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Game Freak expands on the reasons for not including all Pokemon in Pokemon Sword & Shield, talks about the importance of Home going forward

Gone, but not forgotten...
by rawmeatcowboy
17 June 2019
GN Version 5.0

The Famitsu gang had the chance to interview Game Freak's Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori at E3 2019, and they picked their brains on Pokemon Sword & Shield. Check out a summary of that interview below.

- with the shift to the Switch, the amount of time needed for graphics/animation increased
- apart from the graphics, balancing for new Pokemon with new abilities has become very hard
- the team found that it would be hard for all the Pokemon to appear, even in titles going forward
- the team felt the decision to not include all Pokemon in Sword/Shield is one that had to be made sooner or later for the series
- even in Pokemon Sun & Moon, bringing in every Pokemon was something barely manageable
- in Pokemon Sword & Shield, the team's need to redo models meant even more work to take on
- the Wild Areas and story will have quite a bit of content to make up for the lack of all Pokemon
- the team says once again that it's uncertain as to whether missing Pokemon will be added in future updates
- even if not in Pokemon Sword & Shield, Game Freak plans on making those Pokemon shine in future titles going forward,
- a large part of this will be with Pokemon Home, as the devs do not want the players’ past Pokemon to feel worthless
- the team is deciding if Pokemon that receive new graphics through Sword & Shield will reuse them to appear in new titles
- the inclusion of gimmicks like Mega Evolution and Dynamax that affect all Pokemon means doing so would be difficult
- it’s not about adding more Pokemon in as they receive graphical upgrades
- the team says it's a change towards bringing in Pokemon from Pokemon Home that fit the game
- the reason behind the name Pokemon Home, is that it's a place to return to
- bringing Pokemon out to games going forward is like bringing it on a trip
- in terms of the feelings of the Pokemon, it's as if the Pokemon are saying, “This region is cold, so I’ll be staying at home.”
- Game Freak once again says they're thinking of adding gameplay elements to Pokemon Home
- Musuda has the concept of bringing Pokemon out to even the spinoff titles from Pokemon Home in mind

[Link]