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I think Pokemon Sword/Shield has the worst story I have ever played through (SPOILERS)
- Thread starter Splader
- Start date
I think they were going for a Thanos thing, but it just didn't make any sense. Did they ever go into what calamity was coming in a thousand years that waking up Eternatus would prevent? Also why was it showing my memories in little picture bubbles during the battle?
Eternatus has ties to the power spots that produce energy. Rose wanted it to be an unlimited source of energy because he believes in the "why put off tomorrow what you can do today" mentality and wants to prevent the depletion of the region's power supply. Those images appear in the battle with it because that's where the power spots were going nuts due to Eternatus.
This is how I understood it at least.
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I genuinely thought I skipped over some dialogue or missed an optional cutscene or something by the time I got to the Pokemon League. I didn't understand why everyone was freakin' out about Lee having a conversation with the chairman. You get there and expect like the chairmen to have beaten Lee's Pokemon or something but no, they were literally just having a talk, all those battles and pushback from his assistant for what exactly??? They literally had to make an excuse as to why you were being stopped because they forgot to finish the story or something. And don't even get me started on Lee and Rose's conversation being still images. What the fuck was that??? I wish Gamefreak could have allowed this game to bake for another year because it clearly was rushed out.
I just picked up the Sword at the end. How much longer do I have?
Honestly, I'm so bored that I'm trying to find a reason to continue and its just a boring game. I assume there's no elite 4 or anything post-game wise? I feel like there's no challenge anymore and I have no desire to collect all the Pokemon
Honestly, I'm so bored that I'm trying to find a reason to continue and its just a boring game. I assume there's no elite 4 or anything post-game wise? I feel like there's no challenge anymore and I have no desire to collect all the Pokemon
Better wait a few weeks after it's released because Gamefreak is 100% going to not detail any features cut from the originals and reviews will be near useless again and not mention them either
I have played quite a few Pokemon games and I have always skipped the dialogues in those games after certain point.
Pokemon has always had bare bone and/or nonsensical plot and dialogues.
Why is this some kind of revelation to ERA that Pokemon has bad or no story?
Not every game needs big dramatic overarching plot story to be good :/
Pokemon has always had bare bone and/or nonsensical plot and dialogues.
Why is this some kind of revelation to ERA that Pokemon has bad or no story?
Not every game needs big dramatic overarching plot story to be good :/
There's a difference between previous games and this.
Because there is no story, you just go to town to town defeating the gyms. In multiple cities, you just go to the gym and leave. For example, in the Water town, there's a lighthouse. In previous games, you'd go to the lighthouse and fulfill a quest. Because this game just involves you going to the gym and defeating the leader, there's none of that.
Just feels very barren and no real point to anything. There are no "bad guys" through out the story really. There's no side plot in any of the towns that you must deal with before you fight a gym.
I don't know if that's necessarily an issue.
The lack of good story/writing has never bothered me, and I assume this is true for most Pokemon players too.
Pokemon's main draw is in collecting, breeding, training and battling.
Previous games has little story, but they're not exactly good either, so why not just remove those parts if they're not going to put more effort there?
Not sure why people want to bother with story in Pokemon, but I notice this board has always placed greater emphasis on story/narrative.
Because we have to play through ~20-30hrs of the single player to be able to access all the features needed for competitive play. You say people only care about "collecting, breeding, training and battling." which i'd disagree with. For a lot of people the actual single player was enjoyable even though the story was simple. Navigation the world was fun, there were cool locations and areas to play though, cool setpieces/events, etc. But now it feels like those things have largely been removed and replaced with poorly done, highly intrusive excuses for cutscenes that now actively hamper the little enjoyment there is exploring the world
No side quests remove content, you're arguing that people don't care about the story period but most people play through the story and stop, I think most people would care if they lost side story content. By side story I mean things that aren't just the gym challenge.
For you maybe.
For me, it was collecting and doing the story. There's no reason to collect if the story sucks.
Not everyone plays the same way you play. And this game is missing a ton.
Here are three separate scenes in Final Fantasy XV:
The main bad guy asks you to follow his convertible as he drives into the night. You slowly drive behind him for like three minutes.
The empire kills a hotel owner, Jared, that is in the game for maybe five seconds. Your entire team is emotionally wrecked. Later on, you suddenly decide to attack a random military base you just happen to pass by in revenge for Jared's death. Your friend's little sister waits in the car while you do so.
Your car gets stolen and you attack a completely separate yet eerily similar military base. After you beat the boss, you slowly walk to your car in the parking lot. Your girlfriend's brother confronts you. Your big friend defends your honor, only to get punched in the stomach. The scene ends. Moments later, the big guy who swore to defend you to the death, leaves the party for no reason. Everyone is cool with this.
