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. Gamefreakout
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Don't listen to the paid reviews, this game is utter garbage. I am giving it zero because for the first main series game on the switch for the "long time fans" this is a complete and utter failure. Terrible graphics/animations, boring/predictable story line and the game is deleting save files for other games. Game freak has lied to the consumers repeatedly about this game and need to beDon't listen to the paid reviews, this game is utter garbage. I am giving it zero because for the first main series game on the switch for the "long time fans" this is a complete and utter failure. Terrible graphics/animations, boring/predictable story line and the game is deleting save files for other games. Game freak has lied to the consumers repeatedly about this game and need to be called out. Avoid this game like the plague and we might finally get a capable developer to take over.… Expand
  2. Aetheryn
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Naturally the "legitimate" critics had pockets lined by GameFreak so real reviews from them ain't gonna happen. Figure I may as well even them out a bit. Cut corners and get your review score cut as well.
  3. Obbi
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    Probably the weakest title in the main series yet. The main Story mode is substantially shorter than previous titles, and has the least post-game content since Gen I. Part the reason the story mode's so short may be due to how easy it is to get over-leveled and crush all the challenges.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Overall, just really mediocre. Without even getting into the missing Pokemon, the game itself clearly suffered some development issues. More time was needed on this one. I definitely recommending passing, unless you can get it for cheap, or they provide content patches like Kirby Star Allies to make it more of a content-complete Switch title.    … Expand
  4. GeekFrank
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    After removing all the Pokemon I love, there isn't much you get to replace them. Less content, and just a cheap way to change the meta. I was hoping so much more from this "real" Pokemon game after Pokemon Lets Go, and I'm really disappointed.

    Bare bones game that got pushed out just because Nintendo needed something for Christmas.
  5. sirbarbon
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    A disgusting cashgrab.
    -Removed 2/3 of Pokémon when catching them is the main appeal of the games.
    -Terrible graphics, at best it looks like an upscaled 3DS game, at worst the textures resemble the N64 era. -Terrible animations, when that was the excuse given to remove Pokémon. -Removes a significant amount of Pokémon moves. -Pokémon aren't properly scaled, when previous games in the    A disgusting cashgrab.
    -Removed 2/3 of Pokémon when catching them is the main appeal of the games.
    -Terrible graphics, at best it looks like an upscaled 3DS game, at worst the textures resemble the N64 era.
    -Terrible animations, when that was the excuse given to remove Pokémon.
    -Removes a significant amount of Pokémon moves.
    -Pokémon aren't properly scaled, when previous games in the franchise already had done it.
    -Inconsistent, bland, lazy backgrounds.
    -Terrible art choices: neon green and neon pink everywhere makes the in-game world look artificial.
    -Terrible pop-in and draw distance.
    -New Pokémon made with ease of 3d modelling in mind abuse basic geometrical shapes and look toy-like and artificial.
    -Lack of exploration. Small amount of routes, little to no dungeons.
    -Forced Exp. Share.
    -Unbearable handholding and frequent cutscenes ruin the pace of the game.
    -Absurd lack of difficulty, moreso than ever before in the franchise. It feels like the game is playing itself.
    -Lack of substantial postgame.
    -Horrible, empty Open Area. Wild Pokémon don't interact meaningfully with the environment.
    -Empty cities, devoid of content.
    -Costs $60 with less content than a $40 game.    … Expand
  6. LoElPepino
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    Todo lo negativo:
    -Recorte de 500 Pokémon. Entre ellos todas las megaevoluciones. Rompen el lema de "Hazte con todos".
    -Recorte de 100 movimientos algunos importantes en competitivo como Persecución, Poder Oculto, Retribución, etc. Y adiós a los Movimientos Z que personalmente no me gustaban pero es contenido que como el resto ya no está. -30 FPS con caídas considerables de frames.    Todo lo negativo:
    -Recorte de 500 Pokémon. Entre ellos todas las megaevoluciones. Rompen el lema de "Hazte con todos".
    -Recorte de 100 movimientos algunos importantes en competitivo como Persecución, Poder Oculto, Retribución, etc. Y adiós a los Movimientos Z que personalmente no me gustaban pero es contenido que como el resto ya no está.
    -30 FPS con caídas considerables de frames. Bonito en zonas cerradas pero no está a la altura de Nintendo Switch y lo que ésta ofrece. El Área Silvestre, zona en la que más horas se echan es. lamentable el nivel gráfico: Árboles de Nintendo 64 y exagerado popping a las puertas de 2020. Inadmisible.
    -El juego más corto de la saga. Se pasa en 15-18 horas. La mitad de la media del resto de la saga.
    -El peor Team de la saga. Un grupo de fanáticos sin trasfondo interesante que les mueva a hacer el mal, como sí pasaba en generaciones anteriores.
    -Una historia muy floja con personajes vacíos que te repiten una y otra vez lo genial y buen entrenador que eres.
    -Dificultad inexistente, llegando muy chetado a los gimnasios y rivales importantes, con curaciones de equipo continuamente.
    -Repartir Exp obligatorio. Eliminan una mecánica clásica y que elevaba la dificultad del juego que era ir cambiando de pokemon para poder subirlos de experiencia y nivel.
    -No hay ciclo de día y noche. Hay ciudades en permanente noche y otras que siempre es de día.
    -No se puede capturar NINGÚN LEGENDARIO de generaciones anteriores.
    -No hay prácticamente Post Game y la Torre Batalla es la peor, sin jefes y sin combates triples, rotatorios, supercombates individuales y dobles.
    -Animaciones que no están a la altura de lo que prometieron. Recortaron 500 pokemon con la excusa de centrarse en ellas y sólo hay unas pocas que merecen la pena.
    -Bugs que cambian escenarios de batallas, escaleras que paran el tiempo, etc.

    Lo positivo:
    -Me gustan la mayoría de los nuevos diseños de Pokemon.
    -La BSO es muy buena. Desde Quinta Generación no escuchaba una banda sonora tan buena.

    Conclusión:
    Se están cargando lo que era Pokemon. Debe poner freno al declive YA.    … Expand
  7. AdvengerTime
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Truly disappointing watching the first mainline Pokemon switch game be such a blatant & lazy cash grab. My prediction is next year Game Freak will come out with sword and shield 2 & finally have the game looking as it should.
  8. ovejadeluz
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    cd project no tiene ni la mitad del dinero que gamefreak genera con pokemon y no es posible que su videojuego lograra entrar en un cartucho de switch, gamefreak y masuda no tienen perdon en entregarnos el peor pokemon de la historia.
  9. Galuck
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Waste of money. They removed the Pokedex to make "better animation", and these are just the worst. I lost all my hopes on the franchise.
  10. SaiyanPride89
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The game cut over 100 battle moves!?! What the hell. Over 500 Pokémon got Thanos’d. No post story. Some textures look like N64 graphics(seriously Gamefreak rehire Genius Sonority to help you make 3D models like they did with Colosseum/XD/Battle Revolution). Story is mediocre. And most importantly Gamefreak lied. I hope the Diamond/Pearl remakes don’t suffer the same fate. As a die hardThe game cut over 100 battle moves!?! What the hell. Over 500 Pokémon got Thanos’d. No post story. Some textures look like N64 graphics(seriously Gamefreak rehire Genius Sonority to help you make 3D models like they did with Colosseum/XD/Battle Revolution). Story is mediocre. And most importantly Gamefreak lied. I hope the Diamond/Pearl remakes don’t suffer the same fate. As a die hard Pokémon fan that owns every game from Gen 1-7 and loves competitive battles, I will pass on this game and get a refund. This is Fallout 76 style of deception and controversy. Do better Gamefreak.… Expand
  11. I_Play_Soku
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    It's depressing how bad the series has gotten since 10 years back to now. This is considered by some to be the first mainline pokemon game to be on a TV console. And what we get is a pokemon game that uses the same engine as XY. That game was made on a the 3ds 6 years ago. Gamefreak has unironically become Japanese Bethesda except they are graced by developing games for the hugest grossingIt's depressing how bad the series has gotten since 10 years back to now. This is considered by some to be the first mainline pokemon game to be on a TV console. And what we get is a pokemon game that uses the same engine as XY. That game was made on a the 3ds 6 years ago. Gamefreak has unironically become Japanese Bethesda except they are graced by developing games for the hugest grossing franchise to date. The music is off in a lot of places (a few picked are good/alright), One of the shortest games and easiest games to beat, even with cutscenes. The cut of pokemon that everyone complains about. The crappy dynamax mechanic that has no purpose than to advertise the game without being much of a benefit to gameplay. Most routes are literal corridors. The list goes on... Awful game. I hope big changes are made in the near future or else pokemon is dead to me… Expand
  12. QueenWolfen
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    The whole things is just messy, incomplete, and disappointing. This game was a lazy rush job, and it shows.
  13. Rochter
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    I would had forgiven the Animation errors, and framedrops if they actually worked more on them rather than just using it as an excuse or token of exchange for cut content.

