• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pokémon Sword and Shield | Review Thread

Mozza

Member
Look How They Massacred My Boy 😩


I was thinking I was too old for this Pokemon lark, but the game does look fun and I do like the art style, watched a little bit of my daughter viewing a live stream on YouTube and it looked pretty sweet to me, I had a 3DS and it looked nothing like that, well at least to my eyes, will be getting the Sword version tomorrow, I think you should do the same and have some fun, just don't tell anyone on here about it... ;)
 
Last edited:

Inanilmaz

Member
I was thinking I was too old for this Pokemon lark, but the game does look fun and I do like the art style, watched a little bit of my daughter viewing a live stream on YouTube and it looked pretty sweet to me, I had a 3DS and it looked nothing like that, well at least to my eyes, will be getting the Sword version tomorrow, I think you should do the same and have some fun, just don't tell anyone on here about it... ;)

I dont even have a switch, maybe in future haha but i wouldn't buy the new pokemon games, i will just play pokemon crystal (or the other 1-3 gens) several times its more fun i think. Hope someday they will release a game where my jaw drops to the floor.
 

FStubbs

Member
About as expected. It will also sell like crazy which is why nothing major will change with this franchise.


Still, I wonder how the Witcher 3 or Horizon would have reviewed if they had no voice acting, very stiff animations , tons of recycled assets from previous games and the production values of an HD ps Vita game

This looks like a HD PS2/3DS game. I think a HD Vita game would look a lot better.

I don't care about graphics in a Pokemon game, but the super linearity and Dexit are huge blows.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
Werster beat this game in 8 hours. Currently watching him go through it, it looks fine to play but it kinda does cut corners badly. Pokemon is kill.
 

Clarissa

Banned
Hi sorry to interrupt. Have a friend who's a massive Nintendo fan who bought the double pack and is encouraging everyone to buy the double pack too.

Is it a different game? Or is it the same game but they are just buying 2 copies (sword + shield) because they want to support the game?
 

blackjon24

Member
Hi sorry to interrupt. Have a friend who's a massive Nintendo fan who bought the double pack and is encouraging everyone to buy the double pack too.

Is it a different game? Or is it the same game but they are just buying 2 copies (sword + shield) because they want to support the game?

You friend is a pokemon fanatic who wants to catch them all (well about half of them all if were being honest)
 
Last edited:

Clarissa

Banned
You friend is a pokemon fanatic who wants to catch them all (well about half of them all if were being honest)
So there's half the pokemon and sword and half the pokemon in shield?
And you need to buy both sword and shield to get all?

I'm still a little confused.
 
So there's half the pokemon and sword and half the pokemon in shield?
And you need to buy both sword and shield to get all?

I'm still a little confused.

No, generally speaking about 10% of the Pokemon in the game will be exclusive to that game, the rest being available across either version.

So if you bought Sword for example, you wouldn't have access to about 10% of your Pokedex as those Pokemon can only be found in Shield. The same will be true the other way round.

The idea is that you don't buy both games, but you buy one version (e.g. Sword) and a friend buys the other version (e.g. Shield) and to catch all the Pokemon, you trade the version exclusives with each other.

That's assuming you care about catching every Pokemon that is. And most of the time you can just trade with strangers online anyway to catch them all if you want to. So no, you shouldn't buy both games because they are the exact same games but with a few Pokemon exclusive to each that you can get by trading.
 

Clarissa

Banned
No, generally speaking about 10% of the Pokemon in the game will be exclusive to that game, the rest being available across either version.

So if you bought Sword for example, you wouldn't have access to about 10% of your Pokedex as those Pokemon can only be found in Shield. The same will be true the other way round.

The idea is that you don't buy both games, but you buy one version (e.g. Sword) and a friend buys the other version (e.g. Shield) and to catch all the Pokemon, you trade the version exclusives with each other.

That's assuming you care about catching every Pokemon that is. And most of the time you can just trade with strangers online anyway to catch them all if you want to. So no, you shouldn't buy both games because they are the exact same games but with a few Pokemon exclusive to each that you can get by trading.

I see. Thanks for explaining.

I have this feeling that if other developers pull off such a thing, they'd receive lots of hate though...
 
