It may be one of the most popular entertainment franchises on planet Earth, but Pokémon isn’t immune to criticism or controversy. Far from it, in fact.
Despite attending this year’s E3 with the intention of promoting Sword and Shield, Game Freak witnessed preliminary fan excitement for its latest project swiftly evaporate. The cause of this hype reversal was attributed to the developer’s confirmation that for the first time ever, the series would be ditching its popular National Dex feature, therefore making the process of Catching ‘Em All literally impossible.
Despite the backlash, Game Freak defended its decision as a necessary one to ensure it had the resources to innovate with new features such as the vaunted Wild Area, stating that each ‘Mon to appear in Sword and Shield was created entirely from scratch rather than ported over from past entries. Data miners with access to early copies of the pair seemingly discovered in the weeks leading up to launch that the studio had, in fact, reused various assets, resulting in the #GameFreakLied hashtag trending on Twitter worldwide.
The debacle has since died down in the wake of positive reviews translating into impressive sales figures, but now, it seems, the plot thickens. A fan claiming to have inside knowledge of the company’s development process has made a number of wild accusations which, if true, could hold hope for the future return of the National Dex.
Check out the claims below:
To cut a long story short, then, the ‘real’ reason for Pokémon Sword and Shield‘s cut content was due to a key import tool not functioning properly. Hands tied by looming deadlines, Game Freak had to draft in external help to implement as many Pokémon as possible prior to release day.
That’s the supposed explanation, at least. Whether or not these revelations hold any truth is impossible to verify. That being the case, readers should take all of the above with a large helping of salt. Believable? Outlandish? Let us know what you think of today’s developments in the usual place below!
