POKÉMON MASTERS IS EXACTLY WHAT I FEARED (Sword & Shield No National Dex Controversy)

I know this video is about Pokemon Masters, but it has some extremely bad implications for mainstream Pokemon games, and the next mainstream Pokemon games are Pokemon Shield and Pokemon Sword.

Pokemon Masters is looking more like a mainline Pokemon game than Pokemon SwSh. Not only that, but it looks like it would be a good Pokemon game, featuring lots of well known characters from the cartoon and anime.

SilphSpectre also makes a very good point, that Game Freak seems afraid for the future of mainline Pokemon video games. He believes that Game Freak has split their development into an RPG with the working title "Town", and Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. This could very well be because Game Freak thinks the future of Pokemon might be on mobile devices. And when you look at how Pokemon Sword and Shield are turning out, and compare it to Pokemon Masters, it seems like Game Freak might be on to something.

The Pokemon Company has been focused more on mobile since Pokemon Go ended up making more money than expected. And that was a watered down Pokemon experience. Pokemon Masters will bring in a lot of features and things from mainline Pokemon games you'd expect to find on a serious Pokemon game on dedicated Nintendo hardware. We are seeing a mobile Pokemon game take over features from the main series games, which doesn't bode well for main Pokemon games. Not unless Game Freak can really come up with some surprising innovation and really come out with a great mainline Pokemon game. And judging by how Game Freak is splitting up their development and not focusing entirely on Pokemon, I don't see that as being a huge priority.

Pokemon Sword and Shield has been the target of a lot of backlash. The main concerns seem to be the graphics are pretty unacceptable for a 2019 Switch game, and that the national pokedex is not going to show up in Sword and Shield, meaning there will be Pokemon missing from earlier games. Between those problems and how much better Pokemon Masters looks, it's starting to look like priorities are changing for the Pokemon Company.