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. Rayomanaka
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Total disappointment. This game isn't even a shadow of past games. Lacking moves, pokemon, graphics... everything is a mix of good ideas with a horrible execution
  2. 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
  3. Youtin
    Feb 6, 2022
    4
    Too easy. There is no challenging difficulty.

    Artistically you can tell it was made without motivation. The soundtrack is fine. But it doesn't compare to other pokemon games. The models of many NPCs or characters are repeated. Everything is very repetitive and constant, there is nothing that stands out with originality. The world feels very poor, it feels made without any    Too easy. There is no challenging difficulty.

    Artistically you can tell it was made without motivation.

    The soundtrack is fine. But it doesn't compare to other pokemon games.

    The models of many NPCs or characters are repeated. Everything is very repetitive and constant, there is nothing that stands out with originality.

    The world feels very poor, it feels made without any essence.

    I tried to enjoy it, but there is really almost nothing that can entertain you, because you can complete the whole game without losing a fight. That's just too easy.

    And despite that, this game sold 20 million copies. Even if they develop you a piece of **** nintendo is still going to sell a lot because people still buy them.    … Expand
  4. RetroMatero
    Nov 29, 2019
    1
    Con todo lo que tenían para hacer un nuevo juego de la saga, vinieron con esto.
    Mi primo, luego de 12 horas de juego, no aguantó más, y lo iba a devolver. Yo le di una chance, porque no me parecía tan malo...
    2 horas después... Uffff... -Gráficos que no van a la altura ni de las otras franquicias que gráficamente son excepcionales, para esa consola, se ve como un port en HD de la 3DS.    Con todo lo que tenían para hacer un nuevo juego de la saga, vinieron con esto.
    Mi primo, luego de 12 horas de juego, no aguantó más, y lo iba a devolver. Yo le di una chance, porque no me parecía tan malo...
    2 horas después... Uffff...
    -Gráficos que no van a la altura ni de las otras franquicias que gráficamente son excepcionales, para esa consola, se ve como un port en HD de la 3DS.
    -Jugabilidad muy aburrida, y es poco para esta consola. Nos castigan con el mismo sistema de hace 20 años, sin mucha variedad.
    -Lo que era un RPG en el pasado, se redujo al ir de punto A a punto B, sin siquiera dar la sensación de volver al punto anterior.
    -He sabido de usuarios que en 5 horas ya eran los más fuertes, cuando en entregas de la GB me tomó casi 70 horas llegar a tener pokemons del nivel de Zapdos, Moltres, y Articuno.
    -Parece hecho para niños de 5 años, y encima con un estilo de jugabilidad muy anticuado.
    -El lore es completamente absurdo, y los personajes muy mal aprovechados. Qué se meten los guionistas para tirarnos personajes que lucen interesantes y terminan siendo más planos que una tabla, a la par de acartonados? Agárrate, Final Fantasy XIII...

    En resumen, no puedo recomendar esta entrega a alguien que quiera iniciarse en la saga, recomendaría los de GB del clásico al Advance, y los Black and White, que al menos se sienten (más o menos) como juegos frescos...

    Nintendo y Game Freak... Les duele sacarse unos millones de dólares para hacer algo de verdad, no?    … Expand
  5. Pokenight
    Sep 3, 2022
    3
    The most lazy endeavour the pokemon series has taken yet, at least in mainline. I can forgive the graphics because ultimately they don't matter but Jesus christ the game is so **** bland.
    This game is a beans on toast of pokemon.
  6. Dinglebat299
    Nov 29, 2019
    1
    This game feels cheap. The story is absolutely garbage & pretty much non existent. The areas are bland and boring. The characters are so annoying and the gameplay itself feels like this is a demo of a fan game. Easily the worst pokemon game. Gamefreak have really dropped the ball with this and shown their true colours, rush out some garbage and sell it to stupid kids.

    Pokémon has been    This game feels cheap. The story is absolutely garbage & pretty much non existent. The areas are bland and boring. The characters are so annoying and the gameplay itself feels like this is a demo of a fan game. Easily the worst pokemon game. Gamefreak have really dropped the ball with this and shown their true colours, rush out some garbage and sell it to stupid kids.

