Poll: Pokémon Sword And Shield Launched A Year Ago, Has Your Opinion On Them Changed?

No, it's still not what i was expecting "felt very underwhelming". I hope the next entry will address the mess they did. we needed something fresh like zelda BOTW which stole a lot of peoples heart.

It's like the developers didn't step up to create new things "with years of experience under their belts in the pokemon franchise, they should be doing well, than what they're offering to the general audience". Strictly speaking of the base game.
The ideas are dated and lazy(i know some may find it interesting, but i don't).
Should've added more fun things to do in the environment i.e the world.
Are they trying to play it safe?
This game should've been one of the best things to happen to the switch like BOTW did, considering the fact a lot of us grew up watching Pokemons and playing the game in the gameboy era and beyond. The crown tundra tried to put somethings that should've been in the base game in the first place, however, you can't fully fix the mistakes made early on in the development of the game with a DLC.
Finally, with the switch raw power above it's previous predecessor, i expected better from gamefreak and co.

And the inferno shall commence in 3...2...1...

I am very much enjoying both the main game and the DLC and I would say this and Let’s go brought me back into the fold.

They've been good for me but not up to the high standards of Pokemon games. (To summarise)

Worse than expected.

I played Pokemon games casually so no complaints from me.

Oh, wait.
I forgot my candies (bored with popcorn) to watch the funny comments here.

I don't care about the limited Pokedex or any of that stuff, as I only play Pokemon for the ingame campaign that thing had literally no effect for me, and the selection of ingame Pokemon was actually quite good in S&S. I also do honestly think that presentation wise it was fine and the UI was snappy and easy to use.

However the lack of effort with the game is pretty apparent, the routes and areas feel super compressed and there are literally no dungeons to explore with even the "evil organization lair" being replaced by an elevator section.

I also personally cannot fathom why they took away the option of turning off the godforsaken exp.share, with it on play it's so easy to become overleveled which takes away even the tiniest crumb of challenge the game might otherwise offer.

Still enjoy playing Sw/Sh. As far as pokemon games go they're good games and feel more like something to explore. Do they have bugs/issues? Yes but so do most games out there.

I haven’t played either yet. I’m getting sword with the dlc soon. Physical copy. Quite excited tbh,I’ve held off because of the negative reviews but I want to try it myself now

Pokemon lost it's soul for generations now. Take me back to gen 5 please

I honestly really enjoyed Sword and the DLC made the games even better imo.

Well this will be fun.

For me I’ve think I’ve got hit with Pokémon burnout. Every year it’s the same thing over and over.

I enjoyed let’s go, I enjoyed the mix of turn based and the new catching mechanic. The game was unbalanced but I thought sword and shield could correct this.

Sun and moon tried something different by removing gyms. Sword and shield put them back.

I’ll probably skip the next game unless it’s fully open world with a mini map overlay

Replaying Y right now, imo it felt lackluster back then when it released but now after SwSh this game feels like it's full of content in comparison, so I give SwSh the credit that they made the older games better somehow lol

I had my bar set very, very low after Gen 7 and the early release information. Unfortunately, they still disappointed.

People made such a fuss about ‘Dexit’ that I was convinced that for those who don’t care about the National Dex storm-in-a-Sinistea these games would still be top-notch. However they did feel rushed and low-effort in places, and due to the low stakes of the DLC that felt even worse. I’d say my disappointment has increased over time, sadly.

Still, looking back at older gens., Game Freak have tended to screw the Yamper a little with the first game in every console generation, and improve on the subsequent one. I have higher hopes for the next Switch Pokémon instalments.

@Expa0 I stopped playing when I got to Ballonlea as this was basically the 3rd town in a row I got to that had practically no content aside from the gym battle. I swear some Gen 1 towns had more content than most of Gen 8's

Some of the kids today really haven't got a clue.. 😅

Main game wasn't great. I hated the story. Couldn't care for it. I'm Pokémon fan so collecting all of them and getting shinys kept me going. Isle of armour was okay, introduced some new stuff. Crown tundra really is what the main game should have been.

I've really enjoyed them. Probably my favourite generation since gen 2.

Still haven’t played pokemon since gen 6 doesn’t look like anything changed really, youll get the same experience as any other pokemon game. Now its missing alot of pokemon and forms.

The DLC has definitely improved some aspects of the game, but most of the issues with the game have remained. The game is too small, too linear, too lacking in content, and too unpolished/outdated. Major improvements are needed for this game to be a legitimate console experience worth $60, and most of those are going to require a longer development cycle and more competent developers. The DLC is a bandaid on a bullet wound.

Crown Tundra was actually pretty alright, but while I like some aspects of the base game like the portable box, I think it's rather weak. Isle of Armour was one of the worst things I ever played, dreadful.

Good game, bad Pokémon game imo.

Nat Dex was disappointing, but wasn't even the biggest problem. The game was bland. The story really felt like it was about the Champion and I was just a tagalong. And it took me 15 hours to beat with nothing to do in the post game. Definitely the worst value for the price in Pokemon history.

I think the lack of adventure sums up my primary disappointment. Pokemon used to be a game about going out into the wilds and taming them. Now it's a game about being walked through a series of challenges by NPC chaperones.

Games were as bad as I thought.

I played ~100 hours of Pokemon Shield. It's my second most-played game on the Switch.

That being said, I still think it's a bad game. It's addictive for sure, but it's way too easy, and I hate Dynamax battles, and multiplayer aspects of the game.

I recently discovered Ni No Kuni on Switch, which is close enough in genre to Pokemon and it's much much better.

This was really a missed opportunity and the graphics for the overworld were lame. I think DQXI is a good example of what it could have looked like given GameFreaks huge financial power, there's not much of an excuse for it.

Not as good as usum, for me thats the gen to beat. The base game is pretty bland but post game and dlc have really increased my enjoyment of the game. For future games I hope they go with the dlc route instead of a 3rd version. Im working toward making a competitive team right now, had to watch some videos regarding iv/ev training since I've never done that before. Still miss megas and zmoves...

I enjoyed my time with them, but I sold it before the DLC came out because I just had no interest in shelling out more money for the game. There's been something missing from the Pokemon games for me the last couple generations and I can't put my finger on it.

I have replayed Let's Go a few times, despite hating the idea of it initially. I know it got some hate too, but it's one of my favorite Switch games.

Adding a hard mode would be great where maybe you choose an adult model instead of kid model & just have absolutely devastating battles where your team gets wiped out if you're not strong enough. Like a game plus mode or something

I played for 400 hours so far and am still playing. I'm hating every minute of this blatant cashgrab of course

Biggest media franchise has a game ridden with bugs not much more to say than fanboys eating it up.

Glad to see more people realizing these are mediocre products not worth the price tag. Shame it's a year too late and people who saw it coming were called trolls and haters. But the saddest part is that this is the standard for Pokemon games now and they have no reason to get any better in the hands of Gamefreak.

I've never felt so bland while playing a game. It started fun but sometime after the glowy mushroom town everything started feeling rushed - the story, the animations, everything. If I didn't have my girlfriend to play with I'd have put in way less time. Looking back I just have a gross feeling about it, it cut so many corners and lacked so much polish that even if it was made by kids in college I think they should feel a little ashamed, but it was made by the most successful media company in the world, which actually makes me laugh when I think about it. I'm VERY glad I had the wherewithal to not buy the DLC in advance back when a small part of me was tempted, because no ounce of me has any interest now.

Wasn't great, but wasn't terrible. I've just recently played Let's Go, and actually enjoyed that more. The wild pokemon catching mechanic helped break it up a bit; nothing more monotonous than having to battle endless zubats etc in the previous games.

I haven'r played them yet but am still hyped to after I finish playing AC Odyssey!

Ive played every pokemon game thus far and apart from the exclusion of the full pokedex I'd say sword and shield were pretty good, the raids were a neat addition and finally some PVE multiplayer. Graphics are the best in the series so far and finally got some open world areas (dlc ones were better). Though tbh you need the dlc to get the full experience from these games as they add a lot of pokemon, mechanics and areas.

its best to explain it like this: they are great games by themselves, but they are TERRIBLE games in the fact that they are pokemon games.

I would give it a 7/10, mostly good but has some pretty noteworthy flaws.

I remember when we first datamined the game, it somehow was worse than we originally could imagine after the announcement.

The game has so many flaws that make it one of the worst in the series, beyond just dexit and price tag.

