The WASTED POTENTIAL of Pokémon Sword and Shield

Pokémon Sword and Shield are potentially the most hated games in the franchise - at least by the fans. While I do think a lot of the dislike is warranted as the games are the most clear example we have of Gamefreak cutting corners in development, the games are not entirely bad. In this video, I hope to explore my biggest grievances with the game, offering solutions to them, as well as explain what I think the game has done well (Spoiler alert: Hop is in this last list, believe it or not). So please join me as I share with you all my thoughts on the subject - and by all means, leave yours in the comments below too!

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction
03:07 - Base Game Recap
40:41 - DLCs Recap
56:21 - The Wasted Potential (Story, Leon and Rose)
1:13:47 - The Wasted Potential (Sonia and Lore)
1:23:44 - The Wasted Potential (Exploration and the Wild Area)
1:41:32 - The Wasted Potential (Dexit, Animations, Bad Decisions)
1:53:47 - The Anime
2:01:39 - The Manga
2:09:28 - The Realized Potential
2:37:09 - The Future of Gen 8
2:43:04 - Outro

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Links - interviews:

Reddit posts visited:

Serebii links:

Other links:

#pokemonswordshield #pokemon #pokemonswordandshield

[prezmer]

Whew, this took forever to make. SO, what's YOUR opinion on Pokémon Sword and Shield? Would you like to see more of gen 8?

[femmesfatale]

(Writing in the start of the vid lol) Truly the worst thing about sw/sh IS the fact that you can see the bones of a good game. The character design was phenomenal and some of the pokémon designs introduced here are my favorites! Even some of the area designs are nice! But they clearly didn’t want to let it cook longer and the story plateaus so hard that it’s embarrassing… I remember playing the climax and being immensely confused at how sudden and unprompted it went from dropping ‘lore hints’ to ‘BEAT THE BIG EVIL NOW DO IT NOW’ … ugh

Anyways at least Raihan is my man now /j

[solidalibi]

The fact they introduced regieleki for dlc made how Chairman Rose was written even worse, since the Dex entry literally states how it could power all of Galar. A Pokémon that could power Galar without dynamax rampages and just so happens to be sealed up in the tundra where the chairmain's brother lives. And the game does nothing with this.

[EpicRaRa]

As someone from the UK I was so excited for a region based on my home nation. After Unova I daydreamed about it so often.

All in all I think it does a pretty decent job of getting the essence of the UK down. A lot of small details I initially overlooked because they are so normal to me. The spelling of mum instead of mom being one of them. I like that it has the bigger city areas but also the quaint picturesque areas like the hometown and balloonlea that are very cottage-core. And Spikemuth’s deprived state and strong local protectiveness of those who rise up is pretty accurate.

I was so bothered by things like the lacking, almost non-existent routes BECAUSE I loved the little nods scattered throughout and knew there was so much you could have done to make diverse routes like in Hoenn or Unova where there’s mysteries and secrets and fun areas to find. Some elements and areas were good and had thought so it made the corners that were cut feel almost painful and disappointing to me. There’s just something lacking or a slight hollowness.

I still think an elderly King or Queen style figure as the champion who turns out to be brutal despite their mild mannered exterior is such a missed opportunity too.


And yeah we do love a good curry.

[gabbywills]

I wish Hop had had a "corruption arc" of sorts after losing to Bede, maybe even going to Chairman Rose in an attempt to get strong like Leon. A multi battle with Leon against Rose and Hop could have been cool.

I think Galar did a good job of depicting the Pokémon-ification of the UK, especially with the implications of only those with connections and endorsements being allowed to become famous.

[amesstarline]

I remember some theories of SWSH's story being about Leon only being a ruse- that "unbeatable" was his marketed title- like N being a puppet king, but corporate.

