A Top Gaming Experience ( Pokemon Shield Review )

Excuse my, more than likely, cringy attempt at using British slang.

Pokemon Sword and Shield have been out for several months now, and just recently had it's first batch of DLC announced. I figured now would probably be the best time to go back and give my thoughts on the newest generation of games. 

Before I dive into the game itself, let me briefly mention the controversy that preceded it. The biggest being the absence of the national dex. This was the first main series game where you could not catch every single pokemon. Game Freak has gone on record saying that this was an inevitability. It makes sense as well. I don't believe I could name a single game series that has this quantity of unique character models and animations. It would be like asking Final Fantasy to put all characters and monsters into a single game and expect the graphics to look how the Final Fantasy 7 remake looks. 

Now that the expansions have announced an additional 200 pokemon being added, I can see how some people view it as the developers being lazy or start questioning why this wasn't included from the start. If this content was to be added before release, we would've seen a delay of about 5 months - not ideal from a business stand point. 

I guess what I'm trying to get to is that I understand the developers stand point. I believe that Game Freak has put as much work into these games as they could and made it as well as they could. And I believe the product we got was an excellent one. 

Let's start with the story. It's somehow simultaneously great and a bit underwhelming. This game came so close to giving us the simple - trainer travels through this region, battles the gyms and enters the league while meeting a wide variety of characters. Anyone who has played Pokemon knows the story comprises of two parts. The League challenge and an evil team trying to do some world damaging act. The second half of this equation is where Sword and Shield fall short. 

Without spoiling the villain and the plot, I can say that it very much felt... underwhelming. I didn't care about the big bad or what he was planning or trying to accomplish. I had so much fun just progressing through the League that I would've loved to just experience that. It truly feels like the villain and the potentially world ending event were added just so that we could complete the formula. The amusing thing is... many adult characters even try to force you to focus only on your gym challenges. It was a nice change to see people recognizing that you are between the ages of 10 and 14, at best, and that this shouldn't be your responsibility. Do I think this hurts the game? Not terribly. It certainly takes a point off, since it feels more like a chore than an exciting adventure- but absolutely doesn't ruin the experience as a whole. 

Small juxtaposition. This. Is. The. Last. Time. For three times in a row I wrote out this review and thrice it was all tragically lost. If I lose this rendition of it - I'm just putting a score and calling it a day. Now, where was I?

So while the main plot line may be quite disappointing, the League Challenge is the best this series has ever often. What this game does differently, and what I've been wanting from the series for quite some time,  is make the League challenge into a national sport. Each gym is a huge stadium filled with high energy fans. This game does a great blend between the traditional gyms and the island challenge from Sun and Moon. You proceed through the gym completing puzzles with a few trainers mixed in between. But instead of the normal, boring block puzzles we get interesting and fun challenges. What immediately comes to mind is the third gym where you have to catch a certain amount of Pokemon in a given time frame. During your battle, the gym trainers will try to knock out either your pokemon or the wild monster. Terribly complex? No. Lots of fun? Absolutely. 

Let's talk about the League itself. Finally I got the one thing that I've been dying to have in a Pokemon game. Ever since I saw Ash face off against the Indigo League, I have wanted to experience a tournament in the Pokemon universe. And Sword and Shield delivered. Instead of facing off against the Elite Four and then the Champion, you are placed in a single elimination bracket against both your rivals and the previous gym leaders. Is it fundamentally different from the Elite Four? No. Mechanically there is no difference between the two, but the idea and feel of it is all I ever wanted. 

Now you probably saw that I mentioned rivals - which you have three in this game. Let's start with your friend rival, Hop. I've seen numerous people complaining about Hop, claiming that he's annoying and only serves as a tutorial character. I disagree. I loved Hop's energy. He was energetic and optimistic. I never felt that his dialogue was hand holding. He also goes through an interesting arch during the game. He changes up his team about halfway through the game - thinking that with different Pokemon he would have an easier time battling. Of course he learns that he needs to change how he's training his Pokemon, instead of who he's training. Is it a cliche we've seen before in the anime? Yes, absolutely. But it was still pleasant to see the character go through a struggle and overcome it. I found Hop so endearing, that I was actively rooting for him to be the Champion. I wanted Hop to be the one to break his big brother's winning streak. Hop is top. Fight me. 

Our second rival that we encountered is the fun to hate, arrogant brat - Bede. Bede is a challenger that is officially endorsed by the League chairman, Chairman Rose. Bede finds every chance to belittle you on your quest while being fiercely loyal to Chairman Rose. He is fun to hate and goes through an endearing arc of his own. A great rival. 