• Games on the NGC looked better
• Very limited gamemode options with removal of triple, rotation, and royale modes.
• Cant even do a competitive 6v6 due to 20 minute timer
• Dynamax is such a broken gimmick that any community format outright prohibits using it and battle spot is a massive skill-less coinflip.
• Important moves like pursuit were removed from the game, and there's no way to teach defog, roost, and toxic to pokemon that need them besides transferring.
• removed megas that improved various useless pokemon like mawile, at least beedrill doesn't exist anymore just to suffer.
• DLC literally fixed non of those issues but adds a price tag.. the only issue they touched was dexit and we still don't have everything, you don't even need the DLC to have those mons either so its kinda pointless doing dexit in the first place.
• Galar has the worse route layout in the mainline franchise, every route is point A and point B, with nothing inbetween to explore. Wild area helps a bit but you could just remove routes and make towns connect with how little there is between them.
• We're 2 DLCs in, and they can't even patch the new shiny mechanic thats been bugged since release (1/512 odds to find a shiny if you have the species' number battled at 500 in the pokedex, but its bugged so it only rolls that 1/512 3% of the time.)
• I was about to go asleep but then read this, got angry, and now stopping myself before i go on any longer.

Never played them, dexit put me off the whole thing. And while the Tundra DLC has now brought my fav 6 team members back into the fray, I’ve enjoyed moving on to new life ventures & therefore have left my Pokemon fandom behind!

Once again, the voting suggests the games have been well received (46% positive to 42% negative, at time of posting) yet the comments are overwhelmingly negative. It's either there's a silent majority out there who enjoy the games, or a vocal minority that constantly complain. Or perhaps both!

Hopefully next year's diamond/pearl remake announcement will stop people from complaining.....

If they remake diamond and pearl and keep the original pokedex for those games will you people still moan it doesn't have all the pokemon/full pokedex

I don't mind the game but It does not really give you lot's of thing's to do and If you want every Pokemon you need to trade but you will need the online membership. The game is fun but I just need more thing's to do beside from catching and shiny hunting Pokemon when you finish the game.

Where is the "No - I don't understand the appeal of these games at all"

@Yas

42% negative shows that those Games and Decisions made with them are Dividing the Fans.
Netherless, the Switch has such a big Customer Base that it is easy for the biggest Frenchise Worldwide to make a Succses even with a flawed Game.

For me it is easy:
Less Content than earlier Entries, so no Money from me.

I would wish more Content in the End, like Black and White 2.

It's sad, because I LOVE most of the new Pokemon designs. The gym leaders were given a bit more personality. But everything else was terrible. Hop seeming to pop up around EVERY corner wanting to battle, the story sucked, and everything felt so lackluster.

Then there's the online stuff. Whoever designed that system needs to be demoted and to bring back a working system, at least to Gen 6.

@Azuris @graysoncharles My main point is that the voting (very roughly) is 50/50 for positive and negative reactions, and yet the comments are overwhelmingly negative. So there must be a silent majority who have voted, bought the game (and the number of units shifted can't be argued with) and enjoyed it. I get that a lot of fans are unhappy. But this article, or the Nintendo Life site, or indeed the whole of the internet, gives a distorted view of the reality - which is a lot of people actually like the games. I think the whole "Sword and Shield are rubbish" has been a bit exaggerated. It's more like the older fans have grown up and moved on, and are upset the game hasn't moved on with them.

I was excited at first, then it began to wear off as launch approached and it seemed like the games would be very short and rail-roady.
In reality they were much more rail-roady than I expected.

The environments looked nice and there were some aspects I liked, but overall the games were disappointing. I find it way too easy to get the most powerful, shiny pokemon. The models are okay, but the animations make them look a little soul-less. The NPCs drag you around to the extent that it feels less like your adventure and more like you're a side character for Hop's adventure.
On top of that, I don't really like the direction pokemon designs are going in. So many of them evolve into men wearing clothes now. They feel less like species designs and more like character designs. It doesn't really feel like a living ecosystem anymore.

I did like some of the NPCs, although I'd have liked to have the choice of when to interact with them, rather than being forced into every interaction. The music was pretty good. There were a lot of quality of life improvements I found helpful and I loved the inclusion of curry.

Overall I'd give it a 5/10. It was very okay, but this was my favourite franchise and I was expecting more love and care to have gone into it. (for such a cashcow, a HGSS level of love shouldn't break the bank)

The sad truth is that the high sales figures will only be seen as encouragement, so the devs will keep pumping out the next cookie cutter game. Same stuff, different names. Call me when they finally let you fight with multiple Pokémons simultaneously.

Pokémon obviously doesn’t get the AAA treatment it deserves. What I can say is that this is the most fun I’ve had in the VGC format ever... but I know that opinion is controversial too. Fingers crossed for gen 9 but not holding my breath.

This game is good. It was a little easy tho

Game design was lazy. In the end, I just sold my copy and it was the first Pokemon game I've sold ever since gen 1.

I tried both expansion areas, but in the end the gameplay came down to biking around in empty, boring areas with no goals to chase. I can do that with a real bike outside and feel way more achieved.

I've been left with a feeling that if there will ever be a remake of gen 4, it features the same forced Dynamax mechanic. The starters and a handful of other mons have the Gigantamax forms, and the reveal trailers feature a Gigantamax Bibarel.

And that's not a good feeling.

Never played a Pokémon game. Was considering getting these as a good jumping-on point, but never got around to it as there always seemed to be something else I wanted to play more. Too many games, not enough time.

I actually can't quite place it. On one hand, I have enjoyed them, but on the other, they don't quite stack up to my experiences in the past. Playing through the game felt like they have the skeleton down well enough, but the games were clearly missing the meat on the bones. It felt hollow to play through and, while the DLC has done wonders to make up for it - its too little, too late. I still look back on my time playing Pokemon Sapphire fondly, running around blindly searching for trainers, pokemon and slogging through endless ocean routes. They really captured the adventure aspect of video gaming in the early games. But Sword and Shield, while I do enjoy them for what they are, they miss that charm from the earlier series. They look great and function amazingly, but Sw/Sh only have things sorted on the surface. None of the glitz runs deeper.

my choice isn't there im not voting but ill say it here. I was disappointed at first but I'm less disappointed after the touch ups although I enjoyed playing them and will still continue. its a disappointing game I have a slight affection for even now that its a full package.

@Yas
Well it is like always, People complaining are the most visible

I think it is ok to say, the Game has a enjoyable Campain buck lacks the Content of prerior Games.

The both extrem Views of totally Garbage and as good as older ones are not true.
The Truth is just inbetween

I never even beat it, got to the end and lost interest, Pokémon has refused to evolve in a meaningful way so I am done with the series until they make some major changes.

The poll's kind of weird. The game definitely improved with Crown Tundra but as a whole, Pokemon's falling behind the rest of the gaming world and it's a bummer. Hoping the next gen sees them update the formula for a bit so the game's more enjoyable. The video NintendoLife put out about it on youtube hit the nail on the head imo.

@Azuris Agreed!

after the DLC ya Gen 8 is better than 6 or 7 but falls flat compared to Gens 4 and 5

Gens 1-3 were just nostalgia based but the way they felt magically adventureous is what we need back in the series

also, stop showing us everything before launch

i didnt even know what was gonna happen in Gens 1-5 even after seeing the TV commercials

going into Gens 6-8 i feel like i helped develop the games lmao and nothing was really that new on release

Wow, I’m pretty surprised by these numbers. I am an OG 151er, so Pokemon holds a very special place in my gaming history. That being said, I also recognize flaws & issues w/ the series. I did not enjoy Sun, Ultra Sun or Let’s Go Pikachu very much but felt like Sword did a great job in satisfying my Pokemon appetite. Was it perfect? No way. Was it the best Pokemon release in years? (imo) Yes!

I’m still playing Crown Tundra and have sunk “250 hours or more” into Sword.

If Sword & Shield are an indication of where the series is moving in the future, I am happy to go along for the ride.

Did I have fun with SwSh? Yes. Are the games lazy and unpolished? Absolutely. Just because you like a game doesn't mean it doesn't have massive problems that should be fixed.

No. But it is what it is and I just hope for the next gen, Game Freak takes their time

I was optimistic going in, but my enthusiasm quickly petered out. The way they gutted the in-game multiplayer suite to push a separate paid app is infuriating. I was hopefully for the wild areas, but they ended up being barren and made the game drop frames like crazy. And the raid battles aren't fun. At all.

That's on top of all the usual Pokemon problems.

I'll give them another shot at some point with the DLC, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed.

There are aspects of it I liked, though. The encounter system is really good. I like how they included half-random encounters in tall grass. Watching smaller Pokemon skitter around the tall grass was really cute as well. I think they could probably use S&S as a base and make a really decent adventure.

I just hope the games stop being so painfully linear at some point, and that they bring back dungeons.

Haven't played any pokemon games and never picked up swsh. I cant formulate an opinion but maybe ill pick it up someday despite people saying its hot garbo

@Yas I would just like to add that the answers to the poll are worded in such a way that doesn't allow for much nuance. While I didn't go in fearing the game would be disappointing or think they're any more disappointing than I felt, I do think the effort was disappointing. There's some stuff to enjoy there. But ultimately, they're disappointing game in comparison to their predecessors.

I also think it's more than just the games not moving forward with the audience causing this disappointment (though there is a valid argument for some evolution in the formula). What's disappointing is that there was just some odd decisions made that seemed to be unnecessary in the name of catering to more casual Pokémon players i.e Pokémon Go players. And that's fine to include some aspects of that application to help ease newer or returning players into the mainline game. But I felt they went overboard and it was more so unnecessary steps back. It's one thing to not feel comfortable in straying too far from a proven formula. I get it. It's another to inexplicably remove features or choices that didn't need to be and creates an experience that feels lacking in some respects

But with that being said, I don't think it was all bad. But Game Freak should genuinely evaluate how they want the series to go from here on out. We can make the joke that Pokémon fans will eat up whatever they out out. And there's some truth to it based on past history. But there's also history of game series that thought they could coast by on brand recognition alone and were met wih a rude awakening eventually. Not to suggest the franchise as a whole would be in trouble.

The lack of dungeons and bare-bones wild area left the game feeling incredibly empty, on top of a non-sensical and boring plot. And don't get me started on how hard it is to use multiplayer compared to gen VI's brilliant setup. Graphical issues aside, the game itself felt lacking compared to games that were technically smaller, like BW or XY, as the towns themselves had nothing of interest to them. It felt like they stuffed in all the bare necessities (BP exchanger, IV checker, etc) and forgot to make people who existed just to help make the game feel more alive. Gens II - VI just felt so much more memorable in comparison. And Gen I, by virtue of lacking so many later required establishments, spent a lot more time world building which helped it.

Not to say this game wasn't better than previous ones in some ways (walking around Pokemon instead of random encounters, a bunch of QoL fixes such as mints...) but the core adventure component of the game was utterly lacking.

But to be honest, I can't bring myself to pay for the DLC after an appallingly awful base game, despite what I've heard about it's improvements, so this is all based on base.

They are flawed and imperfect games yes, but they're also a whole lot of fun and the best Pokemon games in several generations.

I haven't played them but I don't need to to see the garbage that these games are, I've played enough pokemon games (all of the previous ones) to see what's on offer is not what should be on offer for a million dollar franchise like this. And it still baffles me that people keep swallowing it. I voted with my wallet but unfortunately too many people did not.

Glad people are still able to enjoy them but for me the main series is unfortunately dead with little hope of resurrection if the games from X/Y onwards are anything to believe. Oh well, it had a good run.

The main campaign was a resounding meh. But if they make the next set of games like the wild area and dlc that'd be a good start.

@Expa0 Honestly I'm on my second/third playthrough of the game and I'm starting to wonder if the short story isn't actually a mix of potentially re: development deadline but also potentially a shift of -focus- for the game during development.

As one of the thing that surprise me of the game when I analyse more than the surface level of how short the story is... is also how everything ELSE was similarly put on a speed dial: leveling up(thanks to the MASSIVE amount of experience XP candies can give) but also stuff like Innate Values/Effort Values that feel like(sometimes in part due to how quick leveling up, such as how easy it is to get a pokemon to lvl100 to Hyper Train innate values to the max level) they are easier to customize/grind/increase than ever before. With ability capsules and now even ability patches(which unlock previously harder-to-access hidden abilities on any pokemon), customizing pokemons feels even easier than ever before.

And ultimately... so much of it feels almost pointless for single player with how short/easy it is... but makes perfect sense with the intensity of competitive multiplayer.

It's not just that Sword and Shield is short thus, but that so much mechanics introduced(or made easier to access, like move forgeting/remembering being free now among other things) that it feels like it's specifically designed to funnel players into competitive multiplayer as fast as possible, with everything else that could "slow" down the player either removed or streamlined as much as possible. Hence the much more limited villain team, the nigh-disappearance of "filler" non-gym towns and so on.

This said, it put so much focus on multiplayer that combined with other "holes"(and by this I mean supiciously very "gen4"-shaped ones) I'm starting to wonder if that wasn't indirectly the intent all along because of more being planned... as separate titles.

Which... I'd probably go over characters limits in this post, but there's a LOT I've noticed about both Sword and Shield and what's also missing from it(and like, specifically missing while studying the past regional pokedexes of gen1-2-3-4 games and locations where these "missing" pokemons could be caught in one specific past gamegame) that I'm starting to suspect Gen4 remakes may well be coming next if they weren't outright being worked on in parallel to Sword and Shield.

It's not a -certainty- but there's enough stuff I've seen lining up especially as of the release of Crown Tundra to make me feel it's a very likely possibility.

Honestly, so many people were talking it up to be complete and total garbage that my expectations were set to like, the lowest of the low, and it exceeded them. That being said, I think that if I had set a normal bar, it still would've exceeded them. I had a very fun time playing.

We got lots of NintenDoomed fandom faking as Pokemon gamers. If they could do better make a better game but I can already see the excuses coming.

@HollowSpectre Tbh I've looked enough at stuff that was "missing" in Sword and Shield and some patterns(to put it simply, I've looked at the regional dexes of all past games and basically, bar few exceptions, if it was introduced during Gen1-2-3-4 and is missing from Sword and Shield... a VERY reccuring pattern is that it can be caught at locations in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum... and the wild area itself, especially now that Spiritomb is back and the way it's unlocked in Gen8, is now starting to feel a LOT like what a "Sinnoh Underground 2.0" could be like... or not to mention how Crown Tundra beings back every fossil pokemons except for the specific group introduced in Sinnoh).

And to add... there's a LOT of side-mechanics/additions/quality of life/etc update and content in Sword and Shield that make me suspect "multiplayer" had always been it's focus rather than a singleplayer mode. XP candies, easier access to ability capsules and pokemons with great natural IVs ontop of easier leveling(via XP candies) making it even easier than before to hit the lvl100 requirement to access hyper-training and maxed out IVs without the use of extensive breeding which can instead be used primarily for shinies-breeding or egg moves breeding with less regard to stats.

It's like basically Sword and Shield was instead designed to allow the player to turn the game into a competitive pokemons-crafting lab as fast as possible and story being there almost only as a speed tutorial to the franchise mechanics than being a meaty single player.

But if Gen4 remakes are on the way, with all the meaty single player world that I recall hearing Sinnoh was, it could well be possible that Sword/Shield was thus decided very early to be the "competitive multiplayer's player" pokemon game since a "singleplayer pokemon player's game" would be coming soon if it wasn't outright being worked on in parralel(which could explain a lot of the development difficulties if it come to be revealed such).

Mind you this is just speculations but.. like said, there's a LOT of stuff that feels like it lines up way too neatly for Gen4 remakes to not be considered I feel.
Like: I could recall wrong but I think that the only gen1-2-3-4 "missing" that couldn't be caught in Platinum or Sinnoh games were like... starters, mythicals... and kecleon/shroomish/breloom and that was... mostly it iirc.

And there's so few exclusively missing gen5-6-7 pokemons that ,combined with these three, you could easily reintroduce all of these by turning Sinnoh's Underground into a Wild Area of it's own. To not mention how Sinnoh has a safari zone already iirc that could be used similarly.

@Heavyarms55 That they were imo. Plus I'm starting to think that the perceived "flaws" might just be due to a different focus which might be "focusing on multiplayer and all truly new or streamlined mechanics specifically being meant to make it easier to craft competitive multiplayer pokemons than ever before without resorting to hacking".

And studying a lot of stuff (like, specifically what IS missing from Galar and how much of it specifically can be caught in locations/routes in Sinnoh,)*** it would make sense to give the competitive multiplayer community it's game straight off the bat if a much meatier singleplayer/story-focused game was already in the work.

***Seriously, I've combed the regional dexes of past games for pokemons missing in Sword and Shield and cross-referenced and basically... if it was introduced in gen1/2/3/4 and isn't a starter/mythical(not counting legendaries since they are now all in Crown Tundra), it can be outright caught in Sinnoh bar exceptions I can count on a single hand almost. Meanwhile those exception combined with how few are missing from gen5/6/7-exclusives could easily be covered by turning Sinnoh's Underground and Safari Zones((iirc it having one) into Wild Areas which are starting to feel(especially with the whole "meet other players avathars online and even use that to unlock Spiritomb in Crown Tundra in way VERY similar to Gen4's Spiritomb "quest") like a literal "Underground 2.0" prototype??

These games are great.

@Anti-Matter,

You won't be let down fella, nobody creates bate articles like Nintendo life, even though the poll suggests it pretty much 50/50, and that's taking the views of the internet posting minorities.

