Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@link3710 I believe a big part of that comes from the fact that people playing the leaked roms were rushing through the game as fast as they could. You know, to get the info quicker, and maximize the clicks.

From a normal gameplay perspective, the game is probably not that different from previous games.

I think the wild area being largely optional to explore also “helped”.

@Anti-Matter It works for some people, and that's fine. However, other people want to be able to raise their Pokemon individually like was possible in every game up to LGP/E.

Having Exp All being there is a benefit for you and others with no negative. Having it be FORCED on everyone with no option to turn it off is something that you should be able to recognize as a negative. It's not a negative for you, but not everyone plays the games the way you do, and having Exp All be optional to turn off only benefits other people, and doesn't harm you in any way.

It is a baffling decision from GF. Of course, it's not baffling if they want to force people to play the game one way, but I can't understand why that decision would actually be made. So many of us were saying there really needs to be difficulty levels, and instead we get the game pegged down even further for everyone.

@Eel I'm still waiting for some confirmation either way. Ant said he believed it was 12-15 at a normal pace as well, but I'm hoping Alex can provide some more context. I can't recall the last time I beat a Pokemon game in under 40 so... that's worrisome.

@Knuckles-Fajita Notify the police. Death threats/threats of bodily harm are no joke and we need to stop treating them like one just because someone hides behind the anonymity of the internet. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Game developers are easy victims of online harassment unfortunately because a lot angry gamers think it's okay to attack someone just because their name is affiliated with a large company name like Pokemon Company, EA, Ubisoft, etc when in reality, a lot of workers are just doing what they are being told what to do and trying to get paid

@link3710 Well, when Exp All is on, any Pokemon game naturally becomes a lot shorter, because it pretty much eliminates any grinding. Since it's forced in these games, they will be very short.

I haven't read the review here yet, but I've seen some complaints/confusion about the length online. IGN put up an article that states, from more than one person, that the main story takes around 40 hours.

I'm one of those who likes exploring, talking to everyone, etc. in RPGs as well as battling all the trainers, so I imagine it'll take me that long if not past the 50 hour mark before I see the credits. That's plenty long for me.

So, here's my take on the whole "#GameFreakLied" situation... while I do believe there are valid criticisms, the way everyone is expressing them and how they're handling the situation seems a tad overblown. It doesn't help that everyone seemed to forget how to be decent human beings in the process.

@Tyranexx Ugh, thank you, I've been hoping for a valid source to confirm or deny the length debate.

@misterflipnote

Tbf the only way GF would listen is if things just got that bad, they haven't listened to anything in the past, so the volume needs to be as loud as possible just to limit test when they'll actually listen. GF isn't really a company we can expect to listen to "please mister masuda-chan uwu", the level of frustration is to be expected with their company's track record.

Death threats are way too extreme though, and despite that level of hate I still have a gut feeling they won't change anything. As long as the games get between 7/10s to 9/10s and sell 15m units they'll continue to just pour out whatever they can rush without addressing the flaws.

Apparently Ninty are withholding a lot of review copies to people until Friday. It does explain were there's only a few reviews on metacritc for such a major game.

@link3710 No prob! Hadn't seen that nugget mentioned here yet.

@Snaplocket You did read the article in question, correct? What I stated was an average; the lowest time cited was 39 hours, and that was by the person who did IGN's official review. They were held by time constraints. True, they would have been obligated to investigate a few components outside of the story alone, but I think that's a fair number for someone who isn't intending to speedrun or faceroll their way through the game. I'd still find 25-30 hours for the story alone to be fine.

Heck, if these are the length of Ultra Sun/Moon games with a little less padding (and from one review I watched, apparently some of the tutorial stuff can thankfully be skipped), I'll be satisfied. Not every RPG needs to be 50+ hours in length.

If anything, I suppose HLTB will answer the question before too long.

antdickens has said in the comments of the review that the story's game length is 13-15 hours.

Does anybody here have it yet? What do people think?

@jump
Link/source?

For what? You've given me no context of what you're asking about.

@jump he means does anyone here have the game already? And do you have a link where it talks about the game length? I believe

Ah, antdickens mentioned it in comments section of Nintendolife's review. I did mention that at the time.

@rallydefault Comment #168

https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/pokemon_...

@jump Pretty sure they wanted link/source regarding the story's length.

I’m disappointed with the whole Gamefreak did reuse old Pokémon models thing. I haven’t seen any of the leaks but it’s a shame Gamefreak felt the need to lie to us about remaking them from scratch.

That’s really one of the bigger disappointments since I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt about the situation.

I could see 13-15 hours maybe being plausible if one does the bare minimum like barely filling out their team, skipping any and all cutscenes, avoiding all extra content, etc. If people want to do that, it's ultimately their own choice. I personally don't see the point of a barebones playthrough like that in a Pokemon game unless someone is speedrunning. Why rush? Why not enjoy the ride? Or, if you don't like what you're playing, why not put the game down?