Pokémon Sword and Shield Doesn't Seem Like Quite the Evolution it Could Have Been

Stan at GameSpew: The newly-unveiled eighth generation of Pokémon, Pokémon Sword and Shield, doesn't quite switch up the formula as much as I'd hoped.

[SuperSonic91]

Of course!!!
This is the nintendo strategy for decades.
Their target are the new generation of millions of young kids every freakin' year through their parents wallets.
These children are their life blood.
That is why when the Wii U flopped they said "We haven’t been targeting children enough.”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s...

COD gets the flack for copy-pasting games every year yet Nintendo has been doing the same predating COD decades before.
R&D costs a lot of money and N knows full well not to fix what is broken especially if it still sells no matter if it still the same toy with just a fresh coat of paint and they know young kids will not complain and neither the loyal fanbase.

[JunMei]

You know that most pokemon players are adults, right? And a lot of their games only seem copy paste if you don't actually play them. Mr Sega does what Nintendon't. lol

[OGamer]

😤☝🏿
-fan boy child

[nommers]

That makes it worse considering it’s the adults complaining about franchises that copy and paste themselves almost every year. But the ones that play Pokémon don’t say diddily. You’d think they would realize they’re been buying the same game every 1-2 years. Closer to every year actually. Some just with different non traditional names.

[Sono421]

I don't understand why Pokemon games are treated like crap by Nintendo and GameFreak. Look at any other Nintendo exclusive on the Switch, their visuals absolutely destroy Sword&Shield's, even botw a huge open world game, so theres no reason for this game's visuals to be so lacking. Why does the first mainline pokemon game on console have to look like a Wii/Gamecube game at best? Now we have to wait till the next generation in hopes of getting an actually home console looking pokemon game. just sad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to pre order this game and play the hell out of it, but when your game looks about on par with Pokemon Battle Revolution, a Wii game... that's just lazy, pure and simple. I've been wanting a true pokemon on console since Colosseum and XD and as far as i'm concerned this is basically still just a handheld pokemon with the resolution bumped up a bit.

[averagejoe26]

Please provide your source with factual numbers backing up this claim.

Otherwise, you're just making stuff up.

[JunMei]

Thanks OGamer, I'm rather proud that I'm mature enough to not be ashamed of liking Pokemon. So yes. I accept the title you have applied to me.

[djl3485]

Except COD is released every year....pokemon is not.

[Vegamyster]

That plus when CoD did try and change it got massive backlash for not being like the previous ones lol.

[Ace326]

Poke on is released almost every year when you include things like ultra sun and ultra moon.

[badz149]

@djl3485

LOL trying to defend the slow evolution of graphics in Pokemon games by downplaying CoD? Classic! Except, you might want to fact check that there is at least 1 Pokemon game released every year since 1998. It's among the most milk franchise of all time next to Mario

[King_Noctis]

Why am I not surprised that you are the first one who rushed this article with this type of comment.

[Literal_Cringe]

You do know this isn't Nintendo right? This is Game Freak's doing.

[Majin-vegeta]

Ummm Ninty owns a certain percentage of Gamefreak you know that right?

[Literal_Cringe]

Majin
That barely means anything, Nintendo has barely any say in the development of these games aside from what platform they appear on and the marketing. Nintendo wouldn't let Game Freak make games on other platforms and probably would have had them make a mainline Pokemon game in the launch year for the 3DS and Wii U (Wii U definitely needed something as big as a mainline HD Pokemon).

[badz149]

@Cringe

Seriously, what are you even talking about?? Why spread BS like Nintendo don't have control over Pokemon game's development? You do know that Pokemon games are the product of The Pokemon Company owned by Game Freak, Nintendo and one other company. These 3 have total control of Pokemon IP in all forms. So Nintendo partially owns the Pokemon IP along with Game Freak and is responsible for every single Pokemon game ever released! But here you are talking BS about it"s all Game Freak's decision bla bla bla.

[nommers]

@Literal_Cringe

Publishers have more power over a game's development than the developer since they're the ones fitting the bill.

It's kind of like with EA and Bioware right now.

[badz149]

Game Freak finally achieved PS2 level graphics, almost PS3 level. congrats

[SuperSonic91]

Congraturations😎

[-Foxtrot]

I think we over hyped ourselves to be honest

We've seen those Unreal Engine 4 demos people made, we looked that that concept art someone did with a Breath of the Wild styled one, we came up with many feature lists even ones we did ourselves in our heads like maybe we'd get to choose to join Team Rocket or we'd start out with 3 starters which don't fit the standard Fire, Water, Grass types.

https://www.gamereactor.dk/...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bkv7...

