Board 8 > SantaRPG nitpicks pokemon sword in a playthrough

(+) Yeah! (+)

Finally nabbed a free copy of pokemon sword from my ex-wife who was sent two by mistake from amazon. Although I have vocally voice dmy opposition to the game's design, the past few months have made me realize that the whole reason I play Pokemon nowadays is to complain. So i figured this could be a great opportunity to actually take some time to list my grievances.

To make it clear, I'm not looking to hate this game, quite the opposite. I have such low standards for pokemon that I'll probably love playing pokemon shield. I just think it will be therapeutic or something who knows why I'm doing this lets get on with it.

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Ok so I'm just entering route 2, here are my notes:

The Good

-I really like the way houses are designed, being able to explore all of them with one fluid motion and no breaks isn't necessarily groundbreaking, but its a really pleasant surpise that makes me feel more inclined to explore every house.
-We get right into the story without much tutorial. The game still gives you a lot of tutorial and badgers you at the beginning, but it does seem much less tedious than sun and moon.
-There seems to be some times when my pokemon is out of it's ball when talking to people, I'm guessing this is a one time thing with the starters but it would be cool if there was more instances with the rest of my team
-The popup at the bottom of the screen when you get new items is a great touch. It won't to anything for a veteran player like me, but its still visually appealing.

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Bad Stuff
-The opening cutscene seems like it was designed for voice acting, but theres no voices so you're just forced to watch characters flap their mouth without skipping dialogue. This is something Game Freak did with Little Town Hero as well, and its really the worst thing a game can do. Stop doing this in games everyone. There also seem to be battles in which youre rival flaps his mouth but says nothing.
-Loading time for cutscenes is oddly bad
-Hops dialogue actually isn't the worst, but he would do well to have an emotion that isn't mindlessly happy on his face. Sometimes he says snarky things, if his face reflected that, his character might be tolerable.
-Leon is just a bad character it seems? I'll go into this more later as the game progresses but just want to state that now.
-The PC box removed the wallpaper feature and feels more bare and less fun. We haven't had an upgrade on pcs since the gba games so it sucks that we now have a downgrade.


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Leon sucks, Hop is pretty good, the mouth flap thing is a nonissue for me, didn't even notice until you pointed it out.

The routes have really great Pokemon variety so that's something to look forward to.

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Murphiroth posted...

the mouth flap thing is a nonissue for me, didn't even notice until you pointed it out.

It didn't bother me until Piers was supposed to be full-on singing. That managed to break through and bug me for the short time it lasted.

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Murphiroth posted...

Leon sucks, Hop is pretty good, the mouth flap thing is a nonissue for me, didn't even notice until you pointed it out.

The routes have really great Pokemon variety so that's something to look forward to.

Yeah the vareity in the routes is pretty cool, its neat to see the snoozers and then a random awesome pokemon pops out and gets you excited

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oh wow someone nitpicking pokemon sword and shield

haven't seen this on the internet before

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the non-voice acting lip flaps are definitely bad
hop is probably my least favorite character in the game (at least where I'm at now)
lack of wallpaper does suck
not sure I feel anything about leon one way or the other


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Annoying bird, I am the great Leon!
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MariaTaylor posted...

oh wow someone nitpicking pokemon sword and shield

haven't seen this on the internet before

I always find people get hung up on dumb things like trees and draw distance that are oddly bad but dont matter to the overall feel of the gameplay. Heres a topic where you can get complaints about things that really matter!

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Hop would be actually good if he wasn't the game's main way of leading the player around by the hand and constantly patronizing them

as it was I just wanted him to go away for most of the game and it took me a while to realize that he didn't totally suck

unlike Leon, who actually sucks because of something that comes up very late in the game

anyway the game is flawed in a lot of areas but it's still really fun and its high points are fantastic


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Hop is the actual protagonist, we are the friend

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I made it to just past the second gym and I gotta say, I am just overwhelmed with flaws about this game. Ill collect my thoughts later but here are two super controversial opinions

-The game is worse for the pc anywhere option
-Theres too much pokemon vareity

I'll touch on these more later

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i agree

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SantaRPidgey posted...

