The National PokéDex became its own can of worms after being removed from Pokémon Sword and Shield. But following the controversial decision, PokéFans have begun to poke fun at an old quote from one of Game Freak’s game developers, Junichi Masuda, from an old Nintendo Power article.
Reddit user u/EternalMemes30 shared a quote made by Masuda on r/Pokémon, where he said at the time that culling the least popular Pokémon would be a terrible idea. He also supported bringing your old Pokémon teams from the GameBoy Color era to your current games, something that the National Dex did before the infamous Dexit.
“I think one of the joys of Pokémon is being able to use your favorite Pokémon from the Blue and Red Versions all the way through the newest iterations.”
Fans who saw the quote poked fun at how it has aged poorly with the times as Pokémon Sword and Shield only had the regional Pokédex. Some also jokingly blamed Nintendo Power for giving Game Freak the idea years before Sword and Shield.
Months before the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield in 2019, Game Freak announced that only Pokémon found in the Galar Regional PokéDex can only be transferred from Pokémon Home. This meant that the National PokéDex was removed from the game and only a select few will return to the game. This controversial announcement was dubbed by the community as ‘Dexit’ and Game Freak was met with backlash.
Matsuda also said at the time that this decision will more likely continue in the later game installments past Sword and Shield and was done for balancing reasons. Since the backlash, Masuda released a statement on the official Pokémon website, which confirmed that they will not be changing their decision to return the National PokéDex to the game.
And while not much was said about the PokéDex for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it is very unlikely that the National PokéDex will make a return to the upcoming game title either.
