Pokemon Shield

 Switch
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2309 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 810 out of 2309
  2. Mixed: 213 out of 2309
  3. Negative: 1,286 out of 2309
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  1. ChocolateCrane
    Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Let us address the elephant in the room first. The absence of the National Dex. Yes, it is terrible, lazy, blah blah blah. I am sure you've already heard this in hundreds of other reviews. So instead of me wasting your time by complaining about something you are already well aware of, I will focus on the rest of SwSh's shortcomings. For reference, I have played every mainline Pokemon gameLet us address the elephant in the room first. The absence of the National Dex. Yes, it is terrible, lazy, blah blah blah. I am sure you've already heard this in hundreds of other reviews. So instead of me wasting your time by complaining about something you are already well aware of, I will focus on the rest of SwSh's shortcomings. For reference, I have played every mainline Pokemon game to completion and have currently sunk 40 hours into Shield; I'd imagine my criticisms also apply to Sword. In the interest of brevity, I will be utilizing acronyms: (SwSh = Sword/Shield, S/M = Sun/Moon, etc).

    The most succinct way to put it is SwSh essentially feels like a 3DS game ported to the Switch. This applies to every facet of the game: from its gameplay features to its visual presentation, to its story/characters. I believe whether or not you enjoy SwSh depends entirely upon how you view the 7th Gen games. Contrary to what the devs promised us last year, SwSh is most assuredly NOT meant for the "core" Pokemon fans. As a veteran of the series myself, I can say with certainty the abysmally low level of difficulty in conjunction with the simplification and outright removal of many features is the exact opposite of what I'd want. SwSh is nearly as simplified as LGPE, which wouldn't be an issue if the devs addressed it as such, but somehow they seem to think this is what qualifies as a satisfying mainline game in 2019. Yes, Pokemon has always been a franchise aimed primarily at children. The games have never been truly difficult when compared to many of their JRPG contemporaries. Yet, for some reason Game Freak felt the need to crank that difficulty setting from "Easy" down to "Braindead". S/M may have been easy, but it was LEAGUES more challenging than Shield. Accessibility is one thing, but this is taking it to such an extreme it nearly removes all the fun. A "Hard Mode" option selectable from the outset would have worked wonders. And of course, as is common for the past several entries in the Pokemon series, the post-game content is practically non-existent.

    So, SwSh basically fails when viewed purely as a "game", but what of the other aspects I mentioned? After all, JRPGs with subpar gameplay can still be surprisingly enjoyable if the narrative holds enough merit. I am sad to report that SwSh also completely fails in this regard. The writing is oftentimes so atrocious I've found myself wishing to skip these scenes entirely. This is par for the course as none of the mainline games (barring the "attempts" made in B/W) have really delivered anything substantive in the way of competent storytelling. However, with the majority of other Pokemon games, they at least had good gameplay to compensate for the lackluster story; a factor which is completely absent from SwSh due to its inherent simplified nature and toddler-pandering difficulty.

    Well, there is only one thing left to discuss since delving into too much detail on the above points causes me to exceed the character limit. The final point of contention is the visual fidelity and graphical offerings SwSh brings to the table. This is after all, a game made for the Switch; a console/handheld hybrid with roughly 10x the computational power of Pokemon's former home, the 3DS. Let's get the pesky numbers out of the way first. SwSh runs at a dynamic resolution on both docked and portable modes. In docked mode, the resolution fluctuates from 1080p to 864p. Likewise, during portable play, the highest res is 720p which descends to 576p on frequent occasions. This is somewhat disappointing considering LGPE was capable of running at 1080p docked/720p portable at all times. The framerate target is 30fps, which exhibits frame pacing problems and severe drops in a variety of areas. The most evident manifestation of these issues can be seen in the Wild Area, wherein both pacing and framerate are pushed to their absolute worst. This is a massive problem considering the majority of your time, especially in post-game, will likely be spent in the Wild Area.

    Aside from the quantifiable metrics highlighted above, there are plenty of other visual shortcomings to boot. Terrible terrain detail, awful textures, constant pop-in, stilted animations, low polygon count for both the human character models as well as the Pokemon, and countless other issues such as these result in a game that resembles something released over a decade ago. Many detractors claim SwSh looks like a PS2/GC game, which is definitely an exaggeration, but what we got is by no means acceptable for a non-indie game released in 2019. And yes, many of the animations and ALL the returning Pokemon models have been copy-and-pasted with negligible improvements for SwSh.

    It's one thing to sacrifice content for a more polished, higher quality game, but that is very clearly not what happened here. I genuinely hope these issues can be sorted out in future releases; I am not ready to give up hope on Pokemon just yet.    … Expand
  2. pokeanon
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    With this entry the developers behind Pokémon go deeper in a trend they should have stopped years ago: story modes that are insultingly easy, insultingly short and filled with forced cutscenes and handholding. That reason alone is enough to guarantee a red rating: The games are simply not very fun; they are less of a game and more of a showcase of the new Pokémon and new characters thatWith this entry the developers behind Pokémon go deeper in a trend they should have stopped years ago: story modes that are insultingly easy, insultingly short and filled with forced cutscenes and handholding. That reason alone is enough to guarantee a red rating: The games are simply not very fun; they are less of a game and more of a showcase of the new Pokémon and new characters that will drive TPC's merchandise lineup for the rest of the generation. That is bad, but they reached new unexpected lows with the deletion of more than half the monsters and the mediocre artistic direction. Variety of monsters was the strong point of the series, a game about collecting and training your favorites. With this loss Pokémon drops its strong point and is mostly a list of bad or questionable elements. It does not help that it has pops-in everywhere, bad animations (some of them really glaring for a 2019 game, and even worse when they were the given excuse for the deletion of the monsters), a region with few routes (less than ever before, including corridors) and no dungeons at all. Good points are the intention of an open world adventure with Wild Area and the improved breeding mechanics. Those are the reasons why I did not give this a zero.… Expand
  3. NotAChansey
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    An insult to life long pokemon fans. Stripped of all personality and mostly a re-packaged collection of old animations/ideas. Nothing new to gain, plenty of good old stuff removed for literally no reason other than to get the game out faster
  4. Otonaburu
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    What should have been a giant leap to significantly stronger hardware feels more like a port from 3DS. New features and improvements come at way too high a price, both literally and figuratively (half of the Pokemon gone, for starters). Gamefreak continues to disappoint and Pokemon as a series stands out as a black sheep among other loved Nintendo franchises on Switch.
  5. Cuddly1337
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Pokemon Shield (and its sister Sword) is an incredibly unpolished game. It feels like GameFreak never tested these games for bugs. These bugs are not just small unnoticeable things like in GameBoy games. Music is missing from certain battles, NPCs (without Abra) can teleport (both in the overworld and when battling some NPCs), and you can suddenly stop time by being on a ladder. There evenPokemon Shield (and its sister Sword) is an incredibly unpolished game. It feels like GameFreak never tested these games for bugs. These bugs are not just small unnoticeable things like in GameBoy games. Music is missing from certain battles, NPCs (without Abra) can teleport (both in the overworld and when battling some NPCs), and you can suddenly stop time by being on a ladder. There even is yet another save corruption glitch in these games, and it isn’t like talking to 1 NPC and surfing on specific tiles either.
    Even looking past the glitches, the main story is insultingly easy, even for children. The only places children can explore are in the wild areas and they are filled with nothing of interest (besides more examples of a lack-o-polish). Your kids might also be scared of the Camp feature since their Pokemon can do weird and unintended things. I personally also didn’t like being limited on what I could catch based on Gym Badges as I (and your kids) could easily lose out on a Pokemon they wanted to catch, and you are overleveled anyways.
    I’ll give the game some points though. While many designs are pretty sub-par, most of the new Pokemon are very well designed. And is series tradition, the music is still very good, even if it is the weakest soundtrack so far.

    Unironically, just get Let’s Go Pikachu or Let’s Go Eevee if you want to get a Pokemon game for your kid. They have more polish and are much more appealing to children.    … Expand
  6. Tomcat8
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    A disaster, pokemon just died!
    Even let's go, which was a medium game, had undeniable qualities (nothing but the catching interaction was excellent, it's something that should have stayed on this game).
    The 800 Pokémon are not available supposedly because to redo the sprites for the switch is too long while we have the proof that they have reused the sprites of pokémon Ultra Sun and    A disaster, pokemon just died!
    Even let's go, which was a medium game, had undeniable qualities (nothing but the catching interaction was excellent, it's something that should have stayed on this game).
    The 800 Pokémon are not available supposedly because to redo the sprites for the switch is too long while we have the proof that they have reused the sprites of pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
    Non-existent combat animations, knowing that stadium versions on N64 had animations
    Gigamax combat which is a useless feature, ugly graphics with violent aliasing and catastrophic FPS drops!
    Knowing that the console manages to turn The Witcher 3 correctly
    Besides, the open world is empty and uninteresting!
    Sell ​​50 balls a **** alike !
    A nice scam for a game that is a half porting 3DS games    … Expand
  7. Metagrass
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    I have also done a review for Pokemon Sword, but as both versions are more or less the same game, I've copied it here.

    This game... is not great. It's not even good. You can't imagine how much that bothers me as a 12 year Pokemon fan to say this, but I have to be honest, I regret buying these games. There is a myriad of issues with this game that give it a feeling of being rushed.    I have also done a review for Pokemon Sword, but as both versions are more or less the same game, I've copied it here.

    This game... is not great. It's not even good. You can't imagine how much that bothers me as a 12 year Pokemon fan to say this, but I have to be honest, I regret buying these games.

    There is a myriad of issues with this game that give it a feeling of being rushed. Firstly the game suffers from many graphical issues. Pokemon, trainers and objects will just pop into and out of the overworld for seemingly no reason, many battle arenas lack backgrounds and trainers will disappear and reappear from them, completely breaking my immersion. Another issue is the game is extremely short. I am already at the 5th gym and I bought it yesterday, I hope that somehow the last 3 gyms take triple the time of the first 5, but from what my friend tells me, this isn't the case. Also my friend tells me that the post game is just the battle tree from sun and moon but with no bosses. The story is extrememly basic too, it is just a carbon copy of the story from one of the other games in the series (of which I'm not going to mention as I don't want to spoil anything). If you thought they were taking a step in the right derection with Sun and Moon's story, then Sword and Shield takes two steps back. As you might expect, the game is really easy, but I don't mean as easy as some of the other games in the series, Sword and Shield is probably the easiest Pokemon game to date. Easy games aren't in themselves a bad thing, but in a strategy game like Sword and Shield, you need at least a basic level of difficulty to make it interesting. Alas, due to the forced (always active) exp share on your whole team, my entire team was so overleveled for each gym. I would just end up dyanamaxing and sweeping the entire trainer's team for each of them with no problem. I really wish you could just turn the exp share off, the game would benefit so much from this. Speaking of the gyms, the challenges for each gym are completely ridiculous. Most of them are boring and had very little effect on the gym battle itself, for example there is one where the gym leader asks you bizzare questions like what you had for breakfast, not impressed with the gyms at all. The game in general is riddled with bizzare decisions like extra volume controls being locked behind an item for some reason and not being able to pet your Pokemon anymore. I would not reccomend picking this game up.

    Now lets address the donphan in the room, the dex cut. Around 60% of the Pokemon were removed from this game along with a handful of moves for the reason of "improving the animations an models". The dex cut wouldn't be much of an issue for your average player, but the animations and models weren't improved at all. The models are just ported from Sun and Moon, scaled up for the Switch and there are less new animations in this game than Sun and Moon due to the lack of Z-Moves. So in short the dex was cut down for absolutely no reason. The smaller dex also limits people's options in online matches and competative, but I haven't played online yet and don't know anything about it so it wouldn't be fair for me to judge it.

    Now that I've finally gotten through the bad things I should list the good. Some of the designs of the new Pokemon are amazing. In typical James Turner (the man who designed many of the Pokemon in this game) style, they're very hit or miss. But the ones that hit, hit hard. The final evolutions of the starters in particular ooze personality, I love them all. The wild area is a great concept, though it's fairly poorly executed it is still fun to explore. The addition of overworld encounters from the Lets Go games is a great idea and makes the world feel way more alive. Sadly though, the good is outweighed by the bad in this game.

    In conclusion, I would not reccomend these games. They are definately the worst in the series and do not justify the Switch price tag. Avoid these at all costs, there are many, far better games on the switch this year, get one of those instead.    … Expand
  8. thvbh
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    After "it all comes together" and "ultra changes", generation 8 adds more lies to GameFreak's pile of shame. They promise a lot, and they again fail to deliver in almost every single aspect. This time, however, the technical shortcomings, lack of polish, and shortage of ambition is covered up by a veil of scam-level dishonesty from the developers themselves and a blanket of praise fromAfter "it all comes together" and "ultra changes", generation 8 adds more lies to GameFreak's pile of shame. They promise a lot, and they again fail to deliver in almost every single aspect. This time, however, the technical shortcomings, lack of polish, and shortage of ambition is covered up by a veil of scam-level dishonesty from the developers themselves and a blanket of praise from "unbiased" game critics, whose reviews sound more like advertisements than genuine reviews.

