In an announcement that has surprised many and divided some, it has been revealed that Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will feature the returning EXP Share feature as a mandatory element, rather than an option that can be turned on and off like in previous installments.
The EXP Share began life in the series as a held item that would allow one Pokemon out of the party to siphon a small number of experience points earned by whichever Pokemon was actually fighting the battle. In Pokemon X & Y,it was changed into a Key Item that would give a small amount of experience to the entire party regardless of who was fighting and could be toggled on and off from the item menu.
It seems that now, in an attempt to bring the series up to more modern JRPG standards, the EXP Share will be mandatory and cannot be turned off, which significantly cuts back on the amount of time a player will need to spend in random battles grinding for experience.
Certain fans have been upset by this news, as they personally find there’s fun to be had in the extra amount of battling found in level grinding, also seeing the removal of an option for it as a negative while others are happy to see the grinding go all-together and see this as a positive step forward that the franchise should have taken sooner. Opinions are clearly split over how this new change was implemented, but one can only hope that once the games are properly released that more people than not will be happy with how things have turned out.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will be released for Nintendo Switch on November 15th, 2019. You can watch a recent trailer detailing some new features of the games down below: