Pokémon Sword is like junk food, not good but you keep eating anyway. This is probably the most I have ever played a Pokémon game, I don't know what's wrong with me. It's a bit crusty looking, runs like garbage in big open areas, lazy animations, bad story, and some dumb battle gimmick that hasn't shown up since.

Despite all those problems, I have over 165 hours, completed the pokédex for the first time, and even dabbled with the multiplayer. So it must've done something good, right? I can't really put my finger on it, nothing stands out. I'm not a huge Pokémon person and haven't played many; this one certainly is nowhere near my favorite.

Pokémon Sword is a weird one for me, I in no way recommend it and only consider it mediocre at best. However, I did get some good genuine fun out of it.

Pokemon Sword is like wild because it's really one of the only reasons I still use discord. In early 2020, like before quarantine early some random guy in a server wanted to make a sword and shield group chat since the dlc was dropping and he wanted to play with some people. I lied my ass off and said I had the game to get in, I don't really know why other than just I thought it would be a good time. I rarely played the game with em but we all started talking about random shit we liked and became pretty good friends and still talk to this day. So I guess if this game is worth anything it did give me a pretty cool friend group to talk to about my interests since my real life friend group doesn't really share the same video game interests I do, still a shit game though glad I never played it much with others lmao

i almost didn’t get this game due to all the controversy. but to be honest, the national dex cut and lackluster animations were not even really the problems i had with this game. let me start off with the positives.

the art style was very pretty in most locations, and the new pokémon designs were really fun. i can tell a lot of heart went into decorating the galar region. that being said, there were so many beautifully designed cities in galar, but filled with doors that led to nowhere. it definitely could’ve been more fleshed out. also, customization is always really fun! we got lots of new hairstyles, we could’ve had more skin tones and clothing options, but what are you going to do?

i loved the newly introduced idea of trainer cards as well— being able to not only make your own, but collect the cards of NPCs. next up, the gym challenge. this concept was awesome to me! i loved the idea of you having to be endorsed to do the gym challenge, and each one being at a huge stadium with a bunch of adoring fans cheering everyone on. the gym leader theme was one of the only memorable songs off the soundtrack, it was super engaging, especially when the leader is down to one pokémon and it changes, and the crowd sings along.

then, there’s the wild area. i think it was a bit overhyped, but at the same time it was for the most part interesting and fun. it’s not really required for you to go there, especially when you have most of the regions unlocked, so eh, but it’s good to have the option i guess. also fighting and defeating pokémon that are much stronger than you gives a lot of exp, so that’s a fun challenge.

i also REALLY liked most of the characters and character design this time around. i mean— 4 black characters?? one being the champion and another being our rival? that’s honestly awesome. i love how gamed real is letting more brown people into the pokémon universe. our main rival hop being the champion’s younger brother was a very inch resting dynamic. i heard bad things about him before i got the game, but honestly, he was sweet. maybe a bit much at times but not really. the whole inferiority complex thing going on had me intrigued. we also had two other rivals, marnie and bede. i would literally give bede my lung if he needed one. i really liked his character, but then again the rude jerk with a sad backstory is just my favorite trope like ever, idk why. too bad (spoiler alert) he disappears like halfway through the game, appearing again at the end.) this leads into my first complaint.

the story, or lack there of. i feel as if there really isn’t one. there’s no real villain team, and the “bad guy” isn’t really a villain at all. i’m not saying we need a giovanni every generation but the “plot” was lackluster to me. nothing really memorable, overall very boring. there were so many cool characters and character designs, who’s potential to be more fleshed out was wasted. a pokémon switch game can and SHOULD do way better. i’ve heard the post game story is more interesting and should’ve been the main story so... we’ll see about that. also most of the character development of other characters happens off screen. i.e., bede.

