Pokémon Sword And Shield Wins Famitsu Dengeki 2019 Game Of The Year

Mmmm... as much as I love Pokemon, Sword and Shield is not GOTY worthy. I'm sensing some bias.

overrated af.

Well deserved the game is one of the best in series, and we have extra DLC coming out too, can't wait, this and Animal crossing, great time to own a Nintendo console.

Baffling decision to be honest, I found the game to be decent at best and Persona 5 Royal is a far far better rpg

Looking at the complete list some of the nominees are just strange as well. 2019 wasn't the best year but for me Resident Evil 2 was the best game, Astral Chain was another standout title and I've only heard good things about Fire Emblem

Well I'm going to assume DQ11 wasn't on there since it released on the PS4 earlier.

So yeah It's not as if there was that much of an competition, 2019 just was a really weak year for games overall as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I didn't think Sword & Shield was that bad, though the lack of effort does show with the total lack of dungeons.

This list is terrible. Not only is Pokemon somehow a better RPG than the likes of Fire Emblem (I don't care that it's an SRPG), but also the Hideo Kojima bias here is hilarious.

Death Stranding is awful and Hideo Kojima's childish response to backlash from fans is something he should get sh*t on, not praise and awards. He made an embarrassment of a game and defended himself with semi-racist remarks against western audiences like a self-absorbed child swimming in his own vomit.

This list is genuinely awful.

Terrible. No Fire Emblem, no Astral Chain no Luigi's Mansion... Just terrible.

The award list is completely laughable. In what universe is Pokemon SwSH goty? I have issues with almost every category of the awards.

How on earth is Sword/Shield GOTY or best RPG? P5R is way better and Three Houses is the better gameg

GOTY! Take that Dexers! Total vindication.

can we put every death stranding character please? thanks

garbage awards

Some of those categories are baffling, Best Rookie Game? None of those 3 nominees match that descriptor. All from seasoned developers.

No DQ11S in the RPG category? Why?

Persona 5 Royal winning best music, yeah can't complain there.

Not surprised Pokemon S&S won it's categories. It may be a higher res 3DS game with little effort put in but it was hugely successful in sales can think of few with a bigger status last year. Most videogame awards are similar no matter which country does it with baffling omissions and winners .

SWSH have nothing on the polished gameplay of RE2make, Luigi’s Mansion 3, or Fire Emblem: Three Houses. If we’re counting Persona 5 Royal, that’s an instant knockout. Pokemon simply cannot compete with the level of polish and work done with Persona 5’s turn-based battle system, challenging bosses, choices and activities that actually impact the in-game world and character as a whole, and it even has the monster collecting aspect. This is also not mentioning the amazing soundtrack and glorious menus.

What? How is this possible?

That's weird. I thought fire emblem and persona were critically praised? I guess it's just a popularity contest then.

Not for me have had way more fun with Three houses and Dragon Quest

Also what’s with all the death stranding? Didn’t more games come out? Not a fan of the same product being in a category more than once, give other games a chance

I'm glad I completely skipped these games.

@TheLightSpirit ,

The glass half full brigade are always out in force here, the video game internet forum posting minorities always know better that everyone else, how dare people like Pokemon sword and shield, and how on earth could the game be even considered as the best RPG game, of course the massive game sales and the pretty positive reviews totally go over their heads, as they just do not like the game and never miss an opportunity to state so, even comment sections that have nothing to do with the game.

this is why I never take Famitsu seriously, out of every single game that came out in 2019 your going to try and tell me Pokemon Sword and Shield was better than every other game last year? No it wasn't might be your personal favourite but to say it is definitively the best 2019 game is laughable

@TheLightSpirit,

These people are gaming experts, they do not need to play a game to know they will not like it.

We all know Pokémon Sword and Shield aren't remotely close to being GOTYs, but what's shocking is seeing Death Stranding nominated for Rookie Game. Kojima has been making games since the 80s...

Stopped caring about anything related to Famitsu's reviews/game judgments when they gave Celeste a lower overall score than Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Contra: Rogue Corps. This just reinforces how good of a choice that really is.

At least Baba is You got nominated for best indie...

@KBuckley27,

Yes I never take Famitsu seriously anymore, as they don't agree with my views.

@status-204,

I played the game and loved it, still playing it now and can't wait for the DLC, so does my positive view of the game balance out your negative one?, certainly from a sales perspective it's u there with the best of em, ah but sales do not equal enjoyment or quality, well at least they don't when it does not suit negative peoples points of view.

Pokemon beats Fire Emblem AND P5R in Best RPG?

Is this some kind of twisted joke?

My GOTY on 2019 = Pretty Princess Magical Coordinate (Switch) 😁

I'm serious with my choice.

