'Pokemon Sword and Shield' data mining results leave fans unhappy

Last month, Blizzard Entertainment was condemned by gamers and journalists alike after it promptly banned professional "Hearthstone" player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai. He was penalised for speaking out about the ongoing Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong during a post-game interview. Now, it appears Nintendo and Game Freak are under fire shortly just before the launch of "Pokemon Sword and Shield" for the Switch and Switch Lite. It looks like data miners were able to discover some key information about the latest entry to the popular franchise.

Even right after its original announcement, fans were reportedly disappointed after hearing about some fan-favourite "Pokemon" missing the cut. This marks it as the first entry in the long-running series that does not include all the previously released monsters, as detailed by VGC. According to game producer Junichi Masuda, the developers are focusing on improving the graphics. The number of classic and new creatures might have been too much for the team to handle.

"This decision is personally sad," said Masuda. "Of course, I wanted to be able to bring all Pokemon if I could do it, but it was also a decision that I had to make some day. In the end, I had to choose quality," he added. This is where the fans started to doubt his claims, as insiders were able to sneak out a copy of the launch version of the game. After data mining the "Pokemon Sword and Shield" files, sources stumbled upon a startling discovery.

Although the producer made it sound like it is being developed from the ground up, some of the character models are apparently reused elements from older games. To be specific, a huge number of the entries seem to come from "Sun and Moon", which was released in 2016 for the 3DS.

Gamers and long-time fans of the franchise are clearly disappointed and are voicing out their concerns on social media platforms such as Twitter. Reports confirm #GameFreakLied is currently trending on the platform. Moreover, others are pointing out the poor graphics as showcased by the latest trailers. "Pokemon Sword and Shield" launches on Friday for the Nintendo Switch.