Pokemon Sword

JacobH23

Dec 4, 2019

5

The world feels flushed and the pokemon in them realer than ever. Seeing actual wild pokemon fly and move in the grass/caves felt like a brand new pokemon experience. The characters were actually interesting and not just carbon copies or stereotypes

IndyGameFan

Nov 17, 2019

5

I felt really let down by this game. This is a really expensive (and highly anticipated) title, and I'm left wondering if I should just trade it in.
Not sure where exactly pokemon started to go off the rails, but this one is not worth the money. Maybe buy it used or something.

madku321

Dec 14, 2019

6

It's not a bad game. It's just not a good game.
The good stuff was always good—designs, look, feel—but it's the move to console that's glaring.
First of all, the game is terribly easy. So much so that when my pokémon die it's not because of skill, it's just because of luck. The exp. share makes it so no grinding necessary, which isn't bad, but at the same time removes all thinking. WhyIt's not a bad game. It's just not a good game.
The good stuff was always good—designs, look, feel—but it's the move to console that's glaring.
First of all, the game is terribly easy. So much so that when my pokémon die it's not because of skill, it's just because of luck. The exp. share makes it so no grinding necessary, which isn't bad, but at the same time removes all thinking. Why switch out to train (a skill to help) when you can simply leave your OP pokemon to deal all the damage, and have the harder pokemon to train simply sit there? The AI is stupid also: making dumb moves makes what would've been a hard battle easy.
What makes a pokemon game? Towns? The pocket monsters themselves? The routes? In this game, it can't be the routes. Most of them are very linear, and I find myself, for the first time in any pokemon game, ignoring the trainers just so I can get to the god-damned next town or gym. I don't believe the pokemon make up this game either. Over half of them are from previous games, which isn't necessarily bad, but one of the coolest things is finding a new, rare pokemon or finally getting to see your carkol evolve (what will it turn into???). The towns I can happily give credit to: they look great and are meant to feel large. But after exploring towns, you find yourself wondering why they felt so small to you.
The linear aspect goes beyond routes. I never get the chance to decide where to go. At most, I can go left or right at a route (but, one will end or maybe the two tracks will meet up again). And, though the world is large, the main game stops you at every minute just to give you the next item, let you continue the game, or just have an annoying cutscene about Galar's history that YOU JUST DON'T CARE ABOUT. Without choice, the game almost feels... empty, boring.
The wild area, the most lauded thing of this game, is not even that good. I find myself returning there just to find one single pokemon I want instead of exploring it to look for new things.
The game, overall, just makes me think about the older games and how they were (are?) really good. The move to full 3-D for the first time hurt the franchise greatly, only opening it's flaws more and making me miss the older games, instead of thinking of the new ones.
6/10, because it's fine, I guess.… Expand

PhantomThief95

Nov 17, 2019

5

These games could've been so much more as Pokémon's official new generation debut on a home console, but instead it ends up being an underwhelming, incremental upgrade over the 3DS games. There are some neat QoL changes and the Wild Area is a very good idea that I hope to see more of in future games, but the rest falls very short of what is expected of a home console game.

Burgosgts

Nov 17, 2019

3

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ya he terminado el juego, en 26h que llevo he conseguido la mitad de la pokedex (demasiado corta), cuando te lo pasas el area salvaje pasa a convertirse en un supermecado, te aparecen todos los bichos a nivel 60 y casi todos los que te faltan en la pokedex. Despues las incursiones dinamax, salen muy pocas, cuando las juegas en solitario por que la conexion es pesima y no se puede jugar online, los bot que te ponen sacan pokemon malisimos, los matan 4 veces a los bot y a ti te sacan de la incursion. Los efectos de algunos graficos son de risa. Juego descuidadisimo la verdad… Expand

Opportunist

Nov 20, 2019

1

For the sake of brevity, I'll group this game's many flaws into three overarching categories. You've already heard most of the criticisms, so I'll keep it quick.
1) The lack of content typical of every first Pokemon game in a generation.
2) Removal of content in previous games being played to an almost funny extreme - morw than half the Pokemon have been removed from the game's code, youFor the sake of brevity, I'll group this game's many flaws into three overarching categories. You've already heard most of the criticisms, so I'll keep it quick.
1) The lack of content typical of every first Pokemon game in a generation.
2) Removal of content in previous games being played to an almost funny extreme - morw than half the Pokemon have been removed from the game's code, you can't actually catch em all.
3) Very, very poor graphics and optimization in conjunction with a slew of gamebreaking bugs.

Do not buy this game. This series has many better titles to offer that would provide you with a much better experience.… Expand

BrownKnight

Nov 15, 2019

5

This game is just a disappointment, I'm genuinely sad this is the direction Pokémon is going. This game had so much potential on a much more powerful consolle but it's all wasted. The cause can be summed up just with one concept: laziness. Most of the things they put in was rushed, half-finished, it looks like they don't even care anymore. This game should cost 30 $ AT BEST, it's surelyThis game is just a disappointment, I'm genuinely sad this is the direction Pokémon is going. This game had so much potential on a much more powerful consolle but it's all wasted. The cause can be summed up just with one concept: laziness. Most of the things they put in was rushed, half-finished, it looks like they don't even care anymore. This game should cost 30 $ AT BEST, it's surely not worth 60. Too bad, if they go on like this the franchise is doomed.… Expand

JorrisBohnson

Nov 19, 2019

1

The game is an unifnished mess that has no business of being released. Everyone has talked about Dexit or the culling of 60% of the Pokedex but more than that the game has horrible graphics, unfinished animations, empty maps, barely any content with most people finishing the game in 10 hours plus no postgame to speak off. If you are an JRPG fan there are better games on the Switch likeThe game is an unifnished mess that has no business of being released. Everyone has talked about Dexit or the culling of 60% of the Pokedex but more than that the game has horrible graphics, unfinished animations, empty maps, barely any content with most people finishing the game in 10 hours plus no postgame to speak off. If you are an JRPG fan there are better games on the Switch like Dragon Quest XI S or Xenoblade 2. If you are a Pokemon fan then I feel bad but if you want the franchise to improve you should not support this game. Vote with your wallet and let Game Freak know that this type of cashgrab is not accepted. Also there have been reports of the game corrupting save and game data on the Switch, showing how unfinished this game is.

tl;dr Do not buy, get DQ XI S instead.… Expand

Syze25

Dec 3, 2019

2

I regret buying this game. Its just gyms with small patches of land around no real map. No good story , no good riVals, who wants an ice crem pokemon when so many cooler pokemon went cut from the dex? Really bad delivered. They fked up unfortunely.

KuwaitiJakey

Nov 16, 2019

5

I think this game is average. First the things I liked, I thought the fact that you run into almost entirely new Pokémon on route 1 & 2 that weren’t spoiled by marketing is fantastic. The beginning of a Pokémon game is always magical. I also really liked the concept of the wild area. It’s something Game Freak has to build on in the future - when I first went there I spent hours justI think this game is average. First the things I liked, I thought the fact that you run into almost entirely new Pokémon on route 1 & 2 that weren’t spoiled by marketing is fantastic. The beginning of a Pokémon game is always magical. I also really liked the concept of the wild area. It’s something Game Freak has to build on in the future - when I first went there I spent hours just wondering around. The problem with the wild area is that it needs more to do, I think there should be dungeons or buildings to find and explore. Hunting for Pokémon is great but imagine if the whole game was wilderness and you had to find your next gym hidden in a forest or behind a mountain. The worst part of the game is the graphics. Frankly the animations and graphics are unacceptable for a switch game. It feels unfinished. The battle animations haven’t changed since X & Y. Pokémon models seem stiff and sometimes only their waiting animation just hops up and down. I didn’t care about this as much back on the 3ds, but it looks just plain bad on the switch. I wish Gamefreak would have spent more time in development on this game, update the animations and better communicate why they made the decisions they did. It seems jarring that Fire Emblem made the jump from 3ds to Switch in such a huge and significant way, but Pokémon only slightly improved their formula. Hopping Nintendo recognizes the criticism isn’t all just hate and comes from a place of love for their series and spends the time, money, and care to improve the next game. This game is enjoyable, but not the significant jump I thought it should’ve been for the first console Pokémon game.… Expand

shawtz

Nov 20, 2019

3

Overall a very lackluster game, especially in comparison to other games in the series, like Pokemon Platinum or Black/White 2. Even against some of the weaker titles, like Pokemon X and Y those games are smash hits in comparison to this game. The game just doesn't run well, even though it looks like a n64 game and is locked at 30fps. I will not be picking up another title in the seriesOverall a very lackluster game, especially in comparison to other games in the series, like Pokemon Platinum or Black/White 2. Even against some of the weaker titles, like Pokemon X and Y those games are smash hits in comparison to this game. The game just doesn't run well, even though it looks like a n64 game and is locked at 30fps. I will not be picking up another title in the series until Game Freak makes a game that is up to quality to the older gems.… Expand

bluemagekrye

Dec 5, 2019

5

So, having finally finished sword, as well as what ever that post game was, I can finally honestly review this game.

The game isn't terrible, not nearly as bad as many people will make it out to be. This game has some of the best quality of life changes for the series, but that is all irrelevant when it comes down to horrible roster of pokemon at your disposal to use the changes on. TheSo, having finally finished sword, as well as what ever that post game was, I can finally honestly review this game.

The game isn't terrible, not nearly as bad as many people will make it out to be. This game has some of the best quality of life changes for the series, but that is all irrelevant when it comes down to horrible roster of pokemon at your disposal to use the changes on. The story is also some of the most lazy and convoluted writing in the main line series thus far, and while I understand its a pokemon game... but if Black and white can have an interesting story, or even red and blue, then this game can as well.

What ever the real reason that gamefreak decided to cut half of the pokedex out of a game that's slogan has always been "gota catch em all", I feel that it is unnecessary and honestly an unfair move to a large portion of this Series's fans. And speaking of cut content... what we got to replace to the GTS is a joke. You cant even trade with people in the same room as you without jumping through hoops and hoping that it will work, you cant make direct "this for that" trades anymore... all you can do is surprise(wonder) trade, and fumble around trying trade something you want with the RANDOM person you get paired with in the link trade.

To wrap this up, I feel that a lot of the issues that this game brings up with all of its cut content could have been fixed by simply reducing the allowable pokemon in competitive. The game already bans legendary pokemon from being used in competitive, so why not just implement a larger ban list? If balance is the reason for all the content cuts, and not time or effort reasons, then this would have been a better way to appease both sides.

tl'dr; cut content doesn't excuse or out weigh what was gained, but the game is still fun to play.

If this is what pokemon is going to be like moving forward, I am officially done, after playing every main line entry since Red and Blue.… Expand

Kuniokun

Nov 21, 2019

1

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Es aburrido, la innovación es poca y falta actuación de voz, una historia olvidarle y personajes sosos… Expand

SlowbroLin

Nov 22, 2022

1

It is meaningless when I can not get my old Pokemons back! And I think that Mega Evolution is the most beautiful thing since Pokemon XY! And it is gone in this generation!

necrotick

Nov 17, 2019

6

The game is good, but the dex court killed the game. There are some bugs and bugs in the scenario that bother you.

Striderblack01

Nov 17, 2019

5

This game proves that the Pokemon basics, the tried-and-true mechanics of the franchise, still works. It makes it easy to get excited and play for hours while overlooking it's flaws. That is, at first.

Pokemon Raids are fantastic, and the wild area is a ton of fun! I also enjoy the new crop of Pokemon. Very appealing with lots of personality. (Scorbunny rules!) Dynamax is ok. IThis game proves that the Pokemon basics, the tried-and-true mechanics of the franchise, still works. It makes it easy to get excited and play for hours while overlooking it's flaws. That is, at first.

Pokemon Raids are fantastic, and the wild area is a ton of fun! I also enjoy the new crop of Pokemon. Very appealing with lots of personality. (Scorbunny rules!)

Dynamax is ok. I couldn't help feeling like it would just be another gimmick to be cut in the next game. So I didn't get too attached the way that I did with Megas and Z-moves.

Graphics and Animation are a mixed bag. The effect animations are fantastic! Truly. But the character & Pokemon animations are a bit dated and lackluster.

And then, there's the National Dex. Hoo-boy.
I'm a long-time fan of the franchise. I spent hours studying the underlying mechanics of the games, hours strategizing to build the best teams that I could using my favorites, hours breeding and training them in previous games, and more hours still battling and having fun. And now, I can't use them.

And that makes me legitimately sad.
(which is weird thing for an old man to admit)

Overall, this is a good game - just incomplete. It feels uneven and rushed. It's also a bit pricey for the amount of content. With a little more time and care, it could've been the very best.… Expand

Detben

Nov 17, 2019

6

This is not a bad game, but by no means is this a great game. Here are a few of my thoughts:
1) the graphics and animations are disappointing. The switch has shown that games can look quite beautiful on this platform.I didn’t expect Botw, but the glitchiness, flatness, and laziness are a let down.
2) not a compete Pokédex? Thank you next 3) multiplayer was practically nonexistent andThis is not a bad game, but by no means is this a great game. Here are a few of my thoughts:
1) the graphics and animations are disappointing. The switch has shown that games can look quite beautiful on this platform.I didn’t expect Botw, but the glitchiness, flatness, and laziness are a let down.
2) not a compete Pokédex? Thank you next
3) multiplayer was practically nonexistent and glitchy
4) it was not at all challenging. Ever generation they make it easier and easier. What’s the point of a game if it’s a cake walk?… Expand

guyquest

Nov 19, 2019

2

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A disappoint entry into an otherwise stellar series. The first entry on the Switch cut so much content that games from 20 years ago are more robust. It wasn't just Pokemon that were cut either. No elite four, no mega evoluations, no z-moves, no GTS; not to mention series favorites like following pokemon still aren't back. The game itself is also somewhat buggy, but I assume that will get patched at least. I do not recommend this game.… Expand

TerranceBogard

Nov 17, 2019

6

These games have admittedly garnered quite a bit of controversy, and due to some of the questionable decisions made in these games, it's understandable why. That said, these are not the worst games ever made. Far from it, in fact; I've had a good time playing my copy of Pokémon Shield. There are missteps here & there, but it's overall enjoyable. The TL;DR version of my review is that theseThese games have admittedly garnered quite a bit of controversy, and due to some of the questionable decisions made in these games, it's understandable why. That said, these are not the worst games ever made. Far from it, in fact; I've had a good time playing my copy of Pokémon Shield. There are missteps here & there, but it's overall enjoyable. The TL;DR version of my review is that these are fun games—about on par with X&Y in my opinion, but not as good as Sun & Moon for a reference point—that do miss the mark in terms of potential. Good games, but could've been a lot better. In an objective sense, these games are probably a 7/10. However, I'm reviewing it as a 6/10 here, simply because of the missed potential as for what these games *could* have been. As the highest grossing media franchise EVER and Pokémon's first mainline console game, these should've been a huge step forward for the franchise, the same way that Breath of the Wild was for Zelda and Odyssey was for Mario. Still, if you're on the fence about buying these games (and aren't boycotting it), I think you'll have a good time. Whether or not it's worth $60, however, is a different question—maybe wait until you can buy a used copy.… Expand

JaxTorn

Nov 17, 2019

5

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I admit Going into the game I was 100% biased and only reason I bought it to give it a chance was due to GameStops 48hr Guarantee. Another thing to note is I’ve been not a fan of recent Pokémon games going as far as back as X and Y . I think sun and moon was the one that maybe really hesitant to buy this. I’ve played through the story which is easy to accomplish in 48 hours. One of my gripes of the story Besides the game holding your hand throughout the whole game is there’s missed opportunities with the storyline . For example with the Dynamaxing outbreak I feel like that would’ve been used in previous games to get you involved with the region. I do feel like the region design especially when it comes to the towns and cities feels like cardboard cut outs I wish there was more stuff to interact with and hidden goodies. As far as the difficulty of the game this is the easiest Pokémon ever in my opinion it’s easier than Pokémon let’s go. The game hands you out revives like they grow on trees and it hands out money like crazy I’ve never had that much money that quickly in a Pokémon game before. The new Pokémon do you I think it was worth the controversy of the national dex making cuts just so they can add more Pokémon I don’t think so. My final thoughts without getting into the graphics which could be better is it’s a PR nightmare and it feels like a botched entry to the switch and no offense to game freak here but it doesn’t feel like the quality of other first party games that have been on the Nintendo switc.h… Expand

TNL12

Nov 19, 2019

3

Although there is some long overdue streamlining and quality of life changes to some important features like breeding and raising pokemon and the wild area is at first, an exciting sight for fans, there is a distinct hollowness to these games that just doesn't quite feel like Pokemon at its best, in fact I'd argue this is mainline pokemon at its worst.

The wild area with its dynamicAlthough there is some long overdue streamlining and quality of life changes to some important features like breeding and raising pokemon and the wild area is at first, an exciting sight for fans, there is a distinct hollowness to these games that just doesn't quite feel like Pokemon at its best, in fact I'd argue this is mainline pokemon at its worst.

The wild area with its dynamic weather and over world encounters is like something straight out of fan wish lists, in theory. In practice it's a flat, rather eerie expanse of literal pop-in-and-pop-out mons because of the abysmal draw distance. The environments look... okay, to be polite. The lack of experience in developing 3D environments is somehow more egregious than it was in gen 6 and 7, because now there is an unwarranted sense of scale, that makes things seem emptier, colder and sparser; this sense of emptiness is especially pronounced with the Wild Area. There are some nice touches and some degree of effort with having overworld pokemon appear in somewhat unique or unexpected ways (e.g. dandelion-like Eldegoss gracefully drifts down from above), but most of the time its *poof', pokemon appears out of thin air in uncomfortable proximity.

There are some incredibly questionable textures and geographical features but some (fewer) areas are actually quite beautifully created, on the surface. What is incredibly frustrating is how small and hallway-like many routes and areas are and just how much is only scenery. The amount of times I felt penned in to an obnoxiously small amount of space with inaccessible hills and trees in the distance, was frustating. There are now hardly any dungeon-type areas and the ones there are have no real sense of exploration, just A-B in pretty much straight or gently curved lines.

The massive inconsistency is ultimately distracting and really makes you long for a game where the care and craft in some of the art direction was the same across the board. Compared to the highly saturated and over-vivid colours of Alola, Galar is for the most part, a drab, washed out and hazy looking region almost *too* faithful to the UK in that respect (I live here), but I really don't think this was the intention. The story and cutscenes, in all honesty really hurt the game experience overall. There is a rigid, dead-eyedness to the way some models move and interact in the game a lot of the time and the storytelling (read: far too many voiceless cutscenes) is weak. You feel like you're waiting for a climax in the story that kind of doesn't happen. The same handful of bland but somehow still irritating characters weave in and out of your adventure at various points which I think some would find frustating. I did. In terms of difficulty, I have to say this campaign feels like probably the very easiest I have personally played. It feels like a chore to find ways to challenge yourself (I chose not to evolve my mons if I could avoid it) because the game effectively poses none itself. Leveling happens at an almost frustratingly prodigious rate. I even ended up avoiding some trainer battles and basically didn't need to battle wild pokemon either at all for fear of over levelling. The battling and battle animations are very disappointing, especially given the sort of words we were hearing from Gamefreak in interviews. Aside from the odd instance of (sometimes too long) unique and characterful animations for some brand new moves, the animations just simply feel outdated and wooden overall. Not really the high quality animations we were promised. Compare this to Camp, where you really see a lot of mons come to life in expression and personality. However camping itself becomes a repetitive and bland experience with not much to actually do aside from wanting to see and interact with different mons briefly. ... what else to say? To say the game lacks polish would be a gross understatement, it feels utterly unfinished in some aspects because of the massive inconsistency of quality across the board, mostly for the worst. This is not the game fans were promised and its simply sad how rushed and half baked it feels, especially with this being on hardware as potentially powerful as the Switch, it's just so outclassed by many other games on the console. It also really pales in comparison to any other mainline pokemon game, in my opinion. Oh, did I mention Dynamax/Gigantamax? Yeah, they're in the game. That's about as much as I care to think about them.… Expand

yukidalemania

Nov 17, 2019

5

Impresionante. Gráficos y diseños preciosos. Una evolución a la altura que como fan de la saga te llena de emoción.

Gaymerbear

Nov 18, 2019

6

First a few things out of the way then the good and the bad stuff.

I love Pokémon and been playing since Red/Blue. The "Dexit" bothered me but not that much, I always want to play through a new Gen with new Pokémon. So this review and criticism is written with love, admiration and hope for the next games. First a few things out of the way then the good and the bad stuff. It wasFirst a few things out of the way then the good and the bad stuff.

I love Pokémon and been playing since Red/Blue.
The "Dexit" bothered me but not that much, I always want to play through a new Gen with new Pokémon.
So this review and criticism is written with love, admiration and hope for the next games.
First a few things out of the way then the good and the bad stuff.

It was fun to play.
Max-Raid battles are fun and rewarding though GameFreak still doesn't know how to implement online gameplay.
The backstories of the other characters through the cards is a very nice touch.
The Wild Area, though minor issues, is amazing and I hope the next games will be ALL Wild Area with the Cities sprinkled around and within it.

The jump from 3DS to Switch didn't work out so well.
The graphics are amazing though not that big of a jump from Sun/Moon.
The Pokémon lack of detail (i.e. "hair" from Pokémon that should be leaves is just a green blob instead of minimal detailed leaves) and have a shine to them that makes them look like plastic.
The story is predictable and lacking, the stories of Team Rocket or X/Y were miles better and more fleshed out.
Plus a raise of 20€/$/£ (or whatever) left me confused because I don't see a big improvement of quality.

All in all it feels like the game was rushed to release.
The graphics and story could have benefited from a few more months development.… Expand

SpartanYoshi

Nov 17, 2019

5

-Historia: Malo.(4)
-Graficos: Bueno.(7)
-Aspecto Tecnico: Muy malo.(1)
-Jugabilidad: Bueno.(7)
-Diseño de Personajes:Bueno.(7)

Lentor

Nov 18, 2019

6

I was quite honestly disappointed with Pokemon Sword. While the game had some good in it, it still left a lot to be desired.

First, let's start with what I liked about the game. This time around, I actually liked the new Galorian Pokemon. Their designs are mostly either really cute (I mean you just can't say no to Yamper) or really cool looking. I feel like this is genuinely the firstI was quite honestly disappointed with Pokemon Sword. While the game had some good in it, it still left a lot to be desired.

First, let's start with what I liked about the game. This time around, I actually liked the new Galorian Pokemon. Their designs are mostly either really cute (I mean you just can't say no to Yamper) or really cool looking. I feel like this is genuinely the first Pokemon game in a long time where I wasn't at a lost for which Pokemon I wanted on my team (Generally speaking I try to use only the new Pokemon for my adventure).

The next thing I liked, was more a concept than the actual feature itself and I felt that it still had a lot to be desired: The Wild Area. I think Gamefreak really needs to double down on the Open World concept for the mainline entries going forward for Pokemon, and quite frankly that should have been the case for this generation. So what I liked about the Wild Area was the open world Idea, and also that You could actually see Pokemon pop up out of the tall grass as well as from within it. It made the world of Pokemon feel a bit more alive. What I really liked most though was that this feature was not limited to just the wild area, in fact, you could see the Pokemon you'd encounter even on the different routes you take in between cities. I've even had one encounter with a Pokemon at a bridge just outside the city! All this made me feel like I was actually in the world of Pokemon and that was fun to me.

Now on to the bad...So I think I should start with the whole DexIt controversy. Let me preface this by saying that I'm among the players who didn't actually care too much about the Pokedex cut for this new generation, however, over half of the Pokemon being completely removed from the game seemed a bit much to me even as someone who never cared to move my Pokemon to each new release of the franchise. When I first heard about the Dexit controversy, I thought that Gamefreak had cut the Pokemon in an effort to improve something else in the game; unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Gamefreak claimed that their goal in this was to improve Pokemon animations with the "extra time" they'd have from essentially cutting the pokedex in half. I have to say, I didn't actually see any great improvements in animation and some of them did seem pretty generic (Instead of having turn animations, Pokemon instead simply rotated). But personally I don't actually care too much about animation improvements. What I really hoped to see them allocate more time to was the story and overall world of the Galar region. I'll start with the world and this kinda goes back to what I didn't like about the Wild Area. The Wild Area was just a more open area that allowed you to control your camera and participate in dynamax raids. That's all that really comes down to it. The wild area just seemed really empty to me; sure there were obviously a lot of Pokemon there, but I didn't get the sense that there was anything to discover. The Dynamax Raids were easy to find, as they had beams of light shooting up at the sky for anyone to see, and there weren't really any hidden areas. My hope was that the wild area would also have some caves or dungeons with powerful Dynamax Raids at the end of them. Instead Wild Area was just a big open space with nothing but Pokemon in it, and that was disappointing.

Now for the story...This was an aspect of the game that I really was hoping Gamefreak would have put a lot more of their time on. for a $60 product I got just over 17 hours of gameplay before finishing the "story" which is quite an abysmal amount of time for the price. Firstly you aren't introduced to any sort of conflict or antagonist until near the end of the game, which means there actually really isn't even a story to begin with until you've reached the endgame. And when you do finally get introduced to the antagonist, he just wasn't a believable character. Without giving spoilers, his motives were stupid and his actions were way too extreme for his reasoning. Most worst of all, and this was something I really thought Gamefreak would address with this generation given the backlash on the topic from last generation, was the handholding and the rival you had. I feel like there were cutscenes/interruptions every 20-30 minutes. Hop was kind of an over-zealous kid who had aspirations to beat the champion (his brother), which is all great, but his overly energetic nature made him feel a lot less of a worthy rival like how I remembered Blue was in the first generation.

Overall the Gamefreak really needed to step it up for this new generation. This was the first mainline entry of the franchise to be released on a console and it's clear that they didn't utilize the full potential of the Switch. The whole Dexit and graphics controversy aside, I don't feel like this was a worthy title for being the first ever mainline Pokemon game on a console. I hope that Gamefreak can deliver next Gen.… Expand

Giggleschits

Nov 18, 2019

5

Being a huge Pokemon fan since I was a little kid (now being 28) I have to say this game impressed me about as much as Sun and Moon did, which is to say that it really doesn't. Sun and Moon was the first game I truly disliked and now that I've experienced quite a bit of Shield I'm in the same boat.

Graphics: Let's be honest, they're 3ds graphics tidied up just enough to put them on a TVBeing a huge Pokemon fan since I was a little kid (now being 28) I have to say this game impressed me about as much as Sun and Moon did, which is to say that it really doesn't. Sun and Moon was the first game I truly disliked and now that I've experienced quite a bit of Shield I'm in the same boat.

Graphics: Let's be honest, they're 3ds graphics tidied up just enough to put them on a TV without looking abysmal. I haven't experienced the "pop in" that I've seen commented here quite a bit but what I have experienced is an unplayable amount of frame rate drops anytime I'm connected to the Internet. So I find myself playing Locally for the most part because I actually can't play it when it's connected to the internet.

Gameplay: There are some features that I LOVE (being able to disable the "Do you want to nickname this pokemon") and some I hate (Extreme hand holding and the EXP Share). There is a part of me that hates not knowing what level some of the Overworld Pokemon are, and there is another part of me that loves the challenge of defeating them. I dislike the fact that before you get to the first gym if you just sat around and did the grind you can be so over leveled it's unbearably easy. I'm nearing level 60 on my team currently and I'm just past the 5th gym and in my opinion that's a bit too easy to get to. My other gripe is your damn Rival. Holy crap is his animation extremely annoying, I find myself skipping EVERY dialog with him just so I don't have to see him.

I am upset about the fact that Game Freak put Thanos in charge of the Pokedex this time around as I find a large number of my favorite Pokemon have been lost to the almighty snap. We will see what Pokemon Home brings us in the future and if Game Freak ends up reading 95% of these reviews what kind of updates will come. I really do think there is a decent game in here somewhere, just not one worth $60.00. I would have rather spent $60.00 on Divinity Original Sin 2 purely for the sheer amount of content.

