Despite launching with a few controversies, Pokémon Sword and Shield went on to break sales records maintaining its legacy as the best selling video game series of all time. In the first week, six million copies were sold making it the fastest selling Nintendo Switch game so far.
It’s safe to say people’s expectations of a new Pokémon generation finding its way to a home console made people’s imaginations run wild and shot their expectations through the roof. We were finally getting it, right? The open world Pokémon RPG of our dreams. Why wouldn’t it be? This is the first time they’ve had a machine this powerful to run on.
That… wasn’t how it turned out. Pokémon Sword and Shield feels right at home with the last two generations on the 3DS.
The premise of the series has never really changed much and once again its kept mostly on track. Choose one of three starter Pokémon, form a team, collect all the gym badges, deal with a group of goons, defeat the champion, face the legendries, and if you’re up for it, catch ‘em all.
Last generation, Sun and Moon strayed the path a bit further than normal by changing the way gyms work. Gyms are back to normal this time around, but we’ve now got some changes to other areas instead.
Instead of an Elite Four, we get a tournament called the Champion Cup that’s set up and clearly inspired by a sports tournament format. Collect all the gym badges to qualify, then work your way through elimination matches in the semi-finals and finals while facing off against some of your rivals along the way. I thought it was a really fun way to incorporate already established characters into the challenge. Usually you haven’t met most of the Elite Four until you see them during their matches where I feel they should probably be recognisable names by that point given their status.
Each match takes place in a filled sports stadium that really enhanced the atmosphere . I think it’s the most impactful the finale has ever felt in a Pokémon game before. It was the culmination of an adventure, you’re almost at the top and everyone’s eyes are on you.
Another new feature is Dynamax forms. During certain matches, such as gym leader battles and Champion Cup matches, you’ll have an option to make one of your Pokémon during the match Dynamax. They essentially grow massive, gain increased stats, and have their moves replaced with Dynamax versions of the same move-type. From an aesthetical perspective, watching them get summoned was pretty entertaining, but I think the changes to gameplay took too much away from the regularity of a Pokémon match. Considering we didn’t get mega-evolutions at all in this new gen, this as the replacement was underwhelming. Mega-evolutions were a lot more meaningful as they made some underperforming Pokémon more powerful by gaining increased stats and often a new type. Considering the replacement, Dynamax, could only be used in select matches like gym leader battles, it just meant those Pokémon elevated to relevancy thanks to mega-evolutions fell back down to where they came from.
The last big feature is the Wild Area. It’s a large open world section of the map that isn’t as linear as anywhere else in any Pokémon game before. It’s a gigantic park connecting two cities together and vaguely dabbles in what I think people imagined they’d get this generation but for the entire game. The park is separated into different areas which contain different Pokémon but note there’s still no loading screens between them. On top of that there’s a weather system for each area with several possible conditions further randomising the Pokémon spawning in each area.
This area was made more interesting in the early game because it included higher level Pokémon surpassing your capabilities that you needed to avoid. If you weren’t paying attention it felt kind of dangerous, a feeling I don’t think I’ve ever felt outside of a town before.
Also, in the Wild Area there’s Max Raid Battles you can join with other players or NPC’s. You and a few other trainers can take on a Dynamaxed Pokémon for some extra rewards including unique Dynamax forms and items. These feel more like a minigame, detached from what we normally have come to know as a Pokémon battle. Its not necessarily a bad thing, having a team-based battle against a single powerful Pokémon is a fairly cool idea, I just think it would have been better without the Dynamaxing.
The Pokemon interaction feature of this generation are camps. It feels a little like the old Nintendogs demo from the DS. You can throw balls which Pokémon will fetch, pet them, play with them, and cook for them. Cooking gives your team experience points, heals their hp and improves their sociability. I always appreciate these features, they do get old quickly, but any attempt to give you more interaction with your mon’s is a net positive to me. It breathes life into Pokémon and they feel like living creatures.