    Not only that, but, i payed 50 bucks to get my save data wiped out... And a lot of games dont support online cloud saves.... Thanks a lot...
  14. SirDingus
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    It’s disappointing it’s come to this stage for Pokémon and Game Freak. Where they join the ranks of formerly great, ambitious companies that turned lazy and greedy. The moment Masuda announced they would flat out cut Pokémon marked that. Sure, they say they’ll use the extra resources to enhance the graphics and animations, yet they’ll just reuse the future proofed 3DS models and animationsIt’s disappointing it’s come to this stage for Pokémon and Game Freak. Where they join the ranks of formerly great, ambitious companies that turned lazy and greedy. The moment Masuda announced they would flat out cut Pokémon marked that. Sure, they say they’ll use the extra resources to enhance the graphics and animations, yet they’ll just reuse the future proofed 3DS models and animations rather than make brand new animations. Pokémon Stadiums 1 & 2, Pokemon Colosseum & XD, and Battle Revolution still have the superior animations and models despite the age of those games. Shadow problems, frame rate issues, and low quality environmental models exist to along with the surprisingly barren open world. Even climbing up stairs stops nearby trainer animations as if climbing up stairs stops the fabric of time. Difficulty is practically nonexistent thanks to forced EXP share, constant heals thanks to NPCs, and lacklustre gym leader teams. Dynamaxing feels like a pointless gimmick due to the fact they only exist for gym battles. R.I.P mega evolutions and Z moves. Pokémon claim to be for all ages yet they seem to neglect more hardcore trainers with the removal of various meta TMs, such as hidden power and pursuit. Perhaps most importantly, the Global Trade System, which ushered in online trading in generation 4, was canned for, again, no abrupt reason. I could go on and on but I feel like a drone at this point. Game freak have lost their passion and this game (or in the fact the past few years) proves it. Will Game Freak learn from this, especially with the well deserved criticism on Twitter? I don’t know man, a Pokémon fan can only hope.… Expand
  15. Alliusis
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    The game has glaring issues. It's short (less than 20 hours), and there's really not much to do. Most of the animations are incredulously bad (stiff and really don't have any life to them - most involve rotating the model on an axis, or moving them along a straight line), and they stick out like a sore thumb. The Wild Area is a really interesting concept, but executed poorly - it feelsThe game has glaring issues. It's short (less than 20 hours), and there's really not much to do. Most of the animations are incredulously bad (stiff and really don't have any life to them - most involve rotating the model on an axis, or moving them along a straight line), and they stick out like a sore thumb. The Wild Area is a really interesting concept, but executed poorly - it feels very empty while still seeming restrictive. I also run into performance issues and very short draw distances. In my playthrough, I'm finding I'm constantly overleveled, and there's no way to turn off the EXP share. The plot constantly interrupts my playthrough, and at the end of the day it doesn't even make any sense.

    The behaviour of the devs is another matter entirely. They said they removed the Pokemon to improve the animations, yet the vast majority of the animations are re-used from Pokemon XY (6 years ago). Since the transition to 3D, I've constantly given GameFreak the benefit of a doubt. My patience has run out. This is below an indie-tier game, considering all of the assets they had available to work with (they had future-proofed the models and used the same animations for Pokemon and people alike).

    The game really feels like a port of a rushed PS2 game, and this is unacceptable from the most profitable IP on the planet (worth more than StarWars, Harry Potter, Mario - you name it). For 90 bucks, it's not worth it. And I encourage you to send a message (vote with your wallet) to GameFreak and Nintendo, that this amount of laziness is not acceptable.    … Expand
  16. Captainkaeru
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Too many cut features and cut corners. A substantial amount of Pokemon and moves we're cut from this game, for the sake of apparent improved animations. A lot of the animations are identical to the 3ds animations or worse. Brave bird for example pales in comparison to it's 3ds animation.

    The new Pokemon designs are good_ but that remains to be the only good experience I had in this game.    Too many cut features and cut corners. A substantial amount of Pokemon and moves we're cut from this game, for the sake of apparent improved animations. A lot of the animations are identical to the 3ds animations or worse. Brave bird for example pales in comparison to it's 3ds animation.

    The new Pokemon designs are good_ but that remains to be the only good experience I had in this game. Its much much easier than previous games, Exp share is forced on so you become horribly overlevelled by the second gym. Routes are extremely easy to traverse with a healing trainer every 2 or 3 battles. Its disappointing that Pokemon has fallen this far. I wish I had saved my money and we if they fix enough of the bugs or tune the game before releasing the inevitable full price 3rd version next year.becooverleveleeprevious    … Expand
  17. PenalTea
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Jeu nul...
    Premier Pokemon depuis X/Y et bordel qu’est-ce que ça a régressé...
  18. Doctor7175
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Apologist side of conflict is worse then haters
    Stop eating **** for once. This is not 60$ game.
    And it's not about game targeting kids. Literally any RPG has difficulty settings. **** Mario Odyssey has assist mode for kids. It doesn't need hand holding and broken exp share. Kids figured out gen 1. Also stop harassing people for disliking something you're as bad as people who sent GF    Apologist side of conflict is worse then haters
    Stop eating **** for once. This is not 60$ game.
    And it's not about game targeting kids. Literally any RPG has difficulty settings. **** Mario Odyssey has assist mode for kids. It doesn't need hand holding and broken exp share. Kids figured out gen 1. Also stop harassing people for disliking something you're as bad as people who sent GF death threats.    … Expand
  19. Martin48
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Junichi Masuda, a lead director of the Pokemon games, has stated that "when we tried to think about how kids these days generally play games, what came to mind was mobile games... games which you play for a short time." If Game Freak is so impressed and concerned with mobile games, then take my advice: develop mobile games. Those who purchase a console game at console prices expect aJunichi Masuda, a lead director of the Pokemon games, has stated that "when we tried to think about how kids these days generally play games, what came to mind was mobile games... games which you play for a short time." If Game Freak is so impressed and concerned with mobile games, then take my advice: develop mobile games. Those who purchase a console game at console prices expect a console game experience. Pokemon Sword and Shield are not games of console calibre.

    I will begin with the positives: Sword and Shield look better than their predecessors. The new Pokemon designs are overall well done, and there are also nice quality of life improvements which streamline the process of creating a competitive team so players can get to battling faster. The Wild Area is was a neat addition that opens up the early availability of many rare Pokemon, and the inclusion of overworld encounters makes the environment feel more alive.

    Unfortunately, the game is lacking in the remaining aspects. The game is extremely short for a console RPG, offering about a 12-14 hours campaign for those familiar with the mechanics of the series. There are only 10 routes total, many of which are short and barren, and there are no dungeons to explore in the entirety of the game. The player is on rails for the entire story: those that complained about handholding in Sun/Moon will find that Game Freak did not listen to feedback and instead doubled down on handholding using the main cast of characters. The postgame consists of tying up the loose ends of the story and one battle facility. The battle tower is a downgrade from the battle facilities of the 3DS games, not having any tower bosses, and rates the player at "Max" skill ability after winning only 30 battles in a row. It is simply embarrassing for a console title to offer such less postgame than a 3DS or even DS Pokemon game. The graphics, while better than previous entries on the 3DS, are unpolished and often do not compare to other titles on the Switch that have come out years ago.

    Rating this game as a "small step forward" for the series or "good for the first mainline [insert Nintendo console here] entry" is simply not excusable anymore. Game Freak has been developing this series for 8 generations of games now for over two decades, and as the world's leading franchise they ought to have a handle on game development by now. It is evident that the money of players who support the franchise does not go towards the development of better games. As someone who loves the franchise, Game Freak has truly disappointed with these titles and it is sad that I hope they do not develop the next entries.    … Expand
  20. Mezaki
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The same game every year and this time they don't gave us all pokemons. They tried to innovate but that was just awful.
  21. joaofernandes
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    "Most valuable IP in the world". Proceeds to create the worst Pokémon game with one of the best consoles Nintendo has ever created.

    #WakeUpGameFreak
  22. Feraligabriel
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Really bad game, game freak really proved how lazy and uncaring they are. They release a bad game with some new stuff and a pokemon title. If this wasnt linked in any way to the pokemon franchised and released as something else, it would be one of those games that are destined to go in the 5$bin a year after release
  23. Drezziks
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Game feels 50% incomplete. Horrendous draw distance, pixelated shadows, empty Wild Area, and a practically non-existent post game. This is not a game for veteran players, like GameFreak stayed it was.
  24. Braydon64
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    I don't a believe any game actually deserves a 0, so I'm giving this a 1/10. I'm giving this a 1/10 not because of the gameplay or content (which would be a 6.0 AT BEST & even that's stretching it) but simply because Game Freak straight-up lied to us & they are making asinine business decisions. As Pokémon fans, we deserve better for $60.
  25. Riczen
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The game is underwhelming for Nintendo Switch. It seems like it has not been through Quality Assurance. The quality of the game various if you have played it. One give away is that in some area you can find gorgeous sceneries, high definition background, but in some area it’s like a student project, character floating, Pokémon running on the spot without moving,
  26. dan_chaos
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    No compren este producto incompleto, realmente no vale el precio completo y solo merece que lo bajen pirata.
    Si lo compran es su problema pero espero que no sean de los desafortunados que se les borro todas las partidas guardadas en la Switch como le ha ocurrido a varios.
  27. OmegaChase1002
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Just buy Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition, EvoCreo, Temtem, or Yokai Watch instead.
    WHAT the H-E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICK was Gamefreak THINKING!?
    No National Dex, bugs everywhere, cut moves, horrible animations (despite Masuda claiming they would be the best in the series), hand-holding EASY difficulty since we're unable to turn the EXP share off anymore, free full heals literally    Just buy Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition, EvoCreo, Temtem, or Yokai Watch instead.
    WHAT the H-E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICK was Gamefreak THINKING!?
    No National Dex, bugs everywhere, cut moves, horrible animations (despite Masuda claiming they would be the best in the series), hand-holding EASY difficulty since we're unable to turn the EXP share off anymore, free full heals literally everywhere even when not in a Pokémon Center, abysmally short campaign, almost no postgame, a rival who is literally just Hau 2 (right down to his animations), a Champion with an unlikeable egotistical personality, obvious gen 1 pandering, a bug that can actually erase the save data of all your other games saved on your Switch, and a whole host of other problems.
    Stick to the older games from gens 1 to 7. This game is the death of Pokémon.    … Expand
  28. Artatm
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    So Nintendo creates breath of the wild and Mario odyssey - then delays Metroid because it’s not up to snuff - wow pokemon is going to be good - fast forward to release .... yeah not so much - So the textured look legitimately sloppy in places, it’s not just stylistic they are upscale and stretched, charters float over them looking rigid and plastic it’s like a bad mobile game not somethingSo Nintendo creates breath of the wild and Mario odyssey - then delays Metroid because it’s not up to snuff - wow pokemon is going to be good - fast forward to release .... yeah not so much - So the textured look legitimately sloppy in places, it’s not just stylistic they are upscale and stretched, charters float over them looking rigid and plastic it’s like a bad mobile game not something you expect from Nintendo on there main console, this ain’t no portable mini title no more game freak this is the big league and you fluffed it with the worlds most profitable franchise - wow - oh and you lied about it too - games out in the wild the reasons you gave for less pokemon have been proven untrue / you cut beloved content and didn’t innovate one bit, dynomax - give me a break - how about you voice the pokemon - even just the np characters in the cut scenes?! It’s 2019! Some of it is charming, a lot of the new designs look nice and cute and interesting - it’s hard not to it’s pokemon but the level of laziness here is just unforgivable - they even publicly announced it wasn’t there main project- holy hell fire?! You got some super secrets other billion dollar franchise up your selves? No?! You just want to betray your fan base and nickel and dime them with a high price game with less content than a indie game jam. Protest by reviewing pokemon - tweeting/Facebook/reddit/YouTube - let Nintendo know they need to take back pokemon.… Expand
  29. GoodBrock
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Got my copy of the game yesterday and have been playing non-stop since. I've been pretty upset by the national dex cut but decided to see for myself if the games made any compensation for it. It's evident that this game was rushed for the holiday release right from the get go. With the allure of an 'open world' area we were led to believe that the devs have heard our complaints ofGot my copy of the game yesterday and have been playing non-stop since. I've been pretty upset by the national dex cut but decided to see for myself if the games made any compensation for it. It's evident that this game was rushed for the holiday release right from the get go. With the allure of an 'open world' area we were led to believe that the devs have heard our complaints of incessant hand-holding and infantilizing. The first hour of the game is unskippable expository dialogue after unskippable expository dialogue. Happy to be free from the rail roading, once I hit the wild area the game's technical flaws began to show. While it was a nice addition to incorporate overworld pokemon, that's really all there is to it aside from being a pseudo-communications hub. Once I left the wild area to reach the second fort city about three badges in, there was really no incentive to return to the wild area. Once you've begun your gym quest you're placed back on the rail-roading forced dialogue train until the game ends. Game difficulty has gotten easier. While there's plenty of QoL improvements, the overall challenge is lost, mostly due to the now permanent Exp. Share. The story, while historically not one of the franchise's strong suits, is nothing to write home about. There is no big plot or scheme or any real motivation or stakes.

