The BEST Pokemon Game!? | Reviewing IGN's "Review" of Pokemon Sword & Shield

simply put sword and shield are the best Pokemon games I have ever played and I've played them all IGN are notorious for giving out wildly inaccurate review scores to games usually accompanied by a shallow reviews sword and shield being a perfect example of both today we will be going over IGN's review of pokemon sword and shield written by Casey de Freitas who has made the following statement quote my sword and shield are the best games in this series streamlining its most tedious traditions without losing any of the charm wow this statement comes across as extremely hyperbolic that's quite the pedestal to put sword shield on considering they have to compete with over two decades of other Pokemon titles what does sword and shield do that's so much better than all the rest torrent such high praise and to justify a near-perfect score let's find out very few things in life can make me as happy as a great pokemon RPG and sword and shield repeatedly left me in a state of pure childlike joy the elated surprise of not knowing what's coming is something this series does extremely well if you can manage to play it relatively unspoiled and I'm glad that sense of wonder is still alive and kicking in sword and shield I'm not entirely sure what she's referring to here she's referring to the Pokemon then I guess that makes sense but you can say the same thing about any new mainline Pokemon title if she's referring to the game as a hold and the statement can be applied to any game ever of course you will be in for a surprise with a new game you've never played before that you didn't spoil and even without spoiling sword and shield you can accurately guess many aspects about the game because it plays out like every single other Pokemon game that came before sense of wonder it is still alive and kicking and sword and shield with every new game in this 23 year old series changes big and small are always made pokemon is one of the most stagnant series simply because it doesn't make big changes at all but I've never been willing to declare the latest entry the new gold standard for Pokemon because they've consistently been a balance of better and worse but the first mainline game on the switch has changed that though there is still no perfect pokemon game the 40 plus hours I've spent with sword and shield have left me comfortable with calling them the best pokemon games I have ever played and I've played them all first thing she implies sword and shield are not a balance of better and worse but lean more towards better instead of force despite his numerous regressions which brings her to the conclusion that is the best pokemon game ever made she's saying this any world were heartgold SoulSilver and the black and white games and their sequels exist she then heavily embellishes the campaign run time of sword and shield claiming is 40 hours plus the games anywhere from 8 to 15 hours and that's being extremely generous Final Fantasy 7 remake is an example of a 40 plus our game and sword shield doesn't have anything that comes close to that while this series has always been great about introducing new players with thorough tutorials it seems crazy that experienced players have never been able to skip them until now just tell the NPC you know what's up and then get out of your way and let you get down to the business of catching and training you can even catch pokemon without being told how and doing so automatically skips this tutorial it seems crazy that it took over 20 years to implement mundane and basic tutorial skips because that is crazy the fact that this is used as a source of praise and some kind of incredible feat highlights the primitive state Pokemon is in and perhaps most overdue a ball sword and shield have killed the sacred cow of the traditional random encounters that have all too often made exploring feel like a slog accept that sword and shield didn't kill the sacred cow let's go Pikachu and Eevee did for some reason KC is attributing overworld encounters to sword and shield and she does that several times throughout this review she's perfectly aware that overworld encounters debuted and let's go as she mentions it later on so I'm not sure why she repeatedly credits sword and shield for this feature when it's borrowed from another game comes across as disingenuous and desperate to attribute significant achievements to an undeserving game lacking in them sword and shield are extremely familiar and comfortable thanks to a pretty traditional setup you pick one of three starter Pokemon and then head off across the gala region to capture and train more defeat eight unique and exciting gem challenges and become a Pokemon master over the course of about 40 hours again the campaign which she alludes to here is not 40 hours in length not even close and is incredibly misleading KC goes out of her way to assure the viewer that if they play this game they're in for an incredible forty hour journey when in actuality the games anywhere from 8 to 15 hours in order to hit a 40 hour runtime you need to be doing a lot of idling or useless grinding you won't be clocking in those hours exploring because there is no exploration aside from the wild