Peak Mediocrity | A Review of Pokemon Sword & Shield 

No wonder gamefreks mascot is pikachu because they both refuse to evolve

I loved the game. The monster catching mechanics. The sprawling dungeons. The fleshed out characters. The stylish animations. The amazing soundtrack. The gorgeous graphics. Anyway, that's why I believe Persona 5 Royal is such a good game.

Rose: "We need more energy!" //gestures at electric type pokemon existing Rose: "no i will cause an apocalypse instead"

No one tell Rose about the sun eventually burning out..

The best part about the game, for me, was naming my character "...you" so that the plot actually made some sense because the dialogue made my character seem so forgettable that nobody actually remembered his name. "Congratulations, ...you! You've beaten the unbeatable Champion."

Daily reminder: Gen 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 , 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, & 35 are just for testing the waters. The real game comes in Gen 36 Remake. That´s the game for hardcore fans. You´re welcome!

Gen 8: no voice acting Gen 5: P O K E M ON.. POKEMON

"Team yell is just a bunch of weirdos obsessed with their leaders sister" Tbh that's why they're perfectly believable.

Something that annoys me about the games that wasn't talked about is the Corviknight Taxi's. In the initial reveal where they revealed several new pokemon including Corviknight, they stated it would taxi you around like how a pokemon using fly would. I was looking forward to seeing how they'd make this look in the game. and it's nothing but a loading screen... No animation of a Corviknight carrying a box down for you to ride in, no animation of it flying you somewhere, you just click a button and get a loading screen.

Fun fact: The female rock and water Gym trainers are the same model recoloured, with very little tweaks past the clothes.

I honestly feel like Rose could have been one of the most interesting villains in the series and all they had to do was say the energy crisis would occur in like 20 years instead of 1000. That would have made the impending fallout much more of a serious danger, and would have made Rose’s actions, while not justified, make a lot more sense, and would have painted the conflict as much more morally grey. But instead Rose ends up being the worst villain in the series all because of one tiny detail. It sucks

"An Insult to the Fans - but many fans have not noticed, sadly." That's perfectly summarizing it, if you ask me. Delusional Fans are definetly a part of the Problem. Edit, 1 year later: Quality became rare, but not extinct, which Sci Man Dan, HBomerberguy and Sci-Show are proof for. I warmly recommend 'em in these hard times.

piers: * moves mouth in silence * deaf people: 🕺💃

Actually in ruby and sapphire you did have a dad, he was just a gym leader, skipping that and the alpha and omega, your dad is just like half the Pokemon in this game, missing for no real reason.

Good animations, cool routes, beautiful dungeons, a well-made story with its amazing characters. And don't forget the legendaries and the music, very underrated games in my opinion. damn i miss gen 5

I just want to say, I don't mind having no sound during a specific scene. For example, one of the most memorable moments in Pokemon was when you face Red at the top of Mt. Silver. When you talk to him, everything goes quiet, and it's super intense. Then the soundtrack blares as the battle begins. It's truly incredible. In this game, however, the moment between Rose and Leon feels awkward and lackluster.

Can’t believe sword and shield was the same price as BOtW or fire emblem

Great review of Sw/Sh, you pretty much summed up everything I thought about gen 8 and very well. Edit: You really used my cringe shiny accelgor shitpost video LOL I hate it here.

According to Serebii, Eternatus has a Catch Rate of 255, the same as a rattata or a zubat. So why Leon didn't just fuckin beat the game for you considering he's been the one playing it, is surprising.

Giving the story an "ok" rating for the gym challenge is so generous. The gyms are set up early as having little mini challenges to qualify for the actual fight. The fairy, dark, and dragon gyms you literally just walk in and do them... It was so disappointing doing gym 7, then Leon saves the world off screen and you walk into gym 8 and it's just a room with 3 people in it... Ugh.

"It seems like gamefreak just arbitrarily decide what they what to bring back or what to exclude depending on what they feel any given day" *"PREACH IT PREACH IT"*

Gamefreak: "Megas are over powered so were removing them" Also gakefreak: *adds dynamaxing*

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a cash-grabbing company.

The Playstation 1 called they want there trees back

im sorry but sordward and shielbert are the worst names ive ever heard

By the way did you know Leon has a Charizard and he's the unbeatable champion? He's also not very good with directions.

