[Hondaracer]

So finished Pokemon Shield..

Spoiler!

i had big hopes for this game as a big time switch title, however it was a pretty big disappointment IMO. Some points of contention with me:

-Game can easily be beat in under 25 hours, I took about that to finish the main story line (aka the only story line) while also attempting to catch every new Pokémon I came upon. This is generally a path to success with the “grinding” for exp aspects, however in the end you could probably get by with little to no grinding at all.

-New pokemon are nice and the starters are well done, however some are just redesigned classic Pokémon (see meowth, pontya etc.)

-there is virtually no path to take other than the main story line, there are no side quests, very few puzzles, and no even “take this to this guy, take that to that guy” type quests.

-The main gameplay had so much potential, the graphics are beautiful, however the story was completely lacking. I’ve only really played through Red/Blue, and a few of the older games however the side storyline in Red (for those familiar) where you save the power plant was almost more interesting than this entire game..

-The “gigamax” feature was mostly a novelty. It looked cool when you had a Pokémon that had a different animation etc but at the end of the day most animations were the same for all sorts of different types.

-the new thing of elements coming into play like electrifying the battle field or making it rain were irrelevant to me, I won regardless.

-During the entire 25 hour game play I never fainted once. I easily beat every gym and every trainer.

-the additional gameplay after the final credits was so hoakey and tacked on I don’t see myself picking the game up again.

-for a game this beautifully designed what a huge let down imo.

6/10