't be more frustrated. Poor story, poor graphics, bad animations, and the worst draw distance I've seen in a long time.… Expand
  19. Orodur
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Easiest game I've ever played. Unnecesary cut of main content from previous games. N64 graphics. Programming issues and bugs. Overall laziness
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. Noctis_Strife
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The First Pokemon I wont buy. First, what 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 theThe First Pokemon I wont buy. First, what 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, whenn you haven't played theam already, much more content much more everything    … Expand
  23. AzazelSC
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This is an insult to fans and video games alike. Please do not fall in this trap, don't give into the hype. This game feels like an incomplete mess, everything is restricted and the world feels absolutely empty.
  24. Calibur-X
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    La generacion pokemon mas mediocre hasta la fecha, un insulto para los fans de pokemon y los usuarios de switch, una estafa perpretada por una compañia que obviamente le queda demasiado grande lo de programar juegos de ultima generacion. El boom de pokemon go ya presagiaba este futuro donde game freak es la nueva square enix/ubisoft
  25. besf0rt
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I never really cared too much about the Pokedex controversy, but I could always understand why others did. However:

    Let us assume that all Pokemon were included. THIS GAME IS STILL A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. Seriously: Pokemon is probably the biggest Nintendo franchise in the world now. How come all other Switch titles have better graphics and overall higher visual/technical standards?    I never really cared too much about the Pokedex controversy, but I could always understand why others did. However:

    Let us assume that all Pokemon were included. THIS GAME IS STILL A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.

    Seriously: Pokemon is probably the biggest Nintendo franchise in the world now. How come all other Switch titles have better graphics and overall higher visual/technical standards?

    Game Design students in the future will look at this game to draw lessons on listening to users and how to prevent doing sloppy work not in their service.

    Guys, XXL Pokemon? (Why not include new Mega Evolutions instead?)

    Come back to earth GameFreak. It's not that difficult to please most Pokemon fans, here is one little tip:

    LISTEN. TO. US.    … Expand
  26. burntlime
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    cut content with no improvements to justify it. i’ve been a hardcore pokémon fan for as long as i can remember and this is the first pokémon game (including spinoffs) i can say i genuinely hate the existence of. if it wasn’t for the greed of gamefreak wanting the game out by christmas, they wouldn’t have needed to change their policy, and we could still have all the pokémon. also thecut content with no improvements to justify it. i’ve been a hardcore pokémon fan for as long as i can remember and this is the first pokémon game (including spinoffs) i can say i genuinely hate the existence of. if it wasn’t for the greed of gamefreak wanting the game out by christmas, they wouldn’t have needed to change their policy, and we could still have all the pokémon. also the animations look like **** sans just a few, and i’m an animator myself. don’t support gamefreak’s absolute greed. spend your money on something gorgeous and fun like luigi’s mansion 3.… Expand
  27. Gyeasty
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The newest mainline Pokemon game we've all been waiting for is in fact a disaster for the series. While only adding 81 new pokemon to the series, these new games managed to remove 490 (yeah, 490) pokemon from previous games, possibly forever. You won't be able to bring back your favorite pokemon that have been with you for years. Pokemon like Lucario, Dragonite, Greninja, and Sceptile areThe newest mainline Pokemon game we've all been waiting for is in fact a disaster for the series. While only adding 81 new pokemon to the series, these new games managed to remove 490 (yeah, 490) pokemon from previous games, possibly forever. You won't be able to bring back your favorite pokemon that have been with you for years. Pokemon like Lucario, Dragonite, Greninja, and Sceptile are gone forever, erased from these future games along with all mega evolutions. You would think that after erasing so many pokemon, Game Freak would add quality new pokemon to the series. But alas, and of course, no they did not. Grookey is the only starter that has a final evolution with a reasonably good design and none of the starters gain a dual type. There are only a few pokemon released in these games that are even usable in competitive play. Pokemon like Dragapult and Grimmsnarl are few and far between within the absolute pile of trash these new pokemon offer. Dynamax is a stupid gimmick that should have never been introduced and I feel like Game Freak is only hyping it up because they even realize it was a huge mistake. "Ooh, big pokemon, me like big pokemon." The only reason I'm giving this a 1 and not a 0 is because there were some decent functionality improvements to the game, but that in no way accounts for the absolute lack of content in these mainline games. I've been a lifelong Pokemon fan - from the first games that came out on gamboy, Red and Blue, and it hurts for me to say that this is the first major step backwards I've seen the company make in that time. What these games present for players is a purgatory of dreams deferred, a useful, connected space void of quality content and the hope that anything great will follow.… Expand
  28. Ray-Zide
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Honestly not that good of a game
    Just X/Y with less features and lags quite a bit and has less pokemon than a DS game from 10 years ago
  29. Griknor
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    this game and its counter part are a mess. reused assets from the 3ds titles, reused animations, over 55% of pokemon are missing regarless of the fact that every game on much less powerful hardware and smaller game size had all the missing pokemon and the missing moves. gigamax is nothing more then a shiny gimmick that loses its charm well before you start playing or using it. the gamesthis game and its counter part are a mess. reused assets from the 3ds titles, reused animations, over 55% of pokemon are missing regarless of the fact that every game on much less powerful hardware and smaller game size had all the missing pokemon and the missing moves. gigamax is nothing more then a shiny gimmick that loses its charm well before you start playing or using it. the games constantly bug out and have framerate, unstable graphics, unstable models and resolution issues, and when its not bugging out its just ugly with poor quality textures. everything in game feels floaty, like you arent grounded and could fly off any second. the new designs are for the most part ugly or too digimon looking to be a pokemon(this has been a major problem since xy, though black and white has its fair share of issue designs), this heavily clashes with older designs and causes quite the confusion for people who know of pokemon but dont keep up with the series. the game is far to easy and lacks any nuance, this is in part due to the direction they keep forcing the games to go, this should be an rpg not a instant gratification simulator. this is a poor quality game on the levels of fallout76, avoid purchasing at all cost.… Expand
  30. mouse77
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    While there are a lot of things I really enjoyed about Sword & Shield, I also feel it's one of the weakest in the series to date. As someone who's played pretty much every Pokemon title multiple times, I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay that Sword and Shield did offer, because, well....Pokemon. However, that's also the first and largest problem with these new installments. TheWhile there are a lot of things I really enjoyed about Sword & Shield, I also feel it's one of the weakest in the series to date. As someone who's played pretty much every Pokemon title multiple times, I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay that Sword and Shield did offer, because, well....Pokemon. However, that's also the first and largest problem with these new installments. The amount of gameplay. Not only is there not a lot of it, having one of the shortest storylines of any game, but what you did get is more than a bit lackluster. The story felt generic, the villains weak and forgettable, and the various sections of story felt extremely fragmented and weirdly juxtaposed. Whereas most of the games up until now had several hours of plot outside the main gym/pokemon league challenge revolving around evil corporations or various crime syndicates, this one.....had three different and unrelated groups, none of whom stuck around for more than like 15 minutes? Not to mention were entirely unremarkable and kinda pitiful, both as characters and as attempts at storytelling. Additionally, the gameplay not plot-specific in Sword & Shield felt fairly empty. Too much was done for you in these games, making the experience overall feel exceptionally....empty. No HM's/outside of battle pokemon moves, an integrated, immutable exp share that came at the start of the game with no challenge, constant hand-holding by NPC's, and a map that is vastly smaller than even some of the earliest games (the wild area being a bright point though). The games just felt kinda hollow.

    Secondly, the leveling/grinding mechanics in this game are largely broken. Between the aforementioned exp share issue, and the constant rain of exp boosters from the wild area, the games became pretty broken extremely fast. While I appreciate the attempt to change the grinding mechanic from how it used to be (especially since the grinding mechanic in previous games made them far less playable/enjoyable after the main storyline concluded), this was a poorly thought-out effort. With barely an hour spent roaming the vastness of the wild area, my starter made the jump from lv 18 or so to well into the lv 50 range, making the rest of the game a joke. And mind you, this was before so much as reaching the first gym. While one could argue that simply not playing the game that way would solve that issue, the player shouldn't rewarded with an empty gaming experience just for using the mechanics and features presented in the game. Really, I was just disappointed with the ease of the game once I'd finished the wild area. A system for leveling up that doesn't take quite as long as previous generations, but is more fun and rewarding, and ofc challenging, than having exp boosts rained on you is desperately needed.

