I don't know. People earlier stated it was to prevent leaks or something. Your guess is as good as mine.
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Pokémon Sword and Shield | Review Thread (READ STAFF POST)
- Thread starter Deleted member 10737
- Start date
That is really weird. Leaks happened nonetheless that is the funny thing.
Even I have felt the urge so you are not alone.
I'm going back and seeing if I can do a run with games I missed out on like SS and platinum to manage it, since I will feel awful to give in after all that we have lost.
This is my first time skipping a mainline Pokémon title when I have all the means to purchase it day 1. It's really fucking hard. What keeps me grounded in my convictions is my experience with USUM. I enjoyed the regular Sun and Moon games well enough, but despite not being all that interested in USUM I bought it anyway because everyone said it was super different and worth the whole $45 again.
That for me was incredibly wrong and I suffered and slogged through it. It took me a good half year to finally finish the game, and I still experience some hella buyers remorse from that purchase.
I can't imagine going through that again with Sword and Shield. Hell pre Dex cut I was even about to go in and slap down a collectors pack.
I know I made the right choice in the end. I spend a lot of my time breeding, sending out competitive Pokémon steeping stones to the GTS for the new kids and fresh to the seen comp people, and making all sorts of quirky and kina useless teams to (get my ass kicked) in online battle.
With over half the Pokémon hard scrubbed, over 100 moves gone and GTS nuked, realistically my end game playtime would be woefully short and I'd feel major buyers remorse paying more for less.
I have other games to look forward to such as HollowKnight: Silksong, Ni No Kuni, Final Fantasy: Zodiac Age, remake of Children of Mana, etc. that give me a lot more for my $60 and I enjoy just as much.
If I personally really love a character or Pokémon I can just draw them myself or indulge in the mountains of fanart these games always produce. And honestly I'm hardly made of thick skin with this game. The literal MOMENT they do the bare minimum and say 'everyone's in' I'll buy this game (or any future game.) in a heartbeat.
I'm kinda hoping that we get a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon installment on the switch at some point. But maybe Chunsoft is just fucking tired of making those games or Pokémon doesn't license them out anymore.
Not sure if it was confirmed, but I heard it's because Nintendo/Gamefreak only gave out review copies to big reviewers because of smaller reviewers were the ones who leaked the last 2 games(3 now).
Oh lol, didn't it also leak early this year too? Does this mean no review copies at all next year?
Just finished the 8th gym after 17 hours.
I like this game, I really do.
But this is a game that requires too many compromises to have what it has. This is by far the most conflicted I've ever felt about a Pokémon game. Tons of stuff that I like, tons that I dislike.
Game Freak needs a break. 2 years would be the best. Just look at how Assassins Creed improved after they stopped doing yearly releases. They only had one year without a Pokémon release in this entire decade and that's starting to show itself.
With all that said, Pokémon Sword is going to be one of my more liked games this year. It's in a similar space as Fire Emblem, where the latest game wasn't the most visually pleasing one but where the core product is solid enough to look over it. The difference between the two however is that Pokémon feels like it's dangerously close to the point where an entry will crash and burn.
I like this game, I really do.
But this is a game that requires too many compromises to have what it has. This is by far the most conflicted I've ever felt about a Pokémon game. Tons of stuff that I like, tons that I dislike.
Game Freak needs a break. 2 years would be the best. Just look at how Assassins Creed improved after they stopped doing yearly releases. They only had one year without a Pokémon release in this entire decade and that's starting to show itself.
With all that said, Pokémon Sword is going to be one of my more liked games this year. It's in a similar space as Fire Emblem, where the latest game wasn't the most visually pleasing one but where the core product is solid enough to look over it. The difference between the two however is that Pokémon feels like it's dangerously close to the point where an entry will crash and burn.
From Digital Foundry Analysis
"- Engine is an evolved vrsion of Let's Go.
- Wild Area is big, surprisingly high foliage density and nice bloom effect.
- City design more in line with Sun and Moon's standard than Let's Go "grid based" design.
- Locked camera in city helps performance.
- Shadows improved over Sun and Moon, now proper shadows are present outside of battles too.
- Over 400 Pokémon cut, Z-moves, Mega and many online features are removed for increased quality...
