Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Double Pack - Nintendo Switch

As a longtime fan, Ive bought every single game in the franchise to date (yes, even the obscure Japanese exclusives). There are some things Ive come to expect of Pokémon games, for better or worse: good features not carrying over to new games, limited access to my favorite older monsters, and an increasingly pathetic rival. Thats not to say most new games dont have some excellent quality of life enhancements and better implementations of older features, they certainly do, and this set is no exception. However, there is one unforgivable super-major flaw in these games that I cant see how theyd be able to correct: Cutting a significant number of Pokémon entirely from the game. This accounts for the first star Ive penalized my rating with. The second star is for the games incredibly brief and poorly written story campaign, which I finished within a day on each game. I could forgive it being brief if it was still well-written, and I could even forgive it being poorly written (it still has some strong points) if it had good length, but these have neither. Avoiding overt spoilers, the villain has the most idiotic and stretched motivation ever. WILDLY incongruous with their behavior otherwise. I cant fathom how this made it through development. Their assistant meanwhile had a solid foundation for becoming the true villain of the game, but instead takes a complete 180 degree on their established personality and behavior to make them little more than an over-the-top suck-up with zero comeuppance. The organization they run gets zero development and no changes arise from the players involvement. Meanwhile, the red-herring group in the game gets all the development, including a solid motivation to suggest the games spotlight new feature - dynamaxing - is clearly evil to use/abusive treatment and should be avoided. Talk about disparity between story and gameplay. Some other minor gripes: the badge system in these games limit the level of Pokémon you can catch in addition to the obedience of traded Pokémon. I get *why* they did it, as the game allows you to encounter dramatically more powerful Pokémon super early, and caught Pokémon dont ever have obedience issues. Frankly, Id rather have just had obedience issues be extended to all of your Pokémon instead (power-leveling is super easy up to the 60s, as you can encounter such high-leveled Pokémon and defeat them for EXP). Perhaps incorporate stages of disobedience as they did Critical Hits, with bred/captured Pokémon having a lower natural stage than Traded, and those closer to your badge level also being lower, with those of extreme levels beyond your badge obedience level being highly disobedient. Trading and Battling a friend over the internet in these games requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, which is odd and rather stupid as neither of these should technically require a server to function, as seen in the DS/3DS games. If the games included an updated equivalent to the old Global Trade System, that would easily be justifiable to require the subscription for that, but they dont. Id like to take a moment to talk about the games good features: Pokémon Box Link. This is an excellent new feature, which I sincerely hope carries over into future games. With this, you can access your Pokémon Storage System on the fly, swapping party members as needed in the overworld and appropriate indoor areas. Sublime! Then theres camping... which admittedly doesnt quite nail the mark, but deserves due credit. In camps you can play with your Pokémon and even cook meals (the Currydex is an odd choice, but by no means awful). Id love to see this concept expanded with elements of Pokémon Amie integrated, and a more robust cooking system (perhaps like that of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) with more varied foods. Another thing it would benefit from is a rest option that could be available in appropriate places like the Wild Area, on routes, and in caves. Which brings me to the Wild Area... this is perhaps the games best feature by far. A vast, sprawling place, filled with a fairly dynamic and daily-changing variety of Pokémon, occasional NPCs, and collectible supplies. The possibilities for future games building on this feature are quite tantalizing. Id love to see a return of the day/night cycle influencing a wild area, or a tidal effect as per the Ruby/Sapphire games. Perhaps an upgrade to the bicycle that allows for mountain-biking as a more dynamic means of navigation of terrain. I also love the addition of Poké Jobs, but think itd have been better to just have an On Job icon on the Pokémon in its place in the box rather than having them entirely leave and unceremoniously drop into the first available box slot on return (as it does). In summary, while a fun game in its own, it fails to uphold the standards set by previous titles in the series, unnecessarily cuts off previous generation monsters, has a short/half-effort plot, and sets up a paywall where it really shouldnt exist. The fact they found this acceptable to publish in this state is nothing short of a betrayal to customers and investors alike, and I will not be preordering any future titles as long as this stands. With Pokémon Home scheduled for release next year, I can only hope they release a free DLC upgrade to these games that remedies their unforgivable flaw at some point before then.

I recieved the games, but have yet to recieve the preorder code for the bags. I recieved an email telling me the instructions changed, but have yet to recieve the codes.

It seems like Nintendo cant quite pick up on what fans want. It gives us good things, like a beautiful new region to explore, and overworld Pokemon encounters, but then it gives us bad things like a smaller pokedex and tedious boring game mechanics. I absolutely love the new Galar region, and exploring it was a blast. However, it was far too small. Each area felt about 1/3 the size of what it ought to have been. Heck, I beat the game in like 14 hours, whereas other Pokemon games usually take at least 20. There were also some really neat and interesting new Pokemon, BUT they were ruined by exclusivity and bad typing. What I mean is, the new gigantimax special Pokemon are exclusive to rare raids, and arent even a guaranteed capture. Not to mention some of the new Pokemon have awful typing. For instance, Grapploct, a grappling octopus, is pure fighting. There are already dozens of pure fighting Pokemon. There is no reason why Grapploct shouldnt be part water. There are hardly any water/fighting Pokemon. Its things like this that really make me wonder what is going through the developers heads. In addition, the new dynamax feature just feels like a lazy version of mega evolution. Nobody asked for it, and it just makes battles take longer. They should have just added more mega evolutions instead of adding this new silly battle mechanic. All in all, the game isnt really BAD despite my ranting. It is a solid Pokemon game, with excellent music, fun characters, and a gorgeous reason to explore. Its just REALLY too bad that the developers cant seem to get new things right without screwing others aspects of the game up.

This was as great a game as any Pokémon game has ever been, pls disregard any reviews of people complaining about not all Pokémon being in the game. This is called review bombing there are many grown adults mad about the matter. These games are amazing the roster of new Pokémon are all amazing, the game mechanics are a huge improvement, and the amount of playable content is large. These games represent the greatest improvement a Pokémon game has ever seen!

What all the kids are playing with and he immediately wanted to play it Christmas day.

Apologies for the earlier review, Came with code through email and still an awesome product

Ignore the whining baby protests. This is actually a really good game. Unfortunately, everyone is a warrior and everything is a cause.

It’s a fun game, period.

I absolutely loved Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon (3DS) and was super disappointed by Pokemon Let’s Go in comparison so my hopes were high with these ones. I was very satisfied with these games because they included all the good parts of Ultra Sun/Moon that Lets Go didn’t have (e.g. wonder trade, larger Pokédex, broader main plot/challenge). I love the added features that come with Dynamax. It feels like playing in raids in Pokemon Go only less of a pain and you get tons of rewards from it. I’ve yet to fully explore all the features but I love these.

The download codes for the double pack dynamax crystals are physically supposed to be in the box. They are completely missing