    Some other small cons to these games:

    -Unremarkable graphics. While superior to any of the DS/handheld games, the graphics were only SLIGHTLY better than Wii pokemon games such as Battle revolution, which came out over 10 yrs ago.
    -Battle tower was probably the least inspired yet. Really generic.
    -Virtually nothing to do postgame (after only 25ish hrs), unless you really love the Battle Tower.
    -Low level enemies/rivals. I know this one applies to most pokemon games, but still. There need to be more challenging enemies to fight around or after the endgame point. How hard would it be to add some lv 100 trainers in an optional side plot? Or a hard mode at least?
    -Generic legendaries.
    -Terrible boss fights (super hand-holding)
    -No Global Trade System. Why?

    Good Points:

    -The new random encounter mechanics were super fun! Loved being able to sprint through the grass and choose which pokemon I wanted to encounter. Excellent mechanic!
    -Adding on to the previous one, the concept of very tough looking pokemon was really fun, and made for a really exciting/motivating sneak peak of late gameplay.
    -The wild area overall was the single best part of the game. One or two more such areas filled with a lot more trainers and activities would have improved the experience, but nonetheless, an excellent addition.
    -The dynamaxing was fun, though could have been expanded a lot more. The trainer version, for example, never involved shields, which was pretty anti-climatic.
    -Water bike, fossil pokemon (kinda? super limited), camping, breakable TM's (TR's), skippable tutorials.    … Expand
  31. 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 personalties 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
  32. aoike
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    The good:

    -The new minimalist UI is a sleek upgrade from previous games in the series. -8th generation Pokemon designs are great, with only a few exceptions. -The visuals and art style of the new towns is fantastic and in some places makes up for the game's poor graphics. -The new stadium format for the gym leader battles is fun. -Trainer customization. The neutral: -The music    The good:

    -The new minimalist UI is a sleek upgrade from previous games in the series.
    -8th generation Pokemon designs are great, with only a few exceptions.
    -The visuals and art style of the new towns is fantastic and in some places makes up for the game's poor graphics.
    -The new stadium format for the gym leader battles is fun.
    -Trainer customization.

    The neutral:
    -The music is polarizing, some great tracks yet some of the worst the series has to offer.

    The bad:

    -The new wild area, whilst a good idea in conception, ends up feeling empty and lifeless with little to explore.
    -The routes are both small in size and quantity, with only 10 in total and not a single dungeon more complex than Viridian Forest, it finds itself being frustratingly linear from start to finish.
    -The game is insultingly easy. It holds your hand through it's entirety, constantly "gifting" you with heals and revives making sure to remove any single semblance of challenge it could have had. Similarly, the removal of the ability to turn the exp share off, which isn't an issue in and of itself, leaves your party over-leveled for almost all battles due the game's to poor balancing; you actively have to avoid trainers and wild Pokemon to stop this. (Almost all of the difficulty issues would be moot if Gamefreak added in difficulty options for once)
    -The characters are mostly bland carbon copies from previous games, with the better designed and more interesting ones being few and far between.
    -Pokemon, moves and features from past games are cut for seemingly no reason other than Gamefreak simply ran out of time before release.
    -The game is far too short, ranging from 15 to 25 hours with almost no post game to make up for it.
    -Dated animations and graphics compared to other Switch JRPGs like Dragon Quest XI.

    Overall, Pokemon Sword and Shield are rushed and unfinished games with clear potential unfortunately hindered by a myriad of glaring flaws.    … Expand
  33. Gfsucks
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Gf lied im not buying this game unless they update. Its a buggy overhyped mess and i hope it flops
  34. einszweidrei
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Just like most other Game Freak games, one step forward costs two steps backwards. In our case, the first step backwards might be the fact that the national dex and thus intergenerational 'mon ownership are pretty much dead - without ANY WILL to FIX THAT through an UPDATE! - and they want to you to buy a SCAM called Pokémon HOME until your favorite mon eventually gets into a new game ifJust like most other Game Freak games, one step forward costs two steps backwards. In our case, the first step backwards might be the fact that the national dex and thus intergenerational 'mon ownership are pretty much dead - without ANY WILL to FIX THAT through an UPDATE! - and they want to you to buy a SCAM called Pokémon HOME until your favorite mon eventually gets into a new game if you're lucky. But let's talk about the games themselves... once again, the difficulty is nonexistent. By that i mean nonexistent to the point that it takes kids for idiots - you're basically constantly overleveled without even trying. And there's no hard mode to justify that. (in previous games, you could disable that item that gives exp to the whole party to prevent the overlevel, but you can't even do that anymore)
    And the game is a wild ride of bad decisions, like locking the SOUND SETTINGS behind a key item. . Also just like Sun/Moon again, the game constantly annoys you with unskippable dialogs every new route or town. I mean, the dialogs really aren't the problem, but if you intend to play this game again, not being able to skip them will quickly annoy you. We're talking about a fastforward/skip buttons, something about as normal as saving your game! I won't go too much into spoilers, but this game prevents you from catching a certain Pokémon, while Heartgold/Soulsilver allowed you to catch it in a similar situation back then. It may be a bit frustrating for anyone to see this happen. (also, yeah, it's true, sometimes NPC pop out of nowhere, i'm not really annoyed by that, though)
    That being said, the game has good to it. The max raid battles are quite fun and feel like actual bosses (more than the Totem Pokémon from Sun/Moon), and the game is an improvement in some aspects, like the intro of gym leaders battle, which feels really smooth. Or the fact that you can now skip the catching tutorial if you catch a mon with the few balls that are given to you at the start.
    I hope you'll have more fun than me if you do get it!    … Expand
  35. pokefan4ever
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    This game is too poorly made in too many areas. My son was really excited for this game, but when we played it we experienced too many crashes. I don't know why it happened, but it happened over the course of 4 hours. The moments we did get to play the game was very monotonous. Both my son and I have played previous Pokemon games, but from the bad graphics (relative to the other SwitchThis game is too poorly made in too many areas. My son was really excited for this game, but when we played it we experienced too many crashes. I don't know why it happened, but it happened over the course of 4 hours. The moments we did get to play the game was very monotonous. Both my son and I have played previous Pokemon games, but from the bad graphics (relative to the other Switch games) and shoddy music, and uninteresting Pokemon designs, we simply could not bear to continue. I got Digimon Cyber Sleuth instead, and WOW, the game looks and plays so much better. My son enjoys the Digimon designs, (and the ladies) more than Pokemon.… Expand
  36. truestofreviews
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This game obliterated my SD card on top of being a half-assed experience with half the Pokemon gone for NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
  37. Delancie
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    No all pokemoni, crappy graphics, The Pokemon company doesn't love his fans
  38. FGDireito
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    I was going to give this game a solid 5, it's not a bad game but neither it's a great game, this is just fine, but the more I think about it the more disappointed I get.
    This is a 60€ game it as to be compared with its Switch peers of the same price and not like it's a random indie game, this game rightly deserves the tough love that it's getting, just because it's Pokémon doesn't make it    I was going to give this game a solid 5, it's not a bad game but neither it's a great game, this is just fine, but the more I think about it the more disappointed I get.
    This is a 60€ game it as to be compared with its Switch peers of the same price and not like it's a random indie game, this game rightly deserves the tough love that it's getting, just because it's Pokémon doesn't make it automatic free from criticism.
    The technical issues in this game are just unacceptable for 2019, pop-ins everywhere in a very small 10m radius makes the world feel empty and bland. Animations look so stiff and outdated, why does the world freezes around me while I fish or climb ladders? Why are some background battles just white voids when even the Let’sGo games had that right? The textures quality is all over the place too, the worst ones are in par with Nintendo64 and the best ones are 3DS quality, but please don’t forget that this is a Switch game.
    The camping is quite cute actually but shallow, pokéjobs are ok but forgetful just like the whole dynamax thing is just a gimmick, the wild area looks like the main selling point this time but it’s just meh, a nice idea but really poorly executed and with almost no exploration after the first full run, the world is pretty much a straight line, there is no kind of exploration, do you remember places like Mt. Mortar, Seafoam Islands or Whirl Islands? There is nothing like that here, the most dungeon-like exploration you will get is something like Viridian Forest and it never gets more difficult than that.
    The game difficult is non- existent like the post-game, also why is the exp.share mandatory? Give us more options, don’t take them away...
    I don't even care about the lack of National Dex drama, but I do understand why people are upset about it, also the National Dex was cut with the excuse on delivering better animations and a more carefully crafted game but the overall game polish is worse than ever, plus lots of other cut content, the quality of the game is 100% more important than not having all the Pokemon for sure. I would rather have a high quality game with 100 Pokemon than a stinker with 1000 Pokemon. When will we get battle animations like Pokémon Battle Revolution? Aren’t battles the main selling point anyway? We shouldn't be here comparing animations from OG Pokémon Stadium (1998) with Sword/Shield, yet here we are, how is this acceptable!? This is Pokémon they have deep pockets they can make it, hire or outsource more people if you need.
    I am not going to talk about the new pokémon designs since that is a subjective opinion, but I quite like Dragapult.
    For me pokémon peaked with HG/SS and the highest point of its ambition was BW/BW2, Pokémon Sword/Shield feels and looks like a rushed game, it needed that extra year and more ambition to become something special...    … Expand
  39. TheAiTgod
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I'm disappointed so much. This game is the worst Pokemon main series game ever. Short, easy and expensive.
  40. Jaxks
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good the style looks nice in some areas but it does not make up for the ugly new pokemon that where made to replace old ones and the lack of things to do in the game.    … Expand
  41. naxtinguisher
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Gamefreaks latest entry in the pokemon franchise leaves much to be desired as many big features were cut for no apparent reason. Speaking of big features one of the main selling points of this game was the dynamax battles, however these get much too easy very quickly it feels like this was an idea they threw in at the last second as the game doesn't really seem to be designed to facilitateGamefreaks latest entry in the pokemon franchise leaves much to be desired as many big features were cut for no apparent reason. Speaking of big features one of the main selling points of this game was the dynamax battles, however these get much too easy very quickly it feels like this was an idea they threw in at the last second as the game doesn't really seem to be designed to facilitate these battles, the mandatory xp share allows you to level up rather fast early in the game making raid battles and gym battles feel like fighting a weak route 1 pokemon. While camping with your pokemon and making curry can be fun for about ten minutes I don't really understand why it exists other than to look at cute creatures when you're bored of what the main game has to offer, which isn't much. Most pokemon games I've played throughout my life I've managed to get enjoyment out of for at least 100 hours, after playing this game for 20 I felt I had seen everything it had to offer. I did enjoy the wild area for awhile, however the appalling draw distance took me out of any immersion I may have experienced, overall I feel this game could have benefited from a longer development time or even collaboration with another team.… Expand
  42. welliforgot
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    (Score is subject to change)