I know people are upset, but this game isn't a 1 or a 2 or even a 3, I really do think 5 is a fitting number to give it. Let's hope the Ladies and Gentlemen at Game Freak hear our calls and give us some answers.… Expand

darsparx

Nov 18, 2019

6

I'm going with this rating because it's objectively not a terrible game. Sure it's largely meh because I feel they rushed it out to hit that holiday season deadline which doesn't work and from experience in past titles never worked. They need to stop with this and go back to a slower release pattern. Not to mention just give us a patch to further refine the stuff they obviously didn't haveI'm going with this rating because it's objectively not a terrible game. Sure it's largely meh because I feel they rushed it out to hit that holiday season deadline which doesn't work and from experience in past titles never worked. They need to stop with this and go back to a slower release pattern. Not to mention just give us a patch to further refine the stuff they obviously didn't have the time to finish before release that could've been fleshed out better and more refined graphically. I feel like others are just review bombing the game for no reason other than to jump on the bandwagon, it's not a "terrible" game. Not fully great but somewhere between great and meh.… Expand

dandan791

Nov 20, 2019

4

Copying my review from the Shield version as they are the exact same game;

I have been a long time Pokemon fan, and I totally feel the disappointment in the negative reviews. I originally gave this a rating of 2 simply because I’m horrified by some of the choices that were made in creating this, but I decided to change my rating to a 4 because even though it’s a “bad“ game compared toCopying my review from the Shield version as they are the exact same game;

I have been a long time Pokemon fan, and I totally feel the disappointment in the negative reviews. I originally gave this a rating of 2 simply because I’m horrified by some of the choices that were made in creating this, but I decided to change my rating to a 4 because even though it’s a “bad“ game compared to other pokemon games it’s still a Pokemon game. I wish they had simply focused on really showcasing what they could do with a Pokemon game on the Switch, but rather they chose to cut corners where they IMO really shouldn’t have (especially considering the promises that were made during the creation of the games). I don’t know why, but Let’s Go seemed more polished than this.

You have 8 preset character designs to choose from, all of which are really really boring, and I wish a more thorough character customization tool (besides hair, eyebrows, and eye color) were in place. They cut a ton of my favorite Pokemon (all in all they cut 400 pokemon out of the games completely). The graphics are bad compared to other switch titles (but obviously good compared to the 3DS versions of Pokemon, but that should go without saying). The story is flat, the characters are uninspiring, and the conversations are dry. “Dynamaxing” and “Gigantamaxing” seem gimmicky. The latter was slightly more intriguing, but I cannot understand the big difference between this and the Mega X&Y forms, so to release it as a “new” feature seemed a bit odd to me. Also, why spend time on that and not time on including all the Pokemon and polishing the game? I managed to ignore other annoyances like the occasional stuttering, lifeless 3DS style animation in trees and greenery, and the odd bug here and there. However, my disappointment peaked towards the end of the main story (no spoilers) when they chose to suddenly change the typical 3D movie scene of people talking to a few still images of blatantly obvious concept art with subtitles running below. It felt random, out of place, lazy, and like a total break from the general art style in the rest of the game. It literally only happened once in the entire game, but during a pretty important conversation. The concept art images were pretty ambitious, so I assume they just didn’t have time to finish the actual scenes. It made me see just how rushed this game was, and it also made me critically look at just how many corners they cut (and promises they broke) in making this game – it’s a lot.

If they release updates and DLCs in the future I am more than willing to change my review, as I feel like there is a solid skeleton in place here. It just feels hollow compared to other titles. So... as a Pokemon fan I’m incredibly disappointed with these two games, but it seems obvious to me that this is not a proposal to the core fan base. This is to all the parents that want an easy holiday present for their kid and it will sell like hot cakes regardless of the reviews. Kids will gobble this up and be happy, as is the case with every single Pokemon game.… Expand

Juan19892020

Nov 18, 2019

5

Game freak jumped from handles to home console just to deliver a 3ds game.
Gameplay over graphics right? But we have the same gameplay as always! All we ask is for better graphics! Game freak focus on kids but honestly no kid plays pokemon .

Rainelz

Nov 18, 2019

6

Still a fun game... So is the raids but the animation and the dexit along with lack of good post game still warrants the game a negative points for me... Would have scored it higher

thoughts

Nov 18, 2019

5

Pokémon Sword sadly did not live up to my hopes for the franchise or the 60 euro price tag. I feel bad giving this game such a low score, due to the review bombing, but I cannot recommend this game in the slightest. The controversy surrounding the games largely passed me by, because I didn't really care about the national dex. I still don't. What I do care about however is the main story,Pokémon Sword sadly did not live up to my hopes for the franchise or the 60 euro price tag. I feel bad giving this game such a low score, due to the review bombing, but I cannot recommend this game in the slightest. The controversy surrounding the games largely passed me by, because I didn't really care about the national dex. I still don't. What I do care about however is the main story, the visual appeal of the games and the post-game content/replayability. Sadly I find Pokemon Sword to be lacking in every single one of these aspects.

The games have never been known for their story, but since generation 3 stories have gradually gotten more and more ambitious and while not always successful there have been some engaging campaigns in past entries like Generations 4, 5, and 7. The story is almost non-existent, many character plot-lines go nowhere, and in the second half of the game you are carried from cutscene to cutscene with literally no ability to explore, none of the cities are as large as they appear and there are no secrets to discover anywhere, not even the wild area. The visual appeal of the games is also lacking.

Certain areas are absolutely stunning and the art direction for the games is strong overall. However, most of the game feels empty and lifeless, especially the wild area. The HD graphics have also made some of the more clunky animations even more jarring to look at, something I didn't notice in the games on the 3DS. This is especially disappointing since animations were given as a reason to cut the dex, yet aside from the upgraded textures these games don't really show any improvement in that regard.

Lastly, the replayability of the games is limited in my experience. I beat the game the day it came out (the story + postgame totalling about 16 hours for me) and I have had no desire to pick the game up since. You can complete the dex and the postgame contains a battle tower you can try your luck at, online battles are available as well, but aside from that there's not much there. With every other Pokemon entry up until this point I would spend several additional hours in the post game exploring the region, but these games are so linear and give you so little to explore that this really isn't an option. I also don't have the desire to restart the game and play through it once more. Sadly, this game offers less to do than previous entries (even compared to the barebones X and Y or some of the earliest entries in the series gold/silver)

There are other issues with the game, SD card corruption, sound settings being locked behind an item given to you by an NPC, glitches, frame-drops and the list goes on. I personally have not had an issue with any of these other than the NPC playing these games, but it is something to be aware of when looking to buy these games. As sad as it is, I'd say save your money, buy them when they're on sale or wait until the hopefully improved third instalment will probably be released next year.… Expand

Nath_eZ

Nov 18, 2019

4

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

Espero que recapaciten y vuelvan a trabajar con la filosofía de Satoru Iwata.… Expand

MazdoTechno

Nov 18, 2019

4

lacking in almost every department Pokemon Sword and Shield is the greatest disappointment from the main line Pokémon games since the painfully mediocre X and Y.
If you are looking for a causal Pokémon experience and don’t take the franchise that seriously I would definitely recommend this game.
If you are looking for something beyond the bare minimum in almost any aspect of the game Ilacking in almost every department Pokemon Sword and Shield is the greatest disappointment from the main line Pokémon games since the painfully mediocre X and Y.
If you are looking for a causal Pokémon experience and don’t take the franchise that seriously I would definitely recommend this game.
If you are looking for something beyond the bare minimum in almost any aspect of the game I would recommend giving these games the pass.
Dynamaxing replaces the much more creative Mega Evolution mechanic in these games.
The games get some brownie points from me because of the Dark Type gym leader which I have wanted to see for years.

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

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

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

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

Music 2.5/5
Some good tracks but overall just kind of mediocre, this games music once again suffers from the “too much reverb” disease that Pokémon music picked up from the jump to 3DS. The golden era of Pokémon music was definitely from Gen 3-5. I do think there is some promise in the music of these games with great tracks like the Gym battle music.… Expand

aaronjordan2

Nov 18, 2019

4

Not buying the game until I get my hands on a used copy. But from watching walkthroughs and following updates about the game contents. This deserves a 4. The positive side of this game is the new Pokemon including regional forms/evolutions. Not going to lie they look amazing.

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

However not including all the Pokemon and eliminating Mega Evolutions and Z moves is almost a deal breaker for me. What's worse is that large Pokemon are not set to their proper scale which is really annoying because of data entry in the Pokedex and considering when Pokemon teamed up with Genius Sonority they were scaled correctly and that was way over a decade ago. I don't like the Dynamaxing gimmick because it's unrealistic in the Pokemon anime and there was still some development left open for Mega Evolutions and Z moves. The game feels rushed and Gamefreak was caught in a lie regarding how they claimed to not use old models when they actually did. On top of that hackers are now importing cut Pokemon now and it fuels the argument Game Freak was lazy. As a long time Pokemon fan I am extremely disappointed in the effort put into this game to appeal to their loyal fans. I'm only going to buy a used copy just because I like the new Pokemon.… Expand

Malvion

Nov 19, 2019

6

Story:
Pretty common Pokèmon story, but less invasive. Not too deep and not too easygoing. Maybe some things were similar to the Sun and Moon plot...
Graphic: Still needs a lot of work, but it's not totally bad sometimes. Features and Post-Game: too few.. except for Shiny Hunting and Competitive Breeding you have literally nothing to do. So for the ones who can't play competitive theStory:
Pretty common Pokèmon story, but less invasive. Not too deep and not too easygoing. Maybe some things were similar to the Sun and Moon plot...

Graphic: Still needs a lot of work, but it's not totally bad sometimes.

Features and Post-Game: too few.. except for Shiny Hunting and Competitive Breeding you have literally nothing to do. So for the ones who can't play competitive the game become boring really fast.… Expand

leon12jay

Nov 19, 2019

3

This pokemon game seems like it does't fully developed. Although the graphics have got an upgrade, it still suck at 2019 level. There are even no background while battling inside building or city. In addition, the story is really straight forward and lack of depth, which lead to a short story is unacceptable.Cities feel like empty while exploring them. At least the city can have moreThis pokemon game seems like it does't fully developed. Although the graphics have got an upgrade, it still suck at 2019 level. There are even no background while battling inside building or city. In addition, the story is really straight forward and lack of depth, which lead to a short story is unacceptable.Cities feel like empty while exploring them. At least the city can have more people doing different thing to interact with people and pokemon, house with different design, more characteristics or tradition in cities and so on. There are so many thing to improve.

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

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

Overall, the experience is not satisfying and I think there is no excuse for gamefreak to cut the pokedex as the quality of the game is like this bad. Hoping that the company can listen to our voice to make improvement in the future.… Expand

NovaAkasha

Nov 19, 2019

5

It is not a bad game, but it really shows that it is incomplete. It needs at least 6-12 months more of development. The story is very simple and short. You can pass the game in less than 20 hours, and the content is generally poor. In addition to having several failures that a game of this generation, made by one of the multi-million dollar companies, cannot be allowed. How to lack suchIt is not a bad game, but it really shows that it is incomplete. It needs at least 6-12 months more of development. The story is very simple and short. You can pass the game in less than 20 hours, and the content is generally poor. In addition to having several failures that a game of this generation, made by one of the multi-million dollar companies, cannot be allowed. How to lack such basic things that other previous games had with no problem. (Specific funds for each zone, as an example).

The biggest problem was the expectations they created with the excuse of cutting the pokedex for more quality. A lie.

It's a step back, Pokemon SM / USUM, in generational and console comparison, is much better, which speaks very badly about this game. It is not worth 60 dollars.
I do not recommend, if not, that you over money and just want to live the experience of pokemon, once again, in HD without expecting anything new or better than before.
I hope that the next release takes advantage of all the failures that it has, to be a better game, and to meet expectations.

Summary:
A game with great potential wasted, for the preference of releasing games annually, instead of giving its consumers quality products. It has several errors and shortcomings that can ruin the experience. Even so, you can enjoy it, but leave much to be desired.… Expand

theguymandude

Nov 19, 2019

4

As far as Pokemon games go this one is definitely lacking on many fronts. If you've played the previous mainline title to this on (Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Moon) then you will notice a lot of similarity. If you enjoyed those titles immensely you will also likely enjoy this one. However for those who have been sticking with the series for a much longer period of time, and have poured aAs far as Pokemon games go this one is definitely lacking on many fronts. If you've played the previous mainline title to this on (Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Moon) then you will notice a lot of similarity. If you enjoyed those titles immensely you will also likely enjoy this one. However for those who have been sticking with the series for a much longer period of time, and have poured a large chunk of hours into the games then these Sword and Shield will probably disappoint you. Many missing features that should be staples of the series at this point, including the removal of the Global Trade System. Difficulty options remain gone since Black and White 2, and an EXP share system that can't be turned off. In addition to a large chunk of Pokemon being completely gone from the game there are also moves that have completely vanished. Not to mention the game's framerate is still spotty in some areas, which is kind of baffling at this point seeing as the game really doesn't look like anything special at all.
I can't recommend this to anyone who has a large amount of passion for the series, but for those who are just casual fans the game is probably fine for a quick playthrough. It's just a shame Game Freak can't appeal to both of those groups for whatever reason.… Expand

Mermunkaman

Nov 19, 2019

1

Extremely dated and overdone combat system, uninspired story with aggressive hand holding, cut pokemon, the online does not work for me, I tried at least 20 times to get into a raid in the wild area but it never worked, the new trading system does not work for me either. The new dynamax feels shoehorned in and serves to waste your time. Just wait for the next one (if they improve)

rabbit94

Nov 19, 2019

3

The general Pokemon formula of catching and battling is intact, which makes the game fun. I thought this was incredible for the first few hours, but after yet another big story moment that I don't actually get to play (or even see), I'm over it. The whole story is happening in the background and is being handled by NPC's off-screen. Technical problems, painfully easy, and a skeleton ofThe general Pokemon formula of catching and battling is intact, which makes the game fun. I thought this was incredible for the first few hours, but after yet another big story moment that I don't actually get to play (or even see), I'm over it. The whole story is happening in the background and is being handled by NPC's off-screen. Technical problems, painfully easy, and a skeleton of what could have been the best Pokemon game to date.… Expand

CarnageReigns

Nov 19, 2019

4

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is short and the post game is lacking. I only played this in handheld mode but the visuals are stunning. Just a beautiful game to behold. Ballonlea is gorgeous. The wild area is a nice touch as well. Outside of that this is not to write home about. It's a very easy, handhold-y experience that lacks difficulty. For $60 and the current game we have the post game should have included another region. There needs to be more to the game to justify the price. The lack of content bombs what had the potential to be a worthwhile game.… Expand

Ditude

Nov 19, 2019

4

Un juego vacío. Creo que para ningún fan de la saga ha sido una sorpresa encontrarse con un juego que no transmite nada. Una historia simple, unos personajes desperdiciados, un trabajo por parte de Game Freak que no ha estado a la altura.