[edwardsaldana]

This is why the fanbase are 100% wrong about the 3ds era being the downfall and if y’all going to say otherwise than criticize me!! Gen 7 is a masterpiece

[thelegendofxander]

I didn't even bother with Sw/Sh. I couldn't even be bothered once I DID have the money to get it. It seems unfinished, uninspired, and uninteresting. That being said, I'm excited to watch a nearly 3h video on it haha

also they knew EXACTLY what they were doing with the human character design in this game

[Aurinor]

1:34:57 Ah, that is one of the things done right in S/V. Like, yeah, there are still some mons what are roaming aimlessly, but there are also a lot what are actually just do their things, be it eating, playing with each other or sleeping, also some fun interaction s like Sevipers fighting Zangooses, Jumpluffs and Drifloons being cast away if there is some windy weather occurs, occasional packs of Tauros or Cyclizars passing through, Sudowoodo pretending as a tree but then comically fast running away if you get too close or Zorua in a form of some random Pokémon behave unnatural in comparison so you could tell..

[emptybottle]

I feel like just the slightest, simplest change, just before the climax of the story, would make it much less confusing and messy. Instead of Piers saying that Leon had a meeting with Rose and inform you and Hop he would be late, he tells us he saw Leon being escorted by some Macro Cosmos employees to the Rose Tower, "in a not so friendly manner". Just that change creates a natural emergency based on the way of the action, instead of Hop randomly thinking rhat Leon is in trouble and something is wrong when, for all we know, it's just a simple meeting. Also, just sprinkle in some touches of Rose wanting to be the center of attention for everyone in the whole region at all times, throughout the game. This way, his "impatience" in the climax makes a world of sense. Brimging the Darkest Day just before the Final will turn everyones head towards you. You become the spotlight. And given that Rose has followed you quite a bit throughout the game, he knows you have actual, real chamces of beating Leon. Dethrowning the unbeatable King. Doing all this after the Final, especially if you beat Leon, does nothing for his persona. But doing it just before, with the whole region stuck on their TVs? Now THAT'S how you become the center of attention. That's how the whole world talks about you. And that's how, at the end of the day, you become a hero. Which I always felt was the path they wanted the plot with Rose to take.

[sky]

UK person (living in England) here who watched a LP of Shield - I really liked your video! I never played the game as I have no Switch, but I appreciate all your points. For the culture stuff, from what I saw in the LP, I think they did a lot right and worked really hard on it. I especially liked the localisation, rural areas with the cottages and the attention to detail with the steps and signposts. They even had art based on the giant "hill figures" in UK fields. Deprived cities like Spikemuth having a strong local pride and culture also feel very accurate.

Some disappointments for me included the caves and rocks in the base game - from what I could see, they were underwhelming parts of routes with thrilling names like "Galar Mine No.1" and "Galar Mine No.2". And the UK has great caves! Wales has some fascinating ones in particular. And a cave that springs to mind is Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England, which I've been to on a school trip. It's where Britain's oldest complete skeleton was found, and which is currently still being used to make... cheese. Yes, really. The game could have had a lot of fun with something like that, and it's a shame we don't get any cool caves in the base game. And Stonehenge is so mysterious, but it shows up here as a barebones village and one of the worst Rock type designs in a while. It's a little bit disappointing. Additionally, it would have been good to see more inspiration for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland show up in the games - they could have based the DLC more on these areas maybe, like they did with England in the base game?

I was also not a fan of some of the Dexit choices. The UK has a ton of swans and deer, and there are memes or stories where a swan was strong enough to break someone's arm or where someone got into an accident because a deer walked in front of their car. But the Deerling and Sawsbuck lines got cut and I don't think they're in the DLC either. I know Stantler's more of a reindeer, but we didn't even get them! I would have loved for these 'mons to be there, and to maybe get some love via regional forms.

Also yes, we do eat a lot of curry, I made a korma the other day and it was very nice sldhfkjshf

[ferringsylveon]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that likes this game and felt like it needed more.

