Pokemon Sword and Shield ‘reused’ models results in huge backlash

Pokemon Sword and Shield continues to be controversial, with #GameFreakLied now trending on Twitter as a result of the game allegedly reusing models from Pokemon Sun and Moon. Data miners have reportedly shared animations from the upcoming Game Freak RPG, showing direct comparisons between character models used in Pokemon Sword and Shield alongside Sun and Moon.

Pokemon Sword and Shield faced intense scrutiny after it was revealed that the National Pokedex wouldn’t make its way into the game. This was then followed by leaks which suggested that a number of key Pokemon weren’t going to make their way into Sword and Shield. In interviews leading up to its release, Game Freak had said that the removal of the National Pokedex would result in them developing higher-quality graphics and animations.

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In an interview with US Gamer, producer Junichi Masuda said: “There are a couple of different parts to the thinking behind [the removal of the National Pokedex], but really the biggest reason for it is just the sheer number of Pokemon. We already have well over 800 Pokemon species, and there’s going to be more added in these games. And now that they’re on the Nintendo Switch, we’re creating it with much higher fidelity with higher quality animations.”

However, these data mined images suggest that character models have been lifted from the 2016 3DS game Sun and Moon. The comparisons can be seen in the gallery below, with the Sword and Shield character model in white and the Sun and Moon character model in black:

As a result of this new information, #GameFreakLied became a top trending topic in the US. Fans have been pointing to Game Freak’s previous comments regarding improving Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s graphics and animations, though the developer reusing some models doesn’t necessarily mean that this will apply to every character model. We’ll have to wait until its November 15 release date to find out more.