Soapbox: Attacking Pokémon Creator Game Freak Isn't Cool, But Biting Back Isn't The Answer

I cannot wait to play Pokemon Sword. 😀
5 more days to go. 😁
Please try the game first rather than keep salty and sour before even try. 🤗
That isn't a good behavior to do.

I think the fanbois of the Pokémon series are some of the most vilest creatures on the planet. Look at any discussion of a game in this series and watch them trying to chew each other up like hungry hyenas.

I'd be shocked if some of those angry basement dwellers didn't attack me for this comment.

I personally cant wait for Pokemon sword, but the whole situation is disappointing, as it does look like Game freak doesnt put as much effort into Pokemon anymore.

@MagnaRoader I hear that.

Fanbase is becoming more like Sonic fanbase, but the franchise at this point remains strong comparatively. Altho, the Sonic franchise is hanging on even still and I commend them. I do see that handing Sonic or Pokemon to fresh young talent is inevitable one way or another.

Respectfully,

Can these posts strive for more accuracy?

The complete (National) Pokedex has not been available for several games now. That’s not the issue. The issue is the fact that we cannot transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Bank that are not coded in Sword and Shield (and, apparently, onwards).

Framing of the actual issue matters.

I remember the first time I discovered internet communities about 15 years ago. I thought it was an exciting dawn for mankind. I was very wrong. Horrible entitled fans everywhere for everything from movies to video games. Why is it so hard for these failures to get some perspective

If I get the game, it's because it's the closest we'll get to Pokémon Snap 2.

Game Freak honestly needs some fresh blood injected into the team

I do think Sword/Shield looks pretty underwhelming and didn't really make a lasting first impression as the first full Pokemon gen on a home console, but mindlessly attacking developers and starting stuff like the NatDex movement is very inexcusable behaviour

I remember reading a comment once that likened the NatDex hashtag to the HONG KONG PROTESTS and I still can't believe what's become of the fandom at large

I have to say I like the decision to cut all the former legendaries. This way other pokemon can shine.
Cutting that many 'normal' mons is a tough pill to swollow but all in all I am with Gamefreak on the cutting decision.
This does not mean I accept the sub-par graphics though!!!

At the end there the company$$$ that is cheapen out on us and were the consumers that they have to persuade

Ive said before that i dont care about pokemon but that fire rabbit had me a bit interested recently. I was going to wait for reviews and buy it if it was good. And sometimes cut content can make sense, like how big the gamesize is.

But if this is how their developers and their fanboys act, ill spend it somewhere else.

And hope Cinderace gets to smash instead.

It’s the simplest thing in the world, if you want the game, buy the game.

If you don’t want the game, don’t buy the game.

I wonder if sales will be equal to Let's Go...

Considering trends with kids with games like Fortnite, easier accessible alternatives in PoGo and Masters AND the backlash from the longtime fans (most of the players nowadays who buy the games) Let's not kid ourselves, SwSh will sell regardless, but the level of success won't likely be able to match Sun and Moon.

@Sakisa So much this. I don't get why so many people have to be dramatic about not buying a game. There are dozens of popular games that I don't like but I don't go out of my way to constantly remind everyone. Be mature, don't buy the new Pokemon games and move on.

@Saro it'll probably sell well. Anything on Switch seems to sell.

It is just videogames ffs. Everyone needs to calm down.

@Sakisa People want a new Pokemon though, just not this new Pokemon. "shut up and don't buy it" is a horrible answer, speaking up to fix something you love sure sounds fine to me.

I do think Game Freak is bearing an excessive amount of the blame for the problems with Sw/Sh when honestly, it's not entirely on them.

A big part of the issue is that they are being pushed to pump out a Switch game in 2 years, and they don't have the option to delay.

@Trajan Yeah, but will it sell well like Let's Go or better? That game is doing well, but it's the lowest amount of lifetime sales for the Pokemon games made by Game Freak.

GameFreak as a developer is long overdue for a shake-up in the creativity department. SnS shows that their approach to making Pokemon hasn't evolved over time; the series is stagnant.

It's not entirely their fault, of course. The grossly bloated Pokemon Company is probably mostly to blame for the state of the franchise, since pumping out yearly content to maintain the brand in the public eye is likely their primary concern.

But even in the baby steps GF takes to make the games better, it feels really glacial. I look at a game like Dragon Quest 11 and see leaps forward in design and quality of life when it's really not that much, and the series remains true to the old school spirit. GameFreak needs to either step down, or get an influx of new blood in their office, similar to what Nintendo did with the Zelda team.

Honestly I understand how Game Freak morale may be down and I don't blame or care for a "wrong like" on twitter, many posts online against them had been really offensive or stupid and on that GF have all my comprehension and support.

I just wish the internet could learn the difference between criticism and plain ignorant attacks on individuals or teams.
Pokemon Sword and Shield got a PR nightmare of bad choices that deserve a fair reasoned backslash and the same goes for many modern games.
Too bad instead these situations always devolve in disgusting threats and insults that have no other effect of mining the credibility of the people actually trying to give a fair criticism.

@SpaceboyScreams in a constructive and positive way, yes, and sure enough there are people approaching from that angle, but the way I’ve seen some people acting has been downright childish.

I’ve made my personal decision to not buy the game, I’m using the money I was gonna use on Pokemon on either Atelier Ryza or Ring Fit Adventure and am just gonna leave it at that for now. Sword and Shield isn’t going to change at this point and I won’t try to scream at it to change itself.

If they were really smart they would just release dlc of every region so you would need to buy a ssn Anne pass to Kanto then you can go catch those pokemon for example. Then it will give them time to keep adding pokemon. So if you battle someone that has a kanto only pokemon you know he bought the dlc or used the pokemon home app.

I decided to not buy the game at lunch like planned as a kind of temporary wallet voting
For the first time ever since gen 3 (were I started with the games) I am considering to not even buying this one at all, the price went up but as it seems, the quality and passion went down.... I will see once the reviews are up (never thought I would say that on a Pokémon game.... sigh 😔 )

@Justifier who ever said “there are to many Pokémon” never heard anyone say that on any Pokémon game

Let’s get angry about how a post that was angry at people who were angry about a Pokemon game was liked by someone who may or may not have been angry at the time.

Let’s.

Also, I like video games. Like, I think they’re great.

At the end of the day Sword and Shield is going to sell millions regardless of the fan backlash that's going on. So I can't say I feel sorry for Gamefreak but the fanbase can be so toxic. With saying that the criticism GF is getting is valid, the game looks like a 3DS remastered title and looks like it's playing things too safe. Overall I'm not too interested in the game but will probably pick it up once I get through my backlog.

I'm surprised more companies don't have strict rules about what employees can or can't post, retweet, or 'like' on social media.

I don't disagree at all with the offended tweet, but James Turner really needs to just stay off of twitter. Or, at least, not engage at all when it comes to a giant multinational brand like Pokemon.

Shortest soapbox ever, but that's good for something built on a complete non-issue. While it's miles better when creators don't find themselves pushed to harshly worded retaliation (in my own capacity as a creator, I believe fans aren't something to verbally retaliate against or even deal with - they are just something to SURVIVE), one can understand the sentiment even when they do; but this talk of "biting back" by... liking someone else's tweet? Because the internet "never forgets"? Well, add this to the internet protocol from me: screw this notion and the mentalities behind it. This isn't some kind of MeToo movement, this is creators vilified and attacked for the "sin" of deflating someone's personal entertainment and undermining someone's corrupting obsessions. Adding an incrimination of silent appreciation for vocal backlash on the human audiences' side - which, as I can personally attest, can get fed up with the situation to almost comparable extents - to this list sounds nothing short of perverse.

Ironic to talk "not the best look" for a Game Freak employee in the context of the situation where OUR OWN look is serving as the umpteenth cautionary tale that fanship and fandoms should never exist in the first place (despite the bitter reality that both will still exist for as long as Fiction does). But by all means, it's the creators who need to watch their mouths and clicks while we shower them with completely disinhibited pseudocritique junk under the excuse of "speaking up to fix something you love" and other fan delusions and lies like that.🙄

@PBandSmelly couldn't*

Stupid entitled toxic fans! How dare they say they won't buy a game for $60! They're harassing a poor multi-million dollar corporation! What's next, will they stop buying games from Blizzard just because they support a communist regime? Those poor indie developers over at Game Freak!