my next criticism, the soundtrack. the only noteworthy songs from the OST in my opinion are bede’s theme, marnie’s theme, the gym leader theme, and battle tower that toby fox composed. (which is in the post game and can ONLY be heard at the battle tower. also… dynamax is… a thing that exists. it’s lazy, boring, and predictable every gym battle. it doesn’t add anything to the “plot” even though i see how they were trying to connect the two. i just don’t care for the gimmick, i’m sorry. i also hate raid battles. they’re supposed to be fun, connecting with others online whether it be random or friends, but the online sucks, and the raid battles are tedious and annoying. and if you can’t find anyone to join you in them, (which, most times, you can’t) they give you braindead AI teammates who literally sabotage more than they do help. leon is lucky that his pokémon were so strong that i had to do a bunch of raid battles for exp candy, or i would’ve never even touched those things.

i think one of this game’s biggest crimes is the lack of voice acting. it’s extremely embarrassing, and at some points the silence was even jarring. this game would’ve had so much more charm if there had been voice acting. at least grunts or sounds for each character’s voice when dialogue comes up. but no, nothing but silence. and for a game with so many cutscenes? yikes. there’s even a silent concert at one point where i was quite literally cringing. missed opportunity. breath of the wild introduced voice acting for the first time in their switch game, pokémon should’ve done the same.

and finally my last criticism, the “high quality animations.” honestly, if all my other problems were addressed i could maybe overlook this, as it didn’t really bother me per se, i just found it unacceptable. considering the fact that Game Freak quite literally said they cut certain pokemon and focused less on other QOL aspects due to them focusing on these so called “high quality animations” that were used in the 3DS games. models popping in and out was very jarring and ruined the immersiveness. dragon quest xi looked SO much better graphically it’s actually ridiculous. AND had full voice acting. and with not even half the budget. seriously game freak, step your game up. you’ll never be a good modern day rpg if you keep doing the bare minimum like this, rehashing the same concepts with minor improvements.

overall? i give it a 7/10. i truly had a lot of fun playing it despite my criticisms, but it really could’ve and should’ve been a lot better.

Good lord. It's astounding to me that a game with the reputation that Pokemon Sword has managed to disappoint me. I could've sworn that I went in with eyes wide open; I'd play the game and have a good time despite the well-publicized flaws. After all, it's a pattern I have repeated to success a few times.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus was a game that everyone knew looked like dog shit from its announcement trailer. I bought it, and had an excellent time for several hundred hours on my road to 100%.

Pokemon Scarlet was (another) game that everyone knew looked like dog shit from its announcement trailer, and it was also one that was well understood to be complete and total jank. I also enjoyed that game for upwards of 100 hours.

So, as I sat bored one day, I figured "Why not but Pokemon Sword! I'm down for another hundred hour, janky adventure with subpar graphics." Of course, only the latter half of that statement ended up panning out.

First I'll describe the devil I knew. It's hard to be aware of Pokemon Sword without knowing its reputation for subpar graphics. Surely an odd thing to make a mainstay of the series, but god damn it let's let GameFreak cook. While this is most definitely a identify to have with this Pokemon title, it's almost redundant to take serious umbrage with it. The games are so consistently undercooked insofar as visuals that by this point you either accept it or you've moved on. It's a worthy talking point, but not a big contributor to my opinion of Pokemon Sword.

The flaws that only showed themselves over the course of my time with the game, however, were much more damning.

Part of the reason I enjoyed Legends Arceus and Scarlet so much was the sense of freedom and, to a lesser extent, adventure that permeated them. (You're probably enjoying a laugh at my expense right about now if you've played Pokemon Sword. Good beats.) Pokemon is a series that lends itself well to nonlinearity. The agency to seek out your favorite guys and build a team you connect with does a lot to enhance the experience; any amount of time you're forced to bond with the second-stringers is wasted.

Openness also gels with the games on a narrative level. Just about every one of these games is about a kid shoving out into the world to carve their own way. Having one's hand held and dragged through a linear series of events would be too dissonant with that idea. While it's easy to look at the latest games in the series and say that Pokemon has only just now reached that level of nonlinearity, the games have always had this down. Even in Pokemon Red one had a few junction points where the player could choose which boss encounter to pursue. You always had some amount of agency.

Pokemon Sword does its best to dispense with that idea entirely. There is always one (1) correct way to progress. Not only are there no other options, there are never any side routes for optional objectives or challenges. No, you simply are rushed through the main story until the game finally stops at some point post-credits with the message to "Go explore!" when there is no longer an incentive to do so.

