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For those who have played - what do you think?
SwSh are far and away the most controversial main series Pokémon games we've ever gotten, and it's no secret that there are loads of things being said about them online. Those who have played some of the games already, what are your personal thoughts? Have they exceeded your expectations?
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Just started so it's way too early to have a solid opinion yet, but I don't like that EXP share can't be turned off. I feel like my party's gonna be way overleveled.
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Thus far? We're kind of having a blast. There's some stuff to be cranky about, but that has been discussed before and will be discussed more later. Right now, we're enjoying the fact we have a new adventure. The thing I'm most enjoying is the world building. Without giving too much away, making the gym challenge such a big event, by upping the scale of everything involved, this really feels like something that just makes SENSE within the world of Pokemon. It makes the whole social dynamic of it make a lot more sense, imo. Like, we stay in a hotel! That's such a small detail, but it's IMPORTANT! I just wish we could've seen our room!
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I would say those who hated SM/USUM for their storyline will dread the loooooonnnggggggerrrr cutscene even more here.
But the cutscenes are still good, as they contribute to the hypes building up as you move along, though it doesn't feel like Pokemon any longer to me, hah. I can't believe I've only made it to the second gym after playing the whole day when I could complete SM/USUM in 1.5 day. |
I'm enjoying it so far, have been playing since yesterday and haven't even got to the 1st gym yet (oops) as I've been playing around with the Wild Area (will the Pokemon here scale to my level?).
Hop is very annoying, a worse version of Hau. His animations are so irritating, I've never wanted to hit a child before...Leon has no personality other than "gets lost" which is shoehorned into every interaction...and the protagonist still only has 1 facial expression... So far so good though! Enjoying the new wild encounter mechanics |
The cut scenes are a bit annoying as I just want to be left alone to play and not have to be bothered to do something every 10 mins it feels like. Though I'm liking the game so far and have been spending most of my time in the Wild Area leveling up.
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Graphics are fine, not cutting edge but a definite improvement over the 3DS games. Really don't like Hop or the constant cut-scenes, I want the freedom to explore and not be tied down by annoying NPC's. If anything ruins the game for me, it's gonna be Hop showing up every 30 seconds.
Customization options are top-notch so far - the big draw for me. |
I just got to the town on the other side of Wild Area. All I can say is it has been super annoying with how much talking. I feel like Hop popped up way more than Lillie or Hau. Hopefully he will stop talking as much.
Even though I said I wasn't new to pokemon, I still had to go through stuff I didn't care about seeing again. I can't say much more right now. I am also not liking what I saw in the WIld Area. |
After 45 hours + on the game, I think I can say it's very underwhelming compared to what I really expected, especially for a 60$ Switch game.
+ New Pokémons + Art direction + A good first step in the right direction with the Wild Area + Trainer customization + Various quality of life improvements = OST (a few are very good though) - Weak story with bad pacing - Some minor voice acting would have been good - Never challenging for the player - No real exploration - Game is too short - Poor post-game content - Technical issues - My boy Hop Maybe I should have buy Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
Love it. Been a Pokemon Fan for nearly 20 plus years and I love this. I think it is a start for something grand. The hate comes from primarily Toxic fans who have this entitlement that they need everything they want. I am mainly talking about the extreme haters, the ones who refuse to even buy, purchase pokemon and spend hours going around anyone and everyone who plays the game. I have seen so many people go after those who love the game etc.... If you don't care for it, that is fine. I don't mind because that is an opinion, but when you go toxic, that is a problem. As for me, I love it so far and plaining spending hours collecting pokemon and creating my character's look.
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I haven't played yet but I am popping in to say that I love hearing that some people are pleased with it so far! It got so much hate that it made me wonder if any hype at ll would still be left when it released. If anything, I do hope this builds up to the third game being a big improvement based on the feedback from SwSh !!
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Not bad so far. Some parts even exceeded my expectations at some points, and my hype for these games were already massive to begin with. I already didn’t really care about not every mon being transferable since I’m only playing to have fun.
