"Pokemon Sword and Shield"/Nintendo
- "Pokémon Sword and Shield," the next generation of Pokémon games coming to the Nintendo Switch, won’t have every Pokémon in the franchise so far.
- This is a first for the main Pokémon series. Prior games let players trade and transfer Pokémon between versions to maintain a full collection.
- Pokémon producer Junichi Masuda said that "Pokémon Sword and Shield" will bring the total number of Pokémon to more than 1,000 with new additions, and the development team has chosen to focus on including the Pokémon that best fit the environment of "Sword and Shield."
- Regardless, "Pokémon Sword and Shield" will still have hundreds of Pokémon when the games arrive on November 15th.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
"Gotta catch ’em all" has been a slogan for the Pokémon series since it first debuted in the 90s, but the newest games in the series may have players singing a different tune when they arrive later this year. "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield" will be the first games in the main series not to include every breed of Pokémon.
A producer for Game Freak, the studio that develops Pokémon, said that there will be more than 1,000 total Pokémon in the franchise when the "Sword and Shield" games are released on November 15th, but reaching this number also means that some of the series’ memorable creations will be left out of the newest adventure.
In an interview with Famitsu, a Japanese gaming magazine, producer Junichi Masuda said that including models for more than 1,000 Pokémon was too demanding, and made it difficult for the development team to balance the massive roster for play. There’s also a concern that new Pokémon would be overshadowed by fan favorites.
"Pokémon Sword and Shield"/Nintendo
Up until now, Pokémon players have been able to maintain a complete collection of Pokémon with a variety of methods. The Pokémon Company’s own dedication to backwards compatibility in the series allowed players to transfer Pokémon they captured in the 1998 Game Boy releases all the way to the 2017 Pokemon games, "Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon." Even in Pokémon adventures where you didn’t encounter every Pokémon in the wild, the games still made space for you to transfer your old favorite into the latest game.
Rather than focus on including every Pokémon ever in "Sword and Shield," Game Freak will include the Pokémon that best fit the environments of the new game. The Galar region in "Sword and Shield" will still include hundreds of new and old Pokemon and players will be able to trade and transfer many classic Pokémon, like Charizard and Pikachu.
"Pokémon Sword and Shield"/Nintendo
Still, The Pokémon Company’s shift in philosophy has left some hardcore fans heartbroken with the news that they won’t be able to transfer all of their Pokémon to "Sword and Shield." The news does seem somewhat odd considering that The Pokémon Company recently unveiled a new app called Pokémon Home for players to store and trade all of their Pokémon from different versions of the game.
Some players have sworn not to play the new Pokémon games unless their favorites are included, but we won’t know the full list of Pokémon in "Sword and Shield." until the games are released in November. At the very least we can expect dozens of brand new Pokémon to show up in "Sword and Shield," and even more returning faces. Be sure to check out what we know about "Pokémon Sword and Shield" so far, and we’ll keep sharing the latest updates on the game.
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See Also:
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Source: Business Insider – kwebb@businessinsider.com (Kevin Webb)