Better idea for SwSh plot: So, the main idea is the same plot of rose setting up fake matches for Leon to win. However, Leon has no idea that these matches are faked and really thinks that he is the best trainer in the league. Rose is also secretly the leader of Team Yell, he intentionally uses them as blockades for stronger trainers in order to make the weaker trainers progress, he lets Piers be their “leader” which is why they help Marnie. The twist comes out when you and Marnie are at Spikemuth after you defeat the gym and you try to leave but, because you are a strong trainer, Rose orders Team Yell to lock you in. Neither you, Piers, or Marnie know what’s going on and they won’t listen to Piers. Then you have to explore more of Spikemuth making the city more than a giant hallway. You have to leave through an exit where there is no gate battling a bunch of Team Yell grunts on the way. Jumping to the champion battle, you are about to battle Leon but, knowing he’ll probably lose, Rose releases several dynamax Pokémon onto the field which postpones the championship match. This leaves Rose to figure out what to do tomorrow, and then he remembers Sonias study of the darkest day. He decides that, whatever it is, it’ll probably postpone at least one day and, that night, there is a power outage right before you go to dinner with Leon, and he isn’t showing up. He sends hop a text saying he’s at Rose tower and the same raid on Rose tower happens. After this however and when the cutscene at the end happens, he’s not talking about the demise of false in 1000 years, he’s talking about how it’s not worth Leon’s time and that Leon isn’t a real champion. The next morning, another huge power outage happens and you fight through the Pokémon league as usual until the end when Leon doesn’t show up. Until dark clouds form over Hammerlocke and Rose appears on the screen saying that he accidentally released eternity’s through the darkest day, not knowing the power he was dealing with. You go to slumbering Weald and get the sword or shield, go to hammerlocke, fight Rose, and go up to fight eternatus but, instead of seeing Leon catching eternatus, you see him on the ground knocked out. You fight eternatus alone while hop tends to his brothers injuries, eternatus eternamaxes and you both use the shield and sword. The legendary you chose joins your team for a short time to defeat eternamax eternatus and the other one helps Leon. You then fight eternatus alone with your legendary on your team. And then after this, Rose is arrested and the plot continues as normal. There are probably more ways to fix the plot but that’s what I had

18:48 "For the very first time, your rival actually captures the box legend and then fights you with it." N Harmonia: "Am I a joke to you?"

Can you imagine being on the Pokemon teams music department? Every other aspect of these games gets slammed with criticism and hate but everyone knows that the music is absolutely amazing.

It’s really sad that PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure actually had better battle animations than Sword and Shield...

Gen 1: Is gen 1 Gen 2: Can go back to gen 1 Gen 3: had gen 1 remakes Gen 4: remakes of Gen 2 where you can go to Gen 1 Gen 5: no Gen 1 Gen 6: bunch of Gen 1 mega evos Gen 7: Bunch of Gen 1 forms Gen 8: literally wants to be Gen 1 part two Can Gamefreak take a hint that were tired of Gen 1? Gen 5 was our only break

XY at least had the excuse of being first. SM dont have an excuse, but they're saints compared to the waste of potential SwSh are. I honestly do not understand the apologists this time. There is no excuse for a game to look this bad on a console that manages to run Witcher 3 and DOOM.

I wish instead of 1000 years rose had said 20, and that it was dynamax energy that was running out. Then he could say eternatus would renew that energy. But yeah, the darkest day made no sense as a way to advert an energy crisis.

"Oh don't worry X and Y was just them testing the waters for the 3DS hardware" "Oh don't worry Sun and Moon was them testing how well they could make cut scenes" "Oh don't worry Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon was them testing some new mechanics" "Oh don't worry Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee was them testing the Switch hardware for a real Pokemon game" "Oh don't worry Sword and Shield was just them testing the Switch hardware" "Oh don't worry Sword and Shield DLC's are just them testing how well they can make DLC" These are all excuses someone I know has made ever since X and Y was released, the game that was so unoptimized it suffered from frame drops, because they wanted to "Future Proof" the Pokemon models for future games, the same models that seem to have disappeared when Sword and Shield was in development, only for remarkably similar ones to appear come launch, like how funny is it that they even modeled the joints in Gyarados's whiskers the exact same way they looked on the 3DS? EDIT: Felt I should give y'all an update, today (One day after Paid DLC #1 came out) they started talking about how great the GTS system is, even though it's literally the same thing that was free every other game. "It's only 12 bucks a year!" Yeah it was 0 bucks a year for past games.