@TG16_IS_BAE,

So put yourself in the developers shoes, would you make a game that caters for your main demographic, of do you risk losing sales trying to please the minorities, who in all honesty would be upset no matter what you did.

@Luminous117 the beginning's pretty fun, not gonna lie, but once you get past the 3rd or 4th gym the effort and quality really takes a nosedive. It's honestly shocking and was so disappointing to me.

@johnvboy My junior at work bought it with her Switch Lite, she used to play Pokemon games back on the handhelds and absolutely loved the game and loved the graphics too. Bear in mind she's a graphic designer, illustrator and retoucher. She totally understood the child's aesthetic they were aiming for straight away. She also knew absolutely nothing about the meltdowns.

@WiltonRoots,

She must have known about the millions of unhappy Pokemon fans out there, I mean I know the game sold well, but all those people hated the game.

@johnvboy Nope, not a sausage, it's like it never happened. Shame though as I was expecting the high streets to look like a war torn country before it launched...

19.02 million copies sold. It could have so easily been 19.1 million.

I said they were as disappointing as I expected. They are by no means bad games, and they do give me hope for the future, but by pokemon standards, they are a bit weak imo

@WiltonRoots,

Well I did expect there to be worldwide protests outside stores, but I guess all those millions of people were online making their feelings known.

@Yas Almost a 50/50 split is AWFUL.
Almost 50% of people did not like this game or were unhappy with it. That is DISGRACEFUL.
If we suppose this poll is representative, that's 11 million+ underwhelmed/ unhappy/ disappointed players.

They really should do better.

@VexingInsanity,

Well not awful, as it's only a small minority of people on internet posting forums, I would have expected the score to be far more in favor of people hating the game.

This is not indicative of the majority of the games owners as they do not tend to post on internet forums. also not sure where you get 50% of 19 million as 11 million.

after Tsuneka Ishihara said GEN 8 was coming to Switch, i expected a game with the highest calibre/qualibre of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey, not the dissapointment that is Pokémon Sword e Shield, Pokémon Sword e Shield make me a longtime fan(fan since GEN 1) to opt to a better game as my first Switch game(Super Mario Odyssey in that case).

Llifelong pokemon fan and I thought shield was an okay Pokemon title, but I too was gutted at Dexit haha, the wild area/DLCs 'move the camera' effect was sold as a gimmick when games have been allowing players that freedom for decades... I think the next game cycle needs to be almost 100 percent this camera style or they're going to piss a lot more people off. I tend to imagine a pokemon breath of the wild style game where you can freely decide how to approach your quest, climb mountains for my geodudes, go underground for my fossil pokemon etc that's not just to take a few photos of them though haha

I agree that they do need to do better, gamers are smarter now than back in the game boy era and just because this formula sold billions in the late 90s doesn't mean it will continue to do forever. it does have a loyal fan base that will buy anything with a pokemon logo on it, but once I got to the end of crown tundra, i'd seen more than enough of the "big pokemon go boom" mechanic.

there's so much potential for this series, but i guess GF look at astronomical sales and are like...why fix what isn't broken.

@Yas |Once again, the voting suggests the games have been well received (46% positive to 42% negative, at time of posting)

I wouldn't call those results well received. To me those would be mixed results leaning into the mostly positive. Cause the results at the time were close to one another they would be called mixed.

Right now it is 36% positive and 52% negative which I call mostly negative.

@BenAV I cannot understand people defending a game that has animations and cutscenes worse than many Gamecube games, have a world design and progression as boring as some of the worst RPGs ever, I personally can't remember playing an RPG with a world as lienar ans shallow as Galar, and all this from the highest grossing media franchise ever.

I understand when people say they still had fun with it, I had to, I have almost 300 hours now thanks to grinding in the wild area and raids, but the main story was just terrible.

If you consider how much money this franchise has, you could argue SwSh is the single most embarrassing gamer ever made.

@johnvboy
Even so the amount of dissatisfaction regarding the game is awful. Many people are dissatisfied and to just go " that's just a vocal minority" really downplays the games shortcomings. There are plenty of games where people sing their praises. I rarely hear anybody sing their praises for this game other than they had fun with it but it could've been a lot better.

Either way whether you expected otherwise. The data in front of us suggests that a lot of people were dissatisfied. AND I said "suppose" we "assume" it's representative. I did not say it is. Even if it isn't representative, what it does imply is that it is indicative that many "hardcore" nintendo/pokemon fans were dissatisfied.

And I guess I'm sorry I don't regularly track the sales of a game I think is bad? I thought it had hit around 22+ million copies by now but I guess not. Either way whether the number was incorrect or not it still is not a good look for the game.

I'm happy and hoping there will be more dlc, the still have that power plant you can't get to

@VexingInsanity

Sarcasm?

I dearly hope so.

@TheFullAndy sarcasm about what?
That this game could've been great and is lackluster comparitively to most other games in its own series let alone the competition?

That this poll tells us a lot of people are dissatisfied?

I don't know what there is to be sarcastic about.

People could certainly have fun with this game but it certainly isn't meeting potential

I'm sorry to say this, I really am, but that 17% with abysmal expectations is a big part of why we cannot have good things.
How is it possible to be positively surprised by such a trainwreck of a game? I get it that not everyone is an expert and everyone has different wants and needs, but it seems so easy to me to see the differences between a polished game and this sorry excuse for one.
I'm not saying you can have fun with it, I've had fun with my fair share of bad and even terrible games as well, but that doesn't mean I'm blindfolding myself and calling everything "good" just becauseI had fun for an hour.

@VexingInsanity,

Your statement that lots of people are unhappy with the game has no evidence to back it up, all you are getting are the opinions of a very vocal internet minority, and even this is only 50% of games that actually hate the game.

@BenAV

Keep screaming into the void, no one can hear you, and based on games sales you are objectively wrong.

@johnvboy 50% is A TON.

There is literally a very vocal amount of people that are dissatisifed. There is even data from this very POLL.

it even has a generally low user score on metacritic, where granted it can be review bombed. But that usually stabilises. It hasn't though. The reviews are incredibly low for a triple AAA game like this.

@VexingInsanity,

Agree with you on these types of polls carried out on gaming sites and forums, but that is firstly not an indicator for the wider mass market, and secondly not enough people to make an informed judgment of in the first place.

Again the metacritic user score is a poor indicator as well, there are only 5227 reviews in the first place, and this out of a game that has sold 19 million or so, also you totally ignore the 80% overall review scores for the game, but I guess that does not fit your argument.

@johnvboy
Either way from what we do know. Many are and seem to be wanting more even if they liked the game.

We can't just assume everybody enjoyed it because the wider market didn't listen.

That wider market aren't the ones who will live and die by pokemon so I would be cautious to accept these people as indicators of the games quality. Hopefully Nintendo and game freak can learn that from the WII U,

I am glad some people enjoyed this game but at the same time it is disappointing because this is not the pokemon game to end all pokemon games that it shouldve been.

From my own experience with the game I found many aspects I did like from pokemon designs to the gym battle. But there were simply too many bad aspects from a terrible story to terrible writing to constant interuptions, far too linear etc.

from what I've heard though the crown tundra, while as ugly as the rest of the game, is a MASSIVE improvement. So hopefully that lasts.

@BenAV,

Of course you can't take the games sales as an indicator of quality, but by the same token you can't dismiss them as well, the main issue here is that you are very unlikely to get their opinions as they do not tend to post on internet forums.

Sorry I do realize you did not pose the question to me directly.

@VexingInsanity,

Again I totally get your point on a personal level, and have no issue with people not liking the game, it's when you or they claim to speak for everyone with no real evidence whatsoever.

As for the mass Pokemon buyers of these games, I tend to judge by the prices of these games second hand, and as this remains consistently high, there must not be tonnes of unhappy gamers copies of the game flooding the market.

@johnvboy 1) no evidence to back it up? I get defending a game you like but now you're plain delusional or lying.
Lots of people are unhappy with this sorry mess of a game, it's a fact and one that's easy to demonstrate.
Look at how many negative reviews there are, how many people decrying the death of a once beloved franchise. Seriously, do that if you don't believe me, you'll find plenty of videos and articles.

2) ok, so now 50% saying it's bad is a small number, ok. You decide that.
But if any other game is scored a 7 or even an 8, on the internet it's automatically a bad score (which is also BS).

3) shouldn't be hard to understand, but a passionate minority is certainly more believable than the clueless masses, since, you know, we're passionate enough to look up gaming news. And being so passionate, we tend to inform ourselves and learn what makes a good game or not. But yeah, certainly a soccer mom buying it for little Timmy counts as a well-informed, pondered purchase.

