This review includes the DLC
With all of Game Freak's cards on the table it becomes very clear that they have no clue what they want this game to be. It's very easy to say that they were lazy but that misses the point of the fundamental disconnect that Game Freak has with their audience. Disregarding the omissions compared to prior games in the series, there is no clear vision for this game. The base game touts an open world area that the developers are clearly proud of when it permeates so many aspects of marketing and gameplay with the many endeavors towards co-operative player raids and the like, but clearly the focus was misguided at best when there are so many crippling design issues that limit what they can even do with what they have.
This is no more prevalent than the game's swan song, the Crown Tundra which boasts a legendary hunt, the best open world section to date, and a new type of co-operative content, and all three of which managed to exhibit the same type of flaws as their base game. They all share the same level of mismanagement and misunderstanding of the concepts behind good co-op design of their content often times making their nature of group content a hinderance more than anything, and this kind of example is emblematic of the entire Pokemon Sword and Shield experience. Honestly, even as a casual Pokemon fan I can't even imagine recommending this game when there are so much better Pokemon experiences out there and this game won't offer you anything new.
With all of Game Freak's cards on the table it becomes very clear that they have no clue what they want this game to be. It's very easy to say that they were lazy but that misses the point of the fundamental disconnect that Game Freak has with their audience. Disregarding the omissions compared to prior games in the series, there is no clear vision for this game. The base game touts an open world area that the developers are clearly proud of when it permeates so many aspects of marketing and gameplay with the many endeavors towards co-operative player raids and the like, but clearly the focus was misguided at best when there are so many crippling design issues that limit what they can even do with what they have.
This is no more prevalent than the game's swan song, the Crown Tundra which boasts a legendary hunt, the best open world section to date, and a new type of co-operative content, and all three of which managed to exhibit the same type of flaws as their base game. They all share the same level of mismanagement and misunderstanding of the concepts behind good co-op design of their content often times making their nature of group content a hinderance more than anything, and this kind of example is emblematic of the entire Pokemon Sword and Shield experience. Honestly, even as a casual Pokemon fan I can't even imagine recommending this game when there are so much better Pokemon experiences out there and this game won't offer you anything new.