Analyzing Dexit in Pokemon Sword/Shield

Zacian and Zamazenta, the poster Pokemon of Sword/Shield (Source : Pokemon Sword/Shield website)

I’m not even sure where to start with this one. I’m not even sure if I want to write about this one. But, after reading some post out on the Internet for a while, and after some waves of leaks that’s out recently, I feel like this case might be an interesting one to write.

The idea to write about this also came to me months ago. I never actually think to start writing it. Since the game hasn’t released yet, we have no way to know how the details of the Pokedex will be, and the other aspects of the game. Now, since Pokemon Sword/Shield will come soon and there are a lot of leaks that has been dropping on the Internet (namely r/pokemon and 4chan’s /vp), finally we have more insight into what’s coming into the next (supposedly big) Pokemon mainline installation in the Nintendo Switch.

In this post, you’ll see the two sides of this story. You will see Gamefreak’s story, defending the decision of going forward with the Dexit (the term for the Pokedex cut, influenced from Brexit, since the game is set on England). Following after that, I’ll summarize on why some fans (including me) are angry at that decision, also giving counterpoints on Gamefreak’s reasons. Lastly, I myself will present my thoughts on that, based on what I’ve learned so far about this case, and from a software engineering perspective.

DISCLAIMER : This post is based on several unconfirmed (but convincing) leaks, so some data may be inconsistent with what’s the actual game will be. This post will be updated if the actual game has been released and after I write more of my thoughts on this (after 15 November 2019)

SPOILER ALERT : This post obviously contains some major spoiler for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Steer clear from this post now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Defending the ‘Dexit

New starters of Pokemon Sword/Shield (Source : Pokemon Company Internatioal/Nintendo)

From Gamefreak side, either being said by Masuda (producer) or Ohmori (director), there are three main reasons why the Dexit has to be made. First of all, Pokemon has become a very dense franchise, with more than a 1000 Pokemon now. Considering that there’s a lot of Pokemon, Masuda said in an interview for Famitsu that newly created Pokemon may be overshadowed by older fan-favourite Pokemon. In the newest leak of the full list of Pokemon that made through the Dexit, there are about 400 Pokemon that will be featured in Pokemon Sword/Shield, where about 100 of them are new entries.

Second, he also added that balancing that much of Pokemon will be very challenging. I know this will not be a fair comparison, but Super Smash Bros took a lot of time in the development cycle to balance their characters, and that was only about 80 characters. With about ten times more the characters, balancing all the ‘mons in Pokemon Sword/Shield will be quite a challenge. Why you need to create a balance, you say? Competitive battle and the Championships series of course, which is a pretty big thing for Pokemon.

Lastly, the Dexit has to be made so that the team can focus working and improving other features of the game. Masuda said that the team works very hard on improving the animation and model quality for each Pokemon. He argued that with the improved model, it will not be practical to include all the Pokemon in Pokemon Sword/Shield. Furthermore, when talking about new features of Sword/Shield, from all the announcements that already happened, we all knew that many new things will come. Wild Areas, Dynamaxing, co-op Raid Battles, Pokemon Camp are some of those new features to come.

Disconnected Fans

Impidimp (Source : JelloJolteon2000 from Deviantart)

Now, for the disgruntled fans, these following arguments came mainly from the Pokemon subreddit. The Pokemon subreddit is pretty much the most vocal community that against the ‘Dexit. Even though, they themselves have been divided for the past months, since they are not sure too.

They posited that the Dexit is not a thing that should happen, and a decision that “benefits nobody”. Their main reason is that Gamefreak doesn’t actually deliver on that promise of “higher-quality” animations. They argue that since Pokemon X and Y is out, there are already animated 3D models that can be reused for Pokemon Sword and Shield, which they see that’s what Gamefreak is doing with Sword/Shield. Based on the trailers released so far, it may be actually right. Animation-wise, it is really not that different from the previous games. From the trailer too, some argued that the models itself is the same as the 3DS game models.

Other fans also have pointed out that Gamefreak, specifically Masuda, is not holding out to their past promises. One of that is that Pokemon from past game (Let’s Go series) can be transferred into Sword/Shield. But, considering that not all Pokemon from the Let’s Go series is in Sword/Shield, that means not all Pokemon can be transferred. Besides, there’s not really any word about transferring Pokemon from older games to Sword/Shield until now. Yes, they have mentioned about Pokemon Home, a new storage service (kind of like Pokemon Bank) that allows you to store Pokemon and transfer Pokemon from the 3DS games, but until now, no more new details are released about that.

