Everyone is not here, but Pokemon’s producers have a reason why. By Jonathon Dornbush Pokemon Sword and Shield, the first mainline generation of Pokemon games to be coming to the Nintendo Switch, will sadly not let you be the best like no one ever was, as not every Pokemon will be catchable in the new generation. The full Pokedex won’t be available to Pokemon Sword and Shield players, according to a recent interview Famitsu conducted with producer Junichi Masuda. Instead, Sword and Shield will only allow for Pokemon to be caught that are included in the Galar region Pokedex. Masuda told Famitsu a large part of the reasoning came down to the growing number of Pokemon species. Citing balance issues and the intensity of the work as reasons for this decision, Masuda said he and the team were currently “undecided” about whether more Pokemon could be added to the game post-launch. 800 Pokemon and Counting “We already have well over 800 Pokemon species, and there’s going to be more added in these games. And now that they’re on the Nintendo Switch, we’re creating it with much higher fidelity with higher quality animations,” Masuda said in a follow-up interview with US Gamer. “But even more than that, it’s coming down to the battle system.
We’re making sure we can keep everything balanced and give all the Pokemon that appear in the games a chance to shine. “It isn’t just going to be all-new Pokemon in the Galar region Pokedex; there’s still going to be a lot of favorites that fans will be able to bring over that they’ve adventured with previously.” Pokemon Sword and Shield at E3 2019 At E3 2019, Nintendo showed off two of those new Galar region Pokemon players can expect to encounter, including the adorable lightning corgi Yamper. Masuda’s original comments to Famitsu were met with some ire from some fans, who believed it might be easy to model all of these Pokemon for use in Sword and Shield. When one particular Twitter user implied the modeling could be done in five minutes, a host of artists, in response began posting their five-minute Pokemon models to demonstrate what could be created in that short time span. And they conclusively do not live up to the visual fidelity seen in Sword and Shield’s models. Sword and Shield’s Pokedex limitation isn’t the only thing we learned about the upcoming pair of games.
We learned 22 more Pokemon Sword and Shield details, including that Sword and Shield will support some PokeBall Plus features. And just prior to E3 2019, a special Pokemon Sword and Shield Nintendo Direct gave us a closer look at the game, and revealed a concrete release date. Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s News Editor and host of Beyond! He fell in love with Yamper at E3, and now can’t decide between Wooloo or Yamper as his new favorite. Help him settle his debate on Twitter @jmdornbush.
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