As the release date of Pokemon Sword and Shield nears ever closer, some early-adopters were dismayed to find out that Game Freak had lied about not-reusing models in the title.
Dataminers extracted Pokemon models from Sword and Shield, and confirmed many – if not all – models of returning Pokemon aligned perfectly with models extracted from Pokemon Sun and Moon on the 3DS. This revelation flies in the face of Game Freak’s own statement to Famitsu earlier in the year. As a result, the hashtag #GameFreakLied is now trending on Twitter.
This situation has only served to rile up Pokemon’s already agitated fan base: Pokemon Sword and Shield has faced growing criticism over it’s graphical fidelity, it’s limited PokeDex, and stilted animations, with many already considering it an inferior entry to the franchise.
The game releases the end of this week, on November 15th.