Pokemon Sword & Shield GENERAL DISCUSSION Thread [Spoilers]

[Rio!]

People getting bent out of shape over the lack of a National Dex saddens me, since it means nobody cares about the new pokémon

Paradoxically, these same people are also over the moon about the corgi and wooloo, so I'm a little baffled as to what they're actually thinking

It doesn't mean we dislike new pokemon necessarily. It's just as completionists who have gone through the extra effort of collecting 700-something pokemon and not being able to see the Dex represented as such.
Not going to lie, this kind of threw shade onto my excitement, especially with the weird explanation. I'm waiting until later to reserve judgement personally, until more info drops.

 

[Zoruagible]

People getting bent out of shape over the lack of a National Dex saddens me, since it means nobody cares about the new pokémon

Paradoxically, these same people are also over the moon about the corgi and wooloo, so I'm a little baffled as to what they're actually thinking

The National Dex? I don't give a damn about that.

It's the lack of probably 80% of the Pokemon yet again. Hardly makes the increased price worth it, so much for 'aDvAnCeD hArDwArE'

 

[DannyDark]

Honestly the worst thing was how they effectively blamed the consumer to mask their lazy practice, with their argument being "With us moving to Switch, a more powerful console, ensuring the quality of models of Pokemon means we can't include them all, especially since fans want a game as often as they do."

And, I'm sorry, but unless I can see every hair along Arcanine's mane the quality and standard of the Pokemon models, as seen thus far, are nowhere near the quality that justifies not allowing the transfer of all Pokemon.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

The National Dex? I don't give a damn about that.

It's the lack of probably 80% of the Pokemon yet again. Hardly makes the increased price worth it, so much for 'aDvAnCeD hArDwArE'

That's quite an exaggeration. What main game has ever excluded 80% of the Pokemon? Even Black and White had more than that. I'd conservatively wager the Galar dex will contain over half of existing pokemon.

Also, its not a hardware limitation, or at least they didn't say it was one. Excluding some pokemon was stated to be due to game balance, time constraints, and wanting the pokemon in the game to fit with the Galar region.

 

[Porygandrew]

Then just allow marked pokemon or Galar-Dex pokemon only for competitive play. Problem solved. This is the first game not to have old pokemon be able to be played in them; even RS had all previous pokemon coded in and had tradeability with FRLG.

As of now, why should I pay for SwSh if there's going to be, say, a DPt remake that's going to allow for all pokemon to be played? I'm going to cancel my preorder until there's a game where I can be assured that pokemon I've had since Gen 3 I'm able to take with me into the future - as promised.

 

[Tsukuyomi56]

That's quite an exaggeration. What main game has ever excluded 80% of the Pokemon? Even Black and White had more than that. I'd conservatively wager the Galar dex will contain over half of existing pokemon.

Also, its not a hardware limitation, or at least they didn't say it was one. Excluding some pokemon was stated to be due to game balance, time constraints, and wanting the pokemon in the game to fit with the Galar region.

The issue is that you cannot use non-Galar Dex Pokémon at all. Even if a Pokémon cannot be caught in the game itself you always had the option to transfer it over (or ask some to trade it to you). Now if a Pokémon does not appear in the Galar Dex you are left twiddling your thumbs hoping for a future patch or a game where said Pokémon is usable.

 

[Golden_Latias]

I mean, aren't we kind of jumping to conclusions as to how many Pokemon are even in the Galar dex in the first place?

Considering we already have 153 Pokemon basically confirmed before considering stuff we already know will be in the game (see below), there's no way in hell this is a 200-300 Pokemon Pokedex. In fact, I'd be shocked if it's under 500.

And that number comes before considering stuff we know will be in, but hasn't been revealed yet:

- Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble's evolutions
- Other legendaries besides Zacian and Zamazenta
- The squirrel and its evolution (likely the regional rodent/small mammal)
- Regional bird and its evolutions assuming it's not Corviknight (which it very well may not be; let's not forget Braviary was officially revealed before Pidove was)
- Regional bug and its evolutions
- Pikaclone (and no, I don't think it's Yamper)
- 3 stage pseudo legend
- Possibly a pair of fossil Pokemon and their evolutions (and I don't see why Galar wouldn't have fossil Pokemon; Alola at least had the excuse that fossils don't exist in IRL Hawaii).

 

[Twilight-Kun]

The National Dex? I don't give a damn about that.

It's the lack of probably 80% of the Pokemon yet again. Hardly makes the increased price worth it, so much for 'aDvAnCeD hArDwArE'

80% of Pokémon you're never going to use

I don't see the issue here

 

[Mag Prime]

That's quite an exaggeration. What main game has ever excluded 80% of the Pokemon? Even Black and White had more than that. I'd conservatively wager the Galar dex will contain over half of existing pokemon.

