Pokémon Sword & Shield: Grandios or Fail?

Pokémon sword and shield were as controversial in advance as no other game in the series. The culprit is the pruning of the Pokédex announced at E3 and the justifications that have been used for this radical move. Are the editions with the first open areas now terrific or are the negative voices right? After a good 60 hours playing time we allow ourselves a judgment.

With the E3 in 2019, the Pokémon fan base was split into two camps: those who are defying criticism of Game Freak for the new games, and those who call about with the hashtag #BringBackNationalDex even boycott Pokémon sword and shield , I myself was torn. On the one hand, the shortening of the Pokédex would lose a lot of playing time flowing into catching and developing, on the other hand, there was not an edition in which I battled with Pokémon from older games through the storyline. How does it look now?

The most beautiful Pokémon games ever

For some hardliners it may sound unbelievable, but Pokémon sword and shield are the most beautiful games in the series, seriously. However, followed by a big "but". Sword and Shield are the most beautiful Pokémon games so far since all parts have been subject to the limitations of their limited handheld hardware – except Let's Go Evoli / Pikachu.

Since the 5th generation, Game Freak has been struggling to capture the spirit of each country on which the new region is based. Galar is a region whose Britishness drips like sticky after-eight stuffing and black tea from every crack of red brick stone. The charm of the most famous cities and landmarks has been so accurately implemented that there is no doubt which country stood for the game world model. Even though they are graphically outdated like the rest of the game, Game Freak lays deficiencies just in cities cleverly through style and loving details to paint a coherent image.

This sword and shield unfortunately can not maintain as soon as the eyes wander over the natural zone. With her, the long-cherished wish of many fans for an open-world Pokémon (at least in part) was fulfilled. It is the first stop to catch Pokémon. While cities and routes make a lot of stylistic changes, the natural zone looks like an unfinished version of the game. It lacks textures, details and eye-catching as far as the eye can see. Exemplary are, above all, the angular, washed-out trees, reminiscent of N64 times, which protrude symptomatically for the condition of the zone from the ground.

The nature zone: more please!

At first glance overwhelmingly large, the first rambles quickly make it clear that the natural zone is manageable overall and there is little to be discovered apart from Pokémon. If you consider the open area as what it is, a huge safari zone, you will save yourself the unnecessary search for non-existent secret locations. Instead, a tent can be pitched in the open air to launch PokéCamping, a game of PokéMonAmi and the PokéPause. There, the Pokémon are frolicking around, running races, just waiting to interact with you. Here you can even discover some new animations that have not been around since X and Y.

Getting to grips with your Pokémon will not only bring you the well-known benefits of battle, your wards will also gain experience points by playing with Wedel and Ball. But the main thing is the cooking of curry, which brings back nice memories of Rocko's cooking ingredients from the anime. With a few berries and the right ingredients, a short mini-game will be launched, which will decide on the quality and thus the healing power of your curry. Depending on the ingredients, another dish is created in the Curry Dex. This is unfortunately a trivial gimmick, in which I have thrown a second view for lack of added value.

Pokémon Sword / Shield – Announcement Trailer

With Pokémon Sword / Shield, Nintendo today announced the next major section of the Pokémon series for the Switch.

All in all, I think PokéCamping offers too few opportunities to interact with the Pokémon, especially as I can not even pet my team in handheld mode. Too bad, if I remember the droll animations in Let's Go. The other options quickly lose their appeal. The opening of a tent would have been perfectly suited for the revival of the secret bases of the third generation.

Nonetheless, the natural zone elsewhere is a great foundation for the future, as it is already one of the most appealing aspects of the game, especially for first-time players. Above all, I'm playing on the level of difficulty that stagnated in Pokémon in favor of accessibility for a younger audience. In the plot, there is hardly an adversary whose rivals can not get rid of connoisseurs with a single attack. The culprit is the now not at all deactivat able EP divider. Through him, my entire team was over leveled 10 to 20 levels towards the end of the game. This is not allowed. Fortunately, the natural zone has a few aces up its sleeve against this suffering.

There Game Freak is a great compromise from the random encounters and the open roaming Pokémon from Let's Go: Evoli / Pikachu succeeded. I was amazed when I saw Pokémon appear at the beginning of the game, which were a good 20 to 60 levels above my team average. Fighting is worthwhile only with type advantage and low level gap. Whether they can be caught depends on their own game progress, that is, the number of orders. A strange measure, because formerly too strong Pokémon simply resisted the commands. I do not want to imagine how frustrating it must be not to be able to catch a dazzling Pokémon.

