So anyone else pick up either this or Shield? Also can someone check to see if I put the game on the database fine, first time I have done that which is surprising considering I have been here for many a year now.

ANYWAY I have many many thoughts and am probably gonna have to do a side article as well as my review or it could be way too long and my Sun review was already fairly lengthy. Impressions so far are positive. A good way to sum it up is that Sw/Sh feel like 2 steps forward...and 2 steps backwards. It improves somethings but then regresses in others making it a strange one. Whereas X/Y tried to play it as safe as possible with the formula, and Sun/Moon tried to change things while staying constrained to that formula, I feel like Sw/Sh is trying to fit a different game into a traditional Pokemon game.

I got both versions, but probably going to play through Shield since most people seem to be going with Sword.

Pokefreak911 said:

A good way to sum it up is that Sw/Sh feel like 2 steps forward...and 2 steps backwards. It improves somethings but then regresses in others making it a strange one.

This is the vibe I've gotten from all the previews. I was really hoping for this to be a huge brand-new amazing thing, and it became clear that it wasn't going to be that right away. A lot of people are mad about half the Pokedex being cut, and it's disappointing to me to. And a lot of people defend it by saying, "Yeah, but with as many Pokemon as there are, this is still about par for the course. Stop complaining about random features from past games being cut, there's plenty of new stuff and this is just as fully-featured as any other Pokemon game."

But if it isn't going to be a huge brand-new amazing thing, then it should at least be the obviously definitive version of classic Pokemon. And it isn't that, it's just... another Pokemon game. I have some friends who are playing it and loving it because it's their first ever Pokemon game, and I'm happy for them, but I'm starting to agree with T-bun more and more, I'm pretty much over Gamefreak's annualization of this franchise.

@Secret_Tunnel

Personally I’m just not that fussed about the PokéDex being cut or whatever. This ain’t my first rodeo with this. Same thing happened back on GBA with Ruby/Sapphire. Everyone just needs to relax and enjoy their Pokémon game.

@GameDadGrant

Oh, I plan on relaxing and skipping it, haha. It's no skin off my back.

@Secret_Tunnel
Game Freak have clearly lost the same spark for Pokemon that they had back in the DS era. All the games since then have felt far more hollow, and they have been working on non-Pokemon project more and more. I think it is definitely time for it to be passed onto another team.

@GameDadGrant
I'm going to touch on Dexit briefly in my review but it isn't the act of dexit I dislike, its the principle. This is the first mainline Pokemon game where you cannot have them all. It doesn't affect how you play the game through, but it does change what we can expect from Pokemon and modifies one of the fundamental parts of the series. Also their reasonings for it were hollow at best, considering Game Freak have and do ban some Pokemon for competitive play and could very easily do that again. And the budget argument doesn't hold water considering its Pokemon we are talking about. It doesn't have an infinite budget, but it certainly has enough for all the Pokemon to be in the game.

@Secret_Tunnel

Fair enough. Plenty of other games out there to play, no doubt about that!

Pokefreak911 said:

This is the first mainline Pokemon game where you cannot have them all.

What? No it's not.

@GameDadGrant
I said have not catch. Plenty of other games you can't catch all the Pokemon, but here you can't even transfer something like an Infernape over. Its also different to Gen 2 -> Gen 3 because some of us have had Pokemon that we have transferred through the games for over 10 years at this point. Sun and Moon didn't have a National Dex but you could still transfer Pokemon to it that were not in the Dex. I guess Let's Go does count but that game is different in so many ways that I consider it to be its own thing for the most part.

@Pokefreak911

But this is exactly like Ruby/Sapphire. It’s for more stupid reasons, but the base situation is the same. And honestly, they probably could have found a way to transfer the OG PKMN to the GBA titles, but they didn’t.

@GameDadGrant
Ruby/Sapphire released in 2002. The time gap between Gen 1/2 and Gen 3 is much smaller than the gap between now and Gen 3. This matters a lot when it comes to the attachment people have to their Pokemon. Gen 3 also still had a national Pokedex whereas Gen 8 has no National Pokedex.

Again though, this doesn't affect the core experience. You will not care about dexit when playing the game through. I also feel like most people who are angry about it are really missing the mark as to why it is a problem and are instead simply whining and complaining.

My friend got it (huge Pokemon fan) and isn't super thrilled, but I took his Switch and played it for a while and I really felt such happiness exploring a real Pokemon game in full console loveliness! I wasn't going to get it, but that short time with it (made it to the Wilds Area) changed my mind. Not that we have the funds, but my wife wanted it anyway, so I will rationalize it that way. :P

@Pokefreak911

Yeah. I think overall we are in agreement. When playing the game, players are just going to have fun.

Man I forgot how freaking clean the world of Pokémon is. A lot of games nowadays want to build the environments so they look “lived-in.” So roads and floors will be dirty/grimy, walls have dents or scratches, etc. But in this game? Oh man everyone keeps their house and work area extremely clean. Orderly. Sparkling, almost. I wish my actual house was as tidy!

@J.K. Riki

Awesome! Sword or Shield?

@GameDadGrant

Doesn't matter to me. I'll let my wife pick, and we'll probably buy the double pack and split it with another friend who was interested in getting the game. So maybe we'll let him have first choice. (He's never played a Pokemon game before!)

@J.K. Riki

Oh wow! Not even one of the phone games? Regardless, the Switch game is a cool place to start!

Champion has been beaten, onto the postgame and catching them all. And now I am starting to feel Dexit a little. While Alola had a smaller overrall Pokedex, it had far less areas. Sw/Sh has a lot of areas and when you start going back through them you notice that a lot of Pokemon are repeated throughout, or its just evolutions of Pokemon that you have already seen. So while you have more than the Alolan Dex, because you have so much more to explore in this game its stretched rather thin.

You’re on the postgame already? Wow, you work fast! I just completed the first gym last night. I’m a far bit behind by comparison! How much postgame stuff is there?

@GameDadGrant
Yeah! Jedi Fallen Order's environments were so gritty and dirty. And then they put film grain on it. And THEN they threw in Motion Blur and Chromatic Aberration.

To what end?!

@Anand

So it looks badass, bro!

*chugs a beer*

@GameDadGrant
When a new Pokemon game comes out I nolife it pretty hard. Plus I gotta get that review a going. Postgame doesn't really seem that big, and I have heard that the battle tower is even easier now. Also I am like 300ish Pokemon deep into my living dex so that won't take too long either. Its a lot easier because of how many evolved Pokemon you can find in the wild.

@Pokefreak911

As much as I keep insisting I don't care about this game, I am curious about the postgame competitive side. I saw some stuff about how they made leveling and breeding way easier in this game, which seems like a good move. Are there any other features that bring some of the deeper aspects of the combat system to the forefront?