Pokémon's Junichi Masuda Explains The Decision To Limit Sword And Shield's Pokédex

I think this is smart, and for someone who missed out on many timed exclusive legendaries I'm pleased that I might actually be able to 'finish' a Pokémon game for the first time, well, ever.

@Rafke If it's gonna be just "a few", why don't they clarify that? The only thing they've said is that there's gonna be missing pokemon, they never specified how much.

I think that's where the biggest upset is, we don't know how many are going to be missing. For all we know, 2 generations worth of Pokemon are going to be missing, and if that's the case, then that'd reaaally suck.

They have been refusing the same models and animations for pokemon since x and y, and sword and shield seems no different. This reasoning makes no sense since I doubt they will actually make "higher quality animations".

I need a list of missing Pokemons in Sword / Shiels, so we can prepare our heart.

We're probably going to get the missing pokemon later, so I'm not to worried. At least for now anyway.

I can understand the reasoning but, tbh, I'd rather have the games' releases spread out further apart if it meant having more 'mons. Kinda worried now which ones actually make the cut. :l

It feels like a cheap excuse, and in all honesty it is.

I wouldn't mind to wait 1 year extra to have the full game.

@ImprobableToast in the next game maybe knowing GameFreak

The problem I have with this explanation is that they already had the Pokemon prepared for future games, with HD models and even running animations. The moves shown until now look practically the same as before too.
As for balancing, why not just ban pokemon from online play until they are ready? That way everyone will have their Pokemon in the game and have the assurance that one day they'll be usable online.
They could also delay the game, nobody is mad at animal crossing for doimg so because we know that means it'll be a better game. It's so frustrating to see so many franchises like Zelda, Animal Crossing, Mario, Mario Maker, Smash, etc evolve into amazing games yet Pokemon takes one step forward two steps back.

@Rayquaza2510 Possibly but they may also update the game as they develope the new models. Either way gives me a chance to catch up on catching em all

I hope they do not cut Zorua and Zoroark...

He says it is also because of the balance of the battle system, but most common Meta-Pokémon are also the posterchild popular ones that will probably not been taken out. But you will loose your niche favorites that have not affected anything beside your own run-through. But it is sad to see games like Dragon Quest with a similar amount of Monsters and better graphics without so much of a hick-up.
And I bet you will still not be able to catch 'em all, since there will be most surely new mythicals.

'we're creating it with much higher fidelity with higher quality animations'

PAHAHAHAHA are they serious? Has he actually seen the 3D models for the Pokemon? They are just as static and lifeless as they were on 3DS. They barely move and are almost completely expressionless; they don't look like living creatures at all. They looked more alive as 2D sprites.

@Alber-san precisely this, take your time and give us the full game (not having a full Pokédex available doesn't make any sense)

I would prefer not to have new Pokémon just to have all of them, this feels like what a lot of western devs do nowdays, giving half finished game and call it a day.

Not being able to catch all of them in 1 game is normal, it always has been but not being able to have them in game at all because the code is not in there is ridiculus, they copy paste the type balance every time and the 3d designs and animations are the same used in X&Y (the original source is high quality but downscaled for the 3ds)

There is a chance I won't get the game because of this, again just delay the game and fix this because now it feels like they want to bring this out quickly to print money (Pokémon is a money printing machine in essence)

@ImprobableToast doubt it this is GameFreak we are talking about, a company that didn't fix performance issues in any of the 3ds games and the same company that needed Iwata to fit Pokémon Gold & Silver on a cartridge, while Iwata did that no problem (the games are smaller than some GameBoy games out there afterwards)

Let's hope they get rid of most of the gen 5 pokemon. Those games had some horrible designs.

To be fair I dont get what people are getting upset about, if they want all the pokemon then they are going to have to have a bigger cartridge and have even longer to design all the old pokemon, therefore more people to pay and the price of just one game would be £70+

@Sandro89 quite a lot of people including me loved Gen 5 and their design of Pokemon. It was a nice soft reboot of the series too.

I heard a reason why the game is also cutting Pokemon is because they don’t have enough time on the game to release this year as they spent time doing the Let’s GO games. I wouldn’t mind if we didn’t have that game and more time spent on the new games.

@Bunkerneath what you say is nonsense.

Unless they screw it up like with Gold & Silver (until Iwata helped them) the games wil fit easily on a 16gb cartridge, and considering Nintendo doesn't have to pay license to use them that price you say is nonsense too.

Also they don't have to redesign new Pokémon, they re-use the 3ds models and animations because the source of them is high res anyhow.

In other words you prefer a €60 incomplete game now, than a complete one next year.

They should take their time, because this feels rushed (less pokemons is not the only thing the game lacks they said)

Also they already mentioned they are in rush because of the let's go games last year, rushing a game is stupid as you see with most AAA games out there.

I think an ideal solution is to develop a new game similar to the stadium series where it's just battling to satisfy the competitive scene, compatible with home/bank to ensure you get all your old 'mons and no story/world building elements will help the team maximize their efforts on just getting all Pokémon models sorted

My dream of getting an open world Pokemon where we can travel between regions is now never gonna come true. I hope my faves are in these games. Will still play the heck out of Sword and Shield even if they're missing though.

Maybe in a couple years they'll release Pokemon Sword/Shield Ultimate and do what Smash did, include all the characters. Or they could call it Ultra Shield/Sword. If the game they release this year is good enough then I don't think this will matter too much. It will probably have at least 500 Pokemon, right?

@Hunt3r_Cr0wl3y
Gen 5 were amazing games but I did not like the pokemon at all. I boxed the starters immediately for instance.
At the end of white 2 my team was full of older gen Pokemon because I didn't like the new designs at all. Obviously there are some exceptions like Chandelure, Krookodile and Darmanitan but overall really poor designs.

@Bliquid See Pokémon HOME.

As for everyone else:

Gotta Catch 'Em All! was always a 4Kids marketing strategy that Nintendo of America jumped on the bandwagon with.

We couldn't even Pokédex register the non-Alolan Pokémon caught IN-GAME in SM/USUM - no National Dex in these games.

The National Dex has been moved to the storage app for a while now. This is just the first time in a main game that they've prevented you from rotating in National Dex-only species. And they did it before in Let's Go! Pikachu & Eevee. I was frustrated by lack of evolutions for Kanto Pokémon, but not really by lack of non-native species like the Togepi family, even though Togekiss is one of my mains. It wasn't a part of the experience.

My ONLY concern is if they permanently rotate out some Pokémon species like they're Magic cards. If they still support all 900+ Pokémon, just not all in one game, I'll be fine.

Masuda already stated that every Pokémon game from now on will NOT have all Pokémon in it. Those of you saying they will just update the game over time or we will have all Pokémon in the next game are either not fully informed on the Situation or just plain delusional.

Supporting an ever-increasing number of Pokemon in each game is unsustainable, so I'm sympathetic of this move.

Pokemon seems to be one of a few series where people demand that all content is available in every game...it simply isn't realistic.

"Higher quality animations"
Yet they're still using the recycled Sun and Moon animations.
There is also poor draw distance.

Pokémon Brexit Edition.

as someone who wants to get into pokemon the sheer number of them has always put me off

The “balancing” excuse is one I don’t buy. The game was balanced enough with 800+ Pokémon in USUM. Just make sure the new incoming generation 8 Pokémon and moves fit the mold and the balance stays more or less intact.

Nonsense excuse, all the groundwork has been done for the 3DS games to “Future-proof” the models, nothing in the trailers made the models look any more expressive or whatever than on the 3DS (Upgrade from low-res 3DS screen aside), everything moves just the same, the pokemon already had walking/running animations (albeit unused) in Sun/Moon too.

They could have delayed the games to optimize them or just tell us it will be patched later on.

It's like I'm losing an important part of me. I can already tell Skarmory won't be in, Corviknight is the replacement.
It just feels weird to me at the moment, something is always going to feel strange about missing pokemon. And you're telling me a lot of my faves are now forever stuck in bank?

@Hunt3r_Cr0wl3y
I also loved gen 5 pokemon. I wasn't keen on x and y.

Number one earning franchise in the world(I think). Graphic models that are a fee years old now and the game hasn't been balanced competitively for years, that's why a passionate community created Smogon.

I get that past games restricted pokemon to that game until post game but I don't buy their reasons.

I don't mind.

Regions are supposed to have different Pokemon. Just like I wouldn't see a lizard or a camel just strutting around here in my country BUT I'm likely to see something like a cat or a pigeon if I go abroad, Pokemon regions really should consist of a bunch of unique Pokemon alongside a few older ones that fit with the region.

If all the current Pokemon were available in each new region, none of the regions would really feel as unique, just a new backdrop for gen wunners to catch the exact same Pokemon yet again. Not to mention any game before it would basically be the game with less Pokemon, essentially making each game redundant with each new release.

I hope they keep adding them for the purpose of post game, maybe in some sort of special end game 'catch old Pokemon' area like they did in past games, but in regards to the main single player campaign I really don't care.

Also, I'll be surprised if Miltank and Mareep aren't guaranteed for this game. I'm not a fan of them, but cows and sheep are all over the UK.

As I see it, most likely the cut Pokemon will be the first stage evolutions and the repeating archetypes which functions are already done by another poke family. For example, including Vespiqueen but removing Combee, or removing least two generations of the whole lines in Rattata and Pidgey succesors.

@Alber-san

Well to be fair, according to the news Investors seemed pretty miffed with AC delay...one can imagine yet another internationally big game delay would duplicate Nintendo recent losses.

@Sandro89. I loved gen 5 pokemon but not all, I would say that for every generation though. I didn't like x and y pokemon much. It's good we all like different pokemon styles as that means there is something for everyone and thats what makes pokemon so great.

Bull. They’re saving the others for next year’s inevitable Super Diamond / Uber Pearl.

Same thing happened with Gen 3.

Whilst it’s easy to get upset about, 90% of the 800+ existing Pokemon are either crap in battle or look terrible. So long as they get the core set right and support the game with updates I don’t see a problem. All the gen 1 models should be in there as they can nick them from PLG

@Yomerodes I get what you're saying apart from the Vespiquen example? You'd still be able to breed for Combee so it wouldn't be removed. Could you go into more detail?

Like I said previously, it's a balancing act. Next game will have different Pokémon. And so on and so on. I do also see them making a "Stadium" like game that has all Pokémon (but no story mode) for battles.

You can still store all Pokémon in the Pokémon Home app.

I don't get the drama around this.
It was bound to happen at some point.

And regarding "they could just delay the game":
That doesn't make any sense in the long run.
At some point, the games would take over 10 years to develop and would cost far more money than just full price, simply because there are just so many Pokémon that need to be animated.
That is not yet the case, of course, but development costs are inevitably escalating with every single new game that includes all previous Pokémon until that kind of situation is reached.

They need to make a cut at some point and they did it now, that is all.

Minimum effort and great results is what Game Freak's been practicing for a long time. It's inexcusable for the biggest grossing franchise in the world, yet they insist that quality animations are having a pidgey use fly and awkwardly stand as if it were on the ground while in the air for 2 frames before unleashing the move.

L.A.Z.Y.

@Tao You don't get it, if that were the case they should focus on the new pokemon, instead of filling the region awkwardly with other regional pokemon from the past games as just filler. What does being a regional pokemon mean anyway? you can find Pikachu anywhere despite being stated to be a pokemon who's habitat is in Kanto. I really hope they come to their senses, they are a juggernaut billionaire of a company and they have the manpower to make an amazing game, but a lot of effort is some kind of taboo to them apparently.

@Anti-Guy You, like many others, are completely underestimating how much work it is to do this kind of stuff for such a massive number of characters.

That they even have this many animated models at all in one game (however simple they are) already borders insanity.

I'm not too bothered as I haven't been able to catch em' all for a long time. No doubt there will be some form of expansion on Switch which will generate lots more sales.

I only use new region Pokemon whenever I play a new game, so it doesn't bother me but I understand people's complaints.

People suggesting they delay the game a year are hilarious! Nintendo are a business and a publicly traded one at that. If they allowed Game Freak to delay this game their share price would hit the floor.

Honestly, the division caused by this is bigger than I imagined. On the 1 hand I can understand people still being excited for this game but on the other, this feels like such a kick to the teeth.
I just wish people would stop hurling insults and slander to the other side, if people still want to buy these games then let them, it's up to them whether or not they buy the game and they shouldn't be belittled for it.
The same goes for the people not buying the game, that's their decision.

I'm not gonna throw a fit about the matter. But it is a bummer and I'm not sure I completely buy their explanation.

Do people really need to capture 1,000 Pokemon in 1 game?

That said, they are charging people $5 per year for the Pokemon Bank so people can transfer Pokemon from 1 game to another.

How does Ninteod justify paying $5 a year for Pokemon bank then telling people, sorry, you can't transfer Pokemon to the new game?

Hopefully there's a class action lawsuit and Nintendo is forced to repay every single dollar everyone has ever paid on that bank scam.

