Junichi Masuda Releases Official Statement About Limiting Sword And Shield's Pokédex

You wanna know what'd make this all better?

Pokemon Colosseum Switch Edition.

It was high time this company is upfront with their fans and start taking feedback on their incompetent products. Pokemon has gotten away too easily doing whatever the random crap they want without listening to their audience at all.

“Sorry, but not sorry.”

@Greator
Agreed. I wish they would.

What would make him think this is OK to say to the audience who's beyond pissed..

Well, there's always the inevitable Sword/Shield PokéGen. If anything, this'll put a rush on its development. Still sucks, though. I'm not even a huge Pokémon fan, and I'm still pretty disappointed.

Masuda: My job here is done
Everyone: But you didn't do anything
Masuda: ¯\__(ツ)__/¯

so Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Gen4 Remasters in 2020

I mean I get it but Let's Go was fun but had the odd choice of skipping any baby or evolved forms of 1st Gen pokemon.

I'm sure after Pokemon Home comes out they'll be like " we listened, here's the other 600 pokemon"

unless they don't have Nidoran in the game.
They can go to hell if that's the case

This is the same exact thing almost all developers say when trying to save face after receiving backlash. It's a load of BS. And doesn't this basically confirm that they won't or can't add pokemon through updates? Gamefreak is literally one of the most incompetent developers I've ever seen. So much for pouring their hearts into this.

@Greator You want to know why they get away with it? Because despite people disagreeing with them, they still buy the games and they make bank.

Hard to get them to change their minds when they still make money.

First time buying a Pokémon game used since yellow

This is what I expected. Basically just restating their reasoning. It's not that easy to make a 180° in the middle of a development cycle.

They've tried to make every Pokémon available in each generation so you don't have to transfer from earlier generations and that's still the case here. Some Pokémon aren't available now but they'll be in the next game.

Going to make that 3rd version/versions/sequels all the more interesting.....

But first, DP Remakes!

So he basically said wait for ultra Sword and Shield for the rest of the Pokémon

I think Masuda could have said "I'm sorry, we changed our minds and decided to release the game with all Pokemon completely free too! And I will personally buy everyone who wants one, a new Switch"

And people would still hate him and the game and be foaming at the mouth with rage. Basically I am at the point of remembering why even before I quit Facebook, I left all Pokemon "fan"-pages I used to be on.

The Pokemon "fan"-community has become increasingly toxic with each new release. At this point I would consider it one of the worst communities online. Comparable the worst aspects of the communities of Overwatch, Sonic and League of Legends.

[edit] Many of the replies I have gotten defending the so-called "fans" and their rabid anger only servers to reinforce my opinion that they would never be happy.

I encourage all of you who are truly not happy to not buy the game. But my money is on most of you still buying one or both versions. I further bet, that when all is said and done, the majority of you will end up enjoying the game.

[Another edit] To all the replies trying to claim it's just reasonable criticism, please stop. You're embarrassing yourselves. I'm not, nor was I ever saying this game is perfect and reasonable critiques and dislike is not allowed. Perhaps you've somehow managed to avoid the raw hatred I've seen everywhere since this announcement became well known. I'm talking about all the people unilaterally declaring this the worst Pokemon game ever/worst game ever. I'm talking about all the people calling it lazy because it doesn't have over 1000 fully animated 3D models in HD. I'm talking about the people going so far as to demand Masuda step down or be fired or even be physically harmed for this choice. I'm talking about all the people acting like they are OWED or ENTITLED to the game being what they think it should be and are outraged and spewing hate all over the place because they aren't getting it.

If you're just saying "Oh hey, I'm pretty bummed that the game wont have the full Pokedex, it kinda kills my interest." I not only understand but I feel similarly. Or if you're just arguing that, due to a lower number of Pokemon, we should have greater quality animation, I get that too. That's reasonable and that's not what I am talking about. I don't have any numbers, but reasonable people aren't the ones leading the charge online. And by all appearances, reasonable people aren't in the majority. We'll see when the games come out, and we see how well the review and sell.

I think the Pokemon Company is more to blame here. Game Freak delivered Sun/Moon in 2016, and the Switch itself released in 2017. Not only that, but they've also been working on other things such as Town, Giga Wrecker, and of course Ultra Sun/Moon that released in 2017, and Let's Go that released last year. Really makes you wonder just how much time they were given to work SOLELY on Sword/Shield with nothing else going on, because apparently they had one year to concept and two years to work on it. Pokemon Co is expecting the same amount of work that would normally go into DS/3DS game for Switch under the exact same amount of time when they've had little experience with the system. Nintendo does pride itself on giving employees plenty of time, but Game Freak is a private company that isn't owned by Nintendo. They make games for other systems including the PS4 and Xbox. But since Pokemon makes the most money, they're more or less forced into making these games back to back and Nintendo can't step in. It sucks because I was looking forward to Town when it was announced back in September, and confirmed for 2019. Now that two Nintendo Directs--one of which was the E3 Direct--have passed with no mention of Town, it really makes me fear for what they're able to accomplish with their time. We need to appropriately direct our anger at the right people. That's all I can say as an unbiased person that hasn't played Pokemon that much.

@jtmnm if they are not in the code in for the game, then what makes you think people are going to be able to hack them in???

Sorry Masuda, but a H E A R T F E L T reiteration of the same statement isn't going to make it better. I have no qualms with putting my money where my mouth is and simply not buying Sword and Shield, even if I'm literally the only person who does. I honestly hope that everyone who is legitimately upset about the direction Masuda is taking the franchise will actually hold off on buying the games. Because otherwise we're just blowing smoke and whining.

@Heavyarms55 Really? Because I haven't seen this toxicity from the Pokemon community that you speak of. We get upset over one thing and suddenly you call everyone toxic? I don't get where you're coming from.

"We will give what long time fans have wanted in Pokemon games for the console..... Just at different times and different titles. Thanks for the $60! See you next year!"

....well of it is hard, why do y'all still have a annual release. Why not give a year or two to work in this? What is this Call of Duty?
Can't wait to see how balanced this game is.

@Ulysses One thing? ONE THING? Hahahahahaha where have you been the last few years? This Pokedex thing is but one example of the rabid anger and dissatisfaction that follows every Pokemon release. The Let's Go titles were non-stop complaints. So were USUM and SM! And even ORAS got a lot of complaining once the "Hoenn confirmed" meme ended. XY had piles of complaints, so did BW2 and BW and HG/SS and DPPT and do I really need to go on?

Out of ideas, bad design choices, lame characters, boring designs, stupid gimmicks, lazy writing, too many cutscenes, stupid or boring minigames, breeding is too hard, online isn't fair, shinys too rare, this move is broken, that gimmick is too hard, bad animations, ugly sprites... the complaint list goes on and on and on. I have seen it all for years and years!

@Ttimer5
Yes, yes it is. This is Nintendo's Call of Duty. In fact, this franchise dwarfs Call of Duty by a factor of tens of billions.

@Heavyarms55
But that sounds normal to me? Literally every game franchise has fickle whiners. Breath of the Forking Wild has whiners who complain about no music, bad storyline, weak dungeons, weapons breaking, etc etc. That's just part of a long-standing franchise.

You haven't seen true toxicity until you visit a place like Bungie dot net forums.

Watch the next Pokemon game have every Pokemon coded into the game and Game Freak tries to make it a selling point.

Pokemon games are about the pokemon. We've had content cut before, and ya know? I could have stood it because we had new features. From adding new pokemon, to new things like Z Moves, mega Evolutions, Alolan forms.
But I draw the line at the core of the game. The Pokemon. Call me toxic or whatever, I really don't mind your opinion, but I feel that when Pokemon as a series no longer is about becoming attached to your pokemon or about "Catching Them All", that's where I think the line should be drawn.
Maybe I could be a lil more appreciative if we saw some new content, but we see pokemon getting bigger, the same quality of animation, and graphics that look more akin to late Wii games than what we've seen on the Switch.
If it's a size issue, I am sure people would buy the games if they were stylized to look like late gameboy, even DS titles with pixel art. People play games for gameplay, not amazing 3D models, and to use that as an excuse while also having had to downsize models to fit on the 3DS and having unused animations for all pokemon and remaking textures over and over with major bloat on a HANDHELD title, while also barely having a step up on an exponentially more powerful system seems like a copout.

I'm not saying this out of spite for the series, or Game Freak, but because I love the series, and I want to see more of it. Not less.

@Heavyarms55 Hi, welcome to the Internet, where every major multi-million dollar franchise has loud fanatics in the fanbase that are more overt and in-your-face than the quiet majority. Make sure you're sitting down before you read this next statement........ Pokemon is far from the only entertainment property that this applies to. In fact, if your entertainment property doesn't have a significant segment of loud, whiny complainers that get most of the attention on the Internet, then it must not be all that relevant in pop culture.

@TheDragonDAFan That's how they plan to market Ultra Sword and Ultra Shield, but the kicker is that the code for the cut Pokemon still won't be in plain Sw/Sh, so you won't be able to trade t hem to or use them in battle against people who still have those games.

I don't care about the national dex but the last 2 generations were pretty bad and Gamefreak is responsible for this.

As long i can use Sawk 😍 , Lucario , good looking Water type Pokemons regardless of their generation and some legendary Pokemons from past generation, that's enough for me.

They are standing by their decision, then? Admirable! I mean, foolish! I will stand by mine then: no buy until they fix this huge issue.