Not that there would be much to explore, anyway. In addition to being a linear corridor, the world of Pokemon Sword is lacking in anything compelling to do or see. It's not even interconnected, as a few parts of it are cut off with only the loading screen of a train station linking them. The claustrophobia of the world design only exacerbates the death of the sense of adventure started by the game's linear progression.

And without an adventure to embark on, what is the reason to even play a Pokemon game? It's surely not the combat, which never even approaches a stress test demanding the player actually engage with it on a strategic level. It's also not the collectathon nature of a world with so many unique monsters; the absolutely glacial pace of any encounter discourages someone from catching 400 unique creatures.

I'm at a loss trying to answer that question. Why play this game? Why did I play this game? While I feel deflated now, it's nothing compared to how I felt when I finished the "post game content". Seeing my final play time fall shy of 30 hours was paradoxical in a way that inflicted psychic damage.


My time with Pokemon Sword was so insubstantial and mind numbing, and how dare it be this short??

As it stands the normal Pokémon franchise is in a lot of aspects limited in what it can do. If it stays as it as from combat to Pokémon collecting it's running the risk of eventually all games blending into one because they are all the same. If it changes it runs the risk of becoming too different from the rest of the other games and suddenly it doesn't belong in this list of Pokémon games and it should instead join Pokémon Ranger or become it's own thing.

Pokémon Arceus found an healthy middle it's not too similar from all the others and it isn't too different either. But this one? This one is the same as it has always been except it has a drawback. The story's bad.

It sets up something interesting right at the right but soon enough it becomes, ridiculous and dare I go as far as to say cringe? Compared to other games like the well loved Pokémon White/Black this one feels insulting.

Then we have the added fact that the game looks ugly, it wasn't as buggy as later releases but it is just as ugly. With it's bad rendering and non interesting looking well, anything. It's hard to stay engaged on anything but the Pokémon themselves really.

All this to say I think this should be where this type of Pokémon games stop. Because at the moment what do we have to look forward to? Arceus aside, all next games will look like this one (if not worse) and the gameplay will be exactly the same. It's a wonder how people can keep buying these games every other year instead of just sticking to the one they think is the best (the one they played as a child).

Sabe aquele arroz com feijão, que você come todo dia, mas que ainda é bom, mas em algum momento ele vai enjoar e depois você volta a comer ele como sempre fez, esse jogo é basicamente isso ele foi lançado em um mar de polêmicas, juntamente com o peso de ser o que iria marca a nova geração de pokémon com uma enorme expectativas do que poderia vim a ser, mas apesar disso tudo ele continua sim sendo um bom jogo pokémon e apesar de não conseguir ser marcante em vários aspectos, ele traz algumas coisas interessantes como o designer dos personagens que eu acho muito bem feito tirando seu rival principal, acompanhado com a melhor coisa desse jogo que ele sabe que esse é teu ponto principal, que é justamente seus ginásios e a magia por trás de lutar em um. Aqui não vemos a luta de ginásio padrão, aqui os ginásios são estagio de futebol com uma música absurda por trás com gritos da pessoa de valorização da batalha, tendo como ponto forte como já mencionado as músicas que nesse jogo estão muito boas. mesmo que a batalha seja uma luta simples e fácil, a trilha por trás consegue te empolgar e torna esse jogo divertido, além de ser um jogo curto que não o torna cansativo e com a sensação de arrastado, é sim um jogo que podia ter sido mais, mas foi sim uma boa aventura.

First legal Pokémon game I've owned and the first (and last) game I have a complete pokédex on. I really loved the G-max and dynamax thing going on. New exclusive forms, fat pokemon, etc etc. On gameplay nothing ever felt lacking, it was a stable Pokémon game that was lightweight and content packed. It really set a standard for a new Pokémon game gen, but I can't really call it special. It felt a little too much like it stuck to the gimmick and the entire time I played it I felt like the number one loser, I still remember the smell of the blanket I was baking myself under while completing the dex.