    Pokémon has been around for around 20years or so, most of its fans are between 20-30, why not make a game for an older demographic??    … Expand
  7. The-Pad
    Jun 2, 2020
    4
    This game is bad. The graphics are comparable to late PS2 releases, the plot constantly interupts you, the Wild Area is emptier than the streets during a World War. DO NOT BUY.
  8. 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
  9. Akuryo90
    Nov 18, 2019
    10
    Great game, cool new Pokémon, music awesome... I love that game. And the designer of trainers and leaders are the best
  10. SanelVella
    Nov 25, 2019
    4
    Una nueva generación de Pokémon en una consola cansera... En el que los precios de los juegos han incrementado, y la calidad de los mismos... No mucho. Pokémon Espada y Escudo son juegos que se sienten de la era del 3DS y no como juegos del Switch, de una nueva generación de consolas. Los puntos rescatables son el área silvestre y la música. Fuera de ello, son juegos más de la era del 3DSUna nueva generación de Pokémon en una consola cansera... En el que los precios de los juegos han incrementado, y la calidad de los mismos... No mucho. Pokémon Espada y Escudo son juegos que se sienten de la era del 3DS y no como juegos del Switch, de una nueva generación de consolas. Los puntos rescatables son el área silvestre y la música. Fuera de ello, son juegos más de la era del 3DS para Nintendo Switch, en donde posees mismo apartado gráfico (ligeramente mejorado, pero en comparación casi nulo), historia bastante predecible y aburrida, mecánicas que no aportan nada nuevo en los combates y realmente, fuera de la Battle Tower, nada de post game para un jugador seguir estando motivado en jugarlo.

    Pokémon Espada y Escudo no son un paso hacia atrás para la franquicia, pero la consola Nintendo Switch merece un paso adelante con sus franquicias... Y este, definitivamente no lo es. Pokémon merece más, los fans merecen más, la consola merece más. Pero estos juegos, son simplemente más de lo mismo que nos han dado desde la era de X/Y en el 2013... Pero a mayor precio.    … Expand
  11. AeonQuasar
    Jan 1, 2020
    2
    There are so many issues with this game that I will list up only the top 3 most noticeable and biggest problems. Not even counting Dexit that most people rattles about. 1. It's too easy. You can't turn of the xp share and every battle is so easy you can win it in without any effort. A simple hard mode would have solved that. 2. Way to linear. A game that screams for more open world styleThere are so many issues with this game that I will list up only the top 3 most noticeable and biggest problems. Not even counting Dexit that most people rattles about. 1. It's too easy. You can't turn of the xp share and every battle is so easy you can win it in without any effort. A simple hard mode would have solved that. 2. Way to linear. A game that screams for more open world style and only give you that in very small portions. Imagine pokemon in Breath of the wild world. Why not gamefreak? 3. It's not good enough improvement from the Gameboy design
    It's supposed to be the first "real" console game, but it feels like a slight improved version of the 3ds games. For a price like this it's not even close being worth it.    … Expand
  12. Alex214
    Dec 6, 2019
    1
    Nice Nintendo DS game, reused 3ds animations, gamefreak lied, Pokemon is the New Fifa, it will always sell well because of its brand, just like Fifa or COD
  13. meritum
    Dec 15, 2019
    2
    This is the first pokemon game I have played. The game is just not for everyone. It is for pokemon fans, not for every jRPG fans(I am jRPG fan). I dislike this game not because it is THE entry in the series. I dislike it because it the gameplay is not fun for me(pokemon games gameplay). The game is boring for me. Really 2/10 is my score and I am sure about this. The worst game from theThis is the first pokemon game I have played. The game is just not for everyone. It is for pokemon fans, not for every jRPG fans(I am jRPG fan). I dislike this game not because it is THE entry in the series. I dislike it because it the gameplay is not fun for me(pokemon games gameplay). The game is boring for me. Really 2/10 is my score and I am sure about this. The worst game from the quite good ones. I understand, that there are some people that like this gameplay.

    But if you like the other pokemon games, it is the best entry in series except of poedex(graphics are neat and really good). The wild area is also better than normal places in the game    … Expand
  14. Wingmanwesty
    Dec 5, 2019
    1
    Overall
    - boring routes
    - no exploration - broken online - Pokemon scaled wrong - Shallow characters - stupid AI - Limited fashion choices - Hollow cities - Missing pokemon - Missing adventure - lackluster postgame - Uninteractive shiny hunting This game had huge potential, but ultimately put half effort into each and every aspect of this game. The Raids were the biggest    Overall
    - boring routes
    - no exploration
    - broken online
    - Pokemon scaled wrong
    - Shallow characters
    - stupid AI
    - Limited fashion choices
    - Hollow cities
    - Missing pokemon
    - Missing adventure
    - lackluster postgame
    - Uninteractive shiny hunting

