Not the best Pokémon game, not the worst. The soundtrack as always is definitely a plus, though visually the game isn't fantastic, graphical details are lacking, framerate can be choppy, and the wild areas, while cool, feel a little bland, and the Pokémon popping in randomly is a bit off-putting. Additionally, the game is still far too easy, and I feel as though Pokémon has been needing some difficulty settings for a long long time, this seems particularly apparent in Sword and Shield, where the player is encouraged to catch as many Pokémon as possible in the wild areas - which grants experience to the whole party - which leads to excessive overlevelling. Generally though, it's a good game as far as Pokémon goes, but it's nothing groundbreaking.
mixed feelings. pokemon isnt trying to do anything groundbreakingly new, and as a boomer I get pretty bored of it easily. the characters are mixed, although I really liked the rival and it had a lot of cool/funny/cute highlights within the otherwise bland plotline. what also bothers me are the overpopulated routes, there're way too many pokemon at this point, and overall the game is still way too linear and easy. For kids its probably great, but there's really no need to play every pokemon game releasing anymore. shame!
I have only went through the single player offline mode. I did go online a few times for some Pokemon hunting, but otherwise, not interested in the PvP aspect nor the raiding mechanic with other people. Although I have tried it. The single player story and world was actually good in my opinion, if not a bit cliche. And I did not mind the fresh start with only 400 Pokemon at first. The expansions were also a good continuation, I feel like only hard core fans would not enjoy this as much as casual players.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I really love this one as someone who does not normally play Pokémon. I strangely prefer being a bit more linear like the old games rather than running around a completely open world, and I love the dynamax concept
[Switch]
I think this may be one of the worst mainline Pokémon ever.
Sure there are some good ideas such as the Wild Area, the camping and the Pokémon raids, but they are all bad excecuted and boring.
The game is one of the most linear experience in the franchise, even worse than XY, and the game design is just bland, slow and uninteresting. After a few hours in, there is really nothing that really motivated me to play this game more and more since all there was to know and do is throw in the player face in the first half hour of the game and never changes afterwards. And then there is the fact this game ks so easy it just become a button mashin when your Pokémon reach level 20 or so. But even sp, the game is slow, really slow, I could fall asleep to it.
The only good thing I can say is that there's a decent amount of personalization (both for your team and your character clothes) and catching Pokémon is a lot less boring thanks to the high catch rate and the fact you can easily level and find them.
As for the story... it's Pokémon, so it's obviously mediocre, but this one is just bad even for this franchise. The characters have potential, but its not used in the slightest and they just become lifeless puppets which only purpose is to be destroyed by the player.
Kinda forgettable soundtrack, dull and lifeless art direction and the worst online functions I've ever saw in a videogame. Also, the graphics are bad. Not the worst, but not good at all. And the fps drops everywhere, ugh.
A mess of a game, honestly.
Unfortunately I started to lose hope in the series after part X and Y and the idea of the giant pokemon I did not like and its use is limited, but the world and open areas are amazing and I hope they expand on the idea in the coming parts