Pokémon Sword and Shield

"The best thing you can say about Pokémon Sword and Shield is that it's a Pokémon game. And the worst thing you can say about Pokémon Sword and Shield is that it's a Pokémon game". - Jim Sterling

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are 2019 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. They are the first installments in the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and the second in the series, following Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, released on a home game console. Originally teased at E3 2017 and announced in February 2019, Pokémon Sword and Shield were released in November 2019.

Sword and Shield's concept planning began immediately following the completion of Pokémon Sun and Moon in 2016, while full production began a year later in September 2017. Like previous installments, they chronicle the journey of a young Pokémon trainer aiming to become the Pokémon Champion, this time in the new Galar region, which is based on the United Kingdom. The main objective of the games is to dethrone the Pokémon League Champion, Leon, in a tournament that various other Gym Leaders and rivals also take part in, whilst dealing with Team Yell and a nefarious conspiracy within the League. Sword and Shield introduce 81 new Pokémon alongside 13 regional forms of pre-existing Pokémon; Dynamaxing, which increases the size of Pokémon under certain conditions; Gigantamaxing, which additionally changes the form of certain Pokémon; and the Wild Area, which is a large, open-world area with free camera movement that contains co-op raid battles. The two games also reintroduce features previously seen in Sun and Moon and Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, such as regional forms and roaming Pokémon depicted in the overworld

Upon It's Release, Sword and Shield received generally positive reviews from critics. However, It Was Shortly Criticized By Fans of The Pokémon Franchise for Cutting 400+ Pokémons (200+, If You Purchase the 2 Expansion Pass), resulting in a controversy known as "Dexit" and calls for a boycott months ahead of their release. Despite This, Sword and Shield had sold more than 21 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the fastest-selling games on the Nintendo Switch, and are currently the fifth-best-selling games on the Switch.

Plot
Similar to many previous entries in the Pokémon franchise, players embark on a journey across the region to become the strongest trainer, fighting eight powerful trainers called Gym Leaders and eventually the region's Champion. The player and their best friend, Hop, receive one of three starter Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble from Leon, Champion of the Galar region and Hop's older brother. Afterward, the two explore a forest called the Slumbering Weald but are driven off by a powerful Pokémon. During their subsequent visit to the region's Pokémon Professor, Magnolia and her granddaughter Sonia, they convince Leon to endorse them to take part in the Gym Challenge. After traveling to the next city to register for the Gym Challenge, they encounter rivals Bede and Marnie along with Team Yell, a devout group of hooligans who act as Marnie's unintentional fanbase and are determined to stop anyone else from completing the Challenge. The player also meets Chairman Rose, who, in addition to endorsing Bede as a Gym Challenger, presides over the Galar Pokémon League and the region's main energy company.

As their quest continues, the player assists Sonia in her research on two Legendary Pokémon who saved Galar from an ancient crisis called the Darkest Day and deduces that they are the same Pokémon previously encountered in the Slumbering Weald. After beating the eight Gym Leaders, including Piers, Marnie's older brother and the leader of Team Yell, the player makes their way to Wyndon where they win the Champion's Cup, earning an opportunity to battle Leon. The next day, before the battle between the player and Leon can commence, Chairman Rose awakens the legendary Pokémon Eternatus in an attempt to harness its power to provide unlimited energy to Galar, purposefully triggering a second Darkest Day. The player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald and secure the aid of the legendary Pokémon, Zacian and Zamazenta, to defeat Chairman Rose and Eternatus, after which the player catches Eternatus. The player then faces and defeats Leon in a battle and becomes the new Champion of the Galar region.

After defeating Leon, the player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald to return Zacian and Zamazenta's artifacts to their rightful place. The two also meet Sonia, who has become the Galar region's new Pokémon Professor. However, they are confronted by Sordward and Shielbert, two brothers claiming to be descendants of ancient Galarian kings. The two steal one of the relics and begin forcing innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. The player, Hop, and Piers work with the Gym Leaders to subdue the Dynamax Pokémon and then track down and confront the brothers. They use Dynamax energy to drive Zamazenta (in Sword) or Zacian (in Shield) berserk, and the player drives them off with the help of Zacian (in Sword) or Zamazenta (in Shield). They then are challenged to a battle by the Legendary Pokémon and allowed to catch it, while Hop follows Zamazenta/Zacian back to the Slumbering Weald and calms it down, being chosen by it as its Trainer. The player and Hop have a final battle, after which Hop decides to be a Pokémon Professor and becomes Sonia's assistant.