Fans see the Dexit decision as a contrary of the Pokemon slogan, gotta catch ‘em all. By cutting the roster, it effectively means that you will not catch all of them. A living dex will not be possible for Sword/Shield (a living dex is a collection of all caught Pokemon included in the Pokedex), and some fans may be disappointed about that.

Technical, or Management Flop?

Sonia (Source : adventuresinpoortaste.com)

So, what happened? Are Gamefreak employees facing technical difficulties? Is that pushing all those new features makes them not able to push all 900++ Pokemon? Are they, probably, getting sidetracked with their own project, Little Town Hero? (another game from Gamefreak that released on October, which, I guess, just mediocre.) Or, simply, they don’t have enough time? Let’s see what happened here.

Another rumor that has been going on is that they have been facing technical difficulties trying to import and upscale models from previous 3DS Pokemon titles and use it on Sword/Shield. It said that the importer broken, so it prevents them to fully import everything. But, this rumor is very sketchy, as models can be reused without any conversion whatsoever. And frankly, from the slew of leaks, the leaker have concluded that it uses the same models as from the 3DS. Even if this is true, this means that there are some degree of incompetence here, which also doesn’t look too good for Gamefreak.

With all these evidences here, it became pretty clear to me that Gamefreak needed more time to develop Sword/Shield. All those problems that Gamefreak and the fans have pointed out can be resolved if Gamefreak hold the release of Sword/Shield. With more time, they can improve the animation details. With more time, they can improve overall texture quality of the world. With more time, they can add all the Pokemon and avoid the ‘Dexit turmoil.

But, then, why it doesn’t happen? Why they didn’t delay the release? Keep in mind that delaying releases is a common practice to do, in order to maintain a level of quality in games, and Nintendo is no stranger to delaying games. The most recent example is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is delayed from late December 2019 to March 2020. Another example is Metroid and Bayonetta for Switch, which is delayed “until further notice”. Yes, potential gamers may be disappointed to hear that, but, keeping in mind that they will get something of high quality, they won’t mind for that to happen.

Why Gamefreak doesn’t delay Sword/Shield release? We may never know for sure. We can only theorize for now. My bit of educated guess is that Gamefreak is pressurized by stakeholders (Pokemon stakeholders, to be precise), wanting them to release a mainline game in November. That’s just how Pokemon traditionally release game, every November every year. Take in mind, that Pokemon is the largest franchise dan media company in the world. There will be a lot of pressure from many stakeholders, and probably missing the date on November may not please them, hence, not delaying the game.

That may be fine, if it were like that, but if we are to compare Sword/Shield development timeline with other major Nintendo Switch hit titles, you may see and think, “huh, that’s a lot shorter…“. Ohmori, in an interview, said that Sword/Shield are in active development in late 2017. So, let’s interpret “late 2017” as around November 2017. That means that it’s only in development for 2 years. What’s that, you say? That’s a long time? No, it’s not, for game development! The “Game of the Year 2017” game, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is 4 years in active development, with 2 years in concept stage! Super Mario Odyssey also takes almost 4 years to develop. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes nearly 3 and a half years to develop. Not so long, now, huh?

Clearly my main takeaway here is that Gamefreak, and the Pokemon Company International, should just take their time and not rushing to reach their target of November release. They should be discussing this matter more with stakeholders and appease them. By taking more time, many problems can be resolved and higher quality games can be achieved. If probably delaying is not an option, why not try outsourcing more staff to work on Sword/Shield? On the more extreme, why not try giving the opportunity to other game producer other than Gamefreak, if it seems that Gamefreak may not be capable of doing the game at a reasonable level of quality? That’s why, I thought that this is more of a managerial fiasco rather than the incompetence of Gamefreak’s engineers, in particular, failure to do time management.

Wrapping up

Until I have the game in my hands, I cannot say for sure what’s happening here. At this point, all signs points out to Gamefreak not having enough time to fully develop Pokemon Sword/Shield. Every problem given out here can be resolved by them having more time to work on it. Gamefreak IS listening to our woes and rants, it’s just that they can’t make it a reality with this current condition.

“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” - Shigeru Miyamoto

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Author’s Notes : Well well well, isn’t this is a different post here! It’s something that I really wanted to write since late July. This, hopefully, doesn’t spark any more debate on this matter (as if they have not enough…). Anyways, as always, thank you for reading this far, and I’m sorry if any of the information here is inaccurate or I make some writing mistakes.

Also, yes, my Pokemon Sword is currently in transit to my place. Expect me to write about Pokemon Sword in the near future, and expect me to update this post!