Gotta Catch.. uh, most of them?
While Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee technically brought a main series Pokemon adventure to a home console for the first time, Pokemon Sword and Shield were the most anticipated entries of the series to take advantage of considerably better hardware than their handheld siblings. While these newest entries don’t revolutionize the established formula we’ve played over the course of twenty-some years, they do streamline out a lot of the baggage from the earlier games. What Sword and Shield bring to the table is a more enjoyable gym battle experience, engaging co-op events, and a fun and enjoyable story that makes this my favorite Pokemon adventure to date, despite not featuring the entire national dex.
Leading up to the release of Sword and Shield, there has been a lot of controversy regarding a variety of things such as reused animations and assets, to the exclusion of the national dex; a transferrable catalog of every single Pokemon created thus far. This review isn’t meant to change your mind if the lack of a national dex is a deal-breaker for you, or if seeing a Pokemon exhibit an all too familiar animation makes you want to boycott Nintendo. No, this review is meant to illustrate the features of the game, my opinion of said game in general and that’s about it. Saying that, I wasn’t initially thrilled that I couldn’t have Goldduck or Blastoise on my team, two of my long-time favorites, but did their exclusion ruin Sword and Shield for me? Not in the slightest. Their omission forced me to reach out to existing Pokemon that I never used as well as embrace all new ones. If anything, I enjoyed that I wasn’t able to relax back into my old Pokemon habits and frankly, it was surprisingly refreshing, and far less intimidating than having to catch almost 900 of them.
Not since Pokemon Yellow have I spent so much time with a Pokemon title, clocking in a bit over 100 hours and counting, I worked my way across the Galar region catching everything I realistically could and took advantage of trading between versions for their own unique creatures and those that consistently escaped my grasp. This also includes Pokemon like Swirlix, Haunter, and Machoke, just a few Pokemon that require trading to kickstart their evolutions. While people have stated this is “the shortest Pokemon game ever” that claim is only true if burning through the story is your only concern, to say nothing of catching the 400 Pokemon featured in the game, let alone tracking down their shiny variants. While several systems featured here have made catching or evolving Pokemon considerably easier, I feel this is the first Pokemon game that has respected my time playing it, and not fit it with slower systems to artificially create length.
Pokemon Sword and Shield start exactly how every other adventure starts; you are gifted a starter pokemon and head out on an adventure to tackle gyms and become the best there ever was. While that is how your adventure begins, that’s not always your only objective here. Sword and Shield have some interesting twists and turns as well as an endgame quest that works its way around the lore that has been told to you through the main story. Your adventure takes you across Galar, a new region based upon the UK, complete with some very British dialog from a host of interesting characters. As you explore this vast new region, Pokemon will either be up walking around as they were in the Let’s Go games, or hidden in the tall grass, waiting to jump out at you when you least expect it. Galar is a very visually pleasing location with its country hills, icy lakes, neon mushroom forests, and vast wild areas.
It’s also in these massive wild areas that you’ll spend a large bulk of your time, using the different weather conditions to track down some of the more rarer species and taking part in max raids, Pokemon GO style battles that you can contribute alongside other players to take down gigantic oversized versions of various Pokemon. These battles, indicated by pillars of pink light, as seen above, are wildly entertaining and come in various difficulties, rated by stars to indicate their challenge. Teaming up with other players is very enjoyable, and while you can have NPC’s join you to fill out a full team, I found they would often choose Pokemon who were incredibly weak to the opposing threat’s type and would cause a premature end to the battle before we could finish it.
Taking down gyms is as old as the franchise itself, and here, in Sword and Shield, it feels vastly more impressive and engaging than ever before. You’ll approach each event with a short challenge such as maneuvering around a water puzzle, navigating a maze, or herding some wooloo’s into their pen, all while challenging the various trainers in your way. These challenges culminate in a stadium battle against that gym’s leader that is enhanced by a roaring crowd and intense music. I can’t stress just how good that music is here with the crowd chanting to the beat. It feels like a real sporting event and not just a small room challenge that we’ve had a dozen times before. These events are very satisfying and truly added something far more impressive than I think a lot of people are giving it credit for. I wasn’t a big fan of the gym battles in previous versions, but here, they are incredibly thrilling, if a tad too easy.
Encouraged by a roaring crowd are the Dynamax battles that you’ll take part in across most of the gym challenges and the max raids out in the wild area. These battles cause your chosen Pokemon to scale to an impressive height and are given increased stats and a new set of moves. Dynamaxing abilities are granted to nearly all Pokemon, but several of them have far more powerful Gigantamax versions with even more powerful moves and a tweaked overall design. The list of Pokemon that have the capability to Gigantamax includes Charizard, Coalossal, Meowth, Flapple, Copperajah, Lapras, and more, and most of them need to be captured during max raids to have this enhanced ability. Their use is gyms is largely exciting, I just wish the trainers had more Pokemon to offer across their battles and didn’t always save their Gigantamaxing for the final Pokemon.
Like each of the Pokemon main-series games before it, each version has had a selection of exclusive Pokemon native to that title, but Sword and Shield go far beyond that and feature two unique gyms across both games. Sword will see you taking on Bea and her fighting-type gym as well as challenging Gordie and his rock-type Pokemon. Shield gets a bit more spooky with Allister and his ghost-types, whereas Gordie’s mother, Melony, will play host with a selection of her own ice-types. These differences are interesting as in the past, it was usually just certain Pokemon that were exclusive, requiring you to trade for what ones were not present in a particular version. While there is a small collection of exclusive Pokemon here as well, this change does make it interesting enough to push through the story yet again with the other version to take on those gyms, not to mention the ability to track down each of the included legendaries; Zacian, and Zamazenta, the titular Sword and Shield Pokemon.
While the exclusive gyms are interesting, their respective leaders are fairly absent in the grand scheme of things. Some gym leaders have a bigger presence in the story than others, allowing them to become full-fledged characters in their own right. As opposed to previous entries, where they were often forgotten immediately after you left with your badge, several of these characters, such as Piers and Raihan, become more involved in the story as you push through it. Even Leon, the final challenger before becoming champion is present through several aspects of the story, as is his brother, Hop, who is your annoying yet determined rival. I found this cast of characters more engaging, more interesting, and somewhat more memorable, especially characters like the wonderfully designed Nessa, shown above, to Marnie, a fascinating trainer who you will interact with several times on your quest to become champion.
Where previous games had their own type of Team Rocket threat, here we have Team Yell, a band of characters that really just wants to be excited about something. Whether that is making sure a Silicobra is getting its rest, or that Marnie is being cheered on during every battle, these characters are more about enhancing the culture of Pokemon than trying to take it over. Considering the threat that inevitably comes your way in the main story, it’s a nice change of pace to not have some shadow organization looming around you yet again.
Hop, your own personal rival is frankly, the worst part of this game. His battles are far too frequent for how similar they are, and he rarely shows any growth as a trainer, consistently shocked that you know your type-advantages. I never struggled with any of his battles and found the local kids in Pikachu and Eevee outfits to be far more challenging. In fact, I was shocked he was able to make it out of gym battles largely unscathed, and his overall story arc was lacking in every conceivable way. I appreciate what Hop adds to the story, but he lacks the depth and growth needed to keep him interesting throughout that story. Given the interactions you have with Marnie, and her eagerness to prove herself, I unofficially made her my rival in my head and tended to think of Hop as an irritating fan who kept stalking me. If a future Pokemon game offers some sort of choice moment for who your rival would be, I would be all up for that and I think many other people would be too.
Your own personal avatar is also lacking as well, never really having a notable personality, or much character to them at all. With such a variety of interesting NPC’s that you’ll encounter and battle, it’s a shame we lack that same personality for our main hero. While they are technically supposed to echo that of ourselves, or what we place into them, it’s unfortunate that we have yet another main series Pokemon game that lacks a compelling main character. While you can dress them up in numerous outfits you’ll buy as you encounter more stores, or treat them to a new haircut at the available salons, the only times you’ll inject real personality into them is via your League Trainer cards, a type of collectible card you can pose your trainer into and trade with friends and other players.
With Sword and Shield not featuring every single Pokemon to date, there are a few odd exclusions that do hurt some of the variety. Apart from Charmander, not a single other starter Pokemon makes an appearance. Also, given the success of Detective Pikachu, I’m surprised that many of the featured Pokemon in the movie, such as Psyduck, Aipom, Snubbull, or Lickitung, are not part of this game, given that the movie may have made many people new fans of the series, buying the game in hopes to seeing them here. As for the new starters, you’ll have Sobble, a small and timid water type, Scorbunny, an energetic fire type, and Grooky, an adorable grass type monkey. Sword and Shield feature 81 new Pokemon with 13 Galar region variants, such as the colorful psychic version of Ponyta, to the black and white Zigzagoon. There are some solid new entries here that frankly join the list as some of my all-time favorites such as Corviknight, Drednaw, Centiskorch, Toxtricity, and Morpeko, a small adorable critter who can switch between electric and dark type. There are also a few I’m not too crazy about, but the additions here are largely solid as are seeing several familiar faces return. As for the lack of a national dex, I personally chalk it up to how some Pokemon are just native to certain areas and don’t exist in that environment. Is it disappointing we can’t have them all? Sure, but whether that’s something you can look past, well, that’s up to you.