And lastly there is best girl Marnie. She is the defacto leader of Team Yell. A quiet goth, she... honestly doesn't have much impact on a lot of things. While her character is never annoying, she also doesn't go through a terribly satisfying arc. She does have some character development and a somewhat enticing story, but it's ultimately insignificant when compared to the other two rivals. But gosh is she adorable and deserve all your love. She is best girl, fight me. 

Let's dive a little more into Team Yell for a moment. They're... a bit disappointing. They are not an evil team, by any means. They are more so an obnoxious fan group for Marnie. While I commend Gamefreak for making the obnoxious fans the "evil team", I was ultimately disappointed in them. They are not nearly as stupid and endearing as Team Skull, which I feel was supposed to be the intent. They are also not terribly intimidating, only showing up during certain segments and never really posing a threat. One more minor complaint I have is the lack of character designs. Normally, evil teams have Admins who are at least designed differently from the Grunts. Disappointingly, we only get a male and female variant. I would've loved to see at least four different looking grunts.

Speaking of designs, I feel as though the customization was also lacking. Playing as a boy, there wasn't much in terms of hairstyles or clothing options. At least, nothing that was enticing. The girl options seemed much more expansive and interesting. Another complaint I have is that you are given the option to purchase gym uniforms but you never get the chance to wear it during your gym challenge. We only ever see this outfit during the overworld travel. I also didn't like any of the bike outfits. None of them looked terribly pleasing. It would've also been nice to have a few extra customization options while camping, but that's a minor complaint considering what the camping mechanic gave us. 

At any point in the game, you are able to pause the adventure and set up camp. While camping, you can play and interact with any of the pokemon in your party. Your party will also interact and play with one another. You have the option of... two toys. A ball and a feather duster... thing. While it's a nice experience to have, I did find myself wanting more. Besides playing with your party, you can also take part in a curry cooking minigame. Essentially the same as the puffin minigame from Diamond and Pearl, it's a fun change of pace to the main story. It's also incredibly fun gathering the ingredients and trying out different recipes. What's even better is that you can bring along friends to help make curry or to play with your pokemon. Friends will also bring along their lead party member to come hang out and interact. A fun way to break up the game, but it left me wanting more. 

One of the biggest selling points that was advertise is the wild area. The wild area is a large expansive terrain where wild pokemon roam free on the overworld and range from low to high levels. I loved how many varieties of pokemon that were placed in one location. It gave me that Pokemon adventure feeling that these games have been known for. I've seen complaints of how there is pop in and pop out on some of the wild pokemon, which is disappointing but certainly didn't take away my enjoyment of the wild area. One of the main reasons I love this new feature is that we finally got something we've been dying for. Finally, I can load up my game, hop into the wild area and play alongside my best friend in a nearly seamless way. Using local play, I was able to explore this world and take part in raids alongside my lady friend. It's incredible to experience for the first time. It may be a novelty that wears off after awhile, but it made my dream come true and I'll take the win every time. I love the wild area. 

Looking closer at some of the mechanics and new features to the game, we have the newest pokemon power up - dynamax / gigantimax. For one pokemon, once during a match- you are able to super charge your pokemon and turn them into a towering giant. For three turns you get a selection of super strong moves and some huge stat increases. I enjoy this new feature. While I can understand the criticism of having old mechanics perfected before making new ones, I certainly don't think this harms the game in any way. A nice feature and change that I certainly welcome. 

Another welcome addition is the raid battles. Similar to the raids in Pokemon Go, you team up with three other people - either human or AI - and fight against a huge  dynamax pokemon. Defeating the strong pokemon will give you a chance to catch the monster with near perfect stats, huge exp boosts, and some nice items. A criticism I've seen is that there are some server issues, where if someone is playing online and tries to join a lobby in progress, they can run into a connection error. Understandably frustrating, though I never personally experienced the error, as I always tag teamed raids with my lady love. Raids were a nice addition to the already incredible wild area. 

What more can I say about this game? At this time of writing, I do still need to complete the post game segment. Initially it didn't grab me, but I also started it after marathoning the last segment of the game. I could also go into the new pokemon designs but it's hard to be critical about something that very much opinionated. (More opinionated than any other aspect of a review?) I generally liked all the new monsters. I love Grooky and Sobble but was kinda disappointed in Scorbunny. 

Ultimately - I loved this game. I had a blast playing it and I'm super excited to play the DLC. I give Pokemon Sword a 7/10. While I like most aspects, the lack of a compelling plot, poor customization and the disappointment that Team Yell was prevents me from rating it any higher. 

What do you think of the newest addition to the Pokemon game? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to the blog so that you get email updates every time I post. Thanks for reading and as always good night and joy be with you all.