Article: Pokémon Sword and Shield - over before it's begun?

Percy said:

i still think that this galar dex issue is miscommunication. every main title game has every pokemon. hell, xy had all the pokemon. (u)s(u)m had all the pokemon. and by gen 7 we already had 800+ pokemon. it just doesn't make sense for that to happen. if the reason is the effort needed for the sprites or whatever, then an extension of the release date could be welcome? its unreasonable for us to have all this pokemon and then the newest main titles doesn't have them all. as I said, I bet that this is just miscommunication and I know GF (or whichever company answers for this mess) will have an answer for the fans soon.

i also think that fans have the right to criticize the games. i mean, they will be the consumers. at least make sure they will enjoy it, right? but then, I also believe that fans should know where to draw the line. there's a difference with pleading and straight up attacking the devs

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It's not miscommunication. They've said it at E3, and said it again in a follow-up interview with reasoning behind it (how valid that reasoning may be is another matter). It may end up being possible, but only because they change their mind and implement a strategy for it, e.g. post-game patches. As it stands, "Galar dex only" was stated clearly and multiple times - no accident here.

Agreed with no need to attack the devs, though.

tokyodrift said:

This is just a repeat of what happened with Black and White. People absolutely hated them....

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Not quite in the details, and the outrage now imo is greater.

BW - only new Pokemon can be used prior to the E4; afterwards any older gen Pokemon showed up. All previous generation Pokemon could be transferred postgame from older gen games, or just traded anytime with another gen 5 game.
SwSh - Galar dex has a mix of old and new Pokemon. However, it does not include all previous gen Pokemon, and the game will not accept any non-Galar Dex Pokemon from Home.

Because of the removal of the all the previous Pokemon creaturs it has become the most hated Pokemon Sword and Shield out there and the Game Freak's desicion for this will cause the game to be sold poorly.

I hate what Game Freak have done this, i am sure some Twitters will abuse and attack and send a hate message to Game Freak staff about this, moslty Junichi Masuda, Satoshi Tajiri and James Turner for this. 😡

The sales will still be there, I'll still buy it despite being absolutely disgusted and disappointed with the decision.

This doesn't affect me much, since I always use six of the new Pokémon in my Team, still I hate it because we should always be able to have access to all Pokémon in the games. This is Game Freak not wanting to add all because it would be to much work coding them it has nothing to do with quality like Matsuda said.

Doesn't really bother me that much. Besides, there's a number of Pokemon that never get used or I completely forgot about.

As long as the game is an improvement over Gen VII (which was super disappointing to me) and there's a good selection, I'm cool with whatever they do.

To all the people saying the games will sell well: of course they will. But how well will they sell in comparison to other mainline titles? SM has only outsold BW by less than a million units, which is rather concerning considering how much advertisement the games had and all their fanfare as the "20th anniversary titles" while BW were released on outdated hardware. SM still hasn't touched DP's sales, and XY didn't outsell BW. If SwSh do worse than SM or even XY, they still will have "sold well," but could potentially send an even clearer message to Game Freak, TPC, and Nintendo about what fans want from the series moving forward. We shouldn't concern ourselves with how well the games do in comparison to other franchises, because it will ride the Pokémon series's coattails safely to a lofty number, but there's no guarantee it will outsell previous gens, which is important, too.

#1TrubbishFan said:

What I can't abide is not buying SwSh because of this.
SwSh should be able to stand on it's own merits without previous gens propping it up. SwSh is providing a grand pokemon adventure on a scale never before seen.

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Green said:

I still wonder why ppl are being such babies over this?? Just enjoy the standalone game until we get a national dex in time. Yeah, it's kind of a drag, but it's not a game ruining one? Like??

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Reverse-gatekeeping is so absurd to me. Who are you to determine for others what is or isn't a "game-ruining" decision? People are allowed to not buy a game for any reason of their choice. Just as you're free to determine this early in the game that these games will be the "best games yet," others are free to decide to save their hard-earned $60 and save themselves the time they won't get back if they did get the game and had to play it. Nobody is obligated to get any game, ever, just because you think it will be worthwhile. I apologize in advance if this comes off as assertive, but I am so sick of seeing this reverse-gatekeeping everywhere, not just for Pokémon, but games in general. People telling others they have to (or "should" if you want to play a game of semantics) buy a game are no better than ones telling others not to buy a game--and let me be clear, I have not yet seen anyone tell others not to buy the game, I have only seen people voicing that they themselves will choose to not buy the game.

