▷Pokemon Sword and Shield review: let's visit Galar on Switch 🥇

The main role-playing game of the Pokemon saga, arrives for the first time in the main console of the Japanese house, abandoning the portable one. Our adventure in the region of Galar, come on Nintendo Switch, it begins! Here is the review of Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Pokemon Sword and Shield review: a bit of history

It all started in 1996 with Green, Red Blue and Yellow on gameboy. Gold, Silver and Crystal follow up gameboy Color. Then Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, the FireRed and LeafGreen remakes on gameboy Advance. Diamond, Pearl and Platinum are coming, plus Heart Gold and Soul Silver remakes on Nintendo DS. Black, White, Black 2 and White 2 are added always on DS. We switch to a 3D-like with Pokemon X and Y, for Nintendo 3DS, closely followed by the Omega Sapphire and Alpha Ruby remakes, to conclude are Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

These are the seven generations of Pokemon that have accompanied us so far, always on portable consoles, with adventures where graphics have never been the master, but we focused on the task of capturing them all, a mood that has never abandoned the saga.

On the various main Nintendo home consoles, and I'm talking about Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii e Switch, we have so far only played games "pastime", which did not bring anything new to the Pokemon world, neither in terms of plot nor in terms of dynamics. Stage, Colosseum, Storm Dark, Battle Revolution, Let's Go, were corollaries, some more playable and engaging than others, which kept us company waiting for the titles that would come out shortly thereafter.

In 2019 Nintendo finally decided, thanks to the "portability" of the Switch, to give a new twist to the main adventure, making it evolve just like the protagonists of the role-playing game do. Was it enough to make the bang?

A particular beginning: the plot

We are used from past experiences, to get our first pokemon and to challenge the first gym in no time, and immediately enter the classic dynamic of these rpgs. In Sword and Shield instead we will be immersed in videos, challenges (of others) and detailed explanations on what awaits us, well before we get our adventure partner.

We will initially find ourselves interacting with a childhood and future friend of ours rival, Hop, and with his brother dandel, which is even the sample in charge of the Pokemon League, as well as the region's strongest trainer Galar. And he will be the one to deliver the pokemon starter, no professor in sight. He will tell us that to participate in the final challenge in the league, we must first become one "sfidapalestre”And win all the medals.

After obtaining the pokemon we will finally meet an old woman teacher, Flora, which, however, this time will have a very marginal role, if not to give us a pokedex. More interesting will be the niece of prof. Flora, Sonia, a researcher who seeks to establish herself by unraveling the mysteries behind a mysterious event from the past called "Night Black“, In which the region of Galar was threatened by a terrible danger that caused strange phenomena in the pokemon.

During the story, other characters will be added, in addition to the obvious gym leaders, in which we will be able to notice one growth in behavior and in intent. Finally a little bit of thickness and characterization that we had missed in the past. The gym leaders will be faced in a non-modifiable order, and will be different depending on the version you have (2 out of 8, in this case).

The "evil team" this time, Team Yell, is among the notes painful, as we are talking about a group of thugs whose only purpose is to cheer for their darling, a gym challenge specializing in dark types. In short, no plan to conquer the world, of illicit trafficking of pokemon, of climatic or space / time variations using legendary pokemon.

The threat comes from within, from those who for a good purpose would only want the best for the Galar region, without however thinking about the consequences. Who will be the proponent of a new "Black Night"?

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The new main feature: Dynamax and Gigamax

After the mega evolution, much appreciated because they have dusted off and enhanced some pokemon fallen into disuse and oblivion, and the Z-moves, which provided the boost useful to win impossible fights, Gamefreak has decided to bring a new game dynamics that excludes the previous ones. Let's talk about the phenomenon Dynamax, unique in the Galar region, and its variant Gigamax.

In some areas of Galar, where there is a high concentration of energy coming from design office, the pokemon are capable of obtaining an upgrade which, apparently, multiply exponentially their size, greatly increasing their stats, and allowing them to use unique moves with special side effects. Mind you, the pokemon it won't really reach that size disproportionate, it will be a kind of projection but very realistic, not a banal hologram.

Some special pokemon, when the command is given Dynamax, they will also slightly change their appearance and will be able to use particular and unique moves. That's the Gigamax, obtainable only through gods Raid within the game. At the end of the Raid you will have the opportunity to capture that particular pokemon, which from the next time you can dynamaxize in the Gigamax version.

