Pokémon Needs to Learn From One of the Best JRPGs Ever Made

It is somewhat ironic how little Pokémon has evolved over the past few decades. While Game Freak has iterated here and there in an attempt to keep things fresh, for the most part, the formula has remained exactly the same. There is something comforting in knowing that you’ll get the exact same experience every time you buy a Pokémon game, much in the same way people continue to neglect the glaring problems with Ubisoft games because, every now and then, you just want a bad, albeit familiar, open-world game to make the day a little easier. Pokémon, in that sense, is much like junk food, which is ridiculous as it is priced like a three-course fine dining experience.

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Naturally, especially moving into the Switch 2 era of Pokémon, it is time for Game Freak to really switch things up. It does seem, to an extent, that Winds and Waves are shaking things up a bit, enough to warm the stone-cold hearts of all Pokémon fans, myself included. I have hope that Pokémon Winds and Waves will be good, but I’m not convinced that it is enough. Rather, I believe that Game Freak must take Pokémon in a radical new direction by copying from the homework of its esteemed JRPG contemporary, Octopath Traveler. Indeed, there is rather a lot Pokémon could learn from Octopath Traveler’s many successes.

Pokémon Needs To Adopt The 2.5D Look

Octopath Traveler 2 Screenshot — Image courtesy of Square Enix

It has felt like Pokémon’s visual identity has all but faded into the abyss, its generic anime-inspired aesthetic resembling a homogenized amalgamation of every gacha-centric live service game releasing today. The move to home consoles has not really been kind to Pokémon, Scarlet and Violet’s dour technical state, and Legends: Z-A’s uninspired rendition of one of the series’ most iconic cities, showcasing Game Freak’s weakness when it comes to translating the often incredible concept art into a 3D space. While Winds and Waves looks leagues better than what has been offered in the past, it still fails to eschew the comparisons to other properties, Nintendo’s own included.

Pokémon looks more like Xenoblade Chronicles than it does its past self, and that’s a shame, as there was a lot of value to be found in its original, pixel art aesthetic. Much like how Disney’s insistence on adapting animated features into live-action ones fails to understand the purpose of the original medium, evolving Pokémon’s pixel art style into 3D doesn’t feel revolutionary as much as it does disrespectful. It implies that what the series was aiming for was born out of technical limitations, rather than for a love of the specific visual identity it had chosen.

It is clear that the latter is true, as there is so much technical prowess, intricate detail, and artistry to be found in those earlier titles that feel absent in the Nintendo Switch games. Furthermore, as Pokémon moved from GBA to Nintendo DS, its visual style merely grew, rather than dramatically changed, despite the ability to produce 3D visuals becoming more and more of a reality. It feels as if, rather than diverting from this growth into the generic style Pokémon adopts now, it should have aimed for something akin to Octopath Traveler’s 2.5D style, something that blends the iconic pixel art that cemented much of Pokémon’s initial visual identity with 3D backgrounds.

Pokémon wasn’t too far off from accomplishing this with Diamond and Pearl and Black and White, games that utilized 2D sprites with the illusion of 3D environments. The natural evolution would have been to adopt the exceptionally detailed and vibrant 2.5D style with its flashy effects and layered backgrounds. While I accept that it is unlikely that Game Freak will adopt such a style for the mainline games now, as apparently pixel art isn’t considered AAA anymore, it would be nice to see them utilize it for a future spin-off title, or perhaps even a Legends game. I understand that this would be Pokémon apeing another game’s visual identity rather than crafting its own, but there are ways Game Freak could put its own unique spin on it to make it feel distinct.

Pokémon Needs A More Distinctive Narrative

Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves — Image Courtesy of The Pokémon Company

Interestingly, much like how Pokémon was once close to creating its own unique spin on Octopath Traveler’s now iconic 2.5D visual style, it now feels as if it is close to imitating its narrative structure too. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s separated narrative routes may have failed to be compelling both individually and when combined toward the end of the game, but came close to offering the same type of experience that Octopath Traveler delivers with its distinct stories. As Pokémon seems incapable of having an interesting story that manages to incorporate the gyms and make them feel like more than novel distractions, it makes sense then to create unique stories around each gym that then coalesce into a greater event at the end of the game.

It has felt like Game Freak has been somewhat embarrassed by gyms in the past, as it has been relegating them to a side activity rather than the main affair. Much like its attempts to rid Pokémon of its glorious pixel art origins, gyms feel like a thing of the past, when, in reality, they should be the series future. If it were to take inspiration from the likes of Persona 5, Octopath Traveler, Tales of Arise, or really any game that adopts this narrative structure, Pokémon could create memorable experiences around its core gameplay loop, rather than make it feel supplemental.

Even in games when they mattered, gyms and their leaders have always felt somewhat superficially gimmicky. So, it would be nice to be finally given a reason to care, to invest in not only your journey, but that of the gym leader you’re ostensibly dethroning. I struggle to see a world in which Pokémon adopts an emotionally charged narrative akin to that of Xenoblade Chronicles. It makes sense, then, for Game Freak to lean into the unique structure of Pokémon and its focus on gyms and build the narrative around that instead, especially as it seems that Winds and Waves are adopting classic Pokémon features anyway.