Game Freak is doubling down on their insistence that they will not add missing Pokemon to Pokemon Sword and Shield, despite fans’ desires. There will be no National Dex in the latest iteration in the Pokemon franchise, and while there will be Pokemon from previous games, it will not include every Pokemon in the history of the series. This upset many players, as they have Pokemon dating back to the GameBoy Advance days which now cannot be transferred onto Pokemon Sword and Shield. Pokemon Let’s Go! isn’t even compatible with Sword and Shield. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. This gives Pokemon a fresh start and allows the series to reboot itself on Nintendo’s flagship system, with the first main-line Pokemon coming out for a home console. Speaking to Dutch publication InsideGamer, Junichi Masuda had this to say.
“We currently have no plans to make the Pokemon that are missing from the Galar Pokedex available in-game. This is an approach that we want to continue with in future Pokemon games. Up until now it hasn’t been possible to encounter every Pokemon in every game, so people had to transfer them from old games to the new game, by using Pokemon Bank for example.”
“The Pokemon Home app is currently in development, in which players can collect their various Pokemon, and only Pokemon in the Galar Pokedex can be transferred from there to Sword and Shield. But the way of playing is actually not very different from before with Pokemon Bank: up until now you have always only been able to meet Pokemon from a certain region.”
“We encourage people to use Pokemon Home to collect their Pokemon from old games. From there they might be able to take them to other games in the future. So take good care of your old Pokemon, because perhaps you can travel with them again in the future.”
While this isn’t the answer many long-time fans desire, it’s fitting considering this is a new chapter in the life of Pokemon. From everything we’ve seen of Sword and Shield, it will live up to expectations, and then some.