Complete list of all problems known so far in Pokemon Sword and Shield with data and/or proof for each problem
[I am copying this post from the pokemon subreddit from u/Terotu]
Seeing as there’s a lot of people that don’t quite know the extent of the issues and that there’s no real compilation of the problems, I feel like everyone needs a list with info and sources of each and every current problem with the games, it’s a long list but I’ve tried to put it all together, it’s not just dexit people.
I will post everything that is 100% confirmed and known so far, there’s potentially other problems, but this is made as a somewhat “quick” digest with info that has been 100% proven, for anyone out of the loop that wants to know exactly what’s happening with these games.
1. The number of usable Pokemon has been cut, only less than half are now usable, known as Dexit, it means that you won’t be able to use these pokemon in the new games, you won’t be able to transfer them in, and you won’t be able to do anything with them sans sticking them in home for the foreseeable future (Home will probably be a paid only subscription based service just like its predecessor), for all intents and purposes, these Pokemon are basically removed from the main games franchise and they will take probably years to come back, if ever.
An image with the cut/not cut pokemon can be found here, pokemon in green are confirmed to be in, pokemon in purple have galar forms, pokemon in yellow are in the data, but there’s nothing for them, they could be leftover data like the items and other things, could be giveaway/event only, could only come from other games, etc, there’s no way to know what’s the plans for them at the moment, if any, pokemon in red are cut.
The excuse GF used for this culling was that it let’s them work on delivering better animations and a more carefully crafted game, since they don’t have to put more time and effort into redoing the models.
This is complete BS as the game polish is worse than ever, and the models seem to just be somewhat edited XY models.
2. Just like the Pokemon cut, about 144 moves were removed, 99 moves excluding the let’s go and other outlier moves, this includes extremely important and used mainstay moves like Hidden Power, return/frustration and Pursuit, on top of extremely old moves that have been there since gen 1, some of these moves were important for the viability of several Pokemon, which may cause them to be way less effective if not way worse when it comes to battles, on top of this, it also removed some SIGNATURE MOVES of certain Pokemon.
The full list for deleted mainstay pokemon moves can be found here
Attempts at transferring Pokemon with these moves will apparently get this message: “This move can’t be used. It’s recommended that this move is forgotten. Once forgotten, this move can’t be remembered.”
3. Short game, the first streamer beat the champion at around the 14 hour mark, while he did this by skipping a fair amount of trainer battles, other streamers are clocking in about 16-20 hours, seems like the average will be about 18 hours to beat the game.
Here’s one of the many streamers, he’s right before champion and clocking in at 14:34.
4. The graphics are extremely mediocre, it constantly looks worse and less polished than LGPE, the textures are often inexcusable.
Examples of the bad graphics seen here 1 2 3 4 5 6
A comparison with LGPE can be seen here and here
Here’s a game recently released for switch, another picture found here, the difference is unreal.
5. There’s constant graphical issues, not just low quality graphics, pop in is present at all points of the game due to bad coding, trainer models will also disappear mid battle when an attack with a high number of particles is used, this also happened in SM, however, SM moved the camera away to avoid people seeing it, they didn’t even try this time.
This means it’s either a carry over from SM and they just copy pasted most of the code, or they somehow have to remove the trainers to avoid a switch from somehow getting fps drops. The pop-ins can be evidenced here and here. Trainers dissapearing mid battle can be evidenced here
6. Animations, one of the main reasons why GF cut pokemon, at least in the interviews, are as shoddy as ever.
There’s extremely lazy animation all over the game, from normal attacks to key moments in the game, such as the encounter with the box legendaries.
Most of the animations are also completely copy pasted from older games, one example seen here with Hau(the entire character of hop is basically a copy paste of hau.) Most of the animations for the camp are also copy pasted from xy amie, evidenced here. Pokemon battle animations are just as bad as before, if not worse, pictured here is a pokemon headbutting with its feet.
Another example found here, THE MAIN BOX ART POKEMON CINEMATIC, THIS IS THE GAME CLIMAX, another example on the other version found here
In fact, it could be considered way worse if compared to the last gen, example of upscaled USUM cutscenes. (Notice the graphical change isn’t that big, the only difference here is increasing the resolution)
7. Cutscenes and restrictions, like previous Pokemon games the cutscene and story forcing and restrictions are insane this time around, seems to be even more intrusive and in your face than before at times, while keeping the same level of cutscene intrusion than past gen.
The video for this point was taken down, but if you wish to see this you should be able to find it by searching the gameplay clips/streams online
8. The difficulty, just like the cut scene problem, this carries over from earlier games and it’s even worse.There were constant heals, to the point where in the first routes you’re not able to go beyond 3 trainer fights without getting a full heal. The first streamer avoided fights and didn’t train at all, it still was one shotting gym leader dynamaxed ace pokemon.This can be seen here.
9. Post-Game is almost non-existant, as usual since masuda-Ohmori started directing, there’s no frontier, there’s also no frontier like facility.
The post game consists of battle tower and a very short sequence of missions where you beat some dynamax pokemon for your rival to catch the other legendary. Not only this, but the battle tower is also an inferior version of past towers, it doesn’t have super single nor super double battles, it has no triple battles and there’s no “tower bosses”, it’s just random trainer npcs after another.
10. Problems with game design and behavior, beyond difficulty and progression, there’s other problems in the overall game design.
Examples of this is not being able to catch Pokemon in the wild areas until you got a badge allowing you to do so, which usually covers your current level.
Meaning if you find a level 31 shiny or a level 31 pokemon you really want, you won’t be able to catch it until you go and beat the next gym.
For shiny hunters, this one is gonna be really important, you cannot see if your Pokemon is gonna be shiny or not in the overworld, this means that on top of the badge limit, you also got this potential problem.
Evidenced here.
11. Removed past features with virtually no new additions, seems like this is a mainstay in Pokemon, removing older features so they become one of a time gimmicks, but unlike earlier titles this new game doesn’t adds anything new except dynamaxing, which is limited to gyms only.
This particular gen removes Mega Evolutions and Z moves, mega evolutions in particular were a huge deal and seeing them suddenly removed means that there’s little reason to get involved with any new addition, no matter how mainstay or how much GF forces it when it will very soon be gone.
A list of these removed features can be found here.
12. No scaling whatsoever, models are the same sizes of XY (giving more plausibility to them not really redoing the models).Any argument against this is thrown out of the window when dynamaxing exists, since the models seem to be edited XY models then the problem remains. Here’s the non scaled model in sword and shield. Here’s an scaled model, released in a game that came out 15 years ago for a the Nintendo Gamecube, something way less powerful than the switch.
13. No GTS, retera thread on the discovery found here, the only strings that refer to the GTS are leftovers from Let’s Go code, as seen here and here.
This is most likely due to Home(this means that you will have to pay for switch online+home for services older games already included)
Thanks to /u/c_will for pointing this one out and gathering the info.
14. A 20 dollar price increase for less content than earlier 3DS games, with subpar graphics and removal of features, an overall shoddy release for a higher price point.
15. Performance, game is locked to 30 fps, and while that’s not a big issue by itself, this is coupled with slowdown at certain moments such as dynamaxing, it can drop fps to the floor and turn the game into a slideshow for a while.
Evidenced here. Still gathering more info on this one, as it’s a relatively new occurrence that hasn’t happened to all users, take this one with a grain of salt
16. The overall lack of quality, polish and effort put into the game, this is all the minor/somewhat minor but still very telling problems with the game.
This is apparent in many ways all throughout the game, things like the wrong backgrounds or just voids for pokemon battles.
Two example of the wrong backgrounds seen here and [here] (https://clips.twitch.tv/FriendlyCleanOstrichArsonNoSexy) One example of the void background seen here (these happen on indoor fights and some non indoor but scripted battles)Examples of backgrounds on indoor and everywhere else in both LGPE and colosseum, seen here and here.
Then there’s complete lack of music in the game story most important moments, seen here.
Starters are also shiny locked.
The entire world freezes when using certain objects, as seen here.
To this, you add up the emptiness of the wild area and the badly implemented weather changes that don’t make much sense, both seen here
No animation for flying, no elite 4, no victory road, etc, this is added to all the other problems that show the lack of effort put into them.
This franchise deserves better.
These games are not only a huge step down from earlier titles, but it goes beyond what used to be already barely tolerable standards to way below standards, keep in mind this is the biggest, most profitable franchise on earth.
This is the first time a pokemon main game is released on console, people were excited for game freak to finally do whatever they wanted and it’s been done with the most minimal of efforts, all the money you’ve spent on Pokemon didn’t went on making this a better game, it went straight into the pockets of the people in charge, those that made sure this was made with the most minimum effort and those that cut corners.
Companies that made games decades ago on hardware less powerful than the switch shouldn’t be doing a better job than game freak, and companies doing work in the switch have completely obliterated game freak when it comes to developing a video game.
Keep in mind that your purchase of these games causes this:
Continue the yearly release cycle that makes the games rushed and forces the devs to insane crunch time, creating the low morale problem
Tells them that you’re ok with these problems, and they will keep lowering the bar and cutting corners on development
Your money will continue going into the pockets of those responsible for these problems
I implore you to be a smart consumer, I’ve played Pokemon since I red, ever since I was a child, I can no longer support this franchise, I probably won’t buy a Pokemon product ever again if this is gonna be how they’re gonna treat the games and its fans.
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