Why It was Criticized By Fans of The Pokémon Series

 * 1) Despite being the first generation on a home console (After Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu! & Eevee!), which provides more opportunities for additions and changes than a handheld system, the game does little to make any innovating changes to the same formula the series has used for 20+ years. This can be seen as Game Freak playing it too safe. Even Pokemon Black and White (Many Pre Gen-V Pokémons Wasn't Featured in Unova Until Completing the Game), Black and White 2, X and Y, Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, & Let's Go Pikachu! And Eevee! Has Got 809 Pokémons In Their Pokedexes, And They're WAYYYYYYY Better Than This Game.
 * 2) It Cuts 400+ Pokémons (like the Johto, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos Starters). While migration from previous Generations is still possible, only Pokémon existing in the initial in-game Pokédex or added via events or DLC expansions can be migrated into Quite 200+ Pokémons.
 * 3) *It was confirmed that this will continue to be the case for future games.
 * 4) *This Counts As Executive Meddling as Well. The Pokémon Company Has Originally a Good Idea to Whop Over 800+ Pokémons With New Pokémons in this Game. Sadly, Due to The E3 Trailer of this Game (Hence the Reason Why They Now Cut 400+ (200+, If You Purchase the 2 DLCs) Pokémons In This Game), The Pokémon Company Was Forced By Game Freak, to Milk Their Previous Games to Death.
 * 5) In addition to the full Pokédex being unavailable and Comes Off as Being Smaller, over a hundred moves (e.g. Hidden Power and Pursuit) are absent too while Mega Evolutions, Primal Reversions and Z Moves were Removed, or being replaced by Dynamaxing.
 * 6) *It should be noted that signature or trademark moves of Pokémon in the game are cut like Heal Order, and yet Light of Ruin, still attached to a Pokémon that's never been released, is still in the game and still usable.
 * 7) Speaking of Cutting 400+ Pokémons (200+ Pokémons in 2 DLCs), This Decision That Got Very Worse That This Makes The Pokémon Company & Game Freak Their "New Harvey Weinstein", Seriously?
 * 8) It's an Literally Downgrade of Pokémon Sun and Moon & Ultra Sun and Moon. For Example, One Of Hop's Animations Are Basically Copypaste of One of Hau's Animations from Pokémon Sun and Moon & Ultra Sun and Moon, Seriously?!! This Counts As They Gave Shuriken Sentai Ninninger an Popular Run for Their Money.
 * 9) *It's a Rehash of The Professor Layton Series, Especially Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires Conspiracy. Even When Looker was Absent in this Game, His Story Was Replaced By Sordward and Shielbert's Story, This Would Be a Bad Idea. This Also Gave Mighty No. 9 an Run for Money.
 * 10) Although the Wild Area provides a more open area for exploration, it only makes up a portion of the overall map while routes outside the Wild Area remain linear like in previous games.
 * 11) *The camera can only be freely moved around in the Wild Area and the DLC areas, while it remains at a fixed angle in areas outside those areas.
 * 12) Speaking of map design, many routes, cities/towns, and dungeons are smaller than in previous games, which severely limits exploration.
 * 13) *Because of Dungeons being less common in addition to being small and linear, this results in the Escape Rope, which is now a key item, being rather unnecessary.
 * 14) *There are also less locations to explore compared to other regions.
 * 15) *Many of the town/cities offer little to do to have players come back to them.
 * 16) *Large sections of the Wild Area, as well as a bunch of areas outside the Wild Area can also feel rather empty, a problem plaguing most open-world games nowadays.
 * 17) *Most routes are overly-linear, and have very little to no branching paths.
 * 18) Even though the story puts more focus on emphasizing the importance of the Pokémon League, it is still a predictable, bare-bones, and an overall low-stakes plot, especially when compared to the generation VII games.
 * 19) *The plot Has Way Little Focus on the Legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta are, for the most part, an afterthought as most of the lore involving the two Legendaries is relegated to a side-story in the main plot that has little impact on the main plot and a rather brief post-game campaign. Changing The Game's Title "Sword & Shield", Into "Kings & Queens". Unlike Daigo Kiryu From Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.
 * 20) *When something interesting does happen in the story, the player will almost never witness the event, as they will have just missed it or simply get instructed to go to the next gym.
 * 21) *The post-game story is a poorly written mess riddled with illogical moments.
 * 22) **It is never explained how Sordward and Shielbert were able to forcefully Dynamax Pokémon.
 * 23) **It's Been Suffered With Plot Holes, For Example: What does forcefully Dynamaxing Pokémon have anything to do with destroying Zacian and Zamazenta's legacy?
 * 24) **The player had plenty of opportunities to easily stop Sordward and Shielbert, but never did so.
 * 25) **It is unclear how Sordward and Shielbert gathered a large and fiercely loyal following, especially when they weren't mentioned once prior to their introduction, and none of the major characters had any clue who they were.
 * 26) Although the graphics are better than in any other Main series Pokémon game, some graphical locations like Max Raid Battle area which looks very good for the Wii U and appropriate for the Switch standards, outside the area, they are terrible to look at, despite the textures are in high quality, they are downgraded because of a ugly filter on the game's engine that makes the graphics look like is running on a PC port with low settings, the graphics are poor by Switch standards, with a bunch of textures looking no better than that of a GameCube/Wii/3DS game, especially the infamous tree. Even Metroid Prime 1, 2: Echoes and 3: Corruption, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Words and Tri-force Heroes, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Brawl And For Nintendo 3DS, Super Mario Sunshine, Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Galaxy 2, 3D Land And New Super Mario Bros. 2, Pikmin 1 and 2, Xenoblade Chronicles and It's New Nintendo 3DS Port, Pullblox, Fallblox and Fullblox, & Fire Emblem: Awakening, Fates (Especially Birthright and Conquest) And Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Has Decent, But Superior Animations, and They're Way Better Than This Game. There's also numerous graphical issues due to Very bad coding, and, Similarity to Sonic The Hedgehog (2006), These Models are Ugly Versions of Critically Acclaimed M-Rated Playstation 2 Games, Such as Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and 3: Snake Eater and Subsistence, Devil May Cry, God of War I and II, Twisted Metal: Black, & Persona 4.
 * 27) *The render distance is poor as NPCs and Pokémon will pop in out of thin air when you get close to them.
 * 28) **This gives players little time to react should an NPC or Pokémon pop-up in front of them, which can cause accidental battles if the player runs into the latter (E.G. the Wandering Steelix at Giant's Seat).
 * 29) *The game still has occasional framerate drops, though not as frequent as the 3DS games. This is most noticeable when other players (especially online) are in the Wild Area.
 * 30) *Weather transitions in the Wild Area look poor, with the weather changing within a few seconds, including the area the player was just at. This makes it look like the surrounding areas also have the same weather condition when they don't.
 * 31) False advertising: Adding on to WIS #1, Game Freak claimed that the reason why they removed so many Pokémon was to create "more expressive animations", but the animations saw little to no improvement. Going Down to WIS #4, This results in the decision becoming not only a questionable reason to cut content, but also a lazy excuse to not have every Pokémon.
 * 32) *Another case of false advertising is that the models for the returning Pokémon are simply up-scaled versions of their 3DS models, despite Game Freak stating the models were made from scratch.
 * 33) A severe lack of difficulty, possibly even more than Pokémon X and Y.
 * 34) *Trainers are less common than in previous games, and when they do appear, they usually have no more than two Pokémon.
 * 35) *The EXP Share is mandatory again. While this does reduce grinding, it can easily make your Pokémon over-leveled if you train too much. Game Freak even defends their decision to not add an option to turn off the built-in EXP Share by saying to put the rest of their Pokémon in the PC, which is ultimately nothing but a lazy excuse for this decision.
 * 36) *The lack of difficulty can render some activities pointless such as the Pokémon Camp.
 * 37) *The fifth and last two gyms also suffer from this, as they are just simply fighting one trainer after another with no other challenges to overcome. This Was Completely Nonsense after Pokémon Black and White, When You Can Challenge 3 Gym Leaders at Striaton City, if You Pick Each Starter Pokémons All You Want, & Drayden in Black & Iris in White.
 * 38) As mentioned above, the animations have not improved from past 3D Pokémon games and are hilariously bad and hurts some of the new moves that are animated nicely such as the new signature moves, the worst offender being the infamous scene where Zamazenta/Zacian just turns around and walks away in one post game cutscene.
 * 39) * A lot of animations from the 3DS games having been reused, and the animations for certain moves look very primitive for both 2019 and Switch standards, such as the notorious Double Kick animation. When Dubwool uses Headbutt though, it does a Double Kick animation instead, and "The Circle Pad to Select" Sound, is More Like an Carbon Copy of "The Control Pad to Select" Sound from The legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
 * 40) *Some of The Two Trailers Screenshots are Nothing, But an Copypaste to The Nintendo Switch Presentation Trailer of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, The Two Trailers Has The Same as The Highest Rated Nintendo Switch Game Behind Super Mario Odyssey.
 * 41) **For the Pokémon, the animations used in the Campsite feature were also reused from Pokémon Amie and Refresh from the Generations VI and VII games (including the walking and running animation that went unused in the data of the Generation VII games).
 * 42) *When a Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokémon is attacked by a normal size Pokémon, it shows a splash-like attack animation instead of the normal attack animation.
 * 43) *In the intro and credits cutscenes, a mouse cursor that was accidentally left in can be seen.
 * 44) In addition to reused animations, a lot of sound effects are reused from older games, including a few that were used in the first generation, which directly clashes with the game's HD 3D style.