@Screen read point number 3, then get back to me.
If you genuinely believe that quality is dictated by success, or vice versa, you're in for a rude awakening.
Unfortunately this word is not as ideal as we'd like it to be, and our small monkey brains are of no help, since they tend to simplify everything we don't understand right away.
And that's how heuristics come in: "woah this game sold 20 millions, must be good!". So yeah it's not your fault or anybody's fault, our brains work like that when we have little information, but at least don't convince yourself that sales = quality.

@BenAV,

To be honest nobody's opinion is not valid good or bad for these games, as it's all a personal opinion, and as I have said many times it's only when people tend to suggest they speak for everyone else that I have an issue.

As for sales it's tough with the wider mass market as they do not tend to post on forums or leave reviews, so it's hard to gauge their reaction to the game, but as I have previously posted the second hand prices of the game being consistently high, would suggest that the market is not being flooded by unhappy gamers copies.

I think SwSh are underwhelming in that they innovated very little while removing Pokémon. Compared to superb, innovative Switch titles like BotW or Odyssey, which broke excellent new ground in their respective series, they're a disappointment. With that being said, Pokémon is Pokémon, and I've enjoyed this series tremendously from its first American localization. More of the same isn't bad; it just makes me wonder what could have been.

As it stands, I think SwSh are a good 8/10, and the expansions do improve the overall package, but if GameFreak had put BotW- or Odyssey-level effort into them, they could have been 10/10 masterpieces. I know that GameFreak was initially skeptical about the success of the Switch, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if SwSh started as 3DS titles, with the Wild Area added later once it was determined that they would be for Switch. Now that the Switch is clearly a tremendous success, perhaps they'll devote more time and resources into making Gen IX truly spectacular (though we might get Sinnoh remakes first).

@BenAV & @clvr I believe the fact that 99.9% percent of the player base enjoying the game is indicative of the quality.

I'm really tired of you people trying to rain on our parade.

@VexingInsanity

All the "AWFUL" and "DISGRACEFUL" made you look a bit mad is all so I assumed you were taking the mick.

Way I see it is 50%ish of people got what they expected it or enjoyed it more than they thought. And considering this is a site for game enthusiasts and 50%ish enjoyed the games it is likely casual gamers, who make up the majority, enjoyed the game as well. Which would be GREAT!

@johnvboy I don't pretend to speak for everybody.

From my own anecdotal evidence, polls like this one, and general review sites. There appears to be plenty of discontent. It is not everyone. This poll even shows a majority were satisfied. But I still believe the amount of dissatisfaction was both disappointing and too much.

@TheFullAndy I should probably tone down my language lol.
But I do believe some aspects of this game were in fact terrible.

I am by no means some kind of Pokemon fanboy but I was dissatisfied and I want it to be better. Ive played the games casually since gen4/5, I havent bought every entry but on Switch I was excited for a home console pokemon and let down heavily.

That's not the case for everyone but I do think the amount of discontent surrounding these games does not come from a place of malice. Just genuinely disappointed fans and casuals who wanted more.

@clvr,

If you think 5226 people is a lot of unhappy people I can't help you, and you are never going to convince me this is not a minority of unhappy people, now as I have said on many Pokemon comment sections, this does not make these complaints not valid on a personal level, but it's hardly indicative of the wider audience's satisfaction or lack off, as we just have no way of knowing one way or the other.

Again you must not be reading my posts correctly, which to be fair always happens with this type of thread, but my point was not 50% was a bad number of unhappy people, if it was from the total buyers of this game I would agree with you, but of course it's not, you are getting 50% of an internet minorities opinion, so hardly a fair indicator.

Your argument is also beginning to crumble when you resort to all the mass market being clueless and easily pleased, and the vocal minorities are of course all experts, that should be developing video games themselves, again sweeping statements based on no evidence whatsoever.

I guess all those 80% critic reviews were paid for too.

@VexingInsanity,

Never said you did that personally, I stated many people on various forums do tend to think on this issue and others, that it's them and everybody else that feels upset about something.

@BenAV You've also given your opinion on every article even remotely related to the franchise for over a year.

Even with the addition of DLC, these games are unfinished garbage. Game Freak either needs to try harder in developing these games, or give the license to someone else.

Pokemon Sword/Shield certainly surpassed my lower expectations, and still contains that distinct joy of a Pokemon game. However, many aspects to the franchise still need much improvement.

I really enjoyed my time with Pokemon Sword/Shield. I dare even say it's my favorite game in the core series so far.

@johnvboy the "paid for" jump in logic devalued everything you said prior to that. Unfortunate, cause I was willing to have a serious conversation, but if anyone who disagrees with you is automatically a conspiracy theorist then there's not much use.
I agree that the numbers are very small, but I think a poll on a site like this is more indicative than a general population poll. How useful would that be, if everyone buying the game doesn't have a clue how and why a game is good? Do you honestly believe an average consumer knows how to assess the quality of a game, movie, whatever? No, that's why reviewers exist. Passionate people inform themselves and learn how to judge the craft, while the general population is clueless. That's a fact, it's not opinion.
And it's not me putting myself on a pedestal, as there are so many arts I am clueless about, simply cause I'm not passionate about them; and exactly for that reason you won't find me on sculpture forums telling people what is good and what is not, because I knpw that I am ignorant.
And in this era where everything is a tap away, that's very very rare, as everyone believes to know it all about everything without putting in the time and work.

@Screen ok but first you gotta give us proof that 99.9% of the people playing it is indeed enjoying it, and that's laughable.
If you said that about BOTW, or Ghost Of Tsushima, or any other unanimously acclaimed games I wouldn't question you, but saying that about Swoosh is just plain ignorant and delusional. I'm not saying the majority doesn't like it, but a lot of people certainly don't, more than 0,01% for sure.

@Ludovsky well, the flaws I refer to are mechanical mostly. Lazy details like poorly done turning animations for the dogs during the climax and things like Piers not having any music during his performances. Or the online issues. Most issues with the game are just laziness on GF's part. On the other hand things they got right they did really really well. It's never been easier to get into competitive Pokemon. Things like easy leveling, even training via vitamins, the EV reset NPC, the battle ready stamp, exp candy, raids and dynamax adventure.

Despite the lack of a national dex, SWSH even during the base game has more Pokemon to choose from without trading than any other game by a landslide. But that rarely gets talked about.

@Mambitos Maybe the bugs don't bother them as much as they do others.

@BenAV Well, no one ever said the game would magically change over time. But opinions do.

I really enjoyed my time with Shield. The wild area was fun to explore and I felt like they did a great job making the gym leader fights epic with the crowd chants/noise.

I was positive going in and the game was enjoyable.

@VexingInsanity

No denying the games are not what they could have been.

The games are good, sorry to all the manchildren out there still crying about gamefreak. You lose

@clvr,

My paid for comment was tongue in cheek, hence the

It was a retort to your the masses being somehow stupid, and their opinions if you could get them, would be somehow invalid.

I am all for a serious debate on the subject, but you can't make bait comments, then get upset when somebody calls you out on them.

@Rika_Yoshitake,

I am sure the games were never going to have been designed for the longstanding Pokemon fans, Gamefreak simply made games for their main target audience.

@clvr,

I love the way you state how can an average person judge the quality of a movie or video game for that matter, so we are better to listen to critics, then only for people to still dismiss their views when they do not agree with their own personal opinions.

@johnvboy oh, then that's my bad for taking that too seriously!

But you seem to have a knack for distorting what people tell you though.
You said that the masses are stupid and their opinion doesn't count, I just said that factually, the majority will not be made up of experts. There's a reason why competence is valuable, you can't expect everyone to be knowledgeable about everything.

I think what separates and intelligent person from an ignorant person is being able to admit ignorance, as I said before.
I'm knowledgeable enough in a couple of fields to recognize that I'm unbelievably ignorant in a thousand others, and that's why I voice my opinion on things I know, and shut up about things I don't know.

@johnvboy #143 rewrite that thing, otherwise it's unintelligible.
Also, by the way you phrased, it seems you're accusing me of saying reviews matter while other people dismiss them? What?

It should be obvious that not every reviewer is as good as the next, just like with everything else.
You want good, well thought out reviews and thinkpieces?
Go on YT and look for SkillUp, Writing On Games, Adam Millard, and many many more.
Just please have a point next time you reply to me.

Edit: I'll explain it better: reviews on NL and similar sites are not very useful, as they have limited time to play through the game.
On YT you'll find a lot of people who does not have the usual deadlines journos have, so they have much more time to inspect the game in its more minute details and have a more well-round assessment of the game.

@clvr,

Sorry for sounding off with you, it was never my intention.

But I think we will both agree it's tough to take anyone else's opinion but our own, you can look to critics to provide a general consensus but there will always be critics wanting to go against the grain as it were, and by the same token critics that are more forgiving of a franchise or game.

Also it would be very good to be able to gauge the opinion of the masses, not because it would prove if these games were good or bad, but just to gauge their overall satisfaction with these games.

My point about the masses views being seen as somehow inferior, was not aimed solely at you, but it's a line that's used far to often on internet forums.

@clvr,

Makes perfect sense to me.

My point was not that you were saying this, but there is a lot of double standards when it comes to critic reviews, where someone will agree with them if it mirrors their own personal views, or disagree if they do not personally like a title.

Not saying you were stating this though.

I don't think Pokemon is for me anymore. I've been a huge fan since 2001 but I don't think I'll be buying or playing any pokemon game anymore.

@Yas really 46% positive is extremely low. Imagine if only half of fans enjoyed it. That's very bad.

@johnvboy hey, I appreciate the friendly tone 😃

I think the best thing one could do is put one's opinion to the test.
There's lots of things I don't like about my personality, trust me, but one thing I'm proud of is that usually it's not that hard for me to change my mind, if the data suggests I'm wrong.
I've changed my mind on so many topics I really don't know where to begin, but the thing is it will only make you more elastic and capable of understanding others' point of view.
Do you think I don't get why people defend this game? I was a Pokémon defender and more in general a Nintendo apologist for the longest time. I was born and raised on Nintendo consoles and handhelds, and I never had another console until I was 17 or so; so yeah, it took a looooong time for me to detach from "mommy Big N" and start appreciating the games on other consoles, and also criticizing Nintendo's mistakes.
That's why I advocate for this kind of thinking.

And regards the masses' opinion, to be honest I do think it it less relevant in some contexts:

-if you're trying to gauge appreciation for a general audience, a regular review or any one's opinion is way more useful than an in-depth analysis;

-if you wanna gauge the artistic and objective merits of a game, then by all means dive deep into the analysis channels I mentioned early, and don't expect a random bystander to give you deep insight.

See? There's a place for everyone, it's just a matter of learning what works where.
But if you ask me if Swoosh is a good game, I'll always tell you "no, god, no, it's not; it's embarrassing for the standards of the series and Nintendo's first party games.
Will you enjoy it? Well, it depends on what you want out of it. If you're a hardcore Pokémon fan, don't bother; if you're looking for a very simple, breezy adventure with colorful creature to catch, you'll have a great time."

As I already said, it's ok to enjoy something bad, just don't call it good 😉

@clvr,

What is somebody likes the game and thinks it good?, it's all down to personal opinions at the end of the day.

You do not personally like the game, and no amount of comments from me will change your mind, or make you incorrect, but that does work the other way as well.

Are these games perfect? No, they have problems. But are they "Garbage" or "bad games" like some people say they are? No. I think their problems are overexaggerated, that's not to say those problems aren't there but they are certainly not as bad as made out to be. Sword and Shield are good games, not flawless by any stupid but like previous entries they are still fun which is the most important part of a game with memorable characters, cool new features and a beautiful region with Galar! and I think especially with the DLC these games have gotten even better, they've been massively expanded upon which I think is awesome! and I think if they take what they've learned from this game and the DLC I think we could be in for something really special for Gen 9.

I honestly would have been able to look past the whole Pokedex thing if anything had actually come of it, but there were was too many cut corners for it to be anything more than a time issue. White void battle backgrounds, N64 trees, animations like double kick, pop in, routes that are just a straight line, all signs that this game was rushed out before it was ready. The biggest frustration for me was honestly the story. You could tell there was potential for a really cool story, but they didn't have the time to flesh it out so they just had most of it happen in the background while shuffling you from one gym to the next. Past Pokemon games were empowering and let you feel like a hero for nearly the whole journey. SwSh didn't let the player be a hero until almost the very end of the game. The lack of polish in all aspects of a $60 game from the most valuable franchise in the world is a major disappointment. The DLC did a better job of letting you feel like you were on an adventure. Did I still have fun? Yes. But it wasn't worth the price of admission.

@clvr Sword and Shield IS a good game. Perfect? No but they are still playable and fun with great features and memorable characters - Major things that make a good game.

If you don't personally like it that's fine but that doesn't make it objectively "bad", it's just not to your tastes which is fine.

@DonSerrot See this is where I think a lot of people misunderstand the story. It is very much about you proving how capable and worthy you are and you conquering the Gym Challenge is a big part of that, the goal is to prove that you're the very best, that's why when major things happen during that quest Leon takes care of it, because as Champion his job is to keep the region safe and that is why once you prove yourself by reaching Leon you're able to get in on the action and help save the region from destruction. Anyway you get to do what Leon did in the post game with you having to battle a bunch of out of control Dynamax Pokemon because at that point you're the Champion so it's your duty to protect the people of Galar just like Leon did.

@johnvboy well, no, it's not.
One thing is liking X, another is X actualybeing good.
Subjective vs. Objective.

As I said beforehand, I like things that I know for a fact are not good, but I don't go around telling people that they're wrong for calling it bad.
That's what "guilty pleasures" are.
You can like The Room, sure, but would you say that the story makes sense? It's well acted? It's well written? I sure hope not.

The hard thing to understand for many is that there's someone out there who knows more than that and hence can discern good from bad. Just because one is more ignorant on one topic doesn't make the other invalid, it's the opposite.
See, many people (not you though) are so arrogant as to believe they know everything perfectly adequately, while intelligent people, as I said before, are those that recognize their own gaps in knowledge.
I mean, we're only human, you cannot expect any single one of us to be perfectly knowledgeable about everything.
The thing is that our little monkey brains hate the idea of being inadequate and wrong, and so heuristics come into play and mess up our assessments of reality in order to explain something that our brains don't have the tools to comprehend.

Edit: I got carried away as usual cause I study psychology and love this kind of stuff, but I wanted to make clear that I don't want to change tour mind, absolutely!
I just hope to shed light on somw of these mechanisms if you don't already know them 😃

@PikaPlayz no they're not, they're average at best.
I'm sure you'll see the difference if you play an actually good JRPG.
If your standards are low good for you, but let us who want more not settle for the absolute minimum, thanks.

@clvr I've played plenty of other JRPGs. and my standards aren't low, I just enjoy things. Nothing wrong with that.

@clvr,

Fair enough, I am guessing you are a movie fan too, same here I have to spit my time between my two passions.

https://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?member=jonmoz

@BenAV

bless you sir or mam.

@johnvboy
In every article I’ve read, you were there, white knighting nintendo.
Why? what do you gain from defending such a vile company, sure they make good games but so does ***** EA, JUST STOP.

@jermasaurus,

Vile company, I think you have Nintendo confused with another company, and Pokemon is developed by GameFreak not Nintendo.

@johnvboy yes, indeed! I really like writing and storytelling in general, and in the last 4 years or so I spent a lot of time studying and researching, in order to be able to understand what works and what doesn't, and also improve my craft.
But returning to the point I made earlier, that's where my "expertise", if I have any, ends; if we were to analyze the photography, blocking, lighting, etc. I'd refrain from commenting, as I have little knowledge of those technical aspects 😃

Edit: by the way your home theater looks amazing! Great job man 😃

I know most people will disagree, but I thought they were great games. Perfect? Of course not, but there are very few games out there that can be considered perfect. I still have fun with them no matter what other people say.

Never had a beef with the game and this year failed to make me. I've spent many hours idly roaming the wild area alone, without even hitting the second proper town - and there's always something to do or someone to catch. Not in a hurry with the DLC yet, but it's absolutely on my radar.

@clvr,

Thanks, it's nice to have an interest in something you want to do, and you do sound very passionate about it.

@johnvboy no, no I don’t think I did.

• the online
• over priced products
• defective products
• drifting joysticks
• trying to silence consumers about said drift issues
• taking down fan projects and releasing crappier versions months later
• mario 3D all star... please tell me I don’t have to explain that.
  and the list goes on and on, so how about you get out of your bubble and stop being a neckberd

@jermasaurus,

You seem very angry about counter opinions to your own, there needs to be a balance on here to go against the often negative mantra, I am one of many who provide that alternative view, and look at things from a more positive point of view, of course that rarely goes down to well on here, but I guess that's just tough.

I am glad you are keeping tabs on me, I feel so special.

It is terrible and ruinined muh childhood.

Masuda should be roasted alive on a cross as a sacrifice to Arceus. We need to Make Pokemon Great Again.

@johnvboy as if I could ever get rid of the cursed image of yoshi riding a motorcycle off my brain, also the only reason I joined this website, besides switch news is to observe nintendo shills like you good sir, too much hate you say? The ***** nintendo gets away with in the name of nostalgia is depressing. I want to see the switch become a better system, but why would it if shills like you will keep sucking up anything.