    The decision to cut over half the existing Pokémon from the game under the pretense of filling the game with content and quality animations wouldn't be so bad if the results could be seen in the game. However, the games are just as hollow as their predecessors, if not even more. Complete lack of difficulty, constant hand-holding, horrible plot, insufferable cutscenes and barely anything to do post-game is something that seems we will have to get used to, as it's apparently the new standard from now on, and any future games will probably be evaluated with regards to the bar set this laughably low.

    Pokémon is finally dead. As an avid fan since red and blue, I say it with a heavy heart. What started six years ago, with the release of Pokémon X and Y, finally came to fruition - a game so hollow and dumbed down, that even the awful past two generations look full of content compared to it. What was once a flawed, but ultimately fun franchise with a mediocre, but really passionate team of developers behind it, finally succumbed to the disease of brand-loyalty blinded fanbase that can see no wrong in the games as long as they have the Pokemon logo stamped on. This tremendous fall in quality is entirely their fault and no one else's - this is the best time for GameFreak to implement egregious monetization schemes in their next games, as not only will they evade any criticism from game critics, but will be largely praised for it by a large group of fans, which is truly asinine.

    What's left is to hope that a team of talented developers will see the growing disenchantment with the series and decide to step in, fill the void and dethrone the corrupted king of the monster catching genre.    … Expand
  9. beyak
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    The bad:
    The main story is short, and the postgame is lacking, around 25 hours if you take your time.
    The music is hit or miss most of the time. The wild area (the biggest new feature) feels incomplete and has bad textures and models for the environment. Its also not very big. The game has pop-in issues both in the wild area and in cities/routes, and has a horrible draw distance. The    The bad:
    The main story is short, and the postgame is lacking, around 25 hours if you take your time.
    The music is hit or miss most of the time.
    The wild area (the biggest new feature) feels incomplete and has bad textures and models for the environment. Its also not very big.
    The game has pop-in issues both in the wild area and in cities/routes, and has a horrible draw distance.
    The game is missing staple moves like pursuit, return and hidden power.
    Some animations in cutscenes and battles are either incredibly lacking, or amazing in some cases.
    Half of the pokemon are not coded into the game, and will be impossible to transfer (unless GameFreak changes their stance and updates).
    Mega evolution and Z-moves were removed and replaced by dynamax.
    Subjective, but some of the new pokemon are really off-putting.
    The game, as of release, has a fatal bug that can wipe your SD card.
    No following pokemon.

    The good:
    It's still pokemon, and still has the same great formula.
    The games look great, especially in cities.
    The trainer customization is the best ever.
    Some of the new pokemon and character designs are amazing.
    Competitive teambuilding is easier than ever before.

    Overall: The game could have used more time before release and had great potential. If all pokemon, moves and megas were coded in and the whole game was polished more (especially the wild area) the game could have been the best pokemon games so far. It's sad to see GameFreak pushing yearly releases for the games instead of giving them the development time needed to become truly great.    … Expand
  10. Mkikuchi
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Yet another rushed, disappointing mess for longtime fans of the series. Considering the emphasis that was placed on the graphics and animation quality before the S/S' release, you'd expect them to at least run at a consistent framerate or not blatantly copy/paste animations from prior games; but neither of these came to fruition. Not worth losing half of the games' cast for.

    Objectively,    Yet another rushed, disappointing mess for longtime fans of the series. Considering the emphasis that was placed on the graphics and animation quality before the S/S' release, you'd expect them to at least run at a consistent framerate or not blatantly copy/paste animations from prior games; but neither of these came to fruition. Not worth losing half of the games' cast for.

    Objectively, as long as the gameplay's good, graphical quality is a non-issue. Unfortunately, as with the 3DS era, Sword and Shield are dumbed down for the mobile phone generation. You're never made to go more than a few battles without healing, and if you can stomach that you can look forward to endless handholding and WOW CHARIZARD REMEMBER THIS KANTO POKEMON?

    If you have any semblance of critical thinking skills, don't buy these games.    … Expand
  11. PurpleMoth
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    The absolute lowest point in the entire franchise, there is almost no new relevant additions to the game while they removed dozens of features that made the past games fantastic, the graphics are so mediocre you can compare it to a Gamecube game and the gameplay doesn't make up for it, neither the story or postgame, it's embarrasing how Gane Freak managed to make a game so mediocre it getsThe absolute lowest point in the entire franchise, there is almost no new relevant additions to the game while they removed dozens of features that made the past games fantastic, the graphics are so mediocre you can compare it to a Gamecube game and the gameplay doesn't make up for it, neither the story or postgame, it's embarrasing how Gane Freak managed to make a game so mediocre it gets outshined by most of the past entries in the series.… Expand
  12. zuenke
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Everything has been said already. just a huge disappointment to bad people condone this sort of behavior and tell people that what a great game ( which is completely possible) that they are haters...
  13. Jaxks
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good    But used, fun 5hour game but some how more lazy than past titles. Not clear That not all of the pokemon are in the game but not even a hint a moves being deleted.

    If they didn't allow you to transfer any pokemon over I would be more than happy but having just a select few seems wrong. After the 'story' there's No post game unlike in the ds games. All in all the character designs are good the style looks nice in some areas but it does not make up for the ugly new pokemon that where made to replace old ones and the lack of things to do in the game.    … Expand
  14. FGDireito
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    I was going to give this game a solid 5, it's not a bad game but neither it's a great game, this is just fine, but the more I think about it the more disappointed I get.
    This is a 60€ game it as to be compared with its Switch peers of the same price and not like it's a random indie game, this game rightly deserves the tough love that it's getting, just because it's Pokémon doesn't make it    I was going to give this game a solid 5, it's not a bad game but neither it's a great game, this is just fine, but the more I think about it the more disappointed I get.
    This is a 60€ game it as to be compared with its Switch peers of the same price and not like it's a random indie game, this game rightly deserves the tough love that it's getting, just because it's Pokémon doesn't make it automatic free from criticism.
    The technical issues in this game are just unacceptable for 2019, pop-ins everywhere in a very small 10m radius makes the world feel empty and bland. Animations look so stiff and outdated, why does the world freezes around me while I fish or climb ladders? Why are some background battles just white voids when even the Let’sGo games had that right? The textures quality is all over the place too, the worst ones are in par with Nintendo64 and the best ones are 3DS quality, but please don’t forget that this is a Switch game.
    The camping is quite cute actually but shallow, pokéjobs are ok but forgetful just like the whole dynamax thing is just a gimmick, the wild area looks like the main selling point this time but it’s just meh, a nice idea but really poorly executed and with almost no exploration after the first full run, the world is pretty much a straight line, there is no kind of exploration, do you remember places like Mt. Mortar, Seafoam Islands or Whirl Islands? There is nothing like that here, the most dungeon-like exploration you will get is something like Viridian Forest and it never gets more difficult than that.
    The game difficult is non- existent like the post-game, also why is the exp.share mandatory? Give us more options, don’t take them away...
    I don't even care about the lack of National Dex drama, but I do understand why people are upset about it, also the National Dex was cut with the excuse on delivering better animations and a more carefully crafted game but the overall game polish is worse than ever, plus lots of other cut content, the quality of the game is 100% more important than not having all the Pokemon for sure. I would rather have a high quality game with 100 Pokemon than a stinker with 1000 Pokemon. When will we get battle animations like Pokémon Battle Revolution? Aren’t battles the main selling point anyway? We shouldn't be here comparing animations from OG Pokémon Stadium (1998) with Sword/Shield, yet here we are, how is this acceptable!? This is Pokémon they have deep pockets they can make it, hire or outsource more people if you need.
    I am not going to talk about the new pokémon designs since that is a subjective opinion, but I quite like Dragapult.
    For me pokémon peaked with HG/SS and the highest point of its ambition was BW/BW2, Pokémon Sword/Shield feels and looks like a rushed game, it needed that extra year and more ambition to become something special...    … Expand
  15. MasudaBugBoy
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Removed Pokemon, removed features, Dreamcast-quality graphics, laughable post game and inconsistent animation. Is this the best they could do on an HD console from 2017? It's barely more impressive than Sun/Moon.
  16. Ok_Then
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This game feels like a port from the 3DS, not a new game built for the system

    While many fans will enjoy these games, for me, it feels like the same game as the last 7 Generations with a Graphical upgrade that is Impressive compared to the past 3DS games but quite bad compared to other Switch games
  17. PAKBOY
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    10 routes
    Virtually no difficulty
    2 endgame battle tower game modes beatable in 1 hour Roughly 12 hour story No dungeons Below average graphics, world barely interacts with objects/pokemon(especially wild area) Of course the pokedex purge Some new pokemon designs leave alot to be desired, some designs are genuinely good we must not forget, but too many humanoid pokemon(every starter    10 routes
    Virtually no difficulty
    2 endgame battle tower game modes beatable in 1 hour
    Roughly 12 hour story
    No dungeons
    Below average graphics, world barely interacts with objects/pokemon(especially wild area)
    Of course the pokedex purge
    Some new pokemon designs leave alot to be desired, some designs are genuinely good we must not forget, but too many humanoid pokemon(every starter evolves into a humanoid) and too simple designs(Eiscue)
    and most importantly, the No Man's Sky level of damage control from GameFreak instead of listening to it's customer base who have been fans long enough to know what they generally want in Pokemon games, they only need to look at their masterpieces HG/SS to know which direction to follow(good endgame, pokemon following you) and to top it off I just WISH gamefreak would include difficulty options in their games, unlockable after the first clear, why do they not do it? We grew up, the games are no longer a challenge so why not add more difficult new game+?

    Big Disappointment, see you in gen 9 or Sinnoh remakes, because the "complete" SwSh will most likely be the same garbage.    … Expand
  18. 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
  19. miaumelon
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
    -Shigeru Miyamoto

    I would love nintendo to bring back the days of glory...
  20. Drakhis
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Even as a fan, this game has a lot of problems.
    - It's not possible to turn off the multi-exp
    - the game can be beautiful but sometimes it's just ugly - there is a bug that currently wipes out all your switch's data if you're using the digital version - 435 pokemons out of all pokemons - The game ends too fast - Too many moves were removed - No megas - A nearly empty post-game -    Even as a fan, this game has a lot of problems.
    - It's not possible to turn off the multi-exp
    - the game can be beautiful but sometimes it's just ugly
    - there is a bug that currently wipes out all your switch's data if you're using the digital version
    - 435 pokemons out of all pokemons
    - The game ends too fast
    - Too many moves were removed
    - No megas
    - A nearly empty post-game
    - Some cutscenes are hilarious since they're so bad
    - Many models and animations are reused
    So many problems and I'm not even saying everything.
    Just don't buy this game, seriously.
    Wait for the third version if there is one.    … Expand
  21. NintendoGuy64
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    As a lifelong fan of Pokemon games, I was ecstatic when a new mainline Pokemon game was announced for the Switch, a home console! Pokemon Gen 7 was alright, but a little too slow and easy for my tastes. But for Gen 8 all I was expecting was a nice polished HD Pokemon game, I didn't need an open world or anything as it is Gamefreak's first home console Pokemon title, after all. But no, thatAs a lifelong fan of Pokemon games, I was ecstatic when a new mainline Pokemon game was announced for the Switch, a home console! Pokemon Gen 7 was alright, but a little too slow and easy for my tastes. But for Gen 8 all I was expecting was a nice polished HD Pokemon game, I didn't need an open world or anything as it is Gamefreak's first home console Pokemon title, after all. But no, that isn't what we got. We got an unfinished game, with over half of the national Pokedex not in the game, choppy, reused animations, reused models when they said they were brand new, even easier difficulty, a significantly shorter campaign as well as next to no post-game, not to mention many other features removed. All I have to say is, why? Pokemon is the highest most profitable franchise of all time, and Nintendo has been hitting it out of the park lately with great game after great game, like Zelda, Mario etc. So why can't Gamefreak improve Pokemon too? It's only gotten worse with time. I hope Nintendo can step in next time and help/replace Gamefreak, as the way these games are, I have no hope for the future of the franchise… Expand
  22. Gamermangamer
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Was promised a game for "long time fans of the series" now my living dex will probably have to be locked in Pokemon jail (home) and half my competitive mons won't be usable until I pay for another game at the same price as smash ultimate or breath of the wild. My disappointment is immeasurable, and less than half my day is ruined, because the game is like 10 hours long, and if I wanted 10Was promised a game for "long time fans of the series" now my living dex will probably have to be locked in Pokemon jail (home) and half my competitive mons won't be usable until I pay for another game at the same price as smash ultimate or breath of the wild. My disappointment is immeasurable, and less than half my day is ruined, because the game is like 10 hours long, and if I wanted 10 hours of entertainment I would've bought the LoTR extended trilogy for half the price… Expand
  23. dasada
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Its the higher note i can give for an incomplete game. Feels like a joke, what happened with the catch em all. The rest isnt enough to balance the negative feeling.But maybe mediocre is the new normal.
  24. Magenta1991
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    5 horas con el juego y ya estoy por encima del nivel de todos los entrenadores del juego. La introducción tarda más de media hora por si sola y no haces más que caminar del punto a al punto b, mínimo tuviera musgo bonito para mirar como en Death Stranding pero no. Los gráficos parecen tomados del proyecto de Unity de algún fan con demasiado tiempo libre y no de una de una compañía5 horas con el juego y ya estoy por encima del nivel de todos los entrenadores del juego. La introducción tarda más de media hora por si sola y no haces más que caminar del punto a al punto b, mínimo tuviera musgo bonito para mirar como en Death Stranding pero no. Los gráficos parecen tomados del proyecto de Unity de algún fan con demasiado tiempo libre y no de una de una compañía multimillonaria con la franquicia de mayor renombre en el mundo de los videojuegos. Una vez que termina la introducción los personajes no dejan de interrumpir tu camino para llevarte de la mano y hablarte de lo genial que es ser un niño y atrapar Pokémon. Hop es Hau 1.0001 y no han tenido pena siquiera de reutilizar sus animaciones de la forma más descarada. Porcierto que los personajes se muevan por casillas y tengan que girarse para caminar a la Resident Evil 1 en pleno 2019 en una consola tan poderosa como la PS3 es para echarse a reír y llorar al mismo tiempo

