Pokemon Sword&Shieldhave an important place in the pantheon ofPokemongames. In fact, it’s important enough that those wholeaked info onPokemon SwordandShieldare being hit with a huge fine.
It’s not hard to see why: as the majorPokemonrelease on the Switch,Pokemon Sword&Shieldboth had a lot to live up to. Whether they fully did or not mostly depends on who gets asked. While it continues to be profitable, fans are split on many aspects of it. One of these is the story, which many decried as bland even forPokemon, but one fan has an idea to make it more interesting.
RELATED:2020 Was Pokemon’s Most Profitable Year Yet
The story ofPokemon Sword & Shieldfocuses on a new trainer advancing through gym challenges, meeting legendary Pokemon, saving the world, beating a rival, and becoming the regional Champion. All of this is usualPokemonfare, but because of the game’s ease of difficulty, even forPokemon, it goes down very quickly. One fan brought up the point that this would be more powerful if the passage of time was shown better in the game. If all the time players spentincreasing friendshipand training Pokemon showed in the game, it would lend more weight to the players' journey.
The possibilities this would open up speak for themselves. Not only would the player character age, so would their rival. This would lend a lot more weight to rival Hop’s reminiscence of all the time they’ve spent trying to get stronger. On top of that, there are a lot of popular characters inSword & Shield, so much so that some should probablyreturn for Gen 9. Seeing them grow older as they journey and become stronger, facing terrifying threats and new challenges, may endear them to players even more.
Having the passage of time could also make up for another story deficiency: lack of compelling villains. One bigadvantage of otherPokemonstories overSword & Shieldis a threatening evil team. However, if the villains ofSword & Shieldworked their plans over years, those plans would hold a lot more terror and weight.
It may add more to the accomplishment of assembling a powerful team of Pokemon too. Putting in all the effort ofassembling an army of shiniesmight mean more if all that time really showed on the character. All of those years would also make the meetings with legendary Pokemon more meaningful, showing that the main characters have advanced far enough to witness something incredible.
Pokemon Sword & Shieldare available on the Switch.
MORE:What Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Can Learn from Sword and Shield
