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Pokemon Sword / Shield Dual Pack
Released On: Nov 15, 2019
80
4.4
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally favorable
Based on 93 Critic Reviews
80
71% Positive
66 Reviews
66 Reviews
22% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally favorable
Based on 93 Critic Reviews
80
71% Positive
66 Reviews
66 Reviews
22% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Another great game in the Pokémon series. It holds back when it comes to technical design and it doesn´t offer the opportunity to catch the old familiar faces, but fortunately most of the new additions are more than satisfactory for many hours of gameplay. [Issue#300]
Pokemon Sword and Shield's single-player experience is filled with neat characters and a new region that's brimming with personality, but running around the Wild Area with other players offers a special kind of fun. Quality of life improvements to the metagame, including the ability to change your Pokemon's nature and rent teams for fights, gives you good reason to stick with the game after you're crowned the new champion of the Galar region. Despite the controversy, Sword and Shield offers a great time.
User Score
Generally unfavorable
Based on 404 User Ratings
4.4
37% Positive
151 Ratings
151 Ratings
6% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
57% Negative
229 Ratings
229 Ratings
User Score
Generally unfavorable
Based on 404 User Ratings
4.4
37% Positive
151 Ratings
151 Ratings
6% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
57% Negative
229 Ratings
229 Ratings
Beautiful and precious, is the only way to describe the Galar region
User evaluations in general give a very distorted view of this game. It really very fun and ideal for hanging out with the childrens.
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Nintendo Switch
One of the best modern generations of Pokémon, much better than the distant and mythical X and Y.
Unfairly criticized, the video game press did appreciate the game. Since it has a great story, a very varied and fun world to explore, as well as one of the best multiplayer ever seen.
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Nintendo Switch
Pokémon Sword and Shield represent an exciting new beginning for the saga. Some ideas aren't perfectly developed, but overall the work from Gamefreak is convincing.
Sword & Shield is a really tricky Pokémon entry to pigeonhole. It retains the old Pokémon charm, but it's not without flaws.
While the game is just as fun and addicting as ever, the awkward dialogue feels shoe-horned in and the stark difficulty drop off in the mid-game is unfortunate to say the least, making the latter half of the experience a breeze. It’s still an enjoyable experience and a treat to explore the Galar region. It may not be perfect, but it is a strong step in the right direction to giving us the ultimate Pokemon experience.
Pokemon Sword & Shield doesn't take enough risks or attempt anything really new and important. The overwhelming amount of re-used assets and shortcuts leads to one of the biggest missed opportunities on the Switch to date. Newcomers will find a lot to love here, with no previous games to measure it against, but longtime series fans will likely be left wanting in almost every area.
Everything in the game is unpolished and once again there is absolutely nothing interesting storywise; no mystery and no lead concept that would let the players explore the world by themselves. It’s the same level design, same designers’ tricks and the same sub-par balance which I know all too well form the previous games. [01/2020, p.76]
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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Nintendo Switch
It's not a bad game, but also not amazing.
Graphics are a bit mixed: I have experienced a bit of graphical glitches, like problems with shadows and saw Sonia's hair acting on it's own, however in battle the graphics are pretty great. The starters do have more animations, while not being as great as last gen.
The starters are ugly imo, but some designs are weird, but not bad. it is a case of getting used to it.
There IS less post game content and hunting for gigantamaxed pokemon is kind of tedious and unnecesairily grindy, but it keeps you from getting bored from the game.
The pokedex IS ofcourse decreced, but i don't have any problems with it. Some pokemon i would have like to be in it were scrappe, but by thinking back. Most of these pokemon were broken (always in competetive teams) some pokemon were nerved like mimikyu, but it does make the game more balanced.
The wild area is a place to catch pokemon in a 3D setting ,but this place does feel rushed. I often get a lot of framedrops and pokemon keep popping in a way I will accidentally battle them unwantedly.
Especially when connecting online are these problems noticable bad.
They also need to go back to the old trading system the y-comm is a very bad system, where you need to make a code to trade eventhough the switch has a working invite system. They also removed the GTS which was a great place to trade pokemon you needed for your pokedex, but removing it did make me more active in catching them myself.
