November 15, 2019 marked the release of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield for the Nintendo Switch. Officially announced in February of 2019, the 8th Generation of Pokemon had a lot to live up to. With the storage space nearly quadrupling transitioning from the Nintendo 3DS to the Nintendo Switch, many fans expected their wildest dreams to come true.
However, it became clearly evident that Pokemon Sword and Shield wouldn’t be the shining stars that fans had hoped they would be. Back in June of 2019, Junichi Masuda, director of the Pokemon games since their early conceptions, announced that not every Pokemon would be available to be obtained in the latest entries.
Reasons given included that new and dazzling animations were being developed which would be far too taxing to create for all Pokemon. Additionally, Masuda insisted that new models were being made for the Pokemon that would make it into the final project, which compounded the time constraints they were under. This happened to be the first time in the series where every Pokemon from previous generations would not be included in the game.
Back in November 2002, Pokemon fans would find themselves unable to send their beloved Pokemon from Pokemon Silver, Gold, and Crystal to Pokemon Sapphire, Ruby, and later Emerald. Physical limitations of both games prevented compatibility from the exchange occurring. This was later resolved with the 2004 releases of the aforementioned Pokemon Emerald, as well as Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. These games together contained Pokemon from all previous generations and would allow for the completion of the Pokedex, the main goal that has followed the Pokemon franchise since it’s earlier conception.
Later games would all be compatible for cross trading one way or another, so the ability to collect or use all Pokemon was one that was possible, if tedious. That would no longer be the case. As more announcements were made, including Dynamax Pokemon, a temporary enhancement to Pokemon in battle, and the Currydex, a side quest involving creating all possible types of curry, it began to rub fans the wrong way on where the priorities lied with GameFreak, the company that develops Pokemon games.
Around this time, Nintendo also released a trailer for Pokemon Sword and Shield. The trailer showed off many of the environments players could expect to travel through in the Galar Region, the setting in which Pokemon Sword and Shield would be set.
One observation prospective customers made was that the quality of the environments didn’t live up to the standard they had expected. For one, the models GameFreak had designed for trees was reminiscent of the models Nintendo had used over 20 years ago in their video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Fans also commented on the general bareness of the worlds that was populated mainly by traversing wild Pokemon and occasional patches of grass.
The final project amped up the open fields quite a bit by adding more interesting structures and lakes. With the release, however, came even more controversy. With some sleuthing, fans discovered that the 3D models in the 6th and 7th Generation had been reused for the 8th generation of Pokemon, which caused fans to lash out and bring attention to what they considered to be deception and laziness from GameFreak. This lead to many players taking to social media to voice this complaints, using the tag #GameFreakLied. Many fans were also quick to call out that the post game content isn’t enough to hold them over. After completing the Pokedex and collecting difficult to obtain legendary Pokemon, fans are left just the Pokemon Battle Tower, a battle gauntlet, to complete.
With over 6 million copies sold during their release weekend and growing to be Nintendo’s fastest selling game, it’s clear that the boycott fans took on hasn’t hurt the pockets of the developers. It’s unfortunate to thinking about what Pokemon Sword and Shield might have been had their development no been rushed for the holiday season.