Pokemon Sword & Shield (Switch)

[Diddy]

So Generation 8 was just unveiled at a Pokemon Direct. Videos are a little hard to find, they keep getting deleted.

But it looks basically like Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, hopefully with less Pokemon Go dependency.

Set in a new region, Galar, which appears to be a UK analogue, or at least a Japanese impression of the UK. Reports of a Team Brexit and Team Bremain as the core conflict are as yet unconfirmed (but start stockpiling super potions)

Starters are a grass monkey, a fire bunny and a water lizard.

Coming late 2019

 

[Shirley]

SOBBLE please

 

[Slave]

It looks like a graphical upgrade from Let’s Go - although as ever with these trailers it’s hard to tell what is normal gameplay and what is a cut-scene.

I know it probably won’t happen but I’d love there to be a bit more to the plot than 8 gyms and the elite four.

 

[dmlaw]

The most recent DS games had a (slightly) more sophisticated plot than usual, so there might be a chance with these.

At first sight, all three starters are a bit uninspiring.

 

[GNL]

 

[Slave]

Weirdly, Let’s Go has killed my enthusiasm for Pokémon at the moment.

People always say that the games haven’t evolved much - and in some respects they haven’t. But playing a fully rendered game that stripped out all the changes to the game - gender, breeding, weather, day/night cycles, etc. made me realise how much those things have added.

The Let’s Go world obviously looked great, but it was very sterile. And I really hope they’ve fixed minor graphical things like the screen fading to black when characters walk off-screen. If the Switch can run a game like Breath Of The Wild then there’s no reason characters can’t walk through doors or walk off-screen without a jump cut.

 

[Diddy]

Yeah seconded, the Pokemon games have become iteratively better, but that’s the catch really, iteratively.

I was really hoping they could pull something a bit more revolutionary out of the bag now that it’s a much more powerful console, but no, same old.

It’s going to LOOK better than ever, but I’m not expecting much else.

I suppose I don’t need an open world thing, I mean how much does a Pokemon universe have to do that we do already, but I want a chance to visit all the regions, instead of just waiting for inevitable remakes.

That being said, a Diamond/Pearl remake I am totally here for next

 

[Slave]

I think the next evolution would be a shared online world - they already did something a bit like they didn’t they? I’m sure one of the older games had an online element where you could see other people walking around?

Extending that across the whole game would be great. But not whilst Nintendo’s online functionality is so limited. You can just imagine them breaking into a cold sweat at the mere suggestion of players interacting without first adding a 25 digit friend code and being rigorously filtered.

 

[Diddy]

Mm well that would be good, but as an old schooler who never played multiplayer anything, I’m not here for a Pokemon MMORPG

 

[COB]

It was inevitable someone would make this:

 

[dmlaw]

I think I can see why Nintendo would be careful about online with this. I'm sure they don't want to deal with the complaints from parents whose kids have been traded a Pokémon named after a homophobic slur.

 

[Lee]

So anyone playing?
I’m about 2 hours in and enjoying it so far. I don’t think I care about the problems fans are complaining about but we’ll see.
I went for Sobble!

 

[Diddy]

So anyone playing?
I’m about 2 hours in and enjoying it so far. I don’t think I care about the problems fans are complaining about but we’ll see.
I went for Sobble!

Sobble here too, I’m getting into it. It’s easy to get sucked into, even if the story is barely there at the moment.
The Britishisms are... well they are definitely there, but they are pretty jarring considering everything else about the characters.

it’s not like I’m squeeing when they say something is pants or lush.

 

[dmlaw]

I've been playing this recently and also went for the water type starter.

Frankly, I'm not very impressed. All of the flaws that the handheld games have always had seem so much more objectionable when they're on the same system that has Breath of the Wild.

 

[Diddy]

I guess that’s the weird thing about the switch, it sort of IS a handheld you can link to the TV, but this very much feels like business as usual.

I'm finding the story quite dull, is there a story so far? It’s just Pokedex and be a champion (at basically football). The rival is just a waymarker, constantly running ahead and stopping to say “let’s keep going and become Pokemon champions like my brother so I can be like my brother! Brother!”

 

[Diddy]

Did we hear about the expansion passes too?

 

[Lee]

I finished it about 2 weeks after I got it, and haven’t picked it back up since. It was fun, and I enjoyed it, but I was left wanting a bit more.

 

[Diddy]

This is a slog

I can’t even catch the big Pokémon in the endless wasteland because I don’t have the right gym badges. I couldn’t work out why they kept saying “the Pokémon won’t let its guard down”, I had no idea it was basically me being level locked.

frustrating that the strong Pokémon in an area I’m supposed to be in at this stage aren’t allowed, but they are allowed to fuck me up.

the sky taxis they go on about are JUST a loading screen. It just all feels so half arsed.

there is still no discernible story, the ginger girl is invesigating the myth in the most basic way possible, presumably Dynamax is going to be something bad (or a nuclear allegory), Hop will be champion for 5 seconds before I beat him blah blah blah

 

[dmlaw]

I don't mind the game not letting you catch the strong wandering Pokémon. It's pretty easy to avoid fighting them, you still get XP for defeating them and if it let you catch a level 55 Pokémon when you've only beaten three gyms then the whole game would become ridiculously easy.

The rest of your comments are right on the money, particularly the loading screens. Why the hell is that necessary and does it have to be done quite so jarringly?

 

[VoR]

Now that the dust has settled are we all in agreement that this game was a MASSIVE DUD?

I lose interest after a couple of days and have no desire to go back to it whatsoever.

 

[GNL]

I never got to the end - I just sort of lost interest.

 

[dmlaw]

I finished it last weekend but I strongly suspect that I wouldn't have bothered were it not for the lockdown. It did get better towards the end, but not enough to make up for all of the early frustrations or to make me urge people who gave up to give it another go.

 

[Peekaboo]

No Jigglypuff, no point.

 

[Diddy]

A big disappointment. The story never materialised, or at least it only seemed to happen to other characters. There was no sense of climax, just a very sudden big bad (that I STILL don’t understand the motivation of).

i just don’t get how it went so wrong, Sun and Moon tried to switch the old formula up a bit and pulled off that high wire act of keeping the feeling of a Pokemon game without keeping all the rigmarole.

not having the National Dex, for me, was unforgivable, and clearly not for resource reasons, as a lot of sprites were lifted from Sun/Moon, which presumably had them all, on a 3DS game card. I know there are a lot of Pokemon, but that’s the point!

it’s not like they EVER gave any decent reward for catching them all, but at least it was possible for the players who remember the slogan “Gotta catch em all”.

what’s the slogan now? Serious question
Is it “Don’t worry, the expansion passes will be great”?

 

[Apoca]

I think the main culprit here is Pokemon Go and Sword/Shield was aimed at the same "casuals". I think that's where the shift happened and it sort of went the wrong way. It's become FAR too easy to catch (Level 60 with a hyperball and the Pokemon isn't even in the red, let alone asleep?) and far too easy to level up. Basically it's just throw and "collect". And that's in pretty stark contrast to previous editions where you committed to a team, had to put work in to bulk up your team and only made the occasional switch up at the Pokemon Centers. Also, there are far too many healing options around. Didn't help that the game didn't really commit to a storyline (these are never great but they provide a red thread) but mainly CAMPING and other nonsense.

Interestingly, it's also mirrored in the rather terrible new Pokemon anime where Ash and the new character (who just throws Pokeballs at everything) live in Kanto and randomly travel to the other regions following no real storyline at all. Just like the game, it's trying to do a lot but there are a lot of things that really aren't done that well.