All New 'Sword & Shield' Pokemon, Stats, Galar Pokedex, Cut Attacks, Version Exclusives, and More!

[Secret Agent Seal]

My brother purchased a copy of Pokemon Sword and we played it together, completing the main campaign in < 14 hours. We weren't speed running and spent a fair amount of time screwing around in the wild area. The games just really are that short.

I think everything negative to say about SwSh has already been said. There's not much content or replay value, the visuals are shoddy with poor textures, animations and rendering distances, and of course there are the unjustifiable cuts to Pokemon and moves. I felt like I was beta testing in places.

There are other things that frankly surprised me. I was expecting a half-competent storyline following Sun & Moon, but we ended up with something even more bare bones than XY. And the music, something which I always felt has been consistently good across the franchise, was so mediocre that I don't recall a single track. The wild area, perhaps the main selling point of the game, is incredibly small and claustrophobic (I think you could probably cycle across it in a few minutes).

Yikes. These games were worse than I was expecting, and I set myself a pretty low bar following all the negative press. It's like... it's like SwSh is the Sonic '06 of Pokemon lol

 

[Scoop]

My brother purchased a copy of Pokemon Sword and we played it together, completing the main campaign in < 14 hours. We weren't speed running and spent a fair amount of time screwing around in the wild area. The games just really are that short.

I think everything negative to say about SwSh has already been said. There's not much content or replay value, the visuals are shoddy with poor textures, animations and rendering distances, and of course there are the unjustifiable cuts to Pokemon and moves. I felt like I was beta testing in places.

There are other things that frankly surprised me. I was expecting a half-competent storyline following Sun & Moon, but we ended up with something even more bare bones than XY. And the music, something which I always felt has been consistently good across the franchise, was so mediocre that I don't recall a single track. The wild area, perhaps the main selling point of the game, is incredibly small and claustrophobic (I think you could probably cycle across it in a few minutes).

Yikes. These games were worse than I was expecting, and I set myself a pretty low bar following all the negative press. It's like... it's like SwSh is the Sonic '06 of Pokemon lol

The fact that it’s so short I think is what rubbed all the salt in the wound. Like, I think I could have gotten past dexit and enjoyed the game if it was super long. But once I heard it was just 14-18 hours (and have continued to see that) I think That’s when I realized “yeah, I was right all along. The leaks had me excited but I just can’t justify 60 dollars on such a bare bones product.”

I’m replaying BW right now in place of sword and shield to get that Pokémon fix I’ve wanted for so long and it’s amazing how much polish this game has for a 2011 DS game. Not even to mention that within half an hour I was right in the game. No hand-holdy tutorials that get in your face every ten minutes and junk like that. This game somehow STILL feels like a breath of fresh air for the series. Shame they never built upon it.

 

[Scoop]

I was going to rant and rehash this whole situation for these games, but... I've already done it throughout the months, and others have made the issues abundantly clear on many different websites. Including @AshCo in this very own thread! So instead I'll just talk about my recent thoughts.

For the first time in the main series, I have made the decision to not buy either of these games. (Or at least not for the foreseeable future. More on that later.) It was a frustrating decision to make, being such a big fan of the franchise and playing these games for 20 years.

Earlier this week, I requested a few hours off of work for today in order to have long day for playing Sword or Shield, despite all of my complaints and intuition about these games. But the final straw was broken when I read a quote from Junichi Masuda in a recent interview: "We now have no plans to make the Pokémon that are missing in the Galar Pokédex in-game available. That is an approach that we want to continue in the future with Pokémon games." My immediate gut response to that was, "From the bottom of my heart, screw you." (Though, perhaps screw wasn't the word that was used.) It really just seems like those in charge of the Pokemon games are content with resting on the series' laurels and burying their heads in the sand. Complaints? What complaints? Why bother improving the series when people will buy it anyway?

That draws a lot of parallels to the week leading up to the game for me, too. I was going to buy a copy of the game that day and play it with my friend all day. It was exciting when the leaks came out, and I was planning out my team and everything. I figured "As much as Dexit disappoints me, I'm sure it'll be a fun time. It's a long game, the region looks big, etc. etc.

Then I saw that the game was 14-18 hours.
Then I saw the game was easy.
Then I saw the game had little to no postgame.
Then I saw that the graphics weren't fixed by the release.
Then I saw all the softlocks, the SD corruptions, the graphical and audio issues.

That's what broke the camel's back for me. It wasn't just a straw though, it was an entire bale of hay. And then it came back to me: All of the stumbling around the truth and poor decisions they've been making. It just...Completely turned me off to the game, and it was disappointing as all hell.

I just couldn't bring myself to support this model of making games. That and for lying about recreating the Pokemon models from scratch. I have eyes and a brain, as well as a right to my money. I'm allowed to make that decision when I don't like something. However, if you enjoy these games, don't let anyone take that away from you. I'm pretty sure that my nephew will want one of these games. But I'm not going to tell him no; that's his own decision.

100% agreed here. They really aren't fooling anyone with the lies about the H I G H Q U A L I T Y A N I M A T I O N S and the remade models. You couldn't even fool a kid if you showed him the two models side by side, apart from the textures. I'm totally with you on not letting people take the enjoyment of the games away though. I know my friend wants the game and some of her friends want it too. I'm sure they'll have fun, I mean it's Pokemon after all. And when it's your first entry to the series, it's probably much easier to accept the dex changes or the weird new features the game has. I've been yelled at before by people who said my opinions of the game (albeit I was a bit harsh in my wording when Dexit and the poor graphics were first showcased) were "shaming people" from buying the game. That's never been the case, and I'll always stick by that.

At this point, it would take maybe one of two thing to make me want to buy Sword or Shield. Either a massive discount, which seems unlikely, even if it was secondhand, or adding the rest of the Pokemon into the game through patches, which also seems unlikely, given how stubborn and adamant Junichi Masuda seems to be on the matter. And again, it's frustrating that I feel this way. Despite all the glaring flaws, there ARE things to like about this game! Though they always take a while to get used to, there's all of the new Pokemon. And I just watched a video showing off all of the trainer clothes, which look great--especially all of those gym outfits! Though I haven't seen how far it goes, I've also noticed that even hair color choices have been improved.

Oh totally. There's a lot of parts with the game that I can get behind, especially the new Pokemon themselves. I think there's a lot of POTENTIAL with SwSh, but they just couldn't get it. At least the TCG will give the Pokemon the love they deserve. I'm hoping for some good ultras of Toxitricity and Galarian Darmanitan. That's something I can get excited by.

In a way to oversimplify things, I'm just disappointed in a lot aspects of these games and TPC's attitude. But I wish I wasn't. And I can't help but wonder what these games would've been like if they had more time to work on them. Or really, more staff too; they certainly could have afforded it. No one would have had any issues with that.

More staff is exactly what they need I think. Like I said in my post, when your company of like 100 people is split in half working on two games, when one of them is from the biggest media franchise in the world...It just isn't going to make things pretty. As I've said, the best games that have come out in recent history on the switch had so much time and effort in them-and were delayed when they needed to be. Did anyone care when they got delayed? No! Sure it was a bit of a bummer, but then people all realized "Wait, Metroid Prime 4 is going to be even better now!" Or "Hey, that's so sweet of them that they let the AC developers have a good work-life balance, to make sure both their lives and the game is the best it could be!" Masuda is, for some reason, stubborn about having a small staff. But is that really the best decision when you don't have much of a time limit to make this HUGE game? Hire some new talent, it'll not only make the games better than they used to be, but, if Odyssey had anything to show, it can allow for new innovations in the series that make things that much better.

Side note: It didn't really fit anywhere else, so I'll add this here. It also seems that TPC is really out of touch with who their main demographic is. It's okay to make games with children in mind, but the majority of fans are adults now; people who grew up with the first games. There's no need to continually add more hand holding, as if a child's mind would explode without a character congratulating them and healing them every step of the way. And to think that fans wouldn't notice the reuse of Pokemon models and be able to prove it? The models in SwSh are identical to the 3DS models or nearly identical, some adding onto the previous model. So either they reused models or somehow they manged make entirely new models that have little to no changes for hundreds of models, which that kind of coincidence is pretty much impossible. We're not dumb. And the thing is, I don't think anyone would have blamed them for reusing the models--pretty sure we expected it! But for some reason, they thought that would be a good excuse.

It's funny, because I've been playing Black and White today. The game throws you right in after like a half hour or less opening segment. Once you're going, you're going. It teaches you what you have to learn, and when it does teach you things, it goes quick. I think anyone playing the game could understand it easily just by figuring it out on their own and exploring the routes (which, even the early game ones have places to explore). SM and SwSh assume that anyone at all playing are stupid, and they're now dumbing it down throughout the entire experience. Easy solutions would be "Hey, I know Pokemon. Let me skip the tutorial." "Easy, Normal, or Hard mode" (Like BW2 did, but at the beginning of the game). Also tone down the constant healing. There's Pokemon Centers everywhere. I appreciated the challenging Totem battles included in USUM, and thought these challenging moments that made you consider strategy and whatnot were a HUGE step in the right direction, but clearly they're not going to continue with that. And after the promises of making a game for hardcore fans? It really is a massive letdown.