    This game had huge potential, but ultimately put half effort into each and every aspect of this game. The Raids were the biggest dissapointment to me. Such a cool idea. Teaming up online with friends to fight a giant pokemon you'd been hunting for. Wild. Yet actually broken online matchmaking completely ruin that experience. You can join an online raid that the game tries to matchmake you into maybe 10% of the time. Otherwise you've timed out, its no longer available, lost connection. This game may as well use link cables again. There is no friend system so its much harder to link up with my friends in game then should be for anyonline game made after 2010. There is no GTS so trading for specific pokemon isn't an option unless I go on reddit to match with someone and hopefully the 4 digit code actually works. Sometimes it just doesn't. This isn't a bad idea, your online just isn't usable. This game is not finished, this part doesn't work. Shoddy. For a game about giant pokemon it is super jarring that scaling is completely gone from the game. All pokemon are now 4 feet tall. That's so jarring. Routes are essentially boring hallways. No discovery or adventure here. One route is literally a hallway made of ice. Remember the first time you went through the whirl islands? Finding rare mons, discovering how to navigate with boulders, trying to remember the layout. In swsh you get an infinite use escape rope. i haven't had to use it yet cause galar mine 1, and galar mine 2 (super epic names fit for adventure btw) are straight lines. Just hold up to get through it. No routes reward or require exploration. The story was super bland and felt detached from gameplay. I loved the part of the story where they told me to ignore the cool action, and mystery and let an npc deal with it offscreen. What idiot put that on a storyboard. I liked the story of really pushing the gym challenge. Too bad that's really only 3 hours of story there. Leon is a terrible champion. His only character trait is that he's undefeated, spoiler alert, he gets defeated. Such a shallow charcter, with a lame signature pokemon for him and this generation, and such a poorly designed character. Seriously looks like an 8 year old picked out all the cool clothes they could think of to put on him. Hop as well was shallow, his only character trait is that he'll kiss your butt, and he's sad that you outshawn him. Actually a cool trait if only it wasn't said just as much as was leons undefeated status. Shiny hunting is just a grind now, kill 500 mons, no chains, no combos, no dexnav hunting. Just start killing everything you see. NPC's in raids actually negatively impact you as the AI are apparently missing the I part of AI. Sure bring your jolteon against the Runerigus, spam quick attack, and thunderbolt to no effect and die every other turn. Designing my own character is severely limited. why can NPC's have clothes, and hairstyles I can't, and No one on earth would ever go on a cross country adventure wearing that travesty of a bag, who backpacks with a suitcase. Get a backpack, or an over the shoulder bag, or better yet. Give players a choice. The bag isn't meant to be worn like this, yet here I am with a roller-suitcase on my back. The cities were huge to look at but ultimately empty, easily explorable in under 5 minutes, not very rewarding, and only two cities have more than 5 buildings in them. This is the worst battle tower in generations, lack of super-battles, and multi battles make it boring, and the absolutely trash reward system make it a chore to do. 2BP per win, forever, and when you reach the highest rank you get less rewards cause you can't go up a tier. Such a grind. And you need to grind because you want mints for gigantimaxers, cause only caught ones can do it. Not the Drednaw I've used for my whole playthrough. Cool guess I'll just bin him and swap him out for a new one that can do cooler tricks. This game is also missing several features that'd drastically improve the game: National Dex, Mega Evolution, All mons in the overworld, following pokemon, any sense of exploration, and overworld shinies. How did they go back on features. Why would they remove something people loved from previous games. What felt great: Stadium style gym battles, text speeds, accessible box's, Accessible tm relearners, Bede was a cool character in the main story, less so in the post game. What should just be removed: NPC AI in raids, Hop, Leon, RPG style text options that don't have any impact on the game.    … Expand
  15. PrunusTR
    Nov 26, 2019
    2
    20 years later, it is still the same game. After playing this game, my thought is that the main pokemon games should not be developed by Gamefreak anymore. New pokemons are well designed. However, hundreds of pokemons from previous games are cut out. Transfering pokemons from previous games is a game mechanic that makes pokemon game a pokemon game. Although cutting out all the pokemons20 years later, it is still the same game. After playing this game, my thought is that the main pokemon games should not be developed by Gamefreak anymore. New pokemons are well designed. However, hundreds of pokemons from previous games are cut out. Transfering pokemons from previous games is a game mechanic that makes pokemon game a pokemon game. Although cutting out all the pokemons reduced the work of developers, there is no progress in animations. The animations in this game belong to the last decade. Moreover, there is still no voice acting. That is ridiculous. I bought this game to experience a main pokemon game on a big screen TV but probably this is the last time since I do not believe gamefreak will improve the game no matter how many generations or game consoles change. This game is definitely not a 2019 game, and it should cost no more than 30 dollars.… Expand
  16. Poochingus
    Nov 20, 2019
    2
    I don't give this a low score lightly. In fact, I kept myself aloof from all spoilers. I'm sure people will make their arguments, but at the end of the day, I will say some people are just hateful, while others are foolishly defending a company because of a sense of religious zealotry. I'll give a bullet list

