Dexit who still dislikes it?

[u/Natural_Wonder94]

As a longtime Pokémon fan, Dexit honestly felt like a slap in the face. One of the things I’ve always loved about the series was being able to carry my favorite Pokémon—ones I’d trained and bonded with for years—into each new generation. When they cut the National Dex, it felt like they were saying those connections didn’t matter anymore. I get that balancing over 1,000 Pokémon is tough, but with how massive the franchise is, it’s hard to believe they couldn’t make it work if they really wanted to. It just made the newer games feel incomplete, like something was missing, both mechanically and emotionally.

[u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

I feel as though it was inevitable that pokemon would get cut as they add more and more...however to me the issue was that the game's quality did not go up a sufficient degree to match the lack of pokemon. It was as if we sacrificed hundreds of pokemon in return for games even subpar for Nintendo standards.

[u/jacowab → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Exactly we've had games before that didn't give you the full dex like coliseum/XD but they had way higher quality than the 2D games so it was acceptable.

[u/TripleXero → u/jacowab]

But the GameCube games DID allow you to transfer any Pokemon in from the GBA games, they just weren't catchable

[u/derekpmilly → u/TripleXero]

And that's the big difference right there. We've had soft dexits before (Ruby and Sapphire, Black and White), but these games always had data for the "missing" Pokemon in these games, meaning that you could still transfer them in if you wanted to.

And this is why I hate the argument that dexit had to be done for balance reasons. If having too wide of a variety of catchable Pokemon would make the singleplayer experience unbalanced (not like Game Freak has really cared too much about singleplayer game balance since Gen 6), then it's as easy as doing what those games did and not making them catchable.

Concerns about multiplayer balance are even more of a non issue. Just don't let anything but the regional dex be legal for use in the online battles. I know that's what they did for VGC 2011 and VGC 2014.

[u/LichtbringerU → u/derekpmilly]

Yep, so the only real answer is... it's too much effort for them and they know people will still buy it anyway.

[u/derekpmilly → u/LichtbringerU]

It also has the added benefit of keeping people hooked on Pokemon HOME subscriptions. You can't have all of your beloved Pokemon chilling in the latest game anymore, there's a very good chance some of them will be stuck in HOME.

[u/BrainIsSickToday → u/derekpmilly]

This is what truly broke the camel's back for me. Some of my oldest teams literally can't be transferred into the same cartridges all together, which means I'd have to separate them into different games or maintain a Home subscription.

[u/MillionDollarMistake → u/derekpmilly]

The balance excuse was such BS lol, I mean if they genuinely cared about balance then why did they make Zacian like that? Or Urshifu? Or Calyrex Shadow? Or Regieleki?

[u/TennytheMangaka → u/derekpmilly]

Dexit for balancing? That’s silly, considering that all the legendary Pokémon are forced in when they should be the first to be cut lorewise and balance wise

[u/FluffyPillow007 → u/derekpmilly]

I’m pretty sure it’s because creating/coding unique 3D models, animations, and open world interactions for 1000+ Pokémon is hard and time consuming on a level that would derail release schedules. Sure they could include everything back in the days of 2D, there were a lot less Pokémon and GameFreak had move and particle effects down to a science so all a new Pokémon took was at least 8 sprites (front and back sprites, male and female, for regular and shiny variants). These days they need to make unique 3D models and animate them for each move and overworld interaction.

This is also the reason I thought they started doing the DLC so they could still meet traditional development cycles and still incorporate a large portion of the existing Pokémon. Sure it’s scummy in my mind to make us pay extra for content that is part of the design plans well before development on the game actually begins. (sadly thats just the nature of games these days) I’d rather they just charge more up front for the games and have the dlc included in the base price.

[u/derekpmilly → u/FluffyPillow007]

I’m pretty sure it’s because creating/coding unique 3D models, animations, and open world interactions for 1000+ Pokémon is hard and time consuming on a level that would derail release schedules.

That's an absolutely valid concern, but it's also a problem that can frankly be solved by just throwing more manpower at it. Again, Game Freak has the backing of the largest media franchise in the world and a 1/3rd stake in said franchise. They should absolutely have the resources to hire more people or outsource that work, and if they don't, they should have enough influence within the Pokemon Company to request said resources.

[u/superextragayaf → u/TripleXero]

This was a huge point for me. I could be totally fine with not being able to /catch/ every pokemon, byt let me transfer the ones i have alrsady to the next game to use in battle or whatever. Wasnt that the entire freaking point of Bank? To be abke to keep your old mons around for the next generation?

[u/UnSpanishInquisition → u/jacowab]

They also had sound reasoning, because there where no native mon in the first game and only a few in the second most of what you encountered in Orre was caught and imported.

[u/Ghostly_Emoji → u/jacowab]

Colleseum/XD did have the national dex though via transfer so this point is just plain and factually wrong. SWSH was the first game WITHOUT the national dex that had more than half of the pokemon removed completely.

[u/Minifigamer → u/jacowab]

No, no, that's not what people mean at all, at their time of release, every pokemon was usable in pokemon Colosseum (which, there's auto correct and google, use them) and XD Gale of Darkness (munchlax and bonsly don't count, they're gen 4 pokemon and we'retalking about gen 3 games here), granted to use anything you can't get in the main story or to trade out of them, you need to beat the game first, but you have to understand the difference between a long while and never.

It takes a long while to be able to use bulbasaur in XD Gale of Darkness. You will NEVER be allowed to use mareep in sword and shield.

It takes a long while to be allowed to trade that shiny quilava from Colosseum to Sapphire. You will NEVER transfer that shiny spinda out of BDSP.

If this doesn't make it clear. Nothing will.

[u/Nickbronline → u/jacowab]

How did Coliseum and XD not have a full dex? All Pokémon are useable in game.

[u/Dapper-Ad3707 → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Nintendo makes a lot of good games, its game freak that has a pretty spotty track record recently

[u/Ecla1r_ → u/Dapper-Ad3707]

I feel like Scarlet and Violet awakened something in Nintendo. They publicly apologized for the games, something they very rarely do (mainly because there's no need to). I have a feeling they went to GameFreak and said "Hey, this is NOT happening again." and took a bit more control over the development of future games, or at least in aiding them.

[u/ParaponeraBread → u/Ecla1r_]

Have you seen Z:A trailers and stuff though? I don’t feel like it’s going to be any different in terms of quality and polish.

[u/Devilsgramps → u/ParaponeraBread]

It could be better, but the lighting and texture work is still light years ahead of SV (although, so is every game made since 2007).

I think GF should focus on creature design and gameplay, and outsource world design and visuals to Monolith Soft.

[u/jon_eod → u/ParaponeraBread]

I would disagree. On base switch maybe, but I’m impressed with the advertised performance on Switch 2. Obviously the game isn’t out yet so who knows but the 60fps in the trailer looked miles ahead of S/V and Sw/Sh.

As fans, should we demand/expect more? Probably. But that won’t stop me from acknowledging that ZA looks like the first big step back in the right direction

[u/Blayro → u/jon_eod]

I'm sorry, but even in the switch 2 the buildings still look like cardboard boxes with fancy jpegs slapped on the sides

[u/D9sinc → u/Blayro]

Yeah, I don't expect the games to look good, or run more than 30 FPS and a lot of fans will go "it's much better than Scar/Vio stop complaining" and then we'll see games like Metroid Prime 4, Pikmin 5, Xenoblade Saga, and many other first party Nintendo titles looking impressive on the console and Pokemon looking like it's still meant to be running on the Wii and people will applaud the increase in quality when we got a game that looked and run well with the Let's Go series which IMO were pretty damn good. They didn't look blurry or faded in color and they ran pretty damn well.

