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. tomashrabek
    Apr 26, 2021
    6
    Last time I've played Pokémon was in the Gold/Silver era and I have only the best memories of it. I've been really surprised to see that the game hasn't changed a bit since those times. Yes, you can cook some curries and "dynamax" your Pokémon in some battles, but nevertheless, it's still the same game with the same principles. Which is pleasant to some extent, but becomes tiring andLast time I've played Pokémon was in the Gold/Silver era and I have only the best memories of it. I've been really surprised to see that the game hasn't changed a bit since those times. Yes, you can cook some curries and "dynamax" your Pokémon in some battles, but nevertheless, it's still the same game with the same principles. Which is pleasant to some extent, but becomes tiring and repetitive very fast. I don't care about the "controversies" surrounding this game, as I've had no stakes in it, but what I do care about is the weak potential to entertain for a longer period of time and the mediocre execution. It's a pass for me, but I don't think I'll be having fond memories of this game in the future, I'll probably just forget it.… Expand
  2. Doomy_Doomy
    Jan 5, 2021
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After waiting a year to purchase this game due to the bad reviews and press, do not believe the bandwagon. I have been playing Pokemon since I was child and my first game was Pokemon Diamond and I fell in love with the franchise. Sword is another advancement for Pokemon that I am enjoying. I got the game on the 24th for $40 and have already put 25 hours into the game. Now like with past titles the end game content is lacking and I don't see a lot of legendaries to be caught without paying for switch online which is a bummer, but the story telling has gotten better. I do believe team yell could have been better, but the idea of going against the establishment of wishing stars and staying true to your roots is a good meaning to teach kids. As well, it goes to show that not every organization has the best interest. I wish they would have went more in depth and embraced the dark of the story, but it was good for what it was for a children's game. I loved Hop. He may have not been a rival, but he was a good partner to explore the game with and to go through his character arc. He makes a lot of dumb decisions, but it is nice to see him grow. Bede I thought was handled well and I looked forward to every encounter to beat his cocky attitude. As well the professor in this game is awesome. I loved being able to go on a journey with her and watch her grow. The after game is about an hour or two of extra content and it was fun. I like the idea of your character and Hop being the two new heroes of the region and Hop wanting to be a professor. Now, my only complaint is the hand holding. It is too much and for me it would been cool if the game let you figured it out on yourself, especially since we live in the world of the internet now compared to 2007. I had fun, the graphics are good in hand held mode (I play my switch only in handheld), battles were fun, and the game is relatively easy if you a veteran player. Found myself getting stuck at certain battles because I was under prepared and didn't take the game lightly. Exp share didn't bother me cause I hated grinding in other games and the national dex is not a big deal. Majority of players do not finish the dex and I would prefer to keep the amount of Pokemon under 500 per game so it is not overwhelming and kills my motivation to catch them all. I think this game is worth picking up and I am happy with it. I'm glad I gave it a shot and didn't listen to all the misinformed and entitled spoiled players who want their cake and to eat it too. This game was everything I personally wanted from a mainline 3D Pokemon game and I am happy with it. I hope you enjoy the experience. Should note I will most likely not buy the DLC since I am not a big fan of DLC content to begin with. Oh, and before I forget the wild area is a good idea, but it is lacking with replay-ability unless you are into grinding for xp candies with dumb AI trainers. Would have prefer cycles of only certain days you can catch certain Pokemon.… Expand
  3. yertre
    Feb 14, 2021
    4
    I've played 2 good Pokemon games, neither of which were part of the main series. It's no secret that the Pokemon franchise has been stagnating for years, but this game feels like Gamefreak are just trying to see how little effort they need to put in to keep the fans happy.

    I think that this game is so disappointing to me because this SHOULD have been a great game. There was so much    I've played 2 good Pokemon games, neither of which were part of the main series. It's no secret that the Pokemon franchise has been stagnating for years, but this game feels like Gamefreak are just trying to see how little effort they need to put in to keep the fans happy.

    I think that this game is so disappointing to me because this SHOULD have been a great game. There was so much potential and they blew it. I really wish people would stop giving Gamefreak a free pass in these matters. As for the franchise, I'm probably never touching a Pokemon game again.    … Expand
  4. FloorFlower
    Feb 6, 2021
    2
    I was so disappointed by this game. It added nothing new to the franchise and is insultingly easy. I feel so bad I payed as much for this as I did for Breath of the Wild.
  5. hamunochan
    Feb 10, 2021
    1
    Massive disappointment from what it could have been. Nothing new was added, anything presented here have either been done before or have been done better by other in different games. Seems rushed, unfinished, would be ok for a DS game, not for a home console. Lazy design.
  6. Aarush
    May 12, 2021
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well after the DLC and since the new games are going to come out I think I can I can give my fair judgement, it was okay. I think they both have some pros and cons that I would like to discuss.

    The first big plus I can give it is that it the first original Pokemon game on a home console. Which is pretty cool.

    Another point in the favor of the game is the wild area. While the wild area has a lot of flaws which we will discuss later but I think it is a good concept, which could lead to bigger things in new pokemon games. I am saying it now if they don't make the distortion world like the wild area In the diamond and pearl remakes I will be mad.

    Some of the features they added were actually cool and were useful for some things.

    Plus I think the gyms in this game are very cool, at least the gym puzzles are cool and not like anything we have seen in a Pokemon game.

    Max raid battles are cool but they have one flaw that we will get to later. And the new max raids in the crown tundra are actually pretty cool.

    But we have to move on to the cons which there are a lot of.

    The big one is of course is the fact that you can't bring in all the Pokemon from other games to Sword and Sheild.

    Oh, and there is no post-game, at all you need to pay $30 to buy the expansion pass.

    Let's talk about the expansion pass, well the expansion pass is fun but this doesn't feel like an expansion as much as it does a post-game, which makes me think that this was supposed to be the post-game and they let you pay for it.

    Also, Pokemon themselves didn't address that there would be more Pokemon added on and what was in the game. which was even worse.

    The worst part of this is Pokemon Home. The app is so bad, It is ransomware for Pokemon. I am not joking. You need to pay for Pokemon home which is fin since Pokemon Bank had you pay, but when you take Pokemon from bank or home, they can't go back even if they can't go in Sword and Shield, so that is already trash but, remember what I said about you need to pay for Home. You don't but you can pay for the proper service. One of the perks is having almost endless storage in the paid version when you get only one box in the free one. So if you buy the paid version and leave Pokemon in there that can't go in Sword and Shield in the paid boxes and don't pay for the new plan, yes you need a monthly plan instead of a one time purchase you need to pay to keep those Pokemon alive, it is like ransomware but you need to keep paying.

    Again the visuals aren't too hot either, the battle backgrounds are weird since you are not in the place the background says most of the time. Normal elements like rocks and trees are very bad-looking. And the wild area dips in frame rate more than anything I have ever seen.

    Plus the game is too easy. The main flaw with max raid battles is that you are given XP candies which give your Pokemon soo, soo, soo much XP and the EXP share is always on you can't turn it off. I play with it on anyway, but the option to turn it off would be nice also the EXP share gives way too much XP with that and the XP candies, I was over levelled so hard that I didn't even die once.

    Also, the story is pretty forgettable and kind of boring until you make it to the Eturnitus battle which is the only part of the story that was really fun.

    Another point is that Game Freak is very small with only around 100 people working for them, yes this includes some of the best developers in the world. But that is not enough to keep this franchise going as much as it was in the '90s and 2000s. If you didn't know Game Freak started making more games the weren't Pokemon which I'm saying is fine but that is less time and fewer people working on your most successful franchise. When sword and shield were developed most of the team again was working on other games. Making only half the team to make the game 50 around 50 to 70 people to make a AAA game. Which is very hard to make especially a good one.

    While it sounded like I was trashing on this game I had a lot of fun with it. If you try not to look at the cons. The game isn't all that bad, but when you look into it more flaws start popping up. If they just made a few of these cons better then Pokemon Sword and Shield could have been the best Pokemon games.

    The games are good the music is good the concept is good the franchise is good the only thing they needed was a little bit more time. Again the games are good and pick them up if you haven't it is just that after coming from games like Platinum, Heart gold and soul silver and my favourite games of all time Ultra sun and moon it is sad to see that they aren't putting in as much effort. I want them to do good I want Pokémon to do good so that's why I am quick to point out the game's flaws. (still, pick it up it's a good game I'm just salty).    … Expand
  7. LordJazbin
    Apr 19, 2021
    5
    I think there's too much hate around them, Sword and Shield are definitely not bad games... But after Sun and Moon that was great... This is just: disappointing. In every way. And even worse than XY.

    Good part is: Pokémon designs and music. But in terms of the story is one of the worse, difficulty is really bad, game is dull...
  8. MMChilly
    Aug 8, 2021
    5
    Pokémon Sword/Shield are okay games. However, the story is very slow moving throughout the whole game, and when compared to the older games, it seems to lose the appeal. The first time through it isn't the best gaming experience, but it isn't horrible. But if you replay the game, it seems to have lost it's charm and fun in all. It is also very linear, with nearly no room for anyPokémon Sword/Shield are okay games. However, the story is very slow moving throughout the whole game, and when compared to the older games, it seems to lose the appeal. The first time through it isn't the best gaming experience, but it isn't horrible. But if you replay the game, it seems to have lost it's charm and fun in all. It is also very linear, with nearly no room for any exploration like in the past games.… Expand
  9. 5aft
    Aug 4, 2021
    7
    is a good game when you have nothing to do. In my opinion better than sun and moon PS: too few gigadynamax
  10. Juanwastaken
    Aug 4, 2021
    7
    Overall pokemon sword is just fine. Is it worth 60 US dollars? No not really. But a fine game nonetheless the less but beware that there is alot of popping and frame drops.
  11. eyalem123
    Aug 19, 2021
    6
    pokemon sword is my first pokemon game, and it is fine. graphics are not outstnding by any means but there not terrible. the story is neat, with some towns with personality and an enjoyible villain. the gameplay is pokemon, not a lot to say about that, but the difficulty is a joke. the game is way to easy, but overall is pretty good.
  12. Vardo64
    Jul 20, 2022
    7
    The game is okay. I have 20 hours played so far. This game has some things that can be fixed, but there is replayability due to the wild letting you catch such a wide variety of pokemon. The gyms did feel they were on the easier side, but I strongly assume the demographic for this game scales young. Not the best game in the franchise, but good enough to kill some time waiting for flightsThe game is okay. I have 20 hours played so far. This game has some things that can be fixed, but there is replayability due to the wild letting you catch such a wide variety of pokemon. The gyms did feel they were on the easier side, but I strongly assume the demographic for this game scales young. Not the best game in the franchise, but good enough to kill some time waiting for flights and stuff for a pokemon fan.… Expand
  13. Darkspawn677
    May 17, 2022
    9
    Pokemon sword is an amazing game but the game needs more flying type pokemon more fighting in the game dynamax is cool but i prefer mega evolution
  14. SamL01
    Dec 16, 2021
    10
    This is by far my favourite Pokémon game ever

    There’s an excellent selection of Pokemon, vast and incredible looking areas, and one of the absolute BEST things: you can see the wild Pokémon! Rather than having to search in long grass and encountering the same Pokémon over and over you can now see them in the grass, such a great feature Plus there are 2 x DLC with new missions, Pokemon and    This is by far my favourite Pokémon game ever

    There’s an excellent selection of Pokemon, vast and incredible looking areas, and one of the absolute BEST things: you can see the wild Pokémon! Rather than having to search in long grass and encountering the same Pokémon over and over you can now see them in the grass, such a great feature Plus there are 2 x DLC with new missions, Pokemon and areas, so good to be able to expand and play more of an already amazing game

