You Cannot Have A Complete National Pokédex In Pokémon Sword And Shield

What really kills me is that this is exactly why everyone hated the first 3DS Mystery Dungeon game...it was just Unova Pokémon plus Pikachu. This also quells any hope I had of a good Switch Mystery Dungeon game... Gamefreak literally learned NOTHING from that game. @_@ At this point, I'd rather have the Let's Go Johto games than Sword/Shield, which is a sentence I thought I'd never type...

@EmmatheBest I've liked all the mystery dungeon games so far actually. I was one of the folks saying that having less Pokémon didn't actually kill the game.

From what I heard this is because of the Dynamax system not supporting certain Pokemon also with the removal of Mega evolutions and Z moves that even sadder.

Compared to Z moves and Mega evolutions Dynamax is rather lame compared to the other 2.

Taking down unknown amount of Pokémon and 2 mechanics (z moves and mega) is the absolute worst idea game freak had for Pokémon ever!

The phrase "Gotta catch 'em all" has slowly lost its meaning every generation.

Gotta catch erm not all of them, only the ones we’ve ever so nicely laid out for you.

I don't really mind this. As long as they're not like, permanently retiring the other pokemon.

Quit ya moaning. It's the first home mainline game. Let them expand it gradually so they don't mess anything up. You'll get all the Pokémon eventually. Just enjoy the ride.

Watch some of the removed Pokémon be some no one cares about, like Dunsparce.

I am 100% certain that the amount of people who even complete the pokedex are in the extreme minority.

They should just keep the initial 151 plus a few other more famous ones like togepi and the new ones. Would people really complain?

Oh well, makes those Gen 4 remakes next year a likely thing at least.

Yep, the minute I heard about this along with the fact Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions are completely cut, I knew I was no longer buying these games.
What makes this worse is Gamefreak literally has no excuse for this, the models they are using have been the same since Pokemon X and Y which already have all their animations made! All that would be needed is improving the textures like they did with Pokemon Lets Go.
On top of that, there's no way in hell they can claim they don't have the money for extended development, Pokemon makes more money than any other form of entertainment, they absolutely definitely can afford more time for development, especially since they are still doing the "2 versions of 1 game" practise.
I'm done with Pokemon, it was bad enough Pokemon Ultra Filler was lacking in content and the entirety of Pokemon Let's Go that I frankly didn't want but this is the end for me, thank God Nintendo has tons of other stuff for me to sink my teeth into.

I hope this is something that will be worked on in updates.

There is no excuse to exclude Pokémon. Every one who completed their living dex (collect all 807 individual Pokémon) will not be happy with this change. It's not fair supporting Pokemon transfers from Generation 3 to 7 and let people start over again in generation 8.

That's cool. Reminds me of how B&W felt like soft reboots when they first released. This should give the new monsters room to shine.

I understand the annoyance, though, especially for people who have collected them pretty regularly through the generations.

I... really don't know what to expect.
At the same time I feel we might be surprised and see transfer actually added.... but at a later date.

Let's put it bluntly.... there's a LOT of Pokemons out there today now. That leaves a lot of them to be modelled, textured, animated.... and potentially balanced.

For all we know the explanation might just be an excuse to buy themselves time to get everything together up to date for the engine and graphics upgrade.

Like... I look at the new models and at first in previous teasers I thought it wouldn't be that much of a jump to port things over but looking at it now it might be a MUCH bigger one than I expected still after all.

And we know Home doesn't come out until 2020 either. That leaves a lot of time for things to change.

I believe them when they say its hard to balance everything out.

Welp, guess this is the first time since Diamond and Pearl i won't be buying a mainline series Title.

Still gonna hold out for that Pokemon MMO.

There could be tournments, special raids, quests that invovle certain Pokemon like the anime, fractions like trainers and Team Rocket, special skills for trainers, additional styles for Pokemon like tanks, healers, dps...

It will kill mainline games though.

Yikes. This might be a dealbreaker

They must be introducing A LOT of new Pokemon.

Perfectly fine by me. I don’t need to recatch all the old ones for the x’th time. If it’s a few hundred that’s solid.

Also don’t care about no more z moves and megas. Never liked em. Not sure how I’ll like Dynamax but I’m buying anyway so I’ll play it through however I must.

I'm still going to get it because I want to team up with Elmur Fud to Scor that Bunny!

I'm fine with this. It takes a lot of work to add all these and I'd rather they focus on making an amazing fun game.

Well damn, then I might as well not bother getting a cheap 3DS to get my ‘mon out of Bank if that’s the case. Super lame, might as well have called these a soft reboot of the series.

@Justaguest And just taking out balancing... they still need to model/texture/animate the things and, not counting everything the new games are bringing, there's already 800+ of the things out there by now... not even counting Mega Evolutions and Regional variant.

In fact just the fact they have dynamaxing now but no mention of mega-evolution makes me wonder that it may well indeed be a "soft reboot". So even if we can later port older pokemons, I get the feeling we won't be able to port everything from older games.

Also a soft reboot might be good for it's competitive scene to be honest since it'll leave newcomers a chance when veterans cannot port over their industrial bred massively finetuned pokemons from the older games even just as breeding stock for later "native" pokemons of the newer games nonetheless bred with the genes and moves of the veterans imported from older games.

It's like the more I hear about this game the less I want to play it. I might just skip it and wait for the enhanced versions coming out a year after (a la Ultra Sun and Moon).

Gamefreak a few weeks ago: "We know many of you have a real connection with your Pokemon from older games and want to continue your adventure with them in the new games. Well we're going to let you do that!"

Gamefreak now: "...welllllllll as long as those Pokemon are on the list of Pokemon already in the new games"

Hopefully this is updated later down the line.

Not too surprising when you consider how many Pokemon there are already.

@JesWood13 My kneejerk reaction was to be angry but I'm starting to think that even if porting over is added later.... that later part might be for the best.

Think about the state of the competitive scene for first-time newcomers if just everyone could import over all their veteran pokemons from over 3+ generations of games? Even if there is a restriction for "natively bred pokemons only", such veterans pokemons could still prove to be a massive boost to veterans players compared to newcomers as "breeding stock" for top-level stats genes and hard-to-get moves.

This is... odd. Aren't they reusing the 3D models from the 3DS titles? Seems like a simple transition considering they are adding quite a bit more ambitious features. I'm personally not too bothered by it as I don't usually collect every single Pokemon anymore but I can see a lot of complaints over this.

Kinda prefer this, as long as it's not permanent. Would prefer a higher degree of focus on the new ones.

If development time is part of the issue why not pull a splatoon and slowly drip feed the entire pokedex leading up to the sequel/enhanced version that surely is coming

@DeathByLasagna That's actually new models. Like the animations I've seen with Scorbunny's legplay during attacks and so on actually surprised me compared to what I saw in previous games.

I'm a bit iffed as I was getting ready to port things over but then I realized.

This is the first Pokemon game proper on Switch. Right after the surge of renewed interest from Pokemon Go and Let's GO. There's going to be a LOT of newcomers.

