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. Nath_eZ
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Este juego parece hecho con el culo y sin mirar lo que en verdad aprecian los fans del, no movimientos z, no megaevolciones, no pokemon de otras regiones, a muchos nos gustaría un combate de Dinamax vs Movimientos Z, pero no gamefreak quiere entregar un juego cada año, Pokemon se convirtió en el Fifa de Nintendo, pero por lo menos Fifa tiene a todos los jugadores y por si no fuera poco enEste juego parece hecho con el culo y sin mirar lo que en verdad aprecian los fans del, no movimientos z, no megaevolciones, no pokemon de otras regiones, a muchos nos gustaría un combate de Dinamax vs Movimientos Z, pero no gamefreak quiere entregar un juego cada año, Pokemon se convirtió en el Fifa de Nintendo, pero por lo menos Fifa tiene a todos los jugadores y por si no fuera poco en los créditos aparece un cursor.
    Pensando seriamente en devolver el juego.

    Espero que recapaciten y vuelvan a trabajar con la filosofía de Satoru Iwata.    … Expand
  2. MazdoTechno
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    lacking in almost every department Pokemon Sword and Shield is the greatest disappointment from the main line Pokémon games since the painfully mediocre X and Y.
    If you are looking for a causal Pokémon experience and don’t take the franchise that seriously I would definitely recommend this game.
    If you are looking for something beyond the bare minimum in almost any aspect of the game I    lacking in almost every department Pokemon Sword and Shield is the greatest disappointment from the main line Pokémon games since the painfully mediocre X and Y.
    If you are looking for a causal Pokémon experience and don’t take the franchise that seriously I would definitely recommend this game.
    If you are looking for something beyond the bare minimum in almost any aspect of the game I would recommend giving these games the pass.
    Dynamaxing replaces the much more creative Mega Evolution mechanic in these games.
    The games get some brownie points from me because of the Dark Type gym leader which I have wanted to see for years.

    Graphics 2/5
    A slight jump from Sun and Moon but very slight. Does not meet the expectations of a main line Pokémon game on Switch. And yes, the trees really look like they are from the PS2.

    New Pokémon 1.5/5
    This is mostly personal opinion but I would say that these new Pokémon don’t look like they where designed in the “Pokémon style”
    There are exceptions but a lot of these designs look like Ultra Beasts, (which was ok with UB’s because they where literally from other dimensions) Digimon or even Super Mario enemies (looking at you Eiscue)
    Again this is mostly personal opinion but I definitely feel there is an inconsistency between the designs in this game and the rest of the franchise’s history.

    Character Design 3.25/5
    Here is the category that I feel like they actually did fairly well. There are memorable Trainers and Gym Leaders everywhere. The champion’s design is pretty weak and the two brothers in the post game look kind of ridiculous but overall this is an above average generation for Pokémon Character design

    Storyline 1.5/5
    Really really weak storyline, bare bones.
    Hop is just worse Hau from Sun and Moon.
    No emotional weight at all. Predictable and overall one of the worst storylines in any main series game. Around the level of X and Y’s weak story except maybe even worse (somehow)

    Music 2.5/5
    Some good tracks but overall just kind of mediocre, this games music once again suffers from the “too much reverb” disease that Pokémon music picked up from the jump to 3DS. The golden era of Pokémon music was definitely from Gen 3-5. I do think there is some promise in the music of these games with great tracks like the Gym battle music.    … Expand
  3. aaronjordan2
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Not buying the game until I get my hands on a used copy. But from watching walkthroughs and following updates about the game contents. This deserves a 4. The positive side of this game is the new Pokemon including regional forms/evolutions. Not going to lie they look amazing.

    However not including all the Pokemon and eliminating Mega Evolutions and Z moves is almost a deal breaker for me.    Not buying the game until I get my hands on a used copy. But from watching walkthroughs and following updates about the game contents. This deserves a 4. The positive side of this game is the new Pokemon including regional forms/evolutions. Not going to lie they look amazing.

    However not including all the Pokemon and eliminating Mega Evolutions and Z moves is almost a deal breaker for me. What's worse is that large Pokemon are not set to their proper scale which is really annoying because of data entry in the Pokedex and considering when Pokemon teamed up with Genius Sonority they were scaled correctly and that was way over a decade ago. I don't like the Dynamaxing gimmick because it's unrealistic in the Pokemon anime and there was still some development left open for Mega Evolutions and Z moves. The game feels rushed and Gamefreak was caught in a lie regarding how they claimed to not use old models when they actually did. On top of that hackers are now importing cut Pokemon now and it fuels the argument Game Freak was lazy. As a long time Pokemon fan I am extremely disappointed in the effort put into this game to appeal to their loyal fans. I'm only going to buy a used copy just because I like the new Pokemon.    … Expand
  4. leon12jay
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    This pokemon game seems like it does't fully developed. Although the graphics have got an upgrade, it still suck at 2019 level. There are even no background while battling inside building or city. In addition, the story is really straight forward and lack of depth, which lead to a short story is unacceptable.Cities feel like empty while exploring them. At least the city can have moreThis pokemon game seems like it does't fully developed. Although the graphics have got an upgrade, it still suck at 2019 level. There are even no background while battling inside building or city. In addition, the story is really straight forward and lack of depth, which lead to a short story is unacceptable.Cities feel like empty while exploring them. At least the city can have more people doing different thing to interact with people and pokemon, house with different design, more characteristics or tradition in cities and so on. There are so many thing to improve.

    The online experience is also not satisfying, I always cannot connect to the raids of other people successfully. A refresh button is missing in the page cause the player cannot really find the raids they want to battle. Cancelling the GTS system is ridiculous, which brings a lot of inconvenient to the player.

    The dynamax battle is quite interesting at the beginning but it soon become boring. It cannot do the same function as the MEGA can do, which can bring a lot of strategies to PVP. I think the company can explore more on MEGA evolution in the next game since there are still a lot of room for development and it is loved by most of the player.

    Overall, the experience is not satisfying and I think there is no excuse for gamefreak to cut the pokedex as the quality of the game is like this bad. Hoping that the company can listen to our voice to make improvement in the future.    … Expand
  5. theguymandude
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    As far as Pokemon games go this one is definitely lacking on many fronts. If you've played the previous mainline title to this on (Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Moon) then you will notice a lot of similarity. If you enjoyed those titles immensely you will also likely enjoy this one. However for those who have been sticking with the series for a much longer period of time, and have poured aAs far as Pokemon games go this one is definitely lacking on many fronts. If you've played the previous mainline title to this on (Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Moon) then you will notice a lot of similarity. If you enjoyed those titles immensely you will also likely enjoy this one. However for those who have been sticking with the series for a much longer period of time, and have poured a large chunk of hours into the games then these Sword and Shield will probably disappoint you. Many missing features that should be staples of the series at this point, including the removal of the Global Trade System. Difficulty options remain gone since Black and White 2, and an EXP share system that can't be turned off. In addition to a large chunk of Pokemon being completely gone from the game there are also moves that have completely vanished. Not to mention the game's framerate is still spotty in some areas, which is kind of baffling at this point seeing as the game really doesn't look like anything special at all.
    I can't recommend this to anyone who has a large amount of passion for the series, but for those who are just casual fans the game is probably fine for a quick playthrough. It's just a shame Game Freak can't appeal to both of those groups for whatever reason.    … Expand
  6. Mermunkaman
    Nov 19, 2019
    1
    Extremely dated and overdone combat system, uninspired story with aggressive hand holding, cut pokemon, the online does not work for me, I tried at least 20 times to get into a raid in the wild area but it never worked, the new trading system does not work for me either. The new dynamax feels shoehorned in and serves to waste your time. Just wait for the next one (if they improve)
  7. rabbit94
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    The general Pokemon formula of catching and battling is intact, which makes the game fun. I thought this was incredible for the first few hours, but after yet another big story moment that I don't actually get to play (or even see), I'm over it. The whole story is happening in the background and is being handled by NPC's off-screen. Technical problems, painfully easy, and a skeleton ofThe general Pokemon formula of catching and battling is intact, which makes the game fun. I thought this was incredible for the first few hours, but after yet another big story moment that I don't actually get to play (or even see), I'm over it. The whole story is happening in the background and is being handled by NPC's off-screen. Technical problems, painfully easy, and a skeleton of what could have been the best Pokemon game to date.… Expand
  8. CarnageReigns
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is short and the post game is lacking. I only played this in handheld mode but the visuals are stunning. Just a beautiful game to behold. Ballonlea is gorgeous. The wild area is a nice touch as well. Outside of that this is not to write home about. It's a very easy, handhold-y experience that lacks difficulty. For $60 and the current game we have the post game should have included another region. There needs to be more to the game to justify the price. The lack of content bombs what had the potential to be a worthwhile game.… Expand
  9. Ditude
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    Un juego vacío. Creo que para ningún fan de la saga ha sido una sorpresa encontrarse con un juego que no transmite nada. Una historia simple, unos personajes desperdiciados, un trabajo por parte de Game Freak que no ha estado a la altura.
  10. Doubblepizza
    Nov 19, 2019
    2
    Roster is disturbing and should not be Pokémon. Frame drops and lack of any good story.
  11. Floobersman
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    Example of Game Freaks unwillingness to give their fans a AAA game that they deserve and instead create a game that reuses a lot from the previous installment. Adding complete open world freedom as any current AAA rpg has and instead stay with an insanely linear guide that doesnt give you freedom that you want.
  12. Noono
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    If we take a step back and look at Sun and Moon or X and Y those games are just the same as this if not better. The only redeeming qualities this game has is the nice shadders, new pokemon, new gimmicks and mechanics, an entirely new story along with it. But, all of that is significantly reduced when you realize how much is pulled away from the game itself since X/Y and S/M have more toIf we take a step back and look at Sun and Moon or X and Y those games are just the same as this if not better. The only redeeming qualities this game has is the nice shadders, new pokemon, new gimmicks and mechanics, an entirely new story along with it. But, all of that is significantly reduced when you realize how much is pulled away from the game itself since X/Y and S/M have more to offer in not just content but in gameplay as well with reduced bugs from launch. If I was a kid and played all 3 of these back to back I guarantee that I would have much more fun playing X/Y or S/M purely for the fact there's better ideas and more to do in those games. The issue isn't even content if they just added literally anything fun or cool into the games I wouldn't have just thrown it away but there isn't a thing to enjoy when I can just play the free version on my phone when the wild area is the same thing like a great idea? Now, what are you gonna do with it? It's like they were thinking of something and said let's just move on XD but I will say the art design and music for the games are pretty good altogether also so congrats for getting something right!… Expand
  13. zaef
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    This had the potential to be great but fell short due to a few issues. First off many of the new Pokemon and Galarian forms are well designed and pretty cool. Also many of the new features are a welcome addition. All of this however does not make up for the removal of the National Dex and the choice to force players to use Exp. Share.
  14. Kampfer
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Un juego más de lo mismo y con contenido recortado, y claro, a precio de juego completo. Los gráficos no son la gran cosa, parecen una versión HD de los de sol y luna, además las animaciones, una de las supuestas excusas para no tener a todos los Pokémon, en su gran mayoría son muy simples, hay unas que están muy bien pero otras pecan de simpleza como el doble patada, las animaciones en los personajes también no son muy variadas.
    En cuanto. ala historia es interesante pero no llega a ser muy increíble. En conclusión este juego que podría haber sido una nueva experiencia fresca sigue manteniendo la misma fórmula, que en si no está mal pero pudieron haber echo una mejor entrada a los juegos a una consola con mayores capacidades que una portátil.    … Expand
  15. EUWraith
    Nov 20, 2019
    2
    - Wild Area is a pretty fresh concept for the franchise but isn't well implemented, it suffers from spouts of lag if multiple players are in the area which ruins the good feeling i get from stepping into pokemon's first open area to explore. Overlevelled pokemon are present in the area which is excellent, however they changed the game so you can't catch pokemon above your badge level, this- Wild Area is a pretty fresh concept for the franchise but isn't well implemented, it suffers from spouts of lag if multiple players are in the area which ruins the good feeling i get from stepping into pokemon's first open area to explore. Overlevelled pokemon are present in the area which is excellent, however they changed the game so you can't catch pokemon above your badge level, this is a major letdown as levelling in this game is ridiciulously easy, essentially forcing the player to railroad the story just to come back to the wild area so they can actually catch the higher level pokemon they encounter, nothing better than seeing a pokemon you really want on your team in the wild area, nothing feels worse than running into that pokemon and the game telling you, you can't catch it.