    All in all, the game is a Pokemon game through and through. Casual fun, but nothing more than that. No marked improvements, subpar graphics for the console generation, and nothing to remedy the unnecessary lack of national dex pokemon.    … Expand
  30. Picklez888
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    While I bought this game,as I have for every generation of pokemon, I regret it for the first time. The first console entry should be bigger, not smaller. There is no excuse to cut SO MANY pokemon. I can understand removing legendaries for lore reasons or others but this is just laziness. This is the biggest media franchise ever...what is their excuse again? It surely can't be a lack ofWhile I bought this game,as I have for every generation of pokemon, I regret it for the first time. The first console entry should be bigger, not smaller. There is no excuse to cut SO MANY pokemon. I can understand removing legendaries for lore reasons or others but this is just laziness. This is the biggest media franchise ever...what is their excuse again? It surely can't be a lack of resources.… Expand
  31. matiascarpello
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Me duele que GameFreak siga cargandose en los fanáticos con esta nueva generación. El juego flojo en muchos sentidos. Gráficamente es muy feo, incluso en las áreas salvajes donde se ve todo muy vacío y con modelos y texturas borrosas, que pareciaera que fueron extraidas de 3DS. Además su dificultád es de las más fáciles y automáticas de toda la saga. En definitiva, e peor Pokemon que heMe duele que GameFreak siga cargandose en los fanáticos con esta nueva generación. El juego flojo en muchos sentidos. Gráficamente es muy feo, incluso en las áreas salvajes donde se ve todo muy vacío y con modelos y texturas borrosas, que pareciaera que fueron extraidas de 3DS. Además su dificultád es de las más fáciles y automáticas de toda la saga. En definitiva, e peor Pokemon que he jugado.… Expand
  32. Draco901
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolutely pitiful. Half of the entire dex is cut, megas and z-moves are gone meaning far less strategical diversity, the main game is only about 14 hours long, exp share was buffed to make the game stupidly easy, there's practically no side content in the least, practically no post game at all, no elite 4, bland and uninspired Pokemon designs, and a new battle "feature" which is not onlyAbsolutely pitiful. Half of the entire dex is cut, megas and z-moves are gone meaning far less strategical diversity, the main game is only about 14 hours long, exp share was buffed to make the game stupidly easy, there's practically no side content in the least, practically no post game at all, no elite 4, bland and uninspired Pokemon designs, and a new battle "feature" which is not only limited to a handful of battles in the entire game, but fundamentally adds no amount of strategical variance in the slightest. This piss poor excuse of a game isn't even worth the dirt on my shoes. Free fan games have done better and will continue to do better.… Expand
  33. CodyVCalderwood
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Bad game no effort. I don't understand how people are able to give Yooka-Laylee bad reviews because it wasn't Banjo-Kazooie and those are separate games but we can't compare Pokemon to Pokemon without being made the bad guys. This game is not as good as any previous installment before it
  34. SoYuri
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Game is Nice, the game until it ends, bit the post game os terrible don't have nothin to do, and the competitive is bad cause the National dex problem.
    And, could had more New pokémon :(
  35. doubledd1403
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Dont trust any of the 80% and above public reviews. This is a perfect example of paid positive reviews. I agree with 95% of all user ratings and their points below 3 points.

    This game is just crap, rolled out to the mass market to earn money. The pop up of characters just a few steps before you are in front of them is ridiculous and the worst I have seen since 15 years.
  36. BaddyBad
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Firstly I want to start with explaining everything I liked about this game. I love the new Pokemon. Some of there designs are really unique and creative and I love using them. Clearly some designs are better than others and there is a few ugly Pokemon mixed in but if you stare at them for long enough you'll notice they have their own charm to them. Another thing I really like is theFirstly I want to start with explaining everything I liked about this game. I love the new Pokemon. Some of there designs are really unique and creative and I love using them. Clearly some designs are better than others and there is a few ugly Pokemon mixed in but if you stare at them for long enough you'll notice they have their own charm to them. Another thing I really like is the detailed character customisation. Customisation has been in the games in the past but this version of customisation is an improvement. Another thing I like is you can finally change the camera angle. This is quite a big deal as we have been without this feature for 23 years! I understand this is a minor thing that most people take for granted but Pokemon games aren't like normal games so this is actually a massive step forward. Another thing I like is some of the quality of life improvements such as making it easier to create competitive Pokemon for wifi battles.

    Now it's time for the negative things. For a Pokemon game I'd say this game is quite mediocre. It offers an below average Pokemon experience when it comes down to the story. If you're a casual fan you might love this game, if you're a hardcore player you will probably find it difficult to enjoy. When compared to previous Pokemon titles it is very forgettable. The most memorable thing about this game are the bugs, low effort animations and the controversy surrounding the game. Games such as Black and White 2 and Heart Gold and Soul Silver offer a much more enjoyable experience when it comes to story and available features. This game is quite disappointing as many people (myself included) expected a considerate jump from the 3DS games to Switch. It has taken steps forward in some regards but also has taken a few steps back. Although graphics have improved slightly compared to the 3DS games they are not as impressive as the graphics found within the Gamecube and Wii pokemon games (from 2005-2006). Gamefreak have failed to take advantage of the new hardware and have delivered what looks to be another shallow 3DS game. You will get just under 24 hours of playtime from this until you finish the story. The map within the game is small and one of the largest zones known as the "Wild Area" is empty and barren. Another thing to mention which wasn't great was how easy this game felt. It holds your hand through the whole game with a forced EXP share which you cannot switch off and infinity heals for you to potentially exploit. This game was designed for very casual players which makes it feel too easy and kind of boring. Another thing to mention is you cannot walk far during the story without running into somebody who will talk at you while you spam buttons. Hop especially will not leave you alone and is always forcing one sided conversations with you. I remember a time when the only time you saw your rival was if they wanted to battle... I miss those days. Oh, and I hate the concept of gigantamax and dynamax. It is a mechanic nobody really wants or cares for. I would have much preferred some new mega evolutions, but they have been taken out of the game along with 60% of Pokemon and also lots of items and moves too.

    There is also a lot of controversy surrounding this game due to the fact Gamefreak lied about this game and failed to deliver what was promised. They removed around 60% of Pokemon in this game for basically no reason. A lot of fans are upset about this, myself included. The way Gamefreak tried to justify this is quite baffling. They lied, many times to justify this change. They said they had to remake the Pokemon models but they didn't as they're the same models used for all the previous 3D games. They also said they cut the Pokemon to focus on high quality animations, but they reused most of the animations from previous titles and most of these animations are incredibly low quality anyway. They never actually gave a real reason for why they cut them out. They just blatantly lied to their fans and thought people wouldn't find out. Actions like that are harmful for the trust between developer and customer. It also shows a lack of respect for the fans because they are lying so blatantly and think the fans are too stupid to notice.

    This game is a pretty weak Pokemon game, it's definitely not good and is one of the most shoddily put together Pokemon games I have ever played. It's very rough around the edges and seems rushed, but that's probably down to the development of Little Town Hero taking 20 developers focus away from Pokemon. The bugs, glitches and mistakes are quite shocking for a released product but I'm sure some of the more serious ones will get patched eventually. The quality of this product does not look like it came from the most successful media franchise in the world. Pokemon deserves better and so do we.

    Overall it's a mediocre game and it also has a lot of controversial baggage due to Gamefreak lying and failing to deliver what they promised.    … Expand
  37. Bunnings_Snags
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This new Pokemon release is unfitting to Nintendo's high standard of timeless and everlasting game design
  38. jkf16m
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    I've seen game plays of this game... Compared to what switch users expected, this is not as great as all reviews said.


