Current Events > My opinion of Sword/Shield *Vague story spoilers!!*

(+) Yeah! (+)

No names are mentioned, but there are significant story spoilers for the end of the game! Be warned!

I don't think the review bombing was justified at all, and I personally think that the Pokemon variety in the game is fine. I get the backlash against Dexit, but the 400+ Pokemon present in the games are pretty solid and they're fun to catch.

The game is fine, graphically. It's not going to blow your nuts off, but it's not that bad. The routes feel kinda linear, but that might be because there's almost no backtracking or engaging branching paths in the same vein as Emerald. There are side routes and items, but it felt a bit railroaded. Not a fan of Team Yell's railroading of the world map, especially compared to games like Emerald - Emerald is the measure by which I judge this game.

The battling is fun, and I like the music. I also like the Pokemon appearing on the overworld. Berry collecting is nice, and I like the camps well enough.

The story is where things fall apart for me. I like Crystal and Emerald because they're empowering games - you're a 10 year old going off on a journey to do some shit, and along the way you get involved in circumstances far beyond the scope of your Pokemon League challenge. You're fighting the Mafia, or you're preventing an evil team from devastating the world - you start off as no-one, and you just sort of get involved with some shenanigans and overcome it.

SwSh has that moment where you, a kid, get burdened with stopping something bad - Team Rocket taking over Silph Co., or Team Rocket taking over Goldenrod Tower, or Team Magma/Aqua accidentally awakening a powerful force of nature. But there are multiple points where something fucky is going on in the game where you would get involved in an older game, only for adult NPCs to literally wave you off to fight a gym battle instead because "this is something adults need to do, and you have your own troubles! Don't worry about this, we'll take care of it - go and fight the next Gym Leader!"

There's no defying their wish and helping them regardless, there's no "getting to the bottom of this" plot until the last hour or so of the game. The plot that is there is incredibly undercooked, and while the inevitable Legendary event is hype as fuck, there's barely any build up to it.

Ultimately, my biggest issue is how the main villain just shows up at the end to say "oh hey, I'm evil! Evil thing happen now! Toodle-oo!". The game railroads you into completing the Gym challenge at the expense of getting involved with the external mystery, and that's a real shame. But ultimately, that's

Regardless, I've enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword and Shield. It's not at all worth the 1,000+ negative reviews it's gotten. The way I see it, it's growing pains - X and Y was a bit rough, but it made way for ORAS and Sun/Moon. It also comes one year after Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, and 2 years after Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon - so I don't doubt that they felt the need to rush this out, especially with the fan demand for gen 8. It's a fine video game - not the best Pokemon game, absolutely not, but a fine enough video game.

I'm looking forward to catching as many Pokemon as I can once I finish the campaign, and I've liked the battles in this game so far. It definitely starts to fall apart and feel rushed by the end, but it's hardly the worst video game I've ever played and it's not worth the absolute wave of vitriol it got in the weeks and days before release. For all I know, they could be the worst mainline Pokemon games - my last game was Platinum. But they're fun. At worst, they're a 6/10, but in my opinion they're a square 7/10.
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Game Freak's first games on new consoles tend to have problems, see DP/XY

That said, I'm glad you're having fun :)
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