Pokemon Sword and Shield might be one of the biggest and most highly anticipated upcoming releases of the year, but it’s attracted a surprising amount of controversy of late. Developers Game Freak recently confirmed that the upcoming RPG duo’s Pokedex would only support a set number of Pokemon, which means that it would be incompatible with hundreds of remaining Pokemon. People who’ve been collecting, training, and transferring their Poke-pals from game to game for years have been quite unhappy with that. For a game that wants you to “catch them all” to not let you, you know, catch them all, is more than a little baffling.
Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda, longtime producer of the Pokemon franchise, has sent out a response to fans regarding the same- only it’s not much of a response. Masuda acknowledges that people are unhappy with the decision, and… that’s it. Short of saying that Pokemon not appearing Sword and Shield might and will still appear in other future Pokemon games, he doesn’t really say much else.
“Thank you to all of our fans for caring so deeply about Pokémon,” Masuda writes. “Recently, I shared the news that some Pokémon cannot be transferred to Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. I’ve read all your comments and appreciate your love and passion for Pokémon.
“Just like all of you, we are passionate about Pokémon and each and every one of them is very important to us. After so many years of developing the Pokémon video games, this was a very difficult decision for me. I’d like to make one thing clear: even if a specific Pokémon is not available in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, that does not mean it will not appear in future games.
“The world of Pokémon continues to evolve. The Galar region offers new Pokémon to encounter, Trainers to battle, and adventures to embark on. We are pouring our hearts into these games, and we hope you will look forward to joining us on this new journey.”
So any hopes that Game Freak might eventually introduce a National Dex to the game with post-launch patches and updates are pretty much dashed, then. Oh well, at least we still have those cool raid battles to look forward to.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are out on November 15 for the Nintendo Switch.
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