POKÉMON SHIELD (and SWORD) Review: A Franchise Streamlined

I could really sum up the entire games of Pokémon Sword/Shield as streamlined versions of their classic counterparts. This is mostly a massive step forward for the franchise, but there are a few small drawbacks in these streamlined systems.

From the first moments walking around, we can see the world has changed to a more interactive and realized area. We see Pokémon all over the place either helping people, wandering around or hidden in the grass, giving them a more real and tangible connection to the world, especially as their animations, sizes, and noises make them feel even more like unique and actual parts of the world. We still see most NPCs just standing, but they are at least often talking with others or having some minor interaction with their Pokémon. 

The visuals of the game as a whole look really great undocked, the game just feels and looks right in your hands. When played on a large TV, it is much easier to spot the pop-ins/outs of character, objects, and Pokémon. The texturing is also not great in a number of spots and is often clearly repeated. This brings us to one of the major discussion topics of the game: the scope. We see vast open lands, huge cities with enormous structures and a bigger spectacle overall. Everything seems to have a larger-than-life feel, which is great, but at what cost?

This focus on bigger and grander things in the game seems to take away from the actual details in environments, being able to have the entire Pokédex, and other things that would be expected from a modern Switch title, like voice acting of any kind and a slightly better produced soundtrack. I can see what the developers were trying to do in this game, create a new experience that is more focused on a new region, new mechanics like Dynamax and Gigantamax, the Wild Area, and a pretty great story. But in the creation of this, I think they realized they couldn’t have ALL the Pokémon and that some functions or details would have to be minimized to realize the overall goal. Is missing the whole Pokédex a game breaker? No. The game is still loads of fun, and there are a number of new editions that I have already grown to love a lot. Would it be nice to collect everything the first time a true Pokémon game was released on the Switch? Was it odd to have Pokémon like Delibird in the game but no Squirtle? Yes. Cutting down the list of Pokémon was actually probably for the best, because there are just so many of them, but cut out the less favorable ones, the odd ones, and maybe add fewer new Pokémon.

With all this said, the game is still a wonderful experience from start to finish and beyond. I ran through it pretty quick, credits scrolling at about 28 hours. But while going quickly through it, I still caught about 70 Pokémon and built a team that is pretty diverse. Now, I called the game “streamlined” for a reason. Sword and Shield are the most accessible and user friendly Pokémon game by a long-shot. Here is just a quick list of things that make the game go quicker: super fast bike, fast travel to many places, camping to heal and level up Pokémon, experience is shared in the party, Pokémon can be avoided/encountered at will, boxes are now available at anytime without having to go to the Pokémon Center, type matching and countering is made more clear, helpful items like the Amulet Coin can be found early in the game, objectives are marked on the map, and many more things. All these new updates to the game do take away from the grind and pacing of the past entries, but it is all for the best. This is done so that players can focus on catching Pokémon, playing the story, and building a powerful team instead of being tied up with teaching your team HMs and traveling by foot/bike everywhere until Fly is unlocked.

The last thing to discuss is the new Wild Area. The Wild Area is a huge, gigantic area that goes around and in between two of the major cities. This area has a number of different sections that will spawn Pokémon that are particular to those areas. In the desert there will be specific Pokémon, the water will have others, the grasslands their own, and so forth. Time of day and weather also affect what Pokémon will appear. I was impressed with the size, scope, and dynamics of the whole area. It is great for catching, training, and even finding rare items or buying TMs and things from random people in the open world. This is one of the best additions, if not the best new thing in Sword and Shield.

I am very happy with this game. It captured a lot of the wonder and awe of playing Pokémon Blue the first time when I was much younger. Yes, there are some issues with the game, but between the vast improvements to almost every part of the games and the pretty big list of Pokémon and fantastic new editions, there really isn’t really much to complain about. I haven’t even mentioned all the great cosmetics players can use to customize themselves, end game activities, or various online and Raid battles to participate in. Pokemon Sword and Shield have earned their place alongside their fellow titles in the franchise and will keep player well entertained until the next game in the franchise .