[eldiegollador]

I believe that, ever since Pokémon went 3D in Gen 6; Pokémon has been going on a decline, but I expected Gen 8 and onwards to be games that would make the Pokémon experience greater in every way... but we somehow ended up with games that feel with less content than those which were made for handheld consoles.

Now we live in the era of Dexit, of blatant dishonesty from The Pokémon Company, of selling incomplete and poorly made games for 90 dollars when they're not even worth 60 dollars.

When they announced that they axed the feature of being able to bring along any and all Pokémon from previous games into the newest games in exchange for "better looking graphics and animations" that, in all honesty, are embarrassingly bad compared to other games on the same console-- that's when I realized that Pokémon is dead to me. I've forgiven Pokémon for many things, but forcing Dexit upon us and then giving us a bullcrap excuse to justify their greedy and lazy choice was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

[sampfrost]

the games felt empty, the graphics upgrade didn’t feel like it justified the cost going up while the content went down p, and the stuff that would be post game content in other games ended up as DLCs, put me off of the switch games

[Aurinor]

Also, as for ”dexit” situation. I’d say Gamefreak & Pokémon Company are unintentionally placed themselves in a trap here.

So, you see, no other monster-taming-centered game series ever had that rule of thumb to always keep the whole roster in all subsequent games. Because people developing these games understood from the get go what if you will keep ALL AND EVERY one of your creatures in all subsequent games, then one day the amount of those creatures overall will be so humongous, so it just will be unfeasible to continue on keeping ALL of them in every new game. ESPECIALLY when you have to up your game’s graphically and then you’ll have to remade all that humongous amount of creatures from scratch to meet newer graphical standards.

So, GF at first tried to do exactly that. Keep all and everyone of them in all games. So the playerbase became accustomed to that being a norm. Whereas realistically IT NEVER WAS a norm to begin with. And then I guess SWSH became a straw what break the camel’s back, so they just had to cut on amount of accessible monsters. OR WAS IT???

Actually nope. It seems what this time they absolutely could have had them all in (because this time it wasn’t the time where they had to redo all of them from scratch, even despite them saying that themselves) but for some reason they decided not to. Well, there’s one rumor what they apparently lost some of the models from 3ds era (exact models were used for SWSH) so they just had no other choice.

But no matter the cause, of course such change from ”the norm” was perceived as negative, more so because the game itself was barebones so it couldn’t even be balanced out by positive things.

Now, from my point of view, id say what dex cut still was inevitable (already explained prior) so I was ready for such decision to become a thing sooner or later. BUT I’d still say it certainly wasn’t the right time to do it. Oh no, absolutely not the right time..
Like, if the game itself were good overall, and if it had many positives to it, then sure, people wouldn’t had to react to DexCut as negatively as they did.. But oh well.. It just couldn’t be helped I guess..

[unripetheberrby]

Thank you for the closed-captions ^^

You've talked well about the bad and good of swsh(almost done lol!). The Gyms and the characters/designs are my favorite things of it.
ed: Also I like the Curry Dex!! & camping. But interacting with the 'mon feels limited.. though some of the animations are nice :)

[drewcoleman]

First of all, applause for the effort you put into making this video. Really enjoyed watching it!

As a Scottish (UK) Player since Pokémon Blue, SW/SH is a strange one. The game has so many graphical, character and story flaws and I get upset thinking about all the wasted potential this game has… though on the other hand, the Gym Challenge and Max Lair is probably the most fun I’ve had since Pokémon Soul Silver and exploring the Crown Tundra (a region inspired by Scotland) was like a childhood dream come true.

It honestly makes me wonder what a hypothetical 3rd Game would have done for Gen’ 8 as it’s mostly Emerald, Platinum, B/W 2 and US/UM that I found set the standard for the Generation.

I do wish though they had taken more inspiration from Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland as most of the inspiration for Galar seems to pull from England. Even the majority of new Pokémon seem to pull from English folklore and I’m surprised they did nothing with Lapas, the Pokemon inspired by the Scottish Loch Ness Monster, when in the Crown Tundra. Also why the Isle of Armor wasn’t based on Wales or N.Ireland I don’t really get.