Nothing in Pokémon Sword/Shield is as bad as anything I mentioned above.
The main bad guy asks you to follow his convertible as he drives into the night. You slowly drive behind him for like three minutes.
The empire kills a hotel owner, Jared, that is in the game for maybe five seconds. Your entire team is emotionally wrecked. Later on, you suddenly decide to attack a random military base you just happen to pass by in revenge for Jared's death. Your friend's little sister waits in the car while you do so.
Your car gets stolen and you attack a completely separate yet eerily similar military base. After you beat the boss, you slowly walk to your car in the parking lot. Your girlfriend's brother confronts you. Your big friend defends your honor, only to get punched in the stomach. The scene ends. Moments later, the big guy who swore to defend you to the death, leaves the party for no reason. Everyone is cool with this.
Nothing in Pokémon Sword/Shield is as bad as anything I mentioned above.
lol
I mean I love Pokémon SwSh but the main characters alone make FF XV have a much more enjoyable story than Sword Shield. This comparison is even unfair.
Nah, none of this has anything on storming Rose's tower. Although the last paragraph is awful, at least its only a few minutes of stupidity.
People are complaining because SwSh's story is bad even in the context of the series it's in.
No, Game Freak has placed a greater emphasis on story/narrative. And then they failed to deliver on the plot that they set up throughout the game.
Okay now that I'm at the endgame...yeah it's worse than I thought.
There's NO reason anyone should mistrust Chairman Rose from the POV of the main characters, and Leon is just having a meeting with him...
But then all of a sudden Hop and Piers just decide to fuck things up? And then Oleanna just pops up and gives us a reason to be suspicious by being pointlessly antagonistic.
There's NO reason anyone should mistrust Chairman Rose from the POV of the main characters, and Leon is just having a meeting with him...
But then all of a sudden Hop and Piers just decide to fuck things up? And then Oleanna just pops up and gives us a reason to be suspicious by being pointlessly antagonistic.
I just got past that part and yeah, it's so bad. I was legit laughing at how you get the key for the monorail. There were some pretty clear cracks in the game before this but wow it all falls apart in spectacular fashion by the end.
I actually like them playing the song over each fight...
I hate when you storm the base in past games and the music keeps quitting out with the victory jingle only to toss you into another fight.
If storming the tower had any meaning plotwise I'd think it was a cool scene.
I hate when you storm the base in past games and the music keeps quitting out with the victory jingle only to toss you into another fight.
If storming the tower had any meaning plotwise I'd think it was a cool scene.
imagine how cool it would have been if it was this gen's Silph Co.
but nah, we just get an elevator
Now that I think about it, holy shit the ending sequence felt rushed.
-No cutscene for Leon and Rose talking
-No cutscene for Eternatus breaking out of his egg
-The story completely forgets about Sonia after we see her in the forest
-The dude we are supposed to find with the key doesn't even have his own model, he's just a boring minion
-Leon tries to catch Eternatus with a fucking pokeball
-Nobody really seems panicked about Eternatus in cities
-No cutscene for Leon and Rose talking
-No cutscene for Eternatus breaking out of his egg
-The story completely forgets about Sonia after we see her in the forest
-The dude we are supposed to find with the key doesn't even have his own model, he's just a boring minion
-Leon tries to catch Eternatus with a fucking pokeball
-Nobody really seems panicked about Eternatus in cities
All they had to do was have Rose actually kidnap Leon. That's it. It adds stakes. It adds urgency.
Let's say that Eternatus needs to be tamed by a legendary hero, and Rose believes Leon is that hero. They had to kidnap Leon the night before the finals because there's a real chance the MC could defeat Leon, hence making him unworthy in the eyes of Eternatus and ruining their plan. That means that the main character's actions have a direct effect on the plot, WOW! And it makes Leon being a Gary Stu actually matter in terms of the plot.
Add a Rose Tower dungeon with Rose as the boss at the end, and then go to Slumbering Weald to awaken the wolves, and then fight Eternatus.
Let's say that Eternatus needs to be tamed by a legendary hero, and Rose believes Leon is that hero. They had to kidnap Leon the night before the finals because there's a real chance the MC could defeat Leon, hence making him unworthy in the eyes of Eternatus and ruining their plan. That means that the main character's actions have a direct effect on the plot, WOW! And it makes Leon being a Gary Stu actually matter in terms of the plot.
Add a Rose Tower dungeon with Rose as the boss at the end, and then go to Slumbering Weald to awaken the wolves, and then fight Eternatus.
no. Oleana's henchmen have black sunglasses. the regular guys have yellow ones
I was wondering why the anime wasn't doing Sword/Shield and then while playing this I understood why.