@Xelha But reversing the decision isn't "Taking responsibility", it's backing down in a way to placate a base that wont take 'no' for an answer, and has no insight on what's been considered to make such a decision OR what will happen if they reversed it.

It's been pretty disheartening being stuck firmly in the middle of this controversy (as both a long-time Pokemon fan and someone who is aiming to make a career out of art), because I think they're being sincere about this unique issue. Yet I honestly do believe fans have every right to voice their grievances and, otherwise, refrain from purchasing products that don't meet their demands.

I just wish the outcry wasn't so petty and flippant. The worst example is folks trying to drag other elements and assets of the game (that wasn't a major problem up to this point) in order to get more upset that the National Dex was cut.

You don't have to become an Armchair Dev/Artist/CEO/Producer in order to speak in defense of the one thing you want, is what I'm saying...

EDIT: As much as I enjoyed Let's Go, I wonder how much of a difference re-allocating dev time from that to Sw/Sh would've made?

@JR150
Just really makes me wonder what Nintendo's options are. Could they offer to throw more bodies at the problem? Outsource a DLC patch of the rest of the Pokemon? Pressure Game Freak/TPC? Hostile takeover? The ownership is a muddied mess across multiple companies, but for Pete's sake, this is Nintendo's biggest franchise by far. This is bad publicity, no way around it. And you can bet Nintendo doesn't like watching this.

Granted, this is all assuming that Nintendo actually means what they say about "caring about loyal fans." The most likely outcome is the simplest, that Nintendo will just wait it out and cross their fingers.

It’s nice that Masuda finally reacts to the whole National dex kerfuffle, shame he doesn’t say anything actually new though...

uses Frustration
it's not very effective...

@Late no as they stated in the treehouse whats going to happen is they will have different pokemon unavailable next gen, and will cycle what's excluded from now on

I still think they will put every single Pokemon in the Pokemon Gun version, coming out November 15th 2020.

"We are pouring our hearts into these games"
Looks at game: Worse graphics than Let's Go!, limited Galar Dex, no way of transferring Pokemon out of Pokemon Home if they aren't in Galar

Still gonna get the game because I'm not competitive and don't care about my team but honestly Game Freak

(If I can't use Meloetta I'm done tho)

I'm fine with this. I'll play it either way. The games are fun. Colleseum had a limited dex if I'm remembering right, but that was one of my favorite entries. That game didn't even have pokemon in the wild.

I feel that a lot of people getting mad about this aren't actually upset about the fact that not every single pokemon is in the game, but more that the specific pokemon that they want aren't there. Even if all of the approximately 1000 different pokedex entries were there, would you really catch all of them? Would you use all of them? Getting this heated about it isn't going to change anything, and yet people still think that if they yell loud enough they can get the entire game overhauled into what they want it to be.

@DTFaux "The worst example is folks trying to drag other elements and assets of the game (that wasn't a major problem up to this point) in order to get more upset that the National Dex was cut."

Those other elements and assets that you speak of were the reasons Masuda gave for cutting out all Pokemon. And so far those other elements and assets do not look much better than 3DS games, which held 800+ Pokemon in 4GB cartridges as opposed to a 16GB Switch cartridge. You honestly call that criticism petty and flippant?

@Daldra way to stick it to the man.

@Ulysses
Well Mario is still above Pokemon cuz he's the mascot, but yeah. Though like I said, Game Freak is their own company and they do games for other systems. At best you could call them a 2nd party developer. And to be quite honest after doing the exact same franchise for 20+ years straight, fatigue was bound to set in at some point, none of us realized when exactly it would occur. As for Nintendo themselves, their hands are tied unless they would want to attempt to seize GF for themselves, but they wouldn't want to force themselves onto them like that. I feel TPC is the one who deserves most of the blame, as they're the ones who are likely looming over GF's shoulder going "Hey I know you wanna do Town but you wanna make that Pikachu money don't you?" Because they're expecting the same quality in the exact same amount of time as the other games, but the key difference is that GF has barely worked with the Switch to understand it enough. Hence why you hear people complaining about the animations and graphics looking like S/M upscaled.

Exaggerating but you never know...

A group of people who makes games has decided that having every single Pokemon character in the game is too unwieldy and impacts the enjoyment of the core product.

Pokemon fans call this ‘disgusting’ and describe these human beings as a ‘disgrace’.

And they wonder why people think gamers are ridiculous. Why not show this sort of anger against racism or climate change?

Kids.

Oh and those ‘blaming’ The Pokemon Company ought to note that Game Freak part-own it. The developer is the parent company, TPC simply manages the brand. If GF don’t want to do something, they don’t.

@NovaCam I would. i have full living dexes for the last two generations. Hell I’m mad at the national pokedex in last gen being removed.

People seem to dismiss the Gotta Catch em All part but for many it is as important and a badge of honor. And honestly is not that difficult. Breeding helps a lot.

What is worse in my mind is people defending GF for this and many other asinine choices while blaming the fans (which yes, there is a really toxic part of the fandom, as with any other one ever). I’m really debating if I’m going to purchase S&S because they seem to screw the pooch to much lately.

@NovaCam
The national Dex is just the tip of the iceberg ....

Fans have been putting up with GFs bad decisions and things that are never expanded upon.

Look at mega evolutions, were really great and wanted more, we get Z moves a few years later, then forgotten forever. No more megas.
Contests, pokemon-amie, triple battles, horde battles, double wild, rotation battles, flying battles, ect.
Region varients are awesome (like Alolan Forms).... Doesn't seem like they are doing anything in the Galar region (maybe haven't shown it yet).

There are way more things to list that I can't recall off the top of my head at the moment.
Pokemon brings many cool mechanics, then just throws it away instead of building ontop of it for the next gen. Not to mention just the animations looks subpar. Copy and past from the handheld games.
Gotta keep the brainless kids interested in the next big thing. You have to keep them busy with sparkly things to make then not look at their phones.
But I'm not angry or mad, just dissapointed at a game Ive waited for so long (mainline Pokemon game on console) and it's a bland game with even more mechanics gone with pokemon included.

@Dragnoran I believe you misunderstood what I was saying. I meant that each Pokémon will most likely be available during this new generation but in different games. Like how they wanted Gen 6 to have all Pokémon so they had a huge Pokédex in X and Y and then they had the rest of the Pokémon available in OR/AS. You just can't trade the exclusive Pokémon from one game to another.

As is clear from this article, neither Masuda nor Gamefreak have any intention of listening to their fans, nor have they ever. This isn't the first time they've refused to hear us and it won't be the last. I encourage everyone who's displeased with their National Dex decision to vote with their wallets and skip these games.

Phew full of butthurt people here

Get over it. Won't buy it? Your loss. You think these games won't be complete because A B C X Y Z isn't in it or not implemented? Make your own game then.

Now where's my popcorn...

@kenyowa - Isn't this comment a direct response to fan complaints? Fans expressed their viewpoint on the decision to not have all pokemon in Sword/Shield and Masuda responded with a direct explanation why their decision was made. What else do you expect them to do?

The pokemon fan base is a big toxic group, its never enough and they always want more.
Its understandable that its not possible to fit them al in one game.
But how the fans react its sick

@PBandSmelly Are the overworld animations not new? I thought they were.

I don't get why anyone would not be able to enjoy the game over something so trivial as this.

Again, with over 50,000 votes on favourite Pokemon only the top 130 beasts got more than 3 figures of votes.

People keep saying they’re disappointed but deep down there is only really a core 100 or so the community cares about.

Nobody is going to bat an eyelid at the loss of whismur, caterpie zigzagoon or any of the other hundreds of filler Pokemon they use to fill out the games.

On the other hand there will be an expectation that the top tier Pokemon (your Dragonites and Tyranitars and such) will be included.

@alexybubble
The running animations of all Pokemon were already in Sun and Moon, so no, they´re not entirely new. Sun and Moon had future proof models that could be upscaled to HD easily and has every running animation for all of them. So them saying making all models for SwSh is more of a lazy excuse.

There is an enormous amount of pokemon... It is really really hard to bring them all in a new generation game, with new graphics, animations, sounds... It's just a crazy hard work that would need years. I expected something like that soon or later. It's normal.

@RadioHedgeFund
Yet every single Pokemon except for 4 of them got a vote, and every single evolutionary line was voted as someone's favourite. No matter what they do someone will be missing his favourite Pokemon. In addition, that poll only asked for one favourite Pokemon, when in reality everyone has several mons they like. So the list isn't entirely accurate.

Not only that but the mentality of "it doesn't affect me so why should I care" is very problematic. "Why do people complain about cosmetic microtransactions if they don't afffect gameplay and I won't buy them" has led to microtransactions being the norm in certain developers. The Battlefront franchise has been ruined because of them. Now GF can use the missing Pokemon as a selling point for new games. Every game has less features than the one before, while retaining the same models and animations, and now, the games are more expensive. If that's where you want the franchise to go then go ahead and buy the games, but it's normal for people to not be happy with it.

@Ulysses I unfortunately do call it petty and flippant, because if the visuals and animations were that bad, they wouldn't have to be dragged in light of the lack of the National Dex. We all saw the Direct (and many of us who went to E3 tried the demo). There were ample opportunities to complain about those fronts before the Dex news. And to some folks' credit, there have been a few complaining about the visuals of the series for years.

But due to the nature and trajectory of the backlash, it's hard to believe most folks would be more forgiving of the Dex decision if the game looked any better than it currently does (or whatever the final product will be). Add to that, some of the examples were hardly representative of the entire game, pointed out from video clips that explicitly say, "Game footage not final."