Additionally for TrubbishFan:

Boycotting it because of the treehouse is illogical because it's pokemon home that's imposing the restriction, not SwSh. If you want to vote with your dollar, boycott home instead.

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Home is not causing the restriction. The restriction is coming from SwSh not having all the Pokémon programmed into it, and the refusal to add them later through patches. Although, people not getting SwSh really have no reason to get Home either, so...

The reason I'm not content to buy this game and leave it at that, aside from other fans missing out, is that SwSh absolutely must sell more than LGPE. If SwSh underperforms, Gamefreak might release more games like LGPE and cut the budget of future mainline titles or even cancel them! That might not be realistic, but the possibility scares me.

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I highly doubt they would cancel mainline games, as that's how the new generations are introduced for them to later be made into the anime, merchandise, TCG, etc. If sales do worse than expected, the worst it will do is cause Game Freak to reconsider cutting Pokémon from future titles since that's what's causing the current online outrage. There's no way they'll just stop making games outright.

And it's safe to say they're already cutting the budget of them. We've been getting less and less in-game content with each passing generation, to the point where now they won't even include all the Pokémon. It's valid to be content with the state of SwSh and buy them, but if you're that content, why be worried about drops in budget? You're implying you're already fine with the cuts in content, so what if they do cut more from future games? Part of why people are complaining is because this is the straw that broke the camels back when it comes to Game Freak not putting as much content and polish into their games. And, well, you'll be paying $60 for a game that won't even support all the Pokémon when a $40 game did. At what point will cut content really matter to you?

Also, most disliked game of e3? How did you write that without laughing? Not that SwSh is good, but the competition reached new lows.

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Of all the E3-related videos, the SwSh Treehouse demo and interview is the most disliked. That is the subject of this article.

Rivvon said:

Reverse-gatekeeping is so absurd to me....

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Oh no it's not all that, I'm just pissed off that people are treating it like the end of the game before its released. Like, can't people just enjoy a Pokemon release without hating on it for that? It's kinda disheartening.

Geez, if you like the game is not the end of the world for you. And it's good for you that you can still enjoy the game the way it is and think the money to buy it is worthy. The point is that you can't tell anyone they should not feel something different because of your own point of view.

When making the game, it's important for the development team to try reaching the higher amount of happy people to reach the minimal economic need for the producer. By making the cut, less people will feel compelled to buy it, but don't think that was not worked or not better thought about. They knew people would've disliked and they already had this in mind. Sincerely, I don't think defending will change much because I'm pretty sure they knew where they were putting their feet. So don't worry about the franchise's incomings, neither for GF, because I'm pretty sure they will still sell really well.

The idea of the boycott is not to hurt them financially, but to give them a right call to measure how much could be lost if they make those kind of changes and how the overall fanbase and average players react to those. If, in the end, we're just a minor vocal minority, that will simply give them the keys to do with the game whatever they feel like doing, because if even Pokémon can be cut, I don't feel any other feature is any safer. That's why people that don't like the game right now empathise so much those issues, the majority of us are just thinking about the future games and the repercussions for us as long time fans of the series.

Also, there's people that have no fun or hope for the franchise and think these Pokémon games are not worthy. I also don't think that should be seen as necessarily bad, but that's just how opinions work.

Ok, so, I don't often share my opinion on things, but
There have been so many people that have been straight up tearing at Game Freak
Yes, I'm a little disappointed, of course I would be.
The issue is people are saying Game Freak aren't listening, how do they know that?
A company doesn't need to say anything about whether they're improving a product.
Maybe we will get the extra mons in a patch, maybe not.
My main issue is the complaints about the graphics, people are straight up mocking them without the thought that it's a unfinished, and therefore unpolished game.
They could at least actually give them a chance.

Rivvon said:

To all the people saying the games will sell well: of course they will. But how well will they sell in comparison to other mainline titles? SM has only outsold BW by less than a million units, which is rather concerning considering how much advertisement the games had and all their fanfare as the "20th anniversary titles" while BW were released on outdated hardware. SM still hasn't touched DP's sales, and XY didn't outsell BW. If SwSh do worse than SM or even XY, they still will have "sold well," but could potentially send an even clearer message to Game Freak, TPC, and Nintendo about what fans want from the series moving forward. We shouldn't concern ourselves with how well the games do in comparison to other franchises, because it will ride the Pokémon series's coattails safely to a lofty number, but there's no guarantee it will outsell previous gens, which is important, too.