They're literally in Galar next episode. Its only a matter of time before they cover the game stuff.
Yeah that was weird.
And then Rose decides to move forward with the plan because he couldn't wait two days on a 1000 year time limit
That's the solution in every game though
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Even S&M story was bad imo, Black and White is where the story was actually good enough.
I'm a pretty big Gen 5 fanatic, but I don't see how BW's story is better than Sun and Moon's. I always thought gen 7 had a lot more cool pieces attributing to the overall whole than gen 5 did.
I preferred B/W's story simply because of how it subverts the traditional ending of these games. Sun/Moon did some cool stuff and was better than X/Y, but N was a really interesting character and it was cool to play a game where entering the Hall of Fame actually is completely optional.
I liked a lot of things about it but I haven't beaten a Pokemon since probably either Silver or a replay of Yellow or Red in 2001. I've played a lot of them - some more than others. They're always slow and boring. This seemed brisk and I appreciate all of the ways they tried to immerse the player a bit, but the story was ultimately put together with shoestring and the final hours are bizarre - as if I'm missing something. Guy creates an apocalyptic scenario so the world won't run out of energy in 1000 years? What? Is this some half-baked message not to rush to fight climate change? Is it muddled by localization? That said, I liked Hop's, Bede's and Marnie's character struggles.
The Pokemon games I put the most time into before this and after 2001 were Ultra Moon and Pearl. Pearl was so boring I was put off until Ultra Moon. I wouldn't say they had better or worse stories, but I heard Moon's (not Ultra Moon's) story gets pretty good towards the end. Moon liked its cutscenes far more than Sw/Sh ever did. I did put some time into LGPE and it was a bit too easy to stick to and it was still ultimately a soft remake of Yellow. So, by Pokemon standards, Sword and Shield feel on par, more or less. By any other AAA game's standards, it's a joke.
That said, the post-game is making me laugh right now. It's good stuff. Sometimes the writing is a bit on the nose with the humor but it's good aside from that.
The Pokemon games I put the most time into before this and after 2001 were Ultra Moon and Pearl. Pearl was so boring I was put off until Ultra Moon. I wouldn't say they had better or worse stories, but I heard Moon's (not Ultra Moon's) story gets pretty good towards the end. Moon liked its cutscenes far more than Sw/Sh ever did. I did put some time into LGPE and it was a bit too easy to stick to and it was still ultimately a soft remake of Yellow. So, by Pokemon standards, Sword and Shield feel on par, more or less. By any other AAA game's standards, it's a joke.
That said, the post-game is making me laugh right now. It's good stuff. Sometimes the writing is a bit on the nose with the humor but it's good aside from that.
Lusamine was a pretty good villain. Her final battle when she fused with Nihilego was awesome. Difficulty wise I cheeses the shit out of her with a Salazzle with Nasty Plot hahaha.
If you can't tell the difference between the two in quality I don't know what to tell you except you're just wrong. Sword and Shield at least knows how to establish things before they're brought up again.
I'm not saying Sword and Shield is good, I'm saying it has good spots that puts it above XY. Which is literally all bad.
I would have loved to be able to tackle some of those events between the gym challenges. There was a lot of things that just sweeped by and the climax didn't put them together in a good way.
It's still not even the worst Pokémon story nor is it even close to the worst stories in video games altogether.
Luckily the game was otherwise pretty good, because playing Pokémon as a story driven RPG might be a bit of a mental gymnastics.
It's still not even the worst Pokémon story nor is it even close to the worst stories in video games altogether.
Luckily the game was otherwise pretty good, because playing Pokémon as a story driven RPG might be a bit of a mental gymnastics.
i agree that the endgame bosses were very rushed and felt like there was no tension or anything. you usually see the villains a few times across the older games to know them and have motivation to bring them down.
here the game is just 100% Gym challenge until you get the last one and they're like "oh shit we need to put a final boss that is bad because just beating Leon would be boring"
the story overall is probably the worst one in all pokemon games. it's as bad as XY but at least XY didn't outright skip events (being the worst pokemon story doesn't mean it's the worst story ever though. there's much worse out there. don't jump on me)
for the next one they should just ditch the evil teams and have the game be about the player character and their rivals beating the league and nothing more. if they're going to halfass it like this, might as well cut it like the pokemon. or they make a game with just 200 pokemon and focus better on the story. we already crossed the cut pokemon bridge. might as well go all the way and only have new pokemon and the usual marketing suspects like Pikachu.
here the game is just 100% Gym challenge until you get the last one and they're like "oh shit we need to put a final boss that is bad because just beating Leon would be boring"
the story overall is probably the worst one in all pokemon games. it's as bad as XY but at least XY didn't outright skip events (being the worst pokemon story doesn't mean it's the worst story ever though. there's much worse out there. don't jump on me)
for the next one they should just ditch the evil teams and have the game be about the player character and their rivals beating the league and nothing more. if they're going to halfass it like this, might as well cut it like the pokemon. or they make a game with just 200 pokemon and focus better on the story. we already crossed the cut pokemon bridge. might as well go all the way and only have new pokemon and the usual marketing suspects like Pikachu.
