Customer Ratings & Reviews

To start with, I'm not a long-time Pokemon fan by any means. I didn't play my first one until a few years ago, so I don't have any nostalgic or fond memories of playing the games or watching the show as a kid. This game really embodies a lot of what I've come to know about the series, the good and the bad. There are things it does excellently, and there are things that I think really needed some reworking at best. Gameplay: For the most part, the gameplay is standard Pokemon. You run around capturing monsters and battling trainers, with the goal of eventually becoming strong enough to be crowned as the Pokemon Champion - the most powerful Pokemon trainer in the region. It's honestly a lot more fun than I'd expected as a gameplay loop, and if you're looking for that, you'll definitely get it with this game. Now there are some things that are different between this game and the previous entries in the series. To start with, tall grass behaves a little differently than you might be used to. Rather than having completely random encounters in it, you'll see Pokemon spawn, and you can choose to engage with them, or try to avoid them. This makes it so that you don't have to deal with an obnoxious amount of battles when you're just trying to get to the next story area. Some of the Pokemon will chase you for quite a ways if they notice you, some will approach and stop at a certain distance, and some are so ridiculously fast that you have no chance of getting away if they notice you. I think it's a great way of giving more control to the player, and I utilized it quite a bit as I played. If you've ever played Dragon Quest XI or Final Fantasy XIII, the random encounters often behave like they do in that game. I should mention that there are still encounters in the grass that are a little harder to avoid - an exclamation point will appear and the grass will rustle, but you won't see a Pokemon. Those are random encounters that are still avoidable, but it's a little harder to do so. Another new thing about the game is what they call Dynamaxing. Essentially, you or your opponent's Pokemon (only a singular one) will grow really big... and that's kind of it. The attacks don't really do a whole lot more damage than normal ones, and most of the Pokemon in the game do not change their design at all when they do this. There are a select few that actually have a design change when they Dynamax - in that case it's referred to as Gigantamaxing - but personally, I never had any in my party that could do this at any point. Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing is only possible in select battles, however. Most gym battles and a few story battles allow it, but otherwise you're not going to encounter it very often. I expected it to be an annoying mechanic to deal with, and it kind of is, if only because it doesn't really change anything you're doing as much as you'd expect for how long each dynamax animation is. By the way, it only lasts 3 turns, which I understand, but at the same time it makes it even less of a challenge or threat to deal with when you encounter it. There are a lot of quality of life improvements from previous entries here. For example, you don't need to go to a Pokemon center to access your box. You can swap Pokemon from your box to your party and back from the regular menu, and it's extremely helpful. You don't need to go into the key items menu or make a shortcut to use your bike - you just press a certain button once you have it. You don't need to teach Pokemon TMs or HMs at all to navigate the area - most of those sorts of things have been streamlined in some way, which I have mixed feelings about, to be honest. Pokemon Centers are home to the nurse (of course), the PokeMart, and an NPC who will do anything from name rating to move forgetting, all in one location. It's really convenient and I have no qualms with it. In terms of building friendship with Pokemon, the main way to accomplish that this time around is by going camping. In most of the overworld, you can set up camp. Your party of Pokemon will be out, strolling around the campsite, interacting with each other, getting stuck on an invisible wall for no apparent reason. You can cook curry for them, using berries and various ingredients you'll find throughout the game. It can restore HP, grant experience, increase friendship levels, and if it's REALLY high quality it can remove all negative status effects, including fainting. It's annoying because it's difficult to tell whether or not you're doing a good job during the cooking minigame, and for a consistent experience I'd recommend using the button inputs to do the game rather than using the motion controls - they will cause issues more often than not. You can also play with your Pokemon - you can play fetch, have them attack a toy (when you have a 7 foot tall Pangoro attacking you in first person, it's a little terrifying) and you can also chat with them. There are a LOT of glitches with this system - Pokemon will get stuck on nothing, they'll get stuck on each other for amusingly long periods of time, they will pick up a fetch toy and then just not bring it back ever, they'll get stuck in loops where they stand there doing the same animation and making the same noise for 10 straight minutes, it's honestly pretty hilarious, and I got a lot of entertainment out of it. I think this is the best they've done with making you as a player feel like you're connecting with them - rather than only having the option to forcibly feed them dozens of treats, you can actually play with them and I think it's really cute. Overall, the gameplay is standard Pokemon with some QoL improvements and a new gimmick that feels a little bit half baked. It's a lot of fun, and aside from Dynamaxing being underwhelming, I have nothing to complain about. Story: You know that thing in every other Pokemon game, where the apocalypse is actively occurring as an unbelievably powerful creature destroys time and bends space, and then everyone tells a 10 year old that the fate of the universe lies on the shoulders of them and their pets? It's something that's always kind of bothered me. But it doesn't really happen here for the most part. Of course it happens a little, but without spoiling it, it ends up being saved until the very last moment and it's actually explained pretty logically. I really liked this change because I always thought it was weird that nobody else in the region could handle the situation or even attempt to control it. The rival is extremely annoying in my opinion. There comes a point where, basically, your dinner plans get cancelled and then you and a whole group of people decide to storm a private corporate headquarters as a result. No, I'm not joking, and no, it doesn't make any sense in context either. It's a major plot turning point and it's frustratingly bad. I wasn't expecting anything profound, but... really? It's like they had two halves of a story and didn't know how to connect them together so they just had an AI write the connection and called it a day. It's acceptable at the lowest possible standard. I've experienced worse stories in games, but this one was aggressively mediocre, even compared to most other Pokemon games. General Stuff: The online in this game ranges from being okay but badly implemented, to being outright broken and barely useable. If you want to join a Dynamax raid, good luck. It will show one is available to join, you'll try to join it and it will give you some vague error that doesn't tell you what's actually going on - most of the time, it means the raid party was already full. If you start one and hope people join you, good luck there too. You'll be waiting for 2 and a half minutes for nobody to join the raid half a dozen times before you get a single person to join you. You can technically play without real players - they'll add NPCs to fill the missing slots - but the NPCs are worthless. They never bring effective Pokemon (they will sometimes even bring a useless Magikarp), if they DO have an effective Pokemon they will almost never use a move that actually does damage, they'll just buff their stats literally every turn without attacking until the raid ends. You might think it's a bad AI, but there are a number of battles in the game where the AI is very clearly well designed - it will not hesitate to one shot your whole team and it will always find a way to win in a war of attrition - so that's no excuse. In my opinion, there is no real post game. There's a small story bit that lasts maybe an hour and a half, there is a battle tower, but aside from that you've got nothing. There are no difficult, new, or interesting dungeons to explore. There are no areas where you can use a TM/HM you didn't have before to explore a new section, that aspect is just... not here. There are only a grand total of 3 legendary Pokemon in the base game. One you catch for the story, one you catch in the post-game story section, and one you are literally handed at the battle tower for no reason. That's it. It's... disappointing. Especially since you can catch nearly all legendary Pokemon if you buy the $30 DLC. Conclusion: It's not bad. It's pretty par for the course with a few things that are different from the normal formula - the issue is that for every good thing they bring, there is a catch somewhere, or there is something else that brings the experience down. If you like Pokemon, it's worth a play. If you don't like Pokemon, this isn't likely to change your mind. If you've never played Pokemon, this is as good a place as any to give it a try. I would rather rate it 3.5 stars, but half stars aren't possible, and I didn't think it deserved to be rounded up, to be honest.

