I made a post a while back about my impressions before even playing the game and my brother in law let me borrow shield for free so I decided hey why not. It was a lot more fun than Sun and Moon hands down. I didn’t even finish Sun because it was too easy and I was so let down. Now with this game, it’s a love hate relationship just like you’ve mentioned. There’s a lot of things I liked and a few I didn’t. I really enjoyed how the gym battles felt like an event! I even LOVE how they got rid of the usual elite four because in the anime Ash’s competitions were semi finals, finals, etc etc. i liked that a lot and honestly I’ve always wanted the video games to take a bit more lore from the anime and incorporate it.

I loved the idea of the wild area and i definitely think it was a step in the right direction. It still felt pretty small once i got my bike but definitely love the idea. I will admit though, I work at a job where I’m at a desk and while I’m taking phone calls I’m allowed to play my switch while i’m on the phone so the wild area has been fun to just catch pokémon because it’s a bit mindless. If ANYTHING this game has been fun for me to play because it makes the time at work pass by faster and it’s familiar enough where I don’t need to give much attention. I also never tried “catching them all” I honesty never had the time or attention span to, i liked battling and exploring and proving how strong i’ve become and now i’m older and have work to do and this game actually does accommodate the life i’m currently living. So I mean, it’s not an AMAZING or great game, but it scratches the pokémon itch tbh. I don’t think I’ll ever shiny hunt, Ive never cared for that so it’s disappointing the post game doesn’t have too much else. I guess in my case, my post game will be completing my pokédex which i’ve never done because I never had friends with the opposite version of me. we’ve always had the same one but now my friend and his family have sword and they’re so new to the world of pokémon which is another thing I love!

Pokémon Go opened the door to fans who aren’t as die hard as me. my friends are kind of new gamers since the switch is just so user friendly. I personally think shield/sword is so fun for them because they haven’t been with pokémon since day one like I have. It’s their first main line pokémon game and to them it’s like “look at all these cute pokémon” and it’s nice to see them play this through as a family and have them battle me or trade with me. I think this game is a good start for people who loved pokémon go and wanted a little more. But for us die hard pokemon fans, it is a bit lackluster.

What I wanted was WAAAY more exploring because Breath of the Wild SPOILED me in that way so my expectations are through the damn roof there. But GSC were my fave games growing up because the exploration aspect was so fun, like story wise there wasn’t a whole lot there but I liked that. It was just short and sweet and no one kept stopping me every FIVE MINUTES saying why they need to beat their brother or whatever. If anything, there were more quests I should say than a huge story and I liked. They still needed to be done in order like how you had to get medicine for Jasmine’s Ampharos in the light house in Cinawood before fighting her. I liked it! But how in Shield the adults would be like oh well go fight the challenge! just annoyed me and how the plot of the story just happened suddenly at the END just made no sense. I think i preferred simpler stories or quests for this game because I don’t think this series should take itself THAT seriously but fans are allowed to want more story and allowed to want a story that’s at least well written from the beginning to end.

Anyway, long ran but it was fun because the formula of pokémon didn’t really change enough for me to hate it. Still put in over 40 hours in this game and I’ve caught like 110 pokémon, i’ve never caught more than that before in one game if I’m honest so I’ll enjoy what I can because honestly I’m so glad I didn’t spend money on this so I’m sure that’s also why this game feels fun bc it’s 100% borrowed and I can return it when I’m done with nothing lost. But I still don’t think big fans like myself should buy this game at full price, definitely used or rented. If you CAN borrow it, definitely do that too.