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. Spaxe
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    My copy of Sword and Shield came in the mail a bit early yesterday, and while Sword and Shield are pretty cute games, I have to admit there are some glaring problems that make this game feels like it was needed to bake in the oven a tad bit longer. For starters, I just want to say I never cared for the controversy surrounding these games about not being able to transfer all of yourMy copy of Sword and Shield came in the mail a bit early yesterday, and while Sword and Shield are pretty cute games, I have to admit there are some glaring problems that make this game feels like it was needed to bake in the oven a tad bit longer. For starters, I just want to say I never cared for the controversy surrounding these games about not being able to transfer all of your pokemon, so this review is in no way biased towards that. There are, however, other issues that did drag down the experience for me. I often ran into performance issues. Frame drops, trees or objects randomly popping up in view; and while at times the game does seem beautiful and comfy, at other points the game almost seemed sloppily put together.
    The games are far too easy to the point of boredom, even for a Pokemon game. I felt myself being overleveled very quickly. I was often taking down opponents only in one singular attack, despite not going out of my way to fight many monsters. The new EXP share, which spreads experience across your whole party, seems to amplify this problem. It seems as if the game was not balanced with this feature in mind, as my entire team were several levels ahead of our opponents for most of- if not, the entire game. The adventure lasted roughly about 12 hours for me to complete, which is awfully short for an RPG, and there isn't much you can do after the journey is over. Might I add this game only has 10 routes, previous entries having about 30ish.

    I will not get into story spoilers in this review, but the games are a bit more linear than I was expecting. My main criticism stems from Hop, your happy-go-lucky friend and rival, who always seems to interrupt the flow. There is hardly a moment where you can walk around without being interrupted by dialogue or a cutscene by him or some other character. I audibly groaned whenever Hop appeared on screen. I do like a good story, but I would also like to be able to play through the game without my rival breathing down my neck. Trainer customisation in this game is something I appreciated. Customizing your character is the widest it has ever been in this series, complete with photogenic trainer cards that capture the essence of your character. I find this feature very wholesome and cute, with many expressions and poses to chose from.

    I was looking foward to seeing the wild area being a reimagined safari-zone full of life, but unfortunately: it is large, empty, and barren. Models walk around a bit stiffly, and the textures are a bit dated and lackluster for a console game in 2019. Animations from this game can either be very well done, or extremely lacking. There was one instance where one of the major pokemon in the story mode didn't even have a turn animated for it's walk cycle. The pokemon's entire model was just rotated 180 degrees, which was very noticeable and bizarre. However, speaking of which, I do like the very diverse set of pokemon this generation. There are quite a lot that you are able to catch in the region, old and new; and they are all pretty unique and sometimes goofy in design.

    The newest feature, Pokemon Camp, was very charming. I loved the animations in this mode, they were definitely at their peak here in terms of quality. It was quite entertaining to see my Scorbunny/Raboot play with the Feather Wand Toy I had. Pokemon in camp interact with each other and it feels very lively. Making curry was cute. However, I do have my problems with it. For starters, the AI for the pokemon can seem a bit buggy, where they might get stuck walking in one place. I can't say it's common but it did break the immersion a bit. There was one instance where I had no background in the camp at all, which seemed like a bug. But then I encountered a battle with a background very similar to this, and I can only assume it was intentional? At times, I almost felt there was more time and effort put into this side-activity than the actual battle system.

    At it's core, it is definitely a Pokemon game. The basic formula of Pokemon works in these games. However, I was still disappointed, and I can without a doubt say that this is the least amount of enjoyment I've gotten out of a mainline pokemon game so far. Pokemon Sword and Shield fails to truly innovate despite being the first mainline entry on any type of console, and I cannot say that it is a sixty dollar Pokemon game at all. It feels rushed, poorly optimized, and half-baked. Can I see a child enjoying this game? Yes. Can I see a newcomer to the series enjoying this game? Possibly. Can I see a longtime pokemon fan enjoying this game? Not likely, unfortunately.    … Expand
  2. Zerato
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    The game is meh not even counting the Pokemon what is taken out doesn't equal to what was gained if you have nothing better to do and find a used copy in a few weeks that'll be the only time is say to get it.
  3. ringomi
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Two steps forward, five steps back.
    While this game has quite a few welcome additions in this first outing on a home console. It takes away some beloved and used features, moves and pokemon in a competitive scene. The visuals look barely better than the previous generation on the 3DS, e.g. constant popup, NPC and pokemon are rendered it seems at arms length. Graphical gliches, gameplay    Two steps forward, five steps back.
    While this game has quite a few welcome additions in this first outing on a home console. It takes away some beloved and used features, moves and pokemon in a competitive scene. The visuals look barely better than the previous generation on the 3DS, e.g. constant popup, NPC and pokemon are rendered it seems at arms length. Graphical gliches, gameplay bugs and crashes are inexcusable.    … Expand
  4. UniversalReview
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Pokémon Sword/Shield are fun, fresh, new Pokémon experiences. You can catch nearly one-hundred new creatures, explore never before seen towns and cities, and interact with a colourful cast of new characters. However, the same can be said for every new Pokémon generation in the history of the franchise, and for perhaps the first time ever, the cuts and flaws really start to bring thePokémon Sword/Shield are fun, fresh, new Pokémon experiences. You can catch nearly one-hundred new creatures, explore never before seen towns and cities, and interact with a colourful cast of new characters. However, the same can be said for every new Pokémon generation in the history of the franchise, and for perhaps the first time ever, the cuts and flaws really start to bring the experience down.

    Through two decades of handheld releases with the same formula, the question was always there: “what if?” What could Pokémon look like, what could the series achieve, if finally freed from limited handheld hardware and brought onto modern home consoles?

    As it turns out, the answer is more of the same. And that is exactly the problem.

    Sword/Shield are a graphical upgrade from their 3DS predecessors, yet still look mediocre for their hardware. They offer plenty of new features, at the expense of everything new introduced the previous generation. They promise a new experience, yet have less content than DS and Gameboy Advance games released 10-15+ years ago.

    It could be argued that Sword/Shield are a product of Gamefreak’s shifting design philosophy. Since 2013’s X and Y, franchise leaders have made it clear that accessibility is a priority. Case in point, 2014’s ORAS famously removed Pokémon Emerald’s Battle Frontier because “kids would get frustrated with the difficulty”, completely disregarding the millions who grew up with the games regardless.

    This mentality is present in every aspect of Sword/Shield, actively removing player-choice in many situations. They are arguably the most linear games in the franchise: outside the Wild Area, you’ll be moving from A to B, with a noticeable lack of traditional “dungeons”, various inaccessible areas and major plot points happening off screen. Even worse, the EXP-Share is no longer optional. To many, it was a major factor in XY and beyond being far too easy, resulting in the player often being over-levelled for major battles, and its removal limits player choice for no good reason. By focusing on simplicity and linearity, Sword and Shield are easier and shorter experiences that feel less like adventures and more guided tours.

    But now comes the main event: Dexit. You are finally unable to “Catch ‘Em All”, with roughly 500 creatures unable to be transferred into Sword/Shield. Disregarding forcing players to use a (likely paid) service to store Pokémon in the meantime, improved visuals were specifically cited as the reason for this decision. Sadly, that simply isn’t true. Sword/Shield look mediocre for their hardware, in many cases lacking simple details such as battle backgrounds and decent textures. Furthermore, many animations and models are outright reused, and while it isn’t confirmed if Gamefreak lied about “new models”, it’s indisputable that a AAA title in 2019 shouldn’t look this poor, especially if visuals are used to justify shortcomings elsewhere.

    However, perhaps Sword/Shield are expansive enough to justify the cut content? Sadly, this isn’t the case either. Sword/Shield are roughly 15-20 hour games, average for the franchise, and offer significantly less post-game content compared to many previous instalments. Sword/Shield cost $20 more than previous Pokémon experiences: console prices, but nothing about the formula, length or content volume reflects that. New features like the Wild Area are fun, but every new Pokémon game in history has brought new features to the table, and nothing about Sword/Shield particularly screams bigger or better.

    Sword/Shield are undoubtedly fun games. But to many, they’re also indicative of a stagnation that has plagued the franchise over the past five or so years. Sword/Shield are on a home console, but downgrade the graphics and they would be indistinguishable from any 3DS Pokémon release. Sword/Shield are the fourth consecutive yearly Pokemon games, and unfortunately don’t even stand out from the pack, let alone compete with games like Breath of the Wild and Smash Ultimate. In 2019, on the most powerful hardware yet, the bare minimum simply isn’t good enough anymore.

    When your game offers less content than DS releases from 2009, that’s a sign things need to improve.    … Expand
  5. LuckyAbsol
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Your average pokemon game that'll probably be fun for the casual fan. The story is below par compared to past pokemon games, suffering from clear pacing issues towards the end. The graphics were only slightly better while some of the animations are also lacking. Clear pop ins and low resolutions textures litter the game while severals bugs are also present. For example, the battleYour average pokemon game that'll probably be fun for the casual fan. The story is below par compared to past pokemon games, suffering from clear pacing issues towards the end. The graphics were only slightly better while some of the animations are also lacking. Clear pop ins and low resolutions textures litter the game while severals bugs are also present. For example, the battle backgrounds not always matching up with battle. The quality of life changes were very welcomed but the EXP Share was still too strong and could not be turned off.

    I must also add that the soundtrack was very forgettable this time around which is strange for a pokemon game, the postgame is also extremely short with it only being about 1-2 hours long. The battle tower makes a return but it's been stripped down to it's bare bones.    … Expand
  6. Kylis105
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Barebones and buggy but the core is still there. Just wish they would stick with some of the mechanics they have developed in the past rather than scrapping them every new game.
  7. Kace14
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Had potentials. Too many cutscenes. The story is very linear. It is also very hand-holdy kind of game. Generally, it is still enjoyable but not the game you’d want to spend hundred hours on.
  8. cmcgee
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    -Cut over 1/2 the pokemon
    -Linear route/map design
    -Indoor battles are in a boring white void
    -Exp share cannot be turned off
    -Wild area is mostly empty
    -Battle animations are still meh
    +The new Pokemon are cool
    +The upgraded textures are nice
    +Overword encounters
  9. Fish-E
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    It's a fun game, but it's by no means a good game. The game has clearly been rushed to market at least a year too early. More than half the Pokemon are not in the game, despite the models all being ready. The animations & graphics are clearly unfinished, as the game looks comparable to a Nintendo GameCube game. There are a lot of moves which have not been implemented, the game is buggyIt's a fun game, but it's by no means a good game. The game has clearly been rushed to market at least a year too early. More than half the Pokemon are not in the game, despite the models all being ready. The animations & graphics are clearly unfinished, as the game looks comparable to a Nintendo GameCube game. There are a lot of moves which have not been implemented, the game is buggy (e.g. music sometimes doesn't play, the backgrounds in battles fail to load, when you use ladders the entire game just freezes, the game often slows down). They have also removed fan favourites like Mega Evolutions, in favour of more regional forms (something which nobody has been asking for!), making your Pokemon big (a massive gimmick, which, again, nobody was asking for!) a Pokemon camp and a curry dex which together, will provide you with an additional 5-10 minutes of gameplay.

    It's hardly a reinvention of the series like Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey. I wouldn't recommend it for the current price of £50, but if you see it for £30 I'd buy it. It's on the Switch, but Game Freak have treated it no different to their 3DS games.    … Expand
  10. shale
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Gameplay wise pokemon sword is off to a great start. Tutorials are kept to a minimum, there are several areas to explore and plenty new pokemon to catch.
    The wild area is great for new and pro players alike: new players can get overpowered pokemon from dynamax battles while pro ones can challenge themselves by fighting the strong roaming pokemon.
    By the time you make it to the first gym    Gameplay wise pokemon sword is off to a great start. Tutorials are kept to a minimum, there are several areas to explore and plenty new pokemon to catch.
    The wild area is great for new and pro players alike: new players can get overpowered pokemon from dynamax battles while pro ones can challenge themselves by fighting the strong roaming pokemon.
    By the time you make it to the first gym you really feel like a trainer on an adventure, which can't be said of many pokemon games. Sadly the game completely loses this feeling after this point (about 4 hours into the game), and the remaining 16 hours are a below average cookie cutter pokemon experience.

    Exploration is virtually nonexistent and the experience becomes very predictable with game game following a simple one route->one gym formula. Every other pokemon game at least has an evil team to shake things up, but these games don't. Team yell doesn't evolve beyond being some extra trainer battles you encounter on routes, and the climax to their story is just a gauntlet of battles, no hideout to explore or anything.

    As for side features, character customization is pretty good! It still has the same problem the games have had since X and Y where you can only get outfits in certain colors, so you can't think up an aesthetic and then make your character look like that ingame. There are plenty of options though so you'll probably be satisfied regardless.
    You can also customize your trainer card in these games which is nice. The UI is a bit clunky and I wish you could have a pokemon on the trainer card too, but other than that I don't have any complaints.
    Pokemon camp seemed pretty shallow and wasn't for me, but maybe I just missed something.

    I'll try to keep details to a minimum, but don't buy these games expecting a lot of content either! The game took me 20 hours to complete, with at least 40% of that time spent just messing around with side features like character customization. There is a postgame mission which takes about 2 hours to complete, gym leader rematches, and a battle tree replacement. That's all!

    Pokemon sword and shield are below average pokemon games, but pokemon games nonetheless. If you don't care about the drama and just want a fun pokemon experience you'll probably like this game.
    If you think you'll be angry at the game throughout your entire playthrough please skip this one! For those people I'll also write my thoughts on the games music and graphics below:

    The wild pokemon theme and trainer music is some of the best in the entire series. Gym and league music isn't very listenable outside of the game but works amazingly in context.
    The rival theme is good too, but it's very fun/energetic and gets used regardless of the mood in the current scene.
    The game has several motifs that it reuses constantly throughout the soundtrack, but for some of them there seems to be no reason for their existence. For example, two cities use the same motif while they are completely different aesthetically.
    Despite the game only having 10 routes, lots of routes share the same theme. I only figured this out because I was flying to random routes in search of a specific theme and every route had the exact same music, I think this says something about the memorability of the route music in general.
    The pokecenter theme and heal jingle aren't in the same key, making it sound really jarring instead of soothing.
    When infiltrating the final boss HQ slice of life anime music starts playing for some reason? And it's not just for a little "we can do this!" cutscene, it plays throughout a gauntlet of battles.
    Postgame has some bad guys that just use the regular battle theme, this ruins the mood of the scene.