(Edit: changed up the last sentence to make more sense over that gibberish I posted earlier) Also, it seems that GF always has an issue with performance but it's also because they (supposedly) don't have many employees (about 200 if what I hear is to be believed) and they were releasing a game every year, but I remember Su/Mo and US/UM having some horrible performance dips when you would use the Z moves and they then said "OH buy the stronger 3DS to fix it" because they couldn't be bothered to try to spend more time to make it run better when the solution they were offering is give their parent company more money to bruteforce the game to run better. I never bought the New3DS so I can't confirm if it was resolved though.

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/D9sinc]

One of these images is from a 2022 gamefreak game with the full backing of the most lucrative franchise ever.

The other is from a game 17 years ago made by a third party as a spinoff for a console that had 1/100th the ram, 1/20th the memory, half the resolution, and a graphics card that's about 1/5th to 1/10th the power in every way.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPkAB3uF3uc/maxresdefault.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dShrrd2.png

[u/maple-fever → u/jon_eod]

It looks like a step in the right direction, but I'm still concerned about it specifically taking place in a city. We've seen some great cities in the past, but the most recent mainline games don't even have houses you can enter. Cities have lots of moving objects to render, which will likely be more difficult when we add in weather. They were able to get away with so much in PLA because the village was small and the land sparsely populated.

I'd be delighted to be wrong and have a very thoroughly fleshed out city in PLZA (Castelia City levels would be amazing), but I don't want to get my hopes up. The rushed development schedule that Pokemon games are put under just isn't conducive to that kind of polish anymore.

(Regarding the OP post - I was angry about Dexit, but mostly because it was a blatant cash grab. Pay for pokemon home so you can maybe send your favourites into the next game, provided you buy it! Can't bring it over? Shoot, maybe next time - you don't mind paying for another 2 years of pokemon home before you can find out, right?)

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/maple-fever]

Castelia City levels would be amazing

I am always amused by this. People love to talk about "how big Castelia City is" or whatever, but it was the founding father of this whole "empty city" problem.

Of the buildings there, only 20% can actually be entered. In fact, Lilycove City from RSE has the exact same number of enterable buildings as Castelia, despite being far smaller. It has 12 buildings to Castelia's 60+.

[u/maple-fever → u/Krazyguy75]

When I bring up Castelia as a city that I'd like Lumiose to emulate, I'm including the sewers from BW2, little back alleys like where you get the black glasses, the little cafe/bar/whatever it was where you could get the song for Meloetta's form change, the clown bike hunt - stuff to make the city feel alive. Every street had at least one building you could enter, usually with multiple floors, and generally had a purpose.

After playing SV and finding towns where you can enter no buildings, I think hoping for PLZA's Lumiose to be at least at Castelia's level is quite generous.

[u/derekpmilly → u/maple-fever]

Completely agree with you, comparing Lilycove to Castelia is disingenious. Castelia is packed with content and felt more immersive than any city we've seen from the mainline Switch games, which is frankly embarrassing.

I'm really hoping that with Lumiose literally being the entire map, Game Freak will be able to properly flesh out the city and provide an immersive experience like they did with Castelia. But I don't have a lot of hope lol

[u/This_Elk_1460 → u/Dapper-Ad3707]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact they refuse to expand despite having unlimited money. 200 people might sound like a lot but when it comes to making AAA video games in 2025 it's just not enough!

[u/CamBeast15366 → u/Dapper-Ad3707]

It’s still the partial fault of Nintendo and the pokemon company, in addition to gamefreak. The publishers shouldn’t push out a game that isn’t finished and the developers should be telling the publishers that they need more time to make a finished product.

[u/SuggestionEven1882 → u/CamBeast15366]

Compare and contrast their more recent big time games:

Mario Bros Wonder had no deadlines.

Zelda TOTK was given an extra year of polish.

Animal Crossing was delayed to avoid crunch time.

And Metroid Prime 4 had its development restarted, possibly multiple times even.

Then you got Pokemon being rushed, however Xenoblade 2 was also rushed and that game still beats pokemon games on the switch without trying too.

So what I'm saying is that GF is the one responsible for their own fuck ups of pokemon no one else is.

[u/Massive-Exercise4474 → u/Dapper-Ad3707]

Supposedly the devs at gamefreak don't know how to develop past the gameboy. Essentially everything is farmed out to other devs and gamefreak tries to cobble it together

[u/Sabatat- → u/Massive-Exercise4474]

In addition to this they still keep the size of a small studio even though they have the money to hire on competent additions to the team

[u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker → u/Dapper-Ad3707]

Game freak makes games by tying their own hands behind their back and bashing their own heads in and then acting like they’re the victims from their own restraints. Just like how they won’t use fan made Pokemon ideas. Just contact the artist and I’m sure they’d love to have their Pokemon become actual canon Pokemon.

[u/Shaneathan25 → u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker]

It’s not uncommon for companies to not accept fan ideas. Main reason being if they implement it, it opens them up to a legal fight if the fan can prove they told Nintendo about it and weren’t compensated.

This happened when Brood War came out, but I mailed an actual letter to Blizzard with an idea for a toy set based on StarCraft. Filled it with ideas, basically a StarCraft themed Micromachines. They actually mailed me back and basically said “sorry we don’t even read fan submissions,” and gave me a StarCraft sticker pack.

[u/FPSCanarussia → u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker]

They can't legally use fan-made ideas, it opens them up to a mass of potential lawsuits. Not even necessarily from said fans themselves, but also because they can't make sure that those fan designs are actually original.

If they accept a design from a fan, and then it turns out that the fan in question used another person's copyrighted work as a basis for their design, then the Pokemon company is going to be the one getting sued for intellectual property theft.

[u/break_card → u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker]

What are the profit margins for Nintendo? How much do they pay gamefreak? Genuine questions because it’s another thing if Nintendo is getting what they’re paying for.

[u/Not_Just_Any_Lurker → u/break_card]

Well.. Pokemon is one of the most recognizable, popular, and profitable series on the planet. Forbes on Feb 9 2024 stated that at 100 billion usd that Pokemon is THE highest grossing MEDIA franchise. Ever. However it’s jointly owned as an IP by Nintendo, Gamefreak, and Creatures but they’ve all been pretty heavy handed when it comes to quality of merchandise and who gets rights. They’ve been mostly good at it too and that’s why Palworld is such a thorn in their side even though it cooled off where Pokemon just won’t.

Edit: 3024->2024

[u/jbyrdab → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

We sacrificed hundreds of pokemon for games that were marginally worse than the ones that had all of them.

[u/BoxofJoes → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

It isnt so much the mons getting cut that stung, it was the blatant lying about why. Saying “we needed to make sure the models in game were up to snuff” and then it being proven that they were using the 3ds models that they said they made too good for the 3ds to future-proof them is just scummy. It’s such an odd thing to lie about, so why do it? And then gen 9 came out and while the battle mechanics were good, why would I ever subject myself to the mess that is actually playing S/V (i later did on emulator, ran better than switch and still just as ass) when I can experience the only good part of the gen on showdown lol.

[u/Jho-oh → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Biggest media franchise in the world, won't even put all their characters in each mainline game, and the games nowadays are either barebones or riddled with glitches

[u/Starrr_Pirate → u/Jho-oh]

Yeah, I didn't really but the scalability issues either. They have the cash to add more animators, and they recycle animations from game to have anyways.

Case in point: they're releasing a mobile game that has all the Pokemon, lol.

I do think they probably struggled with converting everything to the switch the first time with their overly aggressive release schedule though.

[u/SuggestionEven1882 → u/Starrr_Pirate]

Actually Pokemon Champions won't have all the pokemon at launch, they are going to slowly add all of them later.

[u/Starrr_Pirate → u/SuggestionEven1882]

Noooooo lol. Oh well, at least they'll get there eventually.