    I honestly don’t think there will be a better Pokémon game than Sword/ Shield, it takes everything fun from the old games and puts it all into one. If you’ve played every previous game or if you’ve not played any of them, you MUST try this game!    … Expand
  15. Kerke
    Dec 12, 2021
    0
    Die Story ist unglaublich langweilig und die Charaktere austauschbar. Aber es it halt einfach ein pokemon Spiel.
  16. Why_username
    Dec 30, 2021
    8
    I liked the game, but the DLCs ruin it. In the DLCs has exclusive TMs and exclusive Pokémons.
  17. ducnam2005
    Jan 10, 2022
    9
    Nice game. Beautiful graphic, nice gameplay and more new pokemon. I really like this game. But the pokedex doesn't have the national dex and this game doesn't has full pokemon too.
  18. cchenders40
    Aug 28, 2022
    7
    This is a good Pokémon game. Not great and not bad, just good. Like a slightly above average good. If you want to play Pokémon on your switch, and you could only have one game buy Arceus. But if you want more Pokémon in your life this is a buy for sure. The dlc games are fun, the story is just fine, the combat is a little clunky, the raid dens are dumb, and the new Pokémon really aren’tThis is a good Pokémon game. Not great and not bad, just good. Like a slightly above average good. If you want to play Pokémon on your switch, and you could only have one game buy Arceus. But if you want more Pokémon in your life this is a buy for sure. The dlc games are fun, the story is just fine, the combat is a little clunky, the raid dens are dumb, and the new Pokémon really aren’t spectacular. This is just Pokémon going through the motions.… Expand
  19. Ryu003
    Jan 18, 2022
    10
    È molto divertente. I nuovi pokemon aggiunti sono molto belli e ben fatti.
  20. FreeRunner29
    Oct 14, 2022
    8
    I genuinely had a blast with this game, the graphics are gorgeous and a huge step above anything on the 3DS, plus it's based in Great Britain! With mainline entries I always focus more on story, I am not big on random encounters so walking around the open world areas was a cool change up to actually see Pokemon walk about. I am glad this feature moved onto further iterations of the gamesI genuinely had a blast with this game, the graphics are gorgeous and a huge step above anything on the 3DS, plus it's based in Great Britain! With mainline entries I always focus more on story, I am not big on random encounters so walking around the open world areas was a cool change up to actually see Pokemon walk about. I am glad this feature moved onto further iterations of the games adopting the open world format. Overall this is not the best Pokemon game but, a solid next-gen entry.… Expand
  21. I_Trust_In_GF
    Jan 29, 2022
    10
    Beautiful and precious, is the only way to describe the Galar region
    User evaluations in general give a very distorted view of this game. It really very fun and ideal for hanging out with the childrens.
  22. Franc15
    Jan 30, 2022
    6
    While 400 (200 by the DLC release) Pokémon being absent from the games code is disappointing, there are tons of great features like Max Raid Battles, the Wild Area, and encountering Pokémon in the overworld as well as tall grass. The QoL changes like the Ability Patch (released with the second DLC) are also very good, but even the base game had Mints to effectively change your Pokémon'sWhile 400 (200 by the DLC release) Pokémon being absent from the games code is disappointing, there are tons of great features like Max Raid Battles, the Wild Area, and encountering Pokémon in the overworld as well as tall grass. The QoL changes like the Ability Patch (released with the second DLC) are also very good, but even the base game had Mints to effectively change your Pokémon's nature, and Exp Candy was a welcome addition to level up Pokémon after beating the game.… Expand
  23. Timberx2
    Feb 1, 2022
    9
    I genuinely don't understand the hate for this game. This game was a great addition to the franchise, they let you explore and catch whatever pokemon you want, the first few areas aren't the dumb "why catch anything here" areas for once, and the tutorials are basically GONE. By the end of the game, I caught myself having the level of fun i had with Pokemon Crystal+Pokemon Sapphire as aI genuinely don't understand the hate for this game. This game was a great addition to the franchise, they let you explore and catch whatever pokemon you want, the first few areas aren't the dumb "why catch anything here" areas for once, and the tutorials are basically GONE. By the end of the game, I caught myself having the level of fun i had with Pokemon Crystal+Pokemon Sapphire as a kid. 10/10 recommend this game, while the weather and a few other things are janky, the core game is still a blast.… Expand
  24. RiverTheUmbreon
    May 6, 2022
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Homestuck reference lmaooooo (help the ball guy is holding me hostage please do something)… Expand
  25. GamingT2009
    May 15, 2022
    8
    HOLY **** Ok first it was Jurassic World with a 57 (I think, I already forgot), then it was pixels the movie with a 27, but now we have an 80 Metascore and a 4.6 user score. Now I did see a video by FoeKoe on why the game was bad, so I knew it would be ranked kind of badly. But when you compare a 4.6 from users to an 80 by Metascore, I didn't expect that at all. This is sad for me becauseHOLY **** Ok first it was Jurassic World with a 57 (I think, I already forgot), then it was pixels the movie with a 27, but now we have an 80 Metascore and a 4.6 user score. Now I did see a video by FoeKoe on why the game was bad, so I knew it would be ranked kind of badly. But when you compare a 4.6 from users to an 80 by Metascore, I didn't expect that at all. This is sad for me because I like this game. Like I the Gmax and the overall Gym leaders is just something I enjoy. Another thing is I like a ton of the new Pokemon. Now would I say that the User score is bad, ehhh not really? What people's main issue is that most of the animations and models have been reused for a long time and that the game is too easy. Now I didn't mind the animation at all, because I'm just a casual player, but I did find the game a bit easy. However that came to the Pokemon in the wild, I find only a few gym leaders to be easy. I also want to say that no, I haven't played any of the older Pokemon games besides the Dimond and Pearl remakes, so people could say this game is nowhere as good as the old ones. I will say, that's fair and could take down any of my reasoning. But really, I still enjoyed this title as what it had, which is a ton. In the end, I see where people are about, and that's I didn't give it anywhere higher than an 8, but I still enjoyed this title and had great fun.… Expand
  26. Emptycake
    May 27, 2022
    6
    Not a terrible game. For what it was I enjoyed the experience enough to totally despise it like others.Although I think the game could have totally used some actually good graphics and an actual story.In the end though the game is not great but it's not the worst thing out there,but at this point just wait for Scarlet and Violet to come out and hope things are improved.
  27. Strife69420
    Jun 16, 2022
    5
    Very mediocre game. Story is mediocre, OST is pretty good though, gameplay is mediocre, boss battles are mediocre, landscape is really nice, but ruined by switch graphics, and the transformations for the most part are quite boring and not unique. Post-game play is also just as mediocre, and unfun. Not worth the money. If I could refund I would but sadly, it's too late.
  28. AShinyG1ratina
    Jun 21, 2022
    6
    It's good! Very overhated and misunderstood storyline. Graphics andys are the most annoying people out there.
  29. Nintendist
    Jul 2, 2022
    10
    this game is so good i love til the end. so lovely and very very strategic!
  30. Madbert
    Jul 9, 2022
    8
    Nov 16, 2019

    Estamos en mi opinión, ante la mejor saga de Pokemon de la historia. Independientemente de si faltan Pokemon en la Pokédex o no, el planteamiento de este videojuego es fantástico dentro del contexto de un Pokemon muy clásico, por supuesto que tiene márgenes de innovación sobre todo de innovación y de mejora, mejora de texturas, mejora de rendimiento y de innovación, de    Nov 16, 2019

    Estamos en mi opinión, ante la mejor saga de Pokemon de la historia. Independientemente de si faltan Pokemon en la Pokédex o no, el planteamiento de este videojuego es fantástico dentro del contexto de un Pokemon muy clásico, por supuesto que tiene márgenes de innovación sobre todo de innovación y de mejora, mejora de texturas, mejora de rendimiento y de innovación, de hacerlo un poquito más mundo abierto con control de cámara por parte del usuario y menos concepto clásico Pokemon, simplemente innovar más. Pero ateniéndonos a lo que es en sí el videojuego, a lo que ofrece, a cómo está desarrollado, a las horas que brinda, y a la historia del videojuego, el Pokemon espada y escudo son el mejor video juego de Pokemon hasta la fecha, le otorgo un ocho porque no me convence del todo por esa falta de innovación aunque ya deja entreverse que tal vez en próximas entregas esta situación mejore mucho.    … Expand
  31. xXGigaGamer_SUS
    Jul 31, 2022
    6
    A fun game, otherwise, it's nothing fans haven't seen from Nintendo before.
  32. Ajudinhas
    Sep 10, 2022
    10
    So good it hurts. Seriously one of the best pokémons of all time and it gets better with the DLC
  33. BasilZero
    Sep 4, 2023
    9
    Game: Pokemon Sword
    Genre: RPG
    Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo System: Nintendo Switch Year of Release: 2019 Length of Playthrough: 62 Hours Total Score: 90/100 Value Score: 9/10 • Story: 9/10 • Characters: 9/10 • GamePlay: 8/10 • Graphics: 7/10 • Sound: 9/10 • Music: 10/10 • Length: 10/10 • Replay Value: 10/10 • Player Value: 8/10 Pros +First TV console    Game: Pokemon Sword
    Genre: RPG
    Developer: Nintendo
    Publisher: Nintendo
    System: Nintendo Switch
    Year of Release: 2019
    Length of Playthrough: 62 Hours

    Total Score: 90/100
    Value Score: 9/10

    • Story: 9/10
    • Characters: 9/10
    • GamePlay: 8/10
    • Graphics: 7/10
    • Sound: 9/10
    • Music: 10/10
    • Length: 10/10
    • Replay Value: 10/10
    • Player Value: 8/10

    Pros
    +First TV console based Pokemon game
    +Storyline changed like the last few games, gym challenges and progression differs from older games
    +OST has a lot of great tracks
    +Base game takes at least 45 hours and additional content can add another 10-15 hours. Plenty of side stuff to do after all the main adventure is done.
    +Access to a lot of legendaries (but only through DLC)

    Cons
    -Resolution for docked is at 1080p but drops down to 720p in certain parts of the game
    -Resolution is worse portable starting at 720p and dipping lower in certain parts of the game
    -Game runs at 30 FPS but can drop down to 20 fps regardless of whether its portable or docked
    -Not all Pokemon are obtainable/usable in Sword even if you use Pokemon Home hence no National Dex.
    -Dynamax battles can be annoying if you are depending on AI allies
    -Sound effects from previous Pokemon games re-used instead of remade for older Pokemon.
    -Online MP tied down to subscription service (NSO)    … Expand
  34. fpkalac
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    Well, this is a huge disappointment, this game... where to start?! The story is nothing new and we all know that the story in pokemon games is not that important, so I'll just skip it. I really hoped that when they said they cut down on something, they'll raise the bar higher in other stuff. Like voice acting, visuals, animations.. nope, nothing, they just got lazy and are riding on theWell, this is a huge disappointment, this game... where to start?! The story is nothing new and we all know that the story in pokemon games is not that important, so I'll just skip it. I really hoped that when they said they cut down on something, they'll raise the bar higher in other stuff. Like voice acting, visuals, animations.. nope, nothing, they just got lazy and are riding on the glory of the past entries. We have great games on switch, and pokemon sword and shield are still in a 3ds league. I' would advise you to wait for a wait for a discount to buy this game.… Expand
  35. Kristyjnh
    Nov 10, 2022
    3
    Second pokemon game I haven't finished, after AlphaSapphire. Despite the wild area, there's nothing revolutionary here. No difficulty, and the plot didn't grab me. Luckily I borrowed a friend's copy but playing this after Arceus only made the flaws more acute. Mega evolutions should be brought back, they were the best thing to happen to pokemon in a long time
  36. Arcayon
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    This game falls extremely short of expectations from fans in terms of content, price, and graphics. However, it is still pokemon which is one of the best selling IPs in history. This game will always sell well to those seeking nostalgia. However, it marks a drastic step back in quality which has been an ever-growing trend in the series.
  37. Joseph28
    Nov 17, 2019
    1
    1/2 the roster severely hurts a game with all the flaws of the original game. Less interesting new mons and all your faves gone. Very little postgame and a shrunken metagame.
  38. Trailblazer34
    May 7, 2023
    5
    Why didn't they cut Quash? They massacred my boys Signal Beam and Mud Bomb, but kept that useless move?
  39. DrMaskWolf
    Dec 6, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll be completely honest with you guys. I did have fun with this game until the ending. It also feels more and more like they are using the older Pokemon as a crutch since I barely found any new and interesting Poke. On for the longest time. Also the Gigamaxing is kinda **** when it is really only something that you can get from the raids, which hardly every work do to Nintendo's poor internet structure and they made trading almost impossible.

    The last part of the game honestly felt like they forgot that they needed a villain for the series. And the villain isn't even somebody who you can really consider a villain since he's actually trying to save the entire region from destroying itself due to low energy resources although his plan makes no sense and it's never actually explained. The lore is crap and makes no sense especially with the post game content.

    The last good Pokemon games I played were Gen 7 and the last time I had fun and was challenged was Gen 3. You could say these games aren't meant for me any more but I assure you kids will get super bored eventually.    … Expand
  40. KunkMast3rFl3x
    Nov 5, 2020
    7
    Pokemon Sword and Shield Offer many innovations that make the late game actions of competitive team building and Shiny hunting more manageable to the average player. In turn making those activities more open to a wider fan base than what has historically been the same repeat tournament players over and over again. This does make the game have a longer breath, even before the DLCs, as youPokemon Sword and Shield Offer many innovations that make the late game actions of competitive team building and Shiny hunting more manageable to the average player. In turn making those activities more open to a wider fan base than what has historically been the same repeat tournament players over and over again. This does make the game have a longer breath, even before the DLCs, as you try to create the best version of you favorite pokemon. I myself have the best quality pokemon I've ever had in the 20 years of me playing the game. It almost makes me want to release any pokemon i brought over through Pokemon Home and start again. However, the one aspect that Game Freak has introduced, maintained and insisted on since Generation 3, the storied RPG element, is very lacking. The story mostly suffers from logical breakdown of character motivations and the presence of an NPC who is more active in the story than you, the PLAYER CHARACTER, are.
    Chairman Rose's plan is lacking in explanation, though not for a lack of a lot of dialogue with him. his protege and the interactions you witness with him are also confusing come the finale. Sonia continuously keeps pointing out topics in the Galar environment that go nowhere (ie the power plant on Route 3). Even Leons presence muddles everything up as he is.
    It seems like characters were created to solve problems that GF couldn't solve within their narrative skills for fear of making a game too grown up. So they talked down to all players, instead of writing intelligently. This in turn makes the main game something you begrudgingly speed run through just to get to the point where you can perform all the endgame material, shiny breeding with better odds, and competitive online play. This is sad because the DLC segments are a blast to play and much better constructed to competition and exploration.

    [Personal Thought-only makes sense it you've played the game]
    Personally, I would have combined certain characters and made subtle changes to the story to make motivations feel more legitimate. i.e. Rose and Leon as one character. Rose/Leon is the reigning Champ (and energy supplier for Galar), but is hinted at that he's cheating somehow. Hop keeps fighting people who say his brother cheats-which gives him a bigger arch (other than just being bad at pokemon battles) for the game to be better than his brother. The rest plays out the same just with more streamlined scenes and dialogue.
    Also get rid of Shielbert and Swordward-do something else. Like just damage control after the incident with Eternatus.    … Expand
  41. TomasLacerda
    Jul 26, 2020
    1
    I love Pokemon universe, I played the red, ultra sun, h2, emerald, masterpieces! But this one, my god don't buy this one. It's insultingly easy, I tried doing a run without leveling up pokemons just fighting in gym battles and still I managed to finish the game.
    It's also really uncreative, the characters are annoying, the villains are plain pathetic, honestly, such a shame that a game    I love Pokemon universe, I played the red, ultra sun, h2, emerald, masterpieces! But this one, my god don't buy this one. It's insultingly easy, I tried doing a run without leveling up pokemons just fighting in gym battles and still I managed to finish the game.
    It's also really uncreative, the characters are annoying, the villains are plain pathetic, honestly, such a shame that a game with this potential in the Switch is murdered like this. Don't waste your money on this.    … Expand
  42. Petforces
    Nov 18, 2019
    2
    This game is a major let down, and is barley an improvement over US and UM. The graphics have improved but not nearly up to the switch's standards. The wild areas are vast and have very view Pokemon roaming them, and they do not even interact with there environment. A weather system is in place, but it seems to just throw it at you at random. Gone are the old days of gotta catch them all,This game is a major let down, and is barley an improvement over US and UM. The graphics have improved but not nearly up to the switch's standards. The wild areas are vast and have very view Pokemon roaming them, and they do not even interact with there environment. A weather system is in place, but it seems to just throw it at you at random. Gone are the old days of gotta catch them all, as the game has gone from around 800 to only 400. Yes in previous generations you could not "catch" them all however you could still transfer or trade for them, so you could still have them all. There is little in end game content which is normal for the series, and the difficulty is as easy or easier than the previous titles. Most of this would not be so bad if it were not for the fact, you can get graphics that are in the same ball park and more mons, for 20$ less on the 3ds right now. So for the first major Pokemon console release it is a massive disappointment and only die hard Pokemon fans should buy it. Then maybe just maybe, they will see they have to release quality content to last in the console market.… Expand
  43. milopaulino
    Jul 13, 2020
    5
    In this new region, there are very few things to do or places to explore. There is practically no post-game content. Criticism aside about having several Pokémon removed, this game does not have much content. They're launching DLC to make up for the lack of content, but I don't think it's fair for a game to cost $ 60, remembering that when the game cost $ 40 there was a lot more contentIn this new region, there are very few things to do or places to explore. There is practically no post-game content. Criticism aside about having several Pokémon removed, this game does not have much content. They're launching DLC to make up for the lack of content, but I don't think it's fair for a game to cost $ 60, remembering that when the game cost $ 40 there was a lot more content

    Other than that, the general criticisms are true. The animations are not good. There is nothing that could not be done on the 3DS, and what was done was done poorly. Cities are empty and there is not much to explore in them. Some scenarios are corridors, without the feeling of exploration

    The game was made in a hurry and was not worth it. It was a throwback to the video game series    … Expand
  44. Gravedigga13
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    the game is plagued by pop-in, bad textures and sloppy animations. the story is mediocre at best. post-game is almost non-existent. The pokemon designs are decent tho. Finished the main campaign +post game in less than 20 hours. If the game would have been 30€, i would have rated this game higher, but at 60€ I simply can’t recommend this game, it’s a scam
  45. Pellissa
    Dec 7, 2019
    4
    Este juego lo compré con muchas expectativas, pero a medida que avanzaba el juego no me convencía en lo absoluto, le di mucho tiempo, pero mi perspectiva no cambió, este Pokémon tiene el peor final de su saga, eso me desmotivó lo suficiente para no seguir jugando.
    mejoró solo un poco de la anterior entrega (pokemon picachu e eevee) he seguido jugando la torre y he tratado de encontrar a    Este juego lo compré con muchas expectativas, pero a medida que avanzaba el juego no me convencía en lo absoluto, le di mucho tiempo, pero mi perspectiva no cambió, este Pokémon tiene el peor final de su saga, eso me desmotivó lo suficiente para no seguir jugando.
    mejoró solo un poco de la anterior entrega (pokemon picachu e eevee) he seguido jugando la torre y he tratado de encontrar a todos los pokemons pero sigue sin convencerme.    … Expand
  46. jcboyer515
    Jun 30, 2020
    2
    Repetitive story beats, repetitive gameplay, repetitive animations, et cetera. Don't feel too bad for Game Freak,Sw/Sh are also some of the best selling Switch games. The story, like many Pokémon entries, is 100% inconsequential. It turns out to do a really good job making gym battles incredibly fun to complete. The music especially shines in these games, making for an immersive tone. ThisRepetitive story beats, repetitive gameplay, repetitive animations, et cetera. Don't feel too bad for Game Freak,Sw/Sh are also some of the best selling Switch games. The story, like many Pokémon entries, is 100% inconsequential. It turns out to do a really good job making gym battles incredibly fun to complete. The music especially shines in these games, making for an immersive tone. This wasn't a surprise, as most fans of Pokémon usually thoroughly enjoy the single player experience even though the story is never award-winning material. Wild Pokémon are much more fun to catch! Taking a beat from the adorable "Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee", you can now see all the creatures walking around before you initiate a wild encounter. Everything still seems like a typical Pokémon game. I don't want to discuss graphics too much, but it did happen to impact the 'next gen innovation' (which is "Dynamaxing", or "Gigantimaxing" for certain Pokémon) that was added to specific battles. This term, put simply, refers to fighting with literally just bigger versions of Pokémon. Gigantimaxing is entertaining when challenging gyms, but there was an even bigger issue than the graphics: the online. This has basically almost ruined the enjoyment of the game for me. I'm not talking about the extremely optional online battles with strangers or friends, but another feature of these Dynamaxed Pokémon. You can find dens with these special critters in "Wild Areas", the parts of the map that feature decently large spots where you can control the camera angle for the first time in a main series Pokémon entry. To battle a wild Dynamaxed Pokémon, you must team up with 3 other people. The other 3 can be idiot, worthless, garbage, childish AI, or 3 other human players connected to the internet. With one of the 4 players having the opportunity to temporarily Dynamax for three turns, you must defeat the wild giant before your Pokémon get KO'd 4 times total, or 10 turns pass. AFTER beating it, you're given an OPPORTUNITY to catch it. For many Pokémon players, one of the best parts is being able to catch the big special ones, legendaries & stuff. The online connectivity is abysmal for a first party title. Rarely working, I'd say on it's best day it's about a 50/50 shot if you're able to find a team of people to join with no issues. It's extremely frustrating that with two updates released already (time of writing 06/20/2020), that nothing has been done to address these problems. I truly can't defend the practice of selling underdeveloped games. I bought Sword & purchased its expansion pass, $90 total. With this massive of a flaw & such a modest production (minimalist art/animations, no voice acting still) it's utterly shocking to me that Game Freak decided to exclude Pokémon from this generation. The HD textures didn't justify the means, so we're left with a Pokémon that came out seeming even more dated than the 3DS games, with scores & scores of Pokémon being willfully excluded for the first time ever. Even if you pay a subscription fee for Pokémon Home, the new version of Pokémon Bank for trading from the old games. Even if you only buy one months worth of the Pokémon Home service, with a Nintendo Switch Online account you're paying $82.99 ($112.99 with dlc) for a Pokémon game that can't even work with most of the Pokémon. As of the Isle of Armor part 1 dlc, some mild things were added but it was not a lot. Only a couple hours of story, a few new Pokémon became compatible for trading, but the biggest addition was another Wild Area with some of those newly available Pokémon wandering around. Any other things included with the Isle of Armor were cosmetic, such as unlocking the ability for your Pokémon to follow you (again, à la "Let's Go" or the HG SS games) & more clothes. It's a disappointment to say the least. Clearly I'm nostalgic for this series, since I've put in about 180 hours into 2 playthroughs so far. But to forgive this game for the clear robbery it's committing just because I liked this game when I was young is even more depressing, like I'm being used. Unless part 2 of the dlc, The Crown Tundra, has something MASSIVELY interesting to add, I'm not even sure if I'm interested. Unless there is some DRAMATIC improvements to either this game or the next mainline Pokémon games, I don't think I wanna support this series anymore.… Expand
  47. Gerard51MX
    Aug 1, 2020
    5
    Decepcionante. Esperaba poco del juego después de leer reseñas de todo tipo, sin embargo resultó ser más aburrido de lo que esperaba. Una historia aburrida, muy, muy básica a la que le dan vueltas para hacerla durar todo el juego, totalmente secundaria, el personaje avanza de manera normal y cada cierto tiempo te meten una plática para que sepas que estás avanzando no solo en la meta deDecepcionante. Esperaba poco del juego después de leer reseñas de todo tipo, sin embargo resultó ser más aburrido de lo que esperaba. Una historia aburrida, muy, muy básica a la que le dan vueltas para hacerla durar todo el juego, totalmente secundaria, el personaje avanza de manera normal y cada cierto tiempo te meten una plática para que sepas que estás avanzando no solo en la meta de ser un campeón, si no tambien que estás avanzando en la historia. Es cierto que la historia nunca ha sido el fuerte de la franquicia, pero vamos, ni siquiera sirve de pretexto para otra entrega. Por otro lado, que los Pokémon se hagan gigantes no aporta nada, la dificultad es casi nula, la música es horrible, solo se salvan un par de melodías, gráficamente es pésimo, los controles funcionan bien. En cuanto al apartado online, es recomendable para los que les gusta el metajuego, si el meta te abruma alejate de esta edición porque la poca variedad de Pokémon no ayuda a que lo haga divertido para un casual y terminará aburriendo te rápidamente.… Expand
  48. Lone_Wolf_Sones
    Feb 2, 2020
    5
    Where to start with Sword and Shield. Are they bad games? No. Are they great games? No. So what are they then? Well they strangely find themselves sitting in the middle. Considering these were to be the first console mainline installments in the series? Expectations were understandably high.

    That is not to say that there aren't any redeemable aspects about these titles. However for    Where to start with Sword and Shield. Are they bad games? No. Are they great games? No. So what are they then? Well they strangely find themselves sitting in the middle. Considering these were to be the first console mainline installments in the series? Expectations were understandably high.

    That is not to say that there aren't any redeemable aspects about these titles. However for every step forward? It feels like one step was taken back. First we have to talk about the cuts to the national dex as well as the move pool. Game Freak said this was in an effort to deliver high quality animations. Unfortunately, we do not really have "high quality animations" here.

    The Wild area is easily the biggest new addition and it is a positive step forward. However this is tempered by the fact that you will find high level pokemon early on. You can't catch them. This would have been somewhat tolerable if you could catch them but couldn't use them in battle due to the level restrictions that have been in place since the series' inception. Also a bummer is that while online the frame rate tanks and trainers you come across can't be interacted with.

    The games also have a shocking lack of visual polish across the board. There are some glaringly low resolution and muddy textures. The cities and towns feel like window dressing and facades. Many doors can't be entered. Interior's of buildings have been copied and pasted with the same layout in each.

    Dynamax and Gigantamax battles feel like gimmicks. They add very little to the meta and feel like nothing more than damage sponges even if you exploit elemental advantage. I would rather the time spent on these have been spent on creating more new pokemon or getting more of the roster in there.

    The new pokemon we did get are generally cool. Regional variants though again I could do without in favor of more new ones or more of the proper national dex.

