Game

Pokémon Shield

2019 · Nintendo Switch · Role-playing (RPG) · Turn-based strategy (TBS) · Adventure

66IGDB player score
237 ratings

Previously Take

That 66 average hides a game its 237 fans would defend to the death. Role-playing in the deep end — fantasy, open world, character builds you'll theorycraft about, and a world that rewards curiosity. Worth it for the campaign alone — the multiplayer stuck around and became its own thing.

About this game

Pokémon Shield is a role-playing game set in the Galar region, a fictional land inspired by the United Kingdom. Players control a young Pokémon Trainer who catches and trains creatures called Pokémon, battling other trainers in turn-based combat. The game introduces the Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanics, which temporarily transform Pokémon into giant forms with enhanced abilities. Progression follows the traditional Gym Challenge structure, requiring players to defeat eight Gym Leaders before competing for the League Championship. The game features an open Wild Area with free-roaming Pokémon, cooperative raid battles for up to four players, and camping activities. Pokémon Shield is the companion title to Pokémon Sword, with certain Pokémon and Gym Leaders exclusive to each version.

In the Galar region, a young trainer and their best friend Hop receive their first Pokémon from Hop's older brother Leon, the undefeated Champion of the Galar League. Endorsed to take on the Gym Challenge, the two set out across the region, competing against rival challengers and contending with Team Yell, a rowdy group of hooligans devoted to fellow challenger Marnie. Along the way, the trainer encounters Chairman Rose, the powerful head of both the Galar League and the region's primary energy corporation, who seems to have plans that extend beyond the tournament itself. After a mysterious encounter with an unknown Pokémon in a fog-shrouded forest called the Slumbering Weald, the trainer begins uncovering connections between ancient legends of a catastrophic event known as the Darkest Day and two heroic Pokémon said to have saved the region long ago. As the Gym Challenge reaches its climax and the Champion Cup draws near, Rose's true ambitions threaten to plunge Galar into a crisis that only the trainer and the legendary Pokémon can resolve.