Pokémon Sword and sheild rant...

[The retro leafeon]

Alright lets get the common complaints out of the way, dex cut, sucks for people like me who use different teams each game scratch like two pokemon I use most playthroughs, next is difficulty, I'll get to this, graphics, umm yeah, not enough work put in for the 90$ price tag at retail in my area, and finally for common complaints, dynamax, I hate it, they just get bigger, end of story, now to me, the music is too much like world of Warcraft, it's not an MMO don't make it sound like one, also like half the battle themes were pretty generic, ( the other half was pretty good), having to pay an online subscription to play online is dumb, as we didn't have to in any previous gen with online compatibility, (more of a problem with Nintendo but still) ok now for the dlc, its 40 $ extra dollars were I live, here's a price map of the game where I live: switch lite: 300 bucks
Switch lite wth one version: 390 bucks
Switch lite with one version as and dlc: 430$
Switch lite with both versions, no dlc: 480$
Switch lite with both versions, dlc: 540$
And finally, switch lite with both versions, dlc, and switch online:565$ this is all with out tax, using the cheapest console compatible, and if you want to say you already had the console, you still had to buy it at one point to play, you want to know the price with a switch, everything listed minus the switch lite, and tax, 645.75, with 5 percent GST, that's the lowest in my country, some parts pay 15 percent, as for difficulty, it's very dumbed down, we need a difficulty slider, so new players can play but so can veterans, because, in the wise words of hoodlum scrafty on YouTube, pokemon is about playing your way, and with the dex cut restricting pokemon, and the game being stuck on easy mode, that's not what's happening ( also no more hand holding to such extremes)

 

[Vonny]

I can deal with the SwSh prices because it’s the standard for Switch/HD games but I draw the line at Pokémon Home and Bank being separate subscriptions. That’s just greedy at least let us transfer to Gen 8 for free. What scares me is that Home is probably going to be a life long commitment since GF announced the national dex will never come back.

Anyway I think this is all Pokémon Go’s fault. Gamefreak realized they can leech off of casuals and hardcore fans will buy the games no matter what (…like me).

Hopefully Legends Arceus is the apology we deserve.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I can deal with the SwSh prices because it’s the standard for Switch/HD games

I would argue that the high price is standard for Nintendo games. There are a lot of other good games out there with great quality that are considerably less, such as Hades which is $25 USD in the eshop, or Subnautica which I believe is also around $25. SW/SH is 3D yes, but the quality honestly really isn't that impressive compared to other switch games. When I dock it to play on my gaming monitor its extremely pixelated and blurry compared to, again, other video games. I don't think SW/SH is worth the full price honestly (for the graphic quality and content quality) and if it wasn't a mainstream/Nintendo game I bet it'd only be worth $30 max.

Even ACNH has better quality graphics than SW/SH, and since I've spent over 1,000 hours playing I think its high price is more reasonable.

 

[The retro leafeon]

thank you both for your opinions, in my opinion about price, a game should cost what its worth, and if we keep letting companies pump half assed games out 247 and let them price it like its gold, and then pay extra for content to make the game better, which could have been in the game if they delayed it is just unethical, now i didnt cover home, yeah its a scam, its basically ransomware cause the pokemon not in the game you transfered over will be deleted if you dont pay, meaning your hours of work to get all of them is down the drain... not good.

 

[Stnh]

I personally love this game

 

[Corrie]

I fully agree with you. Sword and Shield, to me, are an embarrassing mess that Gamefreak should be ashamed of. The bare minimum effort had been put in and it strongly shows. As if the game we got at launch was any worse, Gamefreak decided to remove parts of the game, only to sell them later as DLC. It was announced like, right after launch so like wtf? It very well could have been added to the game! They didn't even try to hide the money grabbing scheme. They care that little about this franchise right now. Not saying anything bad to those who like the game but people buying from companies when they pull this crap only tells them that this mediocrity is okay since, as they say, you vote with your wallet.

Pokemon deserves better.

I've ranted a lot about how much I hate this game and Gamefreak as a company so I'll leave you all with THIS. It's an older Reddit thread but just further explains my distaste with actual in game examples (photos and clips). It's embarrassing that this got released.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Look as much as I would agree with this I think we need to give newer games another chance. Sure Sword and Shield was not as great as past games but can I just say Pokemon in general has always had the same formula. You go on a journey, battle trainers, earn gym badges, defeat and evil team and then you become champion after beating the Elite Four. The only Pokemon games that have changed things up was Black/White and Sun/Moon, but I remember people hated them because apparently they didn't like change.

