Pokémon Sword (2019)

This is a game that hits exactly on the 3-star mark for me. It was good. It helped me relax. Nothing about it irked me, but nothing challenged me either. Probably the most difficult part of this game is living with the guilt that you effortlessly crushed Hop's and other trainers' dreams over and over again.

My favorite bits? The music, the localization, and the town design, all of which were REALLY good. The British English dialogue consistently cracked me up, the music felt so right in every situation, and I want to spend the rest of my life in Ballonlea.

Yet, many parts of the game felt uninspired to me: the story, the Wild Area (it felt so empty to me for some reason), and the battling in general. Maybe I'm just getting too old and have played too many Pokemon games at this point, or maybe it's because I've started playing Hearthstone recently (where the CPU is actually smart), but the unfair advantages you get with battling in this game and other Pokemon games is starting to get to me in a way that doesn't make winning ever feel rewarding.

I would say that due to the good points of Pokemon SWSH, it was worth playing for me, but as soon as I beat the story + main post-game content, I was quite ready to move on.

*Note: I don't have an Online subscription, so I wasn't able to do everything in the game. Maybe raiding would have been fun?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this Pokemon game. I've been a fan since the Pokemon Blue days, and this is probably one of my favourites. It's also the first game that I have completed the Pokedex in since Blue. Initially, I had concerns like others about them leaving out many Pokemon from this game. However, this made completing the Pokedex very achievable and therefore a much more enjoyable experience. I didn't miss any Pokemon - there are still 400 to collect and use and it allowed me to use some Pokemon that I normally wouldn't have.

The pacing of the game is a little different to most other Pokemon games, as the first 3 or 4 badges take quite a while to collect. But it also means that the variety of Pokemon that you have a chance to catch early on in the game is significant. This was a big improvement on past games, some are still rare and only available late game as they should be, but your choices for using in the first couple of gyms is very broad. It has come a long way from taking on Brock with your starter, a Pidgey and a bug.

I enjoyed the Raid battles and Dynamaxing, however I do wish they would stick with a concept, as mega evolution and Z moves have come and gone and I feel like it would be good to stick with 1 of those options long term. As always, I wish the main story provided a little more challenge and diversity, but I think a lot of the quality of life changes they made really helped spread out some of the monotony of previous games. Not having to go back to a computer to swap out Pokemon is great and they really make levelling up new additions to your team easy and quick.

The best feature in my opinion is having the Pokemon in the overworld. It's crazy that it's taken this long for that to happen, but I'm really glad that experiment from Let's Go made it across to Sword and Shield as it really makes it feel like a Pokemon filled world, as it should be.

The online system is a little bit janky, but it functions well enough - I think it will probably get better over time when they activate Pokemon Home in 2020. That being said, it's unfortunate that wasn't available to launch with the game.

All in all, I enjoyed this Pokemon game more than I thought I would, and I'm glad that I was able to complete the 'Dex just by trading with 1 friend. I would recommend it to any Pokemon fan, even if you're upset about the Dexit, as it really improved the game in my view. Hopefully the next instalments continue to build on this great base!

I love raids and shiny hunting. The story is more than I would expect from a Pokemon game, and all the characters are so adorable and amazing. After completing the Pokedex I didn't even care about the whole dexit, because let's be honest, completing it is a lot of work for someone who doesn't transfer pokemon from version to version.

But oh man... we have around 400 pokemon in current dex for S&S, and NO option to sort them in our box according to dex number or element, select multiple ones without them being arranged next to each other, or ANY way to sort them except manually. I'm sorry but you just can't expect people to manually move every single pokemon in 20 boxes when you have so many of them. This is not a quality of life feature, it is a necessity for a future pokemon game.

My second complaint would be about refreshing stamps. I mean, I can use the surprise trade trick, but why make people find and use workarounds instead of just make the refresh option appear more often? And I want to have a streamlined method of going from raid to raid and finding ones I want

If not for that, WOW is Pokemon S&S a great game. The raids, gigantamaxing, fun characters. 60 hours went by in a flash! and it will be probably 60 more :D But is it a nostalgia from 1998 keeping me afloat, like 6 million other people, or is it objectively a good game? we will probably never know.