    My first thoughts this game are just "passionless" and "empty". Every mainline previous entry in the franchise has always gripped me with an endearing world and cast of imaginative critters. But I feel that magic has vanished with the newest entry. I have to be honest, the feeling of emptiness has to do with the fact that Pokemon as a franchise will no    (Score is subject to change)

    My first thoughts this game are just "passionless" and "empty". Every mainline previous entry in the franchise has always gripped me with an endearing world and cast of imaginative critters. But I feel that magic has vanished with the newest entry. I have to be honest, the feeling of emptiness has to do with the fact that Pokemon as a franchise will no longer feel progressive. The design choices made for this game to remove older pokemon and the fact this will supposedly continue with entries in the future has genuinely dampened my enjoyment of the games. Without the sense of lasting progression, now pokemon sword has to stand as an rpg game on its own since it no longer will connect directly with the other entries, but the game itself is just a passionless, brainless chore. The battles against trainers feel like a chore, since the challenge is somehow even less than before as my pokemon are much over leveled without much effort at all from me. I was hoping to feel something when I got to dynamax my pokemon for the first time at a gym, but again it just felt like an auto-win button and didn't require any challenge, thought, or excitement. People have told me that something like this was inevitable to happen for the franchise because it couldn't sustain everything forever. I guess they also failed to mention that when it did happen, it was also the death of the franchise for me. There are vastly superior rpg experiences out there in combat, story, and excitement overall, made much more obvious now that what made this particular franchise stand out at all is gone. I am not completely finished with the game so my score and review may change, but it may take a while since my motivation to complete the game is extremely low.    … Expand
  43. NormalReview
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    At this point GBA titles were better in almost every aspect outside of the graphical update. A lot of great things got removed, changed for worse, you can tell the soul that used to be there got sucked out ages ago.

    Please, don't let this franchise continue like this. The flaws that were there are still here after 2 generations and instead of listening Game Freak decides to lie to their    At this point GBA titles were better in almost every aspect outside of the graphical update. A lot of great things got removed, changed for worse, you can tell the soul that used to be there got sucked out ages ago.

    Please, don't let this franchise continue like this. The flaws that were there are still here after 2 generations and instead of listening Game Freak decides to lie to their fans instead. If you can have fun with these games good for you.    … Expand
  44. WettyTamm
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    This isn't Pokemon, it's a soulless work by creators who clearly want to move onto something new. The actual game is fine and fun bur it just oozes with "who cares" moments
  45. NegroSnake
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    As every Pokemon game, this entry in the series is still enjoyable. But the overall quality of the product is lackluster considering it's a new generation of the franchise on a new generation console, it gives the feeling that the developers didn't really care. Too many sacrifices, too many cut corners, feels rushed, is the shortest game in the series and most new mechanics are empty andAs every Pokemon game, this entry in the series is still enjoyable. But the overall quality of the product is lackluster considering it's a new generation of the franchise on a new generation console, it gives the feeling that the developers didn't really care. Too many sacrifices, too many cut corners, feels rushed, is the shortest game in the series and most new mechanics are empty and unfun. So my advice is: save your money for something better. There are better RPGs on the system such as Dragon Quest XI or Digimon CyberSleuth.… Expand
  46. ZackAce
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I was so excited to play this next gen pokemon game...but the game is just a joke.
    Main story is around 20 hours,its linear , towns feel empty with nothing to do, wild areas are very unpolished with framerate issues and nothing to explore , game is super easy , half of the pokedex is missing and the models of pokemon and characters are reused from previous games. Dynamax is ridiculously    I was so excited to play this next gen pokemon game...but the game is just a joke.
    Main story is around 20 hours,its linear , towns feel empty with nothing to do, wild areas are very unpolished with framerate issues and nothing to explore , game is super easy , half of the pokedex is missing and the models of pokemon and characters are reused from previous games. Dynamax is ridiculously stupid compared to mega evolution...it feels like gamefreak is unable to make a pokemon game the franchise and the fans deserve.    … Expand
  47. audi1005
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Less Pokemon, less move, less play-time,
    no Elite Four. no mega, no z-move, no GTS.    … Expand
  48. Akino1994
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Gamefreak not only snapped half of the pokemon, they also snapped half their development effort.
    It's a buggy mess of a game and you shoudn't get it.
    And it comes with FREE DLC of snapping your safe files of all your games too.
  49. DiogeneLaerzio
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Game is legitimately terrible, people are starting to realize and awaken from their eternal slumber, Game Freak is getting away by publishing terrible games. It won't happen this time, and verily so indeed.
  50. Eddieman
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Nintendo/Game Freak lied to us that this game is build from the ground up. Its just a copy and paste formula of the Pokemon 3DS games. Not only that, but they had the audacity make some ignorant excuse of why they removed over half of the national pokedex.
  51. xCore
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    GF is killing this saga.
    Ridiculous animations, 3DS textures...Unfortunately, I had to skip the purchase, I would NEVER pay for this stuff.
  52. oshawott94
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    One of the worst games I ever played. Even Let's Go PE outsold and that tell a lot. Really disappointed with everything in this game. Not a single highlight. Sad.
  53. Ijidrillo
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    A Game Freak le ha quedado grande la nintendo switch para una nueva entrega de pokémon de nueva generación. Ustedes saben los por qué.
  54. 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
  55. IWantOffGFsRide
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I wanted the game to be good. I thought LGPE was just testing the waters for GF. I trusted GF. But nope! Now LGPE is the direction the series is going now.

