The karate guys on champion road, the golfer at hokulani, lotta laughs. Best trainer placement of any Pokémon game to date by far. Parallel universe ultra recon squad giving story elements and designs new to the series. For anyone who takes interest in the bad guys of the main games over the past 21 years. Probably the most fun I’ve had in the overworld of any Pokémon game ever. Fun to look for these even if there was no reward, but there is a pretty cool reward for every certain number of stickers. The most fun and entertaining exploration element in any Pokémon game to date. Fun to look for these even if The Awesome -Totem Stickers. With Diamond and Pearl remakes on the horizon and Legends: Arceus also coming soon, Game Freak and Nintendo have opportunities to reroute what Pokémon looks like on the Switch and going forward. With in-world battles and a need to vary terrain, the game could fix what makes Pokémon Sword and Shield less spectacular than the emulated 3DS HD versions.The Awesome -Totem Stickers. Sword and Shield could be simply a misstep in terms of graphics, however.
Newer Pokémon games have made the series approachable for casual players and less grindy for veterans, but it's failed to capture some of the magic of the Game Boy era games. The transition period between classic Pokémon entries and 3D ones has proved to be a challenging one for Game Freak. Older games can get away with cartoony movement and smaller frame rates but even on the Switch, a system known for being less powered than its competition, there are first-party games that look wonderful in HD and miles better than the current generation of Pokémon. There are areas that the 3DS games fall shorter than the Switch versions, but overall, it is easier to understand that they still gave comparative experiences on last-gen hardware. Expectations are important to keep in mind as when placed side to side in HD, the games still look similar.
The 3DS games were built with its hardware and storage capacities in mind but the Nintendo Switch version feels small in comparison to other games for the platform. In many ways, Sword and Shield feel like a classic, strategic, and refreshingly difficult Pokémon game that graphically doesn’t live up to the new generation of consoles. Since the theming of newer Pokémon entries has evolved and become more unique, going back to a more recognizable and piecemeal setting feels like a step back. Rock textures on mountains feel especially barren and even Galar town designs feel lesser than the vibrant nature of Alola. Sword and Shield boast a lot of fields, lakes, and forests mirroring the United Kingdom and the European countryside, but without the detail to back those epic landscapes up, they end up feeling empty. Sun and Moon are based on tropical island locales such as the Pacific Islands and Hawaii, so there is a wider variety of landscapes like volcanoes, waterfalls, and seaside cities, and the foliage looks more specialized than Sword and Shield. With Pokémon X and Y, however, it was made clear that future Pokémon regions would be heavily inspired by countries in the real world going forward - France, in that game. Up until recently, when Game Freak said Pokémon regions were inspired by different countries and locales, this mostly meant in terms of game design and not necessarily graphics. While this ultimately didn’t stop Pokémon Sword and Shield from selling well due in part to the Switch’s overall success, it did put a damper on the excitement of a new generation. However, when previews started surfacing, players felt the game was only on par with the titles created for the 3DS and the Pokémon Let’s Go games - there are even Sword and Shield-inspired cards that look better in the TCG.
Given the upgrade in power the Switch had versus its predecessors, people were expecting a new era with comparable graphics to Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey. However, even upon release, critics and fans alike were skeptical of the graphical quality of the games - with many noting how it didn’t look all too different from the 3DS games in the previous generation, Sun and Moon.Īlthough there’s some moments of visual flourish, many fans were disappointed in the graphical jump back to home consoles.
The games are now approaching two years old and people have enjoyed the addition of Dynamaxing, Team Raids, and improvements of online capabilities. Pokémon: Legends Arceus may be on the horizon, but the current generation of mainline Pokémon games is still Pokémon Sword and Shield.