Why does SWSH feel so incomplete?

[Missingno.Fan]

I feel like they are empty too. The story felt really streamlined. I’m hoping for a third version/sequel will fill it out.

 

[catzeye]

To me, the Galar region felt like a tease (for a lack of a better term). It kept on hinting at so much that actually would be interesting, but then not fully developing it. I love learning about the lore/history of the regions, and I was SUPER interested in finding out more about Galar (because it honestly is one of the cooler regions to me), but the game left me hanging.

Like all of the cities were so beautiful that I really wanted to explore all of them, but so many of them were closed off (like much of Hammerlocke, Wyndon, Spikemuth, etc). It would have been interesting if as you progressed through the main storyline more areas of the city were opened up (kind of like how SuMo did with clearing the trials opening up certain parts of routes). Like specific buildings or areas that only people with a certain number of badges could access, with certain cities like Motostoke, Wyndon and Hammerlock having champion-tier only places (to kind of go with the whole trainers-as-celebrities vibe). Those places could have extra hints about Galar and maybe some secret boss fights/trades/customization options. It would increase motivation and also post-game replay value. Another thing that got me about the cities/towns was the sheer lack of non-Gym towns. Like I guess I'm used to having towns where there aren't gyms but still things to explore. It's especially jarring since canonically there are 18 gyms. It begs the question as to where the 10 minor gyms are and leaves a huge plot hole. Like I wanted to talk to the ground-gym leader (for example) and see how they felt about being in the minor leagues. I wanted to explore their town. There was actually a great amount of potential for a story to be told about the minor/major gyms that could have honestly worked as plot in the main story through.

As far as the routes, I understand that some cuts were inevitable due to the wild area, but I felt like they could have lengthened the routes a bit and maybe add trainers (specifically other gym challengers). From a narrative standpoint, it kind of made little sense that at least after the third gym you didn't have random people who were actual gym challengers actually challenging you. Like I would have written it so that you and Hop (or Bede.Marnie) have to face off against two trainers who haven't cleared Kabu's gym yet and are trying to prove their worth by taking you on. It would have added to the immersion (which the game did well in some aspects like having you see people cheering for you). Also maybe have those interviewers battle you more often like how it was in Emerald with Gabby and Ty (I think that's their names). Again just to add extra battles but also showcase the battle-heavy nature of Galarian culture.

As far as the Wild Area, this also would have benefitted with having more sidequests and NPCs. Like perhaps NPCs that ask you to escort them to certain spots, or maybe some type of Pokemon catching competition. Or maybe use parts of it to build up the lore and history of the Galar region. I can imagine it being hard to program both the multiplayer and single player aspects of the game in such a dynamic area, so I can understand it not being filled to the brim. But I imagine, given more time/resources, they could have added a little more.

As far as the post-game I feel like they could have added the Pokemon World Tournament as well as the Battle Tower. Honestly, Leon would have actually made a better PWT founder than the battle tower narratively speaking (or do both at least). It's stated that he wants to see Galarian trainers "be the strongest in the world" and what better way than to organize a Pokemon World Tournament. That way we could see how him and the other trainers stack up against people such as Lance, Red, Cynthia, Blue, Iris, etc. A lot of worldbuilding for not only Galar but the rest of the PokeWorld could have been brought about with a PWT.

This is one game that I TRULY hope they give a definitive third version for that expands on all that the region has to offer.

 

[SkysEevee]

Plot-wise, I did feel something amiss. Like the climax wasn't really hinted at and seemed rushed. Kind of "Hey we need a threatening situation before the champion so let's throw this in". While I get the reasoning behind Rose, it didn't really go into depth or make sense.

But I'm more upset about the legendary pokemon. We only have the three (+ meltan line). Ok maybe I'm a bit spoiled by other games that usually have a few legends plus a mythical or two. But there hasn't been so few legendary/mythical pokemon since gen 1. UK is full of stories and myths so I was excited to see what would be the next rarities. The ones we do have don't have much information. Literally Sonia just says "Hey so I found books from another region. Here are the doggos names and they were born somewhere beyond this place." Thats it. Why do other regions have information on the legends but not Galar? Why/how did the legends come to Galar, if they were born from someplace beyond? Why did they go to sleep for so long? I mean, we have info about the giant space dragon but not Zacian or Zamazenta aside from "they stopped Darkest Day, they might be siblings/rivals".
Also, we don't even have a "roaming trio" or "so-and-so is hiding here". Again, maybe spoiled by Gen 7. Still, every game has some other-region legendaries lurking somewhere.

 

[nel3]

the galar region isnt that big but it fills the game sufficiently, the wild areas are big but they do have their limits. gen7 really felt incomplete in comparison, they had so many unused building that were not coded that seemed should have been coded. there will always be blank building fronts but the placing of them in gen7 and gen8 is different. you can pass by many gen8 buildings and know they're there for the background. gen7 had them on the main plaza/roads and they were begging to be coded.