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Just on this note - is that the case? Checking vgsales' website, their listings are misleading. They both list BW as standalone and with related games together (so B2W2 as well). By themselves, XY and SM have sold a bit more than BW, although SM certainly has a bit less than XY, and the DS days were the best selling after the GB/GBC era. ORAS sold less than BW too by over a million copies.

Main point is certainly valid at any rate.

Just for those curious on sales numbers, you can see some of them here (DS) and here (3DS). But since not everything is there, I had also made a chart for the first 7 generations:



The Sun/Moon number is a little outdated, as it had crossed the 15 million mark (to just over 16 million) sometime after this.

Every new gen so far as sold at least 15 million copies. I will be surprised if Sword & Shield doesn't.

i mean in the large scheme of things we still barely know about these games. how many times have we thought a game was going to be amazing (and with more information at those points than we have now about swsh) and they ended up performing lackluster? looking at XY mostly here. i just remember all the hype and now it's like they're everyone's least favorite.

what if the opposite happens here. what if we're all glum about these games now and they end up being amazing. egg on our face

Green said:

Oh no it's not all that, I'm just pissed off that people are treating it like the end of the game before its released. Like, can't people just enjoy a Pokemon release without hating on it for that? It's kinda disheartening.

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Pokémon means different things for different people. For some people, their favorite thing to do is breed for shinies, so if egg breeding was removed, it would be perfectly valid for those people to not buy the games. Some people stopped playing years ago with the removal of the Battle Frontier/PWT because that was their favorite element of the games.

For a lot of people, Pokémon is about catching, collecting, and forming bonds with their precious partners. Since we already know that SwSh won't allow all Pokémon into the game (which affects overall enjoyment in rather impactful ways, such as in any and all post-game features such as Battle Tower and breeding), people who aren't happy with that choice are more than reasonable in their decision to not buy the games. For them, it is the end of the games because they already know something they love is being removed.

If the point of, say, a dating sim is to simulate the narrative of dating someone and Player doesn't like any of the datable candidates, the game does not fulfill its necessity for Player and as such they are not under any circumstance being unreasonable by not buying the game. This applies to any and all games, including Pokémon--just because including all the Pokémon isn't a game-defining feature for you doesn't mean it isn't for many others. And although your choice of words ("hating on") are harsh, the people doing so are still valid. If transferring and having access to any given Pokémon is important to them, they are rightfully unpleased.

Add to that the years and years of content being cut from each passing game, people are definitely not under any obligation to "enjoy" the game at this point. And if the prerelease period doesn't entice someone to buy for whatever reason, no one is ever obligated to "buy it anyways."

I too am very disappointed with the games, which especially comes as a knife in the back after the promising things the Pokémon Direct showed us.

I'm not even that mad at all Pokémon being gone (though I doubt I'll do much online battling, if I even buy these games), but this problem did open my eyes. Before this news, I used to just accept and eat up whatever they would throw at us. Looking back now, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon was an incredibly boring experience since they didn't change enough and still lack content and didn't fix a lot of issues we as fans had with the original Sun and Moon. (Unskippable long cutscenes, lack of facial expressions). And the entirety of Let's Go was a snooze to me. We've been getting games lacking in content for a while now. There are a few issues that I would really like to see adressed for me to buy these games.
- Listen to your fans. TPC and GF have never been good at this, and this just shows it. Common complaints are ignored in favor of doing controversial things like this whole drama right here. I feel like either they look at a small percentage of fans, or they come up with their own conclusions about us, often untrue.
- Don't cut the national dex. Delphox was my first starter ever, and it's so very precious to me. I doubt Delphox will be programmed into the game, certainly as it's rather unpopular, so they basically said 'Tough luck loser.' In all honesty that's how it felt! ''It's too much work'' is a garbage excuse. If it's too much work, then either hire more people (You have the money!) or delay the release. I think people would prefer a good game rather than rushed game.
- At least fix some of the bad textures in the game. Some textures look really, REALLY bad. Again, hire programmers who are used to this. GF not being used to this is not only false but also a bad excuse.

Short answer: it was only a matter of time

Long(er) answer: While I can sympathize with those who are outraged over this issue, since I have Pokemon I have bred/raised over generations, we (as longtime Pokemon fans) are not completely thrown under the bus. After all, we do have means of transferring some Pokemon over. However, we do not know the full roster of the Galar Dex, and the exact role Pokemon Home will play in this---since Masuda & Ohmori stated Home will have a (more) active role. Point being, I want more information before expressing my perceived outrage.

