I think the arc is kinda weak since 1. opal literally makes fun of it 2. Hop chooses the starter weak towards your’s, for Hau and Nemona it makes sense because Hau just picks the one he likes and Nemona is challenging herself, but Hop cares about winning and being strong during the Arc, so it would make more sense and be better if he’s losing and has the type advantage
@@CertifiedSoapEater You're getting it wrong: Hop is not choosing the starter he knows is weak to yours, but the starter he knows will be strong against the one his big brother will keep.
Y'know, I could hate on Sword and Shield literally all day long, they rank even worse than XY for me. BUT I am genuinely happy that people like yourself hold a lot of love for these games, and that they both helped bring you joy during a difficult time, and also brought you back into this series as a whole! Now that you've played all the games and had some time to sit on them, if you were looking for a video idea, maybe you could do a tier list and explain your reasons for the placements? Just a thought.
I've just found your channel and this video sums up my experience with pokemon. Gen 7 for a very low point for me in the series and seeing what gen 8 was I loved every single part of it. There are some things that needed more polish but man I had fun with those games and the DLCs. From the region, the graphics, the pokemon and the simple story of becoming the champion but with the grandious stadiums. Every word you said it's what i also think. This game had a lot of backlash that wasn't deserved and i'm glad more people feel like this. These games are amazing and revived the love for this franchise
I feel like a lot of the criticism from Sword and Shield comes from how people expected a "next gen" Pokemon game, a large leap for the series the same way Breath of the Wild and Odyssey was for Zelda and Mario. Would it be nice if Pokemon gaems had the presentation and scope of other JRPGs like Dragon Quest or Xenoblade? Sure, but what we got was still pretty fun.
Oh trust me...Zamazenta is getting PLENTY of love right now in the competitive scene. It's actually quite cute. Zacian was a massive threat in SW/SH vgc pokemon, and now the underdog (pun intended) Zamazenta is making waves in S/V vgc. Its really cool to see
Sword and shield also got me back into Pokémon after a pretty long hiatus. But I had an opposite view of yours: I hated it when I first played through it in 2019. It wasn’t until 3 or so years ago that I actually appreciated it and fell in love with the region and the games. I’m glad I did :). Thanks for the great video, Craig!! I always love hearing your prospective on things!
since completing the Dex on Scarlet/Violet i went back to playing on Sword & Shield & trying to do the same for those games & i forgot how much i used to enjoy those 2 games
This is a lot like me funnily enough, I hadn’t really played Pokemon as a kid (I would borrow my brother’s Game Boy but I didn’t have my own game) but during lockdown my partner was playing Lets Go Pikachu and I played it with them as Player 2 and had a blast so I then bought Lets Go Eevee and had a great time (the simplified mechanics were great for someone like me). Then I got Pokemon Shield and I really fell in love with the region that really nailed the UK imo (I’m also British) and the battles really get you pumped in this game and feel so exciting. And I got a deeper appreciation for new Pokemon thanks to Shield (I already knew the original 151 so they weren’t ‘new’ to me). And like you playing Shield really got me to play the other Pokemon games (I have played Gens 4-7 on my 3DS so pls put 1-3 on NSO, pls)
I personally love these games and am glad you did too. They're my 2nd favourite mainline games after Black/White. The dynamax gimmick works really well, especially for the first one you can play on your telly. The raid system is really good. Aesthetically it looks great, and captures the feel of Britain really well. The Wild Area was great to break up tge standard routes. The new mon designs were on the whole really good. And the DLC was fun.
I have criticisms of swsh, but that’s the case with all Pokémon games. I had fun with them, but the dlc rescued them I LOVED the dlcs. I’d say visually let’s go is still the best looking switch mainline Pokémon game though
My pandemic game was the Witcher 3 and I cannot believed I lived life before it. I was already in love with swsh, still prefer it to SV. The hype with online shiny raids and item hacks back in the day was phenomenal
I'm not sure if I've gone a month without playing Pokémon in 25 years, and I love Sword and Shield. The hate is undeserved. They're some of the most fun I've had in the series. Also, I agree that Zamazenta is the correct choice.