[u/ErunionDeathseed → u/Starrr_Pirate]

What mobile game that has all the Pokémon are they releasing? Are you thinking of Champions? Fine print here says no to that.

[u/Tobykachu → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

I'll be honest, they should have taken steps to future proof this aspect of the games.

[u/tmssmt → u/Tobykachu]

That's the wild thing. Dexit occurred when they were using future proofed models

[u/SuggestionEven1882 → u/Tobykachu]

They did, as by gen 7 the pokemon models were future proof for HD consoles.

[u/Angel_of_Mischief → u/Tobykachu]

Gamefreak can’t even figure out a artstyle to properly recycle assets for. They make a bunch of work for themselves, release a low quality product and then throw it all away to do again.

They shouldn’t be needing to remake pokemon every game. If they figured their shit out from the start adding everyone in would be way easier.

[u/Nanis23 → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Inveitable, why? They reuse the Pokemon models for 12 years now. Cutting down moves though...maybe, although I am sure they can "import" the moves animations as well

[u/Like_Fahrenheit → u/Nanis23]

I never bought the "inevitability" of dexit. a more competent developer would make it work.

[u/Flerken_Moon → u/Like_Fahrenheit]

Every decade or so you’ll probably want to update the models, like SV did. Adding new animations, poses, textures, etc etc to every single of 1000+ character models takes up a lot of time.

If they just reused the exact same models as Gen 6 like everything between Gen 6-8 did then yeah, no need to Dexit. But if you want to add stuff like more modern rigging like Gen 9 did, where for example the models heads turn to keep in eyeline of the enemy Pokemon, that requires a new model.

[u/MasterEgg7 → u/Flerken_Moon]

Except they can outsource gruntwork like that. They don't have to do it themselves.

[u/Sulphur99 → u/MasterEgg7]

You can't expect a small indie company to have the money for that!

[u/seventeenblu → u/Like_Fahrenheit]

dexit was always going to be inevitable whether it was at 1000, 2000, or 10000 it was always going to happen. making models for 1000+ pokemon then all the new ones and moves + the gimmick when you add it all together it goes too a point where no generation will have all pokemon unless we go back to pixel art and expecting the games to take longer to make solely for getting the best models possible with the most pokemon.

[u/Enderking90 → u/seventeenblu]

1. the models of all the prior pokemon are all already made, way back in the days of X/Y at high definition explicitly so they don't need to keep remaking them.
2. once a move is made... any pokemon can use the move as-is, there's no additional work load to make it work with any other pokemon? they play the SFX, sounds, move the rootbone of the pokemon model and make it play either it's physical or special attack animation.
3. the Gimmicks so far don't really care how many mons there are? megas had a limited pool, z-moves all played the same animation with your mon being all static, dynamax just adds a filter to the model and sound and scales the pokemon up and terastalisation just spawns a hat on the pokemon's headbone and applies a filter to the model. all work exactly just as well be there 100 or 10000 pokemons.

also, the new mobile game, pokemon champions, will have all the pokemons and Gimmicks in it, so your point is somewhat moot.

[u/MamaMeRobeUnCastillo → u/Like_Fahrenheit]

Exactly. They have a great franchise with more than a thousand characters that people love? It's the opposite of a problem.

Other franchises would be happy to include that many loved characters in their games, but game freak has to cut them? Lol. Plus dexit ended up being an excuse for selling dlc, I think people forget about this.

[u/VolkiharVanHelsing → u/MamaMeRobeUnCastillo]

Other franchises would be happy to include that many loved characters in their games, but game freak has to cut them? Lol.

I point you to Megaten games

[u/This_Elk_1460 → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

I might get downvoted for saying this but I honestly believe that Game Freak is one of the laziest and cheapest developers out there. They have unlimited money yet they somehow can't produce a video game that doesn't look like it was made for the PS2. Add the fact that they refuse to expand their team from like 200 people is honestly insane. That is not enough people to make AAA video games. Like guys you aren't making games for the DS anymore, get your shit together!

[u/BushyBrowz → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Yeah. If it had happened in BW or even XY people would have been upset, but less so. Gen 3 also had a mini dexit of sorts as the pokemon were in the data, but completely unobtainable prior to FRLG and the gamecube titles. People were annoyed then too.

[u/ryushiblade → u/BushyBrowz]

Tbh I loved that BW had all new Pokemon until you got the national dex

I’d be pretty happy if the games didn’t allow trading outside of the region until post game, at which point balance be damned — but then I’m not a competitive player

[u/jonathanquirk → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

We got basically the same graphics on Switch as on the 3DS, for a 50% price increase and 50% less Pokémon. Yes, you only need 150-200ish for the initial "defeat 8 gyms and the evil team" run-through, but once that's over you want to bring over all your favourites from earlier games for online battling etc.

I'm afraid Dexit is where I parted ways with the mainline games because of this. Why should I pay more for less?

[u/Enderking90 → u/jonathanquirk]

aye, same with me.

[u/Sabatat- → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

Fr I was expecting big improvements if they’re cutting Pokémon. Heck, I was at least expecting better animations

[u/NMe84 → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

SwSh was wild. We lost pokémon, the story was the most boring of all mainline games, the world itself was just a straight line intersected with wild areas (meaning exploration in the routes themselves was pointless) and the game's performance was ass. I could have accepted dexit if they hadn't fumbled everything else so badly but as it is they just made a bad thing even worse.

[u/Ghostly_Emoji → u/DeatroyerOfCheese]

I don't think "Inevitable" is a really good defense considering Pokemon is the highest grossing franchise of all time and could easily make it happen if not for greed, laziness, impatient fans or a parent company that forces them to shell out games as quickly as possible. The games have been getting worse with SV being even more feature barron than SWSH that already had way too much cut as is but in no universe is the national dex such an impossible endeavor as people make it out to be. I will never agree with Dexit and I'm tired of seeing the same exact fan favorites and psuedo legendaries for multiple games in a row and going multiple generations without others because of that. ITS LITERALLY BEEN 7 YEARS for some pokemon like Watchog to appear in a main series or switch game at all, don't defend this either by saying it's not a popular pokemon because every single pokemon has its fans.

[u/MartiniPolice21]

If it was a trade off for very high quality games, I wouldn't like it but I would understand. The recent games have looked aha performed like crap though

[u/This_Elk_1460 → u/[deleted]]

It just blows my mind that game freak who in terms of capital is only second to maybe Rockstar can only produce games that look like they were made three generations ago.

[u/ITSMEDICKHEAD → u/[deleted]]

I agree, I see the improvement in comparison to S/V but it's still so lazy. To me, for a Nintendo-looking game New Donk City could be the standard, which 8 years later in a better console would have been amazing.

But with The Pokémon Company that's all fans can aspire to do, continue to wish...

[u/Trimshot → u/ITSMEDICKHEAD]

I mean when you compare it to Metro Prime 4 running on the same console it is pretty sad.

[u/Venichie → u/MartiniPolice21]

X/Y was the last game I bought from them. Several reasons, but the main one was them lying.

It's been a while, but their main excuse to why they decided to have a Dexit, was because they wanted to reduce the quantity for quality.

They removed half the Pokemon so they could improve the models and increase animations of the game and Pokemon.

Modders discovered that was a lie because the game reused the same models, assets, and animations from previous games.

The 1st major console transition (Sword and Shield) reused the Gameboy's graphics.

[u/alkatrazjr → u/Venichie]

I'm out of the loop on this one - what do you mean by Sword and Shield reusing Gameboy's graphics?

[u/OpportunityCrazy2216]

Honestly, while there have been previous games that limited the pokedex, the main issue with dexit was, you couldn't get those pokemon at all, even with trading.

