Is Pokemon Sword and Shield BETTER Than Scarlet & Violet? (DLC INCLUDED!)

Now that Generation 9's introductory game has come to its conclusion, I wanted to compare the difference between last generation, and the current generation. Let's have a chit chat yeah?

OFFICIAL DISCORD!!!

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[XYGamingRemedyG]

I prefer the open world more but SwSh felt more traditional. Ultimately, I'd prefer a Legends Arceus gameplay but with the open world.

[TheStickCollector]

I may be a hater but I shouldn't have to spend around $100 just to get a decent "complete" pokemon package. Especially when they should have the money to hire more employees to make at minimum the glitches disappear for a majority of players.

[giboit.]

I love SwSh. I had a lot of fun with the game and with the dlc as well.

I love the vibrant colors, the story is interesting, the gym challenge feels like a huge and important sport event that everyone watches and looks forward to (the gym challenge even has a really cool anual inauguration ceremony where you meet all the gym leaders beforehand) the atmosphere is great (even the npcs stsrt noticing your achievements during the game and the gym challengers also have their own pseudo mini stories if you paid attention) dynamax/gmax is easily the most visually impressive game mechanic of any pokemon game and the music during the gym and rival battles is awesome and really gets you hyped.

Sure, you can use terastalization against random npcs but the presentation for the battles that actually matter in SwSh is far better than in Scarlet and Violet.

Also, contrary to what you said, Dynamax and Gmax are both equally strong and useful. The only difference with gmax is the cool form change and the special gmax move but those aren't ridiculously OP moves or anything like that. You can perfectly use either dynamax or gmax during battle. None of them is particularly stronger than the other, they're equally useful. I don't even know where you come up with that (wrong) idea of gmax being significantly stronger than dynamax .

And when it comes to soundtrack, both of them have great musical themes but I honestly prefer the ones in SwSh.

The pokemon designs are really cool and the human character design is amazing and you get a lot of lore about the story of the region in basically every town and city (they all have some kind of connection to the legend of Galar with the exemption of Spikemuth for being the town that doesn't relate to dynamax/gmax and Balloonlea due to its hidden fairy town theme).

Not to mention that even the gym trainers that fight you before the gym leaders have a way better design (that fits their gyms) in SwSh.

You get to know the gym leaders outside their own gym and the league cards were also an amazing way to get to know even more about them and about the region itself.

And you even get to see the most early game characters getting spotlight later on as well.

During the main game, you don't get any meaningful interaction in Scarlet and Violet unless you're near a gym, a team star base or a titan. And, honestly, the ones you do have can get pretty repetitive.

The gym leaders in SwSh are by far more charming than the ones in Scarlet and Violet in my opinion.

And Leon is easily the most fleshed out champion of any pokemon game. We know everything about his story: his gym challenge, his friends, rivals, family, his habits, who trained him, how he got his starter, how he became the champion and even his new goals after losing the title of champion.

The lore of the region is incredibly interesting and fleshed out in many ways when you actually pay attention to it. That's a difference that SwSh has with Scarlet and Violet. SwSh doesn't spoon feed you the answers. But you can definitely get them if you connect the dots.

Scarlet and Violet expects you to wait until the very end of the game to throw you all the lore of the region in the face in the last part of the game.

Not to mention that Sword and Shield allows itself to be more funny than Scarlet and Violet too.

And the dlc story was a lot of fun. It had a cool chinese aesthetic to it with pretty fun characters. Your rival literally cheats during your battle and Mustard has two sides to him (the super chill old man with a pretty wife and a cool ex-champion that is pretty strong literally fights you with a legendary that fits his theme and you even get a secret boss fight with Honey, and she has a pretty cool theme. Not to mention that the upgrades for the dojo are far more easy to get than in Scarlet and Violet.
Peony is full of charisma, the side quests involve going to the other parts of the region to catch pretty cool looking legendaries and the lore behind calyrex (if you actually pay attention) is really interesting because he literally fought against Eternatus.

And while not technically about the games themselves, I prefer Twilight wings so much more over Paldean wings. Because it's pretty much a sequel to the entire story and features all the characters we met instead of three randos that had nothing to do with the story.

[derekosgood]

I give it to scarlet and violet mainly because of the story overall. But DLC wise, I was more disappointed with scarlet and violet. The DLC for sword and shield had nothing to do with the main story so there was no pressure really. Just extra content and new pokémon so it was just fun. Hidden treasure of area zero ties in to the main story so it meant more in my opinion, and it just didn't deliver the way it should have. I was pretty disappointed with the indigo disk lol either way I like them both.

[DarkChaoto]

One thing I like about sword and shield more than scarlet and violet is the Y-Comm system is much quicker and better to use than Poke portal. Best example is being able to invite/join friends alongside randoms. In Scarlet and violet, it's one or the other.