I love these games too, I am also a home grown galarian human (I'm british) so maybe it is just bias 😅, I couldn't afford a 3ds or the games so before this one my only games were up to b2w2 so the jump to a 3d world also blew my mind lol
lol I never understood the hate these games got to be fair, I too bought both versions but only because my pre-order of Shield was going to arrive a week late. I booted up sword and was hooked.
Im happy that someone finally praise those games. My favorite 3d pokémon games apart from PLA. I have done 3 playthrough of those games and im planning a fourth soon. These games are so much fun,with the traditionnal Pokémon feeling but adding the crazy gym battle arena that gives anime vibes. Adiotionally,i love the Pokémon from Galar,from the starter to the Legendary,not a lot of bad design. I hate Sun and Moon and Scarlet and Violet,they are too much story focus and not enough Pokémon like. SW/SH are for me the perfect Pokémon Games. A linear game with some open area. Thats the direction pokémon should have Taken.
I haven't played Sword/Shield, but I've watched a ton of WolfeyVGC playing Sw/Sh VGC. It really ignited my interest in competitive Pokemon. It's kinda nostalgic, heh.
SwSh were my first pokemon games (I'm old and did not get on this bandwagon as a kid). I could tell they had their flaws even on a first playthrough with no knowledge of the genre, but I still love them. I've gone on to play quite a few other games including stuff like Platinum, HGSS, B&W that people hold up as the gold standard against which modern pokemon is hopelessly flawed, and yeah, I liked those a lot too. But I've gotta tell all the old-time fans I enjoy gens 7, 8, and 9 *significantly* more than anything that came before it. The quality of life changes matter so much. So does the larger pokemon variety. Not having to stumble over the same damn zubat one million times on the route from one town to the next is worth a whole lot of graphical stuttering, imo. I like that the other characters are actual characters with real motivations and affecting storylines. I like that they keep shaking up the gym formula. I like that experience share makes it easy for me to try out a lot of pokemon. And--sacrilege--if I can't have 3D open-world(ish) exploration, please, please just give me a liner path to follow. Old-time pokemon exploration is not enjoyable--I end up looking up route maps just so I know I'm not gonna meander blindly through a maze of encounters and dead ends just for the reward of a single full-restore. Lagging aside, there is just an ease and enjoyment to playing the modern games that the older ones do not have if you didn't grow up with them.
I think sword and shield do have there flaws that people are right to point out i.e. the infamous tree and chairman rose going cray cray over something that won't happen for 1000 years, however I still think there great games and there simple story actually feels quite refreshing to me being between deep sci-fi lore heavy games like sun and moon and scarlet and violet, I think most people had already decided they were bad games before release due to the Dex cut which I think is fair to not be happy about but to think that will ruin a game when there's still over 400 Pokémon available in game frankly boggles the mind
@@CertifiedSoapEater and that's a fair criticism however what a lot of people were doing, especially moan tubers, was to say it ruined the games before knowing this and the way people were acting was as if this one thing would make an otherwise good game one of the worst things in all of human history
Tbh I think people don't realize that we're *supposed* to think Chairman Rose is doing something stupid and bad. He's an extreme Longtermist who thinks that the ends (protecting future people from an energy crisis) justify the means (triggering a second darkest day) and we're supposed to be able to figure out that he's wrong and just too mired in his hero complex to listen to others
@@Shinntoku possibly but personally it didn't come across this way to me, I think it could have been improved by playing that part of the plot out across the game rather than just all at the end interrupting the league
Speaking for myself I think SS just didn't hit for me because it just has poor world design. The combonation of a linear world, towns with no content and mechanically uninteresting routes just killed the game for me. Especially being stopped every 5 seconds by Hop.
When I first played Sword and Shield, it felt extremely shallow and boring. Not enough content, not enough anything... HOWEVER! When I revisited it in 2022, I played it like this. 3 Gym Badges Isle of Armor 5 Gym Badges Ending Post Game Story Crowned Tundra Isle of Armor Endgame Crowned Tundra Endgame This made the game SO MUCH more fun and bearable. It felt like I was truly going through a Pokemon game with content. Just a bit disappointing that it was locked behind DLC. Still! With the DLC, it brings sword and shield from a 5/10 to a solid 8/10.
Sun and Moon killed my love for Pokémon and it was Legends Arceus that rekindle that love. Sword and Shield were ok. S/V almost killed it again though.
Funny you say they "revived your love" as that is verbatim my feelings about these games. I bought Sun day 1, and that game singlehandedly killed my interest in the franchise, only ended up finishing that original play through in 2021 after swsh got be back in. Sun and Moon were god awful and made me question if I was just too old for pokemon, turns out I wasnt, they just sucked ass. Swsh was exactly what I needed, a traditional pokemon experience. I understand some of the criticism the game gets, but I think people are way to harsh on these games.
I felt the same about sun and moon but after getting back into things between let's go and SS I went back and played ultra moon much better experience definitely recommend giving it a try if you get a chance
I will never forgive gamefreak for Scarlet and Violet nor the ppl that still to this day pretend its a playable game just to shove out RUclips content. I got my refund 30 minutes in and never looked back.
Watch the BIG Review here 👉 ruclips.net/video/KLCsAhWlBkU/видео.html 🔗
Give Sword and Shield the love it deserves! I like this gen that much that I'm playing it for the second time. Greetings from Venezuela.
@@fernandoarevalo2559 yo también lo ando pasando por segunda vez
Hop is an underrated rival with a great character arc.
Agreed 👍 never got the hate for hop, I could only ever guess it's because he's a friendly rival but he's one done well
I think the arc is kinda weak since 1. opal literally makes fun of it
2. Hop chooses the starter weak towards your’s, for Hau and Nemona it makes sense because Hau just picks the one he likes and Nemona is challenging herself, but Hop cares about winning and being strong during the Arc, so it would make more sense and be better if he’s losing and has the type advantage
@@CertifiedSoapEater could you explain what you mean by opal makes fun of his arc? It's been a while since I played SS
He's my favorite rival in the series.
@@CertifiedSoapEater You're getting it wrong: Hop is not choosing the starter he knows is weak to yours, but the starter he knows will be strong against the one his big brother will keep.
Y'know, I could hate on Sword and Shield literally all day long, they rank even worse than XY for me. BUT I am genuinely happy that people like yourself hold a lot of love for these games, and that they both helped bring you joy during a difficult time, and also brought you back into this series as a whole!
Now that you've played all the games and had some time to sit on them, if you were looking for a video idea, maybe you could do a tier list and explain your reasons for the placements? Just a thought.
this could be a very decent idea 👀
Agreed, People need to put some respect on my boy zamazenta
I've just found your channel and this video sums up my experience with pokemon. Gen 7 for a very low point for me in the series and seeing what gen 8 was I loved every single part of it. There are some things that needed more polish but man I had fun with those games and the DLCs. From the region, the graphics, the pokemon and the simple story of becoming the champion but with the grandious stadiums. Every word you said it's what i also think. This game had a lot of backlash that wasn't deserved and i'm glad more people feel like this. These games are amazing and revived the love for this franchise
Finally, more love for Galar
I feel like a lot of the criticism from Sword and Shield comes from how people expected a "next gen" Pokemon game, a large leap for the series the same way Breath of the Wild and Odyssey was for Zelda and Mario.
Would it be nice if Pokemon gaems had the presentation and scope of other JRPGs like Dragon Quest or Xenoblade? Sure, but what we got was still pretty fun.
Oh trust me...Zamazenta is getting PLENTY of love right now in the competitive scene.
It's actually quite cute. Zacian was a massive threat in SW/SH vgc pokemon, and now the underdog (pun intended) Zamazenta is making waves in S/V vgc.
Its really cool to see
That makes me really happy to hear!! :)
I HAVE Found MY PEOPLE.
I enjoyed playing shield version. Rookidee is my favorite regional bird too ❤
Sword and shield also got me back into Pokémon after a pretty long hiatus. But I had an opposite view of yours: I hated it when I first played through it in 2019. It wasn’t until 3 or so years ago that I actually appreciated it and fell in love with the region and the games. I’m glad I did :). Thanks for the great video, Craig!! I always love hearing your prospective on things!
since completing the Dex on Scarlet/Violet i went back to playing on Sword & Shield & trying to do the same for those games & i forgot how much i used to enjoy those 2 games
Awesome to hear. I really loved these games as well. Yes they are not perfect but very fun.
