[Sword & Shield] Now that Generation VIII is rolling to a close, what are your thoughts on these games?

[Zeostar]

I like the early game variety and this is something I think the games are greatly improving with. I did also like how the wild area featured as a central hub connecting the region.

Dynamax does not interest me in the slightest and the towns of the region didn't stick out for me as memorable.

 

[Duck]

Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

What I liked
- I appreciate the focus on story telling and I do think SwSh had some of the richest character arcs in the franchise.

- I also appreciate that unlike Gen VII, there isn't one character that's the focus of the story and that the relevant characters are all active participants (I'm looking at you Lillie)

- I like Peony

- I liked the DLC system. I think it's a better way of getting more stuff out compared to the third version and Mystery Gifts. I wish they did more with it instead of just "Here's a side campaign" but I'm glad they've dabbled in it.

- I liked the visuals for the most part.

- The Wild Areas. I enjoyed the concept of 3D free exploration, I don't think we're quite there yet, but I think it was an interesting first try.

- Exp Candy and Pokéjobs. I've said before that I think a level system isn't great design in 2022 year of our lord and I stand by it, but if we're doing it for some reason, than giving ways to lessen the grind is good.

- Fast Travel from Day 1. Great decision, allows people to backtrack and explore other areas more thoroughly. I wouldn't even mind if they were paid.

What I didn't like
- The price. These are the most expensive games in the franchise and I don't think they had enough stuff to back the price up? Especially since DLC and Online were sold separatedly.

- Dynamax. Not only did I not care for Dynamax in general, it was intrinsically tied to the lore of Galar, which means that there's really no point in getting attached to it since it won't (and didn't) last. Terastalizing will probably be the same thing.

- The versioned Gym Leaders. I don't like version differences in general, but that's worse since it guarantees that those characters couldn't possibly have any importance to the story. The fact that the gym leader change didn't match with a terrain change only further cemented it.

- The route design. 3D has less SoD built in with it, because when things look more realistic, you expect more realistic behavior, so the combination of better graphics, less sidebranches (cuttable trees, breakable rocks, little alcoves, etc.) make the region feel a lot smaller and claustrophobic.

- The lack of puzzles. From what I can remember the only puzzles were the maze to get to Stow-on-Side, the Glimwood Tangle, the maze to Circhester and Lost Woods Slumbering Weald. All of those are mazes and most of them are one after the other. Different puzzles and a better spacing could do wonders.

- The roadblocks. Traditionally, the games were generally permissive and when they didn't want you to go somewhere they'd use environmental tactics to stop you (you don't have a way to swim, you don't have a way to cut trees, etc.) but these games had a lot of outright roadblocks in the form of League people and Team Yell. They make sense in the plot, but they're still annoying to a player.

- Chairman Rose. I still cannot believe someone was paid to write the way the Eternatus affair went down. That made no sense at all when you considered everything that was presented and Rose's power and status.

Summary
I liked some of the mechanical changes but I think that creatively the series took a bit of a back step. It's not a bad game, but it's not as good as it could be and I hope that SV don't fall into many of the traps that SwSh did.

 

[bewbs]

Not a fan of the dex cut. I really wanted to have Mimikyu follow me around in BDSP.

 

[Oskeo]

I think releasing a turn based jrpg with an extended collection and growth gameloop is -very- difficult to introduce to a new audience, and I think most of the vocal distaste came from long time fans who had kind of just lost track of how deep they were into their fandom. I think they did a great job with Pokemon Sword and Shield, assuming we don't want to be the last generation of Pokemon fans, hah. 100 pokemon to collect is about the sweet spot for any release and too many returning Pokemon ends up stifling the new theme they're creating for the region by inventing new Pokemon. We're pretty much all in agreement at this point that we don't want every game to take place in Kanto.

On the downside, the lack of conflict starts to bore me, and I find myself having to make my own fun. I actually haven't finished the game yet, so they might surprise me, but the amount of cloying small talk from strangers makes it seem less like a healthy pararural community and more like a cult where undesireable personalities are expunged. (I'll be very amused if this is addressed and there's a town of depressed people somewhere on the map)

And finally Dynamaxing. I was nervous about Dynamaxing when I heard about it, and loved it when I tried it. If they can keep doing something unexpected and daring with every release and putting the effort in to make it work, I think that's great.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

Sword and shield pros and cons

Pros:
i like galars general feel as a region
Alot of cool regional varients
Making gym battles feel like a big event rather than something that you kinda just do because its pokemon
I like the wild area in concept
Pretty decent dlc gave the game a long shelf life
Qol stuff like box access wherever you are
Great music
Cons:
Galar itself is pretty small and wish it was alittle bigger
The actually flat out new pokemon are pretty lame on the whole
The version exclusive gyms are kinda lame
Dynamaxing is a terrible battle mechanic
Awful story
The wild area and raid battle can easily break the game for easy lvl grinding
Pretty expensive for a overall mediocre game

I definitely was one of those "dex cut yellers" "gamefreak lied" guys when i really didnt care, but honestly i had my fun with gen 8. But i would only call it mediocre.

