Following up on the Pokémon Direct on June 5th, Nintendo has revealed more information on Pokémon Sword and Shield at the Nintendo Treehouse Live at E3 event.[prebreak][/prebreak] The showcase revealed a few things, such as the new Pokémon Yamper and Impidimp, as well as other general gameplay.

However, during discussions with Junichi Masuda, he revealed that not every Pokémon is going to be available in Pokémon Sword and Shield. "What that means for Pokémon Sword and Shield is that players will be able to transfer their Pokémon from Pokémon Home, only if they appear in the Galar Pokédex." This means that certain Pokémon will be completely omitted from the game, for the first time in the series' history. Naturally, people are upset about this, leading to a whopping 40,000 dislikes on Nintendo's official upload, compared to the video's 15,000 likes. Part of the frustration comes from the idea that all Pokémon can be transferred to the new Pokémon Home service, and have no way of leaving, leaving them in what is essentially a Pokémon Prison.

In an interview with USgamer, Masuda explained that the reason for omitting Pokémon was down to the "higher fidelity" of the game, as well as the "higher quality animations". He also said that they're looking to keep the battle system balanced, and to allow the new Pokémon to shine.

Junichi Masuda, Producer: There are a couple of different parts to the thinking behind it, but really the biggest reason for it is just the sheer number of Pokemon. We already have well over 800 Pokemon species, and there's going to be more added in these games. And now that they're on the Nintendo Switch, we're creating it with much higher fidelity with higher quality animations. But even more than that, it's coming down to the battle system. We're making sure we can keep everything balanced and give all the Pokemon that appear in the games a chance to shine.

We knew at some point we weren't going to be able to indefinitely keep supporting all of the Pokemon, and we just found that Sword and Shield would probably be a good point to go back and reevaluate what would be the best selection of Pokemon that appeal to the widest audience while keeping into consideration the balance of the battle system. It isn't just going to be all-new Pokemon in the Galar region Pokedex; there's still going to be a lot of favorites that fans will be able to bring over that they've adventured with previously. But yeah, it was pretty much just balancing and getting this optimal selection of Pokemon for the adventure we wanted to provide.

Previously, all Pokémon were available through trades and cross-generation transfers of Pokémon. This meant that each game had a unique set of Pokémon that appear, but the others can be obtained in some form. It's currently unknown how many Pokémon have been cut from Sword and Shield.

You can find a list of Pokémon confirmed for Sword and Shield here.

YouTube Video
USgamer Interview

 

[KingVamp]

All this talk about pay DLC. It is almost like you want them to be in more hot water. lol

 

[WiikeyHacker]

Just call me Natsumi not Wikihacker in truth it was all i could think up until i put my name under the wikihacker name

 

[pedro702]

All this talk about pay DLC. It is almost like you want them to be in more hot water. lol

yeah lol, people already will need to pay for pokemon bank and then pay for nintendo online subscription just to get pokemons into the home to transfer what they can to the base game, let alone pay for dlc for the abilty to transfer some more lol.

 

[Robika]

They can recycle models and animations like they did for Pokémon GO

They are saying that they want to make the Pokémon better looking and more charismatic, also I feel like they want to shake the meta of the competitive scene up by not including some older Pokémon. I feel like a future Pokémon game for the switch will have all the pokemon in it as big selling point, "Finally, you can catch them all!"

 

[Xzi]

The 2nd generation was when I last enjoyed Pkmn. Ever since it just feels like they're rehashing the same games with increasingly weird-looking pokefreaks.

Well, it has been the same formula ever since gen1. Unless you count Pokemon XD as mainline, gen8 is the first time they're changing things up in any meaningful way.

 

[pedro702]

They are saying that they want to make the Pokémon better looking and more charismatic, also I feel like they want to shake the meta of the competitive scene up by not including some older Pokémon. I feel like a future Pokémon game for the switch will have all the pokemon in it as big selling point, "Finally, you can catch them all!"

shacking up the metagame lol, they will probably cut pokemons that arent popular like ledian, beedril and sunflora and let the powerful ones wich are also popular be in still, im preety sure they will base their choices with online usage of pokemons in past gens to see who made the cut.

 

[NancyDS]

View attachment 169804​

Following up on the Pokémon Direct on June 5th, Nintendo has revealed more information on Pokémon Sword and Shield at the Nintendo Treehouse Live at E3 event.[prebreak][/prebreak] The showcase revealed a few things, such as the new Pokémon Yamper and Impidimp, as well as other general gameplay.

However, during discussions with Junichi Masuda, he revealed that not every Pokémon is going to be available in Pokémon Sword and Shield. "What that means for Pokémon Sword and Shield is that players will be able to transfer their Pokémon from Pokémon Home, only if they appear in the Galar Pokédex." This means that certain Pokémon will be completely omitted from the game, for the first time in the series' history. Naturally, people are upset about this, leading to a whopping 40,000 dislikes on Nintendo's official upload, compared to the video's 15,000 likes. Part of the frustration comes from the idea that all Pokémon can be transferred to the new Pokémon Home service, and have no way of leaving, leaving them in what is essentially a Pokémon Prison.

