Ahead of the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield, many fans have voiced their complaints.
After the huge success of last year’s Pokemon games, Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, things were looking good for massive game developer Game Freak. With the details of Pokemon Sword and Shield beginning to surface, it seems they misunderstood what their fans enjoyed about the Let’s Go series.
In Let’s Go, players could collect all the Pokemon from the original generation. It was nostalgic. One of the biggest drawbacks in recent games is the introduction of strange new Pokemon. Fans loved the old ones — Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle, etc. — and Let’s Go touched on that.
In recent news, it was announced that the Sword and Shield series’ Pokedex would not contain the Pokemon their fans had come to love. Only a few would be showcased in the game, including fan favorite Charmander. This caused an uproar among fans. No Squirtle or Bulbasaur? For the first main series game to not include the previous Pokemon, fans aren’t taking it well.
On top of this, it seemed like a lot of the new features added to the game weren’t very well thought through. In many cases, the additions felt as if the company was running out of ideas.
Sword and Shield features something called a Gigantamax evolution, where specific Pokemon grow well, gigantic. It’s a good idea in theory, but many fans felt like Game Freak was grasping at straws.
When all the fans wanted the original starters, they were given new Pokemon that again, felt just a little bit bottom of the barrel. Sword and Shield includes a new variation of old favorite Farfetch’d. Except this, time he carries a leek sword. Yes, the vegetable. When the sword wears out, he will not continue to battle.
To some fans, it seems a little farfetched to include these new and bizarre Pokemon in Sword and Shield, when all they really want is the previous ones. However, for those unhappy with the missing Pokemon, some new variations of old favorites have been included. For example, Ponyta now has a Galarian (Galar, the region in Sword and Shield) form: a unicorn.
It doesn’t seem like there’s much Game Freak can do to fix the fan’s complaints at this point, and they’ve even said that they have no plans of including the rest of the Pokedex. We can only hope they don’t make the same mistake with the next game.
Where some fans are bummed by the appearance of the new game, a lot of others are still excited. With Pokemon’s cult following, it will likely still find success in Sword and Shield. Many players are annoyed at the lack of nostalgic feel to the game, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to abandon the franchise completely. A Pokemon game is still a Pokemon game, after all.