 

[Oskeo]

I just finished with the main story of Galar, and I had a rough time with it, but I totally understand that when you're running out of resources for a big pokemon project, the visual novel is probably the best thing to cut. Still, someone was able to put things in a way that made sense to me.

When the climactic events unfold,

Spoiler:

Since the day Gloria is endorsed, everyone agrees the most important thing is to treat Pokemon with love, and what fan wouldn't agree, no matter what their other values are. Clearly Eternatus is a large, powerful pokemon, with the potential to cause a calamity if his power is not contained and given a productive outlet. So maybe what makes Gloria such a rightful champion is that when she saw Eternatus beginning to unspool reality, the first thing she thought is, "what a cool pokemon, I want him on my team!" And that's just kind of the simple idea that saved the world.

I imagine that's probably the first thing I would have thought if I played this as a child, if I ever managed to make it that far. I kind of felt embarrassed that I needed someone to suggest that idea to me.

It doesn't change that I was bored and troubled by that story, but it does make me feel like continuing to catch, raise train and breed my pokemon, trade them to trainers, release them on their own adventures, all that stuff.

I just hope Scarlet and Violet really take me on a nice adventure, because I think that's why I play pokemon.

 

[colours]

tl;dr don't care about the haters. swsh was great.

granted, the plot can use some work, sure, but it's not the entirety of what i play pokemon for. the creatures themselves were cute, the attempt at an open-world-ish game got better with the dlc even if the base game was pretty sloppy with it. i'm not going to sit here and pretend swsh was great from the get-go, but it did get better over time to the point where yeah, playing it two years later actually doesn't feel bad now.

admittedly, i don't play it often these days because i'm looking forward to SV, but that isn't to say that these games are bad or anything because they're not. they're the main games i use for my shiny breeding and max raids were a pretty cool concept that can do with some refining but otherwise were actually genuinely fun!

 

[CoolKid575]

They were okay I guess, but I'm still salty about Dexit. Sorry but there's no good reason why they could fit 800+ Pokemon on the 3DS but getting every Pokemon in Sw/Sh was just too much. I'm more forgiving about it in SV though because at least that's an open world and they have the Pokemon walking around.

 

[Adamabbafan]

I didn't get a Switch or Sword & Shield until December 2020 so I was late to the Galar party but I absolutely loved Sword & Shield found them so enjoyable and alot of fun.

Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl were the games I had been waiting to play since they were announced and I was so excited to be returning to Sinnoh again (my favourite region) and the games were amazing absolutely loved the models for the Pokemon it was such a wonderful trip down memory lane but I absolutely loved the Super Contest Shows has so much fun winning all the Contest Ribbons they are good games and certainly do not deserve all the negativity and bad reviews they got only thing that annoyed me was how hard the Elite Four & Cynthia were I hate hard games I love it when I go into the Pokemon League massively overlevelled and just steamroll my way through it.

Legends Arceus was not a game I was keen on or liked first time this has ever happened to me the storyline never appalled to me and had you not needed this game to unlock Arceus in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl I wouldn't have played it at all one thing I did like was that Stantler & Ursaring finally got badly needed evolutions I love Wyrdeer and Ursaluna I don't get why Scyther got another evolution it was fine with Scizor. I do think that Legends Arceus would have been the perfect game to finally give us Gorochu and make it Electric/Fire I really hope we do get to see it at some point.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I really liked SW/SH.
Shield is actually my favorite game in the series now.

It had the best QoL for what I was looking for, (though the best game for trading pokemon was Omega Ruby by a mile)
I liked what story it had, I REALLY liked the box legends, the base game gimmicks (BIG pokemon & wild area) were a pretty big meh for me though,
the starter pokemon didn't interest me at all either, I really liked how they did the whole 'Gym' thing though.
They actually gave the player a reason for having to do them in a certain order instead of
'Oops! There's a pokemon/random idiot in the way! better go do something else! *hint hint*'.
And while this was still there in Shield (for some reason lol) there was still a reason you wouldn't be able to do any Gym you want in that game.
At least I'm pretty sure any random sports ball team can't just point at any other team and say "We'll play YOU next!" IRL.

 

[Solez]

To be honest, I'm kind of a Pokémon apologist: even at their worst, I'm inclined to defend the games, because, well, it's Pokémon, and the formula will always appeal to me. That said, the last few games are definitely a little low-effort. I love them, I think they're great, but the bland textures in the Wild Areas, the lack of voice acting, and the weird cutaways to avoid animating certain details or scenes... They're things you can get away with on the DS and Game Boy, but not on the Switch.

 

[Amore]

I have to say, all the discourse surrounding SV's graphical performance actually made me notice the flaws in Gen VIII's (well, not BDSP - their lack of ambition means the only problem they have is the walking Pokémon, everything else looks perfect), whereas previously - as such a big step-up from my last Pokémon game in Black 2, with my not having played a console title since AC: Rogue - they looked awesome. Now I can't un-see that in SwSh Pokémon can barely spawn fast enough when you're on the bike, or that in PLA if you get up high near Lake Verity and look at it, rather than the wild Luxray, it looks awful. Reminiscent of Rollercoaster Tycoon, even.

Partially this is because your eyes get used to the shiny new thing - I only know my iPhone is good because I still use its predecessor as an iPod, whilst I only think "wow, this OLED Switch looks so much better than the original!" when playing LGPE as the colours pop - but also now I'm not necessarily looking for it, but far more likely to notice it.

 

[Poke fan number 489]

I liked SWSH, and BDSP were okay.
Yet, they just felt less impactful. SWSH is just another modern Pokémon game. The evil team is just a worse Team Skull, the villain isn't interesting, the rivals are ok, the gym leaders are fine, the pokémon designs are good, and dynamax is a decent gimmick. What did it do to truly stand out? The DLC is the most interest part, but the main thing it brought was the concept of DLC in a Pokémon game and meeting a region's past Champions.
BDSP is completely unremarkable. It's 99% DP with the remain 1% being graphics. It can't leave an impact due to being a shiny rerelease of a gen 4 game.
Legends is great, but let's face the truth. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a spin-off, and unless we get more Legends games it won't affect much.

I liked gen 8, but it just felt less important then previous gens.

 

[Harmonie]

Lets see if I can remember my thoughts:

1. The Region - I'm always a sucker for European regions, and it was nice to get one based of England. I didn't love the region as much as Kalos, but it's still neat.
2. The new Pokemon - The generation introduced my top favorite Pokemon - Galarian Rapidash. Needless to say, that's a strong case for it. I also LOVE the box legendaries, I love wolves and they are two high quality wolf designs. In fact, they are my favorite box legendaries, for sure! There's also Glastier, added in DLC, which I like a whole bunch! Lots of solid Pokemon from the gen, more than from Gen IX, I'm afraid. =(
3. The story - My main issue with the story is that throughout most of the game it was virtually non-existent. However, there are two things I loved about it - Hop, his story arc felt relatable, and I felt for him when he'd feel defeated and be thinking about things. 2nd thing I loved was the use of the Pokemon Tournament in the end instead of the generic Elite 4. It was VERY immersive. The Tournament was an excellent idea and I hope they implement it again someday.
4. The Music - I have mixed opinions about Pokemon music. Some gens are fantastic (namely gens 1-3 and 6), but sadly a lot of them are weak. Galar managed to have a number of songs that I liked. It's not as strong as Gen 6, 2, 3 or 1, but I'd probably put it just below them, and way above the rest. So this is another plus for Sw/Sh.
5. The Wild Area and DLC areas were finally a much-needed step into more open design and 3D camera for GF. The Pokemon on the map felt much better than LG/PE, where mitigated to small square patches of grass just couldn't be as immersive. Nevertheless, we all know about the infamous poor graphics and ultimately, the variety in Pokemon felt limited and the transition between different biomes did not feel natural.

The bad:
1.Dexit - Just not a good idea. I saw the warning signs in Gen VII when GF removed the national dex. We could still catch every Pokemon, but they wouldn't register anywhere if they were outside of the game's dex. =/ I hated Gen VII for that, and then Gen VIII just removes the ability to have many Pokemon altogether. Ultimately, having new top favorite Pokemon like Galarian Rapidash helped soften the blow, but I still was very sad to be missing a number of my favorite Pokemon. (and plus, the introduction of this means no Galarian Rapidash in future games, which breaks my heart)
2.Forced EXP Share - Another bad idea. When it comes to things like this, player choice is genuinely optimal game design and EXP Share had been optional prior to this (aside from LG/PE? Did not play them). This is baffling game design to me. Why remove the option?
3. Still too much Gen I pandering. Look, if they hadn't done Galarian Rapidash I would be missing my favorite Pokemon. But they did a better (but not great) job of balancing the gens for the regional variants in this gen. The problem is with the Gigantimax forms. Just go look at the list of them. IIRC, you had tons of Gen I and 8, and almost nothing for the other gens. What gives? Also, the champion having Charizard instead of a Pokemon from Gen VIII was meh.

Ultimately, IDK. I'm mixed. The good was great, but the bad was horrible. Lol. I put Sw/Sh toward the middle.