    Pros: -new pokemon look pretty cool(except for the trash box legendaries    I don't give this a low score lightly. In fact, I kept myself aloof from all spoilers. I'm sure people will make their arguments, but at the end of the day, I will say some people are just hateful, while others are foolishly defending a company because of a sense of religious zealotry. I'll give a bullet list

    Pros:
    -new pokemon look pretty cool(except for the trash box legendaries which are impossible to tell apart).
    -many fun new moves and abilites on the pokemon
    -galaran forms are mostly good.
    -the opening town looks pretty
    -the open wilds area was a pretty fun idea
    -mixing the old style of wild encounters with the type from Let's go was nice
    -bede and Mr.Rose were cool characters
    -There is a pokemon named fapple and it is a flying apple.
    -I enjoyed the core gameplay as much as ever.

    cons:
    -$60 price point
    -first time in series history when it jumps to new hardware and there is no graphical upgrade(outside of pokemon models, which I always expected to be the same).
    -no improved shaders or textures, in and out of battles
    -battle backdrops dropped in quality from Sun and Moon including a now static camera.
    -random fps dips despite the lightweight load this game should be putting on the Switch
    -Cutscene animations were very sloppy, and highly recycled looping animations used for non-cutscene interactions
    - I found out that I can't import my living dex(the collection of 1 of each pokemon in existence because I gotta catch 'em all). This includes half of my competitive battlers from generation 4-7
    - doesn't use pokemon bank anyway(wasn't the point to future proof transferring?)
    - Literally makes it so that you can't catch pokemon over a certain level without a badge.
    - routes and town are incredibly short and devoid of exploration.
    - exp curve is whacked out, you don't need to fight/catch wild pokemon for exp ever to beat the game.
    - No large "Celedon City" location. No Victory Road. No Elite 4(recycles gym leaders instead).
    - Character designs for gyms and gym leaders left a lot to be desired. Each gym was the same stadium just a different color and icon. The gym leaders were half good, and half bad. The champion design was also pretty bad. Dark gym leader was the only one I truly thought was actually great.
    -pop in is really really bad. Many times I'd run into pokemon that appeared right in front of me, same with characters in the more "big" towns.
    -repels are glitched and don't seem to work. Stupid little level 3 pokemon popped up after I used repels in the post game and I kept running into them. They worked in Gen7 and the let's go games.

    Overall the real crime is the price. I was expecting them to either cram in content, or really stretch into a new console that has things as breathtaking as Zelda Breath of the Wild. However they did neither. It feels like these games belong on the 3DS, and I can't help but feel like they are less impressive than sun and moon were. If they had released these on the 3DS for $40 it would have been an okay game, still a massive step back in some ways, but at least okay. I don't know where that other $20 is supposed to be going and they left a lot on the table with the Switch and the hardware's capabilities. For now I will say this is my last pokemon game despite being a fan from day 1, sticking with it even when it wasn't cool anymore. This is the first time there are objective steps backwards with core features and a lack of wow factor when jumping onto new hardware. GBA color graphics and sprite design impressed me. the 3D in DS titles impressed me, and the full jump to 3D with the 3DS blew me away knowing how much hard work that was. This was downright tepid. I don't know where all the money goes, but clearly someone at gamefreak is pocketing it and not reinvesting it in games. I wonder if they just maybe got lazy and pushed this out for the holiday rush.

