Visually speaking, what do you want from the Pokemon series moving forward? (image heavy)

[Rubblatus]

I can take or leave the Pokemon as they are, but we really need better environmental art assets if they're going to go in so low and close like they do in the Glimwood Tangle/Balloonlea. I can accept everything else, but having the world feel so cheap and ugly is not something I'm into.

 

[AzureFlame]

The art style of LGPE is perfect imo and I would kill to see that tight and cohesive art direction in a much bigger world. Its certainly more texture work but it would be damn worth it.

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Yeah I agree, it needs alot of work but that artstyle captures the original unique style of pokemon games.

 

[Zyrox]

I actually liked Sun/Moon's art direction the best so far. It most closely matched Sugimori's art, imo. So that with more detail befitting of a current gen game would be perfect for me.
Also please give the Pokémon their proper scale.
And make better animations for the Pokémon and their attacks. Tyranitar should shoot a hyperbeam from its mouth (and look ferocious doing it) not its belly while standing there motionless.

 

[Future Gazer]

The mainline titles should look as close to the anime as possible. Ni no Kuni 2 is basically what a next gen Pokemon game should look like, although with an actual budget behind it.

But above all else, Game Freak needs to work on their presentation. Fix the awful scaling, give Pokemon livelier animations with proper anchor points for their attacks, dramatically increase the quality of the backgrounds, etc. That's more important than raw visual fidelity right now.

 

[Heromanz]

For it not to look like a mediocre PS3 jrpg

 

[Palidoozy]

I loved the sprites, but I also understand that it was probably more work. IIRC they never really re-used sprites between gens, so that is new artwork to make every time. They could probably get away with reusing sprites, but overall 3D models are probably more economical in the long term since they ripped the bandaid off and made those suckers during X/Y.

In terms of working with what they already have -- I think it's really just the backgrounds and lighting that needs improvement. Some of the texture work in the backgrounds, as many people have pointed out, is pretty... rough.

In terms of what I'd actually want -- their models to have shader effects that makes them almost mistakable for the illustrations, ala Guilty Gear Xrd. I think it's what they were going for on the DS games, but it didn't quite hit the mark.

 

[GemmolSwitchPS4]

So over the past 3 generations, Gamefreak has been using what seem to be the original models from the first fully 3d Pokemon game, Generation 6.

I'm absolutely okay with them doing this, as those models seem to be transitioning just fine to higher resolutions. I actually find it very exciting that they made 'future proof' models so that they don't have to spend so much development time and resources rebuilding models time and time again.

That being said, I find the Pokemon to look rather bland in fully realized HD, overall. A lot of what I'll suggest in this thread would totally changed the series from the 2d, animated cartoon look it currently holds. I'll use Onix as an example:

To me, the linework on the 3d model doesn't translate well into HD. I think Onix would look much better with a more detailed rock texture, without solid lines separating angles.

Same thing here with Charizard. The outline of the belly or the line marks for the knee. I would like to see the textures of these models updated to a slightly more detailed look. Not hyper realistic like an Arvalis drawing or the Detective Pikachu movie, but more in line with what we see in the Mewtwo Strikes Back CG remake.

Now, I do understand that these renders are from a CG movie, but I believe that the Pokemon series needs to strive towards this sort of overral visual for the creatures. The hint of scales on the bodies of the reptilian creatures, the fur textures on Vulpix or Pikachu.

I believe more detailed textures will really freshen the look of the series and be highly praised by the vast majority as a step in the right direction. Once again, I'm definitely not calling for hyper detailed realism.

Same thing with characters. I think it would be great to see more detailed textures on the clothing of the characters.

Luigi's Mansion 3 was able to pull it off very successfully.

I'd also like to add that if Pokemon could adapt a lighting engine even half as good as Luigi's Mansion 3, the Pokemon would look even more like the movie renders I shared above.

Moving on to environments:

Some World of Warcraft forest I found with a quick Google search. I like this aesthetic, and the use of deep, vibrant color.

A background from a Pokemon animated movie.

I would like to see the environments try to up the ante a bit in terms of detail. I will say I think Sword and Shield have some really beautiful environments, from an artistic standpoint. I really, really love the use of color in Sword and Shield, from what I've watched.

I think that's pretty well all I've got for my suggestions.


I'm hoping the next generation is given a good long time to cook, and we can maybe get something on the level of something like this:

But with a more Pokemon aesthetic. The Switch is definitely capable.

What do you want?

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I prefer it the way it look in sword and shield it look closer to the anime