Game Freak Explains Why Every Pokemon Won’t Be Featured in Future Titles

Pokemon fans are hyping themselves up for the official release of the next-gen Pokemon titles hitting the Switch later this year. The new titles – Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield – offer up a brand new generation of Pokemon discovered within the new region of Galar.

Nintendo has been pulling back the curtains lately offering up more in-depth details they’ll find within the new entries. However, not all details have been positive, as developer Game Freak confirmed that Pokemon Sword and Shield will be the first entry in the series that will not feature every Pokemon in the franchise.

Game Freak Producer Junichi Masuda explains in an interview with Famitsu that the growing number of created Pokemon has just become far too high for the developing team to include every single Pokemon in future games. While previous titles included two separate Pokedex – a national and regional – to help differentiate the new Pokemon within the game’s region and the older Pokemon discovered thorughout the long-running series; it’s been confirmed that Sword and Shield will only feature the Galar region’s Pokedex.

That’s not to say fans won’t find a few classic Pokemon lurking within Galar, as we can expect a few to slip through the cracks. But including the entire roster of over 1,000 Pokemon would effect various gameplay elements, such as battle.

“The total number of Pokémon has exceeded 1,000, including new and existing Pokémon. As a result, it has become extremely difficult to make Pokémon with a new personality play an active part and to balance them, both in terms of graphical quality and also in terms of battle.” – Junichi Masuda

The decision isn’t a particularly pleasant one for fans, nor for Junichi Masuda himself, stating “This decision is personally sad(…)Of course, I wanted to be able to bring all Pokemon if I could do it”. However, bringing over that many Pokemon and attempting to balance out the game featuring so many unique characters and personalities would be detrimental to the overall game, so Masuda expressed “In the end, I had no choice but to choose quality.”

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are due out on November 15, 2019 exclusively for the Switch.

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Source: Famitsu, VideoGamesChronicle