    Las rutas son cortas, los escenarios poco inspirados, las ciudades son pasillos adornados con uno o dos personajes y todas las casas iguales, el área salvaje es una zona safari glorificada y vacía. El curry solo son pokepoffins con otro nombre (de todas las cosas que la gente pedía de vuelta han traído la única que a nadie le importa). Se nota el nulo interés hacia su trabajo y su deseo por querer ganar dinero estafando niños. Me da pena por los Pokémon que debutan en esta región pues no se merecen quedar atrapados en este juego paupérrimo (porque seguramente más de la mitad no vuelve para la próxima entrega). Tengo más diversión jugando Pokémon Go en mi casa girando el disco de la pokeparada que hay encima mío cada 5 minutos que lo que ganó jugando esta kusoge de juego. Planeaba regalarle el juego a mi sobrino está navidad para iniciarlo en el juego pero mejor será que le dé cualquier otra cosa. Nadie merece que este sea su introducción a la saga. La historia por cierto es peor que la de Sun/Moon y X/Y combinados. No entiendo por qué han sacado la GTS    … Expand
  25. ryuraf1
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The game is just unfinished. It's totally uncleaned, the designs are bad, the graphics are trash, the ost is boring, everything here is wrong. The prior games look better than this. This game could easily be made in Nintendo 64. The gameplay is boring, the story is short, there is not even a single good thing in Pokemon Sword and Shield. It's just a way of the company making money. AThe game is just unfinished. It's totally uncleaned, the designs are bad, the graphics are trash, the ost is boring, everything here is wrong. The prior games look better than this. This game could easily be made in Nintendo 64. The gameplay is boring, the story is short, there is not even a single good thing in Pokemon Sword and Shield. It's just a way of the company making money. A offense for the fans.… Expand
  26. Draz2153
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Deletes your save data for other games like splatoon and let's go. DO NOT DOWNLOAD FROM ESTORE
  27. Conas
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The good about this game is the same that can be said about other Pokemon games. Exploring is fun, battling is fun, and training is fun. But the wild area was suppose to be a trade off for little routes, but the wild area is fairly small. Pokemon in the over-world don't interact with the over-world save for chasing after the trainer. The weather changes in the wild area are way too sudden. And have the bike become the hm replacer is bad, should've sticked to how SM and LGPE did it. The routes are fairly short and route 7 especially takes less than a minute to cross including trainers. The story is very bland. I don't expect much from Pokemon but after SM I at least wanted to interact with more personal stories characters had. There is no evil team in the game. Team Yell are just Marine fans who like to get in your way. Then turns out they are actually the gym trainers for the 7th gym, Piere's gym. Marine's older brother. It seemed Marine was gonna have a small story arc when we got to the seventh gym, but it was shafted after we beat Piere. The League got rid of the Elite Four and replaced it with a tournament. Not bad , it's execution in this game sucks because it's against Gym Leaders and characters you didn't really bond with. The twist in the game was Chairman Rose wanted to awaken a pokemon with infinite energy for dynamaxing. Dynamax energy runs out in 1000 years btw. He decides to awaken it during the tournament, we literally would've helped after the tournament. But he was too impatient to wait 1 day for a problem that wouldn't happen for 1000 years. The battle against Eternatus sucks, you don't fight whatsoever. The two box legionaries are the only one's that can damage him, and you don't even control them. You're just in the battle was picking whatever move, because it doesn't matter. YOU can't hurt him. After the battles the legionaries jump into the sunset, you don't get to catch one until post game. The game has so much potential, but it just fell flat for me. Also gamefreak, this is scummy releasing the same game so metacritic score is different… Expand
  28. SquirtleSquad
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This game made my daughter cry. Many of her favs are gone. I have noticed that the game is also rather ugly and glitchy. Do not buy.
  29. Isapp
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Pokémon Sword and Shield are easily the most disappointing installment of the franchise. The additions are not enough to overcome graphical issues, physics bugs and softlocks on the game. As good as Gigantamax and raids are not good enough to make up to the exclusion of half the monsters, the lack of mega evolutions, trainers disappearing, animations as artificial as on a 32 bit consolePokémon Sword and Shield are easily the most disappointing installment of the franchise. The additions are not enough to overcome graphical issues, physics bugs and softlocks on the game. As good as Gigantamax and raids are not good enough to make up to the exclusion of half the monsters, the lack of mega evolutions, trainers disappearing, animations as artificial as on a 32 bit console and constant freezes. Pokemon Sword and Shield are overpriced unfinished games and therefore I can't give it more than 4/10… Expand
  30. Leix1712
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    Es un juego incompleto le faltan mas de la mitad de los pokemon existentes, tiene unos graficos muy malos para una Nintendo Switch
    El area Silvestre esta vacia y los pokemons se ven muy mal. Las ciudades estan muy vacias
    . El juego es muy corto(el mas corto de la saga) y los personajes son muy olbidables no hay nada que explorar y el juego no se siente un juego de pokemon.
  31. Fumetic
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    As these are largely the same games, I have pasted my Sword review here. I will say however that I do prefer the exclusives in Sword however, which was why I picked it for my playthrough.

    Honestly, the game is not all negatives. While this review is low, we'll get to why in a moment, this isn't just part of some bomb. Pros: The game isn't completely unplayable, there's some good in    As these are largely the same games, I have pasted my Sword review here. I will say however that I do prefer the exclusives in Sword however, which was why I picked it for my playthrough.

    Honestly, the game is not all negatives.
    While this review is low, we'll get to why in a moment, this isn't just part of some bomb.
    Pros: The game isn't completely unplayable, there's some good in there.
    -The game has great Pokemon designs. Creativity abounds, with everything from a group of little Kirby-like soldiers that fight as one to an alien-like witch with tentacles.
    -There's some good QoL features added, such as nature changing items and increased vitamin limit, plus reduced level grinding if you do the (rather easy) raids.
    -A few neat compromises, such as the inclusion of both overworld and random encounters.
    Cons: While the list goes on much more than this, I'm sure the other reviews have quite a thorough explanation, so I'll keep it brief, at 5 points or less.
    -The dex cut. Regardless of what you think of it, this is removing what was known as a series staple.
    -Bugs. As of this writing, there's apparently a dangerous autosave bug that could result in data loss.
    -Low content. I'm not talking about the length of the story here, but rather the fact that the game uses the Wild Area to patch up how little content the rest of the game has, even compared to some of the 3DS games.
    -Finally, the game doesn't really have much in the way of engaging fights and just isn't as immersive overall. While there is one uniquely interesting fight that I will not spoil here, it falls more to just watching CPUs fight for you.

    Overall, the game just isn't terribly good. It's not worthy of a 1 or 2 for sure, as there are some good points, but for now, it will have to stay at 3. The length isn't much of an issue as some may say it is, because it's not too much shorter than average, but the Wild Area feels disappointingly flat and bland, and there's not enough content to make up for the removed content or even ignoring that, it's just not something I'd recommend getting for full price, especially as someone who's not supremely rich and has to pick and choose carefully when buying expensive Switch games like this. There's not enough bang for your buck with these games. Do yourself a favor and shop around for another game before choosing this one, and if you HAVE to get this because it's Pokemon, I'd at least say postpone the purchase until they iron out that save bug or it becomes available for a little cheaper.
    Cheers, and happy hunting (for a different game that is).    … Expand
  32. Pariah_0
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    As JUST a Pokémon game, the rating would be higher, maybe a 5 or 6. But as a video game compared to others of a similar genre this is a hard 3. On top of the drastic content cuts made from previous (already declining) mainline Pokémon games, this game in particular has severe graphical, hardware, and gameplay issues that are just irredeemable for a triple A franchise. The new mechanic isAs JUST a Pokémon game, the rating would be higher, maybe a 5 or 6. But as a video game compared to others of a similar genre this is a hard 3. On top of the drastic content cuts made from previous (already declining) mainline Pokémon games, this game in particular has severe graphical, hardware, and gameplay issues that are just irredeemable for a triple A franchise. The new mechanic is not creative at all and dumbs down the combat instead of following the tradition of adding an extra element. The new designs are lazy and uninspired. I was sincerely expecting more from this franchise. Can not recommend.… Expand
  33. NationalDex
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Same as Sword, Reused Animations, lying about new models, bad textures, cut Pokemon, Masuda should've been laid off awhile ago and there is a game breaking bug that deletes everything on your micro sd. Wasn't tested, absolutely avoid
  34. Noctis_Strife
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The First Pokemon I wont buy. First, what negative: - Over 400 Pokemon were cut, so much less variation in battles against other players - several technical issues like spawning and despawning NPCs, Trees and Pokemon right in front of your eyes all the time, framerate issues in the wild area, the whole game world is freezing when u climb ladders .. etc. - the highly praised new feature theThe First Pokemon I wont buy. First, what negative: - Over 400 Pokemon were cut, so much less variation in battles against other players - several technical issues like spawning and despawning NPCs, Trees and Pokemon right in front of your eyes all the time, framerate issues in the wild area, the whole game world is freezing when u climb ladders .. etc. - the highly praised new feature the wild area is empty af, much smaller than trailers suggest and a graphical and technical mess - the post game is extremly blunt and not much to do - the "story" of this game is the worst and thinnest in the franchise - the game is easy af, Game Freak really doesn't care about long time fans - Exp share among the whole team should be optional - some of the music tracks are really annoying and not enjoyable - the pokemon franchise is stagnating, you really see no revolution at all, on the other site there is Zelda and Mario who tried sth new and the games were amazing
    Whats postive: some cool pokemon designs, that's all
    Can't recommend this mess of a game, Go and buy the 3DS Pokemon games, whenn you haven't played theam already, much more content much more everything    … Expand
  35. Suckitxd159
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Nada nuevo en este juego lleno de monotonía, tiene una larga campaña innecesaria (casi 50 horas) y el diseño de los nuevos pokemon se ven muy mal.
  36. Nintendero97
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Como videojuego es divertido, pero como producto es también mediocre, tú no puedes hacer un videojuego tan poco trabajado en una saga que vende millones de unidades, no pido un videojuego con gráficos realistas, pero si un videojuego con unos gráficos a la altura estilo Zelda, y de las animaciones mejor no hablemos, son las mismas animaciones que en 3ds pero cuando digo eso es LAS MISMAS,Como videojuego es divertido, pero como producto es también mediocre, tú no puedes hacer un videojuego tan poco trabajado en una saga que vende millones de unidades, no pido un videojuego con gráficos realistas, pero si un videojuego con unos gráficos a la altura estilo Zelda, y de las animaciones mejor no hablemos, son las mismas animaciones que en 3ds pero cuando digo eso es LAS MISMAS, y en combate tu personaje en ocasiones desaparece y resta total inmersión, señores de Game freak que no estamos en la época de PS2!!, Que la switch puede con mucho más!… Expand
  37. MikoloPulo
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This game is rushed and unfinished. No matter how many times they try and say otherwise, this game was rush out of the door, since Pokemon game releases are tied to merchandise and such (I mean, Pokemon is the highest grossing franchise for a reason). But because of this, we get a subpar entry, which lots of cut content, awful graphics, and a lot of decisions that will make you go: "What the ****
  38. Basednredpilled
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Bad graphics. Bad animations. Even bad music. Extremely short. No postgame content. No national dex. Bad story. Bad characters. Permanent exp share. Do i have to continue? I gave it a 2 instead of 0 just because some of the new pokemon have good designs. Nobody should buy this game.
  39. Deal_Sealer
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    What an absolute dumpster fire.
    It is devoid of effort, as can be seen in the visual department. Textures are painful to look at and the models are horrendously basic as they look like they're mass produced without attention to detail and are constantly clipping with the environment. Speaking of environment, the places you can traverse are just depressing. The wild area advertised as a    What an absolute dumpster fire.
    It is devoid of effort, as can be seen in the visual department. Textures are painful to look at and the models are horrendously basic as they look like they're mass produced without attention to detail and are constantly clipping with the environment. Speaking of environment, the places you can traverse are just depressing. The wild area advertised as a step in a new direction is a complete joke. It's certainly smaller than Oot's Hyrule field, yet just as empty and uninteresting. Cities and Dungeons on the other hand are just poorly designed hallways that lead you to the next area.
    Gameplay is not well thought out. The new gimmick is underwhelming at the very least. They build it up high and it ends with an anticlimactic ohko, since this game still possesses baby-proof difficulty despite the playerbase being mostly adults and the advertising claiming it's for long time fans. Contrary to being an open world, this game is still a linear experience with NPC's still interrupting you with cutscenes.
    The amount of content in this game isn't bare-bones, no rather it is insufficient and has regressed compared to previous entries in the franchise. Surely you've heard by now about cut pokemon, cut moves and other trashed content. What makes this worse is the fact that the game reuses assets from previous games.
    This trash heap is the result of complacency, and a lack of effort and dedication. If it had been developed with care and the consumer's satisfaction in mind, it would have been a polished title with a lot of content complementing the new features. Sadly, this is not the case.    … Expand
  40. Griknor
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    this game and its counter part are a mess. reused assets from the 3ds titles, reused animations, over 55% of pokemon are missing regarless of the fact that every game on much less powerful hardware and smaller game size had all the missing pokemon and the missing moves. gigamax is nothing more then a shiny gimmick that loses its charm well before you start playing or using it. the gamesthis game and its counter part are a mess. reused assets from the 3ds titles, reused animations, over 55% of pokemon are missing regarless of the fact that every game on much less powerful hardware and smaller game size had all the missing pokemon and the missing moves. gigamax is nothing more then a shiny gimmick that loses its charm well before you start playing or using it. the games constantly bug out and have framerate, unstable graphics, unstable models and resolution issues, and when its not bugging out its just ugly with poor quality textures. everything in game feels floaty, like you arent grounded and could fly off any second. the new designs are for the most part ugly or too digimon looking to be a pokemon(this has been a major problem since xy, though black and white has its fair share of issue designs), this heavily clashes with older designs and causes quite the confusion for people who know of pokemon but dont keep up with the series. the game is far to easy and lacks any nuance, this is in part due to the direction they keep forcing the games to go, this should be an rpg not a instant gratification simulator. this is a poor quality game on the levels of fallout76, avoid purchasing at all cost.… Expand
  41. Aleph_0
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    The quality of this game REALLY does not justify the cuts that have been made. Graphics are severely dated with some awful resolutions and clipping. The world is so linear it feels like a hallway with a cutscene every few steps. The endgame is nonexistent. The battle animations are taken straight from the old games. And honestly, the new Pokémon designs are some of the worst I’ve everThe quality of this game REALLY does not justify the cuts that have been made. Graphics are severely dated with some awful resolutions and clipping. The world is so linear it feels like a hallway with a cutscene every few steps. The endgame is nonexistent. The battle animations are taken straight from the old games. And honestly, the new Pokémon designs are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Most of them look like a couple overlapping shapes with a painted on face. GameFreak really phoned it in on this one. Time to give Pokémon to someone else.… Expand
  42. GarchompGang
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Incomplete game, Bad animations and quite buggy for a mainline switch game. can not recommend.
  43. MrJohns
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Another rushed, disappointing mess for longtime fans of the series. Its a short, buggy and way to easy Game. They cutted and removed a lot (Dexit, Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves). Graphics are bad, and there are several Technical Issues. And then they Reused a lot and added boring Gimmicks like Dynamaxing. Don't support this kind of Greedy Garbage!
  44. Plisken
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    From now on Game Freak do it like Blizzard.
    Its a shame, they lie to us customers and use their power to appease.

    Why international companies like Volkswagen think its ok to treat her customers like this?

    Did they realy think in 2 months everything will be all right again? Our trust in them is sustained damaged for a long time.

    THAT'S THE REAL PROBLEM!
  45. DevonRex
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    No national dex. Bad graphics. Terrible animations. Skip this game and wait for the next generation. This one isn't worth your money. If Game freak actually tried this would be a decent game. Right now it's so obvious that it's just a cash grab that it hurts.
  46. mareldmon590
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
    -Shigeru Miyamoto
    Six more months to a year perhaps, or focusing on these games rather than the "Town" Project would have made this game into something worth 60$. Not these games though. Instead, you get this pitifully underwhelming mess of a Pokemon "console" experience. Play Coliseum or XD Gale of Darkness instead.    "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
    -Shigeru Miyamoto
    Six more months to a year perhaps, or focusing on these games rather than the "Town" Project would have made this game into something worth 60$. Not these games though.
    Instead, you get this pitifully underwhelming mess of a Pokemon "console" experience. Play Coliseum or XD Gale of Darkness instead. Sword and Shield are a mistake and it pains me as a fan who started in Gen 4, went back and played every game before and after to see how they disrespected the franchise they spent years cultivating.    … Expand
  47. ShayminFan95
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Reposting my Pokémon Sword review because this is literally the same game but with a Ponyta instead of a Farfetch'd (exaggeration, but you get the point). And I was almost tempted to reduce it to a 1 because said Ponyta should have been Fairy-type and the fact it isn't bothers me more than it should.

    The very low score I'm giving these games might seem like a poor attempt at review    Reposting my Pokémon Sword review because this is literally the same game but with a Ponyta instead of a Farfetch'd (exaggeration, but you get the point). And I was almost tempted to reduce it to a 1 because said Ponyta should have been Fairy-type and the fact it isn't bothers me more than it should.

    The very low score I'm giving these games might seem like a poor attempt at review bombing them, but oh no my friends, this is an actual review from someone who actually played the games and didn't receive any dirty money to say something other than the truth. Pokémon Sword and Shield are possibly the worst Pokémon games to ever be made. For a fully priced 60$ game, they have less than HALF the content of any of the 3DS Pokémon core series games and nearly no redeemable features. In fact, one of their most notable "features" is the lack of more than half of the old Pokémon (a first for a series, hurray innovation!), which means there's over 50% chance that your favorite Pokémon is not even in the code for these games. The cut in content also includes moves, some of which make absolutely no sense why they would have been left out.

    The characters are mostly bland and uninteresting and some are carbon copies of previous characters from Sun and Moon. Those that aren't usually don't have a story or personality deeper than a sheet of paper, and their constant, pointless, overly enthusiastic interruptions make it feel like the game is asking you at all times to "pretty please be excited". The environments pale in comparison to other first-party Nintendo games on the console even if some admittedly had potential. You'll eventually find yourself walking through the empty streets of London, as if the apokélypse happened the day before.

    Let's talk about models, animations, and performance, shall we? All of the Pokémon models are reused straight from the 3DS games, with some exceptions that were so slightly improved that you can't even tell the difference in practice. This wouldn't be a problem as the Pokémon community understands this is necessary to keep these games realistically doable. The problem is that the producers of the game claimed they were cutting the amount of Pokémon so they could focus on remaking the models from scratch for the Switch hardware and also improve the quality and expressiveness of animations. Oh boy, are those animations lacking in quality. The characters move in tank controls (even during cutscenes!) like we're still in 2000. Even in the overworld, expect a lot of 180 degree turns while the walking forward animation plays. This is completely unjustifiable, but not something we would even care if only GameFreak had not called attention to it and used it as an excuse for the massive cuts that will severely damage the entire series. Pokémon models are not properly scaled in battle, and instead they give us an absolutely unnecessary and lame feature of "Dynamax" in which they suddenly discovered the scale slider exists in 3D software and decided to abuse it. The game struggles to maintain a stable framerate even tho it took Breath of the Wild the "Godray & Foliage Overkill Woods" and Smash Bros. "16 Ice Climbers on Fountain of Dreams" for the same to happen. The draw distance is laughable and glaring, you are sure to direct your eyes to the nearest Berry Tree popping in.

    Difficulty-wise, the game is so easy that the biggest challenge will be not falling asleep while playing it, something that is amplified by the previously mentioned constant interruptions by NPCs. The soundtrack has a few good themes, but the rest is a cacophony of instruments desperately trying to grab your attention with inharmonious, generic and chaotic tracks. The only hype I got from this game was during the climax, which I shall not mention for spoiler reasons, where apparently they blew the entire budget and development time, and even that is an average experience when put into context with climaxes from other current games.

    If after this entire review you still think this game is worth playing, be aware of the awful glitch (that somehow passed quality assurance) which can actually delete your other game's save files from your console.
    It's so obvious that this game was rushed out in this poor state to meet unrealistic deadlines and extract as much money as possible from a blind and passive fanbase that I'm baffled by anyone who defends it.

    In conclusion, whether you are a Pokémon fan or wanting to become one, these are games you can easily skip and save some bucks. I dare to say Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are better games than these dumpster fires. If you truly want a good Pokémon experience play the 3DS games or, even better, the DS ones.    … Expand
  48. ExPokemonFan
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I've no idea what the "professional" reviews were on when they were playing this game.
    Are they reviewing the same game?
    This game is a half assed attempt at bringing the Pokemon franchise forward to the next generation.
    Don't waste your time with this trash and vote with your wallet.
  49. Mv85rasdlkjf
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    AutoSave doesn't work often.
    Your SaveData corrupt often.
    Graphics are 3DSish, so bad. Character animation is awful. Your Pokemon are just fired. Stressful and painfully slow game mechanics. 10 years old girl has big **** and the player feels paedophile yourself. This is truly early 2000's game, not 2019 game. You should play Death Stranding on PS4. I believe Nintendo bought    AutoSave doesn't work often.
    Your SaveData corrupt often.
    Graphics are 3DSish, so bad.
    Character animation is awful.
    Your Pokemon are just fired.
    Stressful and painfully slow game mechanics.
    10 years old girl has big **** and the player feels paedophile yourself.

    This is truly early 2000's game, not 2019 game.
    You should play Death Stranding on PS4.

    I believe Nintendo bought some reviewer on IGN.    … Expand
  50. Wiki
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Bugs y mas bugs... No estan todos los Pokémon, fallos graficos, reutilizan modelos de 3DS... es ridículo y carisimo. NO HAY POSTGAME
  51. PewPewMcP
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    The theme of Pokémon Sword and Shield is: limit.
    They limit your selection of Pokémon to catch
    They limit the pool of moves Pokémon can learn from, including some moves signature to Pokémon, like Heal Order to Vespiquen They limit where and when you can catch Pokémon in the open area They limit when you can use Dynamax and Gigantamax, the games signature battle mechanic. They limit your    The theme of Pokémon Sword and Shield is: limit.
    They limit your selection of Pokémon to catch
    They limit the pool of moves Pokémon can learn from, including some moves signature to Pokémon, like Heal Order to Vespiquen
    They limit where and when you can catch Pokémon in the open area
    They limit when you can use Dynamax and Gigantamax, the games signature battle mechanic.
    They limit your ability to explore a world with the series's now signature heavily railroaded storytelling techniques They limit the difficulty setting of the game by forcing Exp Share to always be on
    They limit your ability to change the sound settings by forcing you to first find and interact with the right NPC.
    Pokémon Sword and Shield are mediocre entries that take two steps back for every one step they take forward.    … Expand
  52. Shyim97
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Incomplete game, Bad animations, deletes save games and looks more bad as Lets go Pikachu quite Can not recommend.
  53. TutelarSword
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Pokemon has always been one of my favorite games, however, the design choices made by Gamefreak are rampant with this entry of the series. There are almost no routes in the game, and those that exist are linear. There is a town that is made up of a single road with the only door usable being to the Pokemon Center. There are no dungeons or caves of the sort, instead, the Wild Area tries toPokemon has always been one of my favorite games, however, the design choices made by Gamefreak are rampant with this entry of the series. There are almost no routes in the game, and those that exist are linear. There is a town that is made up of a single road with the only door usable being to the Pokemon Center. There are no dungeons or caves of the sort, instead, the Wild Area tries to fill this role, but with many issues. It has poor graphics with Pokemon being birthed from the void to populate the area, as well as trees spawning from nothing. The area is empty and feels poorly thought out compared to other Switch games like Breath of the Wild. The removal of 60% of old Pokemon and 20% of old moves, as well as megas and Z-moves is also a disgusting practice which gives an ill boding for the future of the games. Gamefreak needs to seriously reconsider their design choices and patch in the many missing features (Pokemon, moves, GTS, etc.), as well as fix the many bugs such as those breaking SD cards, freezing the game, and causing unbearable amounts of lag.

    Many reviews you see that are positive simply boil down to "The games killed my wife and kids, but at least I can catch a Pikachu again. 9.5/10" which is utterly disgusting and reeks of poor journalism or faux reviews to prop up the game for the less informed.    … Expand
  54. Ray-Zide
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Honestly not that good of a game
    Just X/Y with less features and lags quite a bit and has less pokemon than a DS game from 10 years ago
  55. meHG12
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There are a lot of restructuring problems, but I've cleared them and I want to say a story
    Very boring and the lowest ever    … Expand
  56. AnotherPerson77
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    The cutting of Pokemon was a change that I had expected (albeit dreaded) to come sooner or later as the series total Pokemon and alternate forms would continue to grow, I have never had an interest in the competitive landscape or catching every Pokemon so the reveal of the decision was disappointing to me, but somewhat understood. However I still believe this was a poor decision given thatThe cutting of Pokemon was a change that I had expected (albeit dreaded) to come sooner or later as the series total Pokemon and alternate forms would continue to grow, I have never had an interest in the competitive landscape or catching every Pokemon so the reveal of the decision was disappointing to me, but somewhat understood. However I still believe this was a poor decision given that this is the first mainline Pokemon game to be released on a console, this is a big moment for the series and should have been taken far more seriously. I also believe that with a sacrifice this major, something of similar or greater value must be given in return. The cutting of Pokemon could have given Game Freak the opportunity to greatly develop the animations and personalities of the Pokemon kept in the game, perhaps reintroducing following Pokemon or having more dynamic interactions with them. Alternatively, the story and world could be more developed and based around the Pokemon that inhabit the region. Or the graphical prowess of the development team could be shown in the environment, with their time being spent on designing a more interesting world instead of reworking the Pokemon.
    Unfortunately, none of this came to pass. While it is undeniable that the visual design of the game is better than what has come before (with the exception of some poor texture mapping on trees and rocks) I and many others do not believe that it has reached an acceptable level given the superior hardware the games are using. The games feel like an upgrade to Sun and Moon but lack the style that made Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee visually pleasing and still have some incredibly poor textures. Not to mention, the animations for the game have been shown to be reused and to freeze whenever a player climbs a ladder. For a game that had 3 years of development (1 for concept and 2 for production) and is charging £60/$60 at launch (going up against Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey) combined with being a part of the most profitable series in the world, this is completely unacceptable.
    But the biggest and most insulting aspect of these games is Game Freak’s dishonest marketing of the games, only serving to further stoke the flames between the developers and consumers. Not only did Game Freak avoid mentioning the cutting of previous Pokemon until being directly questioned about it by a reporter and later confronted by the angered fan-base, they have also provided blatantly false reasoning for why the cutting was necessary. The studio claimed that the cutting of previous Pokemon was due to them being forced to remodel them for the new hardware, however this was shown to be a malicious lie by data-miners, who discovered that they were re-using the previous models. This also brought their statement that the reason for the cutting of 50% of the previous Pokemon, mega evolution and Z moves was to improve the online and competitive matches into question, with many people believing that these features were cut either out of laziness or as a result of trying to release a new game every year since 2016 (I personally believe the former). While the re-use of previous models is accepted as an industry standard and shouldn’t be criticised, blatantly lying to consumers about your product should never be excused.
    But even with all of the controversy aside, the games still fall short even as Pokemon games. There is very little experimentation, with many of the story elements being reused from Sun and Moon (such as the fake evil team, the main mechanic being the result of a powerful Pokemon radiating a mysterious energy and even many of the character design sharing similar design elements to those seen in previous games). Most of the new elements of the game, such as dynamaxing, feel hollow and meaningless as they were clearly created with the intention of being abandoned next game rather than being included out of a genuine passion to develop and improve on the mechanics of the previous games. No effort was taken to improve on the storytelling of the series (which suffers from an overabundance of cut-scenes) or the difficulty curve (which is pathetically easy), showing a huge disconnect between the studio and their fans.
    The only area of the game that warrants praising is the soundtrack, which is of excellent quality as always and deserves a large amount of praise for the variety of styles and use of soundscapes in some of the tracks.
    Unfortunately, even if you are a hardcore Pokemon fan, their isn’t much this game offers to warrant it’s £60/$60 price. I don’t even believe that £30/$30 wouldn’t be acceptable. I would recommend giving this game a skip, Game Freak should not be rewarded for poorly managing a project and producing a lackluster product (whether by intention or not). By not buying these games, we can hopefully encourage them to produce a better quality game next time.    … Expand
  57. Pokesh33t
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Don’t buy it, burn Pokémon, they only want our money, it’s a scam, let Pokémon brand finish, it’s all trash, stop Pokémon stop them
  58. DoomDragon9000
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Expectations are everything in life. Video games are certainly no exception. Our opinions, reviews or “scores” for a given video game are a direct result of our expectations. A change in expectations - either deliberately or unconsciously; sudden, or as a result of multiple experiences - can result in radically contrasting impressions of the same underlying video game. With that in mind,Expectations are everything in life. Video games are certainly no exception. Our opinions, reviews or “scores” for a given video game are a direct result of our expectations. A change in expectations - either deliberately or unconsciously; sudden, or as a result of multiple experiences - can result in radically contrasting impressions of the same underlying video game. With that in mind, it begs the question: what are reasonable expectations to have for a game like Pokémon Sword and Shield? What should we use as the baseline for forming these expectations?

    The level of quality, polish, depth and amount of content in previous main entries in the series?
    The relative quality of alternative $60, 1st party Nintendo Switch titles?
    The hardware capabilities of the Nintendo Switch relative to previous handhelds on which Pokémon has appeared?
    The certain level of production value one might anticipate in a watershed moment for the highest grossing media franchise of all time?

    These are all perfectly fair and reasonable baselines from which to form one’s expectations of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Nostalgia, goodwill and sentimentality for this particular series have seemingly always resulted in an expectation discount of sorts, but for many the 50% price increase for this installment, outright lies from GameFreak and the non-stop, in-your-face Kanto exposure in recent years have all but eliminated said discount. The unfortunate reality is, that even with a discount of sorts on expectations, Pokemon Sword and Shield still fall woefully short of expectations by any reasonable baseline.

    Content removal has reached a fever pitch, and what remains lacks effort, ambition, or even a semblance of challenge. Since its transition to 3D, Pokemon has gone from mildly challenging to downright patronizing. In an era where Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. have displayed radical ambition in their main Nintendo Switch entries, pushing their respective series’ to new heights…Pokemon Sword and Shield are aggressively mediocre. With the transition to console – from 4GB cartridges to 32 GB cartridges – from 240p to 1080p – that we even had such confusion and debate regarding the re-use of models, animations and textures is a tragedy. While a novel could be written on the business inner-workings of GameFreak and The Pokemon Company, having standards for their products - especially given their capacity to produce good ones when they try - does in no way make one entitled.

    So it bears repeating: Pokemon Sword and Shield fall woefully short of expectations by any reasonable baseline.

    Much to its detriment, Pokémon Sword and Shield offer substantially fewer features, shallower depth, and reduced challenge relative to earlier, cheaper Pokémon games on weaker hardware. That is the brutal reality of these games. If one is completely new to the Pokémon series and does not possess any level of – and here is that word again – expectation for these games, this might not matter quite as much, but will still worsen the overall experience if they have had even a taste of the Nintendo Switch’s JRPG contemporaries (XenoBlade, Dragon Quest 11S and Atelier, among others). For series veterans, especially those who have experienced the relatively ambitious, content-loaded, reasonably-challenging, generation 3-5 games, it will be hard for Pokemon Sword and Shield to block criticism of its cut content.

    Again, by any reasonable baseline of expectations – which I list at the beginning of this review – Pokemon Sword and Shield fall woefully short. It’s painful to say and type that, along with everything else I have. What is even more painful however, is the reality that these games will likely be an enormous commercial success based on name recognition and have already received critical acclaim from the corporate critics and “content creators”, both of which are subject to an insidious conflict of interest when assessing the quality of these games. Said success will only incentivize low-effort, unambitious annual releases.

    You will see many negative reviews here, none nearly as lengthy as my diatribe. However, recognize that these negative reviews, like mine, come from a place of love and passion for the Pokemon series, and a sense of heartbreak and betrayal over seeing what it has become. To us, we love Pokemon, and in order for it to improve, there needs to be a place for criticism. This is it.

    Anyways, do not buy Pokemon Sword or Shield. For the good of your money, your time, and the future of this franchise, do not buy Pokemon Sword or Shield.    … Expand
  59. Rardo
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    To be honest this game is disappointing, don’t get me wrong the game likes nice and all visually but this game just ain’t it. They used the exact same game models from the 3DS and they cut 455 Pokémon from the game for better animation and graphics even though it looks the exactly the same as it did for the past 7 years. I never thought GameFreak could get any lazier and incompetent thanTo be honest this game is disappointing, don’t get me wrong the game likes nice and all visually but this game just ain’t it. They used the exact same game models from the 3DS and they cut 455 Pokémon from the game for better animation and graphics even though it looks the exactly the same as it did for the past 7 years. I never thought GameFreak could get any lazier and incompetent than this. Generations 1-5 had more soul put into them than these games. Now the digital copies of these are being reported to not only corrupt your SD card and delete your Save data but it kills the console too. They should have spent an extra year or two working on these games. “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”… Expand
  60. Politoad
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    I love pokemon but the fact this game just deleted 100+ hours of splatoon save data is why this game deserves to burn. Dont buy it if you've played any other switch game. Your breath of the wild save probably also going to be deleted
  61. togademi
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    The visuals are amazing, as usual: UI, art style, NPC design, town design... In terms of gameplay, there's nearly nothing. The cutscenes that used to be only at the start of a Pokémon game, now they're all the time. The whole game feels like a tutorial. There's no challenge anymore because every situation that would be risky (like fighting some trainers in a row), has the risk removed byThe visuals are amazing, as usual: UI, art style, NPC design, town design... In terms of gameplay, there's nearly nothing. The cutscenes that used to be only at the start of a Pokémon game, now they're all the time. The whole game feels like a tutorial. There's no challenge anymore because every situation that would be risky (like fighting some trainers in a row), has the risk removed by getting your team healed between each trainer, by telling you hints on how to win, etc. It's extremely handholding, which is the main issue. It lacks the freedom and sense of adventure that Pokémon has always had until gen 6. In a few words, it's "Press A to win".
    There also some improvements, like new items that are useful for the competitive scene, to facilitate having a pokémon with the perfect stats for battling. It's a shame that for every improvement, there are 10 downgrades.
    The game as a whole is deceiving, shameful considering where it comes from.    … Expand
  62. Rumin
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    An incomplete game, like her sister. Gamefreak could've taken the time to really optimize their game, include all the moves and pokemons, as well as the features of the older installments, but they couldn't wait long enough for their next paycheck.
    I hope they learn a lesson from this, because I surely did.
    And I sure do hope this game franchise dies with diginity, because otherwise this    An incomplete game, like her sister. Gamefreak could've taken the time to really optimize their game, include all the moves and pokemons, as well as the features of the older installments, but they couldn't wait long enough for their next paycheck.
    I hope they learn a lesson from this, because I surely did.
    And I sure do hope this game franchise dies with diginity, because otherwise this incompetent studio is going to run it to the ground.    … Expand
  63. Coaltergeist
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    While there are many issues with Pokemon sword and shield, I don't think they warrant giving the game a 1 out of 10. The missing pokemon, the cut moves, the lack of postgame content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game fails, which is disappointing. I am a huge fan of previous pokemon games, and I don't want to see theWhile there are many issues with Pokemon sword and shield, I don't think they warrant giving the game a 1 out of 10. The missing pokemon, the cut moves, the lack of postgame content, the general laziness, and the developer's arrogant attitude are all working together to make sure this game fails, which is disappointing. I am a huge fan of previous pokemon games, and I don't want to see the series fail. I cannot overlook the sloppiness present in this game, however. In the end, it isn't the worst game ever made, but it doesn't come close to being good.… Expand
  64. munichi_jasuda
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    + QOL improvements
    + Improved character customization
    + Slightly more immersive gameplay compared to previous entries - More than 50% of total Pokémon REMOVED - More than 100 moves REMOVED - Developers lied about creating "high quality" 3D models from scratch and new animations for older Pokémon, which is very unprofessional - Developers had promised these games were specially    + QOL improvements
    + Improved character customization
    + Slightly more immersive gameplay compared to previous entries

    - More than 50% of total Pokémon REMOVED
    - More than 100 moves REMOVED
    - Developers lied about creating "high quality" 3D models from scratch and new animations for older Pokémon, which is very unprofessional
    - Developers had promised these games were specially developed for hardcore players in mind, but several gameplay experiences prove this is yet another lie
    - Wild Area is severely unpolished
    - Post game is lacking
    - Some users have noted that there is a CRITICAL bug which occurs due to the autosave feature. For more information, visit r/pokemon    … Expand
  65. Sephsekla
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Disappointing.

    So many Pokemon (the main point of the games) completely cut for the first time ever. Some interesting concepts that could have been great but clearly weren't given the dev time to flourish. An unfinished game that could have been the best one.
  66. Skyblue93
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    Let me just get this outta way first, I’m a massive Pokémon fan. I’ve never been more disappointed. Gamefreak not only betrayed fans but outright lied to consumers. The games still have the same problems plaguing the franchise ever since gen 6.

    The story is bad, the writing is bad, the characters are bad, the pacing is bad. The main villains and evil team keep progressingly getting more    Let me just get this outta way first, I’m a massive Pokémon fan. I’ve never been more disappointed. Gamefreak not only betrayed fans but outright lied to consumers. The games still have the same problems plaguing the franchise ever since gen 6.

    The story is bad, the writing is bad, the characters are bad, the pacing is bad. The main villains and evil team keep progressingly getting more embarrassing each generations. The game keeps getting easier easier easier literally brain dead play through.

    On top of charging more for these games, they cut content. I don’t even need to write it down. I’m sure anyone who bothered to read the reviews of these games know what I’m talking about.

    To all the people who keep supporting Gamefreak...why? Why? WHY?    … Expand
  67. SiberyanZ
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Same as the Sword review, the amount of reused content, technical issues and blatant incompetence that this game shows are by far the objective demonstration that this is the worst game in the series thus far.
    Having been a long time fan of the series i can't help but feel incredibly disapponited with its direction and decisions, from the removal of fan favourite pokémons (more then half    Same as the Sword review, the amount of reused content, technical issues and blatant incompetence that this game shows are by far the objective demonstration that this is the worst game in the series thus far.
    Having been a long time fan of the series i can't help but feel incredibly disapponited with its direction and decisions, from the removal of fan favourite pokémons (more then half of them) or the removal of important moves for the competitive side of the game, like Hidden Power or Return, to the introduction of mechanics that are unoriginal and uninspired like Dynamax and Gigamax, this game feel like a cheap copy and paste of Sun and Moon ported to the Switch with even less content and rushed to meet the holiday season time frame.    … Expand
  68. NormalReview
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    Pretty much the same as my Sword review... except Eiscue's in it.

    Please, don't let this franchise continue like this. The flaws that were there are still here after 2 generations and instead of listening Game Freak decides to lie to their fans instead. If you can have fun with these games good for you.
  69. Glyssade
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    Well, nothing much to say. All the things we feared and prayed that were fixed are not. Gamefreak shows no leadership at all, these games are a big dissappointment in all aspects.
    Not only did they remove everything that we liked, but they also implemented new mechanics that are just boring and lifeless, nobody asked for this. Gamefreak has decided to not listen to fans, they will keep    Well, nothing much to say. All the things we feared and prayed that were fixed are not. Gamefreak shows no leadership at all, these games are a big dissappointment in all aspects.
    Not only did they remove everything that we liked, but they also implemented new mechanics that are just boring and lifeless, nobody asked for this. Gamefreak has decided to not listen to fans, they will keep making these games as long as people still buy them, which is kinda sad, because pokemon switch had the greatest of potentials to be one of the best games ever created.    … Expand
  70. BrownKnight
    Nov 15, 2019
    4
    This game is just a disappointment, I'm genuinely sad this is the direction Pokémon is going. This game had so much potential on a much more powerful consolle but it's all wasted. The cause can be summed up just with one concept: laziness. Most of the things they put in was rushed, half-finished, it looks like they don't even care anymore. This game should cost 30 $ AT BEST, it's surelyThis game is just a disappointment, I'm genuinely sad this is the direction Pokémon is going. This game had so much potential on a much more powerful consolle but it's all wasted. The cause can be summed up just with one concept: laziness. Most of the things they put in was rushed, half-finished, it looks like they don't even care anymore. This game should cost 30 $ AT BEST, it's surely not worth 60. Too bad, if they go on like this the franchise is doomed.… Expand
  71. Zammm
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    Lots of reports about it deleting your save data for other switch games. Should be considered a virus rather than a game
  72. phoenixsaturn
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    The core of the Pokemon experience is there (albeit in a highly stripped and watered down version compared to past entries in the series), but the entire game lacks polish. Apart from the Wild Area, there is very little to explore in this game. Routes are linear hallways designed to move you from A to B. The game's animations are very poor and for the most part recycled from previous 3DSThe core of the Pokemon experience is there (albeit in a highly stripped and watered down version compared to past entries in the series), but the entire game lacks polish. Apart from the Wild Area, there is very little to explore in this game. Routes are linear hallways designed to move you from A to B. The game's animations are very poor and for the most part recycled from previous 3DS entries. The rushed nature of the game is also very apparent after gym 5, as the game becomes extremely streamlined and the animations dip in quality substantially after this point. I would not be surprised to hear that this game was rushed out the door for the Christmas season.

    Overall, the entire game can easily be completed in 12 hours, there is little to do after the end credits, and what you can do gets repetitive very quickly. While you play you will be faced with busy, grating music that will make you desperate to go out of your way to find the NPC that will allow you to MUTE it. While the game is not fundamentally broken it is not at all worth the retail price and I would recommend purchasing any of the older Pokemon games rather than buying this one.    … Expand
  73. WorriedDenizen
    Nov 15, 2019
    2
    From my Sword review:

    Sword and Shield is a shameless, rushed cashgrab. These games are easily one of the biggest disappointments in 2019, and one of the worst JRPGs in recent years, and perhaps one of the worst switch games thus far. The positives of SwSh are few, but they're there. For one, the moveset availability is a lot better since while it sucks to have the good attacks go    From my Sword review:

    Sword and Shield is a shameless, rushed cashgrab.
    These games are easily one of the biggest disappointments in 2019, and one of the worst JRPGs in recent years, and perhaps one of the worst switch games thus far.

    The positives of SwSh are few, but they're there. For one, the moveset availability is a lot better since while it sucks to have the good attacks go back to the 1 use TM system known as TRs, at least moveset potential is still flexible.

    The new pokemon is always a good addition to the ever increasing size of the amount of pokemon that well... would have existed.

    SwSh also brings back the smug @sshole rival archetype that wasn't seen since Silver in gen 2 and it's remakes.

    Yet these are a few compared to the few of many huge downsides below:

    SwSh most common and biggest problem is the cut pokemon. You can't transfer any pokemon from previous games that aren't in the Galarian dex into the games. You have to wait for that potential cashgrab known as Pokemon Home as well. Plus you can't even inject, or even attempt to play as the missing pokemon. Only some of the ones not part of the dex are programmed in, and they're the starters and some legendaries. At least in gen 3, the missing pokemon were programmed in, and you could use gameshark to play with them.

    SwSh also removes mega evolutions, and z-moves and creates yet another gimmick which is inferior, and more broken to the 2 separately. Dynamax and Gigantamaxing are poor gimmicks which only benefit the fast, and powerful mons. What it does is it increases the hp temporarily, and turns all attacks in dyna/giga attacks which are powerful attacks that each one has a secondary effect. All status moves turn into protect. Essentially a temp hp boost with z-moves, and it doesn't take up an item slot.
    This sucks since it just means that in game, the ace mons that are giga/dyna often die in very anti-climatic means, and in competitive play, these mechanics force the other player to utilize it to stand a chance.

    Graphically, the game looks even worse than 3H. Water reflections are off, theres those infamous n64 trees, and the texturing is PS2 tier. Which is an honest to god achievement, how does a game manage to look worse than 3H on the same console. At least 3H has great gameplay, and decent story for the most part, SwSh has none of that.

    The technical aspects, and animations of SwSh is truly atrocious. The games have hideous draw distance, and random FPS drops. the game that does ZA WARUDO whenever the player fishes, or climbs a ladder. Horrible graphics in general, terrible scaling especially for mons like Wailord and Tyranitar. The animations look especially bad on a lot of attacks. The infamous double kick animation, and even the important plot cut scene with the box art legendaries when they just turn around in place.

    The GTS is also looking to be missing which is another huge downside, considering the GTS was pretty much a series staple, and to see it removed adds to the ever growing list of features GF introduces then throws out in the next gen.

    The main story is really short, you could probably finish it in 8-10 hours, and the intrusive dialogue from S/M makes a return in SwSh, meaning the biggest problem with S/M is back again in these set of games. No you cannot skip the dialogue, only the actual cutscenes.

    EXP Share is on permanently and is no longer a key item. This means that training up a low leveled will lead to your other mons being massively overleveled. Oh and for some reason sound settings are locked behind a key item which you have to get from a rather easily miss able NPC.

    The post game is once again barren, perhaps even moreso than XY. You get 2 hours worth of post game, and it's mostly just going to the other gyms and fighting dynamax mons, and then fighting the box art legendaries. That's seriously it. Oh and you can do a gimped battle tower if you really wanted to.

    The biggest crime of them all though. It has most of the flaws which I listed above, and it costs $60 USD. Yeah that's the same price as a triple A game, yet this game is basically a shovelware tier joke.

    Seriously this is supposed Pokemon's mainline series debut on a console? This is what it has to offer? Nothing but pure disappointment, and a total step backwards from a 3DS game? The GC spin offs, and Wii's Battle revolution were a better taste of what a main series pokemon game on a console could have been. But alas here we are, sitting here with quite possibly the worst set of pokemon games ever, and disappointed again after a slew of mediocre 3DS games.

    Stay away from these games, it's not worth your money at all.    … Expand
  74. AnthonyDFG
    Nov 15, 2019
    3
    At the beginning of the game, serious performance issues are already notorious. The game lags in certain parts and there are awkward moments where nothing is happening and you're just waiting for a cutscene to resume. The handholding is unbearable and the Kanto-throwbacks are off the charts. Charizard will get praised half a dozen times before you can pick your first Pokémon. Hop is aAt the beginning of the game, serious performance issues are already notorious. The game lags in certain parts and there are awkward moments where nothing is happening and you're just waiting for a cutscene to resume. The handholding is unbearable and the Kanto-throwbacks are off the charts. Charizard will get praised half a dozen times before you can pick your first Pokémon. Hop is a cheap knockoff of Hau and thus the game breaks the long tradition of making every new rival unique in some way.

    As the game goes on, you begin to notice that GameFreak engaged in false advertising. We were promised that the models had been remade from scratch. However, the meshes are the exact same in most cases. The few exceptions are models that got minor updates around the mouth area, presumably to eat curry. Some textures got updated but there are indications that the process might have been automated. Indeed, there isn't even a distinction between, say, the eyes and the fur of a Pokémon. Instead, they look entirely like inflatable balloons. The animations, it can be shown, have been reused too. In that direction, even the game engine was demonstrably forked from Let's Go. It's too hard to see what is made "from scratch" in this game, as even the music is a remix of sample libraries from 2013.

    The Galar region looks gorgeous in pictures but it has serious issues when you actually play it. The routes are small corridors without any intricacy. Even the wild area can be traversed in a few minutes. The forests and caves are not puzzling in any way. There is no sense of exploration or adventure. Many buildings are completely locked. The ones you can enter might look the exact same inside as they didn't even bother to shuffle furniture around. Trees look like they were imported from the Nintendo 64. The berry trees in particular look completely out of place, as if they were from another game entirely; it's really incredible that there was such a massive oversight and nobody raised an objection. There was no effort to make the water look good and the reflections are buggy. The grass and terrain textures are an eyesore. Walls and caves textures are straight out of the Sega Dreamcast. Weather is illogical and poorly implemented. You can "ride" trains but they didn't even bother animating it as it's just a black screen and you have magically teleported: even Gold and Silver had more effort into it. To top it all, time bizarrely freezes when you use stairs.

    Instead of being allowed to ride your Pokémon, you're stuck with a goofy bike that even works on water. Pokémon don't have turn animations and they pop in and out of nowhere which is very awkward and breaks the immersion, defeating the entire point of overworld encounters. Then again, trees and people do it too. You are also not allowed to even throw a Poké Ball at higher level Pokémon so it's hard to see what is the point of including them so early into the game. You can't pet your Pokémon and the Pokémon Camp is an inferior version of Pokémon Amie and Refresh. The option to play with a ball is so poorly programmed that it's hard to believe it passed the testing stages. In battles, big species like Wailord and Tyranitar are butchered by the downscaling algorithm. There are many bugs that are baffling such as trainers disappearing when certain attacks are used. We were promised this would be the game that long time fans had been waiting for but that seems extremely unlikely.

