Pokemon Sword

 Switch
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5909 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,997 out of 5909
  2. Mixed: 852 out of 5909
  3. Negative: 3,060 out of 5909
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  1. Rayomanaka
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Total disappointment. This game isn't even a shadow of past games. Lacking moves, pokemon, graphics... everything is a mix of good ideas with a horrible execution
  2. Eleiyas
    Nov 26, 2019
    5
    Unfortunately, these are the most average Pokémon games to have ever been released (not including mobile titles).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    These QoL improvements, topped with the fact that "it's more Pokémon!" and "Pokémon is inherently fun!" is what is making people see these games through rose-tinted glasses.    … Expand
  3. Youtin
    Feb 6, 2022
    4
    Too easy. There is no challenging difficulty.

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

    Artistically you can tell it was made without motivation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Pokémon has been around for around 20years or so, most of its fans are between 20-30, why not make a game for an older demographic??    … Expand
  7. The-Pad
    Jun 2, 2020
    4
    This game is bad. The graphics are comparable to late PS2 releases, the plot constantly interupts you, the Wild Area is emptier than the streets during a World War. DO NOT BUY.
  8. Lizarino
    Jun 13, 2020
    5
    This game is very mixed for me. It is the same formula as the previous Pokemon games with a few nice additions but a lot of flaws with it.
    I would give this game a 6 or 7 / 10 but because of it's price (£40 or more at current) I'm lowering it to 5/10.
    - This is the first and only Pokemon game I've played where I've abandoned my starter at the start of the game. All 3 starters and their    This game is very mixed for me. It is the same formula as the previous Pokemon games with a few nice additions but a lot of flaws with it.
    I would give this game a 6 or 7 / 10 but because of it's price (£40 or more at current) I'm lowering it to 5/10.

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

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

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

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

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

    Some of the features I liked in this were the Pokemon jobs system, accessing your boxes from anywhere, character customisation and the league card system was okay. The camping system was mixed, although I liked the playing with your Pokemon part, it was very lacking in what you could do. The curry system I didn't really enjoy.    … Expand
  9. Akuryo90
    Nov 18, 2019
    10
    Great game, cool new Pokémon, music awesome... I love that game. And the designer of trainers and leaders are the best
  10. SanelVella
    Nov 25, 2019
    4
    Una nueva generación de Pokémon en una consola cansera... En el que los precios de los juegos han incrementado, y la calidad de los mismos... No mucho. Pokémon Espada y Escudo son juegos que se sienten de la era del 3DS y no como juegos del Switch, de una nueva generación de consolas. Los puntos rescatables son el área silvestre y la música. Fuera de ello, son juegos más de la era del 3DSUna nueva generación de Pokémon en una consola cansera... En el que los precios de los juegos han incrementado, y la calidad de los mismos... No mucho. Pokémon Espada y Escudo son juegos que se sienten de la era del 3DS y no como juegos del Switch, de una nueva generación de consolas. Los puntos rescatables son el área silvestre y la música. Fuera de ello, son juegos más de la era del 3DS para Nintendo Switch, en donde posees mismo apartado gráfico (ligeramente mejorado, pero en comparación casi nulo), historia bastante predecible y aburrida, mecánicas que no aportan nada nuevo en los combates y realmente, fuera de la Battle Tower, nada de post game para un jugador seguir estando motivado en jugarlo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Overall: Gamefreak need to wake up, it's 2019, this piece of garbage is inexcusable, Switch games so far have set the bar pretty high, if you compare this game to Zelda, Mario, Xenoblade, Smash, etc. GameFreak should feel ashamed of themselves for releasing this game in its current state, shame on you...    … Expand
  20. Cloud-Strife
    Nov 16, 2019
    5
    This is a fun game, unpolished but fun. Sometimes is hard to overlook the rough edges... I just wish this game was more on par with all the other first-party titles. The animations are clunky for the characters/NPC/ Pokemon, it could be better. With all the money Gamefreak makes, is hard to overlook all this.
    But yeah, Pokemon players can have some fun with this game.
    One thing that    This is a fun game, unpolished but fun. Sometimes is hard to overlook the rough edges... I just wish this game was more on par with all the other first-party titles. The animations are clunky for the characters/NPC/ Pokemon, it could be better. With all the money Gamefreak makes, is hard to overlook all this.
    But yeah, Pokemon players can have some fun with this game.

    One thing that bothers me is how every single Pokemon/NPC keeps disappearing and popping up one after another, for no reason. Some "cutscenes/animations" are poorly made, there are some videos on youtube highlighting these bugs as something funny, but I find them pretty annoying considering how much I paid for the game.
    My favorite part about Pokemon Sword: The character designs. They are simply amazing. The NPCs and the Gym leaders    … Expand
  21. Oshawottcabread
    Dec 11, 2019
    4
    Ahora que me pase este juego haré un critica constructiva y honesta.Daré puntos según estos criterios
    jugabilidad 2 puntos
    graficos 1,5 puntos multijugador3 puntos opciones disponibles(que tal son los pokemon)2,5 puntos cambios nuevos 1 punto jugabilidad 0,5/2 la jugabilidad no es muy buena, en primer lugar anunciaron la cámara que no esta disponible en todo el juego solo en una    Ahora que me pase este juego haré un critica constructiva y honesta.Daré puntos según estos criterios
    jugabilidad 2 puntos
    graficos 1,5 puntos
    multijugador3 puntos
    opciones disponibles(que tal son los pokemon)2,5 puntos
    cambios nuevos 1 punto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    But let me break it down for you like this: Nintendo Switch is the fun part of Sword and Shield; Sword and Shield is not the fun part of a Pokemon experience for Switch. Simple as that.    … Expand
  26. Fabiotipow
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    Mais do mesmo, graficamente horrível pra sua geração, as coisas pipocam na sua tela. Tirem esse grande jogo das mãos da game freak
  27. avefenixflames
    Nov 17, 2019
    5
    I have been a pokemon fan since Red, I don't play competitively I only love the art which is the only thing that has improved all these years, this game in that regard is beautiful but in everything else feels incomplete it doesn't even feel like a nintendo switch game, before playing this I played Lugi's Mansion 3 and that game feels way more polished, the animations, the sound, theI have been a pokemon fan since Red, I don't play competitively I only love the art which is the only thing that has improved all these years, this game in that regard is beautiful but in everything else feels incomplete it doesn't even feel like a nintendo switch game, before playing this I played Lugi's Mansion 3 and that game feels way more polished, the animations, the sound, the graphics all of it feels current generation, but pokemon sword and shield feels that it should have released on the 3DS, even the game's box art compared to other switch games looks lackluster. I still love the game, it is a decent game, I love the art and I don't care about the missing pokemon, but I understand the people that care. Before all the game limitations were because of the hardware, now there is no excuse... Smash Bros. Showed us that all the pokemon can have voice lines, Zelda showed us that there can be a true open world pokemon game... and even before that Pokemon Stadium showed us that every pokemon can have nice animations... and cutting pokemon from the game didn't help to improve any of that... This game is by no means bad, but it also don't deserve the praise that the media is giving to it...… Expand
  28. Flarec
    Nov 18, 2019
    6
    Pokemon....Pokemon.... Es esto enserio? Este juego, es un buen pokemon y nadie lo va a negar, sigue usando la misma formula de toda la vida..... Esto, es un efecto fifa ya no tengo que decir mas que espero que los proximos pokemon lo hagan com tiempo.... Es un salto grafico de lo mas pobre para venir de 3ds, el juego es lindo y detallista en algunos sectores pero esto.... No lo compensaPokemon....Pokemon.... Es esto enserio? Este juego, es un buen pokemon y nadie lo va a negar, sigue usando la misma formula de toda la vida..... Esto, es un efecto fifa ya no tengo que decir mas que espero que los proximos pokemon lo hagan com tiempo.... Es un salto grafico de lo mas pobre para venir de 3ds, el juego es lindo y detallista en algunos sectores pero esto.... No lo compensa vamos, podian hacerlo mucho mejor... Mas que todo es tan cerrado y no se diga la zonas para silvestres.....
    Para mi, me parece un insulto, que me parece un insulto? Que este juego tenga una historia tan cutre..... Alguien a visto la critica de pokemon mundo misterioso exploradores del cielo????.....
    Este titulo tiene 5.4..... Y puedo decirle que es mas injusto que la alta calificacion que tiene este juego, la historia es paraa adultos disfrazada con un humor infantil.... ES UNA DE LAS MEJORES TRAMAS DE UN VIDEOJUEGO..... Deberian hacer mas cosas asi pero no..... Tienen que atraer el publico casual, si estas leyendo esto ve a ver la critica de ese pokemon MM Si lo has jugado sabrás que tiene una trama tan superior.... Este juego puede hacer llorar si le das la oportunidad de llegar al final de la historia principal.....    … Expand
  29. Crypt96
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Initially, the game is fine. The graphics seem to not have a poor resolution when you start off. For A nintendo switch game, everything should be clean. There are hiccups in FPS when entering battle while playing on the TV, but in handheld, the game runs smoothly, Ive only had a few drops in FPS. The render distance is abysmally bad. I have seen indie developed games with a larger renderInitially, the game is fine. The graphics seem to not have a poor resolution when you start off. For A nintendo switch game, everything should be clean. There are hiccups in FPS when entering battle while playing on the TV, but in handheld, the game runs smoothly, Ive only had a few drops in FPS. The render distance is abysmally bad. I have seen indie developed games with a larger render radius. The animations of the pokemon in the overworld are lifeless, and I feel they could have put more effort into make the pokemon world feel less like Pokemon GO, and more like other swtich titles (Breath of the Wild, for example, the creatures have some life and react more lively when you approach them) the animations in battle are subpar to previous titles, specifically the the attack animations. There are Nintendo 64 titles where the animations are far superior and more believable to this game. I dont mind the reused animations, what I do mind is saying you cut so many pokemon off from the game to say you were making new models and animations, when the only thing "new" are the gigamax models and the new pokemon to the Galar region. on a side note, I had high hopes for the Galar region Ponyta, because he is so cute and the Rapadash is so ugly. The same can be said with Wooloo. His evolution is so ugly. on a side side note, how can they pass the perfect opportunity to make a male and female Wooloo evo with a sheep and ram. (rant over) The companion is nice, but he is an idiot for the first battle. If I were him, I would want to be better than my friends. I would have picked the grass type to counter Sobble, but instead, he is the pathetic type who is programmed to be weak against you. he had two starting pokemon this time, thats new, but insignificant compared to the rest of the game as I progressed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Yes, just like your favorite youtuber is probably exclaiming, these games have some fun moments, but there isnt depth to it, its kind of mindless, in that there is no challenge really. Id be willing to even defend these games if this was to be improved in the next game since these are the first Generation 8 games, and the first main games on the Switch, but for Gamefreak to tell us that this is how they want every game to be from now on? I think these will be my last pokemon games unless they change majorly.    … Expand
  31. brinkoflight
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    It's about what you'd expect from the series post pokemon black and white 2. The games are shell of it's former self. However some bigger problems presents itself that the series didn't have before. The national dex is cut and pokemon are out right removed, mega evolutions and Z moves are removed, pokemon moves have been removed, mediocre textures, graphical issues like pop in, reusedIt's about what you'd expect from the series post pokemon black and white 2. The games are shell of it's former self. However some bigger problems presents itself that the series didn't have before. The national dex is cut and pokemon are out right removed, mega evolutions and Z moves are removed, pokemon moves have been removed, mediocre textures, graphical issues like pop in, reused animations like those for Hop and Hau, no post game, battle tower offers less than it did before, pokemon size scaling like Wailord, features like GTS removed and it costs more.
    There's more issues than the ones I listed here. If you want a good Pokemon game try black and white 2, Heartgold and Soul Silver, Emerald and Platinum.    … Expand
  32. Billhous
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Game is nearly identical to other pokemon games as per usual. Game play is great if you enjoy pokemon. Graphics aren't great for a modern colsole release. Can't speak too much to the full breadth of content as ive haven't finished both games but am at 10 hours on sheild and 1 hour on sword, and this can seems thinner than usual.
  33. Aaradorn
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    Feels like they could do better. The graphics remind me of a 2007 rpg, the pokemon look cool but the models come from the 3DS, the battle animations, if you can call them that, are the bare minimum of an animation.

