Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@-Green- That statement will probably add fuel to the fire rather than dowse it.

Gonna play Giratina's Advocate for a sec: I wouldn't mind a few Pokemon designs getting sidelined. Dunsparce, for example. I've never cared for its design, even back in the day. Is it even viable competitively?

The whole thing has been talked to death, the reality though is that they're response amounts to them doubling down on their current plan. Not unexpected, but overall, it was an empty response.

@Tyranexx dunsparce can be quite fun to use in-game, I'd recommend giving it a chance in pokemon WB2 or HG/SS.

It's serene grace ability is interesting.

@Morpheel Hmm, Serene Grace? That could prove slightly interesting....I'm guessing the recent power creep hasn't done it or a lot of others many favors though. I am finding some stuff about how it can be a decent annoyance in some setups.

It honestly just annoys me that people are actually hating on people protesting against this pokedex thing. I'm not doing it myself, and I still plan on buying the game, but I'll never understand this whole game of turning everything into a game of "us vs them" in consumers and me/mine. It's like wow.

@Snaplocket Huh? I am interested, i enjoy Pokémon and have said before that this is generally ambitious for Pokémon standards.

I’m more talkative about my general complaints online however

I think people are going a little overboard. I kinda like the fact that I will have to use new pokemon that I never experienced before. Maybe the gen 8 equivalent to Crystal, Emerald and the Ultra games will include everything as a selling point.

It'd be understandable if they're patched in later, but the animations and graphics honestly don't seem worth culling half the dex. I didn't have any interest in SwSh in the first place, but this just seems scummy on Gamefreak's part.
No big loss for me personally, plenty of good rpgs and jrpgs on the Switch other than Pokemon.

I remember posing a question on another forum about 10 years ago. I was interested to know how long people thought The Pokémon Company could keep adding Pokémon before it would result in problems. I thought 1000 would be the magic number that they'd avoid at all costs as long as they can. The reality is that the concept of Pokémon meant that this would happen sooner or later. They got rid of their slogan "Gotta Catch 'Em All" from box arts after Crystal for a reason.

Development becomes harder each time they add a new Pokémon, move, ability, etc. And it's not taxing just for the developers, the players have to fit all that information somewhere too. Each time you enter a Pokémon battle, you need to remember what your opponent's type is, what possible moves it can have, how powerful it is and so on. I can still remember all Pokémon by name, type and evolution methods (lot by exact level) but I have been there since the beginning. New games have hundreds of Pokémon just in the regional dex alone and new players have to learn them all during their playthrough.

I personally think this is a fun topic to discuss and I can see both sides of their decision but I don't like the way people go about it. It seems some people don't even think about how it affects things before choosing a side. And you don't need to be completely one sided. It is only a problem if you actually plan on transferring your old Pokémon to Sword & Shield and I honestly don't think that's what most people do. And no one knows which Pokémon are included and which are not, so there's also a possibility that you can have all your favorites regardless.

Personally, I understand why people are upset for the most part, though it doesn't really affect me. I have a Pokemon collection, but I haven't bothered moving them between games at all since Gen 5 and don't bother with competitive battling/shiny hunting/perfect IVs/EVs/what-have-you as I just don't have the time for it all. However, I ultimately don't think the decision to temporarily cull a few 'Mon will affect very much. I feel that people, like with a lot of things these days, are reacting before they know all the details. I think we'll need more infoabout the intricacies of Pokemon Home and more about S&S in general before anyone should pull out any pitchforks.

I do think some people online are overreacting about this. I highly doubt any of the popular Pokemon or competitively viable ones like Charizard or Tyranitar will sit these games out.

Human nature. Everyone likes picking sides. I agree that it's ridiculous, but it happens with about everything. Both (or multiple, depending on the situation) sides usually have plenty of reasonable people with their own take on things, but it's usually drowned out by misunderstandings and the screaming minority who think it should be their way or the highway and ARCEUS FORBID if you have a slightly different opinion.

@Tsurii Dang dude calm down. It's just Pokemon.

I think we need to cut some Pokemon that are not great like most of gen 5

The Gen 5 pokemon aren't bad, just a bit redundant some times.

The reason Gen 5 has several redundant Pokemon is because they tried to make a game with an all new Pokedex and had to fill many of the same roles again. But redundant Pokemon is and was nothing new. Look at how every game we have had a new basic normal and normal/flying type. Pidgey, Hoot-Hoot, Tailow, Starly, Pidove, Fletchling... Visually the variety is nice but for single player they all kinda fill the same role. Yeah some have stats and moves that make them different and one evolves into a Charizard-wannabe but they serve that same role as your early game flying type. Gen 5 just had to do that more because they had a whole new Pokedex, rather than a partial one.