    They're over praising the game.... And now there are news about "review bombing" in this website, of course of course...
  39. Nacaruh
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This is half of a game we have 3 years ago in 3DS!!! Sun an moon have a lot of more content, portatil game have more content thsn this $60 game!!!
  40. Othello91
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    Non ci siamo.
    Sempre la solita solfa ogni anno, speravo in un doppiaggio almeno in inglese dei personaggi ma niente. Siamo ormai nel 2020 e troviamo ancora pokemon senza un doppiaggio con le scritte su schermo e i png che muovono la bocca, sistema di combattimento uguale come nel 1990, gioco che non accenna a un minimo di sfida, troppo semplice almeno inserite una nuova modalita dove    Non ci siamo.
    Sempre la solita solfa ogni anno, speravo in un doppiaggio almeno in inglese dei personaggi ma niente. Siamo ormai nel 2020 e troviamo ancora pokemon senza un doppiaggio con le scritte su schermo e i png che muovono la bocca, sistema di combattimento uguale come nel 1990, gioco che non accenna a un minimo di sfida, troppo semplice almeno inserite una nuova modalita dove scegliere la difficolta per i veterani.    … Expand
  41. kbrooks25
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Awful cut-ins and graphics, and a terrible cut to pokemon and moves. Honestly worse than the 3DS games.
  42. Degenerate53
    Nov 16, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well, it' here and it's bad. I played Sword and Shield with my friends, watched some streams too and the overall quality is just so bad. glitches galore, bad draw distance, improper scaling, the entire wild area, a crappy story, and Dynamax/Gigantmax as a concept. Honestly this game is probably the worst Pokemon game of all time, worst story by far and probably the easiest game as well. Don't even get me started on the crappy Wild area and new Dynamax gimmick. The music and sound effects are trash . The Dynamax cries are way louder then they need to be and honestly hurt my ears, especially when using headphones. There's this obnoxious sound that plays anytime you spin. The music, some of it is good, but then there's just tracks that combine sounds in basically the worst ways possible, Leon's theme and Nessa's town theme being the worst that I can think of. There are these annoying pop up text boxes in the over world in towns and routes, this may just be my ADHD but my god is it annoying, they don't even line up with anything half the time. As for glitches, some notable one's include the world freezing when climbing a ladder and the female trainer turning into a guy during some cut scenes. Other criticisms include the fact battle backgrounds rarely ever match up with location, and are some time just none-existent. Team Yell, is a cute concept, but overall just really annoying. The actual villains are lame, even when you find out they're evil, you let them go so they can do their evil plan. Really good story telling Game Freak. Animations in basically everything are pretty poor,, which is a shame. Frame rate issues run rampant. The dex cut and lack of megas, is a really big issue too, especially since all of the models and animations are reused. However, this game isn't all bad, the new Pokemon designs are great, so are the character designs. Some of the gym challenges are fun, others are kind of lame but most are fun. Camp, while filled with bad animations, is also fun. Battling when there isn't any dumb Dynamax gimmicks, is really enjoyable as is catching Pokemon. I just wish Game Freak didn't lie to the consumers multiple times. They constantly said that the models were remade from scratch which wasn't true. They didn't even tell Japan about the dex cut. But the thing is, these problems are most likely due to the Pokemon Company expecting Game Freak to make a game every year, that needs to stop. These games need the time to be made the best they can be. The anime and TCG should be released when the game's are ready, not the other way around. Overall, it's Pokemon, it's still a fun experience, a lot of people will probably like it, but this game wasn't for me. Hopefully the next game learns from Sword and Shields mistake.… Expand
  43. GalarSword
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    Beautiful Wild Area with mediocre graphic. Played for a day. Returned back for refund.
  44. AH9711
    Nov 16, 2019
    4
    The only reason why People will buy the game is because of the name. The game design and graphics is really bad and not in a pokemon style design. The story is Good but the rest of the game is not Good at all
  45. disappointedpkm
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Pretty disappointed with the graphics, the cut Pokémon and the lack of challenge.
  46. Bolvin
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    The game is nice but you cant get all pokemon and thats a no go for a pokemon game so 0 points!
  47. Autems
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    If we didn't speak, pokemon games will get worst and worst
    lets not let them be lazy
  48. aloeislands
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    It's a bad game. Don't buy it. Honest to god just go play pokemon platinum. It isn't worth $80. I wanted this game to be good SO BAD. I didn't read any of the reviews before buying it and jumped in blind. I've been playing pokemon since Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and the games just get worse and worse as the years go on. The switch to 3D really marked the decline, but the jump to the Switch putIt's a bad game. Don't buy it. Honest to god just go play pokemon platinum. It isn't worth $80. I wanted this game to be good SO BAD. I didn't read any of the reviews before buying it and jumped in blind. I've been playing pokemon since Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and the games just get worse and worse as the years go on. The switch to 3D really marked the decline, but the jump to the Switch put the final nail in the coffin. In short: The graphics are subpar AT BEST, there's a crazy amount of lag for a very low maintenance game, the main selling point (the wild zone) is extremely underwhelming, The story is short and boring, there is no post game, the fixed camera still dominates the game, 1/2 the pokemon have been cut. The critics must be getting paid by nintendo because there is no way in hell this game is an 81. Please please please save your money for something worthwhile, because this isn't it.… Expand
  49. Matiketshum
    Nov 17, 2019
    1
    ¡¡Gamefreak ponte las pilas!! Es muy triste ver como una de mis franquicias favoritas termina lanzando juegos tan mediocres como este. Por donde empiezo... Mm... Por los gráficos. Los gráficos si bien no están del todo mal en (en especial en los pueblos)hay partes donde sí se ven horrendos, como en el área silvestre.
    Otro motivo por el cual este juego me decepciona tanto es por la falta de    ¡¡Gamefreak ponte las pilas!! Es muy triste ver como una de mis franquicias favoritas termina lanzando juegos tan mediocres como este. Por donde empiezo... Mm... Por los gráficos. Los gráficos si bien no están del todo mal en (en especial en los pueblos)hay partes donde sí se ven horrendos, como en el área silvestre.
    Otro motivo por el cual este juego me decepciona tanto es por la falta de pokémons y la excusa que da Gamefreak, diciendo de que no habrían tantos pokémon porque iban a mejorar las animaciones. Además como es posible que el juego tenga menos de la mitad de pokemons que tiene un juego de 3ds.yo pense que si quitarían pokémons, solo quitarían algunos (unos 50 o 100) ¡¡¡pero quitaron como 500!! (o más).
    Además, ¿¿como se les ocurre quitar pokemons tan emblemáticos como blastoise o venusaur??
    Por otro lado.. La historia supongo que esta bien?.
    Pero odio el hecho de que el rival sea tu amigo!! Eso hace mucho más fácil el juego y hablando de dificultad, el juego es re-fácil, wn al comienzo de juego tienes 30.000 dolares en cualquier otro juego te dan con suerte 3.000 dolares . Además también puedes comprar revivir en las putas primeras tiendas!!!.
    La verdad no creo que el juego merezca una nota tan baja como la que yo le estoy dando, pero se la doy para ver si Gamefreak recapacita y nos da un pokémon de calidad para la próxima pokémon de calidad para la próxima vez    … Expand
  50. ConcernedParent
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    Hello, I bought this game for my five year old thinking that it'd be a good first video game for them. Aside from everything else everyone else has said in the reviews here, the game actually made my child cry. They were frightened by the pokemon when it popped in in front of my child without any time for him to react. This made them cry and say "That pokemon attacked me!"

    I returned it    Hello, I bought this game for my five year old thinking that it'd be a good first video game for them. Aside from everything else everyone else has said in the reviews here, the game actually made my child cry. They were frightened by the pokemon when it popped in in front of my child without any time for him to react. This made them cry and say "That pokemon attacked me!"

    I returned it immediately. Glad I did. Do not buy this game.    … Expand
  51. Ringo00
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Not worth your time. Aside from the National dex issues, this game is one more example of the "half a step forward, three steps back" that Gamefreak has had for quite a while now. The wild area, a selling point for the games, feels unfinished and buggy, far less polished graphically than the rest of the game, and with big pop-in and lag issues. It is also extremely small, only reallyNot worth your time. Aside from the National dex issues, this game is one more example of the "half a step forward, three steps back" that Gamefreak has had for quite a while now. The wild area, a selling point for the games, feels unfinished and buggy, far less polished graphically than the rest of the game, and with big pop-in and lag issues. It is also extremely small, only really feeling as a couple of open routes rather than an "open world" experience. The rest of the routes are basically hallways that don't reward or encourage exploration whatsoever, a terrible thing when we are talking about a JRPG. It's sad to see Mario Kart having circuits more complex than this.

    The difficulty is abysmal, with no ability to turn off the global EXP. Share and way too much experience being given for doing anything. Unless you are constantly switching between 12-20 Pokémon, you will find yourself at least 4-5 levels over gym leaders. You might also have to avoid trainers and certain features, like Pokémon Camp, to try to make it a "fair" gameplay experience.
    Following that last point, this also includes another selling point of this games, the raid battles. You will find yourself able to one-shot a lot of the raid Pokémon, sometimes without even dynamaxing yourself.

    For the last big selling point, dynamax and gigantamax, you should also know that only a few Pokémon will be able to do so. The effect can not be passed down, so if you want a specific Pokémon to dyna/gigantamax you might spend hours to find it.

    Be warned: there is no post-game either. A small 1h chapter and Battle Tower 3.0 is all you will have left. Since the legendaries are all shiny locked, there are no legendaries from other regions, no GTS and the wild area is tremendously shallow, this game does not come close to having the shelf life that previous entries had. Even XY, one of the worst post-games the series had, is marginally better than this.

    As a final warning, the touch screen is not compatible with this game. This means that you will not be able to pet your Pokémon like you could in the 3DS entries. Pokémon Camp "replaces" this feature, but you can barely interact with your Pokémon, who will wander aimlessly.

