How Long Is Pokémon Sword And Shield? And Other Pokémon Sword And Shield Questions Answered

The game clocks in about 14 hours I hear, with no real post game.

"Why aren't all the Pokémon from previous games included in Pokémon Sword and Shield?"

A bunch of reasons really, balancing is a bad excuse though since they could have just included Pokémon and then restricted who you can use in tournaments or online.

"Will more Pokémon from past games get added to Pokémon Sword and Shield in the future?"

Data from some of the starters that were removed and a handful of others have been found in game. Speculation is that they will be released later but probably as promotionals

" How do I see other people online in Pokémon Sword and Shield?"

Well gts has been scrapped and if you want to interact with people, you will probably need Nintendo online so there's that.

"Why is everybody on the internet so angry about Pokémon Sword and Shield?"

We're mad because we were lied to. They did not cut Pokémon for balancing issues, that's absurd. They didn't give us these amazing animations for Pokémon like they said they would. The birds still can't even move their wings (T-pose for dominance) and everyone walks in place to turn around.

Honestly, the culling doesn't bother me. If they cut Pokémon amd then we got amazing animations (you know, like double kick actually involving kicking and not just foot prints appearing on screen...) I think most people wouldn't complain.

Why did you guys not cover the issues people have had? Should I post an image listing everything that has been brought up?

@BenAV Nowadays, if you want a Pokémon game with a good story, you need to turn to the spin-offs. Specifically, mystery dungeon.

@BenAV Forced exp share was a bad move, and the game wasn't balanced for it from what I'm hearing.

@BenAV Well, that's nice if there was a post game. But if there's nothing to do after the story wraps, then why bother skipping the story?

@Kalmaro Spinoffs are dead though. Which is a problem because they were often better than the main series in many ways. Or at least anything that's not mobile based, but Go/Masters/Magikarp Jump isn't gonna satisfy you for a good story.

@link3710 I know, trust me, I really REALLY want another mystery dungeon game. I bet people forgot that gates to infinity had its own issues with Pokémon cut because "they couldn't handle it"

Then the next game had them all anyway.

@BenAV Sad but true...

@Kalmaro honestly, I don't mind the PMD games having cuts. Gates to Infinity had... Other issues that made it bad.

So long as the next game in the series is like explorers or Super, and has ~600 Pokemon (most, preferably all non legendary, non-mythical, non-fossil, non-uniqiue Pokemon in other words. We don't need Pokemon like Unown or ludicrous numbers of legendaries, it was getting to be too much by Super) I'll be happy. Honestly, I'd prefer the games go back to 2D, but that ain't happening.

I just want the ability to skip those dreadful cut scenes.

So the question in the title of this article isn't even answered lol
I seriously need to find another Nintendo news page to follow, Nintendo Life's a bit rotten lately.

@RazumikhinPG It's gotten extremely biased. They didn't answer all their question, blatantly ignored details and didn't bother to report on the truth in some cases. I can't believe their excuse for people being upset is: "it inspires passionate feelings in its fans, both positive and (sometimes) negative"

Yeah, that's the problem, people were just inspired to be angry 🙄

@link3710 Just gimme a good story and I'm happy. Those games are just fun to go through.

@mjhopkins81 apparently, that's in the settings menu if you enter a special command or something. Definitely in there, but not easy to find.

The spin in this article is insane. Why were the Pokemon cut? We don't actually know the answer to this because the reasons they gave turned out to be lies.

Why are people on the Internet so angry? Because we were lied too, plain and simple. I feel sorry for Japanese gamers as there still hasn't been ANY official Japanese language announcement about the cull.

I get you are a Nintendo website but your blatant attempts to lie about the controversy and your desire to belittle the legitimate criticism about the game (see your article blanket accusing 'haters' of trying to contact Trump when it was like 100 people) doesn't benefit anyone and just embarrasses everyone on your payroll. At this point you aren't journalists at all.

Also the key question in the title is 'how long is the game?' yet you have omitted the answer from the article. Is it because you know the answer (15ish hours) is utterly pathetic?

All I want to know is how soon into the game I can start breeding

@Mogster Pretty much what I said, but as a moogle 👍🏾

Joirnalism is dying unless it's from someone working on their own, these days.

@dartmonkey Fair enough, you want people to go somewhere else if they want points of views that aren't biased towards positivity.

No one was really expecting you to make a long and drawn out response to why folks are made, just something other than people being inspired to have negative feelings... Which isn't true at all.