 * 45) * In addition, some of the music from previous games were also reused which includes the caught Pokémon soundtrack from Generation VII.
 * 46) While it is an improvement from the Festival Plaza in the generation VII games, the Y-comm isn't that great and has several issues.
 * 47) *Players are unable to send invitations to each other, they instead have to search for them in the stamps, which can be a pain.
 * 48) *Because of the lack of invitations, the best way to get someone specific to join your session is complicated. The player will have to set up a passcode and then message the player outside of the game due to being unable to message them in-game.
 * 49) *Profile setting is also far more barebone with only being able to change in-game profile picture. You can't have personal messages anymore.
 * 50) *There is now a forced 20 minute timer during online battles, which can encourage players to deliberately stall in order to gain a cheap victory.
 * 51) Like several other Nintendo games, online functionality has several issues such as lagging servers, trouble connecting to servers, or getting disconnected suddenly from the servers.
 * 52) *This makes looking for stamps more difficult than it already is, with refreshing usually not solving the issue.
 * 53) Doing Max Raid Battles without other players is frustrating as the Raid Pokémon often bring up shields that need to be attacked multiple times to break and the AI teammates tend to be uncooperative and often die in one hit.
 * 54) *To make matters worse, once the Raid Pokémon's health reaches a certain point, they will not lose any more health so they can use the shield, unnecessarily drawing out an otherwise short battle. This is a case of artificial difficulty.
 * 55) *Even with other players, Max Raid Battles still have their share of issues. If you successfully defeat a Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokémon, you only have one chance to successfully catch it (unless you are hosting since it's guaranteed capture except for event raids) regardless of how many stars the MRB was. This decision would have been understandable for one to two-star battles, but it is unreasonable for the rest of the levels. This stipulation also makes it easy to lose out on a shiny Pokémon should the Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokémon be shiny.
 * 56) Similarly to the opening hours in Sun and Moon, the player will get constantly interrupted by other characters throughout the game, most of who either state the obvious or tell you information that you'll likely already know. For Example, The Intro Scene Must Too Focus on Chairman Rose, Which is Very Bad, Because Kukui Acts Well, And It is Slightly Focus On Him Has Gone Uprising in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
 * 57) Numerous problems with the characters.
 * 58) *The Playable Character in this Game, Victor and Gloria, are Basically Rehash of Elio And Selene from Pokémon Sun and Moon & Ultra sun and Ultra Moon, And It has No Personality Whatsoever. It Looks Like Being Rejected to an Early Artwork of Nate Adams & Katie Forester From "Yo-Kai Watch".
 * 59) *Throughout the story, many of characters have a tendency to constantly remind the player that Leon is the "unbeatable" champion, which gets old rather fast.
 * 60) *Hop, While He's Actually a Good Character, has no characteristics that make him stand out from other rivals. He is also the worst offender of interrupting the player as mentioned above, which makes him come across as annoying to many.
 * 61) *Although well-written characters, both Bede and Marnie are underutilized in favor of Hop, resulting in them having little impact on most of the plot.
 * 62) *Team Yell is far Very Rehash to Team Skull, as both teams are composed of hooligans who serve more as comic relief than they do an actual threat to the player. They both also have no serious goals other than to obscure trainers in their respective Region's challenges.
 * 63) *Chairman Rose is Infamously Weak Villain and a Galarian Clone of Lusamine from Pokémon Sun and Moon & Ultra sun and Ultra Moon, And His Plan Was Very Ridiculous, as he wants to fix an energy crisis that will not happen until about a thousand years in the future. The revelation of him being the main antagonist also had no build-up whatsoever unlike Lusamine, making his role as an antagonist feel forced. It's also never explained how exactly he managed to find and awaken Eternatus, making Eternatus' appearance also feel forced. Also, Why Did He Go Back in Time to the Past to Reawakening With Eternatus? Well, He Looks Like Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, The TV Series Adaption of A Song of Ice and Fire Series.
 * 64) *The post-game antagonists, Sordward and Shielbert, are two of the the worst villains in the Pokémon franchise. They are incredibly obnoxious in a bad way, and their goals are even more vague and nonsensical than Chairman Rose.
 * 65) **Their designs are also very poor, especially for Sordward, whose hairstyle (which is supposed to be shaped like a sword) looks rather phallic.
 * 66) Very little post-game content, even for Pokémon standards. The only noteworthy post-game content is a short epilogue story-line, the Battle Tower, and rematches at the Pokémon League, all three of which are common post-game content in the series. There is also no post-game exclusive areas to explore at all unlike the previous games unless you have the DLCs.
