Best UX Updates in Pokémon Sword & Shield
UX Games Designer breaks down the best design updates in the latest Pokémon Sword & Shield game for Nintendo Switch! Let’s take a look at what they changed and why it’s great UX design!
A little bit of background
I have played Pokémon games since I got the Game Boy Advance as a child. I fell in love with the strategy of the games in combination with the cute and cool looking creatures.
But there are some things that are quite annoying and somewhat strangely designed that has stuck around in the series of games. So I was happily surprised when I played through the latest title in the series and noticed quite a few updates and positive changes! (Sword & Shield → I’m going to write S&S for short). I decided to take a closer look at these changes to see why it’s great UX design!
If you are interested in Pokémon & UX in games, then keep reading friend!
Will an attack be effective or not?
In previous Pokémon titles, you had to remember what every Pokémon were weak and strong against. While the system was for the most part manageable with not too many Pokémon (+ almost 100 for each game) or elements in the early games (15), some new ones have been added (3) into the new titles with many new Pokémon being a combination of 2 Elements, each with it’s own specific powers and weaknesses!
The Pokémon world is now quite complex with up to a total of 18 elements and 900+ Pokémon and it’s still growing with the added DLC for S&S! It’s easy to see that this is heavy information to keep track of for any player.
Adding complexity of multiple combinations and the Cognitive load (memory load) for the player. The problem with this is that previous games only gave feedback of the effectiveness after the attack happened. Meaning that players oftentimes had to guess on what attack to do. But S&S gives the player this information in the moves list before doing the action. Greatly helping the player make the best choice in a battle and feeling more in control.
Arguments can be made that this makes the game too easy for experienced players and that remembering all this was just part of the game. But since the target audience is still younger ages, it’s good to give a helpful nudge. This relieving the stress of remembering each strength and weakness for all Pokémon and lowering the steep learning curve.
Putting the focus back on fun & adventure, not memory practice.
Low health — a warning sound
If you don’t remember what it sounds like, you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvPVKYMc6Q
There is an alarming sound that plays in the games when your Pokémons health goes down far enough to reach the red zone. This is meant to tell the player to pay attention and know of the danger that Pokémon is currently in. This has been in the Pokémon games series from the start and the sound used to be continuous in the battle until the Pokémon gets healed or is taken out of the match.
However, Pokémon S&S has updated this and takes a more friendly approach. Now you only hear this warning sound for about 3 seconds, to make the player aware of the danger and then it stops. This still tells the player what is happening in a clear and informative way, and with the UI of the health-bar being low and in the red area they will not miss it.
Much appreciated by everyone’s ears and sanity.
Always have access to PC Boxes
The PC boxes are used to store the Pokémon you don’t currently use in your team. (You have to catch them all right?)
In previous Pokémon games this storage system was only accessible at Pokemon stops where you had to access a specific device. This lead to players not changing out their Pokémon team very often and mostly sticking to a set of 6 throughout the game.
By making this small change players can easily try a much greater number of Pokémon throughout their journey. This is especially helpful when you are in the middle of the big wild grass area capturing new Pokémon while testing out a new team. All without the need to go back to the nearest town constantly, which previously took away from precious fun training time.
Giving players more time to play with different Pokémon, decreasing boring and annoying travel time.
XP points from camping, cooking food and playing with your Pokémon
The Pokémon world is about collecting, training, and loving your Pokémon to create a bond with them. But if you can only get XP in battles with them, the game enforce that it is the only way to be a good Pokémon trainer. (Features supporting beliefs.)
But in S&S you can get XP (quite a lot too) by spending time camping, playing games with your Pokémon and cooking food. The food can also be used to heal your Pokémon so that is another positive effect!
This gives players incentives to use the camping features and create a fun bond with their Pokémon.
No more HM moves
In all previous Pokémon games you needed a bird or flying Pokémon to learn the move ‘Fly’ to travel across the map, a water Pokémon to have ‘Surf’ (plus ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Whirlpool’ in some games) and someone to learn ‘Cut’ or ‘Rock smash’ to get past things blocking the road.
This system forced the player to:
- Have specific Pokémon types on them for most of the journey. Limiting the freedom of personalised combinations of Pokémon in the group.
- 1 or 4 moves on that Pokémon had to be that HM move. Limiting player battle decisions.
- This created the so called ‘HM slave’ = Pokémon only used to learn HM moves.