I've gotta admit, loving how you're using mods in the footage Nearly lost it when I saw Goku pop out 🤣

I thought Marnie wanted to bring more publicity and tourists to her hometown of Spikemuth because they don't have a Power Spot to Dynamax like the other Gyms do. And what better way to get tourism moving and breathe fresh air into her hometown, as well as give back to her supportive big brother, Piers, and the rest of her supporters than become famous? And how much more famous can you get than being The Champion of Galar? Not saying she's particularly interesting, and mostly gets by as a fan favorite character by her design and cute goth personality (what little there might be), but I wouldn't say she isn't motivated by anything. Otherwise, yeah, she's still the weakest of the three rivals, unfortunately.

They need to take a couple of years to actually invest time and develop a innovative game. The yearly schedule is hampering the series now.

Wait, what the hell? This video has more content than the actual game.

While Leon plays the game for you: ....why did I laugh so much 😂

The other day I saw Joe Merrick say on twitter these are his favorite Pokemon games. And I just had to wonder... *why*

“While Leon continues to play the game...” 😂 Gen 8 summed up in a nutshell

I will never forget the feeling of running to a route outside of Hammerlocke where some story thing was going on, and then having the characters literally tell me that I didn’t need to see it, or I missed it. It was like getting punched in the face by a video game.

To quote Rtgame, "This was worse than minecraft story mode."

Undertale: 10 dollars Sword and Shield: 120 dollars for both games total

Remember when everyone overbashed gen5 for no valid reason? Little did people knew it was the last time a Pokemon game would be great. We had it good back then..

I hated what they did to Bede. Developing him off-screen and showing a completely new personality felt uncalled for. I wonder if cutting him out of the story would give Rose the chance for more time to develop his character and motivation because Rose really needs more depth. Regarding Leon, it always made me sad when he ran off to investigate things and left the player to do the gym challenge. So I wholeheartedly agree on the statement that he is the main character, because I sure didn’t feel like it.

"this random creature we know nothing about caused our region to lose power for no reason, these 2 random dogs exist for no reason and stopped this random thing. this guy is trying to bring back a thing that made us lose power because he wants the region to have power again. the random dogs came out of nowhere and now they are super saiyan form and now the random pokemon turned into a hand. oh and by the way this pokemon thing that made us lose power can make other pokemon turn big, but also sometimes there are changes to appearance, but also this meteor wishing thing controls the power, but also eternatus generates the power but it also makes us lose power."

The Battle Timer was a welcome addition with a TERRIBLE implementation. Being trapped in a game forever because some player played an near unbreakable stall team was unfun. But the timer is so amateurish it hurts..

Ppl legit saying 'dEvELoPinG gAMes iS hARd' as a defence. It's literally their job. They get paid big bucks to do it. The game itself is a first party title and costs 60$. The quality is that of a nintendo DS game. How unfair is it when so many other developers do amazing jobs with half of the support/financial backing/fame? People who defend companies and brands are literal children or belong in 2012 with that level of naivety. Edit: DS ones are great games and they didn't deserve being compared to SwSh. What I meant was that they didn't evolve in any way since the time of the DS.

*Update! The story is actually "bad" instead of "ok". I attributed too much credit that was a result of my self made restrictions that artificially boosted the only good aspect of the story. Other than that I feel the ratings were accurate What would you rate each section?

I forgot how gorgeous Pokémon B&W looked! Definitely my favorite pkmn game.

It is to be noted that not only does Hop take the Pokemon which type is weaker than yours, but also the fact that the first battle in the game can't be lost. Hop will just spam status move once you reach a certain HP, there is absolutely no way to lose this fight.

I see a lot of people saying that this game look like a PS2 or a 10 year old game, but in the PS2 we had Shadow of the Colossus, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy X and King Hearts 1 and 2. And 10 years ago (from the release of SwSh) we had Bayonetta 1, Batman Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age Origins, Call of Duty MW 2 and Left for Dead 2. This game isn't a game that looks old, this game is a bad game

18:48 "For the very first time your rival actually catches a box legend and then fights you with it" *sad N noises*

Rose: We're gonna run out of energy! Me: ...There is literally an Electric type. Just get a whole lot of Pikachu or something instead of bringing about the apocolypse

“While Leon is busy playing the game for you,” omfg. I would have LOVED going on adventures with Leon, possibly having him follow me to investigate whatever he investigates when he disappears off screen. It would have been awesome.

My biggest problem with the game was the fact that the player isn't even an active participant in the main story. All the stuff involving the plot happens off screen until the final battles. Then there is the "Rival". I didn't like him. He didn't feel like an actual rival since he was consistently beaten by both the player and the other trainers but still somehow managed to defeat the gym leaders. Bede felt like more of a rival and even had a character arc while our actual one didn't.

