10 Features Pokémon Sword & Shield Desperately Needs

We know how to catch a Pokémon.

The player character in the games might only be ten, but a significant chunk of the player base are way older, and have been playing the game for around 20 years. The core mechanics haven’t particularly changed, they’ve just added new things. Let us play.

The worst part is, many of the new mechanics aren’t even explained in the tutorial. Type match up, IVs & EVs, Special vs. Physical, breeding, different balls, berries and evolutionary items... these are skipped over for a by-the-numbers basic example.

For the record, there’s nothing wrong with leaving the player to explore these elements and parcelling out lore when it’s appropriate. But it means the tutorial is redundant almost from the start if you’re an experienced or returning player.

Obviously, any game could be a young kid’s first, so a tutorial needs to exist in some form. There’s nothing wrong with brushing up on the basics, but please, let us skip it.

Even Mario Party lets you skip through the instructions, so surely Pokémon can do the same instead of dragging your first 45 minutes out.