"I know I'm extremely late to the party, but I finally got my hands on a Switch and a copy of Pokemon Shield. Boy, did I try my best to like it..."

I know what the defenders of this game are going to say in order to discredit me, so let me get this part out of the way: I did not go into this game wanting to hate it. I have loved Pokemon since I was a child, and have no reason to actively hate the franchise that I grew up with. I tried so hard to like this game and give it a pass, and honestly, now that I've finished it, I'm embarrassed that I ever gave it the benefit of the doubt.I tried to look beyond the lazy graphics, character models, and animations that would have looked bad in an early Wii title. I tried to ignore the fact that every beard looked like it was spray painted on the character's face, and that most of the new Pokemon looked like they were drawn on a napkin in five minutes.I haven't had high expectations for a Pokemon game's story since before X/Y, but this game's laughable story makes X/Y look like Citizen Kane. The characters and plot are insulting, and by the end I just wanted it to be over. A Pokemon game doesn't need to have a riveting story, but a simple story can still be a good one. What we got with this game is an absolute train wreck.All of this, while frustrating, are things I could have accepted if the game was at least fun, but it's not. GameFreak could not even bother to make the game fun. The entire game was just moving in a straight line, winning mind-numbingly easy battle after battle, until the credits rolled. The routes were too short to provide anything sort of exploration. There were no mountains or dungeons to challenge us outside of the pitiful (and creatively named) Galar Mines 1 and 2, not even a Victory Road. I never even came close to losing a battle once in the entire playthrough, and by the end I didn't even bother Dynamaxing anymore.I know the excuse I'm going to see already: this game is aimed at children, and I'm an adult. Yes, I understand that. Every single game in this series is aimed at children, and they all, to this day, still provide a level of challenge, certainly more than this game ever could.I didn't even have fun playing it, which is the worst offense of all. I just played it to get to the end, so I could give the game as many chances as possible to change my mind. It never did.Sword and Shield are, frankly, unacceptable, and no amount of backlash that I get for this will change my opinion. I feel like I was swindled out of $60, because I was. Forget the cut content. What we did get in this game is far worse than what we didn't get.Many people will say that people like me, people who expect quality out of a Triple-A title that costs 60 bucks, are not true fans of the series. This could not be more wrong. It's because I'm such a big fan of the series that I find this game unacceptable. I don't like seeing GameFreak actively ruining a franchise that is so near and dear to me. We should expect better from them, because the franchise deserves better.All that said, I only played through Shield. Maybe Sword is better. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/3lTcOHI