The story, while predictable is very pokemon like. I would've wanted it to be a bit more in dept like in gen 5 and a little bit darker. The evil team (team yell) wasn't even evil, but more like foothball (sOcCEr) supporters are in reallife.
I didn't haven any problems with the autosave (due to being only in the Japanese versions, with a faulty SD card)
But the game could have been harder or at least, they could have added a challenge mode like in gen 5.
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Nintendo Switch
I got Pokemon Shield but since they're pretty much the same game, I'll paste my review here as well.
Short version:
The Good:
- Refreshing feeling overall
- Good character designs
- Good looking graphics and animations (Half of the time, more on this down on the 'bad')
- Wild Area is amaizing
The bad:
- Lazy animations on a lot of attacks (Which makes it even worse, considering some attacks have beautiful animations)
- FPS drops on the Wild Area, even in Docked mode
- Cutting the National Dex to "include better animations". Animations that are not in the game.
- General unpolished feel to the game. This game needed at least 3-6 more months of development, and it could've easily been the BEST pokemon game of all time. Instead, we get a half-baked, mediocre pokemon game.
Overall: If you enjoyed pokemon games, you will have fun. The game lacks in a lot of aspects, but it's still an enjoyable experience. I wish GameFreak would've taken more time to polish it a bit more, or at the very least that they adress the issues on patches down the line.
Long version:
I'm glad I bought this.
Yes, the game has issues (FPS drops, some animations are cheap as **** it's generally unpolished, unnecesary dexit) but the game really ISN'T as bad as leakers and naysayers would have you believe. It pisses me off because if they had a few more months (say, 3 months, like Animal Crossing) this game could have been the BEST pokemon game ever. Instead, we get a half-assed mediocre game, but with enough fun stuff that it guarantees a huge profit for GameFreak, therefore they will not learn, and will continue to half-ass games, most likely. That's pretty sad.
Also, anyone saying "the game is short!!! you can beat it in 8 hours!!" is full of **** I haven't even finished the main story and check it: 26hs and ticking. And I haven't even started doing max raids or anything endgame like that.
The XP share turned on all the time is a pain in the ass, and we SHOULD have an option to turn it off.
The difficulty is... very low. You can just mash A and you will probably win most fights. That being said, difficulty does spike in a few battles here and there. But most of the time it's very easy.
Is this game perfect? No, not at all. Is it bad? Not really. It's average, or mediocre, whatever word you prefer to use. But it's fun. If you walk into the game wanting to hate it, you'll nitpick and hate every part of it. If you walk into the game wishing to have fun... well, you'll have tons of fun.
Whether or not this game is worth 60$ is up to you to decide. For me, it should be 40$ and not a cent more. But I still bent over and paid full price. Even tho I reckon it shouldn't be full price, I personally am having lots of fun, and that makes it worth my time and money.
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Nintendo Switch
After having finished "Pokemon: Shield" in around 25 hours, I felt immediately compelled to type a review because this is the most disappointing entry into the Pokemon video game line-up that I had ever experienced. This is tragic for me - to say the least - because I went in with decent expectations and with hopes that this would succeed prior Pokemon video games well. Sadly, it feels more like a huge step back with some promising features that I hope future entries consider keeping and improving.
Positives:
(+) The new Galarian Pokemons and the Galarian Variants of past-generation Pokemons
(+) Pokemon Camp and Curry-making: Both more charming than I thought!
(+) In-depth Trainer Customisation
(+) A lot of quality of life improvements in comparison to past Pokemon video games: This is going to make it more accessible for a lot of players while making it more focused for long-time players. Things like mints to change Pokemon nature type to exp share being always on making the entire game less grindy and monotonous. All very much appreciated!
Negatives:
(-) Inconsistent Graphic Quality: Some good textures, some REALLY out-dated textures. Some battle backgrounds look pretty cool; others, not so much and repeatedly used. Towns like Circhester look breathtaking, but then there are the open world sections that look flat and ugly. Textures may pop in-and-out at times. Stiff models!
