Internet Reacts To Game Freak Laying Off 478 Pokemon

48 responses to “Internet Reacts To Game Freak Laying Off 478 Pokemon”

1. 

   benredbeard

   November 6, 2019 at 10:57 am

   WHAT no Froakie. RIP

   Reply
2. 

   drumrbaxj

   November 6, 2019 at 11:08 am

   It’s like the developers have never actually been to the place they’re theming the game on.

   Reply
3. 

   m2d2

   November 6, 2019 at 11:13 am

   Theres a few really shocking cuts in there.

   Reply
4. 

   vaegrand

   November 6, 2019 at 11:19 am

   The no starters outside of Charmander is all sorts of garbage. Pokemon has gone nowhere since the early 2000s, but even then this is a new low.

   Pokemon I really wanted to jump back on this gen, but its so low effort that all my interest has died.

   Reply
   1. 

      mr_scratch

      November 6, 2019 at 2:37 pm

      And yet, Gamefreak will continue to fail upwards

      Reply
5. 

   whitepointer

   November 6, 2019 at 11:33 am

   I don’t really understand the issue here, unless you are a competitive player and want to bring your team with you. Isn’t one of the main points of a new pokemon game to use new pokemon? Why would you want to keep using old ones in a new game, except in the case of competitive play? I’m genuinely curious.

   I mean sure it sucks if you’ve become accustomed to importing old pokemon into new games for the past 20+ years but I think this was going to happen eventually. There’s now about 1000 pokemon and at some point they needed to draw the line as it just becomes impractical to include all of them in every game.

   Reply
   1. 

      kasterix

      November 6, 2019 at 11:48 am

      I’ve known some people who complained about newer games being easier, etc… Meanwhile they imported a whole host of Pokemon from previous games as soon as they could.

      Witnessing them unable to connect the two was really quite something to behold.

      Reply
      1. 

         piratepete

         November 6, 2019 at 5:25 pm

         The games are far easier even if you import nothing. You gain 3x the XP you did in previous games due to the experience share so you are always way overlevelled for everything.

         In Gen 5 they added an optional hard mode which people thought was a step in the right direction but in Gen 6 they abanoned all that kind of thing. They even stripped battle frontier out of the remake of Ruby and Sapphire. When asked about why they had made the game easier they said this:
         We created a “balanced” game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games, so the time they dedicate to a single game is less than in the past.

         Reply
   2. 

      alexwalker

      November 6, 2019 at 11:50 am

      It’s the logic and reasoning for what got cut, more than anything.

      Reply
      1. 

         merus

         November 6, 2019 at 2:26 pm

         I haven’t seen any analysis of this outside of aesthetics and gen, though. Pokemon have types, relative strengths, movesets… maybe the Char- line got kept because they were light on fire types. Maybe Trubbish is in there because there’s an early-game route that in an urban area, or they needed a low-to-mid tier poison type. Maybe some of the cuts are because they’ve started planning the next game, they’re planning on having as little overlap between this game’s regional Dex and the next game’s because of how many people think that the regional dex means their old favourites have been deleted, and the next’s game region is a perfect fit for a few of the pokemon.

         Maybe this leak’s a troll, in which case it super worked.

         There’s a lot of clever pokemon people, and with a leak like this I’d half expect them to be working out the probable distribution of the pokemon, and they’re mostly freaking out that they didn’t implement Sandslash.

         (I would bet Actual Money the reason the Pokemon Bank exists is so that they can support a roster of 1000+ pokemon while only actually implementing 400 at a time. I would also bet Actual Money that the next gen after Sword and Shield will not have Sobble or Grooky in its regional dex.)

         Reply
         1. 

            alexwalker

            November 6, 2019 at 2:40 pm

            Look, love the energy, but let’s not make Trubbish the hill to die on. There’s plenty of poison types for low-to-mid areas that could have fit the bill (Muk? Nidorino/Nidorina? although the last line I’m very happy to see gone) that didn’t resemble a literal bin.

            Reply
            1. 

               thepoetpyronius

               November 6, 2019 at 9:20 pm

               I mean… Muk though…

   3. 

      jengaship

      November 6, 2019 at 12:07 pm

      A fair few just want to transfer our collection to the latest generation after the main story is finished. It’s pretty sucky that now there’s a segregation between two different platforms.

      Now we’re going to have to wait until the next next new Pokemon game (because another Let’s GO is likely the next one) to have the chance that maybe the 478 will be included so we can get them off of our old 3DS cartridges.

      Reply
   4. 

      piratepete

      November 6, 2019 at 5:09 pm

      Quite often in newer games older pokemon can get a new lease on life by receiving new moves. Its fun to go back and use something that was garbage 3 generations ago but is good now because it is able to learn some new moves that were introduced in the current generation.

      Also some pokemon get their stats tweaked between generations to make them more or less viable.

      People also like bringing across trophy pokemon like shinies which I think is fair.

      There are plenty of good reasons for having them and no real reason to cut them when you consider how little effort game freak puts in to animating them in the first place. Its not like they have to redo tons of complex animations when the in game moves just cause the pokemons model to wiggle back and forth slightly before the energy beam spawns in mid air.

      If you can manage 800+ pokemon on the 3DS you can manage a similar number on the Switch.

      Reply
      1. 

         whitepointer

         November 6, 2019 at 6:33 pm

         As I said, there are now around 1000 pokemon and at some point it just becomes impractical to include every single one in every new game. This was going to happen eventually and they’ve just chosen this generation of games to draw the line, which they were going to need to do at some point.

         Reply
   5. 

      vaegrand

      November 6, 2019 at 6:56 pm

      Ignoring that their reasoning for the cut was piss poor, in my personal case I have a 15 year old Bulbasaur. I know its really juvenile, but there is something nice about the idea of your pokemon going on this grand adventure over the years. This just feels more like everything I hate about Pokemon Go, this whole “throw everything old away, it is no longer relevant” mentality kinda just undermines what I loved about Pokemon since the days of my bootleg gameboy copy.

      Reply
   6. 

      smegw0lf

      November 7, 2019 at 1:00 pm

      Because sentimentality. People who are fans of whatever Pokemon they resonate with have no incentive to buy this now. I love Psyduck. Not out of any competitive reason, just because he’s a cute, funny lil fucker with anxiety issues (which I unfortunately relate to). After getting my daughter a Pokemon tattoo for her 18th b/day (Umbreon if you’re curious) she asked me to get one too because Pokemon was our “dad n daughter activity”. So now I have a Psyduck tattoo. Not because it’s competitive or new, but because it has meaning to us. Part of the story of my family in its own small way. Now with how advanced and complex games are, telling me they couldn’t squeeze them all in is BULLSHIT. Even if I’m wrong, there’s plenty of Pokemon nobody gives 2 shits about (I’m sure the devs have enough stat tracking to figure out which) and you sure as shit don’t ditch the OG starters, again because they’re fan favourites. Don’t tell me what fans want doesn’t count either, because fans without the things they love about a game are just EX-consumers. Something no company can afford to have.

      Reply
6. 

   kasterix

   November 6, 2019 at 11:51 am

   This is a long time coming considering the number of Pokemon got well out of hand years ago.

   Reply
7. 

   transientmind

   November 6, 2019 at 12:06 pm

   Cull them. Cull them all. Leave only 151 remaining.

   Reply
   1. 

      transientmind

      November 6, 2019 at 12:07 pm

      (Also, leave only good ones remaining. None of this garbage-bag and keyring, “I love lamp,” bullshit.)

      Reply
      1. 

         thepoetpyronius

         November 6, 2019 at 9:24 pm

         Then, those 151 battle to the death! The Poké Games! Pokélander! Poké McRoyale w/Cheese!

         But seriously, f#@k that lamp.

         Reply
8. 

   woody28

   November 6, 2019 at 12:20 pm

   And I’m sitting here completely oblivious to any pokemon after Gen 2.

   Reply
9. 

   xenoun

   November 6, 2019 at 12:25 pm

   Hmm…not sure how I feel on this one. On one hand I play new pokemon games to use the new pokemon…on the other hand they’ve removed some really iconic ones.

   Maybe if there was more logic and keeping more of the favorites in there I’d be happier.

   No idea if/when I’ll buy it….maybe down the track on sale.

   Reply
10. 

    smegw0lf

    November 6, 2019 at 12:28 pm

    No Psyduck, no purchase.

    Reply
    1. 

       alexwalker

       November 6, 2019 at 1:20 pm

       This guy gets it.

       Reply
11. 

    ldt

    November 6, 2019 at 12:48 pm

    I don’t get why everyone is so bothered? There’s a few odd cuts (Bulbasaur, Chansey, Dragonite). But I don’t really care. I’m more interested in the new additions.

    Reply
    1. 

       cats

       November 7, 2019 at 10:33 pm

       That’s because of the “I’m” part in “I’m more interested in the new additions.”. Other people have different wants. In my case I don’t want to be forced to spend money on Home forever or lose my pokemon. And I want to be able to use my favourite pokemon which almost all of which were cut. So while I too like getting new pokemon, losing the old if I don’t pay up and being unable to use in game firmly kills the desire to buy any new mainline games.

       Reply
12. 

    zar

    November 6, 2019 at 1:11 pm

    on the plus side farfetch’d gets an evolution

    Reply
    1. 

       thepoetpyronius

       November 6, 2019 at 9:26 pm

       If I wanted to be savaged by duck who’s a jerk, I’d play that game where the duck attacks everyone in town and hides their personal belongings.

       Duck Game.

       Reply
13. 

    Masquerade

    November 6, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    This makes no sense to me, shouldn’t the switch game cartridges have more space than the 3DS ones? Why did they feel the need to add 151 or so new pokemon to every game, it was bound to happen eventually.

    Reply
    1. 

       ldt

       November 7, 2019 at 8:13 am

       It’s about the time it takes to animate them all (which I find odd, the animation isn’t particularly advanced).

       Reply
14. 

    mr_scratch

    November 6, 2019 at 2:35 pm

    On the plus side, there’s a brand new pokemon that looks exactly like an apple.

    Worth it.

    Reply
15. 

    yanhaot

    November 6, 2019 at 2:51 pm

    I’ll buy two copies, I wholly support killing out pokemon that do not bring joy.

    Reply
    1. 

       piratepete

       November 6, 2019 at 5:10 pm

       Yeah I dont think anyone like Squirtle or its evolutions…

       Reply
    2. 

       thepoetpyronius

       November 6, 2019 at 9:28 pm

       I will steal a child’s lunch money so he can’t buy the game in order to counteract your excessive purchase. Checkmate.

       Reply
16. 

    3dollarftpos

    November 6, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    Pokemon has gone downhill since gen 5, and this is definitely the worst yet. I would have bought this game otherwise (and a switch to play it on).

    I’ll just stick with the DS games.

    Reply
    1. 

       piratepete

       November 6, 2019 at 5:17 pm

       They want Pokemon to be more of a amusement park ride than an adventure these days. That’s why the vast majority of the game is on rails with a group of NPC friends that dont let you wander off the path.

       Reply
       1. 

          mr_scratch

          November 6, 2019 at 7:48 pm

          Gamefreak seem to be the only people who don’t understand the appeal of Pokemon.

          Reply
17. 

    kartanym

    November 6, 2019 at 6:56 pm

    Might have been better if they’d wiped the slate clean and had 150 all new Pokemon, but I’m not fussed. I like the idea of playing a mainline game and trying different things to what I’ve done in the past.

    Reply
18. 

    gab4moi

    November 6, 2019 at 9:12 pm

    WTF! NO PSYDUCK!? 🙁

    Reply
19. 

    pylgrim

    November 6, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    It’s more than a bit weird that decided to make the cut when Pokemon jumped to the more powerful console.

    Reply
    1. 

       thepoetpyronius

       November 6, 2019 at 9:30 pm

       I mean, not really. They probably had to rebuild a lot of assetts from scratch. The baffling thing is… why these Pokémans? So many weird choices…

       Reply
       1. 

          pylgrim

          November 6, 2019 at 10:01 pm

          Good point.

          Reply
       2. 

          cats

          November 7, 2019 at 10:37 pm

          They didn’t actually. They are reusing old models with updated textures. I saw a comparison video. They are literally identical.

          Reply
          1. 

             thepoetpyronius

             November 8, 2019 at 3:51 pm

             I’d love to see that video. Got a link?

             Reply
20. 

    Lucasnox

    November 6, 2019 at 11:14 pm

    They kept in some absolute shit pokemon that everyone thinks are ugly

    But cut some of the more fun ones you could actually imagine wandering a fantasy world like pokemon

    What the fuck, its like they heard people shitting on some of the worse designed pokemon and got all butthurt and decided to keep them in just to spite us

    Im not against them cutting the roster down for a newer generation of pokemon games but these choices make no god damn sense

    Reply
21. 

    cats

    November 7, 2019 at 12:02 am

    So they cut almost every pokemon i like out. Well looks like they don’t need my money. Bring back national dex.

    Reply
22. 

    misterbung

    November 7, 2019 at 12:12 pm

    It’s fairly industry standard to use short term contract workers. Clearly these Pokemon were only contracted for a handful of games, and now the work is ended there’s no role for them moving forward.

    Reply