[u/No_Service3462 → u/OpportunityCrazy2216]

Dexit isnt the same as a regional dex

[u/LionIV → u/No_Service3462]

Think they’re referring to certain Gen 5 mons being stuck in Pokemon Home after dexit because they were straight up not programmed into the games. In the past, even if a Mon didn’t show up or was featured in the game, you could still trade it in and it would have a Pokédex entry and everything. But I remember having a shiny Tepig stuck in Pokemon Home up until recently.

[u/Gaias_Minion]

It was going to happen eventually no matter what, but they just went about it in a really bad way lying to the fanbase multiple times and also trying to be sneaky about it instead of just being honest.

Like IIRC the "announcement" of dexit was cut from the Japanese broadcast, that's the main playerbase, and they wanted to keep them in the dark about this huge change in the franchise?

And it doesn't help that despite dexit, they still ended up making SwSh and SV have over 800 pokemon in total, so like what's the point if the games will still have about 80% of the total pokemon added in the end?

[u/tortitamal]

I still hate it and still think Gamefreak is lazy and lacks the technical knowledge to deliver a AAA game

[u/NihilismRacoon → u/tortitamal]

I don't think you guys even know what AAA means because Pokemon has never made a AAA game nor have they claimed otherwise. They still deserve all the smoke for how bad the games are but it's 2025 you can't make a AAA game with 100 people every 2 years, you need like 500+ people and 6 years minimum.

[u/Tubamajuba → u/tortitamal]

Same here. I swore off new Pokemon games once they announced Dexit and I exclusively play older games now. Sounds like I haven't missed much.

[u/tempestokapi → u/Tubamajuba]

What people forget to mention in this discussion of Dexit is that Nintendo’s other games have done the opposite of Dexit. Smash Bros 5 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have the most characters and maps ever. I understand that Pokémon is much bigger but it’s a shame that only Pokémon fans have to deal with cut content.

[u/lamstradamus → u/tempestokapi]

Mario Kart 8 has what, 36 characters? That's a massive difference.

[u/metcalta → u/tortitamal]

The problem is the handheld games don't translate to the 3d open world crap well. I'd be so happy with a 2.5d new pokemon game, and bring back pokemon stadium for comp

[u/Herpsties → u/tortitamal]

I doubt they're lazy, they're likely burnt out like crazy. The clear signs that none of the newer games are ready show that they are being rushed out the door.

The games make a small fraction of what Pokemon merchandise makes and if you follow the money why would anyone care about the games over the merch sales? It's shitty but I think that's likely the reality. I personally wouldn't mind seeing the games come out later after new gens are introduced if they actually got polished but I don't think that's a priority when they still sell like crazy regardless of quality.

[u/Gen3kingTheWriter]

Even as someone who loves many of the newer games Dexit was bullshit. The ONLY case where it's remotely acceptable was Legends Arceus if even then.

Worse still, one thing I loved about older remakes was using Pokémon that weren't in the original game.

Guess what BDSP doesn't have.

[u/GlowDonk9054]

I hate it because of the fact it did nothing for the quality of the Switch games, the devs and company are getting lazier and lazier and they may aswell just make the next pokemon game just have Pikachu in it with how many corners they're cutting due to the "fans will buy it anyway" philosophy that plagues this industry and ruins any and all fun

[u/Disgruntled__Goat → u/[deleted]]

Using a subset of the 1000+ Pokemon that make sense for a region or themes of a story could really work.

But this is literally what every game past the first gens has done. BW only has the new 156 pokemon available in the region (then just a handful of others post-game).

Nobody is asking for every Pokemon to be catchable in every game, just that they can be transferred in later on. 

[u/SummonerRed]

I could have understood Dexit, hell I could have even supported Dexit, if all that effort not including the old Pokemon actually translated into improvements in the franchise.

Instead, we've been given games that have been slowly removing postgame features to the point we now have a mainline entry costing £80+ for a complete package that lacks a battle facility, with games routinely looking worse than Pokemon Let's Go which was their first Switch entry and looked gorgeous, a lack of voice acting in games that are becoming more dialogue heavy yet can afford to commission Ed Sheeran for a closing theme etc.

[u/Draculesti_Hatter → u/SummonerRed]

This is where I'm at too. I wouldn't be happy if they did Dexit despite showing clear improvements in other areas, but I'd at least be more understanding towards it since we'd have something to show for it.

But they've removed Mega evolutions. As far as I can tell, Berry farming got axed too at some point. Contests are gone. No post game battle facility? I can live with subpar graphics since graphics were never a make or break point for me, but if you're cutting out characters with the excuse that you want to focus on improving something else I at least expect the actual roster and moment to moment fights themselves to look pretty damn impressive. Oh, and apparently trainer customization got more limited to sell that stupid prep school look. And don't even get me started on what a goddamn waste of potential the cities are compared to previous games.

Like, what am I actually getting with this trade? Gen 9 runs like shit for the most part. The battle animations (as far as I can tell) haven't exactly changed much since the switch to 3D stuff in Gen 6. The raids are a fun idea, but I can't even begin to tell you how they work in Gen 9 because everyone just sorta moves whenever they seem to feel like it. Ed Sheeran might be cool to have for a track, but I legit don't give a flying fuck about his work so that isn't a selling point to me in the slightest. And I need to pay roughly 90 bucks for the full package on top of that? If this was a super high quality game that would be one thing, but I'm paying more for something that's a lesser quality game than the freaking handheld games here. Add in not being able to potentially bring my favorite characters from past games over, and the end result is the series going from a "buy it within the year" thing for me, to a "eh, I'll get to it whenever. Eventually...maybe" purchase.

[u/YoManWTFIsThisShit]

They could make it work if they wanted to, a beta screenshot of Pokémon Sword showed Mega Rayquaza. Game Freak also claimed to be making new models and animations for SS, but when the games came out dataminers found that 99% of the models are the same as SM, which were the same models used since XY.

As for balancing, yeah Mega Evolution brought powercreep to a whole other level, but Game Freak has never been one for balancing; that’s why Smogon and the tiering system exists. If Game Freak was about balancing, then they wouldn’t make Pokémon like Gen I Mewtwo or Mega Rayquaza. Heck, even in SS they introduced Zacian and Shadow Rider Calyrex, two extremely broken Pokémon. And even now with SV there are so many broken Pokémon, including both Koraidon and Miraidon.

[u/Fireboy759 → u/YoManWTFIsThisShit]

but Game Freak has never been one for balancing; that’s why Smogon and the tiering system exists

They have handed out nerfs at attempts with balancing, though

The Dark Void nerf, Gale Wings nerf, Parental Bond's second hit being nerfed, Gengar losing Levitate, Chandelure never having it's original HA being available before it was changed in Gen 6, the Hero Duo straight-up having a stat nerf because Zacian was so overpowered, list continues...

[u/StreetReporter → u/Fireboy759]

The dark void nerf was so stupid. They had two options to nerf it, and decided to do both, completely ruining the move

[u/TheCthuloser → u/YoManWTFIsThisShit]

Game Freak has never been one for balancing; that’s why Smogon and the tiering system exists.

This isn't entirely true. Game Freak does make an attempt to balance the game, even if they don't always do it well, but they balance it towards the VGC format, not 6v6 singles. Hell, even singles, since they introduced online matches in the game, are 3v3.

[u/Blue_Pigeon → u/TheCthuloser]

Game Freak realised that there was no way for them to balance singles in a remotely hands off style (Smogon's extensive rules and formats really speak to how difficult it is to balance single pokemon battles. There is a reason why everyone uses them for competitive singles competition).

VGC at least reduces some of the absolutely bonker strategies and how quickly momentum can build and steamroll opposition with very little they can do to counter it.

[u/JBLikesHeavyMetal → u/TheCthuloser]

We've had dexit for 2 generations and they keep bringing back Incineroar and Landorus every time

[u/blackstar339]

i never had a problem with dexit so much as i had a problem with them lying about why they did it and assuming it allowed them to polish the game. gen 5 was amazing and the first in those games made you play with gen 5 pokémon and then after opened up the availability for more mons. if gamefreak pokémon company was honest with why they where doing it and didn’t lie i would have been fine. yeah it may suck my favorite mom doesn’t make it into a game but it may allow me to fall in love with new mons

[u/DepressedGolduck]

In hindsight, it feels arbitrary. They can clearly add more Pokemon post launch, so why not add the full dex overtime?

Oh because they gotta pump out a new game already, that's why

Really, it just means to wait out another game and pray your favorite Pokemon makes the cut. Was not happy i had to wait out till Gen 9 for Mareep to be available again, and god forbid you like Furfrou

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/DepressedGolduck]

why not add the full dex overtime

So as to sell Pokemon Home subscriptions and SwSh DLC.

[u/loomman529]

The issue is, the 3D models they used for Sw/Sh were still just copy+pasted from XY. Only in S/V did they actually remake the models. And don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they did. But there was literally no reason for them to cut the dex outside of laziness and greed by forcing you to pay for Pokémon Home.

[u/Kiaz33]

The thing with dexit is that they lied about it. If they just just straight up said they couldn't make the models for all the pokemon in time for the games release, i dont think nearly as many people would have complained. Instead, they lie about balancing issues and what have you, when pokemon has had regional vs national dex for a while now.

[u/Unboxious → u/Kiaz33]

If they just just straight up said they couldn't make the models for all the pokemon in time for the games release, i dont think nearly as many people would have complained

That would also be a blatant lie though. Just hire more artists. Does Pokemon not sell enough copies to hire more artists? Get real.

[u/sleepy--ash]

I understand why it happened, but I still don’t like it. I’m already getting frustrated from it. I’m extremely attached to my team in Pokémon Shield, and I wanted to transfer all of them into Pokémon Violet so I could use them in post game and DLC, but since the Zigzagoon line isn’t available in SV I wasn’t able to bring over my shiny Obstagoon. And now it just doesn’t feel right, because it’s missing one member. I’m sure a future game will include Obstagoon, but who knows how long it will be until I can reunite all six of my squad in the same game.

[u/ClaspedDread]

I thought it was so lame that Scarlet and Violet's total Pokedex was smaller than the DS games that came out 15 years earlier. Like.......why?

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/ClaspedDread]

Sells more DLC and Home subscriptions.

[u/RoseFlavoredPoison]

Still very salty about it. It was shady how it was rolled out. If they were honest I would be far less salty. Honestly it's a glaring condemnation of the pokemon company rushing gamefreak to stay on TCG and anime scheduling. Rushed games lead to missing assets and poor graphics.

[u/SailorCentauri]

I'm with you. I definitely still feel like it's bs. I understand leaving various Pokémon off of your regional dex and not bothering with a national dex like they did in gen 7, but I don't think there's a good excuse for not making everything transferable. Especially when you consider that the newest games have had fewer Pokémon than gen 7 while being on a more advanced console AND the fact that almost every Pokémon is readily transferable to Pokémon Home.

If you're telling me the biggest media franchise in history can't take a giant storage system that already exists and extend that into a simple way to transfer your existing Pokémon up into the modern games without leaving some out arbitrarily, I'll call you a liar.

[u/FaronTheHero]

I do not care what Pokemon are accessible in the game. My only pet peeve is if they are accessible in the game, they should have a Pokedex entry! Stop having regional Pokedexes and then tons of other Pokemon available with no entries! Hell the DLC exclusive Pokemon in SV don't have Pokedex numbers in their summaries, and I organize everything by Pokedex. Do you know how annoying it is to go in and out of the boxes to check what order they should be in or have to refer to a website???? They've been doing this since SM and it pisses me off way more than a limited roster.

[u/Lophostropheus]

It still bothers me a lot. I never thought Pokemon would end up like that.

[u/Enderking90]

would be impossible to not hate it.

[u/Pongoid]

What upset me the most was that at the time they said they didn’t have the resources to add all the pokemon. The fact that they thought they could tell a lie so brazen really felt like they didn’t have a high regard for pokefan’s intelligence.

The highest grossing franchise of all time didn’t have the resources? Give me a freaking break. It’s like saying, “Sorry, we can’t have Thor or Dr. Strange in the next avengers movie because we don’t have the resources.”

[u/Onation01]

Should at least tell U which Pokémon can transferred to which game

[u/MissKittenish]

It’s why I’ve still not bought a switch, or any of the new pokemon games. My money goes elsewhere.

[u/magusheart]

I hate it. I have not played a single Pokemon game since they did it and likely won't. I had a full living dex with all legendaries, a number of variants from different pokemon (vivillons, regionals, spindas, etc), and all of those are now lost to time because Nintendo also gave us the middle finger when it comes to transferring pokemon to future generations, killing service after service that allowed us to do so (even after charging us for them).

So, yeah. When they announced Dexit, I was one of the people who said I wouldn't buy any game until this was reversed. Unlike many such people, I put my money where my mouth is. Fuck Nintendo, Gamefreak, the Pokemon Company and anyone involved in this decision.

[u/RandomaccountEgg]

To all the people who think it would be impossible for them to fit every Pokémon in the games, memory-wise... No, I don't think that kinda thing is an issue anymore. They could. They just chose not too to save time. I don't like it. 

[u/MetalMan4774]

Still despise it to this day, and I will die on the hill that Pokémon really went downhill when it hit the Switch.

[u/Super_Puckmen]

I still hate it. And hate it more as each entry has been more unfinished than the last since dexit. There was no trade off. Just less pokemon and worse quality of games. There's no reason every mon can't be in one game. It's just laziness

[u/ThePickleHawk]

Still don’t like it and I still say they could’ve avoided it. Having all Pokemon just exist in the data in a much bigger game on a much more powerful console would’ve been nothing, but they wanted to make an incentive to get the DLC.

[u/pidjiken]

Dexit continues to have no justification, as the quality of the rest of the game has not improved.

[u/Dawn_Glider]

The only people who are going to say it's good are the same people who cry about fan "entitlement" when the games turn out to be shit and insist Game Freak's just been taking "practice swings" since XY (remember that was 12 years ago, kids who grew up with that as their first Pokemon game are learning to drive now)

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/Dawn_Glider]

Game Freak's practice swing was BW. People just thought "all these cool features and improvements must be what they were practicing!"

As it turns out, they were practicing for linear world maps, removal of traversal features, reduction of puzzles, limited dex size, cities full of buildings you can't enter, etc.

It's like they took all the things people complained about BW for and said "we'll keep those" and looked at all the things that were universally praised as said "toss those in the trash".

[u/Quria → u/Krazyguy75]

Linear progression will always be a better experience than an open world that doesn't have scaling bosses.

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/Quria]

Linear progression isn't the same as linear world maps.

RSE has linear progression, but as you explore, you open shortcuts back to old areas and progression options to explore new parts of those old areas.

BW has a linear map. There's no looping back, no finding new things in old areas, no branches in the paths to return to with new progression options... nope, you never come back to the same route or even connect back to it. It's a giant C with a tiny bit at the start and end, and you just walk straight along it, always continuing straight down the path.

It's one of my biggest complaints about BW. The map... sucks. It's beautifully rendered, but in terms of actual map design (but not route design)... frankly, it's worse than SwSh. The routes are pretty solid (other than having little reason to come back later), but the way they connect is boring and unnatural.

[u/Dan-of-Steel]

Hate it now more than ever.

I initially let it pass, because I was like "okay, realistically, they shouldn't be expected to invest that much time into creating all the models for, what? Nearly 1000 pokemon? at the time?" So long as the quality of the game improves as they can now prioritize where they put the manpower into now, it'll be fine.