    Until they bring back the ability to bring all my pokemon up I probably will stick with ultra sun and ultra moon to battle a while longer. Outside of that I'll just use online battle simulators to have access to everything old with everything new. That is fine, but I am just sad I have to give up another beloved series because it decided to do silly things.    … Expand
  17. Pizzazz
    Jan 25, 2020
    0
    I have no idea how they got everything so wrong, all they had to do was make the same thing they've been making and it would have been fine, but they somehow made it terrible.
  18. HakiSaki3
    Dec 9, 2019
    4
    This game has good ideas, but is lacking in execution. Let's start with the good.
    Good:
    Character designs and music are top-notch as always. The quality of life changes make it easier and less frustrating to get into competitive battling The wild area, while lacking in execution, was a fun idea that I hope they expand upon in the future. The bad: The most hand-holding game thus far. Now    This game has good ideas, but is lacking in execution. Let's start with the good.
    Good:
    Character designs and music are top-notch as always.
    The quality of life changes make it easier and less frustrating to get into competitive battling
    The wild area, while lacking in execution, was a fun idea that I hope they expand upon in the future.
    The bad: The most hand-holding game thus far. Now your badges determine what level you're allowed to catch
    Speaking of hand-holding, your rival Hop interrupts your adventure every five minutes or so, and there's no way to skip his dialogue. He even takes it a step further and congratulates you on getting a super effective hit, EVERY SINGLE TIME, EVEN WHEN YOU'RE BATTLING AT THE ELITE FOUR.
    The game overall feels rushed. There's a nice, steady buildup for the first four badges, but once you get the fifth badge it's basically a gauntlet to get the last 3. Routes are smaller and more linear than ever. Instead of a dungeon at the end of the game we literally get an elevator ride and three battles against the evil team. One of the town's is literally just a Pokemon center and a gym with a straight line of NOTHING in between.
    The same goes for the postgame. It's just a boss rush at every gym against dynamax pokemon you can't even catch Perhaps most egregious of all is the offscreen dynamax crisis. In an effort to either save resources or make Leon look cool (which he isn't, stop trying game freak) he has an entire adventure where he goes around the city beating the dynamax pokemon and saving everyone. Wouldnt that have been, I don't know, COOL TO HAVE ACTUALLY PLAYED? instead of reading the newspaper the next day and having everyone all over Leon's dick for saving them?
    Marnie, and ESPECIALLY Bede are criminally underused in favor of giving Hop even more screentime. But the absolute worst thing in this game is the removal of the GTS. Why take it out and replace it with a broken system where people can potentially hijack your trade? Why get rid of the PSS? It was the perfect friend list where with w few presses ofna button we could battlenorntrade at will. Why make it so that we need to enter a code that will get hijacked half of the time? This score reflects that while the QoL changes are genuinely a great addition, all these other gripes were so bothersome that I will not give this a second playthrough. Thankfully I can shiny hunt in peace now.    … Expand
  19. Meteorsmash
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    The Short Version: Hire Genius Sonority again for 3D games. Gamefreak is incompetent.

    The Long Version: GameFreak wanted to spare efforts cutting down content as much as possible for maximum profits, their reason for doing so is: "It's Pokemon! Even if it's garbage it will sell! The consumers are kids and adults who disregard quality after all, right?" WRONG! And I think the overall    The Short Version: Hire Genius Sonority again for 3D games. Gamefreak is incompetent.

    The Long Version: GameFreak wanted to spare efforts cutting down content as much as possible for maximum profits, their reason for doing so is: "It's Pokemon! Even if it's garbage it will sell! The consumers are kids and adults who disregard quality after all, right?" WRONG! And I think the overall Metacritic score speaks volumes. Let me list the issues of the game once again...
    -The game is full of low quality environments and textures.
    -Pop-in is Awful.
    -Cutscenes that look like they were meant to have voice acting makes the game feel awkward...this is inexcusable in 2019
    -ALL FAN-FAVORITE POKEMON CUT FROM THE GAME!! There's NO starters from previous regions, NO fossil pokemon, No legendaries from previous games either, hell, they went out of their way to piss a lot of people off. What was the point of Pokemon Home then??! Greedy and lazy summarizes GameFreak's "efforts" this generation.
    -Story is the most dull and boring I've seen in any pokemon game...
    -Recycled models and animations from the 3DS, AND NO, THEY ARE NOT "NEW" MODELS, THEY ARE THEY VERY SAME! There's a pretty absurd rumor online that the models were made from the ground up, that's an obvious lie, unless you are blind.

    Overall: Gamefreak need to wake up, it's 2019, this piece of garbage is inexcusable, Switch games so far have set the bar pretty high, if you compare this game to Zelda, Mario, Xenoblade, Smash, etc. GameFreak should feel ashamed of themselves for releasing this game in its current state, shame on you...    … Expand
  20. 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
  21. Oshawottcabread
    Dec 11, 2019
    4
    Ahora que me pase este juego haré un critica constructiva y honesta.Daré puntos según estos criterios
    jugabilidad 2 puntos
    graficos 1,5 puntos multijugador3 puntos opciones disponibles(que tal son los pokemon)2,5 puntos cambios nuevos 1 punto jugabilidad 0,5/2 la jugabilidad no es muy buena, en primer lugar anunciaron la cámara que no esta disponible en todo el juego solo en una    Ahora que me pase este juego haré un critica constructiva y honesta.Daré puntos según estos criterios
    jugabilidad 2 puntos
    graficos 1,5 puntos
    multijugador3 puntos
    opciones disponibles(que tal son los pokemon)2,5 puntos
    cambios nuevos 1 punto

    jugabilidad 0,5/2
    la jugabilidad no es muy buena, en primer lugar anunciaron la cámara que no esta disponible en todo el juego solo en una pequeña parte de el, recomendaría usar el control de pokemon lets go por este motivo aunque en algunas áreas el juego me pide a gritos girar la cámara, en estos sitios no hay control sobre ella solo en la zona salvaje.