Another new addition is Pokejobs. A kind of mobile-game like feature. At in-game PC’s you can send your pokemon on jobs for a period of time. While they’re out you can’t use them and they come back with a fairly big experience boost. It’s a great way to train Pokémon your not using and maybe want to evolve to complete your Pokedex while you level others.
Post-end game content consists of a battle tower and online PvP. It’s a shame we didn’t get deeper PvE. There is PvP though, and if you’re really after a challenge, playing against other people will likely be more challenging for you than a PvE mode anyway.
Let’s talk about some of those controversies, we’ve already touched on mega-evolutions earlier.
Pokémon has gotten a bit easier over the years and EXP-share systems continue to serve. It’s odd they removed the ability to turn it off this time around. They stated not many people turned it off, but considering it seems fairly insignificant to implement, who does it hurt to have the option even if it’s just for a few players?
The removal of the National Dex does seem in some ways, fair enough. There’s just so many Pokémon as it is. Next generation will likely push the number of Pokémon listed in the Pokedex over 1,000! But here’s where it hurts. We know the Pokémon were future proofed when they moved to 3d models. We also know there’s a lot of models and animations that are reused, with some not really having an animation at all. When Game Freak said they had to remake all the Pokémon for Sword and Shield, we later found out that wasn’t true. While there still would have been some controversy for not including the National Dex, Game Freak exacerbated the problem when they got caught out not being truthful. It’ll be interesting to see whether they decide to include the National dex in a possible Sword and Shield 2.
There seems to be less hand holding this time around, at least from what I can remember anyway. I went as far as to never finish the last generation because of this. This time it’s not so bad and we’re given a few opportunities to say we already know what’s going on to skip them. There’s still a lot of cut scenes though. It’s a shame the story just isn’t very interesting to make up for the number of cut scenes. Black and White continue to seem like a total anomaly with plots that normally play out like any other Saturday morning cartoon.
Difficulty has been a controversial topic over the last few generations and once again they’ve made it a bit easier than before. Exp share is forced now and you can’t turn it off. Game Freak has said this is because not enough players turned it off. I guess their thought process was that they’ll truly be able to balance the game around Exp share now. My pokemon’s experience generally was in line with the trainers I was battling. Sometimes I’d get a bit ahead, others a bit behind. The Champion’s Cup was where I really fell behind the most, but that didn’t matter anyway. Between each Champion’s Cup match, your pokemon get healed. It’s a stark difference to the Elite Four of old where you had to battle your way through around 26 Pokémon including the champions without a Pokecentre along the way. It does make sense to a degree. This is formatted like a sports tournament and teams are often at peak condition for the next match. I still think they could have made no auto-healing a feature of the tournament though. But at the end of the day, does it really change that much? I would have just used my items anyway, essentially giving me a refresh, but with extra steps.
It wasn’t until I played Pokémon docked, I noticed there were some muddy textures. If you’re handheld only, I don’t think the graphics will really hurt your perception of the game as long as your expectations are in line with the other pokemon titles. Something I did notice was a slight increase in loading times from what my memory serves to previous games. That even included mid-battle lag with an occasional half second delay between button input and the Pokémon’s move being executed. I can only assume the texture resolution was lower for this reason. It does make me wonder if there’s some optimisation issues there, I don’t really think the Switch should be struggling as much during those situations considering Breath of the Wild and Odyssey look a lot sharper.
The music was enjoyable, and the remixes of some older well-known tunes were great. The track that’s often played during a gym leader match during the Dynamax phase truly did wonders in capturing the stadiums atmosphere.
I think this is a decent Pokemon game, but I think it should have been better. I think if you liked the last two generations, you’ll probably still appreciate Sword and Shield. The removal of Mega-Evolutions was a mistake and the replacement wasn’t good enough to warrant it. The concept of the Wild Area was pretty cool and I do look forward to seeing how they expand on in the next iteration. And of course, having actual stadiums filled with people really made the atmosphere.
If you really want to itch a craving for Pokemon, I could recommend you this game. If you think you can wait, seeing what a sequel could bring with additional features might be more alluring.
Nocturnal Hour 