    Please, Masuda and Ohmori, go have sex with the smartphones you're so obsessed with. Then marry them, have children with them, and get accused of rape by them. Get screwed.
  56. NotAChansey
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    For a long time pokemon has been criticised for it's lack of originality, but its fans always appreciated to care and attention to detail that gamefreak would put in to each new release.
    Poke.on sword/shield is the product of board room think tanks analysing what does and doesnt need to be in pokemon for it to sell.
    Sword and shield are the result of a practice of reducing a game to the    For a long time pokemon has been criticised for it's lack of originality, but its fans always appreciated to care and attention to detail that gamefreak would put in to each new release.
    Poke.on sword/shield is the product of board room think tanks analysing what does and doesnt need to be in pokemon for it to sell.

    Sword and shield are the result of a practice of reducing a game to the least amount of effort possible (no new animations, cut pokemon, re-use of assets, removal of many beloved details and features i.e. mega evolution, weather cycles, global trade network).

    Detractors will say its unfair to demand high effort products from gamefreak, I think that is a pathetic opinion only those who wish to stay on a company's good side would hold. The fact of the matter is that gamefreak is trying to see what they can get away with, vote with your wallet.    … Expand
  57. HenryDavids
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Many people are giving this game an underserved 10/10 -- it's not. What can I say that hasn't been said before?

    -The animations both in the overworld and in battle range from abysmal to nonexistent -- save for the signature moves, which are actually done really well. It would be fantastic if the rest of the animations had as much care put into them. -Numerous expansive, empty areas make    Many people are giving this game an underserved 10/10 -- it's not. What can I say that hasn't been said before?

    -The animations both in the overworld and in battle range from abysmal to nonexistent -- save for the signature moves, which are actually done really well. It would be fantastic if the rest of the animations had as much care put into them. -Numerous expansive, empty areas make the game feel hollow.
    -Areas with many NPCs/things to do are very small in size, and/or extremely linear. -Removed moves for seemingly no reason.
    -Storyline is the usual; more friendly, and/or pushover rivals.
    -More Kanto pandering -- a little would be fine, but it's done so frequently now and in the last few gens that you may as well just pick up Red/Blue/Yellow and play those instead.
    -Pokémon and trainers pop in and out of existence in the Wild Area, akin to an N64 game.
    -Again, the overworld animations are, without exaggeration, THE worst I have ever seen on a modern console. NPCs and Pokémon spin 180 degrees on their axis to turn; for example, Wingulls hover in mid air without flapping their wings (yet do so just fine in battle). -The entire overworld (Pokémon and NPCs) immediately freeze when doing actions like climbing a ladder.

    If you really love Pokémon, it plays OK, and the basics are all there. If your favorite Pokémon are in, the culling won't really affect you, but the downsized movepool surely will. And keep in mine that if your favorite made it into these games, they very likely won't be in the next one. I hope you really like Pikachu, because that's the only one that'll always be guaranteed to return.

    Personally, I don't mind a rotating Pokédex if it means the general game quality improves exponentially -- depressingly, the opposite happened and the Pokémon series continues it's inexorable decline into abject failure.    … Expand
  58. Bruhhh_
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Subpar experience littered with issues, disappointing for a AAA title sitting with giants like BOTW or Smash Ultimate. Not the game for hardcore fans, but if you casually play Pokémon, you should find some enjoyment in it somewhere.
  59. Ziop98
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Low quality graphics, Game Freak lied about dexcut connected to new models and better animation, the story is probably the worst for a main line pokemon game, no post game, bad soundtrack, just 3 legendary, new pokemon desgins suck. Probably is worse than LGPE, which was in my opinion the worst pokemon game until this
  60. 300549248
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    You'd be an absolute retard if you bought this game. Please read all the generally unfavourable reviews, they are all true! Use your money for something else.
  61. Melgill
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    #bringbacknationaldex
    #gamefreaklied
    Every pokémon is someone's favourite, this is just unacceptable!
  62. TTarps
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    What has Pokemon become?

    Its now longer an adventure but a hand holding unfinished bug ridden carcass of what was once a beloved franchise.
  63. KamiNoKaze
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    У игры огромная куча проблем - с технической точки зрения, игра отстала на лет 15 от своих конкурентов, куча багов визуальных, периодически вылетает, анимация хромает, дизайны новых покемонов напоминают скорее персонажей, вырезанных из фильмов студии Пиксар, нежели чем поков, сюжет еще примитивнее, чем обычно. Музыка буквально вызывает головную боль. В боях поки до сих пор стоят какУ игры огромная куча проблем - с технической точки зрения, игра отстала на лет 15 от своих конкурентов, куча багов визуальных, периодически вылетает, анимация хромает, дизайны новых покемонов напоминают скорее персонажей, вырезанных из фильмов студии Пиксар, нежели чем поков, сюжет еще примитивнее, чем обычно. Музыка буквально вызывает головную боль. В боях поки до сих пор стоят как истуканы на разных концах поля. Те, что по идее должны быть размером с дом, почему-то не выше взрослого человека. Большинства из перечисленных проблем не было в Colosseum, XD и Battle Revolution. Из единственного плюса могу отметить низкую продолжительность игры, хотя бы не придется долго лицезреть это убожество. ГеймФрику стоило лишний год и миллион бакс на игру выделить, вместо того, чтобы врать покупателям, что они якобы что-то там улучшают.… Expand
  64. Buriedborne
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Decepcionante es lo único que puedo decir de este juego,EL PRIMER Pokémon de sobremesa y se ve como uno de 3ds con Pokemons reducidos en casi un 50% ¿es una broma? Entiendo que una transición de una consola portátil a una de sobremesa no es fácil pero una adaptación tan mediocre no merece ni el precio de 60$ déjense de hacer juegos mediocres en una franquicia tan aprovechable como Pokémon
  65. BlockFort
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    The release of Pokemon Sword and Shield sadly confirmed all the fears I've had during the build up to it's launch. I've been a huge Pokemon fan since its inception and always dearly loved this series, however the last couple of entries have been getting progressively worse when it came to aspects such as polish, removing features, difficulty, dungeon complexity, post game and many more. MyThe release of Pokemon Sword and Shield sadly confirmed all the fears I've had during the build up to it's launch. I've been a huge Pokemon fan since its inception and always dearly loved this series, however the last couple of entries have been getting progressively worse when it came to aspects such as polish, removing features, difficulty, dungeon complexity, post game and many more. My enthusiasm when it came to Pokemon slowly faded away. But I remained hopeful. Afterall Gamefreak promised us that Generation 8 would be "for the hardcore fans". And it would be the first mainline game on a home console, a huge step for the series!
    Despite my initial optimism for these new home console entries I couldn't ignore all the glaring and obvious problems that were observable in all the pre-release material. Graphical quality not even on par with last gen console games, complete lack of care and polish in regards to animation, reusing as many outdated assets as possible; and these were just the issues that were quickly noticeable from a first glance. But the more time passed the worse things got. The removal of basic features like the national dex and the subsequent cutting of over half of all Pokemon was the straw that broke the camel's back. The following PR disaster of justifying all of this with blatant lies certainly didn't help. I could go on but you get the point.
    And now here we are and Pokemon SwSh is exactly what is looked like it was going to be; a soulless, unpolished and short mess of a game not worthy of belonging to the most successful multimedia franchise in the world. I think the Eurogamer review said it best when it used the new Dynamax mechanic as an analogy to SwSh themselves: "Pokémon Sword and Shield project a sense of scale and ambition far beyond any previous ones in the series, but to take it back to those gargantuan new Dynamax forms, the size is merely a shadow. A shallow projection, in place of the real thing."    … Expand
  66. sonia_strumm
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    its worse than the gba pokemon games from 15 years ago. this is supposed to be the first home console mainline pokemon game and yet they completely **** it up. DO NOT BUY
  67. Ctarblu
    Nov 16, 2019
    3
    To all you people who enjoy the game: I'm glad that you didn't waste your money and now having fun with smth you like.