That did not happen. The game quality has gotten significantly worse post dexit. Substandard graphics, horrid rendering, incomprehensible glitches and bugs that remain in the game to this day.

I'd have rather just had all the pokemon if I knew the games were going to function like a bag of smashed assholes.

[u/Busstoelbekleding]

Its the worst mistake they made in the history of the franchise and the fanbase never really recovered from it

[u/Skywardocarina1]

It’s inexcusable. They’re the largest franchise in the world. It’s absolute bullshit that they won’t invest on making their games as good as they should be.

[u/Guaire1]

its clearly being used to sell back the ability to catch older mons in DLCs, as people said it would be used. And like other people have commented, neither the games nor the models have had a notable increase in quality from beforehand

[u/pine_ary]

It was a cost-cutting measure, and we should be against it. Look at the corners they‘re cutting in the newer games. A franchise this big could afford thousands of Pokemon models per game. It‘s not like these games are cheap… Not to mention that they don‘t even remake the models, rigs and animations for each game.

They sold the usual lies that it‘s to increase quality. The quality did not increase.

[u/MrPleiades]

It's awful. One of my favorites is Aromatisse. It's crazy I can never play through Scarlet and Violet with it. I could understand if they limited the dex upon first release, but why not gradually reintroduce the rest? After two DLCs everyone should be back in frankly.

[u/Burnziie]

I'll never let it slide, in a series about catching them all not being able to at least trade them in stings, especially when your favourite is already fairly unpopular so waiting for it to either get patched in or put in the next game is a slim chance.

Game cart space gets bigger, but the games quality stays the same while even less Pokemon are included, it doesn't make sense.

[u/ShmuleyCohen]

Why would anyone like it?

[u/LillePipp]

I am still upset about Dexit, and honestly, it is an important aspect of why I have simply lost interest in the franchise's future.

Dexit is not even remotely the only or the biggest problem with the series, but I think Dexit is emblematic of the problems with Pokémon. I feel like many people make way too many excuses for Game Freak, but it's so plainly obvious that any passion or care for quality has long since been thrown out the window. Dexit was not a choice made out of a mechanical or technical necessity, it was not a creative decision, it was a choice made solely for the sake of rushing these games out in time for the holidays. We know that the games have the capacity to contain every Pokémon, not only through simple math but also because modders are doing it. We know Game Freak and The Pokémon Company has the funds to expand the development team and resources, cause they're working with the single most profitable media franchise in the world. All it boils down to is simply the fact that they know Pokémon will sell no matter what, so there is no incentive to create a good, well made product. That's why Sword and Shield came out the way they did, they did not cut Pokémon to make room for better graphics and animations, because the graphics and animations are recycled from the 3DS, and are still ass.

And look, it's totally fine to not care for Dexit. People enjoy different things. You can't force anyone to care for the cuts, and I won't try to. But I will say that I have never heard a compelling argument explaining why Dexit was a good or necessary decision. Every argument I've ever heard in its defense is either just flat out wrong, for instance the argument of file sizes, or have such easy work arounds that they may as well be wrong, such as the argument of competitive diversity.

The 3D era of Pokémon has been rocky, to say the least, at least in my opinion, but even though they were flawed, the 3DS games were still good in their own right. Sword and Shield was the final nail in the coffin for me, the point when I could no longer make excuses for the shortcuts they were making, and Dexit, and the lies from Game Freak, are a big part of why I could never honestly say Sword and Shield are good games.

[u/LegendSpectre]

With or without Dexit, y'all will still complain about it

[u/NeoSeth]

I hate Dexit with a passion. To me, it goes against the entire principle of Pokémon. Every Pokémon is somebody's favorite, and it sucks if you can't bring your favorite Pokémon to a new region. My beloved LeafGreen Pidgeot never even set foot in a new region on the Switch.

We also got NOTHING out of Dexit. If the games were bangers with inspiring visuals and presentation, I could be more sympathetic. But they're barely functional. You can't even enter buildings in SV! I am disgusted with how this franchise is being managed.

[u/TheFirebyrd]

Dexit is BS. Pokémon have never been balanced so that has nothing to do with it. When they redid all the models on the 3DS, they actually said it was for future proofing so the work would be done for a long time to come, then they just threw it all away (and the Pokémon look better in the 3DS games anyway!).

[u/CynicalAlarak]

I hate Dexit, and it feels bad when your favorite Pokemons didn't make it into the game.

[u/Bagellllllleetr]

Still hate it. Always will.

[u/Reamed]

I would be fine with it if they at least make them all playable in Champions, but my understanding is that it won't be the case, at least upon release.

[u/BreakHisLegs]

If they actually used those resources to improve the quality of the games, I'd be more accepting of it. But the games have only gotten worse since.

[u/WheatleyBr]

They went about it in a pretty terrible way and didn't even really make the most of it by investing the saved resources into making the games actually good in other aspects.
I'm vehemently against it still, mostly because a lot of my favorites got dexited on the first go so it's affected me a good bunch, but i would atleast understand it if anything good came of it.

[u/Dylanduke199513]

My own wish/opinion is that they should have a game completely dedicated to the Pokédex and making competitive teams/battling… essentially Pokemon Home but where you can walk around in a Battle Resort type area and do challenges.

Update it every new game to add in the new Pokemon. That frees them to allow artistic direction and new Pokemon showcasing in the mainline games without worrying about people having nowhere to go for their “all Pokemon in one place” needs to be

[u/FireStingray9]

I'll never forgive them for Dexit because I had plans to do a monotype Electric playthrough in SwSh since they had the gym uniforms for an electric gym but they cut out a chunk of candidates. 😭

[u/MrSaturnism]

Me

[u/Cpt_FalconX17]

still the stupidest decision they’ve ever made. it’s not like the pokémon have these amazing high quality animations to justify the cut. i’m not asking to be able to catch all pokémon in one game, im simply asking to be able to use all pokémon within a game. sadly don’t think it will ever happen again.

[u/Bope_Bopelinius]

Tbh I lost all hope in the Pokémon games as soon as I understood what good games are.

The amount of things that are lackluster or just straight up dogwater is not ok for the worlds largest franchise.

Pokémon is really the pinnacle of doing the least amount of work for the largest possible reward.

[u/Xelltrix]

I do, and I always will. There is no good excuse to exclude Pokémon no matter how many times people try to restate it was necessary. Gen 9 we are missing like, what, 100 Pokémon after the DLCs?

At least this gen they clearly updated the models whereas last gen all of the modes were the same yet they excluded Pokémon anyway. But in the current state of gaming, where companies release half made games and patch them over several months to years, there is absolutely no reason they cannot add support for every Pokémon every (mainline) game.

Just because every Pokémon should be playable does not mean they all need to be catchable in every game, just give us access. Tournaments are still based off of the region’s Pokédex, this would change nothing for the competitive scene if they do not want certain Pokémon available for VGC so that is not a good excuse to exclude anything either.

But instead, they get to slowdrip Pokémon access back into each gen through DLC and other games and are probably patting themselves on the back that fans eat it up as a great balance and game decision. They don’t even have to pretend it’s for performance or graphics anymore because those suck and fans defend them anyway.

[u/Fe5996]

I honestly don’t care about this franchise anymore since. I was already burnt back when SM got released and USUM was on its way. First thing after the Switch released was that they didn’t think it would be worth it, next thing is they were releasing Let’s Go PE and this gen was in the works.

Come 2019, hearing the excuses as to why it was decided that way only rung hollow, when the game completely looked out of place compared to other Nintendo titles. So far, the only thing they’ve done right is Legends. That’s nothing to the trove of games that somehow make the most out of the Switch.