In an interview with USgamer, Masuda explained that the reason for omitting Pokémon was down to the "higher fidelity" of the game, as well as the "higher quality animations". He also said that they're looking to keep the battle system balanced, and to allow the new Pokémon to shine.


Previously, all Pokémon were available through trades and cross-generation transfers of Pokémon. This meant that each game had a unique set of Pokémon that appear, but the others can be obtained in some form. It's currently unknown how many Pokémon have been cut from Sword and Shield.

You can find a list of Pokémon confirmed for Sword and Shield here.

YouTube Video
USgamer Interview

Why do not they just put the National Dex in Pokémon Sword and Shield?

Maybe we'll use Cheats to catch the missing Pokémon or a Save Editor for games.

or better yet, when we pass the Galar Pokémon League, we will get the National Dex and we can fight with the other Pokémon, hahaha

 

[Minox]

Well, it has been the same formula ever since gen1. Unless you count Pokemon XD as mainline, gen8 is the first time they're changing things up in any meaningful way.

That is the problem I believe. They seem always seemed to focus on increasing the amount of pokemon rather than drastically changing any gameplay mechanics.

 

[mightymuffy]

Initially I was like wtf.... having remembered a similar thing with Ruby & Sapphire as I mentioned yesterday, but mulling over it for a bit and I agree with the decision: Gen 4 was for me the last one I bothered to 'catch em all' on, having started to transfer on Black & White but becoming quickly bored - it's just too much of a chore, and also you're transferring over half the Pokemon rather than catching them, THEN using those over the ones you caught since they were OP...
Like has been said this would at least give the new Pokemon more of a spotlight rather than just waiting, for the 3rd Gen in a row in my opinion, for the earliest time you can transfer your big boys over..

To combat this, a simple Pokedex 3D remake for your National Dex needs, which perhaps awards you bonus items to linked games after you reach a certain number, etc, might be a good idea for release next year - you could catch em all on that. Then maybe as I said before, once all animations/models are finished a new Stadium - just for battling, and maybe some IV training or summat, using your Pokemon from the National Dex app...

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Why do not they just put the National Dex in Pokémon Sword and Shield?

Maybe we'll use Cheats to catch the missing Pokémon or a Save Editor for games.

or better yet, when we pass the Galar Pokémon League, we will get the National Dex and we can fight with the other Pokémon, hahaha

I think they might not even be programming in the missing Pokémon. Let's Go didn't have any Pokémon in the games files besides Kanto ones and Meltan and Melmetal.

There's absolutely no reason to have Pokémon missing from the programming so they can push this stupid Dynamax gimmick nobody wants. Should've just left in Megas and Z-moves and come up with a more interesting gimmick.

 

[NancyDS]

I think they might not even be programming in the missing Pokémon. Let's Go didn't have any Pokémon in the games files besides Kanto ones and Meltan and Melmetal.

There's absolutely no reason to have Pokémon missing from the programming so they can push this stupid Dynamax gimmick nobody wants. Should've just left in Megas and Z-moves and come up with a more interesting gimmick.

Well, the National Dex is the best that the Regional Dex, since they show all the Pokémon, not like the Regional Dex that only show some Pokémon of the region.

Maybe Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, will have a free update where they will include all the Pokémon of the National Dex, it is not known when that update was released.

I think it will also have an update similar to that in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

 

[Mamothstard]

I think it really is just that simple. The engine takes care of the rest.

Hell no.

Yes, they must have a high polycount sculpt that they can reuse for every 3D game nowadays. But still, you have to go from retopology, to skin, to rig and to animate.
You can't just copy/paste that's just not how that works.
Even if you could you'd need to be sure all your engines are cross compatible in terms of how they handle 3D assets.
They're running on friggin Unity or Unreal as far as I know.

 

[xxNathanxx]

That is the problem I believe. They seem always seemed to focus on increasing the amount of pokemon rather than drastically changing any gameplay mechanics.

Why should they have to drastically change the way the games work? That's what spinoffs are for, and Pokémon, like most other Nintendo franchises, has plenty of those, in virtually every genre. You might as well claim that Halo is becoming stale because it's always "shoot the bad guys in a 3D environment", so the next game in the series should be drastically changed to become a 2D puzzle platformer, or that Mario is becoming stale because it's always "progress through the level and jump on the baddies' heads three times to beat them", so the next game should be drastically changed to become a party game (hey, that did that - in a spinoff!). Pokémon's core formula - catch monsters, grow them into bigger monsters, in a team of six monsters where each one has four moves (with Z-moves in gen 7, they technically had access to five), battle other monsters and monster tamers along the way - is rock solid, works really well, and is one of the main reasons why the series is so popular (besides the sheer amount of options in how you're going to build your team, from monsters to moves to equipment).

 

[AlexMCS]

sun and moon are the worst pokemon games, just look online and you will find lots of people ha to force themselves to finish them, the evil team was so dumb lol and their base attack had zero wow factor i take gen 6 over any day.

for me its

gen2>gen1>gen4>gen5>gen6>gen3>gen7

yeah i wasnt a fan of 3 either, dont know why maybe because of the water routes and the backtracking? no idea even when i was a kid i was like meh gen 3.

