Video: We've Played Pokémon Sword And Shield On Nintendo Switch And These Are Our Thoughts

Woah, lucky for some. I have to pick up Sword because swords are pointy, therefore automatically cooler than shields, those flat af yawn-fests. Nice to know the game’s shaping up alright, despite my reservations about the Wild Area and the selection of legacy Pokemon. I agree about the graphics though, not really pushing the Switch and really not stylised enough for my tastes, it all looks a bit lifeless. That music definitely makes me want a D/P/Pt remake though, favourite gen by a country mile.

Sounds great as expected! Can’t wait to get both versions and dive in. Really looking forward to the wild and the multiplayer raids, the gyms are always my least favourite part of Pokémon games.

I choose Pokemon Sword for Sirfetch'd. 😀

So who else thinks that Sword sounds like the better version of the two. I would get Sword for Sirfetch'd alone.

Eh, still looks like a boring fanmade game to me tbh, but good luck to people actually getting these I guess

@Yoshinator Shield for me. Nicer design for the legendary, and Galarian Ponyta <3

Waiting on the inevitable Full Armor Edition next November

Glad to hear the Wild Area is fun, this is the one thing keeping me interested in the game. I've always wanted to see gameplay like that in Pokemon and it still feels unreal to me that this is actually happening. Can't wait to play it.

So...

Good:

• Lack of tutorializing, for once.
• Wild Area is a cool evolution of what GF started in LGPE where Pokemon roamed around their environments.

Bad:

• Technically unimpressive. Runs at 720p30 (docked, I presume he means)
• Dynamaxing is a boring gimmick.

Definitely looking forward to this.

@gamefreak77 Stop confusing yourself, friend. Normal Switch is a hybrid. Switch Lite is a dedicated handheld. The Switch line, as a whole, is a successor to both previous hardware lines, with the Switch Lite more specifically catering to people looking for a more traditional dedicated handheld. When you start twisting yourself in pretzels trying to argue that a device that can't even connect to the TV is a "home console," it's probably time to re-evaluate the premises of your argument.

I nabbed the double pack on sale. Like 20 dollars off. Great deal!

Still not sure which I'm going to play first, but probably the one with My Little Ponyta. Still hoping it evolves into a fairy type or a Pegasus.

@Ralizah just ignore that troll.

I'm super excited for Pokemon Sword/Shield, this will probably be my favorite gen since Black and White from what I know so far. Gorgeous region, great Pokemon designs so far (except Impidimp), cool new features and online functionality. Sun and Moon had good Pokemon designs and a great story, but I didn't care for Alola as a region (felt incredibly small and segmented), island challenges were kind of lame and the linearity was too much for me and Pokemon is already a linear franchise. My fiance is getting Sword and I'm getting Shield and we're going to have a great time trading, battling, raiding and exploring the Wild area together.

I'm getting Shield because everyone I know is getting Sword

@Ralizah @gamefreak77

Yeah, no. As Ral said, the Switch is a hybrid. You can't possibly put it in the same bracket as PS4/Xbox One by calling it a home console when the Switch can be played handheld and it runs on a mobile chip. If anything it's primarily a handheld with the ability to play it on your TV seeing as you don't need the dock whatsoever. The Switch Lite is purely a handheld device. The Switch doesn't need to be a successor to the 3DS to be Nintendo's current handheld.

(Whoops, didn't realize this guy was a troll. His comment history is incredibly sad and pathetic lmao)

@gamefreak77
Are you an A.I. program or something, because you have posted that exact same comment about Switch not being a handheld in every other NintendoLife article??

@westman98

No, he's just REALLY sad. You've gotta wonder what guys like him are like in the real world. Not productive members of society, that's for sure.

Why wasnt it announced earlier that the Wild Area was getting the Xenoblade treatment? People have been talking and meming once we saw the news.

Oh well, anyway, the Wild Area having overleveled Pokemon roaming from the get go is a neat and exciting concept to explore. It is truly becoming a Wild Area.

I'm waiting for the datamining to see the actual content.

Pretty much lost all interest in the game early on, think i'm just growing too old for Pokemon in general to be honest. Just nothing new happens that is really interesting to me, and when I see something interesting I feel like they will just toss it out next game
to replace it with a new gimmick. Power to you if you like what you see, its your money, but It ain't it for me chief... :/

Think i'm going to check out other RPG's I never gave a chance. Might try out Digimon Cyber Sleuth Collection or Atelier Ryza when I get the cash, I've never tried out games from those series before so that will be a exciting new experience.

