SwSh How do you rate Sword/Shield (+DLC)?

[Boss1708]

How do you rate SwSh(+DLC) from 0 to 10, compared to previous main series games?

(The DLC counts as part of the full game)

 

[Phosphene]

I didn't purchase the DLCs and therefore didn't play them, so my rating only takes into account the base game (which I consider a full game since it was sold as one).

6/10
It wasn't terrible, but I will admit that I didn't find Sword to be the most engaging Pokémon game out there, and the thoughts of repeated playthroughs is almost draining. It certainly had its highs as well as great QoL improvements, which save it from being anything less than a 60%, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as other Pokémon games out there.

 

[Neo Blaze]

The core games: 5/10

They have several issues that have been talked about to death and several of them also bothered me. However, they are also in no way as awful as some people would like you to believe. There's still some cool things I really liked. They just fall flat to me in comparison to some of the other Pokémon games.

Then there's the two DLC, which definitely bumped it up to a 6.5/10 or a 7/10.

Although the Isle of Armor was a bit barebones storywise, I still really like the island and especially the introduction of Kubfu and Urshifu, which are now among my favorite Pokemon. I thought the Crown Tundra DLC was really great storywise, and also added a lot of good new content you should expect from a DLC. I especially really liked the Galarian Star Tournament.

 

[CynthiaLover]

7.5/10

Initially, I'd say more of a 6/10, but the DLC was a massive improvement (if overpriced). The base game is okay, nothing outstanding but better than games like XY and DP, who were terribly bareboned. The story isn't ground-breaking, especially after both BW and SM, who had incredible stories, but it's fair enough that it isn't a slog to go through, unlike the aforementioned XY and DP. I do wish that the other characters hadn't shuttled the PC away from the story/conflict so much until near the end, where everything went to hell in a handbasket, as I'd feel a bit more hands-on action for the PC would've fleshed them out more instead of railroading them to complete the Gym Challenge. Especially considering that past games didn't shy away from the PC being the main fighter in the conflicts. That said, at least the characters who were doing this like Sonia and Leon weren't putting the player down, as they felt that it would be bad for a pre-teen's safety to get involved in life-threatening events until it could no longer be contained, at least that's how I see it. We also got some pretty good characters and character development in ones like Piers, Sonia, and Hop, so it wasn't all bad.

Moving onto the DLC, while Isle of Armor was fairly barebones, the island's different environments felt like what the Wild Area should have been like. Plus, we're introduced to fun characters like Mustard and Honey, along with *sigh* yet another set of jerk rivals... that actually did something interesting with the archetype: Klara and Avery. As much as I hate the jerk rival archetype, GF actually made Klara and Avery rather entertaining and gave them some actual on-screen growth which continued onward into Crown Tundra. I mean, they actually tried to cheat in battle and sabotage you every step of the way, something that no other jerk rival has done, which is rather refreshing despite my intense dislike of the archetype. Moving on, Crown Tundra was a good way to further expand Galar's lore, introduced some interesting characters and events, and even added some closure to certain character arcs like Hop, Klara, and Avery. The story was pretty solid, too, and the Galarian Star Tournament was a much-needed addition to further expand the games.

Overall, while I won't say these are my favorite Pokemon games (BW still holds that crown), they are better than some past games, and are, to me, the best Pokemon Switch games at the time. The DLC was very much a welcome addition, as they bumped up the quality of the games by a sizable amount, although, as I said before, they were overpriced. While the DLC should've been in the base games from the get-go, at least it's better than a shallow rehash that are third versions of the past. I also feel that they were basically testing grounds for GF to see how they can improve future titles, especially for the more open world idea that Legends is building on. So, while not outstanding, as they have very noticeable flaws, they're not terrible, either, as at least they're entertaining enough to not feel like a chore to play. Overall, for GF's first real attempt at a "true" Pokemon Switch game, not bad all things considering. Could've really used some extra polish but I'll give them a passing grade for a good first attempt at bringing the series to the Switch.

 

[WyndonCalling]

I love Galar. In my view it's the most well-realised and multi-layered region to date, with each town and city harking to very real places while almost never feeling like a crap pastiche. The Dynamax phenomenon, though crude at face value, fits the cultural themes of Galar extremely well and it's great that the game explored the implications for the people and places who don't have access to it. The Gym Leaders are the most interesting bunch to date (Opal is my all-time favourite), with more thought given over to the structure of the League than ever before, resulting in both direct story impacts on Bede and reams of background intrigue tucked away in the League cards. Rose is perhaps a little underwritten but he's strange and earnest in such a way that blows the likes of Cyrus and Lysandre out of the water. Almost all of Galar's Pokémon designs are excellent, with enough good 'natural' species to offset the UK memes. The music's the best it's been in a decade, and you can taste the love and ambition on display in this scale model of the Wild Area.