  • Like
Reactions: TLZ

Codes 208

Member
Ive been playing for three hours, barely into the wild area (been focused on catching all the pokemon possible.) i have no idea how some people have beaten this in just over twice that time, i guess because im a completionist?

that said, while i can definitely say the graphics arent amazing, its serviceable and ive been having a lot of fun so far.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Ive been playing for three hours, barely into the wild area (been focused on catching all the pokemon possible.) i have no idea how some people have beaten this in just over twice that time, i guess because im a completionist?

that said, while i can definitely say the graphics arent amazing, its serviceable and ive been having a lot of fun so far.

I have seen a guy playing and he was freaking bad. I mean, he doesn't know shit about s-effective moves and waste time with battles. It was a pain to watch.

Yet he beat the game in 13 hours.
 
I have seen a guy playing and he was freaking bad. I mean, he doesn't know shit about s-effective moves and waste time with battles. It was a pain to watch.

Yet he beat the game in 13 hours.

Probably skipping most trainer battles and speeding through the dialog. Most reviews say a regular playthrough clockis in at 30-40h.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Probably skipping most trainer battles and speeding through the dialog. Most reviews say a regular playthrough clockis in at 30-40h.

Nope. Thanks to trainer battles, his pokemon were overleved by the half of playthrough. And he wasn't skipping dialogues(another bad point about seeing his video, since they're way too much frequent).
The pacing initially is slow, but after a 3 badges it increases considerabilly.
 
Last edited:

mcjmetroid

Member
Because every reviewer is biased towards Nintendo and gives them a pass, and of course we can only ever trust negative reviews as they are the only ones telling it as it is. ;)

This isn't related to just Nintendo though... not when Grand Theft Auto 4/5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 exist.

But it IS a problem I must admit but again it's not EVERY Nintendo franchise. It tends to be a Zelda(not the spinoffs)/Mario platformer/ Game Freak Pokemon issue.
it's more obvious with Pokemon because..... well LOOK AT IT!

There is a double standard even with Nintendo games.
Fire Emblem got fair scores - some of which criticize it's graphics heavily despite being a game that doesn't particularly need good graphics but yet Pokemon has arguably worse graphics and get's a pass in most reviews....
 
Last edited:
This isn't related to just Nintendo though... not when Grand Theft Auto 4/5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 exist.

But it IS a problem I must admit but again it's not EVERY Nintendo franchise. It tends to be a Zelda(not the spinoffs)/Mario platformer/ Game Freak Pokemon issue.
it's more obvious with Pokemon because..... well LOOK AT IT!

There is a double standard even with Nintendo games.
Fire Emblem got fair scores - some of which criticize it's graphics heavily despite being a game that doesn't particularly need good graphics but yet Pokemon has arguably worse graphics and get's a pass in most reviews....

Three Houses does a lot of stuff to modernize the franchise in a positive way that Pokemon refuses to do. It's freaking 2019 and Pokemon still refuses use voice dialogue ffs.

They have all of these cinematic cutscenes with the gym leaders that people clearly spent time on and it's just fucking bizarre that there's no voice work when it would make the game better. It doesn't make any sense, I mean shit like voiced dialogue should be a no brainer.
 

Zog

Banned
Three Houses does a lot of stuff to modernize the franchise in a positive way that Pokemon refuses to do. It's freaking 2019 and Pokemon still refuses use voice dialogue ffs.

They have all of these cinematic cutscenes with the gym leaders that people clearly spent time on and it's just fucking bizarre that there's no voice work when it would make the game better. It doesn't make any sense, I mean shit like voiced dialogue should be a no brainer.

I am sure I am in the minority but I prefer no voice acting but since I usually play with the volume way down, it doesn't matter anyway.
 

m.i.s.

Banned
So...is this game crap or what? :messenger_beaming:

Better than PKMN Sun / Moon at least I hope. The hand-holding on that was, like, totally...dire.
 
Last edited:

Saber

Gold Member
So...is this game crap or what? :messenger_beaming:

Better than PKMN Sun / Moon at least I hope. The hand-holding on that was, like, totally...dire.

The hand-holding in this game is 2 times worse. The game basically heals your mons everytime. The only difference here is that you can skip cutscenes.

I recommend watch gameplay and walkthroughs if you feel like it.
 

m.i.s.

Banned
The hand-holding in this game is 2 times worse. The game basically heals your mons everytime. The only difference here is that you can skip cutscenes.

I recommend watch gameplay and walkthroughs if you feel like it.

Uh-oh, not good. Thanks for the advice anyway.
 

RealGassy

Banned
Uh-oh, metacritic user reviews are in, and they are ... where you'd expect them to be.
The only question is will Nintendo / GameFreak pay off Metacritic to remove the low rated ones?