Doubblepizza

Nov 19, 2019

2

Roster is disturbing and should not be Pokémon. Frame drops and lack of any good story.

Floobersman

Nov 19, 2019

3

Example of Game Freaks unwillingness to give their fans a AAA game that they deserve and instead create a game that reuses a lot from the previous installment. Adding complete open world freedom as any current AAA rpg has and instead stay with an insanely linear guide that doesnt give you freedom that you want.

Noono

Nov 19, 2019

3

If we take a step back and look at Sun and Moon or X and Y those games are just the same as this if not better. The only redeeming qualities this game has is the nice shadders, new pokemon, new gimmicks and mechanics, an entirely new story along with it. But, all of that is significantly reduced when you realize how much is pulled away from the game itself since X/Y and S/M have more toIf we take a step back and look at Sun and Moon or X and Y those games are just the same as this if not better. The only redeeming qualities this game has is the nice shadders, new pokemon, new gimmicks and mechanics, an entirely new story along with it. But, all of that is significantly reduced when you realize how much is pulled away from the game itself since X/Y and S/M have more to offer in not just content but in gameplay as well with reduced bugs from launch. If I was a kid and played all 3 of these back to back I guarantee that I would have much more fun playing X/Y or S/M purely for the fact there's better ideas and more to do in those games. The issue isn't even content if they just added literally anything fun or cool into the games I wouldn't have just thrown it away but there isn't a thing to enjoy when I can just play the free version on my phone when the wild area is the same thing like a great idea? Now, what are you gonna do with it? It's like they were thinking of something and said let's just move on XD but I will say the art design and music for the games are pretty good altogether also so congrats for getting something right!… Expand

zaef

Nov 19, 2019

4

This had the potential to be great but fell short due to a few issues. First off many of the new Pokemon and Galarian forms are well designed and pretty cool. Also many of the new features are a welcome addition. All of this however does not make up for the removal of the National Dex and the choice to force players to use Exp. Share.

MrWriter

Nov 19, 2019

6

The graphics don't bother me, the animations do a little after being told they had been improved.

The story is boring as **** this is my biggest gripe. I had the same issue with Sun and Moon. The games have more cutscenes and stop and start gameplay than a Kojima game! I don't care about Hop (stupid name) or Leon, or Bea (again stupid name) just give me my Pokemon and let me go on myThe graphics don't bother me, the animations do a little after being told they had been improved.

The story is boring as **** this is my biggest gripe. I had the same issue with Sun and Moon.

The games have more cutscenes and stop and start gameplay than a Kojima game! I don't care about Hop (stupid name) or Leon, or Bea (again stupid name) just give me my Pokemon and let me go on my adventure!

Speaking of which, the story needs to change in two ways. One, add voice actors to talk through the scenes which are important.

Secondly can we not have a new type of story? Or just have a minimal story and let us focus on catching and training Pokemon and getting badges?

Dynamax is just another pointless gimmick, they should of stuck to mega evos. I don't mind the game being easy, but I understand others do, so a hardcore mode, or even version might of been a good idea. Make Sword the easy game, and Shield the harder one. Now the good things. The open areas with wild Pokemon? Brilliant, I feel like I have reason to revisit areas.

I like the gym challenges, breaks up the game.

And I like the new Pokemon.

I'm struggling to play this, since Friday I've only played 6 hours and have 2 badges. The stop, start story with its snoozefest text is what's putting me off most.

Again I had the same struggle with Sun, and even Ultra Sun. However I'm a huge fan of completing the nat dex. So I battled through the story, and then got close to 90 hours, filling the nat dex (and breeding and trading). I just don't see that happening with Sword.

I hope something hooks soon, but right now, I'm kinda regretting my purchase.

6/10… Expand

LBrize

Nov 20, 2019

5

I was a bit older when Pokémon first came out and so I missed the whole craze through the 90’s and early 2000’s. I like RPGs, so I have e always wanted to get into Pokémon at some point. I took this opportunity to do just that, and I must say I have barely put the game down since I started playing! It is more fun than I ever imagined, Some are complaining about the graphics or otherI was a bit older when Pokémon first came out and so I missed the whole craze through the 90’s and early 2000’s. I like RPGs, so I have e always wanted to get into Pokémon at some point. I took this opportunity to do just that, and I must say I have barely put the game down since I started playing! It is more fun than I ever imagined, Some are complaining about the graphics or other technical issues, but honestly the game looks just fine. It looks very much like the cartoon, and to me it’s not supposed to look like Red Dead Redemption 2; the game purposely has a cel-shaded, cartoon-look to and I think it’s quite beautiful!
Finally, the gameplay. It’s varied, responds well, feels intuitive, and most importantly, it’s an absolute blast to play! Best game on Switch since Breath of the Wild!… Expand

mittens2077

Nov 20, 2019

6

A pretty underwhelming introduction of mainline Pokémon games to the home console, something I have been excited for ever since I was a little kid. I definitely enjoyed some of the higher quality animations in a few of the cutscenes, however the visuals are unpolished in a lot of aspects. Some animations are just embarrassing. The story is generic and the game is awfully hand-holdy, evenA pretty underwhelming introduction of mainline Pokémon games to the home console, something I have been excited for ever since I was a little kid. I definitely enjoyed some of the higher quality animations in a few of the cutscenes, however the visuals are unpolished in a lot of aspects. Some animations are just embarrassing. The story is generic and the game is awfully hand-holdy, even for a children’s RPG. You are constantly lead by a trail of breadcrumbs to your next destination to the point where it’s just stupid. Many familiar Pokémon features have been “streamlined” such as receiving forced exp.share from the get go and your Pokémon are healed after just about every battle. Pokémon seem way too easy to level up also. If they were going to remove all the “tedious” mechanics of Pokémon games, why not just start me out with level 100 Pokémon? I’ve always found individually levelling up my Pokémon gave me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but that’s just me I suppose. I like most of the new mon designs, but was disappointed to see only 400 or so Pokémon actually made it into the game. Overall, Pokémon Sword and Shield are definitely not worth their retail price of 70-80 aud. If you’re really keen to pick the games up , Get them second hand. Hopefully Gamefreak delivers something special next time. -_-… Expand

Kampfer

Nov 20, 2019

4

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Un juego más de lo mismo y con contenido recortado, y claro, a precio de juego completo. Los gráficos no son la gran cosa, parecen una versión HD de los de sol y luna, además las animaciones, una de las supuestas excusas para no tener a todos los Pokémon, en su gran mayoría son muy simples, hay unas que están muy bien pero otras pecan de simpleza como el doble patada, las animaciones en los personajes también no son muy variadas.
En cuanto. ala historia es interesante pero no llega a ser muy increíble. En conclusión este juego que podría haber sido una nueva experiencia fresca sigue manteniendo la misma fórmula, que en si no está mal pero pudieron haber echo una mejor entrada a los juegos a una consola con mayores capacidades que una portátil.… Expand

EUWraith

Nov 20, 2019

2

- Wild Area is a pretty fresh concept for the franchise but isn't well implemented, it suffers from spouts of lag if multiple players are in the area which ruins the good feeling i get from stepping into pokemon's first open area to explore. Overlevelled pokemon are present in the area which is excellent, however they changed the game so you can't catch pokemon above your badge level, this- Wild Area is a pretty fresh concept for the franchise but isn't well implemented, it suffers from spouts of lag if multiple players are in the area which ruins the good feeling i get from stepping into pokemon's first open area to explore. Overlevelled pokemon are present in the area which is excellent, however they changed the game so you can't catch pokemon above your badge level, this is a major letdown as levelling in this game is ridiciulously easy, essentially forcing the player to railroad the story just to come back to the wild area so they can actually catch the higher level pokemon they encounter, nothing better than seeing a pokemon you really want on your team in the wild area, nothing feels worse than running into that pokemon and the game telling you, you can't catch it.

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

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

Post-Game is a shambles and feels more like what usually happens near the climax of the main story in most prior pokemon games, instead of seeking out and capturing the cover pokemon before the climatic final battle to help you beat the main threat to the region, the game once again holds your hand by having both covers show up as bots to help you take down the threat, making it pretty much impossible to lose the final fight, removing any stakes or feeling of importance, the covers would have come regardless of your interference and they can basically win the fight by themselves, so there's no point in you even going there because there's no threat, terrible story telling.… Expand

Xenoh

Nov 20, 2019

3

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game feels short und rushed. There is nothing to explore After finishing the Story. Only 3 legendarys and Team Yell is a joke.
I dont care that there are only 400 Pokemon in the game, but putting almost all of them in this small open world Area is just sad. You can cycle in unter 10 seconds from one Route to the next. Nintendo rushed this game. Kids will enjoy it but a Pokemon fan will Not.… Expand

emercy

Nov 20, 2019

3

Mi reseña de Pokemon Sword

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusión , un juego que prometía mucho no cumplió y quedo defraudando aun mas .
Emercy.… Expand

Schultzkyle

Nov 20, 2019

4

This game is graphically lazy. It feels small and I hate the wild area. The game is small and the animations look about as good as the N64. Look it up.

pavestrella

Nov 20, 2019

3

Too easy. The game makes sure you win everything easily. Lack of content compared to previous games.

Gethin

Nov 21, 2019

2

So far all i’ve done is press A for 11hours. Easiest game i’ve ever played. Disappointing

Borja_Ibrahim

Nov 21, 2019

4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Y pese a todo, le echo muchas horas y trato de completar la Pokédex y entrenar. Porque le tengo mucho cariño a la franquicia y sigue siendo Pokémon. Pero... No es el videojuego que nos merecemos en Switch.… Expand

Nudie

Nov 21, 2019

1

Lazy, lazy lazy game design, where should I start?
This game is a 3ds game ported over to the switch with some enhanced features. The textures, battle mechanics, animations, lack of Pokémon from other generations, lack of puzzles and an extremely underwhelming story have made this game lacklustre to say the least. The game suffers from ageing in all aspects and even has been rated lowerLazy, lazy lazy game design, where should I start?
This game is a 3ds game ported over to the switch with some enhanced features. The textures, battle mechanics, animations, lack of Pokémon from other generations, lack of puzzles and an extremely underwhelming story have made this game lacklustre to say the least. The game suffers from ageing in all aspects and even has been rated lower than shadow of darkness, which is decades older... Unfortunately this game missed a huge opportunity to showcase what Pokémon could look like on a modern day console, for example, Zelda breath of the wild had some of the most beautiful textures in a large map we’ve ever seen in any Nintendo game, which, we were eager to see in Pokémon. This was not the case obviously, as the textures are pixelated and unbearable. The greatest thing about this game is the fact that it is still some what of a Pokémon game, but that’s not enough in this day and age, I feel like I literally purchased a. 3ds game..... I would miss this one for sure, or try and buy it for under $20

There is no excuse for not bringing all the Pokémon over all voicing the characters. Look at fire emblem, all cut scenes voiced to perfection, great textures, many characters and classes, long game (played 250hours). Come on don’t lie to us game freak this game was pumped out to get in before Christmas.… Expand

goldenjonnie

Nov 21, 2019

4

Insufficiente in ogni singolo aspetto, dalla grafica all’online. L’unico aspetto decente è la caratterizzazione e lo stile dei nuovi Pokemon.

Villabong11

Nov 21, 2019

1

I can't give this game a good score not because it lacks of features or is broken or not enjoyable, the Pokemon experience is always enjoyable always to any fan out there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is my review of this game (I got it used), is sad because I pay for 60 dollars Pokemon game 20 years ago that was way more polished than this rushed game with less content.… Expand

Bashbach1

Nov 21, 2019

4

I knew it from the very beginning that game freak was running out of ideas. Most of the Pokémon are just remodeled or remade versions of other Pokémon, giant whatever Max’s are just totem Pokémon and the Breath of The Wild looking graphics turned out to be classic game freak DS graphics. But, with all that being said, it’s not a bad game. The encounters I love especially as a shiny hunter,I knew it from the very beginning that game freak was running out of ideas. Most of the Pokémon are just remodeled or remade versions of other Pokémon, giant whatever Max’s are just totem Pokémon and the Breath of The Wild looking graphics turned out to be classic game freak DS graphics. But, with all that being said, it’s not a bad game. The encounters I love especially as a shiny hunter, the gym battles are great, the NPC design is good except for Hop which is a disgrace to humanity. I didn’t like the story but I loved how vast the wild was and I do admit I had some fun.… Expand

AWARK

Nov 23, 2019

5

I suspect that in 6 months time we are going to get a Pokémon Sword (ultra) version of this game released, with the full national dex and probably an extended wild zone maybe some more story. I enjoy the game but my concern was this game was way to quick.

it seems to have fallen into the same pit that MMO's did a few years back, "hey everyone hates grinding lets speed it up" So nowI suspect that in 6 months time we are going to get a Pokémon Sword (ultra) version of this game released, with the full national dex and probably an extended wild zone maybe some more story. I enjoy the game but my concern was this game was way to quick.

it seems to have fallen into the same pit that MMO's did a few years back,
"hey everyone hates grinding lets speed it up"
So now all your pokemon in your group earn exp you don't have to swap them out or find an Exp Share or grind on chancies (yes I did that) But in some respects its made your pokemon totally disposable. it used to be you would end up at the end game and I would say normally your starter pokemon would be in your team. Now why bother run a few raids get the exp candies boost up any pokemon that's better in a few minutes.

The graphics are not a deal breaker for me and I sort of understand why they didn't do the full national dex. They wanted to make it easier for maybe people or newer gamers who may not have played the previous games to have an easier job instead of trawling through 900+ pokemon. However I always feel they should at least have kept all starters from all previous games.

The trading system is broke, they should have either committed to put in a GTS system to allow trading. OR put in a chat system to allow you to find another trader willing to trade specific pokemon. as its stands the "random trade" feature is just trash pokemon.

The grouping mechanic is a good idea it just feels like it was unfinished you try and join 10+ games to get "communication close" messages.

The story I think is the weakest part of the game I actually didn't care for what was going on it didn't even make sense at the end. It was another unfinished aspect to the game. The second story after you finish the main one was even more stupid.

So to sum up the game feels "unfinished" in that elements feel like they were rushed out the door they may have been tested but it just felt mediocre compared to the prior games they have done.