I actually built my team for Pokémon SwSh based on officially confirmed and the leaked Pokémon, and the only Pokémon that I will be using that isn’t new is Wobbuffet.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who plays new Pokémon games for new Pokémon.

The holier-then-thou attitude from this article is kinda gross. "He bit back by liking a tweet with gasp FOUL LANGUAGE that we won't link for the protection of the same children who are sending vulgar comments and threats to Game Freak."

I think all these 'children' need to grow up & get a life.

Guys, the Pokédex is getting too big. We’re about to hit 1000 for crying out loud! While I do feel pity for those who’s favorite Pokémon has been cut, I really don’t stand up for all this bs protesting on Twitter and attacking the creators of this game. Its a friking video game!

I’m sorry to the poor saps at GF, Turner, and Masuda. They pour their souls into developing these games, which by the way they have been putting out a new main series title every year except 2015, and they deserve much more respect for that then what they are getting now. And from their own fan base! Pokémon fans are way too demanding!

People have the right to be dissatisfied, and disappointed with the game. When you start arguing with the developers, and threatening people that's going over board. Believe me I know how it feels seeing a game franchise you are passionate about taking a turn for the worse or just simply not meeting your expectations. You can't control it just fight with your wallets people.

If you don’t like the game, don’t buy it. I think people don’t really understand how true this statement is. Nobody is pressing a gun against your head and forcing you to act, not like how Pokémon fans are holding a gun against GFs head and forcing them to make what they want, when they want it, exactly how they want it.

The real meaning of this phrase “Don’t buy the game if you don’t want it” is actually “stop voicing your negative opinion for a game you haven’t even played. You clearly don’t care about it anyway, you sound like you aren’t gonna buy it, so why waste your time dissing the developers?”

Edit : more accurately “if you don’t care about the game, shut up. Stop making negative comments. Just don’t buy the game- that’s all the protesting GF needs.

@WoolooSweater I haven't played many yet, but in my experience, the whole appeal of Pokemon as a fictionverse is based primarily on a variety of crazily exotic fantasy life forms and their relationships with the local human civilization. You could even say I find myself inclined to buy and play new games for new regions that gradually fill out this world - and the new pokemon and new stories and new characters and new details and lore and quirks that come with such a package. Without it all, the franchise would have been just a battle trainer sim with RPG mechanics and competitive multiplayer - not something to look down on in itself, but that much less of a lasting interest hook for me.

@MagnaRoader

isn't that the same for any fanboy ?

Dare to Criticize something they threw their lot in with and they will attack you like a pack of hyena's.

@Paul1994 I think they need to change the formula more. However, it does not bother me about the full Pokedex. I mean realistically, not ever continent has a lion in its ecosystem.

People are so upset that the Sword and Shield region refuses to let any pokemon trainer import their invasive species to their island that may or may not have pokemon rabies. I think the game sounds pretty realistic for the island it's emulating.

@Franz Even I understand this, even though it doesn't affect me personally, seeing as I've never bothered transferring old Pokemon to the new games (namely due to lack of means or desire).

@MajinSoul Except many of these people do love Pokémon. I grew up playing it since the original. I
had all the merchandise as a kid and I have kept playing every game up until now. I'm still disappointed the way Game Freak is handling these games and I have every right too. You can love something and not be a zombie and take everything not give up and walk away easily.

Glorious coming from Ice Cream man who had none of his creations cut and doesn't have to pay for a subscription to keep his Pokémon that can't be transferred. Have to make sure to protect them or Nintendolife might not get those heavily embargoed review copies they don't want us to know more about until they already got our money.

@NIN10DOXD Just because I'm not utterly disappointed like so many others, and people who are similar such, does not make me a zombie.

Its about time they notice what their fans are saying.
But I feel like they're only making statement about it now because Town sold like trash and the Japanese players are more vocal this time around.

People were expecting them to make their first non-handheld mainline to be the biggest and best in the series but instead they decided to do the bare minimum because they know they have blind loyalist that will buy anything with Pokemon name attached to it.
They never try to innovate.

@MegaVel91 I'm talking about the idea that people are not allowed to feel a certain way. There is nothing wrong with not having a problem yourself.

James Turner? The hack designer who made some of the ugliest Pokémon ever? He should shut up and eat humble pie.

I'm getting tired of all this nonsense.
These games just need to need come out already, so we can put all this garbage behind us and move on.
Crying out loud, they're just games. Don't like them, don't buy them.
You really want their attention, don't buy the games, but since this is Pokemon, that's going to be hard to do.

@Sakisa,

If only it was that simple, come to think of it, it is that simple the haters should vote with their wallets and not buy this game, this will send a message to Gamefreak not to produce shoddy quality games, or carry on making good Pokemon games that the mass majority of fans/Switch owners will but and enjoy.

Wow, so many people sound butt hurt over a game. Geez. This will be my first pokemon game for a long time. I don't see how you can keep expanding a game like this an expect the bar to rise with each game, then eventually it's too big. I mean, hopefully all the haters will be able to move on with their lives. It sounds like they won't be able to. Kind of reminds me of that Jarvis kid being banned for life and now he doesn't know what to do. It's always easy to focus on the negative things all the time that you forget or don't bother with the positives.

@NIN10DOXD,

Nothing wrong at all, but it's the way the people with issues seem to think they are in the majority, which they are not, and they think their concerns overide everything else, which they don't.

@Xaessya Saying it's all because they have loyalists they know will buy it is just... making assumptions you can't even confirm Xaessya, and I sincerely doubt that loyalty is the reason they low-balled on this game.

Co soles these days have updates and patches, who says they won't bring out updates for sword and shield that add new pokemon to the game or special events etc

When did gamers stopped enjoying having fun and started enjoying taking the fun of others away?

Some people need to learn a simple rule of simple: we've got to get over things more often than some times.

@Zeuseksy Bruxish wasn't even originally designed by Turner. Sit down.

Wait, a Gamefreak employee liked a comment?!
That’s unacceptable! GF can’t express their opinions! Only we can do that!
What’s next, retweeting a #ThankYouGameFreak post?

...it’s about time GF started telling people to shut up.

@johnvboy Or maybe the people without issues think they are a majority of the people informed of these changes.🤔

@Zeuseksy That’s a suggestive opinion. 😉 According to that one poll that was taken to see which Pokémon were unloved by anyone, only 4 Pokémon had zero fans, and none of those were designed by him.

Fans sending death threats is NOT ok.

Fans biting back at people’s concerns is also NOT ok.

There are unfortunately bad examples on both sides.

@WoolooSweater He liked tweets calling the people on Reddit who are upset a certain expletive. He was being a jerk and took it too far. He deserves to be held accountable like anyone else who goes too far online.

@GetShulked I personally haven't seen death threats myself. Not that they don't exist. It's just some people use the rumors to lump people into a group.

@Xylnox People are stuck paying for a storage service to keep their Pokémon because they can't be transferred back and they can't sent forward. That's the biggest complaint right now.

You know, I have never caught them all and I am not too bothered by all of the Pokemon being cut but some fans do care about that and these are the fans that have been buying Pokemon games for years. To call them entitled is messed up, they are loyal customers and their opinion matters.

"It's not the best look" for Nintendolife to have written this article and villified a single Gamefreak employee for saying "Thanks" to the one tweet that was defending him out of the many many others personally attacking him over the last few months.

Anyway, can we just remember two things:
1) These "fans" hated the game from the very first trailer when we didn't know a single thing about the game and they also hated Little Town Hero, a game most of them never played nor have any interest in
2) None of them have EVEN PLAYED THE GAME YET. Like imagine if before Metroid Prime came out, Metroid fans were personally attacking Retro Studios for having changed the perspective of Metroid and insisting they weren't going to buy the final product. How stupid such a statement would look in hindsight

@MysteryCupofJoe I wouldn't really say its the formula mate, its the amount of content i would say, imagine a BOTW size pokemon game, or a Pokemon game with multiple of regions in. A big scale Pokemon game, as most dreamed off since they were young.

