Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield Won't Allow You to Use Some Pokemon

After the disappointment that was Let's Go, many were excited for the next games in the Pokemon series, Sword and Shield. And with Pokemon Home being announced a few weeks ago, Sword and Shield were looking like they would be the game many long time fans had been wanting.

Unfortunately, the company behind the highest grossing media franchise is either too small or too incompetent to include every Pokemon from the previous games. Essentially, if a Pokemon can appear in the game and be caught, it can be transferred from previous games.

While I normally try to keep my opinions out of this site, I'm afraid that isn't possible here.

This is the dumbest thing to happen to Pokemon EVER. I've enjoyed this series since Diamond and Pearl, and part of that enjoyment was being able to carry my Pokemon into Black and White, X and Y, and Sun and Moon. Despite the fact that my favorite Pokemon (Espeon) is likely safe, the decision to cut what is likely the majority of all Pokemon out of the game means that plenty of people will have their favorites discarded.

And what's even worse is the fact that once a Pokemon is transferred to Pokemon Home, it can't go back. Pokemon in Pokemon Home can ONLY be sent TO Pokemon Sword and Shield, not back to Pokemon Bank or Sun and Moon. This means that transferring a Pokemon to Pokemon Home that isn't supported by Sword and Shield essentially locks that Pokemon is purgatory until they release a game that does support it.

But what can we do?

People need to complain. Get the games delayed, make them release a patch, just do something to keep them from leaving the series in this sorry state. This will only be the first Pokemon game to have this limitation UNLESS we let our voices be heard.

A lot of people have been disliking the video where this limitation was announced. Because YouTube doesn't like review bombing, I'm totally not encouraging you to do that. But I'll leave this link here if you want to check it out. People have also been tweeting with #BringBackNationalDex, which is something at least. While likely not very effective, a petition was also made.

The most important thing to do is keep the pressure up. Make sure Game Freak knows not only that we're upset, but also why we're upset. Pokemon has had a lot of bad moments, this is easily their worst.