Pokemon Sword & Shield Hands-On – Jagged Sword and Broken Shield?
One of Nintendo's biggest hits - Pokemon Sword & Shield - will be released this autumn. We have analyzed the novelties revealed so far, and we have as much hope as doubt.
"Catch them all"? Not this time, because the Game Freak Studio has not created animations for many of your favorite creatures. The E3 brought a lot of new information on the Pokemon, though some of it may cause concern. Will the Sword be jaggged and the Shield broken on the new Nintendo platform?
- Developer: Game Freak
- Release date: 15 November 2019
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Pokémon generation: eighth.
Fans of the Pokémon series waited impatiently for Nintendo to decide to move the portable version of the game to the Switch, and the apetizer in the form of Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!/Eevee! just whetted the appetite. Nostalgia aside, the return to Kanto was quite interesting, but gamers were waiting for a full-blown continuation – with more than a hundred new poks, previously unexplored regions and fresh solutions in the gameplay. The news presented at the E3 was, however, too little for us to be optimistic about the future.
The situation was clear – Nintendo wanted to utilize the popularity of the handheld Pokemon Go with the release of Let's Go, Pikachu. That's why, in the first Pokémon game on Switch, we didn't see the monsters fighting, but were rather focused on arcade pokeball tossing. No one was particularly bothered with the fact, because this truly RPG sequel was supposed to appear a little later. After the Pokémon Sword & Shield presentation and listening to what the developers had to say about the game, we're no longer sure of the superiority of the announced installment over last year's spin-off.
Of course, we saw only some preliminary materials, the developers did not disclose too much in the interview, and there are almost six months left until the release. Pokémon Sword & Shield can still positively surprise us, but for, now we want to share a few serious concerns. Here's what we're afraid of.
Pokemon home or pokemon prison?
The problem: reduced number of pokémon;
If it works: fewer pokemons, but the fights will be balanced better;
...but if it doesn't: we'll lose access to a lot of interesting poks.
We start with the biggest controversy, which the die-hard fans of the series still can't come to with. In Sword & Shield we will get into a new Galar region, where on huge open spaces we will see various wild pokémons. What kind of monster we meet will depend, first of all, on weather conditions and the time of day, and the use of a relatively small area for the accommodation of hordes of different creatures is also quite ingeniously solved. You have to that we currently have over 800 kinds of the pocket monsters, and the new installment should bring in at least another hundred. And this is where the trouble begins.
During the gameplay presentation, the developers itted that, in the games in the series, we will not see all the pokemon, but only those who live in the Galar region. The reason is quite prosaic – creating a model and animation for each existing pokemon will be terribly time-consuming. And such a justification makes some sense. The problem is that during the same show, the Pokémon Home service was also presented, which is a way to transfer the captured monsters to the cloud. We will able to keep them all in one place: the colored monsters from Sword & Shield, Go and Let's Go, but also all those collected on the 3DS, i.e. from the games Sun, Moon, X, Y, Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. What's next? Well, nothing, because according to the information we will only be able to the creatures into Sword and Shield, and those, in turn, won't even be able to show all of them. And so, Pokemon Home turns into Pokemon Prison.
Time Traveller
Not every new installment of Pokemon requires binnign your old roster of monsters and beginning the collection anew. Since the third generation, i.e. since Ruby and Sapphire, we can transfer our favorite creatures into the new game. What's interesting is that if you can manage to push the pet to the sixth generation (Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire), you will receive a special Time Traveler Award.
On the one hand, Nintendo would like to combine progress from different platforms, but on the other – the Japanese giant doesn't seem to have a clue how to actually do it. Maybe Home will be put to better use in the future, but so far, we have witnessed an exceptionally useless service.
Dynamax? More likely Dejavumax
The problem: Dynamax secondary mechanics;
If it works: some battles will be more exciting;
...if it doesn't: we'll get another forced mechanic that will become redundant in time.
One of the biggest novelties in the Sword and Shield should be the fights of pokemon giants. In areas designated specifically for the purpose, we will be able to dramatically increase the size of our poks, which will affect their stats and attack power. However, after three rounds, the pokemon returns to its original form, and we won't be able to Dynamax it in the same fight. Sound familiar? Obviously, yes. This is a cheeky copy of the mechanics of megaevolution, which appeared in all Pokemon games on the 3DS. And not only is it vile, it's also lazy – megaevolutions at least influenced the appearance and attacks of the creature, rather than simply inflating the model.
The developers explain that the Dynamax will be available for each pokémon, not just a few favorites, as was the case with megaevolution. However, it should not be forgotten that the new mechanics consists in temporarily strengthening the creature, provided that the combat location allows it. Boss fights look a bit more interesting, because they require network communication with up to three other players in order to defeat a colossus pokémon, and then try to catch it – which is a classical approach to raids from the well-known Pokemon Go. But is it enough to justify the existence of such mechanics?
