The Good
- music is good. Gym battle remix sounds cool.
- some good quality of life changes, like being able to access the PC box from anywhere.
- the new wild encounter system is better because it makes the Pokemon feel more organic, like if you randomly ran into a squirrel or a bird in real life, which are what Sword and Shield depicts.
The Bad
- although the graphics are better, all the character models still move very robotically.
- the game is way too easy. Easier than any of the previous Pokemon games. I hardly caught any Pokemon and only fought battles what's trainers that I came across on route but still every gym battle and major battle was super easy. The only slightly challenging battle was the very last one. Don't the devs understand that fans who have played their main Pokemon games are in their 20s and 30s now? Why have they did they dumb down the experience even more? This is a main title for long time fans. Why would they take steps backwards in terms of gameplay difficulty and depth?
- The simplicity of the game rendered many of the items, berries, and other buffs you find absolutely useless. You can get through the game using nothing but maybe some potions.
- There's a huge crowd cheering you on every gym battle, and you are praised as the upcoming Pokemon champion left and right, and by the end of it when you do attain that title, it feels empty and like a bunch of lies. It's like beating Sekiro or Dark Souls 3 with an infinite health hack. You can brag and get all the praise you want from friends, but secretly inside you know you didn't earn it. There was no challenge. It was like taking candy from a baby. That's what I felt after completing Pokemon Sword. There was zero satisfaction. I didn't overcome any obstacle. I simply held W, and walked straight through a park.
- much of the dialogue is way too cheesy. People simply don't talk like that in real life. After all, these are depictions of humans, so I feel they could have made the dialogue more organic.
- the dialogue choices that you make in the game do not have any impact on the outcome even in the short term.
- the game emphasizes on the importance of super effective moves, yet there is no ability or item that scans the opponents stats for weaknesses. How is a new player who doesn't know about the Pokemon in later generations supposed to know what weaknesses Pokemon has. This makes the choice of what Pokemon to use luck based. Sure I can just choose any random pokemon, and throw out their strongest move. But this makes the battles very shallow, and out of my control.
- hop kisses your ass too much. The way he treats you makes him feel like a little bitch. It's very unnatural.
- piers and Marnie constantly calling each other bro and sis is so unnatural. I get it if they said it the first couple times to let the audience know, but every time after that just becomes weird.
- Dynamaxing doesn't add any depth to the battles. Just a bit more status effects to moves. It's all for show.
- There is nothing particularly interesting about the plot. No twists. No turns. It was very predictable what was going on and who was going to be the bad guy. Old Pokemon games usually had a spooky ghost region with a slightly creepy atmosphere and back story, but every area in Sword and Shield felt so shallow. Besides looking different, there was no interesting narrative there.
- Team Yell made no sense. Their only purpose was to cheer on Marnie and Piers. And they randomly block paths for citizens for the stupidest reasons.