This review is my own opinion on why the game should not get as much hate and is an opportunity to voice an opposing view to other peoples reviews. At the end I will give my own opinion of my favourite aspects of the game.
Please feel free to read this review after reading any lower rated amazon reviews
1) Reused assets (mainly from 3ds games) don't change anything, they look great on the switch and i didn't even notice at first, all new pokemon (will get to later) have newly created models and they still fit right in with the old 3ds reused ones from old pokemon.
2) Move Animations, they haven't changed since the 3ds games and the last good pokemon game to have decent battle animations was battle revolution for the Wii but seriously is it needed. The amount of space required for the animations for each pokemon and different types of moves would probably be too much for the cartridge. Some pokemon have the occasional animation and that's great. Pokemon is a huge game, we cant have everything
3) Pokemon animations, most pokemon seem quite lively in this new game. Scorbunny (my starter) for instance is hopping from side to side in battle while idle.
4) NPC movement - They are also more lively and not as robotic as previous installments. Sun and moon kinda went towards this new way with a lot more hand gestures introduced but Sword and shield took it up another step.
5) TREES - OMG who cares how a tree looks. This is a pokemon game if u can see a tree is a tree then congrats its doing its job. If you only care about state of the art brand new graphics over any story or adventure then go play a different game.
6) Pokemon in overworld - Yes they dont look amazing but why must we ask everything should be the best possible thing it can be. pokemon is trying new ideas over random encounters and I personally loved the wild areas and trying to search for all the different pokemon. Pokemon appear and disappear into grass, etc just like any other JRPG enemies
7) Weather - wild areas have changing weather affecting the pokemon you can find. The weathers are really unique and cool to try and revisit areas when trying to complete the pokedex
8) Cut pokemon - ok this is the big one. The fan base is split on how to handle the cutting of older pokemon from being tradeable to this new game. Firstly not encountering all the old pokemon has been in all previous games except the first 2. I do agree its sad to see all of the old pokemon unable to be traded but with 1000 pokemon its obviously going to happen some day. The game cant handle all 1000 and if you include people complaining about animations imagine animating 1000 Pokemon.
9) No following Pokemon - Sure it was in the Let's go games but that game had 151 Pokemon and this one has so many more so like I keep saying try animating that many. Plus with the camera and feel of the game I'd prefer not having them follow me, a lot of areas wouldn't be suited to it.
10) old moves gone new moves in - Cut pokemon means cut moves but new pokemon mean new moves added
11) Dynamax/Gigantamax - I loved mega evolution and its sad to see it gone but Dynamaxing is pretty much mega evolutions re-imagined in a new way. With gigantamaxing Pokemon get a new form like charizard, pikachu and machamp so its like mega evolutions but every pokemon can use it just not get a different form. The moves dynamaxed pokemon use are clearly just re-imagined z-moves that were also cut from this game. Just take mega evolutions and z-moves from previous games and combine them.
12) Datamined pokemon - Tons of old pokemon have been found in the data for sword and shield. One of which being the amazing bulbasaur. These pokemon are currently unobtainable (without hacks) but will probably be events or dlc who knows either way they are still in the game in some form meaning you could trade them from the 3ds games to sword and shield.
13) pokemon sizing - did you seriously think they would make wailord to scale. Thank god they didn't so I can actually see my trainer and the enemy pokemon
14) Difficulty - the pokemon game isnt designed to be challenging. I've seen a review complaining about auto-heals everywhere when surprise the gyms have no auto-heals and are much more challenging than previous games where you could go to a pokemon center right before facing the gym leader, instead now you must face the trainers inside the gym (during gym challenge) as well as gym leader relying on your own healing items.
15) Exp-share - Its constantly on throughout the game but the games balanced in a way to make it not overpowered
Now onto my favourite parts of the games
1) New pokemon - the new pokemon designs are the best yet in my opinion. Gamefreak didn't reveal all the new pokemon before the games release so constantly traveling through areas discovering new designs i had never seen was really fun and reminded me of my first time playing pokemon having the same feelings.
2) Gyms - The gyms have taken inspiration from previous games having challenges to face before facing the gym leader and these games are no different. From herding wooloo (sheep Pokemon) to switch puzzles. The gym leaders have tons of personality and are really likeable.
3) Rivals - the game gives you three rivals, ones a best friend type like most modern Pokemon games, ones a nicer rival and finally Bede the dick you want to crush constantly is just like blue and silver from past games. This is exactly what the community wanted.
4) Music - classic Pokemon music is always fun to listen to and this game includes a track made by Toby Fox the creator of undertale
5) Cut Pokemon - I'm glad they cut Pokemon as after finishing the complete national dex on sun and moon I wouldn't have a reason to go catch them all again. The cut Pokemon will return in future games there are not gone for good.
Top reviews from other countries
Mathew
Ignore the hate, the game is great
Reviewed in Australia on November 17, 2019Piotr C
Great and fun game but gets boring in the long run
Reviewed in Australia on July 1, 2020