Pokemon Sword

The Pokemon game, in a nutshell

Through the long busy days I have to go through these days, I usually get only just a ‘lil ‘bit of time for other things, including playing games (and writing about those here). But, those precious time, combined with the right game to play, helps me unwind after a rough day. That’s exactly what I feel when I was playing through Pokemon Sword. It is a fun and enjoying experience. On the other hand, Pokemon Sword also has several (kind of major) flaws that taints that experience.

When I turn on Pokemon Sword for the first time, the same kind of excitement washes over me like when I first boot up Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu. I mean, it’s finally time Pokemon is played on high-definition, right? I have played Pokemon from the Gameboy era (Red, Crystal), Gameboy Advanced (Emerald, FireRed/LeafGreen) and the DS (Platinum, HeartGold/SoulSilver, Black/White, Black 2/White 2). I experienced the first time Pokemon jumps into the 3D world in 3DS (X/Y, Sun/Moon, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon). Although Let’s Go Pikachu is the first game that you can play in high-definition, it’s not considered a mainline Pokemon game. So, officially, Pokemon Sword is the first mainline Pokemon game released in Nintendo Switch. The first time I finally entered the Galar region, I was greeted by the beautiful sight of “my” own hometown.

As per usual tradition on every other Pokemon game, in just a matter of minutes, you will get your starter Pokemon. I picked Grookey, just to be anti-mainstream (lel, that’s a pathetic reason). As per tradition starting in Sun/Moon, Galarian Hau Hop, your rival, chooses Sobble, which is weak against Grookey. Something that’s unique is that the other one, Scorbunny, will be picked by Leon, Galarian Hau Hop’s brother and currently reigning Champion. After that, you go straight into your journey of exploring all of Galar region.

The scenery of Wild Area

Early on the game, we arrived at the most anticipated thing to descend on Sword/Shield, and that is Wild Area. Wild Area is pretty much the Breath of the Wild treatment to the Pokemon, a wide open-world area full of Pokemon to discover and Dens that host Gigantamax Raid Battles (finally, some co-op PvE mechanics in a mainline Pokemon game!). Oh, what’s more exciting is that the level of the wild Pokemon found in the Wild Area is “uncapped”, meaning that you can encounter a Lv. 35 Pokemon while your average level of your party is only at Lv. 10. I like to call it, the Xenoblade treatment, and that significantly adds a new challenge to the game. It perfectly captures the feeling similar to when I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a while back. Encountering a Lv. 80 gorilla-thingy (sorry, I forgot the name, it’s been a while) in the first area of the game while Rex is only Lv. 8 is something that will induce some panic, and that’s exactly what I feel when I first encountered a Lv. 38 Electrike while my team is hovering at only Lv. 14.

One thing to mention is that there are no more random encounters here. Like Let’s Go games, all Pokemon will appear in the overworld, so you can see what Pokemon is in the area. That means there are no more pesky encounters that hinders your progress, you can freely choose if you want to battle a certain Pokemon or not. Well, I kinda lied there, since “freely” is a relative thing. There are some Pokemon that will aggro at you (approaches you on it’s own), especially some stronger overleveled Pokemon in the Wild Area, inducing more panic to you.

Gym Battle between Two Dynamax Pokemon (source : Pokemon Direct 5 June 2019)

After you go through the first section of Wild Area, finally, you jump into a mission to beat all eight Gyms scattered across Galar. Yes, the Gyms are making a comeback here in Sword/Shield. The absence of Gyms in Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (replaced by Trials) is not a bad thing, but surely having it back is welcomed. Clearly taking inspiration from Trials, now, you cannot roam freely while attempting to challenge the Gym, something that is a nice addition to bump that difficulty a little bit. In the games before Sun/Moon, when you’re challenging a Gym, all you need to do is defeat all the normal Trainers, get out and heal to the Pokemon Centre, and defeat the Gym Leader. Here, in Sword/Shield, you need to to do that in one shot, so more preparation may be needed.

The Gym ambiance here is also different from your previous Gym experience. Galar Gyms are a take on the question of “what if Pokemon Gym battles are like soccer matches?“. This is pretty much the strongest point of this game, since Sword/Shield nails this ambience. Unlike previous games where your Gym battles are behind closed doors, this time, a wide audience can see your battles. What makes it even more lively is the fact that the music for Gym battles also incorporates the audience chanting in their music. It makes it feels more lively. It makes it feels that you are in a lively stadium, and the audience is rooting for you (maybe). This is a unique experience that you can only get on Pokemon Sword/Shield.

Still on the topic of Gyms, what I really want to highlight is the quality of the music in Sword/Shield, especially in the Gym theme. I believe this is the first time Gamefreak attempted to do a dynamic music to a major theme in the Pokemon game (I didn’t count Roxie and Elesa’s gym theme to be major, but it is a form of dynamic music). What I mean by dynamic music is a music theme that dynamically changes according to a condition. Music changes can be either by the addition of other instrument, acceleration/deceleration of tempo, and/or addition of new notes that doesn’t alter the music too much. In the Gym battle theme here, the music changes between when you manages to knock-out one of the Gym Leader’s Pokemon, when in-action, and when the Gym Leader is down to the last Pokemon. The change is, in my mind, very approppriate. It tells you that you did something right, and tells you to be prepared that the next one may be harder. The escalation of the audience chanting also makes you feel the escalating tension in the battle. Since explaining about music is kind of hard by using only words, below is an example of one of the Gym battles. Notice the change in music at 1:48 when the player faints Nessa’s Pokemon and at 2:04 when she switch to another Pokemon. More evidently, notice the crowd goes wilder when Nessa is down to her last Pokemon at 2:54.