Team Skull was a lot more meaningful and had a lot more fights and presence than Team Flare. Also, Team Skull was just another front for the dark side of Aether, so you got TWO meaningful teams in Sun/Moon, compared to the PoS that was team Flare, in both design and objectives.

X/Y was extremely linear too, with a weak story, terrible "rivals" and the easiest progression ever. You get 2 starters, 2 choices of Megas handed to you (2nd starter + Lucario) and the Box Legendary just from normal progress. Toss in that random Gible -> Garchomp you can easily catch before the power plant and the game becomes so stupidly easy (far more than any entry in the series, before or after it) that it gets boring.
It's absolutely insane that you have to actually nuzlocke or heavily limit yourself, WITHOUT any grinding, for the game to even have a modicum of challenge.

Of course, that is all (mostly) subjective, but there is NO WAY IN HELL X/Y is overall better than Sun/Moon. And I believe that sentiment is shared by the vast majority of players.

I call BS on your claim that people find Sun/Moon the worst.
Gen 6. is CONSISTENTLY the worst of bottom 2. Other than that, it's often below gen 7.

So, I "just looked online", and the results are as expected:

All I searched for was "worst pokemon gen".

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/187276-pokemon-sun/74604908 - Gen 6 vs. Gen 7

-Among all gens:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/187276-pokemon-sun/74754006
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/210930-pokemon-ultra-sun/75521046

-Outside gamefaqs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/5m02o5/rank_the_pokemon_generations_from_best_to_worst/
http://whatculture.com/gaming/every-pokemon-generation-ranked-from-worst-to-best?page=3
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-pokemon-games-ranked/

 

[Exaltys]

Black and White was when the game started going downhill. Too many helper friend NPCs, random healing spots from enemy trainers, friend NPCs come out of nowhere and give you a random item and leave with no significance to plot, and more.

 

[KingVamp]

I mostly don't buy extra potions and such for any Pokemon games. I end up either using just or mostly the ones I collected during the game. lol

 

[GreywormJohn]

Well, that's bad news

 

[Jiehfeng]

I just realized, it won't be that bad in a way...

All Legendaries
All starters
All known competitive pokemon
All famous pokemon
All cool looking pokemon

They could put all of these kinds of pokemon for the Galar dex and then a good majority won't complain, and there still is not much to animate. This way they could add better in depth animations as well. Still a bummer, but this is a good alternative.

 

[KingVamp]

"Undecided" is the word that was used to describe future updates bringing old Pokemon over. That doesn't mean there are plans, and it in fact means there are no plans right now, but that wasn't how they answered the question, and it wasn't the PR response you're describing.

If this is true, maybe they aren't so set in leaving behind old Pokemon. I've seen "no plans" become plans before from companies.

That said, the fact that they even have to think about is disappointing.

 

[pedro702]

Team Skull was a lot more meaningful and had a lot more fights and presence than Team Flare. Also, Team Skull was just another front for the dark side of Aether, so you got TWO meaningful teams in Sun/Moon, compared to the PoS that was team Flare, in both design and objectives.

X/Y was extremely linear too, with a weak story, terrible "rivals" and the easiest progression ever. You get 2 starters, 2 choices of Megas handed to you (2nd starter + Lucario) and the Box Legendary just from normal progress. Toss in that random Gible -> Garchomp you can easily catch before the power plant and the game becomes so stupidly easy (far more than any entry in the series, before or after it) that it gets boring.
It's absolutely insane that you have to actually nuzlocke or heavily limit yourself, WITHOUT any grinding, for the game to even have a modicum of challenge.

Of course, that is all (mostly) subjective, but there is NO WAY IN HELL X/Y is overall better than Sun/Moon. And I believe that sentiment is shared by the vast majority of players.

I call BS on your claim that people find Sun/Moon the worst.
Gen 6. is CONSISTENTLY the worst of bottom 2. Other than that, it's often below gen 7.

So, I "just looked online", and the results are as expected:

All I searched for was "worst pokemon gen".

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/187276-pokemon-sun/74604908 - Gen 6 vs. Gen 7

-Among all gens:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/187276-pokemon-sun/74754006
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/210930-pokemon-ultra-sun/75521046

-Outside gamefaqs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/5m02o5/rank_the_pokemon_generations_from_best_to_worst/
http://whatculture.com/gaming/every-pokemon-generation-ranked-from-worst-to-best?page=3
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-pokemon-games-ranked/

gamefak pools are nothing to go by, x,Y sold better and if you compile all critical clains it has highers values than sun and moon, and also lol those pools saying 1 and 5 gen are worse than 6 or 7 is ridiculous.

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

I just realized, it won't be that bad in a way...

All Legendaries
All starters
All known competitive pokemon
All famous pokemon
All cool looking pokemon

They could put all of these kinds of pokemon for the Galar dex and then a good majority won't complain, and there still is not much to animate. This way they could add better in depth animations as well. Still a bummer, but this is a good alternative.

with only 131 returning pokemons they cant fit those all in lol, remenber pre evolutions take a slot aswhell so adding grachomp counts to 3 already so 800 something to 131 its a big ass cut.