It would be quite spectacular if they did, and left Pokemon with avg user score of 9 (like what happened with Astral Chain).
And the drama from that move... would be something to behold!
 

StormCell

Member
Uh-oh, metacritic user reviews are in, and they are ... where you'd expect them to be.
The only question is will Nintendo / GameFreak pay off Metacritic to remove the low rated ones?

It would be quite spectacular if they did, and left Pokemon with avg user score of 9 (like what happened with Astral Chain).
And the drama from that move... would be something to behold!

Did people not love Astral Chain?
 

Outrunner

Member
People were more hyped to be able to bash another Nintendo game than to play it. It's sad. I don't care about Pokémon and will most likely skip these games, but I'm glad for all those who got and are enjoying it.
 

RealGassy

Banned
Did people not love Astral Chain?

It might have had a legit case of review bombing.
The problem though is that in between those "fake 0 and 1" were also quite a lot of legit reviewers who didn't like the game.
And then you get a bunch of people who spam 10s to counteract it.
But by removing only all of the negative 0-1 reviews (and not removing spammed 10s), game ends up with unreasonably high scores.

I have Astral Chain, and I'm still stuck in the early chapters... because the game is just kinda boring and generic. It's meh.
It was heavily overhyped and overrated on release.
 
Last edited:

StormCell

Member
It might have had a legit case of review bombing.
The problem though is that in between those "fake 0 and 1" were also quite a lot of legit reviewers who didn't like the game.
And then you get a bunch of people who spam 10s to counteract it.
But by removing only all of the negative 0-1 reviews (and not removing spammed 10s), game ends up with unreasonably high scores.

I have Astral Chain, and I'm still stuck in the early chapters... because the game is just kinda boring and generic. It's meh.
It was heavily overhyped and overrated on release.

That sucks for Metacritic. There's no winning.

Yeah, I can see there's a lot of legit complaints. Game Freak isn't lazy -- definitely not. What they are is greedy, and what they're doing is going cheap on the production values.

It sucks that games can't just be fun, though. Nintendo is pretty bad about going cheap on certain aspects of their games, and they're particularly bad about hand-holding. They usually hit the fun factor though, whereas many other games don't do it for me.
 

PocoJoe

Banned
Or those things are just ancilliary to her experience and she just enjoyed the game that much. *shrug*

Those problems are big deals to you, obviously, but it would be a big mistake to assume that everyone notices what you do let alone values those things the same way. You'd be shocked by the number of people who watch movies with autosmoothing running full-blast and just don't care.

Note: I'm not saying you're too sensitive or somehow wrong to care about those issues, not at all, but assuming she A. noticed them B. cared and C. went against her own feelings just to combat the opinions of those that do care is silly.

Then she is incompetent and shitty "reviewer".

That should be her job, compare and review all aspects of the game.

But maybe she is one of these "gamer girls" that rides with her female status, so then it would be understandable.
 

Shouta

Member
Seems to be the general sentiment...

It seems like most were expecting something huge.

It's somewhat understandable since this is the first foray into home console territory for the main series. The Switch is still a portable too though it's not like the devs were known for putting that much into the graphics.

But eh, I've been out of sync with a lot of fandoms nowadays so what do i know lol
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
It seems like most were expecting something huge.

It's somewhat understandable since this is the first foray into home console territory for the main series. The Switch is still a portable too though it's not like the devs were known for putting that much into the graphics.

But eh, I've been out of sync with a lot of fandoms nowadays so what do i know lol

Yeah, unfortunately for Game Freak at least, "Pokémon Breath of the Wild" has been hyped for years at this point.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Uh-oh, metacritic user reviews are in, and they are ... where you'd expect them to be.
The only question is will Nintendo / GameFreak pay off Metacritic to remove the low rated ones?

It would be quite spectacular if they did, and left Pokemon with avg user score of 9 (like what happened with Astral Chain).
And the drama from that move... would be something to behold!

Ah yes, Metacritic where user reviews are just bombs 99% of the time and are about as accurate as Helen Keller with a bow. Such a great and accurate way to tell if a game is good/bad. /s
 
Last edited:

zeorhymer

Member
This whole thing to me sounds like Jim who game Senua a 0 because of a game breaking bug. So what if the reviewer gave it a high score because it didn't do the things that other people say it did.
 
