Are you fine with the way games are?

[Weavy]

Anyway they should bring megas back specifically to get Sugimori to finish that Mega Flygon concept, but otherwise I don't care much for the gimmicks in general (unless the Ultra Beasts count as a gimmick -- that was a cool plotline; I know Z-moves are linked into that, but Z-moves are ehhh). There's still some stuff that I feel is under-explored to begin with, and Game Freak keeps just hopping onto the newer and newer things, leaving that old stuff in the dust.

I wouldn't really count UBs as a gimmick since unlike things like Megas or G-Max, they actually have spots in the National Dex despite their lore and are individual Pokemon in their own right. And if SwSh is anything to go by, they are more than likely going to be treated like legendaries from this point onwards. While it does feel like a Gen 7 thing, as unlikely as I think it is, there is a possibly we could see more, since if the Regis got new members 4 Gens after Regigigas, then UBs have a (low chance) shot too I think.

Gen 8 brought more to the concept, allowing non-Gen 1 Pokemon to gain regional forms as well as regional evolutions.

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I really don't like the concept of regional evolutions. It makes the original Pokemon pointless and obsolete. Like why would you use a regular Corsola when the Galarian form can evolve further, leaving the original with a disadvantage. And Pokemon like these would be very hard to get should they appear outside of their regional since the only evolve from regional variants. But that's just my take on it.

 

[Auraninja]

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I really don't like the concept of regional evolutions. It makes the original Pokemon pointless and obsolete. Like why would you use a regular Corsola when the Galarian form can evolve further, leaving the original with a disadvantage. And Pokemon like these would be very hard to get should they appear outside of their regional since the only evolve from regional variants. But that's just my take on it.

You would use regular Corsola because regular Corsola is precious.

But on a more serious note, I almost wish the normal forms could use Eviolite like the Galarian forms.

Although regular Mr. Mime with a working Eviolite would be something fierce.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I really don't like the concept of regional evolutions. It makes the original Pokemon pointless and obsolete. Like why would you use a regular Corsola when the Galarian form can evolve further, leaving the original with a disadvantage. And Pokemon like these would be very hard to get should they appear outside of their regional since the only evolve from regional variants. But that's just my take on it.

While the original forms are at more of a disadvantage, calling them "pointless and obsolete" is a stretch because of the differences between forms. Differences in types and abilities can still give you a reason to use the original over the variant. Johtoan Corsola being a Water/Rock type Pokemon and having Regenerator would make it useful in situations where Cursola might not be, for example.

 

[Xenomata]

While there are points about Sword and Shield I like, I gotta air my complaints out:

• The big one: as much as I like shinies, we are now at a point where shiny pokemon don't matter as strongly anymore. Not even shiny legendaries, who now have a 1 in 100 chance of happening? Between the numerous shiny chance boosters, generation websites freely sending out shinies willy nilly (and apparently random people are completely okay with this), and events that just hand out shinies in a cool pokeball... they just lost that sparkle, ironically. And I'm gonna be honest: I don't get the point of Square shinies. Why do they need to exist? Was this supposed to make some shinies rarities among shinies? Cause I'm care more about if the pokemon itself is shiny than if it looks fancier when coming out of its pokeball.
• The base game is, let's face it, lacking. I don't even visit the original Wild Area anymore because there's just nothing there for me anymore (aside from the extra day care). I don't want to get even more games where the base game is an utterly gutted pokemon game where I have to pay $20usd to get the rest of the experience, or for that matter advantages I would not have otherwise (renewable sources for rare pokeballs, easily renewable items that change a pokemon in huge ways, a way to get almost whatever item I need in exchange for duplicates, having access to a quarter of available pokemon at all.) Make the powerful items hard to get sure, but don't make them only available for twenty bucks.
• All I do in Sw/Sh now is either breeding, Max Raid battles, or Dynamax Adventures. In Soulsilver, my first game, I had the entire Battle Frontier to look forward to, or the Pokeathlon, in addition to breeding and other thing that were in that game. Now there's just... nothing, not unless I want standard battles against CPUs or online people. In a nutshell: there's nothing to do, even with DLC. Dynamax Adventures are fun sure, but if they're all I'm doing when I play the game... that's not good.
• I don't do competitive battling. I just don't have the smarts for it. So why does it seem like every change they make in every new pokemon game seem catered specifically to the competitive scene? Why do I get pushed to compete in every online tourney if I want to get good stuff? I didn't like doing that just to get Apricorn balls and megastones in S/M/US/UM, and I sure as heck don't care about doing it for... what is it now, mints, BP, and Dynite ore?
• STOP TRYING TO MAKE BREEDERS IRRELEVANT. The moment we can give pokemon 0ivs and change the pokeball they're caught in, breeders are screwed.

I fully expect someone is gonna tell me about how the things I don't like are actually good changes or something...

 

[Phillies]

While there are points about Sword and Shield I like, I gotta air my complaints out:

• The big one: as much as I like shinies, we are now at a point where shiny pokemon don't matter as strongly anymore. Not even shiny legendaries, who now have a 1 in 100 chance of happening? Between the numerous shiny chance boosters, generation websites freely sending out shinies willy nilly (and apparently random people are completely okay with this), and events that just hand out shinies in a cool pokeball... they just lost that sparkle, ironically. And I'm gonna be honest: I don't get the point of Square shinies. Why do they need to exist? Was this supposed to make some shinies rarities among shinies? Cause I'm care more about if the pokemon itself is shiny than if it looks fancier when coming out of its pokeball.

I agree with you that they have made shiny hunting way to easy. Back in gen 4 the thought of completing a living shiny dex would have never crossed my mind. Now days that doesn't seem like an impossible task if someone has the patience to do it. That's especially true if one included Go which makes it even easier to collect shinies. The only real hinderance is the locked mythicals which Go seems to be starting to release with the additions of shiny Mew and Celebi.

As for the square shinies I think that would have been an interesting way to differentiate between wild caught and hatched shinies. I would have had all wild caught with the star sparkles while the hatched shinies got the square sparkles since they could symbolize a pokemon breaking out of its egg.

 

[Divine Retribution]

• I don't do competitive battling. I just don't have the smarts for it. So why does it seem like every change they make in every new pokemon game seem catered specifically to the competitive scene? Why do I get pushed to compete in every online tourney if I want to get good stuff? I didn't like doing that just to get Apricorn balls and megastones in S/M/US/UM, and I sure as heck don't care about doing it for... what is it now, mints, BP, and Dynite ore?

I'm not sure why you feel like you have to participate in tournaments to get any of those things. There are much faster and easier methods to obtain all of those items besides participating in tournaments.

 

[Xenomata]

I'm not sure why you feel like you have to participate in tournaments to get any of those things. There are much faster and easier methods to obtain all of those items besides participating in tournaments.

I don't, the only pokemon I use mints on are Legends and shinies, but back up to game release when there was exactly one way to get mints: Battle Points. And keep in mind that to get the Destiny Knot, Power items, and various hold items, you also needed BP (which thinking about it, past games at least gave you a pre-breeding mechanic Destiny Knot...) And also, there was no Pokemon Home yet, and even once it was released there was not an overabundance of points to turn into BP yet.
So at game launch, and without the benefit of DLC or Home, it was pretty much the only way to get mint and BP: endlessly battling in 3v3 standard rule CPU battles. Even now, you can't get easy mints without DLC, while Dynite ore is completely worthless without DLC, so supports my other complaint.
I'm not even gonna go over Dynite ore, cause I just had to spend a bunch of it to make room for more.
Now back up to Gen 7, where at the time all non-Aloladex Mega Stones weren't even available in main game Sun and Moon, only from online competitions. I remember, people were actually asking to trade for these mega stones. Same with Apricorn balls, which you otherwise only got one set of per game, plus one set with a Gameboy-transferred pokemon in us/um. Not to mention any other tournament-exclusive rewards, cough cough shiny HA Tapus cough cough.
And also, not even the point of my complaint. I was guessing what the rewards for tournament participation were based on early tournies and what I see posted on serebii main page.

 

[Vini310]

I'll say, right here, that most of the percieved problems people have with Pokémon... are only problems to a specific group and not universal at all.

People have been complaining about Pokémon since Gen 3, and back in Gen 5 there was the whole "Pokémon Emerald is the last good Pokémon game" BS, now it's either Gen 4 or 5 that holds this title, and how long until Gens 6, 7, 8 or 9 get the same treatment.

And let's not get into how the act of removing mons in the next installment is the STANDARD in the monster collecting genre, as is the pary EXP, but apparently it's wtong if Pokémon does it.

It's the same "old good, new bad" every single time, and it does not help Pokémon fangames exist, so anyone unsatisfied with the official games can just move over to those.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

The way I see it, every Gen has their own flaws but I don’t find them so bad that I want to stop playing Pokémon altogether. Gen I had so many glitches that some were even able to permanently corrupt the game, Gen II had an issue with the Time Capsule glitching often, Gen III made it virtually impossible to complete the National Dex and I’m not talking about the Mythicals being given out in very limited releases either, Gen IV had the annoying transferring Pokémon to Pal Park from Gen III being extremely limited to only once per game pak every 24 hours, Gen V had the annoying time limit to use the Dream World which wasn’t guaranteed to have you get a Dream World Pokémon or even anything useful. Gen VI had XY feeling like they were extremely incomplete games, and Gen VII had the complaint of too much hand holding and cutscenes.

 

[Ophie]

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I really don't like the concept of regional evolutions. It makes the original Pokemon pointless and obsolete. Like why would you use a regular Corsola when the Galarian form can evolve further, leaving the original with a disadvantage. And Pokemon like these would be very hard to get should they appear outside of their regional since the only evolve from regional variants. But that's just my take on it.

It may seem that way, but in practice, this isn't true. The older forms continue to be shown in the anime, get cards in the TCG, have toys based on them, and continue to be used competitively.

The best example of this is Kantonian Meowth. Despite there being both a Alolan Meowth and a Galarian Meowth, Kantonian Meowth still gets top priority in the merch, undoubtedly due to Meowth being a major character in the anime. But Kantonian Meowth is also the only Pokémon in the entire family to have a Gigantamax form. Kantonian Zapdos is another one, who is famous enough to still get toys, and the competitive battlers seem to prefer it over Galarian Zapdos.

I'll say, right here, that most of the percieved problems people have with Pokémon... are only problems to a specific group and not universal at all.

People have been complaining about Pokémon since Gen 3, and back in Gen 5 there was the whole "Pokémon Emerald is the last good Pokémon game" BS, now it's either Gen 4 or 5 that holds this title, and how long until Gens 6, 7, 8 or 9 get the same treatment.

And let's not get into how the act of removing mons in the next installment is the STANDARD in the monster collecting genre, as is the pary EXP, but apparently it's wtong if Pokémon does it.

It's the same "old good, new bad" every single time, and it does not help Pokémon fangames exist, so anyone unsatisfied with the official games can just move over to those.

Remember back in Generation I, the pastor in Colorado Springs who kicked up a fuss over Pokémon being the work of the devil?

 

[Ignition]

I'll say, right here, that most of the percieved problems people have with Pokémon... are only problems to a specific group and not universal at all.

You can replace the word “Pokémon” with almost anything in existence and it would still be true. The idea that criticisms don’t apply to everyone isn’t revolutionary at all.

 

[MrJechgo]

I feel like Pokémon could fare better if GameFreaks would address the obvious issues. For instance, why after more than one year, do we still miss Pokémon from the National dex? I would have expected a secondary team that would focus on adding the missing Pokémon and offering them via Dynamax raids.

I mean... they KNOW it's a problem and they KNOW that they couldn't fix it at launch, so why not fix everything as quickly as possible to then focus their attention elsewhere?

 

[Ophie]

I feel like Pokémon could fare better if GameFreaks would address the obvious issues. For instance, why after more than one year, do we still miss Pokémon from the National dex? I would have expected a secondary team that would focus on adding the missing Pokémon and offering them via Dynamax raids.

I mean... they KNOW it's a problem and they KNOW that they couldn't fix it at launch, so why not fix everything as quickly as possible to then focus their attention elsewhere?