The "wild" zone isn't that big its a good attempt at making it multiplayer but it feels smaller than the safari zones in some of the earlier gba games. additionally the group play element is just broken you wait 2.5mins for someone to join your game and if you just rush it you get 3 garbage trainers with trash pokemon that proceed to chain die thus throwing you out. there is no lobby system OR facility to group up with 4 people and stay grouped after you beat a boss and move around.

So to sum up, its an OK game but a Poor Pokémon game, will be fine for a new player just getting into pokemon but will frustrate anyone who has played the previous games or has invested time. I would wait till either the next iteration is released in 5 years time or if they can patch sword to fix some of the obvious faults such as trading and the national dex.… Expand

KratosVanDark

Nov 22, 2019

4

Was soll der Mist Gamefreak es ist noch leichter geworden und wo sind über 400 Pokemon hin wenn es doch nur die gleichen Animation sind wie auf den 3ds. Dazu ist das Spie innerhalb von 24 Stunden durch spielbar das ist bis jetzt das schlechteste Pokemon aus der hauptreihe

Cinderaceee

Nov 22, 2019

6

Here's my honest review from a player who played since gen 1 and got into competetive over the years. The story of the game is really bad. It was uneeded and pokemon needs to stop trying to have story in their games. We didnt need a story 15 years ago and we dont need one now. The game holds your hand throughout the entire game also stopping you every few seconds to explain something, mostHere's my honest review from a player who played since gen 1 and got into competetive over the years. The story of the game is really bad. It was uneeded and pokemon needs to stop trying to have story in their games. We didnt need a story 15 years ago and we dont need one now. The game holds your hand throughout the entire game also stopping you every few seconds to explain something, most of the time its Hop trying to battle you or talk to you. I dont know what the devs were thinking with this dialog heavy mess since fans have complained since sun and moon we dont like inturuptions that stop gameplay. They really think people want all these different characters and explanations for stuff, we dont. Take it out, and no more annoying rivals. Let's go back to the hoenn days where we see our rival maybe 3 times. That's it. Sonia is hot too but she unfortunetly adds on too this games dialog and inturuption problem.

Anyway the reason I'm even giving this a decent score is because I liked everything that had to do with gameplay. The new pokemon are exciting and a few or more appear on every route. There dozens of customization options for your character making each one look unique online. Gym battles are revampted and gives you an awe feel as your giant pokemon clashes with theirs. The new mechanic dynamax was weird at first but is really balanced and makes battles more intense then even megas. The saving grace of the game however is raid battles which simply is the pokemon online we all wanted. Fighting raid battles is insanity and very fun. The sheer amount of pokemon living in the wild area is incredible and saves the game from its backlash. The wild area needs to be implanted in every future game no exceptions. To sum up everything when the good clashes with the bad the good prevails. Yes they took out many pokemon which I hope will be added in later, although unforgivable theres alot to play with here and we can only be patient. I believe despite what gf says nintendo will force these lazy devs to make dlc. They have too. So if your ok slogging through constant dialog and inturuptions then you'll rewarded through your efforts with a game rich with new mechanics and gameplay. Enjoy… Expand

DarkGio

Nov 22, 2019

6

Look,this game isn't as bad as some people say.
However,it could be much better.
The music,the character design and the trainer customization are great,but I just can't look past the cuts and the absurd excuses they used to justify them. The wild area is a step in the fight direction,but on the other hand many of its textures look unpolished and It also lags at times,especiallyLook,this game isn't as bad as some people say.
However,it could be much better.
The music,the character design and the trainer customization are great,but I just can't look past the cuts and the absurd excuses they used to justify them.
The wild area is a step in the fight direction,but on the other hand many of its textures look unpolished and It also lags at times,especially online,where frame drops are very noticeable.
The animations are mostly reused and Pokémon and people pop in and out of existence depending on how far you are from them.
The story is...lackluster,It had some potential,but ultimately It wasn't enjoyable.
The game can be challenging at times (provided you don't overlevel your Pokémon with XP candies) but it's still a pretty easy game overall.
To conclude,it's a fun experience,but once you stop and look at its flaws you can't help but wonder why Game Freak didn't use all the resources they had in order to make this a better game.… Expand

IHaveManyWaifus

Nov 22, 2019

5

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Thing is about Pokemon is that its slowly becoming easier and easier with each new generation. I felt like my hand was held for a good portion of the game and it didn't feel right at all. It was the longest tutorial I ever had essentially. Starting it off with Hop, your rival, is by far the worst rival Pokemon has had. People can talk about the X&Y friend group all they want but Hop is just annoying. Your rival has always been the guy or gal that goes off and experience things on their own only to randomly approach you with a battle. Hop...doesn't do that. I feel like every 5 minutes the dude appears with some dialogue that isn't even that interesting and challenge you after almost no progress into game was made. He also chooses YOUR type advantage. Which is....boring. They kinda make it up a teensy tiny bit with the Champion picking your type disadvantage but it was still whatever.

No Pokemon League. I thought the tourney would lead into the the Elite Four but it just lead into another bracket against...gym leaders. You know, the same people you beat before. I was super disappointed because the Elite Four is always pretty cool. Different type of Pokemon, may contain Pokemon you rarely see, and no rest time in-between. But in Sword your Pokemon, are healed in-between, which ruins this part of the game for me.

Some may nor agree. But I missed stopping the evildoers. It was actually pretty cool. Where you worked with the Champion to take them down and in some games it was pretty difficult. And when you solved this huge problem you went on and completed the rest of the gyms and did the Elite Four. And when you encounter the Champion there was a sense of familiarity and respect. But in this there was none of that. The Champion just knows you because you are Hop's friend. That is his relationship with you. That is all. Which is just bland.

No challenge whatsoever. I didn't grind at all really as its easy to level. I sometimes didn't heal Pokemon cause I really didn't have to. And i didn't even feel as accomplished when I beat the game like the other games. It was more like...yay?

Good things about this game. Its Pokemon...I really enjoyed battles even though they were easy. Doing raids are pretty fun, I know a lot of people enjoy them a lot but I don't actively seek them but they are fun none the less. I do like some of the gym leaders more in this game than in previous ones. I like the character customization. The Wild Area was pretty fun. Some of the towns are neatly designed.

I will try and complete the pokedex however. Cause the game was too short for me and I want to keep playing. Shiny hunting is always something I want to do at least once per game.… Expand

1Eliash1

Nov 23, 2019

5

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Hi everyone, I want to share feedback on this game. The game of course, on the one hand, the game is well made (there are new Pokémon, new items added, and so on), and on the other hand, the yoke is made very poorly for several reasons. Pokedex was limited to almost half of the Pokémon, the game was lagged in places of large concentrations of Pokémon, the game was done very poorly (After defeating the champion, the credits went right away, and at least they would reward them for defeating the champion), because in previous games on 3ds consoles there was a normal end to the game. And so I give a rating of 5.… Expand

EpiKuro

Nov 23, 2019

6

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I just beat Shield and it was... bare bones?

There are only 10 routes and no real landmarks between them, it's mostly just route -> town -> route -> town.
The routes are extremely short and rail-roady (a problem SuMo had as well) with very few NPC trainers on them.

This was by far the easiest Pokemon game I've ever played, I was done with the main story in about 20 hours and my Pokemon were, for most of the journey, 15-20 levels above the NPCs I faced at any time.
This was thanks to an overabundance of EXP Candy, which I got in about one hour or so, once I reached the Wild Area.

This is the first Pokemon Game in which my team NEVER wiped, and I can count the number of times, one of my Pokemon ever reached 0 HP, on one hand.

The wild area is small and has no real differences between its internal areas, there's a small, non-enterable ghost tower, a lake, a sandbox with some stones... and that's it I think?

Raids get old fast, since it's damage move after damage move, without any reason to use anything else.
Also, you feel somewhat irrelevant if you aren't the one dynamaxing, your only job is pretty much to take out one or two shield brackets and not add to the 4 deaths count.
At the same time some 5 stars raids are impossible to do with 2-3 NPCs, since they seem to die on purpose.

Any "evil" team will have trouble following up on Team Skull, but with Team Yell it feels like they didn't even try, for most of the time they only function as human roadblocks and nothing else.

It was interesting to see a rival hit a slump, but they didn't follow through with that and he "got better" before anything meaningful could occur.
Marnie wasn't even relevant for most of the time and had a lackluster finish to her story.
Almost every side character in SuMo was more memorable than the ones in Sword and Shield.
The story follows the same tropes a Pokemon story always does.

The got rid of multiplayer in the Battle Tower, something that has been in the series since Gen 3, so my entire favorite post game content (co-op multiplayer with a friend in Battle Whatever) has been cut from the game.

The online functions are jarring and unwieldy, which is especially sad because we now have to pay for them.
You can't do multi battles with one friend against online opponents, since the code system doesn't work if only two people are using it for multi.
There's no lobby or anything and a 4 digits code is too easy to random match with people other than your intended friend.
If you don't use the code, friends don't get preferential treatment, you both just get matched with 3 randos in different battles, if you don't find the sticker fast enough.
There is no GTS anymore.

There are of course things I like: I love the designs of most of the G-Max Pokemon, I love the region/flavor, I love the cooking, I love Piers, the towns and the area with the legendaries look amazing, the fast travel is awesome (and fast!) and we can FINALLY see Pokemon before we encounter them (even on routes!).

I accepted the dex cuts (though I do miss Mega Evolution) and I don't care about models or graphics, but, even with all the things I like, the stuff above is what makes this an below average Pokemon game for me, especially following (Ultra) Sun and (Ultra) Moon.

The creativity was there, the design was there, the gameplay and the story weren't.
From here on out, it's only raid after raid after raid, which makes this feel more like an MMORPG, instead of an J-RPG.
It's all side dish with no meat.

Bonus: Why in the world would they take out the touch organization in boxes, battles and menus? That made them so much faster and easier to use.… Expand

DeathSpell

Nov 23, 2019

3

Animaciones de comienzo de siglo, mitad de pokemones sin aparecer, texturas de los 90, rendimiento pésimo, el dynamax es una porquería.

Juego a medio hacer, lo único bueno es el diseño de personajes, la customizacion del entrenador y el wild field, que aun así se vuelve aburrido en nada.

EpicGamerScout

Nov 23, 2019

6

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pokemon Sword is a surprisingly solid entry into the Pokemon franchise if you can overlook the flaws. While it has subpar visuals and less than half the Pokemon in the previous games, as well as an absurdly easy story, the story itself is pretty good and it has a climax that made me feel as if I'm literally saving the world. The new Pokemon are mostly great, and the post game is full of things like shiny hunting, a (dumbed down) battle tree, and a fun mission that can take you a few hours, etc.… Expand

Lovio

Nov 24, 2019

6

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I wish to start out by saying that I have 100% the game and clocked 111 hours. I have completed the Pokedex, I have the shiny charm, catch charm, and oval charms. I did the post-game and I have done a bit of online play as well.
I'm going to split this review into a few parts, these are just my thoughts and might be a bit unorganized.

Part 1: Story
The story for the games is very par for the course for Pokemon- its enough to keep you playing. A few arcs are very interesting- like hop feeling subpar to his brother. I often found myself wishing I could interact (optionally) to get more of that from him. I also adored Marnie and Bede's arcs- while they could have used more development as well, they wrapped up nicely. Overall Team Yell opted to take a more "team skull" approach while the actual evil team was Marco Cosmos. This really confused me as the only part of the game I'd even be able to see mentions of them was in Pokejobs. I wish there was a more active role by these people and perhaps even an optional side quest about learning more. Catching Eternatus at the end was a very epic moment- but it was badly placed. I don't see why it messed up the champion match. Instead of building tension, it ruined it for me. I found myself wanting to go and beat Leon the entire time I was fighting Eternatus. The post game was also very light, running around past gyms defeating dynamax Pokemon but not being able to catch them? I get it, but it was a bit boring for me. The rare league cards were a very nice touch though, I loved the system with them where you could learn more about characters from them.

Part 2: Pokemon/Variety
Every review has probably touched on this, but there isn't a lot of variety in terms of Pokemon. I can count the amount of fire lines on two hands! But somehow I was able to fill a box and a half of water Pokemon. It was a very frustrating moment for me to realize how little variety there is in terms of Pokemon. Many of the 400 included are just Pokemon lines or ones of similar typing. I was disappointed by it.
However, the new Pokemon where phenomenal! Their new animations were beautiful and they were super fun to collect! I also loved the weird, niche ways to evolve some of them (like Yamask for instance!) it was very refreshing and super fun! It reminded me of why I love Pokemon so much.

Part 3: Graphics
Many, many people love to gripe on the graphics. For the majority of the game (not in the wild area) they're actually completely fine. There is a lot of detail and the new shading system is beautiful! I love just how colorful everything is, the ambient light, etc.
However the wild area has very low graphic fidelity, the trees have bad textures, the grass has apparent tiling, etc. Though these are easy to ignore due to the wild area being beautiful. Eventually it fades into the background after a while. This is NOT a deal breaker for me.

Part 4: Mechanics
Wild Area.
Its a beautiful area with free roaming Pokemon and fun challenges. The balance of the wild area is perfect- you level as you move forward. Its terrifying and fun and game freak needs to add more of this! However, staying in the wild area too long makes you overpowered, as the rest of the game is not balanced for it.
Camping.
Extremely fun! I loved playing with my Pokemon and feeling bonded with them. I loved cooking and unlocking the balls via the curry dex. The cooking system is also very fun when you get the hang of it. I can safely say this is much more fun and interactive than amiee. I do wish I could actively play games with my Pokemon, clean them, and pet them though.
EXP share
I usually play with this setting on, but I dislike that the option for it to not be turned on/off was sad. I wish it was maybe hidden with an NPC in Wedgehurst, like how the earbuds are hidden.
Earbuds
I ADORE this feature. Turning off the background music and strolling through the wild area makes the game a nature documentary. It is beautiful and relaxing. It was a very refreshing change to the game.

Part 5: Balance
The game has a few balance issues- mainly late game. There are several people who grind levels and they will always be over powered- but the extent in this game was awful. Trainers on routes had Pokemon that were lower level than the wild Pokemon! There is no reason to grind- and the wild area on top of that makes for a nasty combo. I constantly found myself pushing the level cap until I hit 60.
However, the start of the game (Milo, Nessa, and Kabu's gyms) were perfectly balanced. Their Pokemon were at the current level cap and it felt like a challenge! But near the endgame I found myself 10-20 levels above everything. It became very boring.
This should all be scaled to the wild area, with more of that and less traditional routes.