area which is tiny in comparison to classical dungeons found in other Pokemon titles all of this is the same old song and dance we've seen for the past 23 years but sword and shield royalty idiot noticeable changes that make the whole thing just better it starts with basic stuff you can finally skip tutorials if you know what's up and you can even start catching pokémon before being taught how this is the first instance of criticism brought up by Casey sword and shield is basically the same as any other Pokemon game it's quickly swept to the side however to once again highlight that basic tutorial skips have been implemented after two decades it's a nice change for sure but it seems a bit excessive to bring this up for the second time in this review and we've only just started I thought I'd missed Sun and moons rideable Pokemon when it came to getting around the map the sword and shields Rotom bike and Korver Knight taxi service are so quick easy and seamless that they leave the old system in their dust the Rotom bike works across both land and water automatically and the fast travel system is unlocked right after the first gym using it is as easy as checking the map and choosing a point to go to with no drawn-out animation involved your destination is just a brief loading screen away I agree that the Rotom bike is a nice addition and does contribute to streamlining the gameplay experience she claims having no animation for flying is it positive but the animation itself served to mask the loading screens and sword and shield since there is no animation you're simply treated to a boring black screen instead which I would argue is worse than the animated loading screens in past titles other than that there's really no difference between Charizard glide from Sun and Moon and the taxi servers in sword shield the awesome new wild area opens up within the first two hours it's a large open space enclosed by steep cliffs and peppered with groves of trees lakes and tiny islands it's a little visually bland but there are some decorative ruins to be found and deeper within a sandy area with huge rocks a little visually bland is a huge understatement the wild area looks super stinky and is by far the worst looking area in the game she also embellishes the wild area to make it sound more interesting than it actually is it's kind of sad that she needs to bring up the rocks that can be found in the wild area because there's nothing to truly explore and discover that's as interesting as rocks on the ground she even makes the distinction that the ruins you find in the wild area are cosmetic only and aren't areas you can actually explore I was immediately struck by the fact that for the first time ever in a Pokemon game the camera here can be freely controlled with the right joystick that may seem like a ridiculously basic thing to praise in a 20 team videogame but the freedom it offers really is that exciting for longtime players like myself it's something I'd like to see in the entirety of the next Pokemon game that's about as ridiculous as praising first-time tutorial skips in the 8th game in a series I agree though that the control the camera is a nice addition and I hope it takes priority in the next game the extra strong over level Pokemon wandering between and above tall grass patches are usually the most interesting like a huge Snorlax on the other side of a bridge or a Gyarados in a lake but these are sometimes so high level you can't even catch them since gym badges now determine that cap instead of geographical barriers like in previous games I once found a level 25 Onix when my team was only around level 7 and felt a little robbed so I found myself avoiding these Pokemon until I'd earn enough badges it's unfortunate that a cool new feature is deliberately avoided by players gain free should have found a way for players to be rewarded for interacting with these high-level Pokemon but balanced around it to prevent it from breaking the game to encourage people to interact with the feature instead of dodging it while I can't speak for the online functionality connecting locally is easy and intuitive it's comparable to X and Y's player search system but maybe even better uh no no it's not better it's actually significantly worse to be fair she's strictly referring to local connectivity but even then the PSS is much more intuitive than Y comm for PSS you click on the Avatar of the person you want to interact with for y comm you send a request out into a void until you're matched up with someone randomly if there's many people around you would be forced to enter the same code with the person you want to interact with but make sure the code is unique enough otherwise you will connect with the wrong person you can see player stamps so you know when someone is searching but you can't click on the stamp to initiate a connection which is literally the opposite of intuitive I don't see how why calm is intuitive at all or somehow better than the Avatar system in X Y in the wild area you can actually see other nearby players in your game which is pretty damn cool but unfortunately there's a lot of latency and connectivity is pretty limited interacting with another player you see in your game only Nets you a free