-Theres too much pokemon vareity

This was a dumb complaint when made about XY about its still dumb now
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Ok let's get started with some goods

-Stepping out into the wild zone is an incredible game moment. This is basically as far as I can tell from what I've played and from what people have posted, the moment pokemon shoots its big watery load. It's fun, it's impressive, it's confusing, it feels like there's so much more to explore. As far as "moments" go this might be a top 10 of all pokemon moment.
-Raids are fun, they're a good way to add mystique to the game, and they add pokemon variety in a perfect way. My above comment about how there are too many pokemon doesn't apply to raids at all. This is a really good way to put in extra pokemon.

Shoot I am really struggling to find more things I like about this game. I really want to think of more good design features before I go into my bad section but I seriously can't think of anything.

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Hbthebattle posted...

This was a dumb complaint when made about XY about its still dumb now

well I didn't expand on my point or talk about it at all so I'm not entirely sure what you're basing it being dumb on. It's not like I went into the wild area and was like "woaaah too many pokemon I don't like it"

btw, are you a reg on this board that I should know? I haven't noticed you before the pokemon topics

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but I love pokemon variety :(

(unless I'm trying to catch a specific thing and it won't show up. which might be your gripe idk)
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ok that bad:

-Let's start with raids. These are pretty darn awesome, but I have no goddamn clue how they work. Whats the catch raid for a completed raid? How do I join other people's raids? What literal benefits are there to doing them? Do the pokemon have their hidden ability? Game Freak will spend 20 minutes telling you about how to throw a pokeball but never spends any time explaining things like this.

Interfacewise it's a complete disaster. If you switch your pokemon, try to do a wireless raid, and then go to an offline raid, the game automatically switches it back. There's no control over what team you get when you do the raids, so it takes what should be a strategy element and just turns it into pure RNG.

The battles are also super long and tedious. This is where the problems with pokemon-battle-tedium really show their worst. There's SOO many text boxes you have to go through, EVERY move as an extra effect, and with three other people on your team it's just text box after text box. Weather effects are constantly switching, status effects are changing and reverting, and for some bizarre reason, I need to be updated on the status of the cloud during the battle.

Finally a final nitpick that's nitpicky even for me: I really don't like that the dynamax balls all look the same. The last two games really leaned heavily in on ball flair, and catching your favorite pokemon with a designer ball. It would be pretty cool to have the balls that we have get bigger to give dynamaxing more of a personal touch, and if I was going to add my own little wish, giant versions of every pop-out ball animation would be super neat. This isn't really "bad" to be clear, it's just an example of something that would take very little work but would be a nice personal touch. Little things like this are what endear me to games.


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I really love pokemon vareity too, and I like having so many cool pokemon available early game, but being able to make a full team of awesome pokemon before the first gym does make the rest of the game feel almost redundant. I'll touch on this more later, but my problem isn't necessarily "there's too many pokemon" it's probably more "there's too many pokemon just dumped on you and it makes sorting how to make your team on the go feel nearly impossible and overwhelming"

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All the old Pokemon dumped on you in the Wild Area meant nothing to me, since I only used new Pokemon. But even then, you can get almost every new Pokemon right away in raids if you're lucky/patient enough. I got probably at least half my (large) rotating team of new Pokemon from raids before they were available in their own habitats. That's still not necessarily a bad thing though, since it was still somewhat staggered and it's way better than having to wait until the game's almost over to get that Snom or Clobbopus I wanted.

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But every game besides like original BW has allowed you to make a full team before the first gym leader. And because the game has functions like PC Box Link and EXP candy, its not like youre ever locked into team decisions.
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More bad:

Online seems... just bad? Which is cool because I pay for it now. I've never been able to connect to a surprise trade whereas I can do one in pokemon moon right now almost instantly. Trading with randos is basically the system they had in black and white, which was absolutely the most perfect way to trade between strangers ever created, except nearly every feature has been cut out. The black and white had four symbols to communicate with your partner: Smiley face, Frowny Face, Exclamation point, and Heart. The brilliance of it was that basically anything can be communicated with just those symbols. Me and my ex-wife used to spend hours going online, showing off our shinies and forcing people to trade us lileeps.

The new system cuts out anything to do with communication whatsoever. The only thing you can do is pick a pokemon and trade it and back out. It's very impersonal and doesn't really seem to have much of a point for me? I used to it evolve some pokemon and that worked well enough I guess, but I felt guilty just disconnecting afterwards because I couldn't show my gratitude to the people who evolved my pokemon but got nothing in return.

