Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

The media and die hard fans right now: “How dare you take a stand against corporate greed, you’re so entitled! Just buy the games like a TRUE fan and say thank you!”

Sadly, this isn’t even just with Pokemon. Gaming media defended Fallout 76 all the way up to its launch. Even this site has been skeptical that what we say about Sword and Shield having issues is true.

People wonder why the community won’t shut up about all of its problems with the game, but the reasoning should be clear. Both Game Freak and the gaming news media have been patronizing our arguments all throughout the year. We feel ignored, and rejected just because we want changes we’ve asked for since Gen V.

It’s kind of interesting how Metacritic separated Sword and Shield, instead of lumping them together. It looks to have turned out the way most of the non-agitated have predicted.

@-Juice- That’s a lot of hyperbole towards people that just generally disagree with you.

Reviews are coming in and so far are extremely positive. Perhaps some people may have overreacted pre-release?

Anyways, looking forward to Friday, now have to decide which version I’ll start with!

@-Juice- Disagree, the real problem is that some complainers have taken things too far and as a result have ruined the voice of those wanting change that haven't taken things too far.

The Eurogamer review (Eurogamer & Nintendolife are my two main game sites) is not giving a pretty review. They largely talk about how the game world feels empty and aren't impressed with the dynamax gimmick but did praise making the game more accessible with things like move deleter being easier, changing natures etc as well as the new poke designs.

@jump Yeah, although the majority of reviews are pretty much overwhelmingly positive, the one thing that keeps coming up is that The Wild is rather bland in appearance. Probably would have been more interesting for there to be dramatically different biomes, similar to something like Minecraft where you walk from plains into a forest, into a desert, into a swamp, etc etc.

I am glad to hear some of the raids are quite difficult. I hope more get added post-release. Maybe we will see seasonal events?

I'M ASCENDING THAT LEAKED FOOTAGE OF THE PLAYER TRAINER CLIMBING UP A LADDER LOOKED SO BAD

THE ENTIRE OVERWORLD JUST FREEZES WHEN HE INITIATES HIS CLIMBING ANIMATION AND IT LOOKS HILARIOUS

oh yeah also game freak apparently completely lied about not reusing assets and now #GameFreakLied is trending on Twitter like 2 days after #ThankYouGameFreak was

You know what would be great?

If the next gen Pokemon games, whenever they come out, expanded on the Wild Area concept, but were actually massively improved. GF should look into bringing those Monolith Soft employees who helped design the open world in BotW. Give Pokemon's open world segments some much-needed verticality.

Still pretty happy with how the games are reviewing, though.

@Snaplocket Just had this discussion elsewhere. Once media for games became more marketing than reviews, the scale shifted so bad is 7, and so on.

If you need proof, look at Metacritic and how bad makes up half of the scale, and average is a generous 25%.

Reviewers are limited in what they can do with numbers. So it's best to ignore the number and read the words, or accept that these days 8 is simply "ok"

@Ralizah Agreed. I think they were really committed to the UK theme, but UK scenery doesn’t translate well into games.

@Snaplocket Oh, cool, out-of-context statements designed to give an overall negative impression of the game! I like this game. Let me try it out, but reversed:

Eurogamer: "The actual new Pokémon themselves, too, are fantastic."
IGN: "Pokemon Sword and Shield are the best games in the series, streamlining its most tedious traditions without losing any of the charm."
GamesRadar: "Gameplay tweaks and attention to detail make Pokemon Sword and Shield the most compelling Pokemon world to date."
Daily Star: "It’s the Pokémon fantasy I’ve craved for years"
VG247: "[T]his is one of the most lovely, charming Pokemon games ever made."

@Maelwolf If nothing else, the landscape could be deepened, with secrets and caves and whatnot to find. Britain has caves, right?

@Snaplocket Context matters. Reviews are generally very positive while pointing out issues they have varying degrees of concern about. This is true about every game reviewed and making it out like S&S is some kind of special case is disingenuous. It’s not just the scores that are positive, the overall tone of the reviews is extremely upbeat with reviewers generally having enjoyed their experience.

@Snaplocket Some of those were taken from mostly negative reviews. My point is that you can take an assortment of negative or positive statements from any halfway balanced review out of context and use it to paint an overly positive or negative picture of the game.

EDIT: And this ability to see the positives and negatives of the experience is why I trust the professional reviews of critics over the lopsided rantings of irate fans.

DOUBLE EDIT: Down to 81 on metacritic. It'll be interesting to see where the final score lands. I could see it dipping into the 70s, which is pretty low for a mainline game.

This might be an empty rumour or exaggerated as I never saw a direct quote or anything but I read somewhere there's a Brit on the Game Freak team and he had to step in when Game Freak's idea of Britain was some kind of medieval fantasy. So he suggested things like a Surrey countryside, football stadiums, a punk rock version of the current Team Rocket, coal mines etc.

@jump LOL

I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of field research involved, huh?

Although, to be honest, a medieval Pokemon game would be pretty interesting.

@jump James Turner, namely the games art director, is British.

He stepped in and made the roadsigns more accurate rather than this weird medieval fantasy they wanted initially.

In fact, his building style, roads, signage, locales....pretty on the nose for authenticity.

Which is better than the "Are they still Victorian?" idea that seemed to initially be in place.

It's weird how they don't mention the Exp Share for example. No comments on metagame balancing. I get it, most reviewers are probably casual players, and don't really care about the intricate details that are more important for other people.

That's why I shouldn't write Smash reviews for example. I don't care about the competitive scene of that game. In the end, people expect different things from this franchise.

Yeah, the reviews haven't been for the veteran fans as I've not seen any mention of post game battle tower, breeding, trading (with no GTS I'm really curious about this), battling etc. They must have been largely focussed on the "main game" which is the norm but with Poke being such a big franchise I'd though some of the reviews would of gone into the more fanboy details.

I did see the Eurogamer review talk about how easy it to over level but didn't go into detail though.

I'm disappointed they didn't mention the fact that the main campaign is apparently half the length of previous titles. Or refute that if it wasn't true. I read through twice and didn't see a single mention of the game's length.

Exp Share cannot be turn off = Every Pokemons in my team (6 Pokemons) will always get Exp without engaging the battle, right ?
I don't see something negative from this. It sounds like benefit for me.