In recent days, Game Freak has come under fire for various grievances fans have with the upcoming Pokemon titles, Sword and Shield. Following the controversy of only a select amount of Pokemon being in the game at all, Game Freak was then criticized for reusing animations and character models from previous Pokemon games. However, these claims appear to be untrue, as a previous interview with Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori confirms that Game Freak has had to create every Pokemon model in Sword and Shield "from scratch". The June 2019 interview, which went largely unnoticed due to its lack of English translation, was also not referenced in the "official response" from Game Freak two weeks ago, regarding the Pokedex issue.

Due to the nature of the Nintendo Switch's better hardware and smoother framerates, the 3DS-era Pokemon models and animations were unable to be directly transferred over to engine that Sword and Shield are running on, so the team over at Game Freak had to remake every Pokemon model. This was apparently especially difficult for the team, who has had their normal amount of developers split between two major projects: Sword/Shield and Town. During the development of Sun and Moon, Game Freak was "barely able to" import all 809 Pokemon into that game with a full dedicated team as it was. This, coupled with the daunting task of balancing each and every Pokemon was what led to Junichi Masuda deciding to "choose quality over quantity", when it came to choosing which Pokemon would make it into the Galar Dex. In the interview he says, "The decision is sad. Of course I wanted to bring all the Pokemon in if I could do it, but this was a decision I had to make eventually".

Masuda even joked about the matter responding that the Pokemon that won't show up in the game are thinking, "This region is too cold. I think I'll stay at home this time."

When it comes to the matter of adding subsequent Pokemon in post-launch updates, Game Freak says that they are considering the idea, but are undecided at the moment. He also further explained that the Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing features require additional 3D models from each Pokemon, and are not simply resized versions of their existing assets.

Source

 

[Megadriver94]

Yes, they can fuck up, they can make mistake. I'm not denying that. But I have a problem with the lot of people here who are simply assuming they don't care or have bad intentions. That's a typical "EA" prejudice being applied to every company as soon as they don't do everything that "the fans" want.

Pretty much all you're saying except for the dex is stuff that they've always been doing. They've always added new stuff and removed old stuff.
It was only a matter of time till they started removing some Pokemon. I might even say, it's potentially a GOOD thing, less monster is more manageable and can (potentially) be beneficial to other aspects of the game.
Not saying they will make it better, but we can't know until it's there

Also, why do people seem to think cartridge size is a problem? I fail to understand this argument.


This goes both ways though. If "the core fanbase" think Gamefreak is out of touch, they also need to look at the numbers of other Pokemon games recently and maybe acknowledge that they too could be out of touch and there's another fanbase building out of more recent games (thinking Go here) that might not care all too much about stuff being removed from games they never played.

What do GF gain in the long run from removing the National Dex? Pokemon you gotta "catch them all", not just the ones in the Region you start in. They should have just removed the Megastones and not the bulk of the non-Galar Pokemon. Oh, and card size can be an issue for sure, because sometimes with all the data made and debugged, you either have to go with bank-switching, removing some areas and items from the final build, or as I said has been with some optical disc games on systems like the PS1, Sega Saturn, Sega CD, and Gamecube, make the game be made up of two physical discs or more.

 

[deinonychus71]

What do GF gain in the long run from removing the National Dex? Pokemon you gotta "catch them all", not just the ones in the Region you start in. They should have just removed the Megastones and not the bulk of the non-Galar Pokemon. Oh, and card size can be an issue for sure, because sometimes with all the data made and debugged, you either have to go with bank-switching, removing some areas and items from the final build, or as I said has been with some optical disc games on systems like the PS1, Sega Saturn, Sega CD, and Gamecube, make the game be made up of two physical discs or more.

You can quote me on this if I end up being wrong, but I can assure you cartridge size has nothing to do with whether the game can have 800 monsters or not.
If anything, the games you're referring are game that had long videos, which typically take a lot of space.

Pokemon HD (barely) textures barely take any space compared to videos, and animations is basically code, it takes nothing.

 

[dAVID_]

They can say whatever the want, but facts are facts.
They game is very rushed, and we will likely see a similar situation as we did with Sonic '06: a buggy and incomplete mess that could've been better if it was given the proper time.
Bonus: Guess which game the background of the image belongs to.