It’s literally a nonissue. The number of people who don’t care or even know about the full dex situation vastly outweighs the 1000 people who are angry about it. Just leave your old crap in the past and move on

It's just opinions. And not even accountable opinions since all those complainers haven't completed the game 100%. They're not even review opinions. Not even preview opinions. These opinions don't matter a single bit. They aren't even opinions, it's banter. Game Freak should have ignored it either way, or at most, pick out the constructive banter to analyse it.

This is not the Pokémon game / world /continent that features all Mon. That was clear some time ago. It's not Pokémon Ultimate, it's just Sword and Shield.

@NIN10DOXD
Yeah this is true. Bad fans try to generalize a group based on a small minority.

Also, WHY CANT Gamefreak employees fight back? These guys aren't our spiritual or moral leaders and I dont hold them to the standards that might come with such a position. They are video game developers and their only responsibility to the world is to deliver a video game, which is exactly what they are going to do in just a few short days. If they want to curse out a few jerks online while keeping at their work, I think they have every right to do so

@N1ntendodo That's probably because Game Freak is becoming more like Sonic Team. Constantly reinventing the wheel and phasing mechanics in and out and only half listening to fans at best.

Honestly, I have no sympathy for Game Freak here. They're intentionally trying to cheap out to make a quick buck when it's pretty much been proven that games that are large scale and go all out tend to be more successful on console. Game Freak should know better than to expect that acting like an indie won't work when you're developing AAA $60 console games. There's no excuse for them not to be scaling up their budget and workforce at this point.

@Crono1973
I agree. And thank you for being level headed.

I’d also like to posit something to the folks saying that if you haven’t played it then you can’t criticize it. We know the national Dex situation. We have the information on the pokemon that are in the game and the ones that aren’t and if someone’s favorite was left on the cutting room floor...take it from me, it can sting. Does it justify the venom I’ve seen thrown around? Of course not, but understand that some people not getting the product do have their reasons even if they haven’t played it.

@Sakisa how bad does it really sting though? Old Pokémon are essentially just old toys. Just let them exist where they existed and move on.

@Bolt_Strike it’s a totally genius business model. Every single Pokémon game And product is a quick buck. They would be absolutely insane to waste profits and make a huge budget AAA game. They are in a great place, because fan feedback does not matter, as complainers generally vote ‘yes, more of this please’ with their wallets every single time. People have to accept that this is how the franchise has been Since day 1 and will be forever until it is unprofitable

@Crockin I’ve had my Shiny Sandslash for over a decade...and I was very proud to get it. Not being able to use him is a blow and most of my other favorites were cut as well. I won’t begrudge those still interested in the game but it was enough to make me lose interest in the game myself. I grew attached to a lot of the mons I use, that’s intentional. And having to leave them behind isn’t something I want to do, so I won’t.

But if it doesn’t bother you or you’re excited for the game then go for it, hope you like the game.

@NIN10DOXD “like anyone else who goes too far online”
Like the Pokémon community right now?

I dunno. I’ve seen the leaks, I know the Dex and I’m honestly excited. It’s gonna completely change the metagame, and hell, I’ve even heard of some Pokémon got nerfed or buffed as well.

A lot, and I mean a LOT of my all-time favorite Pokémon didn’t make the cut. It bums me out, yeah, but I’m looking forward to giving different Pokemon a chance. And some of the new ones are beastly as hell.

I’m stoked to be forced to try something different. I usually wind up using the same Pokémon every single game and it tends to make me a bit more bored a bit faster, but old habits die hard.

@NIN10DOXD,

Possibly, but in reality they are not, but let's just see how the games sell, because if everybody has issues the game will perform badly sales wise.

@Sakisa honestly I find Pokémon in general to be kind of bland, so I’m not sure if I will get it or not. To play with the same monsters for over a decade just sounds so boring to me, so that is why I don’t see it as a huge deal

@johnvboy lol don’t count on that. This will be one of the best selling games ever. Which proves that literally like 150 people care about the dex

Consume the product, consume more product, don’t ask questions, kiss the boot, consume more product.

@Crockin,

Totally agree with you, I was being sarcastic, these game will sell tonnes, then the haters will resort to the old tried and tested line, "People will buy anything Pokemon/Nintendo related".

@princezorldo What's comical to me is so many have criticized GF for sticking to the same formula for far too long. They're finally changing it up, and all of a sudden we have entitled people coming out of the woodwork who seem only to want to watch the world burn.

Oh I see. Those who want the formula to change = good people, Those who don't want the formula to change = entitled people who want to watch the world burn.

Are you kidding?

@Crockin and that’s fine, but it’s the way I’ve liked to play Pokemon for a while. Will the game sell well?

...duh, yeah. I’m not making some grand statement or anything, but I live on a budget and the changes aren’t ones I’m personally happy with so I’ll get a different Switch game to play while I try to survive the Holidays. That’s really all it is. People making death threats and throwing around hyperbole need to sit down. People also need to understand that some of the changes here will alienate some folk too, and that they’re allowed to have qualms with some of those changes, no matter how personal. No one should be attacking anyone over this though.

Would be fun to see the Gamefreak fans buy Little Town Hero and support the developers but they don't actually care about the developers lol

@Saro No it's not. Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee have sold more Black 2 and White 2, Platinum, Emerald, Crystal, and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. It will most likely also sell better than Fire Red and Leaf Green as well as Heart Gold and Soul Silver.

Nintendo is also offering refunds of the digital version of these games.

[Comment insisting that my side of the debate is the one who cares about pokemon and the other ones are horrible people]

@princezorldo,

Always the same, they want a totally different game, then complain that the changes are rubbish, and stray to far from the original formula, want a new set pf Pokemon but want to cling on to all the old ones as if their lives depended on it.

I think it was the right thing to do.
Let me say this a a former hardcore pokemon fan, I am so ashamed! Don't get me wrong, I really understand how you can be disappointed that your favorite Pokemon isn't available, but I get so disgusted by the majority of the reactions, which are much harsher than an "I'm so sad" comment". Some are more innocent like "I will never buy game!" While some are as serious as death threats. What they all have in common is that they behave as they are entitled to all pokemon available in the game. You are not entitled to anything. At the end of the day, they are a company and you are a consumer, as long as they make profit, they owe you as much as your local MC Donald.
I can't surf on the internet without getting walls of texts about this, I may just read the newspaper instead untill the worst is over (untill the next game is announced), and that makes me in a bad mood (or hangry, you decide). If a game can ruin your life in such a way, I would suggest to melt the golden calf and consider your priorities in life

@WoolooSweater Generalization doesn't help. Most fans who are upset aren't harassing them. You are only contributing to the toxic discourse by poisoning the well.

@NIN10DOXD Thank you for the info and level-headed reply. I think I was a little harsh in my post and I apologize.

@Browny You aren’t wrong, but the mainline Pokemon series becoming “stale” might just be the result of the basic formula being so compelling. There are still people playing Gen 1 in large numbers. If the series changed drastically than it’s be a different game entirely. Pokemon is like Mega Man in that everyone has their favorites, and some entries may be better than others, but they’re all solid games because the formula they represent is fun.

@YourGoodFriendly
[Comment saying how you are right and agree with you and continue to tell our side aregood angels
OR how you are wrong and stay how my side is right and bash your side, and how my side are angels]

@NSega64 We have to also keep in mind that this isn't going away once the games are out. Why? Pokemon Home.

"Game Freak is a bunch of lazy developers"
-People who have no experience what it's like to develop a game or work in the game industry

I can't wait to play this one. I never played a pokémon game far in before . But I can't wait to get this one. Just remember game freak there always be people out there who injoy your content no matter what had to be cut.

@Crockin It's an unsustainable business model, especially on console. Cheap games only really work well on mobile where its audience isn't focused on quality experiences and just wants something quick and accessible. Console gamers are looking for premium experiences worth the high price tag. We've seen Nintendo try this same thing with the Wii and Wii U, it worked really well with the Wii when no one else was appealing to that market, but they quickly left Nintendo behind when something different caught their attention. Even Mario couldn't keep this afloat, NSMB and NSMBW which followed a similar mentality of being cheap and accessible sold gangbusters, but then the sales dried up with the 3DS and Wii U, and they tried selling to the mobile market with Super Mario Run, but that didn't succeed either. Instead what did succeed was Super Mario Odyssey, the antithesis of this type of game philosophy which was focused on being as big as possible. With Pokemon, the same will happen. People will lose interest in a minimalist Pokemon game and the dedicated fans that will still be interested are going to want more of a Mario Odyssey type of game. Game Freak is going to learn this the hard way if they don't adapt.