Because it's not as easy as pushing a button. Nothing is ever as simple and straightforward as it sounds, especially something like computer programming, where something unexpected could set back a project by months or even years. Whatever work you do, for example, probably has issues that can't be addressed just via "why not fix everything." (For instance, where I work, multiple customers cannot share the same email address. When we asked the programmers behind it, they said that unque email addresses are so ingrained into the system, as that's what it uses to identify customers, that it cannot be made to accept multiple customers with the same email addresses without completely dismantling the system and reprogramming it from the ground up.)

The other thing is that outside of the Pokémon fandom, not having every Pokémon in the game is not that big a deal. Most people play a Pokémon game for the single-player mode and never import in any Pokémon or have enough interest in all of the species to care that they're not all there. The Pokémon fanbase has been spoiled by being the only video game franchise with a large roster to keep that entire large roster for every generation. Fans of Street Fighter, Defense of the Ancients, and Smash Bros. don't complain to the level of Pokémon fans when certain characters don't come back for the sequels--they complain, but they accept it's a part of how video game development is like.

There was a discussion on TV Tropes regarding "Broken Base" (instances that have divided fans), namely what should and shouldn't be kept as examples. The Pokédex cuts in Sword & Shield came up, and the people in charge of removing examples, none of whom were Pokémon fans, were about to remove it thinking this was too insignificant to be worth mention until Pokémon fans came up and said that yes, this IS a big deal among the fans. It was ultimately kept, but with some degree of disbelief that Pokémon fans could be so worked up over it.

 

[MrJechgo]

Because it's not as easy as pushing a button. Nothing is ever as simple and straightforward as it sounds, especially something like computer programming, where something unexpected could set back a project by months or even years. Whatever work you do, for example, probably has issues that can't be addressed just via "why not fix everything." (For instance, where I work, multiple customers cannot share the same email address. When we asked the programmers behind it, they said that unque email addresses are so ingrained into the system, as that's what it uses to identify customers, that it cannot be made to accept multiple customers with the same email addresses without completely dismantling the system and reprogramming it from the ground up.)

I never said it was easy, I just said it was a little suspiscious that they didn't address the problem immediately. I don't care if it takes 2 or 3 years to complete the National dex; GameFreaks should just complete it before Gen 9 rolls out.

The other thing is that outside of the Pokémon fandom, not having every Pokémon in the game is not that big a deal. Most people play a Pokémon game for the single-player mode and never import in any Pokémon or have enough interest in all of the species to care that they're not all there. The Pokémon fanbase has been spoiled by being the only video game franchise with a large roster to keep that entire large roster for every generation. Fans of Street Fighter, Defense of the Ancients, and Smash Bros. don't complain to the level of Pokémon fans when certain characters don't come back for the sequels--they complain, but they accept it's a part of how video game development is like.

There are currently problems with the missing Pokémon, especially with both Home and GO. Apparently, all Pokémon got new moves when they got transferred into Home, including the missing Pokémon in SwSh, and all models are there. That doesn't add up. Why go the extra mile just to stop in the middle? Ok, it sucks that some Pokémon are missing, but... we're living in an era where video games aren't complete at launch and finalize later, and unless GameFreaks is working on Town 2, I don't understand why they don't focus on the National Dex. There's also this rumor that the Pokémon models are simply upscaled versions found in Sun & Moon. If that's the case, that shouldn't be a job as hard as people make it sound.

 

[Vini310]

Why people act as if Pokémon getting removed from the games is a BAD thing?
Do we really need to have all of them? I don't think so, in fact I think that most Pokémon are disposable.
As I said multiple times, the act of removing creatures from one game to the other is the standard in the monster collecting genre, and at NO POINT these games were made inferior by not having the entire roster in them, so why Pokémon needs to have all Pokémon? Because of a slogan that isn't taken seriously?
Besides, prior to the Dex cut, Game Freak distributed Pokémon in an extremely bad way, and I'm not talking about event Pokémon: the "these pokémon are programmed into the game, but cannot be obtained within the actual game" tactic, meaning you need to trade with multiple players or buy multiple games just to have the entire dex, and that's not even getting into the even stupider stuff (You can explore Kanto in GSC, but the starters and legendaries from that region can only be obtained via trading).
If it's to lock Pokémon in such a stupid way, then don't even bother adding them at all.

Digimon, Medabots, Telefang, Robopon, these franchises always rotated the roster, Digimon in particular has some cretures that spent YEARS without appearing in any product period (Reapermon stayed away from the Digimon for 19 years, imagine if the same happned with, say Garchomp), even Yo-kai Wathc removed Yo-kai in Yo-kai Watch 4 (YW4 only has 213 Yo-kai, while YW1 has 245).

The Medabots 2 remake does not have all the Medabots from the original game. Can you imagine if DP remakes don't have all Gen 4 Pokémon in them? Because that's what they did with Medabots, and it WORKED. In fact, the Medabots fandom likes that rotation, because it means when a Medabot DOES appear, it's because it has a REASON to be there, it's not content for the sake of content.

TL;DR Better distribution of roster >>>>>>> Bigger roster.

And for people who complain about the lackluster models and animation: you can either get all the Pokémon back OR get new models and animations, you can't have both.

 

[Ophie]

I never said it was easy, I just said it was a little suspiscious that they didn't address the problem immediately. I don't care if it takes 2 or 3 years to complete the National dex; GameFreaks should just complete it before Gen 9 rolls out.


There are currently problems with the missing Pokémon, especially with both Home and GO. Apparently, all Pokémon got new moves when they got transferred into Home, including the missing Pokémon in SwSh, and all models are there. That doesn't add up. Why go the extra mile just to stop in the middle? Ok, it sucks that some Pokémon are missing, but... we're living in an era where video games aren't complete at launch and finalize later, and unless GameFreaks is working on Town 2, I don't understand why they don't focus on the National Dex. There's also this rumor that the Pokémon models are simply upscaled versions found in Sun & Moon. If that's the case, that shouldn't be a job as hard as people make it sound.

I think they do intend to eventually add everything by the end of the generation. Hopefully, that means they can reuse the assets if Generation IX is also on the Switch, since it eliminates the hurdle of programming for a new system, a hurdle that companies as big as SEGA and Capcom struggle with. However, as I'm not privy to the exact process of their development, nothing is certain until either an announcement is made or someone finds it in the game.

But this is a process that takes time. Haste makes waste, something they've likely already learned firsthand with the development for Sword and Shield.

And again, there might not be that big a focus on the National Dex because it's something of concern mostly for the hardcore. Most people who play a Pokémon game work strictly with what was available in their game, then move on to the next game once they feel they've played through all of the story. They honestly don't mind that not every Pokémon is there. It's why there was a bigger outcry over the lack of previous generations in Black and White than the lack of a National Dex in Sword and Shield.

 

[Lykouros]

And for people who complain about the lackluster models and animation: you can either get all the Pokémon back OR get new models and animations, you can't have both.

At a glance, the main issue with Dexit has little to do with missing Pokemon in itself and more to do with the rest of the game not living up to graphic or mechanical expectations, which makes the missing Pokemon more noticeable.

It's fine if Pokemon are missing as long as the games offer better graphics, models, animations, or innovations at least in some form. I love the Digimon games despite the limited roster because it feels like they put a lot of time into the new Digimon models and attacks, and the story is quite good for a monster sim. Sw/Sh had a lackluster story even for a Pokemon game, the graphics weren't anything special, the new and returning Pokemon models weren't much different than prior games, and the world had almost no areas to explore and no puzzles. I don't hate on the games, but I see why people could be upset over their favorite Pokemon missing when the rest of the game was just... very basic.

 

[DanZamVA]

I think the games are still fun, I still enjoy playing them but with that being said there are still issues that they could really address. Pokemon being cut, I don't care. This is something that doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I and a lot of other people are NEVER going to use all like, what, 900+ Pokemon. They are going to catch it, put it in a box, never touch it, and use the a better Pokemon. Sure there are going to be some people that are going to like some of the cut ones, but I'd hardly call it that big of a deal.

So this isn't something I think personally needs to be focused on too much. I like that they are making competitive battling easier to get into, I personally don't do competitive battling, but I do enjoy trying to get a nice competitive Pokemon just because I have the options too now. It's another fun thing for me to do, and while that's not going to be for everyone, there does need to be more incentive to play past the story with more post game content. Content that should be in the game already, not something that feels like they are tacking on at the last minute, to try and get some more money out of people.

Animations. Animations NEED to change. If they are going to cut Pokemon, that's fine, but they then need to actually allocate resources over to improving the animations. They are on a home console now, no more doing things so poorly and just getting by on the bare minimum. People will be more fine with cut Pokemon, if they show a drastic improvement in animations and show that things are improving. Not show that they're just copy and pasting assets over to make sure they get a game out every single year. I get it, game development is difficult. Especially releasing a new Pokemon game every year, but they make so much money. They need to start getting more people in to help if they aren't already, that way things can be improved.

Scaling. I get it, this one may come off as being a bit nit picky. Some people probably aren't going to care too much about this, and some people probably are, but I want better scaling of Pokemon. Wailord is supposed to be this massive huge Pokemon, and you see how massive he is in the IoA, and when you catch Wailord and use him, well, he's basically the size of your trainer. It bugs me SO much, and I really wish they would fix or at least do something with the scaling. Let's Go had some decent scaling, Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2 had scaling on the N64, Pokemon Battle Revolution had some decent scaling as well. I don't know if they avoided scaling because of Dynamax and they didn't want a big Pokemon getting bigger so they kept them all close in size, or if they just butchered this game so badly because it was their first Pokemon game on home console. I don't know, but I'd love to have better scaling in the future.

Regional Variants. I like the regional variants that they are starting to do as well. Sure, if they start giving regional variants to Pokemon in older games it may seem odd, since they weren't there before. However, I do like the fact that this seems to be something that is sticking around. I like that we can see new versions of old Pokemon, still get excited for them, make possible old Pokemon relevant again, and even give them new evolutions as well if they wanted too. I actually enjoy how they've been doing this.

Imo, there are things The Pokemon Company is doing right, because they are still managing to get fans excited for the games even if they are messing up. We are all still going out and getting it, because either something got us excited and interested in wanting to try it, or the problems weren't things that a lot of people felt ruined it for them since the game still sold incredibly well. It's just they are taking one step forward and a bunch of steps backwards. I'm hoping a big reason Sw & Sh is the way it was, is because this was their first home console game. Once we get the next home console game, if it's the same, well, then I don't think it was because it was the first console game and it was just laziness. Which some people are going to say regardless. I don't have my hopes high for the next game, but I'm hoping that they are going to take the criticisms people had with Sw & Sh and fix them and improve upon them.

 

[MrJechgo]

At a glance, the main issue with Dexit has little to do with missing Pokemon in itself and more to do with the rest of the game not living up to graphic or mechanical expectations, which makes the missing Pokemon more noticeable.

Good point, it really feels like they were rushed to release the games... New Pokémon Snap looks a LOT sharper and more modern fro a Switch game.

It's fine if Pokemon are missing as long as the games offer better graphics, models, animations, or innovations at least in some form. I love the Digimon games despite the limited roster because it feels like they put a lot of time into the new Digimon models and attacks, and the story is quite good for a monster sim. Sw/Sh had a lackluster story even for a Pokemon game, the graphics weren't anything special, the new and returning Pokemon models weren't much different than prior games, and the world had almost no areas to explore and no puzzles. I don't hate on the games, but I see why people could be upset over their favorite Pokemon missing when the rest of the game was just... very basic.

The difference is that Digimon isn't about collecting them, but having a few who can get more powerful. That's why a lot of people got irked with the missing Pokémon, especially since Home can support all of them.

I understand that things take time. However, if they KNOW it's a problem, then I fail to understand why they are not fixing it right away. It can take 2 or 3 years, with drip-feeding the missing Pokémon via special raids would have made it work.

 

[janejane6178]

I didnt have problem with the graphics, but with the region itself- the lack of exploration, no puzzles, narrow and short routes, etc.
Why did we need to take a train to get to route 10? Why couldnt we walk straight from the Dragons city to Windon? Its stupid. Atleast give us the option to walk from the Dragon city to this station. Its just their attempt to make the route short.