Also, its not a hardware limitation, or at least they didn't say it was one. Excluding some pokemon was stated to be due to game balance, time constraints, and wanting the pokemon in the game to fit with the Galar region.

The Unova regional dex had like 156 pokemon in it if I'm not mistaken. Of course there were like 649 total at the time but then again they weren't cutting non-regional pokemon back then, now they are. Yes, S/M had like 450 between all the island pokedexes which is over 50% and that gives me hope but we really don't know. Other than Alola which had 3 separate regional dexes every other regional dex has like 20% of the total at this point so it's not that much of an exaggeration.

As for their excuses, whose fault it is they have time constraints? It turns out people bashing Let's Go were right all along because all the time and money spent on recreating Kanto could have been spent on getting us the rest of the pokemon. I wasn't a Let's Go hater, I was personally defending it and it would appear I was wrong. If that wasn't enough time they could have pushed Sw/Sh back. We've waited for like 3 years, we could have waited for one more. Maybe they could have not wasted everyone's time with like 5 spinoffs nobody cares about. How about that.

But at least we have an answer as to how Dynamax Wailord is going to work. Hint: It's not.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

80% of Pokémon you're never going to use

I don't see the issue here

Who gets to decide what stays is the issue. What if your favorite Pokemon is say, Simisear? Or another equally obscure Pokémon?

 

[DannyDark]

That's quite an exaggeration. What main game has ever excluded 80% of the Pokemon? Even Black and White had more than that. I'd conservatively wager the Galar dex will contain over half of existing pokemon.

Also, its not a hardware limitation, or at least they didn't say it was one. Excluding some pokemon was stated to be due to game balance, time constraints, and wanting the pokemon in the game to fit with the Galar region.

The exact reasons are..

- Each Pokemon is more 'expressive', and since we're well over 800 species, they focused on preserving quality and ensuring battle balance, as well as with apparent time restraints.. and then, because of this and not before, they have chosen the most suitable Pokemon to include.

So the reasons themselves seem to be..

- Limiting the amount of Pokemon to ensure quality. (Of which I assume they mean their models/animations.)
- Time constraints.
- Competitive balance issues.

Of these three, only the last one could possibly be legitimate, but I haven't dabbled in multiplayer for a while so I honestly couldn't say. And even then I know they could simply alter rulesets or have specific rule events to filter out perhaps overused Pokemon.

 

[Leonhart]

I find Pokemon Home's limitations somewhat odd since you would think that transferring Pokemon to Shield and Sword from it should have no major restrictions, but I guess that Nintendo and/or Game Freak are pulling a Gen III on us again. Either way, maybe the limitation will only exist at the start of the Gen VIII era and will eventually be removed.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

But at least we have an answer as to how Dynamax Wailord is going to work. Hint: It's not.

I know you're joking, but we already knew how it would work. That is it simply wouldn't get much bigger than any other dynamax pokemon, as the size they reach doesn't correlate with the size they start out as.

Also, in Unova you were allowed to catch quite a few past gen pokemon in the post game. If the national dex were not a thing back then, chances are they'd be considered part of the regional dex.

 

[Ducolamia]

I know you're joking, but we already knew how it would work. That is it simply wouldn't get much bigger than any other dynamax pokemon, as the size they reach doesn't correlate with the size they start out as.

Also, in Unova you were allowed to catch quite a few past gen pokemon afterward. If the national dex were not a thing back then, chances are they'd be considered part of the regional dex.

Yeah, I noticed that too. They grow in size but they all seem to grow in the same proportions as well.

 

[oshawott7]

Honestly there is no excuse for this, it would be different if these were different models but they are the exact same models we've had for 6 years now? Honestly that should count as laziness in itself. Their reasoning was laughable and says a lot about what they think of the intelligence of their audience.

Unfortunately they've been teasing this since Sun/Moon and if this becomes the standard now then PoGo will be the only game with a National Dex and it's a freaking mobile game. It's absurd to think that they can't manage such a standard feature on a much more powerful system than they've ever had before. Baffling.

 

[Marzbar]

I'm going to ignore the glaring Galar Dex issue for a second and focus on the "new" Pokemon. That's the biggest disappointment for me.

Grookey: another monkey Pokemon. We already have 17 monkey Pokemon including a pure Grass monkey line like Grookey....
Sobble: another amphibian Pokemon. We already have 17 amphibian Pokemon including Mudkip and Wooper which look the same as Sobble.
Gossifleur/Eldegoss: another cotton bloom Pokemon. We already have 19 feminine looking cotton/flower Pokemon! How is Eldegoss any different to Jumpluff and Whimsicott? And Gossifleur is just a Floette.
Drednaw: another turtle Pokemon. We already have 10 turtle Pokemon.