I have no issue with anyone who has been working on Sword & Shield liking content that is made in support of their work, even if there is foul language. Personally, I'm on the fence with these games due to the Wild Area and am waiting to see what it's actually like outside of trailers before I determine definitively whether or not I'm buying. James Turner, in spite of my feelings on the new games, has done a great job as art director and so has the team of artists involved with the new Pokemon designs as well as some of the Galar region's locations/towns. The new Pokemon, which I've seen, are very appealing to me and are keeping my anticipation high for these titles.

I'm going to try not to give in and buy Sword and Shield not because I want Gamefreak to fail, but because I want them to improve.

@Anti-Matter On one hand... I'm a bit annoyed at the insistance from Game Freaks that they won't add more of the national dex ever in the game and ever for future games of the franchise(and the "keep onto old pokemons, you never know when you'll get to use in a future title!" feel a bit... lukewarm because it gives no answer "when" that will be for the people who're worried).

On the other, I'm playing through Ultra Moon right now, have begun to amass quite a collection from X+Alpha Saphire in Pokemon Bank and the one thing I ended up realizing.... was that I was more or less never using my Bank's pokemon, especially the higher level ones.

All of this said: the whole "you can still maybe might perhaps use them in future titles!" about non-represented pokemons could be easily fixed by simply announcing a return of something like Pokemon Colloseum. Especially now that internet matchmaking and such is a thing for multiplayer.

If anything, the timing might be good for it too. The games' world have not become less complex in structure(and it's definitely harder to model an entire game's world in 3D than in 2D) and that's ontop of having to continue to provide an entire game's worth of story. So I can understand why the "cut" happened in the first place.

A Coliseum game, with their focus being purely on battling, however, wouldn't have to develop as massive a world(or a world at all outside of maybe a few interactive hubs so the players have something fancier than just menus to interact with outside of battle). Thus could devote the majority of their resources into creating models/etc for all the Pokemons who hadn't yet been included in the generation. Which could be a way to potentially give the next gen a better foundation.

At the same time I can imagine there'd still be players unhappy about their Pokemon being represented only into a "side" game even if it'd be the one that's 100% based about traditional Pokemon battle mechanics.

I don’t see how accidentally liking a tweet with offending language when on a twitter like-spree for a hashtag really counts as “biting back”.

@MagnaRoader "the fanbois of the Pokémon series are some of the most vilest creatures on the planet."

You need to go out more and read a few books (including an English one). If heated debates about videogames are too much for you maybe you should stat away from online forums and comments sections.

@I-U Honestly I'm looking forward to it. I dived -hard- into using Pokemon Bank when I played X and Alpha Saphire recently as of last year, but now that I've been ebbing into Ultra Moon once in a while(less so than previous games, but exclusively because I'm eager to play on something else than a 3DS finally).... I'm realizing that this time around I'm... barely using my Bank's pokemons anymore despite exporting a few into Ultra Moon?

If anything I find myself more curious about trying the pokemons of the game I'm -currently- playing into than exporting(either as veterans or unleveled fresh "newbies") more into Ultra Moon.

So ultimately I think the lack of national dex won't hurt me as much as others do in the end.

This said, ultimately I look at things and I feel I can see where Game Freaks are coming from. They're not JUST making games. They have, and even moreso now than in the past which had plenty of "filler" seasons, to create games that are ALSO tied into an Anime and movies that are all heavily pushed forward by the greater Pokemon Company group Game Freaks is part of.

With increasingly more complex 3D modelled worlds(and I'd say even moreso starting from the 7th gen which seem to have been an ordeal to develop considering they originally started to consider removing national dex back then), still provide an entire game worth of story/post-game/etc and a competitive multiplayer/etc.... I can imagine that something HAD to give for them to keep developing Pokemon games at a pace that now likely has more to do with the Pokemon Company's desires for new games meshing with upcoming seasons/movies that now likely dictate the pace of games' releases than whatever Game Freaks themselves might wishes.

So rather than taking my beef to Game Freaks, I suspect there might be more that should be directed(if to anyone at all) to Pokemon Company and the fact they likely are the ones putting that pressure on Game Freaks to have yearly pokemon games releases rather than taking more time to flesh out fully-featured new releases.

Until that is somehow resolved, I think the best thing National Dex proponents might hope for would be a return of something like Pokemon Coliseum . Unlike traditional games, traditional Coliseum has always been 100% about pokemon battling rather than adventuring. So outside of maybe some kinds of interactive hubs(to give players something fancier than only text menus), they don't need the same amount of world design and world building required by a traditional pokemon game.... which could free up that much more resources exclusively toward modelling all existing Pokemons with the whole selling point being to create this "open to all" battle league of a game.

There would still be fans annoyed about stuff like support guaranteed only in a separate "side" game, but at least it'd be the one "side" game with the most ties into the franchise's traditional battle mechanics... and thus the one whose work could be most easily recycled for future games or even generations(one hopes, anyway). Plus, with internet matchmaking/etc increasingly more relevant nowdays, the timing for a return of Coliseum could well be worst.

The question though would remains to see if there's still enough appetite for a Coliseum game in 2019-2021(especially with core Pokemon games themselves having built a solid foundation of online battling that could conflict with a rejuvenated Coliseum).

Im a gen 1 scum anyway so it doesnt make much difference to me. im picking it up day 1.

Nobody is more hurt over this issue than some Nintendo Life users whose livelihood seems to depend on how well this games do. They act like any criticism can only come from a place of hatred and ignorance and will never admit that there are plenty of things GameFreak could do a lot better. We shouldn't reward sloppiness.

I like that people think this is news

Here's someone streaming the game so you guys can look and judge for yourself
https://www.smashcast.tv/ak2007

But be warned! He's currently at the first Gym

@Ludovsky I do agree that TPC's yearly pressure for new Pokemon games is the issue. The last time Game Freak had breaks was back in Generation V. As soon as that stopped, I believe Game Freak has steadily been lacking in what they've been producing and it's really catching up with Sword & Shield. TPC is pushing quantity rather than quality.

I’d probably have low-morale too if my development team was being attacked by a salty fanbase who threw rape allegations at them.

I think that all of this is so ridiculous and reinforces my notion that the world just wasn't ready for social media (and perhaps the internet in general). Yes, I realize that includes this very forum and this very post. On that note, I would GLADLY give all this up to return to a simpler time.

There are positives, but the negatives have demonstrated themselves to FAR outweigh things in the last decade-ish. Social media gives a megaphone to these bored/angry individuals who have nothing better to do than be offended by any and everything, and further it allows said individuals to directly attack anyone they wish with the most vile, repugnant, and shameful words (and sometimes actions through DOSing, etc.).

I'm not an avid Pokémon fan, but I usually buy the games, and even I can say that the Pokedex has become incredibly large. I don't blame them for not having the whole thing, especially for their first "console" game that likely needed a bit more development than another game/ds title. My suggestion to those who are so hurt by the exclusion: Vote with your wallet. Don't buy the game. It's that simple. Your Twitter words and actions are yet another embarrassment to this hobby, and you are genuinely and needlessly hurting people with the things you say. Vote with your wallet. If sales are down enough, Game Freak will get the message.

@I-U Yeah.
Though I would say I'm still impressed by the quality they DO push out despite the insane duress this pacing must put them under. I can well understand having to cut out the national dex under these conditions.

In a way it's why I look forward to Sword still because, if you remove the consideration of the national dex out of the equation and think about the pacing under which they had to develop something like this.... what I'm seeing from the trailers alone is still downright impressive.

And I like how Gigantamax/Dynamax as a mechanic managed to streamling both Z-Moves and Mega-Evolution under a single thing while also answering my biggest gripe about how both mechanics could be used everywhere you wanted which often made a lot of wild pokemon battles way too easy to my opinion.

By "location-locking" the mechanic to specific locations/events in the game world it means that, outside of these locations, battling might end up being the most "traditional" than it's been in a Pokemon game since a long while. Plus by mentioning it being specific to the Galar region they give them a perfect opening to not have to worry about how to copy it into newer games and can thus worry more about what they'd want THAT game's region to be like rather than how the mechanics of past games will affect them.