    - Player design is quite solid this gen, customisation options continue to improve beyond the previous gen. The character designs for the story are actually well presented and feel unique to this game. Pokemon designs for this generation are a mixed bag for me as always, especially the starters, but theres certainly something for everyone in this new batch.
    While the design is decent, the characters themselves are so bad it's meme worthy.
    Hop is literally the Galarian form of Hau from Sun/Moon right down to the animations. Leon interrupts your journey every 10 minutes or so to talk about how undefeated he is and his charizard. Marnie is a decent charcter but suffers from being connected with the 'evil' team this generation, Team Yell, who literally do nothing to help the story out save for blocking some roads. Bede is the generic gladion copy / paste except he actually has even less of a character than gladion.

    - Handholding is rampant in this game, the exp share can't be turned off, there are items to boost experience by a lot readily avaliable to the player, moves will now tell you their effectiveness against the opposing pokemon completely ruining the need to memorise type matchups at all and reducing the combat to a braindead one-shot clown fiesta because ALL your pokemon are 10+ higher levels than the champions by the time you get to him due to the exp share. World design is bland and uninspired, copy-pasted rooms, large straight corridors with little room to actually explore the new region are all done to funnel players to the next town, next gym, rinse and repeat until post-game.

    Post-Game is a shambles and feels more like what usually happens near the climax of the main story in most prior pokemon games, instead of seeking out and capturing the cover pokemon before the climatic final battle to help you beat the main threat to the region, the game once again holds your hand by having both covers show up as bots to help you take down the threat, making it pretty much impossible to lose the final fight, removing any stakes or feeling of importance, the covers would have come regardless of your interference and they can basically win the fight by themselves, so there's no point in you even going there because there's no threat, terrible story telling.    … Expand
  16. Xenoh
    Nov 20, 2019
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game feels short und rushed. There is nothing to explore After finishing the Story. Only 3 legendarys and Team Yell is a joke.
    I dont care that there are only 400 Pokemon in the game, but putting almost all of them in this small open world Area is just sad. You can cycle in unter 10 seconds from one Route to the next. Nintendo rushed this game. Kids will enjoy it but a Pokemon fan will Not.    … Expand
  17. emercy
    Nov 20, 2019
    3
    Mi reseña de Pokemon Sword

    El juego es un salto atrás , como unos 15 años atrás. acepto que me digas que quitaste a la mitad de los pokemon porque no iba a dar tiempo de hacer los gráficos de todos , pero porque aun así tus gráficos son malos , la animación se queda corta para el 2019 , Zelda BOTW lo hizo bien y es enorme , porque aquí no ?, las animaciones de los NPC es básicamente    Mi reseña de Pokemon Sword

    El juego es un salto atrás , como unos 15 años atrás.
    acepto que me digas que quitaste a la mitad de los pokemon porque no iba a dar tiempo de hacer los gráficos de todos , pero porque aun así tus gráficos son malos , la animación se queda corta para el 2019 , Zelda BOTW lo hizo bien y es enorme , porque aquí no ?, las animaciones de los NPC es básicamente inexistente, la misma persona con la que te comenta algo al inicio del trayecto , te la encuentras al final con otro propósito diferente . y sobre los gráficos de los pokemon , faltan animaciones de varios ataques , y no entiendo la necedad de meter a tanto pokemon con aspecto humanoide , por ratos sentía que estaba viendo una caricatura gringa por los horribles diseños de los nuevos pokemon.

    La música solo encontré dos temas relevantes , las demás pasa desapercibida , las canciones de los estadios que debería ser la mas épica , es regular y parece robada de las fiestas brasileñas . que por cierto en la batalla final contra el campeón , la música fue inexistente .

    La historia del juego fue un sufrimiento, el protagonista parecía ser tu rival , todo giraba en torno a el , y tu jamas importabas para nada . ademas la clara ausencia de un buen villano , porque los villanos que había como en típico anime narutesco , se convertían en tus amigos , y el giro en la historia donde aparece el villano , solo dura 5 minutos y ya se acabo .

    La mecánica del juego a sido simplificada a niveles ridículamente bajos , entiendo que las mecánicas de hace 20 años son obsoletas , pero porque no pones nuevas mecánicas en lugar de simplemente eliminarlas , le baja la dificultad del juego y sientes que todo se te regala , ya no hay una verdadera dificultad o sentimiento de esfuerzo por el que tu luchaste .

    El área silvestre tengo sentimientos encontrados, creo que es una idea interesante , pero mal llevada. Si la hubieran llevado al nivel de tamaño de Zelda BOTW , con mecánicas por áreas , misiones , seria mas entretenida , pero siento como que pusieron todo muy junto y sin orden alguno, espero este punto se sienta diferente en el online

    Conclusión , un juego que prometía mucho no cumplió y quedo defraudando aun mas .
    Emercy.    … Expand
  18. Schultzkyle
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    This game is graphically lazy. It feels small and I hate the wild area. The game is small and the animations look about as good as the N64. Look it up.
  19. pavestrella
    Nov 20, 2019
    3
    Too easy. The game makes sure you win everything easily. Lack of content compared to previous games.
  20. Gethin
    Nov 21, 2019
    2
    So far all i’ve done is press A for 11hours. Easiest game i’ve ever played. Disappointing
  21. Borja_Ibrahim
    Nov 21, 2019
    4
    Tengo muchos sentimientos encontrados con este videojuego. Aunque no puedo parar de jugar y seguir capturando y entrenando, no puedo dejar de ver fallos y errores por todos lados que me dejan un sabor bastante amargo en la boca. Supongo que este placer culpable es fruto de querer ser "medio ciego" con esta franquicia a la que le he dedicado más de quince años de mi vida.

    Es Pokémon. Lo    Tengo muchos sentimientos encontrados con este videojuego. Aunque no puedo parar de jugar y seguir capturando y entrenando, no puedo dejar de ver fallos y errores por todos lados que me dejan un sabor bastante amargo en la boca. Supongo que este placer culpable es fruto de querer ser "medio ciego" con esta franquicia a la que le he dedicado más de quince años de mi vida.

    Es Pokémon. Lo mismo allá que cuando empecé en la franquicia cuando era un crío con Zafiro/Rubí, con Verde Hoja, Perla, Platino y un largo etc. Es lo mismo de siempre, sin evolución, pero sí con mejoras, que no es lo mismo. Trataré de explicar esto: cuando nos referimos a evolución, hablamos de que la fórmula del videojuego se ha reinventado por completo, quedando potenciada y mejorada en comparación con su fórmula anterior; cuando hablamos de mejoras, hablamos de que la fórmula clásica ha variado ligeramenta y se ha mejorado en ciertos aspectos.

    Con esto quiero decir que Pokémon jamás ha evolucionado. Sus mecánicas jugables han mejorado, gráficamente ha cambiado, etc. Pero la fórmula ha sido siempre la misma, aunque quieran decir que no cambiando de nombre a los Líderes de Gimnasio por Recorrido Insular o por Desafío de Gimnasios. Igualmente, los Movimientos Z o Megaevoluciones no una evolución de la franquicia, son mejoras jugables para un videojuego concreto, ya que hemos visto en SS/SH que han quedado borradas del mapa, como lo estará en el futuro el fenómeno Dinamax/Gigamax.

    Pokémon SS/SH no supone ningún tipo de aire fresco para la saga. De hecho, creo que Galar es, con diferencia, la región peor diseñada, la más pobre, simple y pasillescas de todas. Galar es un pasillo muy largo. Creo que Game Freak no supo, en ningún momento, adaptar al 3D. En Kalos y Alola pasa algo por el estilo, pero no tan exagerado como aquí, y en cuanto a diseño se salvan y escapan con bastante buena nota. El problema que no han sabido suplir es el de la cámara. Antes los mapeados los diseñaban como grandes zonas cuadradas por las que poder moverse ya que la cámara era cenital. Ahora, con la cámara frontal, las regiones se han convertido en una especie de pseudo-plataforma 2D. Pero paradójicamente es un problema que solucionan en el mismo videojuego. No hay más que ir al Área Silvestre para ver lo bien que le sienta (POR FIN) a la saga el manejo libre de la cámara. Si el diseño de Galar estuviese pensado desde este punto de vista, estaríamos ante una región muy diferente y no tan lineal.

    Eso sí, la dirección de arte me encanta. La paleta de colores es estupenda, pero gráficamente por momentos creo estar viendo un port mal hecho de 3DS. Es horrible. Creo seriamente que Let's Go se ve infinitamente mejor que Espada/Escudo, y me parece incomprensible.

    Pero bueno, más allá del apartado gráfico, que en Pokémon nunca ha sido el fuerte y puede pasar por alto (aunque ya estando en sobremesa, debería haber un mínimo de decencia), la jugabilidad tampoco mejora mucho. De hecho, como decía, es tan exageradamente lineal, que resulta aburrido. No hay zonas que puedas explorar mínimamente como siempre (más allá del Bosque Luminario y algún que otro pequeño rincón), ya que todas las zonas son guiadas. El pasillo te marca el rumbo. Puedes encontrar alguna que otra bifurcación, para algún objeto o algo, pero nada más. Las cuevas de esta región (las dos minas que hay) son dos líneas rectas. Fin. Es que no hay más. Han presumido de tener una región enorme y amplia y precisamente por esto que comento se queda como la más pequeña de todas. De capturar no tengo nada que decir, ya que es lo mismo de siempre; pero de los combates sí que quiero mencionar los combates en gimnasio, y es que molan mucho. El Dinamax (junto a esa BSO que potencia mucho el combate) mejora la estrategia de combate ligeramente (tampoco mucho, si tienes dos dedos de frente te das cuenta de que siempre es el último Pokémon el que Dinamaxiza) y aumenta un poco la dificultad.