    Now we come to the really scummy part. They revealed DLC where many of the cut pokemon will be added back in for $30. They said there would be a "Free" update. But many people fail to consider this isn't really free. We also have been given the news of Pokemon Home and that it will cost $16 for a year. Also placed behind Pokemon Home is the GTS system that has been carved out from the previous games.

    IF you want to transfer from pokemon Bank which itself already costs $5 a year? You need Pokemon Home which is another $16 for a year. This is on top of paying for Switch online at $20 for a year. That means you will have spent $41 on subscriptions alone just to transfer/trade and battle online. And if you want the DLC which most fans are probably going to want as there are yet new legendaries in there, that's another $30. That's $71 total on top of the $60 for the base game where you already were paying $20 more up front being a switch title vs. a 3DS title.

    This kind of excessive monetization of Pokemon is my greatest fear come true.    … Expand
  49. dislexicpotato
    Jun 17, 2020
    6
    Pokemon Sword & Shield are by far the weakest mainline Pokemon games in years, just a bit of context:

    Gamefreak lied to the fanbase, claiming that they needed to remove over HALF of the Pokemon in order to ‘improve animations’ when in reality the animations are ripped right from the 3DS games. The annual releases are killing this franchise nevermind the mediocre graphics, laughable    Pokemon Sword & Shield are by far the weakest mainline Pokemon games in years, just a bit of context:

    Gamefreak lied to the fanbase, claiming that they needed to remove over HALF of the Pokemon in order to ‘improve animations’ when in reality the animations are ripped right from the 3DS games. The annual releases are killing this franchise nevermind the mediocre graphics, laughable animations, noticeable pop in, EXP share being mandatory making the games even easier than usual when the Pokemon games are already too easy, the game also only takes 15 hours to beat and has practically 0 post game. Do not support Gamefreak with these half assed efforts. They even removed Aipom wtf???    … Expand
  50. Reed618
    Jan 14, 2020
    7
    This is a controversial release but i'm just going to give my honest thoughts. The last pokemon game I played was red on my gameboy when I was a kid so it's been a while. Overall I think the game is worth playing but not exactly great. It has some pros and a whole bunch of cons.

    pros = raid battles are fun the wild area is cool, you can just run around catching all kinds of powerful    This is a controversial release but i'm just going to give my honest thoughts. The last pokemon game I played was red on my gameboy when I was a kid so it's been a while. Overall I think the game is worth playing but not exactly great. It has some pros and a whole bunch of cons.

    pros =
    raid battles are fun
    the wild area is cool, you can just run around catching all kinds of powerful pokemon
    social aspects work well
    the art style isn't amazing but it's pretty good for the most part
    the animations are pretty good, again... could be better but not bad.

    cons =
    hop... oh my god... stop interrupting me every time I take two steps
    the story... please hire some better writers. it felt like this was just patched together by the devs
    higher difficulties are needed. it feels like persona for babies.
    it's quite short. I just finished it after about 18 hours. There's some post game stuff but i'm not motivated to play more.
    the game needs more variety. it feels so routine very fast. travel to a town, challenge a gym leader, travel to another town, challenge another gym leader... etc.
    the game needs some interesting dungeons, social links, higher stakes.... basically more stuff from persona
    dialogue choices that are pointless e.g let's do it! or we're unstoppable!

    Overall i don't care if gamefreak lied, removed half the pokemon or whatever... I just care about whether it's fun. It's fun for a while but it gets old and there's a real lack of innovation here. This is pretty underwhelming for the first pokemon game on home consoles. It's fine... mediocre... alright...
    Mostly I just wish i'd spent my time playing dragon quest 11 or octopath traveler.    … Expand
  51. Frenish
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    Finished the shield under 25 hours, now I’m playing sword. The game is pretty underwhelming. The design of the Pokémon are underwhelming as well. I got a eve evolved it into sylveon and got it to lvl 60 while everyone one else was 20-35 Including gyms, so pretty easy. The feature of dynamaxing is also lame.
  52. zidfrit
    Feb 16, 2023
    8
    Me encanto como el mundo de pokemon de las portátiles paso a una consola casera (o hibrida) , la historia y estar capturando pokemons, lo disfrute de nuevo como cuando juge por primera vez pokemon azul, los puntos malos que no ha querido innovar nintendo en pokemon es la dificultad, es un juego muy sencillo para los veteranos y la nueva apuesta de Dinamax creo q es un cambio malo e innecesario.
  53. zetaz
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    This 5 is not for the cut Pokémon, it’s for the poor quality when compared with other RPGs on the same platform. It’s really upsetting not having difficult levels and a good and long story. It also lacks side quests and two versions should had died back on the DS. -Also, after beating the game I can reassure, the story is bad and the game goes downhill after the 6th badge. It’s the mostThis 5 is not for the cut Pokémon, it’s for the poor quality when compared with other RPGs on the same platform. It’s really upsetting not having difficult levels and a good and long story. It also lacks side quests and two versions should had died back on the DS. -Also, after beating the game I can reassure, the story is bad and the game goes downhill after the 6th badge. It’s the most disappointing Pokémon title together with ultraSunMoon… Expand
  54. scart35
    Nov 20, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So I would like to start my review with statement that I'm a big pokemon franchise fan and I realy do care about the games and as every PKMN fan i want them to be good.

    That's the correct word,SWSH is only good.

    When you first start the game you're presented with beautiful (for pkmn standarts) cutscene welcoming you to the game. And from here my hype started to vane. As with SUMO game is constantly holding you by the hand and will not let you do anything "wrong". Hau...I mean Hop is the new "rival" if you ever can say that about him as he is too much positive about everything (and he will also heal up your mons everytime you're going to fight him!what a bro) and posing literaly no threat. After a while you'll arrive in the one of the new additions to the series - The wild area. Which is pretty much wider route and it won't take you long to cross it to the first city. Wild area hosts also another adition - raids. Raids are fressh and cool adition to the game but it's shine fades very quickly and it can get very boring after few runs. You can join the raid even without online player and in that case NPCs will join you in your efforts. Which is good for those without stable or even no internet but it's not so good as NPCs are overpowered and will easily defeat the dynamaxed pokemon on their own. After that you're able to cath the weakened pokemon - and here is where the game starts to brake down. Usually pokemons from raids are 15lvl+ are very easy to catch (cought almost 50+ pkmns from raids and never failed a once) and raids drop rare candies and XP candies - which will provide amount of experience depending on the type of the XP candy. Raids are very quick way to lvl-up your pokemons at the start, Which is very bad as with exp share (which you can't even turn off) you'll out level not only the first gym but every other after that. I was personaly constantly at least 10+ lvls above wild pokemons,players and gym leaders, making the game very very easy. Won't write too much about the story as it is almost not existens. Speaking of not existent, the post game is also not there for player not digging the PVP and farming the raids/completing regional dex. Hour to two running errands and cathing legendaries is simply not enough. Combined with baffling removal of the GTS, you're left with wonder trade (renamed to surprise trade) as your "neverending well of fun".
    Oh and did I mentioned the cutscenes and dialogues which are there every 10 to 20 minutes and are not skippable? Yup, it's anoying and most of the time they are not moving the "story" forward. Routes are as short as ever with only few patches of grass and few easy trainers. Game is also missing the classic caves/islands with puzzles.
    For the first entry of PKMN games on the Switch is very...meh. Just meh, Pokemon games can't be bad in their nature and that's why we won't get great pokemon game, GF don't have to make it.
    Technical:
    Models of newly added pokemons are great,animations of them are great and complete style is spot on. But that's it. Old pokemons are not updated for the big screen. Low ress textures, horrible animations that would be bleeding edge on the PS1. SOme moves are only pokemons making a move in general direction (I'm loking at you double kick) and animations in cutscenes are very poor.
    Regarding the graphical side of the game, the game looks good but not so BOTW or SMO beautiful. The object pop/in is ever so present and sometime it's very visible and anoying. Textures are low res and background is even worse - almost of DOS game quality (2019?yuck...) Music is in equal quality and is made of very well know music themes from previous PKMN game. Sometimes is glitchy and missing. And almost forget pokemon cries are still the same,mono MIDI sounds like you know them from the original Gameboy in 90's...why GF why.

    TL;DR - It;s the same old same pokemon game without pretty much any story, with lackluster rival,team yell and dialgues and non existing post game for casual player. Game is always holding your hand and in 90% of the situatins won't let you do it "wrong".Map is small, routes are shorter than ever,no dungeons/caves/islands with puzzles. Newly added content is cool but boring after a whil. With removal of GTS system your only post game is battle tower (meh) and pvp battles. Graphics are ok,music is ok. If you want your Pokemon fix as I did it will sate your hunger only partialy. And that's how the game feels,half baked, half the rating.    … Expand
  55. Dazan
    Jan 20, 2020
    6
    Es un Pokemon tradicional, añadiéndole un área tipo mundo abierto que, para mi, me parece una pasada pero que está muy poco explotada ya que se te hace pequeña rápidamente y es muy uniforme. Podrían haber añadido cuevas, o zonas con vegetación diferente, pero al final lo que parece es más bien un jardín grande.

    La mecánicas de raids y el gigantamax son muy divertidas pero no funciona    Es un Pokemon tradicional, añadiéndole un área tipo mundo abierto que, para mi, me parece una pasada pero que está muy poco explotada ya que se te hace pequeña rápidamente y es muy uniforme. Podrían haber añadido cuevas, o zonas con vegetación diferente, pero al final lo que parece es más bien un jardín grande.

    La mecánicas de raids y el gigantamax son muy divertidas pero no funciona corretamente la conexión a raids de otros jugadores, el estilo artístico es muy bonito, pero con deficiencias técnicas graves, y la BSO nada que criticar, al contrario, es de las mejores en la serie. Pero lo que más me ha decepcionado ha sido el postgame, que es casi inexistente y el peor de la serie (la captura de Mewtwo en Azul/Rojo es más interesante que el de esta edición). No hay captura de legendarios (solo uno), el argumento es un poco tonto, corto y aburrido. Obviamente no se puede perdonar la sensación de poco trabajo al ver algunas texturas, y en la eliminación de MUCHOS pokemon. Es una pena porque siento que éste podría haber sido el gran juego de Pokemon, pero se ha quedado en una transición que da esperanza para la siguiente entrega, ya que hay ideas muy chulas a potenciar.    … Expand
  56. Aromdar
    Dec 8, 2019
    10
    Buen juego de pokemon, largo y entretenido , se nota la evolución en todos los aspectos , aunque no podamos usar todos los pokemon.
  57. jrdnnn
    Feb 23, 2020
    7
    Far from the massive leap forward we expected as Pokemon fans but also not as terrible as people would have you believe, Sword/Shield are decent games with a bitter edge of disappointment around most corners. The National Dex exclusion is totally unforgivable, whatever way GameFreak spin it and the graphics are lightyears away from what the Switch (and GameFreak) is capable of.

    The new    Far from the massive leap forward we expected as Pokemon fans but also not as terrible as people would have you believe, Sword/Shield are decent games with a bitter edge of disappointment around most corners. The National Dex exclusion is totally unforgivable, whatever way GameFreak spin it and the graphics are lightyears away from what the Switch (and GameFreak) is capable of.

    The new Pokemon are, in my opinion, excellent. There are so many great designs, both visually and gameplay-wise (my favourites are Hatterene, Grimmsnarl, Corviknight, Copperajah and Sirfetch'd) and it's probably the best batch since Black and White. Galar is fantastically presented and the little nods to British culture, architecture and atmosphere are brilliant. Some of the cities are a spectacle to behold, especially the Cornwall-based seaside town and the London-based capitals. Dynamax is, admittedly, quite cool and not as straightforward as I thought it would be. Raid Dens are also really fun and the accessibility of the Pokedex, with pretty much everything available in some form and rare Hidden Abilities there for the taking - I love this. Battling is the same as ever, and is beginning to show its age, but is fine.

    Now, the main positive - the gym system. Converting the boring old gym format to an exhilirating, stadium-held, anime-esque championship is a genius move. Each gym leader has so much personality for the first time since Red and Blue, and are more than just bosses. The gym battle music is INCREDIBLE (a lot of the music is) and the format of random league opponents is inspired. This NEEDS to be a recurring feature in games going forward as it is the most fun I've had with the franchise in a while.

    Now to the main negative...the story. The story is paper-thin, boring, and weirdly takes place off-screen for the majority (with the "adults" handling all the drama - what the hell is that about?) . Probably the worst narrative of any of the games in the franchise, totally lazy. The inevitable Legendary showdown at the end in unearned, dull and trite. Plus the villainous plans are totally nonsensical, even for Pokemon. The focus is almost entirely on the gyms, so it's a good job they're great. Everything else is pretty garbage, all the side characters are irrelevant and annoying. This goes hand-in-hand with the lack of challenge in the game, it all sort of washes over with you with no speedbumps and is done. WHY is Experience Share mandatory???