    I guess it's great for kids but not for older fans.
  34. CHKNRAVE
    Nov 18, 2019
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is my 1st Pokémon game since Diamond and Platinum, so Dexit didn't bother me much since I'm heading towards my very first full Pokédex which wouldn't be possible if some had to be imported.

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

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

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

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

    Overall it's a good but not great experience that I'm not done going through, but I don't think there's any story left now which really sucks. And I still have my Master Ball because there's only 3 legendaries. One with a 100% catch rate, and the box ones. Zacian just took a Quick Ball to the face and it was mine.    … Expand
  35. Bechrisslol
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    This game doesn‘t make me feel like a pokemon trainer.
    and there is no piplup.
  36. smexydevvi
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    After about 40 hours and going in with low expectations I'm still on the negative side, but i'm leaning a bit more to the middle ground. Story...was short, easy (Thanks to exp share), BORING, and over all just disappointing and lame. The game...is fun to an extent, and has some interesting concepts and ideas that just turned out to be implemented horribly. My biggest gripe? The Y Comm. WHOAfter about 40 hours and going in with low expectations I'm still on the negative side, but i'm leaning a bit more to the middle ground. Story...was short, easy (Thanks to exp share), BORING, and over all just disappointing and lame. The game...is fun to an extent, and has some interesting concepts and ideas that just turned out to be implemented horribly. My biggest gripe? The Y Comm. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS ACCEPTABLE ON RELEASE? Anyone who has this game and is pretty far in KNOWS what im talking about. I'll just say it flat out. Its broken. It doesn't work. Its non-intuitive and it hardly functions as intended. Imagine trying to get a gigantamax pokemon and you see someone post it up, but you cant join because it was a stamp from 10 minutes ago, BEING UPDATED AS NEW FEED. Or how about loading up a max raid looking for people to help you out because the CPU trainers are stupid as hell, but no one can join you for the same reason as stated before. Or how about simply trying to play with your friends in their camp and cook with the already pointless feature that is Pokemon Camp. Welp, you can't because you just have to get lucky and hope to see them in the wild area instead of giving priority to your friends whom you want to play with in the first place. This game is BUTT ugly. Textures are muddy and environment assets are low poly, animations are stiff and gross, not much to cover here since it was to be expected despite dev's claims at E3.
    Onto the positive. There are many quality of life changes in this game, such as removing the restrictions on nicknaming. You can learn and remove pokemon moves at will with no need of paying heart scales or any of that crap. At first i hated pokejobs until i got to the point of sending your pokemon to specific courses to ev train your pokemon. I really like the new mints that allow you to change your pokemon's nature it really helps with the metagame stuff. The music in this game is mostly hit or miss. There are some garbage songs in this game but others are really quite good.

    Overall, this game is hands down the worst game in the series and is definitely not HORRIBLE....but its not good either. This game is mediocre at BEST and i give it a 5/10    … Expand
  37. Cofran21
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    A very ambitious project for a mediocre company. Pokémon Sword and Shield could have been a lot better, a game with wasted potential. Recycled animations, terrible easy difficulty, little entertaining and predictable history, clipped pokedex and repetitive environments are some of the factors that affect the game and make it of poor quality. Galar is a region interesting but not entertaining.
  38. winoc
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    While I have fun playing the game, issues from dexit to short main story, lack of post-game activity to the absolute zero improvement on graphic and animation makes me couldn't give it a passing mark. The wild area is refreshing but far from perfect. I hope that Game Freak understands that fans are not satisfied with this game and they will improve on the next one.
  39. rvbfreak
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    As a game by itself, it's very mediocre. As a Pokemon game, it is seriously lacking. It seems like Game Freak played it very safe and in turn made a sequel to the Let's Go series rather than a true mainline experience. I can overlook the pokedex cut, the lacking animations, and the graphics. Really, when have those ever been the staples of a Pokemon experience? However, what I can'tAs a game by itself, it's very mediocre. As a Pokemon game, it is seriously lacking. It seems like Game Freak played it very safe and in turn made a sequel to the Let's Go series rather than a true mainline experience. I can overlook the pokedex cut, the lacking animations, and the graphics. Really, when have those ever been the staples of a Pokemon experience? However, what I can't overlook is the forced hand-holding, the mandatory Exp. Share, and virtually no endgame options. I wasn't looking for a casual game; I was looking for a game I could grind for 500+ hours, training my party with specific IV/EV stats like I could with Emerald and Diamond. It's safe to say, Sword and Shield is not the game I was looking for. I'll go back to playing the classics and wait for the reviews before I buy the next game.… Expand
  40. Methanous
    Nov 18, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Its a nice game but the acts that has made ruins the experiency like you miss some pokemon .sorry for the english i am brasilian and i am still learning… Expand
  41. Sdiddy98
    Nov 18, 2019
    3
    I am a long time pokemon fan and have been playing every single game even the worse ones such and let's go. This game was a huge let down. Too many things about this game stack up to give a negative taste about this game. First the routes, everything is linear one lane and no cool places to visit and absolutely no caves that you have to find yourself around. Everything is so linear thatI am a long time pokemon fan and have been playing every single game even the worse ones such and let's go. This game was a huge let down. Too many things about this game stack up to give a negative taste about this game. First the routes, everything is linear one lane and no cool places to visit and absolutely no caves that you have to find yourself around. Everything is so linear that you get healed around every corner. Wild area is a good step but graphics are absolutely atrocious for a switch title. Graphics can be good at some place but absolutely terrible in others. All pokemon models and animations are absolutely the same so why cut pokemon... this is laughable. Now modders are taking it upon themselves to make better graphics and put in the pokemon gamefreak has cut out. If next pokemon is gonna be trash then I'm done with pokemon… Expand
  42. Camilohey
    Nov 18, 2019
    1
    El juego esta mal optimizado tiende a tener bajonazos de frames, las animaciones podrían mejorarse mucho más y el tiempo de juego es muy reducido con respecto a las anteriores entregas
  43. Ziromatt
    Nov 18, 2019
    1
    Un videojuego mediocre, quitaron cosas que pokémon a tenido desde siempre, resiclaje de modelos del 3ds,no puedes completar la dex nacional ni transferir tus pokémon
  44. spellskeet
    Nov 18, 2019
    2
    Love the new Pokemon designs, but I really don't like how the game feels like a hallway with a half-baked plot. The rivals are very one dimensional, and pop up way too often with repetative dialogue that stops making sense partway through the game. Wish I could have played more, but while I was in the Wilds area in post game, my SD card for corrupted so I guess I'm done playing.
  45. DarkDeoxys
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    me da pena que el juega sea tan malo, he jugado todos los juegos de pokemon y este por lejos es el con que menos cariño y ganas hicieron
  46. JMT__
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    Horrible and lazy game. I've been a diehard fan since the beginning. But this?....this is trash. The story is weak AS HELL and extremely boring. I wont harp on the animations and textures since everyone knows about that. The towns seem extremely unengaging and empty (I'm looking at you Spikemuth). Rose tower? Like...why? That draw distance is absolutely horrendous. I guess I'm trying toHorrible and lazy game. I've been a diehard fan since the beginning. But this?....this is trash. The story is weak AS HELL and extremely boring. I wont harp on the animations and textures since everyone knows about that. The towns seem extremely unengaging and empty (I'm looking at you Spikemuth). Rose tower? Like...why? That draw distance is absolutely horrendous. I guess I'm trying to say, if you have 60 bucks, do not invest in gamefreak. Support developers like monolith who actually care for their IP's. The golden days of gamefreak are numbered.… Expand
  47. Wehr_Wolff
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    I played Pokemon since I was 7 on my DS and some of my first games was Pokemon Pearl. I played all mainline Pokemon games after those. I was really hyped when news came out for a new Pokemon game. I had kind of mixed feelings towards Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee on the Switch because of the limited Pokemon selection and removed abilites. But because it seemed really intenional to me I accepted itI played Pokemon since I was 7 on my DS and some of my first games was Pokemon Pearl. I played all mainline Pokemon games after those. I was really hyped when news came out for a new Pokemon game. I had kind of mixed feelings towards Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee on the Switch because of the limited Pokemon selection and removed abilites. But because it seemed really intenional to me I accepted it and because they probably needed time to figure out the new Hardware/Software they now work with when it comes to the Switch.

