Pokemon Has to Start Looking Better

Pokemon video games have consistently been big deals since the franchise’s debut in the mid to late 1990s. From the Game Boy to the Nintendo Switch, these juggernauts have almost always caused quite a stir upon release, which has translated to a collective 480 million units sold (as of December 2023). Pokemon Legends: Z-A is probably going to add more than its share to that total, but its recent lengthy trailer doesn’t seem to reflect the legendary status it holds on Nintendo’s Mount Rushmore. While it contains some appealing gameplay tweaks over Arceus, Z-A‘s visuals look amateurish and, in some spots, downright ugly. While this is not surprising, it’s about time the graphics in these Pokemon games started living up to their potential.

It’s not a huge shock because of the technical presentation of the last couple Pokemon titles on the Nintendo Switch. Pokemon Legends: Arceus was plagued with horrid pop-in and was set in a dry, barren world. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet somehow came in far under that low bar with its shoddy frame rate, numerous glitches, low-res appearance and repetitive textures, and an even drier and more barren world. Pokemon Sword and Shield and the two Let’s Go games — all of which came out years before Arceus and Scarlet and Violet — look better in comparison, but still aren’t showpieces for the Switch. They hold up a little more cleanly under scrutiny, yet are seemingly able to because of their relatively low ambition.

It’s been a little over two years since Scarlet and Violet first shipped in their questionable states, and it doesn’t seem like Z-A is going to be the leap forward it deserves to be. The flat textures and boring lighting were hard to miss in the trailer, and the game still seems bent on having stylized characters in a more realistic setting. These clashing art styles further emphasize how off-putting Z-A looks. While massive titles coming in at the end of a platform’s lifespan often showcase what the studio has learned over the past generation — think 2007’s God of War 2 and 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2 — Z-A’s trailer doesn’t imply that Game Freak has mastered the hardware.

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Of course, this footage was pulled from an unfinished game months away from release, and visuals aren’t everything. Many other studios have collapsed under the weight of chasing graphical trends that elongate development time and suck up millions of additional dollars for miniscule benefits. Pokemon would not automatically be better if Game Freak painstakingly rendered every one of Growlithe’s hairs or devised a complex liquid physics system to portray Magcargo’s hot, goopy exterior in the most authentic way imaginable. It’s also possible, if unlikely, that an unconfirmed native Nintendo Switch 2 version would look better and help bring Pokemon into more modern times.

However, that shouldn’t excuse Game Freak from coming in well below modern standards once again. The Switch is powered by an ancient 2015-era tablet chip, yes, but that hasn’t stopped other studios from excelling on the platform. Many of the Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest titles on Switch look remarkably sharper than just about every Pokemon entry with their more fully realized worlds and more cohesive art styles.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still one of the system’s most visually stunning experiences, a remarkable achievement for a launch title that’s also on the previous generation. Tears of the Kingdom followed up on Breath of the Wild’s success by once again looking beautiful and containing one of the most vibrant and alive spaces in the medium. Given Z-A’s late 2025 release window, it is presumably also going to come out after the Switch 2, which means the standards are going to be raised once again and, in all likelihood, look even worse when pitted against titles on that more impressive hardware.

Pokemon, as a whole, outsells every franchise it is compared to, and that, cynically, is probably a huge reason why the series lags behind and hasn’t pushed the technical envelope. The creature-collecting franchise is the highest-grossing entertainment property of all time, even besting Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, and Batman, so it doesn’t have to do much to keep its crown. But, again, while it’s better to not fully fall into the trap of chasing the best and shiniest visuals, there has to be some middle ground here. Nintendo’s other marquee franchises from Mario to Zelda to Animal Crossing utilize their hardware for the most part, punch above their weight, and ensure that they make the most out of this visual medium. Pokemon absolutely does not, and it’s time that its presentation matched the standards set by its peers.