I decided to make this thread because seeing everyone and their moms repeatedly insulting GameFreak for their "lack of ambition" or "laziness" or apparently for their unwillingness to spend more money to make Pokémon games look better is absolutely maddening especially now that people have been using Let's Go as a point of comparison between other major Nintendo games on the Switch to further try and prove their point, going as far as advocating for Nintendo to "step in" and give the series to another development team.
Of course Let's Go doesn't look as good as Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild. It was developed in 2 years, as a conservative remake of a 21 year old GameBoy game. I'm sure if they intended it to be a high budget high-profile game they would have marketed it as such.
But it doesn't end here as apparently GameFreak have always been behind the curve in terms of graphical prowess. That is if you ignore the fact they have exclusively been using handhelds, and that their games have been some of the best looking games on said platforms.
So let's look at their first 3DS game, which is also their first attempt at a 3D game, and let's compare it to other mainline entries of other major Nintendo franchises.
Pokémon X & Y:
Super Mario 3D Land:
It stacks up pretty decently, despite 3D Land being 60 fps as opposed to 30 thanks to more confined areas and simple shapes and textures.
Zelda A Link Between Worlds:
In this case Pokémon definitely looks better and has more dynamic camera angles instead of a strictly top-down view like Zelda.
"B-but A Link Between Worlds isn't from the more modern 3D Zelda line!" You mean like Let's Go isn't from the new generation of Pokémon and as such was never gonna push for advanced graphics? Fair point indeed.
Let's look at Ocarina of Time 3D then:
Its environments aren't designed around a grid like XY and are overall more open, but at the cost of looking barren for the most part. Art style differences apart, the end result isn't that much better but it comes down to personal preferences.
However Sun and Moon exist, and show again how amazingly good looking Pokémon can be:
No more grid based design, wider areas, tons of details and more graphical effects and dynamic cameras. Definitely my favorite looking game on the 3DS, far from a low budget title with no effort put in it. And before someone says it: no, the overworld in Sun and Moon does not suffer from fps drops.
We've already got a small glimpse of what they can do on Switch when not tied down by the scope of the project: "Town" again features a fully 3D environmental design like Sun and Moon (perhaps even with a controllable camera), albeit with an even more cartoony, simpler style and an effectively low budget, as normal for an eShop-only title.
I hope many will reconsider endlessly criticizing them with no justified reason, but I don't have many hopes in this regard, not until they'll finally show generation 8 to be an appropriate looking game for the Switch, to the surpriseof no one everyone.
Of course Let's Go doesn't look as good as Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild. It was developed in 2 years, as a conservative remake of a 21 year old GameBoy game. I'm sure if they intended it to be a high budget high-profile game they would have marketed it as such.
But it doesn't end here as apparently GameFreak have always been behind the curve in terms of graphical prowess. That is if you ignore the fact they have exclusively been using handhelds, and that their games have been some of the best looking games on said platforms.
So let's look at their first 3DS game, which is also their first attempt at a 3D game, and let's compare it to other mainline entries of other major Nintendo franchises.
Pokémon X & Y:
Super Mario 3D Land:
It stacks up pretty decently, despite 3D Land being 60 fps as opposed to 30 thanks to more confined areas and simple shapes and textures.
Zelda A Link Between Worlds:
In this case Pokémon definitely looks better and has more dynamic camera angles instead of a strictly top-down view like Zelda.
"B-but A Link Between Worlds isn't from the more modern 3D Zelda line!" You mean like Let's Go isn't from the new generation of Pokémon and as such was never gonna push for advanced graphics? Fair point indeed.
Let's look at Ocarina of Time 3D then:
Its environments aren't designed around a grid like XY and are overall more open, but at the cost of looking barren for the most part. Art style differences apart, the end result isn't that much better but it comes down to personal preferences.
However Sun and Moon exist, and show again how amazingly good looking Pokémon can be:
No more grid based design, wider areas, tons of details and more graphical effects and dynamic cameras. Definitely my favorite looking game on the 3DS, far from a low budget title with no effort put in it. And before someone says it: no, the overworld in Sun and Moon does not suffer from fps drops.
We've already got a small glimpse of what they can do on Switch when not tied down by the scope of the project: "Town" again features a fully 3D environmental design like Sun and Moon (perhaps even with a controllable camera), albeit with an even more cartoony, simpler style and an effectively low budget, as normal for an eShop-only title.
I hope many will reconsider endlessly criticizing them with no justified reason, but I don't have many hopes in this regard, not until they'll finally show generation 8 to be an appropriate looking game for the Switch, to the surprise