 * 67) *The Battle Tower is inferior to previous Battle Tower analogues, as it doesn't have super single nor super double battles, and only one tower boss.
 * 68) The GTS was removed, which makes looking for a specific Pokémon a player wants to obtain significantly more difficult unless they have the mobile version of Pokémon HOME.
 * 69) The game doesn't have any sound options until players acquires the Hi-tech Earbuds from a random NPC in Motostoke next to a record shop, which is an odd and pointless decision.
 * 70) Although having no voice acting isn't necessarily a Awful Reason, some cutscenes in the game were designed for voice acting, such as the infamous scene with Piers singing, this results in those cutscenes being awkward to watch. While this problem is present in some of the older games, it is ignorable as those type of cutscenes were less common, and had less dialogue.
 * 71) The game is arguably shorter than other games in the franchise, as the game can be completed within around 40 hours while the older games usually took 50+ hours.
 * 72) Players are unable to catch over-leveled Pokémon in the Wild Area. While this does prevent the game from being even easier than it already is, many believe that players should be able to catch them, but can't use them until a certain number of badges are obtained.
 * 73) Shiny Pokémon don't appear shiny in the overworld unlike the Let's Go games and in the same fashion with Pokémon GO, which is a major problem for players trying to find shinies. On top of that, many Pokémon are shiny-locked, including the starters (when you start the game (you can still get them via breeding (both normal and Masuda Method)) and Legendaries.
 * 74) Story progression remains linear. While this is in previous games, the fact that the player can fight over-leveled Pokémon early on gives little to no reason for players to be unable to explore over-leveled areas outside the Wild Area earlier than they're supposed to.
 * 75) Unlike the Let's Go games, Repels have no effect on overworld Pokémon, especially the Sharpedos on the Isle of Armor. This, along with the fact that random encounters are now much easier to avoid, makes them completely useless.
 * 76) The berry growth mechanic has been removed which not only makes shaking trees where Pokémon hoard their foods (at the risk of getting attacked by a wild Pokémon residing there which results in nearby offscreen Pokémon to steal some or in the worst case scenario all the items you harvested) and Max Raid Battles the only way to obtain them, but also makes filling the Curry Dex significantly more tedious and luck based than it needed to be.
 * 77) Game Breaking Glitch:Around the initial launch of the game, there was a crippling bug in the digital version whenever the game attempted to autosave. An error would occur and that would end up wiping out not only the save data of the game itself, but the save data of every other game on one's Switch. This thankfully has since been patched.
 * 78) The DLC, while an improvement over the base game, feels like it should've been in the base game from day one.
 * 79) *While it is great to see the Walking Pokémon feature again (only on the DLC map though), it was poorly implemented as many of them (such as Mewtwo, Melmetal, or Dragapult) can't even keep up with the player's character (especially when the player is riding their bike). Even worse is if the player gets too far away, they'll simply just teleport behind the player.
 * 80) **Also to turn off this feature the player has to speak to an NPC in a specific area (Master Dojo on the Isle of Armor or a house in Freezington) instead of having the option to turn it off in the Pokémon menu. Like with the Hi-tech Earbuds, it was also a pointless decision.
 * 81) *Despite The Isle of Armor introduced some new Gigantamax forms, for some strange reason, the second DLC The Crown Tundra doesn't. There are plenty of Pokémon in the DLC that fans would love to see have a Gigantamax form and yet, there isn't a single new form.
 * 82) With the missing features, the game is overpriced, costing £50 (£80, bundled with the expansion pass) while the older games with arguably more content costed £30 at most, It's Supposed to Be take Down Into £35 (£65, Bundled with the Expansion Pass) to Make it Easily Priced.
 * 83) Despite that the game was in development for three years since the release of Sun and Moon, it doesn't help that Pokémon is still a yearly series and Game Freak was also developing Little Town Hero while developing Sword and Shield. In other words, the game was rushed, And had an Awful Development Cycle thanks to Game Freak, Who Milked Pokémon Sun and Moon & It's Follow up, which might explain some of the problems listed above.
 * 84) And Finally, It Was Released concurrently With "Yo-Kai Watch 4", an Region Locked Sequel to "Yo-Kai Watch 3".
 * 85) *Speaking of Yo-Kai Watch 4, It Didn't Being Localized Outside of Japan Due to The Shut Down of Level-5's American Company, Even It's Subsidiary, Level-5 Abby, According to These Video Game News. In Fact, There's No Way to Release This Game from United States, Australia, And Even United Kingdom, and Consider the Fact is That Creating those Demon Beasts Are Very Unfortunate Hobby in Outside of Japan Countries, While it's a Entire Culture in Japan, and as Nate and Katie Has Played In This Game When It's Being Localized. It Was thought That Localizing this Region Locked Game Could Be Abandoned Idea.

