One of the biggest appeal of Pokemon games was that every generation contained all of the Pokemon from previous generation along with its new Pokemon. Game Freak managed to include all 802 Pokemon in the 3DS, a device that's not very powerful!
The Lack of National Pokedex
So, I along with many fans were very disappointed when Game Freak announced that Sword & Shield won't have all the Pokemon from previous generations. Citing reasons such as balancing and the sheer number of Pokemon to make models for. While I think the first reason might be justified. I don't agree with the second one!
Nintendo Switch is a very powerful system, so I'm sure the device can handle 1000+ Pokemon, no problem. I mean the device could run Witcher 3! The models don't look very improved compared to the 3DS games so I guess that's not an excuse. There are also ways to balance the game without cutting Pokemon!
Sadly, it just feels like they wanted to do less work for more profit.
But I guess, this was going to happen at some point. Even if it didn't happen is Sword & Shield a future game would have to cut their Pokemon so maybe they're doing this while thinking of the future?
A recent leak shows that the missing Pokemon are the Starters and Legendaries from previous games. If that was true and they're the only missing Pokemon then I'll be less disappointed because it'll make sense for them not to appear in the Galar region. But it's still a disappointment nevertheless.
The Good Things
Pokemon Sword & Shield looks pretty. True, it might not be graphically impressive but there are some design choices that appealed to me.
Random Encounters are downplayed in Sword & Shield. We can see most of the Pokemon on field and can try to avoid battles we don't want. Though at least in tall grass, we still won't be able to know which Pokemon we'll encounter until the fight starts.
So I guess the new Pokemon Generation isn't all bad. Though I hope it doesn't sell a lot to signal to Game Freak that they're doing something wrong.
Oh, the thing I want most of this generation however isn't in Sword & Shield. I want the Remake of Diamond & Pearl! I don't care if that one won't have all the Pokemon as long as it has ones from up to Gen 4! That will be another reason for me to save up for a Nintendo Switch!