    All things considered, I've enjoyed this game purely on merit of the Pokemon available (but there should be more), the cool world (which deserves way better graphics) and the gyms (the only standout feature of the games). And the soundtrack is unreal - look up the Championship Lobby theme! GameFreak really need to get their act together for the next entry as they've absolutely rode on the franchise's success for an easy cash-grab and have consequently exposed their ineptitude at innovation. I'll be here finishing my Pokedex no doubt and trying out the DLC because I am a helpless puppet consumer, but in the face of fantastic Switch games available and even apparently better Pokemon-style games in TemTem, they are at risk of becoming the most stale, embarrassing games around. Interesting to see what happens from here on out...    … Expand
  58. moose_stash
    Jul 30, 2020
    5
    I had a lot of fun with Pokemon Sword and Shield, I won't lie to you. I have over 100 hours in my save file. It's the most fun I've had in a pokemon game since LeafGreen. I haven't picked up a pokemon game since diamond and pearl. But as soon as I picked up sword and shield, I remembered why. Nothing has changed. There are a few tweaks here and there but nothing to keep hardcore pokemonI had a lot of fun with Pokemon Sword and Shield, I won't lie to you. I have over 100 hours in my save file. It's the most fun I've had in a pokemon game since LeafGreen. I haven't picked up a pokemon game since diamond and pearl. But as soon as I picked up sword and shield, I remembered why. Nothing has changed. There are a few tweaks here and there but nothing to keep hardcore pokemon fans engaged throughout the story. The difficulty is largely abysmal and the fact that there still isn't difficulty settings in a main-line pokemon game baffles me. The removal of the national dex is largely due to a cash grab so game freak can release disappointingly short DLC and add new pokedex entries. It's essentially the promise of an additional 200 pokemon under the guise of an additional 30$. Don't get me wrong, I bought the DLC. You may be asking yourself, if you're so critical of the game then why do you have over 100 hours in your save? Well, funny you should ask. It's for one reason and one reason only. Never has competitive been this accessible in any pokemon game. Competitive was always so daunting, having to grind levels, breeding perfect IVs, and EV training. Well all that has been streamlined. You can accomplish all that in a matter of hours as opposed to days in this game. The post-game content has never been easier to dip into and I love it. As someone who never liked competitive pokemon, this game made me love it. If the game didn't do that, my score would be significantly lower. Buyer beware, if you're interested in playing through a decent story, catching cool mons, or anything reminiscent of your childhood experiences, you are going to be deeply disappointed. If you're down to dip your toe into some post-game content, no other pokemon game has done it better.… Expand
  59. PappyBakesCakes
    Apr 5, 2020
    7
    Beautiful game with lots of Pokémon to catch. Story is fun but a bit short (25 hours) and only found one really tough Pokémon battle. Lots of Pokémon to catch.
  60. sameolldsel
    Dec 11, 2022
    10
    eu AMOOOOOOOO adorei a historia, o modo como foi a liga e tudo.. so senti falta de umas cavernas mais elaboradas e um mapa menos linear
  61. maicallist
    Nov 19, 2019
    2
    Seriously lack of contents, I don’t even mind the pokedex. I feel like I have more to explore in the first gen than sword/shield.
  62. Ryuail
    Feb 1, 2020
    7
    Pokemon is always a warm nostalgic bubble for me, much like a Dragon Quest game.
    I enjoyed the English setting, and the new pokemon are quite delightful.
    I miss my main man Magneton, but it's not like I don't have him in other Pokemon titles, no what I think really sets this back from being a great game is the bad online experience. Wild area(s) was a neat proto idea, but I think it    Pokemon is always a warm nostalgic bubble for me, much like a Dragon Quest game.
    I enjoyed the English setting, and the new pokemon are quite delightful.

    I miss my main man Magneton, but it's not like I don't have him in other Pokemon titles, no what I think really sets this back from being a great game is the bad online experience.
    Wild area(s) was a neat proto idea, but I think it needed another year of work to fine tune it into something a little more enjoyable.

    The raid battles also are fun when you're low level going against 3 stars, but once everything is 5 star, lv 99 its the most boring and tedious process in the game.

    Music is fantastic though! Damn I haven't been this into a Pokemon soundtrack since 2nd gen!    … Expand
  63. Taf
    Jan 24, 2020
    4
    So many possibilities, so many opportunities. Just not even considered.
    Same basic game play. Same basic animations. Same short uninspired storyline. Why not make the game with a sliding scale of difficulty? So you cater to younger & older players?
    Why not add more depth & ideas? Breath of the Wild type open exploration would have been great? Why lie about the number of Pokémon    So many possibilities, so many opportunities. Just not even considered.
    Same basic game play. Same basic animations. Same short uninspired storyline. Why not make the game with a sliding scale of difficulty? So you cater to younger & older players?

    Why not add more depth & ideas?
    Breath of the Wild type open exploration would have been great? Why lie about the number of Pokémon available?Why communicate so poorly with player base? Not impressed, not happy, can't see me buying any expansion packs or passes, I'm pretty over it to be honest. Sigh    … Expand
  64. dash383535
    Dec 4, 2019
    5
    #DashReviews

    The Pokémon series has finally come to home consoles after two decades of handheld mainline games. With expectations high for what the series can do with this new powerful hardware, will it be able to live up to these expectations or will fall flat on its face compared to the less powerful 3DS versions of the game? The story in Pokémon Sword and Shield is pretty generic    #DashReviews

    The Pokémon series has finally come to home consoles after two decades of handheld mainline games. With expectations high for what the series can do with this new powerful hardware, will it be able to live up to these expectations or will fall flat on its face compared to the less powerful 3DS versions of the game?

    The story in Pokémon Sword and Shield is pretty generic when it comes to the standard Pokémon adventure. Nothing really deviates you from going to the gyms, getting the badge, rinse and repeat. The story has a villain and a bit more going on besides the standard of trying to become the ultimate Pokémon trainer but it strangely set up near the end of the game. This makes for a story with super-fast pacing that has almost nothing interesting happening through most of its run time. The pacing is so fast and rushed, that the box art legendary plot is saved for the post-game. The story is easily one of the most boring aspects of this game which is a shame since titles like Pokémon Black and White had more going on and those are $30 DS games.

    Gameplay-wise, this is a Pokémon game through and through. It’s the standard turn-based RPG everyone has been playing for years. There a few new gimmicks like Dynamaxing, a way for your Pokémon to turn into kaiju monsters. There one open area in the game with a free-roaming camera. The game treats this as a big deal but consoles games have had free moving cameras since the N64 days. The best new mode in the game is Co-Op raid battles since you will be working with your friend to catch powerful Pokémon. These few new modes and gimmicks are also at the expense of half of the Pokémon roster being cut. Even with the fun of raid battles, it not enough to make these games stand out as next-gen titles. They are painfully average games in the series that are super easy to boot. If you love Pokémon games, there passable but I feel like these games need more innovation for being console games in 2019.

    This is the least polished Nintendo I have ever played. Framerates dropping drastically every time you go into the open area, models pop in constantly, and it graphically looks like Pokémon Sun and Moon unscaled to HD. Animations are so stilled to the point that everyone moves like a robot and no one blinks. The soundtrack is my personal favorite of the series but the amazing songs don’t make up for this game's wealth of technical problems.

    Pokémon Sword and Shield are passable games in the franchise that will either please fans that want more of the same or anger others that wanted these games to have a new life on a home console. They don’t do enough to innovate this stale franchise and don’t even bother to give this generic game the polish it should have. I would wait for a discount or skip these games entirely. Hopefully, the next installments in this franchise give fans what they truly deserve.

    Pros:
    +It’s the Same Old Pokémon
    +Great Soundtrack

    Cons:
    -Boring Story
    -No Innovation in the Gameplay
    -Technical Mess
    -Cut Roster for Little Change    … Expand
  65. Maxttvd
    Jun 22, 2020
    6
    Falta brilho num jogo de uma franquia que necessita urgentemente de uma reinvenção.
  66. TrainerEstew
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Tl;Dr: On their own, Sword and Shield aren't bad games. In the context of the other Pokemon games, however, they feel a bit hollow. They feel more like foundations for the future of Pokemon rather than true next-gen Pokemon games.

    Addressing the most common concern: "Dexit." Yeah, it sucks. A lot. The main game has fewer Pokemon than X/Y's main game, and the game honestly does not feel like there's anything in there that justifies the exclusion of Pokemon.

    For the rest of the game, it's... Pokemon. The routes feel a little too short, but the formula is there and as solid as ever. The new designs are great, in my opinion. The selection of Pokemon was solid, and I was happy to see there wasn't much of a Gen 1 bias (except in Gigantamax forms).

    The wild area felt... Barren. It wasn't very large, but it was ugly as hell and the pop-in was horrible. Pop-in was actually pretty bad throughout the whole game. Frame rate was a big concern of mine going in, and it's a big concern of mine having finished the game. It was far from a stable 30 - mine dropped briefly during most "split" effects in battles and dropped continuously anytime there was a "split" effect and sandstorm was active. I also noticed a few frame drops in the wild area while boosting through it on the bike, which was annoying. And, oddly enough, one section of the icy city had frame drops by going in front of a vendor.

    The main "story" felt... Entirely unfinished. There were a lot of events that occurred in the middle of the game, but the player was never part of them. The climax was really cool, but it felt like there was little to no build-up to it. Lots of areas felt rushed. It really feels like GameFreak might be planning a third version to "complete" the areas and story, which is a shame.

    Raids, however, made the wild area a lot more palatable. Raids were a genuinely great addition that I hope to see in future games.

    Lots of QoL features added, but also too many taken away for my liking.    … Expand
  67. herguitar
    Dec 3, 2019
    6
    Pokemon Sword did some things right. The landscapes are beautifully designed, the new pokemon look amazing, character customisation is so much fun, and the core addictive thrill of collecting and battling pokemon still holds up. But the game is far from perfect. There are many, many things that I would have loved if they'd just been developed further.

    One example is the battle tower,    Pokemon Sword did some things right. The landscapes are beautifully designed, the new pokemon look amazing, character customisation is so much fun, and the core addictive thrill of collecting and battling pokemon still holds up. But the game is far from perfect. There are many, many things that I would have loved if they'd just been developed further.

    One example is the battle tower, which promises a tough challenge for competitive players but is actually far too short and not at all difficult. I reached the highest rank without losing a single battle, at which point there is nothing to do except repeat.

    Another example is raid battles: the concept of taking down a super-powerful pokemon with 3 friends is great, but the way that the battles are designed means that the single viable strategy is to spam your most powerful super-effective move until the end. They are tedious and all very much alike. The background during these battles is also rather uninspired, something like a hazy red cave? It's not obvious and it doesn't look good.

    A third example is transportation around the region, in the form of the train, corviknight taxis, and the bike. I only took the train twice in my entire play through, not because I don't like it (I love the idea) but because it was almost never necessary. The taxis seem cool until you realise that you don't get to actually ride in them, it's just a loading screen. And the bike is a staple and I'm glad it's in the game but why must my character wear that awful lycra suit while cycling? I had a lot of fun customising my character's look and was frustrated by having to choose between wearing it and getting anywhere fast. This in particular is a small thing but indicative of the way that the game as whole fails to live up to its promised potential.

    There are also parts of the game that it's hard to defend at all, even in concept. I still find dynamaxing as idiotic as the first time I saw it, and the in-game reasoning for it is extremely thin. The region of Galar is small, with no real dungeons and an insultingly linear story, and many of the gorgeous locations give you no reason to be there for more than a minute or two. There is no exploration. Everything can be taken at face value. And the fact that only half of all pokemon made it into the game really is a shame. I didn't think much of it until I got the master ball (which for fun I usually use on one of my favourite pokemon) and realised that none of my favourites are available.

