Pokémon creators respond to fan backlash over Sword and Shield decision
Pokémon Sword and Shield creators have responded to a backlash over the decision to not include previous generations of pocket monsters in the new game's Pokédex.
The omission led to further accusations of laziness, with claims that developer Game Freak was using 3D models from previous games in order to cut down on production costs.
However, the company's Junichi Masuda (producer of Pokémon Sword and Shield) and Shigeru Ohmori (director) have refuted these claims in a recently-emerged interview with Famitsu.
There, they said that they had been creating new models from scratch for the Nintendo Switch and, on the lack-of-full-Pokédex front, added that it was difficult to import hundreds of previous Pokémon from a 3DS title to the Switch's improved 3D graphics.
"This decision is personally sad," Ohmori said (via IGN). "Of course, I wanted to be able to bring all Pokémon if I could do it, but it was also a decision that I had to make some day. In the end, I had no choice but to choose the quality."
It is also worth noting that there were likely other elements that limited what they could do, including introducing features such as Gigantamax and Dynamax versions of Pokémon.
Pokémon Sword and Shield is due to be released later this year, and we were given a first look in a stunning first trailer very recently.
Pokémon Sword and Shield will have a global release on Nintendo Switch on November 15.
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