Reviews VideoGame / Pokemon Sword And Shield

A sidegrade more than anything else

With all the controversies surrounding the Dexit... and with it being Pokémon, Sword and Shield are the ideal games to call "love it or hate it", right? The truth is, they are neither of those cases.

• On to the positives:
  • They were serious when they said the game was a good gateway for competitive - there is a massive amount of Quality-of-Life features that make creating competent Pokémon incredibly easy.
  • They kept most of the best features from Let's Go. Most importantly, they kept the Mobile PC which is a godsend for anyone that wants to use more than 6 Pokémon in the main story.
  • For the first time in the series, they introduced no trade evolutions.
  • The professionalized Pokémon League setting is really nice.
  • The Battle Tower is fair now! While somewhat more simple than the Battle Tree from Gen VII, it is improved by the rank system making defeats bearable.
  • Why can't more gyms be like Raihan's?

• Neutrals:
  • The Raid Den system is kind of hit-or-miss. It's a reliable way to get semi-competent Pokémon, but you need real people to clear the harder ones and that's difficult with the stamps system.
  • The graphics are okay. The animations for new Pokémon are quite good, and so are the cities, but old Pokémon and most moves didn't get any kind of revamp at all. There are some texture problems as well.
  • I've seen people complain that the post-game is short... but it's been the standard since ORAS.
  • The Dynamaxing mechanic is something I like in terms of flavor, but it seems it could be overwhelming in terms of gameplay.

• Negatives:
  • The Wild Area is weak at best. While it makes type availability in the early-game much more balanced, it's really poor in terms of performance and it has several mechanics I dislike (such as its open nature).
  • Hidden Abilities are still cumbersome to get. No need to say anything else about that.
  • Most routes are incredibly short. I blame the Wild Area for that.
  • The Y-COMM was supposed to be the big Quality-of-life improvement to both the Festival Plaza and PSS, but the stamps system is really limiting as the update rate is inconsistent, making finding an empty Max Raid session difficult (for you and the rest)
  • The story is easily the most shallow one in the entire series. While I understand the focus is the Gym Challenge, the conflict gives you the feeling that it's there just for the sake of having a conflict.
  • The end of the story has some poor level curves. In one moment you are fighting Hop's ace at level 50, but just four or five battles later you have Leon's weakest Pokémon at Level 62. All of this in, like, 20 minutes of gameplay.
  • The worst-looking cover legendaries in the entire series.

Ultimately, I think the game is... fine. Nothing spectacular, and certainly nothing justifying the price tag it has, but it can be enjoyed. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.