I'm sure people will buy it, but I'll give my two cents. I ended up getting a switch end of 2017 primarily to play Pokemon for whenever the next games were going to come out. At the time I don't think Pokemon had a date for the next game, but I was sure one was to come and so I bought other games for my switch while I waited for the next Pokemon game. Then Lets Go was announced and I was SO disappointed, but the mention of another set of games for more serious fans (I don't remember exactly how it was worded) kept me interested. I will say though, that when I saw how Lets Go was basically the bare minimum put into a game my hopes for the next set of games was extremely low. So now Sword and Shield have been announced and we've gotten some information on them and I'm not sure how to feel.

Personally I don't care that much that not all the Pokemon will be included, but then I saw in one of the videos for the new games there was a Bunnelby and my first thought was how many people are super stoked that Bunnelby made it into the new games...? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never thought of Bunnelby as being a beloved favorite of the fandom and if you're going to limit the Pokemon in the game then I think mostly everyone will hardpass on the beginner "rodents". BUT WHO AM I TO SAY.

Anyway I'll wait for some more information to make a final decision, but I passed on Lets Go for Sword and Shield and so far it's hovering somewhere in the land of questionable to meh. Annndd now that I've spent all this time playing other switch games and having a lot of fun I don't see myself needing or now even really wanting a Pokemon game. I just feel like what's the point in complaining, but then still throwing my money away for a meh game when I could spend my money on a decent game? I will say I'm all for a side game not developed by Game Freak aka Mystery Dungeon where u at?

Rivvon said:

Pokémon means different things for different people. For some people, their favorite thing to do is breed for shinies, so if egg breeding was removed, it would be perfectly valid for those people to not buy the games. Some people stopped playing years ago with the removal of the Battle Frontier/PWT because that was their favorite element of the games.

For a lot of people, Pokémon is about catching, collecting, and forming bonds with their precious partners. Since we already know that SwSh won't allow all Pokémon into the game (which affects overall enjoyment in rather impactful ways, such as in any and all post-game features such as Battle Tower and breeding), people who aren't happy with that choice are more than reasonable in their decision to not buy the games. For them, it is the end of the games because they already know something they love is being removed.

If the point of, say, a dating sim is to simulate the narrative of dating someone and Player doesn't like any of the datable candidates, the game does not fulfill its necessity for Player and as such they are not under any circumstance being unreasonable by not buying the game. This applies to any and all games, including Pokémon--just because including all the Pokémon isn't a game-defining feature for you doesn't mean it isn't for many others. And although your choice of words ("hating on") are harsh, the people doing so are still valid. If transferring and having access to any given Pokémon is important to them, they are rightfully unpleased.

Add to that the years and years of content being cut from each passing game, people are definitely not under any obligation to "enjoy" the game at this point. And if the prerelease period doesn't entice someone to buy for whatever reason, no one is ever obligated to "buy it anyways."

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I understand all that, I've had Pokemon I was attached to also. However, I can't speak much on the topic, since I hardly ever transfer mons myself. I always just kinda play each region as a stand alone game, and I use the Pokemon available in each game. So I guess, from my point of view games are always fun even if you can't or don't carry over. We know the company put a lot of hard work into this game. So it's a shame to overlook all that just because we can't have a National Dex. That will always be my thoughts on the matter, even if I do understand why people are mad. It's fair to say, though, that we don't have all the info yet, so it's possible that people won't be as disappointed as they thought. Or, I hope not anyway. The game itself looks pretty fun, and the graphics are wonderful, it deserves a national dex, IMO, but I guess we'll see.

And I wasn't try to be an ass with my first post, I use chose rough wording, when I actually fully understand why people are mad. oof

...After enough time has passed, I can safely say this is the worst Pokémon has ever been. Not just the games, but also the fandom. People are apparently making fake rape allegiations of Masuda for not bringing the National Dex back, but despite how incompetent Game Freak is, they don't deserve this from the "fans". Sword and Shield are most likely over before they've even begun. It's tragic.

Phosphophyllite said:

...After enough time has passed, I can safely say this is the worst Pokémon has ever been. Not just the games, but also the fandom. People are apparently making fake rape allegiations of Masuda for not bringing the National Dex back, but despite how incompetent Game Freak is, they don't deserve this from the "fans". Sword and Shield are most likely over before they've even begun. It's tragic.

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So your saying that the games could get canceled because of this?
Also, geez the fandom has become the most toxic thing imaginable. I wouldn't be surprised if people started sending Masuda death threats.
Or he gets gets doxxed because of this.