 

[Chary]

What do GF gain in the long run from removing the National Dex

The quick and easy answer is that they don’t have to bother with new learnsets, new level up moves, potentially adding methods for evolutions or transformations for certain location or event based Pokémon, modeling, attack and battle animations, etc. In turn, any text related doesn’t have to be translated into a multitude of worldwide languages either. All that takes development time.

Development time that could take away from Pokémon S/S launching in the very coveted and marketable holiday pre-Christmas season for the west, which is not only going to drive game sales, but also new Switch sales, especially the Switch Lite.

But that’s just my random thoughts. It could just be that GF is tired of dealing with a massive, bloated, over saturated PokeDex full of 1000 different little creatures and having to keep track of it all.

 

[altorn]

Ok so at least they're "thinking" about subsequent updates adding new Pokemon in post-launch.

 

[xskibbles]

The quick and easy answer is that they don’t have to bother with new learnsets, new level up moves, potentially adding methods for evolutions or transformations for certain location or event based Pokémon, modeling, attack and battle animations, etc. In turn, any text related doesn’t have to be translated into a multitude of worldwide languages either. All that takes development time.

Development time that could take away from Pokémon S/S launching in the very coveted and marketable holiday pre-Christmas season for the west, which is not only going to drive game sales, but also new Switch sales, especially the Switch Lite.

But that’s just my random thoughts. It could just be that GF is tired of dealing with a massive, bloated, over saturated PokeDex full of 1000 different little creatures and having to keep track of it all.

I think the last part myself. I think GameFreak themselves are kind of just tired of Pokemon and focused more on Town.

 

[Deleted User]

Yes, they can fuck up, they can make mistake. I'm not denying that. But I have a problem with the lot of people here who are simply assuming they don't care or have bad intentions. That's a typical "EA" prejudice being applied to every company as soon as they don't do everything that "the fans" want.

Pretty much all you're saying except for the dex is stuff that they've always been doing. They've always added new stuff and removed old stuff.
It was only a matter of time till they started removing some Pokemon. I might even say, it's potentially a GOOD thing, less monster is more manageable and can (potentially) be beneficial to other aspects of the game.
Not saying they will make it better, but we can't know until it's there

Also, why do people seem to think cartridge size is a problem? I fail to understand this argument.


This goes both ways though. If "the core fanbase" think Gamefreak is out of touch, they also need to look at the numbers of other Pokemon games recently and maybe acknowledge that they too could be out of touch and there's another fanbase building out of more recent games (thinking Go here) that might not care all too much about stuff being removed from games they never played.

Fans issue: Pokemon being removed.
gamefreaks reason for pokemon being removed: better models and better animations
fans notice that models are identical
fans notice that animations have only been slightly tweaked
data miners notice that the 3ds models have a higher tricount than what the 3ds can display.

Fans realize gamefreak makes a billion dollars from franchise
Fans Begins to believe there is something wrong

 

[Justinde75]

Havent purchased a pokemon game legally since black and white 2, the last games that deserved money

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I honestly dont understand why gamefreak is doing this. They are not a small indie studio. They are developing a game that is part of one of the biggest video game series of all time.

 

[DeoNaught]

Fans issue: Pokemon being removed.
gamefreaks reason for pokemon being removed: better models and better animations
fans notice that models are identical
fans notice that animations have only been slightly tweaked
data miners notice that the 3ds models have a higher tricount than what the 3ds can display.

Fans realize gamefreak makes a billion dollars from franchise
Fans Begins to believe there is something wrong

Modles aren't the only thing you have to implement...
You have which moves to learn and not learn, you have Pokedex Description which changes pretty much every generation, you have stats even though they are mostly rng there are thresholds to implement. You have the pokemon cries, you have events, and so on and so forth.

I'd rather have them freak out over the trees, and get really nice graphics, then freak out over the national dex, and get pokemon only completionists will care about, and 3ds era graphics

 

[Deleted User]

Modles aren't the only thing you have to implement...
You have which moves to learn and not learn, you have Pokedex Description which changes pretty much every generation, you have stats even though they are mostly rng there are thresholds to implement. You have the pokemon cries, you have events, and so on and so forth.

I'd rather have them freak out over the trees, and get really nice graphics, then freak out over the national dex, and get pokemon only completionists will care about, and 3ds era graphics

Except they aren't doing anything about that. And further more, switch and 3ds are on the similar architecture. we aren't going from some strange architecture to ARM.