    In conclusion, every single previous Pokémon entry, including the Let's Go games, has more to offer than this game. I would severely recommend replaying or revisiting older Pokémon games you might not have played if you want you nostalgia fix.    … Expand
  52. FlowSchmoe
    Nov 15, 2019
    6
    This game isn’t a 6 because it’s garbage or unfun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Go play Heart Gold/Soul Silver or Black/White if you want a good Pokémon game because this isn’t it.    … Expand
  53. Obo_
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Returned it to the store after 6 or 7 hours of playing. The game looks terrible, I had the autosave bug happen to me and in 5 hours I was struggling to see any sort of innovation apart from the open world.
    Tried giving it a chance despite the lies and the cut Pokédex but the whole experience felt recycled and uninspired. Definitely the last Pokémon game I buy until they prove they can    Returned it to the store after 6 or 7 hours of playing. The game looks terrible, I had the autosave bug happen to me and in 5 hours I was struggling to see any sort of innovation apart from the open world.
    Tried giving it a chance despite the lies and the cut Pokédex but the whole experience felt recycled and uninspired. Definitely the last Pokémon game I buy until they prove they can revive the franchise instead of just releasing the same game with minimal graphical updates each year.    … Expand
  54. ilikechikin
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    IGN is trippin, pokemon sword & shield are easily the 2nd worst games in the series after sun/moon. As someone who has played every game since red in 1999, the mainline games have become somewhat stale over the past few iterations. Sword/shield are literally just HD 3ds games that Nintendo is selling for $60 and that's kind of disappointing to me. I still give it a 5 because well, it'sIGN is trippin, pokemon sword & shield are easily the 2nd worst games in the series after sun/moon. As someone who has played every game since red in 1999, the mainline games have become somewhat stale over the past few iterations. Sword/shield are literally just HD 3ds games that Nintendo is selling for $60 and that's kind of disappointing to me. I still give it a 5 because well, it's Pokemon and it's still decent for a Pokemon game but it is super underwhelming for being the first mainline game on the switch console. Super short story too btw, completed in 12 hours even with a couple hours of messing around in the wild area. Oh, and #GameFreakLied.… Expand
  55. Pizzaboy24
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The game is a mess and insulting to Pokémon fans all over the world. If you like hand holding, bugs, reused assets from an inferior system, missing content, no post game, frame rate drops and over all bad graphics then this is the game for you.
  56. Illuluminati
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Looks like a ds game, for a company that made billions and billions from that **** gacha game, this is unacceptable.
  57. GARU94
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Oh Pokémon, one your series main themes is evolution and yet, you refuse to evolve your already tired formula. Not only that but you also made your catch phrase "Gotta catch em all" impossible to fulfill for the first time. I just don't get it.

    The game in itself is kinda okay, there's fun to be had and enjoyment to be found, but it is still the same game we've been playing for more    Oh Pokémon, one your series main themes is evolution and yet, you refuse to evolve your already tired formula. Not only that but you also made your catch phrase "Gotta catch em all" impossible to fulfill for the first time. I just don't get it.

    The game in itself is kinda okay, there's fun to be had and enjoyment to be found, but it is still the same game we've been playing for more than 20 years despite being housed on a significantly more powerful machine than any other mainline Pokémon game combined. In fact, in MANY regards, it's worse and has less features than previous games.

    The game is extremely linear, you literally walk straight corridors from one town to the next, and when you arrive there, there's hardly anything to do in them. No more complex caves/buildings/forests, no more places that you gotta get back to when you get the right abilities, it's just restrictive corridors town after town.

    The battles are exactly as you remember. But now, dumbed down further as you don't even gotta remember type matchups anymore since the game tells you which of your moves is effective and which isn't against your opponent (I know this was added in S&M), coupled with how slow battles still are (And a lack of speed up button for some inexplicable reason), it just gets tiring. Not to mention the universal experience share system just makes it so you don't even have to put effort on training your new/weaker Pokémon.

    The wild area, despite being the ugliest place in the Galar region, is still the only ray of hope this game gives me for the future. It's not perfect by any means, but it takes Pokémon out of its comfort zone by adding free moving camera, roaming Pokémon of any level, secrets and hidden items all over the place. It's just a small experimentation that could hint at (hopefully), the direction the games are going to take in future installments. As of right now, it's interesting the first couple times you visit it, but it gets old rather quickly and starts feeling like a glorified Safari Zone sooner than later.

    Technically speaking. it's 2019 and we still have characters moving their lips to no sound, characters doing full 180 rotations while walking in place, low image quality and an inconsistent 30fps despite the extremely unimpressive graphics. Unacceptable.

    Overall, I'm disappointed but not surprised. I just hope Game Freak starts taking criticism more seriously or give another developer a chance to make a Pokémon game in their stead (Imagine a Pokémon game by Monolith Soft? Glorious).    … Expand
  58. aljirik1992
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    REBUS FOR THE PLAYERS!!! SWORD SHIELD ... (LD) =T ; (S) = ( ) ; R_L_D

    Вот знаете, закидайте меня покеболами... Если с POKEMON LETSGO я был более-менее мягок, благодаря чумовому девайсу, что и придало игре шарма, то ситуацию с "мечом и щитом", кроме как мировым дерьмом не назовёшь!    REBUS FOR THE PLAYERS!!! SWORD SHIELD ... (LD) =T ; (S) = ( ) ; R_L_D

    Вот знаете, закидайте меня покеболами... Если с POKEMON LETSGO я был более-менее мягок, благодаря чумовому девайсу, что и придало игре шарма, то ситуацию с "мечом и щитом", кроме как мировым дерьмом не назовёшь!
  59. greninjaX
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    gamefreak lied. they said they were cutting pokemon because they were making new models with high quality animations, but that is simply not the case. everything was recycled from the 3DS game. there was no reason to cut pokemon. gamefreak needs to learn they can't get away with this. don't support this game
  60. SpeedwagonxD
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Within 6 hours after starting my adventure my game crashed!!! I have to start from the beginning again!!!!!
  61. skinnyrates
    Nov 16, 2019
    3
    Pokémon Sword and Shield aren’t bad Pokémon games, not by a mile. It’s arguably one of the better additions to the franchise, but that isn’t a high bar to set for a franchise entirely isolated to handheld systems. Textures range from okay to horrific, with painful frame rate drops. A lack of content post-game makes for an unfulfilling experience. In cutscenes, characters incessantly flapPokémon Sword and Shield aren’t bad Pokémon games, not by a mile. It’s arguably one of the better additions to the franchise, but that isn’t a high bar to set for a franchise entirely isolated to handheld systems. Textures range from okay to horrific, with painful frame rate drops. A lack of content post-game makes for an unfulfilling experience. In cutscenes, characters incessantly flap their lips to absolutely no spoken dialogue, a necessity for most AAA games nowadays. This game shows that Pokémon has no intention on getting with the times, too okay with sitting at a comfortable mediocre rather than showing love and care.… Expand
  62. Girlpills
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Decent game for 2009 standards.
    Not the quality you expect from pokemon game.
    People complaining about graphics should also reconsider their console choice.
    It's a nintendo switch game ffs.
  63. carloscoffanni
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Um jogo que tinha tudo para ser um sucesso mas foi destruído pela própria Game Freak, Gráficos abaixo da média para um switch, diversos bugs, Pokémon mal feitos , além da falta de National Dex com a desculpa de animações de alta qualidade , oq não é uma verdade além das animações serem recicladas de outros jogos. Resumindo esse jogo é uma vergonha! Esse jogo é um grande retrocesso e abusaUm jogo que tinha tudo para ser um sucesso mas foi destruído pela própria Game Freak, Gráficos abaixo da média para um switch, diversos bugs, Pokémon mal feitos , além da falta de National Dex com a desculpa de animações de alta qualidade , oq não é uma verdade além das animações serem recicladas de outros jogos. Resumindo esse jogo é uma vergonha! Esse jogo é um grande retrocesso e abusa da boa vontade dos fãs de pokemon… Expand
  64. Smartins2000
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    got the game as a present from a friend as he did not want to be playing it alone
    the gameplay is the same as ever, this is not bad but its everyting else that bogs the experience down
    like the cutscenes with your "rivals" or the drawn out fights that made me actually fall asleep at some points (granted i worked that day, but im a programer so how tired can that be?), some music was B A    got the game as a present from a friend as he did not want to be playing it alone
    the gameplay is the same as ever, this is not bad but its everyting else that bogs the experience down
    like the cutscenes with your "rivals" or the drawn out fights that made me actually fall asleep at some points (granted i worked that day, but im a programer so how tired can that be?), some music was B A D normally pokemon has decent to godlike music and to have some tracks this horrendous is unaceptaple
    the final nail in the coffin for this game is the inflated price tag, you wont feel like you got your moneys worth out of the game, this game is inferior to ultra sun and moon and even those games where unaceptable to some degree witch was excused because the 3ds was a underpowerful system, but now?
    TL;DR: buy soulsilver, still SS but much better    … Expand
  65. PSLucky
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Unfinished game with a multitude of technical bugs and failures and fewer features than any prior game in the series.
  66. GFLied
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The game is embarrassing to look at. The graphics and animations look like someone's college project! The game costs more than the 3DS games with less content. Pokemon deserves better!
  67. OneNoobGuy
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This is not a complete game for sure, they removed lots of stuff from previous games just to keep the quality, saddly gamefreak lied
  68. DobleC
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    If we were facing a GameCube game, the game would probably have a 7 (due to Dexit and lack of content and animations).

    But we are faced with a game of the most successful franchise in history (ergo a franchise that generates a lot of money) and sincerely it is shameful the technical work it has. Anyway, if you're not very smart (as with the vast majority of Pokémon fans) you probably    If we were facing a GameCube game, the game would probably have a 7 (due to Dexit and lack of content and animations).

    But we are faced with a game of the most successful franchise in history (ergo a franchise that generates a lot of money) and sincerely it is shameful the technical work it has.
    Anyway, if you're not very smart (as with the vast majority of Pokémon fans) you probably won't even notice.

    As good points, the music is great, the game (when it is not frozen or terrible laggin) looks nice too and you can also finish it in less than 10 hours if you rush, so you can go play any other game of Pokémon that is good (from DS and earlier).

    Lazyness :/    … Expand
  69. parara123
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    No effort put into this game. I'm convinced gamefreak doesn't even know how to make a 3D game. First mainline pokemon game I'm not buying. I can't believe that my favorite franchise has died.
  70. Elaami
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    **** gamefreak Low Effort **** animation A lot of bugs Incomplete pokedex Reused models And the cut a lot of mechanics
  71. MetroidPrimed
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Overall this game was an absolute disappointment. The only positives I can say about it are the way are gyms work from the inside is nice and the general Pokemon gameplay loop(as in the training/battling not story) is fun. Though the greatest issue with the game's critic score is how they use other Pokemon games to gauge where this game should be placed. Though when compared as a VIDEOOverall this game was an absolute disappointment. The only positives I can say about it are the way are gyms work from the inside is nice and the general Pokemon gameplay loop(as in the training/battling not story) is fun. Though the greatest issue with the game's critic score is how they use other Pokemon games to gauge where this game should be placed. Though when compared as a VIDEO GAME, which Pokemon actually is, this game is terrible. Pokemon needs to drop telling cliche stories about being the best and give people a game. It is very uninteresting to watch bland characters bombard you with text boxes every 20 minutes or less. This is a clear element of padding, because otherwise the game would be too short and REALLY not deserve to be $60. I am not typically turned off by poor graphics, but places like the wild area give the impression that of being in beta up and GameFreak still sold it full price. The difficulty is far too low, people by avoiding almost every trainer fight they can are still extremely overleveled(about 5-10 levels in certain instances). This creates a situation where you can explore and have to mash your super effective attack six times or you cannot explore for an ounce of challenge. GameFreak has no reason to make a cake and eat it too if the oven is broken. I assume they left the EXP share in the game because there are no trainers to battle, which could make the game heavily grindy. However, GameFreak could have easily included an EXP share that provides 25% or lower experience and retained more difficulty. I suppose the lack of trainers does not matter much because most routes and caves are linear or just straight lines. I support cutting the national dex(I believe the series needs it) if it were to improve the game as a whole, but this is sadly not the case. If Pokemon were more than just up-resed copy-paste models and were animated as opposed to bobbing up and down like a string puppet, if the world felt open and content rich(the Wild Area is rather small in this regard), if Charizard did not shoot flames out of his wings, the dex cut would likely have pulled its weight. Every aspect of this game feels rushed. I do not think that many games deserve scores lower than 4s or 5s, but this game is just broken and incomplete. I am returning my game later today and I am ashamed to have bought this game in the first place. Just go play Fire Emblem, what it may lack in graphics, it has in gameplay that offers some resistance even on easier difficulties.… Expand
  72. Mainstone
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    What can i say? Huge dissapointment would be one thing.

    A Main series console pokemon game is what all Pokemon fans have waited for since forever. Sword and Sheild however, sadly does not live up to it. While some scenes look absolutely amazing, others are completely empy or clearly unfinished. The game is the easiest it has ever been, especially since the EXP share is always on by    What can i say? Huge dissapointment would be one thing.

    A Main series console pokemon game is what all Pokemon fans have waited for since forever. Sword and Sheild however, sadly does not live up to it. While some scenes look absolutely amazing, others are completely empy or clearly unfinished. The game is the easiest it has ever been, especially since the EXP share is always on by default, and I finished the main story in about 11 hours, the fastest I've ever done in a pokemon game. I don't have a problem with most of the new pokemon, but I have to admit, the fact that there isn't an expanded pokedex after the main story kind of breaks my heart. Not since the gap between Pokemon Gold/Silver on the Gameboy Color and the Ruby/Saphire on the Gameboy Advance has there ever been a time where you couldn't bring your pokemon into the newest addition. It reflects on the unfortunate tradition that GameFreak seemingly insinsts to uphold, the best features it has ever made never make it further. Secret bases in Ruby/Saphire, The Battle Frontier in Emerald, the Poketch and the underground in Diamond/Pearl, Pokemon following you in HeartGold/SoulSilver, Triple battles and Rotation battles in Black/White, Megaevolution in X/Y and Z-moves in Sun/Moon are some of just the many excellent additions to pokemon that are NOT in Sword/Shield, and replaced by nothing of note really.

    This results in the most basic, emptiest, shortest, easiest and frankly weakest pokemon game in the main series bar none. As a lifelong pokemon fan, I cannot recommend this game. Hopefully, Nintendo and Gamefreak can learn from this and try to steer the series back in the right direction.    … Expand
  73. STactics
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Complete disappointment. This is just another Pokemon game. Nothing new. All the "innovations and improvements" by Game Freak not worth the cut Pokemon's.
  74. Leci
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Horribly rushed, had false advertising, game is a joke when it comes to difficulty, many features were stripped away just to charge extra for them despite being extremely overpriced already.
  75. Sampletext
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    I am a huge pokemon fan and so it pains me to see a what could have been an amazing game turn out so terribly. Gamefreak lied about improving the animation and models of the pokemon. they are the exact same as the old ones and they cut over half the dex for it despite the models being in the code for lets go. even if we look past that (which is really hard to) the game is incredibly bareI am a huge pokemon fan and so it pains me to see a what could have been an amazing game turn out so terribly. Gamefreak lied about improving the animation and models of the pokemon. they are the exact same as the old ones and they cut over half the dex for it despite the models being in the code for lets go. even if we look past that (which is really hard to) the game is incredibly bare bones. the game is incredibly easy like the last and this time with more features being removed. the new op gimmick this time is dinomax/gigamax which is different because you can make you pokemon big for 3 turns and it definitely doesn't trivialize most of the game. the game looks almost exactly like a 3ds game and if you said it was on the gamecube i wouldn't be surprised except for the better colour quality. Pokemon has never been an RPG you play for the story but the somehow managed to fail at that as well. the evil team is a joke the writing is awful and the pacing is incredibly slow. Picture
    the tutorial of sun and moon except almost the entire game including the aggressive hand holding. Not to mention that this game is 20$ more for less content. the fact that every other series that made the jump to the switch improved so much is just adding even more fuel to the fire at this point when every other big series nintendo has had changed so much and Nintendo finally starting to listen to their fans its even more of a slap in the face. This game on its own wouldn't be awful it would be mediocre if it was from a smaller company but its from the developers of the largest media franchise in the world don't tell me they couldn't put out a better product. This game could have been amazing if it had another year or two of development and could have been so much better. I expected the first main game on console to be huge and completely change the series as we know it but instead they removed more and more of what I loved    … Expand
  76. Viivi
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    It don't a good game, don't have a good grafics, don't have all Pokemon.
    What have in this game???
  77. RenXYZ
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    One of the worst Pokemon games! Many Pokemon and moves are missing. Visuals and animations are horrible. Has many bugs.
  78. IsaoUM
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Absolute disgrace given Game Freak's past main series game. Do not waste your money.
  79. WindowPayne
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    This game is a poor excuse for a Nintendo Switch exclusive from one of the most profitable and recognizable franchises in the world. Many beloved features are cut including mega evolutions, Z moves, and about half the Pokémon. None of this is made up for in the graphics, gameplay mechanics, or even music quality. It’s sad looking at the innovation of other Switch titles like Breath of theThis game is a poor excuse for a Nintendo Switch exclusive from one of the most profitable and recognizable franchises in the world. Many beloved features are cut including mega evolutions, Z moves, and about half the Pokémon. None of this is made up for in the graphics, gameplay mechanics, or even music quality. It’s sad looking at the innovation of other Switch titles like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate; and not seeing nearly as much improvement in one of the most popular franchises of all time. Of course, the game is playable and some of the Pokémon have great designs (excluding the starters, those look like anthropomorphic nightmares) but why should we praise what this game is: the bare minimum?… Expand
  80. Rigbo
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Been playing up to the fifth gym and this is a very mediocre Pokémon game. Pokémon games have never been too hard but this is just ridiculously easy. The wild area while being fun, looks terrible and super ugly. 500+ Pokémon were cut for plenty of animations that look from a Nintendo 64 game, unpolished and muddy textures, and plenty of features removed in favor of a new one which justBeen playing up to the fifth gym and this is a very mediocre Pokémon game. Pokémon games have never been too hard but this is just ridiculously easy. The wild area while being fun, looks terrible and super ugly. 500+ Pokémon were cut for plenty of animations that look from a Nintendo 64 game, unpolished and muddy textures, and plenty of features removed in favor of a new one which just boils down to making your Pokémon bigger, even gigantamaxin feels boring. This game is the result of Game Freak going too far with being lazy and cutting corners. I highly recommend buying this game used, as GF does not deserve the money for this rushed and unpolished game.… Expand
  81. tikiwiki
    Nov 16, 2019
    1
    Sword and shield have made amazing changes and some of the worst changes in the series. The changes on training pokemon specially to be able to go online are incredible, but on the other side removing pokemon in a series that used to seem to pride it self on being able to carry over all your old pokemon is such a fatal flaw i can't look past it.
    Wild area is cool but needs to be    Sword and shield have made amazing changes and some of the worst changes in the series. The changes on training pokemon specially to be able to go online are incredible, but on the other side removing pokemon in a series that used to seem to pride it self on being able to carry over all your old pokemon is such a fatal flaw i can't look past it.
    Wild area is cool but needs to be implemented better, also the sound track is probably the worst one we've had for a while tracks like galar mines actually made me feel dizzy
    Also dynamax is the worst gimmick ever and throws any balance out the window.    … Expand
  82. greentauros
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    So my co-worker got this for me as a birthday present, otherwise I would not be playing it right now, nor would I have bought it in the future.

    The graphics are sub-par for a Switch, how come animations from Pokemon Stadium that had a smaller dev team look better than this games? How come Colosseum and Gale of Darkness look better than this game graphically when it came out on a system    So my co-worker got this for me as a birthday present, otherwise I would not be playing it right now, nor would I have bought it in the future.

    The graphics are sub-par for a Switch, how come animations from Pokemon Stadium that had a smaller dev team look better than this games? How come Colosseum and Gale of Darkness look better than this game graphically when it came out on a system that isn't as powerful? Just got to the 2nd badge and while some of the new pokemon are pretty adorable everything else about this game has left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels to me like they just slap a new paint of coat on it and should either hire more people to help make the game better, or instead take a break from the yearly release cycle.

    They also removed many things like TMs, one of which is "return". The attack power is based on how much your Pokemon likes you, and it feels like a slap in your face when a move like this is removed. Wasn't part of the point in pokemon to grow alongside your pokemon and treat them like a pet?