However, you will have few opportunities to use this dynamic: the fights in the gym and the Raids. Unlike Mosse Z e Megaevoluzioni, which can always and in any case be exploited, the Dynamax probably will not be exploitable in competitive as an "ace in the hole". But to be sure we will have to wait a little longer.

A more open world

What comes out after a few hours of gameplay is the feeling of being a little freer than usual in exploring the Galar region. I speak above all of the "Wildland“, The multi-climatic and multi-environmental zone that teems with pokemon to capture, often (and especially at the beginning) much stronger than the average of our team. The Wild Lands will be explorable in their entirety from the start, but at your own risk. Meeting a hungry Snorlax at level 60, when your Scorbunny has barely reached level 15, is an experience I strongly advise against.

In the Wild Lands we will find the "piece" (top photo) of pokemon in Dynamax (or if we are lucky Gigamax), challenging in company or with support NPC players. The raids, which are very reminiscent of those carried out with Pokemon Go, will be of various levels and will attract increasingly powerful pokemon. Different climatic conditions will create small micro-ecosystems in the various areas, one of which you will also need to evolve a very particular pokemon.

The Wild Lands are, in my opinion, the strong point of these games: they will invite us to lose many of our hours there, without ever (or almost) getting tired, always ready to participate in Raids or to discover the new pokemon that magically alternate during the day.

If we want, we can consider them a big deal "area safari“, With no time or pokeball limits, in which to capture a lot of pokemon that can only be traced inside.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield review: alternative forms are back

Giving a wink to fans of the past is a proven and winning move. With the Sun and the Moon we found new regional variants, the form alola, of pokemon already known in the past. Now we find new ones Form Galar, some truly original both in design and typology. We even find some new evolutions of pokemon that until recently we gave up for dead. I'm talking about Mr mime, Linoone e Farfetch'd, which by acquiring a new type become Mr Rime, Obstagoon e Sirfetch'd.

The sore point: let's talk about graphics

The leap there was, nothing to say, the additional "power" that a Switch can provide compared to a 3DS is remarkable, but in Gamefreak were they good enough to take full advantage of this possibility? The answer for me is no. The models of the new pokemon, well made, are immersed in settings poorly defined and a little anachronistic.

If you find yourself walking on a bridge, and suddenly you are engaged in a fight, you expect that the background scenario of the fight is, in fact, that bridge. But no, a random and undefined background will magically appear, almost sad. Various bugs cause blocks of the scene, like when you climb a ladder: pokemon, npc, grass ... everything will stop until you get off that ladder. The wild pokemon will often appear before your eyes in a pop-up version, out of nowhere, and will occasionally get stuck in endless circles of circles.

All this to say that, after years of waiting, we expected a port on the main console more "current"And better crafted and detailed. But you know, no one has ever bought pokemon themed video games because of the graphics. But hope is always the last to die!

The cities stand out slightly positively, compared to the rest, for care and stylistic choice. The call is always strong british, which differs from anything we could find in past game regions. The British aspect also comes out in the always apt soundtrack, of quality, which harks back to Brit-rock. Among the authors who contributed to the realization, we also find the famous Toby Fox di Undertale.

Longevity and end game

To complete the main storyline, allowing myself short periods for some Raid Dynamax and various explorations, it took me 36 hours. Not many objectively. The only way to further increase this time would have been to capture more pokemon, challenge someone on the net or participate in other Raids in search of variants. Gigamax. Which is feasible - by the way more easily - even after having obtained the title of champion, when rarer and more powerful pokemon will also appear. After all, during the game, you can only catch monsters with a limited level, a limit defined by the medals in your possession (eg pokemon max LV 25 with the first medal). Once the main story is over and the legendary on duty has been captured, the only real news that will remain will be to create a stronger team and face the "classic" Tower Lotta.

Pokemon Sword and Shield review: has it convinced us or not?

I undoubtedly liked the new chapter of GameFreak, it managed to involve me and captivate me for almost 40 hours. I confess, however, that this opinion is first of all the result of my passion for the series: as a fan, in fact, you want to enjoy the adventure, surprise yourself at every step and let yourself be guided by the title, ignoring everything else.

The reality is a bit different: Pokémon Sword and Shield seem, at times, the result of one development hasty, which led to shortages and absences with a certain weight. If on the part of GameFreak there was the will to involve a new public, more young, as they had managed to do with us in their thirties at the end of the 90s, the result was not what we had hoped for.