So tldr, it’s alright so far and some parts even exceeded my already high expectations. So far all my complaints are more related to my Nuzlocke rather than the game. |
Seems like the only universal positive to many people is the trainer customization... who would have thought :P
I started a temporary save on my friends spare copy of shield... Unfortunately my preconceived assumptions of what the game would be like are coming true, meaning that it is a poor game. Regardless of subjective opinions on game-play, I can say the following issue objectively: -Graphical fidelity/assets/performance are remarkably poor, especially when compared to equally marketed and budgeted switch games like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey. It performed like a resolution-upscaled 3DS game, and even still framerate is sluggish, and hardly breaks 25fps in quiet areas, and pop-in is horrendous. -Why no touch screen capability? Subjectively: -Wild area is a neat concept, but seems incomplete; after a few hours the excitement, seeing the same few Pokemon got old fast. -Although I have yet to get to the point in the game where i would like to see some of the older 'mons (endgame), the absence of Pokemon whose assets are already complete, and freely available on the internet is extremely frustrating. It reminds me of recent AAA games on other platforms that have been released in the past few years who put pre-existing content behind paywalls, or included in future paid DLC, and makes me apprehensive that GF will take similar steps. Regardless of your opinion of the cuts, the threat of Pokemon forcing this monetization policy on the consumer is extremely problematic, and on a base level, extremely scummy. ADDING content and putting it behind a secondary payment is one thing, but REMOVING content only to repachage it for sale is pathetic. Even if my assumption is incorrect, and the removed Pokemon will remain so, i have to ask; Why? The assets exist, and those used in game have clearly not been overhauled. Space is certainly not an issue, and if somehow it is, the GF code-writers are extremely incompetent for not being able write a simple compression algorithm. For those who don't care about Pokemon being missing... that's fine, but they don't need to be completely redacted from the game itself for you to not play with them. if you don't like the older Pokemon being in the game, just don't use them. Removing them adds nothing of value to the game, and only serves to limit the enjoyment and player agency. Otherwise the story/characters seems to be about on par with expectations... meaning that it is certainly not going to be winning any writers guild awards. The railroading is worse than ever before, somehow surpassing even gen 7. Gyms are kinda cool, and they fit in interestingly well with the world. The region itself is interesting to explore. Conclusion: The game itself seems to have the same polish and thoughtful design as an internal test build. It has some neat ideas needing more work to truly shine, and others that need to be cut altogether. I get the feeling that internal development was chaotic, and the game itself is only half baked (so to speak) Of course, to those enjoying it... Fantastic, but I think it is important as a fan-base to hold such an acclaimed series to an equally high standard. Even my favorite games of all time have flaws, and I am more than happy to point them out along with my praise. |
Eh, call me shallow, but I'm enjoying the games a lot. Customization is fun, the difficulty feels right, but that's because I'm swapping Pokémon in and out to adhere to every gym. Graphics are really pretty and expected of a Pokémon game; the most frame drops I've noticed are some of the battle transitions but even then it's not like I'm expecting this game to run like Horizon Zero Dawn. A lot of the streamlining is well-appreciated, like Box Links and more strategic approaches to wild Pokémon. In all truth, the only thing I don't like is the delegation of some standard TMs like Surf, Thunderbolt, Earthquake, and Flamethrower to TR status alongside some of the higher level moves like Close Combat and Superpower, as well as the removal of Toxic and Thunder Wave as TMs entirely. I also am not a big fan of gating off online trading with the NSO, when it could have just been link battles and raid battles. No one with a Switch lives near me and no one else in the house is playing Pokémon, much less owns their own Switch, so local wireless is a bust.
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So far not too bad , the beginning was a bit stop start with hop, still on route one training My pokemon up the exp share although I didn't mind it in previous games is gonna make the game really easy as my levels will be too high, I'm happy surprise trade is in the game which I take is the new wondertrade so catching as many pokemon as I can be bothered too to mess about with that when I get the option too, gutted I have no where to store the pokemon when I finish the game tho so I could restart and do a surprise trade run through
I got to admit I'm loving the wild area at the moment and have got some good suprise trades |
Honestly, I've been really enjoying it. The game is *fun*, which is what it's meant to be. The game is, by no means, perfect, but what game is.
I wasn't really paying attention to the complaints about the game before it was released, because I find it unfair to judge something that hasn't come out yet. The big talking point of this is the Pokedex exclusions. I understand why people are upset about it, but I just get the horrible sense of people being spoilt. I'm personally enjoying using different Pokemon that I wouldn't normally use and building a team fresh, instead of constantly looking for things like Beldum, Bagon and so on and sticking to what I know. It'll also make the competitive scene interesting. It is an enjoyable game, if you give it the chance it deserves. There is a fair amount to do and the Dynamaxing has surprised me. There is a lot of room for exciting events and such with that. The customization is actually nice and something I didn't think I'd care for. No Pokemon game, or any game for that matter, is going to satisfy everyone, but I think it needs to be given a chance. I am willing to bet that if people hadn't gotten so pointlessly riled up over hating on every and any aspect of the game, people would actually be enjoying it and not looking for shallow reasons to crucify it. |
Now that I’m further in the game and can give a proper judgment - I love it. The music has been great (big fan of Wyndon Stadium especially), I adore the characters, and environments/towns/cities look awesome, especially towards the second half of the game.
I’ve been incredibly impressed with the visuals and overall atmosphere around where you finally fight the champion (as well as the events happening at the time), as someone who has just gotten through a lot of story leading up to what I assume is our final battle. There are definitely things to work on, such as story pacing and better developing the antagonists, but I think these will still be one of my favorite installments in the series. 👍 |
I think it's okay.
The Wild Area is pretty big in my opinion, and I enjoy the overworld pokemon, especially when they're chasing after you. I do enjoy the different pokemon spawns due to weather. I don't really like that the fog weather is locked to the post-game, meaning that about 2-3 pokemon families are completely unobtainable in the main game. The pacing of the plot is really bad. There are hardly any extraneous towns, only towns with stadiums except the first two towns. Between each town is only 1 route, rarely 2 routes so you quickly progress through the game. Team Skull is almost entirely non consequential, only existing to block off areas you're not supposed to go to yet. Then, after you get all the badges, the game is suddenly like 'Oh wait, we need a plot' and a billion things happen right before the final stadium fights. The reason for fighting the 'actual bad guys' is also really clumsily put in in my opinion and feels really 'shoved in'. The difficulty is also really strange, due to the pacing. Since there's hardly any content between gyms, the levels are really close together. Then, due to the billion events happening right after the 8th badge, the level curve suddenly goes up a wall from late 40s to mid 60s in the span of about 3 battles. Then the postgame comes at you with 60s as well. I'm not too sure what level a player's team usually is at this point since I spent a lot of the game catching pokemon so I was pretty overlevelled for a majority of the game. Overall, it's okay. I think even without the dex cuts, it would still be not amazing, which says something about the philosophy of game-making at GameFreak. |
The game was really good I liked at the end there was story not just battles to do Looking forward to playing the end game
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About what I'd expect from a Pokémon game, though I do feel that we got to know the characters a bit more this time around. Not my favorite story, but certainly not "bad." Loved the extra trainer customization options, though I still long for the day we can change our character's height, age, etc.
Still kind of disappointed that the majority of my most-cherished 'mons didn't make it into the game, but I see this as an opportunity to bond with some of my follow-up favorites that I wasn't able to squeeze into my Ultra Sun team (namely my Shiny Froslass and Shedinja). We did get Frosmoth though, and I loves me some moths and Ice-types! I don't really think the games are worth the extra $20 as it stands, but this could be rectified (to some extent) by making Pokémon Home free. It would be ridiculous to pay more, especially when we'll already need a Pokémon Bank subscription to transfer from the 3DS titles. |
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Overall, really very much enjoying SwSh!
Currently 3 badges in. Here's what I think so far. First, I'll get this out of the way. I do have a couple of slightly negative observations: - So far the storyline is a bit typical/bland - The Wild Area is very laggy when you're connected to the internet - The dex thing probably deserves a mention in the negative list, as I wish all Pokemon were in it, but I actually found I forgot about it - The mints are an excellent idea, but should be obtainable very near the start of the game. I still had to spend an age soft resetting for starters so I could have the right nature during my adventure. I was hoping when I heard about the mints this would be a thing of the past But, on the positive side - Generally speaking, the game is simply excellent fun, as Pokemon mainline games always are - I AM enjoying the adventure/story, even if it's not amazing - The graphics, while not Breath of the Wild level, still are great, and the Galar region is truly is alive with people and Pokemon - The music is top-notch and the best in the series so far - Battles are always fun, and while there are some poor attack animations, there are also some excellent ones - The Wild Area is brilliant. It's fun to collect Pokemon and items through exploring and Raid Battles - The British slang such as people saying "mate" and "cream crackered" is very funny xD |
I've been having a lot of fun, honestly! The cutscenes are a bit.. long, and it's a bit easy.. but it's REALLY fun. And I've gained a few new fave pokemon now..
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I have played up to the fourth gym so far, and the only things I find underwhelming are the starting Pokemon and there isn't a really strong storyline, for all of the cut-scenes we have to go through. The "evil" team, Team Yell is a decent departure from having a powerful and villainous team to fight against- and they have some decent Pokemon to fight against.
I absolutely love the Wild Areas, I spend all of my time there (probably to avoid all of the cut-scenes). Not sure when I will get to finish the game LOL 0/10 - Since no Sandslash (j/k, 8/10 I'd say) If we get a 2.0 version of the game (like Ultra Sun/Moon, Emerald, etc) then I would like to see the sprites modified for the starters. |
I'm right before I officially fight Leon, and I have to say that of all the pokémon games I've ever played, SwSh are my favourites by far.
For once, the cutscenes don't feel horrendously boring, like they were in SuMo and USUM. Sure, there are flaws- but the pokémon are great, the areas are great, the Wild Area is fun, camping is brilliant (I'm so glad our pokémon can finally interact like a real team) and the characters are so varied and entertaining. Even down to the first 3 gym leaders teaming up to see you off from Motostoke, and the league cards- they feel like people with relationships and lives outside of being progression tools for the protag. Team Yell is a lighthearted, logical enemy for most of the game, and Macro Cosmos is, while short-lived (so far), an interesting group with an interesting motive, especially since Rose's motives don't seem entirely sinister. My favourite aspect of the games by far, though, is the fact battling feels like genuine sport: beforehand, everything just felt... underwhelming. Here, it's like there's a reason that so many people want to be trainers- the fame, the money, the popularity. After so many years of wanting something like that, I'm glad we've finally got it. Can't say I forgive the legendary dog turning animation in the postgame, but tbh, such things are minimal critiques. And honestly, I've gotta say, as someone whose pre-SwSh favourite pokémon was eliminated by "Dexit," the decision to cut the national dex hasn't impacted my enjoyment at all. As someone who's played through every generation, no game has made me feel as excited as SwSh. |
So I'm finally like 99% of the way through the main story (all I have to do now is beat Leon) so thought dump
The short version is that the games are more or less on par with any other Pokemon game in the main series, not far and away better than any of the other games, but not the worst thing ever like some people thought they'd be pre-release. Long version: The games bring a number of improvements over previous entries. It's visually the nicest-looking Pokemon game to date. It's not perfect obviously, but Pokemon was never a leader in cutting-edge graphics and that's fine really since SwSh is a step up from the 3DS games. Textures are mostly better than Gen 7, framerate drops occur less frequently (at least in my experience), and non-battle animations are better (we have facial expressions now!). Trainer customization is probably its best yet (although having more stuff wouldn't hurt Game Freak ;] ). This is what one would expect though, since we've moved off of the 3DS and onto the newer Switch. There's some new features that are pretty good, like the Wild Area, Max Raid battles, PokeJobs, League Cards are a nice way to give a new coat of paint to ye olde trainer cards etc. There's also some good QoL improvements too--the move reminder being in literally every Pokemon Center and his service being for free, getting the equivalent of Fly very early, mints, Box Link, etc. We get, despite Dexit, a pretty decent selection of Pokemon early on. Something of particular note to me is the Gym Challenge as a whole. It's kind of cool how it's more than just you and your rival that participate in the challenge....it was always a little weird how Pokemon battles was always supposed to be a major part of all the region's cultures, but nobody else ever bothers with it? More than that though is how they did away with the old Elite 4+Champion system and instead have you fight the other participants who made it that far, as well as going through some of the Gym Leaders again, and then on top of that, you don't do it all in one shot either, as shit keeps happening that you have to deal with too. It makes for a really nice final segment really. A few of the gym puzzles/missions make for some of the most unique or fun yet in the series, although it also has some low points too (the last two gyms). Team Yell is a refreshing change of pace, as we finally have a "villain" team that's not all about taking over the world or reshaping it and are just a bunch of nutty fans who happen to get in the way, and not real bad guys (Team Skull did this first actually, but they also ended up being the lackeys of one of Pokemon's most nonsensical plot threads). But the games also make some small decisions that are backwards or make you go "why?" or "what was the point?", like requiring an item to have something as basic and common as volume sliders available in the options menu, forcing us to wear gym uniforms and then offer other ones but not allow you to actually wear them for Gym challenges, or....I know there's something else but I can't remember what it is right now (edit: now I remember, it's TRs). The main thing however is that Sword & Shield do not fix what has long been two significant problems with the series. The story is still the rehash we've been getting since Gen 3 of "child prodigy saves the world and effortlessly becomes Champion" with terribly underdeveloped characters. The other is the how the games could use some more content, both during the main story and after it (I'm not at the post-game yet but chances are this will hold true), or at least that what's there could use some more polish (some aforementioned good things are affected by this). Both would likely not be problems if Game Freak would stop releasing a game every year, giving them time and resources to deal with these issues. Part of me really likes something about Galar and SwSh and think that maybe it has some potential, but I really can't ignore its faults either. The ideal thing would be to not see a Pokemon release next year because Game Freak is finally putting more time into a game, but I don't really expect that to happen, so I at least hope that they don't pull a Gen 6 and just drop them after release--a 3rd version or versions for Sword & Shield would still almost certainly be better than nothing, since 3rd versions have always been the better ones for any given region. /ramble |
I've gone through each game fully twice so far and there are some goods and some bads certainly. I've turned off the BG music completely and turned off the battle animations because watching the same 10 second battle animation for a move over a thousand times gets kind of tedious after a while. The Dynamax Pokemon dens are definitely a point of irritation since playing single player, I'm stuck with 3 other NPCs. Well, the NPCs' Pokemon die against 5 star Pokemon in a way that seems like it needs to be corrected. Even if you do a huge amount of damage, that Pokemon has forced shield points making there are least two battle checkpoints, so, you have to do enough damage to compensate for the ineptitude of 3 other computer players and that is pretty infuriating so far. The story-line seems pretty solid. I really like the wild area and how open it is.
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I am only at the 6th gym, but know what happens..... so.... what do I think about it.... well let's say this.... if it takes me longer than a week to finish a Pokemon Game's main story, that already should say something. Much like Let's Go, I not enjoying the games very much. Heck I enjoyed Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon more. So why is that... Well.....
