Sometimes, even the publishers of a video game get things wrong when it comes to in-game content. Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield’s publisher, The Pokémon Company, has come out with an apology after multiple errors had been found in a Japanese guideline book for the game.
The book titled “Pokémon Sword Shield Official Guide Book Complete Story Strategies + Garal Encyclopedia,” didn’t make it through the editing process consumer-ready.
It released on December 7th, 2019, by Overlap Co., Ltd. and quickly received a lot of negative feedback. The Pokémon Company, in a letter posted on their Japanese website, stated that “the data and data provided by Pokémon Co., Ltd. at the time of editing work are incorrect. Yes, and it turned out that there were multiple errors based on it.”
The Pokémon Company has released a PDF on its website, which states all of the errors in the book.
It’s kind of amazing that no one caught the errors, even though there were multiple parties included in the production of the book.
Well, who knows how The Pokémon Company will mitigate the issue? Besides the PDF that they have released, will they start reprinting books with the correct information, or will they chalk this up to a learning experience?
That would be a costly error to fix if they start reprinting books, so they may end up continue selling what is on the shelves, and every new book that is produced moving forward will have the amended information.
Also, who knows how many people spent time following directions on the guidebook and were led astray. Luckily, all it takes is a bit of searching online to get an answer, but still, having an incorrect guide is not optimal for Japanese players!
To reiterate, the guidebook that had all the errors in it was a Japanese one. The American guidebook called ‘Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield: The Official Galar Region Strategy Guide’ has not been reported to have the errors that its Japanese counterpart has.
If a gamer isn’t familiar with Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, here is a quick trailer to get an idea what it’s all about:
The newest additions to the historic Pokémon franchise, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, have been enjoyed by Nintendo Switch gamers all around the globe. These installments are part of the eighth generation of Pokémon and are set in the region of Galar.