The second step the developers have taken towards the challenge again is the Dyna Raids, more on that later. Although most of them are ridiculously simple, a few have been so heavy that I have K.O. went. In a Pokémon game! I can hardly express how happy it has been to lose.

Finally hard again … very rare

In terms of combat system Pokémon has remained true to what I consider the right strategic decision for the right decision. However, sword and shield seem to lack some items, abilities and attacks that have just made the appeal of fighting. Speaking of missing: As in the natural zone, the detail poverty of the environments in fighting the most striking. You can get accustomed to muddy and blurry backgrounds, but not to the loveless monotony of battles within buildings. Even the Let's Go games have adapted the combat screens very precisely to each location, which was very beneficial to immersion.

Pokémon Sword / Shield – Gigantamaxing Changes the Game Trailer

Gigantamaxing is introduced in a new trailer for Pokémon Sword / Shield.

The new core feature, Dynamaximation, swells a Pokémon over three rounds of skyscraper size and converts attacks into Dyna attacks of the appropriate type. Therefore, the established combat mechanics of the Z-attack and especially the mega-development of the scissors have fallen victim. Dynamax Pokémon behave playfully like a mixture of both, so they are not so new and therefore no more detailed explanation required. Nevertheless, they fit better into the Pokémon Universe than I would have thought. As a Godzilla fan, I was able to win some Kaiju charm from the giant creatures.

If you are still bothered by it, you can breathe a sigh of relief as dynamo maximization is only possible in arenas and dyna raids. The latter could be interesting, especially in post-game. Optionally, alone or with friends, fight against a dynamized Pokémon.

Each raid turns out differently depending on the level. This ranges from simple battles that end after an attack, to really tough chunks that can only be defeated with awesome noise, as the opposing Pokémon can not lose the Dynamax state and protect themselves with additional shields. I like it!

Olé, Olééééé!

The arenas, which were staged spectacularly in gigantic stadiums, also gave an equally good impression. I sometimes had the feeling that I was part of an event that has a huge hype in Galar. Significantly contributes to the music, in which the Johlen the quantities was incorporated. In terms of mood is the top!

Arena battles do not mean, however, that the tests of island migration from Alola are flooded. Much more, Game Freak has improved them and put each Arenakampf as varied tasks. Sometimes you have to maneuver a herd of Wolly into a paddock, solve a water puzzle and play some kind of pinball game. I love the creative approaches that enrich the sword and shield with some completely different mechanics. The Arena Challenge finally leads to an impressive league tournament that is now similar to the anime. This is far less static than the top 4 behind closed doors.

And otherwise?

Although the topic has become so prevalent due to the endless discussions in the net, we have to talk about the elephant in the room: the Pokédex, for me personally the most important element of every Pokémon game ever since it is still busy for a long time after completing the story , The dreaded radical strike through the digital Pokémon directory has been more brutal than I had feared. Many creatures including past key roles and fan favorites have been rigorously removed from the game, for reasons of balancing and for better animations, as they say.

The cut seems almost incomprehensible given the background of over 800 Pokémon in the previous game. There, mass still did not seem to pose a problem. Pokémon has never had a well-bowed combat system and the "new" animations are as static and outdated as they have been since 2013. Personally, the cut in the plot did not really matter as there were mostly new Pokémon on my team. But because the few remaining Pokémon are almost fully developed in the natural zone and do not have to be developed, a large part of the post-game flutes.

Pokémon Sword / Shield – The Next Big Pokémon Adventure Trailer

With Pokémon Sword / Shield, the next big Pokémon adventure awaits you in the new week.

Musically, sword and shield leave a mixed impression. From annoying-chaotic MIDI strumming to gentle harp and bagpipes to impressive pieces full of epic everything is represented. My highlight was some tracks that brought back nice memories of the sound of ruby and sapphire. However, not a few titles are distracting due to disharmonic sounds.

In direct comparison to the sun and moon, sword and shield have learned from mistakes and liquefied the tenacious progress. Although the protagonist is picked up and received by NPCs every few meters, the dialogues are much shorter, and some tutorial passages can even be skipped.

There are also improvements to the online structure. Exchange and combat partners can now be searched for at the press of a button, without having to take the path over the cumbersome Festival Plaza. How good but just the exchange process with strangers without the Global Trade Station (GTS) works, I can not say, since it was not previously possible to use the online features.