    The graphics of these games are inexcusable. Not only are they STILL using their lifeless scripting system from the 2013 games pokemon X and Y, the cheap graphics lack any semblance of polish. Routes look like they were texture painted from a top down view and never looked at from a different angle, because all the walls are a complete mess, bloom flickers in and out of existence when walking, some props are so low-poly they're probably straightup reused assets from the 3ds games. It pains me to say it, but I don't think ANYONE on the graphics team had a passion for what they were creating.
    While I don't personally like the UI design it's one of the few things that's actually inoffensive about these games. I wouldn't be complaining at all if the next games in the series had UI of similar quality. I'd like to end things on a positive note so I'll leave it at that.    … Expand
  11. NicRein
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Let me preface this by saying, I've been playing this franchise since the first release of the game, back with Red, Blue and Yellow.

    Casting aside bias from leaks and all the negative media and news following the games release, Gamefreaks general handling of this release, etc, when I first booted up the game I was met with none of the emotions I had when I first played X and Y. X/Y were    Let me preface this by saying, I've been playing this franchise since the first release of the game, back with Red, Blue and Yellow.

    Casting aside bias from leaks and all the negative media and news following the games release, Gamefreaks general handling of this release, etc, when I first booted up the game I was met with none of the emotions I had when I first played X and Y. X/Y were the first "3D" Pokemon games we got, being on a much powerful handheld, with a bombastic opening score and a very good looking Professor to invite us to this new world of Pokemon. It instilled a sense of excitement and wonder that, this would be an experience unmatched by previous games. X and Y may not have, by the end, been top-tier Pokemon games, but there is no doubt they set a precedent for getting you excited for what was to come.

    Fast forward to now and, a lackluster opening theme, long pauses in dialogue to let a voiceless NPC get through its lines, and a reminder that Charizard is a special case that got through the picket fence surrounding Galar, helped set an expectation for sure. That this game wasn't going to be another impressive leap. I do not want to draw comparisons to other titles on the Switch, since Gamefreak handles things very differently that Nintendo (evidently, Nintendo at least has the courage to delay titles like Metroid and Animal Crossing.) But there is no denying that every new title that has come to the system has blown us away, showing us just what to expect from a late 2010's Nintendo. Now at the turn of the decade, we get Sword and Shield. A game full of compromises to give us small quality of life improvements that could've been in the games since the DS era, while trying to paint them as revolutionary and "exciting."

    We traded over 50% of the National Dex of Pokemon for skipping short tutorials. We traded global weather and seasons for empty open-world-esque areas that have pop in reminiscent of Playstation 1 titles. We traded expansive routes and towns for a free moving, albeit limited, camera. And yet this are all incredible revolutions that should provide pats on the backs of Gamefreak developers. On top of all of this you get a game that is easy to blow through, allowing you to skip unwanted encounters while easily grinding your team to overleveled territory thanks to an always-on EXP share, and a catching system that allowed me to basically catch 90% of my Pokemon with first-throw Pokeballs with no fail.

    The first gym leader sums up this entire game. On the outside, a flashy, over hyped stadium, claiming the challenge of your life. On the inside, a lackluster "run straight to win" challenge, and then a Gym Leader that carries six balls but only uses two, with the first ever dynamax you encounter dying in two hits.

    With blinders set to maximum, you can enjoy this game. But at the end of the day that enjoyment is nothing more than you giving into the fact that "Well, it's a new Pokemon game, I've already beat the others twice, nuzlocked, randomized and blindfolded, may as well have fun with this one!"    … Expand
  12. BurbleBoy
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This entire game has been a meltdown. I was optimistic for the games after their reveal in February of this year. But when E3 rolled around, everything went downhill. More than half of returning Pokémon were cut, supposedly because a) they wanted to make each individual Pokémon more expressive, b) they wanted to balance the competitive meta game, and c) they remade the individual modelsThis entire game has been a meltdown. I was optimistic for the games after their reveal in February of this year. But when E3 rolled around, everything went downhill. More than half of returning Pokémon were cut, supposedly because a) they wanted to make each individual Pokémon more expressive, b) they wanted to balance the competitive meta game, and c) they remade the individual models from scratch and didn’t have the time to include every Pokémon. This supposed “more expressive” is laughable, Wingull hovers around with its wings stuck out, Pokémon just appear out of the ground, water Pokémon swim without moving and don’t create any ripple effects, and other embarrassing examples can be found in games. Data miners have found that the models are the SAME, so they weren’t redone. And any competitive meta game is cut through BALANCING, not removing options. There are other graphical issues, too. Slow down, pop-in, and stiff animation plague the game, and the textures on the environment look like they were made for the GameCube. Previous fan-favorite features such as Mega Evolution and the GTS were cut in exchange for Dynamax and Gigantamax, which have significantly less positive reception, and...nothing to replace the GTS. The shortest adventure in the series, a joke of an evil team, the same plot blockades from the previous generation, and arguably the worst soundtrack across the entire series. On top of all that, a forced EXP share that gets you overleveled compares to every trainer around you, and the game ends up being a cakewalk. The game is the most disappointing and infuriating game I have ever experienced, and I can only hope they learn to better the experience in the future. The only reason I can’t rate it lower than a 5 is because, at the end of the day, it’s Pokémon, and there can never be a time Pokémon battling itself isn’t enjoyable. But this is by far the weakest installment in the series.… Expand
  13. jorgeben292110
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    Tenían la oportunidad de lanzar el juego definitivo de Pokémon y... , aún así es un "buen" juego si ignoras ciertos apartados (gráficos, etc), en definitiva lo que lo hace ser el peor de todos los Pokémon hasta la fecha es la eliminación masiva de la mayoría de Pokémon.
  14. Jl58
    Dec 22, 2019
    5
    Pokemon sword was massively effected by time constraints. You can see a massive lack of polish graphically. When you compare the quality with Dragon Quest and Xenoblade 2 it’s clear that it was pushed out asap. Lots of animations are below par but the worst thing has to be the game speed. Raid battles are pointlessly slow and trainer battles take far too long with loading for animations,Pokemon sword was massively effected by time constraints. You can see a massive lack of polish graphically. When you compare the quality with Dragon Quest and Xenoblade 2 it’s clear that it was pushed out asap. Lots of animations are below par but the worst thing has to be the game speed. Raid battles are pointlessly slow and trainer battles take far too long with loading for animations, weather effects and multi hit moves. The Nintendo servers make the online in this game next to worthless. It has been rushed by creators who I think genuinely love the series but Game Freak need to learn that quality over quantity will please the fans. I’m hoping the next instalment has a half decent story, updated battle mechanics and they completely revamp most of the overdone tropes of Pokemon such as gyms… Expand
  15. Goomenstein
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    It's a Pokémon game so it's bound to be mildly enjoyable, however, this is the worst entry in the series yet. The difficulty is laughable, the story is simple and the game is relatively short. The lack of features (and Pokemon) from other games is also inexcusable as the quality has not improved as a consequence as they had promised us.
    While the art DIRECTION of this game is pretty, the    It's a Pokémon game so it's bound to be mildly enjoyable, however, this is the worst entry in the series yet. The difficulty is laughable, the story is simple and the game is relatively short. The lack of features (and Pokemon) from other games is also inexcusable as the quality has not improved as a consequence as they had promised us.
    While the art DIRECTION of this game is pretty, the graphics themselves are subpar with muddy textures and less than great animations. (the infamous tree that was picked apart since the E3 treehouse showcase is still in the final game, by the way)

    The cute/cool creatures and characterdesigns are bound to at least tickle your Pokebone a little, and the roster of 400 Pokemon in total isn't bad, allowing you to perhaps enjoy a second playthrough with a completely different team, as the selection of the regional dex is pretty diverse. The question if you're willing to bother after having experienced it for the first time.

    Sadly I believe this is as great as modern Pokemon games will get. Even if you do decide to not buy this game and vote with your wallet, the problem goes beyond Gamefreak having little time to develop and polish these games. The maingames have been a fraction of the total revenue TPCi makes, so they are more likely to be cut completely than to be polished.
    The maingames are ABSOLUTELY ****    … Expand
  16. maxspin
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    I bought Shield but I'll repost my review here, since they are basically the same games.

    I have just played this game for 5 hours and all I can say is that the rumors were right. Graphics are lackluster (to not say bad) for a Switch game, animations are not detailed like Nintendo promised, routes are boring and most are just straight lines, national dex is nowhere to be seen (I was    I bought Shield but I'll repost my review here, since they are basically the same games.

    I have just played this game for 5 hours and all I can say is that the rumors were right. Graphics are lackluster (to not say bad) for a Switch game, animations are not detailed like Nintendo promised, routes are boring and most are just straight lines, national dex is nowhere to be seen (I was expecting this but whatever), and tons of other small issues that end up causing a snowball effect. I really did expect it to be a bit better, but as a long time fan, I'm just disappointed.    … Expand
  17. Gibus_Mann
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    The Good:
    - Some move animations are well done, such as Brave Bird, Boom Burst, and all G-max moves
    - The Wild Area gives a feeling of adventure and challenge - The human models look well done and there is a significant amount of customization for the player model The Meh - The majority of the new Pokemon designs don't seem very 'Pokemon-like' - Most of the music doesn't have the    The Good:
    - Some move animations are well done, such as Brave Bird, Boom Burst, and all G-max moves
    - The Wild Area gives a feeling of adventure and challenge
    - The human models look well done and there is a significant amount of customization for the player model

    The Meh
    - The majority of the new Pokemon designs don't seem very 'Pokemon-like'
    - Most of the music doesn't have the same memorable feel like prior Pokemon games
    - There is little, to no, improvement in Pokemon animations for Gen 1-7 Pokemon

    The Bad
    - There is no National Dex
    - The story, and some parts of the game, seem rushed and incomplete
    - The post-game is weak or non-existent

    Conclusion:
    Despite some improvements, overall, Pokemon Sword and Shield failed to live up to the expectations of a mainline game on the Nintendo Switch. If it were a 3DS game, it would be considered an improvement over the main lines series. But because it is on the Switch, it will be compared with, arguably unfairly, with other Nintendo titles such as Zelda: BOTW and Mario Odyssey. In that comparison, it simply falls flat.    … Expand
  18. sakurai
    Nov 21, 2019
    6
    The game is fairly mediocre in all regards. The music stands out as pretty good and is the only outlier. Besides that, this feels like the most stripped down the series has ever gotten, and that's after the infamously bare bones Let's Go games. Yikes.
  19. Nathanga
    Nov 24, 2019
    5
    Out of all the mainline Pokemon games I've played Sword in particular was a chore to complete. I enjoyed my first 10 or so hours with the game, given that the core pokemon gameplay loop is still fun and intact. However I noticed overtime that the game kept getting more and more boring for a number of reasons, such as the dull story/characters and very easy difficulty. I appreciate theOut of all the mainline Pokemon games I've played Sword in particular was a chore to complete. I enjoyed my first 10 or so hours with the game, given that the core pokemon gameplay loop is still fun and intact. However I noticed overtime that the game kept getting more and more boring for a number of reasons, such as the dull story/characters and very easy difficulty. I appreciate the graphical improvement Gamefreak has given us here but it is negated by the cuts to the National Dex and the simplicity of the game.

    Simply put i expected more from a $80 Pokemon game and am disapointed with my purchase.    … Expand
  20. Martin998
    Nov 26, 2019
    5
    Cut corners and a rushed/unfinished game. It was still somewhat fun but not anywhere near worth $60. Post game is laughable and having only 2 legendarys you could catch with the version you bought is god awful. No dungeons or much of anything to explore in the game. The wild area could've been great and it feels empty even with all the pokemon there. Textures, animation and models are allCut corners and a rushed/unfinished game. It was still somewhat fun but not anywhere near worth $60. Post game is laughable and having only 2 legendarys you could catch with the version you bought is god awful. No dungeons or much of anything to explore in the game. The wild area could've been great and it feels empty even with all the pokemon there. Textures, animation and models are all lazy and terrible.… Expand
  21. aar12567
    Dec 20, 2019
    5
    Gamefreak presents... A Pokemon game in which the annoying rival picks the starter that is weak against whichever of the 3 Pokemon you pick. Annoyingly though, no hedgehog pokemon? that's a British animal that could have been a good idea for a new start, but no, instead we get a monkey -insert video of British toddler saying "F*** off monkey" here-

    If you loved fun stuff like navigating    Gamefreak presents... A Pokemon game in which the annoying rival picks the starter that is weak against whichever of the 3 Pokemon you pick. Annoyingly though, no hedgehog pokemon? that's a British animal that could have been a good idea for a new start, but no, instead we get a monkey -insert video of British toddler saying "F*** off monkey" here-

    If you loved fun stuff like navigating around large oceans on the original pokemon, or exploring mt. Moon and the large dark tunnel, well forget that, because you won't be doing that here. Instead, we have very short linear tunnels with no exploration, a team that turn out to not be so bad, and well... a small 10 minute snowy area of ocean that pokes fun of British Weather, and if you love the 4 seasons, Pokemon has you covered because the field you go out exploring in has 4 seasons that never stop changing, which makes catching pokemon very boring and tedious. As for gyms, you'll really love seeing that Gamefreak (a company that probably has all the money in the world) Gamefreak got really bored towards the end of making this game, or ran out of ideas. You play through 4/5 gyms, and the last few have you play a guessing game on a stage before battling, another one where you walk through a town which you're unable to explore, to reach one of the leaders. And then a final where you stand in a room and fight 3 people (seriously? one of these doesn't even have a gym)

    I feel like Pokemon is a dying franchise, running out of ideas, poor animations that are at EA level (instead of seeing gyarados snaking through the water, he rotates on the same axis to turn around, it looks dumb) I expect better from a developer with so much money, there's really no excuse for it.    … Expand
  22. Vmac19
    Jan 1, 2020
    6
    It's okay. I just bought it because it's pokemon. The game was kind of lame though however it did have alot of potential to be the best pokemon game so far however it was only okay I guess
  23. JoePapaReviews
    Jan 7, 2020
    5
    My team of 6 magikarps couldn't beat this game I thought magikarp was the best pokemon!!!!
  24. BakaShinji
    Oct 5, 2020
    6
    While Sun and Moon generation pushed the boundaries of the 3DS, this game looks lazy. Cool new Pokémon and new mechanics, but it lacks some challenge. It's so easy that it looks like a joke.
    SM had a deep, interesting and capvitating story, this game have no story at all (or it is so bad that it would be better not to have one).
    In the end, it's still fun to play, but it feels like    While Sun and Moon generation pushed the boundaries of the 3DS, this game looks lazy. Cool new Pokémon and new mechanics, but it lacks some challenge. It's so easy that it looks like a joke.
    SM had a deep, interesting and capvitating story, this game have no story at all (or it is so bad that it would be better not to have one).
    In the end, it's still fun to play, but it feels like Gamefreak took a step back.    … Expand
  25. Mandulum
    Mar 14, 2022
    5
    After 5 hours, I'm bored. It has been a good reminder of why I stopped buying Nintendo consoles decades ago. Graphics that indie games put to shame, generic audio, no voice acting, and a boring, bordering on non-existent, story.

