Review of Pokemon Sword and Shield – The Isle of Armor

The Isle of Armor itself or “Armored island”- this is a rather modest-sized location in which, in addition to untouched lands and a dojo, there is practically nothing interesting.

At the same time, the developers did not improve the graphics, so the terrain looks inexpressive. All the same low-resolution textures for which they scolded the main project, all the same empty and faded zones with wild monsters emerging from the air. Special mention deserves caves that look like a huge brown lump of incomprehensible mass.

The bright corporate design of the series and the pretty grass in which the Pokemon walks draw a little impression, but the project still continues to lose to other games on Nintendo switch. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and even Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Eevee! look much better.

But the problem is not only in detail. At a certain stage in the passage of the plot, the player will have the opportunity to release one of his wards from pokeball. This pet will follow its owner while he explores the area. A similar feature was seen by fans of the series in Pokemon heartgold / Soulsilver and recent Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Eevee !.

Sadly, in Pokemon Sword / Shield, this mechanic is done through the sleeves. Pets get stuck in landscape objects, disappear and appear out of nowhere without any animation, soar in the air, standing on uneven surfaces, glide on the ground in a collision with a player and all in the same spirit.

Each existing monster also has its own speed of running across untouched lands, which is not synchronized with the player and, strangely enough, does not depend on the characteristics of the Speed ​​monster. As a result, most creatures simply do not keep up with the owner, they are several meters behind him, and then they simply teleport behind the player.

Considering that walks with Pokemon are available exclusively within the untouched lands on The Isle of Armor and do not affect anything, this mechanics (in fact, a visual feature) is disappointing, and not happy.

Like the original games, various variations of the Expansion Pass require exclusive content. Each version contains several unique monsters, but the most significant difference is the opponent who will confront the player during the trials in the dojo.

In the Sword version of the add-on, the player will be accompanied by a specialist in poisonous monsters and the former idol Clara, and in Shield the companion is the medium and trainer of psychic Pokemon Avery. Both potential rivals differ not only in appearance, but also in their teams, although they use Galary Slowbro, another newcomer to the expansion, as a key creature.

However, their differences end there, the characters of the new characters are absolutely identical, and the dialogues differ only in the style of presentation, bearing the same semantic load.