Sword and Shield just felt like the same generic thing that you would expect from the Pokemon series. I mean it just wasn't that interesting. I barely remember the new Galar Pokemon and since they have older Pokemon I find myself using them more often and the game just doesn't have a really good story. The characters are not interesting and I just didn't find myself caring about what goes on. The last Pokemon game that actually had a good story was Black/White and even that game got so much hate way back in the day.

So for future Pokemon games I will say and agree that Game Freak needs to do a better job of making the Pokemon games look good because so far people already don't like Legend Arceus because of how bad the graphics looked which means that if they want to make up for what happened with Sword and Shield then they have to do a better job. Just go back to the roots of what made Pokemon great to begin with and stop cutting out features and replacing them with new ones. Every Pokemon game has always had its own gimmick, but as we seen features tend to be taken out and its never brought back again, so they really need to not do that if they want Pokemon Legend Arceus to be a really great game.

Overall, Sword and Shield even after 2 years is still not as enjoyable as it was when it first came out and even the Expansions felt like something that should be part of the post game but they made you have to pay money and the worst part was they brought back some of the missing Pokemon that were not in the original Sword and Shield so that really wasn't a good move. All I can hope for is a good Pokemon game that is not too easy and it has features that makes it a lot more enjoyable to play and it doesn't feel like you're playing the same game.

 

[Snek]

Sword and Shield are not bad games, but they definitely are not good games and continue the same formulaic story that's starting to go stale: You get a Grass/Fire/Water type starter, beat the type specialists of the region, beat evil team, catch box-art legendary, defeat your regional government and become the new regional overlord. In the post game you battle other players or slave away doing bike simulator for eggs. Its a tired formula and Game Freak tries to change it up every other generation but its still the same formula since RBY. Sword and Shield do not escape this formula. Other than the lack of an Elite 4, most of the usual elements are there. What certainly didn't help these games was the PR during the pre-release. Dexit was so controversial and I even considered leaving the franchise altogether.

However, I gave it a chance. And I found it mediocre. Even with the expansion passes, it is just mediocre. Its been the same heartless mediocrity since X&Y. Pokemon is just too big of a franchise. Its one of, if not the largest successful gaming franchise in the world. Pokemon is just too big to fail. They could release Pokemon Please and Pokemon Understand tomorrow and people will buy it. The Pokemon machine has so many moving parts: games, anime, manga, merch, card game, Go, etc. Sure the games are the franchise bread and butter, but you have to ask yourself...do they really need to work that hard? The answer is No. Thats why GF could make incomplete games and sell them for full price. And for the longest time I believed that this tired formula would continue until Pokemon's end.

But...I think that they started to realize that they too needed change. That's why I'm hopeful for Legends Arceus. I hope it gives them the innovation that they've lacked since gen 5. BDSP being remasters makes me even more excited for LA because GF is putting all their work into it. So even though the Sword and Shield should be less than what they're worth, these could be the last games with the old formula and thats saying something.

 

[King koopa]

I don't mind the games but I don't like how they added to remove half of the pokemon in the game and remove a lot of moves as well but it's not that bad imo. Personally I give it a 5/10

 

[xSuperMario64x]

game freak has been really stupid when i comes to difficulty. the only time they ever gave a difficulty option in a Pokemon game was in BW2 where you had to LTIERALLY BEAT THE ENTIRE GAME and only then could you choose a different difficulty. like really? how hard would it be to implement a difficulty feature???

 

[CylieDanny]

I love the game, its stunning, my favorite part is playing with my Pokemon, and making curry!

It's really cool to see the Pokemon in the grass, though some still spook

But, the number one complaint is that you can't turn off the experience share, because it makes the game ridiculously easy, it's easy to raise Pokemon, and train them. But it's not a good thing if you want a challenge. Which I wanted.

The experience share degraded the battles the point of training them was pretty much pointless, because you dont even have to go through one Pokemon at a time, it counts for all of them. Then all of the gyms are super cool, I love the music so much, the puzzles before hand were cool. But battles were too easy, because your Pokemon was too high.

For me, raising my Pokemon, and fighting with them is my favorite point, and that fell very short in this game. I was nervous about being over leveled. It made the game too easy, and that was what disappointed me the most.

My favorite part of it was raising Pokemon, evolving, and training multiple Pokemon was fun. I think I'm on the ice gym, but am now just a Pokemon breeder, because fights arnt fun anymore.

Other then that, Im absolutely loving it. Well, mainly just for the curry and camping. Also for galarian Ponyta

 

[Lancelot]

The main reason I dislike sword and shield is because everytime there seemed to be a plot point, Leon completed it off screen whilst we went and beat a gym or something. I know the games are normally repetitive but this took it to a new level.

the wild area is boring too