    With that out of the way let's talk about SwSh. I want you to abstract from mons and think about this game as a game not a franchise. So what is it? It is an extremely easy game with little to no gameplay. When you are not battling you have to walk a narrow paths.    To all you people who enjoy the game: I'm glad that you didn't waste your money and now having fun with smth you like.

    With that out of the way let's talk about SwSh. I want you to abstract from mons and think about this game as a game not a franchise.
    So what is it? It is an extremely easy game with little to no gameplay. When you are not battling you have to walk a narrow paths. Sometimes there are side ways with some useful items or NPCs but mostly there aren't. Wild area is hollow with pretty much nothing to do in it. When you are in the battle all you have to do is throw the strongest attack to one shot pretty much all your enemies. That makes encounters time wasting grinding. Games can't be entertaining if there's no challenge to them at all.
    What else is it? It is the game with pretty much no story to it. Each and every time stories in Pokemon games are pretty much the same. It doesn't mean it's bad. It just doesn't really evolve into anything. Imagine if TLoZ would repeat A Link To The Past story in every game with some tweaks here and there. It would be just boring. Same as Pokemon games right now.
    Graphics are not good as well. I'm mostly fine with GF reusing models from previous games. I don't care as long as Pokemon themselves does look good. The problem is everything else. Backgrounds are generally bad. Some textures look like they came from PSX/N64 era (hello trees and ground textures). Animations looks like they are from 2001. Ridiculous pop-ins.
    And these are not all the problems. We also have Dexit, lack of post game, moves cut, lies about animations, lies about models, lies about national dex to Japanese fan base, lack of voice acting, reusing room assets etc.
    I really want you to think about it: aside from Pokemons what makes you think that these games are good?    … Expand
  68. BikiniBodhi
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    It's a Pokémon game, absolutely 0 special things about it.

    What was supposed to be the first main game on console is nothing special, that is not good.
    It should've been something amazing, but it lacks tonnes of features multiple past 3DS GAMES had.

    It just falls short and is disappointing.
  69. nikospant
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In the beginning I was so excited about the upcoming games and the first couple of trailers seemed entertaining both in designs and the future of the game. As the time passed by, I was feeling less and less excited about the game and I will try to summarize the main points after having already finished the game after only 16 hours of gameplay, as an early copy arrived yesterday.

    Longevity and replay value:
    First of all, compared to previous Pokemon games, only 16 hours of gameplay to beat the whole game seems way underwhelming, especially considering that I caught all the new pokemons that I found, explored the Wild Area and passed through it as many times as deemed possible, as long as there was something interesting to day (Hint: there wasn't much). I feel that except the online component, there isn't much replay value to the games and I don't feel the need to play them again.

    The price tag: $60 compared to a $40 a couple of years back, for less amount of content seems way overpriced in my eyes.

    Characters:
    Most of the in-game characters seem bland, not interesting and especially the rival seems... not like a rival should feel. Even the Champion seems like a naive person the least .

    Plot:
    Easy, predictable, no depth, I really wonder if someone thought through the whole story from the beginning or was creating on the way..

    Difficulty:
    It is a pokemon game, I do not expect to have actual difficulties from a game designed also for children and here is the main point, mario odyssey is also designed for children and everyone can complete the game, but it also have more content, targeted on more mature audience with an actual difficulty to complete 100% of all the game aspects. There is no such option in this pokemon game. Exp.Share gets OP and all my pokemon are overleveled, even after switching all the overleveled ones mid-game.
    On the other hand, handholding and cutscenes in every route does not make me feel and experience the map as it should be and there is always someone telling me where to go, who to speak to and how to handle every aspect of the game without me feeling responsible for the decisions made in game at any level.

    Graphics:
    Graphics don't seem like an upscale compared to previous 3ds games and for being the first mainline game in a console, I would expect something better, for example natural-moving characters or introducing pre-rendered movie scenes in times where the movement seems unnatural (e.g. when the 2 legendaries turn around when they face each other). To get it even a notch further, voice acting in a mainline console gaming doesn't seem far fetched but they didn't even cover the basics so, that is too much to expect from what they have given us.

    Controversy:
    I am not gonna use any buzzwords, I totally understand about large number of designs logistics and that doesn't hinder my ability to play the game, so all the other reasons are why I give such a low score for the game.

    All in all:
    A pokemon game is never gonna be awful, because of the successful formula they have and because of the size of the franchise, but the way the company is going, we are never gonna have a truly great Pokemon game ever again (eg. HG/SS, Platinum, Emerald, B2/W2).

    It is not a 0, but anything above a 2 would be unfair, so my score is gonna be exactly that.    … Expand
  70. Rolawa
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    As somebody who has played this I can tell you it is not worth the buy. Especially at full price. It honestly is worse than previous installments in the series and fails to make use of the better hardware available in the form of the switch. Honestly if you want a Pokemon game on the switch play Let's Go. It somehow manages to be better than this. Story was uninspired and boring. Way tooAs somebody who has played this I can tell you it is not worth the buy. Especially at full price. It honestly is worse than previous installments in the series and fails to make use of the better hardware available in the form of the switch. Honestly if you want a Pokemon game on the switch play Let's Go. It somehow manages to be better than this. Story was uninspired and boring. Way too much handholding. No challenge and it results in a boring game. Camp was neat but felt like a mediocre version of Amie New Pokemon are kinda cool. Happy with the scorbunny line personally

    Graphics look worse than a Nintendo 64 game. Some lag. More than I would expect. Pop in is terrible. Makes the overworld pointless Characters are rehashed or not at all interesting

    Animations look like a pitch somebody gave to an animator but the animator died before fixing them

    The list of removed features were not improved upon or replaced. Dynamaxing was uninspired and often made the models look worse. Absolutely not worth the cost of the game. Fails to make use of the switch hardware. Game freak continues to fail to listen to what people actually want out of the games. It instead delivers poor rushed games that get worse with every installment    … Expand
  71. BooWaa
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    So I've played at least 10 hours of this and I can't believe this is what was released as the next mainline game of Pokémon.

    There is little good with this game, while many of the towns do look good and there have been graphical improvements, sadly everything else is just bad. Awful animations that don't belong in a game of this calibre. Removed features once again. The insane amount of    So I've played at least 10 hours of this and I can't believe this is what was released as the next mainline game of Pokémon.

    There is little good with this game, while many of the towns do look good and there have been graphical improvements, sadly everything else is just bad. Awful animations that don't belong in a game of this calibre. Removed features once again. The insane amount of hand holding that has been a staple since generation 7.