It doesn't make what we are getting bad in any way, it looks decent but it's just the typical "It's good but they could have done X, Y and Z with how long we've waited or with the new tech they now have". Just like Animal Crossing when you expect a shit load of new features but they are on put on a drip feed with us between games.

[TK-66]

What is everyones obsession with demanding every turn-based game become a real-time action game? We have BotW, The Witcher 3, Horozon: ZD, Assassins Creed: Odyssey, Final Fantasy XV, Dark Souls 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition and so much more but apparently we still need the core series Pokemon to become just another RPG game.

I'm skeptical as to your use of "we" in your comment because I frequent Serebii and currently it's been recieved positively and what you've stated was never speculated as a realistic expectation. If you actually look into it we really don't know much about the game and what this regions/generations gimmick will be (Z-Moves and Mega-Evo), what the stadiums are, gym speculation, Eeveelutions and regional forms.

Also you are aware as to why the starters are fire, water and grass right? They're the basic types which are easily used to teach the player about type matchups. It's why the the first few Pokemon you encounter are typically a flying type, normal type and a bug type with very basic playstyles. Notice how in BotW it never tells you how to climb walls but naturally introduces you into a situation where you learn it naturally? It's similar to that and part of the art of game design.

The could've argument would've likely created outrage with if we go with your suggestion of completely overhauling the game and fundamentally changing the gameplay to the point where it's basically a different genre.

[-Foxtrot]

No one has even mentioned the turn based battles on this article...I never

I think you are thinking of the other article but no no go ahead and pull things from your arse. That alone is why I'm not even going to bother replying to your comment in full if you start a convo like that.

Seriously...since it's your first line, scan my comment above and quote where I mentioned the battles specifically. I'll wait.

[TK-66]

"I think you are thinking of the other article but no no go ahead and pull things from your arse"

Wow someone got offended. Don't be a snowflake if you can't handle someone responding to you. Oh and you want to know why I referenced real time battles? This line right here:

"we looked that that concept art someone did with a Breath of the Wild styled one, we came up with many feature lists even ones we did ourselves in our heads"

So I looked through what your views actually are to see what was "in our heads" and now you're angry that I'm actually criticising those views? Incredible. Don't say something if you aren't actually going to stick to it or admit you're wrong.

If you can't handle someone disagreeing with you then stay off the internet. I'm not going to be a part of your little hugbox and agree with you all the time.

[KeenBean345]

Completely agree. I feel Pokemon doesn't need to innovate outside of what it already is doing and drastically changing gameplay could be detrimental to the series' popularity in the long run. I like the fact that I know exactly what type of game I'm playing when I get into a pokemon game, as it's a familiar formula that stays fresh due to new content.

I don't think there is another series that appeals to kids and adults as well as pokemon does and has it's pedigree of always being a great game (if we don't count spinoffs)

[-Foxtrot]

Lol snowflake says the guy making up or stretching unrelevant shit

“we looked that that concept art someone did with a Breath of the Wild styled one, we came up with many feature lists even ones we did ourselves in our heads"

How the f*** did you get me talking about real time battles from that? Seriously.

I posted the pic and it was linking to the open world, not battles. Jesus man. Clutching at straws to make a point.

I’m not disagreeing as I can’t handle an opinion I’m disagreeing because you are pulling things out of nowhere and making out people have said something when they haven’t

And you call me the snowflake....lol

[TK-66]

@Foxtrot

"How the f*** did you get me talking about real time battles from that? Seriously."

Do I have to literally spell it out to you? You said you had "came up with many feature lists" so I looked through some of your more recent comments to see exactly what you were talking about. For example:

"I would have liked them to be like Ni No Kuni where you could control the Pokemon yourself and move around the battle scene, maybe giving you the chance to dodge attacks yourself."

You're literally advocating the game make steps towards a real time combat system. I went out of my way to make sure I knew what you had previously said and yet you still want to accuse me of misrepresenting you.

"And you call me the snowflake....lol"

Yeah you clearly are and if you think I've gotten the wrong impression then thats fine, but its exactly how you're portraying yourself. You also claimed that "we" (who on earth are you talking about lol) all came up with extremely outlandish speculation, and when someone challenges you on it you start throwing a fit in the comments. No one with realistic expectations was ever speculating about the starters deviating from the traditional fire, water and grass lineup and if there was they would more than likely have been shot down if they openly expressed that speculation.

This has clearly struck a nerve for you. A joke I made in another article relating to Warframe completely went over your head and you took it very seriously so it's quite obvious you cant handle criticism. Get over that hurdle before you bother responding in this thread.