item if you want to trade or battle you'll still have to use the trusty y con this is another example of the lack of intuition regarding the online y comp system instead of interacting with the avatar of your friends in the wild area to establish a connection which makes perfect sense you're instead forced to go through the the white home system I had plenty of fun just progressing through the world of galore outside the wild area though the roads aren't quite large or expansive enough to get lost in that's what we have the wild area for its United Kingdom inspiration is evident from the architecture of the buildings and bridges and even the geoglyphs edged into the hillsides this is another example of KC downplaying the negative aspects of the game she conveniently glosses over the linearity issue accentuated by the routes by mentioning that you can't get lost in them implying that they're straightforward but fails to get into detail before dismissing this criticism by reassuring readers that the wild area makes up for it which it doesn't she does this many times throughout this review ex is bad but why makes up for it she's trying to excuse the cons via distraction by redirecting to the pros which comes across as heavily biased battle music on the other hand isn't very memorable at all the gym theme doesn't feel tense enough though to its credit it is dynamic when your opponent is down to their final Pokemon the music changes to include a melody carried out by the fans shouting from the bleachers the transition is reminiscent of an EDM drop but it lacks the weight and satisfaction that usually comes after it some of pokemons old music are the most memorable tunes in gaming history and is disappointing gen 8 doesn't live up to those standards KC doesn't hold back any punches on this criticism she's generally not a fan of the music and she doesn't shy away from admitting that the music is disappointing while still acknowledging that is dynamic which does contribute to making the experience better I agree that the music from past generations is much better than Sauron shield in my review I may have been a tad bit generous the music is perhaps an OK plus but I digress the gems music notwithstanding our delightful hybrids of challenges and battles pitting trainers against unruly herds of Lulu puzzles and more nerve-wracking flights while also battling brookie gym trainers before finally reaching the gym leader inside massive stadiums each of these challenges are wholly unique and memorable challenges aren't groundbreaking exciting or memorable in any way they're more of a distraction as opposed to a challenge as challenge implies the possibility to fail the wooh challenge has no sense of urgency you just repel the Sheep until they get where they need to be there's no time limit or no real purpose or accomplishment once you complete the minigame as it's impossible to fail and twilight princess when you're hurting goats you put under the pressure of a time which heightens tension and presents an actual challenge for the player to overcome in order to be successful the wheeler distraction is nothing like this and there's nothing more than an inconvenience all of the gym challenges are like these they are not challenging in the slightest like usual the monotype gym leaders made it easy for me when I had decent counters and substantially more difficult when I backed them I really appreciated one in particular who was a nod to competitive play if I've ever seen one again Casey points out how sword and shield continues to tread similar ground alluding to a rare exception to the monotype rule in Ryan I agree with her that the Ryan fight is the direction that Jim should go in as his team is focused around his strategy as opposed to just having a team full of dragons instead of the trivial monotype trophy gamefreak has been crapping out ad nauseam they should broaden their horizons and introduce new and exciting ways to structure a gym maybe have a team focused on big pokemon another focus on fast pokemon another focus around trick room etc pokemon has so many different strategies and combinations of different pokemon it's honestly criminal to limit Gym Leaders to slowly having one type which can be easily countered tam-tam introduced dual type gyms where one type covered the weakness up the other and that change alone significantly spiked up the difficulty and it was an enjoyable experience each gym leader and rival has killed cards too with a little bit of extra info about each of them on the back these side characters all are more fleshed out than usual some with complementing character arcs and even though these micro stories are certainly sized in the main dish I enjoyed them all the same sword and shields overarching story which runs parallel to your personal quest of conquering the glories and Jim challenge had a few twists that surprised me but not enough time was spent on developing it to make it a marked a feature as is usual with Pokemon I was at least glad that there was more to discover about the story after the credits roll roughly 39 hours in Casey claims sword and shield are the new gold standard for Pokemon games but continues to criticize it for being exactly like every other pokemon game the