It's refreshing to see impressions from, you know, people who actually played the game opposed to some people in here who already claimed this is the worst game ever made but have yet to play it. 😆

But yeah, sounds like a great game. Can't wait to explore the wild areas.

Do tired of acting 1080p at 60fps is needed ugh.

Bot everything needs to be a technical marvel.

What is Pokemon? ;P j/k Can't wait for this.

@Jaalsky

I agree, I know that the Switch is a handheld device and that it's the most powerful/relevant dedicated gaming handheld out there. I'm not expecting graphical fidelity that'll blow me away. Pokemon certainly isn't a franchise that needs 60 FPS anyway.

I REALLY HATE that the Pokemon and trainers just PUFF out of nowhere. Makes the world feel empty AF.

I've liked most of what has been shown, but this is a deal breaker for me..... well, not really, I'm still gonna buy it because I need to complete my Pokedex.

But this is like saying, here's this empty world, you'll only be able to see what is in front of you by 5 meters. Disappointing.
It's a missed opportunity to at least have a faux open world Pokemon.

Next time... Game Freak, instead of focusing in gimmicks like Dynamax .... put some effort in the world you're building. Nobody cares about Dynamax, a "battle system" that will be forgotten come the next game.

Instead, this could have been the first step into a living world with creatures roaming in an open space.
Sigh.... gonna buy it anyway.

OK, how much were you paid for this? Because I can't think of a single good thing about this game (if you can call it that).

@Doofenshmirtz dunno, looks like pokemon to me. The appeal seems to be dependent on how much you like pokemon. I mean, the negatives have always looked like: 1) it's visually average ; 2) dynamax is a stupid stupid gimmick ; 3) the national dex is cut and the regional dex is half the roster, Which is something I don't care about at all. Everything else looks like sun and moon with some roll backs gameplaywise to x and y, which were okay. It's pokemon, man. Unless you dig pokemon, it's kinda an okay series. Not mind-blowing. It's alright. Maybe people were expecting more. Those people were mistaken.its gamefreak, they historically do the bare minimum to keep the number 1 franchise in the world afloat. Because that's all the really she to do.

So far it is Sword for me.

@Jaalsky I mean 1080p is standard in a world where 4k is becoming the default. I mean, it absolutely doesn't need to be a 60 fps game. The smoothness is nice, but it's not necessary. The issue is that if it runs at 720p in docked mode, does it also do that handheld? Are we rocking with another sub-HD 540p game? Like, I can give Witcher a pass and Xenoblade at least scales, but this game doesnt at all seem like it should run at less than the native resolution of handheld mode.

And it is distracting. I mean, my phone has the same screen real estate as a switch and I'm not super keen on watching a 480p video. I'm spoiled by the modern HD era. It's not a technological marvel as much as the current technological standard.

Is 720p 30FPS confirmed by a technical analysis or Nintendo/TPC? Or just speculation?

@gamefreak77 Nope, Switch is more a handheld.

For one, the Switch lite is a thing.

Next, Nintendo won't do things with the Switch if the portable aspect cannot do the thing. Meanwhile if something cant be done docked, screw it, do it anyway. Stuff like the option for external docked storage not being an option are a good example of this, something that could have easily been achieved.

Marketing too. The marketing heavily focuses far more on the handheld part of the device than home console.

Saying it isn't a successor to the Wii U because the 3DS was more popular is pretty ridiculous. The 3DS was using outdated hardware years ago, it has been outdated pretty much its entire lifespan despite some of the truly fantastic games on it. It needed a successor and here it is, the Switch.

I’m glad they’ve decided to ditch the tutoring, hopefully it’s across the whole game.
My hopes are high for this but the effort seems like a small upgrade from S/M but that’s the Pokemon’s games, the smallest amount possible and take in the money.
Maybe if they didn’t churn them out every 2-3 years and had a 5 year break. But they make way too much money for that.
I’ll nab it used unless they there’s some bigger changes, still got tons of games on the backlog 😅 so I can wait

@nessisonett Can you imagine if Captain America had a sword instead of a shield?

@Bass_X0 Would he stay Captain America in that case? Maybe General America? xD

@Bass_X0 Y’know, he’d probably get more done. At least that way he could have shanked Hitler instead of bashing him with a blunt object.

I'm getting Sword as I feel the legendary looks (marginally) better. They're both horrid looking.
Any region exclusives I'll get on the GTS

@nessisonett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OydCKdKlbM

The non hand holding mentioned in this Video has thawed me a bit towards this game. It might revive what sun/moon murdered

The more I hear the more disappointed in this game I am, 100% I'm going to wait for it to be in the wild before I pick it up.