I'll let Yamper slide because you have to have dog/cat Pokemon. But Corviknight is just another Skarmory. Impidimp is just a poorly drawn, goofy looking Sableye.

Now let's look at their designs.... what is with all the HIDEOUS primary colours on everything? Did they just decide every Pokemon needs to be Red, Blue and Yellow? Seriously, because of their colours Gossifleur and Drednaw, as well as the two Wolf box legendaries, just look stupid. Whoever designed the Gen 8 Pokemon needs to be fired because wild flora and fauna are not all Red, Blue and Yellow!

If you go back and look at it, it becomes painfully obvious that they ran out of Pokemon ideas midway through designing Gen 5 and since then they're just recycling ideas.

We don't want ANOTHER cotton/turtle/amphibian/monkey/rabbit!

This is why people get super excited when the fake leaks come out and show us exciting new Pokemon. Just look at the fake leaks from the last couple of months: dolphin, manatee, flea, termite, mole rat, ghost clock, plague doctor, white tiger, trojan horse, metal snake, big tree, narwhal, bubonic rat, komodo dragon, cheetah, alpaca, hot pepper, dynamite, cutlery, water buffalo, beluga, new evolutions for old pokemon, bug/ice pokemon, new eeveelutions..... NEW AND EXCITING IDEAS!

And what did we get instead? Another friggin grass monkey, another girly cotton ball and another mudkip. Thanks Gamefreak. You're doing great, Sweetie, keep it up.

 

[Pikachu111213]

I honestly don’t even see the competitive balance as a valid excuse. Because not all people play competitively. I really only dabble in it a little. I’ll EV train and IV/nature breed but mainly just for themed tournaments with my friends (ie irl animals we saw at an aquarium, all fire types, etc)

 

[Mag Prime]

I know you're joking, but we already knew how it would work. That is it simply wouldn't get much bigger than any other dynamax pokemon, as the size they reach doesn't correlate with the size they start out as.

Also, in Unova you were allowed to catch quite a few past gen pokemon in the post game. If the national dex were not a thing back then, chances are they'd be considered part of the regional dex.

And that is precisely one of the reasons why I think Dynamaxing is a really stupid gimmick in the first place, even ignoring all this new info about cutting pokemon out. Imagine a Dynamax Wailord being the same size as a Dynamax Pikachu... That just looks lame and they haven't thought this through. Even ignoring the size disparities between pokemon just enlarging them by x100 is so random and lazy... Even the name is so cheesy...

Damn, I know I'm giving the impression of a salty hater just bashing them post after post, but I swear I'm generally not like this. I was really looking forward to these games and they have let me down in every way except the Wild Area. I always wanted an open-world pokemon but I guess not like this.

 

[Golden_Latias]

Then don't buy the game.

Actually, no, don't just not buy the game. Boycott Pokemon games until GF makes the game you want them to make, and convince others who are disappointed to do the same.

Complaining on the Internet does absolutely nothing. Money talks, and the only way GF is going to change is if multiple games flop in a row.

That, or something like a change in leadership at GF ie Masuda stepping down, and that's no guarantee of anything.

 

[Mag Prime]

Then don't buy the game.

Actually, no, don't just not buy the game. Boycott Pokemon games until GF makes the game you want them to make, and convince others who are disappointed to do the same.

Complaining on the Internet does absolutely nothing. Money talks, and the only way GF is going to change is if multiple games flop in a row.

That, or something like a change in leadership at GF, and that's no guarantee of anything.

Well, this is a discussion thread. I understand that I'm being really negative today but I didn't watch the E3 today or the direct last week looking for a reason to hate on the game. I wasn't even expecting anything special. I didn't need a new gimmick. I was hoping for new Megas or cross-gen evos but I'd have been fine without them. I was hoping for an open-world game but it wouldn't have broken the game if they didn't have it.

They did the one thing that caused the most damage and yes, I am seriously considering not buying this. At the very least I'll definitely prioritise other games I wasn't thinking too much about such as Astral Chain and Daemon x Machina which looked pretty good today over Sw/Sh and I'll wait for more info on Home and maybe whatever main series pokemon game comes next before I consider buying this one. And really, I'm not even alone here, their treehouse video has a 40% dislike rate. That's insane, nearly half the people seem to be as pissed as I am. I do hope these other people also try to not buy this game but realistically that's not gonna happen.

In fact, part of me feels they may have been trying to pull this off for a while but waited to attract more new casual players from Go/Let's Go before they felt comfortable doing this to the hardcore fans...