    The railroad gameplay is mind numbing with characters consistently popping in and laying a load of text upon you with no freedom to play the game as an RPG. The wild area is boring fast. The new gimmick is stupid and makes me wonder why they removed Megas for this. The main good thing about this game is the core gameplay, because it's a Pokémon game so it's still the exact same that's been loved for twenty years without changing. But it needs to change, Pokémon deserves more than this, and a more expensive game should turn people away.    … Expand
  72. Dna5511
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Is a bad n3ds scale game, this is not a AAA game not a 60ndollar game.
    Not all Pokémon, super short and easy, no challenge and no story
  73. HIghlandhunters
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Poor game design, constantly crashes and freezing when on ladders, animations are worse than DS versions for attacks. Overall this game has had a very poor design and needs to be fixed asap, they basically shipped a broken game. It crashed 7 times on my switch in 6 hours.
  74. Voovoo
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Just a “meh” game, which really isn’t acceptable for the size of the franchise.
  75. Francescolomaz
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    An absolutely mediocre game with horrible grapich and no postgame allowed in this game.
  76. JoaoJorge
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Just don't buy it! The game has really poor content, it's a lazy job who exploit his fans! You deserve better, and if you believe this, don't buy it and next time they will give you the deserved game!
  77. LightIsMyPath
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    -cute new pokemons -great trainer customization - No gts
    -400ish missing pokemons -3ds quality graphics upscale
    -bad fps and freezes
    - stupidly easy (too many heals, forced xp share) -shortest main story of any pokemon game -shortest post game of any pokemon game - too many tutorials -50% price increase for a worse product -wild area is empty -locked by badge catching
  78. FlawlessRuby
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Cutting haft the Pokemon in order to have time to work on animation and graphic... The tree in the game look RIP off of Golden Eye 64. Game Freak needs to start working harder. The removal of Mega Pokemon for a new gimmick is ridiculous.
  79. 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 than they plan to deliver. 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
  80. Phantump
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    It's have less than 50% of all pokemon, the textures of the wild area's tree are so bad looks like them take a picture e put in the model, the lack of dubbing is so annoying looks like the game is pixel art yet
  81. Airam
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    No complete dex, bad graphics, bad map. Nintendo switch deserves a better game.
  82. JoseVargasCR
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    What should be the definitive Pokemon game is simply the worst Pokemon game ever, not only beacuse the dex cut, but a lot of bugs and deficiencias in graphics an history. Popping, sawtooth and low textures are signs of a low quality and neglected game. History is very short and nothing special. I regret buying it, if you have not bought it, do not do it !!!
  83. devilxs
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This was a very rushed game and took a big step back on some of the cool features of lets go, such as riding pokemon, or having them follow you.

    Gameplay is very linear and holds your hand the whole way through. Exploration outside of the 2 flat wild zones is non-existent. Your bike rides on water, and with no exploration, moves like surf/dig/cut/etc, have been removed from use.    This was a very rushed game and took a big step back on some of the cool features of lets go, such as riding pokemon, or having them follow you.

    Gameplay is very linear and holds your hand the whole way through.
    Exploration outside of the 2 flat wild zones is non-existent.
    Your bike rides on water, and with no exploration, moves like surf/dig/cut/etc, have been removed from use.
    Certain gym cities are unacceptably short and have 3 buildings.
    Pokedex was harshly reduced. Apparently in exchange for other improvements? (there are none)
    Graphics-wise, it's still behind it's time for a switch game. I think lets go looks better.
    Content is severely limited and being forced down 1 path while my "rival" checks in on me every 5 minutes left me very annoyed.
    Npc models were reused excessively. I've never felt like I was constantly seeing the same character over and over in previous games. Are there even more than 5 unique characters other than the main cast in this game?

    Overall, there's just been too many excuses, too many lies, and just downright disrespect by game-freak to release something like this at practically double the price of previous (content rich) handheld games. It's a slap in the face to fans everywhere and really gives Pokemon games a questionable future.    … Expand
  84. blakexac
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    It feels unfinished, unpolished, and empty. I’m not just talking about the missing 500 Pokémon either. Hand holding, graphical errors, no plot. Pokémon has lost its way.
  85. BabylonRoses
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    I've been a fan of Pokemon since I was a kid. The decline of quality of the games since the jump to 3D has been pretty astounding; between the overwhelming majority of my favourite Pokemon being cut, to the abismal excuse for graphics, to the terrible writing, to no post game, to the sheer amount of glitches, I find myself conflicted between giving this a higher rating simply due to itI've been a fan of Pokemon since I was a kid. The decline of quality of the games since the jump to 3D has been pretty astounding; between the overwhelming majority of my favourite Pokemon being cut, to the abismal excuse for graphics, to the terrible writing, to no post game, to the sheer amount of glitches, I find myself conflicted between giving this a higher rating simply due to it being a Pokemon game and giving it a 0 to indicate the lowest point in the series. I even made this account just to indicate to the torn users that this is not worth the price.… Expand
  86. AnRPGFan
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In my opinion, Sword/Shield is weaker than all previous Pokemon games in practically every aspect. There's so many different ways you can look at this game and no matter what it always falls short compared to previous entries.

    Length-wise the game is short, you could potentially beat the main story in one sitting. It still feels like you're playing a handheld game made to be played in short bursts rather than a huge home console game. While this is mostly due to the story's actual length, I'd say the blame also falls partially on the difficulty. I understand that mainline Pokemon games have never really been hard, but this game takes it to another level. In my experience, it felt as though you would have to be constantly going out of your way to gimp yourself to bring any sense of challenge at all. Playing through the game "normally" felt absolutely brainless this time. The post-game content is also what has now become the standard barren experience we've seen in the past couple of generations. There's the usual short story expansion and Battle Tower. It seems to mostly exist just to nudge players toward online interactions with PvP battles or exploring the Wild Area.

    The story is nothing special and, in my opinion, weaker than previous entries in the series. It feels like the developers weren't sure what to do and ended up creating a sort of caricature of past Pokemon stories. Just your standard Pokemon story but with completely ridiculous villains, even for what would be considered the "norm" for Pokemon. I thought the post-game story's plot and villains actually had potential, but they're obviously only around for a short while and thing wrap up way too soon.

    Presentation might be where this game hurts the most. As far as Graphics go the game will bounce from looking amazing to looking like a middling budget Gamecube title. Major story moments look mostly great but then something like wild area is just the polar opposite. Music in this entry is incredibly weak compared to previous entries in my opinion. So many songs are just grating to me and very few stick out. The average Pokemon game doesn't wow me with its music, but it's never been outright bad like in Sword/Shield at times. One sort of small aspect of the presentation that really bothers me is the how battles look. Pokemon are still poorly scaled like they were in battles in other 3D entries. In extreme scenarios like with Waillord this looks completely ridiculous. The majority of Pokemon are still animated to look totally lifeless which is jarring when compared to many of the new, pretty animations given to the moves themselves. Battle issues don't just stop at the Pokemon, I would describe the trainers as robotic in battles outside of scripted scenes. They just stand around and won't react to their Pokemon getting hurt or anything. All of these roll together to make battles feel as far from immersive as possible; they feel closer to simulations of Pokemon battles than actual Pokemon battles.

    The design of the world as a whole I would just say is okay. Towns look pretty and are well-made but are generally lacking in depth which leads to exploring them not feeling very fun. Routes and dungeons, however, are much worse. They're incredibly simplistic and railroaded this time, which leads to very little exploration. If a player wants to explore, the only option is really the Wild Area. Running around in the Wild Area can be fun, but it feels pretty empty and a bit too large for its own good. The world itself is just okay at best, but I was mostly satisfied with the characters in it. Most of the NPCs in the region look nice but don't feel particularly active in the overworld. The new Pokemon of this region are mostly great, but that's obviously to be expected. My favourites are probably the new fossil Pokemon.

    I'd say the new major additions this game brings to the table are a mixed bag. The Wild Area is a great concept, but it ends up feeling empty and what I'd describe as tech demo-like. Pokemon Camp is a big letdown in my opinion. It's this entry's version of Pokemon Amie and Refresh but it doesn't do much new. Just the usual interacting with Pokemon except now you have multiple (awkwardly) walking around at once and can play with a ball. The QoL changes are pretty great, however. With nature mints and the ability to breed egg moves onto existing Pokemon you can now take any Pokemon and make it competitively viable. This means you can eventually take Pokemon you had with you through a single player adventure into online competitive battles with almost no downside. The issue, of course, is that these additions come with the trade off of other major features being removed. In particular, the game's lack of the GTS is just insulting.