It's also rough, because as a cartoonist trying to get more into animation and game development, I think a discussion about animations and visuals in video games is one worth having, but it wouldn't end there. The ins and outs of game development are a rabbit hole some camps couldn't care less about; they only care about what the final product has/lacks. And I can't even be mad at that, because that's their right as a consumer and/or fan.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-LyYRaW4AA8hYO?format=jpg&name=large

@Alber-san I’ll be annoyed as the next person when Totodile or Sudowoodo don’t make the cut.

I think we’re looking at with a glass half empty though. We still don’t know 90% of the new Pokemon nor most of the old ones making the cut either. I’m hoping for Galah region versions of them! How adorable would a Growlithe in a bowler hat be? 😋

The point is that we should be looking forward to the new stuff; not lamenting the loss of the old.

How many people boycotted Breath of the Wild because it didn’t have the Hookshot or bottles to keep fairies in? No-one, because all the new stuff made up for the loss of some old favourites.

Let us keep marching forwards looking for the Pokemon that looks like a big red post box or a grimer shaped like a Yorkshire pudding.

What, you mean GameFreak read all the comments from arm-chair developers on social media telling them how easy doing a national dex would be and didn't think "wow, they're right, we should stop being lazy"?

I'm shocked.

It's like watching the Olympics, the amount of mental gymnastics performed by Gamefreak apologists is just astounding. I'm just very disappointed in seeing so many logical fallacies and strawmen, not to mention the sheer ill will some exhibit by purposefully ignoring or outright misrepresenting the points made by the dissatisfied fans.

@Heavyarms55 I’m all about offering criticism to game developers, when it seems justified. It’s ok to be disappointed by design choices and voice constructive criticism, but some of the complaints leveled at Game Freak for this project are just silly. Complaining about the lack of details on tree bark as evidence for laziness just makes the person criticizing it seem lazy. It’s an incomplete build of the game. There are going to be many graphical details added to the game in the final product.

This is a PR "non-response" response.

I'll say again, I think the main issue is not the Pokemon being cut, but there seems to have been nothing gained in exchange,

It's funny how he would use the term "evolve" to describe the Pokemon games, because the games have always been a story of one step forward, 2 steps back, as they keep removing features people love, for the sake of making the games "different".

If there was a huge leap in other areas of the game, people would be more understanding of something like cutting Pokemon. But there wasn't. It looks like upscaled Sun/Moon with Wild Area and Giant Pokemon (a by design throwaway gimmick most people don't care about).

Yet the game now costs more, for less content then before.

So basically we will never get those Pokemon via DLC in this game.

Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon with the Rotomdex that blocked the map when you * needed it, Mew on an expensive ball and now this.

I cant belivie its the same company that made me go buy a Gameboy colour because of Pokemon Gold/Silver.

@saintayu Pokémon doesn't do DLC. And with yearly releases, why should they?

@Heavyarms55
And you're making this comment being 'over' the community for what reason? Just to let everyone know how 'over' it you are while demonstrating you clearly are not by commenting?

@Xelha Honestly... All it takes is a little reaching to make ANY argument invalid if one doesn't want to have any of it. That said, I don't doubt there are folks who know what they're talking about.

In the vein of complaining about other aspects, I think they're valid on their own grounds (and would've meant more before the Dex backlash). But it gets messy to mainly use them to argue in defense of the NatDex because, let's say GF folds and reverses their decision... should the complaints about visuals and animation still be taken seriously? Conversely, what if they improved the visuals by release but still left the NatDex out? Would the Dex folks be more forgiving of the situation? Likely not, because they were already upset before nitpicking.

I half agree with you that this might be a symptom of a bigger issue, but I think it comes from a place of concept. Name another long-running, PvP competitive, turn-based RPG series with nearly 1000 unique creatures you can catch and trade, that can learn tens of moves out of a potential pool of literally hundreds? Anything that comes close is very likely an MMO, and that's a whole other can of worms that WILL divide the community if Pokemon goes in that direction.

You bring up AC and MP4, but AC's delay and MP4's hard reset could be more due to quality issues. We actually don't know what went wrong, what needed to be fixed, or what might even be left on the cutting room floor upon release. The National Dex is far more about quantity than quality. Could Sw/Sh benefit from more time in the oven? Maybe. Would having a NatDex assure the rest of the game is good/passable? Not at all.

Again, I want to make clear that if folks want to complain about the National Dex or anything else, go for it! Just make sure it's coming from a good, sincere place. Also, be prepared for any sacrifices if they actually do give folks what they want.

@Ulysses I'm not buying the games, that is for sure. Maybe used after a while...

As much as I believe removing the national dex may be a good thing going forwards, the way this has been handled is beyond awful.

90% of this statement is fluff and the other 10% is 'we're doing it okay'.

The fanbase is in turmoil, the least they could do is give us examples of how the game will be improved by removing the nat dex. Give us specific examples, show us how your resources can be reallocated to other, better aspects of the game.

I want to want this game I really do, but so far I've seen lackluster designs, cheap gimmicks and a drop in visual quality from LGPE in trainer battles. SM was not just one of the worst pokemon games I've ever played, it was one of the worst games overall. At this rate this may be the first ever mainline game I don't buy.

This would have been the perfect time to throw the fanbase a bone. They could have shown a new pokemon design, shown a new aspect of the game that couldn't have existed without removing the nat dex, they could even have hinted at some amazing new feature.

But instead we got 'sorry not sorry'.

Really would of liked it as pixel art, but that aside, thinking of picking this up having skipped Let's Go. Though if digimon reviews well I might get that instead, only have room for 1 time swamp monster game at a time.

They could just keep the set number of Pokemon and work on the gameplay, side activities, features, and story if adding more is too hard for them.

@Erchitu The graphics, animations and sounds are recycled from Pokemon S&M

Such an ugly and ridiculous scene where longtime "fans" rail upon the series and its creator for not adhering to their make believe standards. Disregard whether Game Freak is being honest — as though they are beholden to their fans in some way to reveal their decisions and practices. Fact is this is not a new trend even in the Pokemon games even though it's being called sinister and unfair.

I think if they can be faulted for anything it's allowing their roster to balloon far beyond what is reasonable in any other game franchise. Sure it sells plushies but they should have tackled it head on much sooner. Perhaps by making arbitrary delineations in what Pokemon we can play as in each release, or simply not being so eager to entice sales by introducing more and more creatures into a beleaguered collection.

I wouldn't be surprised if Junichi Masuda was unceremoniously demoted or swept away from future projects due to this firestorm; it's a sign of the times when the vanguard of the series has to kowtow in fear of retribution for his legacy.

Not sure what the problem with is. Sure they have their problems but expecting hundreds of characters returning for each and every game was going to stop at some point. We have reached that point. Maybe being a fighting game fan has left me more able to deal with it.

Are you going to add back all Pokémon?
Masuda: Well no but actually no

@Greator,

To be honest if they had listened to the Core minority internet posting fans,they would have not made the Pokemon let's go games as according to these fans they would not have been a success,10 million copies or so later is shows you are best not to listen to the core,as for a spin off it's pretty awesome imho.

These latest games will sell tonnes even if the core fans do not like them,as the mass Pokemon market will buy the game for what it's got,and not what it misses out.

"We heard you but can't be asked" is what i hear.

Not satisfying at all. This is a rushed game. There is nothing impossible about this. Game Freak is not a small Indie studio, nor Nintendo a low-budget publisher.

@Heavyarms55,

Well the more vocal interenet posting minority anger anyway.

Wow Masuda, just wow.
I am literally lost for words by how lazy and dumb this response is.

Basically, there is now officially far to many Pokémons for them to cram into a game, either they sacrifice quality or they create a massive game no Switch could handle with the massive amount of data it would take to add 1,000+ Pokémons with 2,000+ unique animations and 1,000+ unique Pokémon cry sounds and the amazing graphics detailing and programming added to this game, it be insanely difficult to pull off and no cartridge can hold that much data and even digital it be far to big for a Switch to fit in. Like it or not, the cuts had to be made and this will not be the first time, is time to be real, be reasonable, and accept it!

@Heavyarms55 @Ulysses I would simply like to say that people generally complain because they care. Breath of the Wild is a great game but the overall lack of music and the weapons that break way too fast are still worth complaining about because the game would undisputably have been better with (more) music and with slightly more durable weapons. Pokémon games are still fun to play but the sheer lack of effort Game Freak puts into them is horrifying, and their total disrespect towards the very people who've made the series grow into the colossus it is today, the real fans and not just the "only 151 Pokémon exist" crowd, has now ballooned up to a point where even the hardcorest of the hardcore are saying that they no longer stand for Game Freak's anti-consumerism. There has never been this much of a backlash against a main series Pokémon game. The lack of a Battle Frontier in ORAS and the lack of basically anything new in USUM pale in comparison.

@DTFaux @NotTelevision "Game footage not final." is corporate speak for "This is exactly what it will look like when it's released."

@sanderev Mystery Gift exclusive legendaries are DLC.

@johnvboy "the mass Pokemon market will buy the game for what it's got" No, they'll buy it because it's called Pokémon, not because it has a, b and c features. If you think otherwise you do not understand brand recognition and loyalty whatsoever.

@Chibi_Manny "amazing graphics" Surely you are joking?

Also my apologies for the string of posts but this system makes it really hard not to sextuple post if you want to reply to multiple people.

@nintendoknife,

No I think it's the core customer that does not understand the wider mass market,and it's nothing to do with loyalty as this does not make you entitled to any feature you want.

