The discourse surrounding Pokemon Sword & Shield has continued to spin negative stories about the game’s offerings just days before its release, despite the fact that most fans have yet to go hands-on with Nintendo and developer Game Freak’s latest iteration of the mainline series. Pokemon Sword & Shield was initially announced to the adoration of pretty much every fan whose ever dreamed of catching them all, as it marked the first time a core Pokemon game would appear on a console, something that many believed would usher in a new era for the series and opened up many new possibilities.
Things were progressing smoothly during development until Game Freak dropped a bombshell on the Pokemon community, announcing that Sword & Shield wouldn’t have a National Dex, a series first for a mainline entry. The National Dex is essentially an implementation in each generation of Pokemon games that allows players to bring Pokemon across generations to the newest version, as well as allowing them to catch all the Pokemon currently available at that point in time. No National Dex meant that Game Freak was, for the first time, essentially “cutting” Pokemon from the franchise and trimming the roster down to 400-odd creatures instead. While the developer likely expected some fan backlash - some of those Pokemon had been caught when players were children and accompanied them through each subsequent generation - it’s unlikely it expected the fanbase to go nuclear, with many fans trashing Game Freak on social media and latching on to every potential issue the new game might now have.
While Game Freak originally stated that the decision to cut the National Dex was made with development schedule in mind - programming new Pokemon animations, for instance - fans have recently discovered that many of the Pokemon Sword & Shield animations were reused from the Nintendo 3DS ones in past games. This, coupled with already angry fans looking for every reason to hate the game, has led to a massive influx of negativity regarding the title, despite reviews today indicating the game is another strong entry into the franchise.
There are certainly some elements of the situation that could have been handled better by Game Freak, but the developer was placed in an extremely difficult position. The studio could have indicated in detail what features were being prioritized over the National Dex if that were the case, but that would be problematic if fans responded negatively to that specific feature. Placating fans isn’t really a developer’s job, either - that’s for PR and publishers to handle while the team works hard at making the best title it can. Ultimately, though, it appears fans are upset over the lack of a National Dex and, in their minds, no real post-game content or new features to justify its removal.
That’s the problem with the current state of affairs in the Pokemon fan base, though. Most of their claims are baseless, or criticizing extremely minute elements of the game’s features. Until fans get to go hands-on with Pokemon Sword & Shield and actually experience the game for themselves, harassing the game developers and petitioning for features to come back before seeing how it plays is total nonsense. Fans have every right to express their opinion on something, but when it spills over into attacking developers on social media or actively looking for things to hate just because they’re upset, it’s no longer a productive dialogue with the makers of one of the most important franchises in gaming. If Game Freak morale lessens and fans continue being toxic online, the only people who will lose in the long run are those who have invested the most into Pokemon as fans or creators.
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Pokemon Sword & Shield releases on October 15, 2019 on Nintendo Switch.