Crave Path from the Redeeming Qualities to Challenge Leon

 * 1) Since the new Galar region is based on Great Britain, the game often take cues from UK culture, such as the characters speaking in British slang, and some of the new Pokémon introduced, which include:
 * 2) *The starters Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble represent music, sports, and drama respectively.
 * 3) *Galarian Ponyta and Rapidash are based on unicorns.
 * 4) *The new Fossil Pokémon are based on the fact that UK archaeologists would often unknowingly mismatch bones from different fossils to make up skeletons.
 * 5) *Galarian Mr. Mime's evolution Mr. Rime resembles the famous British comedian Charlie Chaplin.
 * 6) *The Legendaries Zacian, Zamazenta, Urshifu, and Calyrex take inspiration from the legends of King Arthur, with the four being based off Arthur's sword, Excalibur, his shield, Prydwen, his armor, and his crown respectively.
 * 7) The concept of regional variants introduced in Sun and Moon is expanded, now it is no longer restricted to Generation I Pokémon and Galarian variants can even take completely new evolutions not available to the regular forms.
 * 8) Despite the outdated looking graphics, many areas are still decently detailed and good looking, especially Ballonlea.
 * 9) Several concepts introduced in the spinoff games Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! have been introduced into the main series. Some examples include:
 * 10) *The ability to manage your team anywhere you want via the pause menu rather than having to return to a Pokémon Center to use a storage box.
 * 11) *Wild Pokémon are visible in the overworld, allowing you to pick which Pokémon you want to battle. At the same time however traditional tall grass encounters are still available.
 * 12) *Pokéball Plus is also compatible with these games, meaning that Mew can also be obtained, although you can't use it as a controller here.
 * 13) * If your Nintendo Switch has a save file data for either Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee! or both, you can get a special Pikachu or an Eevee that have Gigantamax forms.
 * 14) The process of raising Pokémon is streamlined to be less reliant on grinding and RNG with the addition of EXP. Candies and mints. The former allows Pokémon to be up-to-level with your current team easier than before, while the latter allows the player to change their Pokémon's natures to a better one.
 * 15) *You can now have 2 Pokémon of the same species gain new Egg moves after breeding, something that only their children can do in previous Generations.
 * 16) Dynamaxing is introduced, allows players to make their Pokemon gigantic and significantly more powerful in a similar fashion to Mega Evolutions. However, unlike Mega Evolutions, every Pokemon can be Dynamaxed and the transformation only lasts for 3 turns to balance it out. When Dynamaxed, Pokemon have their HP increased up to double the base HP and their Moves become stronger "Max Moves" that also activate secondary effects.
 * 17) *Certain Pokemon get special "Gigantamax" forms when they are Dynamaxed. These forms have access to "G-Max" moves and have pretty interesting designs, such as Gigantamax Alcremie being based off a cake, Gigantamax Sandaconda transforming into a tornado, and Gigantamax Pikachu resembling Pikachu's original design.
 * 18) *During the main story mode, Dynamaxing can only be done during specific battles to prevent the player from abusing it against regular opponents who themselves can't Dynamax.
 * 19) The Wild Area offers for the first time a more open-world experience, allowing the player to freely move the camera around. The player can also encounter over-leveled and fully evolved Pokémon in the area, which is another first in the franchise.
 * 20) *Players can participate in Max Raid Battles which are scattered throughout the Wild Area, where the player and three other trainers, whether they are NPCs or other players, work together to battle Dynamaxed Pokémon which are drastically more powerful than any other wild Pokémon and give out useful items as rewards for defeating them.
 * 21) *When doing a Max Raid Battles with other players, everyone gets a chance to catch the Dynamax Pokémon.
 * 22) *The Wild Area also introduces Watts as a new currency which can be used to obtain valuable items, upgrade the player's bicycle or buy curry ingredients.
 * 23) *The Wild Area allowing you to catch fully Evolved Pokémon that would normally be difficult to evolve and even including Trade evolutions also facilitates the process.
 * 24) As mentioned in WIS #6, the story puts more emphasis on the Pokémon League and the Gym Challenge, treating it as a competitive sports event and making it so the player has a more tangible reason to compete in the league similar to the anime while also being reminiscent of professional soccer as gym battles take place in large stadiums.