Again though, if your focus is only reporting one side then I understand that your hands are tied here. I do appreciate you making an effort to make a guide explaining things, I just think you would have been better off not touching on why people were upset if you weren't going to actually explain it.

@Kalmaro Where do people get these crazy times for games? Are you having to speedrun to "beat" the game in 14 hours?

I have a really, really, really crazy idea for people who don't want to buy this game. Here it is: Don't buy it. I know, sounds absurd, but try it. Or, you know, just keep getting angry and then buy it. Whatever.

@tseliot Not really. The problem is the forced exp share. The game isn't really balanced well around it and you end up being extremely powered.

The quote for the Reddit post is
"Short game, the first streamer beat the champion at around the 14 hour mark, while he did this by skipping a fair amount of trainer battles, other streamers are clocking in about 16-20 hours, seems like the average will be about 18 hours to beat the game.Here's one of the many streamers, he's right before champion and clocking in at 14:34."

This is coming from people who got the game early and have been going through it. There's also no post game, battle tower has been grossly trimmed down and there no extra content. This has been a thing for a while, it's just even worse now.

@tseliot We aren't buying it, and we are explaining why we aren't. What's wrong?

@Kalmaro I guess some may be wondering how many times certain posters are going to explain why they are not going to buy it. At some point the flooding of every comments section with the same assertions loses any possibility of producing positive discussion and just becomes tedious.

Not saying you don’t have the right, it’s NLife’s site to decide the rules, but those of us that have heard the same negativity repeated again and again, and are either not bothered by specific “issues” or don’t agree with the claims may wish to move on and have new discussions about something we enjoy.

@Maelwolf Which is fine, or would be if our comments were ever acknowledged. The reason the criticisms keep being repeated is because they keep getting dismissed, which just makes the people who already feel betrayed even more frustrated.

Especially since NL is supposed to report on news, not just make Nintendo look good no matter what. That sounds more like shilling.

Theres some good in the new Pokémon game though, no doubt. I hope the folks who buy it feel they get their money's worth.

@Kalmaro I guess I’m confused what you mean by “acknowledged”. Almost every article written about S&S makes a caveat about the controversies surrounding the games. Beyond that there are a lot of claims by various posters, but I hardly see it’s any gaming sites job to report on every claim made by every poster regardless of overall validity. Writers who have played the games have flat out rejected certain assertions made, and others have noted issues and simply take differing degrees of concern over how those affect their enjoyment.

I’m sorry you feel betrayed and frustrated, but I don’t really see how beating this dead horse anymore does anything beyond spreading frustration and negativity to those that don’t agree with your stance.

@Maelwolf It's not a stance. That implies that this is all just my opinion. The fact is that we have actually been lied to, all of us, and rather the point out the legitimacy of the claims we are just called haters and then get lumped up with the guys who made a petition to contact Trump.... Which was absurd. That was just done by a small group of people.

Then,in one article, the writer actually said that the game was good in a way to suggest that their word was law.

That's the part that annoys me. I don't mind ANYONE enjoying the game and I hope anyone who buys it does. What I don't like is disregarding dissenting opinions as just being a fringe group and not to be taken seriously. Like when we got an article that tried to explain people being mad about this game because "it inspires passionate feelings in its fans, both positive and (sometimes) negative."

@Kalmaro See, I question the seeking acknowledgment, I see the desire for capitulation and agreement. Your statement of being lied to, I don’t agree and have not been convinced of this, so why should I or anyone else view this as legitimate? I understand that for you and some others you feel you are correct in this matter, but hopefully you can understand that others, including the sites, have not been convinced by your claims and thus are unable to feel obligated to give them any credence. While this may feel like a dismissal of opposing viewpoints, it’s simply the reality of not being able to entertain every assertion made without believing there is merit.

@Maelwolf Would you be interested in seeing why I believed that we have been lied to?

@Kalmaro I mean, I’ve read the reddit posts and simply have not been convinced. It certainly isn’t the only thing I am not convinced about, things like flat earth theory has it’s supports who believe they have compelling proof and it’s failed to convince me of it’s validity as well, nor would I call scientific journals shills for not giving them any acknowledgement.

I’m not necessarily even saying your wrong, I’m just haven’t been persuaded you are right, and you may not be able to. Furthermore, I am not convinced I would be particularly bothered if some of the claims were proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be true.

In the end I’m afraid this might just be one issue where it may not be possible for you to see eye to eye with those on the other side of the debate, and this isn’t due to any malicious intent to silence you, it’s just the nature of this particular subject.