    I really liked seeing Pokemon in HD 3D, but because I also started doing a Nuzlock of Omegaruby I realized that the biggest change to battles was at best the backgrounds. The Pokemon and there attack animations seems similiar enough to not make much of a difference. At least from my perspective it might be in HD but the animations don't make the Pokemon more lively or unique.

    The one animation I need to give big credit to tough is when you pick your Starter. This one shows exactly what I hoped for and wish was more in the game. The Starters start doing there own thing when presented to you and interact with each other showing much of there personality. But in the end it felt more like a what could have been, a tease.

    I liked the detail the cities and rooms etc in buildings got. They really made your house more lively at the start. Sadly the Wild Area pretty much dissapointed me look wise, it felts more like a big plane with some trees and lakes thrown in than a proper big open area.

    When I first heared of Dynamaxing I disliked it, but after some thought I came to the conclusion that it is better than Megas in a way because every Pokemon can do it, so even weaker, less favored ones. Also it kind of brings Z-Moves with megas together. While Z-Moves were better than megas because every Pokemon could use them aswell. But also the Megas felt way more unique than most of the Dynamaxed Pokemon. And because you can only use this feature in a really limited way I didn't use it that much in my overall playthrough. So at the end a big wasted opportunity and way less enjoyable then Megas, espacially since my high hopes.

    You really start to see how many features are Online wise lacking without Pokemon Home that will only release in the start of next year, so quite a wait to enjoy all Online features and I guess that likely you need the paid Switch Online Subcription to use it to the fullest. So I also couldn't bring some of my older friends with me yet to this new region, but now not sure if I even will do so yet.

    At first you don't notice the cut national Dex because 400 Pokemon is still a lot, basically as much as when I started playing Pokemon in 2007. But you really start to notice when your fav Pokemons aren't in the game. You can't rely on some of your older friends to help you can't use your team of your top 6 fav pokemon because certain mons are missing.

    The gyms and gym leaders and challenges can be intresting but compared to Black/White and Black2/White2 the gyms and gym leaders seem to have way less purpose, influence in the story then back then. Overall it is mostly a miss in that regard compared to what kind of infrastucture/working place and saviors story wise or else the gyms and gym leaders in the older mentioned games provide.

    Some design choices still are an eye sore to me. I like the way the champ is portrayed character wise but his design is a total failure. I am always confused how you could mix so much together. Marnie on the other hand had a pretty nice combination going on that didn't feel out of place.

    After the main story the postgame content is pretty lackluster compared to older games.

    Summery: The game if viewed as a standalone game would probably be a 6-8 because it can give you an enjoyable time, has some intresting features and ideas and looks goodish. But if you compare it to other Switch games and older Pokemon games the looks are underperforming. The story and difficulty aswell as postgame content were handled way better in older games. Dynamxing might be a nice idea of a feature but the implementation is badly execute and it should be used more often, to make it worth loosing megas and Z-moves for it. With half of all Pokemon missing and Online features being really limited until the release of Pokemon Home it is an incompelte expirience. Biggest downside considering all those negatives is that arguably that the game doesn't feature as much content and featues as older games and doesn't deliver what was promised while costing 50% more than the 3DS games. So considering all that the game would be on a 2-4. I give it a 4 because people who never might have played Pokemon or many other Switch games might still enjoy the expirience and because at times I had fun with the game. But overall a big dissapointment and it feels more like a lazy cash grab that needed to be delivered half-done before christmas.    … Expand
  48. fuji97
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    I want to participate in this Review bombing because #GameFreakLied
    Clearly this game doesn't deserve 0, but this is the only way to let Game Freak knows that we are angry.
  49. tAugustine1992
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    The only two good things about this game are the Wild Area and the music. New Pokemon just seem very uninspired. Just look at the Pokemon Eiscue. It's literally just a penguin with a block of ice on its head. Even it docked mode the game had issues dropping frames while doing specific activities. Crossing a bridge using the bicycle boost caused the character to flicker uncontrollably untilThe only two good things about this game are the Wild Area and the music. New Pokemon just seem very uninspired. Just look at the Pokemon Eiscue. It's literally just a penguin with a block of ice on its head. Even it docked mode the game had issues dropping frames while doing specific activities. Crossing a bridge using the bicycle boost caused the character to flicker uncontrollably until the boost was done. There is a huge lack of post game activities. There is the quest to catch the legendary which takes a hour at most, the wild area, and a battle tower. The Wild Area is the best thing about the game but if you connect to the internet it becomes a big, buggy mess, with constant frame drops, freezing, and stuttering. Obviously you have to be connected online to raid with friends. If you don't have friends then you are out of luck seeing as trying to join random raids often ends with a failure to join screen. Nobody ever joins your raids and that just turns into sitting there hoping you get lucky.

    For the first main line Pokemon game on a home console I am highly highly disappointed in this dumpster fire of a game. I didn't even mention the National Dex crisis. I HATE that they removed 490 some Pokemon from the game and made them completely unobtainable, but I wen't into the game with an open mind and was left wishing I never picked it up.    … Expand
  50. bookman
    Nov 19, 2019
    2
    I've been a long time player of pokemon, and this game is a total disappointment. I've seen so many unpolished and lazy things with this game like glitchy overworld animations, lazybattle animations, the entire world around you freezing as you climb ladders... My biggest problem with this game is the extreme handholding and linearity even by pokemon standards which was already a low barI've been a long time player of pokemon, and this game is a total disappointment. I've seen so many unpolished and lazy things with this game like glitchy overworld animations, lazybattle animations, the entire world around you freezing as you climb ladders... My biggest problem with this game is the extreme handholding and linearity even by pokemon standards which was already a low bar given the recent titles. The wild area is devoid of anything to actually explore, just the new "raid" feature which brings me to my next gripe. The new Dyanamax gimmick is a terrible replacement that cut mega evolution and z moves. Instead of interesting changes to the pokemon like type changes, unique ability changes, and unique stat distributions from the base form, Dynamax inflates your pokemon like a balloon and gives straight buffs while turning all your varied moves into straight generic dynamax moves, removing all variety of the gimmick. Speaking of pokemon sizes, none of the pokemon are properly scaled either, so you end up with weird looking results like tiny tiny waillords and Tyranitars. Do not get me started on the awful dialogue and plot of the game not to mention the WORST enemy team in all of pokemon. Losing a massive amount of previous pokemon available in the game is the crowning achievement of failure for this gen. Every game I've played I always have a Magneton on my team because it was my favorite pokemon. This is the first game I cannot do that. Many other fan favorites are cut too, so your mileage may vary.