Who knows, once they're ready to move to Gen9... it might end up being one of the most "traditional" generation in years, potentially in a good way. But that remains to be seen.

At least, I leave myself the freedom to judge Sword/Shield's outcome from my own eyes rather than that of other people's gripes(such as the national dex demands).

@Northwind I dunno if that's the case as I feel we've yet to see MANY pokemons in the open world sections(which are more "open world style" it sound like than what we traditionally think of as open world... but only the actual release will tell us what it's actually like) so things might still be more on the reasonable end.

But I DO think that world design played an hand behind the national dex cut, even if an indirect one. Apparently they'd been looking to cut National Dex back in Gen 7, and thinking about it... it might correspond with the fact that Gen 7 is also the one generations where the world began to be rendered in more "organic" fashion, if it makes sense.

Even in past 3D games such as X/Y and AS/OR, the world was very "gridlike" outside of some exceptions(such as Lumiose city). It was also a very simplified kind of 3D for a lot of character/pokemon models when moving around the world. So chances are, even with the jump to more advanced graphics... the world was still relatively "simple" to model and render.

With Gen7, though, they made a huge jump not in battle graphics but instead in the visuals of the world. More naturally proportioned characters(and thus the ability to support more complex movement animations/etc), but also more organic roads/hills/etc with curves and design that actually is very non-gridlike in layout... and likely more complex to model and create. Even some of the houses feels like they have more detailed interiors than before.

Considering that's -also- around when they considered cutting the national dex, I suspect that the upgraded worlds layout thus represented more effort to develop than they were used to. And now Sword/Shield adds "open world"-style regions to the game as you said, which likely represent a lot more effort to make.

And here's the catch, with effort needed to create thing come another critical ressource that I suspect is the one they sorely lack: time.

Previously, this might not have been as much of an issues, especially with any other company. But Game Freaks are not just making games. They're making -pokemon- games that ALSO must thus tie-in with animes and movies or other events pushed by the wider Pokemon Company's animation/etc studios that drives the general pokemon IPs forward.

And that's the catch, I suspect, there might have been an era when it was the games that were pushing the anime forward and in fact the anime even kind of existed apart from the game when it introduced events and even locations that had nothing to do with anything that might have happened in games. But as time went on, you can see there was a clear desires to directly correlate the events and plots of games with those of the anime... and to a degree I thus suspect that it's now the games that are pressured to keep up with the anime rather than the other way around.

And thus Game Freaks are stuck in the unenviable position of having to follow a pace of development even more demanding than in the past, because of factors they can't exactly control themselves(the animes, which are pushed by different parts of the Pokemon Company)... all while having to do so in a context where more and more is being asked out of their games: more advanced graphics, more developed worlds(to go with graphics), new mechanics(could dynamax have been a creation of the show rather than Game Freaks is a thing I suddenly wonder about) and so on.

And without even having the freedom of going "Well, we'll take more time this time around" to make sure they can indeed put -everything- they can... because that game has to be released on time so that the anime can release alongside it's designated tie-in game.

Seen that way... I think it's no wonder that national dex or similar features would end up being cut at some point.

@Bolt_Strike I just don’t see this being the case anytime soon. This will be one of the best selling Pokémon games, and the next one will just a little better, and on and on. I see what you are saying about Mario, but that franchise is handled very differently.

It amuses me that so many people feign disappointment before they even try something these days. The press click baits fans of almost everything into an outrage frenzy and we all jump aboard like mindless little lemmings. You'll buy Sword and Shield anyway, wait until you've played it.

@Kevember there we go! Was waiting for moronic fanboys such as yourself who think way too highly of themselves. Guess what? You proved me right.

We live in a generation of paper children. Do we need to really comment on a comment made about a comment about an opinion of a decision?

@MagnaRoader
"I'd be shocked if some of those angry basement dwellers didn't attack me for this comment."

Considering you're putting people are on par with murderers, rapists and paedophiles (re. vilest), then it's no wonder your comment was attacked. If you don't want your comments challenged, then say nothing at all. Or express it in a less inflammatory way.

@MagnaRoader
Totally agree

@shaneoh nowhere did I imply that they are on par with whatever criminals you mentioned, however I did call them the vilest of the fan boy parties.
Even compared to Sony/Microsoft fan boys, the pokeboys go into complete hysterics, as seen even in this comment section.

They can literally be just as "toxic" as the people against them, and people will still praise them. Garbage.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really see how people getting upset over a faceless corporation charging more for a game that holds less is "not cool." Perhaps their upper management should consider that with the oodles of money they make off each Pokemon game, they don't actually have to churn out increasingly half-hearted games every year, and could possibly stand to put real effort into their games again. Then again, do they actually care as long as they're swimming in cash? Doubtful.

@MagnaRoader
"I think the fanbois of the Pokémon series are some of the most vilest creatures on the planet."

I’m still gonna get one of these games and get my girlfriend the one I don’t get, but I still think it’s a crock of sh— that all the time I’ve spent training and trading over countless iterations of the franchise means nothing to Game Freak in the end. Countless legendaries and high level Pokemon I can’t use or just have on hand in case I wanted to use them just gone, unable to be used or transferred. Absolute bull sh—

Total outsider and death threats are not cool, but you know would have prevented all of this? Making a good game.

Gamefreak do not deserve sympathy, they should have tried harder instead of putting out the bare minimum. People saying 'just try it' are the problem, you buy the product regardless of quality and they continue to make no effort.

"James Turner – art director for the game – recently 'liked' a tweet from a fan which attacked disappointed posters on Reddit."

"Do you think that something as innocent as liking a post that supports the team is something he should be criticised for..."

Um... clearly that post was not supporting the team, it was attacking other people...? Something doesn't make sense. Twitter is a sewer either way though.

As for the fans being toxic, every single fandom in the world is mostly full of trashy horrible fans. Only a small minority in every fandom is actually sane and nice. I've been in countless fandoms. For the most part, they're not nice places.

My honest thoughts have been shared multiple times. I think the game looks awesome, I think it’s not unreasonable to draw a line in the sand at some point and only include so many each game, I think the fan response has been a nightmare and an embarrassment for the community.

Just because it doesn’t have all the Pokémon, people say all kinds of ridiculous moronic things like “it’s a bad game” and “looks like a 3DS game” and all manner of other baseless insults which hold no merit whatsoever. The game looks absolutely incredible and of the utmost quality- a huge leap forward from the last Pokemon I played. I don’t care how upset somebody is- nothing changes that fact. The game suddenly isn’t bad just because you’re not getting every Pokémon that ever existed in the history of the 20 year franchise in a single game, which wouldn’t even be in the base game anyways- just available to transfer in down the line for endgame. It’s incredibly inconsequential for the vast majority of people and in no way, shape or form justifies saying the game is “bad” or the “bare minimum”. The only thing “bare minimum” is the effort put into unjustified accusations such as that.

If people admitted that yes, the game does look good, it is beautiful, , it does have countless changes fans were asking for for years, and just focus on their real criticism without trying to demonize the entire game over it (because the game doesn’t let you transfer in a few old Pokemon for endgame, suddenly all the other aspects of the game look horrible? Like when your girlfriend gets mad at you for one little thing, then tells you how you’re a complete piece of irredeemable trash and everything about you sucks... it’s extremism at its worst), and then express that actual criticism calmly and move on... there would be no issue. Buy the game or don’t, but you don’t have to keep screeching the same complaints ad nauseam, digging the dead horse out of the grave to beat it again every time the game’s name is mentioned. It’s done and over with. They are capping the number at 400-500. The decision has been made. That’s how it’s going to be from here on out. Like it or don’t... buy it or don’t.

With all that being said, this particular employee should not have liked any tweet attacking others. I can appreciate how he likely feels and I’m sure many of us have done the same even in this very comment section, but as a representative of the development studio you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. Obviously he doesn’t speak for everyone at the company he works for but his actions do reflect on them as a whole. It was poor form to do that.

@Northwind why would all Pokemon models need to be stored into RAM all of the time? They could easily define which groups of Pokemon are roaming at any one time in an area and have that rotate in and out in the background. Even with the wild areas they could have that calculation done as you approach to load in the necessary Pokemon. The Switch has 4GB of RAM whilst the 3DS only had 128mb of RAM so how did that cope?

