Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

Of course you can’t please everyone. That’s to be expected. People are varied and have different reasons and expectations. Don’t group up people’s views so easily and simply.

Of course some people may hate on something because it’s popular or because they were told to, but there are other people out who do have legitimate concerns, issues and/or gripes.

With almost any other game, when people have legitimate dislikes or concerns with a game, they move on. There's an abundance out there to choose from, new and old. But with Pokemon, when there is something they don't like, they stick around to continue repeating their complaints and reveling in bashing on a popular franchise - usually while calling themselves concerned fans. Concerned fans who have seen a couple trailers and never even played the game and aren't even willing to give it a chance before labeling it terrible and Game Freak "lazy and incompetent". It's like children who say they don't like a certain meal when all they have done is see it on the plate and haven't even tasted or smelled it yet.

But hey, if they can bash nonstop on the game, I have every right to openly and strongly disagree. And I'll give them this, if the games come out, and are bad, they'll have every right to say "I told ya so!" But that strikes me as highly unlikely.

That’s not entirely true. This is such an easy position to take since it’s mostly common sense, but that just simplifies the perspective into an us vs them mentality. Into simple groups rather than a multitude of different views and categories.

Whether it be in shows, literature, or video games. You’ll see people who do that. They’ll stick around and voice their opinions. Some stay around because they like the series but have complaints, and on the other side you’ll find people who are in it for petty silly reasons. You’re free to ignore them or criticize them

I think a lot of the hate is carry-over disappointment from Let's Go. Which is completely unfair. I wasn't wowed by Let's Go but I came into it knowing what to expect and you cant say you know what to expect with Sword and Shield

I do think its a fair point that some of the lingering resentment comes from Let's Go. A lot of people were upset that that game was so simplified and dumbed down to be as easy as possible that anything being cut or simplified in the main series entry probably reminds them of that experience.

I wasn't wowed by Let's Go either, but I think it accomplished what it set out to do. To make a game that bridges between the super casual Pokemon Go crowd who don't play any other games, and to make a game for very very young children. And I did get some fun out of it, hunting shiny Pokemon a bit - Pokemon I am glad I can transfer via Pokemon Home to Sw/Sh later on.

Go could be made harder by not using the systems that make it easier.

The trainers are considerably smarter and the levels are higher than in the game boy games.

I think they could fix the difficulty problem by simply adding difficulty settings that would raise Pokemon levels a certain percentage. And give them better moves. They do it in fan games I don't think it's too much to ask. This is one of the only ways I can think of doing it without alienating kids or skilled gamers.

@StableInvadeel That's absolutely true, and something I did. But a decent number of people seem to dislike doing that. I don't really understand the "I want the game to be hard but am unwilling to change anything about the game myself" attitude.

@Gravitron I agree. I think difficulty levels would be a great change to make. But I fear that it will just bring about another wave of complaints - I have seen a lot of people arguing that games should not have difficulty levels at all in the last year or so. They seem to think all games should have one level and having the option to turn the difficulty up or down is, for some reason, bad. Another attitude I do not understand.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/17/pokemon-sword-and-shi...

https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/17/pokemon-sword-and-shield-hands...

https://www.gamesradar.com/pokemon-sword-and-shield-preview/

https://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2019-10-17-hands-on-with-the-wi...

lol All of the previews I've seen so far are pretty glowing. It sounds great. I can't wait for November.

@Galenmereth As a casual Pokemon speedrunner I really appreciate both sentiments.

GameFreaks still carefully to not put any spoilers of Starter Evolution before the time.
So curious what will they look like....

@Anti-Matter I really like that they haven't showed anything. I would love to be genuinely surprised when I play the game for the first time.

It would be mildly hilarious if this is the best Pokemon game in ages after like 4 months of consistently stupid PR and marketing.

@kkslider5552000 I have extremely high expectations for this one. They did take quite a while on it so I'm very optimistic.

@Snaplocket
And it wasn't bad game.

@Snaplocket
True, but it was pokemon game. Last time when pokemon game was better than "not bad" was gen 5. I love pokemon, but they're just not very good games. Not very good graphics, performance, story, things that make games. I mean, gamefreak is not very good making games, writing stories, all that.

Still will buy this, and play it to death.

Thank freaking goodness the tutorials are cut back
They were insufferable for the last two gens, especially SuMo.

XYs tutorials weren’t that bad iirc. SM/USUM were just made disgustingly bad in that area because of the forced and unskippable cutscenes and the mandatory school segment

@-Green- Oh yeah, XY and ORAS were slow to start but quite bareable. SuMo is when they completely shot themselves in the foot, which is weird considering you'd assume more people would be new for XY than SuMo on the same system.

They were probably just trying to be like yokai watch and be more about the story.

You even had your very own sassy ghost sidekick.