    Date Dropped: 2022-03-14
    Playtime: 5h
    Enjoyment: 5/10
    Recommendation: I'm sure the Nintendo fanboys love it. It's far too repetitive for me.
  26. Cosmozerk
    Apr 19, 2020
    6
    As far as the typical Pokémon formula goes, the game doesn't break new ground, after all, Pokémon's formula is one of those things that just works well all on its own, it's fun catching Pokémon, raising them, building your team, taking advantage of type weaknesses, visiting towns, challenging your rival, defeating the evil team, winning gym badges and completing the Pokédex, as it's alwaysAs far as the typical Pokémon formula goes, the game doesn't break new ground, after all, Pokémon's formula is one of those things that just works well all on its own, it's fun catching Pokémon, raising them, building your team, taking advantage of type weaknesses, visiting towns, challenging your rival, defeating the evil team, winning gym badges and completing the Pokédex, as it's always been. It's a tried and true approach that remains as fun as ever so that all checks out. But of course, that's what we take for granted at this point, it's what makes this series what it is. It's everything that surrounds that winning formula that makes these games feel so underwhelming.

    See, I'm not a stickler for visuals, but this game certainly doesn't really take advantage of it being on a home console, this is a running trend as you'll see. The animations are serviceable, some look pretty good, like the Dynamax attacks, some look decent and others look unfinished. I understand that animating every single Pokémon in the way Stadium did it is out of the question, and cutting down the Pokédex is a sensible move from that perspective, but even putting the animations aside, the overall game doesn't feel like it belongs on a home console. Some environments look nice, and other times you're looking at Ocarina of Time trees and low-res textures. For the most part, the game looks just fine, but it's inconsistent and doesn't feel like that big of a step up from what we were shown on the 3DS.

    However, to give credit where it's due, the soundtrack is phenomenal. One of my favorite in series, the gym leader music, specifically, never fails to get my hyped. All of the rival theme's are great, the pieces that play in different areas, and of course, the track done by Toby Fox is a big highlight, it's so Deltarune it hurts, I love it.

    Wish I could say the same about the story tho. Pokémon games have never had an outstanding narrative (except for Gen 5), but most of them still managed to be captivating, with fun characters, a good villain and intriguing plot... for the most part. Unfortunately, this story might just be the worst one yet, it has tons of miss potential, an antagonist with laughable motivations, setups that almost never get good payoffs, a super basic and predictable structure, the list goes on. That's not to say it's all bad, in fact, I like how the journey is set up, with this being like a competition between lots of trainers. Really makes ya feel like... I guess a football player? But with Pokémon. And I think the main rival, Hop, is way more than just Hau 2.0, he actually has a pretty compelling character arc, a nice personality, and a good resolution. The best "friend" rival, without a doubt, and one of the best rivals in the series for me, and that's a hill I'm willing to die on. Outside of those few points tho, nothing in the story is anything to write home about, it's by the numbers, and really undercooked.

    Which also holds true for the gameplay, unfortunately. As I said, Pokémon's formula is fun on its own, but with this being the first mainline game on a home console, you'd figure they'd add something more to really make the experience feel like a logical next step. And it sorta does, the Wild Area is a step in the right direction. It's an open area where you can catch Pokémon, get fruit, set up camps, and join raid battles. But it doesn't amount to anything else beyond that. Eventually, it loses its magic and becomes less of an open world, and more of a bunch of empty space where you try to search for specific Pokémon.

    Pokémon camp is cool the first few times, but there's barely anything to do. You can watch Pokémon interact, give them curry, play with them, and that's basically it. It feels like a worse version of what we had in Gen 7, where we could also clean our Pokémon, pet them and feed em' personally, which really helped me bond with the Pokémon I had. If Camp also had this, it would be great, no doubt, but that just isn't the case.

    And if ya wanna talk about concepts that feel like worse versions of what we had before, just look at Dynamax, which you only use on very specific situations, only really amounts to making the Pokémon bigger, with few getting cool redesigns, and on the whole, it just feels like a less inspired version of the Mega Evolution, only now they've added less impressive looking Z moves for every time you use a move when the Pokémon gets bigger. It's such an underdeveloped gimmick.

    Look, guys, Pokémon Sword and Shield aren't *that* bad, ok? They're enjoyable games, and if all you're looking for is for yet another solid enough Pokémon game, then they fill the quota no problem. But for what was this franchise's big jump into a home console, especially one like the Switch, which has some of the most ambitious titles in Nintendo's history, they just didn't stick the landing. They should've been so much more.    … Expand
  27. zasham
    Feb 2, 2020
    5
    For me the biggest negative thing about the new Pokémon games are the difficulty. They are likely the MOST easiest/casual Pokémon ever. No puzzles, no real dungeons, experience points for all Pokémon, exchange Pokémon directly without going to the center, way too easy trainers ect. ect. ect. There are so many flaws in difficulty, it seriously hurts!
    If those were the first games in the    For me the biggest negative thing about the new Pokémon games are the difficulty. They are likely the MOST easiest/casual Pokémon ever. No puzzles, no real dungeons, experience points for all Pokémon, exchange Pokémon directly without going to the center, way too easy trainers ect. ect. ect. There are so many flaws in difficulty, it seriously hurts!
    If those were the first games in the whole series, Pokémon wouldn't have been such a big success as it is today. Hope they learn the next time! If not, it will be my last one forever.    … Expand
  28. JayDarbz
    Nov 27, 2019
    5
    This game isn't actually that bad I kinda liked it! The gyms are fun. My only issue however from being a pokemaniac ever since yellow! These new Pokémon are the ugliest most disgusting looking thing's I've ever seen I wish they just stop creating new ones there is enough! And the post game is non existent and the game is very Short with a pathetic storyline
  29. Eleiyas
    Nov 26, 2019
    5
    Unfortunately, these are the most average Pokémon games to have ever been released (not including mobile titles).

    These are games that are on the Nintendo Switch, the most powerful home console ever produced by Nintendo (Full HD), with other console-specific titles such as Breath Of The Wild, Mario Odyssey and Luigi's Mansion 3. Compared to the games I just mentioned, Sword and Shield    Unfortunately, these are the most average Pokémon games to have ever been released (not including mobile titles).

    These are games that are on the Nintendo Switch, the most powerful home console ever produced by Nintendo (Full HD), with other console-specific titles such as Breath Of The Wild, Mario Odyssey and Luigi's Mansion 3. Compared to the games I just mentioned, Sword and Shield pale in comparison in every single way.

    The story is incredibly lackluster, with Leon and Sonia essentially doing all the cool things while you are simply told to "go do the gym challenges and leave this to the adults"... essentially Leon and Sonia are playing the game while we do the busy work. I understand why as it doesn't make sense for a 10 year old kid to be "saving the world" as was the case in previous titles, but it makes these games seem too linear and it's upsetting to think that Leon/Sonia are having all the fun, while we rush through the gyms one after the other. This is only slightly alleviated in the post game, where we finally get to enjoy some different narrative.

    This leads on to one of numerous controversies that have surrounded these games since pre-launch. The inability to turn off the now infamous EXP-share. If you spend any amount of time in the Wild Area grinding or doing raids before doing the gyms, your core team will be so overleveled by the time the gyms come around that you will one-shot every single Pokémon you come across, making the gyms simple roadblocks to be steamrolled over.

    Myself and many others after having spent an hour or 2 in the Wild Area after its discovery have had some Pokémon (especially the starter) be upwards of 10 levels higher than the gym I was challenging. One attack is one fainted enemy, even including the last Dynamax Pokémon a gym leader will send out.

    This leads on to controversy #2, Dynamaxing. Mega evolution and Z moves were removed for... making your Pokémon big for 3 turns. WOW, what an improvement! What innovation! Yeah, no, it pales in comparison to mega evolution and even z moves.

    Controversy #3: the removal of the national dex (now infamously known as Dexit). It was stated by GameFreak that they removed over 400 Pokémon (53/54% of the nat dex) in order to improve graphical fidelity and the animations. We now know this was a blatant lie. Both the models and animations are imports from the 3DS (thanks dataminers!), with some seriously shoddy ones like ... the now infamous (... a lot of infamy in this game) double-kick animation where the model isn't animated at all, it is simply pushed upwards, then brought downwards again. Really low effort and laziness from GameFreak, seeing as Genius Sorority nailed the animations back in the days of XD: Gale of Darkness, or even Colosseum on the Gamecube!

    Controversy/issue #4: Look at Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey, then look at Sword/Shield. The graphics on these new Pokémon titles look like they were meant to be on the 3DS. Muddy textures, shoddy artwork in a lot of places (infamous Wild Area trees); not all the textures are bad and some areas of the game look damn gorgeous, but it's really a mixed bag between shoddy and amazing. For the Switch, capable of 1080p 60FPS, these Pokémon games run at 720p 30FPS a lot of the time, even lower when in the Wild Area and connected to the internet. Myself and others have had 720p 10FPS in this scenario, which is downright mind-blowingly bad, especially when comparing to Breath of the Wild which can run at 1080p 60FPS, while also having much better graphical quality.

    Now, in order to not go over the 5000 character limit, here are other issues in brief:
    #5 - Removed moves for no real reason
    #6 - A lot of unused code left in the game out of laziness (all movesets are in for every single Pokémon, but not the models)
    #7 - Game has revealed a lot of issues with the Switch (bricking/SD card corruption)
    #8 - Changing the date and time to spam raids to get perfect Pokémon and infinite money
    #9 - Each Pokémon form has a different model, not one model with different textures, leading to huge game-bloat.
    #10 - Games now cost £60/$60 without warranting the increase in price
    #11 - #GameFreakLied
    #12 - Beloved features axed for no reason (no Pokémon following you, no rideable Pokémon)
    #13 - Towns feel huge, but a lot of buildings cannot be entered, or are simply copy-pasted
    #14 - Hilariously bad draw-distance which introduces the worst pop-in since Fallout76
    #15 - Some of the worst battle backgrounds from any Pokémon game (white void)

    I could do more, but that's enough crapping on the games.

    These games do introduce a heft of QoL improvements and there is no denying it. EXP candies, Nature Mints, Egg Moves from breeding, fly from anywhere, bike going on water, etc.

    These QoL improvements, topped with the fact that "it's more Pokémon!" and "Pokémon is inherently fun!" is what is making people see these games through rose-tinted glasses.    … Expand
  30. Lizarino
    Jun 13, 2020
    5
    This game is very mixed for me. It is the same formula as the previous Pokemon games with a few nice additions but a lot of flaws with it.
    I would give this game a 6 or 7 / 10 but because of it's price (£40 or more at current) I'm lowering it to 5/10.
    - This is the first and only Pokemon game I've played where I've abandoned my starter at the start of the game. All 3 starters and their    This game is very mixed for me. It is the same formula as the previous Pokemon games with a few nice additions but a lot of flaws with it.
    I would give this game a 6 or 7 / 10 but because of it's price (£40 or more at current) I'm lowering it to 5/10.

    - This is the first and only Pokemon game I've played where I've abandoned my starter at the start of the game. All 3 starters and their evolutions are just ugly, boring and have no interest in them at all.
    In terms of new Pokemon this generation it is also mixed. There are some that have really good designs and moves, and then some which are just really boring and uninspired.
    The new forms for old Pokemon I like and the new legendaries I like.

    - The story and characters are probably one of the worst of the Pokemon games as well. I can't even really remember the story that much after finishing the game a few days ago. The characters are really annoying and bland, namely Leon. This game also lacks a clear "bad guy / team".

    - The graphics and performance at first I thought were pretty good for Pokemon standards. However the further I got into the game the more performance issues I got, mainly frame drops and lots of really bad pop in.

    - The gyms were what you would expect from Pokemon games. They're almost the same as previous games which I like. Only thing I don't like about the gym battles were that they took place in stadiums, where you couldn't hear anything but the loud and annoying crowd. Music and other sound was mostly non-existent.

    - I didn't like dynamaxing at all. It felt like an annoyance that was forced on me instead of mega evolutions which I personally really like.

    Some of the features I liked in this were the Pokemon jobs system, accessing your boxes from anywhere, character customisation and the league card system was okay. The camping system was mixed, although I liked the playing with your Pokemon part, it was very lacking in what you could do. The curry system I didn't really enjoy.    … Expand
  31. Cloud-Strife
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    This is a fun game, unpolished but fun. Sometimes is hard to overlook the rough edges... I just wish this game was more on par with all the other first-party titles. The animations are clunky for the characters/NPC/ Pokemon, it could be better. With all the money Gamefreak makes, is hard to overlook all this.
    But yeah, Pokemon players can have some fun with this game.
    One thing that    This is a fun game, unpolished but fun. Sometimes is hard to overlook the rough edges... I just wish this game was more on par with all the other first-party titles. The animations are clunky for the characters/NPC/ Pokemon, it could be better. With all the money Gamefreak makes, is hard to overlook all this.
    But yeah, Pokemon players can have some fun with this game.

    One thing that bothers me is how every single Pokemon/NPC keeps disappearing and popping up one after another, for no reason. Some "cutscenes/animations" are poorly made, there are some videos on youtube highlighting these bugs as something funny, but I find them pretty annoying considering how much I paid for the game.
    My favorite part about Pokemon Sword: The character designs. They are simply amazing. The NPCs and the Gym leaders    … Expand
  32. avefenixflames
    Nov 17, 2019
    5
    I have been a pokemon fan since Red, I don't play competitively I only love the art which is the only thing that has improved all these years, this game in that regard is beautiful but in everything else feels incomplete it doesn't even feel like a nintendo switch game, before playing this I played Lugi's Mansion 3 and that game feels way more polished, the animations, the sound, theI have been a pokemon fan since Red, I don't play competitively I only love the art which is the only thing that has improved all these years, this game in that regard is beautiful but in everything else feels incomplete it doesn't even feel like a nintendo switch game, before playing this I played Lugi's Mansion 3 and that game feels way more polished, the animations, the sound, the graphics all of it feels current generation, but pokemon sword and shield feels that it should have released on the 3DS, even the game's box art compared to other switch games looks lackluster. I still love the game, it is a decent game, I love the art and I don't care about the missing pokemon, but I understand the people that care. Before all the game limitations were because of the hardware, now there is no excuse... Smash Bros. Showed us that all the pokemon can have voice lines, Zelda showed us that there can be a true open world pokemon game... and even before that Pokemon Stadium showed us that every pokemon can have nice animations... and cutting pokemon from the game didn't help to improve any of that... This game is by no means bad, but it also don't deserve the praise that the media is giving to it...… Expand
  33. Flarec
    Nov 18, 2019
    6
    Pokemon....Pokemon.... Es esto enserio? Este juego, es un buen pokemon y nadie lo va a negar, sigue usando la misma formula de toda la vida..... Esto, es un efecto fifa ya no tengo que decir mas que espero que los proximos pokemon lo hagan com tiempo.... Es un salto grafico de lo mas pobre para venir de 3ds, el juego es lindo y detallista en algunos sectores pero esto.... No lo compensaPokemon....Pokemon.... Es esto enserio? Este juego, es un buen pokemon y nadie lo va a negar, sigue usando la misma formula de toda la vida..... Esto, es un efecto fifa ya no tengo que decir mas que espero que los proximos pokemon lo hagan com tiempo.... Es un salto grafico de lo mas pobre para venir de 3ds, el juego es lindo y detallista en algunos sectores pero esto.... No lo compensa vamos, podian hacerlo mucho mejor... Mas que todo es tan cerrado y no se diga la zonas para silvestres.....
    Para mi, me parece un insulto, que me parece un insulto? Que este juego tenga una historia tan cutre..... Alguien a visto la critica de pokemon mundo misterioso exploradores del cielo????.....
    Este titulo tiene 5.4..... Y puedo decirle que es mas injusto que la alta calificacion que tiene este juego, la historia es paraa adultos disfrazada con un humor infantil.... ES UNA DE LAS MEJORES TRAMAS DE UN VIDEOJUEGO..... Deberian hacer mas cosas asi pero no..... Tienen que atraer el publico casual, si estas leyendo esto ve a ver la critica de ese pokemon MM Si lo has jugado sabrás que tiene una trama tan superior.... Este juego puede hacer llorar si le das la oportunidad de llegar al final de la historia principal.....    … Expand
  34. CHKNRAVE
    Nov 18, 2019
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is my 1st Pokémon game since Diamond and Platinum, so Dexit didn't bother me much since I'm heading towards my very first full Pokédex which wouldn't be possible if some had to be imported.

    Instead, what bothered me was the lackluster story. You go from gym to gym while the plot barely advances with a half-baked villain that turns out to be a part of the official challenge, a rising one that turns out to be a rival, another one who gets dealt with half an hour later, and a pair that's post-game and has the depth of a kiddie pool. Imagine going from Platinum to this.

    The areas are rich with Pokémon. The Wild Area is awesome, however the raid battles were both a miss and a mess. For a game that sold well, I wonder why there's like only 3 raid battles going on at the same time and why none of them are open when you try to join through Y-Comm. And then you try to host your own raid battle, and nobody comes after the 4-minute lobby wait time. So you get matched with bots that have utterly useless partners, they drag you down more than they help you so it's impossible to win with them past 3 stars.

    Speaking of multiplayer features, Surprise Trades are a troll's heaven. You can send a lvl 60 Swirlix with its trade evolution item, and in return you'll get a lvl 5 Chewtle named "gay Squirtle". True story. It's frustrating, so you're better off trying to find people to trade with over on Reddit.

    Graphically, and quite frankly I don't buy Nintendo games for their graphics, the game is doing alright. The music hasn't been turned off which is always a good sign, and the controls are easy and useful. Did you know the back triggers act as A buttons? It's pretty useful to check the Pokémon Wiki while catching them all.

    Overall it's a good but not great experience that I'm not done going through, but I don't think there's any story left now which really sucks. And I still have my Master Ball because there's only 3 legendaries. One with a 100% catch rate, and the box ones. Zacian just took a Quick Ball to the face and it was mine.    … Expand
  35. smexydevvi
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    After about 40 hours and going in with low expectations I'm still on the negative side, but i'm leaning a bit more to the middle ground. Story...was short, easy (Thanks to exp share), BORING, and over all just disappointing and lame. The game...is fun to an extent, and has some interesting concepts and ideas that just turned out to be implemented horribly. My biggest gripe? The Y Comm. WHOAfter about 40 hours and going in with low expectations I'm still on the negative side, but i'm leaning a bit more to the middle ground. Story...was short, easy (Thanks to exp share), BORING, and over all just disappointing and lame. The game...is fun to an extent, and has some interesting concepts and ideas that just turned out to be implemented horribly. My biggest gripe? The Y Comm. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS ACCEPTABLE ON RELEASE? Anyone who has this game and is pretty far in KNOWS what im talking about. I'll just say it flat out. Its broken. It doesn't work. Its non-intuitive and it hardly functions as intended. Imagine trying to get a gigantamax pokemon and you see someone post it up, but you cant join because it was a stamp from 10 minutes ago, BEING UPDATED AS NEW FEED. Or how about loading up a max raid looking for people to help you out because the CPU trainers are stupid as hell, but no one can join you for the same reason as stated before. Or how about simply trying to play with your friends in their camp and cook with the already pointless feature that is Pokemon Camp. Welp, you can't because you just have to get lucky and hope to see them in the wild area instead of giving priority to your friends whom you want to play with in the first place. This game is BUTT ugly. Textures are muddy and environment assets are low poly, animations are stiff and gross, not much to cover here since it was to be expected despite dev's claims at E3.
    Onto the positive. There are many quality of life changes in this game, such as removing the restrictions on nicknaming. You can learn and remove pokemon moves at will with no need of paying heart scales or any of that crap. At first i hated pokejobs until i got to the point of sending your pokemon to specific courses to ev train your pokemon. I really like the new mints that allow you to change your pokemon's nature it really helps with the metagame stuff. The music in this game is mostly hit or miss. There are some garbage songs in this game but others are really quite good.

    Overall, this game is hands down the worst game in the series and is definitely not HORRIBLE....but its not good either. This game is mediocre at BEST and i give it a 5/10    … Expand
  36. Methanous
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Its a nice game but the acts that has made ruins the experiency like you miss some pokemon .sorry for the english i am brasilian and i am still learning… Expand
  37. FaffyWaffles
    Nov 21, 2019
    5
    A step in the right direction and 2 steps back. The wild area was brilliant, but sparse. Pop-in was rampant. The National Dex Removal just hurt. More than half the Pokémon are gone. The graphics and animations were not an issue (for me at least) until Game Freak made them an excuse for cutting content. For a franchise that makes more than Marvel, and with the power of the Switch behind it,A step in the right direction and 2 steps back. The wild area was brilliant, but sparse. Pop-in was rampant. The National Dex Removal just hurt. More than half the Pokémon are gone. The graphics and animations were not an issue (for me at least) until Game Freak made them an excuse for cutting content. For a franchise that makes more than Marvel, and with the power of the Switch behind it, it felt sub-par. By itself? It was... fine.… Expand
  38. killerjdog51
    Nov 21, 2019
    6
    I have mixed feelings for these pokemon games. I love the wild area, even though they look terrible the concept is good. I also love all the new and unique pokemon, I just wish they had animated the pokemon better or had better move-sets. Because you do a move, and your pokemon is just picked up and shook in the air or something stupid like that and it seems lazy. My main issue though isI have mixed feelings for these pokemon games. I love the wild area, even though they look terrible the concept is good. I also love all the new and unique pokemon, I just wish they had animated the pokemon better or had better move-sets. Because you do a move, and your pokemon is just picked up and shook in the air or something stupid like that and it seems lazy. My main issue though is the story of the game. It was always like "go to the next gym" or "oh look there's a cool and exciting explosion over there, you cant go though so instead go to the next gym" and the story was simply boring and linear and I didn't like it. I did love the camps and that you could visit other camps. I was kinda disappointed that there weren't any Eevee-lutions or good post-game content.

    The reason I love pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green/Emerald/Soul Silver/Heart Gold the best is because they had cool stories and great post-game content. Like gyms weren't the main story, they were more like side quests and I liked that. Or you could beat the league, and then a league captain would go away somewhere to train and you'd have to find them, and then when you rechallenged the pokemon league the champions would be so much stronger and I loved that. I loved the sevi-islands or the battle frontier that those games had. I just wish Gamefreak worked more on the story of Sword and Sheild, and that it wasn't like "fight the league once and you're done".

    I have mixed feelings about the game, I like some of the new stuff, I just wish it was done better. But by no means are these terrible games. It is a step in the right direction, I just think Gamefreak needs to spend more time polishing everything up. Hopefully the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum remakes are done well and given the proper time (just like fire red, leaf green, emerald, soul silver, and heart gold).    … Expand
  39. GusConstantine
    Nov 22, 2019
    6
    Pokémon sword is utterly, thoroughly mediocre. But it's still Pokémon, and that'll be enough to keep your attention.

    Don't be fooled by the hype. The story is bland, almost nonexistent. The characters are one-dimensional. It's a game that is stuck in the past. Sadly, as it sold well, we won't be seeing an evolution (pun intended) of the Pokémon formula any time soon. So buy it. Or don't.    Pokémon sword is utterly, thoroughly mediocre. But it's still Pokémon, and that'll be enough to keep your attention.

    Don't be fooled by the hype. The story is bland, almost nonexistent. The characters are one-dimensional. It's a game that is stuck in the past. Sadly, as it sold well, we won't be seeing an evolution (pun intended) of the Pokémon formula any time soon.

    So buy it. Or don't. It doesn't matter. Gamefreak doesn't care if the game is good so why should you?    … Expand
  40. MikeRose87
    Nov 25, 2019
    5
    These are my thoughts with the pros and cons I found for this game after a full playthrough with hours of wild area, raids and such over 34 hours.

    Pros I like the new Pokemon: One of my better liked generations of new Pokemon designs. The starters are all equally as good and the story behind the legendaries is solid. Wild area is an excellent idea: This is what I was hoping for in    These are my thoughts with the pros and cons I found for this game after a full playthrough with hours of wild area, raids and such over 34 hours.

    Pros

    I like the new Pokemon: One of my better liked generations of new Pokemon designs. The starters are all equally as good and the story behind the legendaries is solid.

    Wild area is an excellent idea: This is what I was hoping for in a console Pokemon game and I feel like it was executed quite nicely. Not perfect but a good start. A super wide area with different sections, dynamic weather conditions that affect where and when Pokemnon would spawn. Also have them at all levels available but limit what you can catch to your current gym badges to avoid getting too op early on as well as to motivate you to carry on the quest in hopes to finally be able to catch that certain Pokemon who was beyond your reach.

    Gyms are pretty well done for the most part: I enjoyed the gym challenges quite much (except a couple of really lazy ones). A good change of pace from just battling a few trainers before getting to the leader. Plus the stadium showdown against the leader shows the scale of the battle as well as the fantastic music especially when they Dymanax/Gigantamax.

    Cons

    Presentation sucks: For a console game this just looks bad. Bad textures, pop ins right in your face, and poor animations (aside signature moves). Also, why dont we have voice acting in 2019?

    Story sucks: Team Yell is by far the worst antagonist team in the game. Nothing much other than to go and do the Gym Challenge to face the Champion who keeps boasting on how unbeatable he is which gets really old and corny as well as segments which should feel more epic are rushed with no substance.

    Dungeons suck: Caves, hideouts, forests etc. used to be bigger, leaving room for exploration and resembled a maze of sorts where you need to find your way out or go through multiple floors to finally reach your destination. Now they are pretty much a straight road with a few patches of grass and a couple of trainers.

    Towns/Cities suck: Whats the point of showing you an overview of a huge city leading to believe that there is much to it just for the playable area to be as big as Pallet Town?

    Rival sucks: I cant stand a "rival" that is just so nice, friendly and with such corny lines througout the game. Even complimenting you during a match when you land super effective hits and such. We need rivals to be a-holes again to really push you to want to destroy them every time you meet like Gen 1 and 2.

    From easy to braindead mode: I get the intention of aliviating some of the more tedius aspects of the game but all this together makes it so easy/convinient that there is no challenge whatsoever. You just go through the motions of the game until you beat it. Things like XP Share that cant be disabled, Box Management everywhere, no HM's, Flying Taxi, Remembering/Forgetting Moves, Changing Names, Seeing if your move is effective or not before selecting it etc.

    No National Dex: Bla bla bla, we heard this a thousand times but needs to be mentioned, whatever...

    Dynamax battling is dumb: There is no depth to Dynamax since there is just one standard move for each typing that all Pokemon use (aside Gigantamax exclusive moves) Ok, two for some. Whoop dee doo...

    Verdict

    If you want a Pokemon game to do Pokemon stuff then you will most likely have fun with this despite it's shortcomings. But if you were hoping for the first console Pokemon game to take the already great core and expand it to add true substance, challenge, and depth. This aint it chief    … Expand
  41. Taurian
    Nov 25, 2019
    6
    For me, this game felt good at first, but the more you play it grows hollow. I won’t lie, the biggest complaint I have is the Dexit issues. It’s not just that though. So, I’ll start this review with what I found issues with, as at least a long-standing, “die-hard” fan; - Post-game; Its there but... not much. And it really wasn’t that entertaining or long. After you finish up the post-storyFor me, this game felt good at first, but the more you play it grows hollow. I won’t lie, the biggest complaint I have is the Dexit issues. It’s not just that though. So, I’ll start this review with what I found issues with, as at least a long-standing, “die-hard” fan; - Post-game; Its there but... not much. And it really wasn’t that entertaining or long. After you finish up the post-story stuff, you’re left to shiny hunting and EV training, and that’s about it. When I say the game feels a bit hollow, this is primarily where that comes from. I hope this is something that can be solved with patched in events, but I’m not too hopeful. -No Nat Dex; I know, I know, it’s like beating a dead horse at this point, but it really does feel like Gamefreak is intentionally trying to make its older players mad and quit the franchise. Newer and casual players will be fine, but it’s a major middle finger to those of us that put in actual work into these games. -No GTS; The trading in this game is a NIGHTMARE. Trading is hard unless you’re on Discord or other forums to connect you with other players, unless of course you have a full squad of PokeFriends in your town or don’t mind surprise trades. It’s just awful, really. -Graphics; For as much as the graphics were hyped, they are poor. I don’t have much else to say. Trees, mostly. Ugh. I don’t mean to nitpick, but when that was a major push factor, it definitely doesn’t take advantage of what the Switch can do. I do have some good things to say though.
    -Wild Zone; I think this area is neat and provides a way to get some nice Pokémon, especially after you defeat the main story. -New Pokemon; A lot of them are great, really. In comparison to the last two times we got new Pokémon, these are indeed better designed and just overall more lovable. Dragapult really stole my heart, ngl. Clothing!; Man, I really am happy with the customization in this, I will say that has gotten so much better. Shiny Hunting; The methods are the best they’ve been. Good Characters; Including the player character, I do find all the characters really fleshed out and great as additions to the humans of the Pokémon world. It’s the first time I’ve really enjoyed the company of my rival. Map; Aside from the graphic quality, the areas and routes are all pretty interesting and good sized. A good amount of hidden/off the beaten path places and items    … Expand
  42. Dragonify
    Mar 8, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a person who barely play any Pokemon games (other than Emerald), this game still feels "meh" to me. Here's my reviews about the game in details:

    1. Story: The story feel rushed. Throughout the game, the player is investigating the history of Galar, that's alright, slowly building the plot, I can go with that. But then all of the sudden this evil man come out of nowhere and wants to "save the world" and can't wait literally more than a day, so he awakes Eternatus, the evil legendary. The player then defeat it with the help of the cover art legendaries. All of this only happens at the end of the game. I don't know, I might not make any sense here, but what I know is that the story is not built well.

