Pokemon Sword and Shield are looking like they’ll be doing some interesting stuff with plenty of new additions and tweaks, but there is one detail related to the RPG duo that’s been at the centre of plenty of controversy. Game Freak have stuck by their decision to not have National Dex in the games, and though it’s something that’s been a long time coming according to them, it’s still attracted displeasure (to put it mildly) from a section of the Pokemon community.
And given that they feel it was unavoidable, it’s not surprising that this is something that’s going to be a trend for the series going forward. Speaking recently to Inside Gamer (via Nintendo Everything), producer Juichi Masuda re-iterated that Game Freak has no plans to add missing Pokemon to Sword and Shield, and that a cut Pokedex is something we’ll see in future Pokemon games as well.
“We currently have no plans to make the Pokemon that are missing from the Galar Pokedex available in-game,” Masuda said. “This is an approach that we want to continue with in future Pokemon games. Up until now it hasn’t been possible to encounter every Pokemon in every game, so people had to transfer them from old games to the new game, by using Pokemon Bank, for example.”
“The Pokemon Home app is currently in development, in which players can collect their various Pokemon, and only Pokemon in the Galar Pokedex can be transferred from there to Sword and Shield,” he continued. “But the way of playing is actually not very different from before with Pokemon Bank: up until now, you have always only been able to meet Pokemon from a certain region.
“We encourage people to use Pokemon Home to collect their Pokemon from old games. From there they might be able to take them to other games in the future. So take good care of your old Pokemon, because perhaps you can travel with them again in the future.”
Pokemon Sword and Shield are out on November 15 for the Switch. Make sure to check out its meaty overview trailer, as well as its recently released final trailer before launch.