    Don't get me wrong, the game still shows a lot of promise of what could have been, but when you have other titles like BoTW which was originally a Wii U game, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and even more impressive ports like The Witcher 3. It's just depressing that this is the best they could come up with. Gamefreak if you're reading this please hire more staff or take a year off. Maybe even get rid of Masuda. Older pokemon titles use to have more adventure, even if they were graphically lacking, maybe some of that was childhood and maybe some of that is the lack of care that they seem to put into these new pokemon titles. It's been downhill since Pokemon X and Y came out, which part of that was them needing new models made in 3D for the 3DS and was understandable.. But after that, it's all felt lacking, especially when Black and White 2 were the pinnacle of pokemon games before then (Talking about mainline games and not remakes like HGSS which were spectacular.)    … Expand
  83. Pizzawolf
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    No difficulty, no dungeons, no post-game, just linear corridor's into unskippable cutscenes into more linear corridor's into more unskippable cutscenes. Game looks incredibly rushed and underwhelming for a billion dollar franchise. Animations are horrid. Wild area is full of random weather every 5 feet, sandstorms over ponds for no reason, Etc. Game is uninspired, unfinished, and unfun.No difficulty, no dungeons, no post-game, just linear corridor's into unskippable cutscenes into more linear corridor's into more unskippable cutscenes. Game looks incredibly rushed and underwhelming for a billion dollar franchise. Animations are horrid. Wild area is full of random weather every 5 feet, sandstorms over ponds for no reason, Etc. Game is uninspired, unfinished, and unfun. Over 500 Pokemon cut and to never again be accessible in current gen for no apparent reason. First Pokemon game to not be have access to your Pokemon from hardware/games of every prior entry as well as the official cloud storage system that was hyped up years prior. First game to cost $20 more when it barely has the quality/content above it's 3ds releases. A pathetic shadow of what this seriess once was. Incredibly disappointing to long time fans of the series.… Expand
  84. Videogamer7800
    Mar 29, 2020
    0
    Ive been a fan of Pokemon for ages. My first game was Firered. I enjoyed the game through and through. Going throughout the region, and eventually catching all 386. Fast forward to now,and sword and sheild are just lazy unfinished games. Masuda knows that anything with the name "Pokemon" slapped on it will sell, therefore not working hard at making quality content for the longtime fans.Ive been a fan of Pokemon for ages. My first game was Firered. I enjoyed the game through and through. Going throughout the region, and eventually catching all 386. Fast forward to now,and sword and sheild are just lazy unfinished games. Masuda knows that anything with the name "Pokemon" slapped on it will sell, therefore not working hard at making quality content for the longtime fans. This is a switch game. That can run the witcher 3, BOTW, and many more expansive games. I find it sad that pokemon had to get the short end of the stick. Theres only 400 pokemon in the game. Thats less than a DS game that came out almost 10 years ago. Aside from the dex, ive tried the game. I refuse to buy it, but played a good amount of it from a friends switch, and i cannot even descrive my dissapointment. The game has many bugs, the "animations" they promised to improve are recycled from 2013, and everythjng seems rushed. I hope the developers wake up, and stop giving us the shaft. At this point they should just let nintendo handle the pokemon franchise and leave gamefreak out of it… Expand
  85. spnc2217
    Nov 16, 2019
    3
    An unambitious mess that shows GameFreak is out of its depth with HD/console development and have rushed this game. The reasons given for the removal of tons of content like half of all pokemon do not add up - animations, graphics, and performance are not at the level expected of cutting so much content for them. GameFreak lied.
  86. zefiro
    Nov 16, 2019
    0
    Bad Pokemon made without fantasy and all the nice old one directly in the oblivion. No content, plain story, worst starter ever seen (playing pokemon since the 1st generation), a desolate world. Just how to kill the fun and the "dream" to catch them all and become don't catch them at all. well done game freak
  87. Iconic2511
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Absolutely appalling how hilariously bad these games are. This is the most profitable franchise in history and what you get is pure trash. The only reason the game is popular is because it's Pokemon, not because it's good. It has frame rate issue, incredibly easy without option to turn off exp share (like really?), the worlds are devoid of content and barren. Oh and there's no post gameAbsolutely appalling how hilariously bad these games are. This is the most profitable franchise in history and what you get is pure trash. The only reason the game is popular is because it's Pokemon, not because it's good. It has frame rate issue, incredibly easy without option to turn off exp share (like really?), the worlds are devoid of content and barren. Oh and there's no post game either! It's the bare minimum for a Pokemon game and fans deserve better. There's nothing special about this game at all, and the devs half arsed all of it.

    This isn't even mentioning the total lack of a story. The series is becoming like any other yearly sports series. They release the same game over and over and people buy it cause of the name.    … Expand
  88. okamimiyazaki
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    For once the review bombing is justified.

    They removed so many Pokemon because they claim they didn't have the resources to dedicate to integrating the full Pokedex. Okay, I was disappointed but not too upset. However, they justified this by saying it would give them more time and energy to devote to making the game much better in other aspects, such as revolutionary gameplay. Uh, none    For once the review bombing is justified.

    They removed so many Pokemon because they claim they didn't have the resources to dedicate to integrating the full Pokedex. Okay, I was disappointed but not too upset. However, they justified this by saying it would give them more time and energy to devote to making the game much better in other aspects, such as revolutionary gameplay. Uh, none of that is here. This game is worse than X/Y, ORAS, S/M, AND without over half the Pokemon!

    Where is the "revolutionary" part? It's not like we're getting an open world Pokemon game. This whole thing is a huge disappointment. Mediocre game with at least the full Pokedex would've been fine. Instead we got a mediocre game without a large number of the best Pokemon and moves... X/Y was much more 'revolutionary' than this with new things features that were actually very nice, like Wonder Trade.

    Also "gigantamax" is just plain silly, and even worse than Z-Moves. Gamefreak needs more ambitious management, it would seem... I would've been fine waiting another full year for a better game.    … Expand
  89. Theflash2319
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Pokémon games used to so much heart and soul (no pun intended) put into them. They were full of life and to an extent depth where there were tons of secrets to discover within the game, throughout the main story and the post game. The replay ability was high and remakes made the game still feel fresh while retaining what made their original games outstanding. Graphics and animations arePokémon games used to so much heart and soul (no pun intended) put into them. They were full of life and to an extent depth where there were tons of secrets to discover within the game, throughout the main story and the post game. The replay ability was high and remakes made the game still feel fresh while retaining what made their original games outstanding. Graphics and animations are honestly excusable but lately game freaks philosophy of believing they shouldn’t add post game content or even lengthy main campaign due people having short attention spans/ wanting linear one and done games isn’t the right direction to be taking the series. Yes, a lot of younger kids play the games but a lot of younger kids played the originals when they released 20 years ago and they completed the game just fine. In today’s age it honestly should be a reason to increase the challenge and amount of content due to always being able to check a walk through or guide if a player is stuck. The national dex is also a huge disappointment and main turn off for the game as well. Very sad… Expand
  90. veteranplayer88
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I never think i would give a bad rating to a pokemon game. I'm really dissapointed... that's what happen when you make a lazy game only thinking about money, not listening the players, long time fans. This game is buggy, graphics are mediocre comprared to other switch games, pokemons models are from 3ds models, except new ones. But they really lied to us. And the worst, they excluded alot of content. No mega evolutions, no zmoves, lots of excluded moves, more that 400 pokemon excluded. Thats so so bad. I would like to give a good rate, but this is just bad. This game could be good, some new things are cool, but isnt enough. I hope they dont do this again, or i will not buy any more.… Expand
  91. BigBlue42
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The game simply feels unfinished in all areas.
    For starters, the infamous Pokemon cut; this wouldn't be so bad if the extra dev time was truly used to make up for other areas of the game, but I simply do not see where that extra effort has gone.
    The visuals are lackluster compared to most Switch titles. The story is very basic. The main campaign of the game is roughly 20 hours at a    The game simply feels unfinished in all areas.
    For starters, the infamous Pokemon cut; this wouldn't be so bad if the extra dev time was truly used to make up for other areas of the game, but I simply do not see where that extra effort has gone.
    The visuals are lackluster compared to most Switch titles.
    The story is very basic. The main campaign of the game is roughly 20 hours at a leisurely pace, which is quite short for the Pokemon franchise. They've also decided to disallow you from shutting off EXP Share; this wouldn't be an issue, if the game was balanced around this, but it feels as though you're overlevelled for every encounter in the game, leading even dynamic, challenging battles to be swept through with no challenge at all. On top of this, the endgame is mediocre as well; it's little more than rematches with the gym leaders, meager story content of little impact, and a basic Battle Tower with no gimmicks, no hard mode, no bosses, nothing.

    Sword and Shield do have some spare quality of life improvements, which I will credit the game for. They have improved the method of obtaining competitively viable Pokemon drastically, changes which do make me quite hopeful for future installments that may be better than this one; however, the quality of life changes are drastically overshadowed by the game's flaws.

    The only reason anyone would review this game positively is if they're a very surface-level player; someone who doesn't particularly care about playing Pokemon long term, someone who just wants something they can shut their brain off with, that offers nothing that any other Pokemon game hasn't already given.

    The reason why people are so critical of this fact is because Game Freak promoted this game by saying that this would be the title made for the long-time fans of the franchise, the people who are passionate about the games; however, this was an outright lie. One of many lies used to make this game look better than it is. People need to be able to accept that this is a bad Pokemon game: If you don't, and simply mindlessly approve of anything Game Freak produces, the franchise will only continue to decline.    … Expand
  92. Aloubin
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This is the game that shows us how GameFreak is a mediocre company, killing one of the best franchises of all time, I remember playing so many times Pokemon Red & Blue when I was a kid, all of their sequels where awesome, I never played sun & moon but after they announced Pokémon for the Switch I was hype, but after the announcement everything went downhill, the graphics, the gimmicks, theThis is the game that shows us how GameFreak is a mediocre company, killing one of the best franchises of all time, I remember playing so many times Pokemon Red & Blue when I was a kid, all of their sequels where awesome, I never played sun & moon but after they announced Pokémon for the Switch I was hype, but after the announcement everything went downhill, the graphics, the gimmicks, the lack of Pokémon’s and the excuses they gave us (less Pokemon for better graphics and those models at the end are the same from the 3ds game but a little good looking, gamefreak with this game spit in the face at us, the fans, some fans drink the spit but others realize how much of a disgrace this game is… Expand
  93. Galo_Ninja
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    It's amazing Game Freak's incompetence to promise to make a whole new and immersive game and bring a game with graphics and animations like the previous game. If I could summarize this game, I would say it is a lazy game that has no news, its characters are very similar to those of the previous game and without creativity and there is a great lack of content. A hasty game that I don'tIt's amazing Game Freak's incompetence to promise to make a whole new and immersive game and bring a game with graphics and animations like the previous game. If I could summarize this game, I would say it is a lazy game that has no news, its characters are very similar to those of the previous game and without creativity and there is a great lack of content. A hasty game that I don't recommend.