Last edited:
On a positive note WE MADE IT FIRE EMBLEM FANS. FIRST ENTRY ON A CONSOLE WITH A SUPERIOR MC SCORE (89) better fan recpetion!! and a contender for Switch GOTY!!

rocky.celebrating.gif
 

Fake

Member
Ah yes, Metacritic where user reviews are just bombs 99% of the time and are about as accurate as Helen Keller with a bow. Such a great and accurate way to tell if a game is good/bad. /s
So, is safe to say Death Stranding user review score get bombed as well?
 

Codes 208

Member
Played a little bit and the graphics are pretty solid for what they're aiming for. It's a leap over the Let's Go titles and the animations have subtle improvements. It's about what I was expecting though I was hoping for a bit more, mostly in the environments.
I would say LG is cleaner and the textures are better but youre comparing a very strict birds eye view versus a more open game. It’s like comparing links awakening to botw
 

RealGassy

Banned
Ah yes, Metacritic where user reviews are just bombs 99% of the time and are about as accurate as Helen Keller with a bow. Such a great and accurate way to tell if a game is good/bad. /s
Arguably way more accurate than reading "games journalists" who are more or less bought and paid for and will never ever criticize a major franchise.
User reviews are signals, and every time a game gets review bombed, there is a usually a good reason for it.
And in case of this game, most of the low ratings are warranted.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
So, is safe to say Death Stranding user review score get bombed as well?

Death Stranding, Pokemon, any popular game - Metacritic has never been known for accurate community review scores. The only reason people use them are to justify their preconceived hate or for the purposes of console warring.

Arguably way more accurate than reading "games journalists" who are more or less bought and paid for and will never ever criticize a major franchise.
User reviews are signals, and every time a game gets review bombed, there is a usually a good reason for it.
And in case of this game, most of the low ratings are warranted.

Hence why you choose people you trust. Youtubers, twitch streamers, reviewers that you know and have similar interests that you do.

As for your silly views on Review Bombing, would you then say that groups like ResetEra have a good reason to review bomb Catherine or Persona 5 Royale? Or is it only when those views align with what you want?
 
Last edited:


sFvw9CD.jpg


I usually don't care much about review scores, but the fact that they rated this barely functioning buggy mess higher than DQXI is simply beyond me. If it is true that IGN rates games based on genre, there's simply no way Pokemon S&S is objectively a better game than DQXI. Both are turn based RPGs, but DQXI has a more engaging storyline, better visuals, deeper gameplay mechanics and much more content, yet here they are giving Pokemon an almost perfect score.

Don't tell me there isn't some major bias going on here.
 

Fake

Member


sFvw9CD.jpg


I usually don't care much about review scores, but the fact that they rated this barely functioning buggy mess higher than DQXI is simply beyond me. If it is true that IGN rates games based on genre, there's simply no way Pokemon S&S is objectively a better game than DQXI. Both are turn based RPGs, but DQXI has a more engaging storyline, better visuals, deeper gameplay mechanics and much more content, yet here they are giving Pokemon an almost perfect score.

Don't tell me there isn't some major bias going on here.


What I find more stupid is some fans around era, reddit and even gaf saying for you to 'not look at the score inself, just read the write review', but they keep bring the metacritic score for bash people whining about game.

I already read this Pokemon Shield/Sword from IGN more than three times now and found so many inconsistencies. Of course there is some bias.

Metacritic don't help either with that stupid 'must play' badge.
 
Last edited:

RealGassy

Banned
Death Stranding, Pokemon, any popular game - Metacritic has never been known for accurate community review scores.
"user reviews" and user score is more about providing useful signal rather than giving an "accurate number".
WTF is an accurate community review score anyway? Or are you claiming they are inaccurate because they don't match critic scores?

In case of Death Stranding the signal is that it's a "boring walking simulator".
In case of Pokemon the signal is that the game cuts content(dex), is short, rushed and very linear and has 3DS graphics in HD.
In case of Mortal Kombat 11 is that game is ridden full of microtransaction bullshit.
In case of Pilars of Eternity and Bloodstained on Switch the signal is that the game is shipped in barely playable state and full of bugs.

Those things are not obvious looking at "games journalist" reviews which are full of platitudes.
"Games journalists" are absolutely toothless. Most notable Youtubers basically operate under the same "never say anything bad about a franchize" that games "journalists" do.

As for your silly views on Review Bombing, would you then say that groups like ResetEra have a good reason to review bomb Catherine or Persona 5 Royale? Or is it only when those views align with what you want?
I know next to nothing about Cathrine, or P5 Royale or what it has to do with Resetera, so you'll have to fill me in.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom