It’s always interesting to hear about developers favourite new releases, but it’s especially interesting to hear about Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa‘s favourite recent title. Speaking to The Nikkei, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said that his favourite recent release is Pokemon Sword & Shield on Nintendo Switch. Mr. Furukawa says he loves playing it on his Switch Lite and collecting all the various Pokemon found throughout the game.
Well now we know they chose their president poorly if he likes that garbage
He can have his opinion and so can all the millions who like the game, but I just don’t care about pokemon so much anymore and I think the dumbing down of the games (like how easy they are with no strategy or fun left) and general unpolished-ness is to blame.
I think he could up his standards a bit… I often find myself underwhelmed with Shield- Dynamaxing is probably the worst gimmick in a Pokemon game yet, I don’t find myself finding much reason to like any of the characters (Hop is just annoying, Leon is constantly referred to as being awful with directions when most of the time the place he’s going is literally a straight line from where he stands, and Bede is just… Bede), and the game looks like something the GameCube could run. Not to mention there is only ONE Wild Area which was what the devs hyped the most and it too is just so little. Then of course you have the drastic cuts of Pokemon where more than half of them aren’t in the game, including many that were in Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee which released JUST last year! I feel like Diamond and Pearl on the original DS had better quality and more content than these new ones, and those are over a decade old.
While I agree with everything you listed, I just don’t understand the need to include 800 pkmn.
Other RPGs has maybe a quarter of monsters featured in their games but they don’t get flamed as much as Game Freak does this era.
My main problem with Sword and Shield are the decorative doors in cities and villages which you cannot enter. I miss being lost in Lumoise or Castelia.
I wish they adopt a fire emblem approach in future games where strategy matters or perhaps introducing an experienced mode that you can opt for as you start your adventure. The games ever growing casual difficulty is ruining the series.
” I just don’t understand the need to include 800 pkmn.”
To be succinct.
1. Because they’ve sold the entire franchise for decades on catching them all. It is and always has been a collection game by design.
2. Because they’ve set up the expectation by always (eventually) making all pokemon available.
3. Because ever since day 1, they have highly highly encouraged becoming emotionally attached to specific Pokemon, and now 30 years later they’re surprised their customers listened for some reason.
4. Because none of their excuses make very much sense. Most of the models are just upscales. Very, very few unique animations anyway. I understand that you can’t keep doing it forever. It’s got to give at some point. Maybe not at 800, but eventually it’ll be at 5000 so it’s got to happen…….. except nobody complaining ever said they had to have them all at launch. They could have delayed the game. They could have done post launch updates. They could do paid DLC and make even more money. They could promise to add the rest in trade compatible Gen 4 remakes. The reason none of these, even the ones that make more money for them are being considered, is because the primary motivations is *laziness*. That’s why people are upset. Because at the end of the day, the motivation not to do them is because they just don’t really feel like it.
I’m proud of this comment section
Meh. They need to revamp the combat system in Pokemon. It’s gotten so boring, especially compared to other turn based RPGs. Collecting Pokemon is fun and all, but the battle system it’s resting on is so incredibly stale and lifeless.
Despite the game being very easy, dynamaxing/gigantamaxing being an okay-ish gimmick at best, and the graphics not being the greatest, I still enjoyed my time playing Pokemon Shield and discovering the new Pokemon for this generation. Toby Fox did an amazing job with the soundtrack to this game as well, especially with the gym leader theme. I also thought the story was fairly good, too, not my favorite in the series (that still goes to gen 5) but I liked it. Admittedly, some characters like, Hop (who I started to like more as I progressed through the campaign) and Bede weren’t that good, a majority of them were very good, in my opinion, with Marnie being my favorite.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Pokemon Shield more than I thought I would even after looking at the leaks before playing. I wasn’t even bothered with them cutting half of the Pokemon from the game either because honestly it was bound to happen eventually. It’s not my favorite Switch release, that’ll most likely be Animal Crossing: New Horizons for obvious reasons *looks at name and avatar*. But I do feel like if they were given maybe another year to develop the game it could have been so much better. Here’s hoping that they learn from their mistakes from Sword and Shield and implement them into the gen 4 remakes, especially in the graphical area because the Sinnoh region deserves to look as good as possible. Being able to skip the tutorial is already a step in the right direction.
Toby Fox made only one track for these games, the Battle Tower battle theme. The rest was likely made by their usual composers Hitomi Sato, Go Ichinose and Junichi Masuda.
The Gym Leader battle theme was likely made by Junichi Masuda as he tends to do most of the battle themes and has had a similar style of music going on since about gen 6.
Whoops sorry about, I could have sworn I read some where that he made the entire soundtrack. 🤔
Oh well, thank you for the correction.
Gen 1 still King 👑.
Eat it Ninty President…
Yeah better yet Gold and Silver allowed you to play 16 gyms when you cam go back to red and blue and that was $29.99. For $60 only 8 gyms and you can’t rebattle components?
That is, until Nintendo’s biggest game of next year that he needs to promote in an interview.
My thoughts exactly.
He hasn’t played any of the DS or 3DS games have he?
…those aren’t new games…
I dont know why I wrote that… Sword and Shield aren’t even a year old, I’d say that’s pretty new. Can I just get banned? Clearly I am just talking out of my ass and shouldnt be allowed to post. “those arent new games” Seriously? I’m finding where I live and kicking my ass for that one.
Well, he was the former president of the Pokemon company, so I’d expect as much
I really wanted to like this game. It was fun for awhile, but I just can’t bring myself to go back to it, especially not after starting DQ11.
I have heard no one bring up the story mode on what it was about. That bad huh?
Tbh it was so bland and forgettable. They had so much potential to work with.
Bold move of Furukawa backing Sword and Shield despite their disdain found within the Pokémon community.
Assuming this is just a marketing ploy, he certainly had room to be more honest about his opinion of his actual favorite Switch game. Would’ve done it, whatever it is, some good.
Can you use the HM moves Fly, flash cut , teleport , surf and waterfall and dig outside a battle?
I also heard you are easily over leveled by the time you get to the 2nd gym. If I were to pay 60 bucks it better be harder to beat not easy.
Still waiting for PokeHome before I buy Sword. Is there a list telling you what Pokemon ARE in Sword/Shield? It’d be easier to check out that list than the list of cut Pokemon since that list is far bigger. I think I have plenty of Pokemon below level 10 that I could use as a mainstay for my team throughout my journey of these two games. Since Pokemon games NEVER decrease in bloody price (least not in a meaningful way), I’ll get Sword once PokeHome is up & running. And since these games finally let you give a nickname to traded Pokemon (provided they aren’t already nicknamed), I don’t even need to get both versions anymore to give certain Pokemon I like a nickname I think fits the Pokemon. (That’s at least two upsides to Sword/Shield.)
throughout my journey of Sword.*
So I’m pretty new to the whole Pokemon thing. I never bothered with it when it first came out. Even though I had a gameboy, I was playing other games and collecting comics. I first started playing Pokemon with the release of Sun and Moon. so all that being said, can someone explain to me how Sword and Shield are not as good as others in the series? I’ve found them (Sun&Moon and Sword&Shield) enjoyable enough, but is there something im missing out on having not played any others? Cause it looks to me like the kind of game where you run around, collect shit, choose an attack , pick a target….pretty standard stuff.
ANOTHER excuse to not fix their blatant mistakes!
Stop pretending this game is the Super Mario Odyssey/Smash Ultimate (even BotW) of Pokemon! It’s sickening!
Like. I won’t even try to say Sword and Shield are utter dogdump. I can understand the 7/10s from what I hear from individuals/smaller publications (which as some of you know is pretty much a 5/10, squarely average.) , but Swsh are still pretty shameful as far as nintendo goes.
Every dev team under them have had their trips and falls, but they will usually put their best foot forward, it’s especially been so on the switch! (More often than not.)
Like whatever you want Mister Shuntaro, but… I gotta say, I hope that was just some marketing Schpiel, cause that is kind of worrying.