 

[deinonychus71]

Fans issue: Pokemon being removed.
gamefreaks reason for pokemon being removed: better models and better animations
fans notice that models are identical
fans notice that animations have only been slightly tweaked
data miners notice that the 3ds models have a higher tricount than what the 3ds can display.

Fans realize gamefreak makes a billion dollars from franchise
Fans Begins to believe there is something wrong

Now with critical thinking:
- You cannot prove that models are identicals because nobody has the game yet.
- You don't know the full scope of the same and any potential new animation.
- Yes factually it can be proven that 3ds models were made to be future proof.

- A billion dollars franchise does not make a budget automatically bigger, nor can you simply delay a game without consequences (again, Pokemon is not just a video game, it will impacts all surrounding marketing), nor can you always change the scope or budget through development. As someone said earlier, anyone saying that has no idea how it is to work in the industry.
- What's "wrong" is that they decided not take an incremental approach in their migration to HD console instead of creating the new BotW, which is totally fine to criticize, but is actually a pretty understandable business choice.

 

[Kioku]

Except they aren't doing anything about that. And further more, switch and 3ds are on the similar architecture. we aren't going from some strange architecture to ARM.

It's not a hardware limitation... Unless you're accounting for how underpowered the 3ds is... Just bringing the models over may not be so copy/paste like most of you believe. "It looks the same" is an awful counter argument as well... As if they weren't aiming for that or something..

 

[Deleted User]

Now with critical thinking:
- You cannot prove that models are identicals because nobody has the game yet.
- You don't know the full scope of the same and any potential new animation.
- Yes factually it can be proven that 3ds models were made to be future proof.

- A billion dollars franchise does not make a budget automatically bigger, nor can you simply delay a game without consequences (again, Pokemon is not just a video game, it will impacts all surrounding marketing), nor can you change the scope or budget always through a development. As someone said earlier, anyone saying that has no idea how it is to work in the industry.
- What's "wrong" is that they decided not take an incremental approach in their migration to HD console instead of creating the new BotW, which is totally fine to criticize, but is actually a pretty understandable business choice.

Yes I can actually. There's a difference between a texture and model, with a good eye you can see if they made any changes. Example e3 Machop from the tree house. Pay attention to those rip cage lines, the devs could of easily made it as part of the model, but they are not, still 2d textures,

 

[antiNT]

Please, watch this video, as it explains why this statement is absolutely false. It's actually a wrong translation, Game Freak never claimed to redo the models.

 

[impeio92]

I dont think so

 

[KingBlank]

I doubt that 95% of pokemon's fanbase cares about the exclusion of national dex. Me included.
I just hope they are serious about this quality over quantity thing.

 

[Deleted User]

It's not a hardware limitation... Unless you're accounting for how underpowered the 3ds is... Just bringing the models over may not be so copy/paste like most of you believe. "It looks the same" is an awful counter argument as well... As if they weren't aiming for that or something..

there's a difference between style and improvement. With those models I can play spot the difference and lose every time. Because I notice that exactly everything is exactly the same. I already stated this. But let's say they did make new models or had to tweak them. Wouldn't they made machop's rib cage lines part of the actual model instead of textures?

 

[deinonychus71]

Yes I can actually. There's a difference between a texture and model, with a good eye you can see if they made any changes. Example e3 Machop from the tree house. Pay attention to those rip cage lines, the devs could of easily made it as part of the model, but they are not, still 2d textures,

It only shows that it seems that some textures and models for that one Pokemon are being reused. It does not make a rule.

Please, watch this video, as it explains why this statement is absolutely false. It's actually a wrong translation, Game Freak never claimed to redo the models.

Read the previous posts please.

 

[Deleted User]

It only shows that it seems that some textures and models for that one Pokemon are being reused. It does not make a rule.


Read the previous posts please.

Not some all returning pokemon. But at this point I'm done arguing since you clearly want to shill for the game.
But because this is a switch game, and a large release one.
I'll say that sword and shield will get leaked 5 days before it's released.
And data miners will likely have a field day.

 

[froggestspirit]

If they are suposidly new models from scratch, that actually concerns me more, as it would be more efficient to convert them to the necessary format than to scrap and start over.

What also concerns me, is that these models were also used in let's go.

Yeah, they may need to touch up on textures, but that's not remodelling from scratch.

Also, sun and moons NPC animations were so canned, I got tired of them in Sun and Moon. seeing Hop jump for joy like Hau did haunts me...