Pokemon Sword and Shield Review

So hey there guys. I felt like giving own little review for Pokemon Sword and Shield. I'm not even 100% sure why I'm doing this, but it felt like it was something that I needed to do, and I've had sort of an itch to do it as well. With that being said, I'm not gonna really touch on the big issue of Sword and Shield which is the national dex. We know about it, we've talked about it, and I don't know about you all, but I am goddamn tired of it. So with that being said, let's dive (into aquatic mine) right in. Oh and I'll try to keep things spoiler free as best I can. Just feels like the right thing to do is all.

GAMEPLAY:
Now this shouldn't go without saying, but as far as the standard formula for pokemon goes, Sword and Shield doesn't divert from that. You catch pokemon, you train em up, you use them to defeat other people's pokemon and progress through the game. Simple as that. One of the notable features of the game is that in this iteration the EXP share can't be turned off...or rather there's no exp share at all. Simply put, all of your pokemon gain EXP regardless of if they're in battle or not. While I was somewhat skeptical of this change, it felt like GameFreak at least tried to balance the game around this...somewhat. I'll explain what I mean by that 'somewhat' in a bit. Gym leaders actually manage to be a decent challenge this time around as some of them will mix things up with their pokemon. For instance, one particular gym leader messes around with weather effects and in fact, doesn't have too many pokemon that fit their particular typing or end up using peculiar dual-types to nullify the standard weaknesses they'd have. This was cool to see and another interesting note is that, as I said before, it felt like GameFreak balanced around that EXP all thing? Yeah...don't expect to be over leveled for these fights...unless you do a few particular things.

This goes into what I meant by 'somewhat' balanced. In the game, there's the 'Wild Area'. You get access to it fairly early on and there are a myriad amount of pokemon there(along with weather conditions that make me question what the hell is going on with the place) and continuing the trend from the last few games. When you catch pokemon, your party all gain exp. See where I'm going with this? If you spend some time catching wild pokemon here, you WILL gain some extra levels. But that's not all. There also 'Pokemon Dens' here which can house Dynamax pokemon. Giant pokemon that require 4 people to take down (lord help you if you go in here with AI controlled allies). How does this contribute you ask? Well, when you catch Dynamax pokemon you're rewarded with a hell of a lot of items. From TRs (basically old school TMs that break after one use), to treasure items like Big Pearls, to EXP candies. Now THIS is the big one. EXP candies come in sizes ranging from small to extra large. Pop a few of these on your pokemon and you can gain even MORE levels for your team or more reasonably, other pokemon you may want to integrate into your team.

But wait there's more! Surely you've heard of the curry dex! This neat little feature is something that can be done while camping. You have the option to cook some food for you and your pokemon. Upon doing so, if you do everything correctly, you get some useful effects. Such as your team being healed, reviving fainted pokemon, and restoring PP! This is actually useful I find, because if you're low on items, you can cook up a meal (provided you have at least 10 berries to cook with) and keep trekking on your adventure. There is one particular thing though: Cooking also gives your team exp! Yep, yet another way to gain levels for your team! This feels just a bit unneeded. The healing effects are more than enough really and this just felt like overkill.

Another to mention about the Wild Area is that every day the weather conditions change, causing different pokemon to spawn. You'll even find some evolved forms of pokemon running around like Machamp or Gengar. Good luck catching them though, as if they're too high level the pokemon will 'refuse to let their guard down.' This is justify the collection of badges as the more you get allow you catch 'Wandering Pokemon'(Pokemon that spawn OUTSIDE of the grass). that are higher leveled. That aside, the Wild Area felt fun to run around in and seeing so many different types of pokemon made the world feel a bit more alive.

STORY:
The story of this game...hoo boy. Look, it's a pokemon game, they're not really gonna go all that crazy with it. It's pretty by the books for the most part. You and your rival both compete in the pokemon league to attain the title of Champion. Really...that's the story for most of the game. There's also the mystery of the 'two heroes' of Galar, but this felt more like a side thing a lot of the time. Heck, for most of the story it felt like there was no real antagonist at all. Team Yell? They definitely do not fit that bill. They're more like a mild nuisance (that even Marnie, the girl they love to cheer for) finds exasperating at times. It felt like there's absolutely no conflict...until the VERY end of the main game where just as you're going through the the finals of the gym challenge you're suddenly dropped with some motivation rant of the 'villain'. I use the term villain extremely loosely here. It was frankly, really fucking bad and I can't believe someone at GameFreak thought that was okay.

That said, one that did interest me is the spin on Pokemon Gyms this time around. The entire gym challenge is treated as a big sport. This is the first time where the gym battles are these grandiose spectacles that people watch on tv at home. Each gym (Well, except one) has people filling the bleachers and screaming their lungs out at the action going on below them. It was refreshing to see and an excellent touch. Even after getting all 8 badges, there's no elite four. No, instead the gym leaders come back for another tournament to face off against you and the other gym challengers for the chance to become Champion, and when they come back they aren't screwing around either. As one of them puts it "The first battle was just a test. This time it's for real." There's also a bit of postgame story, but as I'm avoiding spoilers I won't delve into it. Suffice to say, it was more of a resounding meh, and the antagonists get off really easy for the trouble they cause which left a sour taste in my mouth.

CHARACTERS:
I'm not gonna even mention our main character. We're a plank of wood. Hell, I'm pretty certain that we have that same blank smile on our face for most of the time. Instead, we'll talk about the characters around us. Let's start with Hop, our rival. Now at first, Hop struck me as another Hau (S/M version) and I thought I was going to grow to hate him. However, as the story goes on it becomes clea that Hop has some issues that only build up thanks to consecutive losses against you as well as living in his brother's shadow. It's interesting to see throughout the story how he deals with it all and the ultimate conclusion he comes to at the end of the game.

Next is Marnie, one of the gym challengers of note you meet later on. As it was said, she's the girl that Team Yell is cheering on. It's funny to see that in their efforts to cheer Marnie on, Team Yell cause problems for other trainers and when Marnie finds out, she's...actually pretty cool and tells them all off, often feeling embarrassed at the lengths they go to. It's also interesting to see her stake in the gym challenge and why she wants to win it. I won't go into why, but it helps show just how much of a spectacle Dynamax battles are seen as in Galar.

Next is Bede. He's probably the most 'Gary' like of your rivals in the game. Every time he sees you, he exudes a holier-than-thou sort of attitude to the circumstances of how he got into the gym challenge. There's even a bit of surprising twist about halfway through the game in regards to him, but again, I won't spoil anything.

Overall though, Hop is probably the most developed of the cast. There's also Sonia I suppose, but she very much just feels like she's just 'there' doing pokemon professor stuff instead of going through any real development. I know that this particular part may seem short, but this is how the characters felt for the most part to me. At the very least, let us all be happy that Hop isn't like Hau or the rival from LGPE.

His name is still fucking stupid though.

MUSIC:
The music is pretty standard pokemon fair. There really didn't feel like there were any standout tracks except for the Gym Leader theme. It actually will get you kind of pumped up during the Gym battles when a Gym Leader is down to their last pokemon and they use Dynamax causing the crowd to break out into a cheer that goes with the tune. Pretty great, and yes the Toby Fox song is there too and I think the best I can say about it is that it sounds just how you'd expect a Toby Fox song to sound.

FLAWS THAT STUCK OUT TO ME:
1.Be Careful when going online in the Wild Area. You WILL lag here and there. It's fine if you don't go online however, so if the frame drops piss you off enough, there's at least some form of solution to it.
2.Don't expect too much for the routes in this game. They're very...straightforward I'd say. To go along with this, there really  aren't any dungeons and even when you go in caves, you won't be in there long.
3.Sometimes the game will crash without reason. I only had it happen twice, but one was during a pokemon battle and it crashed right after I caught something. I didn't get to keep the pokemon.
4.Towns, while looking nice, don't seem to have much to them. In fact, one town that has a gym is a STRAIGHT LINE with the only thing of note is a pokemon center. It was extremely disappointing to see.
5.Some pokemon are so small they're actually obscured by the grass. While a nice touch at first, at some points it can be more annoying than anything.
6. The lack of GTS is irritating. I feel like I have to rely more on surprise trade...which is what it sounds like: You don't know what it is you're gonna get.

There's probably more I'm forgetting about here, but I won't draw this out any further. Ultimately, this game is not as bad as the doomsayers out there make it out to be. However, it is not as amazing as the games defenders make it out to be either. Is it a fun game? Yes. Is it the pinnacle of pokemon and super mega amazing? Not really.

I feel it can be best summed up like this: On the bright side. It's pokemon...and on the negative side...it's pokemon.