But as with anything if a customer core or otherwise does not like this new game,or the direction it takes with missing features etc....don't buy the game and vote with your feet,this will send a powerful message to GF not to mess with the Pokemon franchise,or in truth will probably matter very little to the overall sales of the game.

@nintendoknife
Yes, amazing graphics is correct. You show us what other Pokémon looks better than this and I'll take your point, but if you are going to compare it to the graphics of other franchises that are not Pokémon then you are headed to disappointment

@Chibi_Manny Huh? Why are you comparing the games exclusively to older games in the franchise? For one, the models remain exactly the same as in the 3DS games and only some new lighting effects and textures were created to make them look slightly better (in the eye of the beholder). However, what's wrong with comparing it to other franchises? Look at the astonishing graphics developers like Square Enix, or even Nintendo themselves, can get out of the system whilst also making the games run near flawlessly, and compare those to Game Freak who genuinely struggle to make a game with upscaled 3DS graphics (look up what the 3DS games played on an emulator on the PC look like, they're pretty much exactly the same as Let's Go and SS) and tree models ripped straight out of the N64's Ocarina of Time run at 30fps (Viridian Forest in Let's Go lagged so bad it wasn't even funny). 3D games can look cartoony but still look really good, just look at Ni No Kuni or World of Final Fantasy for some recent examples. If you're going to hold Game Freak up to a different set of standards all because "Pokémon games have never been the best-looking games in the graphics department", you're missing the point. Up until now, most people just said "well, okay, it doesn't look as good as I'd have hoped, but it's still Pokémon and it's still fun and it still has the basics a Pokémon game needs", but now Game Freak literally claims that they refuse to copy the data for a bunch of Pokémon over because they're "working on the graphics", even though they very obviously have not worked on the graphics at all as they are completely incompetent in that regard. They're making up fake excuses, and for some inexplicable reason they used the main thing they haven't worked on at all for years as their excuse for whatever the real reason behind taking out a sizeable chunk of the Dex is.

@Chibi_Manny,

That's where artstyle comes in,obviously this will not look like Zero Dawn or any other triple AAA game,but it looks just like a Pokemon game should imhp,sure there need to be a few more tweeks before launch,but up to now I am happy.

As a game developer, seeing all the anger online about this game really gets to me. People are asking for contradictory things: they're asking for better visuals and animations, AND for more Pokémon variety. I'd bet all my money that the reason there's a drop in quality is precisely because of the sheer scale in the amount of Pokémon. 1000 characters to model, rig and animate with all the different attacks is a LOT of work. It's very simple: the more there is of anything in a game, and the less time the team will have to make it good.

I'm not saying that their team is completely without fault, I obviously don't know much about their actual situation. I'd just like people to remember that they are asking for much more work than they seem to know ("give us more AND make it better"). I sincerely hope that the developers hold their ground on their decision to keep a reasonable project scope, instead of burning themselves out with grueling overtime like so many other studios.

it's not "despite" it's because of

@Monzerol Other than the new Pokémon and trainers, they all already have their models, rigged and animated for enter/still/leave/physical/special/hurt/sleep/walk/run/fly animations. The massive amount of work you're talking about was already done for Pokémon X and Y, they made the models future proof so that they would only have to mess with some textures and lighting effects for years to come. They reused those same models in Let's Go, and they're reusing those same models in Sword and Shield. If Sun and Moon could have nearly 1000 different models (this includes all different formes, each of which in the game's programming is a different Pokémon), how could that suddenly become a problem for games on a far more powerful system?

Edit: and to add, there is nothing contradictory between wanting better visuals and wanting more creatures. The two don't cancel each other out and are handled by different teams entirely. If you're the only person creating a game, you have to do everything by yourself, but a company has artists and programmers who are specialised in different things. (Unfortunately, in Game Freak's case, their programmers aren't specialised in anything, even dating back to the Gold and Silver era, where they couldn't fit those games on a Game Boy cartridge, until Satoru Iwata single-handedly fixed everything and included nearly all of Kanto as well, and still Gold and Silver are smaller than other GB games).

Edit 2: also, "give us more AND make it better", what exactly do you think Smash Bros Ultimate is? Or how about Mario Kart 8?

I'm honestly fine with them not including every Pokémon, we're now fast approaching 700 overall, and it must take a huge amount of time and resource to programme all the animations. Even if they have the base models, they still have to update them in some ways to work on a newer, more powerful system. If they ported over all the 3DS models, we'd complain they were low quality for what the switch is capable of, but we also then complain when they don't bring them all. They really can't win. I don't think we'll be missing any fan favourites, but I won't be losing sleep if they remove Trubbish from Sword/Shield.

@Galenmereth,

Same here,and all the internet yelling and YouTube moaning ammounts to very little in the end.

@Galenmereth The best part about "voting with your wallet" is that it basically boils down to getting a form with a single option available [Yes, I like this] and the alternative is not voting at all, thus not sending any message.
There were (and still are) political systems where it works like that and it's not pretty.

@Monzerol
It's more that they said they were reducing the number of Pokemon to concentrate on quality, except the quality doesn't seem to be there so what gives?
The other thing is most fans would be happy waiting for a better product, this franchise is so, so lucrative and yet they rush out their games.
We look at games like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey and want a similar feeling for the new Pokemon, this is the first proper home console Pokemon adventure that we've always been waiting for.
Personally I can understand wanting to not include all the Pokemon in every game, the number will just keep on increasing after all, but the game's quality should look better than what it does. Considering it's a system-selling title from Nintendo, yet doesn't seem to be given the same care.

@AyanamiReign Exactly. If they'd said they were going to stop allowing all Pokémon to be transferred to all games but instead they were going to focus on improving the gameplay, graphics, performance, balance, etc, and actually did those things, people would still be frustrated but at least there would be a proper reason for the change of direction.

@jswhitfield8 The difference is that this time around the code for the Pokémon will not even be in the games. Previously you could still trade with other games, import from older games (the reason they made Pokémon Bank in the first place) or get some exclusives via Mystery Gift, or even glitch/hack them in, but in Sword and Shield, if e.g. Reuniclus is not in the game, it is literally not in the game and no amount of trading, importing, mystery gifting, glitching or hacking will allow you to get it. I don't get why people keep bringing up the American catchphrase of the early years either, but there is clearly a difference in how the games are going to work from now on compared to beforehand. Also, they'll keep doing Mystery Gift exclusives, don't worry about it.

@PBandSmelly If you bother researching there are tons of comparison videos on twitter showing that the animations are not reused

If they make the intro not be a pain to get through like it's been for a few generations, I'll be fine overall.

I'll still continue my living dex in Pokemon Home, but I will be sad if they exclude some of my faves. I mean, if they went a direction of adding the missing Pokemon via dlc or something with more new regions (ones like the Sevii Islands), I'd be down for that. No need to do new games from scratch EVERY time.

@DTFaux sacrifices for including all pokemon would include what? The same stale battle mechanics, the slightly improved graphics, the sparse 'open world', the same tired battle animations, the same generic trainer appearance? Oh sorry I forget that's exactly what we're getting but with massive cuts to the game.
So I suppose you're right. Imagine what we wouldve gotten if they did include all pokes...

I understand the disappointment but... this hate is frankly, embarassing. An outrage bandwagon, where all these dissapointed individuals are willingly entering an echo chamber of incorrect, stubborn and toxic views on a product that hasn't even been released yet.

I'd understand if they were outraged AFTER the game was released and found to be unenjoyable (for the majority) specifically due to the limited pokemon.

@ibtachi "tons of comparison videos", can you link to one?

@jswhitfield8 "I also think this decision is taken from research of how many players actually complete their pokedex" Sure, but it would be nice if they could at least tell their customers the truth as to why they've changed direction, instead of lying about it, adding insult to injury.

It's fine with me.

@Galenmereth Content people were given plenty of opportunities to be heard. In fact, on sites like NL they were the only ones allowed to voice their opinion in form of soapbox articles. Not sure if you're aware of that, but it's also in your best interest to have the negative feedback be not only visible, but also acknowledged. People don't complain to make you feel bad, but because they care more than an average Joe.

@ibtachi and anyone else who defends Game Freak's "updated animations": disregard the silly title and watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDOrjE4ka4

@AndreaF96 there you go, buy it used that’ll really show ‘em.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was made in 2 years and Monolith Soft has a much smaller budget than one of the biggest franchises in the world.

The quailty of Sword and Shield both in textures, animations and world-scale is inferior not to mention there is no voice-acting.

The fact that they want $60 for this is beyond lazy! Pokémon deserves more care.

It's funny how customers who are paying $60 for a game can't complain when they don't like something. So who is able to complain?

I guess when EA adds 'suprise mechanics' in their games, we can't complain till we
A) wait till the game comes out
B) buy the game

And then C) your not the one targeted demographic so you can't complain.

I understand outrage that is full and just out of proportion, but much of the outrage and just dissapointment in the game has been building up for years. At least for Pokemon outrage, it seems more justified.

Nintendo usually never shows gameplay unless it's close to being finished or already done, I feel that is why this is such a bigger deal then most other companies.

As long as Pichu's not in I'm fine with it.

I recommend that you read this game developer's take on this situation. It's important
https://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/185566109937/what-do-you-think-was-the-most-likely-reason-that/amp?__twitter_impression=true

@Heavyarms55 Just wanted to say regarding your first post in this comment section: well said!

He basically just restated the exact thing everyone was pissed about.