 * 25) *Most Gym challenges are reworked to be much more creative than previous gym challenges.
 * 26) *The Elite 4 is replaced with the Championship Cup, which has the player battle their main rivals throughout the story in final matches before facing the champion. In revisits, the player can then choose which opponents will participate in the cup. Which looks like a great step up from past Pokémon games.
 * 27) It is also the first game since Black and White, And It's Sequel Black and White 2 to have version exclusive Gym Leaders.
 * 28) A great soundtrack that has more variety (including styles unique to this game) compared to any other previous generation while also fitting the theme of the Galar region. Some of the more notable examples include the Gym Leader battle theme or the northern half of the Wild Area.
 * 29) *The Battle Tower theme was composed by Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale and Deltarune. This, again, symbolizes the series going more worldwide.
 * 30) You can now finally skip cutscenes and tutorials if you've already played the game and want to do another playthrough.
 * 31) Technical Records (TR) are introduced, which are one-time use move tutors similar to TMs before Gen V, however unlike older TMs these can be found again infinitely by doing Max Raid Battles and often have better moves than TMs to compensate.
 * 32) Leon, Sonia, and the side characters such as the Ball Guy and the gym leaders (especially those such as Allister and Piers), who now have more personality, are likable.
 * 33) *While very Rehash to Team Skull, Team Yell still does a decent job at providing comic relief, and is also a jab at toxic fanbases.
 * 34) The camping mechanic replaces Pokémon Amie/Refresh as a more interactive way to build your Pokémon's friendliness values while also restore their health and PP. In the process, your Pokémon will be very happy and be more willing to listen to you.
 * 35) *Additionally, certain Pokémon have specific reactions when you play with them using a bell teaser or a rubber ball, which can be both charming and funny, or when they interact with other Pokémon present in the camping area.
 * 36) *While a bit repetitive, the cooking feature is pretty fun and makes decent use of the Switch's motion controls.
 * 37) Despite the Y-comm system not being that good, one good feature about it is that players are able to search for players to do Link Trades, Random Trades, or Battles without interrupting normal gameplay.
 * 38) The Pokémon that can only be captured in the DLC can be traded to the base version of the game without needing to buy the DLC, something that most other games with DLC wouldn't do.
 * 39) A couple of nice additions to the shiny animations, with there now being a new sparkling animation with squares that's rarer than the normal one with stars.
 * 40) *Shiny Pokémon that hatched from eggs now have the sparkling animation displayed. This can especially prove useful for shiny Pokémon that barely look any different.
 * 41) Character customization is further expanded upon from previous games, and with even more options with the DLC.
 * 42) As mentioned earlier, the DLC (The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra), Despite Their Problems, is an improvement over the base game, and It's Way Better Than The Actual Game, That fixes several issues with the base game. Some examples include:
 * 43) *The Isle of Armor DLC introducing new features such as Max Soup, a potent stew that can allow certain Pokemon to Gigantamax when given to them. With it, you no longer need to hunt for Gigantamax Pokémon with good stats, you can simply give the Soup to any Pokémon that has a Gigantamax form. It requires three Max Mushrooms, which you can find in the forests and caves around the Isle of Armor.
 * 44) *For the first time in the series, you can reset a Pokémon's EVs! To reset EVs, find Lady Clear in the Workout Sea area in the Isle of Armor DLC and she will return your Pokémon to a blank slate in exchange for ten pieces of Armorite Ore.
 * 45) *Like the Wild Area, the Isle of Armor and The Crown of Tundra is now open-world and also allows camera control.
 * 46) *The ability patch is introduced as part of the Crown Tundra expansion which allow players to change a Pokémon's ability to it's hidden ability. This means players will no longer get frustrated when the shiny they hatch specifically via the Masuda Method didn't inherit the hidden ability from it's mother or non-ditto parent.
 * 47) The voice clips for Pikachu and Eevee are amazingly voiced thanks to Ikue Otani and Aoi Yuuki.
 * Hop, Despite His Mistakes And Problems, Is Actually an Good Character from this Game.