Shield and sword mark the first mainline Pokemon games onto the switch. The gameplay is more similar to previous games than the let's go series in terms of catch mechanics and provides a hybrid in terms of wild pokemon. I think this is great if you are new as older players may be disappointed by not all pokemon being available. In previous games, after finishing the game, you could bring back pokemon not found in the game from your older games. This one has limited those.

Overall a good edition to the Pokemon franchise. The game is definitely a lot more polished then previous versions as well as the regions do feel a lot different then each other. The Wild area is great for picking up a variety of pokemon and you will be returning back there after each gym as well as a lot after finishing the story of the game and entering postgame. The raids idea is great and allows people to really interact more together which is definitely a plus and the customization of your actual player is nice with the clothing options. However, I don't really like they replaced Mega evolutions for Gigantamax completely and there is no Mega Evolutions whatsoever which basically makes a lot of viable pokemon now not so viable. Rest in Peace Mawile, Sableye, Pinsir, and More. I also am not a huge fan of really having a variety of different pokemon on each game. If you only pick up one version of the game you can never get all the pokemon unless you trade or have a friend playing the opposite version or if you buy the opposite version and replay the ENTIRE game. Although this is not new for pokemon it is just a gripe and wish they would change it. So takeaways the game is beautiful in comparison, good story, good character customization, good online battles/raids, Variety of new pokemon, good post game options. Bads: Need both games or a lot of trading, Graphics in comparison of other games could be better, They took away a big part of the game (mega evolutions) and forced gigantamax on the playerbase (you can't battle online without gigantamax evolutions included). Raids are good but tedious with no guarantee and unless your glitching it, is impossible to predict good pokemon. It is also WAYYY too easy to level up with the EXP candies.

