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Putting aside any expectations of innovation: are any of the Switch mainline Pokemon games worth getting?

jigglet

Banned
I want to play a pokemon game. I wanted to like Let’s Go but the one handed controls were ridiculous.

Putting aside how little it’s innovated recently, are any of them worth getting? Also bear in mind I was a huge fan of the originals but haven’t played anything after Red / Blue and Black / White so I have no nostalgia as far as remakes go.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
My son played the hell out of Sword / Shield but I've never gotten into the series beyond card games. I did appreciate seeing the (limited) open-world areas of SS--it at least looks far more adventurous than any of the prior series games I've seen him playing, and he owns pretty much everything from the original gameboy titles to the DS / 3DS entries.
 

jigglet

Banned
My son played the hell out of Sword / Shield but I've never gotten into the series beyond card games. I did appreciate seeing the (limited) open-world areas of SS--it at least looks far more adventurous than any of the prior series games I've seen him playing, and he owns pretty much everything from the original gameboy titles to the DS / 3DS entries.

Yeah I’m eyeing this one. It looks like the most appealing of the lot.
 

Fbh

Member
If you like the world and concept of Pokemon and you like the core Pokemon game experience I think you'd probably find enjoyment in Sword and Shield.
It's essentially more of the same but with some decent quality of life improvements (specially compared to the older games) and the best visuals yet (which doesn't mean they are actually good).

If you don't have any strong attachment to Pokemon itself and just want a fun JRPG where you collect, power up and evolve monsters you could look into SMTV which releases later this year.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
If you don't have any strong attachment to Pokemon itself and just want a fun JRPG where you collect, power up and evolve monsters you could look into SMTV which releases later this year.
Ni No Kuni is also on Switch, and includes catching / leveling creatures inside a very impressive, large RPG.
 

Corgi1985

Banned
FUCK NO. sword/shield is one of the worst RPGS ever made and easily the worst switch game (worse than the eshop shovelware even).

1. The difficulty is absolutely braindead easy, making any strategy/team composition/rpg mechanics absolutely worthless. Just pick your strongest dude and steamroll everything until the end. Nothing requires any thought or nuance. A coma patient could beat this game.

2. The world design absolutely fucking sucks. This game is basically one hallway from beginning to end (almost as bad as the first half of FF13) with no dungeons/caves to explore or puzzles to solve. There is no interesting world building or exploration in here at all.

3. Looks like shit and runs like ass. If you enjoy sub 30 fps and assets ripped from the n64 you might still hate this game.

4. The fuck is this story? A story with zero momentum until something is asspulled at the very end.

So so far we have some abysmally easy gameplay, nothing worth exploring, a bad story, and poor performance and visuals. There is more below the shitburg once you get to the endgame but even just the above should put you off.

Dont reward gamefreak's mediocrity. Each pokemon entry has been taking away features and getting worse. This series used to actually have a hard mode and a story if you can believe it, not that you would think so by playing this game. A boring waste of time, don't play this garbage.
 
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Saber

Gold Member
If you don't want to invest or don't have any interest in those games, might as well pick Sword and Shield since they're very dry games in absolutelly all aspects and won't gonna make you go back for more.

If you do care, might as well pick DS versions like Black and White or even risk yourself with Moon and Sun. Lets Go could be an another choice for you but in terms of investment its a total mix bag and have some glaring difficulty problems.
 
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YukiOnna

Member
Sword/Shield are fun. The atmosphere of the gyms battles this time around are great, but you should also play the DS titles, too.
 

Rawdirt

Neo Member
I’d say wait for Diamond and Pearl remakes. Let’s Go and Sword/Shield are so dumbed down it was tough to slog through.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Shield was the first one I played in many generations so I found it a fun nostalgic romp with some small but significant improvements to the formula. Didn't realize it was hated by fans.

The new remakes are probably gonna be crowd pleasers for the purists but I have my eye on Arceus
 

RafterXL

Member
All the new Pokemon games are pretty terrible. Even my 8 year old nephew thought Sword/Shield was bad. If you want a pokemon *like* experience, Digimon Cyber Sleuth Complete is on Switch, and is excellent, otherwise there aren't any good Pokemon games anymore.
 

jigglet

Banned
Ok so it seems I should wait for the remake. Should I be concerned that the development was outsourced?
 

Y0ssarian

Banned
A friend and myself played Sword/Shield and talked over discord. We had a lot of fun, especially doing the Wild area and trading game exclusive Pokemon. I got Haxorus and a tonne of rare candy and steamrolled the game. Never played let's go evee/Pikachu. Looking forward to Brilliant Diamond and the Arceus game
 

jigglet

Banned
SwSh is good. Haters love to exaggerate.

Hence the title of my post "putting aside any expectations of innovation". I don't care if it's stagnant, not ambitious enough etc etc. I know Gamefreak has been unacceptably slow pushing the franchise forward.

But if I were to ignore all of that and look at this in isolation, is it good? I'm also ok with stupidly easy games so if it's a breeze this is actually a bonus for me. I'd just like a fun Pokemon game I play mess about in while trying to push all the bitterness aside about what it could be.
 
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MagnesG

Banned
Hence the title of my post "putting aside any expectations of innovation". I don't care if it's stagnant, not ambitious enough etc etc. I know Gamefreak has been unacceptably slow pushing the franchise forward.

But if I were to ignore all of that and look at this in isolation, is it good? I'm also ok with stupidly easy games so if it's a breeze this is actually a bonus for me. I'd just like a fun Pokemon game I play mess about in while trying to push all the bitterness aside about what it could be.
It had never dissappoints if based on your standards. It always delivers the core Pokemon experience for every release, even SwSh.
 

Same ol G

Member
Wow I wasn't aware Sword / Shield were that bad.
Sword/Shield is really good and if you buy the expansions you can go on a legendary hunt to catch a big part of the legendarys troughout the series.
People hating on the game saying it's worse than shovelware can easily be ignored, those opinions are wothless and made by people who don't play the games but act like they do.
 

Same ol G

Member
Shield was the first one I played in many generations so I found it a fun nostalgic romp with some small but significant improvements to the formula. Didn't realize it was hated by fans.

The new remakes are probably gonna be crowd pleasers for the purists but I have my eye on Arceus
Those are not fans, probably people who hate the series and are only capable of spewing hateful and toxic comments.
 
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