Raid battles are useless when not training. They are a more annoying version of a wild encounter that takes far more time to do. You get 1 chance to catch a pokemon and if you fail, it runs. If the idiotic computer players faint, it runs. The game is plagued with old pokemon early on to the point where I am forced to use older pokemon, which I don't like in a new generation. Hardly any Pokemon can learn TMs early in the game it seems like to me. I am just glad some older pokemon I love, I was able to catch in replace of newer pokemon. Newer pokemon are just spread out too much. A number of new pokemon were useless until they evolve. Like with both Applin and Toxel are useless until they evolve. One in which you can't evolve until you don't need it. The fossil pokemon are the most terrible pokemon I have ever seen. Concept great, but stupid. Even the Dex entries says how dumb they are. There is WAY too much talking. The only person I enjoyed talking to was Sonia. We fight Bede way too much, hardly having any encounters with Marne, but perhaps that changes when you get to her brother's gym. The designs for most things are terrible. And some things you do are useless. It doesn't feel rewarding to explore every house like it has in past games. Like at one point, you get a letter to take to some one in another town. Like 'Ooo I wonder what you will get" and when you actually turn it is, you figure out the letter was from a ghost that died years ago, but that is all. A useless bit a lore that has no connection, unless of course, a legendary event pokemon connects it at a later time. Some environments were awesome, others not so great. There is no post game, as expected, except for a small quest to catch the legendary pokemon.... that.... had no connection to the main story. Now for Wild Area, which concept is awesome, but empty. Yes when you connect, you get food by talking to people you see, but that is all. It is so laggy that half the time you don't know who is around you. You can't connect to raids with people, because the ques are so slow. There is no reason to go back unless you are training, which becomes useless at times because the candy you get isn't the greatest. And camping just seems like a useless feature. From what I have seen so far, there are no games to play with them like other types we have had. The TMs.... why.... most pokemon you can sue, or ones I tried to use couldn't learn a single TM even though they should have been able to. It is just so annoying... TMs just feel useless to have. TRs are ok, but again, why.... why make them a one time use? To give us reason to go to raids because they knew if they didn't there wouldn't be a reason to go back. Now for the somewhat positives. I love a lot of the new pokemon. I love that there are a lot of Ice types. Some are terrible, others are great like always. However, some of the evolution methods and pokemon are just eh. The best thing in this game is customization. But why in the world do we get new jerseys that we can buy, but can't use them in the gym battles.... To me, this game is maybe a 5/10, Better than Let's Go, but very very far from the best. Because of laziness. |
There are a number of things about your post I agree with. In comparison to for example Pokemon Gold and Silver ore ever Black and White, these new games are lacking in some oomph which is why I hope they maybe are planning to add something more to them later on? If not, these are far from the best titles in the series.
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I have 120 hours in the game so far. I started the game really depressed, most of my favorites didn't make the cut. I was still salty about ultramoon and ultrasun, which were lazy copies without a lot of new plot, just a few new wild pokemon to catch for apricon purposes. But I am absolutely amazed by sword and shield.
The story itself was great for a pokemon game, not as good as colosseum or gale of darkness were back in the gamecube era, but still. You feel awesome fighting in those gyms. The soundtrack is great. And it's the complete opposite of sun and moon. After the first gym badge I already had 50 pokémon in my dex. Because you can explore so so many routes. There's no rotom blocking your path. There's a few roadblocks ofc, but they feel more natural and subtle. So... if you can somehow arrange yourself to play without the full dex, you will absolutely love it. There's also been a lot of gameplay changes for comfort. The eggmove thing, changing nature, in battle and in traveling it's a lot smoother. |
I wasn't too upset about there not being a national dex, the lack of better graphics compared to 3ds, etc. But so far I'm mostly disappointed in the new pokemon they just don't give me the same vibe as the rest of the pokemon world.
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After finally beating the game, which I actually enjoyed at the end, I want to add some additional stuff. I may echo what I said.