    The only improvement in this game is overworld pokemon. That's it. It's too bad it's not in a good game because that's a great feature people have wanted for years, myself included.

    Do not buy this game. There are much better games on the Switch right now to spend your money on. Play a romhack if you want to play a good modern pokemon game in 2019.    … Expand
  51. loading479
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's just a very shallow game that is fun the first 3 hours but then gets repetitive with going to each gym. It gets boring the more you progress and feels rushed and incomplete. This was my first Pokemon game and it was a letdown… Expand
  52. SK1Y101
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    Wonderful, impeccable, outstanding, trailblazing.
    These were the promises Game Freak made to us about this game, and yet what did we receive?
    An empty shell of a game, clearly rushed and barelypolished, without a shred of any of the former games shining features, Including, but not limited to: Shiny starters Mega-evolutions having access to every move, ever item, every Pokémon, every    Wonderful, impeccable, outstanding, trailblazing.
    These were the promises Game Freak made to us about this game, and yet what did we receive?
    An empty shell of a game, clearly rushed and barelypolished, without a shred of any of the former games shining features, Including, but not limited to:
    Shiny starters
    Mega-evolutions
    having access to every move, ever item, every Pokémon, every gym.
    The elite four existing.
    Victory road existing.
    Decent graphics,
    actually getting to play the game rather than being railroaded....
    The list of features missing in SwSh goes on.

    A glorified Pokémon go, with less effort than should be physically possible to inject into a franchise this large.
    If you want to play Pokémon, pickup Gen 4, Gen 7, hey, maybe even Gen 1 if you want; Don't expect to find anything desirable in sword and shield.    … Expand
  53. RogerBV
    Nov 19, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Facilidad extrema, historia poco creativa y nada envolvente, personajes cliché, interrupciones del gameplay por secuencias de historia cada 5 minutos, un villano plano sin gracia. Sigo sin entender porque Rose quiere sumir a Galar de nuevo en la negra noche. El postgame es el peor chiste que se les ha ocurrido. A todo eso agréguenle las animaciones recicladas de juegos anteriores, y que la Wild area se siente desierta. Definitivamente es el peor juego de Pokemon.... hasta ahora… Expand
  54. Leobriistow
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    I played through this game like every other in the series. As a hardcore and longtime fan I am disappointed by the lack of charm in this game. Game Freak, factually, lied. There were some aspects I enjoyed about this game however, which stops me from giving it a 0.
  55. Darito
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    A lazy attempt to take money from nostalgia, its sad to see how much potential was discarded
  56. TurricanFan64
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    A carbon copy of Pokémon Shield, and as such also a pile of ass. I had more fun playing Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and I was led to believe that game was like Turrican 2. -10/10, exact same **** for the exact same price.
  57. Cippy93
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    The same same game by 10 years. The graphics is like the ps2... And the framerate dropsdown!!!!
  58. OverlyEpux
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    Garbage. Absolute Garbage. Gamefreak lied to us during development, cut out mons from the dex, and wrote a game that *will* brick your switch due to insecure NAND access. This game was a lazy cash grab and it's very sad to see from a company who has consistently delivered great games. This is unacceptable and I warn you all DO NOT buy this game.
  59. Mimicat
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    Not the best, not the worst.

    Pros: landscape, towns, music and new pokemon designs, storyline and wild area concepts and the gym challenge. Cons: lack of an immersive storyline, inconsequential grunts, lack of depth to the main 'villain's' motivation, abundant cut-scenes, hand-holding (albeit slightly improved from S+M), rail-roading, linear routes and lack of dungeons, lack of side    Not the best, not the worst.

    Pros: landscape, towns, music and new pokemon designs, storyline and wild area concepts and the gym challenge.
    Cons: lack of an immersive storyline, inconsequential grunts, lack of depth to the main 'villain's' motivation, abundant cut-scenes, hand-holding (albeit slightly improved from S+M), rail-roading, linear routes and lack of dungeons, lack of side quests or npc challenges, quick and dull post game.

    I feel like the game is represented well by the cities within it, they appear busy and full of life, and yet empty at the same time.

    While personally Dexit for me is not an issue - anyone with half a brain could see was going to become a problem for years - if feels like it could have been handled better. Maybe having 200 (give or take) new native pokemon and regionals and exclude all older pokemon to save arguements?
    But why not just widen those time targets Game Freak? I'd rather have a quality game than a new gen within 3 years of the last.... Oh that's right, because it's a guarenteed money maker...

    All in all, it's a 'nice' game, but incomplete.    … Expand
  60. pokemonfan566
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    This is a great Pokemon game. They have made plenty of positive changes to the formula and the structure and I'm having a blast playing it, especially as a lifelong Pokemon fan.

    The game isn't too short: yes you can run through it if you want, but why would you? Catch the new guys, make some curries and explore the wild. The game not having the full national pokedex isn't a problem:    This is a great Pokemon game. They have made plenty of positive changes to the formula and the structure and I'm having a blast playing it, especially as a lifelong Pokemon fan.

    The game isn't too short: yes you can run through it if you want, but why would you? Catch the new guys, make some curries and explore the wild.

    The game not having the full national pokedex isn't a problem: I have only just completed the first badge and am struggling to figure out who I want in my team. There are so many cool looking Pokemon to explore and use. I think I have about 60 in my dex already (which is more than most of these 11 hour playthroughs you read about have by the end).

    The graphics aren't bad, the world looks great: I don't even know where these criticisms are coming from, mine looks great in handheld mode (which let's be honest, is how it should be played).

    The game isn't linear: yes there is a linear nature to it, but the wild areas give you the ability to explore and do what you want - raid battle, catch pokemon, look for hidden items, set up camp, etc.

    Overall, I think maybe the competitive Pokemon community is upset by this game, but most typical lovers of Pokemon and the Pokemon games will find Sword and Shield to be the best games since the Gold/Silver/Ruby/Sapphire remakes.

    Highly recommend you buy.    … Expand
  61. Evamer
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    This game is everything But what Game-Freak promised.Instead of a game for the veteran fans we got a game for 6 year old kids. Honorable mention on how horrendous most Pokemon designs are,it feels like they went out of their way to make them extra sloppy and unnatural(especially their colour pallets are just a joke).
  62. NickTheGolden
    Nov 20, 2019
    1
    Rusted cheap cash grab. No effort was put into the game and no respect was given to fans. Absolute disgrace of a product. Main story barebones, world is mostly ugly, no post game whatsoever and last but not least, no national dex. Gamefreak played the fan base for fools and majority fell for it.
  63. Fidelator
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Terrible graphics, laughable battle animations, missing half the pokémon, there is no voice acting, the wild area does not have anything to do, Dynamax is ridiculous and not nearly as good as Megas, the difficulty of the games is non existent whatsoever, there is no challenge or sense of accomplishment. The story on the game is utterly recycled and terribly bad. They took away usefulTerrible graphics, laughable battle animations, missing half the pokémon, there is no voice acting, the wild area does not have anything to do, Dynamax is ridiculous and not nearly as good as Megas, the difficulty of the games is non existent whatsoever, there is no challenge or sense of accomplishment. The story on the game is utterly recycled and terribly bad. They took away useful mechanics, specially the world trade center. 0/10, would not buy again, go spend your money on Witcher 3, BoTW or dragon quest so you can see the definition of a well made game.… Expand
  64. Mamacrowhelps
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Sun and Moon ported to the switch, it's at HD resolution but that doesn't mean the graphics are better. Runs terribly and somehow manages to have less content while being marked up 50% in price. Game was boring
    and too easy to play, and can be finished way to quickly and will make you regret spending 60$. Cherry on the top of all of this, is Gamefreak lied to the fans cutting out over    Sun and Moon ported to the switch, it's at HD resolution but that doesn't mean the graphics are better. Runs terribly and somehow manages to have less content while being marked up 50% in price. Game was boring
    and too easy to play, and can be finished way to quickly and will make you regret spending 60$. Cherry on the top of all of this, is Gamefreak lied to the fans cutting out over half the Pokemon stating that they remade the models and animations from scratch when almost every reused move and Pokemon had just been ported from Sun/Moon. Don't take my word for it though, go look at all the giant heaps of evidence that data miners
    have uncovered.