@westman98

honestly what they should've done is spend more time on the game - it's only been in development about 3 or 4 years which is nowhere near enough time for a game as big as this, especially on unfamiliar hardware.

either that or my preferred option: sell Pokemon to Intelligent Systems and try to make Drill Dozer the next big thing.

@DTFaux Game Footage Not Final
XY footage said the same thing, and the graphics turned out to be the same at launch. ORAS footage made the same claim, and it turned out to be the same graphics at launch. So forgive me for looking back at precedent and seeing the term applied more like a backlash repellant than as an actual promise.

Besides, we are less than 6 months out from launch, which is not enough time to make significant improvements to the graphics. Going gold takes time, like manufacturing, assembling and distributing millions of copies all over the world, so it's even less time than that. More realistically we're looking at just the last few months of dev time, which are usually spent on optimizations like performance, draw distance, lighting, etc.

So more likely than not based on precedent, what we see is what we get. And like the video @nintendoknife provided, the older Pokemon are recycling the same animations since XY, so where are these fabled improvements? If it's because of some new gimmick like a new Poke petting mode then that's even worse, because sorry Game Freak but we do not need a new flavor of Nintendogs every generation. Pokemon Amie was just fine.

Nintendo Life. Where if a passionate fan is at all afraid of a drop in quality of their favorite series, they will be ridiculed in the name of our corporate overlords.

@Ttimer5 Dissenters are told "Don't like it, don't buy it". Then they're told that they can't have an opinion if they didn't buy it. All it boils down to is that dissenters just aren't allowed to ever have an opinion with some people. No matter what, no matter how hypocritical, those same people will make up some excuse or some snide remark (like "Don't like it, don't buy it!") in an attempt to degrade opinions they don't agree with.

@nintendoknife "Game Footage is not final" covers everything from resolution, to visuals, to UI, to cutscenes, and pretty much everything else you see in a trailer. It might mean a lot of things, but it doesnt inherently mean, "This is exactly what you're getting."

@Ulysses For what it's worth, I'm not promising that the art direction or visuals will greatly improve by launch (and that's an already subjective debate to have). You're right that past games looked about the same by release, but you've made my point talking about the different ways of optimization performance-wise and visually.

@Gzeus88 Cynicism and criticism of the general game design aside, we really dont know how much else was gained/lost in the final product. Still, having more to do outside of battling isnt gonna please the folks truly passionate about the NatDex.

And when I say "Sacrifices", I'm talking potentially longer dev times (or crunch), shorter single-player campaigns, somehow even more simplified mechanics or visuals, moving the series to an MMO format (for better or for worse), etc.

Who knows what could happen if production plans or the series' overall DNA was changed even a bit? But it'll be interesting to see the retrospectives on this game down the road...

I don't say this with any bitterness or snark or with any entitlement or as some kind of threat. I'm sure it means nothing to GF and the Pokémon Company as they will make their bank back. But I don't see exactly what he says here that changes or softens the blow of what was already said. And even though I admit I'll eventually buy one of the games, this will be the first (outside of US/UM) mainline game I won't be buying day 1.

@DTFaux I know full well what it means in a literal sense. I also know out of many years of experience that any game trailer which has "game footage not final" written on it somewhere is an exact 1-to-1 representation of what the end product will be like. "Game footage not final" is a running gag for good reason.
Game Freak is also an outstanding example, as they always release all available information on their new games before they're out, there's never anything new or otherwise unmentioned beforehand. What we are trying to do is temper people's expectations because what you see now is exactly what you'll get, and nothing more, and prevent you from disappointment. It's up to you to either accept or ignore the advice from those experienced in being disappointed.

@Xelha I dont think there's really much else I can argue at this point, and I'm admittedly tired of typing up walls of text over this matter. Because I understand where you're coming from, but I also realize that no amount of perspective is gonna change much at this point. And that's fair enough.

Fans and consumers have the right to place standards as high as they want or feel. And they're not obligated to accept a dev/companies reasoning or excuses over any matter.

At this point, I think I'm gonna just sit back and see how all this play out, because being part of this particular discussion has become exhausting...

I gotta be real, first time I heard not every mon will be in SnS I felt raged, but after reading this I’m feeling completely calm that I can still use X mon on another game even if it means wait quite long time because I was only afraid those cut mons won’t appear in other games forever.

I say this from a Shiny Hunter experience, even if I can’t flex with some shinies in SnS, I know that I can use them in later games.

What's stopping The Pokemon Company+Game Freak from getting more development staff/asking for outside help if it is too difficult to add in all the Pokemon/have good animations etc.? Or simply delaying the game? Nintendo got Monolith Soft to help with Zelda BOTW, they enlisted Retro to revive Metroid Prime 4, they delayed Animal Crossing to ensure its quality and prioritize health of employees, why can't TPC/GF do the same? Pokemon is literally the highest grossing franchise in the world. Not Star Wars, not a Marvel IP, but Pokemon. [https://screenrant.com/pokemon-highest-grossing-media-franchise/]. You're telling me that they cannot ask for or hire more development help in some way?

I've said it before, TPC (and the higher ups at Game Freak) are seemingly too proud and too cheap to make a BOTW-tier Pokemon game. And why would they at this point? Every single mainline release makes bank regardless of effort/quality.

Basically every Pokemon comment section:

Nat Dexers: "Having a full dex is an important feature to me!"

Others: "You're wrong for wanting that because it isn't important to me!"

Nat Dexers: "Yeah, well all these things that aren't the Nat Dex are awful too, like trees!"

There might not be clear cut goodies and baddies in this war...

@CosmoXY yeah, buying it used means not giving them any money... You knew that, didn't you?

@DTFaux
I don't mean to debate with you --and I understand you already said you're exhausted from responding to everything-- but no, I didn't prove your point. You said, "some of the examples were hardly representative of the entire game, pointed out from video clips that explicitly say, 'Game footage not final.' " Based on GF's track record, the models and the animations are pretty representative of what we will see at launch.

What may not be representative, and I really hope they improve upon it, is the abysmal draw distance for Pokemon/NPC's in the Wild Area. For years my dream for a future home console game was living out Jurassic Park, seeing Pokemon roaming on the hills off in the distance. Well we have the distance, but we don't have the Pokemon, just empty space. Significantly improving draw distance more than anything else would actually make me buy SwSh despite my disappointment in cutting Pokemon.

But I totally agree with you; I also feel exhausted from arguing over this with everyone. There's nothing more to be said, and ultimately the only thing we can do is wait it out and see what the final product is like at launch. I feel for you too; I understand that you feel a personal stake in the snap judgment of these animations and graphic designs, and I wish you only the best in your career.

Gotta catch not quite all of em’

@PBandSmelly
Or even use the Colo/XD/Battle Revolution animations for Gen 1-4, as they are far better than the X/Y ones.

Cool, I’m officially skipping this one then, wasn’t an easy decision as well.

@Heavyarms55 Lol this response is so delusional it's ridiculous. Imagine being fully aware that you're instigating an argument then calling people rabid dogs for responding/disagreeing with you.

Fans: Perfectly valid criticism, well thought out argument, maybe a little upset that Gamefreak is getting lazy and taking advantage of our loyalty

Heavyarms: WoW sToP bEiNg So ToXiC

Ah-Ha!
I told ya so!
Edit: about Pokémon being in future games.

gamefreak should be held responsible more then nintendo since gamefreak has more control over their ip.

It’s a little late to say this, but
here comes the angry mob of ‘fans’!

@Ulysses You don’t see the toxicity in the community?

So people who are saying they’ll skip it- isn’t playing with the new Pokémon and getting to create relationships with new Pokémon worth maybe not being able to play with some certain Pokémon that you’ve played in previous games before and can still play in previous games if you choose?

I have totally lost interest of Pokemon after the Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon games, i expected to be able to explore the new cities of Ultra Space but all i found was a corridor, gj at being lazy. And then comes these news. I am still surprised gen 8 is happening, people seemed more hyped about Mario Maker 2.

@WoolooSweater I see you making inflammatory comments, so I guess I do see the toxicity in the community.

@graysoncharles @Heavyarms55 You both miss the point of the furor. We don’t care that you can’t catch all the Pokémon in the game. We care that after playing and beating the game we can’t import other Pokémon. I won’t be buying the game because it seems like it’s going to be a very lackluster attempt all around. While there are some very toxic elements of this and any game community, most are just upset that the way they have traditionally played these games has been removed and is considered no longer relevant. It’s akin to a new Call of Duty game coming out and being told guns won’t be in the single player. Only a small minority would be affected by that decision but for that minority it would be a deal breaker.

@coolaggro Not for me personally. Which is why I won’t be buying it. Not trying to discourage you from doing so though and I genuinely hope if you do that you enjoy the game.

@Heavyarms55 Right??? People are so angry!!! I just want to play with the little 'mon, but apparently no one else does... They just wat wat they WANT (read:demand). It' s a kids game about adventures, like, take a chill pill. Or you know, play some Pokémon to calm down... Oh wait...

@ibtachi so if you’re not in the majority you should remain totally silent? Being from the Southern United States I’ve heard similar doctrine that didn’t go down well either.

@Monzerol GIMME GIMME GIMME!!! MORE MORE MORE!!! NO LESS, LESS, LESS, BETTER BETTER BETTER, NOOO MOORE MOOORE MOOORE... They're all spoiled... It used to be about cathing some pocket monsters and building a team which consisted out of a few f*ing pixels and we used our imagination. Now all gamers do is demand stuff as if they are kings and game makers are their slaves to do with as they please and be angry at everyone for a company not being able to deliver their absurd and contradictory standards! Gamers nowadays just have to like, take a look at the cuteness of jigglypuff and stop being so puffled in the jigglies.