    The story is dull, rushed and boring. Interesting side characters get little screen time. It's obvious the story was not their focus this time. However, the game is not cohesive in any way so it's hard to see what even was their focus this time. Indeed, there is very little content as there's barely any postgame at all while the main story can be leisurely beaten in 12 hours assuming you aren't the kind of player that loses to NPCs. Some towns have interesting themes but they are massively underdeveloped and the "city" surrounding the Battle Tower is peak laziness: it's just a cardboard background. The region feels lifeless in general and the subpar method chosen to spawn people doesn't help. Major features like the GTS were cut and simple features like volume control are locked under key items. The level scaling is very poor as you're massively overleveled early on without any grinding, then there is a sudden spike in difficulty that can't be accounted for, and finally you go back to being overleveled even if you skip optional battles.

    In short, this game is awful for advanced players, mediocre for casual players and it's desirable that this is nobody's first Pokémon game, least they get the wrong impression. It is the worst Pokémon main duo ever released and the only positive aspects are derived from the standard Pokémon formula. Being understaffed isn't even remotely enough to explain the unacceptable low quality of these games; GameFreak has severe leadership issues.    … Expand
  75. mechanica
    Nov 15, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. so awaful
    story , ost , character , UI , all boring
    nooooooooooooooooooo！    … Expand
  76. Tarasios
    Nov 15, 2019
    1
    This game is like an uncooked unseasoned potato: Bland and simple.

    It lacks the depth of any other game, being a straight line through. No hidden paths or secrets. And once you finish the main story that's it, you are done. You unlock the "battle tower" which has even less features than any prior simple "battle tower" and absolutely nothing else. The only positives are some good new    This game is like an uncooked unseasoned potato: Bland and simple.

    It lacks the depth of any other game, being a straight line through. No hidden paths or secrets. And once you finish the main story that's it, you are done. You unlock the "battle tower" which has even less features than any prior simple "battle tower" and absolutely nothing else.

    The only positives are some good new Pokemon designs, but the excitement over new Pokemon is dulled thanks to the National Dex cut meaning that I can't even be sure that I can keep them with me.

    Dynamaxing is fine but ultimately hollow. It combines mega evolution and z moves and manages to capture the worst of both. Even those who enjoy it can look forward to it being cut from the next game.

    Curry and Camping are barely even relevant to gameplay, and serve no purpose aside from being something they can add to the games "features list". As though they were added to meet a quota.

    This is a disgrace to the franchise, and it saddens me to see my favourite brand doing so poorly.    … Expand
  77. ThankUGamefreak
    Nov 15, 2019
    10
    This is the most important review you will ever read on metacritic. These are the best games ever made. The criticisms are unfounded and dumbfounded. Why are you complaining about only having 400 pokemon to play as? Other RPGs like final fantasy and xenoblade and persona typically only have 7ish characters to play as. Yet people are upset about 400? Bad argument. Bad graphics? That's notThis is the most important review you will ever read on metacritic. These are the best games ever made. The criticisms are unfounded and dumbfounded. Why are you complaining about only having 400 pokemon to play as? Other RPGs like final fantasy and xenoblade and persona typically only have 7ish characters to play as. Yet people are upset about 400? Bad argument. Bad graphics? That's not true. These games are cartoony beautiful appealing graphics. They'retimeless. I think the Thanos snap of pokemon is the best thing to happen to the series. It exposes the fake fans and shows who really cares about pokemon. If you dislike these games then you need to purchase them again and try again. And if you don'tbuy them then dont talk. .… Expand
  78. Creeeps642
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    As you say so well and you saw it well that the community approved your choice to postpone some games.
    It's a shame to come out with such a bad game. The game seems completely empty. The failed animations that was the cause of removing the ancient pokémons and the world is empty. Two or three trees Making the plains less empty. Make the plains less empty.
  79. Sumomo1
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    我可以理解断代，但相应地就应该在其它地方做得更优秀，去弥补所缺失的。但它没有做到，它只是一款在做减法的续作。
  80. Rallsop13
    Nov 17, 2019
    0
    Simply not what the fans wanted. This is a rushed, rough-around-the-edges, 3DS game, with an HD coat of paint. This is not what anyone wanted or expected from the first mainline console release from the highest grossing media franchise of all time. There’s hardly a story besides the League, the battles are still just Pokémon sitting face to face, and the world textures look “last-gen”. ANYSimply not what the fans wanted. This is a rushed, rough-around-the-edges, 3DS game, with an HD coat of paint. This is not what anyone wanted or expected from the first mainline console release from the highest grossing media franchise of all time. There’s hardly a story besides the League, the battles are still just Pokémon sitting face to face, and the world textures look “last-gen”. ANY limitations that the Devs say that have are BS. They SHOULD have the funding and the time to give us the game we want. The series is moving in the right direction but it needs to cut the yearly release and give more time to craft a whole game for our current technology. I will not purchase another Pokémon game until this is achieved. Do better, GameFreak and Nintendo.

    (Note: I don’t actually think it is a 0/10, honestly it’s probably like 5/10, but I give a 0 as to keep the average score as low as possible in attempt to counteract the people that blindly throw 10/10s it’s way.)    … Expand
  81. demo207
    Nov 17, 2019
    3
    With a new console at hand, obviously expectations for a full refresh are high. And yet again, they were not met. Being one of the highest grossing video game franchises ever, you’d think budget wouldn’t be an issue, as it isn’t. However, greed took place and wherever corners could be cut, they were. Same handholding linear story, same dated abysmal graphics that resemble textures fromWith a new console at hand, obviously expectations for a full refresh are high. And yet again, they were not met. Being one of the highest grossing video game franchises ever, you’d think budget wouldn’t be an issue, as it isn’t. However, greed took place and wherever corners could be cut, they were. Same handholding linear story, same dated abysmal graphics that resemble textures from 2002, same everything. The fact that fans were promised a ground-up refresh and that turning out to be a complete and blatant lie for a cash-grab just adds insult to injury. Really disappointed that lifelong fans can’t get redeem the benefits of supporting a franchise for so long. This game was a slap in the face. Do not waste $60 on a 2012 3DS port with updated cutscenes to make use of the Switch’s graphical capabilities. Believe the controversy. Where’s there’s smoke, there’s definitely fire.… Expand
  82. ScottishDom
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    Incredible to think of the steps backwards made between this game and Pokemon B2/W2 (2012!!!). The missing features have been done to death, but I will never understand how cutting features can then be dressed as a good thing for any game. if reviewers were approaching this game in the wider context of standards set by the industry, it would be panned.

    Unfortunately, because these game    Incredible to think of the steps backwards made between this game and Pokemon B2/W2 (2012!!!). The missing features have been done to death, but I will never understand how cutting features can then be dressed as a good thing for any game. if reviewers were approaching this game in the wider context of standards set by the industry, it would be panned.

    Unfortunately, because these game are considered "for kids" nobody cares if the longtime fanbase of teens and adults are ripped off £60 for a game that is demonstrably inferior and less polished than both its predecessor and games the devs made 10 YEARS AGO. Ah well, I won't be buying anything else from these charlatans.    … Expand
  83. katttdillehay
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    I don't even know where to start. I've been playing pokemon since Pokemon Gold and Silver came out close to 20 years ago. I have never been more disappointed with a game in my life. Pokemon sun and moon were bad but this is just embarassing. Countless pokemon were cut so longtime fans can't even bring pokemon they've had for over 15 years with them into the new games. Mega evolutions and aI don't even know where to start. I've been playing pokemon since Pokemon Gold and Silver came out close to 20 years ago. I have never been more disappointed with a game in my life. Pokemon sun and moon were bad but this is just embarassing. Countless pokemon were cut so longtime fans can't even bring pokemon they've had for over 15 years with them into the new games. Mega evolutions and a crazy amount of content was cut for a rushed, lazy, disappointing game. Do not waste your money on this game that could barely be considered finished.… Expand
  84. GongHawkeye
    Nov 19, 2019
    3
    I'm one of those who bought the game even knowing all the issues that were surrounding the game. The thing is that I cannot recomend this unless you're a hardcore Pokémon fan.

    The game itself it's enjoyable, but you cannot just get over all those little and big details: Poor graphics, lack of post game, Dexit....you can find way more things on the internet but basically this is the main    I'm one of those who bought the game even knowing all the issues that were surrounding the game. The thing is that I cannot recomend this unless you're a hardcore Pokémon fan.

    The game itself it's enjoyable, but you cannot just get over all those little and big details: Poor graphics, lack of post game, Dexit....you can find way more things on the internet but basically this is the main problem: Pokémon sword and shield are not bad games, they just cannot be accepted as a good standard for the franchise. This is not an step forward but another step back on the record of the main game saga.    … Expand
  85. Tmato
    Nov 18, 2019
    1
    Game look well But i miss some kind of graphics improvements. Graphics suck to be a game of 2019. More things... Online subcription to trade pokemons, 0/10 trade should be FREE ALWAYS, like balloons were free in Mario Odyssey. Not national dex too.
    New mecanics are great But all this send game to 1/10
  86. ConcernedParent
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    This game is really bad. Like, really bad. Before I returned it on behalf of my child, I played it through myself. Didn't take too long--Pathetic for a $60 game. The pokemons becoming big was also not that great. Do better next time, GameFreak.
  87. bettercritic
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    very dissapointed, i thought we were supposed to get an actual pokemon game after 'let's go', which was also a bad game.
  88. SuperiorSuisen
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sonora excelente ya es habitual que una entrega de Pokémon sea muy buena instrumentalmente hablando, por eso lo único que tenía que hacer era asegurarse que el gameplay no se sintiera pesado y la única tarea que tenían la hicieron mal. Más palabrashay para describir este juego, pero pocas quedan que no sean ofensivas, así que en conclusión sale más rentable comprarse un Gameboy y un cartucho al Pokémon Sword, no sólo puede salir al mismo precio si busca bien, hasta se puede optar por algo de mejor calidad.… Expand
  89. Wool
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    As a game its quite cute.But technical issues is killing me.0/0 I'm dissapointed
  90. notadinosaur
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    Gamefreak should be stripped of their rights being the sole developer of pokemon and give way to younger devs such as those who worked on BOTW and Xenoblade.

    Pokemon has TONS of potential but **** devs don't have the skill to make a full realization of pokemon as it should be.
  91. BugsyNanusu
    Nov 18, 2019
    0
    A bug filled mess with less Pokemon than Diamond/Pearl. Non-existent difficulty. Graphics that look worse than the Pokemon games on the Gamecube. Do not support this cash grab!
  92. himbaba78406
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    糟糕的寶可夢建模、難看的戰鬥背景
    一堆好寶可夢被踢除
    吼吼鯨有夠小
    寶可夢畫質差
    只有人設能看的遊戲
    不如拿錢買本本
  93. MikeRose87
    Nov 22, 2019
    5
    These are my thoughts with the pros and cons I found for this game after a full playthrough with hours of wild area, raids and such over 34 hours.

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

    Pros

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

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

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

    Cons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Verdict

    If you want a Pokemon game to do Pokemon stuff then you will most likely have fun with this despite it's shortcomings. But if you were hoping for the first console Pokemon game to take the already great core and expand it to add true substance, challenge, and depth. This aint it chief.    … Expand
  94. Arcayon
    Jan 10, 2020
    5
    This game is a pokemon game. So most people are going to enjoy it. I regrettably bought it because it was a pokemon game, but I've still had fun with it. That being said, this is likely the worst pokemon game ever released by Game Freak. They lied multiple times to consumers about their decisions in order to take advantage of their loyal fanbase. The business tactics are alone areThis game is a pokemon game. So most people are going to enjoy it. I regrettably bought it because it was a pokemon game, but I've still had fun with it. That being said, this is likely the worst pokemon game ever released by Game Freak. They lied multiple times to consumers about their decisions in order to take advantage of their loyal fanbase. The business tactics are alone are shameful. The game itself is not polished or finished. You'll need to pay an additional 30$ to get a finished game via DLC around a year from now.

    Pokemon are missing. The designs of new starters is really bad. Gyms are great, but there is a huge lack of story missing and I feel like I'm not doing much other than going from town to town beating gyms. The lack of the GTS is a killer if you are a collector. Wonder trade is still there but requires a nintendo online subscription of 5$ per month. In order to transfer your pokemon from previous generations, you need to have a pokemon box which costs money. Pokemon must then be transferred from their legacy storage pokemon box to pokemon home which is an additional fee.

    This game is all about additional fees and reminds me of an EA games business model. Tons of microtransactions to enjoy the base game. The base game is not a finished product. But hey no matter what, Pokemon is always gonna be fun.    … Expand
  95. Dragonfire14
    Nov 24, 2019
    3
    Right off the bat I will say that strictly judging Pokemon Shield as a video game it is a much higher score, I would score it about a 6.5/10. Pokemon as a concept for a video game works very well, and any studio would be hard pressed to make a game in the series that is both a let down and not fun. The problem is when you judge it compared to the other games in it's series. Pokemon ShieldRight off the bat I will say that strictly judging Pokemon Shield as a video game it is a much higher score, I would score it about a 6.5/10. Pokemon as a concept for a video game works very well, and any studio would be hard pressed to make a game in the series that is both a let down and not fun. The problem is when you judge it compared to the other games in it's series. Pokemon Shield is a terrible Pokemon game.

