The news came from a Dutch gaming site, Inside Gamer, where Masuda mentioned that the move to not include every Pokemon in the game is an approach to be continued in future Pokemon games. This is also the first time that a Pokemon game doesn’t feature the whole Pokedex from the previous generations. Game Freak has been subject to heavy criticism due to the Pokedex matter. Currently, it is known that the upcoming game will only have its Galar region Pokedex, which only includes a limited amount of older Pokemon. Over 500 Pokemon will not return into the franchise. Additionally, there is a rumour on Reddit describing a catch restriction”. A Redditor pointed out that a streamer showcasing the game “came across a level 28 Sneasel but wasn’t able to try and catch it since it was above level 25.”.
On a side note, Game Freak also cancelled the Pokemon Sword and Shield launch event scheduled for next week in Tokyo. According to the game developer, the event was cancelled due to “operational reasons”. Nonetheless, Pokemon Sword and Shield is still scheduled to launch on 15 November exclusively on Nintendo Switch. Currently, you can pre-order the game on the Nintendo eShop at a cost of US$59.99 (~RM249). (Source: VGC, GameSpot, Reddit, Nintendo [1][2] // Image: Nintendo)