(-) Inconsistent Animation Quality (and Missing Animations?): Some elaborate and well-done, but - for the most part - low effort. Also, Pokemons don't have a turning animation, and NPCs seem to be are missing a couple as well? NPCs look soulless at times with barely any expressions. Pokemons headbutting with their legs look weird. Some Pokemons even use the same bad animations to attack (when using different moves).
(-) Empty-feeling Open World sections: For today's standard of video games, even some open world indie games look more livelier than this game's open world sections. The AI for roaming Pokemons is pretty dumb and non-interactive as well and is easy to maneuver and play around. Moreover, the open world sections are relatively small in comparison to a lot of other games: even those of low-budget.
(-) Incompetent Story: Most of the important things in the story are described by NPCs rather than shown (or - you know - involving you like a game). Also, most of it is the typical Pokemon video game story (i.e. be the very best, have a rival, meet someone with an emotional complexity, etc.). Also, Hop is more annoying than easy-to-hate.
(-) Unpolished and Unoptimised Game: This game has glitches and oddities and even some weird exploitables. Pokemon AI in camp can be a little buggy, and the game got stuck at one point when I was playing with my Pokemons. Sometimes, my frame rate would drop below in certain areas much more in comparison to other Switch games.
(-) My Switch crashed twice: This is the first (and second) time that my Switch had ever crashed, so - to me - this is a huge deal.
(-) No Post-game: Other than completing your Pokemon collection and , there's nothing else. Honestly, this comes as such a shock as I never not had a post-game in a Pokemon video game.
(-) Too much hand-holding: Every NPC treats you like an idiot even past the tutorial and reminds you constantly that you can do this and that. They make it a big deal for doing minor things like walking from point A to B. It is very annoying to be blasted by so many text boxes when you just want to play the game.
Mediocres:
(?) Relatively Short Game: In comparison to the other Pokemon video games, this is the shortest and I really took my time exploring everywhere. I was honestly shocked that I finished this game so fast.
(?) Easiest Pokemon video game: With all the quality of life features, I barely needed to think while playing or battling. Personally, it's a negative for me, but - for others - this might be a saving grace.
(?) Dynamax is a gym/raid gimmick.
(?) Raids: I was expecting much more but it's just a longer Pokemon battle - not much strategy needed. This may vary from player to player though.
Conclusion: My recommendation is to wait for a sale - around $40; it's not worth the full price of $60 if you're a long-time Pokemon gamer. By Pokemon video game standards, "Pokemon: Shield" is the weakest entry to the franchise. However, that's not to say that it's a bad game: it's passable and this is the problem because past Pokemon video games are not "passable". I think that - for a casual gamer - this is good to waste time in and have some fun. It was fun for me sometimes and even charming. For this case, I would give "Pokemon: Shield" a 5/10, but my current rating is to reflect actual Pokemon gamers (the ones who love battling and forming teams and staying engaged and whatnot) and - personally - this was a below average experience for me. Overall, I think that this game needed more time in the oven.
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Nintendo Switch
It has a lot of little improvements over previous games and makes some interesting premises with some of the ideas it implements but massively cuts back on features in past games which were actually good, plus the overall game comes off as incredibly short plot wise and underwhelming in terms of girth of traditional content (route and dungeon variety). It also doesn't help that the game more or less encourages you to just play solely with your starter since your other 'mon will get exp from battles anyhow so there's no point in swapping out since everyone will be kept at similar levels unless you pick up an exceptionally low leveled late game Pokemon which even then you can now boost with exp. candies which is a nice feature addition although makes more sense as a post-game item and should be a crutch on which the game can lean on due to a poor level curve. £120 is a joke for both, just trade.
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Nintendo Switch
Summary A new generation of Pokémon has come to the Nintendo Switch system. Become a Pokémon Trainer, embark on a new journey in the new Galar region, and unravel the mystery behind the Legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta! Explore the Wild Area, a vast expanse of land where the player can freely control the camera. And participate in Max Raid...
Rated E
for Everyone
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch
Initial Release Date: Nov 15, 2019
Developer:
- Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Genres:
