Did GameFreak miss the mark on Gen7 version exclusives?

[JohnLynch]

So I'm getting close to finishing the main story of Ultra Sun and I am seeing very few Gen7 Pokemon that aren't available in the game. So I went through my Pokedex, I identified a few I can't catch at all and checked to see which version exclusives I have in Ultra Sun. I was shocked to see there was only 2 non-legendary Gen 7 version exclusives. I checked Sun and it seems to have the same situation.

This just seems way too few pokemon in my book. I'm comparing this to say Gen 1 which had 11 version exclusives (6 separate evolutionary lines). Now Gen 1 had 146 non-legendary Pokemon vs Gen 7's 63. But percentage wise I'd still expect to see 4 to 5 Gen 7 version exclusives, not 2! I also don't consider legendaries to be an adequate way of buffing up that number because good luck on getting anyone to trade a legendary exclusive.

What do other people think? Were they satisfied with only 2 unique gen 7 Pokemon (4 if you can't Alolan variants)?

I've actually enjoyed Ultra Sun once I got over tutorial island (the first island) and started getting into the swing of things. There've been a lot to enjoy. But as I started looking to fill out my regional dex and I'm a bit underwhelmed at the idea of trading for version exclusives when I can just look at my previous gen games and probably catch and migrate most of the Pokemon missing from the Sun regional dex. Catching and trading Pokemon is an integral part of the game and it just seems underwhelming to get so few gen 7 Pokemon that I need to bother with.

[EDIT]: Here is a flaw with having so many version exclusives be from prior generations: Old fans will already have these Pokemon and can transfer them across, and new fans don't know the difference between an old gen version exclusive and a new gen version exclusive so they'd have no problem with having more new gen pokemon be version exclusive.

Here is a break down of the Ultra Moon version exclusives that I'll miss out on and how I can obtain them:
Kabuto (fossil) - Get in Blue
Entei (legendary) - Get in Crystal and Alpha Sapphire
Lugia (legendary) - Get in Crystal and Alpha Sapphire
Electrike - Get in Emerald, Platinum and Alpha Sapphire
Baltoy - Get in Emerald, Platinum, White and Alpha Sapphire
Lileep (fossil) - Get in Emerald, Platinum and White
Kyogre (legendary) - Get in Emerald and Alpha Sapphire
Shieldon (fossil) - Get in White and X
Palkia (legendary) - Get in Platinum
Regigigas (legendary) - Get in Platinum and Alpha Sapphire
Latias (legendary) - Get in Alpha Sapphire
Archen (fossil) - Get in White and X.
Petilil - Get in White and Alpha Sapphire
Basculin (blue form) - Get in White and X
Vullaby - Get in Alpha Sapphire
Thundurus (legendary) - Get in White and Alpha Sapphire
Zekrom (legendary) - Get in White
Amaura (fossil) - Get in X

That's 18 evolution lines I can get simply by playing games I already own and transferring them across. That leaves me with a measley 8 version exclusives, 5 of which are legendary/ultra beasts (good luck for me in finding people to trade those with me!)

These Pokemon must be traded:
Skrelp
Oranguru (gen7)
Drampa (gen7)
Yveltal (legendary)
Lunala (gen7 legendary)
Pheromosa (gen7 legendary)
Celesteela (gen7 legendary)
Stakataka (gen7 legendary)

The only silver lining on so many legendary exclusives is that when I finish the entire process I'll have 39 duplicate legendaries (a little bit more because I'll also have events as well) which should suffice in me trading for the missing legendaries.

 

[Shine]

The way Gen 7 is made, it's clear that they are designing the games as "your first Pokemon game", as in, you don't own any of the previous games.

I think they took that into account when deciding the version exclusives.

 

[JohnLynch]

It seems like a very strange assumption to make given XY were first on the 3Ds

 

[Leonhart]

I didn't mind the way version exclusives were handled, with the exception of some Legendaries. I despise that Lugia, Zekrom, and Kyogre are exclusive to Ultra Moon for instance. That's just my bias since I like those Pokemon more than their counterparts, however.

 

[Nyter]

Here is a break down of the Ultra Moon version exclusives that I'll miss out on and how I can obtain them:
Kabuto (fossil) - Get in Blue

That's 18 evolution lines I can get simply by playing games I already own and transferring them across. That leaves me with a measley 8 version exclusives, 5 of which are legendary/ultra beasts (good luck for me in finding people to trade those with me!)

I'm sorry OP, but do you mean collect overall in any game or transfer to your gen 7 games? I thought There was no way to transfer them from the original games to the later ones (I believe transferring began with Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen).

These Pokemon must be traded:
Skrelp
Oranguru (gen7)
Drampa (gen7)
Yveltal (legendary)
Lunala (gen7 legendary)
Pheromosa (gen7 legendary)
Celesteela (gen7 legendary)
Stakataka (gen7 legendary)

I can help you with trading some, even Legendary. I own all 4 games and have repeats of some of them.