The first Pokemon game I ever played was Pokemon Gold. I still remember the day my parents took me to the store and told me they were finally in agreement on purchasing me a Gameboy Color. I could hardly contain my excitment. I went straight to the eletronic section, picked up a neon green color Game Boy Color, and the most popular game at the time, Pokemon Gold (Silver).

And that was 19 years ago…

Today, I purchased my second ever Pokemon game, Pokemon Sword (Shield) for the Nintendo Switch. Sword and Shield takes place in Galar region, it is a brand new region Pokemon has released just for this game. Galar is modeled after the U.K. You will see a lot of resemblance of the green country side of England, and mountains of Scotland in the game. The old rustic towns with brick fronts are a lot like the old towns of England. There is even a bridge in game I saw that looks very simlar to the London Bridge.

Starters

As you start your journey in Galar, the first thing you do is pick a stater Pokemon. This is the same as all other Pokemon games. The three starters are:

Fire starter

Water starter

Grass starter

They all have their own unique attributes, so choose wisely.

The game starts with you, the player, watching a Pokemon Trainer named Leon battle on T.V. Leon has never lost, and you are very good friends with his little brother, Hop. You and Hop goes to greet Leon, and Leon brings the three starter Pokemons and tells you guys to pick one.

I can already predict that at some point of the game, you will battle Leon for the spot of Pokemon Champion. Hop is a trainer you will be battling throughout the game. After 30 mins of playing, I had already battle him twice.

Graphics

Sword and Shield probably has the best graphics so far in all of the Pokemon games series. The camera view is very fluid. You can change the camera angle with the right joystick, while moving with the left. Camera can be zoomed out as well. But there is only one level of zoom out allowed.

The towns and wild areas are just amazing in terms of looks and feel. The game has very vibrant colors, which brings a lot nostlagia of the Pokemon T.V. show.

Pokemon Center!

One of the towns in the game.

In the wild, the weather is a nice touch.

In the wild, a Lapras!

In the wild, a Onyx!

Gameplay

Sword and Shield is very similar to the other games in term of gameplay. You will have to grind the levels just like before. There are items, berries, TMs, speical items, items to hold, etc. One new addition I really like in this game is the “Shared Experience” feature. Everytime you gain exp. your entire Pokemon squad gains experience. The Pokemon that was used gains the full experience, and the rest gains a percentage of the experience. This means you don’t have to use a Pokemon for him/her to gain experience. This is nice for making sure everybody is close in levels, and does not fall behind.

The Pokemon Center is the same. There are “Boxes” to put your extra Pokemons, you can access these in the Pokecenter.

A box storing Pokemons. They can be swapped out to your main squad.

The fighting aspect is pretty much the same. Obviously the graphics has improved, and it is more realstic.

Fighting!

Pokemons leveling up showing the attributes.

Level up.

Pokemap showing your location and objectives.

One new feature Sword and Shield added is Gigantamax. Pokemons can be Gigantamax’ed to be more powerful. You can also encounter these Gigantamax’d Pokemons in Raids. Once they are defeated, you have a chance to catch them. One caught, they return to their normal form. I have encountered some Gigantamax raids already, they have been easy to defeat so far. I am sure there will be more default ones as the game progresses.

Giga ball!

Giga ball thrown.

Catching it!

Caught it!

Trading

I have not done any trading yet, there is a online trading feature, as well as local. You can not make trades in this game until you have met the Professor on Route 2. This means you have to play the game for at leadt 30 mins-ish to be able to trade.

There is a loophole here people can take advantage of. Players can obtain all three starters by trading. You have to create a alt Switch account, play the game till you have trading enabled (meeting the Professor), then trade your starter to your main account. I have not done this, but it is possible.

Battling

I have not tried online battling. I have heard Nintendo wanted to make this game more competitive, so I expect online tournments will be a hot spot for players who wants to do battle and gain prestige.

Overall

Overall, I am very satisfied with Sword and Shield from just one day of playing. It is a grindy at times, but it is also a lot of fun. The newly added Pokemons of Galar keeps everything interesting. Filling out your Pokedex is always a objective that will not get stale. I look forward to battling Gym Leaders and solving puzzles in the region of Galar. Look out for part 2 of my PokeBlog series.