Pokémon Shield or Sword (Nintendo Switch) Expired

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Not the best Pokemon game tbh. I bought this knowing it was sort of a half-assed game from GameFreak but I really wanted a mainline Pokemon game to play on my Switch. Even with low expectations, I was still very disappointed with what we got. In terms of combat, it's still a Pokemon game. But when you start looking around at all the other aspects is when you start noticing all the cracks.

The devs have put in minimal effort in trying to take advantage of the more powerful hardware of the Switch compared to the 3DS. Textures look ugly (tress look straight out of the N64 era) and animations are rudimentary (in a cutscene in the early hours of the game, your mom gives you your camping equipment but instead of animating her lugging around a tent or gift then handing it to you, she's standing about 8 ft away from your character, slightly raises her empty hand then puts it down, and the game informs you that you've been given the camping equipment).

GameFreak said they spent most of the development time working on Pokemon animations, and while I understand that there are hundreds of different Pokemon to animate, I still can't see where all that effort went because most of them just repeat the same 2-3 animations with different effects to convey a different move.

Then there's the open-world portions of the game that, while probably one of the better ideas they've had, isn't executed very well. Each area of the open-world has its own list of Pokemon that could possibly spawn on it. But the list is dictated by weather that changes once a day. So if you're looking for a specific Pokemon and the weather doesn't line up with the area just right, then it's possible that you'll have to wait a few real world days to find what you're looking for.

I haven't bought the DLC because I heard it is just as disappointing and I probably never will. All in all, it's killed a lot of my excitement about playing another Pokemon game in the future. And this is coming from someone who has been playing them since Red/Blue. None of this is acceptable on a console that also gave us the gorgeous Breath of the Wild.

TL;DR: If you just want a Pokemon game and don't care about anything besides the gameplay, then this is still the same old Pokemon and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. But if you can't overlook the lack of polish, then I would caution against picking this up.

As an adult with nostalgia for the old GameBoy iterations of Pokémon, this game fell flat. There are no explorative micro environments like safari zone or Mt. Moon. No team rocket towers or side missions like the cruise ship in R/B. No exciting Pokémon encounters other than the Legendaries on the covers of the games. No depth to the story - just a hand to hold yours from start to finish to make sure you don't get lost or confused, or god forbid, learn through trial and error how to master being a Pokémon trainer along your journey.

I could forgive the lackluster graphics or the absence of some Pokémon favorites. I can't forgive the clear lack of effort to make a meaningful or fun story to immerse yourself into. I didn't lose a battle the entire time I played this game with the exception of a few of the Gigantamax Pokémon battles in the wild. It was an uninspiring cash grab that preys on the nostalgia of a game franchise that used to be amazing. I'd rather go back and play some of the earlier generation games I missed rather than play any more of sword or shield.