And that’s pretty much what you can do in Pokemon Sword/Shield. Do some walks in the Wild Area, go ‘round towns, beat the Gym Leaders, do the same thing again in the final tournament, and beat the undefeated Champion. After that, well, there’s not much else to do here. Yeah, Pokemon Camp & cooking curry is good, but it’s kind of gimmicky. Dynamax Raid Battles are only fun when you have someone else to play with. Battle Tower is basically Battle Mansion/Battle Tree, only if you’re interested enough to go through the challenge. Yeah, from here on now, things doesn’t look too good for Pokemon Sword/Shield.

Okay, now, Pokemon games doesn’t really known for it’s great story. But, to deliver a story like this in Pokemon Sword/Shield is not acceptable for me. Team Yell is basically a fan-club of Marnie (one of the NPCs/rival in the game). Team Yell is basically a representation of a real-life fanatic soccer fan that becomes too rowdy if their favorite club gets mauled in a match. Other occasions in this game, for me, is like too weird to happen. (SPOILER ALERT HERE) Like, why the hell you just came to the conclusion to just barge in to Rose Tower? If Leon is having a lengthy meeting with Chairman Rose, just so be it. Also, what is this Eternatus? No mention about this the whole game, and hey, it’s here to ruin the entire region of Galar. Lastly, Sword/Shield doesn’t have too many sideplot that you need to do. The game is just very straightforward, just beat every Gym in the game. That’s why my playtime is only 22 hours here, whereas my playtime with Sun/Moon can reach around 31 hours. Black 2/White 2 snatches more, clocking at around 42 hours the first time I was playing White 2.

After about eight generations of Pokemon game, is it too much to ask for voice acting? Really, Gamefreak, you just decided to left the cutscene without any voices from any of the characters? What fr***in year is it now? Watching the cutscene in Sword/Shield feels like if you’re watching a television with a broken speaker. Just, how hard it is to voice-over characters in a cutscene, in respect to the complexity of the whole game? I don’t think it will make the complexity rise by much, and it will be welcoming addition to the game. Take a look at the cutscene of when you’re about to receive the starter Pokemon below.

On the topic of Dynamax, the newest mechanic in Sword/Shield, I can only say, “Gamefreak, what the heck?“. Back when Mega Evolution is announced on the X/Y games, everybody thought it is a broken mechanic. But, it is still balanced, and there are many counters to Mega Evolution tactics (in the competitive scene). Back when Z-Moves is announced on the Sun/Moon games, everybody thought it is a broken mechanic. But, again, it is still balanced, since it is only once-per-battle usage, and, if you predict correctly, you can minimize the impact greatly with moves like Protect. Dynamax/Gigantamax? It’s just straight broken. There’s nothing you can do against it, unless you also join in on the Dynamax with one of your party member. Yeah, it only lasts for three turns, but, in a competitive scene, three turns is a lot, and many things can happen. Making things worse, any Dynamax/Gigantamax moves carries a side effect, either buffing the user/de-buffing the enemy, and it’s a guaranteed side effect. Needs more proof that Gigantamax is broken? Do you know the first online competition using this game AND the first season of online ranked battles prohibits the use of Gigantamax Pokemon? That’s the sign you need to know if a certain mechanic is broken.

That’s three major inconvenience that, from my perspective, disrupts the game greatly. Other features that’s a step-back for Sword/Shield, but doesn’t impact the game experience too much, is the missing GTS (Global Trade System). For those of you who didn’t know, GTS is a place where you can place and request Pokemon for trade. You can place any of your Pokemon, and request a Pokemon that you like to receive in exchange for that. This is a big and helpful feature if you want to complete your Pokedex or make a living ‘dex, or if you just want another Pokemon that’s an exclusive to a certain version of Pokemon game. By not including GTS in Sword/Shield, it makes the task harder. You either need to buy both games, or find someone else to trade Pokemon. And remember to do that locally, because if you want to trade over the Internet, you will need to cough up a subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online.

Moving into the next topic about ‘Dexit, after playing Sword/Shield, I still feels that ‘Dexit should not happen. Considering if it is true that Gamefreak has to make sacrifices to not include all of the Pokemon in Sword/Shield in order to push more features and mechanics, I don’t think that’s enough. The new features are not that interesting and Dynamax/Gigantamax is broken. The game itself, as a software, suffers from quality problems, including framedrops on several occasions, and the case of Sword/Shield “corrupts” the data in your SD card. The game itself, from a game design perspective, is much more simpler. The region design is much more straightforward than previous game, and although the difficulty is fine, it has certainly dropped again from the previous game, albeit slightly. I no longer thinks that the ‘Dexit is a justifiable decision from Gamefreak.

This game really makes me a bit divided. I really want to say this is a great game, but considering the quality and the quantity of content this game provides, I am not comfortable saying that this is a great game. Yeah, I still enjoys it, but I feel that the $59.99 price tag is a bit overpriced for what Sword/Shield offers. I am not comfortable recommending everyone to immediately buy this game now. You should probably wait for a slight price drop if you want to try Pokemon Sword/Shield.

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Writer’s Note : Phew, this is certainly something… The last paragraph reflects my whole stance for Sword/Shield. I genuinely enjoys this game so much, I spent the entire Saturday beating this game. It’s just that there are these things that impacts my experience on the game that makes it kind of hard to recommend. It’s an okay game, but not exceptional.

On the subject of my next article, if the plan is going on well, I may have a bit different topic from the previous articles. Stay tuned!