The social media feature is super bizarre too, half of my friend list plays pokemon, but when I connect online, I get to see that a random person in japan has caught a pidove. What do I do with that? Why can't I see a feed of what my friend list have been doing? Who thought adding thousands of randos to the wild area blinking in and out of existence was a good idea at all?

I haven't really fully explored all the online features and most of the reason is because it's a buggy confusing mess.

One Good:

Being able to play while you wait for trades to load is kind of a good idea and works sometimes.

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Hbthebattle posted...

But every game besides like original BW has allowed you to make a full team before the first gym leader. And because the game has functions like PC Box Link and EXP candy, its not like youre ever locked into team decisions.

SantaRPidgey posted...

but being able to make a full team of awesome pokemon before the first gym

Again I'll go into this more when I beat the game but I have to say not being locked into any team is a flaw that makes the game worse.


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Hbthebattle posted...

But every game besides like original BW has allowed you to make a full team before the first gym leader.

I never have an actual full team that early

I'll have 1-2 pokemon I like and intend to keep, and then a bunch of roster filler I intend to ditch once I find better ones
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SantaRPidgey posted...

Again I'll go into this more when I beat the game but I have to say not being locked into any team is a flaw that makes the game worse.

This is an awful take.

And surprise trade works literally every single time, are you sure you're actually connected to the internet and not just local when you do it?

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Again I'll go into this more when I beat the game but I have to say not being locked into any team is a flaw that makes the game worse.

What? Thats something I cant agree with at all. Too many games in the series make Pokemon found late in the game almost unviable to actually use ingame. The fact that SwSh doesnt do this is a positive, not a negative.
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I've generally made my team as I go along in the games, leaving slots open. I do think it harms the games in certain ways: Oh, you want this really cool Rufflet? Yeah, it evolves at Lvl 54 and you get it on the final route before Victory Road. Have fun! No, Game Freak, how about you go fuck yourself.

Compare that to XY where there were so many cool Pokmon (and Dragons weren't hidden behind some obscure requirement near the final gym), you can easily have a party of 20 Pokemon that you just rotate through and have fun with constantly adapting to the area, without ever getting too underleveled because you got the Exp Share to keep you going.

I will agree on the balls mechanic though. I think every ball got its specific sprite around Gen III, and I've been doing my darnedest to make sure my whole team winds up in different balls ever since.

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Hbthebattle posted...

What? Thats something I cant agree with at all. Too many games in the series make Pokemon found late in the game almost unviable to actually use ingame. The fact that SwSh doesnt do this is a positive, not a negative.

Ok but this has nothing to do with what I actually have a problem with.

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Murphiroth posted...

And surprise trade works literally every single time, are you sure you're actually connected to the internet and not just local when you do it?

Why...

Why would there ever be a local option for surprise trade and why would it be the default?

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Why...

Why would there ever be a local option for surprise trade and why would it be the default?

Local is the default for all trading/battling until you hit the button to connect. It's not a big deal.

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Why would there ever be a local option for surprise trade

The fact that I wasn't able to intuitively figure out thats what I was doing wrong makes it a big deal. That means less people understand how the feature works, and less people use it. This is an entire topic dedicated to talk about this games sloppy design, and this is a great example about how lack of foresight and care makes the game actively less enjoyable for players.

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I mean, you not being able to read the screen kind of sounds like a you problem, but I guess!

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Like, this is literally the first time I've seen anyone complain about not getting it so I'm not sure your "less people use it!" thing holds any water at all.

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Alright I guess I'll try this again and see whats going on.



Ah well it says local in the corner, admittingly I never saw that before (because its designed poorly and essential information isnt in the forefront of where the users looking.) But even if I had, I would naturally assume that the feature that finds a random stranger playing with you around the world doesnt have a local option.

Nothing in the text indicates that this is a local trade, it doesnt even say "looking for people nearby"

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A bunch of people I had to tell they had to connect to online before any of that shit would work, so no it's not an uncommon problem.

Most people just assumed you were already online, or that when you asked to do a mystery trade, or raid battle, that it would just connect you. But no, you actually have to connect yourself before you do any of that.