I don't like how they misrepresent the UK I mean where is the knife crime

Remember when catching a Legendary felt like you were rebelling against the game? Is that just me? I felt like such a smart little kid when I tried to catch palkia instead of just beating it like I was told to do. Now every legendary has to be caught it seems.

3:32 that has to be a joke.... even if they wanna say there wont be voice acting... they could atleast let a song play for that scene, like cmon man

>I was wondering "that Marnie looks like cropped porn" >checked description for artist >no artist listed definitely porn

As much as I love Toxtricity, he can't save the game

Botw With Dlc content: A 50 hours story with a pretty good story, 20 voices scenes to find thought one of the biggest map Nintendo ever main, 5 full dungeons with 5 epic bosses, 136 shrines, 900 Koroks to find all over the map, an entire photograph campaign, lots of mini bosses, 90 side quests and a lot of costumes. And to top it of, 1 full 45 shrines challenge which is really hard and a full campaign based on the 4 main dungeons. Pokemon Sw/Sh with dlc content: A 15 hours journey on a fairly dissapointing map with the wild area which is pretty bland, half the pokedex cut, and mediocre story, really bad animations for a switch game. A really short dlc story that only had things that should have been in the main game, 100 returning Pokémon that should already be there, a better wild area, but clearly not even close to the beautiful MASSIVE map of Botw. A 151 diggets campaign which are basicaly Koroks without the puzzles and well hidden. And to top it of, a 3 mill+ watts project which is bad and only exist to make the game longer. And that, is for the same price

HOW TO FIX POKÉMON - Have new starters Ghost/Ice/Fighting (anything other then fire water and grass) - update the rival. Give them an actual story. Make then your cringe bubbly friend. Every victory you get over them they become more and more jealous. Until the end of the gym challenge they absolutely hate you. Make it more realistic. Friendships fail sometimes. - take out exp all. Makes the game a lot harder. - instead of having post game, have it be Arcs. Like an anime. First arc can be classic pokemon. Second arc is maybe being the champion and saving the land from some danger. Third arc is maybe a tournament. Be creative. - Pokémon level cap goes up to 150. To make up for the bigger arcs. We don’t need Pokémon being an open world land. That won’t save it. What we need is good writing

I honestly wouldn't mind if Pokemon never went 3D.

When gen 5 came around you could clearly the amount of care and effort Gamefreak put into it. Yet it didn't sell well at all. Years later and now that they have stopped giving a damn about the games and only do the bare minimum+kanto pandering, they are selling like hot cakes. WHY would they try to improve the games and add depth to it??? They have no reason to. The recent games especially SwSh have shown them that all they need to do is the bare minimum and some pandering to make sure that sales are great. They have zero incentive to improve 😒😔😔

I actually really liked Marnie as a character. From her looks, I was expecting a gruff and arrogant Character, but instead we got a mild mannered and polite girl, and I love the contrast with her looks.

Imagine if the apologists say "so Waht if it's slow?" Even though they once said "I don't want a 10 second long animation is too long!"

Pokemon should be accesible for everyone. In other words: lets make they stupidly easy take out any bit of history and themes so no one has to think about anything on the game and just mash A until you see the credits

one thing i can't stand that nobody mentions is how everyone is always smiling and acting way too happy. it feels super fake when i defeat a trainer and they're still beaming like they were before the match. the npcs should express more than one emotion... also i really hate how characters such as hop keep repeating their body language and gestures until you click to the next line of dialogue. the characters feel really robotic and bad. i was surprised you gave them an 'ok' rating. also couldn't agree more on the scaling issues. dynamax is awful, and seeing a 5 foot long wailord crushed my soul and was anyone bothered by that message after beating the game, "the galar region is yours to explore"? there's nothing to explore, stop acting like the game is rich with content and things to do. it isn't also eternatus looks terrible.. like an unfinished 3d model they forgot to add skin to

Know what would be cool? If GF made the gym stadiums actually resemble the Leader's prefered Pokemon type, like how all the Water type gyms in the anime actually make their pokemon battle in water for Water types and floats or just on the pool edge for those that couldn't swim. Because fish can't fight on land, GameFreak.

Agreed, except on Sordward and Shielbert being bad designs. I laughed my ass off when I first saw them, which was clearly the intent.