@@Videobustersgames nothing is perfect this game is actually good
Finally someone else who thinks SwSh look good
This is a lot like me funnily enough, I hadn’t really played Pokemon as a kid (I would borrow my brother’s Game Boy but I didn’t have my own game) but during lockdown my partner was playing Lets Go Pikachu and I played it with them as Player 2 and had a blast so I then bought Lets Go Eevee and had a great time (the simplified mechanics were great for someone like me).
Then I got Pokemon Shield and I really fell in love with the region that really nailed the UK imo (I’m also British) and the battles really get you pumped in this game and feel so exciting. And I got a deeper appreciation for new Pokemon thanks to Shield (I already knew the original 151 so they weren’t ‘new’ to me).
And like you playing Shield really got me to play the other Pokemon games (I have played Gens 4-7 on my 3DS so pls put 1-3 on NSO, pls)
I personally love these games and am glad you did too. They're my 2nd favourite mainline games after Black/White. The dynamax gimmick works really well, especially for the first one you can play on your telly. The raid system is really good. Aesthetically it looks great, and captures the feel of Britain really well. The Wild Area was great to break up tge standard routes. The new mon designs were on the whole really good. And the DLC was fun.
I don't care what SkillUp or PenguinZ0 or Gireum Red says...
I still love this games. They are some of my favourites.
I have criticisms of swsh, but that’s the case with all Pokémon games. I had fun with them, but the dlc rescued them I LOVED the dlcs. I’d say visually let’s go is still the best looking switch mainline Pokémon game though
Been watching your Pokémon videos, honestly enjoying them, you have a pretty unique perspective.
My pandemic game was the Witcher 3 and I cannot believed I lived life before it.
I was already in love with swsh, still prefer it to SV.
The hype with online shiny raids and item hacks back in the day was phenomenal
I'm not sure if I've gone a month without playing Pokémon in 25 years, and I love Sword and Shield. The hate is undeserved. They're some of the most fun I've had in the series. Also, I agree that Zamazenta is the correct choice.
I love these games too, I am also a home grown galarian human (I'm british) so maybe it is just bias 😅, I couldn't afford a 3ds or the games so before this one my only games were up to b2w2 so the jump to a 3d world also blew my mind lol
"It was early 2021." That's when I got Sword and Shield, my first Pokémon games!
I’m happy someone talks about the good aspects of sword and shield and not just “the trees look bad”
lol I never understood the hate these games got to be fair, I too bought both versions but only because my pre-order of Shield was going to arrive a week late. I booted up sword and was hooked.
Im happy that someone finally praise those games. My favorite 3d pokémon games apart from PLA. I have done 3 playthrough of those games and im planning a fourth soon. These games are so much fun,with the traditionnal Pokémon feeling but adding the crazy gym battle arena that gives anime vibes.
Adiotionally,i love the Pokémon from Galar,from the starter to the Legendary,not a lot of bad design.
I hate Sun and Moon and Scarlet and Violet,they are too much story focus and not enough Pokémon like. SW/SH are for me the perfect Pokémon Games. A linear game with some open area. Thats the direction pokémon should have Taken.
I feel you man, as long the game is fun I am good
Nostalgia isn´t an argument.
Pokémon Sword was my first pokémon game
I haven't played Sword/Shield, but I've watched a ton of WolfeyVGC playing Sw/Sh VGC. It really ignited my interest in competitive Pokemon. It's kinda nostalgic, heh.
Idk why it’s so hated, I loved it
I was in the same boat as my last pokemon game was red so sword and shield blew my mind lol
SwSh were my first pokemon games (I'm old and did not get on this bandwagon as a kid). I could tell they had their flaws even on a first playthrough with no knowledge of the genre, but I still love them. I've gone on to play quite a few other games including stuff like Platinum, HGSS, B&W that people hold up as the gold standard against which modern pokemon is hopelessly flawed, and yeah, I liked those a lot too. But I've gotta tell all the old-time fans I enjoy gens 7, 8, and 9 *significantly* more than anything that came before it. The quality of life changes matter so much. So does the larger pokemon variety. Not having to stumble over the same damn zubat one million times on the route from one town to the next is worth a whole lot of graphical stuttering, imo. I like that the other characters are actual characters with real motivations and affecting storylines. I like that they keep shaking up the gym formula. I like that experience share makes it easy for me to try out a lot of pokemon. And--sacrilege--if I can't have 3D open-world(ish) exploration, please, please just give me a liner path to follow. Old-time pokemon exploration is not enjoyable--I end up looking up route maps just so I know I'm not gonna meander blindly through a maze of encounters and dead ends just for the reward of a single full-restore. Lagging aside, there is just an ease and enjoyment to playing the modern games that the older ones do not have if you didn't grow up with them.