Personally for a while I have felt it would make more sense to release a game with NO new Pokemon or only a very small number, like perhaps a regional legendary or two and instead just a crazy mixture of Pokemon from past games.

I still hold that, much more than the limited Pokedex itself, the "fan" reaction and the overwhelming sudden negativity has really stained this game for me. You can't talk about the game anymore without everything falling back to this issue. While the limit is disappointing for me too, it's hardly the end of the world issue that it seems to be for the very loud and angry portion of the discussion.

I put the word "fan" in quotes like that because, though people say they like Pokemon, they care about the franchise and want to enjoy the games, they are jumping on and condemning a game they haven't even played yet! I don't understand how you can be a fan of something, to like a series and condemn a new entry before even giving it a chance, when you still don't and can't know the full story yet! Even on this specific issue, we don't know how limited the Pokedex will be. It wont have every Pokemon, but unless I missed something, and I don't see how I could have missed news this big, we don't know how many will be in the game.

All told, I still want to play this game and I still think it looks like a lot of fun. It's not the pizza I would have ordered, but it still looks like it will taste good. So I can live with it.

I’ve warmed up more to a lot of the Gen 5 Pokémon, but the Dex from that does feel like Gen 1 Pokémon redone a couple of times. That and I genuinely dislike how bland and uninteresting the starters are. In terms of Movepools, abilities and typing, they were just overall disappointing. Serperior was somewhat cute at its niche though.

I don’t know about that. Definitely they could do WAY better with the hardware of the Switch. But they seem to have more expansive environments, more detailed character models and character animations, multiplayer adventure in the Wild Area and of course the WILD AREA itself, which is game-changing IMHO and what a lot of us have been asking for for a while now. Considering this is the first game to implement an open world where players can meet other players and you can see Pokémon move around in the overworld (in much more natural ways and far improved from the overworld Pokemon in Let’s Go), I honestly wouldn’t call these games lazy. They are doing a notable number of improvements with the games. The Wild Area in particular is probably the biggest improvement to Pokémon since the transition from 2D to 3D.

I just want more Pokémon to be viable in serious battle. If they’re gonna take balance into regard with the trimming down of the dex this Gen. It’d be nice if they did rebalance the Pokémon around.

Basically I want more Pokémon like Vivillion, and less Pokémon Gumshoos. In that Vivillion is a weak Pokémon stat wise, since you can acquire it very early on. Despite that it has unique niches in its move pool and ability that let it stay viable. Pokémon like Gumshoos are just all those Pokémon that Gamefreak makes that are completely bland and underwhelming. They lack the bare minimum of necessary tools to even be a threat.

I've heard people didn't like OR/AS but I don't even remember why. Or if I've even heard why people didn't like it. I personally like R/S/E the least out of all generations and I found OR/AS to be quite enjoyable. It wasn't anything special but I beat it and even did some post game stuff which is pretty rare for me when it comes to Pokémon.

I understand that people don't like the reasoning Masuda gave for the whole national dex debacle but the development time is still going towards something even if it weren't exactly what he told it was going towards. I've seen people who think it's as easy as pressing one button and then all the Pokémon are in the game. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

I've never had a problem with the battle animations and I understand why they still go with the basic animations they have. Again, it's a lot of work to create new ones. And the engine/framework probably also limits what they can do so they'd have to touch up that code as well. That said, I'd really like a new, more dynamic battle engine. I wouldn't mind better animations as long as they don't affect battle speed. I'd rather have fast animations than good looking animations. Then again, if they add a speed-up button like in Fire Emblem, then that's a win-win.

I would personally like to see some kind of reboot next. Cut all unnecessary stuff and start over. Seriously think through everything. Turn thoughts away from what Pokémon is and instead think of what it could be. Make the player feel like they are Spiderm... I mean, a Pokémon Trainer. Make the world feel alive. Go wild! Not going to happen but it would be fun.

@Late If I recall correctly it was mainly that the remakes were based on Ruby and Sapphire rather than the more content heavy Emerald.

I didn't like Diamond particularly and had a Pokemon hiatus after it but I keep hearing that Platinum is a lot better so I'd imagine the Pokemon fanbase would explode if Sinnoh remakes happened and weren't based on Platinum.