So... these are all the reasons why it's so heartbreaking to see Piers open his trap and flap his jaws uselessly as nothing comes out. Why it's so disappointing that Leon literally off-screens the Dynamax Pokémon which are threatening the region, the fundamental looming threat hanging over the game's plot. Why it's so depressing that swathes of the Wild Area are bereft of detail (especially the water) and the pop-in is immersion-breakingly egregious. Why it was so galling that when Wyndon looks so great (*cough*), you can't actually set foot on the Hurricane or monorail. Why it was actually downright gobsmacking that important cutscenes were replaced with still images. The Pokémon Company waits for no man but Sword and Shield not only needed, but deserved another six months of work.

The DLC did a lot to resolve many of these polish issues. Areas such as the wetlands and the silver birch forests on the path to the summit handily demonstrate how much of an impact some relatively simple overworld detail can have - the individual assets don't have to be high-quality, they just need to occupy and break up the landscape such that when species inevitably pop in it doesn't look at though they're simply bursting from barren soil. Some of the Crown Tundra's cutscenes were beautiful and the overworld interaction with the legendary birds was innocuously ground-breaking for the franchise. The expansions weren't perfect - the Crown Tundra had awful issues with the overcrowding of large species such as Copperajah and Abomasnow, and one particularly dud cave - but they were of a quality that I would have expected of the base game.

In terms of a final score? It's complicated; I don't usually score such things but instead try to think about if or how I would recommend the product. In the final reckoning:

• If, in a hypothetical universe, the Expansion Pass was part of the base game at the price of a single instalment, it would be a very easy recommendation for everyone.
• With things as they currently stand in reality, the full bundle is a very easy recommendation for anyone with even tangential interest in the franchise, but the price point should give a little pause to anyone unfamiliar.
• The base game alone gets merely a recommendation for those interested in the series, with a firm "check out the reviews before deciding" for everyone outside of that camp.

 

[Esserise]

Why it was actually downright gobsmacking that important cutscenes were replaced with still images.

I assume you're talking about Leon and Rose's discussion at Rose Tower here? If so, then for what it's worth, my gut impression has always been that this was an artistic choice (and one I actually like, as I feel like it adds a little more pensiveness to the moment). At it's core, it's just them talking, so it's not even something that would strictly have to be a distinct pre-rendered cutscene; they could accomplish it within the engine pretty easily.

(Nor is it really something I'd consider especially important - whereas if the wolves rolling up to join you against Eternatus were instead just a sequence of PNGs, I'd be a lot more suspicious. Or indeed, the Dynamax battle that we know was supposed to take place on Route 7 being summed up with an image and a dialogue recap. In that case, we skip right over real action. At Rose Tower, we gloss over some mouth flaps and facial expressions. Thus the former sticks out to me as more conspicuous.)

 

[WyndonCalling]

I assume you're talking about Leon and Rose's discussion at Rose Tower here? If so, then for what it's worth, my gut impression has always been that this was an artistic choice (and one I actually like, as I feel like it adds a little more pensiveness to the moment). At it's core, it's just them talking, so it's not even something that would strictly have to be a distinct pre-rendered cutscene; they could accomplish it within the engine pretty easily.

This prompted me to go back and re-watch the scene, because for some reason I could've sworn that it was the scene of Rose disrupting the championship. I've slightly re-evaluated why I dislike it, and I think there were a couple of interconnected feelings at play:

1. I wasn't feeling especially charitable at this point in the playthrough, given underlying grumbles regarding Dexit, the Wild Area and the Dynamax That Honestly Really Happened Right Over There When You Weren't Looking. A sudden lack of animation raised my suspicions about what was going on behind the scenes.
2. The art isn't particularly astounding. There's a nice night-time glow from the city below, but that's really about it; the scene isn't stylised in any way, as per AZ's account of the Kalos war. It sounds trite, but they were just... pictures.
3. Finally, you're actually completely right - it's not an especially important or long scene, and could have easily been achieved within the engine, which is partly why it felt jarring. This isn't a flashback or a revelation of some kind, it is just two guys talking. The art style inserted itself into the story at a peculiar point, and then disappeared with little ceremony. It didn't look especially great, the scene wasn't especially impactful (in part due to Rose being so fundamentally strange that it was difficult to pick up a threatening vibe from him) and it was all just quite odd.