    Sonoramente creo que todos coincidimos con que es de lo mejor. La BSO es una delicia y el apartado sonoro está muy cuidado. Mis dieses.

    A nivel de Pokédex yo soy de los que no le hace gracia el Dexit, pero en parte lo entiendo y lo puedo llegar a comprender. No me hace mucha gracia ver que más de la mitad de la Pokédex regional sean Pokémon de otras regiones y que solo 81 sean nuevos (mismo número al inicio de Sol/Luna, que después se amplió hasta 88), siendo la que menos tiene después de Kalos. Qué ganas tengo de volver a ver una región con una Pokédex nueva completa... Como ocurría hasta la Gen. 6. Ahora se tira por incluir a viejos conocidos y unos cuantos nuevos, y es un modelo que particularmente no me gusta nada.

    Y pese a todo, le echo muchas horas y trato de completar la Pokédex y entrenar. Porque le tengo mucho cariño a la franquicia y sigue siendo Pokémon. Pero... No es el videojuego que nos merecemos en Switch.    … Expand
  22. Nudie
    Nov 21, 2019
    1
    Lazy, lazy lazy game design, where should I start?
    This game is a 3ds game ported over to the switch with some enhanced features. The textures, battle mechanics, animations, lack of Pokémon from other generations, lack of puzzles and an extremely underwhelming story have made this game lacklustre to say the least. The game suffers from ageing in all aspects and even has been rated lower    Lazy, lazy lazy game design, where should I start?
    This game is a 3ds game ported over to the switch with some enhanced features. The textures, battle mechanics, animations, lack of Pokémon from other generations, lack of puzzles and an extremely underwhelming story have made this game lacklustre to say the least. The game suffers from ageing in all aspects and even has been rated lower than shadow of darkness, which is decades older... Unfortunately this game missed a huge opportunity to showcase what Pokémon could look like on a modern day console, for example, Zelda breath of the wild had some of the most beautiful textures in a large map we’ve ever seen in any Nintendo game, which, we were eager to see in Pokémon. This was not the case obviously, as the textures are pixelated and unbearable. The greatest thing about this game is the fact that it is still some what of a Pokémon game, but that’s not enough in this day and age, I feel like I literally purchased a. 3ds game..... I would miss this one for sure, or try and buy it for under $20

    There is no excuse for not bringing all the Pokémon over all voicing the characters. Look at fire emblem, all cut scenes voiced to perfection, great textures, many characters and classes, long game (played 250hours). Come on don’t lie to us game freak this game was pumped out to get in before Christmas.    … Expand
  23. goldenjonnie
    Nov 21, 2019
    4
    Insufficiente in ogni singolo aspetto, dalla grafica all’online. L’unico aspetto decente è la caratterizzazione e lo stile dei nuovi Pokemon.
  24. Villabong11
    Nov 21, 2019
    1
    I can't give this game a good score not because it lacks of features or is broken or not enjoyable, the Pokemon experience is always enjoyable always to any fan out there.

    But is not secret the way the franchise is handled by gamefreak / TPC. First the cut Pokemon to improve on animations which is false the only improved animations are the dinamax ones and the new ones for the starter    I can't give this game a good score not because it lacks of features or is broken or not enjoyable, the Pokemon experience is always enjoyable always to any fan out there.

    But is not secret the way the franchise is handled by gamefreak / TPC.

    First the cut Pokemon to improve on animations which is false the only improved animations are the dinamax ones and the new ones for the starter Pokemons, the rest is the same reused content from the 3ds.

    Second art direction overall is poorly for the most part it seems like 3ds game upscaled to 1080p and even sometimes is like a N64 game, but yes there are very well crafted areas such as mushroom forest or something like that and some towns looks gorgeous overall but comparing to other IPs suchs as yokai watch 4, Pokemon is behind those games.

    The wild area is a great addition to the franchise but the rest of the games looks like linear corridors with 0 to none exploration, dungeons/caves are almost non-existent and that's really bad.

    The pop ins in this game are horrible it makes lose the immersion which is key to any video game.

    Raid battles are a welcome addition but dinamaxing is just really questionable mechanic, yes the flashy animations looks good but the downsides weight way than the pros, first you can't see anything besides the 2 gigantic Pokemon so is like your other friend doesn't exists, every non dinamax animation becomes a color splahsy effect depending on the type move (fire = red splash effect) no matter the attack (fire blast, surf, etc), then again became less interesting and just becoming mashing buttons til the raid ends.

    Aside from that the scaling of Pokemon is just bad (look at wailord now and look how it was on Pokemon Colloseum and XD game of darkness), I just can't accept that from a group of "professional", I just can't.

    The final point is how the game fail really hard (including the points I mentioned) on features and details that the previous console Pokemon game didn't have and those were 20 years old games...

    This is my review of this game (I got it used), is sad because I pay for 60 dollars Pokemon game 20 years ago that was way more polished than this rushed game with less content.    … Expand
  25. Bashbach1
    Nov 21, 2019
    4
    I knew it from the very beginning that game freak was running out of ideas. Most of the Pokémon are just remodeled or remade versions of other Pokémon, giant whatever Max’s are just totem Pokémon and the Breath of The Wild looking graphics turned out to be classic game freak DS graphics. But, with all that being said, it’s not a bad game. The encounters I love especially as a shiny hunter,I knew it from the very beginning that game freak was running out of ideas. Most of the Pokémon are just remodeled or remade versions of other Pokémon, giant whatever Max’s are just totem Pokémon and the Breath of The Wild looking graphics turned out to be classic game freak DS graphics. But, with all that being said, it’s not a bad game. The encounters I love especially as a shiny hunter, the gym battles are great, the NPC design is good except for Hop which is a disgrace to humanity. I didn’t like the story but I loved how vast the wild was and I do admit I had some fun.… Expand
  26. KratosVanDark
    Nov 22, 2019
    4
    Was soll der Mist Gamefreak es ist noch leichter geworden und wo sind über 400 Pokemon hin wenn es doch nur die gleichen Animation sind wie auf den 3ds. Dazu ist das Spie innerhalb von 24 Stunden durch spielbar das ist bis jetzt das schlechteste Pokemon aus der hauptreihe
  27. DeathSpell
    Nov 23, 2019
    3
    Animaciones de comienzo de siglo, mitad de pokemones sin aparecer, texturas de los 90, rendimiento pésimo, el dynamax es una porquería.

    Juego a medio hacer, lo único bueno es el diseño de personajes, la customizacion del entrenador y el wild field, que aun así se vuelve aburrido en nada.
  28. TheLordnk
    Nov 24, 2019
    2
    Pior Geração possível,cagaram pokemon de uma forma incrível, até o design doa pokemon
  29. Potteriti
    Nov 24, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Wtf everything is so simple and the design is worse than Pokémon let's go.… Expand
  30. ShiraPKM7899
    Dec 4, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game was ok, but there a not much depth to the gameplay, the same good old boring style with minimal "graphic upgrade". I was ok with the dex cut if they could put more effort in making the game.

    As for the new gimmick.... i mean "mechanics" that wont last for as least 2 generations, it was ok at first, but then it get to the point of annoying... and wasting game time just to keep seeing the same transformation over again. Knowing GF, they forced this "mechanic" into our throat and forced us to use it, otherwise the game is almost completely unplayable.

    The wild area with Max Raid battle were nice at first (before 6th gym), after that it got to the point of frustration, almost impossible to do 5 Stars Raids with those stupid NPC and those stupid rules:

    - 4 fainted pokemons -> lose the battle .... the NPC is so stupid, keep getting killed all the time, RNG Max Raid NPCs is too frustrated especially when their pokemon type is not even mean to be in the battle

    - Cannot finished the raid in 10 turns lose------ what happened to the fun strategy where we could set up a Wall and finish the match with cheap damage?? I thought we were meant to play the game what ever style we want.... but these Max Raid failed to deliver it.

    Overall, these 5 Stars Max Raid were mean to play online?? expecting people to wait for hr just to get someone to join in their raid?? with these buggy and "Paywall" Switch Online???? what the heck is happening to the fun online experience we used to enjoy on the 3DS???

    I can just talk more about this game but tbh, it is just a waste of my time. These games are not even worth spending 50+ hrs for these frustrated decisions from a lazy team.    … Expand
  31. TaylorMaid
    Dec 5, 2019
    4
    This game is a mess. Look at it in scale next to something like breath of the wild you can tell that it is tiny in scale. It took me 2 days to beat the story and another 2 days to get every single pokemon in the game. That's it. It was mostly spent waiting for the game to stop babying me. The game is easy too. The final champion doesn't even bother to run with a full roster! Finally onceThis game is a mess. Look at it in scale next to something like breath of the wild you can tell that it is tiny in scale. It took me 2 days to beat the story and another 2 days to get every single pokemon in the game. That's it. It was mostly spent waiting for the game to stop babying me. The game is easy too. The final champion doesn't even bother to run with a full roster! Finally once you win and complete the "story", your left feeling like the story just isn't complete. It's unfulfilling, incomplete and small. The only challenge you'll ever have is playing online battles, which I'll admit are fun, but it's not enough to make up for all the shortcomings.… Expand
  32. memesleyv3
    Dec 6, 2019
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While I was playing Pokemon Sword, I was honestly a bit conflicted on what type of score it deserved. In the end this score is probably a little higher than it actually deserves, but I didn't completely hate it.

    Starting with the pros, I love the gym concept this time around; A decent fusion of the Sun and Moon Trials and the gyms of old.

    Character designs are top notch as usual, definite highlights being Sonia and Chairman Rose.

    The soundtrack, while a little lacking, genuinely has some fantastic tracks.

    Now onto the negatives, of which there are MANY.

    The story in this game, if you can even call it a story, never takes the time to actually develop in a satisfying way; the game feels like a theme park ride, trying to ferry me through as fast as possible. There isn't a single well written character, and most were downright annoying to interact with to the point where I was debating skipping dialogue. Throw in a worse version of the bad guy team from last games, recycle that game's plot points without putting effort into copying it well, and overall you have a messy plot that isn't fun in the slightest to get through.

    The Pokemon selection this time around is atrociously bad, considering the amount of monsters catchable has been divided in half for no discernable reason. The new mons they have added this time around range for pretty good to downright terrible, most falling in the latter category.

    The graphics and animations are easily some of the worst aspects of this game. Almost every single model being completely reused from the previous games with minimal edits on a very small amount of pokemon. The animations, while a few standouts exist, still look as awful as they did in past games.

    The Wild Area looks absolutely horrendous, and the game starts lagging the second online is enabled. Max Raid battles are a desperate attempt to pad playtime and only serve to gain you TR's, single use TMs, reimplementing a problem that has been fixed since Black and White 9 years ago. The monsters, while on the field, are lazily animated and break extremely often, spinning in circles for several seconds, completely killing any immersion the game attempts to build.

    Returning from XY and Sun and Moon, Trainer Customization manages to be even worse than it was in Sun and Moon. Very little variety, and it took a step back in terms of color choices from Ultra Sun and Moon's dyeing function to perfect the exact shade you wanted. I walked into the first boutique of the game, grabbed a few decent looking items expecting to replace them as i found better ones, and that ended up being my endgame set except for one dress found later.