    It's a hard pass.    … Expand
  65. Kamal97
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    A disaster, pokemon just died!
    Even let's go, which was a medium game, had undeniable qualities (nothing but the catching interaction was excellent, it's something that should have stayed on this game).
    The 800 Pokémon are not available supposedly because to redo the sprites for the switch is too long while we have the proof that they have reused the sprites of pokémon Ultra Sun and    A disaster, pokemon just died!
    Even let's go, which was a medium game, had undeniable qualities (nothing but the catching interaction was excellent, it's something that should have stayed on this game).
    The 800 Pokémon are not available supposedly because to redo the sprites for the switch is too long while we have the proof that they have reused the sprites of pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
    Non-existent combat animations, knowing that stadium versions on N64 had animations
    Gigamax combat which is a useless feature, ugly graphics    … Expand
  66. eandrade
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    No national Pokedex, graphics worth of bad ps2 era. Horrible story, linear gameplay with bad writing. It's unbelievable that gamefreak can't release a good game for an IP that is so profitable, start learning with games such as Legend of Zelda
  67. Cmuffins
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Awful. And you know why. No substance or value in this title, from a company that doesn’t care one bit about the player base. Sad EA made a better game this year.
  68. jntForce
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    Worse than 97% of youtubers are saying the game is great, which is an unreasonable lie, please stop lying about the game you idiots.
    game clearly incomplete and ridiculously easy.
  69. thepowered
    Nov 20, 2019
    1
    These critics were clearly bought for rating such a game with these grades !!!!!!!!!
  70. FaffyWaffles
    Nov 21, 2019
    5
    A step in the right direction and 2 steps back. The wild area was brilliant, but sparse. Pop-in was rampant. The National Dex Removal just hurt. More than half the Pokémon are gone. The graphics and animations were not an issue (for me at least) until Game Freak made them an excuse for cutting content. For a franchise that makes more than Marvel, and with the power of the Switch behind it,A step in the right direction and 2 steps back. The wild area was brilliant, but sparse. Pop-in was rampant. The National Dex Removal just hurt. More than half the Pokémon are gone. The graphics and animations were not an issue (for me at least) until Game Freak made them an excuse for cutting content. For a franchise that makes more than Marvel, and with the power of the Switch behind it, it felt sub-par. By itself? It was... fine.… Expand
  71. killerjdog51
    Nov 21, 2019
    6
    I have mixed feelings for these pokemon games. I love the wild area, even though they look terrible the concept is good. I also love all the new and unique pokemon, I just wish they had animated the pokemon better or had better move-sets. Because you do a move, and your pokemon is just picked up and shook in the air or something stupid like that and it seems lazy. My main issue though isI have mixed feelings for these pokemon games. I love the wild area, even though they look terrible the concept is good. I also love all the new and unique pokemon, I just wish they had animated the pokemon better or had better move-sets. Because you do a move, and your pokemon is just picked up and shook in the air or something stupid like that and it seems lazy. My main issue though is the story of the game. It was always like "go to the next gym" or "oh look there's a cool and exciting explosion over there, you cant go though so instead go to the next gym" and the story was simply boring and linear and I didn't like it. I did love the camps and that you could visit other camps. I was kinda disappointed that there weren't any Eevee-lutions or good post-game content.

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

    I have mixed feelings about the game, I like some of the new stuff, I just wish it was done better. But by no means are these terrible games. It is a step in the right direction, I just think Gamefreak needs to spend more time polishing everything up. Hopefully the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum remakes are done well and given the proper time (just like fire red, leaf green, emerald, soul silver, and heart gold).    … Expand
  72. moosbuckel
    Nov 21, 2019
    1
    Played it now 40 hours its just an old game with wii graphics, gameplay was really boring, story was very unimportant. The routes are as well boring and nothing to explore. the game is WAY to easy because of this EXP system and the new naturezone is a laggy piece of crap. More then 500 pokemon are missing. Never trust Gamefreak again
  73. GusConstantine
    Nov 22, 2019
    6
    Pokémon sword is utterly, thoroughly mediocre. But it's still Pokémon, and that'll be enough to keep your attention.

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

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

    So buy it. Or don't. It doesn't matter. Gamefreak doesn't care if the game is good so why should you?    … Expand
  74. Adigael
    Nov 22, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I tried to remain positive playing this game but so far the experience has not been rewarding. It's a buggy mess. The raid feature, which is supposed to be the huge selling point, doesn't work. The AI is terrible, picks terrible pokemon to help you, and if you can't clear a raid, they won't reset. So you're stuck in a raidless wild area forced to spam wishing pieces just to get 3 star useless pokemon. If people are posting about safe resetting just to do stuff, it just means it's not worth it. The graphics feel lije a 3DS port, I don't care what anyone tries to tell you.… Expand
  75. MikeRose87
    Nov 25, 2019
    5
    These are my thoughts with the pros and cons I found for this game after a full playthrough with hours of wild area, raids and such over 34 hours.

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

    Pros

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

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

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

    Cons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Verdict

    If you want a Pokemon game to do Pokemon stuff then you will most likely have fun with this despite it's shortcomings. But if you were hoping for the first console Pokemon game to take the already great core and expand it to add true substance, challenge, and depth. This aint it chief    … Expand
  76. aoshistark
    Nov 22, 2019
    0
    I purchased my copy of this game at Wal-mart on release. I beat the first gym leader with bare-minimum effort then returned the copy on Monday. Pokemon as a game franchise is in its death throws.

    Playing this game is like putting on a rubber baby helmet in a room full of padding. It is impossible to lose at anything. If you are the kind of person who thinks its a triumph of your ability    I purchased my copy of this game at Wal-mart on release. I beat the first gym leader with bare-minimum effort then returned the copy on Monday. Pokemon as a game franchise is in its death throws.

    Playing this game is like putting on a rubber baby helmet in a room full of padding. It is impossible to lose at anything. If you are the kind of person who thinks its a triumph of your ability to get the participation awards at events, this is the game for you. If you're a seasoned Pokemon Master, this game will make you ill.

    Game Freak had a valuable chance to really change the franchise for the better with this, but they didn't. They stuck to safety, they stuck to what a marketing team probably told them would sell best. I wanted desperately to enjoy this game. There are fleeting glimpses of a good Pokemon game hiding in the mist, but you'd be hard pressed to draw them out.

    Don't buy this title. Don't bother with it. Its not worth your time.    … Expand
  77. Amirmijo
    Nov 22, 2019
    2
    If Pokémon company only care about money we get it . But this is for sure not a 60 bucks game I feel o got scammed. Before the game came out they said wait until you play it so you judge it now we bought it and I didn’t like it . I feel gamefreak did a lazy work I’m sorry they need to be more creative and stop the non sense dynamax. Keep it simple and add more content more story more sideIf Pokémon company only care about money we get it . But this is for sure not a 60 bucks game I feel o got scammed. Before the game came out they said wait until you play it so you judge it now we bought it and I didn’t like it . I feel gamefreak did a lazy work I’m sorry they need to be more creative and stop the non sense dynamax. Keep it simple and add more content more story more side quests add the option so users become gum leaders and also elite four leaders not only focusing about breeding cus not everyone into that . Please let the fans design the Pokémon some designs are horrible . Thanks… Expand
  78. xPakoUchiha
    Nov 23, 2019
    0
    Muchos Pokémons no aparecen y encima graficos reutilizados. Voy solo por la segunda medalla y ya apenas tengo ganas de jugar.
  79. Darth_Zakr
    Nov 23, 2019
    0
    I don't care about national dex. I'm putting this out there so you don't think my review is because of this. And to be fair a game can only be a 0/10 if it is unplayable. Well, this is somewhat of a subjective definition. For some unplayable means full of glitches and bugs. But for me, well unplayable means unplayable. I am going to go into why this game is unplayable, and why the devsI don't care about national dex. I'm putting this out there so you don't think my review is because of this. And to be fair a game can only be a 0/10 if it is unplayable. Well, this is somewhat of a subjective definition. For some unplayable means full of glitches and bugs. But for me, well unplayable means unplayable. I am going to go into why this game is unplayable, and why the devs did an unbelievably lazy job and why it is NOT worth your money, much LESS your time.

    As soon as the game starts you are forced to watch cutscene after cutscene. And that's generally not a problem. The problem in this game is that cutscenes are unbearably long. Most video game developers allow you to skip the dialogue by the press of a button, but this game forces you to watch the characters open and close their mouths (in silence) on average of 10 seconds after you have finished reading the text. Even at the fastest setting, you still have to wait until the animation is over. That 10 seconds, over hundreds of animation, add up to a significant portion of one's time throughout the entire game.

    Animation in this game is horrible from the start. The animation is like taking 2 toy action figures and making them communicate and act out your imaginations. The limitations of those toy action figures are the same limitations in all of the animations of this game. Every single character is an action figure that moves to the limitation of all action figures. It's sloppy and lazy from any creator to put out content like this.

    The only way to cut through the cutscenes is to ignore them completely, skip them completely. There's no middle ground where you can read the text and skip it as soon as you're done the reading. No, they force you to watch their miserable efforts in animation. I suspect this is done purposefully to make a short game appear longer.

    What makes the animations worse is that it's in complete silence. Meaning no voice acting. Come on are you serious? You're going to force me to watch your horribly lazy attempt in animation and not even provide voice acting?

    At least there's music to accompany that silence? You would be right if you considered that cacophony of sound music. It's like taking nails and scratching a chalkboard while a 3-year-old uses your kitchen pots as a drumset and your angry parrot squawking in the back. The soundtrack is a mess. An amalgamation of what appears to be guitars, drums, cymbals, and trumpets that have no harmony. Every single musical score is horrible (except perhaps the theme of the Weald which I really enjoyed btw).