I guess this will keep the 3ds games relevant for Living Dex completionists and shiny hunters. I am a little bummed, but I am sure the game will be lovely.

@Arehexes I know, my Skarmory and Torterra will be benched no doubt as people forget they exist. haha. Also, my dream to have an all turtle squad was almost realized with Drednaw. It would have been glorious!

@rjejr is there a pokemon bank for the switch. I have completed my pokedex and its saved on my 3ds poke bank.

@rjejr they have supported Bank for years and people have been using it for years. I don't see any trickery there.

To be honest, I was sort of expecting this to happen in this gen or the next. As my partner put it when I told him the total creature count in Sun and Moon (he is a Pokemon newbie, bless him, with only Go and Let’s Go for reference), >800 is an almost absurdly staggering number of ‘mons to catch and keep track of. Besides (and this is just my personal opinion), even though I am a bit of a completionist myself, I find that completing the Dex is only fun while hunting for Pokemon in the wild, battling and catching and breeding; simply going into a menu and mass-importing Pokemon from older games is not really fun or exciting in the least, and I find it has no real bonus aside from completing the list in and of itself.

Now, I do have a handful of Pokemon I have been religiously moving from game to game since I started playing Pokemon Ruby 15 years ago, but aside from a lv.100 Swampert and a few other ones (which are admittedly unlikely to be cut from Sw/Sh as they are rather major), the rest of my collection can happily stay in my X cartridge for the rest of time. Long story short, I’d much rather “only” have a pool of 500 Pokemon to catch in the wild than having 800+ and having to import half of them through an app. But that’s just me.

To everyone calling on Nintendo to delay the game...that just ain’t gonna happen, sorry. There’s simply no way they are going to delay a massively anticipated game that is likely going to sell 10-15 million copies by this time next year to pander to completionists. Or were you expecting GameFreak to keep supporting and including every single Pokemon even after we reach the 1000 milestone?!

Quality over quantity. I'm all for it.

Here's my thing. Do we need to catch every last Pokémon? No. But we also don't need to play the game competitively. But those options are there to play how you want. And that was one of the highlights of this series. Also to address @Jezebel95 point about catching Pokémon versus importing them over. It was at least nice to have that option to do one or the other depending on the situation.

And to @rjejr point, it does feel like they weren't being entirely forthcoming when revealing the Home service. I mean, they didn't necessarily lie. But they certainly didn't make the situation entirely transparent.

I say all of that not necessarily whining or feeling entitled. I certainly plan on playing the game(s). And most likely enjoying it. Just bummed about this particular decision

GF sticking to their guns in the newest interviews points towards a technical issue. The real excuse is probably that there's no more space on the cart thanks to Dynamax adding 3 or more identical models for each Pokemon (the embiggened model itself with all the transitional stages). GF's coding of gen 7 games was already extremely sloppy, with each area having separate set of models for all characters and objects and I seriously doubt much has changed in that regard in just a few years.

I would be fine with them extending their yearly cycle to 2-3 years apart from every release if it meant we got every Pokémon.

@Kirgo https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/262762273376960513/588660457548808194/animations.webm

Yeah...what were you saying about animations? Reminder that GTAV had a budget of...what $265 million? That's high end yes and Pokemon doesn't see as high as a top selling video game...but the company as a whole has more money than Rockstar ($3.5 billion 2018) by having around $80 billion net worth. Where is your excuse? These models are slight upgrades from X and Y, a game 6 years ago. Even then, the Gamecube spinoffs Colloseum and XD Gale of Darkness had more animation. For a game with a spinoff budget, not a mainline game that will severely impact their relationships with investors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJpHIg6aCII

Yes balancing is an issue, but that's stats. A typical JRPG has thousands of enemies each with specific stats,what is Pokemon's excuse? Xenoblade? Dragon Quest? Final Fantasy? They all do this. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 specifically did this as well, with around 30 ish staff members due to most of their staff working on Zelda BOTW.

I don't really care what they make as an excuse, as Pokemon fans are vindictive and will force Game Freak to include the Pokemon eventually. Just look at the Gen 4 drought, where interest in Pokemon waned for a while.

This seems to be more of an apologetic than an actual atricle. "EDITORIAL," or "TALKING POINT" may have been helpful. The fact remains that this is a terrible move, to create Pokemon, to encourage gamers to play with them, and not tell them that they will take them away later, and that it was "always the plan."

...That really just makes it more of a betrayal of the player base, especially after launching Bank, then Home, and promising gamers it would be there to transfer their Pokemon.

Also, if the problem is Dynamaxing, forget it. I'm tired of these mechanics that exist for a generation and then are dropped. They always seem to be weakly done.

This is pure "bait-and-Switch" by the House of Mario, and I would hope game journalists would hold them to account for it. Gamers and their wallets certainly will.

I'm sorry but regardless of the reason, it's a stupid decision.

Limiting the range of available mons at launch because they need time to finalize the rest? Fine. Patch it in. No problem!

Delaying the games so that they have the time to work on the whole roster? Fine! Just do it.

Worried about balancing? Limit the amount of Pokémon you can use for certain things. Just don't remove Pokémon.

@Buizel Then they shouldn't make mew ones if they can't handle the load.

It's interesting that he mention balance and give each mon a chance to shine when that was never the case before. I love pokemon, but the balance between them is literally inexistent.

After this statement however I expect that the pokemon that will make a comeback in Sword and Shield will receive solid and drastic changes to their stats, moveset and so on.

If that's the case then I can totally understand why they had to make a step back, rebalancing 800+ characters in one shot is definitely out of any logic.
(But seriously? I doubt they did that, I'm sincerely ready to be dissapointed by finding again that many pokemon I like are so weak to be useless even in the main story -.-;;; )

@Alber-san Nintendo has already pushed back the release of two games this year, so I highly doubt that they'll delay the new Pokemon games.

It's a real shame but I think I'll wait to see the final roster before I decide whether it's a bealbreaker or not.

@UmbreonsPapa "whining or feeling entitled"

Anybody using their words - at someone, not the way you did - I just assume is a horrible person and ignore them.

They're lazy and making excuses. No one is buying it.

It's not that hard to add free updates to a game after it comes out. Add a group of Pokemon each month until you're caught up.

Give them like three games and all will be back in. That being said it kinda makes no sense. Ecosystems don’t work like that in real life without human meddling. So I think mostly region specific Pokémon are best but I am also not a pokefanatic.

@Buizel Yeah ok, people have been using it for years, you're right, they shouldn't' get that money back. Did Pokemon Let's Go Eevee use it? I didn't think so but could be wrong. If not Let's Go then what's the last game that did use it? US&M? Is that nearly 2 years ago now?

