Why Is the Switch era of Pokemon games so hated

[Noodle_00]

I've recently played every switch game besides bdsp and I genuinely don't get the hate. Criticism of SV I understand like It was a buggy mess on release but It definitely had some of the greatest story elements of any pokemon game. SwSh are my 2nd Fav Pokemon games oat. I mean the no national dex I understand if people don't like that change but I feel like It was a last minute change due to their short time frames of generations, especially 7-9. Why do y'all (If y'all do) not like the switch games??

 

[Clueless Scrub]

Personally, I thought the mainline Switch entries were fine enough; Red/Blue had plenty of bugs, and Ruby/Sapphire made importing old Pokemon impossible long before Sword/Shield did any such thing. I think the problem started at the transition from purely portable consoles to the big boy TV stuff. Development strategies that were fine on Game Boy to 3DS couldn't keep up on Switch, but the marketing machine demanded they proceed regardless. When portable games get put on a big boy console at a big boy price, players want big boy quality, and they'll have a fit if they don't get it.

Another factor could be the public response to Legends and its more open-ended format. I didn't play that one much, but from what I've heard, players liked that spinoff so much that they wanted the main games to play just like it and they got upset when that didn't happen. Players don't like their games telling them "NO"; Legends still did that, but not to the degree the main games did.

That aside, I actively avoided the Let's Go games due to their mandatory motion controls. I remember a developer interview saying those were required because they wanted players to have the particular experience those controls allow, implying said players wouldn't use them if they were optional. I can't source that second part, but if that is indeed the developers' reasoning, demanding players play in a way they don't want, because you think they should, won't sit well with any audience, least of all those players that can't physically tolerate motion controls.

In short, I think the beef comes from increased player expectations that the games have not met, from either a hardware or gameplay standpoint. If the rumors are true about generation 10 taking more time to create, I can only hope that's enough to get the polish the developers and the players want.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'll be dividing this post into groups of games, but in all honesty, I haven't been able to stick with and beat a new Pokemon game since Sword (which took me a long time to beat because of university and other factors). I also want to preface this by saying I will not be going over every aspect of the games, only the negative aspects. I know that sounds unfair to leave out the excellent presentation of LGPE, but the title of this thread is explicitly about the negative aspects, so I don't think people are going to expect me to review them. This is not a review. This is not comprehensive.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee (Gen 7 Kanto): I've played and beaten Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu because I loved the movie Detective Pikachu but was not ready to dive into the spin-off games. I did decide recently to double dip with LG Eevee because it was on sale for $30 instead of the usual $60, but I haven't played that version just yet. The game is too simple and easy for me. I understand taking away Natures, but there was no reason to go all the way back to Gen 1 levels of complexity. Held items and abilities add a lot of complexity to the gameplay, and I don't like that this is removed. Also, I kind of agree with the above reply that not having the option to play with the Pro controller for Switch is a net negative.

I heard Alpharad defend the game because Wild Battles allegedly weren't fun, but I actually feel the opposite when it comes to catching wild Pokemon. I don't like swinging a controller in the same minigame the whole game. I'd rather the process of catching a Pokemon not feel like a completely different game.

I gotta talk about Yellow for a minute. Pokémon Yellow isn't an awful game (or arguably, it is considering Gen 1 is held together by duct tape). It's just kind of a bad starting point for the series and not just because of Brock though that is a big factor. People look at Yellow and say, "Oh, I get to start with a Pikachu like Ash, and I can catch a Pidgeotto early and get all the starters." You're not going to have Ash's team because you're not playing with Ash's OP Pikachu! You're stuck with an unevolved Pikachu (with no light ball) for the whole game. So I understand why they buffed Pikachu's stats and gave you access to some completely OP moves in Zippy Zap, Floaty Fall, and Splishy Splash (plus Pika Papow which I didn't know existed). I also understand why they gave Eevee the choice of 3 out of 8 moves based on the Eeveelutions to make up for the fact that you can't evolve Eevee (which is normally the entire point of getting an Eevee).

