This is going to be my last post on this topic, as it looks like we're getting more and more evidence that Pokemon absence is going to be the official policy going forward.
Pokemon is a 24 year old franchise. So far there are 820-ish Pokemon. Just Pokemon, not forms, not megas, not shinies, and certainly not special editions (looking at you Vivillon and Hat-Pickachu). This is a franchise that is beloved by millions of people, most of them young adults/teenagers. It's also a franchise that makes billions of dollars in profit, and not just from the games, but from cards, movies, merchandise, etc.
With all that being said, I think that we, as fans, are really underestimating the clutter that builds up over such a long run with so many assets. Pokemon isn't Mario or Zelda where the story and gameplay are centered on a titular character that gets thrown in a new environment with new enemies that he/she has to fight or think their way out of. Its a franchise based on capturing cutesy monsters, training them up, and then battling with your friends. Each new generation requires new mons, new abilities, new items, and new areas to keep the franchise going, and that quality, the freshness that's added to Pokemon every 2-3 years, has been the crux of its success.
But now, 24 years into it, I can't help but feel that the quality that made Pokemon successful is starting to become a burden. Hypothetically, let's say the Pokemon franchise keeps going for another 11 years, for a grand total of 35. How many Pokemon do we think we'll be at by then? 1200? 1400? I have no doubt that whatever console the games will be on at that point could handle all the models, animations, dex entries, etc. But could the players? Would any of us, as an 8-10 year old in 2030, be willing to approach such a behemoth and try to capture every single pokemon, if they are available?
Now there are things GF could do to prevent the numbers from climbing so high. They could introduce about 50 new pokemon each generation. They could wait to release a new generation every 5 years. They could remake all the previous games for the Switch so that people can play with their favorite pokemon on the newest console with the newest graphics. But would that make the majority of fans and players happy? As much as I love this franchise, it is plainly obvious you can't make everyone happy, no matter how you try. For example, let's take Megas. When they were introduced, people bemoaned the mechanic and cried that they should have just given regular evolutions to most of those mons. Then people bemoaned that their favorite pokemon didn't get a mega when it clearly deserved one for reason XYZ. Then people groaned that Megas are going to be present in Gen VII. THEN people cried that no new Megas were going to be created going forward. At this point, any change or retention of an aspect to draw/keep customers feels like its going to lose customers who dislike it.
I think that a lot of us have been playing these games since the near beginning, and that's a feat to cherish and be proud of. But at some point, I think we have to ask ourselves a hard question: "Do these games spark the same amount of joy and love in kids now that they did when I was little?". Because, at the end of the day, Pokemon is a kids game. Its an imaginary, virtual, beetle fight you would get in with your friends on the playground. So maybe we won't be able to bring our favorite 15 year old beetle to the playground to show it off and battle with it. Maybe that fact
deserves the ire that GF and Nintendo are getting, and maybe, just maybe, it deserves to be grieved over. Maybe, to many of us, this grief is so intense that we may need to step away from the series for a bit. That's okay. Change isn't easy, nor is it always for the best.
GameFreak is taking a gamble, and a large one at that, that, at the beginning of a new generation on a new system (which for the first time, will be a console), we won't have access to every pokemon. Whatever the reason for this is, I have doubts their going to change their minds 5 months out from release, no matter the outcry. So maybe this gamble backfires, the games tank, and we go back to the same old same old in the next installment. Or maybe SwSh do as well as the other games, if not better, and this becomes our new normal. At this point, its hard to say. I think alot of us are freaking out that our favorite/hard-earned Pokemon might not be in the games. There's still a lot we do not know, but as we find out, in the coming months, which Pokemon are present and which are not, I think most of the player base will calm down and adjust. At least, that's my hope. I'm going to give this gamble a chance, and hope that whatever payoff (animations, better battling, better story) we get is worth the sacrifice. I sincerely hope you all do too.