Pokemon Sword And Shield

While Pokémon Sword and Shield has been a smash-hit all over the world, its release has been dogged by debates over what has become known as "Dexit" – the removal of legacy Pokémon from the game's National Pokédex. Prior to launch, developer Game Freak announced that it had made the decision to remove certain monsters from the game and later stated that it would be doing the same for future instalments, which sparked a backlash from certain parts of the community.

The debate was revived last week when it was confirmed that the upcoming expansions – The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra – will feature "over 200" monsters from past Pokémon games. While Game Freak has stated that these monsters will still be available to those who don't purchase the expansion pass, the news has still attracted a small but vocal negative response.

Game Freak co-founder and head of development Junichi Masuda – who has worked on every mainline Pokémon game since the series began – is even getting heat on his birthday over the whole thing, as spotted by Video Games Chronicle.

A group of fans wished him a happy birthday on Twitter, but one user – the only one that Masuda has replied to directly, at the time of writing – decided to take him to task for "the decision to remove old Pokémon so that you can make money from DLC" – a clear reference to the recent expansion pass announcement.

A clearly exasperated Masuda posted:

It’s a public holiday today and it’s my birthday, can you let me relax?

Masuda isn't the first member of Game Freak to make his frustrations known over the whole Pokédex saga; the game's art director James Turner 'liked' a tweet from a fan which attacked disappointed posters on Reddit.

[source videogameschronicle.com]