Pokémon Sword & Shield 5 Years Later: A Retrospective

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Today marks five years since the launch of Pokémon Sword/Shield. The eighth generation of Pokémon titles, the first mainline pair of games to be brought to the Nintendo Switch, and a sign of something new to come. Not since Pokémon X and Y swapped out bobbing sprites for 3D models did it feel like we were getting a true generational shift in the land of pocket monsters. Finally, finally we were getting to venture out of the long grass and into an open zone, where we could see the creatures we could catch without hoping for a lucky roll of the dice when one of the little ankle biters caught us out in the wild. As with any Pokémon generation, there was a lot of hope, a lot of hype, but did the games live up to either? Let's find out.

The Good of Pokémon Sword/Shield

While each new Pokémon generation tries to put a unique spin on the established formula, Gen 8 really felt as if Game Freak had the chance to push the boat out. Even as a half-handheld, half-home console, the Switch was rocking way more power than the 3DS, and so in theory, we could get a game that evolved staggeringly from Gen 7. We'll get into why that might not have been the case in the rest of this article, but for the most part, it's clear to see that Pokémon Sword/Shield threw itself down as the guinea pig for future games, showing the budding Bellesprouts of what would eventually become big, beautiful Victreebels.

The improvement that gathered the most fan attention was clearly the Wild Area. An entire zone where Pokémon of varying levels could just run up to you or be battled without having to sift through the long grass to find them. This was what people wanted when they envisioned Pokémon on the Switch. A great, sprawling world where you can bump into your favourite Pokémon just like you're playing a version of the anime. We didn't get exactly that in Pokémon Sword & Shield, but the foundation was laid, and the Wild Area is actually quite fun, still. Mixing and matching bits of traditional long grass gameplay with a more open space allowed for the best of both worlds, and while the franchise has since leaned more towards the sandbox, Gen 8 remains unique for its ability to combine both Pokémon's past and its near future.

I think something a lot of people have been sleeping on with Gen 8 is the overall design. As a Brit, I may be biased, but the Galar Region was very much committed to the aesthetics of the UK, and felt like a far cry from the sunny Alola region in the best way possible. Yes, there might have been one too many factories or mines, but the experience of running around Pokémon Britain was refreshing and varied in its landscapes. Sweeping fields, lush woodlands, industrial complexes, you had them all, and the creatures you found within were a brilliant reflection of that. Corviknight, Toxtricity, Clobbopus, Grimmsnarl, Eiscue, Dragapult. The list goes on, and much of the Gen 8 roster is surprisingly well-designed. Sure, not all of them are knockouts and I could easily place Blipbug in a hydraulic press, but overall it was easy to fill out an entire team with Gen 8 Pokémon that I enjoyed playing with. Then add the regional forms and random Pokémon that evolved from another like Sirfetch'd and again you see that Gen 8 stands on its own while bolstering the gold of the series' past.

The story of the game wasn't half bad either. A little basic, but all the games apart from Gen 5 are guilty of that. Once again, these games made an attempt to try something new, having the "evil" team actually just be rowdy football hooligans that are nowhere near as evil as they are loud. This meant that we had space for a more dastardly evil later down the line, and while you might have wanted a more villainous team, having a 10-year-old stop a whole corporation was getting a tad tired. We also got to see more of the story in the same game for the first time thanks to expansions. These seemingly have replaced the mid-gen releases we used to get like Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but they do add a good amount of content and creatures with them, at less of a price. Of course, old-school fans such as myself prefer the mid-gen games, as they feel more polished, but the DLCs are an interesting step forward.

The Bad of Pokémon Sword/Shield

There is certainly a solid amount of good in these games, but there is also plenty that fans weren't happy with. Personally, I found these to be my least-favourite Pokémon games as I played them, and largely this was down to the difficulty. The open-world games are simply too easy to beat, and even though the target market is children here, there was not a single encounter in Pokémon Sword/Shield where I felt threatened. It doesn't help that the gameplay neither decides on being linear or fully open, so you're shoved down a corridor to batter everyone, then left back into the Wild Area where you can easily get ten levels ahead because there's a hugely powerful Pokémon blocking your path. With the main rival story placing such a focus on battling as well, the whole game makes it simply too easy to win, removing any thrill despite it having some of the best battle soundtracks, especially when you reach a Dynamax battle.

Speaking of Dynamax battles, they were unfortunately another failed experiment. Unlike Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves, which could happen anywhere, you could only Dynamax in certain locations in Pokémon Sword/Shield, usually in the gym fights. This meant that really you didn't see the mechanic often, and even when it did pop up, it was mostly a visual effect. Z-Moves but with bigger Pokémon, in essence. I have been begging Game Freak to just go back to Mega Evolutions for the longest time, as while they don't fairly allow all creatures the same powers, they do allow for the coolest design changes and they're a mechanic that can fit in any region theoretically. In fact, it only creates more questions after they've been dropped of why they're only around in certain places. That's besides the point, anyway, as the main point is Dynamax was a big spectacle, but one that failed to be anything more than an interesting sight.

One of the biggest disappointments for me might be a controversial point, but I really didn't care for the starters. The base evolutions are very cute, as they should be, but by the end Cinderace, Inteleon and Rillaboom all looked like people in fursuits. That has been an increasing trend for a while now, and I won't argue it didn't continue for the most part in Gen-9, but at least those starters had flair, and style, whereas for Gen 8, they looked much more akin to creatures you'd find on a fan design website or a knock-off game. Gen 8 was the only time I considered getting rid of my starter, because at the launch of the game they didn't even have special Gigantamax forms, which made them feel even more pointless to use. Even the greatest trainer in all of Galar, Leon, uses a Charizard instead of any of these losers.

Overall, Pokémon Sword/Shield might not have been the great leap forward that Game Freak wanted them to be, but they were a step, one that led to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Scarlet/Violet, games that might also not be perfect, but certainly showed a brighter future for this open world era of Pokémon.