 

[Dragalge]

the galar region isnt that big but it fills the game sufficiently, the wild areas are big but they do have their limits. gen7 really felt incomplete in comparison, they had so many unused building that were not coded that seemed should have been coded. there will always be blank building fronts but the placing of them in gen7 and gen8 is different. you can pass by many gen8 buildings and know they're there for the background. gen7 had them on the main plaza/roads and they were begging to be coded.

And the buildings being in the background in Galar isn’t a problem? What? Wyndon’s buildings behind the tower was awful and only artificially made the city bigger than it really is for one.

You could at least visit buildings that weren’t Pokemon Centers in all their cities in Alola. Turrfield and Spikemuth were obviously terrible at this. For roads, only the Geothermal Plant was underused. It’s probably better than the unused Kalos Power Plants because the place never hinted at being able to explore further in the first place though.

 

[nel3]

And the buildings being in the background in Galar isn’t a problem? What? Wyndon’s buildings behind the tower was awful and only artificially made the city bigger than it really is for one.

You could at least visit buildings that weren’t Pokemon Centers in all their cities in Alola. Turrfield and Spikemuth were obviously terrible at this. For roads, only the Geothermal Plant was underused. It’s probably better than the unused Kalos Power Plants because the place never hinted at being able to explore further in the first place though.

they can only put so much into the game coding. as for me those background building dont irk me at all. there is sufficient areas for you to "get lost" in that its a non factor. the only case where a game left me wanting a thing to be coded was in XY where they had the Rhyhorn racing track.

 

[Victreebong]

That Digging Duo is a prime example of phoning it in. We had a whole underground to spelunker a decade ago, and a sizable sea to dive beneath before that. Either of those could have been managed back in, especially since Galar has mines. And you don’t have to go crazy with whole map textures to make an underground. But instead we get an RNG lottery of bad and worse.

plugged back in BOTW this week, and the glaring issues with SwSh are becoming highly apparent.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

That Digging Duo is a prime example of phoning it in. We had a whole underground to spelunker a decade ago, and a sizable sea to dive beneath before that. Either of those could have been managed back in, especially since Galar has mines. And you don’t have to go crazy with whole map textures to make an underground. But instead we get an RNG lottery of bad and worse.

plugged back in BOTW this week, and the glaring issues with SwSh are becoming highly apparent.

Yep. And I miss that. Same could be said about the Pokemon digging game in Sun, Moon, US and UM.

 

[DaddyOak]

That Digging Duo is a prime example of phoning it in. We had a whole underground to spelunker a decade ago, and a sizable sea to dive beneath before that. Either of those could have been managed back in, especially since Galar has mines. And you don’t have to go crazy with whole map textures to make an underground. But instead we get an RNG lottery of bad and worse.

plugged back in BOTW this week, and the glaring issues with SwSh are becoming highly apparent.

why are so many people comparing this game to botw

imo the gameplay is totally different.

wow pokemon has an openworld area there are like thousands of open world games. wow you can pick up items that respawn wich like pretty much all open world games have. charging eveiroments again ton of games did that before breath of the wild.

also the cooking. monster hunter also had the cooking aspect as did many other well before breath of the wild.

botw is by far the better game but gameplay wise it doesnt make sense people that like botw might not like pokemon sword & shield the gameplay is different not to mention the other way around.

also pokemon sword is using your brain and having unlimited time
botw is leterally surviving and having skill to slay enemies and reach certain spot.

The movement options in pokemon sword & shield arent in the same league as botw logical since botw is an action game and pokemon sword a core rpg

These games cannot be compared with eachother they are totally different. why do people make these comparisons

a ton of rpg's have the cooking aspect. a ton of rpg's have open worlds a ton of rpg's have items that respawn

furthermore botw doesnt have raid battles thats pokemon go. It always suprises me why botw is the game that people take to compare it for the gameplay. doesnt make any sense

 

[Orphalesion]

That Digging Duo is a prime example of phoning it in. We had a whole underground to spelunker a decade ago, and a sizable sea to dive beneath before that. Either of those could have been managed back in, especially since Galar has mines. And you don’t have to go crazy with whole map textures to make an underground. But instead we get an RNG lottery of bad and worse.

Yeah that's another part were they failed. Personally I would have really liked a beach where you can dig around in the cliff faces and stuff, would have fit the region, since the UK was famous for its fossil beaches.

 

[Ophie]

But I'm more upset about the legendary pokemon. We only have the three (+ meltan line). Ok maybe I'm a bit spoiled by other games that usually have a few legends plus a mythical or two. But there hasn't been so few legendary/mythical pokemon since gen 1.