- ... but environments are mostly static ("window dressing"), huge repetition of rooms and decorations.
- Texturing is generally of poor quality highlighted by the low camera angle.
- Dynamic shadow system is impressive, but it has a lot of flickering. It can look rough.
- Pop-in is a huge issue, rendering range is extremely limited and almost comical.
- Human character higher detailed than ever, but contrary to Game Freak's pre release statements the Pokémon models were not reworked.
- Lighting and material interactions are sensibly increased over the 3DS, but it does not explain the huge cut of Dex. Why are Pokémon from Let's Go missing if they were already reworked?
- Compared to BotW and Xenoblade 2, the game is "in a lower league".
- Docked res: 1080p indoor, dynamic res outsidide (864p worse case scenario). Game is more demanding than Let's Go so it justifies the lower res.
- Portable res: 720p dynamic, drops at 576p outdoor worst case scenario.
- Zero AA
- No graphical differences beween portable and docked.
- Performance is 30 fps and it's stable most of the time. Switching into battles momentarely drops the framerate in the 20s and dynamax battles can drop too.
> Positives: enviroments, engine cutscenes
> Negatives: emptiness of the world, pop-in, removal of many Pokémon
+ Overall: a step forward, but the pop-in is a glaring issue and it doesn't fully matches the expectations of a next gen Pokémon game, and the Pokédex cut is a big limitation. "
This game is not even a 80 in score with all this problems.
This reviews are.. i don't know how to say it but I'm not convinced
"- Engine is an evolved vrsion of Let's Go.
- Wild Area is big, surprisingly high foliage density and nice bloom effect.
- City design more in line with Sun and Moon's standard than Let's Go "grid based" design.
- Locked camera in city helps performance.
- Shadows improved over Sun and Moon, now proper shadows are present outside of battles too.
- Over 400 Pokémon cut, Z-moves, Mega and many online features are removed for increased quality...
- ... but environments are mostly static ("window dressing"), huge repetition of rooms and decorations.
- Texturing is generally of poor quality highlighted by the low camera angle.
- Dynamic shadow system is impressive, but it has a lot of flickering. It can look rough.
- Pop-in is a huge issue, rendering range is extremely limited and almost comical.
- Human character higher detailed than ever, but contrary to Game Freak's pre release statements the Pokémon models were not reworked.
- Lighting and material interactions are sensibly increased over the 3DS, but it does not explain the huge cut of Dex. Why are Pokémon from Let's Go missing if they were already reworked?
- Compared to BotW and Xenoblade 2, the game is "in a lower league".
- Docked res: 1080p indoor, dynamic res outsidide (864p worse case scenario). Game is more demanding than Let's Go so it justifies the lower res.
- Portable res: 720p dynamic, drops at 576p outdoor worst case scenario.
- Zero AA
- No graphical differences beween portable and docked.
- Performance is 30 fps and it's stable most of the time. Switching into battles momentarely drops the framerate in the 20s and dynamax battles can drop too.
> Positives: enviroments, engine cutscenes
> Negatives: emptiness of the world, pop-in, removal of many Pokémon
+ Overall: a step forward, but the pop-in is a glaring issue and it doesn't fully matches the expectations of a next gen Pokémon game, and the Pokédex cut is a big limitation. "
This game is not even a 80 in score with all this problems.
This reviews are.. i don't know how to say it but I'm not convinced
Well I'm playing the game and it's one of the better games I've played this year and well deserving of an 8/10. I'll see how I end up on it but so far I'm hooked.
20 hours in. The game is fucking amazing. 8 is not enough actually.
really? with 400 pokemon removed? many online features removed and no Mega? No Pokedex?
I already captured more than 150 Pokémon, the dex cut sucks but it's not a dealbreaker. I'm not missing any online function actually. The cities are so beautiful, the gym battles are better than ever they are absolutely epic. Dynamax are actually incredible substitues to megas.
Multiple routes are just straight lines, wild area performance is horrible when online, and there isn't a single dungeon in the game. On top of a huge chunk of online (GTS) and half of the Pokémon removed. Idk how anyone can feel this way.
Having less Pokémon actually motivates me to complete my Pokédex again, something I haven't done in over a decade.
