Divine Antagonist: Pokemon Sword and Shield

In which we play Devil's Advocate with gamer controversy.

Is this a new series? Probably not. You all know I can't dedicate myself to anything. 

So, Pokemon Sword and Shield's devs lead a bit of a controversy in saying that we will not be getting a National Dex with this series of games. Naturally, the internet screamed bloody murder with this decision, saying that it's the end of Pokemon as we know it, the devs are being lazy, what have you.

Is this really the case, though? I'm going to highlight some points that I feel need to be addressed without outright agreeing with Game Freak's decision. Buckle up, because I'm getting right into it.

There are too many Pokemon.

We're already at over 800 Pokemon with the current gen, and that's a number that blows my mind. It probably blows GameFreak's mind, too, because that's an incredible work load. Unlike Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, Pokemon doesn't really reuse designs; they try to make everything unique and fresh. Which is great, until you get to talking technicalities. You have 800+ Pokemon you have to render, animate and color in. Not to mention that you have to consider alternate forms of Pokemon that already exist, Alolan variations, Mega Evolutions, all that stuff. That's pretty damn close to 1000 unique models, on Pokemon alone. You've got trainers to consider, too, and now you see why it's going to be a pain in the ass to render everything. So... maybe a few corners have to be cut. Maybe nixing Mega Evolutions is for the best to get the games on time. We already cry torches and pitchforks whenever a delay happens, and with a game like Pokemon? You're just asking for a disaster. 

There are too many Pokemon... that no one cares about.

Do you really want to catch Bidoof for the 10th time? No? Didn't think so. The fact is, a lot of Pokemon are just irrelevant. Game Freak has tried to make them less so, true. But at the end of the day, you're just going to have vendor trash, irrelevant Pokemon, and forgettable critters that no one would really care are missing until it comes time to 100% the Pokedex. I mean, if every Pokemon were adored, this would be more of an issue. But when you have Pokemon that have 0 votes in a national survey of favorite Pokemon? Yeah, some might need to be axed.

Stadium 3 (or 4 if you're Japanese)

And here's the one point I want to make abundantly clear. Just because you're not getting all of the mons in a mainstay game, doesn't mean that you won't ever use them again. Fans have been calling out for Pokemon Stadium ever since Colosseum came and went. It may seem a little redundant now that the games are on a Nintendo console proper, but maybe we're getting another Pokemon game at some point, one that has all of the mons and Mega Evolutions, all the competitive bells and whistles, while Sword and Shield are just a means of getting more critters for your massive cockfight? I don't know. 

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Do I agree with axing the National Dex? No, of course not. But there's good reason to do so. The game industry is incredibly stressful to work in, and even AAA titles like Pokemon have trouble reaching all of the goals (Battle Frontier plox?). So maybe not including every Pokemon will make fewer game devs contemplate suicide? Just a thought.
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