Starting with Sword and Shield, the Pokemon Universe may be getting a lot more selective in who you can actually get.
As other outlets have reported, the new Pokemon Home app – designed to replace Pokemon Bank – will only allow the transfer of Pokemon in the Galar Regional Pokedex to Pokemon Sword and Shield. This means a large swarth of Pokemon won’t be in the game at launch – or, likely, at all.
As Junichi Masuda, Producer of Sword and Shield, stated in an interview with USGamer, “We knew at some point we weren’t going to be able to indefinitely keep supporting all of the Pokemon, and we just found that Sword and Shield would probably be a good point to go back and reevaluate what would be the best selection of Pokemon that appeal to the widest audience while keeping into consideration the balance of the battle system.”
Issues regarding the higher-quality animation required for the Switch were also raised – perhaps an eyebrow raising sentiment, considering some of what we’ve seen so far.
Whatever the case, it seems that the ability GameFreak had to balance 2017’s Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon – themselves containing over 800 Pokemon species – has evaporated, leaving one of Nintendo’s highest-grossing properties incomplete, apparently forever more. A strange notion, considering the series’ infamous slogan.