Embarassing childhood photos
Let's also about the leak circulating around the net, showing the unannounced Gigantamax mechanics. Just as Dynamax is about increasing the size of the pokémon, here the creature will also change the appearance, for example, Meowth will become a slimmer cat, Lapras will get a unique design on its shell, and Pikachu will gain some weight and return to the look of an adorable fatty known from Red and Blue.
In the history of the series, each new installment brings to the battle something new and, hopefully, the Dynamo is not everything we'll get. In an interview with GameSpot, the developers explained the presence of giant pokémon saying that it is an installment of Pokemon that you can play on the TV, which shall allow you to truly appreciate the scale of the transformation. Which means what, exactly? The new poks are cool cause they're big?
Head-on to the Internet
The problem: moar network features;
If it works: The Switch Online subscription will hotcakes;
...if it doesn't: the effort to refine the online elements will be squandered.
From the very beginning, the creators tried to force players to exchange with each other rare species of captured monsters. Fights and exchanges "over the cable" eventually grew into more convenient, network functions, but today, the singleplayer mode is paramount. If we do not use network functions, we're not missing anything of substance. Unfortunately, this situation may change after the release of Sword & Shield – by keeping Switch offline, we can lose access to a significant part of the content.
We still know very little about the network functionalities, but it will probably be the only way to compete with the overgrown pokemon. "Max Raid Battles" will require the cooperation of four players, so you will need some friends. Moreover, during the twenty-minute E3 demo, the developer said that in our game world, other coaches controlled by players will also appear. There are no details about such invasions, but it's apparent that the devs are romancing with the online options more boldly.
Ah yes, the network functions...
In addition to battles and exchanging monsters, the developers often surprised us with their strange ideas for network options over the years. In some releases, we could embellish our secret bases and then invite others. In Sun and Moon, there was a special location where there were different characters of players, and we could say hello to them. However, the award for the most bizarre network feature goes to X and Y, where we could create a short video featuring our hero and send it to random people.
Would a Pokemon MMORPG be bad? With the right idea and an experienced studio, a well-prepared, online installment of pokémon could turn out a hit. Is the main series suitable for this kind of experiments, though? For more than two decades, pokémon have been basically a single-player experience, not counting rare fights or trading exchanges with others. Judging, however, by the latest statements about Sword & Shield, we venture to say we should prepare for more networking features in the core series. The only question is whether the fans will be ready for this.
New Pokémon according to Jordan
My first take was probably the most important exclusive in the second half of the year (at least in of sales) for the company – i.e. Pokemon Sword & Shield. In the demo, we were given a coach who, along with six new monsters (including three previously presented starters) got into a water gym. There, we had to solve some simple puzzles, rather typically for such locations. All of them were related to the given elemnt (for example unscrewing and twisting the right valves to get rid of the water blocking the way), and we fought other coaches. At the end, the leader was waiting – "Well, it's Pokemon," I thought, and that was it. But when it got to the last "boss" and I saw one of the newly announced new elements in action – the Dynamax – I quickly became more optimistic about the release, as the temporary buff replacing the pokemon with its giant version seems to have great potential.
The mechanic will only be available at certain points in the game (so far, gym-leader fights have been confirmed, as well as the raids we mentioned). In addition, Dynamax, which includes 3 turns, can only be used once during a fight, and once that happens, the pokémon's stats not only increase dramatically – it also gets a completely different set of attacks at its disposal. When I was almost sure the victory was mine, the enemy launched the Dynamax and killed my pupil with a single attack... and then two other of my monsters, before I was finally able to give him the taste of his own medicine.
Dynamax, first presented just just before the E3, was seemingly a mechanic similar to Z-Moves (Pokemon Sun/Moon) or the Mega-Evolution (Pokemon X/Y) – an overall redundant attempt at diversifying the generally accepted formula of gameplay. However, after seeing it in action during the E3, I was very pleasantly surprised. It could be that the Pokémon fights will finally become difficult (and I don't believe I'm writing this) – and if not, then at least more challenging, which – in all honesty – I'm extremely excited about.
Devil is not so black...
Pokémon Sword & Shield, as the first "big" Pokémon games on Switch, must show their best side. The materials provided so far show a few rather controversial decisions, and nothing really innovative. Open world with beautiful sights, pokemons running in circles, and the ability of free rotation of the camera will definitely help the immersion of the exploration. However, we're worried about some of the solutions, which seem half-baked, such as the Pokemon Home service. Since it's a first-party title from Nintendo, the quality of the new Pokémon, of course, will not fall below a certain level.
It would be nice, though, if such a hige franchise didn't have to justify not delivering models for all poks with lack of resources. Are the concerns listed above justified? We'll see in five months. The premiere of the Sword and Shield is scheduled for November 15 this year.