I like how all standard Pokemon games have always been on a portable console (without a doubt inferior in specs to the home console) and when they decide to bring it to the more powerful console they decide they can’t include all of the Pokémon? Was there not enough space on the Switch cartridge (seems like the 3DS cartridges handled the space just fine)? Was it too demanding for the new hardware to include them all? lol I mean I know it takes a long time to add new animations for each Pokemon but come on. You can’t say they didn’t have enough time. They’ve been working on Sword and Shield for years.

I’ll still play the game and I’m sure I’ll love it. Just seems like they are putting out an incomplete game.

@graysoncharles It is certainly ironic how you complain of people defending corrupt politicians against their best interests, yet at the same time you mock anyone who dares complain about one of the richest companies in the world acting against its consumers. In addition, it is quite rich to talk of "man-children" when using an avatar of a big-breasted 3D woman.

@Primarina
Frankly I would get over not getting another tired old pokemon game. There are always the previous 1s to play and at least I wouldnt have any hope crushed for a future game that will never be.

@Barbara001 people have the right to express their opinions. Especially when games that we have loved for literal generations are being delivered so poorly.
Maybe you're content with sub standard games but I'm not and neither are many others.

@graysoncharles "Voting with your wallets" doesn't work if you're talking about the largest media franchise in the world, which thrives almost entirely on brand recognition. Draw a Pokémon on a turd and people will buy it. The idea is that most of the people who are complaining are indeed not going to buy it, or at least if they do it will be secondhand and not on release day in shops. However, even if this has a significant impact on expected sales (let's say they sell 5% less than predicted), this signals nothing to Game Freak other than "less people bought our game than expected". If no one had complained about Sonic's messed up design in the upcoming movie, and it had been released and had bombed in cinemas, the only thing the producers would have learned from that would have been "people must not be interested in Sonic movies". If no one had complained about the bad animations in Bloodstained and the game had flopped, the only thing the developers would have learned from that would have been "people must not be interested in more SotN-like Castlevanias". The hope is that perhaps some Game Freak employee, even if it's only one, will see the backlash and finally realise "well, damn, they're totally right". Unfortunately I have not seen any major game news outlet talk about how the bar for Pokémon games keeps being lowered as time goes on, I have not seen any outlet talk about just how bad the games actually look visually and how horrible the 10m draw distance is, nothing. Instead, most sites keep on praising it all to high heavens, and this very site even had a clickbait front page article to defend Game Freak's laziness not too long ago. This very site gave Let's Go an 8/10 when it's little more than a remake of Pokémon Yellow with 3DS graphics. I predict a 9/10 (if not a 10/10) for Sword and Shield, where all faults are swept under the rug.
Yes, Game Freak has been pulling these stunts for years (basically ever since they moved to 3D - the 2D games had their own technical shortcomings, but at least they offered loads and loads of stuff in return, even though many functions also only existed in one generation), but now all of their stunts have been compiled and the story has reached a breaking point. As a comparison: if a friend doesn't show up to your birthday party and only sends you a message a week later "sry, totally forgot dude", you'll be disappointed but you'll most likely let it slide. If that friend does the same thing the following year, you'll be sorely disappointed but you'll still let it slide because you see them enough on other occasions. If they do it the year after as well, you'll break off all contact and scrap that person from your mental friends list because it's become clear that they really don't care for you at all and that the other occasions of being stood up weren't just flukes.

I think Gamefreak should learn from Yokai Watch 3/4 or Monster Rancher 4 about Attack animation and Battle system.
My opinion, i think Monster Rancher 4 or Yokai Watch 3/4 are better than mainline Pokemon games despite they are hidden gems or not so popular IP.

@AndreaF96 No kidding. Someone get the professor here a medal or something. I just love the strength of you people’s convictions. “I’m outraged! But I’m still going to buy it used and play it anyway! That’ll show them just how upset I am!”

@coolaggro I can see where you're coming from with your point. Just to address both

1) There is precedence for blocking access to your previous Pokémon ala needing to defeat the Elite Four and the champion before trading is available, the Pokétransfer app to get Pokémon to B&W and when Bank and S/M compatibility wasnt available until after the new year upon Gen 7's release. So it isn't like it hasn't been a thing in the past

I want to also add that yes, we can go back and play our previous games. However, I think one of the nice things about Pokémon (for me at least) was that once it moved to a new Gen, I could do all of my training in that one game. Yes, a first world problem. But I personally was ready to retire my 3DS once Sword and Shield were released. But that obviously won't be happening. As I am sure there are some who were looking to swap in their 3DS for a Switch for Pokémon.

I also think this idea that Pokémon is strictly a kids game and that older players have no place to criticize the series is absurd. Certainly, constructive criticism and a healthy dose of common sense is warranted. But it's obvious GF has acknowledged that more than kids play this series with the focus on certain aspects and mechanisms that skew to a slightly more sophisticated audience. And am I to believe the younger audience doesn't have a vested interest in their Pokémon collection?

@CosmoXY
1) I wrote "maybe" I will buy it used.

2)It seems like you really believe that they care about me playing or not playing their game. How sweet. They only care about money.

@AndreaF96 Lol, I don’t care if you or anybody else plays it or not. But I can assure you that the people at Nintendo and the Pokémon Company do care about people buying and playing their products.

It’s pretty stupid actually to say that people working at these big organizations don’t care about their customers. That would be shortsighted and any company like that wouldn’t be around as long as Nintendo and Pokémon have been.

Sure, no national dex is a decision that also seems shortsighted, but I’m not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This comment section is like the snake devouring its own tail. I think some customers are displeased but that isn't reason enough for Game Freak to go into salvage mode before weighing a response. In the eye of a storm it's hard to discern a category 3 hurricane from a bank of clouds, and they are likely in that evaluation period now. Hopefully Game Freak will show us their roadmap for inclusion of more Pokemon at some point. In the meanwhile we owe the developers enough space to deliver on their vision; surely it would be foolhardy of them to reverse course now that the game is nearing its finalization window.

Honestly I am not angry about SwSh not having all of the Pokemon from past games. Despite having my Living Dex in Pokemon Bank, I rarely use most of them anyway. People are treating them like they are gone and that isnt true. They still exist, just not for this game.

This is not the first time Gamefreak have excluded past Pokemon. The original Pokemon Stadium didn't have all of the original 151 at all. The switch to the Gameboy Advance resulted in the Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon being untransferable in Ruby and Sapphire. Now, yes, the old Pokemon were programmed in but it was so much simpler to do that with 2D sprites. The only (legal) way to get them was to transfer from other games that released over time. Black and White also did the same by making older Pokemon unobtainable for most of the game. Again, they were programmed in but they were still 2D sprites, not 3D models.

My only complaint about this is Pokemon Home, the new version of Pokemon Bank. Anything put there can only be sent to SwSh, essentially rendering it pointless.

I honestly would have preferred if they went the route of the Unova Dex and not included any of previous gen Pokemon at all. Make Galar only have new Pokemon in the game.

@CosmoXY No. They want people to buy their games so that they make money from them (which is only fair since they are companies and not amateurs). They want customers to be happy so that they keep buying their products and they keep making money from them. What do they get from me if I don't buy the new game but buy it used instead (which I'm not even sure I'll do)? Nothing. 0€. That was the point I was trying to make.
For you it might not be enough to not buy the game. For me it is. Just different opinions. Also I didn't like that they said bs to try to excuse their decision.

@Galenmereth @coolaggro it's almost as if people want to play with their old pokemon in a new region to "explore", following a "new" plotline, battling against new pokemon, while simultaneously raising their old pokemon with new pokemon if they'll even keep features from the past games like feeding and grooming.

I get it.
I mean yeah it's sad they aren't gonna put them all in and maybe they could or maybe they can't we don't know. Sure they could fit over 800 pokemon on the 3ds but that wasn't exactly top quality like they're trying to remake and assumptions aren't going to get anyone any where. Afterall how much content are they going to put in the game? Every game before now has had a fixed camera angle and movements but now everything can be examing at different angles in the wild so thats an awful lot of rendering power not to mention all the processing for making the pokemon move/fly/interact all of that. Also some pokemon really are just overpowered and are heavily relied on. I'd like to focus on these new ones and find ways to accomdate them with my favorites that will be in the game. Jumping to conclusions or assuming things for your own selfish gain isn't going to get you anywhere and as he stated no pokemon will be left behind entirely just for being left out this time. Supporting them through this will ensure they will make more and will give them reason to one day add them all into a game! Thats how i see it anyway.

@Gzeus88 Yes, that was apparent. And of course you can have an opinion, but why is that fact always mentioned when it's a negative one? Why are we so keen on having a negative opinion and defending the right to be negative? Why can't you just be content that a company that struggled for years and almost went belly up (Nintendo) luckily still exists and that there IS another Pokemon game to begin with? Why the anger? Why the demanding? Who are we to demand ANYTHING for that matter? If you're so unhappy, apply for a job there and make it happen. And then let's see what happens if you have 1 year to work on 1000+ character animation and euhm, AN ENTIRE NEW GAME AROUND IT, cause otherwise the "fans" are gonna cry. Maybe you love the series. Than support the sh*t out of it and be glad that you get to walk around with some 'mon again and stop fuming about catching all 1000. Just see it as an Island region where the pokemon pipelines haven' t been layed out yet cause it's a bit different than the other worlds, so they don't have the means to transpot Pokemon from other regions , but you can atill catch aaaaaallll the 'mon on the island, just as you were so pleased to do so with the first 150 pokemon, which already was kind of a chore/hassel to begin with (and thusly a large number enough to catch, so why is it a problem now?). And if you reallllly want to catch them ALL out of game, send all those lucky critters into the pokemon cloud, where all thousand of them can wait an eternity to get a bit of attention from you. See, now you can catch them all in 2 ways! Isn't thay nifty? Are you jigglies a little less puffled now???