Part 6: Final thoughts
I love the game, but there are some things that aren't justifiable. These games deserve so much better than what we got. Its also not fun without online.… Expand

Ganvyr

Nov 24, 2019

5

I have always been a fan of Pokemon games, and this one is no exception. Pokemon Sword and Shield seemed like a breath of fresh air for the series, with an expansive game world, updated graphics, and a new European take on the series. However, even though I set my bar for the game very low, I still felt disappointed.

I also played Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu, and I felt the experienceI have always been a fan of Pokemon games, and this one is no exception. Pokemon Sword and Shield seemed like a breath of fresh air for the series, with an expansive game world, updated graphics, and a new European take on the series. However, even though I set my bar for the game very low, I still felt disappointed.

I also played Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu, and I felt the experience was more casual than the average Pokemon game, but I wasn't expecting Sword to be the same kind of casual game. Pokemon Sword is shockingly easy, and I was able to beat almost every trainer that came my way with my starter. EXP Candies dull out the experience, and Hop, your rival, is trivial and never is a challenge. I didn't feel difficulty playing the game whatsoever.

The casual nature did disappoint me, but I was hopeful other aspects of Sword would impress me. I got let down again. The graphics are subpar, and is some places, just look like a 3DS port. Also, when entering a Pokemon Battle in some places, the developers just didn't bother to put in a background, and either just transported you to the wilderness, or to a room with a white background. There are many reused assets, and the framerate is never consistent, especially in the Wild Area. The textures for the ground look awful, and background renders look like they came straight from the N64. Even the animations for the Pokemon feel astoundingly lazy. The move "Double Hit," for example, is just the Pokemon hopping slightly twice. However, one thing I can say about the graphics is that all the models in the game are very sharp, with every Pokemon and person looking clean. This creates an awkward contrast between the ugly world and the nice-looking characters. There are only a few places in the world where the game looks really nice: the places where they couldn't reuse any models, animations, and textures from the 3DS.

I won't spend much time on the next topic, but the pacing is awful. The tutorial drags on for way too long, and the world is too linear. The most common excuse for why I can't go somewhere is, "Team Yell blocks your path!" or "Traveling by air just isn't the same as traveling by foot." There is also no conflict in the story, no antagonist, which makes it more difficult for me to continue the journey because I have no motivation.

However, if you're waiting to hear something good about the game, there are a few things that I really enjoyed about this new entry in the Pokemon games:
The Wild Area, while looking ugly, is extremely fun, and I constantly find myself returning there to catch new Pokemon, or do a Raid Battle.
The music is also very enjoyable, bring the constant Pokemon vibe that mostly everyone knows. (There is just a little bit of weird music clipping)
Pokemon Camp is very enjoyable, and the animations there feel very clean and polished.
All the towns also have very interesting designs, every one distinct from one another.

But that's it. The cons of this game are blatant, and they grab and pull me out of this immersive game world. This game feels rushed or lazy, I can't tell. But this game is not a good representation of Pokemon - The Largest Media Franchise on the world. Even bigger than Star Wars, or Mickey Mouse. Pokemon is bigger than Disney, and they can't make a game that is as immersive, thoughtful, thorough, and likable as Ring Fit Adventure. Yes, Ring Fit Adventure feels more thorough and well thought out than Pokemon.

And remember this game is $60.… Expand

TheLordnk

Nov 24, 2019

2

Pior Geração possível,cagaram pokemon de uma forma incrível, até o design doa pokemon

Potteriti

Nov 24, 2019

2

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Wtf everything is so simple and the design is worse than Pokémon let's go.… Expand

GarrMoose

Nov 25, 2019

5

The move onto the Switch brought forth much for this series and while it has delivered a totally new Pokemon experience the many lackluster aspects of the game hold it back from being the truly excellent game it easily could have been. I guess I will go and break down the good and then the bad points of the game. *=Key Points

Pros: -The game looks better than it ever has graphically. -TheThe move onto the Switch brought forth much for this series and while it has delivered a totally new Pokemon experience the many lackluster aspects of the game hold it back from being the truly excellent game it easily could have been. I guess I will go and break down the good and then the bad points of the game. *=Key Points

Pros:
-The game looks better than it ever has graphically. -The gym system overhaul brought a breath of fresh air to the series and played well into the main story.*

-The new Pokemon designs for the most part felt very inspired and I overall enjoyed them.

-Seeing Pokemon in the overworld really changed up the Pokemon experience and having them also appear in random encounters kept part of the classic feel. The large, open explorable Wild area is the best example of this.

-Handholding was slightly reduced in the sense of forced tutorials.

-A great deal of things were made more convenient like the introduction of nature changing mints, easier ev training, egg move transferring and using your pc almost anywhere. This makes things like preparing Pokemon for competitive play far less time consuming.*

-Dynamax raids offer a fun new way to catch special Pokemon.

-3D character designs themselves look better than ever.

Cons:
-More than 50% of Pokemon models were excluded from this game. You are limited to a regional dex of 400 and around 30 more models are within the code.**

-Mega evolutions and z moves were cut and replaced with the lackluster dynamax feature, essentially a 3 turn long combo of both concepts but far less enjoyable and meta shifting in a way I and many others find unideal.*

-While graphically the best of the series the game still lacks polish in many areas. Models still bear a good amount of pixelation which I expected a departure from moving onto the Switch and many even lack detailed textures to a great extent. You would expect after having had to cut back on so much Pokemon content that the studio would have been able to at least deliver the level of smooth clean looking textures one would expect from a 2019 AAA Switch title.*

-Story playthrough difficulty was immensely lowered, partially due to an exp share system that you are no longer able to turn off and then due to opponents having weak team builds and/or movesets or just a lower number of Pokemon on their team to take on your full team. Veteran players or even those who want some more difficulty out of their playthrough will not find it in this game.*

-Lacking postgame content compared to most Pokemon titles.

-Routes were very linear and uninspired, wild area while fairly vast was also somewhat bland and lacking graphical polish most of all.

-Unideal online interface. Better than Sun and Moons but still lacking in how easy it makes it to connect with others.

-Lacking game functionality with online. The wild area is supposed to turn into a big open world experience with others when online but with online functions enabled it turns into an absolute mess of different players frozen and appearing all over different parts of the wild area everywhere you go. I also struggle to be able to connect with others for raids/etc oftentimes and have had similar troubles with local play. You often have to try several times to get it to work even in local play.

-Forced 20 min time limit on 6v6 rule formats. The one thing I love to do most is 6v6 singles battles online and now I will have to have most of my battles cut short due to a short time limit. (most singles battles I have done take around 24 or more minutes) This almost makes the ease of preparing competitive Pokemon all for naught for players like me and 6v6 online battling is what gives many players reason to keep playing months and months after release.**

There are probably other more minor issues and pros I have with the game but these basically sum up why I give it the rating I do. This game had everything set up for it to be a 9-10 and possibly even the best in a long running series of good games jumping off of the very limited and antiquated 3DS system but yet squandered so much of its potential with the controversial and even bizarre decisions made by its studio, Gamefreak and overall lack of polish.Despite introducing some truly great aspects to the series this game continues the trend of Pokemon’s last two generations of taking one step forward for the series and one larger step back, this time in possibly the most detrimental ways the series has ever seen.… Expand

AudaciousApple

Nov 25, 2019

6

I really enjoyed the parts of the game that were there, but the entire game feels unfinished. I feel like the game could've been so much more if they just pushed it back a few months to flesh it out. More than any other Pokemon game thus far, this game feels rushed and unfinished. At least they chose to polish the parts of the game that did make the cut instead of pushing in a bunch ofI really enjoyed the parts of the game that were there, but the entire game feels unfinished. I feel like the game could've been so much more if they just pushed it back a few months to flesh it out. More than any other Pokemon game thus far, this game feels rushed and unfinished. At least they chose to polish the parts of the game that did make the cut instead of pushing in a bunch of broken, half-finished features like a lot of other AAA games these days. I would give it a 7, but the online functionality is really bad, and the removal of the GTS (Global Trading System) makes it almost impossible to complete the Pokédex without having both copies of the game.… Expand

OnlyGoken

Nov 27, 2019

5

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. On one hand, Pokémon Sword and Shield has many quality of life changes and other great things that make these games feel fun. The gyms are the best we've had since the fifth generation, Galarian forms look excellent, many of the new Pokémon are brilliant, and the Wild Area is a good first step to a more open Pokémon experience. On the other hand...

To say this game goes below my expectations for a 2019 Nintendo Switch game from the highest grossing media franchise of all time would be understatement of the millenium. This game has atrocious pop in, a lack of options, a lack of fan favorites (despite how many great Pokémon are in the game, a few of not just my favorites but literal hundreds of people's favorites and iconic Pokémon were cut), a poor sense of balancing and a plethora of other issues.

To start with a big gripe, this story is a blatant rehash of previous plots. The innocent looking person running a facility actually wants to use a powerful and mysterious Pokémon for their own reason, like Lusamine. Your rival is an energetic and peppy darker skinned male who's hyperactive and is overshadowed by their relative who is of a higher rank, and thus has high expectations thrusted on them, like Hau. The evil team are essentially social rejects that just cause a lot of trouble but arent threats, like Team Skull. Another rival is a jerk who has parential/family issues and eventually learns to be less of a jerk, like Silver (and Paul if you include the anime). Your character is chosen by the guardian of the area you live in, like Tapu Koko and Mespirit. The problem isnt reusing tropes from the series but how blatantly they're reused with little variation. Piers isnt a copy of Roxie because, while they're both gym leaders with a musical motif, Piers' character is about him disliking Dynamaxing and wanting the best for his sister, while Roxie just likes music. It doesnt help that Leon's only personality is just "I'm the UNBEATABLE champion with my EPIC Charizard" because Rock-Type trainers don't exist in Galar.

The lack of an optional EXP Share meant I had to avoid raid battles, optional trainers, Pokémon jobs, and Pokémon camp because i'd be far too overleveled. Even with the limiting of my choices I still was only 3 levels below the limit which is a bit uncomfortably close. I'll admit the EXP Share is better balanced than I anticipated but that doesnt mean a whole lot when your expectations were rock bottom. The AI too also seems awful, like Hop using normal moves on a Ghost-Type at one point and him wasting turns when a tackle would've taken out an opposing Pokémon. The AI also seems to lack recovery, since many AI struggled against a Runegrigas I had on my team. The only exception is Leon who had a hard counter for every member of my team. The animations on returning Pokémon is laughably poor. I expect better animation from a game that cut Pokémon specifically for balancing, not 3DS quality animations that are blatantly reused it isnt funny. The new animations like the signature moves of course look excellent, as does Scorbunny's animations in general, but I specifically am referring to new animations for old Pokémon that weren't just in Sun and Moon's code.

Pokémon were also cut for balance but this meta is atrocious. Wow, way to buff Rapid Spin. Because it TOTALLY needed a buff. Nonono, the fact that it removes hazards from only your side of the field wasnt enough, no siree. Now let's give it 50 power, 40 PP and it buffs your speed. Now Excadrill is pretty much broken. Oh, and Jolteon? RIP its viability without HP Ice and Signal Beam. Lando-T was an excellent counter for Aegislash so have fun with it roaming around being neigh unstoppable. Gengar has Nasty Plot now, and no worries of Pursuit trapping, so it gets to set up for free. Return is gone so RIP a powerful Normal move for a lot of Pokémon. Weather wars may have been bad and Gen 1's meta was limited but Weather Wars had more variety AND Gen 1 has the excuse of being Gen 1. This gen removed a lot of counters and buffed already excellent Pokémon, so yeah, great balancing job guys.

The route design of this game is extremely poor. In fact, the game itself feels like a 3DS game. 10 routes and 11 cities? C'mon guys, and the routes are literal hallways with Sonic Forces inspired design of "alternate pathways" being a small corridor that branches off for a small goodie then goes back on the main path or is a dead end. The lack of nonlinearity makes exploring old routes pointless. The Wild Area seemed to try to capture all of that, but it's so baren and boring. Raid battles are kinda fun, but that's all it offers. Exploring it in your ugly clown outfit is ten times worse and the popin and frame dips online are pathetic for an AAA game.

Sword and Shield arent the worst, at least there's stuff to talk about. But this far below BW2, Emerald or Platinum. 5/10 for being half good/half bad.… Expand

sewerbaby

Nov 30, 2019

5

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is incredibly lacking in comparison to older games. Dexit is a minor factor. Textures in the Wild Area are awful and on the level of an N64 game. Pokemon battle animations and models are direct copies of their 3DS counterparts, and are visually dated. Story is written quite poorly, with plot elements that had not previously been established appearing out of nowhere in an uninteresting fashion. Online play has been smooth however, and the tournament styled elite four replacement battles are welcome.… Expand

bubblehead333

Dec 1, 2019

5

Pokemon Sword and Shield are good games, but when compared with other titles on the Switch can come up short. It seems this generation is riding heavily on the fantastic new Pokemon available, and not so much on graphics, technical achievements or other game play mechanics. This generation is very much 'rinse and repeat'. Though the new region of Galar is charming, post-game you rarely seePokemon Sword and Shield are good games, but when compared with other titles on the Switch can come up short. It seems this generation is riding heavily on the fantastic new Pokemon available, and not so much on graphics, technical achievements or other game play mechanics. This generation is very much 'rinse and repeat'. Though the new region of Galar is charming, post-game you rarely see it as you're grinding raid battles in the quite sparsely populated, bland wild area. While I don't think the shortened Pokemon roster is a problem (in fact I think it's a positive!) it is a shame that their animations can look a little robotic.
Gyms are done really well, though it would have been nice to have more back story to the gym leaders like in Sun and Moon.
The story is just...well confusing. Some parts seem rushed, some parts ignored. There is one scene where two main characters are talking on a huge tower (with subtitles no voice acting) over still images of a poorly rendered environment. You think something big is going to go down.....it doesn't...he just walks off. It's also the only time these still images are used in the game. Was this to save time rendering additional animations? Even when the majority of important dialogue in game is just a model flapping their mouth with a bit with text? There are many peculiar instances like this, doesn't fit with the rest of the game and nothing...happens.