    Starting off I won't go into the whole dexxit situation, but I will say that it did not help the game at all removing the national dex. Gamefreak (GF) did not give the players something in return for the cut Pokemon, and it just leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

    The visuals in this game are really nothing special. The animations are simple with moves applying slight movement to each Pokemon's model, such as turning the Pokemon 180 degrees then shaking them. Each Pokemon does have about 1 signature move that they are fully animated for, but there isn't nearly enough. The environments are bland for the most part, with the Wild Area being barren and just plain ugly. Random weather effects will appear in the Wild Area, but the environment will see no change visually besides a lens filter. The Pokemon look fine, but again are nothing special. Trainers by far have the best animations they have had in the series and look great, but they really are not the focus of the game.

    The story is almost non-existent besides your journey to becoming champion. Characters exist only to point you in the direction of the next gym, and the vast amount of gym leaders offer nothing to the overall story. Your rivals are all uninteresting, Hop being an unbearably outlet for the tutorial, Marnie barely having a personality even though she has a massive fan club, and Bede being an ass for the sake of being an ass. The game will constantly force you out of anything interesting telling you to focus on gyms, but then will force you into a situation that your character really knows nothing about in the last hour. The post game isn't much better as it just introduces 2 **** that have an evil plan to do nothing with. Also with the lack of voice acting the cutscenes feel very awkward. There is even a scene with someone singing, but the audio is silent and is one of the most off putting things I've encountered in a game.

    The gameplay is typical Pokemon with nothing really new added. Dynamaxing is a very boring gimmick that just gives your Pokemon more HP and let's them use Z-Moves. What is worse about it is that Gigantamaxing the straight up better version of Dynamaxing is lock to certain Pokemon. I don't mean that only certain species can use Gigantamax, but rather only specific Pokemon can use it. So for example that Corviknight you raised from lvl 3 and recently got to lvl 100, will never be able to Gigantamax since you didn't catch it from the raid. Gigantamax just makes catching Pokemon worthless unless you get them in the raid. On top of that finishing all the content in the game doesn't take long. You can beat the story, post game, and finish the Pokedex easily within a week, so unless you are a avid shiny hunter or PvP player the game isn't going to last you long. The difficulty of the game is a big factor in why it is so short. You can go through the entire game without grinding and for the most part you will be over leveled. I entered the champion battle with a lvl 75 Corviknight and a lvl 80 Tyranitar and just destroyed Leon. After that I went through the post game only using those 2 while raising other Pokemon to evolve for the Pokedex with no issue. The only battle that I had trouble with was the last battle with Hop in the post game, and that was because I only had 2 Pokemon and they had type disadvantage. I still managed to win using the massive amount of Max Revives the game gives you. The game also treats you like you need your hand held for the entirety of the game. Need to go next door to the hotel, why not follow me there so you know where it is. Need to go back to this town that you were already, I can take you there now. It is also a big factor into the fact that this game features no puzzles at all. It treats you like you are unable to think for yourself, and that it needs to do all the heavy lifting for you. Camping is nothing special and to be honest I used it once for this review.

    What is unfortunate is that this game could of been amazing. GF could of put a lot more effort and passion into it and it would have been an entirely different experience. There are some quality of life improvements in the game, and the music is amazing! The feel of the gyms also is something I didn't expect to love. They really hype you up for those battles, and I loved it. If GF didn't cut any corners Pokemon Shield would of been the best in the series I have no doubts, but with all the negatives and flaws it has it comes out as one of the worst.    … Expand
  96. Lone_Wolf_Sones
    Feb 2, 2020
    5
    Where to start with Sword and Shield. Are they bad games? No. Are they great games? No. So what are they then? Well they strangely find themselves sitting in the middle. Considering these were to be the first console mainline installments in the series? Expectations were understandably high.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This kind of excessive monetization of Pokemon is my greatest fear come true.
    (copied from my review of Pokemon Sword)    … Expand
  97. jacksondawg25
    Jan 31, 2020
    1
    Yes, the following is the same as my sword review. They are the same goddamn game.

    Game Freak has gotten either incredibly lazy or incredibly cheap. There's no other way to put it. They spared as many expenses as possible while making this game. They left out a bunch of Pokemon from previous games. The story mode is shorter than any previous game in the series. There is less post-game    Yes, the following is the same as my sword review. They are the same goddamn game.

    Game Freak has gotten either incredibly lazy or incredibly cheap. There's no other way to put it. They spared as many expenses as possible while making this game. They left out a bunch of Pokemon from previous games. The story mode is shorter than any previous game in the series. There is less post-game content than any previous game in the series. The animation quality is the worst it's ever been. The GTS has been removed. And the reason for all these problems? Laziness and/or greediness. Game Freak put minimal effort and resources into the making of this game and it shows. The worst part is that not only did this game disappoint me, it also got me thinking critically to the point that I realized that ever since Pokemon Black and White, this series has become just... lesser in every category. In addition to the problems listed above, anyone could look at the actual plot of recent games and see that the stories are becoming less inspired and overall more boring. Rivals seem like regular trainers that don't matter anymore, villains don't seem to be worth any concern at all, there is nothing motivating the player aside from the same old gym challenge plot. The soundtracks have also begun sounding more generic over time. Save for one or two decent songs per game, nothing has measured up to the fantastic soundtrack Black and White had.

    To add insult to injury, Game Freak's response to all this criticism was horrible. They didn't update the game to add Pokemon or fix animations, or return the GTS, or add post-game content. They did however decide to add PAID DLC. Their solution to a game almost void of content was to add some, but make players pay 30 more dollars (more for me because I'm Canadian) to turn an unfinished game into what might be a full game.

    In conclusion, don't get this game. Don't get the DLC, and don't buying anything to do with Game Freak until they get their **** together.    … Expand
  98. paulshoreline
    Jan 9, 2020
    3
    Pokemon might be the most regressive game series in existence, and I might be done with the franchise after SwSh. Gone are the winding caves or intricate forests. Gone are the hidden areas or secret events. Gone are the puzzles, the ominous enemy bases, and any semblance of a challenge. Sword and Shield are a joke; empty, boring, and utterly devoid of any challenge. Always on EXP sharePokemon might be the most regressive game series in existence, and I might be done with the franchise after SwSh. Gone are the winding caves or intricate forests. Gone are the hidden areas or secret events. Gone are the puzzles, the ominous enemy bases, and any semblance of a challenge. Sword and Shield are a joke; empty, boring, and utterly devoid of any challenge. Always on EXP share turns the difficulty to zero and destroys what little replay value there might be. The story is borderline nonexistant - even by Pokemon's shoddy standards for storytelling. The Wild Area is little more than a grind with no real exploriation - just mindlessly raids over and over. There is no endgame - just a simple battle tower that always ends with Leon. Somehow these games feel even more hollow than Let's Go, and have significantly less content than all of the previous mainline entries. The much-hyped graphics do not look improved over Sun and Moon, and the Pokemon models are very obviously identical. Throw in Dexit, and it is really a wonder that Game Freak pushed these games in this abysmal state.… Expand
  99. rob_innes23
    Jan 10, 2020
    3
    I’ve been a Pokémon fan for a very very long time, more or less my whole life.

    I can’t say I’ve fully enjoyed an instalment in the franchise since Black and White 2... 8 years ago. Even still, I put up with X and Y’s vapid storytelling and Sun and Moon’s mediocrity because the core elements of the game were still fun to me. Sword and Shield truly excited me conceptually as it was the    I’ve been a Pokémon fan for a very very long time, more or less my whole life.

    I can’t say I’ve fully enjoyed an instalment in the franchise since Black and White 2... 8 years ago. Even still, I put up with X and Y’s vapid storytelling and Sun and Moon’s mediocrity because the core elements of the game were still fun to me.

    Sword and Shield truly excited me conceptually as it was the first time GameFreak would be delving into a proper home console with a substantial increase in horsepower over the handhelds.

    My imagination and hopes ran wild at the possibilities of a new Pokémon game on the Nintendo Switch. But as footage of the game was leaked and the developers started discussing and showcasing it, my honest hopeful excitement turned to confused ambivalence.

    The wild area looked cool sure, but the graphics looked exactly like they did in Sun and Moon, with a HD facelift. The animations looked dreadful and considering that creating “higher quality animations” was their excuse for axing more than HALF of the Pokédex from the game, doubt and dismay began to replace my anticipation for these games.

    They came out. I played Shield. I finished it and felt totally and utterly cheated. The narrative is non-existent, the characters are rehashed from previous entries and characters more two dimensional than the games from 1996. The battle formula of course is more or less set in stone and can’t really be changed but there is such an utter lack of innovation, they play and look exactly like they have for the last 7 years, just with slightly more polished graphics. The wild area is a buggy, unfinished mess that still harbours the games most fun elements. The idea is fantastic conceptually but the execution is so haphazard and rushed, that it fails to achieve anything it sets out to do on an immersive level. The enemy team are completely un-intimidating, uninteresting and uninspired. A bootleg Team Skull. The twist villain is the most predictable part of this thin storyline and literally just allows himself to be apprehended upon defeat. The game is just unbearably simplistic in every conceivable way. Dynamaxing is such a lame gimmick, the novelty wears off after the fourth time seeing it. Mega Evolution was so much more interesting and had way more potential, hell even Z moves are cooler and more unique than this. It’s just scaled models with the occasional unique change, but these unique “gigantamax” models are very few and far between, not to mention a pain in the ass to get for yourself.

    Not to mention that the game is just feebly easy, with every opponent in your way getting utterly flattened with little to no effort for extra training. The constant and fixed use of the exp share mechanic makes training Pokémon feel so much less fulfilling. You could catch one and literally never use it, but if you keep it in your party it will just raise itself via piggybacking off of the exp that it’s teammates gather. I practically sleepwalked through this bore fest, as my input made little difference to the inevitable outcome of victory.

    This game feels like it was phoned in. Nothing more than a shoddy port from 3DS era technology that’s been rushed out and shipped for full price in time for the Christmas shopping.

    And after all that disappointment and GameFreak's broken promises, they now have the blatant audacity to try and make us give them even more money for an expansion pass full of content that should’ve been in the initial game at release. Especially considering I spent £50 for a game that took me 15 HOURS to complete blind, from start to finish including the pathetic amount of endgame content. The handheld games that cost nearly half the price took me at least double the time to complete on my first play through because I took my time and actually cared about the actions I took while playing. I didn’t to care in these games because they pretty much played themselves.

    This expansion pass is the final straw for me and this franchise I think. I can’t take this constant disappointment anymore. Something needs to change dramatically and fast for me to continue caring about this creatively bankrupt, once great franchise.

    Thanks GameFreak, for ruining something I used to hold dear for the sake of monetary gain.    … Expand
  100. Diesel6401
    Dec 17, 2019
    8
    HONEST REVIEW:

    The game is good, but not great. Lot's of positives, but some mistakes. The story is good, however there is one particular part that had an interesting twist that I hope they would have elaborated on but they didn't. The introduction to the ability to access your storage box without the need of PC is fantastic feature. The build-in experience share is nice bonus, however    HONEST REVIEW:

    The game is good, but not great. Lot's of positives, but some mistakes. The story is good, however there is one particular part that had an interesting twist that I hope they would have elaborated on but they didn't. The introduction to the ability to access your storage box without the need of PC is fantastic feature. The build-in experience share is nice bonus, however I wish there was a option to be able to cycle it on/off. I think that's a feature hardcore fans would have in enjoyed. The open area is simply beautiful. At first it seems overwhelming, but soon you'll find it's not as large as you once thought. The weather mix and raid battles are an added surprise and Gen 8 is a much welcomed upgrade over the stale Gen 7. There's a few misses, the after game content is very short, the open area really bogs down when connected to the internet and a major frustration is when you don't want to the be connected to the internet in-game it essentially puts your entire switch into a suspended airplane mode, meaning games in the background will not update if you are playing this game offline. It really is a mind-boggling issue and extremely frustrating.

    Ultimately if you are Pokemon it's a must play. However it's not as great as we would have hoped for the first mainstay Pokemon game to hit the switch. I think the solution is for TPC is to make the main-series every other year. I think the push to have a main game yearly is beginning to have a negative impact on the games. Mixing in "Let's Go" remakes of past games could possible fill the gap giving added time to put the mainstay games on a 2 year cycle. It's good, but it could have been great.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

72
#72 Best Switch Game of 2019
3
#3 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 88 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 88
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 88
  3. Negative: 0 out of 88
  1. 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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  2. 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]
  3. InsideGamer.nl
    Dec 21, 2019
    70
    Is this your first Pokémon game? Welcome! You will immediately feel at home, because the game takes you through the region by hand. There may not be a lot to do, but you do get to know the gameplay and Pokémon in an accessible way and you can immediately experiment with remarkable typing combinations.
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