ATTENTION GAMERS

Yeah, I'm talking to you! I figured out a way to make the game more challenging without resorting to a nuzlocke. After every gym battle, I assemble and completely new team based on a theme. I've only tackled the first three gyms but my themes have been as follows:

first gym: farmer pokemon (pokemon I'd think a farmer would have)

second gym: bug fan pokemon (basically all bug type pokemon, no exceptions)

third gym: tea time pokemon (any pokemon that would be appropriate to invite to a tea party)

So far it has made the game way more challenging and fun. I recommend this approach. I also am open to any suggestions on what my next party theme should be.

My first Pokémon game played to the finish since Gold/Silver and overall had a great time with it. My experience was dampened by the lacklustre story and uninteresting characters barring a select few along with some pretty horrible visuals for the times we are in, but everything else from the soundtrack and exploration to battles and hunting Pokémon kept me enticed and every single one of those Gyms were a pleasure to conquer! Add in the fun raid battle's and it's easy for me to not let the negative areas cloud my judgment too much.

I essentially wrote a really long ranty opinion piece on the stupidity that is this game, but in hindsight, I wouldn't want to read it and I doubt you would either.

The short of it is that the Wild Area is this game's saving grace and that the rest of the game should have been designed around it and/or be more like it. Other than that, this game has the worst overworld/level design in Pokemon history as well as an unmatched number of UI/UX oddities and oversights (relative to past titles, that is).

I wasn't one of the people on the fence or totally against this, so I guess keep that in mind when I say that I'm having a blast, just as I expected to.

The "lack of content" complaints are bullshit, in my opinion. I felt that way before even playing the game, because what exactly counts as content to people? We've got 8 badges, multiple rivals, a "team" to whup every so often, a League, multiple new gimmicks, new gym-related stuff, etc. Is "content" the Battle Tower? That might explain why I don't give a shit, because the post-game towers have never been something I cared about. I liked Pokemon contests in RSE/ORAS and I liked the Chateau thing in XY because it was early in the game, you got money and experience, and the trainers got harder each time you gained a new title. But post-game "EX Dungeon" type things will never be a draw for me.

I had 13 hours on the game before I got the first gym badge, and my team was only around level 20. Yes, EXP Share is always on, and a lot of things give your team experience, but it really isn't difficult to not be over-leveled. My group of friends always comes to my house on Saturdays for gaming/movies, and I honestly wasn't expecting to be playing Pokemon for most of the day because I wanted to experience all of the music and stuff and can't really do that when we're all there trying to play or watch something. But we ended up playing together for most of the afternoon and evening, joining each other's raids, hyping each other's catches and teams, and otherwise being a group of people in the age range of 28-33 enjoying some damn Pokemon. AND we watched some Star Wars. (Let it be known that I'm not much for multi-player unless it's like, Mario Kart, but this was hella enjoyable and the raids are pretty short and sweet.)

I got my third badge last night at around 22 hours. There's plenty to do and enjoy, guys, and it's beautiful. Also, I caught a shiny Corphish out of nowhere yesterday. So, that was cool.

Edit to add that some people might find the following to be cons:

-Move Tutor/Deleter is in every Pokemon Center, and it's free, which is admittedly pretty broken

-The level cap. This is for CATCHING Pokemon. Badges raise this in increments of 5, so far, and it starts at 20. But the level for Pokemon to listen to you is still series standard. I find this to be an understandable addition because there are SO MANY Pokemon in the wild area. Being able to catch everything from the beginning is exactly the kind of thing people would complain about. This MAKES SENSE.

I am curious, I saw reports prior to today that there were graphical issues with Pokemon Sword and Shield, things like pop-in and other issues. Was that based on a finished build of the game? I ask because the game looks quite pretty. So pretty that I am now reconsidering my decision to hold off buying until later. I like that it basically looks like Sun & Moon, except at a decent resolution. And I love the landscapes.