    What about the art direction? Again a failing score. The characters in this game are some of the ugliest looking characters I've seen. Look at the champion's attire. He's wearing a shirt, with tights, with short shorts on top of the tights, with a cape. What the actual heck is going here GF devs? If the champion looks this ridiculous imagine everything else?

    Then you have the graphical quality. It is horrible. When played on my 4k screen (which is the average screen in today's time), you can see how horribly pixalated the graphics are. There are no smooth lines in this game, even the main characters shirt is jagged. If you ever played games on the playstation 1, you remember how jagged the characters were. Well that is because the ps1 did its best with its hardware limitations. Why am I comparing it to ps1? Seriously the main character has a graphical fidelity of Squall Lionheart from FF8 with an upscaled resolution screen filter applied. Today, on the switch, GF devs have no excuse to mess this up. Then take a look at the trees in the wild, if you made trees on MS Paint it would look better. The skins on the trees are horribly out of focus. You have a game like BOTW where everything is beautiful, and then you have this horrible mess. It's unjust.

    Speaking of the wild, they may have not even included it. GF tries to force you into thinking this is some huge expansive area to explore but in reality its just a glorified route. It's just a plain open field, with the ugliest trees in gaming history, pink rocks with holes (which they call dens), and grass copied and pasted across the entire place. That's all it is.

    Finally, the plot in this game is so ridiculously boring. They try to oversell the plot by making the dull lifeless character. The only character that has any kind of enthusiasm is your rival and a weird robotic enthusiasm. He basically is in every cutscene, and his actions are the same in every cutscene. He boucnes up and down in forced excitement in every single cutscene he is in. GF devs are forcing the hype, but everything about is disdainful, cringeworthy.

    All in all this game looks like someone pulled an all-nighter to complete a project they had a year to do. And this is why it deserves a failing grade. It is the worst waste of time in my years of gaming (since Rascal on the ps1).    … Expand
  80. Ishrod24
    Nov 23, 2019
    0
    Tired of these half ads games! I understand you want to make it kiddish for the young ones but if you want the support of adult gamers then make better games!
  81. Gabe120402
    Nov 23, 2019
    0
    I made an account just to give this a 0. Models directly cut from previous games. Animations lazily ripped, too. Corporate liars gave us an unfinished game, and a bad one at that. This is the only game in the series where you cannot catch them all. I have been following and purchasing Pokemon games for a while now. I am infinitely disappointed. I'll keep my $60 and spend it on cat foodI made an account just to give this a 0. Models directly cut from previous games. Animations lazily ripped, too. Corporate liars gave us an unfinished game, and a bad one at that. This is the only game in the series where you cannot catch them all. I have been following and purchasing Pokemon games for a while now. I am infinitely disappointed. I'll keep my $60 and spend it on cat food before purchasing this dumpster-fire.… Expand
  82. JustTheTruth
    Aug 5, 2020
    2
    Straight to the point:

    1) The music in this entire game is unbearable. From pokemon encounters to gym battles it nearly ruins the game. Sad because pokemon traditionally has a great score. 2) The villians/goal of the game. Say what you want about “focused on selling to children” well so were the original pokemon games and they - to this day - are held as favorites over all the most    Straight to the point:

    1) The music in this entire game is unbearable. From pokemon encounters to gym battles it nearly ruins the game. Sad because pokemon traditionally has a great score.

    2) The villians/goal of the game. Say what you want about “focused on selling to children” well so were the original pokemon games and they - to this day - are held as favorites over all the most recent games. Having corny gangsters in alolan to the weirdest groups in Sword/S, it ruins the premise of competing with a worthy opponent. They need to add better writing and create more memorable realistic characters. No one wants another Hop by their side

    3) Battling - yes fire crushes grass every time but there is 0 challenge to this game. (Yes you can make it hard if u try to by not training pokemon at all and keep substituting) but it eliminates the point. Stop making it so easy to get xp and make battles more challenging, esp trainer and gym battles. The elite 4 used to be so hard to get through, now i can pet my pokemon and “its all okay”. Maybe save that for a spinoff game, ppl want battles and growth not curries and brushes to get to the top. 4) the pokemon out in the wild is very cool and the battle encounters are much better - minus points above. But the battle animations are completely outdated and the environments are limited and barely memorable.

    5) CutScenes and Hop - no one wants to be stopped by an annoying NPC every 5 seconds to be told what to do. Take things like that out of the game completely or leave them as optional. Its okay to let ppl playing figure things out.

    Overall, huge let down by a company blatantly ignoring years of feedback and clearly missing a much larger opportunity, dispute how well the games have sold.    … Expand
  83. TheSoyBoy
    Nov 24, 2019
    2
    

I do not own a copy of this game, I was fortunate enough to borrow a copy to play the game myself.




    Pokemon Sword and Shield are Gamefreak’s first mainline Pokemon game on a home console. With game’s like Dragon Quest XI, Zelda Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch, there were high expectations among Pokemon fans for Gamefreak to produce a game that    

I do not own a copy of this game, I was fortunate enough to borrow a copy to play the game myself.




    Pokemon Sword and Shield are Gamefreak’s first mainline Pokemon game on a home console. With game’s like Dragon Quest XI, Zelda Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch, there were high expectations among Pokemon fans for Gamefreak to produce a game that represented the success and popularity of the Pokemon franchise.

    

Let’s start off with some positives. 

Firstly, the ability to customise your character is the best it has ever been in the franchise. The options players have to customise their characters are fresh and creative. And, while there were more options for female characters, it has definitely been a step in the right direction.

    

I really enjoyed the battle theme and most of the new Pokemon designs (some of them certainly fell flat). As someone who has been a massive fan of the Pokemon franchise since Red, Blue, and Yellow, it’s disappointing to see some really awful designs. I would even prefer the excluded Pokemon from the beta versions of Gold and Silver over some of the ones we received this generation.



    Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are a new mechanic where Pokemon become giant, gaining an increase to their stats and changing the effects of their moves. I personally really disliked this. I would have preferred Gamefreak to stick to mega evolutions instead of introducing gimmicks that only last a generation. I would not have minded keeping the giant Pokemon as raid bosses, but I find it really poor to see them being used so widely throughout the game. It just comes off as very tired and uncreative, especially for a multibillion dollar franchise.



    The biggest negatives of this game however, is the linear design of the region, the same washed out 3D models used in the previous generation, bad battle and cutscene animations, the increased handholding, the lack of an interesting and expansive post-game story (or even the availability of new post game content seems to be largely missing), the exclusion of the National Dex, and watering down, removing or excluding features introduced in other generations that were a massive benefit to the quality of life of the game, such as the Player Search System, Global Trade System, Wonder Trade, and the PokeNav system from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. 



    While it’s still to be seen what Pokemon Home will look like, it is very concerning to see the Global Trade System that included in the previous generations be excluded in this one, only to be repackaged in Pokemon Home that will require a subscription (on top of the Nintendo Switch’s online subscription).



    There is so much that has been done poorly that the interesting and new things Gamefreak introduced to this generation are mostly overlooked. Unless having an expansive list of curry recipes is really that important to you, I think most people who are looking for a Pokemon experience that is rewarding and challenging will find that Pokemon Sword and Shield are not the game for them.

    

If you are someone looking for a casual experience with little difficulty and something they can finish within a week or two and move on, then Sword and Shield are definitely for you.



    However, for a game that is essentially an enhanced repackage of the previous generation with a significant portion of content cut, it is hard to recommend Sword and Shield to anyone when the game has increase its cost compared to its 3DS counterparts. If you are looking for an easier game to pick up and begin your Pokemon journey, I would recommend you look at Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon on the 3DS, as it provides a better overall experience for what you are looking for.

    In short:
    - Good battle music.

    - More character customisation.
    - Easier to enhance your Pokemon for competitive battling
    - New designs are hit or miss. Some are really great, others are really awful.

    - Creative region design but very linear. Would have really benefitted from properly designing cities and towns to be more than pathways to the next objective.
    - Dynamaxing and Giagantamaxing are uninteresting gimmicks only intended to last this generation. It’s quite unfortunate that they replaced mega evolutions. 