    I truly love pokemon, and wanted to love Pokemon Sword, but it has been a disappointment and I'll think twice before buying the next game. There is a lot more I could say but I think this gives a good idea of my thoughts.    … Expand
  68. DeadSmack
    May 17, 2023
    7
    Can't get the hate on this series. The games are GREAT, the online events were great also. The new regional forms are... meh, i don't like the idea of regional forms, but that's me. The story is not that great at all, but it's entertaining at least. Gameplay is fine, the pokedex are great, and the dlc's add the diversity much needed in the game. While they are not the best games of theCan't get the hate on this series. The games are GREAT, the online events were great also. The new regional forms are... meh, i don't like the idea of regional forms, but that's me. The story is not that great at all, but it's entertaining at least. Gameplay is fine, the pokedex are great, and the dlc's add the diversity much needed in the game. While they are not the best games of the series, or in general, great addition to the franchise.… Expand
  69. Dedus
    Jul 25, 2020
    6
    This is not a game - this is a movie. And a poorly written one at that.
    4/10
  70. HellsaintED
    Jan 20, 2021
    6
    After seeing the evolution of other Nintendo franchises in the Switch like "Mario Odyssey" and "Breath of the Wild", it is just lame to see Pokemon receive little to no evolution at all, it is a 3DS game with a Switch price tag.
  71. Ultralevixz
    Dec 11, 2019
    6
    It's not a bad game but it's not a great game either it's still core Pokemon but a lot of Pokemon aren't there and there isn't any national dex but it's still a fun game but they could have made it better
  72. Gregnator
    Nov 19, 2020
    7
    Pokemon sword is a fully 3d full fledged Pokemon game.
    The story isn't the greatest, but compared to the other Pokemon games it's fairly okay.
    No voice acting makes many scenes feel empty, and the obvious copy/paste attacks they ripped straight from the 3DS version, makes me wonder why they decided to remove many pokemon that could be found in previous versions. Hackers have been plaguing    Pokemon sword is a fully 3d full fledged Pokemon game.
    The story isn't the greatest, but compared to the other Pokemon games it's fairly okay.
    No voice acting makes many scenes feel empty, and the obvious copy/paste attacks they ripped straight from the 3DS version, makes me wonder why they decided to remove many pokemon that could be found in previous versions.

    Hackers have been plaguing online, and seemingly no change in sight.

    The game is fun, it could've been more, perhaps that the dlc makes for an interesting addition.    … Expand
  73. zycore718
    Nov 20, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Summing up Pokémon Sword/Shield in one word - "safe". While other Nintendo franchises innovate, Pokémon is stuck in its ways. This doesn't make the games unenjoyable, but leaves me with a feeling of missed opportunities, like the games are being treated as nothing more than a tool to push the brand.
    Game plays well enough. Didn't notice any significant slowdowns. No big changes to the formula. Will say that the League feels the best it ever has, so at least they made some kind of effort to jazz it up. Most trainers have 1-2 Pokémon at most, Gym Leaders 3-4. Basic battles that you can easily take care of if you've played Pokémon before. If you spurn all side activities, you'll be on par level-wise with other trainers for most of the game. It’s okay as it has always been, but in the end just another Pokémon game. Probably my biggest gripe, especially after 20+ years of this over and over. IMO, this is the biggest thing that is holding the series back.
    Played on Lite and graphical flaws weren't that noticeable to me, except the draw distance and ‘pop-in’ on models which is abysmal. Game looked nice in some places, like the Galar Mine. Corners were cut; it’s only day or night at set locations. Several times characters were in a building/city, and teleported to a nondescript field/blank void for battle. Sun/Moon had proper day/night and managed to render backgrounds for all locations, can't understand why they went backwards. Battle graphics do their job well enough, but not much difference from previous games and boring for a 2019 game. Not a lot of improvement over the 3DS era, I understand why people are angry.
    As a UK citizen Galar definitely resembles a touristy version. Route/dungeon designs better than Sun/Moon. Towns don't have a lot to do besides Gyms and clothes shop. Story though inoffensive is basic even for a Pokémon game. Despite this, the game pads with fluff dialogue to keep railroading the player. Hop/Sonia constantly pop up to remind me to go this way or that. Characters are terrible. No difference at all between Hop and Sun/Moon's Hau. Sonia does nothing except exposition to move the plot forward. Team Yell are Team Skull with a punk coat of paint. Chairman Rose and Oleana are obvious 'twist' villains. Only liked three characters – Opal, Piers and Bede, who I wish I got more of. Everyone else is dispensable and unmemorable. Used the Wild Area to get away from the incessant mundane dialogue and characters, this is the only thing that makes it tolerable.
    Overall Pokémon quality has taken a nosedive. I look at Pokémon like Inteleon, Mr. Rime and Eiscue and shake my head. That's not to say there aren't some standout designs in Gen 8 - Dreepy line is fantastic, Falinks is clever, most of the Galarian forms are great. But it feels like Pokémon are now designed to be quirky cartoon characters rather than living monsters in a world.
    Music - Good as always. Hop’s battle music got stuck in my head. Gym Battle music is great and helps make the Gyms feel like an actual spectacle. Wild Area music is phenomenal, just frustrating how grandiose the music would be if only they stopped using the same outdated MIDI-sounding VST plugins, which bring down the soundtrack.
    ‘New’ features mostly repackaged from old games. Tried out various curry recipes before getting bored, whole process is repetitive. Went the whole game not knowing Poké Jobs existed. Dynamax looks cool at first, but novelty wears off quickly and is nowhere near as visual or strategically flexible as Mega Evolution/Z-Moves. Wild Area and the Raids were my sanctuary for much of the game. Had tons of fun wandering around, battling high-leveled Pokémon for a challenge and doing Raid battles online. Quests, more NPCs, more environment variety and little side stories would have made it more vibrant. Yet again, missed potential.
    The game was a comfortable jaunt like previous entries, but having had echoes of ideas that could turn Pokémon back into a wondrous world to get lost in, I came away from Sword/Shield wistful over what could have been. Wild Area sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the game, and exposes the datedness of the old Pokémon 'formula'. I always felt disappointed when I had to go back to following the Designated Game Freak Path. Majority of the game ultimately does nothing new and, coming back to the 'Dexit' issue, there's just not enough here that convinces me the cut was really worth it right now. That could change in the future if Game Freak seize the opportunity to refresh the games like developers have with other similarly-aged series. Not optimistic though, as they appear to be inside a nostalgic bubble and believe that as long as they have 'Pokémon' on their games, they don't need to move forward as developers and can coast along with the same old forever. In which case Pokémon as a game is in for a bleak future which will probably end with a whimper rather than a bang.    … Expand
  74. Sinoce
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    It's solid in what it does. It is a main line Pokemon game. Sound, graphics, story, all what I expect.

    My first issue the EXP share. I just want to turn it off. If you want to trade early, you are punished because those pokemon will soon stop listening to you in battle. I noticed I hardly used them because I was fighting t keep my other pokemon up to their level. It's great for loading    It's solid in what it does. It is a main line Pokemon game. Sound, graphics, story, all what I expect.

    My first issue the EXP share. I just want to turn it off. If you want to trade early, you are punished because those pokemon will soon stop listening to you in battle. I noticed I hardly used them because I was fighting t keep my other pokemon up to their level. It's great for loading up some weaker pokemon and grinding them up, but everyone was level 25 or higher by the time I got to the first gym.

    Easy mode. I think every few seconds someone is there to heal me before I go and battle someone or something. Its fine for those who need that help, but now their is no challenge for those who are looking for one. I laughed when I got the escape rope as a key item.

    The dynamax system doesn't wow. It feels like the power rangers' villain made the monster grow and I should summon a megazord to fight it. I know sun and moon had the power ranger poses but now we are actually getting giant monster battles. Stay in your lane.

    I actually like the idea of camping out. The idea of being out in the wild catching and leveling up pokemon sounds great. Probably what actual trainers would do. EXP share cuts down the time I would need to be out in the wild areas though.

    Trading is the worst I've ever seen before. I assume close to a million games have sold world wide. Typing in a 4 digit code to maybe find a friend to trade with is a terrible idea. It took my friend and I about 15 minutes to find each other, another 10 to get lucky enough to actually get paired to trade. Trading would work better as an auction house. "Trading ____, looking for ____." Then people could click and trade. At least let me connect to my friends without having to jump through hoops.

    TMs/TRs. When Game Freak first introduced TMs that could be used over and over, I think everyone cheered. So adding TRs is somewhat of a let down. This is a step back in my opinion.

    EV/IV and natures. I'm happy there is a one stop shop to help get all these things. My problem is that in X & Y, they had a mini game that was great for doing it on the spot for training. I wouldn't have to worry about running into the wrong pokemon to battle because I could max out the pokemon's stats after catching it. Now I have to wait until the end of the game before I can focus just on that without a headache.

    These are just some of the things, besides what everyone else is mad about, that I wish would've been fixed or thought over in more detail.    … Expand
  75. ArmFlailingTube
    Jan 15, 2021
    5
    [TL;DR] Not worth a full $60 but not a total disappointment either. Lot’s of fun to be had but not really any replay value.

    First things first, this game is not as bad as some people are making it sound but it falls short in many areas. Pokémon Sword and Shield deliver on being a basic pokémon experience, eg: three starters, rival, eight gyms, champion, blah blah blah we've all been    [TL;DR] Not worth a full $60 but not a total disappointment either. Lot’s of fun to be had but not really any replay value.

    First things first, this game is not as bad as some people are making it sound but it falls short in many areas. Pokémon Sword and Shield deliver on being a basic pokémon experience, eg: three starters, rival, eight gyms, champion, blah blah blah we've all been here before.

    First, the wild area is fun but only for a bit since it can get stale quickly with little to do aside from catching pokémon. It’s pretty cool that you can see other players running around ingame with you but I've heard that the framerate can drastically drop.

    No national dex wasn’t too big an issue for me but it’s completely understandable why someone would be upset about it. I was disappointed that I couldn’t bring in a few of my own favorites from previous titles.

    The clothes customization is lacking in options. A lot of stuff looks the same and there aren’t enough clothes stores.

    Animations are jagged and uninspired. People have been complaining about this since X&Y.

    The music is just okay. Most of the tracks sound like too many instruments are playing at the same time. Overall forgettable OST.

    The story is really where the game falls short. As said, it is a basic pokémon story so your goal is to become the champion although, I do still wonder how a child who started their training yesterday is capable of defeating several adults who have been training for years.

    The game does hold your hand a lot and constantly drags you around the map kicking and screaming. There are many ways to go but only one way that you can go. In fact, the game has you loop back around in the other direction to go back to a place that you already were like three times in an effort to pad out the runtime.

    This is because Galar is smaller compared to previous regions. It does try to make up for that by having pretty scenery, some of the best we’ve seen in the series, but this doesn’t work since you can’t interact with anything at all aside from a few park benches.

    Gym battles are the most fun thing in this game however, you can only repeat them if you pair with them in a tournament. Battling in an actual stadium and having a crowd to cheer you on is a nice touch of aesthetic. Also, the Gym Leader battle theme is the best in the game. I liked how the whole Gym Challenge thing was portrayed as an actual official region wide tournament than something you do because your mom kicked you out of the house.

    The characters are all one note in that they have precisely one personality trait which usually adds up to be either: is so pumped to be here or is so far up their own ass that everyone else is feeble and insignificant. Some of them do have their own story arcs but they're all pretty much the same in that they all revolve around learning the importance of not giving up and trying your hardest which is pretty standard for pokémon but, again, the purpose of a sequel is to build on previous titles whether it be through story or gameplay.

    Voice acting still doesn’t exist in Pokémon and it dawned on me that is was going to be a glaring annoyance when, at the very start of the game, a dude in suit walked out onto a stadium and started giving a speech with his mouth moving and his body emoting but no sound coming out. Just a text box at the bottom of the screen. This game desperately needed voice acting and it may even have saved it. Some of the characters even have english accents which you can read in the subtitles but these accents don't provide any spark due to them not being able to give the person any character. It's also worth pointing out that this is a game for children, a demographic not know for their top-notch reading comprehension so, making the whole story come through text probably wasn't the best design choice anyway.

    Even less helpful to the story is the new criminal gang, "Team Yell". Aside from the pathetic name, Team Yell only exist to block your path when the road forks so you go the way to the place where the story wants you to be at that time. Unlike previous evil gangs, they have no part to play in the overarching plot of the game. They are only here because the formula demands it.