[-Foxtrot]

LOL

So me saying “many featured lists” means what I’ve said in past articles on here? What I’ve said recently is NOT what I was talking about when I said that.

I meant over the years, lists and talked about stuff which have been all over the web, nothing about what I’ve said, it’s clear what I meant. If I meant myself I would have said.

You basically assumed and now I’m telling you that you were wrong to do that it’s like “lalala not listening, you’re a snowflake, I struck a nerve”

Yeah you did mostly because you are twisting comments and saying I said/meant something else.

Maybe instead of doing that you should read comments and stop trying to twist things to fit with whatever reply you just feel like giving.

Anyway congratulations for now taking this even more off topic

*slow claps*

[EddieNX]

I think it looks really quite good. Can't wait.
Playing the whole thing on the TV will be nice and in the go also.

[averagejoe26]

Well of course you do.

You're the biggest Switch fanboy on this site.

[DealPickle]

I definitely expected more of an open world and maybe some Breath of the Wild concepts added to it. The starter Pokemon are the same recycled naming and design they always use so I am not too surprised with them.

Even with all of that I will probably still buy it. Just have to see more game-play and an official trailer.

[Antnee534]

Why open world its only a bad idea and people should realize this. Pokemon would be like every other open world game ever dead and boring.

[Double_O_Revan]

I don't know what everyone else was thinking it was going to be, but this is exactly what I expected. Sun/Moon core with Let's Go graphics.

[Neonridr]

I think the players still look Sun/Moon like (only more adult). But the enviroments have gotten a huge improvement.

[TK-66]

Yeah it's weird how people are claiming this looks similar to Let's Go. If anything Let's Go looks more like X and Y with the more childlike/cartoonish proportions for the characters.

This resembles Sun and Moon far more than Let's Go.

[KingBeed]

i wanted it to look better than pokemon battle revolution :l

[InTheZoneAC]

troof, game is exactly what I was expecting and fell off a cliff for what it could've been.

[TiredandRetired]

Just wait for the followups, Bow & Axe.

....LOTR reference. Oh, nevermind. -__-

[Yi-Long]

To be honest, I'm just happy to finally see a proper Pokemon adventure arriving on a Nintendo Home console (well, hybrid, but still...), so I'm actually quite positive about this.

[gangsta_red]

I don't know, it seems if the dev would have changed things up, we would be here complaining about just wanting a traditional Pokemon game.

[DerekTweed]

Lol. Exactly what I was thinking.

"This isn't Pokemon anymore!!!!"

"Not my Pokemon!"

[RizBiz]

Maybe Gen 9 will be Pokemon Of The Wild? I sure hope so. This one doesn't look very enticing.

[Antnee534]

Holy fuck a bad idea is just what that is. Breath of the wild was a boring game with less story then pokemon has. The game suffers very much the same fatigue from every other open world game its f***ing boring with nothing to do in between towns.

[RizBiz]

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, even if yours are wrong.

[PhoenixUp]

Not every game needs to be a goddamn open world title

[Antnee534]

Preach the good word my brother! Its stupid the idea that every game needs to have this big open world that is dead with nothing to do. Every game as of late with a open world, has the same problem they are boring to play. The only reason spiderman was as good as it was isbecause of the story e

[TechnoGoat]

who cares... day 1 buy..

[senorfartcushion]

Well Game Freak didn't promise anything, so at least there's that

[Miacosa]

It's funny that grown men and women are complaining about what seems to be competent made video game that's squarely aimed at children. Here's a thought maybe you've aged up and this is no longer meant for you and nor does it need to be.

[DerekTweed]

"Is the idea of having a full open world with wild Pokémon everywhere really too much to ask? "

Yes it is too much to ask

[maximumspidey]

this could've been so much more with some real hardware

[Ace326]

I was just expecting this to look more like a new game than Sun and Moon at 1080p. This could just be that to save development costs they kept the style and moved work they were doing for the 3DS to Switch. Essentially the games style itself is kind of a write off. Could it be different in 3-4 years? I would hope so. A more complex platform takes time to work with so we should not expect any drastic changes from previous entries. As long as they clean up the narrative and make the dialogue between characters less annoying and add more character building I think this will be a decent game at least. I do not necessarily hate this choice to stay the same, but being someone who has played this series since Red and Blue I do feel that a Breath of the Wild type shake up may do the main franchise some good. At least they could design side game similar to the main series like Gale of Darkness.

[WickedLester]

The game looks disappointingly ordinary. Basically an upres'd 3DS game. Come on Game Freak! Where's the ambition? Where's the production value? In a world where games like BOTW, Mario Odyssey, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 exist on Switch, there's just no excuse for this! 5 years development and THIS is the best you can produce???