    Major negatives:
    - Removing or excluding mechanics/features that were great in previous generations
    - No National Dex
    - Excluding the Global Trade System and putting it behind a second subscription in Pokemon Home
    - Poor story writing and poor character development. Some of the characters are truly insufferable.
    - Not much content for players to explore, especially post-game
    - Too easy and overly ‘hand-holdy’
    - Pokemon 3D models, battle animations, and character animations taken from the previous generation. This makes me question why there is so little content, especially new content.    … Expand
  84. Djarjb
    Nov 24, 2019
    4
    Has the makings of a good game. The environments are awesome and the "gym challenge" adds a great tournament air the game. Pokemon on the overworld makes the environments feel alive. But game is far to easy with only one battle in the whole game keeping me on my toes. Furthermore the new mechanics of dynamaxing and camping are gimmicky and add very little to the game. Also I suggest neverHas the makings of a good game. The environments are awesome and the "gym challenge" adds a great tournament air the game. Pokemon on the overworld makes the environments feel alive. But game is far to easy with only one battle in the whole game keeping me on my toes. Furthermore the new mechanics of dynamaxing and camping are gimmicky and add very little to the game. Also I suggest never using half the items from Max raids if you ever want to have even a modicum difficulty. Plays like a tutorial the wholeway though the game. The greatest sin in this game is the fact that it feels like a tech demo. It shows of what the switch is capable of but does little else. The Story is bland and short. The post games is a joke that can be completed in under an hour. There are no vastly explorable area or even side quests. It's feels small and compact yet somehow empty. I was prepared to like this game and enjoyed my first three hours but it disappointed. It pains me to see such a potentially entertaining entry in the series so poorly executed.All in all would not recommend. Go play fire emblem three houses instead.… Expand
  85. christopher857
    Nov 25, 2019
    3
    GameFreak definitely doesn't know how to develop games. Since Pokémon Gold not the effort to improve. Pokemon Sword is bad, limited, bad graphics, lots of bugs, Pokemon size inconsistency. I don't recommend it, it's time for GameFreak to pass Pokémon to another developer.
  86. Taurian
    Nov 25, 2019
    6
    For me, this game felt good at first, but the more you play it grows hollow. I won’t lie, the biggest complaint I have is the Dexit issues. It’s not just that though. So, I’ll start this review with what I found issues with, as at least a long-standing, “die-hard” fan; - Post-game; Its there but... not much. And it really wasn’t that entertaining or long. After you finish up the post-storyFor me, this game felt good at first, but the more you play it grows hollow. I won’t lie, the biggest complaint I have is the Dexit issues. It’s not just that though. So, I’ll start this review with what I found issues with, as at least a long-standing, “die-hard” fan; - Post-game; Its there but... not much. And it really wasn’t that entertaining or long. After you finish up the post-story stuff, you’re left to shiny hunting and EV training, and that’s about it. When I say the game feels a bit hollow, this is primarily where that comes from. I hope this is something that can be solved with patched in events, but I’m not too hopeful. -No Nat Dex; I know, I know, it’s like beating a dead horse at this point, but it really does feel like Gamefreak is intentionally trying to make its older players mad and quit the franchise. Newer and casual players will be fine, but it’s a major middle finger to those of us that put in actual work into these games. -No GTS; The trading in this game is a NIGHTMARE. Trading is hard unless you’re on Discord or other forums to connect you with other players, unless of course you have a full squad of PokeFriends in your town or don’t mind surprise trades. It’s just awful, really. -Graphics; For as much as the graphics were hyped, they are poor. I don’t have much else to say. Trees, mostly. Ugh. I don’t mean to nitpick, but when that was a major push factor, it definitely doesn’t take advantage of what the Switch can do. I do have some good things to say though.
    -Wild Zone; I think this area is neat and provides a way to get some nice Pokémon, especially after you defeat the main story. -New Pokemon; A lot of them are great, really. In comparison to the last two times we got new Pokémon, these are indeed better designed and just overall more lovable. Dragapult really stole my heart, ngl. Clothing!; Man, I really am happy with the customization in this, I will say that has gotten so much better. Shiny Hunting; The methods are the best they’ve been. Good Characters; Including the player character, I do find all the characters really fleshed out and great as additions to the humans of the Pokémon world. It’s the first time I’ve really enjoyed the company of my rival. Map; Aside from the graphic quality, the areas and routes are all pretty interesting and good sized. A good amount of hidden/off the beaten path places and items    … Expand
  87. Kempe1
    Nov 25, 2019
    3
    Has gameplay elements from 1995.

    - straight corridors from point A to point B - Textures are non existant - Graphics are wii/early 360 rather than 2019 title - Music still not orchestrated - Battkes are just ñress a, there is no point in the single player part of the game - Not every pokemon is in - Animations in pokemon stadium 2 rival some of the avergae ones in this game while being    Has gameplay elements from 1995.

    - straight corridors from point A to point B
    - Textures are non existant
    - Graphics are wii/early 360 rather than 2019 title
    - Music still not orchestrated
    - Battkes are just ñress a, there is no point in the single player part of the game
    - Not every pokemon is in
    - Animations in pokemon stadium 2 rival some of the avergae ones in this game while being better tgan the worst ones.    … Expand
  88. Chaoslyo
    Nov 26, 2019
    4
    Despite how much I loved Pokemon, this game failed to attract me. Unrefined graphic, incomplete National Dex, repetitive story and lack of end game content.
  89. Jhinl3m0n
    Nov 26, 2019
    1
    Let's be real about this game.

    Pros: - I'm sorry but i don't think this game have some pro. Cons: - Recycled animation from past games (marketing lie) - 10 routes total, 6 are BEFORE the first gym. (another marketing lie, because when they have done the promo event with the journalist, the demo allowed you to play until the first gym, so they structured the overworld layout    Let's be real about this game.

    Pros:
    - I'm sorry but i don't think this game have some pro.

    Cons:

    - Recycled animation from past games (marketing lie)

    - 10 routes total, 6 are BEFORE the first gym. (another marketing lie, because when they have done the promo event with the journalist, the demo allowed you to play until the first gym, so they structured the overworld layout like this, just to lie another time about contents that had to be there, but aren't.)

    - Dynamax mechanic is overpowered, and will ruin the competitive scene.

    - Gigamax, this are pure trash for a bunch of reasons, first off all, you can't breed them correctly, that means the stats wont be perfect as it should be in competitive, they are 25 (3 of them not released yet) on 400 vs over 45 mega forms cutted.

    - Online infrastructure is just a joke, the pokemon company actually won't buy any server to make this game have a decent lobby design model to work good, that nowadays is the most used in the world, that means that the competitive scene of the game will not exist.

    -The story is not a story, team yell is doing NOTHING, i finished the game and i dont know why they were here, all is a joke when you realize that you are able to oneshot everything from the first gym to the champion, plus cutscenes are mute, so i think it's enough.

    -Background of battle scenes are simply unfinished, and the overworld looks like this too, snes texture.. in 2019. When you compare to zelda BOTW i don't think someone can defend pokemon anymore.

    -Retail price 60$ that speaks alone.

    -Dexit for a lot of reasons, like all the franchise is based on Gotta catch em'all you remember that guys ? and pokemon home? wtf i have to do with it now ?    … Expand
  90. Dopke
    Nov 26, 2019
    4
    Honestly, I beat it over a weekend, which is disappointing that the campaign isn’t longer. Post game is dismal. There are only 2 legendary Pokémon. The only gen 1 starter is charmander. I’m just disappointed. With the resources this company has, this could have been breath of the wild levels of quality, and it’s just not. A dud.
    Music in the game is sick though.
  91. JasonLightheart
    Nov 27, 2019
    3
    Unfortunaly, I won’t say more than the others but with my 90h playtime I can say:
    God the game is empty, easy and take you by the hand from the start to the end.
    Wild area is empty, ugly and don’t turn online on here, or else say bye to those FPS. Speaking of Online, well it’s pretty good if you’re in 2006, X/Y were way better than.... this Dynamax is boring, Gigamax kill purpose for    Unfortunaly, I won’t say more than the others but with my 90h playtime I can say:
    God the game is empty, easy and take you by the hand from the start to the end.
    Wild area is empty, ugly and don’t turn online on here, or else say bye to those FPS.
    Speaking of Online, well it’s pretty good if you’re in 2006, X/Y were way better than.... this
    Dynamax is boring, Gigamax kill purpose for every other Pokemon from the same species and you can’t even use them online. I miss Mega so bad.
    Online battle, yeah everyone use almost the same team, I don’t call that « balanced »
    Story, welp at least Leon had a better adventure than us since he did all the cool stuff.
    And of course our dear National dex that modder have already begun to fix in less than 3 days.
    My conclusion, I was so hyped at the very first trailer but since then every new trailer killed my hype little by little, those game was supposed to be the best of all, but in the end just a greedy lazy one...
    And I love Pokémon, it’s my favorite games, so it’s hurt even more to see how Pokemon have become. But even If I love Pokémon, I can’t let that pass, yeah I had a fun time playing sword but... that’s it. Just a short fun time...    … Expand
  92. Sydannus
    Nov 29, 2019
    2
    I love Pokemon, but this was just lazy and boring. Gen 5 was my favourite because of all the Team Plasma stuff, I really enjoyed X and Y too. This just had nothing going for it. It wasn't fun, every time you think you're finally going to get involved with the story Leon runs off, announcing that he will handle it and Hop (the most annoying and weak rival yet) yells at you to come with himI love Pokemon, but this was just lazy and boring. Gen 5 was my favourite because of all the Team Plasma stuff, I really enjoyed X and Y too. This just had nothing going for it. It wasn't fun, every time you think you're finally going to get involved with the story Leon runs off, announcing that he will handle it and Hop (the most annoying and weak rival yet) yells at you to come with him and train... because you're his 'rival'.