The story definitely needed a revamp. How about instead of the mystery energy crisis happening in a thousand years, it happens in a week or two? Chairman Rose notices that power is being drawn into the egg and is talking about it to Oleana. The way they help postpone the energy crisis is by feeding wishing stars to the egg, which Eternatus is basically stealing the power to grow stronger. The player first learns about this by seeing Rose talking with Bede, praising his training progress and the amount of wishing stars he's collected. Bede thanks him and boasts more. Boom, immediate signs of a connection while showing character. During the journey, there are signs of the power going out and trainers mentioning Pokemon acting strange. Heck, this could be shown to the player by there being more aura Pokemon that actively chase you down. Even the more docile species go after you. Although have repel keep them away to avoid annoying the player. When the player and Hop meet up in Hammerlocke, there are multiple explosions. Leon and Sonia run off to take care of the Powerplant, but the player and Hop go take care of a rampaging Pokemon. More people comment how Pokemon are acting strange. Then when Bede destroys the mural, he vaguely says he truly knows what is going on and wants to help, but Rose says that he went too far. This causes Bede to be dropped from the championship due to destroying the mural. The player collects more badges and places actually start going dark. They can still get around, but it is a sign that something is wrong. Then Pokemon start randoming dynamaxing from Eternatus releasing the strange energy. The first time it happens, the player, Leon and Hop end up taking it down via raid battle style. This prompts Leon to do more digging along with Sonia. When the player gets to Wyndon, it is completely dark with only lanterns providing light. Maybe some Pokemon are wearing lights to help guide the way and people are still gathering to watch the battles? Then when it is time for the player to come across Rose and Leon talking, there is a lot more urgency. He talks about how he needs help. How the powerplant isn't producing so little energy, that it is difficult to get anything done, and how they are on the verge of a crisis. He needs Leon's help to destroy something aka the egg. Leon tries to downplay it and to just wait a few hours. Once the championship battle is over, then he'll help. Rose is highly reluctant but relents. During the battle, there is the explosion and Rose confesses that he tried to destroy the egg himself. He talks about how the darkness is actually the Darkest Day and he tried to prevent it. How it was worse than he thought. Then everyone rushes off to take care of Eternatus. The player and Hop run into Sonia, who mentions the whole history of this happening before and how the legendary dogs stopped this. They go to the forest to try to summon the dogs and see flashes head towards Eternatus. Then they all battle. This could probably be polished more, but that's what came to my mind.

Honestly man this was a really great video, I have to admit it's made me really reassess how kind I was to Sword & Shield in my initial video about it back in November because of how many things you brought up that I neglected to mention that just kinda had me going "yeah, he's right..." Stuff like not getting previews of your clothing items when it'd been done fine in X/Y 5 years earlier, Game Freak's weird obsession with that one camera angle and especially the completely nonsensical nature of the story. Sad as the state of the franchise may seem atm, you did a great job with this - I'll honestly probably go and make a pinned comment on my own video addressing how my opinions on a few things have changed, LOL

With a sacred monument destroyed, a powerful Pokemon in the possession of an 11 year old, and one family monetarily ruined, You walk into the sunset a hero!

The biggest gripe I have with these new games is the forced story. I play Pokémon to TRAIN, battle and BOND with my Pokémon, and yet, this game, the others too, completely MISS the aspect of why we enjoy the damn game from jump. It wasn’t because of the cutscenes or meeting new npcs, making friends in the game and etc, but that’s exactly what it feels like they maximized on. Why is everyone so damn friendly?? It doesn’t help make the game more difficult or challenging. I wouldn’t even care if they were super nice, yet had badass Pokémon like Wally or something. But no, your rivals are nice AND weak. It makes me do an audible groan every time I get interrupted for some bullshit

One thing that I don’t think any reviewer has mentioned about this game, is the lack of hall of fame. You can hear the theme being present throughout the game, but it never uses it for its original purpose. Why?

"Rose has to be th worst introduction as a villain." Lysandre: Finally... The fans: You still SUCK!!! Lysandre: This isnt about me

¨Not only is Rose extremely impatient he is also incompetent¨. Guys I have a theory, Rose is gamefreak with sword and shield.

I have to say, Avery's battle animations (Shield DLC 1) are amazing. I love his sick flowing hair, and the Dynamax animation. The way the ball floats above his finger, and he makes it float back is so cool. All other animations suck ass, but Avery's are cool.

Personally the thing that killed it for me was when they said the dex cut was to balance the game but the dlc will have fucking landorus return

I've said this before in other related SwSh videos, but I think there's something to really be addressed with "Accessibility" and the idea of making something too hard will drive away a younger audience: The worst thing you can do to a kid is treat them like one. Take into account the following: Kids get woken up by their parents, dressed by them, told what they're eating for breakfast, and get told to go to school 5 days out of the week. There, they're marched around in lines, told what to do, when they're going to do it, what they can't do or can't learn, how to play on the playground, how to act, how to dress, and how to learn. All this his accompanied by an alarm that dictates the time to switch on and off each and every regimented subject. Then, look at the ways that kids in the modern era (And Hell, even my era) "go to work", and then tell me: Why the fuck do they want to spend their free time being told what to do, and how they're going to do it? Why do you think games like Fortnite and CoD Warzone are so popular? Neither of those games tell you how you're going to do stuff. They tell you what you need to do, and let you put two and two together to surprise you with the results. Kids aren't idiots. We all figured out an "inaccessible" Pokemon when we all were kids, and even with his convoluted EV and IV mechanics that it never explains at all, we got through the games just fine and grew to love them. Why does Gamefreak think it needs to fix something that isn't broken?

Damn this was a great review; I look forward to more :3

Fricking Yo Kai Watch had voice acting. Since the beginning. Game freak. Wtf.

Legend of Zelda: Overhauled gameplay, genuine effort Super Mario Odyssey: Overhauled gameplay, genuine effort Pokémon: Stagnant gameplay, half assed. Somehow worse gameplay on better hardware. There are no excuses.

the fact that the lego games got voice acting before pokemon did

A lot of recent games make me wish I could throw the match or even straight up lose without the plot freezing. It happens to Ash, and it’s a decent lesson that life goes on and people’s/characters opinions go on despite a loss. I want Hau to have as much fun as me, and I want Hop to feel as capable as he clearly is. I didn’t want to beat Bede in the finals. Even in bw, I didn’t like beating Bianca. I barely remember but I don’t think I liked beating Shauna either.

I know the graphics aren't perfect, but the music, the interacting with your pokemon and building a real bond with them, the free roaming areas, overworld pokemon, the beautiful battle system and animations, the lack of voice acting still is disappointing but I guess I should expect that by now.. hoping gamefreak adds it for the next one.. but not holding onto that hope.. and the wonderful amount of shinies.. Anyways, that's why Legends Arceus is my favorite pokemon game so far.

I remember someone saying. And I quote "I'm pretty sure they made Sword and Shield purposely disappointing so they can blow everyone away with the next games."

"No voice acting" Meanwhile, Fire Emblem 3 Houses has characters fully voiced, and came out the same year on the same system. So what's Pokemon's excuse?

Great story. Spectacular music. Fantastic characters. Beautiful animations. Amazing DLC. This is why Splatoon 2 is a good game.

I often see people paint you as the guy who got popular by ripping on SwSh, but your passion for the franchise is on full display when you give such spot on constructive criticism as shown in this video. As of late, Pokemon seems to have been trying to shed the RPG genre as much as possible. Lack of exploration, emphasis on cutscenes, dumbed-down mechanics, generational gimmicks, forced EXP Share, etc. It seems like you picked up on this too, as you brought it up as part of your critique, and I think that despite regressing in some areas that were previously series staples (like a full NatDex), they could've really put out something special had they really fleshed out their characters and been less apprehensive about fully adapting to a more character-driven story like they seem to have been trying to do for the past few gens at least. I guess to me, the biggest problem with SwSh is that we were told that the dex cut was so that other facets of the game could shine. And while there may be very strong reasons as to why that statement may not be completely logical (pre-existing future-proofed models, etc.), it was still an avenue that I was willing to explore. Even if the previous games didn't have the best graphics or most intricate plot, they at least had a plethora of monsters to catch and collect that gave variance to their battle system. Not only did they cull the cast of SwSh, but they merely planted the seeds of good story/characters, but never went anywhere with them; - Hop's sense of inadequacy living in the shadow of his brother's greatness, and their relationship. - Sonia's trendy, youthful exterior beguiling her dashed dreams and hopelessness, wanting to leave a legacy but not knowing what she wants to do in life, and finding her calling. - Leon's burden of celebrity and expectation, the possible scruples behind sponsorship and endorsement, and not giving concessions to anyone in order to be the best, even friends. - Bede's past of growing up as an orphan under the wing of Rose and the arrogance that came with it, having no agency and being forced to pursue his scheme, only to be tossed aside. - Marnie's motivation for attempting the Gym Challenge, her hometown, the story behind Team Yell, and her brother Piers. - Rose's company, his thought process behind his entire scheme, Eternatus. - Plus all the gym leaders all having more substantive characters and context, the real mystery behind Dynamax, the legend of Zacian and Zamazenta, the possible link to Kalos and their history.. All of the things I just mentioned are hinted at or referred to at some stage in the game, but are never elaborated on. It's a waste because, to me at least, they're all really interesting ideas that I'd love to explore, but all we are forced to settle for are tiny crumbs of backstory that don't do anything to satiate those who are at all invested in their game . I'm honestly a fan of the idea that the franchise branches off and becomes separate titles that serve different genres. A Colosseum-esque series that becomes the flagship for proper animations and competitive battling/online modes (made by someone other than GF), and a more story-centred RPG-lite (sort of like Japanese visual novels) to offer more worldbuilding and character progression with less focus on battling and online functionality. They've tried to reinvent the wheel with the Island Challenge and the stadium competition, GameFreak simply cannot meet fan expectations while delivering the quality of year-on-year improvement. It's time to shake up the formula.