Pros:
-New Pokemon are amazing, would go to say they are my favourite generation wise
-Starter Pokemon are cool
-Galar has lots of charm and plenty of quirks
-Gyms are really cool, based on football stadiums, and celebrity status associated is fun
-Battles are fun, and seem well balanced
-UI is spot on, Pokemon Box handling is done very well
-Breeding mechanics are now easier and more accessible
-Pokemon Camp is a cool mechanic, makes you feel that you are on some adventure
-Refreshing to see a well done, diverse cast of characters

Cons
-Graphics are just average at best, poor low-poly back drops and foreground meshes
-Pokemon animations can leave a lot to be desired
-Horrendous frame rate problems when adventuring in the wild area whilst connected to the internet
-Shameful model pop-in at close range
-Technically just really struggles
-Empty audio-wise, with little going on apart from soundtrack in most areas
-Can feel as though the Champion gets all the fun stuff (that you would normally get in previous titles: Team Rocket etc)
-Story at the end is just....confusing?
-No optional extra areas, linear
-Difficulty is too easy (all it took was an difficulty level for veterans!)

All in all Pokemon Sword and Shield are just...average, being supported by an incredible roster of well designed and interesting Pokemon. It feels Game Freak were a bit out of their depth on the Switch with all the new technology as the game really struggles technically, with the poor graphics being further evidence. Die hard fans will leave the game thinking what if, for a title perhaps more geared towards the casual players of Let's Go and Go.… Expand

Lordchiguire

Dec 5, 2019

5

Normalmente menos es más, en éste caso, menos es peor.

Es un juego divertido que es arrastrado por mediocridad detrás de su desarrollo, no me extenderé demasiado en el tema, así que lo resumiré en 4 puntos principales: Jugabilidad, Gráficas, Dirección artística y Trama. Empezaré por lo que considero que es lo mejor, la dirección artística me parece correcta, mucho de los diseños deNormalmente menos es más, en éste caso, menos es peor.

Es un juego divertido que es arrastrado por mediocridad detrás de su desarrollo, no me extenderé demasiado en el tema, así que lo resumiré en 4 puntos principales: Jugabilidad, Gráficas, Dirección artística y Trama.

Empezaré por lo que considero que es lo mejor, la dirección artística me parece correcta, mucho de los diseños de los nuevos Pokémon son muy buenos, de los mejores de toda la saga, por mencionar algunos: Dragapult, Rillaboom, Hatterene, etc; sin embargo, hay otros que no, pero ya eso es una cuestión de gustos, en líneas generales siento que GameFreak igual debe desviarse un poco de los diseños más antropomorfos que han establecido con las últimas generaciones y volver un poco a las raíces animalisticas que era el estándar de la saga. En cuánto a la música, ni una sola queja, excelente, los temas de batalla dan bastantes ganas de eso, batallar. Probablemente uno de mis temas favoritos es el de la segunda mitad de la Wild Area con las gaitas y todo ese sabor bien europeo. Mi único deseo es que las rutas tuviesen más música propia, creo que todas reproducen los dos temas de la Wild Area, pero eso ya va con un punto de como abordaron las rutas en éste juego en general.

La Trama es básicamente inexistente, no hay nada interesante que realmente te presione a seguir jugando más allá de hacer los gimnasios que en ésta entrega me parece que la hicieron fantástico, esa sensación de tener espectadores y que sea un deporte nacional las batallas Pokémon le da un color a todo el tema que nunca habían explorado, me gustaría que se mantuviera, con sus cambios respectivos. Pokémon nunca ha destacado por tener tramas super complicadas, pero ya estaba teniendo, en mi opinión una buena racha, siendo Black & White y Black & White 2 el pináculo de éste aspecto. Una lástima, no hay mucho por que recordar el juego, no hay momentos como Rayquaza bajando del cielo a calmar a sus hermanos menores peleones, no hay plan de eliminar el universo para crear uno nuevo. A pesar que as estructuras argumentales ya se han agotado, siempre hay maneras de combinarlas y hacer algo más interesante que lo que fue la campaña de éste juego.

La jugabilidad es la misma de siempre, batallas por turnos, sólo que se han eliminado varias cosas que son queridas por la comunidad, como el Pokédex Nacional, Mega evoluciones, Movimientos Z, etc. Ya debes estar al tanto de toda la polémica al rededor de esto, pero solo emitiré ésta opinión: No siempre menos es más. Más allá de eso UI/UX del juego es muy bueno, limpio, fácil de navegar, un rediseño muy agradecido. Otro juego donde la dificultad sigue siendo casi inexistente creando casi ningún tipo de reto para el fan que vuelve a la saga, ya en Black & White (1 o 2 no estoy seguro) pusieron diferentes dificultades, no sería mal que volvieran, daría un mejor sabor que de verdad tengas que pensar como armar tu equipo, los movesets y todo ese cuento, pero nuevamente, se dejó atrás.

Ahora vamos a la parte realmente fea, los gráficos. Es inexcusable lo que hizo GF para ésta entrega de juegos, no ahondaré en polémicas, pero debe tomarse en cuenta que éste juego es como una versión mal re-escalada de los de 3Ds, con todo el poder que tienen en sus manos con la Swicth decidieron hacer las cosas más mediocres para lo que es la primera entrega de un juego de Pokémon en consola de sobremesa, eso, además de malas texturas, animaciones flojas, no hay voice acting, ni siquiera exclamaciones vocales como en Zelda, nada, ya pues, estamos en el 2019 y ésta es la franquicia que más dinero hace en el mundo, le pueden poner un poco más de esfuerzo, no?

En fin, se me pasaron cosas como lo casi imposible que es intercambiar Pokémon con un amigo o hacer batallas o hacer cualquier cosa online, las bajadas de fps en la Wild Area, etc.

Ojalá GamFreak haga algo realmente bueno con todo el dinero que han hecho vendiendo éstas mediocridades y contraten más personal...si es que ese es el problema.… Expand

LeMagiMagikarp

Jun 5, 2020

6

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I felt compelled to write a review so I could do justice to the game. Being clear, it isn't the worst game ever. Where it shines, shines. But the shinning spots coexist in a multitude of problems, some of them old dear "friends" of the Pokémon franchise.
In first place, let's talk about the Dexit. Being a player since 1999, when I first started Pokémon Red, all games always felt unbalanced. And the great expansion of the Pokédex along the years hasn't done anything to really fix that. Rayquaza needed its own tier. Meta in last generation was vastly dominated by Tapu and Ultra Beasts. Protean Greninja was a thing in Gen 6, when the use of Megas was almost required. Game Freak does a poor job recognizing these problems. Rebalancing a game around 400-ish creatures, well-selected, with new monsters, abilities, movepool alterations would be a welcome project, stimulating experimentation and giving some overlooked Pokémon the opportunity to shine. Switching from Megas and Z-moves and other obvious gimmicks to a single, less buffed, mechanic would also dynamize battles.
Sadly, none of this actually happened the way it should. Dynamaxing became pretty centerfold of combat, and we got still another Charizard power-up. Few to none Pokémon was reworked to make it viable, with the exception being few Galarian forms. And, after Alolan Meowth, I don't know anyone who honestly thought that was a Pokémon in need of another recharacterization. Now, was partly undone in a scammy DLC-exclusive route, which doesn't seem - again - to fix our problem. So, what was broke, just remained.
That said, the cartoony atmosphere of the game was very well-done and cohesive. The game is cohesive. The UI is clean and the best in the series so far. New Pokémon are creative and well-designed. The trainer customization has evolved a lot. QoL improvements very needed came to light in this instance. Be it the accessible boxes, the easily-manageable exp, EVs, IVs and Natures (making competitive much more approachable in a time-scarce world) or the HMs fully begone. The most notable one though, is the Pokémon being visible on field. The humour is also top-notch comparing to previous entries, the Fairy Gym sub-arc and the train line blockade being among my favorites.
On the artsy side still, the soundtrack is ok with a few highlights, such as the gym leader battle theme, but it sounds like composed without its setting in mind. It's still definitely a Pokémon soundtrack, but a subpar one. Toby Fox's presence.
And it ends here. Sword (& Shield) suffers then problems the series has struggled with its newfound identity since Kalos. The post-game, once the most anticipated and challenging part of the game is quasi-gone. In its place, we have a pretty short (and dull) narrative about the continent's lore, which doesn't even expand the lore at all. No more dungeons, or anything resembling explorable areas. The map is the most linear since Kanto (which, even then, gave you some freedom to the order you would traverse it). Caverns, mountains and volcanos with any backtracking or silly puzzles? No, none of it. And what appears at first time to be a colorful and extensive land becomes fully seen in no more than 20 hours. For comparison, the fixed camera angle and successive corridors feel more a limitation than a creative choice. The Gym challenge helps to break the tedium. Challenges are, for most, fun, solving the old problem of making gyms less repetitive (and enjoyable again). But the leaders mostly come out of nowhere. There isn't a clear and compelling reason to keep going on the campaign and it's also too short. The new format for the league, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air. It makes the gym leaders and their scalling a little more believable. The "championship" format is well-done enough to feel alive, and your title as champion as something earned, in opposition to the soft-rebooted status it has amid previous iterations' postgame content.
In my earlier remarks it's clear much of the problems within the game come from its linearity. Some people as I may had hopes the massive Wild Area would solve this. It's not the case. Raids are a new fun element and all, but the difficult to connect to other partners and repetitiveness of the task undermine it. And there's little more to the Wild Area than this. The lack of explorable environments and constant popping up of Pokémon and field elements only make it worse. Many times I felt bored, obligated to do this to get any Gigantamaxes.
At last, the subplot is among the weakest. It's not about being simple or childish. JRPGs with simple plot can be meaningful (ex: DQ). It's not the case. Much is reused from Alola: the characterization, the villain plot twist. Team Yell is just tiresome, and the Chairman's machinations aren't that coherent. I could congratulate the build-up to Eternatus fight, which is careful. The fight is itself underwhelming. As is, as exposed, the whole game.… Expand

Quillstone

Dec 3, 2019

6

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I honestly don't think the game is that bad, but it's not amazing either. I really like the pokemon camp feature; it's kind of fun, and I like that you can get friendly with your pokemon a lot faster now. There are some new and interesting pokemon, like the Hatenna line that stood out nicely. And then the really weird one like Duraludon (skyscraper pokemon. Really?). The spin on getting Gym Badges is new and different. I really enjoyed a lot of the puzzles and the missions, and there was more focus on the gym leaders than before.

I don't really like the TR feature all that much. Especially since the TR is locked behind either the Watts, or you have to hope that the pokemon you're max raiding has what you want. The fact that the strong TM, like Flamethrower and Thunderbolt and Psychic, are TR only just makes it a lot worse. I mean, we got rid of one use TM for a reason, and now we're taking a step right back with this feature. I know you guys wanna push the whole max raid and watts thing, but it's really tedious and grindy when you have to ride your bike around the Wild Area to collect enough Watts. Especially since most of those poke dens give 50watts, and they don't respawn until the next day. Not everyone is into Max Raids either. Especially since you get trash npc helping you if you don't have online subscription.

I'm kind of neutral on the Dynamaxing deal. It's like Mega evolutions and Z-power. It lasts for three turns max, and you can breeze through it if you Max Guard twice and attack once, then get back into a regular pokebattle. It's not really all that fun when you have only access to aAx "whatever element name" and Max Guard. It gets boring very fast when I have to spam Max Overgrowth for three turns.

Pokemon being out in the wild is interesting. On one hand, I like that I can pick and choose which pokemon I want, but on the other hand, it gets tiring very fast when you're being chased by five Growlithes and two Maractus.

The Wild Area is okay, I guess. You can get interesting pokemon there, but God save your soul if you want to be there online. Just....god speed, buddy. I can honestly see the potential in the Wild Area, but the execution was a meh in my book. Could have been done better.

I kind of miss that the villain team was the main villain. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, they're not a huge nuisance like other teams are, but they're easily forgettable. At least, I kept forgetting they existed until they popped up out of nowhere. I don't even know what their reason is other than "help Marnie out". I wasn't a fan of Team Skull, but I found them to have a better, more solid motive than Team Yell. I kind of liked the complexity that was Team Galactic and Team Plasma, and just how absolutely evil they were. Then again, I was scarred by Purugly and Skuntank in Pokemon DPP. :(

As for your rival, Hop. Let's just say he's a cut and paste job of Hau. I kept fixing myself when I called him Hau. Doesn't help the fact that his personality is similar to Hau, and has the exact same animation movements like Hau. Even the fact that he doesn't have much going for him outside of "I have to be better than so and so family member". At least Hau grew near the end of Sun and Moon. Hop was just annoying from beginning to end. I know rivals are overdone at this point, but this is a bit too lazy.

This sounds weird, but I kind of hate that you're just handed revives like candy. I currently have 10 revives, and none of them were bought by me. They were either given to me, or I found a bunch in the Wild Area. Revives are expensive in the game for a reason. I don't mind a game being hard, and I don't mind a game helping out here and there, but it's kind of insulting when the game is too easy.

I love that the tutorial is short though. And I don't have to sit there and listen to the npcs babbling about how to catch pokemon and stuff. I have the option to skip through all that. :')

The game's ending was okay. It was kind of....anticlimactic. The bad guy wasn't really all that memorable. I kind of forgot about him during the duration of me playing the game. So, when he suddenly popped up and was the bad guy, my reaction was more of "Oh. I forgot you existed." I wish the villain was more memorable, like Ghetsis and Cyrus. They're memorable because they were just evil. You knew they were, and they definitely left a mark. The villain in Sword and Shield was just very underwhelming. Even his belief and motive was just a "meh."

I'm also kind of iffy about the GTS behind locked behind the Nintendo Online AND Pokemon Home online subs. Why? Link Trades are locked behind Nintendo Online sub as well. :|

Is the game bad? Not really. Is it great? No. I mean, I'll play it when I need to fill some time, if I feel like it, but between Witcher 3 and FFVII being on the Switch, I just have better games to default to than SWSH.

(Not sure if my review is considered spoiler-y, but I'll check it anyways. :D )… Expand

ShiraPKM7899

Dec 4, 2019

1

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game was ok, but there a not much depth to the gameplay, the same good old boring style with minimal "graphic upgrade". I was ok with the dex cut if they could put more effort in making the game.