    I'm not about to sit here and complain about the National Dex being gone either, it's not the biggest problem this game has. I'm not happy they removed them but I was expecting it at some point down the line. This game simply isn't well made and feels like an absolute regression in storytelling, pacing and difficulty from all previous generations. The most clear example of this regression is, at least to me, the selection of available outfits within Sword and Shield. There's no end game item store and there's really only 2 or 3 'different' styles of tops/dresses (not counting recolours). It's incredibly lazy and the excitement of creating your own trainer who goes through the world in their own way is one that has been huge in distracting me from the series' flaws in recent releases. Similarly, the post-game is something that typically makes me excited to continue playing. In Sword and Shield, I felt that I largely got dumped off the deep end and the writing remained as uninteresting as before, even if it was still my favourite part. I would once again reference X and Y and it's Lumiose City quest chain (as well as the reputation for the upper-class fashion shop) as a good Pokemon end game - this one fell flat.
    I'm not going to sit here and say Pokemon should be difficult but it would be nice if the NPCs could learn to switch their pokemon, as it could potentially create more than a slow-paced medieval slug match with unimpressive animations.

    On the positives: The fairy town was really well designed and looked amazing. The place where you meet the legendary Pokemon also looks good visually. The first 10 minutes of the game where you enter the Slumbering Weald had me legitimately excited for where the story could go. Pokemon still has a competitive scene, even if gigantimax is incredibly unhealthy for it.    … Expand
  93. fiTy
    Nov 29, 2019
    2
    An RPG game with competitive online system with more exploits than its 20+ years ago predecessors.
  94. aaw510
    Nov 29, 2019
    3
    Way too short and annoying at times. I beat every gym and had a solid team after about 20 hours, which is way too short for a $60 game. In addition, I seem to be the only one experiencing a problem with watts (a form of in-game currency) and some pokemon not respawning. None of the dens i visited over 24 hours ago respawned watts, leaving me with little to no way to collect them withoutWay too short and annoying at times. I beat every gym and had a solid team after about 20 hours, which is way too short for a $60 game. In addition, I seem to be the only one experiencing a problem with watts (a form of in-game currency) and some pokemon not respawning. None of the dens i visited over 24 hours ago respawned watts, leaving me with little to no way to collect them without having to fight pokemon. I’ve also been trying to catch all Eeveelutions, but after catching two, they no longer spawn in the known location where they can be found (again even after 24 hours). I think this might actually be my last Pokemon game, just not worth the price tag.… Expand
  95. Elpazto
    Nov 30, 2019
    4
    Bad game
    Game freak lied
    Recycled models, horrible dynamax mechanic, no mega, no Z move
  96. solarhorse
    Nov 30, 2019
    4
    Are you looking to get back into Pokemon after losing interest several years ago, eager to see how the franchise has changed? This game isn't for you.

    Are you a die-hard Poke-fan excited to see what a mainline Pokemon game looks like on a home console? This game still isn't for you. Pokemon Sword and Shield, the latest installment in the Pokemon franchise, marking the start of the    Are you looking to get back into Pokemon after losing interest several years ago, eager to see how the franchise has changed? This game isn't for you.

    Are you a die-hard Poke-fan excited to see what a mainline Pokemon game looks like on a home console? This game still isn't for you.

    Pokemon Sword and Shield, the latest installment in the Pokemon franchise, marking the start of the 8th generation of core game titles, is tacky, uninspired and offers little of the wonder and adventure that the franchise used to be celebrated for.

    Like previous entries, the game sees you, a young aspiring Pokemon trainer from a quiet town, setting off on an adventure with a starter Pokemon of your choosing through a large region as you catch, train and battle Pokemon to earn all 8 gym badges and defeat the regions champion. Nothing much is new here, except that now the region is based on England, very loosely.

    But the lack of originality could be forgiven if the game could at least excel in what it had to offer, and for a while the tried-and-true cycle of discovering, catching and raising brand new Pokemon was enough to keep me hooked for a while. There's nothing quite like the excitement of discovering a new Pokemon for the first time, hence why I always go into these games blind.

    But the excitement stops when you realize that there are only 80 new Pokemon, not that much considering previous installments typically add over a hundred of them for the first pair of games. And when the excitement stops, the disappointment sets in. But what's so disappointing about this game? Is it all just a lot of non-issues cherry-picked by fans who got too caught up in the "Dexit" controversy leading up to release? I'll let you decide if the following complaints are "cherry-picked".

    My first complaint, the game feels lifeless. The design of the towns and cities lack any depth or character, populated only with small groups of NPCs standing around doing nothing, (and the numbers seem even smaller when you factor in the pop-in issues). Buildings, walls, rivers and roads look like they're built out of cardboard. You never feel like you’re exploring a living, breathing world as much as you’re watching a stage play with cheap props.

    The lifelessness doesn't end with towns or people, it also extends to the Pokemon themselves. If the animations in battle seem frigid, wait until you try out "Pokemon Camp", a feature which allows for all six party members to interact with one another. What could have been a great device for building character turns out to be a complete mess, with Pokemon sliding all over the place like bumper cars as animations fail to sync with motions and AI fails to find appropriate paths around other characters.

    Second complaint, the story. Pokemon has never been known for daring stories, but they're at least functional. There's an evil team with an agenda, a legendary Pokemon gets involved, the world ends, there's stakes, there's urgency, etc. Sword and Shield has this, technically speaking, but decides to cram it all at the very end of the game, leaving the majority of the campaign with no antagonists, no tension and any hint of danger washed over as other characters deal with issues that in any other game you would need to deal with yourself.

    My third complaint, the formula is stale, particularly the combat. There's nothing wrong with turn based combat per se, and anyone who says it's outdated clearly hasn't tried out the Shin Megami Tensei games, but it has to be done right. The combat here, however, plays exactly like every other Pokemon game has played since Red/Blue. What worked fine for a Game Boy feels out of place on a modern console, particularly when played on the big screen. It's slow, it's cumbersome and it needs to change.

    My fourth complaint, the purging of Pokemon, the source of the infamous "Dexit" controversy. I'm less bothered by not having access to all Pokemon from previous titles and more bothered by what the design philosophy behind this game is. The game isn't a "fresh start", as discussed above. It isn't reinventing the wheel, it's building on the established foundation. But it also removes from the foundation by not having all Pokemon available. If a lack of technical expertise or manpower are the reason for this, then it would've been a better idea to give Pokemon a hard reboot and "re-invent" the franchise instead. At least that vision of the game would've been achievable.

    It's not all gloom and doom though. For example, the gym battles are easily the best in the franchise, with giant "Dynamaxed" Pokemon, music that escalates as battles progress and gym leaders that ooze personality. It's as though the gym battles and the Dynamax gimmick were what Game Freak started with before adding in a half-hearted game afterwards. It's a shame they couldn't start by imagining how to recapture what made Pokemon such a wondrous experience to begin with.    … Expand
  97. Goodra2
    Nov 30, 2019
    3
    I would say extremely mediocre.
    - the story is basically not there
    - the characters are uninteresting (except for Hop after he gets **** on buy Bede) - most of the animations are outdated - the graphics arent that good - the wild area is much like ocarina of time’s hyrule field, empty and boring - There were barley any new pokemon introduced - dynimax was a mistake - the battle tower is    I would say extremely mediocre.
    - the story is basically not there
    - the characters are uninteresting (except for Hop after he gets **** on buy Bede)
    - most of the animations are outdated - the graphics arent that good
    - the wild area is much like ocarina of time’s hyrule field, empty and boring
    - There were barley any new pokemon introduced - dynimax was a mistake
    - the battle tower is more boring than sun and moon’s
    - gts was removed (why?)
    - the ladder half of the game felt rushed - when you are online in the wild area there is horrendous lag
    - pokemon arent properly scaled - half the pokemon are gone - you cant turn of exp share
    - the game holds the players hand
    - the game is way to easy - the routes are literally a glorified hallways
    - megas are gone
    - the game is overpriced (in terms of how much content there is and the quality)

    The game felt overall rushed and unfinished.

    If you’re a die hard pokemon fan and you wanna keep getting the same mediocre trash every year than this is the game for you. If you’re someone who's looking to get a switch for yourself or someone else and you’re consider this to be the first game you get, then dont. There are way better games on the switch (Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Witcher 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses).
    Those games are infinitely better than Sword and Shield, and are worth all 60 of your hard earned dollars.    … Expand
  98. terryangx
    Dec 1, 2019
    1
    Been a hardcore fan of this franchise for over 2 decades. Very meh at best.
  99. Noreak
    Dec 1, 2019
    2
    I am disappointed. -No nationaldex (you get 400 out of 807 Pokémon! 52% are missing. This includes the Starters, exept of charizard)
    -animations that get stomped by a game from the Wii (Pokémon Battle Revolution)
    -they cut megaevulutions
  100. Miotke
    Jun 1, 2020
    4
    4/10ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

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