I don't think that one hour is enough to explain all the issues... This really game really set the bar low.

The storyline of the game is waaaaay too incredibly shitty to deserve an ok in my opinion. It is flat out terrible. Painful and disrespectful to the fans. The game as a whole was a huge deception.

You know, and I just noticed this, I was actually glad Leon left me to do the gym challenge constantly because I constantly felt in a hurry to get the game over with. Thank God nothing extra. Get me through this story because it is as dry as the sahara desert.

I normally don't watch videos this long, but this was worth it.

Pokémon Sword isn’t great. Here’s how I would have created it: MAIN STORY: You start in southern Galar in the town of Postwick. You are told to head to the Pokémon Lab to meet Professor Magnolia and receive your starter. You are given your starter by Sonia instead. She doesn’t really like being the unofficial professor. She likes battling, but she’s told constantly that she is bad at it. Hop wants to be like Leon, he admires him greatly. He challenges you to a battle. He congratulates you after you win, and you catch a train to Wyndon. (Wyndon is now in southern Galar, due to it now being much more like London) It’s the largest city in the game and home to the Pokémon Leauge’s HQ. Here you meet Rose. Who promptly invites you to lunch at one of the city’s many restaurants. (There are three restaurants and a luxury hotel in Wyndon that you can use.) He encourages you to join the gym challenge. You accept his invitation. You receive an endorsement from him. He tells you that you need eight badges to qualify for the Champion Cup. There are twelve gyms in galar. (You can do all twelve, but the final four will be HARD) Rose tells you can do the gyms in any order. Rose then gives you your Rotom phone with the Pokédex and map already I instaled on it. He then wishes you good luck on your gym challenge and leaves. You meet Hop who has been endorsed by Leon. You are now free to explore Wyndon and the towns surrounding it. (Some gyms are based on types while others, based on mechanics, this is to spice things up) You will meet Marnie and Bede. Bede will state that he has been endorsed by the Chairman and hints that he is his adopted son. You also say that you are endorsed by Rose. Desperate to prove that he is a better trainer than you, he battles you. (He was sheltered all his life and arrogantly believes that he is better than his fellow challengers) Bede shrugs off his loss and calls it bad luck. He refuses to admit that he lost. You meet Marnie who challenges you to a battle to train her Pokémon. She is shocked that she lost. She wonders why she lost. Marnie than continues train her team alone. You return to Wyndon where Hop Challenges you to your second battle. He wonders if he is strong enough to continue with his adventure you reassure him that he is and you head north. (There are towns that have little to no importance in the main story. However seaside allow you to travel between seaside towns via boat. This is important in the post game) Your train is delayed in a town with a gym. It’s run down and has seen better days. Marnie tells you that this is her home town. She battles you before telling you that living here is not easy. You beat the gym leader. Before you can leave, Leon congratulates you and Hop on the progress you’ve made. You head north and eventually end up in the galar equivalent of Edinburgh. Rose calls you and tells you to meet him in the city. You meet him where he tells you that he is surprised that you passed every gym on your first try, and he tells you that you are the talk of Galar.( The game ignores it when you loose, even to Leon, so we might as well indulge in your “win” streak :D)Bede interrupts your conversation to tell him of his achievements. Rose is impressed l, but continues talking to you. Bede, annoyed storms out. Rose tells you that you are going to be a great trainer when you complete the gym challenge and that you should compete in the champion’s cup. Who knows? Maybe you’ll beat Leon? After you leave Bede challenges you to a battle. He is starting to wonder if he is not as good as he thinks he is. You beat another gym before Marnie starts to provide you with more details of her upbringing and why she’s a lone wolf. At the end she calls you her rival and that that’s the first time she’s called anyone that. She is starting to realize that going solo isn’t always the best move. You complete another two gyms when Bede tells you that he and you should battle to practice for the champion’s cup. You head to Wyndon ready for what awaits you. You spend the last few days before the championship with Hop and Sonia. He is nervous he wants to prove himself and become someone as strong as Leon. The day before the tournament, Sonia wants to tell you that she was once a Pokémon Trainer. She was skilled enough to battle Leon. She lost, badly. She tells you to be