game starts off and plays out the exact same as all the other games not enough time was spent on developing a compelling story as per usual of Pokemon characters continue to lack emotion the gyms are the same these arguments do a poor job of convincing anyone that sword shield is somehow the gold standard the pinnacle of Pokemon that rises above the rest when it's essentially a carbon copy of all the others failing to break the mold in almost every area required to propel it to such heights the bar for a Pokemon game honestly isn't that high to yes Orange field are still plagued by basic issues shared across all of the games and fails to meet the relatively low standards established by past titles Casey mentions this story is lackluster in passing but fails to go into any substantial detail and completely glosses over the major issues entirely and she again greatly embellishes the length of the campaign to deceive the reader into believing that the game is densely packed with things to do which isn't the case at all it would be understandable of soren shields at sidequest an RPG staple but the eighth game in the series still doesn't develop this feature any more than other Pokemon games which further contradicts the gold-standard assertion there are some little things you can do for NPCs here and there but it's not like they're tracked or implemented in any meaningful way as for the league cards that would have been a great way to introduce side quests instead of reading optional text to gain further insight about a character you can develop them through optional side missions Nessa needs you to help her grab something for her modeling gig some could take inspiration from Twilight wings ba goes missing in the mountains and you're tasked with finding her from her caved in location little things like this go a long way and are infinitely more interesting than random cards that are given to you because the game says so nitpicks not very effective this is literally in the review in bold she actually uses the term at nitpick which is the go-to deflective buzz word used by apologist and bootlickers on social media to dismiss criticisms they don't like keep this in mind as it comes up later on while sorum shield aren't among the best looking games on the switch first main line Pokemon games you can play on a big-screen TV certainly don't look bad either in fact compared to previous Pokemon games they look fantastic I mean in some areas the game definitely does look bad like really bad let's go as terrible as that game is look significantly better than sword and shield and has a lot more polish and shine it's art direction is more cohesive and attractive and has things like unique backgrounds and battles something that sword and shield fails to match saying sword and shield looks better than the handheld games that came before isn't really saying much and it's not like sword and shield look remarkably better compared to emulated Sun and Moon with adjusted resolution take for instance Luigi's Mansion 2 on the 3ds and Luigi's mentioned 3 on the switch there's a considerable marked difference between the two and you can clearly see that the Luigi's Mansion 3 team took full advantage of what the switch has to offer Sun and Moon did the same for the three yes but I cannot say the same for sword and shield for Luigi's Mansion three you don't need to compare it to a 3ds game or a GameCube game to make it appear better visually than it actually is Luigi's Mansion three can contend confidently with its fellow peers on the switch for one of the most visually impressive titles of said console I once again cannot say the same for sword and shield and there's no sign of the framerate stutter that was so common on the 3ds during battles there is still noticeable stutter in battle when the screen split but it's a lot better in doll battles for sure some of the new unique attack animations are really damn cool they really stand out against some of the older moves which can be stiff and plain some do look really awesome especially when contrasted by the reused assets sword and shield would have been much better off replacing the old 3d animations with better-looking animations or at least update the old ones not too much to ask considering the significantly smaller pool of available Pokemon and while the cutscenes are nice enough I'm disappointed by the continued lack of emotion in not only your own characters face but on those of your rivals and companions as well the stakes of the story get pretty extreme but your character is just mindlessly smiling along with it all the animations can also be stiff like they are in older attack animations so while the graphics are undoubtedly the best we've ever seen in a Pokemon RPG they still haven't quite matched up with the other RPGs on the switch and elsewhere on top of that there's some noticeable popin of wild Pokemon and items and other small quirks that still never disrupted play all things considered gameplay and charm are more important to me than raw visual pageantry and those are quality sword and shield have in spades if let's go didn't exist I would agree sword and shield are the best looking equipment RPGs not that great of an accomplishment however as the bar was