Pokémon’s enduring legacy appears to be waning somewhat as its most recent entries have severely disappointed fans. While, of course, there are those (myself somewhat included) who are eager to run to the defence of titles like Pokémon Scarlet & Violet or the more recent Legends: Z-A, for the most part, it’s almost undeniable that the series has taken a turn for the worse, both in terms of quality and content on offer. There’s little redeeming, perhaps outside of music, to be found in Game Freak’s more recent offerings.
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This is seemingly all down to Game Freak and the Pokémon Company having forgotten the not-so-secret sauce that made the previous generations so incredible. Instead, they are doing the opposite, implementing ideas and features that are antithetical to what makes Pokémon so special. That’s how we got to Legends: Z-A’s uninspired and drab environmental design, a feature so frustratingly dull that it practically ruins the entire experience. We simply cannot tolerate watching Pokémon’s decline for much longer. Now is the time for Game Freak to ditch Legends: Z-A’s worst feature and change the trajectory of Pokémon’s success forever.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s Environments Were Uninspired
There are so many things wrong with modern Pokémon that it’s hard to argue any one of them is totally at fault for the series’ rather unexpected and disappointing fall from grace. However, I’d argue that the lacklustre region design comes pretty close to reaching the top of the series’ ever-growing pile of mistakes. Ever since the series switched to 3D, its attention to detail, especially concerning region diversity and design, has diminished dramatically.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus, while adopting a rather inspired watercolor approach to its overall visual style, left us with bland and empty open spaces devoid of any style or intention. Similarly, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet feature a lot of grassy, rocky, and icy spaces, but each of them feels as generic and uninspired as the last. We’ve come a long way from the likes of Black and White’s bustling cityscapes or Ruby and Sapphire’s tropical rainforests and hot springs.
Yet, the most disappointing of all the most recent entries is Legends: Z-A, the first game in the entire series to be set exclusively within one urban environment. It was Game Freak’s opportunity to flex its creative muscles and show us how Pokémon can completely take over a city. Diverse biomes could sprout out of abandoned parks or towering skyscrapers to accommodate the invasive Pokémon species, or entire streets could be frozen over, snow piling out of supermarkets as ice-type Pokémon bound about.
Really, anything to show how a city overrun by Pokémon could be transformed would be interesting. Yet this isn’t what we got. Instead, Legends: Z-A’s interpretation of Lumiose City is a generic, copy-and-paste city with little charm or character beyond the occasional bird Pokémon sat atop a lampost or one hanging from a tree. There’s so little variety, diversity, or style in any of the game’s key locations, which makes trudging around its dull, grey, uninspired streets a slog. Ridiculously, Game Freak has proven its capable of building the type of world Z-A needed, as its exciting new non-Pokémon game features stunning urban environments overrun by nature.
Pokémon Gen 10 Needs To Have A More Varied World
The upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games absolutely need to change the series’ current approach to region design. They need to do something unique, stylized, and varied, rather than repeating the same handful of basic biome types and calling it a day, or, worse still, adhering too closely to the region’s real-world influences. As much as Pokémon is a somewhat grounded universe, it is still very much a series set within a fantastical land overrun by creatures with special powers. It doesn’t seem totally out of the realm of possibilities that the landscapes these creatures roam about in feel a little alien.
I’m not asking for Xenoblade Chronicles-levels of alien topography, although that always looks awe-inspiring. Rather, Game Freak shouldn’t be afraid to have radically different biome types crashing into one another, the world awash with tropical jungles, volcanic islands, towering jagged mountains, and dense, vibrantly colored forests. The region needs to feel lived in, transformed by its unique inhabitants, and a far cry from the rolling hills that have dominated much of the world design over the past few years.
If the many Gen 10 Pokémon setting rumors are to be believed, then we could be looking at numerous different explorable islands. Game Freak should endeavor to make each one feel as distinct from the last, some tropical and lush, some barren and scarred by fire, some a glow with a mysterious ghostly aura, some literally frozen in time, and so on and so forth. There’s so much potential for unique island designs to make exploring each one feel like a novel and interesting experience, rather than a trek through well-trodden and boring ground.
Pokémon’s Visual Identity Needs To Change
Alongside a region design refresh, it is about time Game Freak re-evaluated its approach to Pokémon’s entire visual identity. Of course, it is partially linked to the anime series’ overall style, so it can’t deviate wildly. However, considering it is extremely likely the next mainline Pokémon game will launch exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2, now is the perfect time for the series to try something new and embrace a visual uplift akin to when it switched to 3D all those years ago.
The flat textures, bland environments, and meandering animations need to be tossed out and replaced with something a little more energetic, exciting, and stylized. Frankly, it is time Pokémon’s environments matched the style and creativity of its character designs. Those are consistently great and showcase a more adventurous and daring side to the art direction. The worlds have felt flat for far too long and need a serious injection of whimsy and detail to bring back the series’ trademark sense of childlike wonder.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was the closest we got to something even resembling a unique style choice, and even then, Game Freak only took it so far, resulting in an underbaked visual tone. Gen 10 needs to push it that one step further and deliver a transformation that will surprise and delight longtime fans and entice newcomers to finally get into it. If Game Freak were to bring even a little of the magic it has been able to devote to Beast of Reincarnation’s impeccably designed environments to the Gen 10 Pokémon games, then I suspect we’ll be in for something staggeringly beautiful.
Do you think Pokémon needs a visual refresh? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
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