 

[Nicolas721]

Base game: Decent features, great innovations, likable characters and good Pokemon distribution. However, many parts of the gym feel dumbed down in comparison to previous games (specifically, lack of dungeons and lack of expansion on some plots). 7/10

Isle of Armor: An amazing map where everything feels interconnected and a simple but engaging story, with enough new Pokemon to find. It's not revolutionary but quite fun to revisit, even if its "features" are basically trading items for more items or trading items for various upgrades. 9/10

Crown Tundra: The story is decent, but has very low-stakes and some wasted potential, and the features are just 2 upgraded versions of features that already were on the base game. The map is amazing once again. It's good in general but doesn't reach the heights of Platinum/HGSS/B2W2's innovations. 6/10

Overall a good game that has something for everyone, and that feels somewhat close to the ultimate Pokemon game, which is both a good and a bad thing.

 

[Neyo]

5/10 I don’t know how I feel about, honestly. It’s just…poorly made, and should have been given another year of development, at least.

 

[Welkamo]

Base game alone: Berry Good (I don't do number ratings) (Also Strawberry Shortcake much). There were great ideas that could have been executed better if the developers were given even just a bit more time. I loved many of the characters, and the story, while lacking in some regards, was really cool in a sense that it touched on themes of expectation and fame.

Isle of Armor: Ooooooooh.... Playing it for the first time was one of the happiest moments in quarantine, and while it was short, it was also really big. Even just biking around the sea was fun. Also Avery and Klara were fun.

Crown Tundra: ...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Definitely better than Isle of Armor, in my opinion. There were so many places to explore, RARE BERRIES!, interesting story, great characters... very good.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Sword and Shield really knocked it out of the park with its human characters (SwSh EASILY has my favorite gym leaders, by far), new Pokemon designs, music, and setting (seriously, I can't get over how beautiful Galar is), but the story wasn't the greatest and I don't think the DLC is as great as people make it out to be either (though full disclosure, I haven't actually gotten around to completing the Crown Tundra yet because I haven't touched the game in months...whoops). As other people have mentioned, you can also tell that it wasn't quite ready to be released yet, which is a definite downside.

All in all, though, I'd probably give it an 8/10. I did really enjoy SwSh overall and it's definitely up there, but it still can't top gen V for me.

 

[SodiumChloride]

Alright, here we go

Base Game: 5/10, probably the worse mainline pokemon game outside of gen 1. The story was too short, felt poory put together, missing a bunch of features that were present in earlier games (like follwing pokemon, challange mode, battle frontier) despite costing around twice as much as those games did. Graphics are bad, animations are dull and lifeless, they're worse than stadiums (a nintendo 64 game). Lacking in any postgame content besides raids which got boring after a while. Dexcut should've mean that they would spend time to improve things like the battle animations, but that didn't happen here lol. Wild area was pretty much a giant flat field and wasn't fun to explore. Worse routes in the series (most of them were borderline hallways). Most of the towns and cities were disappointingly small with almost zero exploration options(especially for a console game). music is incredibly meh for a Pokémon game, with only a few good tracks (the rival themes, champion theme, and eternatus 3). It has the worst trainer battle theme in the series (which is the song you hear the most). The music in general was a huge downgrade from SM and XY. The characters were decent, better than sun and moons and they aren't in you face the whole game like they were in SM. Dynamax was fun in the gym battles but when playing competitive it was not fun at all. You basically need to dynamax to win a game. Game was a bit easy outside of the final champion battle, it really needed a challenge mode. Most of the new Pokémon designs were at least decent ( i love sirfetched), though a lot of them were a generic animal + element that im tired of seeing. Just an overall mediocre game that needed another year in the oven

With DLC: 6.5/10, the DLC adds the isle of armor and crown tundra areas, which have way more terrain diversity than the wild area and are actually fun to explore. Isle of armor is the best overworld area in the series to date. They added back the great feature following Pokémon (though it doesn't look as good as it did in lets go or HGSS, in those games the pokemon actually stayed behind you lol). It also adds restricted sparing and the dynamax advenures, which while they aren't nearly as good as the battle frontier , they're still better than nothing and add something to do once you beat the game. Galar Star Tournament was terrible because the levels didn't scale with you like they did in the pokemon world tournament in black and white 2, so you are basically just one shotting everything with your level 100 team.

Sorry if my post seems overly negative buts that's really how I feel about the games. I am very disappointed with gamefreaks first console pokemon game, and I hope they can improve by a huge amount in following generations.

 

[swiftgallade46]

8.5/10, I really loved Sword and Shield

 

[Boss1708]

I respect everyone's opinion, but honestly, I am tired of people saying "the game needed more development time", "the game was released too early", "it needed another year in the oven", etc.

The DLCs fixed most of the base game's problems anyway, meaning that GameFreak had everything clearly planned in advance. It was strategy, rather than lack of time.

Plus, I feel like this argument gets thrown around with every initial pair of a generation. I distinctly remember people here calling XY and SM "unfinished" and "released too early" as well.