Tips

 * 1) The best starter to select here is the Scorbunny line, due to its accessibility to Fire-type and Fighting-type moves that allows it to defeat 2 out of 4 of Raihan's Pokémon, Marnie's entire team and Hop's Dubwool and Snorlax. It also has the added bonus of being able to sweep through Chairman Rose's entire team, due to his whole team being weak to Fire with two of his Pokémon being double weak to it. Despite not being able to hold itself in the Champion Cup, it is still able to hold its own against Champion Leon's Mr. Rime and Aegislash. In addition, its signature move, Pyro Ball, has 120 base Power and 90% accuracy, which are good enough for an extremely strong move.
 * 2) *It's hidden ability Libero makes it even stronger similar to the Froakie line's hidden ability since whenever it uses a move other than fire type moves, it changes the pokémon to that type allowing it to receive STAB from every attack.
 * 3) When doing trade evolutions online, you should make sure to trade for another copy of the same Pokémon as there's no guarantee that the other player will return you the traded Pokémon.
 * 4) *If you plan on completing the Curry Dex, you may optionally ask the trader if the Pokémon they are about to trade is holding the Bob's/Bach's food tin as those ingredient are only obtainable in either versions of the games.
 * 5) An easy way to make money is to buy Luxury Balls in the Wild Area for 100 Watts each then sell all of them in a store. Farming Watts is a very easy process so you'll be able to get lots of Luxury Balls quickly.
 * 6) Make sure you take some time to do Max Raid Battles during the early game, as lower ranking Raids don't get shields making them easy to defeat and you'll still get the useful rewards, mainly the EXP Candies and TRs.
 * 7) Certain Pokémon only spawn in the Wild Area and DLC map during specific weathers, you can manipulate the date in your Nintendo Switch to force a certain weather to occur so you can hunt what you want without having to wait. You can look up online lists for which specific date to set for which weather condition, and which Pokémon spawn during those weather conditions.
 * 8) *Keep in mind this will freeze daily events for 24 hours.
 * 9) A very easy method to evolve Galarian Farfetch'd into Sirftech'd is to battle a Wobbuffet, which are found in the same route where you can catch Farfetch'd as an overworld spawn. Continuously attack Wobbuffet with Rock Smash, it'll do very little damage so you'll have many turns to land those 3 Critical Hits and the low damage per attack makes it so Wobbuffet's Counter won't faint your Farfetch'd.
 * 10) *The Leek held item, the move Focus Energy, and using a Dire Hit all increase Farfetch'd chances of landing a Critical Hit, making the process significantly easier. Wild Farfetch'd have a 50% chance to be holding a Leek when caught.
 * 11) *Make sure you have healing items for each time Wobbuffet uses Counter.

Controversy
Prior to release, it was announced at E3 2019 that not all existing Pokémon would be available in the games. This decision was met with widespread criticism and spawned a controversy known as Bring Back National Pokedex. This controversy proved to be very divisive within the Pokémon community, and a number of fans considered boycotting the game, and even review bombed the game when they released. Many fans even called for the games to be delayed until all the Pokémon could be added, unaware that it would also push back the Anime and the TCG. The announcement for the game's Expansion Pass caused further backlash from fans (despite improving upon the game's flaws), leading them to accuse Game Freak of cutting content just to sell it back.

Reception
Despite mostly positive reviews from critics, Pokémon Sword and Shield Was Slightly Criticized by fans of Pokémons and some critics, with many considering the games to be the weakest in the core series of Pokémon games. While both versions have a critic score of 80/100 on Metacritic, the user score is much lower, having a score of 4.6/10 for Pokémon Sword and a 4.5/10 for Pokémon Shield, mainly due to review bombing.

Chris Tapsell for Eurogamer criticized the games, commenting that it lacked substance and did not live up to previous titles in the series. Tapsell commented "this is a new generation of Pokémon games that promises much, with brilliant new Pokémon, a raft of intricate system-tinkering for long-term fans and a series-first stab at an 'open-world' area. But all that's new seems to have come at a cost – and the cost is almost everything else in the game." and James Grebey and Tom Philip of GQ also felt somewhat underwhelmed, praising the Wild Area but stating that the games were "satisfying but pedestrian" and feel like "proof of concept [with] another stage of evolution left for console Pokémon games". They also said that "there is... a lot in Sword and Shield that doesn't feel like it couldn't have been achieved on the Nintendo 3DS.

"It became the most Negative game in the Pokémon franchise, as well as the most Negative game of 2019 (along with Death Stranding).

Despite the criticism, the games have sold very well (to the point that some people bought a Switch just because of either of the two), selling more than 6 million copies worldwide during its opening week, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game. As of March 2021, the games have sold more than 21 million copies worldwide, making them the third best selling main series Pokémon games, the fifth best-selling Switch games and the 47th best-selling games of all time.

Trivia

 * Zacian and Zamazenta's names mean "the Cyan One" and "the Magenta One" respectively.
 * Gloria, the game's female player character, became an internet meme in the form of "Scottish Pokémon Trainer".
 * The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra are based on the Isle of Man and Scotland respectively.

Videos
RadicalSoda's "Pokemon Sword and Shield is a Bad Game and Here's Why" series.