I think sword and shield do have there flaws that people are right to point out i.e. the infamous tree and chairman rose going cray cray over something that won't happen for 1000 years, however I still think there great games and there simple story actually feels quite refreshing to me being between deep sci-fi lore heavy games like sun and moon and scarlet and violet, I think most people had already decided they were bad games before release due to the Dex cut which I think is fair to not be happy about but to think that will ruin a game when there's still over 400 Pokémon available in game frankly boggles the mind
I think the problem with dexit is that the Pokémon company promised it in exchange for better animations, even though we didn’t get better animations
@@CertifiedSoapEater and that's a fair criticism however what a lot of people were doing, especially moan tubers, was to say it ruined the games before knowing this and the way people were acting was as if this one thing would make an otherwise good game one of the worst things in all of human history
Tbh I think people don't realize that we're *supposed* to think Chairman Rose is doing something stupid and bad. He's an extreme Longtermist who thinks that the ends (protecting future people from an energy crisis) justify the means (triggering a second darkest day) and we're supposed to be able to figure out that he's wrong and just too mired in his hero complex to listen to others
@@Shinntoku possibly but personally it didn't come across this way to me, I think it could have been improved by playing that part of the plot out across the game rather than just all at the end interrupting the league
@@chrisd1982 oh yeah, it was definitely presented pretty badly
Justice for zamazenta ❤️
I love sword and shield from gen 8 it good game is cool started are great the world look good and gen 1 and gen 4 love they
Speaking for myself I think SS just didn't hit for me because it just has poor world design.
The combonation of a linear world, towns with no content and mechanically uninteresting routes just killed the game for me. Especially being stopped every 5 seconds by Hop.
Always felt the wild area was a good idea poorly executed, should have stuck with more traditional routes but make them more interesting
When I first played Sword and Shield, it felt extremely shallow and boring. Not enough content, not enough anything...
HOWEVER! When I revisited it in 2022, I played it like this.
3 Gym Badges
Isle of Armor
5 Gym Badges
Ending
Post Game Story
Crowned Tundra
Isle of Armor Endgame
Crowned Tundra Endgame
This made the game SO MUCH more fun and bearable. It felt like I was truly going through a Pokemon game with content. Just a bit disappointing that it was locked behind DLC.
Still! With the DLC, it brings sword and shield from a 5/10 to a solid 8/10.
I haven't played Sword and Shield, but I've always thought they were definitely the prettiest looking mainline Pokémon games. Great video!
Those n64 trees say otherwise
Sun and Moon killed my love for Pokémon and it was Legends Arceus that rekindle that love. Sword and Shield were ok. S/V almost killed it again though.
Funny you say they "revived your love" as that is verbatim my feelings about these games. I bought Sun day 1, and that game singlehandedly killed my interest in the franchise, only ended up finishing that original play through in 2021 after swsh got be back in. Sun and Moon were god awful and made me question if I was just too old for pokemon, turns out I wasnt, they just sucked ass. Swsh was exactly what I needed, a traditional pokemon experience. I understand some of the criticism the game gets, but I think people are way to harsh on these games.
@@Brizzle427 swsh was just as handholdy as sm
I felt the same about sun and moon but after getting back into things between let's go and SS I went back and played ultra moon much better experience definitely recommend giving it a try if you get a chance
I will never forgive gamefreak for Scarlet and Violet nor the ppl that still to this day pretend its a playable game just to shove out RUclips content. I got my refund 30 minutes in and never looked back.
YOUUUUUUU need to chill out lol
If it was unplayable I wouldn't have almost 700 hours in Violet lmao
In my opinion, Sword and Shield are the second to worst mainline pokemon games, after Scarlet and Violet.