I don't like that the games hand you all three starters especially on repeat playthroughs because in that case, I feel like the game has decided 2/3 of my 6 party members for me. I understand you can just choose not to use the three starters, but you're still kind of encouraged to, and this selling point isn't all it's cracked up to be. Plus, you only need two of the starters. Charizard isn't very helpful in Gen 1 singleplayer or even Gen 7 Kanto. Having an electric-type and a grass-type on the same team is normally not really necessary (albeit, Dark-type and Steel-type didn't exist in Gen 1, and Ghost- and Dragon-type Mon barely existed, etc., so it's not as big a deal in Gen 1 or even Gen 3 Kanto with <151 Pokemon to choose from). Which one you need is a bit complicated--because Bulbasaur (as a starter) is recommended for the first three gyms, but an electric-type is recommended for Elite Four Lorelei. With my original playthrough of LGPE, I struggled figuring out what to teach Venusaur, and I was unmotivated to even bother teaching it anything besides grass-type moves because I was just mowing down every non-boss trainer.

That's the main thing. Nobody really challenges you until the end of the game unless you're doing a challenge run. I think even the Elite Four in this game isn't that hard. Red's probably hard, but the post game forces you to fight trainers with only one species of Pokemon between the two of you (good luck getting multiple Alakazam to use by the way), so he might as well not even be there (especially since this timeline's Red didn't do anything--he's not the champion, and he flat out did nothing to stop Giovanni). I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but the game's just ... really too easy because Game Freak really wanted the Pokemon Go players to give the title a chance and stick with the main series, and that just didn't happen. LGPE is an awkward waste of a Kanto remake as a result IMO, but I want to give it another chance with the Eevee sometime.

Pokémon Sword/Shield (Gen 8) Sword is the one I have the least criticisms with ... except for BDSP which I haven't played enough of to have a solid opinion on (other than the fact that the overworld is ... really ugly ... because they saw Link's Awakening and thought "Oh, we can do that as a compromise between the old graphics and the new artstyle" and then the devs didn't have enough time to make it look anywhere near as appealing). Gen 8 is a little too easy, but it's mostly fine. I think the story gets boring around Gym Badges 5 and 6. I'm not going to talk about Dexit because I'm over it by now, but I think they could've put more time and effort into these games. Or at least I would say that about Sword, but Covid19 happened, and I feel like delaying the game until spring 2020 would've been a terrible decision for various reasons that I don't want to get into. No one at TPCi could've predicted it, but that's the hypothetical.

Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (Gen 9): I think I just don't like open world games, so it's a little hard for me to criticize this fairly. First, I will say that "You can challenge the gyms in any order you choose" is only technically a true statement. I don't want to promote a ROM hack here, but people have made ROM hacks where the player can pick any gym leader first and have a balanced challenge (as opposed to getting massacred because they fought the Psychic-type Gym Leader before their starter evolved). I also don't like that I'm encouraged to wander around, and then I wander too far and nearly get eviscerated by a high level fish because I was stubborn about not running away from it. I also don't understand why the Tera type is only "once per trip to the Pokemon Center" in the singleplayer. Like, genuinely, I don't understand. Are they afraid I'm going to cheese the AI trainers too much?

So my main problem with the game (which is probably not how most players feel) is the gameplay loop: I boot up the game after months. I catch some Pokemon and gradually move closer to the water-type gym leader. I get bored. I turn off the game. I think about the game every so often for a while and think "Man, I didn't make any progress last time." I eventually think about the game less and less until the cycle repeats. Recently I've gone months without thinking about touching the game, and I don't think I'll actually complete it. I don't like that I have to go hunting for the five trainers on each route. I miss the trainers challenging me because my character doesn't wear shorts or because they're a sailor on a cruise ship or because they had nothing to do while riding their motorcycle. Catching the wild Pokemon is fine, but I've just lost interest in completing the game.

