Why did Dexit Really Happen?

D-ManBlue

So, does anyone remember the whole Dexit controversy in Sword and Shield, where they decided that from then on they wouldn't feature every Pokemon in a game ever again?

They claimed the reasoning for this was that it would be too much work to update the models for the Pokemon and they wanted to prioritize quality animations. This couldn't have been true, for a couple reasons:

• It was later revealed that the models WERE reused, and the in-game animations really weren't any better than in previous games.
• Updating models for 1000 or so Pokemon in Gen VIII is "too hard", but converting every Pokemon from sprites to 3D models in Gen VI was completely doable? Really?

So what are your thoughts? Why did they really make this decision?

RiqMoran

I agree with you and think a game that can house all pokemon is totally doable even if it's just once every 2-3 yr generation, especially given they somehow pulled it off in the transition to 3DS and those assets are still being used to this day.

However I think in some capacity the route they chose to go had to have been easier in some way shape or form. If not now, then surely in due time within a few generations. And the cynic in me partially believes they saw a way to make more money from selling the pokemon back to us via online subscriptions and DLC.

D-ManBlue

@RiqMoran So I should mention that the Pokemon they added WERE available for free via update- you just had to buy the DLC if you wanted to catch them in-game.

And yes, I do agree that they eventually would have had to make a decision like this as the number of total Pokemon increased and featuring them all would have been too much for one game to handle.

RiqMoran

That is true. Let me rephrase. The impact of new DLC allowing you to catch previously unobtainable pokemon is diminished if those pokemon were transferable all along. The way they've chosen to do it no doubt helps prop up the DLC with added hype that wouldn't otherwise be there. Access to all pokemon, something we took for granted before, has now become something we look forward to as a community event that coincides with the release of DLC.

For better or for worse, this is how it is.

MajorBrendan

Most likely the Dexit Happened because of several reasons. One should be the most obvious that not every pokemon could survive the said region. But I think the real reason is the lack of data to have all the pokemon crammed into such a limited amount of memory all at once.

BlueD

@RiqMoran "If not now, then surely in due time within a few generations."

If the advantage isn't now, then I think they should wait until they actually have that advantage.

Asacado

I really think it was to keep Home subs. There's no reason otherwise. The models were made in 2013 to be future-proof for the first 6 gens. Those same models went into Sword and Shield.

D-ManBlue

Another theory is that it's yet another side effect of their horrible development cycle and not having enough time for everything they want.

Flametix

I feel like it's partly deliberate for game balance these days (looking at Shedinja and Smeargle) but for why it happened, I would look at the SWSH prototypes where only a few pokemon are present and some not in the final game like Greninja, but with models and animations in a broken state.

TheJeffers

(I made a very long post with my thoughts on this topic when there were no other visible replies in the thread, but I guess it wasn't approved. Oh well.)

@Flametix Game balance seems like a very poor excuse. Why not simply restrict the usage of Pokémon and mechanics that are too powerful in online play and competitions, rather than outright removing them from the game?

If you are worried about people using transferred powerful Pokémon to complete the single player game, prevent transfers until the campaign is completed as previous games did. Or make them disobey you.

D-ManBlue

@Flametix You don’t need to look very far on the internet to see why Shedinja wasn’t included in S/V.

Elberta

I feel like it's like a lot people said, it's for game balance and to sell the DLC better, with the incentive of older generations of Pokemon returning. But I feel like it might just too much work for Game Freak to handle, I mean, it's already obvious from the poor quality the game had came out with. If they wanted to release a new generation game in 3 or 4 years, than, they should've focus A LOT more on their staff to make the new generation game have more quality. This would've happened sooner or later due to the increase of the number of Pokemon added to almost every single main stream game. If the Pokemon company were to add 1000+ Pokemon into the game, along with their game animations, the game will probably crash frequently due to the data needed to load every single time the game opens.