    So to sum it up, I think that it's fair to say that this game was a disappointment. A lot of missed opportunities, unused technological advancements and a few controversial decisions are what led to this game receiving the score that it did. I’d wait for the price to drop down to like $40. Fun game but has little to do once you beat the main story. Will be using careful consideration before buying the next one.    … Expand
  76. ajgbcool
    Jul 1, 2020
    5
    Ahhh Pokémon... Far away we have a good Pokémon title, this game is not so awful, but would be better, this game is SOOOO EASY and the challenge left the house so many years. I feel sorry for me, because I REALLY like Pokémon, but game by game every time spectedless.
  77. edwardolardo
    Jan 6, 2020
    10
    My Background: Played Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon Games

    Pros: -A lot of the things that made Pokemon easier in previous generations are on Sword/Shield. (i.e. TM's aren't lost after 1 use, backpack category sorting, etc.) -Wild Area is almost like playing Pokemon GO raids. Super fun with friends! A lot of different areas and a ton of pokemon in the wild area -Great build-up in the    My Background: Played Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon Games

    Pros: -A lot of the things that made Pokemon easier in previous generations are on Sword/Shield. (i.e. TM's aren't lost after 1 use, backpack category sorting, etc.)
    -Wild Area is almost like playing Pokemon GO raids. Super fun with friends! A lot of different areas and a ton of pokemon in the wild area
    -Great build-up in the beginning, and good ending with a great post-game that ties everything together
    -Lots of new Pokemon (at least for me)
    -Dynamax is not overpowered

    Cons: -Dungeons are not as complex as Gen 1/2.
    -Between Gym #7 and Gym #8, there's really not much going on in terms of battles with other trainers    … Expand
  78. Manuelx890
    Jan 8, 2020
    5
    Juego absolutamente decepcionante, desde el comienzo hasta el final. Al jugarlo esperaba una experiencia nueva y novedosa, algo acorde a la generación, sin embargo, mis expectativas fueron erróneas.
    El argumento de la historia fue totalmente nefasto, personajes poco desarrollados, carisma nula, totalmente predecible, toda la aventura consistió en ir de gimnasio a gimnasio, la historia    Juego absolutamente decepcionante, desde el comienzo hasta el final. Al jugarlo esperaba una experiencia nueva y novedosa, algo acorde a la generación, sin embargo, mis expectativas fueron erróneas.
    El argumento de la historia fue totalmente nefasto, personajes poco desarrollados, carisma nula, totalmente predecible, toda la aventura consistió en ir de gimnasio a gimnasio, la historia mejoró un poco en el post-game.
    Tu rival es un lameculo, no tiene una personalidad propia, parece que es un personaje totalmente plano que está destinado a mejorar solamente tu bienestar y no el de él. Parece que el guionista intentó desarrollarlo con momentos existenciales, pero aún así no se obtuvo un personaje interesante.
    Los gráficos no van acorde a una nintendo switch, me dio la impresión de jugar un videojuego de nintendo 3ds en HD (hay información de que reutilizaron los modelos 3d de los videojuegos de 3ds), el escenario del videojuego era totalmente vacio, hay carencia total de ambientación, principalmente en el área silvestre.
    Me dio pena ver las animaciones de los pokemon y personajes, parecen robots programados para hacer una acción, no hay realismo. También quiero decir que falta un doblaje de personajes, puesto que es muy raro ver cinemáticas con personajes modulando sin emitir un sonido, no parece ser un juego AAA.
    En cuanto a los aspectos positivos, este juego es un pokemon de toda la vida, los combates son excelentes, y puedes viciarte con la pokedex.    … Expand
  79. Flippy09
    Jun 20, 2020
    10
    Such a great game, everything I enjoy about pokemon, well over five hundred hours into this game.
  80. Ultimagara
    Nov 17, 2019
    5
    I think my sentiments have been more or less echoed here among the other mixed reviews. I never cared about the "controversy" frankly, but the game fails on a lot more than that. I had fun for a time, but the game is just lacking in too many departments.

    I felt that the story started strong and got weaker as it went along. There isn't too much hand holding in the early game, which is    I think my sentiments have been more or less echoed here among the other mixed reviews. I never cared about the "controversy" frankly, but the game fails on a lot more than that. I had fun for a time, but the game is just lacking in too many departments.

    I felt that the story started strong and got weaker as it went along. There isn't too much hand holding in the early game, which is good. For example, you start out with Pokeballs right away and if you get to the tutorial section having already caught something, then you can skip it. There are a but too many cutscenes and breaks in the first 2 hours or so for my liking, but that kind of levels out once ou start doing gyms. I can say, however, that the characters are pretty decent here for the most part, but your rival, Hop, just **** everything up. The game feels more like a story about this loggerhead than it does anyone else, but he's just too persistent and annoying to have much charm. He just doesn't shut up, and you're always chasing down this brat to keep him from getting into trouble. The best part of the game is when he stops showing up every time you walk 2 feet for a while.

    I think what I hated most about this game, beyond how pathetically easy it is (I'l get to that in a second), was the structure of the ending, of which there are actually 2 (in succession). As I mentioned, everything gets lazier the later into the story you go. The gyms get less creative in time, to the point where in the last gym all you do is walk into a room and fight 3 people, and after those are done, the entirety of the equivalent of the Pokemon League takes place in a single arena. But the climax feels really, really rushed. There's no dungeon, you just go to one place, get a thing, go back to a place, do one battle, and then it's the boss. The boss, mind you, is actually pretty epic, but it was over far too quickly. The real trouble in the second ending, which feels tacked on. Two random characters show up from out of nowhere, spout nonsense, and then proceed with an incredibly boring plan that has you do what is effectively the same easy fight 8 times before you catch the legendary and the game ends. It's so anticlimactic, so much less worse than the rest of the story, that I think the game might have actually been BETTER if this part were not in it.

    Also, 30 hours, like some of the reviews said? Tough fights? One review even said tricky puzzles? Nope, nope, and what? Regarding the latter, there was like 1 puzzle in the whole game, and a 2-year old could have solved it. As for fights, I lost one match due to recklessness. It really feels like your Pokemon have this mystical quality of being stronger than everything else, even when it's the same Pokemon at the same level. The AI is brain-dead. You will only ever lose in the top-level raid battles because your AI team will bring a full team of Magikarp to a fight with an electric type and use only moves that do literally nothing. Why not team up online? Because the whole thing works by an obtuse invite system and completely lacks matchmaking, you you have to closely monitor the Y-link channel for other people's LFGs to pop up, but it's strangely selective and doesn't update in real time, and then the AI that fill the gaps in the battles will throw, failing he whole thing. If you win, it's because the bosses are dumb easy. If you lose, it's because your AI team is utterly incompetent and drains all of your lives. And when you do win, the rewards you get are so absurd that I you can level up a 'mon from 5 to 70 in about 2 hours. What? XP share can't be turned off? No options for main game difficulty, as always? The incessant yammering of NPCs about how they're unbeatable, and you proceed to crush them without taking a single hit, because numerous basic strategies can wipe entire teams without fail?

    Bad.
    Bad.
    Bad.

    Also, everything is the post-game is trivial. The only redeeming quality about all this is that a lot of good changes have been made for competitive, but who the **** cares about competitive? Even the primary endgame activity, the Battle Tower, rewards primarily single use items that are utterly useless.

    I beat everything in the game in 22 hours, and that includes a lot of dilly dallying and camping, which, while cute, feels half baked, much like the rest of the game. The weak magic that makes the game enjoyable and interesting in any capacity wears off about halfway through the game, and comes back only temporarily during the first ending simply because the visual effects are sick, and Toby Fox worked on this game's score.

    Not worth $60, maybe 40, though I don't entirely regret my purchase. The real problem here is not the "Dexit" crap, but the increasing disregard for balance, post-game content, and serious players that Game Freak continues to show.    … Expand
  81. Isitrolc
    Nov 19, 2019
    5
    Il y a de bonnes choses et le jeu est globalement très sympa avec une direction artistique qui fait mouche de temps en temps, mais là il faut que GameFreak se fasse aider où que le jeu passe dans un autre studio. Au final peu de surprises, une technique à la ramasse et trop de choses introduites dans la saga retirées ici pour un résultat pas au niveau
  82. Garlands
    Sep 1, 2020
    7
    l'histoire est trop légère , la team ennemie ne sert a rien et le rival est un boulet mais sinon les pokémon , les stades et les combats gigamax sont vraiment cool
  83. Wunpleum
    Aug 15, 2023
    6
    Since The last time I played Pokemon is Black & White 2, This is the fantastic one that brings back my memories. It is really enjoyable and the mechanic is really improved but the story is below average. Black & White still the best in term of story
  84. Greg_pontes
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    Bad story writing, HOP is a mess in the game, too simple, only good thing is gyms. Game looks rushed
  85. IkOzael
    Jul 11, 2020
    3
    It's the same mediocre games we've been gettin' for 20 years but worse. The story an' post-game is hella shallow. Characters are meh (though y'know Bea, Sonia, Nessa, Marnie... (Gloria's a different case)) but some had potential. The pop-in is atrocious. Feels like the inverse effect of the Green Baby's Stand from JBA: Stone Ocean was put on everything. The Wild Area sounded cool inIt's the same mediocre games we've been gettin' for 20 years but worse. The story an' post-game is hella shallow. Characters are meh (though y'know Bea, Sonia, Nessa, Marnie... (Gloria's a different case)) but some had potential. The pop-in is atrocious. Feels like the inverse effect of the Green Baby's Stand from JBA: Stone Ocean was put on everything. The Wild Area sounded cool in concept, but should've been on the same level as Breath of the Wild's overworld, like with Galar in general. Pokémon Camp is buggy an' the curry thing is a li'l interesting but that Pokémon eating cutscene... yeah, that stuff could've been better. The gameplay is as dull an' lifeless as its ever been, especially with the gimmicky Dynamax, but the animations were supposed to be generally improved... except they weren't. While this game does have some quality of life features, it strips away others like the GTS only to sell it back in subscription form an' bein' able to turn off EXP Share. I'm personally not one to "catch 'em all" since I jus' prefer the variety of Pokémon bein' present assumin' I don't feel like catchin' 'em later or whatever, but the reasons for cuttin' over half the Pokemon from the National Pokédex are dumb, mainly because they tried to dance their asses around it. I get that would've happened sooner or later which is why you don't mindlessly churn out the same-ass formula every year. But hm, who cares? They got kids, nostalgia hoes, etc. to keep 'em well-stocked on money. Give it room to breathe instead of aligning it alongside the Pokemon anime that's also pretty lame. This series was already at a decline a looong time ago, but damn.

    The Isle of Armor is mundane DLC. I'm not surprised. The only thing I like outta this one is, as you could guess, Klara for pretty obvious reasons (*grabs Wacom Cintiq Pro 13*). Somethin' about 'er gives off vibes that made me like the Hex Maniacs so much. But for real, the dojo feels like a post game's replacement. Some other things I like are the li'l cutscenes with Kubfu an' bein' able to travel with one of my Pokémon, but that one is shut down by the fact it's only while I'm in the Isle of Armor, but even then it has it's own problems which never existed in Let's Go. One particularly bein' the movement speed of some Pokemon. God... Damn... Does Slowpoke among many others move like glacial molasses. Ironically, this is in the same area where you were jus' chasing three stampeding Slowpoke a few minutes ago. The new Rotom Bike design is real cool with the black trail it has an' it made me like the bike a li'l more since I preferred skates. The outfit for it is way better, too. Better than the "clown suit" one in my opinion.

    Now to wait on the Crown Tundra, I guess (goddamn, I hate wastin' money)...

    Anyway, online is worse than it was in the past games. Frame rate drops are all too common. GTS was stripped away among other things for this slow-ass tag alert system that is Y-Comm. The only reason to ever use it would be for Surprise Trade or Max Raids which is near pointless 'cause of an abusable exploit that basically ruins it for other people who want to join. It's not like it'll be worth your time anyway since there's no strategy involved because the best way to beat 'em is jus' hit really hard. Anything other than that gets hella negated as if the Dynamon is Gold Experience Requiem but even hittin' hard is a crapshoot 'cause o' the limited damage they take. Oh, you can forget playin' Max Raids offline. The NPCs have critical errors for brains and/or straight-up have weak Pokémon that're actually more like handicaps for yourself. Notice how they all have Focus Sashes because they're so useless. You'll often have at least two on your team online though 'cause o' what I already talked about. By the way, why the hell doesn't GF do updates if they wanna talk about balancing? They've been able to do that since the 3DS days, but nope. None o' that. Gotta coax that money outta your wallet.

