Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the latest entries in gaming's largest franchise. Starting on the GameBoy in 1996 with Pokemon Red and Blue, the franchise has gone on to include a trading card game, movies, and a television anime alongside other related media. A generation of children grew up with Pokemon and still cherish it today. While this can be attributed to countless factors, no small part of this is the fact that Pokemon has always allowed players to bring their pocket monsters with them from game to game, at least until the Nintendo Switch, where things started to get a bit more complicated. Thankfully, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet seem to be mostly fixing this.

Pokemon Sword and Shield finally brought mainline Pokemon games to home consoles, but they came with a couple of catches. One was that they were largely the same as titles on the 3DS in terms of their design, not taking full advantage of the leap in hardware power. The more glaring issue, however, was that Sword and Shield has no National Dex. Most Pokemon games before it had both a Regional and National Dex. The National Dex covers Pokemon that are not native to the game's local region. The exclusion of the National Dex in Sword and Shield and its reduced role in Scarlet and Violet's base game meant that people were unable to carry over Pokemon they had potentially had for years.

RELATED: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Indigo Disk DLC Might be The Franchise's Darkest Story Yet

The slow release of Pokemon games on the Switch, alongside DLCs, has made it so that almost every Pokemon is or will be available on the system. Leaks surrounding the upcoming Indigo Disk DLC have indicated that with the release of the pack, all but 10 Pokemon will be available on the Switch platform in some capacity. Most excitingly, Indigo Disk will include the addition of all the remaining starter Pokemon that have been left out from previous generations. Over 100 more returning monsters will accompany the inclusion of these past starters. Also being added is four new Pokemon, though fans may still be thinking about the critters left behind.

After Indigo Disk, 10 Pokemon Will Still Not Be On the Switch

While the next Pokemon game really needs to expand to include the fully national dex, rumors suggest that Indigo disk will at least make it so that players can get most of their legacy Pokemon into games and out of Pokemon Home. According to leaks, these 10 Pokemon will remain absent from games on the Switch platform after the release of the Indigo Disk DLC:

• Furfrou
• Pansage
• Simisage
• Pansear
• Simisear
• Panpour
• Simipour
• Patrat
• Watchog
• Minior

Pokemon Needs to Consolidate

While the release of Indigo Disk will fill out the Paldea National Dex, the state of Pokemon right now is not good in regard to the Pokedex. Older pre-Switch Pokemon games always supported previously included monsters. While generating high-quality 3D models for the Switch is more costly, Pokemon games frequently break sales records, and the series is the largest gaming franchise in the world. Pokemon Home is the only place on Switch that can store every Pokemon, and while it is available for free, having more than 30 Pokemon stored in it or transferring from Pokemon Bank on 3DS requires a monthly subscription. Requiring gamers to pay a subscription fee to keep all their Pokemon in one place is not consumer-friendly.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet pushed the franchise forward more than other recent mainline entries, but technical problems and the lack of a complete National Dex have held it back from the greatness that it should have achieved. Pokemon is a big enough franchise that it should be making steps forward with each entry instead of steps back. Scarlet and Violet's visuals resemble PS1 graphics, but that would be easier to look past if the game felt more feature-complete. As the first open-world mainline Pokemon game, growing pains are to be expected. Many of the game's technical issues would have been easier for fans to look past if it had brought back staple features like the National Dex. While Indigo Disk will improve the state of things substantially, future entries should consider restoring the National Dex.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Pokemon Scarlet & Pokemon Violet are the main entries in the series for Generation IX. They introduced over 100 new Pokemon and brought players to the Paldea region.

Franchise

Pokemon

Platform(s)

Switch

Released

November 18, 2022

Developer(s)

Game Freak

Genre(s)

RPG