If at all? Heck, there is a reasonable chance you may have never realized that Sword and Shield weren’t the games to start that trend in the first place.
Back when Sword and Shield were coming out, the hardcore Pokemon community was collectively losing their shit at the idea of [the National Dex being cut](https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/17/pokemon-sword-and-shield-wont-let-you-catch-every-pokemon). It felt like such a long time ago, but that’s probably because we’ve been getting new annual Pokemon releases since 2012. But one of my earliest reactions to the news was: “wait didn’t Sun and Moon do that already?”
So I looked into it further and while I was mostly right about SM removing the National Dex beforehand, I was also kinda not at the same time. I was pretty confused and I’m mostly an outsider to the core Pokemon games, so I’m more willing to not be colored by one side (#BringBackNationalDex) or the other (#ThankYouGameFreak).
I feel like the removal of the NatDex starting with Sun and Moon should’ve made it way easier to actually complete it. Because based on my knowledge, from Gen 3 to Gen 6 you had to buy tons of separate games on various consoles and handhelds in order to truly “complete” the games. But Sun and Moon’s requirements for Dex completion more closely resemble how Gen 1 and 2 handled it way back in the day. Before then, it didn’t seem worth the money and effort to do so.
That’s just my take though. So as the question implies, how did the removal of the NatDex (starting with Gen 7) affect the way you went about playing and/or completing these games going forward?
by Asad_Farooqui
21 Comments
It didn’t really. I just complete the dex in home. (Though Pokémon home is a fucking ripoff. That’s a whole other rant).
I completed the National dex initially in gen 4. Made it a living dex so I could just pal park it up (this is one thing I’m glad is no longer a thing, it was very inefficient for so many mons). So now with each new gen, I just have to complete a living regional dex to keep up to date, which isn’t super onerous.
But I recognize I’m probably in the small minority here. Not being able to import my favorite mons from prior gens isn’t really an issue for me. I always like to play my first run in a new gen with only new mons anyways. Other runs are generally nuzlockes.
I also don’t really do competitive, as IV breeding/EV training etc. is just too complicated and time consuming, but if I had some stacked mons I’d def be bummed about not being able to use them. I just like to unwind after work and relax in a world where I’m good at everything and even the bad guys are nice. 🤣
It didn’t at all. Like not even a little bit.
It didn’t change anything for me, but this is coming from someone who thought the original “controversy” was absurd
I have poked my head in every once in a while since the initial release and Gold/Silver, so this was never really a thing for me. I don’t have the time nor want to play every release, since in general so little changes between them besides the list of Pokemon, which isn’t enough for me. I would have picked up the latest release if it wasn’t so broken, last one I got before that was Sun & Moon, and then Platinum before that, so I’m very willing to wait for something that honestly feels new.
Honestly? Not really. Still playing the games like how I always did lol. EV training, the occasional shiny hunt online battles so on so forth. I think the only thing that changed is that I now go for Pokedex completion because completing a pokedex of around 300-400 is a lot more manageable than completing a pokedex of 700+.
So let’s be clear, the “National dex being cut” isn’t necessarily about the lack of pokedex entries for older pokemon in newer games, though it certainly is part of it.
The whole controversy was around the idea of Pokemon, a series that has more and more focused on the competitive multiplayer postgame making many if not most of the old pokemon unavailable either by catching or transfering for use in the newer games. Keep in mind that until the end of the 3DS era games all synced up nicely with pokemon bank, but on the switch we were effectively paying Game Freak more to move pokemon into Pokemon Home where they then couldn’t be used in any games.
As for the removal of the in game National Dex, I think it just felt like a downgrade for the series because the feature had existed in every game since Ruby and Sapphire. From a content perspective you were getting less in game lore, and for a series that loves putting references to past games in newer titles it felt odd to have games that were so isolationist with their region.
I haven’t picked up Scarlet and Violet yet out of disappointment with the performance and visuals, but it had literally zero effect on my playing of SwSh. 400+ mons is still a fuckton of creatures to catch and the rejects from one generation will show up later anyways. I don’t need to find every single mon in every single game. It’s just bloat and I have other games to play.
It didn’t. I found the entire controversy to be overblown from the beginning.
No because I didn’t give a shit a non-existent controversy. Pokémon/GameFreak/Creatures gave a reasonable explanation to why they were cutting national dex. People just didn’t like it cause “MUH POKEMANZ”
Like 99.9% of people I didn’t care. That was one of the biggest overblown vocal minority freak outs I can remember
Idnt the controversy not the fact thsh they dont have pokemon entries, but the fact that you cant at all transfer certain pokemons go different games sd they are not coded in tbr game at all?
Even now we have pokemon that are not availabable on none of the switch games.
I haven’t bought any of the games since Sun and Moon partially because I want to be able to use any Pokemon that I want.
