Pokémon Sword & Shield (Crown Tundra Out Now - Play It Quick Before It Votes For Independence)

My urge to get a new Pokemon game has been building over the last week or so as I've started watching the cartoon series with my daughter (starting right at the beginning with Indigo League) - is Sword/Shield a good place to start? I've only properly played 1 Pokemon game before (Platinum on the DSLite) and didn't get that far with it, so would consider myself a newbie looking for a good way to get into the series.

I've watched a few different reviews and 1 was super positive (IGN), 1 was middling (Switchup) and one was very critical (Arlo the blue puppet thing). Seems the consensus is that whilst there are some good quality of life improvements, the overall package is a bit...cheap/not as polished as you'd expect from a AAA Switch release?

I'm basically just after an easy-going RPG that's going to hold my interest long enough to feel like I've got my money's worth, without becoming too bored of it too quickly :slol:

I think you'll be fine with it. It's not a polished big budget console title, but none of the pokemon games are. It just stands out more for it on Switch

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Fade wrote:
Jezo wrote:
Fade wrote:Is there a reason more people don't play online? That's the post game for me.

Fight me

If you're available now just pm me a link code

What the strawberry float is a link code?

OrangeRKN wrote:I think you'll be fine with it. It's not a polished big budget console title, but none of the pokemon games are. It just stands out more for it on Switch

Then why are they charging £50 for it?

Because budget and retail price are not particularly correlated.

It's a 30-40 hour RPG, with many more hours to be had in 100% completion and competitive play/online battles if you want them. I think the asking price is reasonable. By hours of content there is more substance than many AAA titles, so it's really a question of your personal value perception, right?

How easy is it to get hold of all the starters? Can they be had by trading pretty easily/early on?

Preezy wrote:My urge to get a new Pokemon game has been building over the last week or so as I've started watching the cartoon series with my daughter (starting right at the beginning with Indigo League) - is Sword/Shield a good place to start? I've only properly played 1 Pokemon game before (Platinum on the DSLite) and didn't get that far with it, so would consider myself a newbie looking for a good way to get into the series.

I've watched a few different reviews and 1 was super positive (IGN), 1 was middling (Switchup) and one was very critical (Arlo the blue puppet thing). Seems the consensus is that whilst there are some good quality of life improvements, the overall package is a bit...cheap/not as polished as you'd expect from a AAA Switch release?

I'm basically just after an easy-going RPG that's going to hold my interest long enough to feel like I've got my money's worth, without becoming too bored of it too quickly

I think Sword and Shield would do the job nicely, certainly long enough but doesn’t outstay its welcome unless you want it to (when it was leaked prior to release, some players managed to complete the story/base game in around 20 hours) if you wanted to complete the dex, delve into the competitive online aspects etc. Taking my time I ‘finished’ my initial time with Shield in around 50 hours, I’m now about 70 hours in as I’m wanting to complete the dex (and maybe even go for a living dex when Pokémon Home comes out), I might then delve into the online side of things.

I wouldn’t say its the best game they’ve done (that is probably still Heart Gold/Soul Silver) but still a very solid entry into the series.

ITSMILNER wrote:How easy is it to get hold of all the starters? Can they be had by trading pretty easily/early on?

I found them quite easy to get via wonder trading.

Galarian Meowth and it's evolved form are amazing :lol:

Slowly but surely filling out the dex, currently on 330. Going to be getting the baby Pokémon you need to use incense to get when I next load it up.

Edit, or after looking I can just track them down in the wild :fp:

Serebii really should be my first port of call :lol:

ITSMILNER wrote:How easy is it to get hold of all the starters? Can they be had by trading pretty easily/early on?

Super Easy.

I got all three starters before even doing the third gym.
Just keep plugging away with those Surprise trades.

I'm working on a Kanto Team.

Currently:

Charizard
Corviknight (Pretending it's Pidgeot lol)
Raichu
Haunter
Diglett
Inteleon (To be ditched as soon as I can get a blastoise in the DLC)

LewisD wrote:
ITSMILNER wrote:How easy is it to get hold of all the starters? Can they be had by trading pretty easily/early on?

Super Easy.

I got all three starters before even doing the third gym.
Just keep plugging away with those Surprise trades.

I'm working on a Kanto Team.

Currently:
Charizard
Corviknight (Pretending it's Pidgeot lol)
Raichu
Haunter
Diglett
Inteleon (To be ditched as soon as I can get a blastoise in the DLC)

Wicked, i like to get all the 3 starters in my team as early as possible so thats good to hear (Cheers as well Robbo!)

Pancake wrote:Galarian Meowth and it's evolved form are amazing

Absolutely, I had one in my team through to the end game called Valkpurry

Oh BOOOOOOOOOO

All of mine were named after British Isles cricketers. :shifty:

All your pokemon, or all your meowths? Because I'm imagining a cricket team made entirely of galarian meowths and it's great

Finally got my copy of Sword, not bad for essentially a freebie :lol:

Also we finally have some news on Pokémon HOME,

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020 ... p15-a-year

First initial thoughts is the price, year long premium sub is £15..... I wasn’t expecting it to be free but then again was kind of hoping people already paying for Nintendo Switch Online would get it included or at least at a discounted price. At least GTS is back though :datass:

£15 is a lot for a lot of nothing

Paying for the one month plan just to transfer pokemon when there is a new game sounds like a better plan

£15?!?!?

Why!?!?!?

Is it significantly different to Bank!?!?

Do Game Freak execs come round to give you a blowjob on a yearly basis?!?!

The fig!?!?!?

Pokémon Home sounds like a complete strawberry floating mess. The Pokémon Company are basically monetising features which should be in the main game. It's rubbish practice.

I was gonna get Sword this week, but I really don't want to support this practice.

This should be priced the same as Bank, so about £5 for the year at most. I really don’t see how they’re justifying the £15 a year other than because they can.

Although one good thing is they’re allowing sorting by national dex :lol:

in bank I never sorted stuff though, just had it sorted by which game/gen the Pokémon came from, it’s the in game boxes that need this.

I'm just going to suscribe for one month just so I can transfer everything over from Pokemon Bank that's compatible with Sword and Shield and then just use the free version. £15 is a ridiculous amount, especially as most people will use the premium only features a few times.

Pokémon Sword & Shield (Crown Tundra Out Now - Play It Quick Before It Votes For Independence)

What starter will you pick?

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