If anything, even if only temporarily, preventing porting pokemons into the new games might be the only thing that could give newcomers a chance compared to veterans who've spent not just one but sometimes multiple generations breeding the perfect competitive pokemons. Just as breeding stocks pokemons from such players could be scary on the competitive scene for newcomers because it'd mean those veterans would already have pokemons with perfect IV stats(the invisible stats determining natural stats increase per levels) and some extremely hard to get moves hard to get on some pokemons except through breeding... by which time the new mon can access the moves right from level 1.

That's a massive advantage against all the players who'd just be starting out ontop of the job it will be for devs to model/texture/animate all the pokemons in the pokedex.

@Mathieu_B If you wanna transfer all your old pokemon that might be the best thing you can do, I myself might be doing the same thing there are plenty of games coming out and a meaty game like pokemon be a better thing to wait for the superior third version.
Also I believe CyberPunk is going to eat up all my time when it comes out.

Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggg....

So they made us pay for Pokemon Bank for nothing? I thought the entire point of Bank was to save our Pokemon collection forever to use in every main series games they make?

That's.... uh.... well that's one of the dumbest moves they could have ever made for the series. Why the heck would they do that? There goes even MORE hype for this game out the window for me. At this rate I won't even want the games at all anymore if they keep going like this. ...feels strange saying that about mainline Pokémon games.

I heard there was an issue with the translation?

Can anyone confirm?

If this is truly the case, what a disappointment. Especially since it is the first time a mainline Pokemon game is appearing on a console.

@Ludovsky Yeah so true. Taking what you have mentioned into consideration it sounds very difficult to make things work. Having to introduce a new feature every new game they realease doesnt help. Taking some stuff out is a must. Having to think about mega evolution, dynamax and z-moves in a battle is appalling to me.

Well, this may be updated to support every mon later. Remember, Pokemon X/Y and S/M didn't support PokeBank at launch either.

I agree Z moves and Mega Evolutions already being a balance nightmare, so I can see the removal of those.

But pokemons? Not really why is that an issue. Seems they are already reusing the models from previous games, so why not have them all like sun & moon did? (they didn't include a pokedex entry only)

@Franz I don't know since some of this sounds really specific?

Though I recall Bank also had to make specific updates announcement when saying there would be support for some of the games.

I could be wrong, but I suspect support will still come later. After all Home is only out in 2020 which give plenty of time. And the fact is this is the first major engine/graphics upgrades for the Pokemon themselves in a while. Even Sun/Moon's pokemon models weren't too different from XY but Sword/Shield looks to be quite a leap the more I look at it.

There's 800+ pokemons without even counting those Sword and Shield will add so even just putting the model/textures/animation up to date is an undertaking that would be a job in itself for them to accomplish.

I wouldn't be surprised if the announcement would be just to specify that yes transfers from Bank won't be ready at release as they also transit everything to Home in term of framework, while quietly leaving themselves a lot of room to prepare an update to Bank allowing such transfers proper later.

genuinely crappy news. i had every single legendary so far in my poke bank, as well as 2 boxs of 6iv mon, and my japanese ditto. now unsure if i can take any of them with.

Considering that they kept adding gimmicks and not thinking about each mechanic's long-term viability AND cared about balancing, these decisions were inevitable.

You should have seen this coming since Gen 3. If you didn't and you're now ready to just fully jump off the wagon that you've been so keen on, that's all you.

@Ludovsky Thanks for the reply. Yes, if this is, in fact, true then I do hope that somewhere down the line, all of the 'mons from past generation would be transferable. I'm sure everybody would love to see their favorite Pokemon on the big screen.

@Gridatttack In truth the models look quite upgraded in term of cleanliness of the textures as well as animations/effects. It's subtle but it's there. So this might be a more major jump than we think. Perhaps not the same as from 2D to 3D, but certainly bigger than from XY to Sun/Moon who used exactly the same models it felt like for pokemon themselves.

At the end of the day there's 800+ of the thing in total without even counting what the next games are adding. That's a LOT to prepare to be "S&S ready" so their excuse might be just to buy themselves the time to do that before a "surprise" reveal.

Or as one suggested, they could compromise by going the Splatoon route by progressively adding more and more to Sword and Shield itself in free updates like Splatoon did over 2 years.

@lanceorr I don't have to be grateful for someone selling me something.

They have to make me want to buy it.

@Franz Yeah. Alternatively they could also go the Splatoon route of gradual free update adding more and more pokemons to the games themselves as "new discoveries" to the Galar region to still add support for these pokemons in the new game even if crossgenerational transfer become impossible.

Thus while veterans couldn't import their classic pokemons, which would remain a blow tbh, it could be a compromise to feature more of the pokemons themselves while still providing the "competitive scene reboot" effect that would mean both veterans and newcomers would be on a more equal footing. Veterans would still have the knowledge of how to breed perfect pokemon with maxed innate stats but they wouldn't start the game with pre-bred pokemons with maxed IVs in all six stats right from the start and already ready to breed these perfect stats into new "native"(yet not born from "native" parents) Sword and Shield pokemons for competitive edge.

Especially thinking that, again, with GO and Let's GO this will be a lot of people's first pokemon game and you really don't want to drive away those people right away because by seeing them instantly crushed in multiplayer by veterans' perfected pokemons.

Oh, geez, GameFreak wants to turn us all into Ash Ketchum, don't they? >.<;

Upon learning that I will be unable to transfer my full collection of Pokémon to sword and shield I am ending my 15+ year Pokémon adventure. I have waited my whole life to play Pokémon on a real console and you have of course found a way to completely ruin it. There is no excuse to spend years making a game that has little variation to any other Pokémon game and say that the mechanics of 800 Pokémon is too much work. You spent all that time making a money grab let’s go series when you could have just given us what we want. I will be selling off my Pokémon and games/ds as soon as I find buyers.

TBH Gamefreak sorta screwed themselves when they made transfers universal for the past 23+ years even as they added dozens if not hundreds of new Pokemon per generation.

They were gonna hit a limit eventually, especially with the jump to HD game development, an increase in balancing difficulty, and a greater focus on other gameplay aspects (Mega-Evos/Z-moves/Dynamax gimmicks, open-ended exploration via the Wild area, Mega Raids, etc).

Hopefully this is patched in like Mario Maker 2's online with friends. Pokemon Home won't launch until a few months after Sword/Shield, so there is time.

@Justaguest To be honest it's kind of the symptom of just how much was starting to pile up. And that's not even getting into breeding mechanics.

All pokemons have "innate stats values" that were just meant to make them more "natural" by making every pokemons different, but hardcore competitive players have found way to max all of these values for all six stats in pokemons and literally have have entire "perfect pokemon breeding" operations over the course of multiple games to make sure they have multiple pokemons worth of "perfect specimens". And I'm not even getting in all the hereditary moves some pokemons can only get in their species through breeding that they then access straight from lvl1.... including endgame levels moves.

If transfer was possible even just close to release, this would give a MASSIVE advantages to veteran players over newcomers even if they brought their old 'mons even purely as "breeding stock" for boosted "native" pokemons of Sword and Shield.

I was thinking about it and nothing could kill interest in competitive multiplayer for newcomers for whom it could be their first core pokemon game than be hopelessly crushed in seconds by the uberbred pokemon stables of veterans.... so this might be well for the best of the game's durable longevity if not for some of the veteran players.

Why not delay the game so you can work out all the Pokemon into the game?
With as big of a franchise as this is its embarrassing how lazy they are when comparing to other big franchises that go the extra mile for their games.

This is really disappointing, i've subscribed to Pokemon Bank since it released in good faith that all my 'mon would be able to transfer to the latest games each time, guess it was a total waste of money. Not only do i have some Pokemon going all the way back, but also a large selection of shinies, i really hope they rectify this down the line.

@Andrewjp327 You know they could have just given this as an excuse while they might still be working how to port over the models/animations/textures of 800+ pokemon(not including what the new game will add) to a new game engine and console standard shift the like of which might be comparable to when the games were first shift from 2D to 3D in XY(when there were still hundreds less pokemons to adapt)?

Like for all we know I expect them to reveal as a "surprise" next year that Home would allow transfer* from Bank whose services are supposed to be rolled into Home's as well.

*(though perhaps nonetheless preventing transfer of mega-evolution stones and Z-Crystal transfer since the mechanics seem absent in Sword&Shield with Dynamax seeming like both of these merged together already) .

Even then the delay might just be what could allow newcomers a chance to start at a footing closer to veterans players rather than hopping into multiplayer only to be straight away crushed by overbred teams of pokemons with maxed IVs hereditary stats and bred with endgame hereditary moves thanks to "breeding stock" pokemons imported from generations of games of breeding the perfect competitive 'mons.

It IS frustrating for veterans but I'm also telling myself that nothing could drive away the massive influx of new players in the community we could get thanks these "cash-in" games than immediately letting overcompetitive players wipe the floor with them like that before they'd even have the time to figure if they want to stay.

Whilst i'm having a bit of a rant, i hate that the 'mons sound bytes are STILL the ancient gameboy sounds, how hard is it to have them say their own name like in the anime ?

@Ludovsky Probably the most logical comment I have seen on this

While understandable, I don't like this choice. I hope that it's just an excuse to release the full National Dex in a DLC update later on.

Still buying the games though. It lessons my excitement somewhat, but not that much. If I was 10/10 excited before, I am still like 8.5/10 excited.

I will be only ok if they re-add those mons in a later game, it will happen, right? RIGHT?!

@Toadie
It’s amazing how Pokémon got spunoff into its own company yet they struggle on keeping important things like this on-brand and struggle at scaling up to meet expectations.

@Heavyarms55 Oh I'm with there with you. I definitely lost some excitement for this myself with this.

At the same time I feel like I can understand the reasons why this happened and I'm okay with accepting that. Might just mean it'll force me to focus me with what the game can offer me at the start rather than immediately what I can port from older games to it.

And ultimately none of it means it's actually definitive so there's still the chance to be surprised later. It's frustrating to be honest but at the same time.... it's not the first reboot/soft reboot we experienced considering the jump from Gameboy to GBA meant exactly such a reboot in the past. And the Switch is likely a very different architecture in many ways.

This said people are already talking about the eventual "Ultra" Sword and Shield and I think we might be misleading ourselves with that thinking. "Ultra"/sequels were a thing of the Black and White and Sun/Moon generations, but traditionally generation would usually instead see remakes.

Gen III saw the remake of Gen I.
Gen IV saw remakes of Gen II.
Gen VI gave us the Gen III remakes.

If I'm to hazard a guess, the next pokemon games to follow Sword and Shield will instead be remakes of Gen IV in truth(Diamond/Pearl).

I am surprised people dont seem to consider how much work it is to port over 800+ models along with textures and animations which doesn't even include all the new Pokemon plus the fact they are probably dealing with an entirely new game engine which also could present its own share of potential compatibility issues. Never mind the fact that Mega Evolutions and Z Moves when combined with dynamax could be extremely game breaking.

The only way I could ever be remotely okay with this is if Absol makes the cut. If not, this might just ruin Pokémon Sword & Shield for me.

Not being able to use my favorites is terrible.

@Wolfgabe That's exactly my point. Just the existence of Dynamax(and how it seem to be a merger of both MegaEvolution and Z-Moves concepts) actually gave me an hunch this might be coming when they were so silent about Mega Evolution and Z-Moves themselves.

In a way it's likely a result of all this pile-up they must have realizing was starting to develop.

Even if transfer become possible later, I'm entirely certain it will also include restrictions making it impossible to transfer mega-evolution stones or Z-Crystal because those aren't going to be supported in Sword and Shield.

@Ludovsky It seems to be common in the online realm that most people seem to fail to grasp the realities and technical hurdles of game development

Oh dear, where to start with this. Firstly, we know that Sword and Shield have been in development since at least late 2016 / early 2017 as Ultra Sun and Moon and Let's Go were developed by a smaller team as Gamefreak has two primary development teams - a Lead Team and a Secondary Team. So the excuse about timing goes out the window.

So Gamefreak didn't have enough time to put all the Pokemon in these games, despite the obvious fact they have taken the models directly from the 3DS games, yet they had enough time to development the Let's Go games and use different models for those. Doesn't make a whole load of sense. I think this is simply laziness on the part of Gamefreak.

Personally, I probably wouldn't have completed the whole Pokedex, but at least I could have transferred my favourites. I totally agree with @thesilverbrick that this is a deal breaker.

DLC exists. This seems all sorts of temporary.

@SalvorHardin Yep, i totally agree.

I guess the Alolan forms from Sun/Moon will be stuck on the 3DS for the foreseeable future.

@Ludovsky The thing is, it is reasonable to assume we will eventually get more games on Switch. And since all the Pokemon in Sword and Shield will already be done, future releases could easily add more. So I totally understand that thinking.

Honestly I could see GF doing just that. Pokemon Sw2Sh2 or Pokemon Spear or whatever. Once the SwSh engine is done, nothing is stopping GF from releasing more games built on it. I mean on 3DS we had XY, ORAS, SU and USUM all more or less built on the same bones.

And with Pokemon Home already planned, it would be easy for them to release another game in 2020 or 2021 and add the rest of the Pokemon then - it would be a selling point for them.

But because of this, I will be buying only one of SwSh, where before, when I thought all Pokemon would be in the game, I planned on buying the double pack.

But part of the fun and appeal is seeing older pokemon in a new gen visually and figure that PvP battles in the newer games are part of the point for many to have access to any choice they want. The only way IMO that this works is if we get a new Pokemon Stadium style of game that fills the void.

Masuda: "We know you're attached to you Pokémon, that's why we're making Pokémon Home"

Also Masuda: "You better hope your favorite pokémon is part of the Galar Dex. Gotta catch some of them"

They did this with Sun & Moon. You could still transfer them later though, but that broke the game's balance.

Also it seems like they will add a lot of 'mon to this game. Just not all.

Also you could still put them in the Home App. Meaning, there is more to this home app then just storing Pokémon. I see them adding a PvP mode to it at some point.

I'm absolutely furious. Are you KIDDING ME?!

I don't know if this is enough of a deal breaker to cancel my pre-order. But it's disappointing and a bit odd. And it's true that this might be a matter of an update rectifying this later on. So I'll hold off on the "Sky is falling" reaction. I will say this seems to go contrary to the tone of their whole spiel about allowing people to keep their Pokémon from previous generations.

And I get the looking out for newcomers to the competitive scene. I get it. And they're just as much a part of the fandom as anyone. But there's also those of us who arent into that aspect of the game and who strictly play for the story and for the catching Pokémon.

@UmbreonsPapa You can still transfer them to the Home app.

I totally see GameFreak making a "Pokémon Stadium" for the Switch that connects to Pokémon Home and allows you to use all your Pokémon in that app. But not in Sword & Shield means you won't overpower every single trainer with a full team of legendaries from older games. It's a balancing act.

While im kinda disappointed, it's not that big of a deal. I totally understand game freak's decision on this and i respect it. Am I bummed I can't flex ALL of my shinies in HD? Yeah. Is it going to stop me from loving gen 8? Nope.

Honestly, it doesn't matter to me either way. I'll probably never catch them all.

After all, I only have three mainline Pokémon games: FireRed, Pearl, and Black. I can't get them all, because I don't have any of the other games, whether it's the same generation, the previous generations, or the future generations.

All that matters to me is if I enjoy the game with what I have. After all, I've pretty much considered it an impossible task to catch them all anyway, especially the event-exclusive Pokémon.

@Roam85 A friend was even wondering if there was something lost in translation. They even pointed out that (apparently) even Sun and Moon themselves had a period where transfers from the Bank were temporarily locked and it wasn't thus until after the lock was removed that people could begin pouring all their previous gen stuff into the 7th gen.

@sanderev Thing is you couldn't do that anyway. Or maybe that changed with X and Y or Sun and Moon. I don't remember. But there were steps taken in the past so you wouldn't do it. You had to either beat the Elite Four or in S&M case, wait until GF made Bank compatible

@Doger Same.
Plus tbh it might even have the bonus of making it easier for first time newcomers(a very possible scenario with all the groundworkd laid down by GO and then Let's GO in particular introducing them to a more traditional structure of pokemon games) to ease themselves in without made to feel like they're bad for only coming in so late and not having events exclusive Mews, whole stables of Legendaries or any competitive bred pokemons yet.

Like this is a game uniquely placed to grow the base for the core games even further and I can legit understand why even "balance" might become a worry now. Nobody wants a newcomer logging on the first week giving a quickly look at "open" matches immediately being slaughtered match after match by veterans who trained their teams to maxed levels/moves/etc generations ago.

@UmbreonsPapa Yup. I just came back into Pokemon with XY after not touching the franchise since Blue and now that I'm finally looking into games of the in-between generations I missed, I'm surprised how many of them didn't even allow generational transfer until you'd beat the Elite Four and Champions.

Coming from XY where I got past generations starters through Wonder Trade and the GTS within weeks of dipping back into the game with only a single gym completed before returning to it.... it came as a surprise to me there were such restrictions in the past.

And I just only learned about the restriction on Pokemon Bank in the early Sun/Moon days so... to be honest I figure it might be a similar scenario that might be unfolding here with Sword and Moon. With 800+ 'mons without counting everything new S&S's Galar region will introduce, that's a LOT to get ready for the game.

I'm pretty much 90% certain that even when Home transfers are made possible, there will be restriction on transfering mega-evolution stones and Z-Crystal for examples. For one Dynamaxing seem to be a merge of both concepts(form and stats change boost AND moves morphed into upgraded forms) making them technically obsolete but the fact that Dynamaxing is also context dependent to special locations(rather than even the "once a fight" lone limitation of previous systems) make me feel it will be the nail in the coffin for any Z-Move/Mega-evolution mechanics having any chances to be transferred over to the 8th gen. They were powerful thing and the fact that the mechanic that seem to be introduced to replace both is also limited to being only usable in limited context means these two are likely going to be left behind.

It also means that even if a GenIV(Diamond and Pearl) remakes compatible with S&S are ever released as I suspect might happen rather than "ultra" S&S... Dynamaxing might still remain exclusive to S&S since it seem "location-dependent" rather than be added to Diamond/Pearl remakes the way Mega-Evolution was added ro Ruby/Saphire remakes during GenVI.

Also, in a way Dynamaxing sounds wild but it's context-dependent nature might lead to S&S shield battles to be rely on more "traditional" mechanics for most of the game's encounters unlike Mega-Evolution which could be triggered during any and all random encounters.

Which.... I'm actually not entirely against to be honest since at some point Mega-Evolution and increasing Z-Moves stuff increasingly felt kind of an ever building pile-up that would have grown silly if it was to keep continuing on? I dunno, it might be just me honestly.

@NCChris

@Coffee_Drinker wait where was it said that z moves were removed?

Disappointed in this news but I don’t usually transfer my Pokémon anyway so it’s not a big deal, and I expect they’ll add support for all Pokémon sooner or later. The lack of Megas or Z-Moves is rough though.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that the cut Pokemon are probably all of the legendaries and mythicals. Some of which are not obtainable through normal gameplay (Arceus), and many of them are obtainable through their respective games. For example, Landorus and its variations have forms (Therian?) that are only obtainable through some niche 3DS game no one cares about. Xerneas is definitely cut from this game, since it was overpowered in sun and moon (I might be wrong). All of the Megas too, because I'd imagine it will take time to add the stones in and a logical story. In time, GameFreak will be able to patch these Pokemon in as they find ways to probably balance them. In the meantime, all of my legendaries will stay in my Pokemon Sun boxes. As for the man children that are complaining about not being able to transfer their legendaries, then good riddance to you mate, no one cares. I'm getting Shield regardless.

It's interesting that so many people are assuming that Gamefreak are "lazy" or "haven't had time" to add all the pokémon to Sword & Shield.. I don't see that reported anywhere.

While it's disappointing, it's also likely that Gamefreak always knew they were going to cut some pokémon eventually & they've chosen the jump onto a home console as the best time to do it. I love my Pokémon and many of them are from all the way back from Ruby, but it's not the first time I've had to leave some behind & I'm also excited about new challenges ahead.

Of course, the Galar Pokédex could be released and it's 700 Pokémon long & all that's cut are useless pokémon like Dunsparce and redundants like the swellow line (pidgey clone).

TLDR; I love pokémon, have really old ones, oh well.. guess I'll buy the games & still have fun anyway. At least I'll have Pokémon to play while the pain of losing a 20 year old Alakazam sloooowly fades away.

I seriously would have preordered this today, but this announcement makes me sad. It's my understanding they made high-def models of all the pokemon for XY to be future-proof. And seriously - by November, I wouldn't be surprised if Pokemon Go had a full national Pokédex, so there's not really much of an excuse.

And to all those people saying it will keep veteran players from being too advantaged - they can still transfer their pokemon over. The Galar dex is probably going to be fairly large and allow for a fair amount of legacy pokemon to be transferred - just not all of them. So they'll still have the same advantage over newbies.

I got burned buying Sun/Moon and then the Ultra came out a year later. I think I'm going to wait and see if there are going to be ultra versions of these that will allow the national dex. Pokemon home is the real ripoff here - really, you want me to pay for a subscription, but then I can't even transfer half of my pokemon into any games? They're just stuck in Pokemon jail indefinitely. It's ok, since I'm waiting on buying the games, I can wait on getting Pokemon Home too. Don't like this move - vote with your wallet.

@Ludovsky do they? Seems more to me that they removed the outline of previous games (you can see it looks similar to this game on 3DS emulators, which removed this line)

Not to mention the game's engine rendering the models to look more... clean. Though if they are indeed new animations, then it would be a lot of work, but from what I've seen so far, they have the same entry animations, and a special & physical attack animation as in previous games 🤔

@Coffee_Drinker
Yeah, that's also a big factor: so many games that I want haha. Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest XI S, Ni No Kuni Remastered on PS4, Luigi's Mansion 3, and on and on... If I'm not feeling it for a game, than I'll pass and focus on games that are more worth my time.

I think something has been lost in translation and a whole lot of people are throwing a hissy fit over nothing.

Gen VII didn't have a National Pokédex either, but any Pokémon could be transfered to the game, and I assume it will be the same case here. It's just that a number of Pokémon won't have Pokédex entries unique to the game, however their move sets will still be updated (if Gen VII is any indication).

Yes, as a veteran player with a mostly complete living Pokédex, I would love a National Pokédex, but the lack of it does not impede on or diminish my ability to collect them all either. If this compromise means that we get more new Pokémon this generation, then so be it.

However, if some Pokémon can't be transferred at all, a la the Let's Go games, then I can fully understanding people's frustration.

@Silly_G
I feel like if it was a translation issue, Nintendo would have made a press release correcting this already.

@Silly_G I agree with you. We need more Pokemon per generation. The fifth generation on the DS had more new Pokemon than the 3DS games combined (not including event exclusive Pokemon)... I was disappointed by that. On the translation issue, I'm not sure. (Even with event exclusive Pokemon, 5th gen: 155, 6th and 7th: 159.)

@Andrewjp327 What a child :/

This is legitimately not acceptable in any way.

@scoopz @ludovsky I would have taken all Pokémon being available over graphics and animations any day. I don’t trust poké bank nor would I trust Pokémon Home. Which is in itself another cash grab. I’m fine with giving Nintendo my money but I’m not cool with not being able to have all of my Pokémon. I can’t wait to see which of my favorite Pokémon are going to be just a memory on a virtual card on a app I’ll hardly open. 3 years of anticipation for nothing.

#DelayTheGame

Let's hope Pichu is one of them LOL.

Delay the game. This is beyond dumb.

Alright, I'm not getting this game. Game Freak should just let someone else make Pokemon games, they are clearly burnt out and not interested anymore.

@Andrewjp327 You were able to fully utilize your Pokemon within the games you caught them in and you are still able to utilize said Pokemon in those games. Get over it.

You are not a games developer and have precious little insight into the game development process, what changes theyve made in making this new Pokemon title and the constraints placed on them by working to a deadline.

@DaruniaJones88 I don't know. I find its much easier than ever these days. Event Pokémon are no longer an issue, barring you can't get to a GameStop, Target or wherever some might be given away in a given region. And people are willing to give you extra code if they have them.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I find playing just about every mainline game that has been released, I am stockpiled with Pokémon (Legendaries, Mythical, Starters, PIA ones to evolve). And if I absolutely need something, I can usually wheel and deal to get what I need.

With that being said, I'm not gonna cancel my pre-order. I'm excited for the game. I can't wait to check out the new region and Pokémon. But I am not gonna lie and say this isn't a bit of a letdown as someone who was always more into the collection aspect of Pokémon than the competitive side

@lanceorr Confusing criticism with ungratefulness does nothing to hold Game Freak to a higher quality standard. You expect us to just suck up whatever Game Freak throws at us? They have one of the most profitable game franchises in history and they frequently deliver underdeveloped games. I expect more from them, and I’m going to make damn sure they know it.

This is such a let down. I’ve been bummed about the evident lack of Mega Evolutions and regional variants. My hopes for over-world Pokémon encounters and free camera control is apparently locked to a single area. And now I can’t even port over the Pokémon I’ve been collecting for nearly fifteen years?? My hype for these games has deflated.
And they really need to reveal more information about Pokémon Home. Are we expected to now pay for two subscriptions to maintain Bank and Home? Are they really going to try to charge us twice and then deny us for porting our Pokémon to the new games? At this point, I wouldn’t put it past Game Freak.

@Scoopz that’s no excuse. Hire more people. Or better people. It’s a spit in the face of veterans to get more money from people who will play it for 40 hours. #delaythegame

Annoyed. Didn't get the last couple of games because of this. My kids are now old enough to enjoy the game, so I probably will buy this for their sakes, but they better kill the tag line, "Gotta catch 'em all."

@Andrewjp327 Youre sounding so ignorant and entitled, the worst sort of gamer. You have zero insight into game development and zero insight into Game Freak as an organisation, what resources they have at their disposal and what money and staff are tied up in other projects and due to stakeholder influence etc. You know nothing. So quit with the uninformed rants and whining. You have been provided with multiple games where you can use the pokemon youve caught and raised. Continue to use them in those games and accept that some of them arent making it across to the new game. Its gamers like you with your unfair uneducated demands that stifle developer creativity. Do better.

@Kalmaro hold your tongue! Dunsparce is my favorite Pokémon

Well this killed my interest.

@Silly_G I suspect there's been a lot of time constraints judging from that dialogue and that we can indeed not transfer non-Galar pokemons(even though we might be able to transfer ones that ARE in the galar DeX even if they came from over games?) because the models/etc... just aren't ready.

This mean is this leave the room open for allowing transfers later as with SunMoon bbeing locked out entirely from Bank initially at release.

Also there's a suspicion we might get gen8 remakes of Diamond and Pearl later that could then add officially most missing pokemons to gen 8 directly. The DS generation is old enough it's becoming likely.

@graysoncharles actually I hear Wilmer was spotted in the playable demo at e3? There's been an image going around twitter iirc trying to collect all the confirmed sightings so far(charlizard is confirmed which means the other two gen 1 starters likely are too even if they haven't been spotted yet)

But wailmer/warlord are on the list is what I mean

@Heavyarms55 weirdly enough I feel that if they make a new game in gen 8... it won't be Spear or Usw/Ush. Ultra moon and sun left a bad taste in fair amount of folks and we haven't had a "trio title" such as what Spear would imply since Platinum. Even Or/As didn't bring emerald back but instead folded it into both games.

But that's the thing. Short of Sw2/Sh2(an actual sequel that is) what I can see ois a remake of Diamond and Pearl with platinum's content rolled in both and with extra content

It might be the perfect occasion to to implement all classic pokemons transfers to gen 8 if that isn't already done thing by then

@LUIGITORNADO They were awesome in... What, gates to infinity?

I liked how, up until then, I had always misjudged where their mouth was.

@Ludovsky I would certainly prefer a sequel or a gen 4 remake. I had thought the refined version was abandoned when we never got Pokemon Grey, Pokemon Z or Pokemon Epic Emerald. But then USUM happened... I hope GF realized from the reactions of many people, that we don't want that anymore. USUM should have been DLC expansions, not full retail games.

Perfectly fine with it. Seems to me only hardcore Pokemon players are upset with. The average player is going to beat the game and not play it as much after that so having that much Pokémon that they possibly don’t even have from other games doesn’t pertain to them. But I can see this being added in the future

@graysoncharles ...the thing is of they fi that it might also mean transfers from older games being possible by then.

Because it sounds like you will be able to transfer pokemons of older games to gen 8 in the end... as long as they're part of the galar dex.

Which is the thing with them mentioning time constraints about the game. The models are probably just not even ready.

If DiamondPearl ever happen... well that may means a lot more models being ready by that point making that much more you could transfer even from older games.

Thing is I don't see any of what they said about transfers as utterly definite forever yet. As for double dipping if the remake do happen... not more than any previous gens ever since the days of the GBA.

Gen 3 had RA and LgFr(gen 1 remakes)
Gen IV had DiaPeaPlat and HgSs(gen 2 remakes)
Gen V had Black and White and... Black and white 2.
Gen VI had XY and OrAs(remakes of gen 3)
Gen VII had SunMoon.... and Ultra SunMoon.

The question is not if there's going to be more games than SwSh this gen. That would be like asking if water is wet. It's just "which". Remakes? Sequels? Or just an enhanced edition? And with the taste Ultra Sun Moon left I highly doubt we'll see an Ultra SwSh this gen. Pure sequels a-la B2W2 remain possible but I don't know enough yet about the story and villain team to know if there's enough material to warrant a sequel proper.
Thus the logical step feels "remake' for the second pair of game to release later this gen and with 1-2-3 already featuring remakes, 4(diamond and pearl) feel simply a logical assumption.

I don't think this bodes well. The reason the competitive scene is such a mess is because Gamefreak introduces new mechanics, shakes up the scene a bit, but then abandons said ideas. The lack of Mega evolutions will severely damage the competitive nature of any returning Pokemon unless Dynamax mode is really that powerful. Gardevoir, Scizor, Lucario, Charizard, etc will sorely miss mega evolutions.

Adding to that, not having a national dex is very worrisome. Gen 3 was not well received at first among fans for this very reason, Nintendo had made it virtually impossible at the time to obtain any of your Pokemon and Gen 3 was essentially locked to new Pokemon only. Then we got the Gen 1 remakes as well as Emerald and the situation was rectified somewhat.

I'm assuming that Gamefreak and Nintendo have some sort of plan to deal with this issue. It would be a bad move for the franchise if they just limited Sword and Shield to whatever Pokemon they feel make the cut. This could potentially alienate players from the franchise.

@GrailUK I know right it's not terrible as of right now but who knows maybe a future update to the game and they will let us add more pokemon, who knows

@Ralizah it's not terrible I like the idea it sucks not having my best buddy swampert that I had from sapphire but i can get behined this they might add more in an update who knows

Every day more convinced not to get this at day one

saw butterfree, am ok

@Pokemon_cojp @Pokemon #BringBackNationalDex

Tweet them, let them know what you want. Plain and simple.

Unless you're a competive nut who spent hours upon hours breeding/ev-training I don't really see why you would care about preserving your old Pokemon. Would you really use your old level 100 Ho-Oh in the ingame campaign? I fail to see the point.

Then what's the point of got to catch them all now I'm just disappointed I was looking forward to it but oh well

@Kalmaro not even close. In order to get those shinies a lot easier people will go to crazy lengths and completing the national dex to get your shiny charm is basically automatic for most.

@Expa0 that's a very large group btw

@Onion preach, straight up was debating canceling my preorder when I heard this news

@DaruniaJones88 I'm not sure what you're talking about. It's pretty easy to get the whole dex if you put some effort in global trade . There's lots of people willing to help too. It's basically a staple thing to do as most competitive players want their shiny charm and you can only get that after completing the dex

What a let down. The only way i still may want this game is if at least all final evolutions are available. Like leave original pokemon and 1st evolution out but be able to transfer the final evo.
Its a big issue for me because i no longer have the time to breed too many, perfect pokemons. I would need my old ones which are ready at the bank for battle.

This just says to me that they can't be bothered. Sun and Moon was small and lazy, Ultra Sun and Moon was even lazier.
They know people will buy it regardless so why bother putting effort in.

@Ludovsky this doesn't hold water. There are plenty of ways to allow casual competition vs veteran comp. The newcomers don't have to be isolated or beaten so hard they don't want to play again as long as the multiplayer interface is designed/structured well. All gf is doing here is angering the die-hard fans, especially the proper age groups that have money to buy multiple copies of their games. I get balancing issues etc. but they could buy all the time they need by letting everyone know they'll include the entire dex eventually, that would assuage most of the long term fans anger AND increase the life of the game; I get a feeling this is not the case but I really, really hope I'm wrong.

So as Galar is based on the UK, is this Pokemon's version of Brexit? Only certain species are allowed Galar visas?

As someone who hadn't played a pokemon game since Silver and Gold, I find it a little scary to come back to a Pokemon game with over 3 times as many pokemons.
No one has ever complained about gamefreak forcing you to buy 2 games at each generation to get all the pokemons. They are probably just doing the same across 2 generations. You'll be probably able to get all the pokemons between this generation and the next. You'll just need to buy 4 separate games in total...

I wonder how much cotent has to be cut before the die-hard fans begin to question GF's decisions and maybe even hold back on purchasing new games.
This is the future you have chosen by buying LGPE.

Well it is a new game so... what is the acceptable amount of Pokémon? I didn’t know they had to include them all in every game. That is kind of a weird demand for a game that already gives you so many Pokémon.

I'm glad Mega Evolutions are gone, aside from some cool designs I didn't like the mechanic. Z moves I preferred but I don't mind them being gone. Will see how Dynamaxing goes I guess.

As for not all the Pokémon being there. I didn't mind it in Ruby & Sapphire and Black & White were my favourites for the way they restricted you to just the new ones until you beat the Champion. So long as there are plenty of new Pokémon I'll be ok. And I hope they evolve. The last few had too few new ones and too many that didn't evolve.

If you cut all the past legendary/mythical pokemon and the ultrabeasts that's a large chunk gone. I wouldn't be sad about that, there are so many now it's somewhat lost it's meaning.

@NotTelevision A big part of why is that Pokemon Bank (which is a premium service people have subbed to for years) and similar transfer tools promote people to catch pokemon and bring them with them on their journeys. For example, I have an Infernape who's been by my side for more than half of my life. The reward for beating the gyms has always been that you could finally bring your friends over to the region and have fresh adventures with them. Now that's taken away and because people can't bring their teams over, the hardcore scene is going to remain with USUM.

I want back my money that I have paid for Pokémon Bank then please!

@FTPinkRabbit Cool thanks for clearing that up. I thought people were complaining that all the Pokémon wouldn’t be in the game. My bad.

@FTPinkRabbit @Archius9 Very funny and possibly right.

@Virteego I think you forget how much in the majority casual gamers are. How many people do you think actually even know or care about said shiny charm?

Especially with how easy it is to get shiny Pokémon anyway. You may be right about most people who want shines going for the charm, but that group is still small and I see no evidence that suggest otherwise.

@NCChris and @Redax this is kind of funny and sad at the same time. You're thinking about not buying or playing the game at all simply because the full Pokédex won’t be included?

It's easy to get shinies due to the charm, or at least a lot easier. Granted I'm sure the hardcore Pokemon breeder part of the community is probably less than the casual gamer but I guarantee it's far larger than you might think. I'm not trying to be rude when I say this but you must not have searched at all when you asked how many people know or care about the shiny charm because it's a common and we'll known part of the game by now, synonymous with with other frequent terms when talking about the core series such as IV, EV training and egg moves. If you've looked at any site that delivered deeper than "Pikachu is the cutest" than you've read about the shiny charm. In Google search It's literally third in the list when typing in "shiny ch" right below shiny Charmander because that is reasonable as shiny Charizard is one of the best color schemes. What I'm getting at is it's extremely well known and just because you don't know or care about it doesn't mean many others don't.

@Kalmaro So no joke, Dunsparce is one of my favorites and I will be quite upset if they aren't present

@CosmoXY yes, extremely much so. It's not just that you can't get your favorite looking Mon, boo hoo. It's that some of us have spent...way too much time building up our favorite teams with assets from a game we really enjoy with no way to ever get them again. It's not just one iconic character, all of the Pokemon are iconic to some people and are important to how many folks play the game; is like taking Lara Croft out of tomb raider or the shotgun out of Halo (kind of a mix of both really). To introduce things that become a staple of a game and then completely remove them in a highly anticipated sequel is.....ignorant and well with considering not spending my money on as know I won't enjoy (at least not nearly as much) what I was coming to expect.

@Virteego I don’t know, seems like a lot of overreacting though. It’s just a video game, not real life or anything. I don’t see the exclusion of some classic mons ruining the overall experience.

I am a little bummed. I rush through the "story" of Pokemon games to get to my favorite part, which is completing the dex. I have a nearly complete Living Dex (about 35 shy of having them ALL, haha), and losing the ability to bring all or any of them into the new game has deflated my excitement a great deal. Being able to form a strong end game team from any of my past, present, of future pokemon, is the biggest strength the series has!

I will still play the games, and not preach doom and gloom for the series just yet. I suppose Pokemon Home will become my glorified trophy room/prison.

@Daruncic PMD made me love Dunsparce. Dude was such a trooper. Game may hadlve had less Pokémon but the few they had got a lot of heart.

@Yorumi super good point. I am one of those people with a complete living and totally legit dex, and although I’d like to be able to bring them into a switch version, not being able to won’t ruin the game for me. But it would have been an amazing incentive to purchase the game if players knew they’d be able to. Probably will be a feature in the “third version” or sequel, lol.

Part of my excitement has always been transfering my favorite Pokemon, shines, and Legendaries to the new hardware.

I don't want to wonder every new Pokemon game which of my favorite Pokemon just won't even exist in the new games.

Doesn't really affect me in any way. I don't transfer my old Pokémon to new games. They are currently just sitting in Pokémon Bank. I focus on the new Pokémon whenever I get a new Pokémon game and I usually stop playing soon after I beat the Champion.

Would it be better if every Pokémon were in the game? Of course. Some people really like to use their old Pokémon. Is this the same situation as with Mario Maker 2 and its no friends online problem? I'm not sure. I'd imagine this would take more effort. While some people think it's just reusing the same models and putting them into the game, there are many more things to take into account.

I'm sure they have every Pokémon's data in files outside of the games themselves so they don't need to add them all manually but they still like to update Pokémon from previous games. They adjust movesets, write new Pokédex entries, add new animations, etc. They could just not do that but that's what they did with Sun & Moon and that personally pissed me off more. I didn't like how Sun & Moon had no Pokédex entries for Pokémon that weren't part of the regional dex. It didn't really affect my overall opinion on Sun & Moon, I still very much enjoy those games, but catching Pokémon like previous starter Pokémon felt pointless to me. I expect the game to keep track of what I have and what I don't have and how many more I still need to catch.

I was also proven wrong. I've said multiple times that I don't think they'd get rid of Mega Evolutions but I guess they did, at least in some capacity. They aren't deleted from existence, they just take a break for a while. It'll be weird to battle a Champion who has a Pokémon that can Mega Evolve but won't.

So glad I was sold on Pokemon Bank being a solution to this issue...

I have been playing Pokemon for 20years. If my favourite are culled then I give up on the game. The amount if events I have attended to capture lehenderies and rate Pokemon, the years I have battled with them and trained them. I liked Mega Evolutuons and how they made useless Pokemon useful again. This is sad.

@CosmoXY you make a valid point as the initial experience, for newcomers, would be exciting and fun. The issue is for the much larger fan base. The newcomers buy 1 game, the lifers buy all iterations of the game, then the card game and then teach they're kids to play and so on. It may be just a game but you're talking about a game that has a TON of support from long time players, a game that has quite legitimate tournaments with monetary rewards, among other things. The pokemon franchise had such an influence in the industry that a mobile spinoff became international news after it had already been a cultural phenomenon in Japan. Gf should really know how limiting the roster (again, by more than half) would affect the player base; I know they have to keep things fresh and bring in the new crowd but I'm 💯 they're going about it the wrong way.

There's several layers of enjoyment to the core series and for the many that enjoy the breeding and competitive aspect/metagame of Pokemon they've effectively killed that portion imo.

This is hardly surprising. We had to go without 3D in Sun/Moon because of how big the game was. It’s been coming for a long time, the Pokédex is getting too big to accommodate everything if you want the game to play to the best of the systems capabilities. I’ve only recently come back to the series so it’s hard for me to be sentimental about missing Pokemon I’ve never caught, but I’d definitely rather have a game that doesn’t have its wings clipped just so people can transfer across their favourite Pokémon from 15 years ago. The “backwards compatibility” so to speak, of previous gens, has always been extremely generous of developers to let people have.

A complete insult to the fans that have given this franchise thousands of hours of game time. Now we are just expected to pay for Pokémon home to keep the Pokémon we won’t ever be able to use. And just like Pokémon bank if you don’t continue to pay you will lose those Pokémon with no way to move them back to previous generations or to the new ones. Absolutely insulting. They can have fun appealing to people who will play 6-8 badges worth. I’m so done with this series. I don’t care how much work it is or the resources it would cost. Screw HD graphics and animations. Pokémon looked just fine in gen VI. THEY HAVE HAD THREE+ YEARS TO MAKE THIS GAME. The original GTA5 in comparison was completed in 4 years so its nothing but laziness and time spent making cash grab throw away games ie let’s go series. #delaythegame

@Ralizah Black/White still let you transfer your old Pokémon from the 4th Generation games and eventually allowed you catch 'em all through other means. In this case, they're not even including the data for the other Pokémon in these games, so even if they do include more Pokémon in other 8th Generation games or apps, you won't be able to trade or battle them with Sword/Shield! This totally sucks!

@Morpheel It's certainly not a permanent retirement, but it does sound like they play to retire them for the entire 8th Generation save for the anime and TCG.

@Ludovsky Gotcha. And yeah, certain animations like Scorbunny's hopping were cool and definitely new. I'm just curious if any of the older Pokemon were re-animated in any way. I'd imagine they had to create a decent amount of new walking animations for the overworld.

Eh, not a big deal. Doesn't really affect playing the game.

I wonder how people will defend this

@Kalmaro @Kalmaro See, that’s a problem because I care about Dunsparce.