I understand, I wouldn't mind going over the evidence in f depth but if you don't want to then that's fine as well.

@BenAV I actually enjoyed the one in Sun/Moon. A story that I actually liked playing through for the first time in a Pokémon game.

@dartmonkey

'The nitty gritty of the whole debacle isn’t appropriate in the context of this guide.'

Then why mention Dexit or the outrage at all? Why do these sections remain in the guide if they aren't appropriate? The fact you think that legimate arguments against the games are' bile and negativity' is very telling of your utter lack of journalistic standards. Why don't you actual act like journalists and look into the lies GF has told? Research into the current situation at GF?

You are a major Nintendo outlet. People rely on you when spending their hard-earned money and deserve to know the truth about games they are spending £50-60 on. You have a responsibility as one of the biggest outlets to tell the truth about games and to properly carry out your journalistic duties. If you just want to be a Nintendo mouthpiece, fine. But you should make this extremely clear to readers that you are only interested in reporting on Nintendo in a positive light. Make your bias clear or you are misleading your readers, many of whom are probably children. It's unethical for you to paint yourselves as journalists when, as you just admitted, you only want to make things seem positive and act as a corporate mouthpiece. Extremely unethical indeed.

@Kalmaro How many other games have you not purchased and continue to write about?

@tseliot I'm not sure I follow what you mean. Are you implying that people should not voice their opinions about something they have personally experienced?

@Mogster That’s not how journalism works. Journalists have no obligation to investigate every random accusation made by random individuals. If they did, news would constantly be filled with conspiracy theories. You feeling something has validity does not make it so and it’s silly to call it unethical simply for not being convinced your assertions have any weight.

@Kalmaro Your experience of the games you didn’t buy?

@Maelwolf The only problem is that this isn't just a 'feeling'. We have verifiable proof of what's been going on. Please don't act like @Mogster is just making up stuff.

@tseliot When have I talked about my experience with a game I didn't own?

@Kalmaro I’m sure Bigfoot enthusiasts can say much the same thing. They have pictures, videos, witnesses, tv shows, etc. So why doesn’t the media report every time there is a Bigfoot sighting? Because the claims don’t meet the burden of proof required by standards of journalism.

Claiming NLife has a duty to report on specific issues you feel are valid simply isn’t how journalism works. I can acknowledge you feel there are issues, I can also acknowledge you believe you have proof, but I and clearly many gaming sites, are not convinced by your conclusions.

Keep in mind I am not claiming the game has no issues, I think most if not all games have issues. But the claim of “lying” from Gamefreak is a very nebulous accusation that would need a lot more than information provided from anonymous hackers and opinions to carry any real weight. It’s the problem with many claims that aren’t concrete, they are very easy to make, and very hard to properly backup,

@Maelwolf You're right, the claims don't match up with the evidence.

The difference here is that they do. We have evidence for things like models being reused, animations not being improved and being reused, etc.

Thus, they should probably comment on it. Obviously, they can write about whatever they want, but if the want to be honest, they won't just dismiss everything.

@Kalmaro And Bigfoot believers would probably say their claims match up with the evidence as well.

Let’s break it down though: Anyone can make any claim. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim. Those receiving the proof can either find it compelling enough to agree on the conclusion, or find it insufficient to warrant the conclusion. If one finds the proof offered insufficient, repeating the same information is not likely to change their view. If those making the claim suggest the evidence is objectively sufficient for those they are trying to convince, they have made another claim and the process of burden of proof repeats.

This is why I object to the argument that NLife and other sites should report certain claims. The burden of proof may have been met for the ones making the claims, but not for others, and those making the claims can’t simply stack another claim that it has to validate their first point. It’s not how logic and reasoning work.

One last point because I think there is often confusion about this. Saying I am not convinced about X, isn’t the same as saying X isn’t true. I see people using words like “made up” and “dismissed”, but not being convinced your claims are true is not necessarily others saying your claims are false.

@Maelwolf Look, at the end of the day it comes down to being diligent about your job. No one is saying that they need to report on every little thing that's happening.

What we ARE saying is that, before reporting on a topic, they should research first to see of the claims are valid or not.

There is no denying that gamefreak said they cut Pokémon to make animations look better, and then the animations were not made better. That's something that we can see and we have enough examples already.

Except that they admitted that they only want to talk about positive things. Which is a shame since then it's not that they don't want to chase every claim. They just want to stay positive. That's not journalism.