Why Pokemon’s Massive List of Sword and Shield Rejects Doesn’t Matter
New Pokemon Sword and Shield leaks reveal nearly 500 monsters have been cut from the game. Here's why that doesn't matter a single bit. | Source: Nintendo
- Pokemon Sword and Shield have suffered from numerous leaks ahead of their release date.
- The latest leak has revealed the entire list of Pokemon cut from the games.
- Here’s why the massive number of cuts doesn’t matter a single bit.
The Pokemon Sword and Shield leaks just keep on coming. Not a few days ago, we found out that the three starters had really crappy final evolutions. Now we’ve been hit with a massive list of all the Pokemon who’ll be missing when the game comes out next week.
Pokemon fans are obviously not too happy. There are around 478 cut Pokemon if you count all of the evolved forms. The hashtag #bringbacknationaldex was trending a little while ago when we first found out that the national dex wouldn’t be in the game. It now appears to be making a comeback.
https://twitter.com/aocry/status/1190330631970000897
The Relatively Small Amount of Pokemon Doesn’t Matter
In truth, I really don’t think that having only 400 Pokemon available is that big a problem. Pokemon Red and Blue had just 150 officially catchable monsters, and they were still fun. Silver and Gold brought the number up to 251, but that wasn’t what made the games fun to play.
Having more Pokemon available is not what makes a good Pokemon game. If anything, having the full Pokedex these days is actually completely insane. Without counting additional forms, there are over 800 different monsters out there. “Catching them all” is hard enough in the early games, going after them all now would be nigh on impossible.
What Matters Is Good Game Design
The reduced number of included monsters is in no way cause for concern. Having a smaller number makes the goal of the game completely achievable for anyone who wants to try it – not just hardcore fans. That said, it’s still enough Pokemon to give diehard players a challenge.
You can still spend all your time EV training if you want to turn the game into a chore. There are raids now, so you can do just that . If you desire to spend your time creating the perfect team, then that is also an option. All that it means is that people who want to catch all the Pokemon actually have a chance to do that before they die of old age.
In general, this feels more like an issue caused by gamer entitlement. As much as it hurts me to say this, and it does, Pokemon is a game primarily made for children.
No child is going to enjoy sitting down and spending most of their lives catching 800+ species of technicolored animals.
At the end of the day, Pokemon needs to be enjoyable for everyone, and you don’t get that by making the capture list overwhelming.