careful. You start the championship by battling Bede. (Complete with remix of his theme) After That you battle Marnie, and finally, Hop. This match is big. Hop wants to prove himself and you want to challenge Leon. Hop looses and takes extremely personally. You challenge Leon. He is confident that he will beat you. You win shocking both Leon and Rose. The post game now starts. You begin it with a normal day. Everything is great. Hop visits to congratulate you. You have done it! You are now champion! Except... (Behind the scenes Rose is confused. Why didn’t Leon crush you? It was set up so that the match of the century would still end with his prized champion victorious. Why? It was clockwork? He needs to something about it) POST GAME You enter a tournament. Something is not right. It’s almost as if it’s... rigged. (Hint)You win and ask Rose (You still trust him) He states that’s it’s just as it’s always been. You head home, you decide to talk to Sonia and ask about what really happened during the championship match. She states that all of her Pokémon went down one by one. She also remembers that Leon wasn’t really concentrating during the battle. People assumed that she was a weak Pokémon trainer and she was forced to retire. Even Magnolia thought she was weak. She however has gotten into being the professor. You are beginning to question the motives of Rose. You trust him. He endorsed you. You head to Wyndon again and meet... Looker! He was assigned to investigate the corruption is Galar’s Pokémon League. He decides to let you help with his investigation. You meet him in his current office. (This is the post game story: investigating the Pokémon Leauge) He wants you to participate in another tournament. He is trying to determine how if they are trying to rig the tournament against you. You participate in the tournament. Looker determines that there was something shady about the tournament. He decides to investigate further. You are his partner now. He is suspicious of the league. He wonders why the league might be rigging matches. Rose calls you. He wants to discuss possible sponsors. Looker says he will investigate further. After the meeting Looker says that he found a possible lead, a match between Sonia and Leon. The match was so ridiculously one-sided that it couldn’t have been due to a sheer difference in skill. Sonia was a good trainer up until the. ,but this match completely ruined her career. She could have been great. You and Looker eventually realize the scope of it. Rose chose Leon because he was loyal. He wanted Leon to stay as the champion forever. He wanted to try and force a “Match of the Century” by putting his adopted son into prestigious trainer schools. He never developed a good relationship with his adopted son and Bede was desperate for his attention. Bede was supposed to challenge Leon and loose, but then you came along. He knew you had talent and if he could get you to trust him than everything would go smoothly. His plan backfired and now he had a champion who would not function as his puppet. You confront Leon and Rose. Hop is with you as well as Sonia.. You fight one last battle with Rose. (This is the final battle of the post game so he’s going to be over leveled) Hop feels betrayed so he cuts all ties with Leon. He wanted to like the unbeatable Leon, but he was a fraud. You were also betrayed by Rose. You were just a pawn to him. Both Leon and Rose are arrested and the post game ends. BONUS CONTENT You are now able to catch a ferry to the galar equivalent to Northern Ireland. It features a city (Belfast) with the Battle Castle, Battle Buffet Style Restaurant,and a MASSIVE Wild Area outside. This will feature green rolling hills, marshes, a large lake, forests, mountains you can scale, a small dessert valley (maybe), and the ruins of castles, houses and other medieval structures, dynamic weather, and lots of raid dens and Pokémon. (STORY WORKS BEST IF PAIRED WITH VOICE ACTING AND HALF DECENT ANIMATIONS) Thank you for reading this entire thing! (If you did). Game Freak is inclined to sit back and rush out a Pokémon game every year for the holiday season. As a result, the games are not very fun to play. I would have loved it if the game was like this. However sword is a shallow bland experience from the highest grossing media franchise. There is no excuse for it’s lack of content or quality. Other franchises like Mario or The Legend Of Zelda take their time to leave their games in the oven most of time. Pokémon has always been the same experience which is fine if you are playing it for the first time, but you’ll eventually get tired of it. My thumbs hurt

I’m willing to bet money that this game could run on the Wii U unchanged

"Leon has been portrayed, up until this point, as perfect in every way." Um excuse me, you forgot that he's pants at directions

Even black and white 2 had a voice for the gym leader who was a guitarist. Sure it was simple but she was actually singing