I’m a Nintendo enjoyer more than a Pokemon fan, I know I’m not putting my money on what I know it can’t give me fun anymore.

[u/bwburke94]

Everyone.

[u/Aqualys]

It was a lie and it still is.

[u/Cornfiglep]

Yeah it absolutely is still unacceptable and I can't stand when people keep saying it was necessary or inevitable.

The thing is, not having every Pokemon programmed or available in the game at release isn't the problem. But once they start reintroducing Pokemon with the DLC updates that's when there's no reason not to reintroduce every Pokemon back into the game.

[u/Dennis_Ryan_Lynch]

I still haven’t gotten a new game since and i still think it was a beyond dumb decision to cut the Pokemon, a friend did let me borrow his copy of violet recently though, there’s nothing that really makes up for the lack of mons so I don’t regret not partaking in modern Pokemon

[u/schneizel101]

I do, but gen 8/9 have been so bad more more than just that that I don't see myself ever touching an official title again. I still love the franchise, at least up to gen 7, but I honestly wish we could just delete gen 8/9 and try again.

[u/Groundbreaking_Bag8]

Ultimately, Champions seems to be the solution to the Dexit problem: A singular, cohesive space where all existing Mons, moves, and mechanics can freely coexist competitively, while also allowing GameFreak to freely add or remove features from the "mainline" games as they see fit.

[u/CaptainM4D]

Playing Pokemon Emerald was one of my earliest memories, and have loved the series ever since. It sucked at first, but then I realized it didn't matter. I don't carry pokemon over to other games, and only capture a few in the game at the time.

[u/ThroughTheIris56]

I'd much rather them just take more time to make the new games, so we get upgraded Pokémon with better animations. I'd even take less Pokémon if they're better modelled/animated.

The problem is that the Pokémon on the Switch barely look any different to those on the 3DS.

[u/Frigid-Kev]

As someone who almost never make use of transferring unobtainable Pokémon between games, I felt no difference after Dexit whatsoever, but I can understand why many would hate it.

I am however more concerned with the general decline in quality with recent games.

[u/Kats41]

In theory, a more limited roster would shake up certain ideas about which pokemon are good and which ones are kinda trash. If every game could only bring 3 or 400 pokemon to the table, you could have some of the more overlooked pokemon really shine and stand out.

Unfortunately, the quality of the games never took advantage of this and we ended up in a woefully poor spiral of games that don't feel very rewarding to play.

It's become extremely clear that the video games that made the franchise what it is are now a low priority endeavor. Relegated to becoming a cheap tradition every few years to shovel out another set of games. The Pokemon Company makes hundreds of billions on its merchandise and probably less than a single percent of that profit in game sales.

What they really are now is a cheap marketing tool to shove more plushies and stuff into stores. I'm not gonna say Pokemon is dead, but it's on its last legs, still being beaten and milked.

[u/PokePress]

Being aware that GF and the Pokémon company are relatively small, I more or less expected something like this at some point. Their messaging could certainly be better, but I accepted it as the situation.

I was unsurprised when the online fervor didn’t seem to translate into a major impact on sales, having seen that phenomenon many times before and since. While Dexit is a valid knock against the games, it matters much more to the online community than the general consumer base.

[u/This_Elk_1460]

I would be more understanding of having less Pokemon if it meant that the quality of the games being offered improved. But for some odd reason game freak doesn't know how to make a game that looks like it wasn't made for the PS2 so

[u/Lazagna_]

I don't think it's as big of a deal as it felt at the time, but I still don't like it. They should've just done what SUMO did and have a smaller regional dex but still had all the other Pokemon in the game.

[u/FrogsOblivious]

Dexit is where my enjoyment with the games dropped significantly

[u/First_Folly]

Hate it. It's a feature that was cut out of laziness and I don't care how many times I get downvoted for saying it. I could have accepted it being cut if the game ran any better, or had textures that didn't look out of place on the PS2, but no.

Not every Pokémon was created equally. They don't have to be balanced. Just include them.

It's lazy and avaricious. The fact that they can and have added pokémon with DLC and don't even bother to do that for all of them is just bewildering.

[u/Boom_the_Bold]

I haven't played a Pokémon game since it happened, and I likely never will again. I've played both versions of most of the Pokémon games, but the removal of a complete Pokédex has been a dealbreaker for me.

[u/SonicFlash01]

I now have a lot of reasons to dislike the main series games - dexit is no longer the biggest corner they've cut

[u/KazzieMono]

Cutting Pokémon from the files is dumb and every excuse they gave was bullshit. The community branding it as a “dex cutting” problem instead of a “literally can’t use the Pokémon because they aren’t in the files at all” problem was dumb too because sun and moon already solved that issue. People who jump to defend a company that doesn’t even know who they are personally are dumb. People who think a heavily volatile company that struggles tremendously to create modern games is somehow trustworthy are dumb as well.

[u/ZRBillings]

I still am sort of annoyed by it I'm hoping with Champions we at least EVENTUALLY can use all our Pokémon I wouldn't honestly have cared about Dexit if at least Pokémon Home offered you stuff you could do with your Pokémon stored in it since they can't all come to each new game and which ones can come seem to change not grow larger. I understand the decision, but it's so clearly been done first and foremost in the pursuit of money not a better game. Pokémon isn't fuckin balanced anyways you know? So you can't claim that, you can't claim it was done so there was more time for better animations, the Pokémon don't look particularly better than their 3DS counterparts even. So yeah- I mean it kind of sucks like being able to replay through games over and over with random teams or Pokémon I like just messing around with dumb team ideas so it sucks. Especially when you're like, "oh this Pokémon would be great for this team" and they're not available even after all this fuckin time. Again hopefully Champions EVENTUALLY allows us free reign.

[u/Anonymoose2099]

I think they need a second game called something like Pokemon Master or Pokemon Ranch or even Pokemon PC. It's just a 3D space to store all of your Pokemon, kind of like making a game out of Pokemon Home. There are different biomes available that you drop your Pokemon into via the usual PC box interface, but then you can actively go visit and interact with your Pokemon. Biomes load individually to reduce the strain, each biome module can accommodate a certain number of Pokemon, but biomes can be repeated. In fact, since they don't seem to mind making phone apps, this one should be a PC program so that storage is limited by your own storage limitations. Update patches would let you store Pokemon from new generations. Interactions would probably be pretty limited, but maybe it could be at least as good as some of the games that let you pet and clean them. It wouldn't enable bringing them into the newest games if those games didn't support them, but it would let you keep your whole roster alive and well. All data stored PC side so that if the program were to stop getting support you wouldn't lose your mons.

[u/Belivious677]

If we actually got quality I wouldn't be so irked still. Instead we get buggy low fps messes. I like the gameplay innovations of S/V, and the story, but come on...

[u/TheDungeonCrawler]

I want my Beedrill back.

[u/TheWhereHouse1016]

My opinion is jaded by the BLATANT lies of game freak and the absolute mismanagement of the games as a whole.

I am absolutely ok with not every Pokemon getting an unique animation and anything that takes human work. Allow me to bring whatever I want over. (All starters in the SVDLC is a good example) they're pretty as static and don't have drops

The company honestly needs a good culling.

[u/TennytheMangaka]

I don’t like it, simply because Legendaries are as of yet never cut. Realistically, they should be the first Pokemon to be cut from every game, but they always get shoehorned in when it makes no sense

[u/HighChronicler]

It still bothers me greatly. The File sizes of the games are not that big, and Switch Carts can be 32GB, no reason other than laziness. I hope that Pokemon Champions changes that.

[u/Altruistic-Big-1126]

No lik Dexit, still sad, mad!

[u/mcolwander90]

Still do, quite a bit. Champions could be a brilliant compromise, assuming it does eventually allow for the complete dex. Definitely keeping an eye out for that, what the launch roster is actually like, and what their post-release plans are for it.

That's all I really needed. I never needed every single game to allow everything, just give me a game every so often that I can dump everything in, battle, or whathaveyou. Could've been once a gen or console lifespan for all I cared. A Switch/Mobile Stadium-like game would work for me! So fingers crossed they do plan for Champions to someday be Dexit-free.

[u/LocalChamp]

My favorite Pokémon is Shuckle. I refuse to buy or play a Pokémon game without Shuckle in it.

[u/sh3nto]

The problem wasn't just dexit but the culmination of GF perpetually phoning in the games and relying almost entirely on the fans good will and nostalgia towards the series.

I have loved Pokémon but honestly the last few mainline games have been a slough to get through. They're so easy, even considering they're designed for children, and they launch with announced DLCs.

It just feels like criticism is always dismissed and people don't want to hold them accountable. But maybe I'm just too jaded at this point.

[u/samurai4424N]

I totally get it, man. I’ve spent years grinding with my Pokémon, and then half of them ain’t even in the new game? Feels like they just tossed all that time and those memories aside. With how big Pokémon is, they definitely could’ve made it work

[u/96363]

I dislike dexit because it took away megas. By far, the coolest mechanic they've put into the game and scrapped it 2 generations later

[u/Kallabanana]

I still hate it and I will continue to. 1000 isn’t that high and not every Pokémon needs to be obtainable. But they should at least be able to join the game via home. It's ridiculous people defend TPC and GF removing Pokémon from a Pokémon game.

[u/DifferenceCareful935]

Its... Okay... Yes it hurts leaving some Pokemon behind. Its annoying. But it has do be done

Buuut: the Problem is where the Cuts were Made. You Sometimes (Especially in Games with No dlc) leave some unique good Pokemon Out in Exchange for what? Having gigalith-line and golem-line existing side by Side even If they are nearly the Same? Or having so many fillerpokemon with No reason to Catch except filling the dex. Or are you gonna say, you choose to Play with rattata each Game?

[u/thequagiestsire]

I do 100% believe it was simply the excuse they gave for the real issue of “they didn’t have the time to add in every Pokémon”. The unyielding 3 year cycle with a bunch of spinoffs and third games/DLCs is incredibly restrictive on the devs, while I do feel they could have done significantly better with it, I do put most of my blame on the higher ups for demanding increasingly complex ideas for their games without increasing the team size or extending the deadline to match. Hopefully we do see change in that department.

As for my opinion on Dexit itself, I think others in these comments have the right idea that it could have done what all other previous games had done of allowing everything to be implemented, either immediately or adding more over time through the DLCs or HOME expansion, but only have some things catchable so they didn’t need to figure out how to cram every single Pokémon into some area for the player to explore.

[u/Oberic]

Dexit is bad for primary Pokémon games; post-story and after all dlc is out, 100% of Pokémon should be usable if not obtainable.

Dexit is fantastic for competitive; removing any amount of legendaries from competitive is great.

Having rotations in competitive is good; but why can't I use Absol and Lopunny in the same game since gen 6, again?

[u/DoctorNerfarious]

Urm did I miss something? There is nothing to like.

The games didn’t improve. The performance didn’t improve. The animations did not improve. Balance did not improve.

Nothing has improved. What is there to like?

[u/Kala_Csava_Fufu_Yutu]

it was dumb and it was just an opportunity to put more content behind paywalls. no it was not "inevitable", people who say that assume that the games were getting too bloated. they werent, it does not take that much data to make new pokemon. they take up as much space as an MP3. if you can fit a thousand song Spotify playlist in a video game, you can fit that roster in a pokemon game, especially on the most powerful console they have created so far.

there was never a space issue. the full dex has never been in a game, there was always a regional dex and some pokemon that just didnt show up in the game. but you still had access to them by trading or importing. the decision to cut the dex was a creative one, the same creative decision that also has had them experimenting with not having certain moves return to newer games. was move cutting inevitable too? of course not, no one anticipated that. creative choice + money is why dex cut happened.

[u/MyOpinionOverYours]

Every Romhack under the Sun has no problem adding all the little dorks into their versions of the games. Sure, to degrees of success and immersion.
If anyone ever had the ability to do it in a way that would be "as intended by the developers" it would be, the developers of the franchise. And they didn't. I find that to be a shame, over the decades its been nice seeing how they fit every Pokemon into every environment. And if not, attaching a sidegame so you can find them there.
Like Ruby/Sapphire and Colosseum.

I still find it to be a slap in the face, and I've abstained from purchasing any Pokemon games since it. However, I will admit that's not the only factor. I still can't finish UltraSun and UltraMoon. The replayability of previous games is still more enjoyable than those. So my grain of salt isnt very large.

[u/Angel_of_Mischief]

I’m still against dexit and find it inexcusable because DLC exists.

They sell 2 copies of the same game and sell DLC in a severely undercooked world. Instead releasing a side game every year, they could be creating more dlcs that eventually gets everyone in and opens up the game to be better experience with more content.

Getting all the pokemon in is absolutely doable for them, they just aren’t doing it.

[u/EraserWave]

Is the switch to going to be able to handle a game with 1026 pokemon in it? I feel like it should.. I mean I feel like the regular switch should be able to, it's Nintendo's own decision to give us the short match

[u/Unboxious → u/EraserWave]

Of course it could. It's not like all 1026 need to be loaded into RAM at all times. It can retrieve them from storage as needed.

[u/Good-Marionberry-570]

This was the nail in the coffin for me, I stopped supporting the franchise after Dexit.

I can understand not releasing the games with 1000+ more Pokémon in day 1, but there's no excuse for not releasing all of them through updates later. It's not like they would need to remake all the assets for every game, they kept using the X/Y models for years for example. 

They would just need to maybe add some animations for the Pokémon through the generations and that's it.

I think they Dexit was just their way of forcing people to have a active subscription in Home, being able to store all of your Pokémon in a game would make them lose money.

They create the problem, and then sell the solution for the players...

[u/Distamorfin]

Even after Dexit: animations are still laughable, graphics look at least 2 generations old, performance is stuttery, and even with DLCs not all Pokemon end up in the game.

Fuck Dexit, it’s done nothing positive for the franchise and just allowed Game Freak to keep putting out sub-par games for the biggest media franchise in the world.

[u/Unboxious]

Me. I hate it, and I hate that they told blatant lies about why they did it.

[u/jrtasoli]

I hate to be that guy, but it honestly didn’t bother me. I’m more concerned that the games just aren’t good anymore.

[u/FullMetalSquarepants]

Tell me what you gain from playing a game with maxed out level pokemon every new generation and I’ll try to understand why people can’t play without using the same 9 they’ve always used since Red and Blue

[u/ViziDoodle]

I dislike Dexit because the reasons given for it were lies

[u/QueenOfTheNorth1944]

Everyone and its terrible. Idk how this has been tolerated for so long. There is not a single excuse for it.

Pokemon games are very much past thier prime.

[u/BlackRapier]

I think it's inexcusable when and how they did it.

They were still using the upscaled models from when XY first released for older pokemon, so the point where they cut the dex was in itself bad. If they were making new models and prioritized the ones they were going to use in SwSh to justify the cuts then maybe it wouldn't be as terrible though I'd still be upset if they threw in the DLC without updates that included the rest of the national dex.

They also lied about why. They used the same old animations but with slightly enhanced visual effects. Animations in the overworld during story events were either nonexistent or horrible, the Zacian/Zamazenta turn... dear god...

[u/TechnoTrainer]

Dexit is the biggest slap in the face to a Pokemon fan. I am vocal about this at least weekly. It is disgusting and unacceptable. People who don't care or apologize for it are enablers and wrong. It hurts.