This system is now handled by either removing the need for it, being built into the world (Flying taxi can take where you want to go) or it’s now an item you unlock (Adding floating wheels on the bike).
The moves are still available in the game, now called a TR move instead of HM and the player can buy more of the moves at a shop if they want to teach it to several Pokémon.
With this change they have opened up for players to use any type of Pokémon and play style they want!
Main objective in the menus
In the previous games, you had to remember what an NPC character said where you need to go next, sometimes many hours or even days ago. Since you can easily get distracted by having fun catching new Pokémon or training in a new area, it’s understandable that players forgot where they were supposed to go next. This leading to confusion > frustration > anger > stops playing.
By just adding a simple text on the bottom of the main menu telling you where you should go next, they elevates the cognitive load (memory load) of the player and let them focus on having fun and exploring instead! Plus they also add a small red flag on the map of where you should go next. Very nice and helpful detail!
A small change that helps to point the player in the right direction, so they can focus on the Pokémon, not remembering names!
Throwing a Pokéball
When you're in a battle with a Pokémon, you can now just click the (X) button to select what Pokéball to use to catch it. Instead of having to navigate through the inventory, find the Pokéball list and then selecting what ball to use. This is a great change because catching Pokémon is a core activity to the game experience. This change makes the action more prominent and quick for the player.
Look at the right side of the screen where the small Pokéball icon and an (X) is placed there to tell the player to throw a Pokéball. Notice how they didn’t use any long texts to explain the action. The Pokéball shape & colours are so ingrained in the Pokémon world & repeated throughout the game that just seeing the icon is an indication clear enough for the player to figure out what it means. But, in the case of the player not knowing what it means, the next screen that opens up when clicking (X) have an explanation of what it will do.
Menu design supporting core gameplay.
Pokemon walk around in the world
This is a huge change from for the Pokémon world. In previous games the Pokémon were hidden in the environments and you got attacked by a random Pokémon. Now they have adopted a mixed system. Seeing Pokémon walk around in the grass, you can choose if you want to avoid it or engage in battle. (But be careful because the Pokémon will chase you!) Seeing the Pokémon in the world is giving a feeling of interest and sometimes it’s intimidating because of the big size compared to the player.
But the element of surprise is still in the game! This is important because the it still adds excitement and fun to see what the Pokémon is. Pokémon are hidden in the tall grass and based on a detection system, they are marked by a big exclamation (!) or question mark (?).
But this isn’t the first of the games that have Pokémon walking around in the world in this way. This was first introduced in the mobile game ‘Pokémon GO’ and later in the Switch game ‘Pokémon Let’s GO Eevee/Pikachu’. It’s nice to see that they have kept it in the games and I’m excited to see if they will expand on it in the future.
This makes the world feel more alive and that the Pokémon actually live in it.
Everyone gets XP
At first I was sceptical to this change, but I now see why they added it.
Player needed to use items and tricks in previous games to evolve low levelled Pokémon. From using a low levelled Pokémon at the start at the fight and quickly change to a stronger Pokémon, too using a special item that gives the holder some XP after every fight. (one Pokémon at a time)
The (potential) problem this creates is that your already strong Pokémon will get to an even higher level by always getting some XP. Although this can be controlled by the player by only having with them the Pokémon they want to get XP and keeping the rest in the PC Box, so it’s not a huge problem.
Players just want to be able to level up all their Pokémon. By changing the system they removed the need for annoying workarounds.
Item descriptions on pickup
What do you want to do when you pick up a new item? Just run off and not look up what the thing is and what it can do for you? No of course not! You want to know what it is, what it does and how it can help you on your journey!
This addition is a simple text & image that appear on the screen right as you pick up a new item so you can read about that it does. (The text does not appear if you have already gained this item before. To avoid information repeats.)
In previous games you had to: open up the main menu > navigate to the bag > then find the correct list for the type of item it was > scroll down to find the item at the bottom > then you can read about the item to determine if it’s even of interest to you right now! I get annoyed just thinking about it.
This makes the experience much smoother and removes the wasted time in navigating menus.
💜 Thank you for reading!
Did I miss any of your favourite UX updates for Pokémon S&S?
🐦 Follow me on Twitter for more UX & Video Game chats: https://twitter.com/ichianna
📚 Check out my other articles if want to learn more about the UX & Psychology in Pokémon games:
https://uxdesign.cc/pok%C3%A9mon-go-psychology-f2b6a20b01c
