Pokémon Sword and Shield

Pokémon Sword (ポケットモンスター ソード) and Pokémon Shield (ポケットモンスター シールド) are 2019 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. They are the first instalments in the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series. First teased at E3 2017 and announced in February 2019, the games were released in November 2019. The games were accompanied by a downloadable content (DLC) expansion pass consisting of Part 1—The Isle of Armor (released in June 2020) and Part 2—The Crown Tundra (October 2020); its launch marked the first ever DLC released as part of the Pokémon video game series.

Conceptualization began immediately following the completion of Pokémon Sun and Moon in 2016, while full development began a year later in September 2017. Like previous instalments, the games follow a young Pokémon Trainer as they train and battle Pokémon, aiming to become a Pokémon Champion. The games introduced many new features including the Dynamax/Gigantamax mechanic, a gigantic-size Pokémon transformation.

When the decision to exclude many pre-existing Pokémon from Sword and Shield was announced, it triggered a backlash from fans and resulted in a controversy known as "Dexit". Despite this, Sword and Shield received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the games' gameplay, exploration, and mechanics, although the visuals, as well as the lack of depth and innovation, received some criticism. As of September 2023, the games had sold more than 26.02 million copies worldwide, making them the second best-selling titles in the Pokémon video game series. The games were nominated for numerous awards and won the SXSW Gaming Awards and Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2019.

Gameplay


Pokémon Sword and Shield are RPGs with adventure elements. They are usually presented in a fixed camera, third-person perspective, although sometimes they also allowed free camera movement. The player controls a young Pokémon trainer who goes on a quest to catch and train creatures known as Pokémon and win battles against other Pokémon trainers. By defeating opposing Pokémon in turn-based battles, the player's Pokémon gains experience, allowing them to level up and increase their battle statistics, learn new moves, and evolve into more powerful Pokémon. The player can capture wild Pokémon through wild encounters by weakening them in battle and catching them with Poké Balls, adding them to their party. The player can also battle and trade Pokémon with other players via the Switch's connectivity features. As is with other Pokémon games, certain Pokémon are only obtainable in either Sword or Shield, and the player will have to trade with others to obtain every Pokémon from both versions.

Pokémon Sword and Shield are set in the Galar region, inspired by the United Kingdom which consists of numerous cities and towns connected by a route system. There is an open world area in the centre of the region known as the "Wild Area". Random encounters with wild Pokémon typically occur in tall grass or bodies of water along routes or the Wild Area, and they might chase or run away from the player depending on their disposition. The player occasionally battles notable trainers in cities, towns, along routes, and in the Wild Area. The driving force bringing the player to travel around the Galar region is to participate in the "Gym Challenge", an open tournament to decide the greatest Pokémon Trainer (the Champion) in the region. Eight of the game's cities and towns are homes to stadiums housing "Gym Leaders", powerful trainers specializing in certain types of Pokémon; beating a Gym Leader will grant the player a "Gym badge". After collecting all eight Badges, the player will be allowed to participate in the "Champion Cup", where they will face off in a tournament against the previously faced Gym Leaders and other trainers such as Marnie and Hop in the Gym Challenge. After they emerge victorious, the player will face the reigning Champion of the Galar region, Leon.

New features
The games introduce several new features to the series, which includes cooperative raids, the Wild Area, and temporary transformations known as Dynamax and Gigantamax; Dynamax allows Pokémon to transform into gigantic-sizes, and Gigantamax which is limited to selected Pokémon additionally alters Pokémon's physical appearance and replaces their Max Move battle technique for the exclusive G-Max Move. The Wild Area is a fully explorable open world area with free camera movement and dynamic weather, which has implications on which Pokémon species appear at a given time. A new mechanic called "Poké Jobs" tasks the player's Pokémon with completing requests, such as assisting in construction or cooking, to gain experience or rare items. Pokémon Gyms returned in the games after being absent in Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The games have version-exclusive content such as certain Pokémon and Gym Leaders. A new 'Camp' mode allows the player to interact and play with their Pokémon as well as cook different types of curry to provide them with bonuses. New customization options for the player character have been added, like outerwear and other accessories. Similar to Pokémon Sun and Moon, many Pokémon previously introduced in older games reappeared as regional form in the games, gaining new types, statistics, appearances, and evolutions.

Connectivity
Internet connectivity to other players is supported for functionality such as trades, battles, and encountering other trainers in the Wild Area; these functions however require a paid subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. Sword and Shield only support direct game-to-game connectivity between themselves. The games are also compatible with Pokémon Home, an online cloud storage service for storing Pokémon, released in February 2020. Supported Pokémon can be transferred to the games from the Nintendo 3DS app Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Go and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! via Pokémon Home.

Setting
Sword and Shield are set in the Galar region. The region is inspired by the United Kingdom, with its many landmarks resembling places such as the Bath, Somerset and York. Within the Galar region lie countryside towns featuring cottages and Victorian architecture to the south. There are also Industrial Revolution and steampunk references. Many of the region's towns and cities feature Pokémon Gyms stylised like football stadiums, showcasing the games' Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanic. Snow-covered mountains dominate much of the northern areas of the region. Encompassing a large portion of the south-central part of the region is the Wild Area, an open world area with numerous roaming Pokémon species. Weather in the Wild Area changes regularly.

Story
Similar to many previous games in the Pokémon franchise, the player travels across the region to become the strongest Pokémon Trainer in the region, fighting eight powerful trainers called Gym Leaders and eventually the region's Champion. The player and their best friend, Hop, receive one of three starter Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble from Leon, Champion of the Galar Region and Hop's older brother. Afterward, the two explore a forest called the Slumbering Weald but are driven off by a powerful Pokémon. During their subsequent visit to the region's Pokémon Professor, Magnolia and her granddaughter Sonia, they convince Leon to endorse them to take part in the Gym Challenge. After travelling to the next city to register for the Gym Challenge, they encounter rivals Bede and Marnie along with Team Yell, a devout group of hooligans who act as Marnie's unintentional fanbase and are determined to stop anyone else from completing the Challenge. The player also meets Chairman Rose, who, in addition to endorsing Bede as a Gym Challenger, presides over the Galar Pokémon League and the region's main energy company, Macro Cosmos.

As their quest continues, the player assists Sonia in her research on two Legendary Pokémon who saved Galar from an ancient crisis called the Darkest Day and deduces that they are the same Pokémon previously encountered in the Slumbering Weald. After beating the eight Gym Leaders, including Piers, Marnie's older brother and the leader of Team Yell, the player makes their way to Wyndon where they win the Champion's Cup, earning an opportunity to battle Leon. the player and Hop then head to a hotel to meet with Leon, but he does not come. With help from Piers, Marnie, and Team Yell Grunt they get the keys from Chairman Rose's guard and make their way to Rose Tower. They reach the top of Rose Tower and battle with Rose's assistant, Oleana, and find Leon who is talking to Rose. Rose reveals his intentions to trigger the Darkest Day to solve a power crisis "thousands of years in the future." the player, Leon and Hop head home. The next day, before the final battle between the player and Leon can commence, Chairman Rose awakens the legendary Pokémon Eternatus in an attempt to harness its power to provide unlimited energy to Galar, purposefully triggering a second Darkest Day. The player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald and secure the aid of the legendary Pokémon, Zacian and Zamazenta, through a sword and shield they find in the ruins, to defeat Chairman Rose and Eternatus, after which the player catches Eternatus and Rose hands himself over to the authorities. Three days later, the player faces and defeats Leon in a final battle and becomes the new Champion of the Galar Region.

In the post-game, the player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald to return Zacian and Zamazenta's artefacts to their rightful place. The two also meet Sonia, who has become the Galar region's new Pokémon Professor. However, they are confronted by Sordward and Shielbert, two brothers claiming to be descendants of ancient Galarian kings. The two steal one of the relics and begin forcing innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. The player, Hop, and Piers work with the Gym Leaders to subdue the Dynamax Pokémon and then track down and confront the brothers. Once both the player and Hop corner the brothers in the Hammerlocke Power Plant, they then explain why they forced many innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. They forced innocent Pokémon to Dynamax as experiments on what would happen if Zacian/Zamazenta was to be sprinkled with Galar particles. The brothers' ultimate goal is to reveal the true barbaric and brutish nature of Zacian or Zamazenta, because Sonia thought that the two heroes who stopped the Darkest Day were Pokémon rather than humans. They use Dynamax energy to drive Zamazenta (in Sword) or Zacian (in Shield) berserk, and the player drives them off with the help of Zacian (in Sword) or Zamazenta (in Shield). They then are challenged to a battle by the Legendary Pokémon and allowed to catch it, while Hop follows Zamazenta/Zacian back to the Slumbering Weald and calms it down, being chosen by it as its Trainer. The player and Hop have a final battle, after which Hop decides to be a Pokémon Professor and becomes Sonia's assistant.

Conceptualization
Conceptualization of Pokémon Sword and Shield began immediately following the completion of Pokémon Sun and Moon in the months preceding their release in November 2016. Shigeru Ohmori, who previously directed Sun and Moon, formed a team to brainstorm ideas for the title. Kazumasa Iwao, director of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, later joined the project as planning director. One of the first ideas the team had was making Pokémon gigantic-size to capitalize on the Switch's high resolution and TV connectivity. Ohmori suggested a sword and a shield Pokémon to defeat this gigantic Pokémon; these concepts formed the games' titles.

Game Freak approached the games based on the theme of strength and striving to be the "greatest or the strongest," which was expressed through the Switch's status as the most powerful console to run a Pokémon game, the gigantic-size Pokémon Dynamax mechanic, and in-game references to various British folklore featuring giants and other mythical creatures. The concept of "growing and evolving" is an important theme in the games, and it was heavily emphasized in the story.

Production
Full production began in September 2017. Approximately 1,000 people from multiple companies were involved in the development, marketing, localization, and public relations, and approximately 200 Game Freak employees worked directly on the games while around 100 Creatures Inc. employees worked on 3D modeling; an additional 100 worked on debugging and game testing. Game Freak assembled a small team to systematically plan and design the game, enabling them to seamlessly incorporate all desired elements; this approach replaced their previous iterative method, which became impractical due to the complexities of the game's 3D graphics.

Before developing the games, Game Freak worked on Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! as a research project to study the Switch, incorporating a similar code base structure for Sword and Shield. The developers explored various ways to improve and innovate the traditional random encounter mechanic, and after several experiments, they redesigned it to have the player encounter Pokémon freely roaming around the environment. Similarly, they considered allowing the player to freely control the camera to enhance the games' exploration experience, before consulting the staff members in the form of an internal debate, and it was ultimately included.

With the transition to the Switch from previous iteration, Game Freak had to meticulously design Pokémon models from scratch to adapt them to the higher fidelity and more expressive graphics of the Switch when compared to the Nintendo 3DS. The Pokémon design process involved planners and concept designers creating settings for each Pokémon, which were compiled into a text file outlining the vision for each Pokémon's placement in the game. They designed the Wild Area as a "wide-open space" that is different from the traditional route systems and is constantly changing where "it would be interesting to come back every day and see what has changed—something that would feel different each time."

Music
Go Ichinose and Minako Adachi composed the music, incorporating elements of UK rock music; a track was composed by Toby Fox, creator of Undertale. Ohmori stated that they included fairly short loop tunes for the route music, as opposed to the longer, more dynamic songs in the Wild Area. The games are the first Pokémon games with a title theme that features lyrics.

"Cutting" Pokémon
Unlike previous core series games, many pre-existing Pokémon are not available in Sword and Shield, and only Pokémon that appear in the Galar region can be transferred from previous titles via Pokémon Home. Producer Junichi Masuda addressed this as a potential issue in a 2018 interview with GameSpot, saying that "it does get complicated when you talk about the details and we're still figuring it out, but we do have plans to find ways to let players use their Pokémon in the next game." In 2019, he explained that the sheer number of Pokémon, combined with the need to produce assets for new features such as the Dynamaxing mechanic, and maintaining a good game balance and high quality standard made it infeasible to include all pre-existing Pokémon without extensively lengthening development time. He stated all three companies involved in the development, Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company, agreed to reduce the games' Pokémon.

Release
Sword and Shield were first teased through a special message by The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara during Nintendo's E3 2017 presentation, where Ishihara mentioned that Game Freak was working on a new core series Pokémon role-playing game for the Nintendo Switch but that it would not be released for more than a year. During a press conference held by The Pokémon Company in Japan on 30 May 2018, Game Freak announced that the games would be released on Switch in the second half of 2019.

The games were fully unveiled in a special Nintendo Direct presentation on 27 February 2019, introducing the games' region and starter Pokémon. The presentation coincided with Pokémon Day, a fan celebration of Pokémon on the anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Green. A second Nintendo Direct about the games was held on 5 June 2019, and it further revealed the games' new features, characters, and Pokémon. A release date of 15 November 2019, was also announced as part of this presentation. Game Freak intentionally limited the number of new Pokémon they revealed through promotional materials to encourage players to discover them in-game.

A promotional crossover between Sword and Shield and Tetris 99 occurred from 8–11 November, during which a limited-time unlockable theme based on the games was available. A web app was also released, allowing the viewer to explore the Wild Area online. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, an online tournament themed around Pokémon was held from 15 to 18 November to promote Sword and Shield release, while a spirit event occurred from 22 to 27 November, with some Pokémon being available as collectible spirits.

Expansion pass
During the Pokémon Direct on 9 January 2020, an expansion pass was announced consisting of two parts, The Isle of Armor, and The Crown Tundra, and they were released on 17 June 2020 and 22 October 2020, respectively. A physical bundle including both parts and the games was released on 6 November 2020. The expansion pass added additional storylines, places, Pokémon, characters, and other features.

Controversy
The decision to exclude many pre-existing Pokémon in the games drew criticism from many fans, who referred to it as "Dexit", a portmanteau of "Pokédex" and "Brexit" (tying in with the Galar region's British theme), and used the hashtag "#BringBackNationalDex" to discuss the matter on social media. Fan backlash focused on the removal of a long-standing aspect of the franchise, the discouraging of its former English tagline "gotta catch 'em all," and a perceived lack of improvements in other areas of the games, such as graphics and animations. Some fans called for the games to be delayed until all of the Pokémon could be added.

Writing for Polygon, Patricia Hernandez commented that "to some degree, the backlash makes sense" while adding that it had "gotten out of hand". Alex Donaldson of VG247 noted that feature creep—where an increase in new features over time may lead to removal of previous ones—had finally reached Pokémon, and long-overlooked design shortcomings of Game Freak were brought to the forefront as a result. Kotaku Gita Jackson summarized the backlash as "the tension of a desire to indulge in nostalgia against a desire to experience more complexity." Joe Merrick, the webmaster of fansite Serebii, considered the controversy to have caused the most unrest among Pokémon fans since the troubled launch of Pokémon Bank in 2013.

Masuda formally responded to the criticism on 28 June 2019, two weeks after it erupted, expressing appreciation for the love and passion shown by fans. He reiterated that the removal of certain Pokémon was a difficult decision to make and that they would be available in different games in the future. Michael McWhertor of Polygon noted that while Masuda's statement acknowledged the fans' discontent, it "did not amount to much".

After the game's release, fans who support "Dexit" strongly criticized the games for their graphics, story, and characters. Further criticism came from data miners accusing Game Freak of reusing the same models and animations from the 3DS games, resulting in the games being review bombed on Metacritic and the hashtag #GameFreakLied trending on Twitter. Game Freak denied this, stating that these elements were in fact redesigned. The announcement of the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra expansion packs drew further outrage, with some fans believing that the packs should have been free or part of the base game due to "Game Freak's actions".

Critical response
Reception of the games was largely positive. According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Sword and Shield received "generally favourable" reviews from critics.

Critics praised Sword and Shield's gameplay, exploration, and mechanics. Game Informer critic Brian Shea praised the games for their captivating battle mechanics and sense of exploration. Similarly, Casey DeFreitas of IGN praised their engaging gameplay, complemented by compelling battle and exploration experiences. Writing for GameSpot, Kallie Plagge praised the dynamic exploration aspect and streamlined gameplay.

Sword and Shield's lack of depth and innovation were criticized. In Eurogamer, Chris Tapsell criticised the games for their lack of depth, absence of complex dungeons and intricate lore, limited exploration option, and a restricted Pokédex, creating an illusion of scale and ambition that ultimately fails to provide a satisfying Pokémon experience of depth and substance that characterized previous iterations. In their GQ review, James Grebey and Tom Philip criticised their lack of challenge, depth, and innovation, expressing disappointment in the games' execution and their failure to fully utilize the capabilities of the Switch. Mack Ashworth of GameRevolution cited the subpar visuals and mediocre story execution, and he compared the games' underperformed, inferior visuals to other top Switch games.

Sales
In Japan, Sword and Shield sold two million copies during their first three days on sale, 1.36 million retail copies alone, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the fastest-selling Switch games in that region. In the US, they sold more than two million copies in their opening weekend. During its opening weekend, Sword and Shield had sold more than six million copies worldwide, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the fastest-selling Switch games. As of September 2023, the games had sold million copies worldwide, becoming the second best-selling titles in the Pokémon video game series, behind Pokémon Red and Blue.