subterranean to begin with here Casey makes it valid criticisms towards a Glock luster presentation of the game the graphics are poor the animations are lacking and the cutscenes those things that deliver story beats lack responsive emotion making the characters feel completely detached from what is happening on screen these are some major points of contention but Casey simply dismisses all of it because it's not important to her once again saying X is bad but Y makes up for it tiny things like my team being healed automatically after each gym battle so I could seamlessly continue the story being able to switch Pokemon out of the box made route and being able to connect so seamlessly with others using the Y comm makes big difference when you add it all up earlier Casey said nipples are not very effective and any bid will dismiss a majority of major criticisms by equating them to nip --ax but he or she can be seen literally nitpicking positive tiny things that make a big difference when you add it all up while failing to realize that the inverse is also true regarding negative nitpicks this is one of the main reasons why sword and shield are bad games major issues aside so orange shield has so many tiny little problems that in a vacuum seem harmless and insignificant but once all of them are added up together they become a big problem in their own right verdict hope my sword and shield are closer to my dream Pokemon RPGs and anything else come before I'd still like better cutscenes companion Pokemon the complete pokedex anymore visually interesting wild area but nitpicks are just not very effective when everything else was just a complete joy to play wow so let me get this straight Casey here is dismissing lackluster cutscenes over 400 removed pokemon and the ugly new addition that was one of the only interesting things added to the game as nothing more in the nitpicks she downplays all of these major issues and acts as if though they are insignificant and unimportant she also once again says X is bad but why makes up for it this is the peak combination of her extreme bias shining through she continues the way that respect my time is wonderful and the removal of monotony from random encounters and other odds and ends distills it down to only the pure and charming fun of capturing training and battling wonderful creatures and hey if I'm missing any tedious repetition I can always get back into breeding the game doesn't respect your time as much as Casey thinks it does you can't even skip text-based cutscenes which is the opposite of respecting your time greatly diminishing replayability and attracting enjoyment from players that are not interested in the lackluster narrative that story else has to offer one of Casey's highest points of praise is credit taken from a different game soren children are not the first to introduce overworld encounters even though Casey acts like they are some Pokemon you literally can't capture due to a ridiculous badge restriction most Pokemon you don't need to train because of the permanent experience share that trains them for you one of the biggest criticisms I getting about my review is like oh you didn't talk about any of the problems that the glaring problems that make this game broken it's like I didn't talk about any clearing problems because there aren't any clearing problem RUP the IGN scorer finally makes perfect sense we've unraveled the mystery it turns out sword and shield are the best Pokemon games ever created so long as you ignore all of its flaws Casey omitted several major issues with the game she downplayed majority of criticisms throughout and she dismissed the rest as nothing more than epics the only reason the game wasn't rated 10 out of 10 is because she really didn't like the music I know most reviews are biased to some degree or another but here it seems like Casey didn't even make an attempt the game is linear but the wild area makes up for it the graphics are terrible but the gameplay and charm are more important to me the game has many issues but it's okay because it was fun time and time again she would excuse issues or downplay and misrepresent other issues while over emphasizing the positive aspects their view is decently accurate if you remove all of the dishonesty regarding the game's flaws and imperfections as well as toning down the embellishments and exaggerations of the praise what did you guys think of IGN's review do you believe that sword and shield deserve a near-perfect score make sure to leave your thoughts down below in the comment section the Isle of armor DLC drops tomorrow so be on the lookout for my review of that coming soon til next time thanks for watching you guys [Music]

Channel: DistantKingdom

Views: 296,053

Keywords: pokemon, pokemon sword, pokemon shield, pokemon sword and shield, pokemon swsh, pokemon review, ign, best pokemon game, ign pokemon review, pokemon ign sword review, pokemon ign shield review, gamefreak, nintendo, dlc, isle of armor, crown tundra, criticism, pokemon animations, high quality animations, distantkingdom, jerm, game review, bringbacknationaldex, gamefreaklied, review of ign pokemon review

Id: TTAIMha_S9g

Length: 21min 20sec (1280 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020