At least it’s a new game and not stuck in limbo like other Nintendo franchises.

@BlueBlur101 There's nothing wrong with The National Dex movement. Some people go too far but I think everyone should push Gamefreak to make these games as good as they can be. Dropping over half the Pokemon is demoralising. The fact they d
protest it is based on the fact they care and really love Pokemon.

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. I love video games more than almost anything, but even I have to say it: IT’S JUST A VIDEO GAME! Get over it! It’s supposed to be fun. If you don’t enjoy it, move on and find a game you DO like.

But for god’s sake, don’t waste your own time and energy throwing a tantrum and lamenting over a lack of features and attacking the dev team of a freaking video game, of all things. Because it defeats the entire purpose of partaking in this amazing pastime, which is to be entertained and find joy and satisfaction in it. If you can’t find that in games, then take a hike. There are much more important causes out there that could use your rage.

The whole thing is exhausting. And that's not to absolve Game Freak, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company from how they botched the messaging of these games and this generation. And they did. You can slice it anyway you want. But they screwed up in conveying in a logical manner what we were to expect. And they have to own that

At the same time, it isn't the end of the world. And the reaction, in regards to some segments of the fanbase has been childish and ridiculous. Again, that's not to dismiss some valid criticism and some understandable disappointment. But this whole thing has been tiring. Enough that I can understand if it sours someone to investing in this generation. And maybe it might be a sign that a break from new generations might be in order. But I am also excited that we are almost at release day and can finally get on with playing the games and getting hands on experience with them and get well informed knowledge on its quality

@Mikey_205 im just going to leave this tweet here as a counterargument

the movement itself isn't wrong, or at least the idea of it, but in execution it's the way people are going about this movement
https://twitter.com/GamerTakes/status/1188331004261519360

@Crockin That's a pretty baseless assumption to say that not only will the games sell as much as the past games, but even outsell them. It's actually pretty easy to see how issues such as the National Dex, the bad press surrounding this game and Game Freak, the lack of content needed to make this a comparable experience with other Switch games, and the casuals being more interested in mobile could eat into this game's sales.

Proof that fanboys are entitled whiny gamers and need to get outside once in a while.

I'm pretty sure James Turner is just mass liking every ThankYouGameFreak tweet, not that he agreed with everything every tweet says.

So even gamefreak employees are sensitive babies like the fanboys, got it

Hopefully by the time Pokemon Sword/Shield is release people will be having lots of fun with the game.

@Anti-Matter Great point, Antimatter

@Xylnox Not at all. It's perfectly fine. You have been more reasonable than a lot of people I have seen online. lol Have a good day.

So many people with such passionate voices. We must use this energy for good. We must use this energy for those that have no energy. We must use this energy to build bridges for cars. We must use this energy to express ourselves to the fullest. We must... workout. Yahoo!

@KitChan This. The National Dex issue would be easier to swallow the rest of the game looked ambitious, but it doesn't. The Wild Area is pretty much the only aspect of this game that looks dramatically improved from the 3DS games and some people aren't even impressed by that much. Other than that it's just same old, same old, and considering the large gap in capabilities between the 3DS and Switch, you'd expect the differences to be a lot more striking than this. This game is really proving that Game Freak has been cheaping out. In a time where they should be blowing our minds with a dramatic step forward for the series, they're instead sinking to new lows. So yeah, the National Dex issue isn't the end all be all of the issue. It's just the straw that broke the Numel's back.

I think this whole article is fairly pointless. The man simply liked a tweet. This is not newsworthy. Grow up Nintendolife

I'm not getting the game unless my housemate says it's good. I haven't beaten a Pokemon game since Diamond and I've bought almost all of them. If this one shakes it up then fine, otherwise I'll keep playing Death Stranding and maybe Star Wars Fallen Order if that gets good reception (I don't trust EA but Respawn is great).

Idk. Saying GF can't defend their choices and have to just shut up and deal with it is childish as well. Kamiya is downright offensive on Twitter towards his vile trolls and I don't see as many upset about that. Same with the Tekken people with their Smash requests. Fans are abhorrently entitled to say what they want but not have anyone counter them

@Bolt_Strike not baseless actually since Pokémon is a massive franchise that generally does gangbusters. The dex is not really bad press on mass scale, it’s a small group of diehards in a sea of more casual fans and young kids who don’t care. The switch is still very hot, there’s a new cheaper portable only version, and a new pokemon game, it is going to sell crazy numbers this Christmas and beyond. The marketing push this time around is huge compared to the last few gens, so this should all be pretty clear at this point

Oh please, the hatred has gone way beyong legitimate criticism. Game Freak employees are human too! And the things I've read are only a small sample size probably but the haters are some of the nastiest people on the internet right now!

@able_to_think I'm really hoping Fallen order is good too

Liking a tweet? what? people are getting offended because someone liked a comment or post? WOW, kids these days, no wonder they are called snowflakes.

Getting triggered just because he liked a tweet or comment is ridiculous. You don't even know WHY he liked the tweet, i've liked tweets/comments even if i did not agree with everything in those comments, simply because i strongly agreed with part of the comment.

It is ok to get mad at the person who made the tweet or comment though.

I don't think they're deserving of all out attacks, but they're not worthy of praise either. Have they done great in the past? Yes. Did they drop the ball this time? Yes. This is decidedly "meh" for me. What I do I want to communicate to them? Pokemon come first. I care more about the mons than their human characters. Don't be Animal Planet. You can do better, so don't give up.

While harassing people may not be good, you cannot be a public figure and expect only, nice, supportive comments from people as a whole, especially when you're involved with something that has made people upset.

That's completely ridiculous.

That said, there have been cases in the past where angry people have harassed people who are not actually responsible for why they were upset.

So let me get this straight. This is an article complaining that someone who worked on a game "liked" a post from someone that came to his/the game's defense? Really? Not even posting something controversial, just "liking" someone else's. We're really at a point where nintendolife feels the need to weigh in on this? Ugh.

I dont like the "shills" new argument that paints the people complaining as violent, aggressive and immature. People aren't entitled for voicing their opinions. Being actually involved in the community, most criticism I've seen is fair. The conversations get heated when shills swoop in on the offensive, offering no arguments other than "just dont buy it". That's encouraging people be quiet and consume, and it's a bad mentality.
I've seen threats here and there and it's not cool, but it's far from the majority and most are probably just trolls fueling the fire.
Turner liking that post actually makes me wonder if this was all staged to begin with. It stirred up randomly, close to release day, and GF/tpc have ignored the controversy entirely up till now. I guess they thought it'd die down by now. Considering mitt Romney has alts to like his own posts, it's possible this is a planned thing that's also backfiring, since people have since taken over the hashtag to continue spreading their criticism.
By now, any company would have caved, even terrible ones like Bethesda and EA give in eventually. It's super odd to me gf is holding their ground this hard over something easily fixed. All the old pokemon are finished, they're purposely choosing not to include them all for some reason.

This is a bit of a departure for Pikmin , but it looks to be the best in the series. I like that they've gone in an RPG direction this time.

I didn't care for the longest time, it's only in the past few weeks that I've started getting excited for this game.
The Pokédex thing annoyed me, and continues to do so. I will only be OK with it's exclusion if the game is pushing the switch to the limit (which I doubt) or the models are vast;y different from 3DS. If it's juts that they couldn't be bothered to upscale all of them for this game where they easily could have then i'll be annoyed. Just pay for another programmer or 2 - this game will print money.
That being said. I have booked a half day this friday from work to get stuck in. And if this game blows then i'll get The Witcher.

@KitChan well of course he is siding with someone defending him. that is normal.

@Galenmereth i disagree, it is better if people are allowed to say what they want to say. the problem with social networks right now is political and ideological censorship. suppressing political speech only makes things worse.

Everyone who e-mailed NL with this 'hot tip' really needs to re-evaluate their priorities.

It's like, everyone is constantly barraging GameFreak with low-hanging bait about how much the game sucks without having played it and nitpicking over every little detail.

James Turner 'likes' a tweet

Everyone

I think if you actually have an opinion on this matter, you should be rounded up in the middle of the night and get forced into a Gulag.