    The game's difficulty is completely nonexistant, and no effort went into attempting to balance the game around the now forced on at all times EXP share, removing player choice for absolutely no good reason. I skipped every possible battle and didn't catch a single pokemon after finalizing my endgame team, and I was still on par with the champion, and completely decimated him.

    In terms of length, these are probably the shortest games in the series once you realize the Wild Area is a barren wasteland with nothing interesting to do in it. 15 hours and I was done.

    For every one step this game takes forward, it jumps off a cliff backwards. About as balanced and functional as the first set of games on the gameboy all those years ago. If you physically cannot stop yourself from consuming a new pokemon game then there's nothing anyone can do to stop you, but this game would have been barely worth the 40 dollars it should have been priced at from the beginning, much less the actual MSRP of 60 dollars USD.

    If you're looking for a game that actually has effort put into it, pick up Dragon Quest 11 S. If you want a game more akin to monster catching, go Yokai-Watch or Digimon Cyber Sleuth. Stay as far away from this low quality garbage as possible, people will stop talking about it by february of next year.    … Expand
  33. bertusaurio
    Dec 7, 2019
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. es innovador y necesita pulir determinados aspectos relacionados con los gráficos, en general me encanta y me divierte mucho jugar… Expand
  34. Rbubios
    Dec 9, 2019
    3
    Simple game and little worked. Some good idea but the game needs a real evolution.
  35. NylonYT
    May 12, 2023
    4
    yikes, graphics usually dont matter to me but that's if it looks at the very least acceptable. The wild area looks like an n64 game, but at least the towns and indoor areas look very nice. there's not that many new additions which makes this feel like every other pokemon game there is, a stagnating series that cannot innovate and move on.
  36. miiraii
    Jan 6, 2020
    2
    Right. A lot of people are saying that they do not understand why this game is bad, and they think that it's good. As a player whose first ever game played was Pokemon Red, and a player who has played every generation up until 8, I say that it is ok, not bad but not a great game either.

    Gamefreak's promise of the cut National Dex for better animations (not graphics) is pretty much a BS    Right. A lot of people are saying that they do not understand why this game is bad, and they think that it's good. As a player whose first ever game played was Pokemon Red, and a player who has played every generation up until 8, I say that it is ok, not bad but not a great game either.

    Gamefreak's promise of the cut National Dex for better animations (not graphics) is pretty much a BS on the entire community. Reused models comparing Hop and Hau (SM) together, move animations are also reused and this game just does not live up to anything considering it is now on the Nintendo Switch honestly. Additionally, I have been getting framerate drops, random lag spikes and especially, the pokemon in the Wild Area who just randomly appear and spin around? Like, are these the better animations we are meant to stick to from now on?

    Animations are a big, Celesteela-sized no. Esp. Team Yell animations lol.

    The world was ok, but Gamefreak didn't really go through with it, leaving a lot of wasted potential behind. Wyndon doesn't have a lot of things to explore, just a clothing shop, salon, pokemon centre, hotels and stations. So many things could have been done, like including Big Ben since it is based off the UK and it was clearly shown in visuals but not in the actual game? Wild Area seems very limited - most towns and routes feel lackluster with unmemorable music. But Route 201 from D/P/Pt? Yeah, those were the prime times of Pokemon. Shame that the National Dex had to be cut after so many memories with all of my old buddies.

    Story is vey bland The whole thing just felt like a climb to become champion (which we all know is the ultimate ending) with dumb Team Yell in the way. I know people will say that plot is not the best component of Pokemon games, but seriously? What about Gen 3, 4 and 5? Games which had the best of everything. There were sidequests we could do, characters we could interact more with, actual villains with pasts that made them humanised (cough, N), and it wasn't just race to the top. But in this game, playtime is really short, took me around 20 hours to beat in comparison to the 45 to 50 or so hours I spent in Black, Alpha Sapphire, and Platinum.

    Next point, characters. Hop has ok development, not on the level like N or Gladion has, but still ok. He just gets annoying after a while since he keeps popping up out of nowhere and I can't even play the game properly without him showing up. The rest of the characters in Sword and Shield are meh, they do have some personality and I appreciate that, but most of them are just really unmemorable and easy to just blitz through. I mean, even the champion. I was just so tired of the game at this point, buildup to the fight was really anticlimatic, music was mediocre at best. Not Cynthia level. But Cynthia is memorable solely because of her team, her personality, her difficulty spike and her theme.

    Don't even get me started on the postgame's plot and character designs. There is none and I laughed way too hard at the shallowness of the postgame compared to other postgames like in S/M and ORAS. We didn't even get an opening animation anymore.    … Expand
  37. emanuele0933
    Jan 6, 2020
    3
    I awaited giving to this game a vote because I thought they would gonna patch its issues but no, the game was and it's still a total mess nowadays.
    Technically is an abomination: the animations are the same of the 3DS games (that were already bad) but for an unknown reason they don't work propery
  38. keeganm
    Jan 6, 2020
    2
    Hollow, half-baked game. The game spends so much time holding your hand, it’s simply annoying.
  39. Vulgrim
    Feb 3, 2020
    3
    The worst part for many reasons. A lot of unnecessary elements, forced graphic style that does not suit this game, simplicity so great that you do not feel a single challenge. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. "Open" zones only pretend to be such, they are just nicely enclosed linear paths that are no different from any other installment of the series. The new creatures are mostlyThe worst part for many reasons. A lot of unnecessary elements, forced graphic style that does not suit this game, simplicity so great that you do not feel a single challenge. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. "Open" zones only pretend to be such, they are just nicely enclosed linear paths that are no different from any other installment of the series. The new creatures are mostly dull and expressionless, and I have never encountered the fact that I didn't feel like using new Pokémon. The starters themselves are so boring that I almost randomly chose which one to choose.… Expand
  40. DocAragon
    Jan 23, 2020
    4
    I’m sorry, I love pokemon, the cute art style, but this time gamefreak just didn’t even try. they’re getting lazyer and lazyer every single game. I hope they listen to fans and stop doing cashgrab like this one
  41. MisoraHibiki
    Jan 23, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played the series from the very beginning. I've invested hours into each installment. While SwSh are good, they're far from perfect.

    The good: smaller UI means being able to give more room for the gameplay.

    The bad: Nat Dex. This is the first entry where past Pokémon were not programmed in: before, any given game would have all the known (and unknown Mythicals) Pokémon that were released by that point.

    Low-tier graphics. While they are sleeker than USUM, SwSh's graphics fall on the very low end in terms of what the Switch is capable of. If the 3DS wasn't retired, SwSh would have ended up there. Using textures that can be compared to a N64 game also doesn't help, either.

    Re-used models and animations. GameFreak claimed that all the animations and models would be brand new. That's not the case. Many, if not all, of the 809 Pokémon released before these games use the same models that they used in USUM. Only thing that was changed is that the models look more sleek. Other than that, no changes.

    Too easy. Never before have I had such an easy time finishing a Pokémon game. With "permanent EXP share" giving an equal amount of EXP to all party members (without dividing it by the number of party members, which is how past games did it) and easy-to-farm EXP crystals (which are far more effective than Rare Candies during the earlier level ranges) makes this game extremely easy.

    Another disposable gimmick. Mega Evolution, first appearing in Gen VI, and Z-Crystals, first appearing in Gen VII, have been replaced by a new gimmick: Dynamaxing. Essentially, making pokémon giant for three turns. Aside from an HP boost and slightly stronger moves, the gimmick is practically useless, as many Dynamaxed Pokémon used by trainers still can't survive even a single hit (especially with the easy sources of EXP). The only clear question is what will replace in in Gen IX.

    Lack of story. While the Pokémon games in general have usually gone with the same story structure, there was always a secondary objective for the player: putting an end to whatevernthe villainous team of the region was planning. It reached the peak in Gen VI when the villainous organization planned to use a weapon capable of killing all life on Earth. Such a story is absent from these games. The closest thing to a villainous team composed of fans of one of the Gym Challengers: their nost heinous act is simply being a nuisance that even their idol becomes angry with them over. The closest thing to an actual villain tries to reawaken a Pokémon responsible for a doomsday event that has happened before, just so he can "provide Galar with enough energy" for the next millenia. The actual threat, though, is nonexistant, and there's no real sense of accomplishment, either. The one battle involved is also scripted, meaning its impossible to actually lose.

    I could say more, but i believe what I've wrote is sufficient enough. GameFreak had a chance to make an astounding game, but due to a yearly deadline they've inflicted on themselves, it seems like future entries will just continue the downhill trend that SwSh has started.    … Expand
  42. spartaman64
    Jan 30, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Probably the easiest pokemon game to date the only time I was sweating a little was when the rock gym leader got 3 critical hits in a row with his first pokemon and wiped out all my super effective pokemon towards his type. But I soon discovered that it was unfounded and I easily beat him with only one more pokemon fainting. This doesn't make for enjoyable gameplay when theres no need to be strategic and I breezed through all the other battles one shotting every pokemon. Also it seemed like they ran out of time making the evil organization side of the story and instead just have Leon take care of it while your character does nothing about it until the very end. And then at the battle against the big legendary in other games it was up to you to be the hero and save the world but instead in this game your pokemon barely does any damage while two other legendary pokemon come and does all the work not a very satisfying conclusion. I bought a month of switch membership to try out the online raids but instead when I queue up for a raid it always times out even though I see a lot of people around the raid den. I paid 3.99 just to see people walking around. I finished this game in two sittings which left me feeling unsatisfied with the amount of content and now they are annoucing paid DLC which adds an additional bad taste in my mouth. I guess this is the mark of a successful business theses days manufacture the problem and then sell the solution. There are some good things. Creature design has always been a strength of pokemon and this game isn't an exception with cool pokemon like corviknight and cute pokemon like wooloo. I don't even mind alcremie too much though I always disliked the design of the edibles. I also liked how they went all in on the this is UK thing with references like bob's your uncle resturant and the dialogue. But overall pokemon sword reflects the overall state of gaming nowadays its all about looking nice and having gimmicks while sacrificing the quality of the gameplay.… Expand
  43. Kndygrm
    Jan 30, 2020
    4
    Honestly really disappointed in a lot, and happy with theres. So the bad: you cap what level Pokémon I can catch?? What a joke that was one thing that really ticked me off, every other one you can catch whatever you just maybe couldn’t control the Pokémon. Next is there are ALOT of missing Pokémon at the start that they said they couldn’t fit in?? Yet you can sell us a $30 expansion?Honestly really disappointed in a lot, and happy with theres. So the bad: you cap what level Pokémon I can catch?? What a joke that was one thing that really ticked me off, every other one you can catch whatever you just maybe couldn’t control the Pokémon. Next is there are ALOT of missing Pokémon at the start that they said they couldn’t fit in?? Yet you can sell us a $30 expansion? Liars!!! You can change your outfit for just walking around, but I wish I could change the uniform and the biking outfit, not a deal breaker though. And the game itself was too short for a $60+tax game. For the length and what it doesn’t have it’s not worth in over the previous games already out. Nothing great, it was a game, it played. I liked I could now play it on the tv which I couldn’t with a ds or any of the game boy version.… Expand
  44. warcraftrefund2
    Jan 26, 2023
    0
    It's 2020, so it is sad how little Pokemon has advanced. The animations are terrible for a game of this budget, and it is even worse that they cut Pokemon for these terrible animations. And it is even worse that the developers would lie about it. They got caught lying saying they were not using old models, when they in fact were. It is a shame what has happened to this series.
  45. notakid
    May 20, 2020
    2
    How anybody who's been a fan of the pokémon games for a long time can excuse big flaws of these games is truly beyond me. All of the criticism directed towards the developer is fully justified seeing as the complaints have to do with things that could have been implemented in such a way to increase everyone's satisfaction with the games.

