Pokémon sword and shield review

In practice, apart from providing neat details for the nerd, the skill of the hands and feet is not important. But this is indeed a very suitable metaphor. It is likened to the game set in Galar, a new region inspired by the British superpowers. It has a full water bag and empty drums. Even more disturbing is that it is a suitable metaphor for the Pokémon sword and the shield itself. This is a new generation of Pokémon games with a bright future and excellent new Pokémon. It provides long-term fans with a series of complex system skills and a series of first attempts in the "Open World" area. But all these new things seem to come at a price-the price is almost everything else in the game.

The origins of Pokémon Sword and Shield are very similar to any other in the series. You start at home in a special little village in Postwick. Say goodbye to your mom, meet friendly opponents and drive across rolling fields and fragile country roads in Wooloo. You can choose your own starter and make cute and complicated animations with their small lineup. Then, you continue through the local village of Wedgehurst, where tedious berry grocery stores and bizarre boutiques sit in a lake in her old house to meet the old professor. In other words-brushes with thick handwriting next to them-are strictly familiar. Traditional England's traditional Pokémon-or at least the idea of ​​a Surrey retiree in a par.

But shortly after that early comfort, the tradition disappeared-at least for a short while. Just two hours into Sword and Shield, you will be taken to Wilderness. This is Pokémon's first attempt in the open world, and it has a bright future. A proper open world with different biomes attracts different kinds of Pokémon, and different weather and day and night cycles also affect spawning. When you reach into a large area of ​​green land, you hardly learn to throw the first Pok ball. too excited.

Inside the Wilderness area, you may be the first to discover a series of adjustments for Sword and Shield. You can now raise the Wild Pokemon, and the Stadium Badge now specifies the maximum level of Pokemon you can catch, and a standard cap on the maximum level that Pokemon can reach while still following the order. On the general route of the game, you often encounter this limitation annoyingly-for example, if you are as curious as you are now, poking to the beginning of the route after the current town-but in wilderness areas, a good way to control progress, while Keep things open. In those early green fields, you can fight tough battles-for example, when some of my team just reached level 10, I knocked down a powerful Onix-and got a good XP; if you With patience, you can catch unusual Pokémon unique to specific biomes or weather conditions; or you can use Dynamax assault to further polish. Whether you want it or not, I'm not sure.

The Dynamax raid itself is a headline news, it appears permanently in the "nest" throughout the wild, and it is very simple. You can play against them 4v1 through online friends or NPCs, but after the initial awe, the battle itself is unstoppable with almost no consequences. Regardless of the big baby being thrown away, whether it's Bonsly or Whoopper, you have to tap it, and then it's over with a few taps.

The rewards are a little more interesting and include some brand new items such as Exp. Candy, this will give your Pokémon a lot of experience. The most interesting thing is, TRs: an old-fashioned TM that will be damaged after one use, but can be collected multiple times. I hope that during a Dynamax raid in the wild, if you have a competitive tendency, it will be your most budget-conscious place, so unfortunately, although this is different from conventional, I still find their simplicity-visual and systematic -Quickly turn them into trivia.

In interactive series like Pokmon, there are many more adjustments that seem to always be small, but important, and indeed very popular. Escape ropes are single-use items. The mobile deleter, relearner, and nickname evaluator are now located in each Pokmon Center. Now you can access your captured Pokmon's storage box (not including the gym) almost anywhere, which means you're more inclined to rotate teams, so it's unlikely to make you too high; and Wonder Trade (now it's Surprise Trade) is back. rejoice!

In terms of the highly competitive "hardcore", you can now use items to change the nature of Pokémon, which is a huge gospel (though it's reserved for post-match use like the returned Hyper Training) and can be tempered Chain-Get a yellow halo Pokémon with better attributes. Although the Pokemon Camp also appears in one of those high-filled features, it does have its uses: a curry made with collected ingredients will heal your entire squad, play in the wild or break awkward Places are convenient for longer routes. And, of course, HM will continue to move towards extinction: your bike has an upgrade that lets you walk on water, and nothing more.

The real new Pokémon itself is also great. The Pokémon Sword and Shield brought a series of new types of combinations, such as Ice-Electric or Electric-Poison, which is an achievement in itself, because there are very few new combinations left. Similarly, with Pokemon's roster, you can transfer the natural balance of the game from the traditional "fire and water grass" triad to "bugs" in the stadium, on the route, and when you meet in the wild, with a sword and shield type of spread "Darkness", so far, the fairy tale, fighting and steel duel have not been fully utilized. You will naturally mix yourself from past play.

From areas such as Sirfetch & # 39; d and Galarian, Ponyta, to Wooloo, Yamper and Naughty Impimp Waiting for the current favorite designs, these designs are also very interesting, they have played this role in British folklore and spoken games. Instant similarity that only Pokmon can manage. There are more new forms of forgotten "monsters" (at least the official form) to be revealed, more Gigantamax forms have changed the appearance of new and old Pokémon and their sizes, and of course there are more New form. Many of these newcomers are also evolving in three stages, which sounds trivial, but adds expectations to the progress you can make with Pokdex. Even the ridiculous and annoying changes in the way fossils work, please get me out of my way. Because now, two extinct species are spliced ​​into a single, ugly creature when they are restored to life.

But where Sword and Shield talks about the new Pokmon, it's talking about Pokdex. National Pokdex-A complete list of all Pokmons ever made in the mainline RPG-for the first time is not available in Pokmon Sword and Shield. Where it was previously possible to capture content from hundreds of games and then import the remaining hundreds of content, this is no longer possible. It was a strange move. For most players, its practical and practical consequences are very small. Most Pokmon players will not import Pokmon, which cannot be captured naturally in the new generation, for its main gameplay. of course can. Some others will transfer old favorites instead of using them heavily, just because they can say they grabbed their old friends-or trophies, but you might see it-brought it back here in red or blue. But this will not be the majority of players, or even close to it.