@DinnerAndWine
You do realise that statement qualifies as an opinion

Ugh. Firstly I hardly care for Pokemon but that's the business you gotta deal with today. People are upset easily and create a sh*tstorm. I'm sure that the sales numbers will in no way reflect that vocal minority.

Also it becomes more and more en vogue to attack your fans. Remember that whole EA and Battlefield V debacle? What about Ghostbusters Movie 2016? Star Wars anyone?

At the heart of all those controversies lies one simple truth: Money. If you make content, you try to cater to your fans/potential customers and if you as a customer like what company XY did, then buy it, otherwise don't. That's it.

Pokemon, Star Wars or any other beloved franchise is not a religion. So Disney tanked Star Wars and James Cameron wasted his time with Terminator Dark Feminism. So what? Let's move on and soon they'll start to make different movies...

As long as Pokémon goes into the direction Sword and Shield do, I'm no longer interested. But sadly a lot of people don't understand that being a fan of something doesn't mean we have to accept everything that is given to us. If we don't criticize (not attacking!) they won't do better. Simple as that. We need to voice complaints if we want the product to be the best it can be.

Literally saying criticism isn't welcome and that we should all just buy the game or not isn't a healthy way of thinking. If we can't take criticism, and use it to better ourselves or our projects (whatever they be) then how can we grow?

The people who are being nasty are the vocal minority. The majority of people disappointed by how Game Freak has treated Pokemon in this release are just that; Disappointed!

You all remember EA's Battlefront 2, and the horrific monetization scheme they tried to pull? It's the people's outrage that stopped it. The game is still ruined from the nasty poisonous design at it's core, but at least the people made a point so loud that they HAD to change it.

I for one will not be buying this game or supporting it in any way, because I speak not only with my criticisms towards the way the Pokemon franchise is being handled (as a Gen 1'er as we're so "lovingly" called), but I speak with my money, too, and that's one of the only languages corporations understand.

TL;DR, Don't censor or dismiss criticism, or these companies can get away with literally anything.

@Anti-Matter That is a good title for the next generation. Pokemon: Salty and Sour.

Personally, I prefer it without the full 'dex and wish they'd done this ages ago. My favourite gens were 3, where Ruby and Sapphire did not have all the previous two gens included, and 5 where you were forced to use only new Pokémon until you had completed the game.

I know others are the opposite though, they've had that Pokémon since Red/Green/Blue and they're going to bring it into every game and they're attached to it now. And that's fair too, that's just a different way to enjoy it and I respect that and appreciate the frustration and upset that might come of that no longer being an option. And it's fine to express that, but just be respectful. In much the way that many who have complained don't like those defending the devs calling them 'whiny' or 'entitled' and such and feel it unfair, don't call the devs 'lazy' or 'money grabbing' because that too is unfair.

And if you're sitting there thinking "I didn't say that horrible stuff and now these people are attacking me for expressing my thoughts", don't worry, they're not. Those comments aren't aimed at you, they're aimed at those who are acting that way. And if anyone does aim them at you, then those people are being as bad as those they are condemning and you just have to rise above it.

Let's just be civil. Honestly things get done a lot quicker and better when we all are.

I am honestly glad they are doing this, even if its for all the wrong reasons.

Its actually nice and refreshing to be forced to try out and use new/other kinds of Pokemon, then always falling back to your same old same old team of Pokemon. Not to mention it became incredibly boring and tiresome facing off oponent after oponent with a full team of Legendary/Mythical Pokemon.
It was just ridiculous and stupid!

So both me and my son have the game pre-ordered and looking forward to it.
Seeing the latest 5 minute features trailer have made us even more excited! Game looks incredible, lots of new features and exciting stuff to explore and on full screen TV nonetheless!

Getting this upset over a twitter like is ridiculous, truly goes to show the fanbase is terrible

I wish that people would stop hating on what will be a good game just because they removed some Pokemon. I get that some people's favorite Pokemon will be cut but that isn't something to slam the game devs for. I know that my favorite Pokemon aren't in the game but I'm still going to get it and I'm not that upset. Everyone knew that one day not all of the pocket monsters would be in a game and that day is here. I hope people will get over that fact and just play what will be a great adventure in the world of Pokemon.

Think a large part of the problem is Game Freak not evolving the series since the gba. Every gen is a couple more creatures some of dubious design merit and a once off mad feature either no one likes or they barely use them in game such as double battles, triple battles, switching battles, mega evolution and now giant.

When they decided to make a change was to cut alot of pokemon including many favourites from a series that always had catch em all at the heart.

I dont think the games will be tertible just the same as last 4 and cutting the pokemon in no way will have improved it in any trade off way. I love pokemon and will buy the game but its very stagnant as a series.

...So liking a tweet is biting back?

I have no idea what's going on or why people are upset.

@nhSnork

>OUR OWN look

Oh please. A company as a whole can represent themselves, but to act like fandom is a monolithic thing is idiotic

Quite frankly Game Freak long had it coming, the complacency is off the chart, and quite frankly, insulting. A company that thought they could get away with this much for too long

• Pokemon home pretty much being pointless due to not being able bring over all your mons
• I've been against the latest high end graphics for years. However this entry is just embarrassing, full of glitches, looks unfinished and an emulator upscaled Sun/Moon looks better than this. What the hell?
• No background in battles when even let's go did it
• Game Freak's terrible comment about EXP Share
• Mass reusing assets and animations
  etc...

All of the screw ups, not looking any better than a 3DS games and they do cuts? Oof, that's bad

They really had it long coming

Really, just voting with your wallet is not enough nowadays when big corps can just ignore the hell out of you because everyone else is still gonna buy it anyways and continue the cycle of complencency because they could get away with it. This is why the outcry is so big about stuff lately, there's just really no other ways than outright humiliate the company, and Game Freak has been rightfully thoroughly humiliated in the past few months

I wouldn't have liked a comment attacking back at fans if I was a lead dev, but I don't really mind that he did.

I think the sales for this game will show them that the amount of people up in arms about the decision isn't as much as it seems online.

I think fans have some reason to be disappointed throughout the game's history though, and that these may have built up leading to this reaction in the community. Lots of decisions have been made that people feel make the newer games less quality than older ones. To name a few:

• the games "new audience" isn't interested in Post-Game content like the Battle Frontier, so they didn't put it in
• Event pokemon used to have interesting side quests in new areas, but now they're just handed to you in a pokemon center
• side activities feel more like boring little minigames rather than being actually fun (Pokemon Contests, Sinnoh Underground, and Bug Off were very fun side activities to do, where as Island Management, Petting your pokemon, and Cooking are not; these keep me coming back out of necessity rather than fun)
• Excessive unskipable dialogue and handholding (I didn't notice this much my first playthrough of SM, but Pokemon is supposed to be very replayable, and this killed SM's replayability)

I do think the new features and improvements will address a lot of these issue of removed content, but I'm just saying that all these things removed compound the issue.

You shouldn't always be on the side of developers just because you want to have good relationships with them. Damn, you are journalists...

I think this game is going to sell gang busters, the core base that have the complaints will buy it either way more than likely (I have complaints, but not enough for me to not buy it). Unfortunately the crowd that is not complaining that will buy this well outnumbers the vocal minority. I think it would take a lot of mess ups to ruin the first regular pokemon game on a console, and due to it being that it is less likely to fail. I think the game will be fun either way, but do wish the things like no full pokedex, and some of the graphics upgrades were better were solved. I still hope someday maybe we'll see something like the mythical pokemon rainbow idea where basically the game allows you to go to every area that's been released in the past so you can literally catch them all, but it seems less and less likely that Game Freak/Pokemon Company will ever want to put that much into the series for that idea.

James Turner may not have written the post himself, but liking a tweet calling fans such a vulgar term for criticizing something doesn't reflect highly on him.

As for the Pokedex itself, I'd like to have every Pokémon in one game, but there are hundreds of them and including each one can't be easy.

Complaining about it is fine. This gen is so lack luster and has so many baffling decisions, I've decided to skip it.

Harassing the creators directly over it is never cool.

As for James Turner, idk what he said because I don't do social media stuff like twitter or facebook.

Heyo people.

1. This article is a kind of ridiculous, because it is just the fact that James Turner "liked" a tweet of someone. Nintendo Life, you are just starting fire where it doesn't need.