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

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

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

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

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

I can just talk more about this game but tbh, it is just a waste of my time. These games are not even worth spending 50+ hrs for these frustrated decisions from a lazy team.… Expand

TaylorMaid

Dec 5, 2019

4

This game is a mess. Look at it in scale next to something like breath of the wild you can tell that it is tiny in scale. It took me 2 days to beat the story and another 2 days to get every single pokemon in the game. That's it. It was mostly spent waiting for the game to stop babying me. The game is easy too. The final champion doesn't even bother to run with a full roster! Finally onceThis game is a mess. Look at it in scale next to something like breath of the wild you can tell that it is tiny in scale. It took me 2 days to beat the story and another 2 days to get every single pokemon in the game. That's it. It was mostly spent waiting for the game to stop babying me. The game is easy too. The final champion doesn't even bother to run with a full roster! Finally once you win and complete the "story", your left feeling like the story just isn't complete. It's unfulfilling, incomplete and small. The only challenge you'll ever have is playing online battles, which I'll admit are fun, but it's not enough to make up for all the shortcomings.… Expand

memesleyv3

Dec 6, 2019

3

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While I was playing Pokemon Sword, I was honestly a bit conflicted on what type of score it deserved. In the end this score is probably a little higher than it actually deserves, but I didn't completely hate it.

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

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

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

Now onto the negatives, of which there are MANY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you're looking for a game that actually has effort put into it, pick up Dragon Quest 11 S. If you want a game more akin to monster catching, go Yokai-Watch or Digimon Cyber Sleuth. Stay as far away from this low quality garbage as possible, people will stop talking about it by february of next year.… Expand

bertusaurio

Dec 7, 2019

3

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. es innovador y necesita pulir determinados aspectos relacionados con los gráficos, en general me encanta y me divierte mucho jugar… Expand

Rbubios

Dec 9, 2019

3

Simple game and little worked. Some good idea but the game needs a real evolution.

Hemoh54

Dec 9, 2019

6

Not satisfied because the story too short and less event also character not interesting

Filmanwalt

Jan 14, 2020

7

Trying to rate this more objectivly. For me the Game as it stands is good and enjoyable. The Game isnt without its flaws.

Presentation Really loved the anime style of presentation. You can see a lot of cutscenes and the graphics are okay, but could be a little bit better. Gameplay Dynamaxing, Raids, double fights and more. You have some sort of content in this game and itTrying to rate this more objectivly. For me the Game as it stands is good and enjoyable. The Game isnt without its flaws.

Presentation

Really loved the anime style of presentation. You can see a lot of cutscenes and the graphics are okay, but could be a little bit better.

Gameplay

Dynamaxing, Raids, double fights and more. You have some sort of content in this game and it doesnt get boring. Therefore some of the activities are very lame, like the cooking or the pokejobs. I really didnt do them and dont felt like missing sth.

The Fights are eazy for the most part, especially the arena leaders, but I liked the challenges and the league like system.

Story

Its nothing special, but for me the connections to some real problems (clima change e.g.) are good to see. The Story is good presented but not really suprising, you can see the outcome by a mile.

Soooo....big problem for me is that a lot of the new pokemon arent interesting and that they cut so much pokemon out and now will bring a lot back with DLC. That is a bad taste on their product, but its an good pokemon for the switch, it just needed more Pokemon.… Expand

lelbro

Jan 14, 2020

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Controversy aside, examining this game on its own merit, Pokemon Sword is pretty good. The new pokemon are extremely unique and creative, fitting into their environments perfectly. It was really clever how some of the Pokemon were able to be seen and encountered in the overworld, while others would chase you in the grass, thus expanding upon how pokemon fit into their environments. By the end of the adventure, I fell in love with a lot of characters like Marnie, Bede, Sonia, Piers, Team Yell, and many, if not all, gym leaders. I even loved Hop who I was indifferent towards in the beginning of the game. The wild area is a great, intuitive addition that could have been so much more. Routes and towns/cities use both expected landscapes and new ones to spice up the formula. The battles themselves look great and are a joy to watch.

In terms of the downsides, the story is intriguing and simple enough to follow, but there is a lot that doesn't make sense or isn't explained well enough. The pacing is inconsistent, especially in the beginning and towards the ending. At times you could be flying through gyms, while at other times it takes hours to get to another gym battle. Speaking of battles, there are too many battles with Hop, however that could be argued as a positive because the player is able to witness the evolution of his team. The game is a little too easy as well. During the entire play through, I don't think I lost a single battle, but then again, this is coming from someone who has played pokemon for over a decade. The online system for finding raid battles and activities in the wild area is just plain bad. The stamps do not refresh quick enough, causing many of the activities to be expired by the time you see them. The wild area lags a bunch as well. Cutscenes can be slow and hand-holding sometimes. The entire currydex system is cute, but a waste of time in my opinion. Gigantamaxing is cool, however the gimmick is not enough to sell the game for me. Lastly, the graphics are extremely lacking considering what the switch is capable of running.

Now in terms of what Pokemon Sword represents for the series, it is a huge let down. This game was supposed to be Pokemon's true triumphant jump to HD, but there are times where the graphics and textures look like they are from the PS2 era. The developers ripped out the national dex, which to me was fine because it encourages the usage of pokemon one normally wouldn't use, however, their reasoning for it was not justified. They said they wanted to focus on animation, movement, and expressiveness, when it looks the same as it would have on a 3DS. Gamefreak also obviously reused some of same models from those games in this one. The moves look very similar as well. The post game content is extremely lacking, especially when compared to HGSS. It can be seen as a downgrade from the Let's Go games, since your pokemon can't follow you in the overworld. I can truly understand where all the hate is coming from and why this game currently has a user score of 4.5.

With all of the negatives I just stated, it might sound surprising that I'm giving this game a 7. There is still a lot to love here; it is still a pokemon game through and through. The initial ending is ok, but the post-game ending was very fulfilling and gave me a feeling that I normally don't get from many games nowadays. I even got a little bit of that surreal feeling in the early game. It might just be the Pokemon magic, but because I ended the game with feelings of genuine happiness and satisfaction inside me, I'm happy I played it. I might even consider buying dlc depending on how much content it withholds.… Expand

NylonYT

May 12, 2023

4

yikes, graphics usually dont matter to me but that's if it looks at the very least acceptable. The wild area looks like an n64 game, but at least the towns and indoor areas look very nice. there's not that many new additions which makes this feel like every other pokemon game there is, a stagnating series that cannot innovate and move on.

miiraii

Jan 6, 2020

2

Right. A lot of people are saying that they do not understand why this game is bad, and they think that it's good. As a player whose first ever game played was Pokemon Red, and a player who has played every generation up until 8, I say that it is ok, not bad but not a great game either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't even get me started on the postgame's plot and character designs. There is none and I laughed way too hard at the shallowness of the postgame compared to other postgames like in S/M and ORAS. We didn't even get an opening animation anymore.… Expand

emanuele0933

Jan 6, 2020

3

I awaited giving to this game a vote because I thought they would gonna patch its issues but no, the game was and it's still a total mess nowadays.
Technically is an abomination: the animations are the same of the 3DS games (that were already bad) but for an unknown reason they don't work propery

keeganm

Jan 6, 2020

2

Hollow, half-baked game. The game spends so much time holding your hand, it’s simply annoying.

Vulgrim

Feb 3, 2020

3

The worst part for many reasons. A lot of unnecessary elements, forced graphic style that does not suit this game, simplicity so great that you do not feel a single challenge. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. "Open" zones only pretend to be such, they are just nicely enclosed linear paths that are no different from any other installment of the series. The new creatures are mostlyThe worst part for many reasons. A lot of unnecessary elements, forced graphic style that does not suit this game, simplicity so great that you do not feel a single challenge. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. "Open" zones only pretend to be such, they are just nicely enclosed linear paths that are no different from any other installment of the series. The new creatures are mostly dull and expressionless, and I have never encountered the fact that I didn't feel like using new Pokémon. The starters themselves are so boring that I almost randomly chose which one to choose.… Expand

DocAragon

Jan 23, 2020

4

I’m sorry, I love pokemon, the cute art style, but this time gamefreak just didn’t even try. they’re getting lazyer and lazyer every single game. I hope they listen to fans and stop doing cashgrab like this one

MisoraHibiki

Jan 23, 2020

4

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played the series from the very beginning. I've invested hours into each installment. While SwSh are good, they're far from perfect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I could say more, but i believe what I've wrote is sufficient enough. GameFreak had a chance to make an astounding game, but due to a yearly deadline they've inflicted on themselves, it seems like future entries will just continue the downhill trend that SwSh has started.… Expand

Robertinho123

Jun 20, 2020

7

I really enjoy the base game, but there's very little postgame, raiding is okay, but honestly the online system is so crap that 5 star pokemon are almost impossible to catch.

When some of the mechanics are so broken, it's hard to give it more than a 7. If they fix the online, I'll bump it to 8, but I doubt that'll happen.

Luccio26

Jan 27, 2020

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Story 1.5/3
Let's start by saying who really plays Pokémon for its story content? The generic child who leaves town to take on forces that no 10 year old would ever deal with in the real world to become the best trainer in the region hasn't changed tac since the early 90s with Pokémon Red & Blue. Generation 8 is more of the same. You start as that gleamy eyed kid and your best friends brother who's the champion who has never lost a battle in his life will eventually be taken down by yourself in the end of the story. There is about 5 hours of story content here going from city to city. Maybe 6-7 if you take your time exploring and getting the legendries post game. Where the game shines is its Meta where I have a lot to say. Hop your friend is an interesting character. His plot develops quite nicely as he slowly comes realise he won't ever be better than you and starts to see he can fulfil his goals in other ways. It's a nice side story that most people will miss because of their blatant hatred for Game-Freaks DEXIT. Bede is also another interesting character who's your pseudo rival and eventually ends up taking over as one of the Gym Leaders.
Gameplay 3/3
I'm going to come out and say it. I was originally sceptical about the decision to cut the Pokedex down to 400 from its 800+ choices. However those who say you can't 'CATCH EM ALL" need to understand you haven't actually been able to catch them all since Gen 3 where the slogan ended on the box art. That was 5 generations ago. I also want to say that importing pokemon from game to game and your poke-bank is not catching them all. So to pour hate into this game without understanding why I find to be a very weak argument to say this game is bad. Secondly upon reaching the METAGAME I came to like the pokemon cuts. Here's why. I have been playing competitive pokemon since gen 4 in online tournaments and VGC tournaments in Oceanic leagues and Australia. I have partaken in ranked battles for over 10 years. Generally I find myself locked into a rotating team of about 10-15 pokemon that I use and the same types of pokes would appear on a regular basis and the end games felt repetitive and redundant when you see the same cookie cutter builds all the time. In Sword I run with a rotating team of around 25-30 pokemon all Max IV, EV and competitive battle ready. This is because there are more viable options to choose from in the meta as the OU, RU and NU tiers aren't clear. Yes you may see the same types of pokes appear still because of the SMOGON gamers however they can be easily countered with smarter battling. There may be half the amount of pokemon available however I find myself using more than I ever did in my last 4 generations of competitive battling. There seems to be less filler, and a more balanced end game which I like and find it refreshing. Dynamaxing is a quirky and fun game play loop and if used right can be the perfect wall to an opposing Dynamax or a clean sweep when set up right. There have been a lot of QOL fixes too which allow for easier breeding, EV and IV training as well as fast travel options. Instead of breeding the perfect competitive pokemon and training it up taking hours per pokemon. You can now do the same in under an hour. Giving me more opportunity to trial teams in competitive battles rather than using the same ones over and over. The wild area is fun. Smaller than I thought however with more updates coming (Yes its paid DLC but its still better and cheaper than buying a full priced game that was ULTRA SUN & MOON) we get more wild areas and content to sink our teeth into as well as new pokemon and forms.
Sound/Music 1/2
Nothing great but still the same fun jingles we have come to love with pokemon games. However this is a switch game. There is no voice acting still, still no pokemon voices from their cries outside of Pikachu and Eevee. When and if there is a next gen switch console and hopefully another pokemon game I expect to see an improvement in this
Visual Art Design 1.5/2
Looks more like a polished 3DS game than a Switch game. Zelda BOTW is proof you can have a good looking game in a cartoon looking design. Still a great colour palate, fun new pokemon designs world designs.

My final verdict for this game is a 7/10. I am enjoying the meta game and it is really why any serious pokemon fans play the games. The rest of the content is a bit lacking which is where it falls down however this is not a sub 5 game than most fans are giving it out of spite for GameFreaks decisions. They have added a lot of QOL as well as bringing out new content. I would also like to point out this new content does not mean you have to buy it to enjoy the new pokemon & forms, you can trade and receive them through other means so don't be fooled by what you read on forums. Give it a go if you are sitting on the fence because as a veteran of pokemon games I can say you shouldn't pass this one up.… Expand

Shapeshifter69

Jan 27, 2020

7

This is a incredible Pokemon game in my opinion (despite the dex cut) and let me explain my reasoning why. The game is fun and doesn't interrupt you a lot either. My main gripe with sun and moon was the fact that the story was great but it simply stopped the player too much along the way. Sword and shield finally hit that perfect area where it obviously has a story but it doesn't interruptThis is a incredible Pokemon game in my opinion (despite the dex cut) and let me explain my reasoning why. The game is fun and doesn't interrupt you a lot either. My main gripe with sun and moon was the fact that the story was great but it simply stopped the player too much along the way. Sword and shield finally hit that perfect area where it obviously has a story but it doesn't interrupt you (and in some cases you can just skip it if you want to get into the Pokemon fun). The game provides competitive players with easier ways to change natures get stats and more making this game beginner friendly for people that want to get into the competitive. The main campaign is fun but a bit easy (though its Pokemon what do you expect it is a beginner RPG). One of the things I really like are the new designs of the Pokemon. As much as I loved the sun and moon games and x and y Pokemon they felt lackluster compared to the superior gen 5. This game finally provides us with incredible Pokemon designs something that has felt missing for years. Now the online functionality is not the greatest. The removal of the GTS was the saddest part and the fact you can't camp with your friends without pure luck is annoying. I feel like it should've been more like x and y where you could see peoples profile and if they want to trade or battle. Max raid battles as fun as they are are also incredibly annoying. I hate the fact that they only refresh after everyday when in all reality it should run on a hourly system. Also finding any raid online that isnt down or already finished is annoying. Though if I have to give this game a score id give it a 7/10 all it needs is a bit fixing around the corners and it can be the perfect pokemon game… Expand

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