If you count trios, technically, Generation I had more, with 4: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo. Generation VI, on the other hand, has no trio and is thus tied with VIII with just three (as it has just Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde).

I'd like to see them introduce some trio-or-counterpart later on in the generation though. Personally, I'd like to see them make a quartet like they did with Alola--just as each of the Island Guardians corresponded to a major island of Alola, they could have one correspond to each of the countries that make up the United Kingdom (plus add in a Northern Ireland part).

the galar region isnt that big but it fills the game sufficiently, the wild areas are big but they do have their limits. gen7 really felt incomplete in comparison, they had so many unused building that were not coded that seemed should have been coded. there will always be blank building fronts but the placing of them in gen7 and gen8 is different. you can pass by many gen8 buildings and know they're there for the background. gen7 had them on the main plaza/roads and they were begging to be coded.

Reminds me of the plots of land around Alola that looked like they would become buildings later on. There were eight of them in total too, making them seem like they could be future Gyms. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, though, they were...still plots of land under construction. I get that they wanted to keep the Trial Challenge system, but it was weird to see nothing become of it. (Of course, that pretty much reflects my own real-life experiences with public works projects, in which roads and public buildings would go on for years and years without any sign of progress.)

Yeah that's another part were they failed. Personally I would have really liked a beach where you can dig around in the cliff faces and stuff, would have fit the region, since the UK was famous for its fossil beaches.

The initial aerial map of Galar we got earlier in 2019 showed the Wild Area had a beach section to the southwest.

You can see Watchtower Ruins and Lake Axewell to the right. This artwork suggests there was going to be a coastal part of the Wild Area, plus the area underneath a railroad overpass, to the west of Dappled Grove.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

This is like 2-3 weeks over due (and not a full on a review) but did anyone leave the games feeling empty? These games felt like they belonged somewhere in between generation 1-4 but not generation 8. These games felt hollow and shallow. I contribute a bit of that towards the fast pacing of Gym challenges and probably the lack of towns but we’ve had games with fast Gym challenges (Johto) and lack of towns (Alola) and I didn’t leave those games feeling like something was missing. I’m just curious did anyone else get these vibes?

I get more certainity than vibes, personally.

For me the game was clearly a half-baked work just so GF can say they released something new this year. In the end, I felt like I paid nearly twice the price for a game with less content than the others. Not to mention some very backwards services like that horrible online that's backwards even when compared to the lackluster Festival Plaza (a step down from PSS)

In the end the whole Dexit drama is less for "high quality animations™" and more like "let's just put this out for end-of-the-year money"

It wasn't bad to the point I regret playing but I do feel like it has so much wasted potential.

At least with Ultra Necrozma you knew it was going to come at some point, making the battle pretty cool. Now it felt like they thought: "Oh **** we forgot the legendaries, let's quickly thrown in these three in the last hour of the game".

Also, Ultra Necrozma was an actual challenge. I remember struggling with it to the point I had to restart the game and pump some of my rare candies. I never had to do that with any of the Pokémon games I've played.

 

[Weavy]

While I did enjoy my time with these games, I will also agree they are very lackluster and I feel they could have done so much more.

These feel like they go way too fast, and by that I mean these games have too little to explore outside the wild area. It's just go to town, do gym, leave. It doesn't help these towns also offer very little reason to go back there, further adding to the "way too fast" point. There's also no new areas in the post game, you go to every area the game has to offer before you even beat the game, meaning you've seen pretty much everything when you do beat the game.

I want to talk about the so called "plot", because I think that was also handled rather poorly. It feels like it was slapped on at the last minute just so these games have a conflict. There was no build up whatsoever, so having this plot suddenly show up feels so out of place. Even Eternatus feels like it comes out of nowhere and it's only purpose to be a boss fight (and before anyone tells me about the Darkest Day, I know that, but they only tell us last minute that Eternatus is connected to it).

The post game though is one thing that seems to get worse and worse and it rears its ugly head here very noticeably. It's just fight guys with weird hair, stop Dynamax Pokemon, catch Legendary, done and you can easily do it in about 2 hours. Game Freak and The Pokemon Company really seem to think competitive is the future for post game, but the majority of players don't care about the competitive scene so a 2 hour long post game episode just isn't going to cut it. There needs to be something for casuals to do.

This is one game that I TRULY hope they give a definitive third version for that expands on all that the region has to offer.

Agree 100%. Sword/Shield to me feels like a third version or sequel would really benefit them. I really want to see this region and characters get the good treatment they deserve. So many things have potential and I want to see that potential, like for example what Marnie and Bede are like as Gym Leaders along with other things.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

^ So much this. It's as if they don't care about any kind of fans but the competitive ones. Thing is, not everyone cares about it, not just casuals, but regular fans as well that don't mind battling but don't have the time or may not care to build a competitive team. No matter how easy Game Freak makes things for that, doesn't mean people will care enough to use it.