    Higher quality and more advanced animations? An    How anybody who's been a fan of the pokémon games for a long time can excuse big flaws of these games is truly beyond me. All of the criticism directed towards the developer is fully justified seeing as the complaints have to do with things that could have been implemented in such a way to increase everyone's satisfaction with the games.

    Higher quality and more advanced animations? An option to turn off the EXP. Share that is making the game too easy even for a small child? Having all the previous pokémon included in the game, seeing as we know they have the models for them? All of these suggestions, do they hurt you? Is this sort of criticism "unfair" or "exaggerated"? Who do you think you are to decide what is "reasonable" criticism? The fact is, these things clearly matter to the majority of user reviews - looking at the user score clearly reveals that. If you can't handle people disliking a game you yourself like then, man, life has to be very difficult for you. Implementing these suggestions would hurt nobody. The games would be of a higher quality.

    There are many more reasons as to why users dislike these games, just have look at the reviews, but one thing is for certain: Game Freak is a lazy developer who is not to be trusted, considering all the lies that have been spouted.    … Expand
  46. Aaa4
    Jun 16, 2020
    2
    Wow i got mad seeing how this game turned out, i shouldn't really say anything because other people alredy said it. It's the shame of the franchaise
  47. timren1
    Jun 19, 2020
    1
    Franchise ruined by GreedFreak who refuse to put any effort into their games anymore and push out games every year like it's Call of Duty. Pokemon died after Gen 4.
  48. lokip1983
    Jun 18, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. i was looking forward to sword i even got a new poke-ball to get mew, when i seen the expansion coming out i knew i had to get it when i seen legend Pokemon out i knew it was going to be good but i was mistaken i completed the first map in 4 hours ive not seen any legends in my game but when i play the battle raids i seen people use legend Pokemon thats not even out yet is it worth it NO is it worth the money NO, they need to put more Pokemon legends in there like i said ive not got one im not looking forward to the 2nd part of the new map the crown tundra.... so disappointing… Expand
  49. Kotoxfi
    Jun 21, 2020
    3
    They had a big chance to make this a great pokemon game, but choose not to. There are so many bad decisions made by the developers. I can't recommend this game.
  50. K3vher
    Jun 21, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. El juego me aburrió al empezar con tanta cinemática, al juego le falta dificultad y mejores rivales, me preocupa que los siguientes juegos sean iguales… Expand
  51. Unquer
    Jun 22, 2020
    1
    This game has some good stuff, i actually like the new pokemon designs, the soundtracks are really good, the story even though it felt short, is enjoyable, has some useful new features like the way wild pokemon appear, how ever, these pokemon games are very disappointing, they removed 60% of the pokemon in order to "improve graphics and animations", how ever, the graphics are relativelyThis game has some good stuff, i actually like the new pokemon designs, the soundtracks are really good, the story even though it felt short, is enjoyable, has some useful new features like the way wild pokemon appear, how ever, these pokemon games are very disappointing, they removed 60% of the pokemon in order to "improve graphics and animations", how ever, the graphics are relatively poor, and animations didn't really improve much if any compared to previous games, the post game is really bad, the battle tower is a horrible downgrade from previous ones, no multi battle option here, online multibattles have a horrible system, i personally enjoy doing multibattles in the battle towers with my friends the most in the post game, or being able to queue with a friend to team up against other people online, how ever, this is not possible in these games, they removed features fans love like mega evolutions and Z-moves, they took away options from the players and sold them out as "new features" like forcing you to exp. share, the cities feel empty, overall the game feels rushed and incomplete, as someone who has play pretty much every single pokemon game from the main series, this game was insanely disappointing, it feels like GameFreak does not care about the fans or their games, just about the money… Expand
  52. Overlorde
    Jun 22, 2020
    4
    This game has some cool new features , a really nice over world and "open area". That being said , its the shortest main game in the franchise , the legendary pokemon are boring and forgettable , and the roster of available pokemon is lack luster and almost depressing. Essentially they ripped out a chunk of the available pokemon roster , and sold it back to us. If the game looked amazingThis game has some cool new features , a really nice over world and "open area". That being said , its the shortest main game in the franchise , the legendary pokemon are boring and forgettable , and the roster of available pokemon is lack luster and almost depressing. Essentially they ripped out a chunk of the available pokemon roster , and sold it back to us. If the game looked amazing or had some great graphical enhancements or even brought back player favored core mechanics , id be more happy. Overall its short , boring , non repetitive due to the short pokemon list , and overall disappointing for a new system release and a 2020 pokemon game.… Expand
  53. Pddragon12
    Jan 20, 2021
    4
    While this game is fun the play when compared to the other Pokémon games it carries over all the problems the other games have then makes new ones. I truly hope that the Pokémon company does better with their next game.
  54. Luxsy
    Jul 25, 2020
    3
    It's a mediocre game overall. Its story is devoid of emotion, with a horrible and wasted ending, lousy resolutions for its characters, a linear and basic map... makes the whole Pokemon saga lose its essence. In addition, the graphics are disappointing considering the graphic power of the console and its gameplay lasts a maximum of 20 hours. It's one of the worst games in the franchise by far.
  55. Napior
    May 19, 2023
    0
    The pokemon designs of the new generation are anything but cute, and the villains in this story can only be described as idiots, if not retarded.

    Also, people are saying the open world makes this game great, but where is the fun when you are lv 20 and enter an area full of lv 50 pokemons? In earlier pokemon games, some areas are not open when you first pass by, which just makes you keep    The pokemon designs of the new generation are anything but cute, and the villains in this story can only be described as idiots, if not retarded.

    Also, people are saying the open world makes this game great, but where is the fun when you are lv 20 and enter an area full of lv 50 pokemons? In earlier pokemon games, some areas are not open when you first pass by, which just makes you keep playing the game while wondering what could possibly be inside that cave (or forest).    … Expand
  56. alxs621
    Jul 1, 2020
    4
    This game isn't broken by any means, but it might as well be considering how poorly it plays the AAA JRPG game, in a world in which Nintendo's other subsidiary MonolithSoft has decided that Future Connected is not worthy of being sold as DLC and instead packaged it with the base game for free, the dismal amount of content and nonexistent plot in Pokemon Sword is inexcusable for theThis game isn't broken by any means, but it might as well be considering how poorly it plays the AAA JRPG game, in a world in which Nintendo's other subsidiary MonolithSoft has decided that Future Connected is not worthy of being sold as DLC and instead packaged it with the base game for free, the dismal amount of content and nonexistent plot in Pokemon Sword is inexcusable for the pricetag.

    An extra point subtracted for GameFreak cutting out content and reselling it as DLCs and online services.    … Expand
  57. IsilManCZ
    Jun 30, 2020
    3
    I love Pokemon series but this is the worst Pokemon game ever. So stupid easy, can't turn off exp. share, my pokemon are still more than 10 levels stronger. The textures of pokemons are not nice and overall the game looks unfinished in terms of graphics. The series failed to enter the new console. PS. There is no need to make the game more and more simple. You could allow the difficulty ofI love Pokemon series but this is the worst Pokemon game ever. So stupid easy, can't turn off exp. share, my pokemon are still more than 10 levels stronger. The textures of pokemons are not nice and overall the game looks unfinished in terms of graphics. The series failed to enter the new console. PS. There is no need to make the game more and more simple. You could allow the difficulty of the game.… Expand
  58. Porgoa
    Jul 17, 2020
    3
    3 since the dlc is kinda decent ngl. The main game is horrible the worst pokemon game imo. It doesn't have the charm nor the love of the other games is just a lazy cash grab. 90€ for a game and 2 dlcs that can be finished in 30 hours tops. Game freak is better than this.
  59. ArmorTitan
    Jul 3, 2020
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Start with the good:
    - SOME pokemon designs are really well done. Corviknight is a good balance of new and original whereas Alcreamie makes no sense. It's like a redo of slurpuff and they failed to bring anything new or missing to that line of fairy type pokemon.
    - Wild Area scenery isn't bad.
    - Pokemon Camp is innovative
    - Difficulty of gym leaders is solid (Real issue is explained later)
    - Marnie and Bede are well done.

    Bad:
    - Permanent Exp share. There's no option to even turn it off. This is gamefreak forced handholding.
    - Plot Handholding. The game environment doesn't allow for meaningful exploration and when it does, it's in a fenced environment with little to no meaningfulness.
    Example A: Character is consistently directed toward the next checkpoint. (Displayed on mini-map, excessive cut scenes, routes unnecessarily blocked to deny exploration)
    Example B: Character is prohibited from exiting cities that "haven't completed their mission" and not only just prohibited but in a very very obvious pipeline manner. You cannot cross tunnel until mission at town A is done. You cannot cross bridge until mission at town B is done. Etc. Very infuriating.

    - Plot depth: There is no depth to the plot.
    Rose: There's no build up, no backstory, no understanding or series of hints as to why Rose, as flawed as he's forced to become, snaps at the end. The character doesn't have an opportunity to connect with Rose and is essentially brushed aside at every encounter due to more cut scene plot hand holding.
    Team Yell: This is a joke for people of all ages. They serve no real purpose other to be mindlessly annoying. Every other team in the franchise has always dedicated themselves to some greater purpose that explains why they dress, behave and battle with conviction. Team yell has none of this and is a terrible attempt to pleasure kids with silly stupid characters.

    - No National Dex.
    - Graphics Glitch
    - Starters have overpowered moves. [120/90 acc] at level 35? Two 80/100 acc moves with added effects at 36? The game should have pushed these signature moves until later stages. Not at a level where they can abuse every gym.
    - Local pokemon nearby the first town, statwise, are incredibly overpowered. [Corviknight, Orbeetle, Obstagoon and many others] all nearing 480+ stat with many at 500+ stat. On average this is a 50+ Stat increase from competing regions in gen 1-7. And then you try to pawn off the game like it's hard. No it isn't.
    - Nothing to explore. There are 0 subplots, 0 distractions, 0 minigames. There's no pokemon contest , and more pictures and closed off imagery than there are content for exploration. You're practically limited to what the handholding plot gave you. No. Wild area does not count. I'm talking about mini explorations like in pokemon ruby where you had to surf down a hidden river to find a certain spot to catch feebas. That was fun.
    - Post game plot is pathetic.
    - Dynamax is a failed attempt to hype pokemon combat and broke competitive play.
    - Eternatus is very forgetful as a pokemon/legend. It became a scapegoat boss to fit in with Rose's terrible plot.
    - Every character in the game both NPC and important NPC overly panders you for 0 reason. Example A: When you're talking to Leon at wedgehurst station. EVERYONE STARES AT YOU TWO. Why? This is highly unrealistic and is a example of the game's method of pandering players. Microshifts in NPC behavior to really make you think you're the star of this game. Newsflash. You don't need that to to convince people they are the star. They already know. They're going to beat leon and save the world there is no need to excessively make every single NPC pretend you're a huge star when, during pockets in the plot, you're still a nobody.
    - Hop = Hau 2.0
    - Oleana = Lusamine 0.5
    - Leon = Too pandering not inspiring.