    Overall, I see Sword/Shield as easily the weakest mainline Pokemon game. If you skipped out on past Pokemon games I'd recommend you look there for a Pokemon fix before even thinking about this game.    … Expand
  87. MasterMike000
    Nov 19, 2020
    2
    Story wise, it's extremely forgettable and unoriginal. This is the most generic and uncreative Pokemon story next to X/Y. The story in this game, brings nothing new to the franchise, it's literally the same boring story that Gamefreak keeps repeating. Compared to the other games that have an interesting story like in Gen 4 and Gen 5...this game brings nothing new or anything interesting toStory wise, it's extremely forgettable and unoriginal. This is the most generic and uncreative Pokemon story next to X/Y. The story in this game, brings nothing new to the franchise, it's literally the same boring story that Gamefreak keeps repeating. Compared to the other games that have an interesting story like in Gen 4 and Gen 5...this game brings nothing new or anything interesting to the Pokemon world or lore. It's literally, and I mean LITERALLY just fight the gym leaders, reach to the tournament, get interrupted by the villain and you need to stop the strong/legendary Pokemon that just popped up out of nowhere. This with maybe 3 scenes of exposition coming from Sonia...that's the story of Pokemon Sword/Shield from what I played. Like, the developers didn't even bother showing us a cutscene of how the strong/legendary Pokemon appeared or came.

    Character wise, none of them really stand out from the rest of the series because of how uncreative or poorly they were written. Your rival Hop is the most annoying rival up to date, who literally stops your path every 5 minutes and wastes your time and repeats the same sentence, “I ShOuLd HaVe KnOwN yOu HaVe MaStErEd TyPiNg”. It doesn't help that is character goes literally everywhere throughout the story, from wanting to be the Champion, to feeling weak after losing to Bede, to wanting to be a professor...BUT still challenges you at the Champion Cup after beating the main game. Rose being the villain of the story is extremely rushed and comes out of nowhere. Yes, we knew he was the villain before the game was released, but his reveal of being a villain LITERALLY comes up in the very last second of the game for no reason what's so ever. Bede was such a disappointment because while he's an actual rude rival like we always wanted, but sadly his team is complete joke because of how pathetic easy they are too beat. The first half of the game, all his Pokemon are ALL Psychic type and the second half of the game, they are ALL Fairy type. Marnie...she's just there in the game for some reason. She literally has no impact to the actual story in the game. Team Yell...give them a medal for being the worst evil organization in the entire Pokemon franchise. You can't take them seriously, they're simply annoying, There's literally nothing interesting or unique about Team Yell.

    Gameplay wise, it's LITERALLY the exact same battle animations from X/Y, except that they introduced Gigantamax and Dynamax which is easily the worst mechanic compared to Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves. Not only is it broken and really unbalanced, but it was poorly designed with how you obtain a Gigantamax Pokemon. Unlike Z-Moves or Mega-Evolutions, where you can simply use the require item on the Pokemon you already have and raised…In Sword/Shield, you need to replace and catch the same Pokemon again when it’s in its Gigantamax form. So that Rookidee that you caught at the beginning of the game and bonded with it till it became a Corviknight…throw it in the PC because it won’t be able to Gigantamax. The Wild Area and the Max Raids battles…oh my God, it’s awful. The Wild Area has ugly textures, terrible pop-in and the fps drops like crazy when online. Coming from the biggest media franchise of all time…the Wild Area simply looks unacceptable. It doesn’t help that the Wild Area is introduced way too early in the game and you have no reason whatsoever to go back to it after the first time. The Max Raids battle on the other hand, when offline, are broken. You might battle and want to catch a 5-star Gigantamax Charizard…but the NPC trainers, that are your teammates, are using a Togepi or a Magikarp. Yup, because that makes sense when you’re battling against a giant Level 60 Charizard.

    Finally, the game lacks content. Not just the National Dex, I’m taking about the extra content that game offers. I mean, the fact that Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver or Pokemon Black 2/White 2 (2 DS games) or even Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (a 3DS game) have more content and have more duration than a Nintendo Switch game (which remember, being charged full price)...is pathetic on Gamefreak. The Post-game shouldn’t even be considered a Post-Game because all you are doing is literally catch the legendary Pokemon from the box art, which from all the previous titles, were in the MAIN game. Even the DLC is not enough because the Isle of Armor expansion is terrible.

    The only good thing that I can say about this game is the Crown Tundra (which has a better and more interesting story btw), the soundtrack and the gym battles actually feel like an exciting event. it felt like something that's actually grand and important like in the anime. But other than that...This is easily one of the worst Pokemon games. I can't argue against people who dislike Pokemon games because this game...is everything that shows why people hate/dislike Pokemon games    … Expand
  88. DarksoulFX
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Its sad to say that fan made based pokemon games have better graphic quality and quality of life changes that actually make the game alot more enjoyable. #gamefreaklied
  89. maiavictor
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Lazy animations, bug-ridden, cut content, flat story, dated mechanics, recycled formula with no innovation. How can this game be rated higher than mediocre? Seems like being a Pokémon game excepts it from being a good game.
  90. Fhvfgv
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Pokemon Sword and Shield are the best games in the series, streamlining its most tedious traditions without losing any of the charm."
  91. Evmodi
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Not a $60 dlls game... It's a game that feels incomplete and as it ts right now, even the nintendo wii could have done something better.
  92. mvsmax
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    need remove the multi exp thx, add other pokemon too, it need to be much better
  93. Tester75
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Most new Pokémon designs look terrible, the world is open but feels empty simply because there isn’t much to do. The wild area is ok but seems like a missed opportunity. The camping and cooking mechanics are cumbersome and I rarely use either of those features. The story is one dimensional and boring. The dynamax mechanic is just gimic that isn’t that exciting. The exclusion of a nationalMost new Pokémon designs look terrible, the world is open but feels empty simply because there isn’t much to do. The wild area is ok but seems like a missed opportunity. The camping and cooking mechanics are cumbersome and I rarely use either of those features. The story is one dimensional and boring. The dynamax mechanic is just gimic that isn’t that exciting. The exclusion of a national dex would have been bearable had the above issues not been there, but since the game is riddled with all these issues (lack on content and poorly designed Pokémon) I now find it inexcusable. This game had all the potential to be the best Pokémon game yet, but is one of my least favorite in the entire series. Tbh, don’t waste your money on these games. Hope that the next set of games are better… Expand
  94. zanzou
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Shortest mainline pokemon game ever made, no end game, fewest pokemon since generation 3, automatic EXP share means you are always too high-level, models were imported from a low-fi handheld game, terrible graphics and animation, dynamax is a terrible gimmick to replace mega-evolutions
  95. Therapygame
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    TOTALLY UNFINISHED!!! I completed the game in only 12 hours and there is No post-game content. The graphics look like a PS2 game (and even worse), animations are the worst i've ever seen in the last 15 years, Pokémon cut, moves cut, stupidly Easy (you can't turn off the exp. share so your Pokémons Will Always be overleveled). Dynamax Battles are even worse than megaevolutions, raids areTOTALLY UNFINISHED!!! I completed the game in only 12 hours and there is No post-game content. The graphics look like a PS2 game (and even worse), animations are the worst i've ever seen in the last 15 years, Pokémon cut, moves cut, stupidly Easy (you can't turn off the exp. share so your Pokémons Will Always be overleveled). Dynamax Battles are even worse than megaevolutions, raids are BORING, and the wild area is EMPTY. This game doesn't even deserve to be reviewed.… Expand
  96. GazedUpon
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    Here's the issue with these games:
    While the basic concept of "Catch monster, Train monster, Fight with monster" will always be fun no matter what, that isn't a trait unique to Sword and Shield.
    The game simply feels... unfinished all around. I got this game day 1, excited like a little child to finally play it. And then the game made me feel like a small child that should have listened    Here's the issue with these games:
    While the basic concept of "Catch monster, Train monster, Fight with monster" will always be fun no matter what, that isn't a trait unique to Sword and Shield.
    The game simply feels... unfinished all around. I got this game day 1, excited like a little child to finally play it. And then the game made me feel like a small child that should have listened to their parents to not spend their money on video games.

    Positives:
    - As mentioned before, the basic concept of "catch, train, fight" just works.
    - Most of the new Pokémon do look appealing, which is subjective, of course.
    - The trainer customization is fantastic! I had a lot of fun dressing my character up.