Btw, Yay for Pokemon Sword / Shield ! 😀

Game of the year? Lol wut?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

They said Sam Porter Bridges was the best character!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

@johnvboy You enjoyed it, great. Many others didn't yet you seem to be super defensive about this, why? Someones negative view of it is just as valid as your positive one.

@BeautyandtheBeer
Because some of us including me and @johnvboy found Pokemon Sword / Shield were interesting.
I will wait until November 2020 for All DLC for Pokemon Sword / Shield.

@TheLightSpirit I follow Pokémon news closely and at least used to be a pretty die hard fan. I’ve seen numerous hours of footage from these games. Do I really need to list my reasons for not liking what GF did with Sw/Sh? They’re all pretty obvious and have been said over and over since last year. I’m happy I skipped the whole mess, yes. I’ll stick to games that strive to be enjoyable.

@status-204
I played Pokemon Sword, have finished the storyline last January 2020 and the game was good enough for me.
Will consider the DLC and Pokemon Shield to pair with my Pokemon Sword.

@Anti-Matter Yes that was fairly obvious, I just don't see the point of replying to someone who did not enjoy it, bringing up irrelevant factors to try and put them down which is what I got from their replies.

I get that the game got a lot of hate prior to release and still now ( most justified imo) but on these comments it was just simple bewilderment it won an award or two.

Something smells fishy here...

@BeautyandtheBeer,

Never said their views are not valid, on a personal level all our views are valid, it's just rare people are positive on here, so what if a game they do not like wins an award?, hardly alters their view of the game, and why do they then have to go and state why it should not have won etc etc.

@TheLightSpirit so no objective criticism, got it. You are either with us or against us. Right?

@Anti-Matter A well-formulated honest response. Fresh, very fresh.

@TheLightSpirit

Exactly, it is not a bad thing to give a negative opinion, in the end, something that we like may have something that we really do not like and we express it, but, for that, it is required that "personally" we have tried it and not in "mouth of others"; in addition, we must also be aware of how we express it and not affect others, that is a responsibility that many forget; And if the complaint is really worth it, sometimes are ""insignificant"" complaints but we make as much scandal as if it were a crime.

And as you also mention, we have to avoid the tendency of others, just because "someones" say it, does not mean that it is true, if they complain here that Famitsu gave as game of the year a game that some people consider "nothing good", it must be taken into account that it is an opinion of a magazine that, like others, does not have the absolute truth, in addition to that a GOTY is already something more personal than general, and also (what I said in my first paragraph), the fact that someone say that the game is bad, does not mean that it is, if there are people who like it, and what does it mean?, that the game is good or bad depending on who has tried it, and not on an opinion of other.

@johnvboy Well it came across as you did.

People post negatively in this case because they see a game they had a underwhelming or bad time with getting praise, winning awards and to them it is baffling. It doesn't affect them personally no but it doesn't need to. I personally don't go into something I don't care for but each to their own.

I'd say going from comments alone this site is far more positive than negative. Only times I see negativity is really divisive games (like this) or when NL messes up with a shockingly bad agenda driven review (sadly too often).

Lmao persona 5 and fe 3 houses are far better than Pokemon

And I'm glad to see 13 sentinels nominated for goty, but too bad famitsu is an absolute joke

@BeautyandtheBeer,

You will find often with issues like this, that it's the negative side that comes across all superior, and just can't accept a lot of people do not feel as they do, and they are in fact a minority of people venting on an internet comments section or forum.

I played and finished both Pokemon Sword and Shield, and while they’re good games (That need a bit more to do at endgame than just run Max raids, maybe DLC will add something), they’re hardly “Game of the year”-material, sorry...

@Expa0 Persona 5 Royal launched in October 2019 in Japan.

Considering all the acclaim that's gotten... this is a baffling move.

@johnvboy I don't see them coming across as superior, certainly not in this case. Not denying there aren't instances where it does happen but not here.

I dunno, giving a GOTY award to an enchanced port doesn't sit quite right to me, no matter how good the game may be.

But if P5 Royal is better than P5 then that's cool, I really liked that game and it was probably my Goty for 2018.

E:Replying to Alpha-2002

Wow, you can tell they have ZERO standards. They were given some money under the table to say this for sure

Seems like Sekiro was a little bit too hard for Famitsu.

@TheLightSpirit You did practically say that I was merely paraphrasing. And I did play the game. Now what?

@Varkster Death Stranding is fantastic, not for everyone sure and is a love or hate it game but for me and many others its a fantastic unique game. You see how despite loving it myself i understand that loads don't, you should try that instead of thinking your opinion is fact. Also what Kojima said does have merit, he worded it wrong but he does have a point.