And I think that's just a strategy to release an improved third game later (Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, USUM, etc). In the case of SwSh, the DLC plays the role of the third version.

 

[Boss1708]

The strategy wasn't too honorable though. GF is expected (the fans are very demanding to be fair) to put out the big good games. But if the DLC fixes it, the game should have been $40 and DLC $30 or something. Then again I do things that nintendo hates so who am I to care about honorable

Yeah I agree with you about the money problem. The games are way too expensive now, imo. 60 for the base game and 30 for the DLC means 90 euros.

But I honestly think Game Freak has no involvement in the pricing of the games. That would be Nintendo's decision. That's why I try to judge SwSh game wise, not price-wise.

 

[Norzan]

5/10 I don’t know how I feel about, honestly. It’s just…poorly made, and should have been given another year of development, at least.

This basically for me. What some people felt for XY at release is what i feel for Sword and Shield. It feels extremely rushed, obviously due to how they crank out a game each year, to the point it feels they had to cut a lot of corners for a deadline (i refuse to believe Gamefreak would have allowed so many of the graphics hiccups, odd cutscenes animations, and how barebones the Wild Areas are if this game wasn't rushed).

The DLC might have made the overall game worth more, but it didn't fixed any of the issues with the base game.

 

[Daren]

Around a 4 out of 10; the price point of this entry is way too high for what it offers compared to earlier entries, and as the first home console generation debut it just feels very underwhelming.

Some bullet points:

Pros:
*As mentioned, the QOL features were great and being able to finally fully fully retrain a story-line Pokémon for usage is good.
*Good characters.
*Galar is a wonderful region that has a very strong feeling of culture, and little touches like the various consistent corporation advertisements that make it feel a bit more real.
*Gym Battles manage a great spectacle.
*Calyrex's quest is the best Legendary capture I've seen in the series.

Cons:
*Removal of berry growing for whatever reason.
*Bad story and plot. Way too much of it occurs off-screen and it's pretty clear Hop is "supposed" to be the protagonist instead (Sun/Moon had the same issue).
*The Wild Area feels like how open world critics think all open world games are.
*Galar was itself a great region which only made it worse that it felt so devoid of content and more like a guided tour than an adventure (I had a similar feeling from Alola).
*I hated Max Raids, you need to grind way too many of them to unlock things, and Crown Tundra finding a way to make them worse resulted in the Tundra being being a massive disappointment after the overall strong Isle of Armor. Why do they force you to use rentals there?! The only tolerable part of normal max raids was being able to use Zacian to smash through them quickly and get them out of the way. When I'm looking for challenging post-game modes I mean one that tests my mastery of the game's systems, not one where you rely entirely on RNG Pokémon and then rely on idiot AIs as backup.
*Easy, easy, easy, even by Pokémon standards--instead of requiring minimal effort to break, it required comparable amounts of effort not to break. Even the post-game facility is very easy now.

Hm. I feel like I'm the only one that likes XY. Maybe because I grew up with the anime, as well as BW.

Despite some issues I quite enjoyed XY as well. Huge Pokédex and I like the Battle Chateau's little "nobility rank up" side feature.

 

[Neo Blaze]

I don't think it's wrong to expect more out of GameFreak. They make the games for one of the biggest and most profitable IPs in the world, so we should be able to expect quality. I say that as someone who is generally easy to please, but some aspects of SS really felt unfinished/unpolished and not worthy of an IP as big as Pokémon. Maybe you can get away with these things in a handheld game, but especially for a console game it's not wrong to expect a more polished game. It's nice that the DLC fixed a number of things, but that's not what DLC should be for in the first place (in my opinion).

All that said, Sword and Shield are by no means trainwrecks. Some of the most vocal critics out there act like these games were a total dumpster fire for the same aformentioned reasons, but they do have their strong points.

 

[Boss1708]

Maybe you can get away with these things in a handheld game, but especially for a console game it's not wrong to expect a more polished game. It's nice that the DLC fixed a number of things, but that's not what DLC should be for in the first place (in my opinion).

I guess that's my whole point: SwSh is not less polished than previous Pokemon games. It's just that some people have higher expectations now, because it is on a home console now (I respect that, though I personally disagree).

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

This basically for me. What some people felt for XY at release is what i feel for Sword and Shield. It feels extremely rushed, obviously due to how they crank out a game each year, to the point it feels they had to cut a lot of corners for a deadline (i refuse to believe Gamefreak would have allowed so many of the graphics hiccups, odd cutscenes animations, and how barebones the Wild Areas are if this game wasn't rushed).

The DLC might have made the overall game worth more, but it didn't fixed any of the issues with the base game.

I do not get how it is rushed. Term is used a lot.