    gráficos 0/1,5
    Muchísimos arboles que te acercas y se ven mal los puedes traspasar incluso texturas desde algunos ángulos que se ven a puntos, animaciones de giro mal hechas desde luego este apartado no es para nada bueno y si hay algunas animaciones chulas pero lo esencial no funciona

    multijugador 2/3
    Este apartado estuvo genial las incursiones son muy buenas y jugar en linea esta guai, a pesar de que el internet es de pago (que este juego no tiene culpa de eso) renta jugarlo, lo malo es que no hay gts algo imprescindible para mi, y los encuentros no están bien si te intentas unir a una raid vas a ver un fallo en el 90 % de los casos. Esta bien pero se puede mejorar

    opciones disponibles 0,5/2,5
    La dex nacional era imprescindible en este apartado aunque he de reconocer que hay pokemon chulos. Me cabreó mucho que metieran las formas regionales y las formas normales pudiendo meter otros pokemon. Y que de iniciales antiguos este solo charizard en la pokedex me parece la idea mas estúpida jamas vista.

    cambios nuevos 1/1
    Esta muy chulo el área salvaje es muy buen cambio que pueden explotar mas en futuras entregas el dinamax tampoco lo veo mal aunque solo con el área salvaje ya este apartado debe tener la máxima puntuación

    jugabilidad 0,5/2+gráficos 0/1,5+multijugador 2/3+opciones disponibles 0,5/2,5+cambios nuevos 1/1

    0,5+0+2+0.5+1=4
    nota final 4/10
    Conclusión
    El juego no es una maravilla es uno mas, creo que no deberían sacar un juego cada año. Deberían tomarse un tiempo para desarrollarlo, y desde luego que los trabajadores las épocas de mas trabajo hagan mas de 140 horas a la semana me parece vergonzoso no lo siguiente.

    Merece la pena comprar este juego?
    Depende de tu gusto y si te importa que estén o no todos los pokemon.
    Por mi parte no lo recomiendo.    … Expand
  22. Ambimunch
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    I'm a big Pokemon fan (bought every game since Ruby/Sapphire) and I noticed the slow deterioration of the Pokemon games' quality over the last 7-years. Each time these shortcomings would be tolerated by us, the fans, because having a new entry in our beloved franchise was reason enough to buy the games, start a new journey and go on an adventure. However, with the disaster that is Sw/Sh, iI'm a big Pokemon fan (bought every game since Ruby/Sapphire) and I noticed the slow deterioration of the Pokemon games' quality over the last 7-years. Each time these shortcomings would be tolerated by us, the fans, because having a new entry in our beloved franchise was reason enough to buy the games, start a new journey and go on an adventure. However, with the disaster that is Sw/Sh, i feel I cannot look past all the issues this time...

    The graphics are mediocre, some of the worst on the Switch compared to other 1st party games. Textures at times rival GameCube games, from 15 years ago. The animations and models are identical to the 3DS games, stiff and not expressive. There is a complete lack of voice acting for the games. The game is full of limitations, like non stop road blocks preventing you to progress without getting a mandatory tutorial forced on you, the inability to turn off exp share (making the game balance wack, you'll always be over-levelled making the game very easy), the post game is non existent, and the Pokemon themselves, the main reason to play the game - have been cut down by over 50% compared to the 3DS games. We can no longer import our collection from our older games, making all those years of collecting event pokemon/legendaries/perfectly trained pokemon/and shiny hunting pointless. What a disaster to have the 1st games on the Switch (nintendo's most powerful console to date) be worse than old DS games from 10+ years ago. Shame on you Game Freak. Never have i had less fun with Pokemon than with these games. If other "bad" entries in this series were "okay" or roughly 6/10, then Sw/Sh are half the games those are, and I cannot give them more than a 3/10. They're bad.    … Expand
  23. Bertolinha
    Dec 6, 2019
    0
    This game is just disrespectful. Gamefreak really showed us that they can do anything and still sell the game
  24. Esbelto
    Nov 17, 2019
    1
    um jogo entregue incompleto,completamente baseado só no nome da franquia,para cada mecânica, nova no jogo ,3 antigas foram retiradas,sem nem contar os pokemon retirados por pura preguiça e comodidade na game freak ,
  25. Frewsh
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    Yeah, this game just feels more unfulfilling than most other Pokemon games. A lot just feels missing or uncanny in some ways, mostly with how you interact with the world and the pokemon that inhabit it which is all directly caused by the bad quality of animation and graphics. It all just feels shamelessly downgraded when compared to other Switch titles, almost like a cash grab meant forYeah, this game just feels more unfulfilling than most other Pokemon games. A lot just feels missing or uncanny in some ways, mostly with how you interact with the world and the pokemon that inhabit it which is all directly caused by the bad quality of animation and graphics. It all just feels shamelessly downgraded when compared to other Switch titles, almost like a cash grab meant for mobile devices rather than an immersive main console game. I just don't think Game Freak tried too hard here, because the love that we're seeing from Sword and Shield is mainly because of the fact that it's on the Switch.