What about people who finished US&M but have continued to pay the $5 yearly bank fee expecting those Pokemon to come forward into the new game? Don't you think there is some trickery there if they keep taking peoples money but stop supporting it going forward?

Sony dropped PS3 and Vita support for PS+ games, but they gave people a full years notice so they didn't renew.

Nintendo announced Pokemon Home, said it would work with Bank and Sword & Shield. Here's their exact quote:

"Pokémon HOME isn’t tied to a single game system, meaning you can connect with Pokémon Bank, along with #PokemonLetsGo, #PokemonSwordShield, and #PokemonGO. It also features trading functionality."

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/05/introducing_pokemon_home_a_new_cloud_service_compatible_with_switch_and_mobile_devices

They are telling people Bank will work with S&S via Home, but now they seem to be saying it won't b/c you won't be able to bring Pokemon forward into the new games. That's kinda the definition of trickery in my book.

Possibly I'm mistaken, it's always so hard w/ Nintneod, they watch their words so carefully and it's always half truths with them. If Bank does let you transfer your Poekmon into S&S then I'm fine with it, no need to call the lawyers.

I'm out. You can take it up w/ @RumblePak he seems more vested than I am.

@Abomasnow Pokemon Home, releasing in 2020, is supposed to connect Bank to Switch.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/05/introducing_pokemon_home_a_new_cloud_service_compatible_with_switch_and_mobile_devices

People stuck on Nintendo Life really doesn't have their own life. So funny that people here can just put up with almost anything.

What an absolute load of baloney. Hype levels dropping.

@rjejr thank you for the reply

@rjejr True. Look, at the end of the day, I feel misled by their actions toward the transfer system, and would argue that after every generation since ruby/sapphire, this is a feature of the game that should take priority.

At the end of the day, video game companies don't owe us anything other than their honesty about their products. Rules of capitalism here. They don't owe me a good product, and I don't owe them my money. But an accurate explanation of their product is foundational to this exchange. I've stayed with the series since its inception, and even kept with it during the GBC-GBA purge, because I could see the technical hurdles. I don't see them here, and "Nintendo knows best" is patronizing....at best.

It doesn't bother me much but the logic doesn't really hold up when you're the Pokémon company and you have infinite money to actually make the effort.

@rjejr I don't quite understand. If your sole reason for subscribing to Bank was to transfer Pokemon to the new generation, why would you have subscribed these post two years if there has been no new generation?

@Buizel Transferring forward and not gate-keeping is an essential feature of the Pokemon series. And regardless, it's clear from this clip that Nintendo's thinking on the issue has changed dramatically on the issue. Thinking that has been remarkably consistent for the past 23 years.

Masuda: "For everyone whose played the Pokemon series for a long time, I'm sure all the Pokemon that you've trained are VERY important to you, so I hope you can take them with you and make them come alive."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj9dpKvVok4

Game Freak, the developers of Pokémon, by far the highest-grossing media franchise in the history of humankind, don't have enough resources to allow people to transfer their old Pokémon to the new games? Seems legit.

@Yorumi There is a pretty long grace period, at least. You don't instantly lose them once you stop paying your subscription fee.

That's one bad decision. Even the worst pokemon has a cult following. Every pokemon has it's lovers, haters, merch and is a part of pokemon history. Cutting some away just means you never intended those to be more than fillers because you're bad at making them in the first place.

I swear, if they include that's stupid sandcastle or trashbag but not others... I just smell that this is one big stupid way to limit the transfer of cheated pokemon from old versions.

Okay, let's think about this.

If there are 800+ pokemon (let's even round it up to 1,000 with the new ones!), and this is..... y'know.....a POKEMON game, you would think that getting all of the POKEMON in there would be priority #1, right?

So, let's say it takes an artist a FULL DAY to model and rig ONE Pokemon from ALREADY EXISTING DESIGNS/3D MODELS (they could probably do a handful as professional artists, but let's just say 1), and let's also say Gamefreak has 20 artists (they probably have WAY more), so.........

If they all worked on the freaking POKEMON IN THEIR POKEMON GAME, every day for, like, two months, they'd all have their "higher quality models and animations", and they'd be COMPLETELY DONE with them. And the reality is that they could probably do it much faster! They definitely have more than 20 artists who can do more than one thing in a day, and they've had like two years, so.......?

@TheREALBOJACK And to show my math:

20 x 1 = 20 pokemon (1 for each artist) per day.

1000 ÷ 20 = 50 days worth of work.

Five work days per week = 10 weeks, or juuuuust over two months.

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"Look! It's a topic on the internet I like! I'll post my honest opinion!"

"LOL Ur opinion iz wrong an u hav no lief!"

"...On second thought...Is it worth the headache?"

@HobbitGamer This is a good showcase of the meaning of my avatar. I came into E3 prepared. =3

Horrible decision on their part. One of the major features that makes the main series Pokemon games actually stand out from all of it's competition is it's ability to bring all your Pokemon with you to new games. And what have they really added (that we've seen) to justify it so far? Restricted open world maps, a glorified 4 player boss battle against a Pokemon (that's just larger and glowy and can attack more than once), overworld Pokemon that are only in Wild Areas, no following Pokemon (that's been shown yet), no riding Pokemon (that's been shown yet - and they even took the animation of your riding on a Pokemon in the water to replace it with a dull bike), etc. It just seems like what they did with Let's Go when they replaced wild battles with the Go style catching. Took an interesting aspect of the game and replaced with something just watered down and boring.

Not to mention their reasoning just seems weak. They've been reusing roughly the same models since Gen 6 and (so far) seem to still be the same, the animations that have been shown (so far) are just the same walking and running ones that were already designed in Sun/Moon's files, the Switch is a far more powerful system than anything else the Pokemon games have been on before, they're not exactly rushed for time since Nintendo doesn't seem to mind letting major games delay (or start from scratch like Metroid) while they also have that 'patch them in later' option, balance from a PvE angle doesn't really matter since you're still going to have those issues with the Pokemon you actually allow to be ported over (as well as new ones that might have some cheesey build that the devs didn't think about), balance from a competitive angle would be far more efficient to just set up modifiable rules to bar certain Pokemon/skills and such from being able to be used in competitive battles that aren't like local/friend/contacts/casual kinds, and so on.

"Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites."

Sorry Karen, they won't let some of us.

@Tyranexx Indeed you did, madam!