    2. Pokedex Issues: Personally I'm okay with this, if anything I appreciate them cutting them out so I won't take years trying to catch 'em all. But the amount of the cut Pokemon does feel a bit much. Thankfully 200+ more Pokemon is added in through DLC, and isn't entirely locked behind a paywall.

    3. Animation: Game Freak claims that they have to sacrifice some Pokemon to make effort on their animation. And my thought seeing the final result is "eh, you can do better, I'll let you off tho". I like the animation they give to the Pokemon when camping (walking, running, playing, even racing etc), there's a lot of detail they put in there. But come on, make them turn around normally in cutscene please instead of just rotating the models (Legendaries in cutscenes for example).

    4. Graphics: There's a lot more they can do here. The overall graphic only feels a little bit better than 3DS. Just look at BoTW and then look at this. It's honestly sucked that they didn't put in efforts on this part, as this is mostly how people look at games nowadays. However I do appreciate the colorful look on the game.

    5. Gameplay: There's not much to say here, it's the Pokemon that we know and love/hate. It's nice to see Pokemon roaming around the world too, but the spawning of the Pokemon makes it annoying as they can spawn right in front of you. The Dynamax mechanic is alright, it's kinda like Mega Evos and Z-Move mix together but definitely not in the best way. I especially don't like how we can't just let our Pokemon have the Gigantamax ability but have to find a new one to replace them. Max Raid Battles are alright as well, but can we have better NPCs for those that don't have friends to play with?

    6. Online Features: Online Features are the most "ughhhhh" thing in this game. Trading feels a bit hard to connect with (especially when there are other people you don't know that are using the same code), and I can't even join online raids (tho that's probably only my Internet issue, but I can trade Pokemon fine, so not sure what that is about).

    Conclusion: Overall, 6/10. Camping feels great (Curry Dex not so much tho), music still feels like Pokemon music that I adore, animation is mostly fine, but others just feel "meh". Game Freak can definitely do better than this.    … Expand
  43. Leb
    Apr 17, 2020
    5
    The game is fun. I wish the series was more mature, but for what it is, it is fun.
  44. CrispCicada
    May 27, 2020
    5
    Pokémon Sword and Shield are very controversial titles. Gameplay-wise, this is Pokémon at it's core. You catch Pokémon, grind them a bit, fill up your Pokedex. You use your Pokémon to challenge other trainers. After travelling a good distance, you'll reach a gym, in which you complete a small challenge and fight other trainers along the way. Gym leaders are basically the bosses in thisPokémon Sword and Shield are very controversial titles. Gameplay-wise, this is Pokémon at it's core. You catch Pokémon, grind them a bit, fill up your Pokedex. You use your Pokémon to challenge other trainers. After travelling a good distance, you'll reach a gym, in which you complete a small challenge and fight other trainers along the way. Gym leaders are basically the bosses in this game. They have the ability to dynamax their Pokémon and are generally harder than your average trainer. Every now and then, you'll fight one of your rivals, which are also decently more challenging than a regular trainer. Whilst travelling, you'll find Pokémon centers and nurseries. Nurseries are where you'll drop off a pokemon and they'll automatically level up over time. Pokestops are a place where you can heal your Pokémon and shop a little. Dynamaxing is this game's gimmick where your Pokémon will grow massively in size and their stats are improved for a little while. Graphically, this game is consistently inconsistent. There are a good amount of lovely looking areas such as the cities or the forest in this game. Then there is the Wild Area. Throughout the entire game, there is the feeling of laziness. In the Wild Area, all of the trees are copy and pasted and have the same ugly, stretched texture. The robotic movements of the characters in this game and the shoddy animations really disturb me. To be fair though, this game has some amazing new Pokémon designs. Also, the new gimmicks are actually sorta fun. In conclusion, this game is pretty mediocre and I wouldn't recommend it. I'd personally wait for more emulation on the Switch so you can play games like Pokémon Black and White. Have a lovely day/night, folks.… Expand
  45. Nebbyy
    Jun 15, 2020
    6
    It’s really generic in my opinion, fun but still hella generic. I really enjoy all Pokemon games but this was not a standout. It just doesn’t give me the excitement that platinum or black and white 2 gave me. Also why did you cut out soo many Pokemon :((
  46. Tinker123
    Aug 6, 2020
    5
    I was able to play the game for the first time recently, and the only feeling the game invoked was one of indifference. While the base Pokemon experience is there, and exactly what the average player would want, there is little more than that.

    Aside from a few new mechanics such as the wild area, or the new bracelet gimmick, the game is another pokemon game. The story is barebones,    I was able to play the game for the first time recently, and the only feeling the game invoked was one of indifference. While the base Pokemon experience is there, and exactly what the average player would want, there is little more than that.

    Aside from a few new mechanics such as the wild area, or the new bracelet gimmick, the game is another pokemon game. The story is barebones, characters (despite the attempt at depth, which is appreciated) feel like one dimensional cutouts who occasionally tell you where to go.

    The new designs however, are wonderful, and I would argue they are up there with generation 4. Characters are also well designed and any animations made from the ground up are wonderful. There is clear skill and talent from Game Freak, but ultimately it is squashed under the fact this game is rushed. There's no two ways around it. Even super fans of the game I have spoken to admit the game does not feel like it had the right amount of development time.

    This rush manifests itself in many minor graphical hiccups, as well as a very shoddy online (which apparently has improved since launch), as well as other minor bugs. These do detract from the experience, but do not ruin it.

    The nostalgia pandering is present, as always, and just as annoying. From Charizard becoming an almost god-like pokemon because "hey, remember gen 1". And the sound design suffers from the insistence to include old sound effects (including the ugly thud sound when you walk into a wall).

    If you want a pokemon game to play, enjoy, and then leave, this game is perfect for you. If you crave that pokemon game you've been imagining since you were six, better luck next time.

    Therefore    … Expand
  47. DaniyalIslam
    Oct 23, 2020
    5
    I’ve been a longtime fan of the series forever. I’ve grown up with Pokémon, and it saddens me to say that this game is not the direction I hope the series takes. With antiquated designs and stuck in the last graphics and gameplay, this game desperately needs a breath of fresh air from Game Freak’s clutches.
  48. Rocket7800
    Jun 10, 2021
    5
    bueno, la historia esta desaprovechada y los gráficos no están pulidos se nota que lo sacaron antes de tiempo y para remate la dex nacional, pero los personajes y el soundtrack son excelentes, no creo que sea un 0 y no es para nada un numero verde, es un juego decepcionante pero no alcanza a ser de lo peor
  49. DarthJ
    Aug 28, 2022
    7
    Dynamax mechanics is pretty lame. Lack of national dex is also extremely dissapointing.
  50. zdemigodx
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This is an insult of a pokemon game, yet because its still pokemon it is fun to play through.
  51. Kaseladen
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Unfortunately, Exceedingly average.
    Lacking in content compared to previous titles, from post game to pokemon to just the content of routes themselves.
    Its an odd balance, at times I feel the game tries to drive home 'bigger is better' and suffers from large empty areas, such as the wild area. At others, routes are so short its just a few feet to the end. Story-wise, the game is just    Unfortunately, Exceedingly average.
    Lacking in content compared to previous titles, from post game to pokemon to just the content of routes themselves.
    Its an odd balance, at times I feel the game tries to drive home 'bigger is better' and suffers from large empty areas, such as the wild area. At others, routes are so short its just a few feet to the end.
    Story-wise, the game is just as intrusive as Sun and Moon, if not more so, so if that bugged you there you'll feel it here too. The difference, I feel, is that at least Sun and Moon had a plot. Its practically non-existent in Sword and Shield until right at the end. So most of the time you're being led around and interrupted for no real reason (and unfortunately no, that 'skip cutscene' option does not let you bypass most of this).
    Difficulty is nonexistent, between constant heals offered and exp share being forced. Its *incredibly* easy to become overleveled.
    Mechanically, the game suffers from many questionable decisions. Single use TM's are back, now dubbed TRs, in addition to normal TMs. Of course, most of the more sought after moves have been relegated to this single use item. Dynamaxing combines the worse parts of Megas and Z moves, while limiting them to rarely being used (raids and gym leaders for the most part only).
    The other selling points of the game are the Wild Area and raids. Raids are just an easy grind to gather TRs and exp items. The wild area is large, empty, and visibly pretty poor. It has potential, but exists in a very bare bones state.
    I could go on at length, but it boils down to one thing: disappointment. I don't know if Gamefreak is getting burned out or if they're really just that out of touch with fans and inept with console development. Its pokemon, at its barest form, and that's all. Its a shame that pokemon suffered so much in the step from handheld to console.    … Expand
  52. Skizor
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    I have already cleared everything including postgame. This is going to be a spoiler free review, i will only focus on the positive and negative aspects and what needs to be improved.

    Positives: *Some areas in this game look absolutely gorgeous, like the towns Ballonlea and Circhester. *Most of the new Pokemon look pretty good. *IVs and EVs, and by extension Competitive battling,    I have already cleared everything including postgame. This is going to be a spoiler free review, i will only focus on the positive and negative aspects and what needs to be improved.

    Positives:

    *Some areas in this game look absolutely gorgeous, like the towns Ballonlea and Circhester.
    *Most of the new Pokemon look pretty good.
    *IVs and EVs, and by extension Competitive battling, are more accessible than ever.
    *You can change your Pokemon's Nature with Mints.
    *Pokemon Camp, with new features, such as said Currydex.
    *New "Open-World" Wild Area for encountering higher level Pokemon.
    *Most in-depth trainer customization to date.
    *Move Tutor/Remover/Name Raters are now in every Pokemon Center.
    *You can access PC almost anywhere.

    Negatives:

    *Hundreds of Pokemon were cut from the game, such as previous Starters, Legendary Pokemon, and many others.
    *100+ Moves were cut, the most notable being Return/Frustration, Pursuit, and Hidden Power. Signature moves of certain Pokemon were also cut, even though the Pokemon themselves are in the game, like Vespiquen's Heal Order and Woobat's Heart Stamp.
    *There are multiple examples of the game feeling rushed or unfinished, like how the "Corviknight Taxi" Fast-Travel system doesn't have an animation and is just a screen fade, every NPC walking on rails, time stopping when you climb a ladder, and the entire Wild Area feeling empty, with low-resolution textures, pop-ins, and broken shadows.
    *Any battles that are not major battles, such as Wild Battles and most Trainer Battles, have the same generic backgrounds. When you are outside, the battle always takes place on a dirt road with grass, trees, and mountains in the background, and when inside a building, the battle uses a generic white void for a background.
    *Post-Game Content is confirmed to be very short, less than 2 hours to complete, similar to X&Y. It's basically just "catch Box Legendary, go to Battle Tower."
    *Most Pokemon Moves, and the Pokemon themselves, have had no noticeable improvements made to their models or animations. Everything that isn't brand new is recycled, and even some of the brand new stuff, like Hop, uses recycled animation, from Hau.
    *Riding a Bike forces you to wear an ugly biking outfit instead of your custom clothes.
    *Most of the "Story" takes place off screen, and only really makes an appearance near the end of the game. The "Story" itself is also lackluster, in that it's incredibly short and forgettable.
    *The EXP Share is mandatory, and cannot be turned off. This makes the game very easy.
    *Strange changes that don't make much sense logically, like how the sound control settings are locked behind a Key Item you get from a random NPC in Motostoke City.

    Summary:

    IMO this is the most disappointing Pokémon game i played, since i had high expectations about this game being on a console like Switch.
    They really need to add all Pokémon back in the game since there is nothing here to justify the cut of so many Pokémon.
    GameFreak need to hire more devs so they can polish and finish this games better.    … Expand
  53. HonestKyarrii
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    As a huge Pokemon fan, this was a major disappointment. Most of the negative reviews are justified in my opinion - people have a legitimate reason to be upset.

    Nothing is new, everything is cookie cutter. Same exact gameplay with same corny encounters at every turn. The only positive thing I can say about this game is the new features they added are great (no more EV training, can    As a huge Pokemon fan, this was a major disappointment. Most of the negative reviews are justified in my opinion - people have a legitimate reason to be upset.

    Nothing is new, everything is cookie cutter. Same exact gameplay with same corny encounters at every turn.

    The only positive thing I can say about this game is the new features they added are great (no more EV training, can change natures, access box from anywhere, etc.)

    GameFreak continues to not even come close to their potential or the consumer expectations. Look around you GameFreak, it's time to wake up.    … Expand
  54. Caino87
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    The game seems rushed and poor compared to other games on the same console. Glitches, graphic flaws, Dex cuts, the absence of exploration....it all makes it a very poor game considering that it is the first main game on a new generation console (after the 3DS). Most of the fun requests from the past have not been listened to and the game is more and more orientated to a younger public,The game seems rushed and poor compared to other games on the same console. Glitches, graphic flaws, Dex cuts, the absence of exploration....it all makes it a very poor game considering that it is the first main game on a new generation console (after the 3DS). Most of the fun requests from the past have not been listened to and the game is more and more orientated to a younger public, even though it was advertised as a game for long time fans (that are now in their 30s). On top of that, the very misleading campaign and the very odd looking reviews it’s reviving from “game critiques” makes the whole picture even more odd and suspicious.… Expand
  55. Alexmira
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    A lot of potential but lazy execution. Gamefreak had the possibility to develop the best pokemon in the series and the **** up
  56. WutangDan
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    A very middle ground game for game freak. Having grown up and played every single pokemon game it is sad to see the national dex dropped and only 400 pokemon kept in the game. That said however the game does keep its charm and the good parts of this game can sometimes make you stop and appreciate how good they are however the bad part (and there is a lot) make you forget the good parts inA very middle ground game for game freak. Having grown up and played every single pokemon game it is sad to see the national dex dropped and only 400 pokemon kept in the game. That said however the game does keep its charm and the good parts of this game can sometimes make you stop and appreciate how good they are however the bad part (and there is a lot) make you forget the good parts in an instant. If you are looking for a average pokemon game with a decent story and good competitive gameplay then I recommend picking this up. However if you are looking for a game like its predecessors then I recommend giving this title a miss… Expand
  57. TerminalClutch
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Pokemon Sword and Shield are the titles every Pokemon fan has been waiting for since Pokemon first released: a main-series title on a Nintendo console. A console that can provide an experience unrivaled and far and away better than any handheld could ever imagine.

