Team Volt Grunt
Pokémon Collector
I was ready to just drop the whole national dex issue until I saw this comparison still being made.I think what he’s implying here is the national dex being the make or break decision and some people’s overreaction to it is getting a bit out of hand and starting to overshadow the game itself. It’s one thing to be disappointed by this, it’s another to have a full existential crisis over it.
Again, gen 3, 202/386 initially available in ruby/sapphire, people were understandably upset but those missing mons became available in firered and leaf green. I trust a solution will appear at some point. It may not be the most ideal solution (transferring Pokemon before bank was a chore) and may not happen as quick as people would like (we went roughly a year without all Pokemon being available in gen 3), but I trust it’ll happen. We just need to take a chill pill, be reasonable in our complaints (I.e. not spam twitter/reddit 1000 times a day every day), and wait and see what unfolds with Pokemon home, as we still don’t know everything about that either.
You can't compare Sword & Shield to Ruby & Sapphire. Just like EVERY other game we have gotten since Gold and Silver and up to now, Ruby & Sapphire did not have every possible pokemon located in the wild to catch, but they did have every possible pokemon coded in. The games recognized pokemon outside of the Hoenn regional dex when you linked up with Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Colosseum, or Gale of Darkness because they were still coded in. Sword & Shield don't have non-regional dex pokemon coded in. If we get another pair of games next year that offer a different set of pokemon than the Galar dex, Sword & Shield won't recognize them. The games won't be compatible for trading/battling with Sword & Shield, and likely won't be compatible for any other online feature (like raid battles, if that feature were to be in the next game). XY and ORAS were able to trade, battle and interact on the PSS because all the pokemon were coded in (with some exceptions for XY) instead of just having the regional dex. This is what we are losing going forward if Game Freak continues with this plan. Yearly games that sacrifice content for "higher quality" graphics and have no compatibility with previous titles, even in the same generation.
Could Game Freak later release an update that adds the rest of the pokemon? Yes, of course. Will they? Not likely. We've seen them put out bug fixes before. You kind of have to do that as a developer unless you want all of your games returned to the store and your sales to tank. But why would they spend extra time on Sword & Shield after its release when the games work the way they planned and there's another game right around the corner? There are only two incentives that would actually get them to do that: extra revenue from treating the rest of the pokemon like a paid DLC instead of an update, or low sales because enough people decide not to buy the game for this specific issue. We all know the second option isn't happening.
TLDR: S&S's situation is new and not comparable to previous titles. There is no foreseeable solution to the issue, other than waiting and seeing what happens. People are upset about this. It will eventually blow over, but until then, don't try to de-legitimize people's feelings and concerns. We all have to deal with it in our own way and get over it in our own time.