    While I still love Pokémon, I'm gonna look into Digimon, Temtem, fan games, etc. at this point. An' I'll most likely stick to drawin' Pokémon stuff instead of buyin' their "new" game.    … Expand
  86. Lucifer45
    Nov 25, 2022
    3
    I played through this game like every other in the series. As a hardcore and longtime fan I am disappointed by the lack of charm in this game. Game Freak, factually, lied. There were some aspects I enjoyed about this game however, which stops me from giving it a 0
  87. Eduardobritola
    Nov 22, 2019
    3
    Just lazy world design and mediocre experience and you cant immerse yourself because the game is made for 4 yr olds
  88. Tamsmit
    Nov 23, 2019
    7
    While it's definitely not perfect and feels rushed in a lot of areas, it's still a blast to play through. If Gamefreak spent like 5 more months just polishing the graphics and some story elements, than this seriously could have been a fantastic game.
  89. gialo
    Jun 22, 2020
    5
    piss easy video game, completely mediocre in every respect. buy if you really want it, but leave this one otherwise
  90. Minemon106
    May 1, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Alright so Pokémon sword is a decent Pokémon game but it's kinda disapointing for a switch game, It could of been so much more then it is especially now that the series is on the switch but it still feels like a 3ds Pokémon game, the graphics are better at some parts but horrible in others, easiest example, the trees, they look like something from ocarina of time, The animations are pretty eh as well, I mean a few of the character animations have been recycled from sun and moon, why!? And the Pokémon? Same sprites that we have been given for the past 7 years oh and 51% (I believe) of the Pokémon are locked through DLC or Pokémon Home, But the new Pokémon are pretty cool and extremely powerful, Some of the more competitive things about Pokémon are a lot easier then before like EV Training ( Usually took forever to do since you had to take down hundreds of Pokémon to get a single EV stat up to max but now it only takes 5-6 hours to EV train an entire team ) and shiny hunting is a bit easier too thanks to the Masuda Method ,The online has improved though, You can still trade and battle like usual but now you can meet up with friends in wild areas and battle in raids (Doing 5* Raids by yourself is a death wish, becuase the computer players will just faint and you'll get kicked out of the raid, Don't ever do it alone) it's definitely an improvement or start compared to past games (Looking at you sun and moon) story wasn't important at all, nothing anyone said mattered unless it was at the end of the game or when hop said he was depressed (still not important but was fun to read), the new mechanic with dynamaxing Pokémon Is alright, Problem is, you can only use it in raids, online battles, battle tower and gyms (counting the final stadium) which makes me wonder more why they didn't include mega evolution or Z-Moves (It was even in let's go) they couldn't of nerfed them or made it so you could only use one or the other but nope! The music is good l, like the gym battle, battle tower themes, I have mixed feelings with hop's and The champion's though. To sum all of this up, Game Freak Have An Incredibly Popular Franchise In Their Hands But They Aren't Doing A Lot With It This Game Could Of Been A Lot Better If They Just Added Everything From Past Games Into This One, Give it A Few New Animations (Not talking just about Pokémon) And Make It Harder And Fix Those Trees! The only reason why it gave it a 8 Is becuase..I Love Pokémon?… Expand
  91. seaprot
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    This is a predictable pokemon sequel. GameFreak lost the best chance to bring players an incredible Pokemon game, after all it’s the first core Pokémon game on a Tv console. It just scratches the capacity of what Nintendo Switch can do, badly optimized, technically poor. Yes, it’s still pokemon, so it’s you can have some kind of fun, but the game is one of the easiest in the series,This is a predictable pokemon sequel. GameFreak lost the best chance to bring players an incredible Pokemon game, after all it’s the first core Pokémon game on a Tv console. It just scratches the capacity of what Nintendo Switch can do, badly optimized, technically poor. Yes, it’s still pokemon, so it’s you can have some kind of fun, but the game is one of the easiest in the series, incredibly linear and the story is not really captivating, the rival Hop is pretty annoying as well. Hope the next game GF makes a better job… Expand
  92. Welkinz
    Jan 14, 2021
    7
    They added new features and did make the game more interesting. However the 3D graphic in background is quite ugly, and I can feel they were rushing in making the latter part of the game.
  93. Melkorock
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    Es increible como Nintendo permitio que salga un juego como este. Por un lado la cantidad de pokémons jugables se ha recortado. El juego se puede pasar en unas 13/14 horas, tiene terribles tirones de fps, animaciones que no se corresponden con un juego del 2019. Hay juegos independientes de menor presuesto pero con mucho mejor aspecto, tiene modelos 3D reciclados de entregas anteriores, yEs increible como Nintendo permitio que salga un juego como este. Por un lado la cantidad de pokémons jugables se ha recortado. El juego se puede pasar en unas 13/14 horas, tiene terribles tirones de fps, animaciones que no se corresponden con un juego del 2019. Hay juegos independientes de menor presuesto pero con mucho mejor aspecto, tiene modelos 3D reciclados de entregas anteriores, y bugs a saco.… Expand
  94. Yuna3141
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    I wasn't expecting NieR:Automata level storytelling, but it felt like little to no effort was put into the plot. The characters in the story lacked life, Team Yell's concept was bland and seemed thrown together, and the villain of the story lacked any sort of development. Overall, the story feels uninteresting, poorly developed, and rushed.

    The concept of Gigantamax had some potential,    I wasn't expecting NieR:Automata level storytelling, but it felt like little to no effort was put into the plot. The characters in the story lacked life, Team Yell's concept was bland and seemed thrown together, and the villain of the story lacked any sort of development. Overall, the story feels uninteresting, poorly developed, and rushed.

    The concept of Gigantamax had some potential, but it turned out a bit silly and ridiculous in the worst sense possible. At times, it didn't even feel like Pokemon at all. Gigantamax being poorly done as well as getting rid of mega evolution did not sit well with me. I would not have minded G-Max not being in the game and had some new megas instead. (Still waiting on Mega Flygon)

    The difficulty of previous games were easy, but Sw/Sh felt absolutely laughable. Without grinding, you're always so ahead in levels compared to gyms, and the champion battle is the only satisfying battle I had. Most of the game like the others is just spamming a move, one-hit the enemy... you guys know the drill.

    End game content is extremely disappointing. You have your usual Battle Tower, get BP, and exchange it for items. Other than completing the dex and re-challenging the league, grinding through raids (which are extremely easy) is the only content which will get repetitive fast. TM's are still there, but moves like Earthquake and Ice Beam are now one-time use (called TR's), so you'd have to collect more watts or grind raids if you want to have the same move on multiple Pokemons - which is unnecessary and adds nothing to the game.

    Barring one or two performance issues, the game ran mostly smooth for me. Though most of the new Pokemon designs feel uninspired, there were a couple of Pokemon that I found to be quite cool, and I loved the design of the legendaries. Some of the towns are beautiful, and the end path of the Slumbering Weald is absolutely gorgeous.

    Time to address the national dex. Obviously, no one is happy that the national dex isn't included in the game, but taking it out of an already poorly designed game hurts it so much more. Also, what's the point of catching, training, and getting attached to your Pokemon if you can't bring it with you going forward? I guess I'll just have a lot of Pokemon which I'm attached to just sitting in a 3DS/Pokebank.

    Overall, this game did not feel like it was made with love and passion. I'd recommend sitting this one out and hoping the next release will be better.    … Expand
  95. Mattia9336
    May 27, 2020
    6
    The most disappointing Pokemon game I've ever played. It's still a 6/10 because it's still Pokèmon and the gameplay is as good as always, but from a technical prospective is really bad and the story is meaningless to me
  96. SapJo
    Jan 18, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Traurig! Lässt man die Animationen weg, die gefühlt einfach von Sonne/Mond übernommen wurde, dann hat man ein komplett lineares Spiel in dem man von Cut-Scene zu Cut-Scene rennt.
    Eine "Open World" die notdürftig reingeklatscht wurde und immer noch Bugs beinhaltet. Ein Spiel in dem man sich nicht als Protagonist fühlt sondern eher als Sidekick.
    400 Pokemon sind im Spiel und komischerweise nur die Pokemon die eine besonders schwere Entwicklungsmechanik haben.
    Jetzt kommt ein DLC raus mit 200 Pokemon mehr, dass ist Content der eigentlich for low sein sollte und die Pokemon Company will dafür 30€. In den Städten lässt sich fast nichts erkunden/entdecken, sowie auf den Routen    … Expand
  97. Zzgamer
    Jan 3, 2020
    7
    Meh.

    I expected more from GameFreak Wouldn’t really recommend unless your a huge Pokémon fan to be honest. If your not a huge Pokémon fan DON’T get the game!
  98. Bluesifer
    May 14, 2023
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I don’t agree with the haters on this one at all. I think it’s a great hame (with a flawed post game, I hate those twins). If only it allowed Pokémon to follow you.… Expand
  99. alanwaketan
    Apr 27, 2020
    7
    高清化的宝可梦确实很让人振奋，再也不用看马赛克了。荒野地带也很出彩，算是一瞥开放世界宝可梦的雏形。但本作也就止于此了。其他方面可谓全方位退步。弱智且残缺的故事可谓系列最弱；新宝可梦的造型一言难尽；极巨化算是其中可圈可点的变化，但是超极巨化这么少还要练级才能开启，GF良心不会痛？对于没有全国图鉴，我倒是可以理解毕竟开发量巨大，慢慢DLC补全就好。所以总结一下，实属系列平庸之作。高清化的宝可梦确实很让人振奋，再也不用看马赛克了。荒野地带也很出彩，算是一瞥开放世界宝可梦的雏形。但本作也就止于此了。其他方面可谓全方位退步。弱智且残缺的故事可谓系列最弱；新宝可梦的造型一言难尽；极巨化算是其中可圈可点的变化，但是超极巨化这么少还要练级才能开启，GF良心不会痛？对于没有全国图鉴，我倒是可以理解毕竟开发量巨大，慢慢DLC补全就好。所以总结一下，实属系列平庸之作。
  100. KrakenOfPepsi
    Nov 21, 2019
    4
    Metacritic has a pretty small character limit on their reviews, so in order to get all of my points across I'm going to split my reviews across the Sword review, and the Shield review. As a two parter of sorts. This is part 1.

    - The graphics are extremely poor in comparison with other Nintendo Switch games – with jagged, low-poly, blurry environments/textures, as well as dated, recycled    Metacritic has a pretty small character limit on their reviews, so in order to get all of my points across I'm going to split my reviews across the Sword review, and the Shield review. As a two parter of sorts. This is part 1.

    - The graphics are extremely poor in comparison with other Nintendo Switch games – with jagged, low-poly, blurry environments/textures, as well as dated, recycled models and animations (that were also used on the 3DS) as well as significant performance issues throughout the entire game.
    - For the first time in the entirety of the series they have decided not to include all Pokémon in the game – with the regional/national dex totaling just 400. Where as in Ultra Sun and Moon (the previous mainline installment) the regional dex had 403 Pokémon, as well as also having all 803 Pokémon in the game which you could trade over from previous games. It’s also worth mentioning that data miners have now revealed that all of the removed Pokémon have perfectly functioning models and code in the games files which aren’t used.
    - A new subscription service called ‘Pokémon Home’ is required to store Pokémon from Sword and Shield and other new Pokémon games. As well as this however, you will need your Nintendo Online service to access internet functionality on your Switch, and if you want to transfer your Pokémon from previous games you will also need a Pokémon Bank subscription. Yes – you will need to pay for three subscription fees to have access to what is a main staple of the series.
    - The amount of time spent in most of the game's areas is tiny. Within an hour I had defeated two gyms back to back and finished all of the areas in between them. These areas unlike previous instalments, feature very little diverging paths, little to no trainer battles, no puzzles, and nothing interesting to explore. These areas are tiny, and boring. And to make it worse, you can now avoid a lot of trainers, so you can almost just skip entire areas on your bike in mere minutes with little to no consequence because of how easy the game is. These areas also lack many exclusive Pokemon as most can be found in the Wild Area, this on top of having no HMs to unlock in the game means backtracking isn't necessary at all, and you will almost definitely never return to these tiny areas in your play through, making them totally forgettable and completely dull.
    - Dynamax sucks. When you Dynamax your Pokémon, it becomes extremely large without any other design changes for three turns and gets access to incredibly powerful moves. Mega Evolutions were introduced two generations ago, and were expanded upon with each following game. As well as this, they also implemented Z-Moves as an alternative to Mega Evolutions. Z-Moves let you unleash an incredibly powerful attack, much like the ones you can use when Dynamaxing, but you could only use once per-battle and couldn’t Mega-Evolve in the same battle if you used one. Mega-Evolutions are interesting, because it changes the stats, appearance, ability and sometimes even typing of a Pokémon when used, making some Pokémon viable to use which mightn’t have been before, and greatly changed how you could use others. The beauty of it was you could use it in literally any battle you wanted. It wasn’t necessary to beat the game, but it breathed new life into the competitive scene of the game, and also gave more casual audiences a fun little mechanic to play around with. Dynamaxing on the other hand completely replaces these mechanics, and can only be used in very specific circumstances in the main game. The only actual utility of this is to tank hits and deal huge damage, and 90% of the time you will only use Dynamax Pokémon against other Dynamax Pokémon, because normal Pokémon often cannot compete. My point in short is I think Dynamax takes two perfectly good mechanics which appealed to both hardcore and casual audiences, and replaces them with that is basically a worse version of both mechanics which only appeals to casual audiences instead, and in doing so alienates a portion of the for little to no good reason. And perhaps Dynamax could’ve seamlessly blended the two mechanics together if they bothered, but it’s painfully obvious that these mechanics were implemented for no other reason than to show off flashy animations
    - Almost every Pokémon in the game is available to catch, this includes third evolution Pokémon and very rare Pokémon such as Milotic. This removes any rarity and value the Pokémon had. For example: Dusknoir isn’t a valuable Pokémon anymore, because I don’t need to trade it with another player holding a onetime use item anymore, I just find it and easily catch it. Part of me thinks not being able to trade with older games is actually a good thing, because this totally ruins the “in-game economy” if you will, of the Pokémon series.    … 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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