@WendyWideThumb Have you not seen the gameplay? Those aren't animations the 3ds can do

"Higher quality animations?" Literally everything they've shown off except the Dynamaxed Pokemon are the exact same 3D models & animations they've had since X&Y but in HD. But they can't just re-use the other models because...?

I've been a fan pretty much all my life, even importing some of the Japanese games, and I've never considered waiting for the third version to jump in until now.

@MasterJay Can you link to one (1) example of an animation that wasn't already there on the 3DS? No cheating with new Pokémon or new moves.

Please let all the event and legenderies come over. I travelled to her sone of them.

And my Conkeldurr better be transferable or the can expect a Mach Punch.

Yeah, I call BS on this excuse. There are other ways to deal with issues like this. This is merely laziness and incompetence. I, for one, will not be buying this game. I’ve been playing these games since Gen 1, so this will be the first Pokemon games I don’t buy.

@nintendoknife https://youtu.be/UNmeUvjegew

Every single dynamax animation

@MasterJay I said "no cheating with new Pokémon or new moves". The only thing that's been updated for all of the models and animations that have been there since X and Y, which is what the other user was talking about, is the resolution of the textures and of the game itself.

@HipsterInkling "They reuse so much." I don't really mind that actually, it would be insane if they had to create new models and animations for each game, especially at the rate they're churning them out. The problem, in my eyes, lies in the fact that they make excuses for all kinds of nonsense by claiming to have to spend enormous amounts of time on creating new models and animations, when it's obvious that they don't, never have and never will. They only create new models and animations when it's absolutely necessary for a new Pokémon or a new move. You're absolutely right about the animations being lazy in general, instead of being a move from one side to the other, they're always just moves that simply 'occur' in the void between the areas where the Pokémon are standing.

@nintendoknife Oh yeah, sorry.
The overworld animations?

I'm ok with this if we are getting a ton of new mon's give us 150 new mons and I think this is fine.

@Lalivero hopefully we get
Umbreon (favorite Pokemon)
Noivern
Snorlax
Hitmonchan
Salazzle
Dusknoir (favorite Ghost-type)
Zorua
Breloom

@Abomasnow No problem. Hope it works out for ya.

So that's his excuse
All the Pokemon already have assets, those are the same since X and Y
Animations ? Please, the animations are bad. I really love Pokemon games, but come on, you can't say that the animations take too much work. The Pokemons don't even move when they attack ...
And for balancing ... since the first generation it was never meant to be balanced. It's normal in this game to not have balanced Pokemons, quit doing that. People already know that if they want t some balanced Pokemon fights they can go on Pokemon Showdown for free and that's all

That's maybe the dumbest excuse I have ever heard, I'm sure they will someday release a new version with all the Pokemon available this time ...

@HipsterInkling The game is still under development. This isn't even final footage, you can't make assumptions. Dude, it's Pokemon, of course, there's gonna be a lot of the same themes and elements. It's not lazy to cater to the needs of millions of fans of all ages and satisfy everyone. Pokemon is supposed to be like this to ensure gameplay experience is good consistently with all of their games. If you expected an entirely new game with all new Pokemon and nothing old, it wouldn't be nearly as good as it is now. To each his own though, maybe Pokemon isn't for you...

Literally there is no way to possibly justify the decision to say "Nah screw the entire point of the games, it's too hard."

This is going to actually kill the franchise.

Honestly, I get it, but I'm still a bit bummed that a bunch of Pokemon are going to be left out of the fun, especially if it's certain Pokemon that people have been holding onto for years.

At the same time, we're probably going to have well over 900 Pokemon after this, including Mega Evolutions and Alolan forms. I get why packing all of that into one game could be a headache, and has me wishing that this game was a Daimond and Pearl remake, and the next was Sword and Shield, so that they would have all of the Pokemon on that version, and be able to use it as a template for later console entries.

On another note, I want to find out how many Pokemon are missing. Legendary, Mega Evolution compatible, and Alola forme Pokemon are set in stone, but it makes me wonder who will get left out, especially since there probably won't be an update to add them (which is for the best, the absolute last thing any Pokemon game needs are issues connecting to people with different patches-give me the annual releases over that any day, if only for clarity about what is and isn't available in every game)

@Kameken @LightBeam Like I said earlier this isn't the final build of the game. You can't make assumptions until we have the final, complete, edition of this game. You seriously think making moving, walking, attacking, animation models is easy?
You do know how many Pokemon this game has, right?
@Yorumi to make new models for every Pokemon in the game would be insane. I don't even think the Switch could handle something like that.

"Sh1t fam there too many mons" Would already be a sufficient explanation.

The complete and utter disgusting lack of understanding of game development and basic code here is actually going to kill me.

Do you people understand what it takes to model animate rig and finalize? It's not 24 hours and you don't just 'crank it out'. Has any one here ever considered why pokemon games on the 3Ds had performance issues? Did you ever actually use your brains? Pokemon is so bloated and horrifically unstable already, we're looking at 1000+ pokemon that all have to be coded and have stats assigned move pools added, this crap isn't magic and throwing money at it doesn't just make it work.

Let's also not forget 100+ pokemon every single game is not sustainable what happens two gens down the line when we get to 1500 pokemon? How do you even manage that? Did you ever consider the code of the game and how messy that will get? No amount of money or time thrown at that can clean it up either hundreds of moves millions of stat strings thousands and thousands and thousands of calculations. Do you really think that could get much bigger? Even on console you're pushing it. Better to start cutting back now while it's feasible than when we reach 2K pokemon and the have to cut 800+ to be able to have a functional game that doesn't take 5 years and 20 million dollars to make. I'm sorry it sucks but that's reality, it's now or later and I would rather it be now.

This is NOT about being able to catch all 900 Pokemon in the wild in one single region. This is about having every Pokemon importable and usable on a basic level after the storyline is completed. This single feature has distinguished Pokemon as a video game franchise from every other series out there. For 16 YEARS this was the franchise's crowning distinction! This promise of future compatibility was what kept hardcore fans loyal throughout all of Game Freak's bad design choices and mediocre releases.

This is like GF telling you that even after beating Black and White, you can't transfer any other Pokemon into the games ever. Now how would you feel about the games when you have no love for Gen 5 Pokemon? This is quite literally a dealbreaker for myself and many hardcore fans who have stuck with the franchise for decades.

The models do NOT have to be redesigned from scratch for Sword and Shield. I watched the Treehouse streams, and all the old Pokemon I've seen still reuse the same models and battle animations from X and Y! I am convinced this has to do with one or both of the new gimmicks for Sword and Shield, like Dynamaxing or the newest PokePet feature. Because god forbid they just reuse one of the perfectly fine petting features like Pokemon Amie or XY's version.