Also, you know, the game was bugged out the ---, but I don't feel like covering that. We all know that already. Interestingly enough, I only experienced one game breaking glitch. The game got stuck on a NPC's dialogue, and I hadn't manually saved in a while, but thankfully, there was a cheat code to go back to an autosave point even with auto save turned off.

One last complaint is the credits song is by Ed Sheeran, and after months of "Shape of You" and "Thinking Out Loud" and several other songs, I just never want to listen to his music again. Everyone online was upset about it. Patching out the Ed Sheeran song was the 1st mod available for the game. It was kind of funny honestly.

To be clear, the Switch games are fiiiiiine. I'm just ... not really a fan. Sorry for the long post.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

The games on the Switch integrated a good amount of changes compared to older games. I think that even the 3ds games don't have much love, but still I guess a bit more than the Switch games. However, personally, I preferred the Switch games more, but his stems from the original question lol.
I would point out those things:

- LGPE: games made for Pokemon GO players. hoping old players would come back to the series, some fans didn't understand this and had a different vision about these games. However, it was just the launch game for the Switch, so, despite the many aspects that I didn't enjoy myself (so much that i didn't buy it), I think it was a good suit to start the new series of games on the Switch.

- SwoShi: very criticized, and I don't totally agree with that. I enjoyed this game a lot because I liked Dynamax and the Raids were fun. It was very cool to see Pokémon in the overworld, some Galar cities aren't bad, and the rivals were pretty interesting. I preferred all of those to gen 6 and gen 7. I don't think Galar was perfect, indeed, it had the problem of being basically a vertical corridor, but exploration wasn't a thing in Alola as well and in most of Kalos too. The graphics seem to have put some people off, which I can agree a bit, even though I prefer the SwoShi one to the ScaVio style. The major thing that upset some people and honestly me as well is the fact that the pokedex was cut.

- BDSP: oh well, I'll try my best to stay calm. People know how much I hate these games. Long story short: what's the point of it? Platinum has more content. Ugly graphics. Full of bugs and issues. For a full priced game. Called a remake but was a bad "improved" remastered. However, it changed the whole concept of "Pokémon remake": now it's a 1:1 remake, with a different graphics. Basically what came less was the "adding the current generation features". Luckily enough, there's PLA. However, it doesn't seem like we'll have actual remakes like we had previously (FRLG,HgSs, ORAS). The concept behind the remake is changed, i guess. That is another reason of criticism, i guess.

- PLA: new series addition. And imo one of the greatest things GF ever did. Now, I loved the game and it had issues as well, but, it was a very experimental game. It had a good story and a good lore, as well. They didn't really mess up gen 4 lore, which I was quite surprised lol.
It is a different game, with a different objective and game style. Some people didn't enjoy it because it was different, but that was the point imo. I think that among all of the Switch games, PLA is the one to blame and criticize less. because, it was an interesting take on the series, on gen 4, on the usual gameplay. In addition to it, it was the actual gen 4 remake for me.

- ScaVio: Pokémon becomes openworld, which isn't too surprising after PLA. I haven't heard many criticize that, and I am not against it if they knew how to make an openworld. I didn't enjoy ScaVio for several reasons: the openworld areas were boring, the background song was always the same omg change it please, the designs weren't the best, I didn't enjoy the cartoonish style, I hated the school theme, horrible tera hats, full of bugs and issues, the DLCs weren't super fun. On the other hand, it had nice characters, the area 0 was amazing and the story was very good as well.

 

[MachoPony]

My 2 cents

LGPE: A nice easy fun romp for fans of Kanto, of which i am not. I played Eevee once and was thankful to get something out of it in BDSP but It was still baby's first pokemon game. XY did it better.

SWSH: Underrated as hell, few bugs, feels like a traditional game with just the wild areas to explore, tons of cool items early, easy grinding throuh EXP Candies, massive variety of mons even with out the full 900+ dex. I think people just saw that not every pokemon would be available and threw a tantrum.

BDSP: Diamond was my first game, how dare you, how freaking dare you. The chibi graphics were mediocre, absolutely nothing was changed from the originals including the horrible regional dex, sure you can get plat stuff but that's hidden away underground. None of the recent added mechanics like Mega Evolution or Dynamax was even considered and about the only good thing it had going for it was a solid difficulty level. Please don't do this lazy port when you inevitably remake black and white.

PLA: Amazing game, great world to explore, simplified yet still complex battle system. great story and characters. More of this please.

SV: Hated on for the technical issues but otherwise was very good. good difficulty, nice progression, good blend of old mons and new with the new being quite good. DLC wasn't bad either especially indigo disk. If i had one criticism it would be the Illusion of choice. No, you can't go anywhere and take on anything in any order you want. There's a set route through the game for level progression despite what the game lies to you about in marketing.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Game Freak got arrogant with Pokemon being the #1 media franchise and thought/thinks they can skate by with minimum effort games because of brand recognition. There's the simple answer.

LGPE: Was the idea of this game conceived while the developer was under the influence of some illicit substances? Because that's exactly what this embarrassment of a supposed "game" seems like. Ugly designs, terrible gameplay elements and did anyone actually ask for Kanto again? Look, I love me some FR/LG but that game was actually very well done. This is cash-grab shovelware, pure and simple.

Sw/Sh: I could have really enjoyed these games, if not for the godawful characters and story. Your rival was an annoying parasite who wouldn't shut up and never had anything of actual importance to say and do. Oh, but he can make awkward, uncomfortable poses while grinning like an idiot, and I guess that's all that matters to Game Freak. The Champion was somehow both a chronic narcissist and insufferable buffoon. The story? Oh yeah, let's make Rose somehow evil in the 11th hour and shove everthing into it at the last minute. Which is a shame, since I enjoyed the character clothing options, the basic gameplay was good, and Dmax Adventure raids in the second DLC are fun. Shame abou the first DLC also being a turd, though

PLA: I'm sure it's a decent game, but the whole setting didn't vibe with me. Neither did the limited outfit options or some of the mind-numbingly repetitive tasks like "catch 25 of the same species of Pokemon."

BD/SP: I don't get the hate for these. Yes, they should have implemented more of Platinum's improvements. No, I didn't appreciate the changes they made to the Underground, in particular removing the Secret Base decorations. Yes, there were issues with glitches, especially when it came to movement on the map. But these were pretty solid games overall, mostly owing to the source material. But at least they didn't royally screw anything up, like they did in HGSS and ORAS. Plus, I actually liked not having to deal with those absurd "super forms" of Pokemon. It's not a particularly high bar, but these were the best of the Switch games.

S/V: The lack of clothing options was my initial turn-off from these games, and that might have helped me dodge a bullet. I didn't have to deal with the numerous crashes, glitches, performance issues, and other technical problems that plagued these games. And I've never seen an open world game so desolate, even with all the wild Pokemon running around. You can't enter most buildings, there are fewer NPCs in town you can actually interact with, and the world overall seems lifeless. But again, these games had some good ideas, since it looks like Game Freak finally decided to hire some competent character and story writers. But forcing end-user purchasers to serve as unwitting beta testers is unforgivable, and not even the best gym leader in the entire franchise (Larry) can make up for that.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

BDSP: Diamond was my first game, how dare you, how freaking dare you.

You understand me. That was literally my same reaction. Diamond was my first game as well.

 

[RMVNZ]

Although the DS era of Pokémon had some weak entries, they were also punctuated by very strong bangers such as Platinum, HGSS, B2W2, ORAS, and USUM.
Coming off the DS era with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I had incredibly high expectations for the Switch era.
Instead, the majority of the games we got in this era—in comparison to the games that defined the DS era—were lukewarm in comparison.
The only game I can see that is a punctuation of excellence in this era is Legends: Arceus.
Other than that, each Switch-era game had something missing from their DS-era counterparts, such as a robust postgame, fantastic writing, or even graphical quality control.