10 Controversies That Have ALREADY Hurt Pokemon Sword & Shield
5. The Same Formula Repeated
As the eighth main game in the series, not to mention multiple remakes and the fact each title comes in two editions, it’s fair to say there’s been a lot of repetition in the franchise over the years.
Despite this, the sales have never really wavered, and likely won’t again. However, with the game coming to the Switch, and the promise of an open world being made, the fact it seems to be sticking to the same basic formula again feels disappointing.
Admittedly, they did shuffle things up with Sun and Moon in the Alola region, but this was mainly a downgrade in the difficulty, less focus on battles and gyms and extra handholding too. Less a shakeup than it was a bit of a shedding of features.
To its credit, Sword and Shield has brought those popular features back, but doesn't appear to have added that much to it apart from some standard gimmicks.
We’ll have to wait and see exactly how the game plays, but it looks right now to be a standard ‘start in home town, beat eight gyms, defeat villains, become champion’ storyline.