First and foremost, feel the actual consequences in the spirit of the game. According to the decree of the Pokmon Company, Pokmon games must always have three core pillars: collect, trade, and fight. Where some people outside the main series have eliminated the strange part of the Holy Trinity (especially when Pokémon Go is under-released), they always inevitably return. In the core RPG, you are always able to capture all, trade and fight all weapons, and what you lose by deleting the complete Pokdex is that the utility of bringing Pokmon into it is far more than just knowing your own facts canIf you like. It's the same as you fully understand that you won't dig up a two-generation console game in the attic to play on the latest hardware, but if you do so for some reason, you'll still be a little bit conscious. Wanted-you can't actually do it.

In addition to intangible losses, "dex-trimming" also brings benefits to Pokmon Sword and Shield. On the one hand, it enables older, undervalued Pokémon to stand out. Many Pokémon in the fifth generation-Pokmon Black and Black and White, as well as the popular Black 2 and White 2- appeared for the first time in the wild for many years, and their appearance and (if No) one of the biggest new rosteres has done with Pokémon enough to fill the world with wildlife more than ever, especially when Pokémon cruises the entire world itself. To stay longer at this point, I might speculate that the reduced Pokdex will also help the competitive environment, as the competitive market has been limited to the few hundred available markets that did not shift in the first year. Professional players, or many aspiring players, may welcome deck reshuffles, and the most creative moments in the scene are always out of limits.

In essence, despite the noise and anger, the lack of a National Pokdex is not a problem. The real problem with Pokmon Sword and Shield is deeper, or deeper. The development of these games is far more than a mess, which is due to the lack of complexity, texture and flavor that is usually found in almost every previous Pokémon game.

An example: A game that I can't break started well in the middle. The lights were dim and the route was dotted with two circles and dead ends. In a minute or two, as you cross the first winding road, you will reach the entrance of the next part, bathed in some mysterious and weird light-oh! -Not the deeper inner level below the surface; it's the next town, and the end of this place is completely your dungeon. This happened again and again.

In fact, Pokmon Sword and Shield has no dungeons at all. There are no more complicated routes, caves, buildings or woods than red, blue and yellow "green forests", this is a tutorial pseudo-dungeon at the beginning of the first generation. There is nothing closer to the mountain than the game. Moon or rock tunnel, not to mention Silph Co.'s twelve-level warp chaos-all first-generation locations are available in Pokmon Let & # 39; s Go Pikachu and Let & # 39; s Go Eevee To fully reflect, they are all superficial copies of classic games, but for kids. It seems that these games are dungeon-free games. It seems pointless-after all, Breath of the Wild eliminated traditional games-but I can assure you that this is not the case. Each generation until now has been the essence of Pokémon games. Here you can find the most coaches, the most items, the most puzzles and the most interesting and mysterious points of knowledge. In Sword and Shield, all these are gone, there is no substitute.

At some point, the lack of substance in Pokmon Sword and Shield was almost an imitation. Rumbles again and again, moments of collapse or panic will suddenly disappear, you will think-finally! -This is your call to action. but not. Every exciting event, every kick-off point in Act 2, all the debris that happened can be solved with a simple "I solve it, you continue", it comes from the hero and champion Leon in Galar At this point, you want to know that there will be more fun in his game than in yours.

There are too many closed doors, and too many unnecessary dazzling buildings in unnecessary positions are difficult to access or empty. A town you might expect to visit, turned out to be a street from left to right, and the only door that opened was the center of Pokmon, as if you stumbled across an ancient western building. The other has a spacious Royal Hotel, which itself occupies the entire area of ​​the area, But there is nothing inside. Twenty years ago, on the SS Anne ship, once you checked everything from the captain's bridge to the bedroom trash can, you will get a reward. Within the most magnificent landmark of Sword and Shield, you will not be able to cross a no-object, no The trainer and Pokmonless's hall is on the ground floor.

Continuing the traditional gym is back-first a problem, then a fight-but the minor league's promise is nothing more than dialogue. Fewer trainers on the route than before. There are fewer routes than before. On the still artwork, the climax of the dialogue took place silently. For some reason, another climax battle sequence was without music. Even NPCs scattered around the world seem to have nothing to say. There is hardly any "Legend has …", at least until the final stage of the story, without any way to explain or build the world through truth. There are few books to read and no corner to explore. This is terrible by Pokmon's own standards, and this comparison need not be limited to the early generation: even the sun and moon have hidden holes in the walls, leading to secluded beaches and undiscovered caves.

The shrinking and closing down of the world is understandable-and I think it is perfectly reasonable-a wilderness worthy of singing. By Pokemon standards, it must be new and indeed open. However, the open world is not the same as the open world. A truly open world is not so vast and clear as it is interesting.

The wilderness of swords and shields is very flat. If you are a long-time fan, you will undoubtedly tremble when you first see Pokmon roam the world and finally stare into that space yourself. But that moment disappears when you realize that you've watched everything. When you inevitably jump back to the previous track, it will completely disappear from memory At last Break free. The great goal is that Breath of the Wild's advance quickly turned into two huge leaps, and sad irony is everywhere in these games. Pokmon Sword and Shield has a sense of scale and ambition that goes far beyond any other series in the series, but to bring it back to those huge new Dynamax forms, its size is just a shadow. Shallow projection instead of the real thing