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LTTP: I'm a lapsed Pokemon fan and I'm loving Sword / Shield

jigglet

Banned
I put this game off for the longest while cause of all the hate it gets but I'm pleasantly surprised.

Yes I get hardcore Pokemon fans have a lot to hate about this. I'm not here to argue with you, I'm sure you are absolutely right when you get into the detail that I'm unaware of as a casual observer

My history with the franchise: I've only ever 100% completed one of them: Red and Blue. I collected 151 Pokemon and leveled my whole squad up to 100. Since then I've dabbled in them, finished a few campaigns, but that's about it. As the number of Pokemon grew so did my motivation to catch them all.

What I love so far:

1) The graphics. Yes, the graphics. This is probably the only point on which I will disagree with hardcore fans about. Because this doesn't look like Breath of the Wild doesn't mean it looks like total dog shit either, I'm not sure why people have to take the stance that it's either BOTW, or it's trash. It's crisp, clean, and runs at a smooth framerate. I've seen people post isolated pictures of bad textures and stuff, but I could do that with BOTW too.

2) I'm actually fine with how linear it is. I tend to pick it up and play for a few hours then will return to it days later. If all I need to remember is whether I need to go left or right, it gives me motivation to return to it, not worried I'll be totally lost about where I left off and having to spend 20 mins re-orienting myself.

3) Less Pokemon. I will catch a lot of hate for this but with 700 or whatever Pokemon each game features these days, the idea of catching them all feels insurmountable now. So as a causal player I actually love the idea of cutting it back a bit.

4) I love the amount of options: the ability to send Pokemon directly to boxes, not having to name them, etc. I wish all Nintendo games had such a long list of settings. I get irritated when I go to the settings of a game like say, Mario Kart, and there are literally only 3 options for me to configure.

5) The one handed controls have been much improved over Let's Go. I actually enjoy using them in this game, whereas I thought it was a deal breaker in Let's Go. Also it reminds me of the old Gameboy days where I'd walk around leveling up my Pokemon with just one hand while I was out and about doing other things.

The only thing I'm absolutely hating right now is how much more story there is. It feels like the Zelda franchise where it went from minimal story to holy-fuck-I-just-sent-45-mins-talking in Skyward Sword. I'm being stopped every few minutes with long dialogue sequences that I just don't give a flying fuck about. I'm only about an hour in but I hope it slows down cause I've never been so annoyed with a Pokemon game before when it comes to story. If this continues on I could see this being a deal breaking for me, but I'll have to see.

But other than that I'm really loving it so far.
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Funny it’s the first pokemon i didn’t even bother to reach the first gym. It was an absolute slog.

meanwhile pokemon let’s go pikachu.. all 153 pokemons.. caught. Because it felt fres
And the last main pokemon i enjoyed was oras. Because gen 1 2 and 3 are fine anything else? 😑

I think i will give pokemon dungeon a try. See if i like it. Got it for like 20 ☝️
 
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Read you only played Red and Blue and stopped reading. Nothing I can really say to you except player older, better games.

EDIT: Read the rest of the post. Apologies for being slightly ignorant but I still advise to play some of the older games if you can.

Played Sword and Shield this year, early impressions were mildly positive but late game I thought it was fucking terrible.
 
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Saiyan-Rox

Member
I'm glad you're enjoying it that's what matters at the end of the day.

I found it pretty boring and of course easy af

Is a hard mode so difficult to add? The amount of hand holding in these games is increasing with every single game to the point you'll be able to Auto Battle eventually.
 

jigglet

Banned
Read you only played Red and Blue and stopped reading. Nothing I can really say to you except player older, better games.

EDIT: Read the rest of the post. Apologies for being slightly ignorant but I still advise to play some of the older games if you can.

Played Sword and Shield this year, early impressions were mildly positive but late game I thought it was fucking terrible.

I really enjoyed the DS ones and could see myself playing them again if I had one around.

I have a 3DS around and I just don't enjoy using it. The slider pad I think is horrible and kills my motivation to spend much time with it.
 
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