{"id":2812,"date":"2021-08-18T17:51:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T15:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2026-01-13T14:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:25:22","slug":"pokemon-lets-go-vs-sword-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/?p=2812","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Let&#8217;s Go vs. Sword &#038; Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My son and I have finished playing through both Let&#8217;s Go Pikachu and Sword &amp; Shield on the Nintendo Switch, so here&#8217;s a short comparison.<\/p>\n<h2>Setting<\/h2>\n<p>As <em>Let&#8217;s Go<\/em> is a remake of <em>Pok\u00e9mon Yellow<\/em>, one of the first Pok\u00e9mon games, it is set in the Kanto region, and the story mimics the <em>Indigo<\/em> <em>League<\/em> anime. As such the setting is very iconic with places like Pallet Town and the original Pok\u00e9mon, gym leaders, and of course Team Rocket&#8217;s Jesse and James.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sword &amp; Shield <\/em>uses the setting of the anime of the same name, the Galar region, which is modelled after Great Britain. If you&#8217;ve watched the series, this will be familiar to you, but it is not iconic as the Kanto setting.<\/p>\n<h2>Graphics<\/h2>\n<p>The biggest difference between the two games. <em>Let&#8217;s Go<\/em> has a bit of a retro vibe, with a fixed birds-eye view and 16-bit sprites in several places. <em>Sword &amp; Shield <\/em>uses a true third-person 3D view, and looks much more modern, with a hint of cell shading.<\/p>\n<h2>Gameplay<\/h2>\n<p>The basic premise is the same &#8211; you explore the region on a pretty much pre-defined path, catching Pok\u00e9mon and fighting other trainers. The main goals are earning eight badges and eventually challenging the top trainers in a final match. In Sword &amp; Shield, catching requires you to first battle a wild Pok\u00e9mon to weaken it. In Let&#8217;s Go, this is replaced by a dexterity game that involves throwing the balls with the Joy-Con. Battling works essentially the same. The advantage of Sword &amp; Shield is that, if you&#8217;ve faced the type of Pok\u00e9mon before, you get to see whether an attack will be effective or not.<\/p>\n<p>Sword &amp; Shield is more straightforward, with fewer trainers to battle against. You can also fly to places from the very beginning, an ability that isn&#8217;t obtained in Let&#8217;s Go until later in the game. The big difference is that Sword &amp; Shield is single-player only, whereas Let&#8217;s Go can be played co-op by two people (which makes battles much easier).<\/p>\n<h2>Verdict<\/h2>\n<p><em>Let&#8217;s Go<\/em> beats <em>Sword &amp; Shield<\/em> in my opinion &#8211; you&#8217;ve got the original Kanto setting and 150 Pok\u00e9mon, and the two-player option is great for playing with your kid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My son and I have finished playing through both Let&#8217;s Go Pikachu and Sword &amp; Shield on the Nintendo Switch, so here&#8217;s a short comparison. Setting As Let&#8217;s Go is a remake of Pok\u00e9mon Yellow, one of the first Pok\u00e9mon games, it is set in the Kanto region, and the story mimics the Indigo League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[103],"class_list":{"0":"post-2812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gaming","8":"tag-video-games","9":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/letsgo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plKIk-Jm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2814,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions\/2814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittwer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}