Pokemon needs to go back to sprites.

@jermasaurus,

If you took all the internet posting minorities on all the sites, you would still not get enough complaints to make a difference to anything, it's always people who spend far too much time playing video games and talking about them.

I am glad I was one of the main reasons you joined this site though, it's praise indeed.

Ya know what? I can’t even remember which version I have. I think I have Sword lol. I only played a little bit of it but I just can’t really get into it.

@Moon,

Nah they should drink Fanta instead.

@johnvboy
that’s... that’s not even funny, just go home man you’re lookin kinda pathetic right now.

I couldn't give a Rattata's behind about the story (which have become progressively more intrusive and less interesting, especially since Generation V), but I have enjoyed the games for the most part. Even with the lack of content, I had completed the base version of Shield, enjoyed what I had played, and I hoped that Game Freak would build upon the new engine and assets (that will inevitably be reused in subsequent instalments and likely in the next generation as well) to give us richer and fuller experiences moving forward.

Then the DLC came... and its very existence sullied 20 years of goodwill that I had for the brand. I stopped playing Shield upon its announcement in absolute disdain.

When they announced a physical edition with the DLC on the cartridge, all (well, most) was forgiven. I think I've put in about 20+ hours into the DLC so far, and I think I'll be done at about the 30 hour mark (that is, taking my time with the new story content and completing the additional Dexes).

They could have made the expansion passes a budget-priced smaller scale spin-off/sequel to Sword/Shield as the two new areas are isolated from the main Galar region (barring Zapdos being catchable in Galar's Wild Area). I think the Isle of Armor/Crown Tundra content could easily have been consolidated into a standalone game with a smaller asking price as they don't really add much to the base game (and are definitely not worth the asking price as DLC).

Moving forward, if they do produce any DLC for subsequent games, I'll be content so long as a cartridge edition is made available shortly after their digital release, otherwise, my position on walking away from the main series games still stands. The DLC shows a lot of potential for what the series could be moving forward, but I know better than to keep my standards too high.

@jermasaurus,

The irony is too much.

@PikaPlayz Oh don't get me wrong. I understand what they ended up going for in the story, I'm just saying what they went for wasn't very fun or engaging. The whole time I felt like there were really cool ideas but they didn't have time to actually implement them, so they just had Leon and Sonia take care of them off screen while I get shoved off to the next gym where my astounding knowledge of type effectiveness means I get to one shot everything the gym throws at me. The story needed something more fulfilling to do in the middle bits instead of trying to save it all for the end.

@Heavyarms55 "On the other hand things they got right they did really really well. It's never been easier to get into competitive Pokemon. Things like easy leveling, even training via vitamins, the EV reset NPC, the battle ready stamp, exp candy, raids and dynamax adventure."

Honestly this is my feeling. That the game was built not just as a gateway into pokemon but a gateway on it's competitive multiplayer for both newcomers and veterans.

For me personally It was my first true Pokemon game. I had previously dabbled in Black + White but Sw/Sh was the first game I bought and the first I beat. As an introduction to the series it was great. It had everything it needed to pull in a new fan to the games. But now that I have played previous entries in the series, being White and Moon, I do see flaws in it such as the story and graphics but I still feel that this game was a test/proof of concept for console Pokemon games that had to be released b/c of time restrictions. I'm hopeful for the future of the series on Switch and am personally hoping for a remake of Black and White.

I think it is somewhat in the middle. I really wish there would have been better graphics. Mostly in the landscapes of the game. I’m all fine with having the Pokémon look cartoonish but it’s be cool to have a more lifelike world. Also somehow the performance wasn’t that great either. I’ve seen the frame rate drop many times which seems weird because I’ve seen games with better graphics run smoother on the switch. Maybe the development team was busy working on the 3DS version and Nintendo was like, “We want it on the Switch.” So they didn’t have the development time to create a whole new design/game. Just kind of feels unfinished, even to this day with all of the DLC out. I feel like I abandoned this one faster than the past titles.

With all that being said I did enjoy the game. The gameplay going back to where the series was before Gen VII (my most hated Pokémon games and the only Pokémon games I haven’t fully completed to this day) was a nice refreshing choice.

Overall, with all of the DLC being out and the game being “completed”, I give it a 7/10.

Edit: Also, probably an unpopular opinion, bring back Mega Evolutions. They made much more impact on the competitive scene than Z-Moves and Dynamax did.

Unlike Wind Waker, will never change the mind of people since they failed to live up to the name. The lower overall quality and polish is ridiculous, and even more when you consider all the missing content and all the money that you have to throw in order to get the "full" experience. I just hope we can get someday a proper Pokemon experience again.

Loved them, were even more enjoyable than I was expecting. The DLC was a lot of fun as well, and I was really glad they went that route instead of makong another extended game abomination like Ultra Sun/ Ultra Moon (games that almost made me give up on the series altogether).

I have a couple of minor issues with the game but they are easily some of my favourite Main Pokemon games to date - alongside the original Gold/Silver/Crystal.

Spoiler warning!

The game and DLC exceeded my expectations, but that is mostly because my expectations were low to begin with...

Before the games release I had followed all the Pokemon news and the pre-release demo players reactions as well as a few youtubers who usually talk about leaks, news and expectations for the games.

It painted a slightly bleak picture for me, but I was still mostly hopeful so I pre-ordered Shield as I usually do with Pokemon games together with a friend and then I played it as soon as it was released and it seemed rather fun.
Then I noticed that the game kept tugging me to the next part of the story and I started to get annoyed but I thought "Maybe it is only like this in the beginning?" while the game told me to go to the inn, then as soon as I go outside it reminds me to go to the in and escorts me to where I need to go before telling me once again that I need to go inside the inn.
I am not a toddler, I have an attention span that is longer than 10 seconds, thank you very much.

But then I find out that basically all paths outside of the wild area are pretty much straight roads where the few deviating paths only lead to boring dead ends.
Where's the explorations?

A lot of the exciting action happens offscreen and the story was really annoying instead of interesting for the most part. I kinda liked Hop but he was not a good rival as he pretty much looses against almost everyone. He doesn't feel like a person you work hard to defeat in your battles or even like he is a remotely competent trainer competetively.

Overall the main game was about a 4/10 for me, easily the lowest even compared to SM/USUM.

After the first DLC was release I gave the game another go and was slightly happier with it as the wild area there looked a bit better and the rival was much more interesting personality-wise. But being around level 70 made beating him too easy.
Then I got tired almost immediately and took a break from the game until Crown Tundra was released. That part of the DLC was much more interesting.

The map was fun to run around for the first 2 hours, battling and capturing the Regis were truly difficult and the puzzles where enjoyable.
And then helping the big new DLC legendary with his request was a really interesting way of introducing him!

Unfortunately I don't really like the Dynamax Adventures because I mostly get stuck with pretty lousy teammates, both the random NPC's and other players have been really frustrating to play with and I wish there was a way to play through those adventures solo. There have been a few good moments though, but they are too rare.

Overall the DLC made the game a 5.5/10 for me. So I enjoy it, but well, as I said before I also went in with really low expectations which is probably why I didn't stop playing the game after the 2 gym.

@HenHiro I wouldn't say the story is "terrible", per se. Yes, it follows the traditional formula of past games, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

i had a lot of fun with the game when it released. my friends and i got together for launch day and stayed up all night beating the game. it kind of sucks how boring the postgame is, i really enjoyed it in the beginning.

Very mediocre at launch and still very mediocre. I feel very indifferent, which I guess is worse than outright hating it? I haven't even bothered beating it yet. I think I still had two badges I needed to get. I'll get to it eventually.

I love this game due to the new pokemon and characters. Their designs are some of the best I've ever seen. Sure graphics suck but so does fire emblem three houses and thats my favorite switch game. Graphics do not mean everything. Story was awesome too. Quality of life improvements were well appreciated. Only critique is they should have been 40 not 60 dollars. Greed from Nintendo and The Pokemon company definitely hurt this games reputation.

@Yas Because the vote is asking different demographics.

Pokemon veterans who supported the franchise and GF for years are incredibly disappointed and just threw in the towel to not be bothered with this series anymore. People who are just getting into pokemon because of gen 8 or genuinely just do not care won't have a negative opinion cause they're not impacted as much. Then there's the demographic that only votes on SWSH not as pokemon games but nintendo games, SWSH stick out as some of nintendo's best games on the switch still, opinions will vary on that one but this is nintendolife so of course everybody will be happy seeing a game on the nintendo switch have huge sale numbers. Being split is not a good sign at all, overwhelmingly negative comments is because people who vote positive just go to the next article without explaining why they liked it, and most of those reasons is why we liked past games without the negatives added.