[jeremystone]

There were more frequent Raid-Den events in SW/SH, a Battle Tower, Legendary Shiny-Hunting in the DLC, a way to breed pokemon that took half the time it does in S/V, community hosted Shiny Raid-Dens, etc.

I like shiny-hunting in S/V, and Tera-Raids can be challenging. That's about it, I really hope the next generation is more like gen VIII because I spent a lot more time in SW/SH than I ever will in S/V.

[FreeTheRobots]

Bro, ik no one is going to mention this but that Sonic Unleashed background music is blissful. I always told people that game’s OST is amazing

[joopvanhedel]

It actually started with Black and White 1 and 2 everyone hated Gen 5 and now it's in the top 5 for everyone White was the first Pokemon games I played so it's good to see that everyone thinks it's amazing now

[MikeHunt-xipq]

The atmosphere in Pokemon Battle Revolution was ahead of its time.

[_Paul_N]

Sword and Shield destroys Scarlet and Violet and both games run a trillion times better without hiccups and freezes. Scarlet and Violet plays like Fallout 76 and Early Cyberpunk and was never patched.

[TheMadSnorlax]

When it comes to the DLC for gen 9 I think the main thing missing is some type of replay factor/minigame to bring us coming back. (Examples: Dynamax Adventures in Sword/Shield DLC or Ultra Wormholes In USUM.) Both let us shiny hunt legendaries / other random Pokemon and were overall enjoyable in general. Now that I shiny hunted the starters and found every shiny locked legendary In the Indigo Disk... Well thats it. Gen 9 is technically "done" until that event on the 11th. (Which seems to add 1-2 hours of gameplay max) And now ironically I'm just going back to Sword and Shield Crown Tundra DLC (Dynamax Adventures) and Legends Arceus (More fun Shiny Alpha hunts / completionist content) Even for people who don't LOVE dynamax adventures/Ultra wormholes at least it gave us some way to shiny hunt legendary Pokemon at the time. But removing shiny hunting legends in general, AND not having some type of DLC/post game gimmick.. It's really going to hurt the longevity of these games. This means were probably gonna get a rushed gen 10 (whenever it comes out) and more rushed remakes in 2024.. I think overall Scarlet & Violet win this one, but as for replayability Sword and Shield edges it just because of the DLC features

[DuendeCaughtOnTape]

Pokemon Cardboard VS Pokemon Hemorrhoid

[CorviKid]

I personally like the pokemon design in Sword/Shield over Scarlet/Violet (which is a point that I think should have been brought up) since it fits with the region quite well, but I do agree with all of the other points.

[Hellaluyeah]

Sword/Shield has Dynamax Adventure in the DLC with non shiny-locked legends and good odds. So that is always a reason to go back to those games.

[joshuakolton]

Without having seen the video yet: from a story/content perspective, absolutely not, S/V is far superior. From a performance/gameplay perspective, SW/SH are much better.

It almost pains me to play S/V because the performance issues are just that bad especially when I'm battling on water.

[orangemonks]

I really prefer swsh art styles over scarlets overly realistic

[rtbear]

Just played SWSH yesterday from SV.
-It looks good, but tbf, the locked camera angle made it far easier to give a picturesque scenery. The tone looks nicer in SWSH. Though things like mezagoza also looks nice, and the chef gym town.

-I played SV after 1.30 patch so never get any crash.

-Gimmick, I think SV Terastalize is ok mechanically, the design tho, you put crystal dragon hat on top of dragon's head. I mean, can they design something that make it looks cooler, than just pokemon wearing dragon hat, lightbulb hat, etc. Gigantimax looks more awesome.

-Though I think SV is quite good, You really feels like having freedom roaming around. I quite enjoyed Tera Raid. Though I'd like to know which tera raid is 5* or 4* from the map

[GAMM_SAGE]

DLC 2 of SV was pretty disappointing while DLC 2 of Sword and Shield has infinite replayability due to the underground Raids where you could hunt for the legendary of your dreams while in SV the only way to get old legendary is by making blueberry quests and some legendary need group quests to unlock so if you don't have online or friends you are pretty much blocked of certain legendaries and there's also the fact they are all shiny locked

[ej]

Its great to say sv had better story line, open world, pokemon got a little realistic with fur/scales being more in the environment, the legendaries fit the story, wow factor especially with kiran, besides the mess ups with the environment n not having alot of clothing options one thing they did get right is blk men hair styles something thats fits me!!! i definitely would choose sv i am constantly playing it n i haven't put my system down since

[vanthemanproductions]

I definitely think Dynamaxing was better. The game has so many cinematic moments and the gimmick just complements that. Also, your point about gigantamax makes no sense and could also apply to mega evolution.