 

[Raven Zombie]

why did you only show the Gigantamax forms of the old pokemon, and none of the new ones?

 

[Rcxd9999]

I've gotten the Dual Pack but I'll probably return it tomorrow. After having played it, it's graphically beautiful but that's about it. The game feels like a slog to play through, and this is coming from someone who eagerly replays the previous generations when I feel like doing something enjoyable. Some of the things I dislike about this game are:

Max Raid Battles. I particularly hate Max Raid Battles. Sure, you can do them offline and that should be fine for the easier battles but for stronger Pokemon, it's ridiculous since the NPCs keep bringing Pokemon like Magikarp and Pokemon like Eevee and Clefairy with no offensive moves, something vital for breaking through those annoying shields. The kicker is that even when you go online and you invite people, it's rare for you to be joined by more than one person. You can also join people for Max Raid Battles but since each raid battle only has three spare spots, chances are good that you won't be able to join. What makes this even more frustrating is that the list of ongoing raid battles is almost never up to date and you can't really keep resetting it. And the fact that they have locked Gigantamax Pokemon and some other Pokemon behind Max Raid Battles is particularly appalling since it forces you to go through online for it. There is also the fact that after all your hard work, the pokemon can break out of the one Pokeball you get to through and then you have to go through that all over again, which is especially frustrating and soul-numbing if that Pokemon was a Gigantamax Pokemon. I've never wanted Pokemon to kill a feature before, but I really want them to kill Max Raid Battles.

The lack of the GTS. Sure GTS was broken, has been since Gen 4, with all those people requesting legendaries, lv 100s or impossible Pokemon for trash, but it was sometimes useful for getting version exclusive Pokemon and allowed people with both games to do trade evolutions with only a single console. The lack of GTS is such a slap in the face as it means that that is no longer possible and they got rid of it rather than fixing it by doing something such as assigning ratings to Pokemon based off rarity and level and only allowing people to request Pokemon of the same or low rating on the GTS.

The lack of post game. I was one of the people who knew that eventually we'd reach a point where we couldn't have every single Pokemon in Pokemon games due to the difficulties of perpetually adding more and more Pokemon every generation and I was glad that they were going to get the brunt of the backlash out of the way with SwSh before allowing people to get used to the new era of Pokemon. My condition was that we would get much more game, as I was of the belief that the amount of Pokemon in Gen 6 and Gen 7 was what severely limited the postgame in comparison to previous generations. I thought that by limiting the amount of Pokemon available in each game, we'd finally start getting more postgame. Turns out, not so, for some reason. Postgame is arguably the life of Pokemon games and the most enjoyable part, with me personally wanting the get the story over and done with so I can move onto the real game. The lack of postgame in recent generations has been rather disheartening and seen me replaying Gen 4 and 5 rather than 6 and 7 for entertainment. Don't get me wrong, I believe that the limiting and rotating of available Pokemon each generation is the right thing to do going forward from now on as it logically had to happen at some point and there is no sense in Pokemon temporarily going back now, but I want there to be a trade off so that we actually get proper, decent postgame, otherwise, what the hell is the point of limiting available Pokemon this early on.

The subpar story. The subpar story in this game is probably what made it feel like a slog the most. While I don't particularly care for the story in Pokemon, it's at least been enjoyable in pretty much every single main series game but this has to be the worst one yet. There's no real plot development, no proper character development, not much of anything really. I have felt for the characters in previous games than any of the characters in SwSh. I recognise the fact that I usually like to rush through the story to get to the postgame, but I still want the story to at least be enjoyable.

All in all, while they've gone forward with graphics (somewhat) and it is enjoyable to be able to play Pokemon on the TV (LGPE doesn't count) they seem to have gone backwards with some features like wifi capabilities, postgame and storytelling and created some new problems with things like Max Raid Battles. These will be the first Pokemon games I've disliked enough to return them, as a fan of the franchise for more than 14 years, that's quite sad but I know of no other way to tell Pokemon that I'm not ok with "okay games" and that I want good games. I always looked forward to my yearly Pokemon games but if this is the quality of the games to come, I'd be fine with waiting two or three years for great Pokemon games, rather than "okay" Pokemon games.

 

[Mudkip_Is_God]

What's next, Pokemon Bow and Arrow? Car and Truck? BOY AND GIRL?!?