I haven't really played a Pokemon game since Gold and Silver until Pokemon Let's Go but that was just a remake of the first Gen with some other cool features. I liked it enough though to give this one a try and I'm glad I did! It's a really fun game and even though there are new Pokemon to learn, I'm enjoying it.

Good game takes me back to my childhood although they’ve mis it really easy to get all the HM’s

Very C-tier story writing, but it's my most played Pokemon game to date after having played through 5 other generations. The online is pretty terrible in the wild areas, like an unstable 25 fps most times with tons of frame dips. I will not praise Gamefreak's execution, but I at least got 90 hours out of the game after doing nearly everything there is to do and training up a couple teams.

This is one of the best pokemon games ever made. Definitely worth a pick up to add to your collection. Being an adult and playing this i did question if it would be more kid friendly but i enjoyed playing it as much as i did when i was a kid. Definitely add it ro your collection !

This game got so much hate when it first came out, but mostly from people upset at the changes to the formula. Best of all is that the tutorial stages have been reduced with options for skipping whole parts because if you've played one pokemon, you understand the basics. The new coat of paint is charming, as the animations and sprites been kicked up a notch (which is fair given it's no longer in a portable system). There are more design options for your character, loads of postgame content, DLC coming out soon and it shows the pokemon frolicking. The rival is also a step up from sun and moon, being friendly, without being hapless or mediocre. While not reaching the heights of Gary Oak or the rival from Gold/Silver, he's still memorable. The bits of realism, like the pokemon champions having ads over their battle clothes, is a nice touch. This has been a nice addition to the franchise, which takes some risks by changing up the formula while keeping what works and avoids some of the mistakes from Sun/Moon.

Bought this game just before covid19 quarantine and so glad I did. You can explore the wild area and do max raid battles for many hours. The reason for 4 stars is that once you get to 5 star raids, it is nearly impossible to beat with the CPUs. You need to go online and pay a Nintendo Online membership to be able to get allies that can help you actually win. This also opens up more max raids, but it’s just unfortunate that it costs extra.

I understand why people have their complaints about the game, but let’s be honest: we play for the cool new mons, the new mechanics and other extra features. Story has not been the franchises strong suit, but they did execute the key aspects of this game well. Enjoyed the game!!

The nostalgia hit hard here with this game thinking back to the last games I have played. It's very fun, continues the series well, and is a perfect addition to the Pokemon family of games. As with some other games recently, however, it's a bit too easy.

I really enjoyed playing Pokemon as a kid and sword and shield are pretty good.

the game is just plain fun, although it follows the same formula as the other Pokemon games there's always something about choosing my new starter and taking on the journey in a new region. the wild area is the best part of the game and I am hopeful that moving forward it becomes the way for the whole game in future Pokemon games. my only complaint would be the dexit issue but with over 1000 Pokemon it was bound to happen

Loving everything about the game! The Wild area is excellent and makes for a very different/immersive experience from other Pokemon games. Dynamax is also a very cool feature. I was hesitant at first, but so far, I'm enjoying everything about this game.

If you're a Pokemon fan like me, you will like this game. With new enhanced graphics and features, this is definitely worth purchasing. If you're a super fan, I recommend purchasing both the Shield and Sword versions.

To me the story felt kinda weak despite how long it was Its kinda your traditional pokemon game plus raid battles that are the old school turn based, and puzzles before each gym Pokemon finally added autosave...that doesnt work very well it seems ive encountered plenty of events where it was supposed to trigger (leaving a pokenon center) but it didnt hopefully itll be patched Would give 4 and a half stars if i could

It’s hard to explain but I love and dislike this game, I love it for the changes and the wild area but I dislike it cause of the basic story and not real story depth. It’s still a game I would recommend because I think you would still get your money’s worth and it’s still fun

The biggest gripe most people will have with Pokemon Sword and Shield is the lack of the national pokedex. There are only 400 pokemon in total in the games. I think the game is almost too linear. There are no intricate caves or hideouts. The most interesting addition to the game is the wild area which acts as a game lengthening buffer zone akin to Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time with how vast (and empty) it is.

I always been a pokemon fan when I was little. Ever since I played gold and silver when we had game boys. I was happy to see the growing and change in pokemon games through years. I really like this game, this game is really fun and it was better than sun and moon.

Many people have given this game a not so warm review but to me this was a fun ride that keeps going after you’re done. I liked the game play and the open map ... I am not a hardcore Pokémon gamer but it grabbed me from the first second till the end