I don’t care about the “National Dex” being cut, I do care though that I’m not able to play the games how I want to. I loved being able to have at least to some degree, the Pokemon team that I played Gen 1/2 with. The fact that I can’t (and I really didn’t enjoy Sun and Moon) just kinda spoiled the fun for me
Picked up a copy of Shield and, while I completed it plus the DLC, it just wasn’t the same for me. Unfortunately, that seems like it will be the last mainline Pokémon game for me. There’s just been too much removed at this point.
It didn’t bother me at all.
Forcing me to use Exp. Share was the deal breaker for me. I haven’t played a single Pokémon game on Switch because of that.
I’ll probably play Arceus at some point tho.
I don’t play them anymore, but the dex was only a minor factor into that decision. Years of poor quality finally forced me to spend my time with better games
I think the decision bothered a lot of people in principal (because wtf after all these years with the national dex and know we’re getting it cut down) but didn’t actually change the way core fans play the game. If you’re like me, you like lots of different Pokémon so you’ll just find another favourite Pokémon to use if one of the ones you wanted to use isn’t available. That being said, I’d prefer if there were no further cuts made in the future.
SM was the first time I’d ever actually bothered to finish the Regional Dex, but at that point I could not stand to look at the 3DS games’ framerate for a second longer. So I stopped and planned to go for National when the next generation comes out on the next console.
Joke’s on me.
It’s not even about Dexit itself to me. I’d been getting progressively more frustrated with how each game had just been worse and worse with no meaningful steps forward. This was the last straw. Pokemon is the most profitable media franchise in the world, they have the resources to do better than this and they just don’t care.
Pokemon was near and dear to me for a good two decades, but I’m done with it. Game Freak doesn’t take it seriously, so neither will I.
I think you should be careful, because what you are describing is fairly revisionist. Gen. 7 doesn’t have a physical National Dex that is accessible in the game, but that is not the problem that the majority of people have with Dexit. The problem with Dexit was that starting in Gen. 8, not all Pokémon were able to be used in each game. Gen. 7 is actually the *poster child* for what these people (myself included) want: a game where you can use any Pokémon that you caught from Gens. 1-7, no matter which game you caught them in. To compare Gens. 7 and 8 and say “actually, Gen. 7 did the same thing as Gen. 8 and nobody cared” is *hugely* inaccurate.
Furthermore, critically, GameFreak and TPC lied to fans on multiple instances about why Dexit was happening. Most infamously, they blamed it on SwSh’s “high quality graphics and animations.” But there were other lies too, such as balancing or that “all your favorites are returning.” Every excuse they made was immediately disproven by fans.
To answer your question, Dexit changed how I play Pokémon in two ways:
1. I can’t use fun teams anymore, like “Ungulates only,” “fossils only,” or “just my favorite Pokémon.” I’m kinda just stuck using what the game gives me. If I raise a cool Pokémon that I am proud of, I kinda just have to accept that next gen I won’t be able to use it anymore.
2. More importantly, **I don’t trust GameFreak anymore**. Before Dexit, I was a diehard fan who maybe was frustrated with some GameFreak decisions, but trusted the company and bought every Pokémon game day one. Their games were a big part of my childhood and culture in the 90’s, so they had a lot of goodwill from me. Now, I am very careful and selective of which Pokémon games (if any) I buy. I don’t trust any of their trailers, interviews, and professional reviews. Leaks are necessary to know if their games will ACTUALLY be good. I bought Shield used, and am skipping SV for the time being. Dexit and their response to Dexit completely destroyed my faith and trust in the developers.
I’m weirdly in two camps on this. From a gameplay perspective I don’t mind. Not having access to every Pokémon actually makes me try out new teams which is always fun. In Scarlet/Violet I actually used a team of entirely new Pokemon and I loved it. Also completing the Pokédex used to be fun, but it got to be too tedious after 4th Gen. So only having to collect 400 Pokémon to complete the dex is actually the perfect number for me (especially when it’s way more fun to catch them in an open world environment)
But on the other hand it annoys me from a consumer perspective. I don’t like that I’m expected to pay more for a game that actually has less Pokémon than the previous titles. Pokémon is the most profitable franchise in the world, they easily have the resources to get every Pokémon in the game. They just don’t want to hire a bigger team to make it possible. It’s lazy and greedy.
I don’t have any of the games newer than gen 7 as I don’t own a switch right now, but I do plan to eventually get them
I think it is inconsistent branding to have the removal of the dex, and more importantly, the ability to have any pokemon you wanted in your game
clearly pokemon has created this idea that you can have an emotional connection with your pokemon and they will enable it. bank/home/transporter are all tools that support this idea
so why create this and then remove it and expect people to be happy? even if I won’t necessarily run through a game with my 20 year old level 100 charizard, the idea that my charizard might have to just sit on my cell phone never to appear in a real game again is lame. obviously that would never happen to charizard itself, but the idea is the same.
if they never had this expectation, there probably wouldn’t be this disappointment
Even now, as I sit and save up/think about buying the new games, I am disappointed that some of the pokemon i breed in gen 7 i may not be able to use unless some gamemakers arbitrarily decide to allow me to.
I miss Blitzle.