    É incrível a incompetência da Game Freak em prometer fazer um jogo totalmente novo e imersivo e trazer um jogo com gráficos e animações iguais ao do jogo anterior. Se eu pudesse resumir esse jogo, eu diria que é um jogo preguiçoso que não traz novidades, seus personagens são muito parecidos aos do jogo anterior e sem criatividade e há uma grande falta de conteúdo. Um jogo feito ás pressas que eu não recomendo.    … Expand
  94. MiawMix
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    What is this abomination? It's as if the developer know their consumer will eat whatever they made no matter how bad they're, so they prioritize to cut the budget. Literally every aspects in this game is bad: contents, graphic quality, performance, music, innovations. No doubt it will be success financially, but it doesn't change that the game itself is a lazy cash grab.
  95. Kaizo
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have spent hours trying to write a review for this game and couldn't upload it here because of how many words I wrote because of my sheer disappointment, So I'm going to give my brief thoughts here. Also going to avoid spoilers if possible, but I may have to spoil some things. Big time Pokemon fan but I'm not happy with the quality of the games since Gen 7 and I genuinely believe this is the lowest point the franchise has ever been at.

    Presentation
    mediocre. Go and look up numerous examples on YouTube of animation and graphical errors and oddities to see just how mediocre it is. Definitely not enough effort was put in here to justify the dex cut. Especially when a bunch of animations are reused and what new animations we have are all over the place in terms of quality. Pop-in is also a massive problem as characters will just disappear when you aren't even far away from them. Graphics wise, it's better than USUM but below LGPE.

    Music
    Mediocre. Some tracks are good, some tracks feel like they squished two different tracks and some try to be creative but end up being hysterical. Do think that this will be subjective though, so listen and see if you like them.

    Story
    Non-existent until the last hour. When there is some actual story, it's either completely predictable or doesn't earn the twists and turns it makes. Wouldn't be a problem if there was proper dialogue skip and there wasn't tons of times where you're stopped for dialogue you couldn't care about. If you're going to put emphasis on story, then at least make me care.

    Also, don't tell me how strong something is, SHOW it to me. Eternatus is no threat whatsoever and Chairman Rose is so pathetic as a villain that he TURNS HIMSELF IN. Don't tell me that Eternatus has been awakened, show it to me. Don't tell me Eternatus is a threat, show it to me. Don't tell me Rose turned himself in, show it to me. Show, don't tell.

    Gameplay
    About what you'd expect at this point, except bogged down by the games attempt at being story focused with no proper story at all to justify it until the end. I'd compare it to X and Y in terms of content. Not good enoguh considering they were £30 instead of £45. Incredibly easy due to how X items now work thanks to Gen 7. Dynamaxing and raids are cool. A shame it's brought down by a mediocre main game and an awful post game. Wild Area is meh. Apart from raids, it ain't worth it.

    Pokemon designs are meh. Some good. Some awful. Not much inbetween here.

    And there are more and more things I can talk about here, like victory road being removed for a hallway where you just go forward until a trainer challenges you. Like the fact that you are constantly healed throughout and even during this games equivalent to the Elite 4 after every battle. (Edited out a complaint where I incorrectly stated that a crash could delete save data. Turns out it deletes game installs and screenshots on the SD card if it is a digital copy and only if it is Exfat. It also doesn't matter if autosave is on or not, it seems. Still not acceptable, but I apologize for the error). But the word limit is way too short to address them all here. It does some good things, like optional tutorials, dynamax and raid battles but there is no effort put into the rest of the game that it doesn't even matter.

    Seriously, I could go on and on and on. Lord knows I have with friends (Sorry for that). Even though I haven't even spent money on it, I feel ripped off. (Borrowed the game from a friend who got it a day before release when he couldn't be bothered to finish it, if you were wondering).

    Pokemon Sword and Shield feel like games a company would make if they just wanted to make money but lost all care to actually make a good game and cut corners just to get the game out. The game wants to have everything (E.g. money, good reviews, fan support) but cannot even be bothered to try for it, using it's name and reputation and hoping for the best.

    Go out and buy Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver or ANY other Pokemon game used. This game wouldn't even be worth £30 let alone £45 and whatever you pay for switch online if you don't have it already. If they were to fix thepresentation problems, brought back the national dex and all cut Pokemon back it STILL wouldn't even APPROACH being enough to fix the games because it feels like a lazy, soulless attempt at a Pokemon game to make a quick buck.

    If you like the game and genuinely enjoy it, I hope that you are having fun. I hope you are enjoying all the aspects of the game and I hope that you continue to enjoy the games for many years to come. Me though? I have no interest to buy any Pokemon game again at this point. And that sucks that I would say that about my favorite series of games, but I don't support the direction game freak is going with these games and I refuse to support them if I can no longer find enjoyment in their latest releases.

    IMO, Go play something else. The games aren't worth it.    … Expand
  96. HaroLain
    Nov 15, 2019
    5
    From the very beginning, through all of the announcements, controversies, and leaks, I've been willing to go into Pokemon Sword & Shield with an open mind. I've been a fan of the games for nearly two decades now, and each mainline entry has managed to be enjoyable in some way, even the weaker games of the 3DS era. I understood the concerns that were raised around the title - the lack of aFrom the very beginning, through all of the announcements, controversies, and leaks, I've been willing to go into Pokemon Sword & Shield with an open mind. I've been a fan of the games for nearly two decades now, and each mainline entry has managed to be enjoyable in some way, even the weaker games of the 3DS era. I understood the concerns that were raised around the title - the lack of a National Dex, subpar graphics for Pokemon's console debut, the fact that nearly half of all Pokemon were straight up cut from the game. But even so, I chose to remain optimistic until I finally had a chance to try it out for myself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Despite all of my gripes, Sword & Shield are still enjoyable games in the end, but they are also incredibly mediocre. If you're able to accept the fact that they're not much more than another 3DS entry, this time in HD with some added bells and whistles (and a lot less Pokemon), then I recommend giving it a try. Just know that while it doesn't break the streak of entertaining mainline entries, it did disappoint me more than any other game in the series so far.    … Expand
  97. StickyRobot
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Short game, bad graphics, mindlessly easy story, pointless gimmicks, and a largely non existent plot. That's ignoring the fact that half the Pokemon and about 100 moves were slashed from the game files.

    All this for dollars... unless you want access to the games online content which is hidden behind a 20 dollar paywall. This game offers a laughable amount of content for the 60-80 dollar price.
  98. GiaKommo-o
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Sword and Shield are bad even in Pokemon's shallow standards; half of the Pokemon are wiped, the story is incredibly lacklustre and shoved down your throat, the characters are basically 2 dimensional and the TEN (10) routes are pretty much decorated corridors. The wild area feels empty, and the only thing keeping this from a lower score are the admittedly cool and well designed newSword and Shield are bad even in Pokemon's shallow standards; half of the Pokemon are wiped, the story is incredibly lacklustre and shoved down your throat, the characters are basically 2 dimensional and the TEN (10) routes are pretty much decorated corridors. The wild area feels empty, and the only thing keeping this from a lower score are the admittedly cool and well designed new additions to the roster.… Expand
  99. noxxion
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    With the huge backlash of around half of the national pokedex missing, we were promised improvements and a.morecpolished game. We got the exact opposite.

    Around 177 moves missing from the game, an incredible amount of animations reused from Sun and Moon (Hop is a carbon copy of Hau in every aspect) Not to mention the appalling animations in general. Pokemon doing a half-ass pivot on the    With the huge backlash of around half of the national pokedex missing, we were promised improvements and a.morecpolished game. We got the exact opposite.

    Around 177 moves missing from the game, an incredible amount of animations reused from Sun and Moon (Hop is a carbon copy of Hau in every aspect) Not to mention the appalling animations in general. Pokemon doing a half-ass pivot on the spot to turn. A crowd of characters applauding with sound playing BUT NO ANIMATION.

    The soundtrack is terrible and low quality outside of a track from Toby Fox, sometimes the audio even glitches out or just doesnt exist. (The legendary finale was devoid of music and the battle music cut out)

    Also there are only 8 gym leaders that are reused a few times through the story. There are no Elite Four, you fight the same trainers all over again intead. The postgame is nonexistent too.

    No amount of #ThankYouGamefreak can cover up this travesty. Stop letting them get away with this sheer laziness.    … Expand
  100. TheVJ
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This game is an insult to the Pokémon franchise. The graphics are astonishingly bad and reminiscent of the PS2 era. Content-wise there is practically no postgame. There's no national dex and no way to catch, own or play with them all.

    They cited "all the work for the new models and animations" as the reason why the game couldn't have all Pokémon, yet it's already been shown for a fact    This game is an insult to the Pokémon franchise. The graphics are astonishingly bad and reminiscent of the PS2 era. Content-wise there is practically no postgame. There's no national dex and no way to catch, own or play with them all.

    They cited "all the work for the new models and animations" as the reason why the game couldn't have all Pokémon, yet it's already been shown for a fact that all animations and models are old ones. They didn't do anything new in that regard, so that excuse is complete bogus.

    "Dynamax" as this generations's gimmick meant to replace megas or z-moves is also beyond boring and lame, it's literally just the Pokémon but big. Coupled with very few good looking designs of new Pokémon this gen this game is just an all-around disaster and it's about time Nintendo wrestled away control of this franchise from GameFreak, who clearly do NOT want to bother anymore.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

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