    In reality, Pokemon Sword and Shield are Pokemon titles for a console that is bested by games released for the GBC, GBA and    Pokemon Sword and Shield are the titles every Pokemon fan has been waiting for since Pokemon first released: a main-series title on a Nintendo console. A console that can provide an experience unrivaled and far and away better than any handheld could ever imagine.

    In reality, Pokemon Sword and Shield are Pokemon titles for a console that is bested by games released for the GBC, GBA and DS. Virtually every Pokemon title released before the 3DS is a more worthy investment than Sword and Shield if you're looking for a more complete Pokemon experience.

    This isn't to say there is no value in Sword and Shield. SwSh offer a beautiful region with many diverse locations and routes. It's an incredibly linear experience, with every area being confined to a simple A to B layout with little deviation, but the areas themselves are very pretty to look at, bar the Wild Area. Each city feels different and interesting, with only one city being the exception (and it's still interesting in its own right).

    The Pokemon you can find throughout the Galar region are also very well varied, each route housing new and interesting Pokemon with select old ones sprinkled around as well. The Wild Area, accessible after about an hour or so of gameplay, is the crown jewel of Pokemon locations. There are so many different kinds of Pokemon available immediately, covering almost every single type in the game. This, unfortunately, has a huge caveat, in that catching Pokemon is locked behind the Gym Badge system. Each new badge allows you to catch higher and higher leveled Pokemon. In the beginning you're limited to Pokemon only up to lvl 15. This makes catching higher level Pokemon, and incidentally more diverse Pokemon, a bit of a chore. The Wild Area and it's large pool of available Pokemon is a brilliant idea hindered by an unnecessary roadblock.

    The story is very standard Pokemon, travel through the region, slowly learn about the Legendary duo on the covers of the games, battle the gyms to advance towards the Champion Cup (the league in these titles), deal with an "evil team" (a group of enthusiastic fans of another Gym Challenger), and then save the world from some evil Pokemon. The only thing that sets this games story apart from past iterations is the Gym Leaders. Each gym leader actually felt like an interesting, fleshed out character with the inclusion of League Cards. Each leader will give you a card about themselves where you can learn about them and their past. This, and the lots of interactions with most of the leaders really helps you understand them more, but more importantly they feel like real people in a real world.

    The sad reality of Sword and Shield is that it's plagued by questionable and unnecessary gameplay decisions made by Game Freak, some of which were explained away by blatant lies, such as removing all Pokeon to focus on redoing all the models and animations, which are datamined and practically confirmed to be identical to the ones present in the 3DS titles, except a couple that received extremely minor touches. I understand if Game Freak wants to make changes, it freshens up the series, but with what we were delivered I seriously question where all the work went into, as it's just not feature heavy enough to believe we lost so many features for this title.

    Overall, if you're a Pokemon fan casually, you'll likely enjoy Sword and Shield. If you're a diehard fan that cares about the missing Pokemon, the removed features or beloved features not returning, this will likely leave a bad taste in your mouth. It's still not a bad experience, but it could have been so much better if the developers hadn't cut so many corners and lied about the work.    … Expand
  58. Reizig
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    As a longtime Pokémon fan im very disapointed , the game just feels rushed and unfinished Hope gamefreak learns from their mistakes :(
  59. Edgard86
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Um jogo de 3ds literalmente, porém sendo vendido como jogo de nova geração e preço cheio.. Gráfico horrível, texturas feias, animações e batalhas sem inovações, mesmice... Um jogo mal feito considerando a potencia do Switch... Feito somente para ganhar dinheiro, não teve carinho nem dedicação na produção. O jogo seria bom, se fosse um game de 3ds.. No Switch é inaceitável.. A mídia maisUm jogo de 3ds literalmente, porém sendo vendido como jogo de nova geração e preço cheio.. Gráfico horrível, texturas feias, animações e batalhas sem inovações, mesmice... Um jogo mal feito considerando a potencia do Switch... Feito somente para ganhar dinheiro, não teve carinho nem dedicação na produção. O jogo seria bom, se fosse um game de 3ds.. No Switch é inaceitável.. A mídia mais uma fazendo um desserviço a comunidade gamer, dando notas altas para jogos ridículos. Midia, vocês sao uma vergonha! Gamefreak, oportunista. Meu ID no Switch: SW5286-6479-2106. Tempo de gameplay até o momento: 10 hrs… Expand
  60. caronte69
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    de los peores juegos de pokemon que he podido jugar, bugs, menos contenido (pokemons), contenido innecesario (curry) animaciones recicladas. Con la excusa de que este juego es para niños no significa que no podamos exigir algo mejor, soy fan de pokemon desde la 1ra generación jugando con mi game boy color, y no he comprado otro juego de pokemon desde blanco y negro 2, por que sinceramentede los peores juegos de pokemon que he podido jugar, bugs, menos contenido (pokemons), contenido innecesario (curry) animaciones recicladas. Con la excusa de que este juego es para niños no significa que no podamos exigir algo mejor, soy fan de pokemon desde la 1ra generación jugando con mi game boy color, y no he comprado otro juego de pokemon desde blanco y negro 2, por que sinceramente pokemon x y, sol y luna ya no me volvieron a llamar la atención, hasta pokemon go es mas divertido y con mas contenido.… Expand
  61. AGGuy
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Want more Pokémon? This is more Pokémon (except with fewer Pokémon). It's the same it's always been - stilted presentation, good music, so-so gameplay comprised of thrilling highs and frustrating lows, a mix of good additions and subtractions and bad additions and subtractions... and the story is not worth mentioning (actually even less so than in past games).

    It's kind of just... more    Want more Pokémon? This is more Pokémon (except with fewer Pokémon). It's the same it's always been - stilted presentation, good music, so-so gameplay comprised of thrilling highs and frustrating lows, a mix of good additions and subtractions and bad additions and subtractions... and the story is not worth mentioning (actually even less so than in past games).

    It's kind of just... more Pokémon.
    Is "kind of just more Pokémon" what you're looking for? Yes? Then this is worth 30 bucks, I'd say.
    Is "kind of just more Pokémon" not what you're looking for? Then don't bother.    … Expand
  62. MichalisRbw
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    A mediocre transition into a more powerful console for the pokemon franchise, giving a taste of potential but never quite going there
  63. Rstark1991
    Nov 16, 2019
    6
    Fresh change from the classic playstyle but the exp share makes it a little easy
  64. MajesticCorgi
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This game certainly isn't a bad game. At its core, it's a Pokemon game, and that by definition is a hard formula to mess up. The problem here is that it doesn't bring much to the table, and a majority of the positive elements going for it are shared with other Pokemon games. If you're going to play the game one time through and put it down afterwards, it's probably still a solid experienceThis game certainly isn't a bad game. At its core, it's a Pokemon game, and that by definition is a hard formula to mess up. The problem here is that it doesn't bring much to the table, and a majority of the positive elements going for it are shared with other Pokemon games. If you're going to play the game one time through and put it down afterwards, it's probably still a solid experience (albeit not worth the $60 MSRP in my opinion), but it just doesn't bring much value to the table for those who really want to sink their teeth in and play for 100+ hours.… Expand
  65. BiggestGuyUUUU
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    During the marketing period for these games, I was sorely tempted to drop a fat uno when it came time to submit user reviews. This, primarily, was due to the dex cut, but (most) of the consequences of that, are, quite frankly, overblown. And there do exist silver linings to Dexit as well, strangely. It’s not a terrible game. Perfectly playable, but i still have to say that it’s an anemicDuring the marketing period for these games, I was sorely tempted to drop a fat uno when it came time to submit user reviews. This, primarily, was due to the dex cut, but (most) of the consequences of that, are, quite frankly, overblown. And there do exist silver linings to Dexit as well, strangely. It’s not a terrible game. Perfectly playable, but i still have to say that it’s an anemic shadow of what Pokémon once was.
    With this in mind, I’ll go through the positive and negatives.

    CONS:
    -The dex removal screams of a calculated $$$ ploy. It wasn’t long before the infamous announcement of the Dexit that Home was touted as a more comprehensive replacement for Bank. Yes, it probably won’t be much more expensive and more accessible, but forcing thousands more people to pay for services like Bank than before just to have a hope of bringing their “bros” in is a bit sleazy, no?
    -Lack of post-credits content. The fact that facilities have been cut down to the battle tower clones and those only is bad enough. Even worse, there are fewer “modes” than previously. No Triples or Rotations. No Sky Battles. There’s no way to switch up how the traditional 1v1 or 2v2 turn based battle format is played. Even young kids could easily get bored with it. -Graphics and animations look kinda unpolished. There’s tons of stuff that implies last minute reusing of assets and codebase from LGPE. I’m not blaming this on the dev team, despite their convoluted coding methods since the days of GSC. No. Nearly everything unfinished with this title can be laid squarely and exclusively at the feet of the corporate suits in charge of scheduling product release schedules. Delaying the game by 9 months to a year would have resulted in a massive improvement in all aspects.
    -Removal of vital moves from the game. Pursuit, Signal Beam, Toxic, and others are the lynchpin of entire strategies when players duke it out. We’re looking at a serious winnowing of viable play styles on Pokémon that might not have many other options.
    -The story is a paraplegic Frankenstein birthed from the loins of XY and SM. It all got shoved into the last hour before the credits roll and even some characters in the game call out how stupid it is. I won’t spoil it tho. It’s mercifully sparse otherwise.
    -Game gives you way too many good free items. Having lots of free heals dropped into your lap is staple since 2010. But they do it way too often in SWSH. Also, the presence of competitive teambuilding items has a downside in that grabbing more than one or two of each optimizes your team to where no in game foes can hope to mount a serious challenge.
    -Wild Area didn’t really get filled out enough. It’s pretty small and way too packed with Max Raid beacons. Locking encounters behind badges was also inane.
    -God, the sound control mechanics are infuriating. See for yourself.
    -Who authorized the mechanics of D-Max Airstrike? And giving Gyarados Power Whip? PROS:
    -LANDORUS IS GONE! DEFENSIVE ICE TYPES GOT REMOVED AND REPLACED WITH OFFENSIVE ONES! NO MORE TAPUS! Dexit actually has a chance to produce a more balanced metagame so long as they ban Max Airstrike and Gyarados both.
    -James Turner did a good job directing most of the new monster designs. The only truly heinous one IMO is Eiscue.
    -Of all the non-Japan-inspired regions, Galar does the best job at paying homage to its basis, that being the UK. -Competitive teambuilding is easier than ever, and it appears early on that stall is going to be far less workable than before. Entry hazards are now less centralizing.
    -The Gym challenge now feels like an actual sporting event. This is a good thing.
    -Really good character designs. Even the most critical fans online have at least one new face they applaud GF for creating.    … Expand
  66. Viserot
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. El corte de la dex es injustificado, rehusaron los modelos y eso no es problema el problema es que usaron de pretexto que hicieron los modelos desde cero para no incluirlos a todos, las animaciones muy pocas son buenas las demás se quedaron más mismas de 3ds lo cual es otro gran problema ya que dijeron que tendríamos animaciones de calidad y no fue cierto, el juego en general correo bien pero no explota la potencia del switch el área salvaje está muy desaprovechada y tiene caídas de frames… Expand
  67. Haolen
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    The game is totally boring and repetitive as hell, if not for the grass would have a 0
  68. sunsid
    Nov 16, 2019
    6
    The core Pokemon experience remains addicting as ever but the whole experience is marred by mediocre graphics that don't belong on a home console. Despite many moves and pokemon getting cut, the quality of the animation doesn't even match that of the N64 games released eons ago. Most Nintendo games have plenty of attention to detail, but this one completely lacks any of that - one jarringThe core Pokemon experience remains addicting as ever but the whole experience is marred by mediocre graphics that don't belong on a home console. Despite many moves and pokemon getting cut, the quality of the animation doesn't even match that of the N64 games released eons ago. Most Nintendo games have plenty of attention to detail, but this one completely lacks any of that - one jarring example is where shadows are missing/at the wrong place making the character look like they're floating. Dynamax was more fun than anticipated but is extremely limited where it can be used. The Wild Area, the other new thing, is barren and lifeless with pokemon popping out of the ground like they're all Digletts, robotic wingulls that glide without losing height and turn at sharp right angles, N64 era trees and other environmental items that pop in and out of existence. This area could have been like Gormott plains from Xenoblade 2, but completely squanders that opportunity. The cities and routes look graphically impressive but are empty - there's no city that comes close to Castelia City or Lumiose City from previous generations in terms of how lively they were. The music is mostly great as usual. The only good things to say about this game apply to every other game in the series, so you would be better off saving your money and spend it on the games that don't charge you as much. Hell, upscaled Sun/Moon would look as good as this game, so do yourself a favor… Expand
  69. Obbi
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Probably the weakest title in the main series yet. The main Story mode is substantially shorter than previous titles, and has the least post-game content since Gen I. Part the reason the story mode's so short may be due to how easy it is to get over-leveled and crush all the challenges.

    That said, it's still Pokemon, so if you're looking for Pokemon and for some reason are not willing    Probably the weakest title in the main series yet. The main Story mode is substantially shorter than previous titles, and has the least post-game content since Gen I. Part the reason the story mode's so short may be due to how easy it is to get over-leveled and crush all the challenges.

    That said, it's still Pokemon, so if you're looking for Pokemon and for some reason are not willing or able to play a previous installment, then this will probably scratch that itch.

    It has a lot of great quality of life stuff for fine-tuning your Pokemon, even if some of it's locked behind beating the Story first. Being able to change a Pokemon's Nature, and just dumping EV Vitamins into them, are something I'd like to see continue in future editions. Being able to swap out your Pokemon Party from anywhere is fantastic, as well as having the Pokemon Centers act as the hubs for Move Reminders/Deleters.
    That said, there's also weird changes, like having wild Pokemon be un-catchable if you haven't gotten enough badges for the level range. Exp Share is always on, which admittedly I would use it or leave it on in previous titles anyway, but this go around it seems...a bit busted? I'd have my Drizzile just mow down whatever all the time, and the entire rest of the party is only a few levels behind him despite rarely participating. I believe this to be the main culprit behind the bottomed-out difficulty curve.

    Graphics are acceptable for a Pokemon game, pretty lackluster for a Switch game. Art design for some of the areas are really cool, and the new Pokemon have some great designs too. Technical wise, It basically looks like Pokemon X/Y upscaled, only the larger resolution shows off more graphical quirks. I don't think Game Freak can do 3D very well.

    Wild Area, and by extension Raid Battles, are actually pretty cool at the start, but quickly turn sorta tedious when they prove to not be much of a challenge.
    Pokemon Camp is fine. It's Pokemon-Amie++ and I never had a problem with that feature. Curry making is kinda fun, and having your own "Curry dex" for all the recipes is nice.