I don’t want to see one of my favorite Pokemon cut, and neither does anyone else, but it’s going to happen for some of us and that’s not okay.

@SilverBrick @SilverBrick I hear you loud and clear, I actually like Dunsparce too! Most people don't, I bet, but that was just me talking tongue in cheek.

Who knows what will get cut, I'm not too worried though. I'm sure we'll see them later.

@iLikeUrAttitude Just read the comments, not everyone is against it. That and the dev's already explained why they did it now.

Well, I’m out. I’ve been playing these games since Generation 1, and now, for the first time ever, I won’t be buying the new Pokemon games.

@DaruniaJones88 Point taken about one's location to an event. For me, I guess they haven't been an issue. With the exception of Volcanion and Zeraora (two events I couldn't get to), I didn't have a problem with Arceus or Hoopa. I have about 3 of each in the computer. In fact, I feel some of the events were just internet events with no need to go to a store, which is why I have so many. I know one of the Hoopa and Genesect events, you just had to enter in a code, Hoopa2016 and Genesect2016 and it was an instant download.

@DeathByLasagna I suspect many old pokemons were. Specifically "community favorites". One that weren't will likely be all the bidoofs, bunnelbys and similar pokemons the community itself frequently deride as "trash".

It sounds like this might be the focus of the limited selection; trying to separates the designs that matters toward those which were frequently less popular, underused or even outright loathed(something tell me we won't see Unowns unless they have a real reason to bring them back such as another Ruins of Alph puzzle proper again. Or something like a new evolution through new mechanics for them, which I doubt).

So I think it'll be less(except perhaps among starters which are becoming numerous themselves) which of your favorites you'll lose but more which of the more redundant species will disapear.

Do we need Rattatta/Bidoof/Bunnelby/Yangoos/Zizagzoon all at once when even the original Ratatta was enough for the plain fast agile weak Normal type ?

Who do we need of the whole Pidgey/Pidove/Spearow/Hoothoot/Taillow and more of the plethora of Normal/Flying types designs that are almost interchangeable?

I think this is what it's about. And like Dunsparce for example sound like he could be cut as a "ugly rarely used pokemon" but at the same time... even if he ends up cut I think he's at less of a risk than all the others because he's at least more "unique" than many of these interchangeable species. But this said he might still be cut as a pokemon that's less "redundant" than simply "underused".
Unless they give him a new evolution like I hear was hinted might be coming for Farfetchd("Sirfechtd") by the same leak that predicted(if not even named) Yamper the corgi pokemon.

@Virteego I dunno. A thing they could do though is resurrect Pokemon Stadium as a concept for that.

Your traditional adventure becoming more limited to it's traditional dex, but a sidegame featuring everyone for the hardcores who specifically want to picture all the possible matchup possibles in battle.

That's a speculation. Otherwise; they're planning full support but only with the release of a pair of remake games(Diamond and Pearl) which is why they're trying to deflate immediately any hopes of support for all pokemons because such games might not come until 2 years later and thus a most lenghty delay when such games can't even be announced yet because Sword and Shield is not out yet.
It's indeed safer to deflate expectation hard right from the start so it can come up as a bigger surprise once it finally come out.

This could play in announcements thus as a result: "For two years, you had only the Galardex. Now, this year... the flood gates are open".

This said, I think with hindsight that the balancing issues are much simpler than we think. It probably come less from "X has +5% more speed giving +X% advantage with Y move" and more like...

Do we need Ratatta, Bidoof, Zigzagzoon, Bunnelby and other similar "trash" normal types to all be featured at once when a single one can fit the "agile-ish but fragile early game normal type with limited evolutions"?

Do we need Taillow/Pidgey/Pidove/Spearow/Starly/etc and so many seemingly interchangeable normal/flying type all represented in the same game?

They've clearly mentioned wishing to include people's "Favorite" pokemons and that's where the onus will be. Trying, for the first time, to trim the list a bit to what the community actually cared for compared to the least used pokemons of the 800+ that are almost never used anyway. To remove a lot of the never used old stuff to make room for newer/fresher designs that are more relevant and stylistically mesh better with the rest of the pokedex for a more unified whole.

There'll be a lot of resistance from those who are fans of the more niche underused pokemons, or the "ugly ducklings" that might be replaced by more "stylistically up to date" designs(I'm a Skarmory fan but I'm certain it's to be replaced entirely by Corviknight). But ultimately I think they're going to try and go forward with it. Even if full support is later given. To try and go for the first time and do the task of "making a sense out of this mess of monsters designs" in their eyes.

Good news as far as I'm concerned. The idea of trying to collect 1,000 pokemon is exhausting to me, not fun.

Did you actually expect GF to put all 1000 Pokémon in this switch game by 2019? I mean, Sakurai got exhausted with 80 characters on the switch, and with the level of detail you expect for a switch game, no way would GF be able to put everything by even 2020. This is Gen 8, but you guys keep asking for the past 7 gens. ON THE SWITCH!

It used to be one step forward, three steps back with GF. Introducing a second region to conquer after the first, then stirpping it away for "reasons." Introducing the battle frontier, then stripping it away. Introducing character customization (after almost 20 years- far after the concept of avatar editing came into being for gaming), then stripping it away.

Now, they have ran out of things to cut, so they turned to the one thing left: the pokemon. This is like 100 steps back. I am glad I quit after after X and Y's generation.

@CosmoXY It's so easy to just say "simply because the full Pokédex won’t be included" and make it look so insignificant.
Let me explain something; I play Pokemon for the competitive metagame and 1 of the main reasons I play it is because of the massive roster is known for. It's so much fun playing in different tier levels because you get to see so many different takes on what players do to build their teams.
Is the roster unbalanced? Hell yeah, I ain't gonna pretend it isn't but we never expected Pokemon to be properly balanced, that's the con of having a massive roster, you're always going to have that but we were willing to accept that so long as we had the full roster.
With this, combined with the fact that Mega Evolution and Z-Moves are gone, the metagame is gonna take a massive hit and will likely only be a shell of what it used to be.
This is why I'm sticking with Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, while I admit they were lacking in new content, at least there I can still use all the Pokemon, something I cannot say for Gen 8.

Gamefreak has no excuse here, they have the models, they definitely have the funds, and they have the workers.

@NCChris Thank you for the explanation professor. As I mentioned previously I have a living dex, and I too play the meta. I have bred and caught hundreds of competitive mons over the years. I still don’t see this ruining the game for me. Is it lazy of gamefreak? Yeah it is, I am not defending the decision, but I’m also not going to scream into the void about it, and I won’t let it stop me from enjoying the game.

@CosmoXY Yeah see, that's the difference between us, I play Pokemon solely for the metagame. The story and regional is all just secondary to me. If it wasn't for the online, anytime I finish a Pokemon game, I would likely just shelve it and wait for the next game, it's what I did before gen 4 after all.
When it comes to Pokemon, the battling is what I am there for, if I wanted a game with an in-depth story and a decently sized world, I'd go play something like Final Fantasy or Zelda.
There's no way I am paying £49.99 for a game that literally strips down what made it good for me in the first place and all that is left is what I never cared much for to begin with.