Many hardcore Pokémon fans are upset that more than half of the Pokémon in the franchise will be omitted from the games, and that Game Freak has abandoned its tradition of including every Pokémon.
Some fans compared Masuda to Thanos, the Avengers villain who killed half of all living creatures with the snap of his fingers. Others labeled the decision to leave old Pokémon behind "Dexit," a pun on Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union.
Game Freak hasn't confirmed all of the Pokémon that will appear in "Sword and Shield," but players with early access to the game have explored the game's code to see exactly which Pokémon made the cut.
While the list of Pokémon is literally hundreds of names long, dedicated players made a helpful grid to make it easy to see if your favorite Pokémon can be found in "Pokémon Sword and Shield." To avoid spoiling the surprise for fans looking forward to the games, and because the grid is huge, I won't share it here, but you can check it out on your own.
If you do take a peek at the grid, here's how to read it: Pokémon in red boxes won't appear in "Sword and Shield," while Pokémon in green boxes will. Pokémon in pink or purple have a new form or evolution, while Pokémon in yellow are in the game's code but won't appear normally. So it's possible that favorites like Bulbasaur and Squirtle could return during special events in the future.
While 400 Pokémon is still plenty, nearly every Pokémon is someone's favorite. In a poll asking nearly 50,000 Pokémon fans to pick their favorite earlier this year, all but four Pokémon received votes out of 809 choices.
It's unclear when, how, or if players will be able to transfer Pokémon from other past Pokémon games into "Sword and Shield." Game Freak has said that players will be able to use an upcoming app called Pokémon Home to transfer and trade Pokémon from multiple games in the series, but it isn't due out until early 2020.
"Pokémon Sword and Shield" will be available on November 15 for the Nintendo Switch.
As Ilya Sutskever announces OpenAI exit, here’s a quick recap of his involvement in Sam Altman's firing last year
DHFL scam, simplified: Here’s all about the Dheeraj Wadhawan case — allegedly India’s biggest banking loan fraud ever
India-UK trade pact: Work in progress to resolve pending issues
Next Story