    TLDR:
    - Too focused on graphics and imagery. Very little content. Horrible Plot. Dynamax is a failure. Some pockets of good grace but not worth playing compared to Gen 1-5 + 7.    … Expand
  60. Phillyphill222
    Jul 6, 2020
    2
    The game is crap, I hate to say it. I didn’t think they could do any worse than sun and moon but here it is. The raid battles are almost impossible without a dedicated team. The den Pokemon through is the 3 to 6 piece barriers, and then they get to attack 4 times in a row. But don’t worry if you can manage to stick with it long enough it with kick out out the den. But only after I hitsThe game is crap, I hate to say it. I didn’t think they could do any worse than sun and moon but here it is. The raid battles are almost impossible without a dedicated team. The den Pokemon through is the 3 to 6 piece barriers, and then they get to attack 4 times in a row. But don’t worry if you can manage to stick with it long enough it with kick out out the den. But only after I hits your entire team back to back to back to back with moves that shouldn’t do much damage. And when any Pokemon dynamaxs or Gigantamaxs their type differences and levels become completely irrelevant(unless it’s yours).Every single gym and rival battle beside the champion is a joke so there wasn’t a real challenge. And since your rival picks the weaker starter now, there isn’t good reason to have to fight him 20+ times before the semifinals.
    Also the fossil Pokemon are a joke.    … Expand
  61. RickyPDC
    Jul 11, 2020
    2
    As the game came out i bought it on day one as a hardcore pokemon fan who has bought every single game from generation one and even the opposite versions in some of these,

    Also, you might have guessed im an adult by now, which for some might be a biased review sinc eit is a kids game. However, from my viewpoint, i also played pokemon silver as a kid and got through it. This is a spit    As the game came out i bought it on day one as a hardcore pokemon fan who has bought every single game from generation one and even the opposite versions in some of these,

    Also, you might have guessed im an adult by now, which for some might be a biased review sinc eit is a kids game. However, from my viewpoint, i also played pokemon silver as a kid and got through it.

    This is a spit on the face to everything pokemon has established to be in the glory days, the exploration is trash, caves are nonexistant, nonreplayable, there are no actual puzzles, games like pokemon emerald would have actual puzzles with rocks or other stuff that actually made you think for at least 10 seconds, what is this?
    Story hasnt ever been a strong point in pokemon so i can allow it being trash, However what i cannot allow is the CLEAR difference between what you see in the gameand what we got in those short animated clips in pokemons youtube, now THAT is a good use of a mediocre story normal in pokemon games. It just makes no sense, even if the previous games didnt make sense this one takes it to a whole new level. The villain team is just a petty excuse to roadblock the story, they serve the same purpose as smashable ocks in emerald and have the same personality as these rocks. The rival is annoying as hell with the handholding and interrupting every 10 minutes of the game, his character arc was good but they mad eme hate him from the get-go. The legendary plot comes out of nowhere without any single decent explanation as to why and nobody cares about that.
    Finally to add some spice to the game they decided on a repetitive boring predictable and short post game. What the **** happened to having new cities new caves new anything to go after you become champion?
    The gameplay is stupidly easy and i think it would be a decent option to have a difficulty setting in a 60 DOLLAR GAME, when the developers know exactly pokemon has many users who play competitive, hell i dont even play competitive and this game was a joke, the AI is stupid, the NPCs teams are underleveled and monotone to the point where its just a speedrun and when a pokemon doesnt faint in one shot its just annoying.
    Missing animations, missing pokemon, missing medium quality animation from one of the BIGGEST company in the world.
    The wild area is empty and boring, i see the DLC and thats what the entire region should be. A region where you can go anywhere and the gyms and trainers scale with either victories or badges now that would be open world. The rest of the world is linear and short even having abrupt climate changes just like XY it doesnt even feel real.
    So what do we have left? What is the good in the game? 1. its pokemon, i enjoy it and 2, the plot with the gym leaders was actually pretty decent, the rest however was completely forgettable.

    Overall for a company like this to be making trash unfinished games makes me mad. With the funds they have they could make a masterpiece, but this is just a 3DS game
    60 dollars paid in full for 5 hours of gameplay. Im not buying the DLC and im certainly not buying the next pokemon game for the first time in my life ever since i was 6 years old. Congratulations, its ruined.    … Expand
  62. Pokedasher
    Jul 12, 2020
    1
    Rushed game. Terrible graphics and a very boring and predictable story. Clearly a holiday cash grab.
  63. LeonardoRox
    Jul 19, 2020
    4
    História não me prendeu no jogo, objetos áreas pokémon mal Renderização" pipocando".
  64. TanukiPiffle
    Jul 16, 2020
    2
    I can not recommend buying Pokemon Sword or Shield. All of the animations are lacking for a console game and the textures for static objects look like they belong in a Nintendo 64 game. Because of the lacking animations the battles feel the same as they did in the previous generations. Experience is now automatically shared among your team and you can't toggle it off. This made the gameI can not recommend buying Pokemon Sword or Shield. All of the animations are lacking for a console game and the textures for static objects look like they belong in a Nintendo 64 game. Because of the lacking animations the battles feel the same as they did in the previous generations. Experience is now automatically shared among your team and you can't toggle it off. This made the game extremely easy and boring.

    The story is full of plot holes and lacking explanations for why things happen. In previous games there was always a scientist, professor, gym leader etc to tell you what and why. Whenever something interesting seems like it is happening one of the main characters will tell you that they'll deal with it and to get back to your gym challenge. It's the first time I've played a pokemon game where I don't feel like the main character even though I still become the champion. It makes sense that the adult characters would deal with the problems but it makes the story boring and uninteresting.

    The wild area has terrible render distance for pokemon, trainers, and berry trees. Although you can see terrain that is 100-200 metres away, pokemon and trainers don't show until they're approximately 10 metres away. This means you have to constantly be spinning your camera to see everything. It also looks really janky when pokemon are constantly bursting up out of the ground.

    The two legendary dogs are not only extremely boring and uninteresting to me but they also don't really look like legendary pokemon. The two dogs are unfortunately just that, dogs, except they're are wielding weapons. Otherwise there is nothing interesting about them.

    The few good things; The rotom bike was an awesome addition but please let me take the clown suit off. Max raid dens were cool but getting exp candies and moves you could teach your pokemon from them made it too easy to power up your pokemon. I liked some of the new pokemon and I don't expect to like all the pokemon anyways.

    By far the 2 best things about Sword and Shield are the music which is just good and the character designs. There are a couple of great songs but the rest are just good or ok. All the gym leaders feel like unique characters within the game and they all seem to have distinct personalities. Sonia is the character with the most depth by far followed by your rival Hop. The "evil" team is just trash though I don't understand what Game Freak thought they accomplished there.

    In conclusion I have very little good to say about Pokemon Sword and Shield and there are a lot more small things that feel like regressions from the previous games that I'm not gonna get into. In my opinion these two games are worth $15-$20 USD. DO NOT spend $60 USD on these games. I don't expect you to find them anywhere below $50 for a used copy so just don't buy it. It would still make a great gift for children who are fans of the franchise and it's a great gift for children who have never played pokemon before because of how easy it is.    … Expand
  65. Noctaire
    Jul 17, 2020
    1
    Everything feels so cheap in this game. How could game freak built such a mess with so much budget?
  66. krasnyy_kedr
    Jul 22, 2020
    2
    Simply boring, easy and very short. It has some good characters, which I liked and made the experience less painful.
    Graphics are not that bad, but it is a shame because it could have been done better.
    New Pokémon are mostly great.

    My major complain is it being worth 60€ at launch and during 20 hours at much, while older games where 40€ and lasted at least 40 hours.
  67. Luke191
    Jul 23, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really wanted to like this game, but there were countless gripes that I had with it which prevented me from enjoying it. Unlike most people, I didn't care for the graphics or the national dex, but the number of issues beyond it was quite saddening. Combat wise you will definitely get everything you love about pokemon battles. I really enjoyed what they did with the gyms and the music was very enjoyable. That being said those things being good do not justify this game being $60 with a $30 DLC

    People who play pokemon a bit more seriously may enjoy the bottle caps, hyper training, and easier breeding process because it makes putting together a competitive team less time-consuming. But honestly, why would anyone waste so much money just to play competitive pokemon when you could literally play pokemon competitively for free elsewhere? Buying this game solely to play it competitively really isn't worth the money. Dynamax was introduced in this game but it really feels unnecessary. Seeing how they removed Z moves and mega evolutions from previous games, it almost feels like I might be wasting my time by learning how to optimize Dynamax.

    Pokemon sword also introduced a new raid battle feature. This idea might seem cool on paper but it baffles me how free mobile games manage to do raid battles better than pokemon. In pokemon raid battles, you choose ONE of your pokemon and work together with other players to take down a wild dynamax pokemon. I hate this so much because all it did was remove my favorite thing about the combat in pokemon. I can't strategize in raid battles at all, nor can I use any pokemon from my team aside from the one I picked. All you do in raid battles is whack the wild pokemon with a strong move till it dies. On top of this, the fact that you have to take turns to use just one move makes raids so needlessly boring. If your pokemon happens to faint during a raid you can't do anything but wait for your pokemon to be revived. Raids might be a bit more fun if you have friends near you to play with, but even then it still gets boring quickly.

    One major thing I expected to change was no voice acting, I was a little bit surprised when I found out that there was none in this game. Sure not all games need voice acting to be good, but there were countless times within the game where it was really uncomfortable to watch. For example, one of the gym leaders is named piers and he has a whole rockstar aesthetic. There's a good amount of scenes where he has a microphone and he's "singing." You can hear his foot tapping to the beat and you can hear the guitar riffs in the background yet he's not actually saying anything. If you want to know how awkward this was to watch, just record yourself lip-syncing in the mirror while listening to your favorite song through headphones. I won't say voice acting is a must, but pokemon sword could've definitely benefitted from it.

