How to skip cutscenes in Pokemon Sword and Shield

The best way to focus on gameplay rather than story in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Pokemon Sword and Shield is full of dialogue and story cutscenes, with cutscenes referred to as “movies” in the game. Given the length of these cutscenes, getting through Pokemon Sword and Shield can be a real pain at times, especially if you want to focus on gameplay. To help, we’ve put together a quick guide explaining how to skip these cutscenes and speed up areas of text in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

How to skip cutscenes in Pokemon Sword and Shield

How to skip cutscenes in Pokemon Sword and Shield
In your Options menu, you can choose to Skip Movies and bypass all cutscenes in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
© Game Freak
  • Press X to open your Options menu.
  • Find the "Skip Movies" setting and toggle to On.
  • From the Options menu, you can also toggle "Text Speed" from Normal to Fast.

If you’re wondering whether Pokemon Sword and Shield lets you skip past cutscenes, it does. Unlike other games where you can pick and choose which cutscenes to skip past by pressing and holding a specific button, Pokemon Sword and Shield forces you to toggle a setting that skips everything.

If you know you won’t want to watch any cutscenes in Pokemon Sword and Shield, you can toggle this option by pressing X to open your in-game menu. From there, choose “Options” and look for the “Skip Movies” setting. Once you’ve found this setting, you’ll want to turn “Skip Movies” to On.

After that, you’ll be greeted with a small warning reminding you that by turning Skip Movies to On, you’ll bypass all of the core story cutscenes. Of course, you can go back into your Options menu at any time to turn Skip Movies back to Off if you decide there are cutscenes you want to see.

Along with skipping movie cutscenes, you can adjust your Text Speed from Normal to Fast in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Along with skipping movie cutscenes, you can adjust your Text Speed from Normal to Fast in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
© Game Freak

However, if you’re someone who really doesn’t want to sit through lengthy cutscenes, it may be best to just keep the Skip Movies setting toggled to On. Other ways to speed up Pokemon Sword and Shield include increasing the text speed. While you can’t aggressively tap A to skip through text like older Pokemon games, you can increase the speed that in-game text appears and disappears.

In your Options menu, look for the “Text Speed” setting. By default, this should be set to Normal. To increase the speed, simply toggle Text Speed from Normal to Fast, save your new settings, and then you’re good to go. Again, if you’re looking to cut straight to gameplay and have zero interest in the story or what the characters are saying, be sure to turn “Skip Movies” to On and “Text Speed” to “Fast” in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Now that you know how to skip movies in Pokemon Sword and Shield, we have a few other guides we think you might like including how to create a League Card in Pokemon Sword and Shield, where to get the Bicycle in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and how many Pokemon you can catch in Sword and Shield.

Morgan is a writer, indie game lover, and socially awkward coffee addict. Need something? Morgan can be reached at morgan.shaver@allgamers.com or if you like, you can say hello using GIFs on Twitter.

Keyboards

Shop Now

Headsets

Shop Now