Last month, Game Freak revealed that not all existing Pokemon will be included in the upcoming games, Pokemon Sword and Shield. The surprising announcement led to some people speculating that the studio is reusing models from recent 3DS games, which is why the developers are unable to include older Pokemon creatures in the upcoming games. However, developers Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori dispelled rumors saying that all models in Sword and Shield were made from scratch.

In a month-old interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (recently translated by DualShockers), the developers shed more light into the reason for cutting down the Pokemon roster for Sword and Shield. Masuda and Ohmori revealed that because the games are releasing on the Nintendo Switch, the studio was able to create better Pokemon animations from the ground up that took time to develop. Due to the amount of work that was put into every single Pokemon, Masuda hinted that it would be impossible to include every single Pokemon in the upcoming games.

Moreover, given that the total number of Pokemon is nearing 1,000, it would be difficult to animate every single one of them in high quality. Masuda also pointed out the difficulty in balancing each Pokemon's unique skills as another reason for the decision to cut some creatures from Sword and Shield. "This decision is personally very sad [for me]. Of course, I wanted to be able to bring every Pokemon if I could, but it was also a decision that I had to make eventually. In the end, I had no choice but to prioritize quality."

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Last month's announcement caused quite a stir online, after a Nintendo Treehouse live stream garnered dislikes from fans, making Pokemon Sword and Shield one of the most disliked games of E3 2019. However, Ohmori added that while there are limitations to the amount of Pokemon players can play with, Sword and Shield will offer an extensive amount of content such as its story and the Wild Area.

While the decision not to put every single Pokemon in Sword and Shield is pretty much a done deal, the developers revealed that the addition of post-launch Pokemon is still possible. At least now, fans can rest easy that the entire game, including its assets, were made from scratch, and that the only reason why the studio had to cut down its roster is to put a priority on delivering high-quality content to its fanbase.

Pokemon Sword and Shield release November 15, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

Source: Famitsu (via DualShockers)