    PokeJobs are just sorta there. They sorta remind me of dispatch missions in Final Fantasy Tactics or something. Nothing really to comment on there.

    Dynamax is...also just there. It's like some weird amalgamation of Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions, where the Pokemon's stats get boosted and all their moves change to things resembling Z-Moves.It doesn't seem bad, and I'm sure there's people that dig it. I just never bothered with any of that stuff anyway.

    Overall, just really mediocre. Without even getting into the missing Pokemon, the game itself clearly suffered some development issues. More time was needed on this one. I definitely recommending passing, unless you can get it for cheap, or they provide content patches like Kirby Star Allies to make it more of a content-complete Switch title.    … Expand
  70. FlowSchmoe
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    This game isn’t a 6 because it’s garbage or unfun.

    This game is a 6 because it’s boring and uninspired. The story mode is mind numbingly simple, the combat is stupidly easy, and the entire game holds your hand like your mom when crossing the street. Add this on top of the fact that GameFreak, the developers of this game, lied when they said they were creating models and high quality    This game isn’t a 6 because it’s garbage or unfun.

    This game is a 6 because it’s boring and uninspired.

    The story mode is mind numbingly simple, the combat is stupidly easy, and the entire game holds your hand like your mom when crossing the street.

    Add this on top of the fact that GameFreak, the developers of this game, lied when they said they were creating models and high quality animations from scratch. This was their excuse for cutting over half of all Pokémon. Instead, they reused the same models and animations from 6 years ago, and it shows.

    While sometimes the graphics look acceptable for a Switch game, other times the graphics look like an N64 game, with the animations looking worse than Pokémon Colosseum from more than 15 years ago.

    Added onto the poor design choices and bugs like the one that corrupted my SD card, this game was obviously rushed and not worth $60.

    Go play Heart Gold/Soul Silver or Black/White if you want a good Pokémon game because this isn’t it.    … Expand
  71. ilikechikin
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    IGN is trippin, pokemon sword & shield are easily the 2nd worst games in the series after sun/moon. As someone who has played every game since red in 1999, the mainline games have become somewhat stale over the past few iterations. Sword/shield are literally just HD 3ds games that Nintendo is selling for $60 and that's kind of disappointing to me. I still give it a 5 because well, it'sIGN is trippin, pokemon sword & shield are easily the 2nd worst games in the series after sun/moon. As someone who has played every game since red in 1999, the mainline games have become somewhat stale over the past few iterations. Sword/shield are literally just HD 3ds games that Nintendo is selling for $60 and that's kind of disappointing to me. I still give it a 5 because well, it's Pokemon and it's still decent for a Pokemon game but it is super underwhelming for being the first mainline game on the switch console. Super short story too btw, completed in 12 hours even with a couple hours of messing around in the wild area. Oh, and #GameFreakLied.… Expand
  72. HaroLain
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    From the very beginning, through all of the announcements, controversies, and leaks, I've been willing to go into Pokemon Sword & Shield with an open mind. I've been a fan of the games for nearly two decades now, and each mainline entry has managed to be enjoyable in some way, even the weaker games of the 3DS era. I understood the concerns that were raised around the title - the lack of aFrom the very beginning, through all of the announcements, controversies, and leaks, I've been willing to go into Pokemon Sword & Shield with an open mind. I've been a fan of the games for nearly two decades now, and each mainline entry has managed to be enjoyable in some way, even the weaker games of the 3DS era. I understood the concerns that were raised around the title - the lack of a National Dex, subpar graphics for Pokemon's console debut, the fact that nearly half of all Pokemon were straight up cut from the game. But even so, I chose to remain optimistic until I finally had a chance to try it out for myself.

    Now that I've put about 12 hours into the game, it saddens me to say that the outcome of Pokemon Sword & Shield is the most disappointing I could have imagined. These games aren't the franchise ending disaster that many hardcore fans claimed they would be, and they're not the amazing leap into the realm of console gaming that was promised by the developers. Sword & Shield are, for all intents and purposes, a continuation of what we got on the 3DS.

    Whether or not that is a good thing depends on the individual player, and how easily satisfied they are by more of the same. However, with all of the uproar surrounding these games, I think it is safe to assume that a lot of fans, including myself, expected more from Sword & Shield, and I believe Game Freak could have done a better job if given more time (or manpower, motivation, focus - whatever it is that they lacked). As it stands now, the major changes Sword & Shield make to the long-established Pokemon formula are too few, and too insignificant.

    The graphics look considerably better than they ever could have on the 3DS, and the Wild Area is an interesting new concept that only exists because of the more powerful hardware. Creating a competitive team and adjusting their stats/natures/IVs is easier than ever, which is a great change for PvP enthusiasts. Lastly, there is now nearly 50% less Pokemon to experiment with compared to Sun & Moon. Sadly, with the exception of the competitive streamlining, even the positive changes fail to impress.

    The Wild Area, while open and fun to traverse, is relatively empty with not much to do besides catch Pokemon and enter raid battles. It's also here where the game suffers from frame rate issues and pop-in the most, which ruins what little immersion there is to be found. The graphics, while better than anything we've seen so far in the series, are far from perfect. There are many cases of poor texture work (I'm sure everyone's seen the infamous tree), and many animations are jarring, both in battle and during cutscenes. The removal of so many Pokemon is an inherently negative change, but that was honestly not my biggest problem with the game, and I believe most casual fans will be able to overlook this.

    There's a lot I'd like to add, regarding the overall story, music, characters etc, but these areas are more subjective and are best left to the individual to form an opinion on. I will say, the story so far has not personally impressed me, and Sun & Moon had the more engaging tale despite the constant cutscenes. The last point I'd like to touch upon is the removal of Mega Evolution and Z-Moves in favor of the new Dynamax (and Gigantamax) mechanic.

    There's not a lot to say about Dynamax, given that it's only available during pivotal moments like gym battles and raids. It's exciting the first couple of times, but I found that by the 4th gym, it started to become repetitive, and I realized that Dynamaxing lacks the depth that Mega Evolutions had. Had it been included alongside Megas, I don't think I would have had a problem with Dynamax as a mechanic; but as a replacement, it ultimately fails to live up to what we had previously.

    Despite all of my gripes, Sword & Shield are still enjoyable games in the end, but they are also incredibly mediocre. If you're able to accept the fact that they're not much more than another 3DS entry, this time in HD with some added bells and whistles (and a lot less Pokemon), then I recommend giving it a try. Just know that while it doesn't break the streak of entertaining mainline entries, it did disappoint me more than any other game in the series so far.    … Expand
  73. DreadPirateGill
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    I wish I could rate it higher. I bought this game last night and have already beaten it.
  74. jonathan-a
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    The game is fun because the pokemon formula is inherently fun. That being said the games lacks any improvements and in some departments is worst than older installments of the series. That plus the fact its 50% more expensive makes for a very mediocre experience.
  75. leetl1
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Worst Pokemon game! Well, besides Let's Go Pikachu, and Pokemon Dash, and Pokemon Rumble, and Puhkemon, and yeah. But not enough Pokemon. I need my lil kitty Inciny.
  76. Daviz
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Sinceramente les faltaron muchos detalles al juego, le falto el cariño de antiguas sagas como la 5 gen, esta mal optimizado, como también abusan del popping en las personas que aparecen y desaparecen de la nada, muchos detalles con los fondos de combates, estos de gamefreak se nota que están bajando en calidad.
  77. Cabruncso
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    A marca mais cara do mundo não pode entregar um jogo medíocre. Corte de mais da metade da dex, gráficos que ficam muuuito atrás de jogos de 2017 lançados pro mesmo console, inovações bastante questionáveis nesse jogo, animações dos personagens e dos pokemons importadas e recicladas dos jogos do 3ds.. Esse jogo é um desrespeito da Game Freak para com seus fãs e consumidores! Merece todoA marca mais cara do mundo não pode entregar um jogo medíocre. Corte de mais da metade da dex, gráficos que ficam muuuito atrás de jogos de 2017 lançados pro mesmo console, inovações bastante questionáveis nesse jogo, animações dos personagens e dos pokemons importadas e recicladas dos jogos do 3ds.. Esse jogo é um desrespeito da Game Freak para com seus fãs e consumidores! Merece todo insucesso do mundo.… Expand
  78. Gaius03
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Graphics are ok, could be better.
    Same with animations. Should be more dynamic.
    While yes, I’m upset that there isn’t the full Dex, I can only hope/assume that they allow the next game to have everyone. So far I’m like 5-6 or so hours in. Storyline is pretty hand-holding and I can pretty much guess the endgame just from the small hints and such. If/when they do free updates for the full    Graphics are ok, could be better.
    Same with animations. Should be more dynamic.

    While yes, I’m upset that there isn’t the full Dex, I can only hope/assume that they allow the next game to have everyone. So far I’m like 5-6 or so hours in. Storyline is pretty hand-holding and I can pretty much guess the endgame just from the small hints and such. If/when they do free updates for the full Dex I’d change this to a 7.    … Expand
  79. Michiehm
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Not bad but not great either, shortest Pokémon game I played unfortunately
  80. Ryier
    Nov 29, 2019
    6
    A generous rating would be 6/10.
    Imagine I cut the score in half so that I could bring you a more cohesive reading experience which is in no way copied from previous reviews and is definitely not me just being lazy.
  81. Antares_87
    Jun 23, 2020
    5
    No National pokedex , No Party. Besides this game haven't a long story , only 15 hours of campaing, I'm sorry gamefreak but this is a Shame
  82. Batty99
    Nov 16, 2019
    7
    Yeah, the game is very flawed and I criticised the hell outta game before playing it but once I gave it to a chance... It was actually pretty enjoyable. People who criticise the game are right but my advice is... Just give it a chance, you'd might end enjoy it just like I did. So in the end I think the game deserves just a solid 7
  83. Fox-the-dog
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    Mal trabajo de parte de GameFreak...
    Pokémon ha sido una franquicia que he seguido desde pequeño y me he jugado todos sus títulos de la franquicia.
    Puntos Buenos: -Historia decente -Banda Sonora muy buena -Rejugabilidad Puntos Malos: -Reciclaje de animaciones de títulos de 3DS -No incluye a todos los Pokémon (siendo algo irónico ya que el slogan de la franquicia es “Atrapalos a todos”)    Mal trabajo de parte de GameFreak...
    Pokémon ha sido una franquicia que he seguido desde pequeño y me he jugado todos sus títulos de la franquicia.
    Puntos Buenos:
    -Historia decente
    -Banda Sonora muy buena
    -Rejugabilidad
    Puntos Malos:
    -Reciclaje de animaciones de títulos de 3DS
    -No incluye a todos los Pokémon (siendo algo irónico ya que el slogan de la franquicia es “Atrapalos a todos”)
    -Falta de gráficos siendo una consola más potente que una portátil como la Nintendo 3DS.
    Conclusión: Un trabajo flojo y hecho solamente para sacar otra entrega anual de Pokémon como es habituado.
    Sí es que eres Casual o un nuevo jugador de Pokémon está entrega será un juego para pasar el rato.
    Pero como seguidor y fan de la saga es una patada en el trasero.    … Expand
  84. TimoP1NL
    Apr 5, 2020
    5
    Did buy this for my son 6 year old.
    Only text and no voice means he can not follow the story or know what to do. This is realy bad game design. If u want to have option not to have voice that is ok bud make it an option. The target players for this game start at 5-6 bud the can not read. The like to have the game because hype only to be unable to enjoy it.
    This would be a great game in    Did buy this for my son 6 year old.
    Only text and no voice means he can not follow the story or know what to do. This is realy bad game design. If u want to have option not to have voice that is ok bud make it an option. The target players for this game start at 5-6 bud the can not read. The like to have the game because hype only to be unable to enjoy it.

    This would be a great game in year 2000
    Request to gamefreak please care about your own product enuf to make it the best it can be.
    Yes voice cost lots of money and time bud it is a vital aspect of any good game.

    As is this game = market to kids to want it
    Make parents pay for it
    Let children down that the can not understand it because lack of voice acting
    Make parents frustrated of wasting money on this product.

    @Nintendo please promote voice options in all your games to delight our children with the option to understand what is going on before the can read.    … Expand
  85. Avery5283
    Nov 17, 2019
    7
    Pokemon Sword and Shield is a decent RPG, although slightly lack luster. The gameplay is as fun as it's always been and the new dynamax forms are just as charming as the mega forms and z moves of old. The graphics and animations are where the game is very rough around the edges. The textures can be muddy, and the battle animations can be very stiff. However, if you are going in to battlePokemon Sword and Shield is a decent RPG, although slightly lack luster. The gameplay is as fun as it's always been and the new dynamax forms are just as charming as the mega forms and z moves of old. The graphics and animations are where the game is very rough around the edges. The textures can be muddy, and the battle animations can be very stiff. However, if you are going in to battle pokemon and catch pokemon, you're going to have a decent time.… Expand
  86. Takajapa
    Nov 15, 2019
    7
    É um jogo bom.. porem deveriam ter se esforçado mais. Gráficos ok, jogabilidade ok, quantidade de pokémons ok... Pra um jogo pokémon, ok n é algo bom!
  87. halotroop2288
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    The game's campaign is hand-holdy just like its predecessor (Sun/Moon), but that doesn't make it bad, I actually prefer to see a bit of story. Plus, it has a movie-skip feature to make the story go by quicker if you're not into it.
    The graphics are not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It's 720p in docked mode (which is the only mode that matters) and may reuse assets from    The game's campaign is hand-holdy just like its predecessor (Sun/Moon), but that doesn't make it bad, I actually prefer to see a bit of story. Plus, it has a movie-skip feature to make the story go by quicker if you're not into it.
    The graphics are not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It's 720p in docked mode (which is the only mode that matters) and may reuse assets from previous games, but they don't necessarily look bad here.
    Removing a lot of the Pokémon from the previous games probably makes it incompatible with them, which is a huge disappointment. One of the best features of this whole series in my opinion is being able to transfer your Pokémon from older games, so you can fill your Pokédex quicker (to Catch 'em All, of course).
    I have always wanted to do a "Catch 'em All" run, but I couldn't bring myself to stare out a low-res, tiny screen like the GameBoy or DS line had. I was looking forward to its first HD home console release in the main-line. This truly is a sore disappointment for that reason alone.
    This is going to be a game I finish, and maybe even play the post-game a little, but not one that I complete, or can even consider complete without the entire National Dex.    … Expand
  88. dimitrelos300
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Not only this is a rushed pokemon game made to satisfy the (pokemon is my life)fan's need for a typical new generation of pocket masters, but it even fails to ACHIEVE THAT.The only game since diamond and pearl that i didnt even buy, only play it for some days in my friend's switch.This generation is so much the same as gen 7 than you want to give up the franchise and question if gamefreakNot only this is a rushed pokemon game made to satisfy the (pokemon is my life)fan's need for a typical new generation of pocket masters, but it even fails to ACHIEVE THAT.The only game since diamond and pearl that i didnt even buy, only play it for some days in my friend's switch.This generation is so much the same as gen 7 than you want to give up the franchise and question if gamefreak is trolling.The animations are the same in a degree too extremelly disgusting for not to notice.Everything just feels like a different skin sun and moon Not to mention the huge pokemon cut which is just very very bad.The moves have no upgrade , the game is unoptimised and doesnt run smooth and the dynamax is just a marketing trick.It is there only because for gamefreak to say that they have added something new.It is just ridiculus.Mega evolutions were much much better and of cource are alsu being cutThe story is so short that it will make you question your decision to play pokemon games.The only reason i didnt gave it a 4 or 3 is that for a first time pokemon user we can say that this game has vibrant graphics with attractive art style and if sb find it for 20 euros he can buy it and be ok eith it.For a pokemon game it is just garbage.I have so much thing to say about why this game went erong thst i will not even do because i am losing my time.Just watch the previous elite fours from x and y that were gorgeous and pokemon league in this game
    Years ago i was surprised at the huge revolutionary gap from blaxk and white graphics to x and y with new pokemon models 3d cities amazing story just all great.After you realize it you will just see pokemon sword and shield as a resking version of sun and moon which is a shame.I hope gamfreak really change cause i am dissapointed.If i have some grammatical and vocabulary errors is only from the rush of writting this.Why only gamefreak should things    … Expand
  89. Glue_eater69
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Lo que ya hemos escuchado hasta la saciedad, este juego es mediocre, estancado gráficamente en comparación con compañeros de consola, animaciones y modelos reciclados y, aún podiendo simplemente copiar y pegar todos los pokémon como hicieron con los que sí están, se niegan a hacerlo bajo la excusa de querer pulir otros aspectos (que no están pulidos igualmente). La saga y el Fandom seLo que ya hemos escuchado hasta la saciedad, este juego es mediocre, estancado gráficamente en comparación con compañeros de consola, animaciones y modelos reciclados y, aún podiendo simplemente copiar y pegar todos los pokémon como hicieron con los que sí están, se niegan a hacerlo bajo la excusa de querer pulir otros aspectos (que no están pulidos igualmente). La saga y el Fandom se merece algo mucho mejor.… Expand
  90. avtrs
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    I've split my main impressions into 4 sections (great/good/bad/awful), then included my final thoughts at the end.