    The storyline of Pokemon games were never really anything groundbreaking but they were often enjoyable. I know the storyline of Pokemon games isn't always the selling point of the game, but the storyline of Pokemon Sword was so lackluster it felt like I was playing through a procrastinated high school project. I didn't play through pokemon platinum until about two years ago, so I'm not saying this because of nostalgia. But, I can safely say meeting Giratina was SIGNIFICANTLY better than meeting Eternatus. It really felt like the legendaries in this game were only there for the sake of having legendaries in the game. What's worse is that the game pretty much forces you to catch Eternatus in order to progress through the story. I really wasn't a fan of Hop either. I didn't really hate him as a character but because he pretty much complimented you on a super effective move every single time you used one, and he would do that literally from the beginning to the end of the game. The game keeps the same gym challenges like the past games and as I mentioned earlier, I like that they made gyms pretty unique from one another, but that alone isn't really enough to make the storyline good. The journey between routes wasn't really exciting either. Making it through victory road for the first in the earlier games felt like a real accomplishment, but there isn't anything in this game that comes close to replicating that feeling.

    I do think that the wild area was a step in the right direction but there's a lot of improvements that need to be made. I think that simply making that part of the game a place where players can interact with each other, spectate each others battles, etc. would've made it a lot more enjoyable.

    Overall, I can say that this is possibly the biggest let down for a switch game. I haven't even touched on the DLC but that's a whole different mess in its own right. $60 with a $30 DLC is way too much for a game like this. If there is one thing that this game did extremely well, it's making me feel like I outgrew the franchise    … Expand
  68. LewisDisease
    Jul 27, 2020
    3
    Hand holding taken to the extreme. Difficulty is non existent, even if you try to make the game harder on yourself like trying to use the new Pokemon only so you have to guess typings, even if you try not to train your team at all before a gym or the elite 4. You can pretty much beat this game just mashing A and walking to wherever the game tells you to go.

    I get the Pokemon Company are    Hand holding taken to the extreme. Difficulty is non existent, even if you try to make the game harder on yourself like trying to use the new Pokemon only so you have to guess typings, even if you try not to train your team at all before a gym or the elite 4. You can pretty much beat this game just mashing A and walking to wherever the game tells you to go.

    I get the Pokemon Company are trying to get to a broader audience, but they are just targeting an audience that is not probably the ones that are actually buying the games, people in their 20s expecting a challenge and good exploration.

    Disappointing visuals, cut Pokemon and cut features, extremely easy and fast to beat game, easily the worst entry of the entire franchise.    … Expand
  69. paulbekk
    Jul 28, 2020
    2
    The game is indeed controversial. There are a lot of problems Game Freak should have worked on much better. However, even with those irritating parts, Pokemon Sword deserved solid 6.5. The disaster that made me rate the game lower is INSANE amount of cheaters. Every time you go to boss fight, you end up with at least one level 100 shiny Pokemon owner. For me, it completely breaks theThe game is indeed controversial. There are a lot of problems Game Freak should have worked on much better. However, even with those irritating parts, Pokemon Sword deserved solid 6.5. The disaster that made me rate the game lower is INSANE amount of cheaters. Every time you go to boss fight, you end up with at least one level 100 shiny Pokemon owner. For me, it completely breaks the concept of Pokemon and robs the pleasure of hunting and collecting.… Expand
  70. Agentep99
    Sep 9, 2023
    3
    While a game's graphics being hyper realistic may not make it necessarily a better game, looking like sh*t DOES make it a worse game, with the smooth models contrasting with the terrible looking geometry, which constantly takes you out of what should be an exciting world of adventure; the game is way too easy, and lets you level up way too easily, which discourages intelligent play, sinceWhile a game's graphics being hyper realistic may not make it necessarily a better game, looking like sh*t DOES make it a worse game, with the smooth models contrasting with the terrible looking geometry, which constantly takes you out of what should be an exciting world of adventure; the game is way too easy, and lets you level up way too easily, which discourages intelligent play, since the result will always be the same (victory), something that could have saved this would have been giving the player huge amounts of liberty so that every playthrough has the potential to be different, however, progression is EXTREMELY railroaded, and only lets the story play out in one specific way, not only that, but certain mons can only be obtained later on, which makes it so most players will have a similar selection of monsters throughout the game, even though the appeal of pokemon is all about making your own unique team. As it is, there really isn't much of a reason to do replays (aside of player imposed challenges, but that is besides the actual game), so in my perspective I don't really see a way to call this game anything other than "bad" or "dull" much less "good"
    Dull and uninspired 3.5/10    … Expand
  71. Black_Mullet
    Dec 27, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game is ok in general. Max raids are cool, many quality of life things are there, shiny hunting and breeding is cool, some encounters are pretty cool too (milotic for example) BUT the main story and the post game is atrocious. No attachment to anyone, some parts of the game are just missing or cheaped out (leon and rose talk, last gym being literally empty, idiotic tasks like going after the macrocosmos npc and fighting them one on one on a freaking elevator. Generally the story is bad, not even decent but the overall gameplay kinda makes up for it.....luckily there are DLCs so yeah..… Expand
  72. Gantelmann
    Jan 30, 2021
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pokemon Schwert und Schild sind die ersten ableger der Hauptreihe, die es auf die Heimkonsole geschafft haben.
    Wenn man davon absieht das es auf älteren Konsolen diverse Spin-Offs gab.
    Die Anzahl der Pokemon in diesem Spiel sind unterirdisch. Man muss sich erst diverse Monster per Dlc freikaufen obwohl nachweislich alle schon ingame sind.
    Die Grafik hat höhen aber auch viele Tiefen.
    So ist es auf normalen Routen noch recht hübsch anzusehen aber wenn es dann in die Naturzone geht... Naja Spiele des N64 sahem teils besser aus. Wennan im Online Modus unterwegs ist, für den man ja leider bezahlen muss, sinkt die Fps Zahl ins Bodenlose.
    Es wurden auch viele Attacken gestrichen wie zb. Verfolgung. Die Stimmung in den Arenen ist Super. Zwar wird einem die Dynamax funktion etwas aufgezwungen aber das ist ok dafür ist die aufmachung der Arenkämpfe gelungen. Was jedoch nicht gelungen ist, ist die Story. Alles fängt gut an man lernt seinen Rivalen kennen der mitten in der Story seine Midlifecrysis durchlebt und auch den Champ. Man bekommt früh seinen Starter und lernt auf dem Weg zur Liga auch noch allerhand Charaktere kennen. Der Kern der Story, das Böse Team, ist eigentlich nichts weiter als die Wish version von Sonne und Mond. Böses möchtegern Team macht probleme und ist nicht ernst zu nehmen und die ach so nette Firma ist der wahre Schurke. Was aber mehr als nur vorhersehbar ist. Allgemein ist ab Score City der Tiefpunkt der Story erreicht. So muss man unter anderem auch ein dummes Katz und Maus spiel mit einem der Mitarbeiter führen was ziemlich ins lächerliche gezogen wird. Der Champ Kampf wird mitten in der Liga unterbrochen nur um den "Plott" einzuführen. Fazit zur Story: Schlechteste in ganz Pokemon. Das late Game ist monoton und langweilig wenn man die Dlc außenvorlässt. Die neuen Pokemon finde ich persönlich gelungen. Was auch sehr angenehm ist, ist der Zucht Support. Die Minzen sind eine gute ergänzung um nun wirklich jedes Pokemon was man mal bis dato hatte und auch verfügbar ist zu einem brauchbaren Kämofer zu verwandeln.
    Die Dyna Raids sind nicht fordernd oder spaßig diese fressen nur zeit.
    Am Ende kann man nur sogen es hätte mejr sein müssen als das was es ist. Ansätze waren zwar gut aber die setzung war katastrophal und man kann nur hoffen Gf lernt aus dies desaster und lässt sich fürs nächste mal mehr Zeit.    … Expand
  73. 0zaiko
    Dec 29, 2021
    3
    Disappointing "next-gen" episode for a great series. While it contains most of the ingredients for the Pokemon formula, it lacks in depth and passion. It really seems like the project was rushed and unfinished, the whole thing is a straight line with empty areas in between. The visuals are poor, if not outdated. The only interesting point about this game are some of the new Pokemon design.
  74. Darkyurem
    Nov 19, 2022
    0
    The wort history of all games from pokemon, pathetyc villain, bad line of game, no much pokemon, in overall, a disaster
  75. ZangBang
    Dec 3, 2022
    3
    38/100
    Pokémon Sword tries to breathe new life into the series' level design, with huge open areas populated by Pokémon roaming around in the overworld for the very first time, even preying the player at times. These areas are conceptually greatly immersive and visually captivating, but they lack meaningful content to experience as they are overwhelmingly barren and lifeless, with Pokémon    38/100
    Pokémon Sword tries to breathe new life into the series' level design, with huge open areas populated by Pokémon roaming around in the overworld for the very first time, even preying the player at times. These areas are conceptually greatly immersive and visually captivating, but they lack meaningful content to experience as they are overwhelmingly barren and lifeless, with Pokémon mindlessly wandering with no environmental interaction. Most of the maps actually present the traditional linear structure, but devoid of any creative map layout or interesting progression, as the player is constantly confined to what are essentially corridors from point A to B. The Level Design drastically improves in the Crown Thundra DLC with great emphasis on freedom of exploration and fairly engaging multiplayer challenges, but that certainly can't salvage the whole package. The Galar region isn't even particularly interesting thematically, with many concepts being overly derivative from previous generations, but thankfully the musical score remains excellent with glorious, aventurous tunes efficiently capturing the wild, triumphant glory of the region's landscapes. The game's challenge is ridiculous, mainly due to the extremely broken Dynamax gimmick which easily allows the player to trivialize almost all battles. The story might be the worst of the franchise yet, with plotpoints being either painfully unoriginal or introduced without the proper buildup extremely late in the story, all of this aggravated by a cast of painfully bland or disappointingly underdeveloped characters.    … Expand
  76. WohaoGaster
    May 11, 2023
    2
    I got this game at launch and only finished it recently, which shows the amount of boredom that this game causes. It's not broken like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, it just genuinely isn't fun. There's a mild amount of fun to be had in online battles once you beat the game, but considering how boring the story was and the fact that most of my Pokemon were level 97-ish after beating the 8th gym,I got this game at launch and only finished it recently, which shows the amount of boredom that this game causes. It's not broken like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, it just genuinely isn't fun. There's a mild amount of fun to be had in online battles once you beat the game, but considering how boring the story was and the fact that most of my Pokemon were level 97-ish after beating the 8th gym, I had very little motivation to actually beat the game. The online battles are the only reason I didn't give it a 0 or a 1. There's also the #BringBackTheNationalDex movement, but it isn't that major, as most people would only like to use a couple of Pokemon that weren't in the game and primarily just their favorites(mine are Snivy and Serperior, who aren't in the game) so it isn't that major for most people to see every Pokemon. They also did a good job preventing pedophilia which is something I shouldn't have to praise Game Freak for but considering the fact that Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl had a pretty easy up-skirt of Dawn in the Overworld who has fully modeled panties even though this was apparently an "Error", I have to praise them for the fact that Gloria has SHORTS(Probably because they're visible in the walk cycle but still). These are the only good points in the game. The game also looks very pixelated, which is a thing that also seemed to happen in the 3DS games but it's more excusable considering the 3DS has a 400px and 800px mode, and it's very hard to use the 800px mode without the 3DS crashing, and the only games that I have seen using 800px mode were 2D games and the Zelda remakes which were 30fps. On the switch it's inexcusable. If DOOM Eternal can run on the switch perfectly with no pixelated rendering and at a consistent 60fps, then why can't this Pokemon game do the same. It looks like a 400px 3ds game. Considering Scarlet/Violet it's entirely possible that Game Freak doesn't know how to handle the Switch, is what I WOULD say if they didn't port Pokken Tournament 2 years earlier, I don't care that it was developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment, if you need a different company to handle your game's graphics, that's totally acceptable and happens all the time. My point might seem invalid to some because I can't even make a simple 3d model of a potted plant, but these are big companies that I'm talking about, and I feel like Creatures should handle Pokemon a lot more closely than just modelling and animation, I feel like they should be the primary graphical team at TPCI.… Expand
  77. Crimson9
    Dec 21, 2022
    1
    1990s game design by the laziest developer ever + 2020 Nintendo mandating that all content must be easy enough for a 3 year old to play = this complete monstrosity of a game.

