The final verdict is in: Pokémon Sword and Shield are welcome additions to the franchise, but have fans’ worst fears – a lack of content – truly been realized?
The answer to that question will naturally differ from person to person depending on how thoroughly one decides to explore optional content, of course. There are, however, some facets of the Switch exclusives open to scrutiny with an objective focus, namely the main story. Traditionally speaking, each installment of the core RPGs usually boasts a meaty campaign for players to chew through, mostly consisting of a region-specific Gym Challenge.
Side stories and distractions are often interspersed within that primary goal as a means of interim pace changes, which cumulatively adds to an overall runtime of around the 40-50-hour mark. It should come as a great relief to Trainers wary of the current criticisms, then, that Sword and Shield promise a similarly-sized experience.
IGN’s Janet Garcia and Casey DeFreitas both clocked the end of their respective playthroughs as surpassing the 30-hour mark, with Garcia passing the goalposts in 46 hours. DeFreitas, on the other hand, notes that their run ended at 39 hours, though says that their quicker time was largely due to review deadlines necessitating a swifter pace. Freelancer John Sullivan, meanwhile, believes they sit somewhere between both times with an approximate 40 hours, most of which was focused on completing the Gym Challenge.
Reassuring estimates, then, though what of the endgame that usually follows the end credits of each Pokémon title? As per Sullivan’s own admission, they’ve already sunk 20 hours of post-game play into breeding and training a competitive-viable team. Music to the ears of hardcore fans, no doubt.
Pokémon Sword and Shield are out November 15th for Nintendo Switch and it’ll be fascinating to see, in light of recent controversies, how sales of the games compare with previous iterations.
Published: Nov 14, 2019 09:12 am