Pokémon Sword and Shield are proving to be somewhat of a problem for Game Freak. With barely a blemish on its record over the last 20-odd years, the developer is facing a wave of negativity for its latest creations, primarily due to one key change that many longtime fans had assumed (or rather hoped), would never come to fruition.
With an eye-watering 900-plus Pokémon to now officially part of the Pokédex, the tough decision not to bring every last creature back for every new iteration of the series has finally been made. The recurring National Dex feature, therefore – usually unlocked in the post-game and allowing the migration of all previous Pokémon to the latest installment – is no more. A result of this change, besides rubbing legions of fans the wrong way, has been the freedom to allow Game Freak time and resources to experiment with new ideas, though that’s clearly not good enough for some.
And so, we arrive at the central focus of today’s news.
Whether it’s the vocal minority encouraging others to boycott this year’s most anticipated Switch exclusives or truly a good chunk of the player base voicing disappointment over so-called ‘Dexit’ isn’t clear. We likely won’t have an answer until Sword and Shield are out in the wild and Nintendo publishes sales figures, either, but as of now, those dissenting voices are certainly making themselves heard on social media.
One Reddit user, for example, has called on like-minded consumers to vote against Game Freak’s decision with their wallets, claiming that “Complaining on the internet is not enough.” Are such campaigns going to be enough to cause any change? Unlikely, judging by recent comments made by series producer Junichi Masuda, but never say never, eh?
Regardless, we’ll be watching how the situation developers with keen interest over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Pokémon Sword and Shield are out November 15th for Nintendo Switch.
