The ever popular Pokemon franchise’s newest releases Sword and Shield are just around the corner and the Pokemon Company has done quite a good job in keeping a lot of secrets about the games but you can always rely on leaks or rumored leaks. The most recent leaks may have provided a blow into the fan reception the games may get. On a personal standpoint, I find myself in the crowd of people who are upset. My feelings are summed up by the photo above. I’ll get into why.
The major purported leak deals with Sword & Shield’s most controversial change from previous main series Pokemon games, the limitation of how many Pokemon are included in the games. The response was negative as expected, even after Junichi Masuda came out with a statement to justify the move.
Regardless of excuses, and negative reception the limitation is still in place and is ready to go at game’s release and for the foreseeable future. That got people wondering what Pokemon would be included and excluded. The leak from week detailed the entire list of who is in and out amongst all 809 Pokemon from previous generations. Below illustrates it all.
In green are those who are in. In dark green are Pokemon with alternate forms for the game. White are excluded.
There is a lot to dig into here, so I’ll go into a few highlights.
For one, almost every main series starter and their evolutions have been excluded. Squirtle, Cyndaquil, Rowlet…all of them… Except one, Charmander and it’s evolutions, which were confirmed prior to the leaks witht he reveals of Charizard’s Dynamax form. Its little surprise that Pokemon include their most popular starter. But it is immensely infuriating that no other starters are included. I’ll admit that I’m no Charizard fan, always picking Squirtle (and subsequently Blastoise) in the Generation I games and their remakes. Seeing that my original starter got snubbed, burns.
Other highlights to point out are the exclusion of Pokemon classified under the fan-term of Pseudo-Legendary. Pseudo-legendary Pokemon are Pokemon with a three step evolution line total base stats of 600 (eclipsing several legendary Pokemon) and have an experience point total of 1,250,000 at level 100. Historically they account as some of the most potent forces in the game and are used by almost every late-end game boss in the games. These pokemon are: Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Goodra, and Kommo-o. Of the eight, half have been included, half have been excluded. Personally, the list is an Outrage.
Excluded from Sword and Shield are Dragonite, Salamence, Metagross, and Garchomp. Included are Tyranitar, Hydreigon, Goodra, and Kommo-o. It comes as major blow to someone like me, who love the playstyle of competitive Pokemon play as the four excluded have been four of the most potent forces in the metagame. Just hearken back to Generation IV when Garchomp and Salamence were so powerful they were banished into the Uber tier of Smogon to duke it out with the likes of Mewtwo and Rayquaza. And in the modern era where Dragonite excels as an extremely hard hitter with its Multiscale-Dragon Dance combo and Mega Salamence is just right behind Mega Rayquaza of the most powerful Pokemon in existence to know just how potent these four are. Perhaps Game Freak noticed it all and decided to pull a move Masahiro Sakurai would do. Though instead of just nerfing the powerful beings, they outright kicked them out.
And yes, this is the reason why I have the photo of Dragonite slamming Charizard down at the top. Because of an actual powerful dragon’s exclusion as supposed to a false mediocre one. But that’s my opinion.
A major exclusion you will also notice are all but one Legendary/Mythical Pokemon. No Mewtwo, no Lugia, no Rayquaza. Not even Arceus, the Pokemon god of creation, could make it in. A collection of legendary Pokemon somebody (me) might have is not making it into the new games. Except one, Mew. I have no issues with Mew. But I do want more. A lot more. Legendary Pokemon are a major staple in the franchise, acting as some of the largest achievements for players get. Previous games made the effort to constantly include sets of legendary Pokemon even when not native to the games’ region or Generation. The fact that there is no effort to do the same and total exclusion is evident is outrageous.
There are many other details to get into, but too many to cover. It pains my head to think about it all. But the highlights I’ve given are certainly alarming and give me doubt into whether or not I want to purchase Sword & Shield. We’ll have to see when the games are released, but so far it is not looking good.