 

[jaden767]

Playing these games makes me feel like I'm playing a glorified version of a fanmade game hack if that makes sense? Like a lot of the new concepts are good at all that, but the game is lacking a heart. It just feels so sterilized and I'm not just talking about Dexit either.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Playing these games makes me feel like I'm playing a glorified version of a fanmade game hack if that makes sense? Like a lot of the new concepts are good at all that, but the game is lacking a heart. It just feels so sterilized and I'm not just talking about Dexit either.

Good point. Played some that have good stories, and the closest I can remember to an experience like it is with BW and BW 2.

 

[Aduro]

US/UM were more third versions than Sequels. They were basically the Sun/Moon Plot with Necrozma and exploring Ultra Space

Yeah, I really hope they never do that again TBH. I was so disappointed when I saw Lillie go directly back to square one on that bridge. I knew they were telling the same story all over again. There had been so many cool ideas about where the Sun and Moon cast could go between games. Doing hte same thing all over again was disappointing.

I kinda cut them some slack over it, after all, they were mostly just killing time to get ready for the first main line Switch game. But then the Switch game had so many cut corners. So I'm retroactively more angry about it.

I have little to no faith in Game Freak at this point. Making an innovative or special game feels like the bottom priority these days. The most innovation in pokemon games is in making smartphone games that are extremely good at squeezing microtransactions out of children.

Maybe I'll just get the remakes from a time when Game Freak actually made good games, so I can get slightly improved versions. Although they probably will still be using the same models when they do XY remakes in around 2025.

 

[catzeye]

I want to talk about the so called "plot", because I think that was also handled rather poorly. It feels like it was slapped on at the last minute just so these games have a conflict. There was no build up whatsoever, so having this plot suddenly show up feels so out of place. Even Eternatus feels like it comes out of nowhere and it's only purpose to be a boss fight (and before anyone tells me about the Darkest Day, I know that, but they only tell us last minute that Eternatus is connected to it).

The thing is, the evil twin post-game plot actually would have made for a more coherent plot than the Rose one we got. Like once we get to Stow-on-Side in the main game it's very clear that there is some corruption/cover up going on with that whole mural (fits with the twins goal of rewriting history). The random dynamaxing that goes on during the main story could have easily been done by the twins using Galarian particles to cause chaos (which actually happens post game). Awakening Eternatus could have easily just been them trying to prove the legendary dogs had nothing to do with saving Galar from the Darkest Day. The fact that they had secret supporters could have easily been worked into the narrative with them possibly having bought out Oleana and Rose.

It's like they had a decent villain narrative that would have worked but then they decided to go with Rose's insane idea.

^ So much this. It's as if they don't care about any kind of fans but the competitive ones. Thing is, not everyone cares about it, not just casuals, but regular fans as well that don't mind battling but don't have the time or may not care to build a competitive team. No matter how easy Game Freak makes things for that, doesn't mean people will care enough to use it.

You know sometimes I wonder if this push for competitive stems from the general rise of eSports in general? I mean I know the VGC has been around for awhile but I think with the recent explosion of eSports popularity maybe GameFreak and TPCi are noticing that and trying to get in and get on mainstream television? The easiest way to do that is to make competitive battling more accesible to help build up numbers and interest on that aspect of Pokemon.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

The thing is, the evil twin post-game plot actually would have made for a more coherent plot than the Rose one we got. Like once we get to Stow-on-Side in the main game it's very clear that there is some corruption/cover up going on with that whole mural (fits with the twins goal of rewriting history). The random dynamaxing that goes on during the main story could have easily been done by the twins using Galarian particles to cause chaos (which actually happens post game). Awakening Eternatus could have easily just been them trying to prove the legendary dogs had nothing to do with saving Galar from the Darkest Day. The fact that they had secret supporters could have easily been worked into the narrative with them possibly having bought out Oleana and Rose.

It's like they had a decent villain narrative that would have worked but then they decided to go with Rose's insane idea.



You know sometimes I wonder if this push for competitive stems from the general rise of eSports in general? I mean I know the VGC has been around for awhile but I think with the recent explosion of eSports popularity maybe GameFreak and TPCi are noticing that and trying to get in and get on mainstream television? The easiest way to do that is to make competitive battling more accesible to help build up numbers and interest on that aspect of Pokemon.

It could very well be that. But I'm wondering if that will drive fans away from it. Doesn't matter how accessible they make it, there will always be fans who want nothing to do with it. Just too competitive and toxic. They would rather play the game to have fun and not get stressed out over it.

I think them trying to push people into the competitive scene will end up biting them in the butt.

 

[Dragalge]

Let’s not underestimate the amount of people that care about competitive battling. Alienating them would be stupid and detrimental to Pokemon in the long run.