It’s been a few days since Pokémon Sword and Shield’s release, and I already got a lot of progress in. From what I can say right now, Pokémon Sun and Moon (as well as Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon) is better than Pokémon Sword and Shield. The music, the region, the Pokémon, the plot, the fact that not all Pokémon are cut, and the postgame are all factors to proving that Sun and Moon is better than Sword and Shield. Sun and Moon also had island scan, Poké finder, Festival Plaza, and Poké Pelago, and I have not found anything like that in Sword and Shield. But Sun and Moon is by no means perfectly better than any other game. As much as I like Sun and Moon more, here are the points that prove otherwise:
- Character Customization: If you compare it to Pokémon Let’s Go, it’s a massive improvement. But if you compare it to Pokémon Sun and Moon, not much has improved. What they did right was that they added the coat option, and (for the female characters) you can wear dresses. And they have the ponytail hairstyle added to hairstyles. This is something they should’ve had in Pokémon Sun and Moon, but they didn’t. Of course, there is still work needed to be done (i.e. skirts are too short, you couldn’t wear hats with some hairstyles, some clothes require waiting very late in the game).
- Pokémon Camp: This should’ve been added in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Especially when I liked the region of Alola. But at the subject of the feature, I like how you can play with your entire party at once and not just one Pokémon at a time. And you can cook meals too. This shows that Pokémon is starting to become a combination of RPG and Virtual Life.
- Experience Candies: While making EXP share permanent is a bad way of handling new features, EXP candies is a good way. They are easier to obtain than rare candies, and they can level up your Pokémon faster. This makes Pokémon training less tedious. If only we had all of the Pokémon available in Sword and Shield though.
- Technical Records: Single-use? Bad. Single-use and multiple copies per game? Good. Having nearly every common move available for either TMs or TRs? Better.
- Changing Pokémon Nature: You still can’t change the name, but you can change which stats can be sacrificed in favor of another. I haven’t got to that part yet, but with something like this taking effect, we are moving closer to a time where training Pokémon (and finding the perfect Pokémon) becomes less tedious. Up to Gen IV, TMs can only be used once, a Pokémon’s ability can’t be changed, you had to spend countless hours on breeding the perfect Pokémon since IVs are permanent and natures are hardly passed down, the only way to raise particular EVs to the max is by battling specific Pokémon, and you have to spend hours to level up your Pokémon. But since the 5th generation, they’ve been making this aspect less tedious. You now have other ways to build your EVs, level up, and TMs are unlimited use. Also, you can change stat adjustments in nature and max out individual values. Purists would spend longer to train their Pokémon, but since I’m the kind of person who wants to get things done quickly, these features are a good thing.
- Easy to gather resources: Well, not really any easier, but as someone who does a lot of max raid battles, I tend to get valuable resources easily. That’s why I have load of Experience candies and Dynamax candies.