    But let me break it down for you like this: Nintendo Switch is the fun part of Sword and Shield; Sword and Shield is not the fun part of a Pokemon experience for Switch. Simple as that.    … Expand
  26. Fabiotipow
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    Mais do mesmo, graficamente horrível pra sua geração, as coisas pipocam na sua tela. Tirem esse grande jogo das mãos da game freak
  27. 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
  28. 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
  29. Crypt96
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Initially, the game is fine. The graphics seem to not have a poor resolution when you start off. For A nintendo switch game, everything should be clean. There are hiccups in FPS when entering battle while playing on the TV, but in handheld, the game runs smoothly, Ive only had a few drops in FPS. The render distance is abysmally bad. I have seen indie developed games with a larger renderInitially, the game is fine. The graphics seem to not have a poor resolution when you start off. For A nintendo switch game, everything should be clean. There are hiccups in FPS when entering battle while playing on the TV, but in handheld, the game runs smoothly, Ive only had a few drops in FPS. The render distance is abysmally bad. I have seen indie developed games with a larger render radius. The animations of the pokemon in the overworld are lifeless, and I feel they could have put more effort into make the pokemon world feel less like Pokemon GO, and more like other swtich titles (Breath of the Wild, for example, the creatures have some life and react more lively when you approach them) the animations in battle are subpar to previous titles, specifically the the attack animations. There are Nintendo 64 titles where the animations are far superior and more believable to this game. I dont mind the reused animations, what I do mind is saying you cut so many pokemon off from the game to say you were making new models and animations, when the only thing "new" are the gigamax models and the new pokemon to the Galar region. on a side note, I had high hopes for the Galar region Ponyta, because he is so cute and the Rapadash is so ugly. The same can be said with Wooloo. His evolution is so ugly. on a side side note, how can they pass the perfect opportunity to make a male and female Wooloo evo with a sheep and ram. (rant over) The companion is nice, but he is an idiot for the first battle. If I were him, I would want to be better than my friends. I would have picked the grass type to counter Sobble, but instead, he is the pathetic type who is programmed to be weak against you. he had two starting pokemon this time, thats new, but insignificant compared to the rest of the game as I progressed.

    The overworld suffers from the same fate of linear corridors, like sun and moon. the visuals are very colorful, but they distract you from the poor resolution you get from certain objects which throw your immersion off. the ground of the overworld reminds back in the PS2 days where the ground has poor resolution textures but the grass, that is thrown here and there, distract you from this. the damn trees get worse as you progress. you will find pretty trees and background props early on, but they get worse as you progress... why? why not fix all the trees, instead of the beginning few?

    I want to get back to the battling models because the pokemon are not scaled to size in the battle scene. we either grow a few sizes larger then our pokemon, or the pokemon get smaller, because every pokemon has about the same size in the battle scene. I am upset I spent money on this game after a while because my first gigamax, dynamax, whatever it is called, is awful. there is a significant performance drop in battle. the only other time I see my Switch have performance issues is in Xenobade Chronicles 2, when I am lvl 82+ in the Gormott province fighting the T rex looking monster with 8 or 9 vloffs hitting me because my AoE attacks aggroed them. In my example, there are 14+ high quality models that are animated very precisely to look as life like as possible, and the giant T-rex i am trying to kill that is larger than my camera zoomed out to max range that is also animated finely and lively. The last thing I want to point out is that only after all this, the Switch is also computing the huge amount of damage each unit is dealing to each other in a frantic race to keep the game from dropping below 26 FPS, its a mess (a fun, chaotic mess). All Pokemon sword and sheild have are 2 big models and the trainers. the models of the Pokemon are not lively or beautifully animated. they are just standing there and the game is not calculating anything, they are only in the idle pose. and the game stutters from this. How can the switch even have FPS problems when only loading 4ish models? After my first encounter with dynamax, I turned off my switch and sold my copy to some poor soul online. If the devs were not going to put their time into this game, then it is not worth my time. This is borderline "the game will sell because it is Pokemon." I feel like an idiot purchasing this game. I posted this review on Sheild as well, because they are the same game.    … Expand
  30. YeeManX
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Before going into this review, I'd like to clarify that before this game came out, I was heavily defending it and against those who were upset solely over the dex cut, but now that the game is out I can't really defend it anymore.