@King-X How do you embed a video in a comment? Does it need any special tags?

@Barbara001 Why are you defending one of the richest companies in the world for their anti-consumer decisions when they aren't paying you to do so? You can like Nintendo games and consoles without blindly accepting the bad things they do.

@King-X Thanks! The video you linked was great btw, well informed and clearly explained.

@graysoncharles I do hope you realise that WWE, which remains an American phenomenon despite their attempts to popularise it worldwide and which is really all about the shows (with some merchandise on the side, as with anything), is in no way comparable to Pokémon, a franchise recognised by children, their parents and their grandparents all over the world, with extremely successful branches in just about anything you can think of - as I said, if they were to start selling turds with a Pikachu drawn on, people would still buy them in droves, and Pokémon Turd would become yet another success story in Pokémon's history. Movies (animated and live action), tv series, spinoff games, books, theme parks, trading cards, plush dolls, clothing, foodstuffs, comic books, board games, and an overall cultural influence that cannot be understated. If you're going to accuse me of throwing around false equivalencies, you should probably not use one yourself.

You can’t do this because https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/06/more_than_52000_people_voted_for_their_favourite_pokemon_here_are_the_results

@nintendoknife I'm not defending Gamefreak or the Pokémon Company. I'm saying something about the spoiled behaviour of some gamers and the anger and fuming that comes from that, not defending the ones attacked by them. And for that matter, because they are a rich company, you are allowed to attack them or not be allowed to defend them? NO DON'T DEFEND THAT MAN AGAINST THAT FIEND, HE'S RICH!!! What kind of bullsh*t argument is that?

For years now they had the chance to step up their game but didn't and it shows in their games some look sloppy and unpolished, yet Level 5 is able to to pull it off with less known titles like Yokai watch 4.

If they had a fighting game where they had all the Pokémon, like the Stadium series, and promised the mainline games will include a rotation of previous Pokémon I don’t think there would be so much disgust from the fan base.
People simply don’t want to see their previous Pokémon rot in Home.

@AndreaF96 The funny thing is, I’m not even mad about no national dex. I’m getting it day one and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. I believe GameFreak will deliver something special and this whole debate will seem pretty silly after a while.

@CosmoXY Actually what really made me decide not to give them money were the silly excuses. I don't like being told lies.

@nintendoknife “You can like Nintendo games and consoles without blindly accepting the bad things they do.”

And you can hate Nintendo games and consoles without ranting online like a 3 year old since you can’t get what you want.

@Luna_110 They just promised that future Pokémon games will include some of the Pokémon that don’t appear in SwSh, so I don’t see what these people are so mad about. We’ve had this debate several times on NintendoLife, but people still can’t shut up.

@WoolooSweater
It’s easy to see why people are mad. They don’t want their favorite Pokémon - say, Dunsparce - to be waiting years on Home until a game that includes it in the dex comes along, while the well known Pokémon have a big chance of appearing on SwSh, or upcoming games.
A solution for that would be for Game Freak to bring back the Stadium series, so people have somewhere to use the favorites instead of them waiting in home potentially for years.

@Barbara001 No, the problem is not defending the rich company in itself, the problem is that you're defending them from all criticism no matter how valid. You quite literally wrote that people should blindly continue buying Pokémon games to support their favourite franchise, no matter how dire those games become, no matter how little time the games spent in development. You have nothing to say whatsoever and therefore want to make sure no one else says anything either.

@WoolooSweater "And you can hate Nintendo games and consoles without ranting online like a 3 year old since you can’t get what you want." What do you mean? Was that supposed to be an insult, suggesting that anyone who complains about the lack of care one of their favourite game series is given, is literally a baby? By your writing style and general quick-to-anger attitude, I take it you are still on the younger side yourself (no shame), and you seem to refuse to accept that people generally complain because they care. Many of the people who are upset at the way Game Freak has been acting for years, with the deletion of half of all creatures in the first true console Pokémon game and Game Freak's ludicrous rationale for doing so simply being the cherry on top, have grown up playing Pokémon games, have been playing them for twenty three years. Now that the game that these long time fans have awaited for virtually their entire life is finally here, and it's an upscaled 3DS game with less content instead of more, all of the reservations they've had about this or that problem in this or that Game Freak-developed game are now coming to light, and rightfully so. If Smash Bros. fans got an outstanding game with Ultimate, if Zelda fans got an outstanding game with Breath of the Wild, if Mario fans got an outstanding game with Odyssey, if Sonic fans got an outstanding game with Mania, if Resident Evil fans got an outstanding game with 7, and so on, why should Pokémon fans be content with a sub-par effort from a developer that stopped caring once they made the move to 3D?

@Galenmereth no, Gamefreak is lazy and their argument fell flat the moment they brought up that they're not adding in all pokemon because they're "upgrading" the graphics. No indie dev can tell me they're anywhere near in the same situation as gamefreak. Because again, gamefreak isn't some indie dev. And with each installment, they've been making more money than the vast majority of indie devs do their entire time on the market. I would never believe gamefreak isn't capable of recruiting more people and taking the time to actually make a game with these so called "upgraded" graphics.

First, do we even know how many pokemon are missing? Is it a generation? A few of each gen? A few from a specific gen? No one knows anything except for the fact that "not all" will be there. I'm betting we dont miss too many of em. We will see though I guess.

@Primarina "one of the most beloved remakes HG and SS had an exceptional amount of Pokemon left out" That's a totally different situation, I can't believe people are still bringing stuff like this up. No Pokémon game has ever had all Pokémon available to catch, you've always had to either trade with the other game, trade with the other games of the same generation, or import them from older generations. However, in the end, you were always able to have all Pokémon that were released up to that point in the latest games in the series (save for some one-off Pokémon like Spiky Eared Pichu, which I'm still angry never got to move on past HGSS). Even in the best games in the series, Black and White, you were forced to exclusively use the regional Pokémon (which was great and very refreshing after seeing Pikachu, Rattata, Pidgey, etc in every corner the preceding four generations) until you beat the game and were allowed to find non-Unova Pokémon and import them from older games. For Sword and Shield, though, the data for the missing Pokémon is removed entirely from the games, you can't import them even after beating the game.

@graysoncharles From all the nonsense and stupidity he's spewed in his comments it's really your own fault for even attempting to rationalize with him. He thinks this game is a full on downgrade. Even the most ignorant of people could tell the difference between this upcoming gen and all prior gens. For some reason he is upset about it all. You will never, ever, ever, ever be able to have him see things your way. Next time save yourself the effort and let him, or whoever else, throw his tantrum on the floor like a child. Just look away and step over them😀

@Primarina "Define what makes a great Pokemon game." look at Black and White and their sequels. There was a lot of love and care put into those games, they designed 153 new Pokémon, the atmosphere is great, the music is great, the gameplay is great with triple and rotation battles mixing up the formula, it looks and runs great, and even the story is great. This is not to say that they didn't have any faults (why create a difficulty mode but only allow people to use it once they've beaten the game and delete their save file?), but they were the pinnacle of Pokémon games. HeartGold and SoulSilver were the pinnacle of remakes, also with incredible amounts of care poured into them.

That being said, the 'par' is not just taking into account Pokémon games, but games in general. If all other series improve greatly with every iteration and especially on the most powerful Nintendo console to date, but Pokémon just stumbles along, the bar should be raised for Pokémon games as well. This is why I brought up Smash Bros, Zelda, etc. Those games are so far beyond their predecessors that you would be forgiven to think that they weren't even made by the same developers. Game Freak, on the other hand, tells Pokémon fans "here, we upscaled the 3DS games and deleted half of the Pokémon, enjoy".

@whanvee "I know the game isn't unplayable but I dont understand how this title can be more demanding than something like breath of the wild or even mortal kombat." I sure wonder who wrote that statement.

@nintendoknife I sure wonder if I give a crap. No, no I dont.

@nintendoknife yeah, but when you say things like ‘Why do you defend Gamefreak’ it makes it sound like you are not accepting that some people actually don’t care and have a different opinion. You can have an opinion, but you don’t have to fight others about it.

@Primarina Not 'for that game', but for every game from now on. Either way, as I believe I already wrote earlier in this thread, my concern is less with the fact that they've decided to change the way they're doing things, and more with them telling us that they're doing to because they're working hard on new animations and balancing the games, neither of which they're actually doing. Removing part of what made Pokémon games unique among other RPGs is one thing, but lying in the face of your customers as to why you did it is offensive. I don't think I was arguing with you, though.

@WoolooSweater There is only one group of people who truly don't care and they're the ones who aren't commenting at all. My aunt, for example, is someone who doesn't care. A common theme in these threads is that people rather calmly state that they're disappointed in the lack of effort Game Freak has been putting in their games the past couple of years, pointing to countless pieces of evidence to prove black on white that Game Freak is also highly dishonest about their supposedly new animations, models, balance, etc; then there are some others who comment essentially telling these disappointed fans to "shut up" (as you did, literally) because Game Freak won't listen to the complaints anyway and to accept mediocrity from a series that used to be great because that's the way Game Freak said it's going to be. The fact that The Pokemon Company itself for the first time in its entire history has publicly released a statement (the one this thread is about) to reply to the enormous ruckus caused by the disappointed fans shows that the fans' complaints did actually cause them to worry enough to release that public statement - again, for the very first time in its history. Unfortunately, of course, if you take out the fluff, the statement just says "suck it up".

@Primarina PAR could be Sun/Moon-like. HG/SS is different because it did have national dex. That's the point. I believe nobody wants GF to include every pokemon in the galar region. We just want to be able to import them from other games.

@WoolooSweater because the first console pokemon main series game will be the first to lack national pokedex? Because people won't be able to import their pokemon from older games? Because the lack of the national dex means that you won't be able to import the missing pokemon to sw/sh even from future games (unless they release a dlc national dex). Most importantly, people are mad because of the lies game freak told us to excuse the fact that their new games will have less pokemon than sun/moon.

@Barbara001 Game freak is reusing old pokemon models and animations, didn't you notice it? Which means that "too many pokemon to animate" is not really the reason why they did it. You should always think with your own head without blinding trusting what other people say. Especially what the people that want to sell you a product say.

@Galenmereth When companies like Monolith Soft want to hire more people to put out better games, it really says a lot about gamefreak that makes almost $10 million with each installment and still chooses to remain understaffed and forced to make cuts to their game and then lies about why they had to make cuts to their games.

And it most certainly does sell just based on the brand. There are literally comments on this article saying they're disappointed with this and that they don't like this pr talk, but they'll still end up buying it. This is no different than the people who constantly buy the cod games and fifa.

@Galenmereth I don't understand how you could even think about it as a change rather than a removal of content. Are you so certain they'll add anything of note that could have potential cost the time to add in all pokemon? Cause based on their track record, I'm certain they won't. They already revealed one of this game's gimmicks. And it's literally just a resized battle. This is exactly like the PlayStation pr guy on the removal of content for censorship, where he said if every game was the same why buy the next.

Nobody is saying they should hire tons of people to the point that each section of the team is in disagreement on the development of the game. Gamefreak is clearly saying they are struggling to "update" the graphics while also adding in all the other mons. Hiring more help for either side of these 2 would almost certainly help the game instead of hinder them.

There's no reason a development team that makes more or less than $10 million with each installment, should have less staff members than Monolith that just barely managed to get a game to sell 2 million copies, other than greed. Be it from gamefreak, the pokemon company, or nintendo.

@graysoncharles but I think they are reading comments. Maybe not this site but they are reading the comments on the internet hence why they thought to even make this silly statement in the 1st place.

No National Dex: Fans Butthurt

National Dex but game delayed 1-2 years: Fans Butthurt

National Dex + No Delay: Fans Butthurt that Gamefreak broke the laws of time and space

Second coming of Jesus: Fans Butthurt Jesus doesn't look like Arceus and that they won't get to play Pokemon in hell even though they spent the last 6 months complaining how it's terrible now.

@R_Champ
I think fans would be fine with the game being delayed by a year if it meant the National Dex existed (probably not by 2 years), but that would screw over Pokemon's anime & merchandising and would leave Nintendo without a major 15+ million-selling holiday title, so it won't happen.

@Galenmereth the fact that new pokemon need to be animated has nothing to do with the lack of old pokemon. If you think about it you will understand. Even if you'r right about some of the new moves requiring new animations for old pokemon, do you really think that it would have made such a big difference? Pokemon animations are just a small portion of the amount of work that went into these games. And new pokemon probably need many more animations than old ones. Moreover, they will include a bunch of old ones. Now think, does not needing to animate a couple of the moves for the pokemon that were left out really cut costs in a significant way? It seems like saving 10€ when you are buying a new car. Furthermore, pokemon is the biggest franchise of all time, do you really think that they couldn't affoard a couple more people?

How about instead of going ever deeper into layers of what Game Freak can and cannot do in terms of development muscle we just wait and see what they actually deliver? Thankfully we don't have rule by the masses yet. I think it's pretty clear that nothing would be delivered, and it would be the death of creativity and progress.

@shadowbuster I'm not too sure about that, Gamefreak took on James Turner who was the art director for those games. He's also Sword and Shield's art director and you can kind of tell.

I think there's just really a trade off for the scale of the games they make. Because Colloseum and XD had pretty bad looking areas, very small with incredibly crude designs, no actual routes and character designs were pretty poor. Most Pokemon models and animations recycled from Stadium and Stadium 2. Battle Revolution looked better but the game was just menus and battle scenes, there wasn't much for them to work on other than animations and polishing up the models.

In short its easier to make something look better when there's less to do. I don't think you could expect a mainline Pokemon game to have animations like Battle Revolutio any more than you could expect Battle Revolution to have contained a full 3D game world and story campaign without taking a hit graphically like Colloseum and XD. There's always a compromise.

@Primarina
You're missing the point. This isn't just about the fact that they are removing many pokemon. This is mainly about removing the pokemon then game freak attempting to justify it by claiming it's due to improved graphics and animations while retaining the same stuff from the 3DS. This makes for a sub par game on the switch. It's a hybrid yes but it's also a home console that many of us were expecting a vastly improved pokemon game. What we are getting is another 3DS game with slightly enhanced graphics. This cannot and will not ever justify a reduction in content.

@Barbara001
Someone else missing the point of all this.
Firstly it's the deceit on game freaks part about why they cant input all the pokemon. They have done very little to improve graphics or animation of the game to justify cut content. If they had greatly improved them I wouldnt have such an issue as I could appreciate the effort this would take.
Secondly game freak have been working on this game since sun/moon. Which means at least 3 years and all they have little to show for it. Sw/Sh looks like an enhanced 3ds game.
Thirdly opinions dont have to be positive to be valid. Criticism can and should help developers improve things. Sadly it looks like game freak is choosing to continue to ignore fans like they've done for 10 years

@Primarina
It's not just graphics though is it. It's the whole package which is poor.
None of what you said justifies the decision of cutting content, pokemon, mega evos etc.
If you're happy with a lesser game fine.
I'm not.

@Gzeus88 Don't forget that from now on, Pokémon games also cost 30% to 50% more because they're on a home console. In short we get an upscaled 3DS game with half of the Pokémon deleted and none of the cool features previous generations had, yet we're also expected to pay a lot more than before. As the AVGN would say twenty years from now: "What were they thinking?"

@AndreaF96 but... they just said that they’re gonna put everyone else in later games. Yeah, these are stupid excuses, but that means that they’re probably working on something else, possibly even better.

These excuses are about as stupid as your reasons for being mad at GF. You can be upset, but stop protesting on social media and just deal with it.

@Galenmereth whether the designs of the Pokemon are good or not has nothing to do with whether or not what they are doing with this game was worth removing content. I've also played all their games aside from XY, and the ruby/sapphire remakes. And none of them have ever added things to make the games feel different from one another. Again, it's alot like cod and fifa where they give you a different place and fight different things but you do it in a very similar way as the past titles. I highly doubt this will be the game to break the formula they've been doing since the beginning.

@AndreaF96 Meh, I don’t really see what lies you think you’ve been told. Seems like everything has been pretty straightforward on Nintendo and GameFreaks parts. I’m sorry you feel lied to.

@WoolooSweater I will buy the later games then, if they will have national dex.
I don't really understand why you and many other people complain about prople complaining. You know that the comment section is not exclusively for positive comments right?

@CosmoXY they said that they did not include the national dex because of animations and balancing. It'spretty clear that those are lies to me.

@WoolooSweater wow that comment about "little baby pokemon community" really shows how mature you are.

@Galenmereth just stop the myth geez. Hg/ss had the national dex.you could transfer arceus if you wanted to. And minor gameplay mechanics are not the sane as a staple of pokemon games like the national dex and the ability to import pokemon from older games.

@AndreaF96 oh boy, if those little things bother you so much, you’re going to hate the rest of the real world when you grow up.

@Galenmereth you really love new things, look at all those "new" animations, the "new" mechanics that the "new" generation brings

@Galenmereth It's just that we don't like paying more for less.

@CosmoXY I'm 23 years old, with a scientific degree, a girlfriend, a job, bought a car last year with the money I earned. If you think I think about pokemon all the time you're obviously wrong. It's just that I've decided I'm not giving gf any money this time.

@AndreaF96 congrats my guy, that is awesome.

@AndreaF96 complaining about complaining about complaining
The Pokémon ‘fan’ base always has to find something to complain about

@Galenmereth don't include the console... You could have very well bought other games to spread the cost of the console a little more.

@WoolooSweater I don't see why people feel the need to hate those that complain about lacking elements bringing valid arguments.

@AndreaF96 I’m not hating them. I’m just saying that complaining is rude. And annoying.

@WoolooSweater It's perfectly normal to complain about things we don't like. Deal with it.

@Galenmereth In my country (Italy) gba/ds games used to cost around 40 euros and new switch games cost 60 euros (70 for zelda botw). Where are you from?

@nintendoknife you are my hero! Thank you for saying everything I wanted to but didn't because I couldn't be effed with the arguments XD

@NovaCam Exactly! Plus this way, we can focus more on the Pokémon of the Galar Region instead of just catching it for a shiny charm and immediately putting it in our PC. I know people will say that they would still use the new ones, but that's not enough to just say that.