Balance has never been a serious concern for GF. They have always just banned certain Pokemon for official tournaments, and given random Pokemon insanely powerful buffs without care (Mega Kangaskhan? Mega Rayquaza? The list goes on for miles).

The law straw for me is the fact that GF is now determined to turn Pokemon themselves into seasonal flavors of the month in order to arbitrarily inject freshness into each new game. They are officially out of ideas, and intend to turn Pokemon into game cards that they cycle out with different seasons. Oh look everyone! Gliscor is back this time! Please be excited! GF's incompetence and complacency has manifested into many problems over the years, and this is seriously the law straw for me and for many others. Not just with Sword and Shield, but with my future involvement with the entire franchise. I bought a Switch for Pokemon, and now I'm so disappointed that I've lost all excitement for any other Switch game in 2019.

Still not satisfied with this. It makes the years of pokemon bank, ranch and other collection tools seem pointless. I've got a few decade old pokemon who I always take with me to the next region and it's not going to feel like pokemon if they have to be stopped at the border.

@Ulysses >incompetence

mhmm sure it's not like pokemon is reaching critical mass and becoming bloated or anything, I'm sure it's very easy to implement 1000+ mons and create new ones and create a whole new region and add their new gimmick. GameFreak just hates our guts.

This is kinda what happens when you release 5-6 Pokemon games in a generation, it's becoming like Assassin's Creed. They need to limit the games to like one new mainline entry and one remake per new system. Look how they keep the Zelda franchise fresh.

@Reigestugatensho Easy? No. 100% doable with the near unlimited funds the franchise draws in? Yes. Necessary for a franchise about collecting? Objectively.

It's an inevitability that this would happen again,(look at Ruby and Sapphire), and it would be insane to hamstring progress for the sake of having all the Pokémon in the game at launch. If there is something to be complained about, it should be the bland idle animations during battle. The world's most valuable media franchise shouldn't settle for something so insipid. At least the Wild Area seems to be a stride in the right direction, one that's well worth allocating developer resources towards.

@Fezzy_lord

The Switch is exponentially more powerful than the 3DS. The Pokemon franchise is the highest grossing media empire in the world. And most critically, Pokemon games are famously some of the most unoptimized games in the entire industry.

Look at their reasons! "So many Pokemon, but even more important! Game Balance!! Please understand"

This is outright complacency. This is what uncontested, virtually guaranteed success looks like. And to think that people defend or rationalize such incompetence.

@Ulysses You have no clue what optimizing a game like pokemon requires if it's even really possible at this point. do you understand how spegget the code is? (Honestly I'm amazed the games ran as well as they did) it would be a complete game rewrite and even after that it will probably still run like Dwarf fortress post cat breeding. But you know whatever believe what you guys there's no point in even trying.

@Fezzy_lord

I would refer you to @Yorumi's excellent retorts on the facts of programming. You are in fact the one making massive assumptions based on ignorance and misguided resentment toward the sheer size of Pokemon's legacy.

Pokemon's towering legacy was never an issue. It was, in fact, its most important staying power. And GF is voluntarily throwing it away.

@MasterJay Believe it or not, but those already existed in Sun and Moon, they were in the game's code, including stuff like running animations and dual standing/flying animations for flying types, they were simply never used anywhere in the games. They future-proofed the games long ago, and now they're pretending they didn't as a really strange excuse. As for Game Freak's comments about 'balance', that's also rubbish, because Pokémon games have never been balanced. There are a few extremely powerful Pokémon, and everything else is, battle-wise, filler.

@Fezzy_lord It seems to me like you're the one who doesn't really understand how programming works. "hundreds of moves millions of stat strings thousands and thousands and thousands of calculations", that is just not how it works. In a battle, the only moves and stats that matter are those of the (at most, and only in a few games) six Pokémon active in that battle, only those stats are (read: should be) loaded into memory. If Pokémon Showdown can do it, which is basically made by one single dude, why wouldn't the company in charge of developing the video games for the highest-grossing media franchise in human history be able to do so? On the other hand, you're absolutely right that Pokémon games are horribly programmed (massively duplicated code and loads of unnecessary calls, for example), but that's simply another aspect of what people are upset about. Instead of firing their woefully incompetent staff and hiring some people who passed at least their first programming exam, they keep on releasing horribly programmed games and tell straight up lies instead of admitting they can't even program a Hello World script without duplicating a bunch of code and causing the entire system to crash.

This sounds like they're finally doing what I have wanted them to do for a while now. Reorganize the pokedex!

There are way too many horrible pokemon in the game that need to be removed. This sounds like the beginning to doing that going forward! I would not be shocked if every Pokemon from Gen 1 and Gen 2 are able to be brought into this game.

If Pokemon was on PC, there wouldn't be any problems. GF could do just what Bethesda does, let the fans fix the game.

We are getting to the point where there are just too many of them.

@Anri02 To be fair we can never have too many pokemon. However, we can have too many pokemon that are very unmemorable.

@Kirgo
The drama is the absurdity of reasoning. Like many have pointed out the animations are barely changed from 3DS. The pokemon models are barely changed from the 3DS. So this notion of how animation and graphics have improved to a point which means hundreds of pokemon are missing is BS.

Good decision in my opinion, will feel like a fresh new game, can actually work to complete as opposed to simply moving across via Pokemon Bank.

Sword/Shield 1.5 Game

Actually, we got all the Pokemon in the game, buy it again for $60.

About time if you asked me. Don’t you people get tired of using the same Pokémon’s over and over every game? I’m actually glad this is happening

I honestly don’t care about this at all. I have no need to have all 800+ Pokémon in the game. Just give me some of my favorites and I’ll be happy.

The reasons stated above are NOT valid reasons at all. They could have very well included each pokemon with just a little bit more effort (Pokémon generates great incomes, so it would have been feasible from a financial point of view). About the balance of the battle system... It has never been balanced and never will. There will always be a handful of pokemon that get used competitively and that is always gonna be a small percentage of them all. There is really no reason not to include each pokemon aside from saving a buck here and there (maybe adding each pokemon would have required them to switch to the 32 gigs card, thus reducing their profit). I'm very disappointed by this choice: they let us wait for 2 years for pokemon switch just to bring a half baked game? Megaevolutions and z-moves are not implemented in the new games (even though they would have been great in addition to the dynamax mechanic) and not every pokemon will be usable... I'm not even sure I will actually buy the game.

@Yorumi Each pokemon is probably not even an actual class. It may very well be that they have a general class "Pokemon" and that has the type, name, etc as attributes. If that was the case (and it could very well be), that data could simply be loaded from a file for each pokemon.

@Reigestugatensho They could have just reused the models, animations etc done for the 3ds games since those models are actually high-res (and downgraded for the 3ds).

Personally think people are over reacting to this news. Worried the next Pokémon game is just going to be like we have everyone now like you wanted... but no new Pokémon... that would be a huge bummer. I’m ready to use new Pokémon. I would even be fine with a new game having 200ish new Pokémon and no old ones at all

@SuperGhirahim64 Actually I liked the fact that sun/moon had more story and lore character development... Anyway I will probably skip sword/shield because of the lack of megaevolutions,z-moves and, most importantly, many old pokemon.

@Yorumi ahah ok we had the same idea. I somehow got the impression that you meant that each pokemon was a different class. It could be, but I doubt it.

@Brutchie-bear i would very much prefer the opposite. I would gladly have just all 1 to 7 gen pokemon and no new ones...

@rjc-32 you would have to make the same effort to catch the new pokemon independently from the fact that all old ones are available or not...

@ARhollow you know that the fan-favourites are returning right? So your point does not apply to this situation...

@AndreaF96 my point perfectly applies. You don’t know what Pokemon are coming back. I’m pretty sure Pikachu is in every Pokemon game. I’m talking about the people that have the same Pokemon and use them for online battles. It would be a breath of fresh air to see different Pokemon in the mix

@ARhollow masuda said that fan-favourites are in sword and shield...

@AndreaF96 Well not really, given the fact that over 800 Pokemon could theoretically be copied over from the bank. This would only leave the 50-100 new Pokemon to catch, significantly less effort. Besides, I play Pokemon purely as a collectathon, I think I'd rather leave everything I've caught before on the 3DS carts and start afresh. I can see why players that battle/breed may be aggreived at this decision though.

@rjc-32 i hate the breed mechanic and don't play competitively. Not allowing to port every pokemon from pokebank just feels so lazy in my opinion. What if I did want to train a pokemon that is not included in the galar pokedex? Why the heck should I not be allowed to? There is literally no reason. If someone just wants to fill the galar pokedex they can do just that, there is no reason not to include the national pokedex with every pokemon in glorious hd.

@SuperGhirahim64 i understand your point of view, even if I don't agree with you. To me sun/moon were the best pokemon ever: the hawaian setting and the plot and characters were just so immersive. I didn't finish usum because they were the sams with some additional content. But if someone asks me what is the bast pokemon game ever I say usum, because they are very much like sun/moon but better. I don't think that a game should only be evaluated by its replayability. Grim fandango is a masterpiece but its replayability is basically nonexistent.

@nimnio I think that in this case it's not a vocal minority... I just hope they decide to include the national pokedex to sword/shield. Otherwise I will probably skip the games (unless they are much cooler than what they showed in the trailer), hoping that many of us do the same so that the next games can be better in this regard.

@rjejr You mean the Pokemon Company or GameFreak. Nintendo has nothing to do with the app themselves nor any of the development related to Pokemon since Generation 2 (well except for maybe the occasional spin-off game). That class action would just fall through since it'd be at the wrong target XD

@AndreaF96 I would imagine time constraints in regards to development are their reasons why. I'm sure the full line-up will be available on Switch in the future, what with inevitable gen 4 remakes and all. It will probably be gen 9 where everything is available, as a rough guess.

@rjc-32 They already have models and animations in hd... They did that for the 3ds games to future-proof their work, as many others in this comment section seem to remember.

@Sandro89 But gen 5 had the best story. It had some excellent mon too, like Conkeldurr, Landorus and Terrakion

I find it hilarious that the older mons they do put in are almost always gen 1 pokemon.

I do not want to imagine everything that has been said on this topic, especially the word of annoyance and anger on the part of many on this note.

However, it is understood for us, the players; I would not like my favorite Pokemon of all past generations can not participate in these new games (especially the one in my avatar, I hope not excluded her...). However, the developer's side is also understood, that each new generation, with new creatures, takes more, "more" time to adjust many things of the game (history, mechanics and the competitive); but it does not excuse to omit characters; but, oh well........

I hope that a future patch allows to add all those missing Pokémon (but yes, it will be a huge patch...)

@Yorumi yes, not all of us are are programmers but unless you know their complete workload, personnel setup, business processes, deadlines, and other business related obligations, NONE of us can claim to know their justification is BS. You as a programmer are one small piece of the pie. This generation could very well be the teething stage of their switch development. Maybe future generations will better optimized and potentially expanded upon from a technical standpoint. WE DONT KNOW. So while we appreciate your insight, let's not call them liars, or lazy or whatever. 😎

@thesilverbrick Sun and Moon were HORRIBLY balanced. If you went online you immediately were checked by a Tapu Legendary, and an Ultra Beast, usually followed by another legendary with a Z move and some broken mega Pokemon. If you tried bringing anything other than the absolute strongest Pokemon you were ripped apart, every time.

Ideally they should have just removed a ton of Pokemon from online play, but realistically they couldn't include every Pokemon forever. We're approaching 1,000 now counting Megas and altrernate forms.

I went from excited to get this game to now they're no point cuz you can't catch them all

@AndreaF96 to each their own but I don’t want to catch old stuff again new Pokémon is always more exciting to me. The surprise of what something evolves into is too good

@Andrew5678 they've confirmed that Mega Evolution and Z moves will not be appearing in the new games, so say goodbye to your favourite megas!

@Yorumi fair enough. I'd be more willing to accept utter incompetence. They were probably sitting on their laurels after the success of their 3DS entries and the money brought in from PGO that now they have serious growing pains and problems developing. Maybe management is stunting developer growth and creativity.

@graysoncharles its possible, Nintendo had HD issues during the Wii U era. Good management would have the foresight to seek assistance/guidance, even Nintendo devs to help in those 3 years. Not saying they didn't but they knew of Nintendos struggles to bring their games into the HD era while developing for the Wii u. It's quite possible the let's go games were their Guinea pigs.

At the very least, it should encourage us to get a bit more creative with our teams than just the favorites and tournament gold standard.

But ultimately, this is a series with the tag line "Gotta Catch Em All", of course there will be upset among fans regardless of the reasoning you give. Not much they can do about it, except maybe doing away with these battle gimmicks (Megas, Z Moves, Dynamax, etc.) that create extra work or stop making these games an annual thing (Which they won't.)

Then of course.....what happens to those left out Pokemon? Are they going to get nearly as much merchandise as before, will the anime not promote Pokemon you can't get in the latest games? Course if your fav is a not so popular one, you have more to worry about if its not in the game. Gen 2 Pokemon were not nearly as promoted as much in gen 3 as gen 1 and 3 for years and would have to wait till HGSS to become relevant once more.

Then again, if this really hurts the sales to a degree they'll probably go head and fix this in a 3rd version or Ultra Sun Ultra Moon route later down the line (Pokemon Gun, Gun-na Catch Em All!).

Oh well, maybe a possible lack of Gen 4 Pokemon can fuel speculation of my most desired Gen 4 remakes next year Game Freak?

Nothing you people say will keep my from buying the new games. This will all blow over sooner or later. I think that the Sword/Shield will sell better than the 3DS games.

@Otoemetry yeah I know... I had hoped they would have had more megas, not removed them altogether. Still I could accept that happily if they included tha national dex.

I'm fine with them limiting the number of monsters, but there is a glaring problem that they aren't addressing. The Pokemon Company unveiled Pokemon Home being the new way to store the Pokemon you have caught in cloud based saves. However, the 3DS, Pokemon Lets Go and other games can only add Pokemon to the Home service. Sword and Shield can send and recieve. Now, what if you transfer a Pokemon that isn't in the new Pokedex? Will it just be sitting there for the rest of time because it cannot be sent to Sword and Shield?

@Kirgo They already have the models though. They admitted that Sun and Moon had HD versions of character models as well as running animations. None of the animations in Sword and Shield look like an upgrade.

@Brutchie-bear (#150) Black and White were like that, with over 150 new Pokémon, only letting you find Pokémon from previous generations after you already beat the game. They were great games precisely because they forced you to use the new Pokémon. However, that's not how it works in Sword and Shield. Now, there will be a few new Pokémon - going by previous generations, probably about 70 - and a bunch of old Pokémon still running around, but even when you beat the game, you will never be able to import a bunch of your older favourites just to see them on the big screen.

@Brutchie-bear I agree with you partially. I just wanted the ability to import old pokemon from the pokebank. Nobody expected each pokemon to be available to catch in the galar region.

I feel for the competive crowd since undoubtly that aspect of the game will take a hit, but other than that I don't think it makes a lick of difference. I've always just used whatever Pokemon are available in the new game.

why do people (outside the competitive community at least) care this much? I've always only used the 6 Pokemon I get at the start and occasionally swap out the bird Pokemon or whatever if I find one I really like.

I knew it would happen eventually, I just hope not too many are cut.

@Reigestugatensho Still a cheap excuse. Some games before already had better animations. Heck, even Pokemon Stadium had better ones, and they still can't use those ones for some old Pokemons
You can have ONE attack animation for each Pokemon, no it's not that hard to have only ONE attack animation. As for birds Pokemon, they should at least to make it less ridiculous, like allowing them to fly around and stuff
But saying that they do not allow all the Pokemons because "animations and stuff" while the models are all available since X and Y and they don't even dare make some animations proves that it's just some kind of smokescreen

@Noid Well, cuz the whole gimmick of the game is to catch em all
Dunno about you but a whole lot of people like to just catch Pokemon and don't really get into the fighting part

Imagine believing Masuda's BS excuses when they're so easily debunkable.

@Yorumi You didn’t get my point. The point of Pokemon is to catch and train so they can become powerful. I always hated the idea the somebody can transfer so many Pokemon from other games and be ahead of the average gamer. Maybe now people can give these new Pokémon a chance and they shine more

@Yorumi I’m just stating my opinion. I’m sure they could add all the other ones after updates. If you don’t like my opinion then don’t reply. This game will sell regardless of what happened. People shouldn’t be mad because of this

@Rayquaza2510 Precisely on point, plus, Game Freak seems to try every year now to make a quick buck during the holiday season, just to make themselves more affluent in monetary stock rather than care about the fans that buy them, just a thought if I may.

@Ernest_The_Crab Who gets sued is up to the lawyers, not us.

True story. I was once in a car wreck. I was a passenger in a car that got totaled by a Sears repair van. I got a lawyer to sue the driver bc/ he broke my arm and it cost me a PC repair job. The lawyer sued the driver of my car instead. Then I asked her to marry me, we got engaged, my lawyer sued her, got $40k from her insurance, which I used to buy her a house, then after we got married she dropped her insurance which paid the claim and I put her on mine auto insurance. With the some company. Oh, and we were on the way to Sears to get a new battery for her car when the Sears repair van crashed into her car and totaled it. And we were house sitting my parents pet dog at the time. So if my parents hadn't gone on vacation I wouldn't be living in this house right now.

tldr, lawyers will find someone to sue, they always do.

The people behind the most profitable multi media franchise ever trying to pull a "please understandu" give me a break.

If they can't handle it, then they should start outsourcing instead of simply telling players to piss off.

Honestly I don't mind this at all. Like 3rd, 4th, 5th generations did not include every Pokemon available at the time.

Really just seems like an excuse to pump out games every other year or so not to mention they're reusing models from X and Y AND they could have pulled an X and Y by just making new animations for every Pokemon. I really don't care having to wait another year, I mean I along with many others waited for BOTW. In a way this is them telling us that they're rushing the game to hit that peak season right before Christmas.

@IceEarthGuard In Gen 3, 4, and 5, many Pokemon weren't obtainable naturally in the game, but the data for the missing Pokemon still existed in the code. In Sword and Shield, the missing Pokemon are not going to be in the game's code at all.

@TheDragonDAFan Oh, okay then.

Its kinda sad to see this many people about this. Like yeah, its kinda a bummer but like, Sword and Shield are still gonna sell like hot cakes, no matter what GF does. So why complain about stuff? Just hop on the hype train and go a long for the ride!

@Kameken @AndreaF96 @Yorumi @LightBeam I apologize I kind've misread the whole situation... I thought they just 'couldn't do it'. I'm sorry for giving all of you guys headaches.

@Reigestugatensho Lol don't worry bro, you didn't gave me any headache but it's cool you cleared this out

Guess I'l just buy better games coming out this year

Since they can’t just copy paste the Pokémon from the 3ds games and they still have their make gen 8, it makes perfect sense that they can’t make all 807 Pokémon in super detailed HD that people expect on the switch

@Kirgo Digimon and Yokai-watch would like to say hello.

@Anti-Guy No, I don't think you get it. Yea, you can see a Pikachu in any region, you can also see a cat or dog in any country. You're not seeing a friggin' Panda in the UK though.

weird of all gens Hmm I wonder who's idea was to add more..