As with many controversies, the Pokemon anger has never been *JUST* the National Dex situation. There has been resentment growing among the older players for generations of the game, and it has mostly to do with, for lack of a better phrase, taking the easy way out.

Game Freak has a history of doing one-and-done attempts at game features. Regardless of the popularity of the mechanic, it disappears within 1 or 2 games. One of the most popular features was introduced in Pokemon Yellow: Pikachu would follow you around on the overworld. This feature disappeared after Yellow and would not reappear until Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver, of which it returned in spades, allowing you to have any of your friends follow behind you during your adventures. Sadly, HGSS proved to be the last time in the mainline series that the feature presented itself. Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee brought back this functionality for your partner Pokemon, but that was it. This feature was well loved, and is mechanically supported in the game (Every pokemon in Sun/Moon have a walking animation, most of which are unused). Ultimately, however, this feature is not a tremendous deal since its mostly cosmetic and doesnt affect the game as a whole.

Not quite the same with some of the other cuts. Pokemon Emerald introduced a feature called the Battle Frontier. It was an island that contained 7 Battle Arenas, each with a different manner of challenge for the trainer, and each with their own badge equivalent for accomplishing their tasks. Heavily requested in future games, this post-game content made a return in Heartgold/Soulsilver and Pokemon Platinum to the delight of many. However, when the remakes of the Generation 3 games came around, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did not include this game mode. When asked why the content was not included, Junichi Masuda made the statement:

    We created a “balanced” game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games, so the time they dedicate to a single game is less than in the past(...)We didn’t put the BF in ORAS for this very reason.

The battle frontier has yet to make a return to the franchise, and while things like the Battle Train and Battle Maison have provided a portion of what players have been looking for, its not the full BF experience that people have been requesting.

Other major cuts over the years include the Pokemon Underground (DPP only), Secret Bases (Gen3-4 only), Expanded Difficulty Modes (only present in Black/White 2 before being removed), Horde Battles, Triple Battles, Rotation Battles, Seasons, Game Corner (Gambling laws allegedly caused this one, so its understandable) and Pokemon Contests. Now, finally, we’re starting to cut Pokemon themselves from the game, as well as Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves, which have been replaced with a new mechanic that will surely disappear when Gen9 rolls around. For many this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Between the plethora of features that are no longer present within the pokemon games, the difficulty of the games being lowered in every game since XY(another victim of smartphones according to Masuda), and the heavy reliance on unskippable cutscenes Gen7 titles hampering replayability, there have been many targets of player frustration.

Do not misunderstand my issues with the games. I still love Pokemon. I’m currently playing through Platinum right now. I hope this new game is good, and that my concerns of charging 50% more for what appears on the surface to be an incremental upgrade from the Gen7 games, but with more missing features, is unfounded. I hope that i am proven wrong and the game is more than it appears to be. But the public statements of “balance” and “animation quality”as rationale for cutting even bigger features from the games have yet to be realized.

I hope my once-again-too-long-for-normal-people-post gives some insight into why people are upset, so the internet discourse can go somewhere beyond “entitled gamers” vs “complacent sheep” that twitter and elsewhere have devolved into.