Look it does not matter how disappointed the fans are....Nintendolife will smooth over the bad stuff and issue it a 10/10 9/10 as a glorious romp in HD.

Sounds ok, but still, I'll wait for the definitive edition next year, or even a new gen.

This feels like a transition. They're walking in the right way, with the Wild Area and so, but it seems they needed more time to make that great thing we are all waiting for. I understand they release it now, and it's going to sell like hotcakes, but it looks like a half-baked hotcake for me lol.

I have the duo pack pre-ordered. It's the first pokemon game I buy so figured I'd get both.

@PBandSmelly "having the exact same model twice in the same room really feels lazy" that's literally how it works in every Pokemon game

@fafonio that's done in order to make sure the game runs as smooth as possible, there are plenty of games that do that.

@TheAwesomeBowser he's actually played it while you haven't, so you can't say if it's good or not, and he wasn't paid anything, he just thinks the game is good based on what he played.

@Xansies If it is 720p in docked it's probably 720p handheld as well. though it's worth noting technically this isn't confirmed plus it might not be the final build.

@Xansies I grew up with pokemon, and I was really looking forward to this game, but it seriously just looks like a game made by a group of fans than an official game

@Doofenshmirtz I agree, somewhat. Some parts seem conceptually great like the galar regions focus on pokemon battles as an arena sport and I like the map design and all the little quality of life changes and fixes and I even like all the new Pokemon vastly over most of those from X and Y and the black and whites (sun and moon and some dope pokemon).

But, the graphics are dead unimpressive and the animations and models on the humans are also ripped entirely from sun and moon or completely algorithmic and not polished up at all. Dynamax is also an uninspired gimmick compared to mega evos and Z moves. On the otherhand, the world design language and clockwork england with all them sheep looks amazing.

I think I'll like the game a lot and it looks good, but it also looks underwelming in the sense that the ideas that we've seen sound better than the execution of the game. So, yeah, gamefreak is being gamefreak there. Maybe, just maybe, the game will be more competitively balanced which would be fantastic, though again, gamefreak, my hopes arent sky high

@PikaPlayz if Xenoblade can do a better job... with better graphics ....witht the same hardware..... what's the excuse for Game Freak?

@PikaPlayz Username checks out.

Sword for me... The wait is almost over

Seems like EXP Share is balanced by level.

Combine that with the Wild Area Pokemon, and this may be the first Pokemon game in a while that isn't a joke in terms of non-post game difficulty.

I really hope they do show the Evolution lines for the starters before the game comes out, i dont wanna pick a starter i dont like the look of.

Sword probably but too many other games to play right now. I'll grab it some point next year for sure.

I did not think he was a ginger...until he said he is not a ginger. No I cannot unsee it.

If people are new to the games, there shouldn't be any need for a tutorial at all: Just read the freakin' instruction manual like we did all the time in the good ole days!

Drat, it's got a stupid manual camera while no longer having a fixed perspective! Oh well, at least I can live with it in a turn-based JRPG (especially if it's Pokémon) as opposed to it being a deal breaker in a 3D platformer or action game.

@PBandSmelly You seriously expect them to customize each attack animation with each individual Pokémon model?! That's nigh impossible! Even if they did make the attempt, it would be a huge waste of memory for a relatively minor presentation improvement and cause the games to be delayed for at least a year.

@Paul1994 So just look up all the new Pokémon on Serebii.net before you start playing. They'll have them all there on release day. You'll need to look up the new Pokémon to find out the evolutionary methods in advance, anyway.

Video sounds a bit apologetic and has a flavor of disappointment yet there is this undertone of really really wanting to like it. Ill play ninokuni and wait for someone to show me this game in rl.

Lucky you! Why can't it be November 15th already?
I have been secretly avoiding post-E3 spoilers, so the wait for this game feels more old-school

Just placed an order for Shield. Kinda keen to have a go at it after succumbing to nostalgia and getting Let's Go Eevee. Can't wait to have a great time with it! #TeamShield!

720/30 docked is pretty meh, but if the wild are is truly that good then my interest is piqued.

A Italian website said it runs at 1080p/30fps
You're being quoted as source of "Pokémon Sword and Shield runs at 720p docked", I hope you're right as stuff in English are easier to spread
https://www.everyeye.it/articoli/provato-pokemon-spada-scudo-giocato-ora-novita-gameplay-45691.html