    The great stuff: - The moves they bothered to animate look great and really are what most long term series fans hoped a console mainline game would look like. Moves like pyro ball, extrasensory, no retreat. - The wild area and the new concept of overworld pokemon (taken    I've split my main impressions into 4 sections (great/good/bad/awful), then included my final thoughts at the end.

    The great stuff:
    - The moves they bothered to animate look great and really are what most long term series fans hoped a console mainline game would look like. Moves like pyro ball, extrasensory, no retreat.
    - The wild area and the new concept of overworld pokemon (taken from LGPE with a few changes) is fantastic. This really captures the imagionation of what fans have always wanted.
    - The Regional dex and variety of pokemon available even from a very early stage is great.
    - The "magic" of the games is still there when played.

    The good stuff:
    - Gym battles and the champion are well done. I think the stadium dynamic, background, music and overall impression of these fights is awesome. Could it be harder? Yes. Does the spectacle make up for that? Yes.
    - The new pokemon and Galar forms definitely get an overall thumbs up for me. Some are great, some are... less great. Overall I think the design team has done a great job.
    - The music also gets a thumbs up. Some tracks are awesome, some are slightly subpar, but the overall OST is a great compliment to the game.
    - Some (mostly new pokemon) models and animations are great. Scorbunny has a great idle animation, and Falinks has some great variety of animations, including when its first sent out. These animations are so important to give the pokemon some life and personality.
    - Various quality of life upgrades are great. GF has done a number of small things to help players.
    - I like the cast of characters for the game. Hop is annoying because of cutscenes, but I think his character is great. I like Leon, the Gym Leaders, the chairman and the various other cast.

    The bad stuff:
    - Too many move animations just basically do not exist. Double kick is the infamous one, basically the pokemon's model moves up and down, then a big foot appears on the opponent. This is not an animation and honestly pre-gen 5 animations provided better immersion in the game.
    - Too many pokemon animations suck. A lot of these are older models, but some of the new ones also just lack life and personality. This is a mainline switch game which we KNOW can animate models well (because some are animated well!) and yet so many models just remain still, like a statue almost.
    - Lack of voice acting (VA). Personally I think VA would really enchance the experience. It's 2019 and this is a big RPG release, so I'm a bit disappointed to not see it as an option you can toggle on/off.
    - Lack of a national dex, with no alternative. There should be a separate pokemon-stadium like game for all pokemon which is connected to the pokemon Home app, so that old pokemon aren't useless/forgotten.
    - The wild area really is much smaller than it initially appears. Although you can run around it, there isn't really much else to do apart from interact with pokemon and do raid battles.
    - The routes are really boring. There is almost nothing to go and explore/discover. Most of them are pretty much linear A to Z with some grass for wild pokemon.
    - The story is really bland, not much to say.

    The awful stuff:
    - Complete lack of good postgame content. This is really at an almost embarrassing level. There is almost nothing and the battle tower somehow has even less content than in gen 7. I remember when the best part of the games was the postgame, and this is really disappointing to me.
    - Removal of the GTS with no good and simple alternative.
    - Way too many cutscenes. I constantly would get into a boring conversation with a character, then run 10m, then they would stop me again to talk. This may be ok if the talking was actually relevant or provided some backstory, but most of it is just useless chatter to make sure the player goes in a certain direction.
    - (Because of the above) the game is extremely linear, especially for an RPG. You are basically on traintracks in a straight line, with no real challenges or problems to solve about how to move forward. In this sense I do feel that the game is really insulting the intelligence and passion of its playerbase.
    - The animations of characters is really awful in the overworld. Honestly this is 3DS tier or worse. I can compare the game to any modern (or even old) console game and it comes off worse.
    - Not having free camera control, even in a game that partially has it in the wild area. There are RPGs which are almost 20 years old that support good 3d models with a moveable camera. Embarrassing.
    - The complete lack of any traditional pokemon (heck, even traditional RPG) style dungeons or long, arduous routes that are challenging to get through. There is no E4 in this game, there is no victory road, there is no real dungeon at all.

    Don't get this game unless you are already a fan.    … Expand
  91. Sukikyo
    Nov 16, 2019
    6
    The only things holding this game back are the lack of the national dex and a higher difficulty, aside from those points it's a fun and cute game with many cool new features and pokemon. If the lack of national dex get's revised this game is easily an 8 or 9
  92. tsdZero
    Nov 17, 2019
    7
    Pokemon Sword and Shield are games that are easy to see problems with. What with the lack of used elements in the story, frame rate issues, and even shorter NPC Field of View that has pokemon and People popping out of thin air like daisies, Pokemon Sw/Sh are games that can still proudly wear the title. The Soul of Pokemon is still here. You can catch, battle and go on a journey just likePokemon Sword and Shield are games that are easy to see problems with. What with the lack of used elements in the story, frame rate issues, and even shorter NPC Field of View that has pokemon and People popping out of thin air like daisies, Pokemon Sw/Sh are games that can still proudly wear the title. The Soul of Pokemon is still here. You can catch, battle and go on a journey just like you always could before. Sadly for casual players the journey ends there as not much else is left for casual fans of Pokemon. But for Competitive players, Sword and Shield offers more than previous titles. I only wish these games had more time to breathe and polish what they had. Because sadly the controversy at hand overshadows two solid but not amazing games.

    But hay, at least the music is great!    … Expand
  93. lalahand
    Mar 10, 2021
    5
    The story is straight and boring. If you only wants to enjoy the adventure, then don’t buy this game
  94. Lachlan5
    Feb 28, 2021
    5
    Boring and uninspired Pokémon game and is a major letdown although some of the new Pokémon are relatively cool and still not able to change the camera angle for **** sake
  95. Kathlar
    Nov 4, 2021
    5
    I was very excited for this game, but unfortunately it's one of the worst in the series. The gameplay changes are mostly bad. Cutscenes are too long and make you loose interest before the real play starts. I guess I have to wait for the next generation.
  96. Prequarantine
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    This game is not the game for long-standing Pokemon fans that was promised last year. Few of the new features are new. This should have been a game similar in scope to other Nintendo franchise on the Switch, but it really isn't. Ultimately, this is just another Pokemon game. Hopefully next year the game will be improved, as this release feels half baked.

    The positives: +A minimum of 20    This game is not the game for long-standing Pokemon fans that was promised last year. Few of the new features are new. This should have been a game similar in scope to other Nintendo franchise on the Switch, but it really isn't. Ultimately, this is just another Pokemon game. Hopefully next year the game will be improved, as this release feels half baked.

    The positives:
    +A minimum of 20 hours of new adventure
    +New Pokemon
    +Raids
    +Overworld Pokemon!
    +Game is Pokemon and includes many Pokemon you have always loved
    +Breeding made even more approachable, allowing more people to dip into the competition
    +Game will likely maintain the majority of its sale price for at least a year
    +Dynamax adds an interesting fusion of megas and z moves

    The negatives:
    -Overworld Pokemon are currently not capable of being shiny
    -Half of all Pokemon removed, including many days favorites like Greninja, Dragonite, and Metagross. Even Arceus is removed.
    -Roughly 150 moves removed. Most of these are irrelevant, but there are some very notable removals that threaten the balance and encourage rain teams more than ever, which were very strong already.
    -the endgame is essentially just the battle tower and raids. Something larger would have been nice.
    -GTS REMOVED
    -Game feels incredibly unpolished, including many bugs
    -no ability to set difficulty of game or turn off experience share, or turn off the forced healing given at ever corner. Game is incredibly easy as a result. You will find yourself bored.
    -Very few routes
    -No real dungeons
    -The removal of megas and z moves. Megas were incredible because they turned awkward Pokemon into powerhouses, fixing many of their flaws and making them finally usable. Gigantamax essentially reset this important progress.

    Overall, this game is fun for the 20 hours it lasts, but for its price and console, it really leaves you wanting a lot more. The game as a whole feels half baked. 6/10    … Expand
  97. IsmaDLR
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    If you just want a main line Pokémon game that isn't Let's Go, this will just do it.

    It's definitely not the game we need, nor it's the game Game Freak needed to launch, but if you just want a new Pokémon generation, Sword and Shield will just do the job this year. Or you could just wait a year and see if they launch a revision or a Diamond/Pearl/Platinum remake. You decide, but keep in    If you just want a main line Pokémon game that isn't Let's Go, this will just do it.

    It's definitely not the game we need, nor it's the game Game Freak needed to launch, but if you just want a new Pokémon generation, Sword and Shield will just do the job this year. Or you could just wait a year and see if they launch a revision or a Diamond/Pearl/Platinum remake. You decide, but keep in mind that outside of a few interesting lore bits on the campaign, this is just more Pokédex completion and online battles until you get bored of it and wait for the next game in the series. One thing is true though: a new engine, tailor-made for the Switch is, now more than ever, a necessity and not a luxury. I don't think this 3DS engine will cut it in a few years.    … Expand
  98. Metacriticerr
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    Some QoL improvements, but not what you would expect from a AAA game on the switch in 2019. Lots of graphical issues, cant catch them all, no voice acting.
  99. Bilboswagginz
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Pokemon will always be good but never be GREAT. Catching the new mons (which I think are pretty well designed) and interacting with the pretty diverse cast of characters while you battle through eight gyms is a fairly failsafe formula that has always been enjoyable. Unsurprisingly Pokemon Sword checks all these boxes and is a certainly enjoyable playthrough. However, once one attempts toPokemon will always be good but never be GREAT. Catching the new mons (which I think are pretty well designed) and interacting with the pretty diverse cast of characters while you battle through eight gyms is a fairly failsafe formula that has always been enjoyable. Unsurprisingly Pokemon Sword checks all these boxes and is a certainly enjoyable playthrough. However, once one attempts to try to enforce their own playstyle or control the game constantly frustrates at every turn. Having plodding linear progression with limited options for things like exp share one feels rather talked down to by gamefreak. These certainly are childrens games but methinks the company is underselling how smart kids can be and what they can pick up on. After the main game is completed is where the bulk of my complaints come to. This game has the least number of routes in any mainline pokemon game with very few being postgame content. There is a short (2 3 hour) story mission where you capture the third legendary, and there is a lackluster battle tower (with no bosses) and then of course completing the pokedex. No other legendaries no significant geographical locations significant enough to engross for any long period of time. No mount silver, no white forest, nothing. With development of videogames on a whole being hard more expensive and more time consuming, game freak may be damned if they continue down this path. Releasing one game a year worked for them for a while, but the cracks and poor management are starting to show and I don't know how long they will be able to slide by with a lackluster product. Especially for 60$ 5/10 BUY IT USED IF AT ALL… Expand
  100. Pipistrele
    Nov 15, 2019
    7
    Not great, not terrible, and generally way better than I expected it to be. Good things (such as music and overall presentation) are pretty damn good, and less-than-good things (underutilized wild area and silly plot) are mostly fine and don't distract from player experience too much. A lot of things may feel more glaring in context of the whole Dexit situation, or TGC's poor attempts atNot great, not terrible, and generally way better than I expected it to be. Good things (such as music and overall presentation) are pretty damn good, and less-than-good things (underutilized wild area and silly plot) are mostly fine and don't distract from player experience too much. A lot of things may feel more glaring in context of the whole Dexit situation, or TGC's poor attempts at damage control, but as its own game, it's still and solid Pokemon title that has the same warm atmosphere and enjoyable core gameplay. All in all, I recommend avoiding the hate/hype train and watch some professional reviews for better judgment - especially with a lot of claims on its "awfulness" being exaggerated by public outlash at the moment.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 87
  3. Negative: 0 out of 87
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 30, 2020
    80
    Sword & Shield stumble in a few areas and history may not be kind to them, but they're setting up a future that I'm excited to see. [Issue #44 – January/February 2020, p. 73]
  2. GameCritics
    Feb 6, 2020
    75
    I enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword and Shield, but I ended feeling conflicted. I appreciate many of the changes and felt that it generally respected my time, but I almost felt like a passive participant. The more complex gym challenges had a meatier role, but the narrative shouldn’t have been shoved to the side. Overall, I would recommend it to players who want to have a Pokemon experience, but this one won’t stick with me the way the older ones have.
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  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Jan 14, 2020
    78
    Pokemon Sword/Shield is uncharacteristically user-friendly: now there’s no need to backtrack half across the world to heal your entire team of pokemon or to get to a particular city, for example. [Issue#242, p.66]
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