I don't care about Megas
There's a Pokédex
The gutting of the GTS is indeed a head-scratcher and doesn't make sense, it is however not really a feature that I used heavily, not even back when I did competetive battling.
So yeah, even with all that
This is why the game should not be getting such a high scores. It's simple to make a cute and "good looking" pokemon game if you cut all those things and just do straight routes most of the time.
People defending this don't complain when the next game has all this features removed again because "some people loved it even with all this flaws"
They already solved this problem years ago by making it so "completing your pokedex" only requires completing the regional dex. There are more pokemon to catch for pokedex completion in SwSh than there were in SM.
I am aware, but if I start, I go for the entire thing and that can be exhausting. Especially if you start doing Pokémon that aren't in the regional Dex.
I disagree - there's a different feeling when you only complete a regional dex vs catching all the Pokémon possible (ie programmed) in a game.
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Is it getting high scores? It's already the worst rated new gen game and I'm sure it's score will drop as more reviews come in. It's certainly not got the level of positive buzz even LGPE got last year. It was never going to get BAD reviews.
Where are the reviews? I know they only gave out limited codes pre-launch, but now we're a day (or two in some regions) past launch.
With GTS gone it's still harder to complete the regional dex in SwSh than it is to complete the national dex in previous games.
I mean, they played 20 hours since launch so...I think it's perfectly understandable as to how and why they feel the way they do
Yes it is. I don't know anyone who plays these games, and I don't want to join or interact with any online communities. I also don't want to buy the game twice. How do I get the other legendary, or game specific Pokémon? Wonder trade hundreds of times?
I've been playing the game too. My opinion is just as valid
I also disagree with that, but I guess it depends if you have friends with the "other" version willing to trade.
That's a you problem and you're on this forum, it's not hard to find people to trade with on here.
Buy something else. There are a huge number of great games out there in basically every genre, many of them sadly not selling on par with their quality.
That still makes it harder. Why in the world do I have to sit here on a forum posting and direct messaging members hoping to get multiple game specific Pokémon when the $35 3ds and $30 ds games could do this for me while I sleep at night?
How is that, in any way, not harder and more time consuming?
I got the vast amount of starters and legendaries in Sun/Moon within a few days. I mean come on.
You're already sitting here posting in this forum so it's not exactly time wasted and when did typing a few words become such hard work?
Alright, I can see there's no point continuing this discussion when you're going to be so obtuse.
I would have agreed if you said the regional Dex of the other regions, but the National one? Never ever.
Nah.
It wouldn't be a problem if a system that governs trading without interacting on forums like this hadn't existed before except it did. It is literally a downgrade without any tradeoff.
Name one valid reason for it's exclusion.
You're comparing getting a few version exclusives to completing the national Dex. I really don't know what to tell you...
Anything to shitpost.
I mean ok but this is pretty weird to me. If it's just the "feeling" of knowing you got all the pokemon in the game I don't know why you wouldn't also have the "feeling" of knowing you don't actually have all the pokemon at once and never will.
I'm sorry, you don't fucking get to say that after responding to criticism of the game with that shit.
That's an incredibly poor reason and honestly one that doesn't make any sense.
I wasn't responding to the criticism of the game I was providing a solution to a problem for that user, far from a shitpost.
Honestly, I've always found these comments a bit patronizing.
Like yeah, some people's opinions on a game change with time (I certainly changed a lot on Sun/Moon when I tried replaying them), but in most cases, people know what they like and what they don't.
I knew I loved Sun and Moon from the beginning and I still feel the same now. Only time my opinion changed was with XY really
this is one game that I could see it being more accurate,maybe not but I think long term impressions are going to be interesting to see.
I agree that some aspects will never bother people, it's the nature of the game. My reason to say this is that Pokemon is a series with a strong early and mid game, but that tends to be lacking in the late game.
Naturally impressions as you play will always be stronger and tone down with time, but I think some aspects about the game will be more pronounced by then. I don't think most will change their mind on the game, but it'll be interesting to see how it'll be viewed once the dust settles
So couldn't that be said about the people that hate the game right now too?
You can warm to things as well.
Is there anyway to get a dusk stone apart from the skill guy in the digging duo? Edit: oops, wrong thread.
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