2. I will buy the game. I think it seems a nice direction to the future (wild area seems awesome). Some of the features seems nice. I don't care about Curry dex and dynamax. I'm curious about Pokémon jobs.

3. About reduced National Pokédex, I don't mind (I never catched 'em all), but I understand the fans that are sad about that. I expect that the games will include all Pokémon's somehow in the future, even just in Pokémon Home hub.

4. All the fans that send death notes to developers just prove that they never learned the values of Pokémon: compassion and friendship. We can argue and be critics about the game (for not achieving some expectations), but we don't need hate speech in Pokémon world.

Have a nice week and let's enjoy the game as possible!

Being sent death threats and liking a tweet aren't the same thing, but go off I guess.

ANGER. RAGE. HAAAAAATE. Maaaan. We're talking about a Pokemon game here right? With the cute little critters? About everlasting deep bonds of love and being good to one another. Like, the games with the accompanying show, that's about friendship, hope, compassion and kindness? Right? Some people didn't get those messages I guess...

Pretty sure the average NatDexer hates the people sending death threats as much as anyone else.

They get lumped together and it's used an excuse to not take the criticism seriously.

Recently leaked streams show a lack of polish. I'm not going to link here for the sake of spoilers, but some major examples are that models have been models poping in and out and tons of locations lack battle backgrounds. Haven't seen this level of cutting corners in any Nintendo game in years.

@MagnaRoader ... So basically if people agree with you, great, but if they don't they're probably scum of the earth who aren't entitled to an opinion? Fan or not, that's dumb way to make a point.

Sorry you created crap, sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry

"we took so many hours on this game" -graphics look like they got ripped from a 2011 3ds game (but, i will say it looks okay just not that great), they got a damn n64 tree, and the pokemon animation is ripped from the 3ds -i can go on. just stop blaming the community for your own mistakes gamefreak, and if people actually attacked them with such rude words, than that's messed up -shouldn't be doing that at all. it should be criticizing only. not attacking the people -that's just wrong.

@Yorumi thank you! it's been getting hard to find great people like you on articles like this on a site like this cause it usually foreshadowed with ignorant community members -who just don't understand the real truth behind the backlash it's getting.

you are right, shouldn't be attacking people -like that -it's screwed up.

@Haywired dude if you really wanna know -look up a twitter user by the name DistantKingdom -he has a youtube account that explains allot on why people are disappointed with this game, and you can also read his tweets as well -he explains well.

@able_to_think dude! i urge you to check out this guy on twitter named 'DistantKingdom' -he will explains why people are upset through his tweets and no he doesn't act this way -he's very nice dude. very chilld, he even owns a youtube account. -you can look him up on twitter and scroll through his tweets -you'll start to understand him while you read them.

Boo hoo... hope Most people manages to restrain themselves from buying this incomplete mess. Some people would call is haters, but lots of us have been there since the very beginning, with Red/Blue, and are not willing to pay them for these downgrades anymore... however, I have the feeling these will sell.like crazy.

Oh well, nothing more but voice our disgust with the game. Hopefully this guy will consider his position and what he can do because of it in the future.

@MajinSoul huh? Because we are customers and we need to express disgust as well so the team doesnt continue to sell incomplete games in the future? Is that good enough of a reason for you? Products need to be criricized, so they get better and we continue to buy them in the future

@GetShulked

This is pretty much how i feel.
Harrassing people with death threats and personal insults is a very bad look and only hurts the point they are trying to make.

i also disagree with those who lump all criticism under the "entitled toxic gamers" banner, not everyone is "mad" many are simply "disappointed" and feel like aspects they have seen feel like a step back, and as long as they arent hurling insults at others, or harassing people then its perfectly fine.

@Paul1994 To be fair, they've coasted along making games that look and play like basic SNES games for their whole existence. Now they're trying to really move it forward and are developing on a home console and can't just do the extremely basic models and environments anymore. They're putting more effort in because developing for a modern home HD console is way more demanding. The problem is that they're not used to it and they're struggling, but not for lack of effort.

All of the "don't like it, don't buy it" comments are among the more infuriating staple fare from the NL comment section. If we follow this logic to it's conclusion- "shut up, don't be entitled, don't like it, don't buy it"- that's not going to send a message of, "Hey, we like your series, we just dislike some of the aspects which need improvement." It sends the message of "We aren't interested in your series anymore," which if this happened to mainline, could "Pokemon Go-ify" the series, in an attempt to draw a new audience.

You know what sends a better message? Buy Sword &/or Shield used instead of new, and don't buy any DLC. You still legally purchase the game/s, show interest in it, and contribute to the economy. But you're not giving Nintendo/Game Freak/et al a dime for all their efforts. On top of that, DON'T shut up, and DO voice your (valid) criticisms and distaste online. That's what sends the message that needs to be heard. Not this "don't like it, don't buy it, don't be an entitled whiny brat" nonsensical BS.

I want to try the game before I say anything about it, how good or bad it will be. I know people were disappointed by the graphics but I think they look nice. Yes the series has looked pretty much the same all these years, the 3DS games weren't even full 3D. But for me, Pokemon was never about the realistic graphics. It was the compelling gameplay. What I really got a bit bored of was the fact it was always the same gameplay-wise. Go to this gym, get that HM to progress, catch 'em ALL FREAKIN THOUSAND. I mean who really has the time and energy to go trough all the hoops to catch/trade/evolve all the thousand mons? I know I don't, but I would like to. Because I like to FINISH my games. Which brings me to my next point: I thin it's good the game doesn't have all available Pokemon. Makes it less like a chore to start when you know you can actually play and explore instead of thinking how to trade all the missing 700 species. It's also nice we don't have all the old ones because I'd just end up using only the gen 1-3 Pokemon because I remember the names, attacks and stats. This way I can learn to love the newer Pokemon as well. Wanting to get all the old ones here is just wanting to stick to the nostalgia (in my opinion) which is kinda funny - people complain about the games not being innovative but then they don't really want anything new.
Anyway I feel like the games are gonna be so great, have tons of interesting new stuff and gonna look super nice too (judging by pics and trailers we've gotten).

@Northwind In other subjects I just recalled gameplay balance was also cited in the past.

And while not thinking about direct numerical balance there is one thing I found myself recalling about: the amount of "movelists" revisions I've seen in the past for a variety of different pokemon.

Specifically, pokemons who had their ability to learn some moves(from level up/TM/etc) removed in subsequent gens or got the ability to learn NEW existing moves they previously couldn't.

Thinking about it, considering this IS a thing they had to do in previous gens... every new pokemons every new gens meant that reviewing the whole lot of them to see what revisions would be needed WOULD become harder every new gens after all?

By nixing national dex though, they only have to revise the ones they know will be included, which greatly limit the "population pool" in need of a revision.

This said... considering the BIG worry from fans seem to be "will my favorite be left in limbo...???", an easy fix they could do would simply be...

Add classic battle sprites in Pokemon Home to all the new pokemons introduced in the latest gen.
And then add (online?) battling to Pokemon Home itself as a sort of anything-goes "free for all league" using said classic much lighter battle sprites instead of 3D models and animations.

That way they'd add one heck of an incentive to not just stop worrying what will happen to currently unsupported favorites, but ALSO one heck of an incentive to Pokemon Home if it basically became the "Online Pokemon Collosseum.. from your phone " of the decade. And by not having to worry about world/story/etc in such a version of Pokemon Home... it could be well-doable?

Another strong move they could do(and amusingly not a mutually exclusive one with the Home stuff) is continue what they had started on 3DS' eshop: release not remakes but remastered versions of the -classic- past pokemon games, but updated with support for Pokemon Home in the same way Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal were updated to support transfers to the pokemon banks.

And massive bonus points if they can make the "classics, upgrade" not just support to Pokemon Home but also FROM Pokemon Home with online trading(maybe multiplayer though that's the longer moonshot) thrown in as a bonus.

Either(to not mention both!) of these two things("National Dex League" Battling from Home and "Classics, upgraded with Home support" re-releases) could go a LONG way to assuage all but the most bitter of fans I suspects.

Since it'd finally answer the big "What will happen to my favorites?" question honestly.

And the Switch could well easily support it too. There's enough "classics" retro era games there already to justify it.