Granted once you know, you'll never forget, but I literally had to tell multiple people about this when the game first came out.

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I guess I'm the only one who reads all the info on the screen then? I see "connect to the internet" and assume I am not connected. Seems quite logical to me. I also really doubt the claims that "most people" assumed you're already online.

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Okay? Doubt it then. Several people I talked with in voice didn't know about it and I said yeah, it's not gonna work until you actually connect online. "If you look at the bottom, you'll see a tiny prompt that tells you that"

Happened at LEAST 4 or 5 times.

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And literally everyone I've talked to (also at LEAST 4-5 times) had no problem with it.

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K

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I honestly cant think of a single other game I've played that wouldn't automatically connect you online when you wanted to use a strictly online feature. Maybe its a bit more common and youve played more games? It seems like bonkers bad design to me tho

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I dunno man, I just read "connect to internet" and that's enough for me. It's not a strictly online feature, either, as it works for local, which could be a big thing at cons or gatherings of fans.

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I thought about cons, but how big is the range on the switch? Is it even a functional possibility to surprise trade with someone who isnt directly next to you?

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10-15 feet is what I've heard, so not great. But I imagine you wouldn't be walking around just hoping for surprise trade at a con and instead would be with a group with that specific intention.

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i had the same problem why the fuck would i want a local surprise trade what does that even mean how am i not connected to the internet right now

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Ok but this has nothing to do with what I actually have a problem with.

Then elaborate on what you actually mean
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SantaRPidgey posted...

Again I'll go into this more when I beat the game

I'll tag you when it's ready so you don't have to read 500 word essays on why I don't like the pokecamp feature

Why I don't like the pokecamp feature

This is ultimately more of a personal preference issue, and not really one of design. There's been a lot of features I haven't cared for but were pretty popular and vise versa, so I guess we'll see in time what this is. I also acknowledge part of the reason this is worse is the jump from touchscreen to TV. Game freak had to do something different from the ground up so it's natural that there's some bumps in the road

What are the functions of an Amie-like feature? I would argue by priority from top to bottom

-To endear you to your pokemon
-To assist you in your journey (healing status, restoring hp/pp, making your pokemon unkillable)
-showcase minigame
-pad out gameplay time

It's easy for me to accuse them of looking at priorities in the opposite order. Seeing your pokemon walk around in 3-d in a closed space is pretty uneventful since chances are you captured your pokemon from a pokemon walking around in a 3-d overworld, which looks cooler. Getting a hold of your pokemon is a little tedious and when you finally get your vanilitte to finally walk over to you you'll soon get the message "Coney 2012 is fucking sick of talking to you and wants to play with other pokemon"

As far as healing and minigames, I'm sure some people really like the concept of making a bunch of different curry, but the process is a little too mystifying for me to enjoy doing it now and then, and it takes so long it's usually faster for me to fly to a pokemon center and back. The process seems to be the exact same each time so it never feels productive, and since I'm not getting feedback on what I'm doing wrong or right until the very end I don't really feel like it's something I want to strive to improve on.

What I liked about pokemon refresh was that it was 1 one 1 so it felt intimate. Your pokemon would be muddy or hurt from the past fight so it really seemed like your pokemon and not just a generic model. Also there was different things to annoy your pokemon like dropping beans or tapping it in a place it didn't like. I definitely felt like I was learning more about my pokemon in refresh and camp just makes me feel like I'm the world's shittiest Jane Goodall

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Also the music might be bad? I'd like to hear what other people think about this. I've been hanging out in towns and all the music seems to loop a little too early and be a bit disphoric, which actually might not be a word. I like chairman rose's theme ok, and I know the toby fox jam shows up in the battle tower and I like that.

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oh oh oh one more good!

The daycare is no longer a logistical nightmare! That's been overdue for a good fixin' for about 20 years so thank to good lord above we finally got it. If I may make one note: make genders visible from the pc screen.


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In terms of music I used to be a HUGE fan of pokemon music. Unfortunately this follows the trend of later generations where I honestly don't care for much. There's Marnie's theme, Hop's 2nd battle theme and Battle Tower and then that's pretty much it for me. I think one of the town songs was decent too, the one that sounds like a PMD song.

Better than Sun/Moon where I literally only enjoyed 1 song from it, but still not like the GSC days where like half the OST is incredible.

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