If there ever was a Remake I would love for them Double Down on the Gym Challenge. Learn more about the Minor Leagues and earn your way up the ranks. Then if there was a Legends Game focus on the Legendaries as I feel we know the least about Gen 8’s Legendaries compared to all other ones.

As a side the National Dish of the UK is a curry, “Chicken Tikka Masala” and it’s not uncommon for Pubs to have Historical Items in them like we see with the Final Tapestry in Galar… although this has been less common with Museums collecting them and general modernisation.

[pentumbraphantasm]

legends eternatus in 2030 will save galar!!!

[asherscottL]

First off: VOICE ACTING WAS A HUGE GRIPE OF MINE. Holy shit!!! Fire Emblem from the DS era had voice acting!!!! AND ANIMATED CUTSCENES.

Pokemon doesn't animate cutscenes at all.

Also the sentiment of "the adults need to do their part" was better implemented in Black and Whire, where the gym laders take on the Sages while you got to do *Protagonist Shit.* You weren't left out, but they made it clear that adults did care and didn't leave the fate of everything in a child's hands.

The points I disagree on:
- I was originally MASSIVELY against Dexit. My buds in the bank have been with me so long that some of them can legally drive! These are my Pokemon friends! But I realize that if this franchise wants to survive and keep making dozens of new pokemon, they have to leave some behind. We don't make a big deal when games like Digimon leave some out. BUT there was a side-effect I hadn't considered until recently. Pokemon, who hadn't seen any play, got competitive niches because of the limited choices. I think back to murkrow in early Scarlet and Violet. Murkrow is such a weak pokemon, but it became competitively viable! Seeing any pokemon from Generation 2 be competitive is so gosh dang rare that it was exciting. By shuffling the roster in every game, I think they keep competitive pokemon interesting and alive. Keeping the roster the entire dex makes the games stagnant.

- Megas needed to be removed from online play. The designs were SO COOL. Honestly, these are beloved amazing designs. And having gengar with levitate finally gave us a competitively viable poison type!!! Losing the mega ability really dropped how usable Gengar was. And really, the Pokémon who lost the most were the Pokémon who needed the stat boost to begin with. Power creep really made pokemon like Pidgeot and Beedrill absolutely useless for competitive play. And if megas only gave these Pokémon the +100 base stat increase, then we would be all rioting for megas back.

The problem is that Mega Evolution didn't just give needed buffs to weaker pokemon. It gave massive buffs to already OP pokemon like Lucario, garchomp, and rayquaza. It got to the point that not having one of these on your team was simply a handicap, so building interesting meta teams was harder. Competitively viable pokemon became so narrow that the archytpes got names: The Big 6, CHALK, and Double Primal.

It is frustrating that the newer gimmicks don't have the same vibe as megas. Mega evolutions made you feel very close to your pokemon. Like they trusted you enough to evolve further. And their designs were outstanding! But! The newer gimmicks allowed for more varied play. In Mega games, you knew which pokemon were likely to get the gimmick. You knew how to cripple that team. But in the new games, you can make adaptable decisions on the fly. You lose the pokemon you normally gigantamax? Don't worry, you can still make use of the mechanic to keep the game going. You normally tera offensively to get more damage out, but your support pokemon have a bad matchup to the team you are up against? Defensive tera becomes an option. The new gimmicks are great! And being available to all pokemon is so, so valuable to the competitive play. You have to remember, most people only play pokemon for a few months and put it down again. But competitive players play FOR YEARS and have to keep it interesting. An evolving meta is healthy for that.

All this to say: I love mega designs, I love mega in single-player games. But MAN am I happy to see them kicked from multiplayer. (Absolutely HYPED for Legends Z-A bringing them back for the single-player experiences though!!)

[MiguelSchafer]

As a spaniard, everytime I saw "Kagada" in the video I giggled, it got me every single damn time XD.