Yeah they did establish that dynamax power came outer space and that there was some shady shit going down at the powerplant in Hammerlocke. Eternatus being a living being is a reveal that ends Sonia's ongoing storyline about the Darkest Day as well and gives context to what exactly Zacian and Zamazenta were fighting. The Eternatus reveal is like the whole reason you have to sit through those lectures from Sonia the whole game. It's the answer to one of the earliest questions in the entire storyline. It's set up it just happens too quickly. The real issue is how does Rose know about the Darkest Day when Sonia had yet to publish her findings.
XY has literally nothing for the ultimate weapon before it becomes the centerpiece of the story. The legendaries come out of nowhere with the only explanations coming from a grunt being, "lol we found them in a mountain range don't think about it" (this is optional dialogue btw). Nothing will ever top beating Olympia and then the second you exit the gym Lysandre is all, "You know what I'll just kill everyone lol". Remember when the whole idea behind the first half of XY's plot is figuring out the mysteries of Mega Evolution for Sycamore, but like, he already knows all about it?
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Having done Spikemuth up to the Champion battle in the last couple of days, I'd agree the game is a mess structurally and narratively in the final quarter. The repeated decision to hide the Chairman Rose story from you ("go away player! Ignore these events!") before interrupting the climax of the gym challenge with a bunch of filler-style, repetitive fights to bring the events you'd been directed away from into the foreground was a really poor decision, as far as I'm concerned. The game could easily have allowed the gym challenge to play out before Leon alerts you to Rose's plans; frame it as Leon trusting you now you've proved yourself as Champion. Then you can have the finale of the game as a series of dungeons which actually flesh out this story - navigate Rose Tower to stop Oleana, explore the Slumbering Weald to get the sword and shield, make your way through the power plant to confront Rose and then Eternatus.
Ultimately though it just reinforced a feeling I'd had throughout - that this game was rushed. The repeat battles against Eric in the plaza plus the lift sequence in Rose Tower - and the lack of any end-game dungeons to play through to build up to these events - were a continuation of a pattern throughout the game: most towns have no meaningful content outside of the gym battle, many towns have cut and paste interiors when you can enter buildings, restaurants and hotels which are only used for single cut-scenes rather than for quests or other content, a complete lack of meaningful dungeons and so on. Spikemuth was a joke, and once you get to the final couple of gyms, puzzle challenges are removed in favour of trainer battles (though I liked Raihan's doubles battles, it also felt like a clear way of filling things out because GF were pressed for time).
I liked a lot of the aesthetics and ideas behind Galar, but too much of the game feels like it's all window-dressing and too little content. I get for people invested in the long-haul of catching, breeding, trading and battling that won't be an issue, but for me the game just didn't quite work. I actually liked that the gym challenge was the major emphasis this time, and enjoyed the presentation of it as a major sporting event, because it helped make it feel more like an integral part of the world rather than just a series of challenges necessary to complete the game - but ultimately Shield just felt lacking to me, in the very real sense that behind the attractive art and typical Pokemon charm, there wasn't an especially coherent videogame.
Ultimately though it just reinforced a feeling I'd had throughout - that this game was rushed. The repeat battles against Eric in the plaza plus the lift sequence in Rose Tower - and the lack of any end-game dungeons to play through to build up to these events - were a continuation of a pattern throughout the game: most towns have no meaningful content outside of the gym battle, many towns have cut and paste interiors when you can enter buildings, restaurants and hotels which are only used for single cut-scenes rather than for quests or other content, a complete lack of meaningful dungeons and so on. Spikemuth was a joke, and once you get to the final couple of gyms, puzzle challenges are removed in favour of trainer battles (though I liked Raihan's doubles battles, it also felt like a clear way of filling things out because GF were pressed for time).
I liked a lot of the aesthetics and ideas behind Galar, but too much of the game feels like it's all window-dressing and too little content. I get for people invested in the long-haul of catching, breeding, trading and battling that won't be an issue, but for me the game just didn't quite work. I actually liked that the gym challenge was the major emphasis this time, and enjoyed the presentation of it as a major sporting event, because it helped make it feel more like an integral part of the world rather than just a series of challenges necessary to complete the game - but ultimately Shield just felt lacking to me, in the very real sense that behind the attractive art and typical Pokemon charm, there wasn't an especially coherent videogame.