Review: Pokémon Sword (Nintendo Switch)

Get ready to experience Galar, an expansive region with diverse environments, from a peaceful countryside and contemporary cities to a thick forest and snow-covered mountains. The people and Pokémon who live here work together closely to develop the industries within it.

Pros:

  • Cartoon graphics.
  • 9.5gb download size.
  • Poké Ball plus support.
  • Ongoing tutorials as you play.
  • Gotta catch em all battler gameplay.
  • Save when you want.
  • Online and offline setting.
  • Fast loading times.
  • All-new Pokemon along with some familiar ones.
  • Can see the pokemon walking around.
  • Flying taxi-acts as fast travel.
  • Same familiar controls.
  • Wild area-new thing where you can see other players, interact with pokemon, see higher level pokemon and battle in raids with other players.
  • Camp-build a tent and play with your pokemon, heal and rest in the wild area.
  • Smoother, quicker intro to the game with it getting into the action a lot quicker.
  • Gyms-you still faces off against people but they are a lot more opened and have puzzle elements to them.
  • Shortcut button when fighting to use your Poké balls.
  • Really handy pop up explaining items when you pick them up for the first time.
  • Dynamax Evolution-greatly increases the size of your Pokemon and gives them new actions and abilities.
  • Nursery-leave 2 pokemon to be slowly cared for and level up and you have a chance to get an egg to hatch into a pokemon.
  • Can set it to skip cutscenes.
  • Whistle-attract Pokemon.
  • Fishing available from the start.
  • Clear easy to read the map.
  • Play how you want.
  •  Bouncy happy soundtrack.
  • Online-battle/random trade/raids etc.
  • You can connect to online for interactions manually.
  • Shops to buy items and rest your pokemon.
  • So much fun to play.
  • Addictive.
  • Faster paced combat.

Cons:

  • No touchscreen support.
  • No voice work.
  • You have to find a person and interact with them just to be able to tweak audio settings.
  • Still no fast forward button for fights.
  • No real advancements or changes in the overall experience.
  • Lacks less interaction than Let’s go.

  • 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Accessibility - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Length - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Fun Factor - 9/10
9/10

Summary

Pokemon Sword is the latest of two pokemon games and it’s back to business. Generally, the game is the same as it always is except the beginning part is a lot faster and cuts a lot of crap away. Aside from that, it’s all the same until you first encounter the Wildlands! I mean this is a stroke of genius and should be a staple going forward, you get to see and interact with other players and is like an MMO social area but thwart with dangers. Higher-level pokemon hang around and you can raid with people for epic fights, set up camp and tend to your Pokémon. It really is cool as and they update it with its own weather system and items. Back to the core game and like I say it’s very much business as usual, a few parts from Let’s Go come over like Pokeball integration (used for walking pokemon), seeing the pokemon, etc. I just found the whole game a lot easier to play as it felt lightweight in its mechanics and just gave us new toys and areas, and just let us freely explore and play as we want. It’s just not as heavy or intensive as before and it really does thrive because of that. Don’t go in thinking it’s just Pokémon, I’ve played that, it really does feel like a fresh new take on it and will appeal to new and old fans alike.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!