I loved how the League was set up. I have always wanted to be up against trainers in a tournament style thing. However, I wish they had added more friends or rivals so that we battled people aside from Gym Leaders who knew who actually finished the gym challenge. A lot of the character in the Opening Ceremony had unique models, but never showed up. I figured they would play a bigger part, not even during routes or anything, which I think would have been nice. Marne didn't have enough screen time compared to Bede, which was really annoying. Her brother had more screen time than she did it felt like. I would have also liked to have battled Sonia at least once. I did like how Hop changed his team, even though he was never a problem. I loved how we battled along side the Legendaries against Eternatus. However, I would have liked to have learned more about Galar's past. I haven't done Post Game Story, so maybe we will get more enough, but the history of the Galar region just took a back seat which was really annoying for me. I wanted to learn more about the heroes... at this point I am wondering if Az, Truth and Ideal Heroes, and the two heroes in Galar are the same people. It seems odd that 3 regions had brothers that have fought one another around the same time period. Which brings me to this, why do the heroes of the story have to be brothers? Why can it not be a brother and sister. Both sisters. Or friends? We have had no ancient females have any spotlight, but again, maybe it is because all the brothers are the same pair? Eternatus..... why did it have to be from a meteor? Deoxys and Mega Evolution all came from the meteor... can they not think of something else... TMs, I couldn't find many TMs that are normally sold like Thunderbolt. Perhaps I missed a store, but I haven't seen Thunderbolt or any other TMs like it sold. I do like how we got Fangs and Punches on the store though. Lastly, no connection to other regions at all. How was Kalos and Unova not mentioned? I think maybe I seen Kanto and maybe Unova mentioned once and I am pretty dang sure I spoke to every NPC in the entire game. |
The game is arguably based on explainable fact the least best entry into the Pokemon series so far. It has pretty new and solid graphics but I've already 99%'d both games twice and gotten rid of them since waiting in line at Gamestop that fateful night when I got the games in the first place. I honestly am not a fan. It irritates me that they just kinda vomited out these two games because like many other disappointing titles these days, I was really excited about them initially. But the Pokemon creators seem to have, with this game, taken 20 years of game-making magic, and forgotten all about every detail. I've already fully beaten and re-sold both of these games back to Gamestop. Just go ahead and stop and think about what you're doing the next time you're playing one of these games. Let the memories of the games like Gold and Silver mull over in your mind for a minute and you'll understand the way I feel about Sword and Shield. Thanks Pokemon, really happy about the fact that to actually play MP with any other real life player it takes the strength of a WiFi connection (since the Switch dock doesn't have an Ethernet port) that most people don't have in their household to be able to connect with others. I really like how you also decided not to put a single cave or building worth exploring in the game at all, or any location for that matter. It's pretty much a straight line through the game from gym to gym with the exception of the Wild area which takes about 20 minutes to get through if you just ride everywhere from the start on your bike...
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I beat the game. While playing I compiled a list of things I liked and disliked. Also I did not play Let's Go, so if I give something credit here that originated in Let's Go my bad.
Pros: - I enjoyed the soundtrack a lot. - I love how berries are handled now. - Breeding is much faster/not as tedious now. - People actually recognize you as you continue to do well in the gym challenges. - I like the atmosphere of the region. Cons: - It irked me to no end that you can't move the camera outside the wild area. The way this game looks makes me think the camera is movable so I was constantly moving the joy stick to look at things from another angle just to remember oh wait I can't. - There is quite literally nothing to explore. Even the wild area is just open area with no hidden secrets or reasons to continue once you've seen it all. I actually laughed when I finished the game and I opened the menu for it to say something along the lines of "The Galar region is open to explore!" Explore what exactly? It's disappointing when you end up in a really cool area or city and there's nothing to actually do or see there. Glimwood Tangle and Ballonlea come to mind. Spikemuth was by far the most disappointing place in the game. - Routes are very short/nothing inbetween gym challenges. I'm not someone who catches a ton of Pokemon so all my exp. comes from battles. I had to start grinding after Stow-on-Side to keep up because there weren't enough trainers to battle. There are barely any inbetween towns/cities to visit which made the whole thing feel rushed at a certain point. - Internet in the wild area is horrendous. Practically unplayable at times. - Removal of the GTS. - Some battles take place clearly within a city but the battle background is like you're out on a route... come on man. Not a full pro or con just thoughts: - I actually kind of like Hop? I don't want to punch him in the face every time I see him like I did with Hau. - I felt like my Pokemon could barely learn any of the tms or trs I had. - Gigantamax being so rare made it feel more special, but at the same time actually getting a gigantamax Pokemon I wanted proved to be so time consuming I gave up, making the feature pointless for myself. I WAS EVEN CHEATING TO GET ONE and just gave up. - Confused why team yell was even labeled a team. Just have them be Marnie's supporters and drop the whole team thing for a region.... or forever would also be fine by me. - Pokemon Camp is an addition I can do without. |
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So, I was really hyped for these games. But ultimately, I was very disappointed. The story was trash, the characters were cardboard cutouts as far as personality wise, the landscape of the Galar region is depressing to me, the story is way too short, there’s virtually no post game story, and the graphics are quite bad. Still, it’s not a bad game, not really a good one either. It’s kinda just meh. Despite me not being a particular fan of the game I still get a kick out of people sperging out about how bad it is and them basically protesting Gamefreak.
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Since I've beat the game, I can probably give my two cents.
The story was definitely lackluster; Hop annoys you even 2 seconds, Leon is constantly on your throat how undefeated he is and how Charizard is the best, Team Yell is a huge step down from what made Team Skull charming, and the overall plot just felt it was scrambled with no thought at all. Not to mention any of the characters got barely any development. I was basically mashing A throughout the entire story (I am a fast reader so I got a lot of the information despite skimming). The presentation is alright. While some of the towns look stunning, many other parts of the game looks unpolished; bad textures (besides the N64 trees, the rocks and grass to name a few), empty battle backgrounds, background changes in battle when you are in a different area (i.e. battle on a big bridge but the background shifts to plains), pop-ins are constant and a nuisance, scaling of models (Wailord and Eternatus), the crammed spaces in battle, and the exploration feels limited and empty (cities, routes, and dungeons are all linear). Besides some of the new move animations from the new Pokemon, the Pokemon animations are laughable because they are all copy and pasted from games on the 3DS, a huge slap on the face since someone's favourite Pokemon most likely got cut for the "better animations" excuse. Pokemon in the overworld is a welcome change but they all feel lifeless except when they interact with your trainer. The cutscenes feel like a step down from the Gen 7 games and it's 2019 why is there no skip cutscene option yet? Luckily, the music is solid and fits the atmosphere well; it definitely gives me Gen 5 vibes. As for gameplay, I still had some fun with it since it is a Pokemon game at the end of the day and I do not feel the whole Pokemon formula needs to change because that what makes these games basic, timeless, and charming; there's nothing wrong with them always being turn based RPGs, I love turn based RPGs. However, I did not like Dynamax one bit, it's far too busted and it doesn't add to anything. If anything, Mega Evolutions should have returned, while it did make some Pokemon broken, it helped make some more Pokemon viable. I haven't touched the game in a month (except for a trade and mystery gift) but apparently the post game is kept to a minimum. QoL changes are definitely a welcome change. Overall, I felt the game was average at best. I didn't think it was as bad as I anticipated but I do not think these games are praiseworthy either. I feel the franchise deserves a better Pokemon game to match with the quality of other games for the Switch. |
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I'm having a lot of fun. While the graphics in the wild area are noticeably bad in some parts, I really don't care, it doesn't deter me from the game and hasn't bothered me. I also actually like the cutscenes, except the ones during battle, but I do think it makes the battle more interesting when the important characters comment on them or you getting a critical hit on their Pokemon.
The only thing I don't like is how Sonia gives out revives whenever you talk to her, that feels a bit hand-holdy? Granted, she's stopped later, and this gen so far doesn't feel as hand holding as the last gen, but, lmfao. |
Having just finished, not impressed with the story worst one yet and boring, barely cared what any of the characters were saying just powered though those parts. The battles were too easy my pokemon were 20 + levels higher than all the gyms and challenge cup opponents I faced, if it is that easy to train up your pokemon then surely they should of made the gym levels higher. the wild area, surprise trade, exp candy's, Drednaw and Corviknight are prob the only reason I managed to complete the game
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i like it and am having fun with it. the game largely revolves around raids though so unless you're big on raids there's not much that SwSh can offer and this definitely seems to be the case with the DLC, as well. the story is definitely ok for the most part with it being sort of slow to pick up at the beginning with it getting better, especially towards the climax of the game which IMO beats out the climax of mostly every other Pokemon game. my only wish is that Game Freak would expand beyond max raid battles and hopefully add something else to do for players who aren't so keen on raids.
... also maybe add better AIs for people who raid on their own. Solrock is awful. |
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