There are also a few features here that will either be welcomed by fans or rejected by purists. Every fight you win will net experience to your entire party instead of just the pokemon that were active during it. This streamlines leveling to keep your whole party relevant, but those looking for the more pure experience may find this off-putting. Before, when you wanted to change up your team, you had to go find a Pokemon Box in town to adjust your team rotation, now, you can access your whole assortment at any time, making team changes almost anywhere you are. I personally love this as it allowed me to quickly change to Pokemon I probably would have just left in my box forever. Other quality of life improvements features the ability to relearn any moves to a Pokemon that has forgotten them or knowing type advantages of each move during a battle, providing those Pokemon exist in your Pokedex. There is also a way to check the IV’s of a certain Pokemon far easier, and you can even boost certain stats with a variety of new items, letting you enhance a Pokemon that has been with you all along, as opposed to replacing it for a newer model. These features and more allow Sword and Shield to bypass a lot of dated mechanics the series has been heavily criticized for.
Where previous Pokemon games have given you the ability to interact with your assortment of colorful creatures, Sword and Shield allows you to set up camp almost anywhere you like and boost your friendliness with your team. You can play catch, talk with your favorites, or make a pot of curry, a dish that could lure out some rare Pokemon around you. The cooking takes a central ingredient and some berries and then is followed by a short mini-game that will unlock more of your curry-dex, which in turn grants you more experience to your team and several toys to use during these little sit-downs. It’s fun to see Lucario and Horaxus running around together, or learning that Togepi is afraid of Golisopod, or that they eventually became good friends. It’s a charming addition to the game that allows you to spend time with the Pokemon you’ve caught, enhancing your friendship, instead of just putting them through battle after battle.
Taking full advantage of Nintendo’s paid online service is a series of online activities such as versus battles or max raid events. Explored through a system called the Y-Comm, it is here where you can find various events or trade with other players, making it the first time large scale trading has been gated off through a paid system. While you can trade locally with your friends for free, this closes off access to Pokemon all over the world unless you pay up, especially if you’re wanting a foreign Ditto to increase shiny odds through breeding. Apart from standard trading are surprise trades, where you’ll cast a Pokemon into the ether and hope for the best. Y-Comm will keep you up to date if people are looking for others to join in max raids or if one of your friends has added something new to their Pokedex.
As I’ve mentioned, one of my favorite features to Sword and Shield is the Pokemon Go style max raids, but connecting to many of them can be needlessly aggravating. When you bring up your Y-Comm menu, it will show max raids that people are hosting, but these are never in real-time and are often full up or just downright canceled or expired, but will still remain up regardless, wasting your time as you attempt to connect to them. The lack of real-time info of an online experience is further proof that Nintendo still doesn’t have online figured out even in 2019 and can cause a ton of frustration as you fail to join match after match that currently doesn’t exist.
While there has been much talk about the lacking visuals or reused assets, I still found it to be a very good looking game. While this isn’t the Breath of the Wild reboot many fans, including me, were hoping for, I can’t deny just how engaging this game is visually. Environments are gorgeous, despite the wonky shadows or low-res ground textures, and I constantly found each new location to be better than the last. The wild areas you’ll explore are bigger than we’ve ever seen in the series, complete with the ability to swivel the camera around you, and exploring them and their drastic weather changes make for a compelling gameplay experience. Pokemon themselves look great, despite lacking some much-needed animations to illustrate simple things like getting excited or jumping. I’m not terribly bothered by these shortcuts, but I am a little disappointed at the lack of innovation given this is the first real big Pokemon console game and that Game Freak stated they reduced the Pokedex to concentrate on higher graphical fidelity. There is also a lack of polish with including online players in the wild area as in most cases, the game will chug to single frames as it attempts to load them in as your running or biking along. It’s weird to see a Nintendo game stutter like this as a high level of polish is normally expected from most Nintendo first-party games.
The core loop that has made Pokemon so enjoyable is here in spades, making every battle, trade, catch, and discovery just as enjoyable as the first. Sword and Shield are not without their problems, whether that is excluding half of its official Pokedex or the minor graphical and visual problems that can be somewhat noticeable. Again, this review isn’t meant to change your mind if you’ve already made it up about what you’ve seen or played. I can understand the disappointment surrounding what has been offered here, but it never really affected my overall experience in any significant way. The story is fun, the new additions to the Pokedex are largely enjoyable, and several of the returning Pokemon are some smart choices, despite a few of my favorites not making the cut. What stands out for me with Sword and Shield are the revamped gym battles, the co-op max raids, and the colorful presentation it’s all wrapped up in. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in Galar despite the titles failings and plan to spend another chunk of time investing in a few shiny hunts, so if you’ll excuse me, I have about 6,000 eggs to hatch. That poor Ditto…
Both Pokemon Sword and Shield were purchased by the reviewer and played on a Nintendo Switch.
All screenshots were taken on a Nintendo Switch.