Its not GOTY worthy or even up there with the best PM games but i do really like Shield, i've actually been putting in a fair amount of hours in these past few weeks and have found myself to be enjoying it more i did when i got it.

Fire Emblem was robbed.

You gotta be high to name pokemon sword and shield GOTY xD

@BeautyandtheBeer,

Depend on how many Pokemon sword and shield comment sections you have been on, they certainly seem to come from the angle the games are bad, and it's the complete truth, when in fact it's all opinions good or bad, I just tend to offer a counter argument that very few people feel this way in reality.

@WallyWest People who like Death Stranding like mundane travelling across an uninteresting environment and escort missions. It has terrible dialogue and even Kojima himself wasn't sure what the hell he was even trying to communicate with the game.

Kojima is one of the most toxic over-hyped developers in the industry. He ditches his friends to hang around the big Hollywood heads considering himself some kind of God. He created a turd with Death Stranding. It's the first game he has ever made where not all fans ate it up and he got salty over it.

What he said about Americans (note that I'm Russian, not even American) is absolutely retarded and he, as a big head developer who gets media coverage, is actually disgusting saying sh*t like that about the vast majority of his fanbase. If you don't believe he should be shunned then you're just as bad of a fanboy.

The faults with Death Stranding started becoming evident in Metal Gear Solid 5, and everybody just decided to blame and shame Konami for it as if Kojima is an untouchable flawless genius. In actuality Kojima is an insufferable pretentious a**hole. Death Stranding proved that with all the money resources and time, no, Kojima isn't the next best thing to Jesus he is just a developer who made one weird successful franchise and that's just his worth.

Maybe in your eyes Death Stranding is something special, but I think 99% of gamers will agree with me that it is not worthy of the GOTY title from any major publication.

Pokémon will always make the fanboys cry. It's the best game in the series, haters got rektd.

that's a trash tier list for goty right there ( minus fire emblem and shadows die twice). pokemon SS is nowhere near as deserving of goty as fire emblem is.

is Famitsu nut? where Pokémon Sword & Shield can be a GOTY? Pokémon Sword & Shield is the weakest game in the Pokémon franchise, cut Nintendo Dex, cut important mechanic like Z-move and Mega Evolutions and have graphics and animations that is not equal of a Switch game, if a Switch game deserve GOTY is Luigi Mansion 3.

Pokemon Sword & Shield and Death Stranding... hahaha laughable

I'm pretty sure Pokemon Sword was the only new game I picked up released in 2019. I've put 65+ hours into it with shiny hunting, and have not completed the story. It has been worth the $60 with what I've gotten from the adventure so far. The recent Pokemon games getting GOTY just shows me how down of a year 2019 was for gaming, and that's how I felt during last year. 2020 starting out with Animal Crossing and then Xenoblade next month, it's already head and shoulders better than 2019.

Makes sense, was a blast to play and even now I still go back from time to time for new events. Definitely a solid GoTY win.

I love the salt here.

Whilst I enjoyed Pokémon Shield for a new Pokémon fix it wasn't exactly mind blowing was it? The character design was pretty pants, the difficulty was unbelievably easy and the story linear as always from a Pokémon game.

RPG of the year? Hardly...

Sorry while I liked Sword and Shield and enjoyed playing them I can't call it game of the year Fire Emblem 3 houses and Luigi's Mansion 3 are way better.

@Varkster Stop speaking for others and understand there's thing called opinion and that's what your thoughts are an opinion, they aren't fact so acting like they are and stop being so arrogant.

@WallyWest You know you're responding to a child when he refuses to read anything you're saying and resorts to the "it's just your opinion" camp.

Buddy if you were going to start an argument at least make sure you can refute statements that I bring up. When you end up replying with "none of this matters because it's all opinion", it makes you look spineless.

What I said about Kojima however is not an opinion lmao. It's literally fact. Accept it and stop sniffing his ass because he doesn't deserve it nor does he care about you.

What I love about these articles is usually the comments. You get the fanboys defending and trying to cancel out negative opinions but its okay if it favors their views and what they like. Then you get the people that takes everything so personal like their dog died or something because someone doesnt agree with them. Pokemon = Sonic community, I swear.

The next pokemon game will have even less effort than SnSn did. It will have N64 graphics, no animation whatsoever and will only have 200 pokemon, and yet people will buy it no matter what because you, know, it's pokemon, Don't ask question just buy it

@Varkster You know you're responding to some internet manbaby when he accuses you of being a child to try and big himself up and think his opinions are fact. You don't like the game, many share that same thought, i love the game and guess what many share that same thought as well. Your opinions on Kojima are just that opinions and you also need to realize a lot of what Kojima says is usually worded wrong and mistranslated because of his very limited grasp of the English language.

@BeautyandtheBeer
Rookie game = New IP