    I've played every single pokemon game since Yellow, and sure every game has its flaws, but from Yellow to Ultra Moon, I've believed that every pokemon game    Before going into this review, I'd like to clarify that before this game came out, I was heavily defending it and against those who were upset solely over the dex cut, but now that the game is out I can't really defend it anymore.

    I've played every single pokemon game since Yellow, and sure every game has its flaws, but from Yellow to Ultra Moon, I've believed that every pokemon game released was a "good game" and that they would never fall off in quality one day, but with the release of Sword and Shield, I was proven wrong.

    I was upset over the dex cut, but I believed that they wouldn't cut out over half the pokemon in existence unless they had something great up their sleeve. Pokemon Sword did not deliver on this message. The game is cutesy and fun, but there isnt much of a game itself. It kind of holds your hand and takes you through a nonexistent story that suddenly throws some "bad guy plot" at you near the end with no explanation whatsoever, and completing the game felt very empty. Once you beat the champion, there s virtually nothing to do. Nothing. No post game content like they promised. The game feels janky, and feels like a straight path with no exploration, experimentation, or soul. To think that the same company that made Soulsilver, Black and White, and X and Y made this game is extremely disappointing.

    For those who object and say "there was too many pokemon anyway" provided a weak argument. I've noticed any "fan" who has said this has been someone who only got into pokemon because of pokemon Go, so i suppose its fair for this demographic to not care as much since they could have been overwhelmed by the 809 pokemon present before sword and shield. For someone like me who has been here throughout the whole series, however, almost cannot believe they cut pokemon period, nevertheless over half of them. The problem here is those will argue that "800+ is too much for one game" which is true. No pokemon game on its own had all 800+ in it. Those that were absent could only be obtained by transferring them from games they were present int, or by trading with someone. So its not abnormal for Sword and Shield to only have 400, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon actually only had 400 in its pokedex as well. The difference is that you could still send those missing ones to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon once you completed the game. Sword and Shield virtually wipes these pokemon from existence.

    All of the previous games I mentioned not only had the ability to have all pokemon currently present either caught or transferred to it, but they all had some post game content. There was a time where a pokemon game had MORE post game content than its story content, and this has withered down in amount after Black and White 2. Not only is Sword's story only a few hours in length, without the ability to have missing pokemon transferred to it, there is essentially nothing to do once you beat it. No legendary pokemon to catch other than the one on the cover of your game, no extra pokemon not found in the region dex to find, no secret battles or areas, all there is is a cheesy 1 hour subplot.

    The Wild Area isnt very well executed. The pokemon and other 3D assets seem to randomly pop out of nowhere or disappear, and its weather system is bizzare. One second its a sandstorm, then its sunny, and then it becomes a blizzard, in the span of maybe one minute. The routes and other areas themselves are boring hallways with no subareas to explore, and it makes me wonder if the rest of the region took a cut to prepare the Wild Area.

    The games arent terrible on their own i guess. If you are new to pokemon, I actually think they may be decent gateway games into the franchise. Id be willing to say for the sake of a newcomer, these games could be a 6 or 7, but there are much, much better pokemon games you can probably buy at GameStop, such as Black and White, their sequels, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are nice too if you dont like sprites and prefer 3D models and worlds, and the latest games Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon can support 807 pokemon in one game. For those longtime fans, however, these games are really disappointing. Extremely. It feels like GameFreak no longer caters to the longtime fans and wants to produce quick, easy games to maintain the "fans" introduced through Go who probably will forget about pokemon again in a few years like they did when Pokemania died down in the 90's.

    Yes, just like your favorite youtuber is probably exclaiming, these games have some fun moments, but there isnt depth to it, its kind of mindless, in that there is no challenge really. Id be willing to even defend these games if this was to be improved in the next game since these are the first Generation 8 games, and the first main games on the Switch, but for Gamefreak to tell us that this is how they want every game to be from now on? I think these will be my last pokemon games unless they change majorly.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 87
  3. Negative: 0 out of 87
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 30, 2020
    80
    Sword & Shield stumble in a few areas and history may not be kind to them, but they're setting up a future that I'm excited to see. [Issue #44 – January/February 2020, p. 73]
  2. GameCritics
    Feb 6, 2020
    75
    I enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword and Shield, but I ended feeling conflicted. I appreciate many of the changes and felt that it generally respected my time, but I almost felt like a passive participant. The more complex gym challenges had a meatier role, but the narrative shouldn’t have been shoved to the side. Overall, I would recommend it to players who want to have a Pokemon experience, but this one won’t stick with me the way the older ones have.
    Read full review
  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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