    Negatives:
    - The game sometimes doesn't load things in properly, which causes things to "pop in".
    - The game often freezes when anything happens, such as talking to an NPC
    - Areas within the game are empty and feel flat.
    - Routes might as well be hallways, since you can't go anywhere except straight forward
    - The Dynamax/Gigantamax feature feels underwhelming. The gym leaders that use them have this build up where they power up their Pokémon, just to have it die to an attack or two anyways.
    - Speaking of Dynamax/Gigantamax, you can pretty much only use it during gym battles, which made me wonder why it's even in the game
    - Some of the newer Pokémon are either ridiculously strong OR weak. There seems to be almost no consistent middle ground.
    - Somehow your own Pokémon always have a WAY higher level than the opponents, which is weird since I avoided quite a few battles. This makes fights often laughably easy.
    - I noticed that a few moves were missing. For example, I caught a Vespiquen and it couldn't learn ANY of it's signature moves. (Heal Order etc.) This was a bit weird to me.
    - The story is... not really existent. It consists of "The champ is so great! Look at him! Did you know how great the champ is?", which really ruined the immersion for me
    - For a console game that tries to look modern graphically, it simply fails

    Other things you should know:
    - This game will not let you trade over most of your Pokémon from Sun and Moon later on
    - There have been a lot of reports of the game damaging or deleting data on the Switch it was played on

    Summed up:
    Sadly, I'm sorely disappointed with Sword and Shield. I could barely bring myself to finishing the game, as I found myself bored out of my mind a lot of the time. If you're a hardcore fan or somebody wanting to try out Pokémon, stick to the previous entries in the series. This game isn't worth your money.    … Expand
  97. billythorton198
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Just cutting half the pokemon brings it down to a 3, then all of the other features that were available being cut?! This game should have never been sold
  98. Cookie69
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    Pro+
    +Short Loeading Times
    + creative Caracters Mixed +/- +/- why still 2 Versions and no real Co up Game Modes. +/- Dynamax Pokemon are just Upscaled Versions of normal Pokemon. (Exept for the GymTrainers Special Version that are not available for Players) So why ..just 400 and not 800 Pokemon in the Game? Negativ- -Feels like a HD remake of a 3DS Pokemon Game -Animation    Pro+
    +Short Loeading Times
    + creative Caracters

    Mixed +/-
    +/- why still 2 Versions and no real Co up Game Modes.
    +/- Dynamax Pokemon are just Upscaled Versions of normal Pokemon.
    (Exept for the GymTrainers Special Version that are not available for Players)
    So why ..just 400 and not 800 Pokemon in the Game?

    Negativ-
    -Feels like a HD remake of a 3DS Pokemon Game
    -Animation stiff and outdated
    -Story is Irrelevant and forgetable
    -Online Mode is leggie and Looses regularly Internet connection
    -‘‘New Features‘‘ are not new - like Clothing and Hair Customation
    -Wild Area‘s Free Camera is very limited. 360° horizontal but vertical u cant look more then 10° +/-
    (So u cant look into the Sky or on to the Ground)
    -Pokemon and Characters textures are weak and on Tv even worst. Looking like a mix of 3DS & PS2 Grafic
    -30FPS but it feels like in the Wild Area, it drops even below 30

    For all the Hype ..... S / S did not deliver what was promised.
    It’s just a nother Cookie cuter Pokemon Game that u can forget as soon the next Pokemon Game get announced. ( whether GO, mobile phone, or something else.)    … Expand
  99. ririechan
    Nov 17, 2019
    2
    the games are really disappointing
    as for the first main line game (excluding let's go pikachu and eevee, which are perceived as spin off by the fans) we would expect something incredible and yet it didn't come.
    In favour of a new mechanic completely unbalanced, the game removed mega evolution, z moves half of the pokedex and moves. The pokecamp, feature that replace pokeamie, does not    the games are really disappointing
    as for the first main line game (excluding let's go pikachu and eevee, which are perceived as spin off by the fans) we would expect something incredible and yet it didn't come.
    In favour of a new mechanic completely unbalanced, the game removed mega evolution, z moves half of the pokedex and moves.
    The pokecamp, feature that replace pokeamie, does not work as good as it predecessor, making hard playing with a specific pokemon and lacks the capacity to let you pet it, unlikely pokemon sun and moon and the let's go games.
    the wild areas, strong point of this game, are a not so big place were pokemon suddenly pop ups from the ground.
    the 10 routes present in this game are just long corridors.
    the main story is extremely short and bad, even for pokemon standards.
    graphic are yes better than the one for the 3ds, but for a switch game are just underwhelming.
    exp share is now impossible to turn off and the game is for that reason extremely easy.
    post game is a one hour episode with nerfed sun and moon battle tower.
    you can still have fun from this game, since the core mechanic of pokemon is still there, but that's it
    the game does not implement anything to distinguish itself from previous games if not setting good points for next gen games. But this is happening too frequently in pokemon games, that continue to cut good steps to set new good mechanics, which result unpolished, unfinished and will be removed in the next gen games    … Expand
  100. DJ323
    Nov 18, 2019
    2
    When I saw the first trailer for Sword and Shield I was so excited. I watched each and every trailer up until the release but with every trailer I watched I became less and less hyped.

    When I learned that not all Pokemon would make it and mega evolution was cut, I was disappointed but it was not a deal breaker for me. When I saw the replacement feature (Dynamaxing) and the    When I saw the first trailer for Sword and Shield I was so excited. I watched each and every trailer up until the release but with every trailer I watched I became less and less hyped.

    When I learned that not all Pokemon would make it and mega evolution was cut, I was disappointed but it was not a deal breaker for me. When I saw the replacement feature (Dynamaxing) and the "high-quality" graphics and animations that were apparently the reason for the cut, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. I still had hope for the games but it was dwindling heavily. Now that the games have been released and I can see them first hand, I am fearful.

    The first trailers for Sword and Shield, not only gave me hope for the new games but for potential generation 4 remakes. After Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, I was ready to see Primal Giratina, Palkia, Dialga and maybe even Primal Arceus. Seeing how Sword and Shield turned out, I now fear Game Freak will remake my favourite generation in the series (I know I am biased due to nostalgia) and ruin it with a Gigantamax Arceus. I didn't know the game could be so awful that the thought of my favourite game being remade could fill me with dread. I sincerely hope that Game Freak fixes its mistakes before attempting gen 4 remakes because I don't know if I can stay a fan if they screw up Sinnoh too.

    If you're wondering about the problems I had with the game, they are as follows:
    -The game was too easy (EXP share being mandatory did not help) and quite short
    -The game was very linear with a basic story
    -The game seems rushed and unpolished
    -Graphics in certain areas were very bad quality (not a deal breaker for me though)
    -Models popping into existence was very jarring (*poof* there's an Onix, *poof* its gone)
    -The wild area was mostly empty (and kind of boring)
    -The wild area weather makes no sense (sunshine next to a blizzard is completely normal)
    -Over 400 Pokemon were removed (I expected 100-200 not basically half of the older gens)
    -Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are worse gimmicks than mega evolution and Z moves (and they are basically just a combined version of both but lazier)
    -Animations were fine (some were great, some were Yamper's tail whip but the great ones did not justify the cut content)
    -There is less content than the 3DS games but with a $20 markup

    Maybe I had too much hope for this game because I compared it to other Switch games like Breath Of The Wild and Mario Odyssey. Maybe I am not the demographic Game Freak is targeting anymore. All I know is that the game was so disappointing that I knew I had to rate it (even though I don't normally rate things). Overall, the game has some good areas and aspects but it also makes me very worried for the future of the franchise.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

79
#79 Best Switch Game of 2019
1
#1 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 87
  3. Negative: 0 out of 87
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 30, 2020
    80
    Sword & Shield stumble in a few areas and history may not be kind to them, but they're setting up a future that I'm excited to see. [Issue #44 – January/February 2020, p. 73]
  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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