Nope, next to -none- of my favorites made the cut, so I have zero interest in them; same as when they released.

No biggie though; just won't get my money. I'm not caving in to the hot mess that is/could've been SwSh. Tsk tsk

Just going to point out that the majority of people on this poll found the game underwhelming, either from the start or late after having played it. I know that the people who want to defend it want to blatantly ignore the gross anti consumerism involved with these games and want to pretend that GameFreak is a small time indie developer who is your friend but honestly, it needs to stop. It is not entitlement to think that a large corporation should be able to deliver a decent game without price gouging you to hell and back and attempting to nickel and dime you. To state otherwise is just ignoring the fact that this isnt a person we are talking about. You arent supposed to feel grateful for receiving a product. The fact that you paid for it is more than enough thanks. If the game or product is subpar, you are no longer under any obligation to pussy foot around and preserve feelings. You paid for something. That inherently does mean you are entitled to a decent product. You dont pay your electric bill and not expect to have the entirety of your house powered.

Lazy, Easy and Boring.
Most disappointing game I've ever played.
No where near good enough for a main pokemon game

@SilentHunter382 Right now it is 36% positive and 52% negative which I call mostly negative.

Look again. It's currently 50% positive, 40% negative. Think you're reading it wrong. Replies 1 and 4 are postive, 2 and 5 are negative.

@Yas Ah yes you are correct I did read it wrong. By those numbers the results would be mostly Positive.

Considering I had a gap between Gen3 and 8 I was mostly satisfied. The game was a bit easy though, so at some point I started going in deliberately under-leveled. My GF didn't and blazed through the gyms.
I haven't played Crown Tundra yet, but Isle of Armour shown what the Wild Area should have been like.
The series desperately needs voice acting. Why have a singing Gym Leader if there's no vocals? We now have a (canon) game with speaking Zelda, why not Pokemon?

It was my first "Pokemon", i think "true" Pokemon game and experience. I think it was pretty good.

@johnvboy Remember the whole "LGPE was a game for casuals and SWSH will be a game for core Pokemon fans" that GameFreak said?
Just putting it out there...

Also, I can't believe it... Are you still going arround in comment sections with those stupid comments saying that GameFreak ignoring fan feedback and actual issues the game have is ok? Like, I'm sure all the people that bought the game are deligted by issues like not being able to play with random people online due to the awful matchmaking. I mean, since a lot of people bought the game and the opinion of people on videogame focused sites and such is not valid, that must be true, right?
And you are doing this a year later too. Like, you are even using the same format of comment you used a year ago with the " " at the end. But I guess the "haters" are the only ones who can't let it go, right?

@jowe_gw,

You seem to ignore the fact that fans is a very broad term, there are fans that have grown up with the franchise that will be now in the minority, as many would have moved onto other things, the second and main audience fans are much younger and this is who GameFreak are aiming this game at, I think this distinction is often overlooked in gaming forums, as people tend to put all the Pokemon fans into one group.

As for your point in me still defending the game, I only defend it because people are still complaining, and I and others still have very little issues with these games, I never stated that peoples concerns are not valid at a personal level, or that people do not have a right to complain, just like I and others have a right to respond to these complaints, my main issue has always been that when some complain they tend to suggest that it's lots of people are unhappy with these games, which is not true, and they have no evidence to back any such claim up.

The DLC is nice and if the whole game was more like the DLC, I'd probably have liked it more.

As-is, the games are immensely disappointing and very lazily made. There is simply no excuse for the most profitable IP on the planet to just phone in so much work in its core experience.

I was excited about the game and played it a lot. I just can't understand how they can't get better graphics, story, or anything improved after all these years. I love the catch em all part of the game, but they took the value of any particular pokemon away with the wild area giveaways. Everyone just farms there to get the best. Shinies have no value now.

@DonSerrot that has nothing to with not having enough time, it's done that way intentionally. And again, like I said. you get to do exactly what Leon did in the post game.

But hey, to each their own I suppose.

I have played about 70 hours. The game is fine, nothing great. I can't really complain.

It's good but when ur done it's kinda sad.. and like no point..

I personally think that, before DLC, Sword and Shield were mediocre at best. But after DLC, the Crown Tundra specifically, it made it average at best (for clarification, when I say mediocre or average at best, I mean compared to other Pokemon games).

SwSh isn't worth $60 just buy a better RPG for the same price with loads more content and quality.
Recommendations:
Dragon Quest 11
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna: The Golden Country
Disgaea 1/4/5 Complete
Octopath Traveler
Trials of Mana
Fire Emblem 3 Houses

Also upcoming games:
SMT V
SMT Nocturne HD
Bravely Default 2
Monster Hunter Rise
Monster Hunter Stories 2

All these games offer much more than pokemon and for the same price. Technically less if you include the dlc ($30), the pokemon home service.

Lol! I remember when the game came out and how it divided the fanbase. Seems as if there arent too many die-hard defenders anymore.

I'm still not interested in buying it. From the underwhelming way it was shown off, to the memory destroying glitch, it doesn't need to be in our library. And I can always pick up the Galar pokemon I want in the next new game. More interested in Mystery Dungeon DX and Snap 2 for Switch.

@Jokerwolf Heh. I see what you did there.

The people who were upset about "Dexit" were not in the minority. The ones who didn't buy the game regardless were.

It was too short and easy then and it’s too short and easy now

LOL
Already reached more than 200 posts. 😆

I've yet to get the game, but after seeing so much about it over its lifetime I feel I'd be disappointed. I'm not the biggest Pokemon fan, but even in the case of other series I tend to compare them to each other. With how long and big the Pokemon series is, you'd think there would be more to it for its mainline console debut. Even if the devs were rushed to make this, I feel it shouldn't be accepted 100%. That's how you get even more games made like that.

The only way I'd even consider getting hands on with this is if I find it at a much lower price... so maybe that's another reason I never grabbed it. It's rare for me to buy any game at that full $60 price tag, and as we know with Nintendo, they're stingy on lowering the price on their first party games, even for limited time sales.

@Yas If they really enjoyed the game then they are free to share their opinion. But that would require to defend their argument's position with good reasoning and evidence, which for a game so flawed it's quite a challenge.
Voting should be informed voting, don't you think?

Team Yell were a massive disappointment.

@Thundertron55 it's very interesting to hear an opinion from someone who started with Sword and Shield, and than went to older games.
I suggest that you play HeartGold and SoulSilver, then maybe it will become clear why so many older fans hate Sword and Shield.

@BenAV thanks! I don't understand why so many people say they like SwSh soundtrack, I think it's absolute TRASH.
The melodies are between fine and good, the problem is the instrumental composition, it sounds like the biggest, cheapest syntetizer trash handheld music, I tried to listen to it but I just couldn't, my ears just bleed. Even Let's Go's soundtrack was orchestrated!

@HenHiro I understand completely why older fans hate Sw/Sh. They feel that the challenge has been taken away, that they aren't putting as much time into the games, and that the dex got cut in half. I totally agree with the challenge argument. Gen 8 is a cake walk while White, my favorite game, is tough as nails. I also think that the dex cut was gonna happen sooner or later. But, when it comes to development time, the team had the same development cycle as the previous Gens, being an average 3 years. I can imagine creating a console game that is top of the line in 3 years is difficult let alone your first console game in that series. Sw/Sh is missing all these features because of it's short development cycle. If the game was given an extra 2 years it would probably look way better, have all the Pokemon, have a better story and an increased difficulty. I hope that The Pokemon Company takes the criticism to heart and let Game Freak take the time they need to create the next Generation and I believe they will. But, this stuff happens when a beloved franchise is owned by a company focused on selling plushes and other merch. As a Transformers fan I know this feeling all too well.

Bought a used copy. I miss Gen 5.

@Thundertron55 short development time is not an excuse.
Pokémon is the highest grossing franchise in the world.
Game Freak should found a new studio to handle remakes and Let's Go series, so the studio can concentrate on one game for three years, which for a game as simplistic and that already follows an established formula, is enough.

Game Freak is embarrassingly badly managed, why didn't they get more third parties studios to help them out when they saw how bad SwSh was, like in 2018?

Because they don't care. That's the only reason, they have the money to do anything they want, and I'm not talking about all the employees individually, I'm sure they love what they do and want to do a good job, but management is holding them back.

Also, Masuda clearly stated in an interview that Nintendo or TPC never put pressure on Game Freak, so it's just their own fault, stop defending Game Freak, they're a badly structured studio, with laughable, beginner level technical knowledge, they need to change. GF is just an embarrassment for Nintendo.

really good and i beat the game already but i like it also because the battle tower is a nice and challenging post-game

and disappointed people with this game are messed up