    Dont really have much more to say. This is a braindead game with nothing positive about it.
  78. NeffVEVO
    Nov 20, 2022
    4
    It was the second pokemon game I have ever played, after Let's go Eevee, and honestly, this is a bad game. Graphics are horrible, story is boring, no voice acting, overall just a really bad expirience. The only reason I'm giving it a 4 is because a concept idea itself is good, well, because pokemon games always have a good core gameplay, but everything else build around it in this game isIt was the second pokemon game I have ever played, after Let's go Eevee, and honestly, this is a bad game. Graphics are horrible, story is boring, no voice acting, overall just a really bad expirience. The only reason I'm giving it a 4 is because a concept idea itself is good, well, because pokemon games always have a good core gameplay, but everything else build around it in this game is horrible.… Expand
  79. camoz
    Nov 19, 2022
    4
    A bare bones experience that strips out all of the story beats from the experience. A shocking lack of animations, and overall an experience stuck in the 1980s
  80. Shamp058
    Nov 21, 2022
    2
    This game has a semi-interesting mechanic, but is just super boring and repetitive. The visuals also suck, even for the switch. This game is boring and just bad, don't buy
  81. LikeFahrenheit
    Apr 30, 2023
    4
    The idea of developing a home console game when you usually developed games for handhelds, is to make the most of the hardware given to you. to push boundaries and explore new avenues for gameplay and content. If there's one glaring fault with this game, it's that it does not look or play like a game for the Switch. It really feels like Sword was meant to be played on the 3DS, and evenThe idea of developing a home console game when you usually developed games for handhelds, is to make the most of the hardware given to you. to push boundaries and explore new avenues for gameplay and content. If there's one glaring fault with this game, it's that it does not look or play like a game for the Switch. It really feels like Sword was meant to be played on the 3DS, and even then, it would be the worst Pokemon game on that system. That's how disappointing and pedestrian this game is. It screams "safe", which is not what a game from Pokemon should be when starting a new generation on the most powerful hardware the developer has ever worked with.

    The Galar region is the worst designed region in Pokemon. no hidden pathways, no height in routes to give new perspectives, no dungeons, no puzzles, no reason to go back to an area other than filling the pokedex. all routes are linear to the point of boredom. The region is bereft of any sense of adventure or mystery. What adds to this novice level of design is that the angle of the camera isn't in top-down like in previous games. they lowered the angle, which means we see more of the region and routes, which means they look smaller than they are. Which begs the question, why did they lower the camera? if the routes are designed in a very similar style to past regions on the game boy and ds games, why not keep the angle as high as possible? because it's now 3D? it's just poor design.

    The Wild Area (the game's selling point) is grossly stale. Going through it once or twice, you'll get bored there too. The only reason to go there is to catch Pokemon, which can be done in every other area in the game. The only incentive to go there is for the raid battles and interact with other players. There is nothing there that is evident of creativity or uniqueness. There's no hidden areas either, no caves, no grottoes, no secret events or surprises. it's basic, it's nothing. it's a waste of potential. which is a lot of this game.    … Expand
  82. EvanatorB
    Nov 23, 2022
    3
    Pokémon is the number one highest grossing media franchise on earth. This does NOT feel like a game from the number one best selling franchise ever. Let me start with the good. One. I love the music. It definitely lives up to the quality of previous Pokémon soundtracks. Two. The Pokémon designs of Gen 8 are wonderful, especially the starter trio. That’s where my praise ends. Now for thePokémon is the number one highest grossing media franchise on earth. This does NOT feel like a game from the number one best selling franchise ever. Let me start with the good. One. I love the music. It definitely lives up to the quality of previous Pokémon soundtracks. Two. The Pokémon designs of Gen 8 are wonderful, especially the starter trio. That’s where my praise ends. Now for the flaws. This game looks like a Nintendo 64 game. The textures are in 2D, the environment looks very low poly, I noticed some frame rate issues, and characters appear lifeless and stiff with really bad animations. Which is a shame as certain NPCs look really good design wise. The story is almost non existent and what is there is so boring it doesn’t even meet the expectations of a Pokémon game. Worst of all the game is WAY too easy. I breezed through it in a single day. I know the game is targeted towards young children but jeez, even as a six year old I wouldn’t have had much trouble. On top of that Game Freak did little to enhance the Pokémon gameplay loop and the main gimmicks of the game, the Wild Area and “Dynamaxing”, Yeah. One is a single small lifeless semi-open world area and the other is a glorified win button. Going beyond that the online multiplayer is a joke. Even battling other players takes forever as you can read a novel with the amount of time the game takes to process moves in between turns. Maybe this is more of a Nintendo Switch Online problem, but it still impacts the game. Overall, this was probably the most disappointing Nintendo Switch release considering it was the first mainline console game in the series. Game Freak screwed up. And you shouldn’t screw up either by saving your $60.… Expand
  83. HungryRamona
    Dec 2, 2022
    4
    This game was a complete disappointment across the board. I really didn't had fun playing this game. The graphics were really a joke even for the switch, especially in the wild areas. After Lets Go Pikachu/Evoli I really had expectations for the next generation because the games looked so nice. Unfortunately you don't see any of that anymore in Sword/Shield. There were only a few placesThis game was a complete disappointment across the board. I really didn't had fun playing this game. The graphics were really a joke even for the switch, especially in the wild areas. After Lets Go Pikachu/Evoli I really had expectations for the next generation because the games looked so nice. Unfortunately you don't see any of that anymore in Sword/Shield. There were only a few places where the game looked "nice". The frame rate also left a lot to be desired. The story was relatively boring and from start to finish you were treated like it was your very first Pokémon game. And it's an absolute no-go that the rival in the FINAL BATTLE is still surprised that I'm familiar with different Pokémon types. Leveling up isn't really difficult thanks to the activated Exp. Share and the Max Raid Battles (but I'm personally grateful for that because leveling up in past Pokémon games was just too slow for me).… Expand
  84. Cloud_cipher
    Nov 29, 2022
    3
    "I've played 110 hours of sword. I wish I could get back atleast 90 of those hours back"

    Complaints 1v1 battles are the most boring way to engage in this series and the fights were just soulless and boring I had to fight sleep with this game Animations are lazy Dlc is stupidly high priced but fun Story was unoriginal and boring and alot of handholding making it just a rush to the finish    "I've played 110 hours of sword. I wish I could get back atleast 90 of those hours back"

    Complaints 1v1 battles are the most boring way to engage in this series and the fights were just soulless and boring I had to fight sleep with this game
    Animations are lazy Dlc is stupidly high priced but fun Story was unoriginal and boring and alot of handholding making it just a rush to the finish so I could just do whatever I wanted
    Dynamax was cool at first but quickly wore off
    Raids were fun at first until you realize that you need online support aka random people online to help you beat a raid and we all know how reliable random online players are. You could get nocs to help you fight a raid but I rather have a random noob who doesn't know what there doing than a npc    … Expand
  85. Epicmonster5600
    Dec 6, 2022
    2
    Pokemon fans to this day confuse me, they will pay full price for the most lazily made game ever. It makes no sense to me, like wouldn't you rather boycott the game so they realise they need to put more effort in. Yes these games are fun but their quality is awful and gamefreaks should be ashamed.
  86. Alebernard
    Dec 8, 2022
    0
    Movement stuck for a game on a console that is the Nintendo Switch. I expected more quality as it is the same console generation as PS4, PS5, xboxone, xbox x and s. I expected movement of attacks within battles. A silly mechanic. Shameful, I regret the purchase too much, too bad it is digital media.
  87. AbsoPoy
    Feb 21, 2023
    2
    An absolute embarrassment. Mediocre storyline, characters, gameplay etc. The only redeeming qualities are the soundtrack and the Pokémon themselves (coalossal and corviknight, mainly). A bore from start to finish.
  88. Amcek
    Mar 23, 2023
    3
    Aburridísimo, lo pase todo sin una sola emoción, 0 dificultad. Si tenés entre 2-6 años y nunca jugaste un Pokémon te lo recomiendo
  89. Ihtayt
    Aug 16, 2023
    4
    Summing up some bulletpoints on my thoughts of the game below, for reference this is after beating both ScVi 3 times and going back to SwSh after. I did not get / play the DLC as the base game offered so little there was no incentive to prolong this.

    Game is always on local wireless, this massively hinders connecting to wifi as it will frequently bug out and fail to connect to network    Summing up some bulletpoints on my thoughts of the game below, for reference this is after beating both ScVi 3 times and going back to SwSh after. I did not get / play the DLC as the base game offered so little there was no incentive to prolong this.

    Game is always on local wireless, this massively hinders connecting to wifi as it will frequently bug out and fail to connect to network after the game is open. This feels like a massive oversight for something that the developers forced on the game.

    Gameplay is very linear, moreso than Gen 2 and possibly even more linear than Gen 1 which is a very sad downgrade. The main story only took me roughly 20-24 hours to beat and the postgame did not offer much more; at what I feel was a moderate play pace.

    Postgame- After beating the game, gameplay massively falls off and feels very unmotivating. Farming the battle tower may appeal to some, but its gatekept behind needing to clear the BT for the currency (BP) to get the items that you need to clear the BT; which feels very outdated and counter-intuitive. You can clear all / most of the tower with provided rental teams which further detracts from the experience as by time you can make your own team with your own mons, you already beat everything. You can aim to complete the pokedex, breed, and shiny hunt; but this is nothing new or exciting from previous games really; and aside from team building for the BT it feels pretty pointless to build up mons. The game introduced raid dens, but they didn't feel at all appealing personally.

    Performance - I've encountered more performance issues with SwSh (~40hrs) than I ever did with ScVi (>1000hrs).    … Expand
  90. Eyean
    Aug 5, 2023
    4
    This is what you get when you prioritize game sales over making an actual good game. Cutting the National Dex in exchange for "Improved graphics and animations" was the most egregious lie this company's ever told.
  91. Kirbo1777
    Aug 23, 2023
    3
    The game is pretty easy, not requiring any skill to beat it. The skip cutscenes option doesn't even skip the entirety of the cutscenes.
  92. TreasureOrTrash
    Sep 8, 2023
    0
    Trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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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