Topic: Pokémon Legends Z-A

@VoidofLight Yeah I still compare it to other releases on the Switch. That is what I meant.

I want GF to step up.

Their DS and 3DS releases were the absolute peak!

On the new hardware they are ... lost.

Good thing is that Pokemon still sells.

@Zuljaras The thing with the DS and 3DS era games is that they were behind graphically in comparison to other games on the same console as well. It's just that it was harder to see the flaws given that people had lower expectations for games on those consoles. Gen 4 was sprite-based when we had fully 3D DS games at that point. Gen 5 experimented with a bit of 3D, but it wasn't until X and Y that we got a fully 3D pokemon title. X and Y were pretty harshly held back due to the transition into 3D and released unfinished. They also looked like how DS titles looked- albeit more polished. It wasn't until Sun and Moon where Gamefreak actually started getting closer to pushing the console's limits.

Then Sword and Shield released and looked rough compared to other Switch games, due to the harsh transition into HD. Scarlet and Violet suffered due to the transition into Open World. Z-A is kinda finding it's footing, but it's still behind the other stuff on the Switch. Looks more polished though.

@VoidofLight Scarlet & Violet are the only titles that do not exist for me

They are literally without any soul. So empty.

After that I said to myself that GF will get not more excuses like first 3D, first open world, first this and first that. They make waaaaay too much money to produce products below other Nintendo franchises.

@VoidofLight I really hope so, if they make another mess like Scarlet Violence, things will not look good.

What I really dislike is how they are literally forced to do new things, when they clearly don't have the technical skills/resources. Pokemon was fantastic up until it made a transition to full 3D, when everything went downhill

I'm optimistic. PLA is solidly my favorite game in the franchise, and Scarlet/Violet are very close to being my favorite mainline entries, even though they're technical nightmares. Not sold on being confined in a city, but we'll see how it goes.

Honestly I think things look quite polished in the trailer. Compare to what we saw of PLA and SV at this point (and even in the final products) and this looks leagues better.

I'm optimistic about this one. Then again I still had a great time with PLA and SV despite their flaws.

The game looks better than anything that has come before it. Arceus didn't look as good to me as people say. Looks a bit washed out and out of date to me.

But Z-A looks pretty good to my eyes.

I think the people who say Arceus looks better than this need to go back and replay Arceus- or look at screenshots of it. Sure, Arceus looks more stylized- but at the same time it looks genuinely rough. The textures are extremely muddy, the water is extremely ugly from a distance. It feels like a lot of the game looks flat due to the lack of texture on things and the way that things like sand transition into grass.

I get that Arceus is trying to replicate a Japanese oil painting, but it genuinely doesn't even get close to that. If you want a good comparison to what they should've done, Okami is a genuinely great showcase of that style that the PLA team were aiming for with the game.

As for Legends Z-A, I feel like it ultimately looks more polished. So far it looks like the characters don't have muddy textures on their clothing, and that the texture work is less compressed in comparison to how it looked back with SV. People were complaining about the rock textures or rocks in areas- but if you compare that to how Breath of the Wild and how its mountains look, it's about the same in terms of texture quality and polygons.

@VoidofLight Yeah I'm honestly baffled by the discourse around PLA looking "better". Sure, I understand preferring one art direction to the other — but I likewise agree that it just wasn't particularly well-executed in PLA.

Really goes to show that there's no pleasing everyone! No matter what change is made, someone will be upset.

@Buizel Yeah, it's purely art style. I think everyone agrees that the graphics in Arceus were a bit scuffed, but the stylistic art is still just nice.The new game looks fine, but not as much what I personally like, especially since modern urban areas aren't really my cup of tea. I'll be interested to see more of the park areas.

The colours in this game (so far) look so washed out.

@VoidofLight and @SplatRay001

That's nice to hear! I really liked catching Pokemon without fighting in Arceus (I have still a long way to go in that game, but liked what I played). Its a pity if you can't ride Pokemon anymore, but maybe they didn't find that appropriate for this city-scape.

@Uncle_Franklin Not really. If you want washed out, X and Y, Sun and Moon, and Sword and Shield are more in terms of that.

Been a while since anyone commented on this thread, but... release date is October 16, 2025, and Mega Dragonite has been officially revealed!

Mega Dragonite looks awesome, but I'm not sure what the heck the story is for this game? They have introduced so many topics and people, but not enough story. I mean, I think Legends Arceus showed of the story in some of the trailers.

I’m debating whether to pick this up or not, it does look nice on the switch 2 though…..

@_Lime Same here. I also wanna get Crossworlds, but I'm debating between these 2 (Z-A and Crossworlds)

@ParrakerriRush
Even though I'm ludicrously excited for Z-A, I too find the marketing underwhelming.

Am I the only one not that excited for this game? I loved Legends Arceus and thought scarlet and violet was alright, but this game just looks boring to me. The story doesn’t seem that interesting, the real time battles look ok but also kind of janky and not that polished, and besides that there’s nothing here that really feels like a true evolution of the series the same way Arceus was. I hope I’m wrong but at the moment this might be the first Pokemon switch game I don’t get at launch

@SplatRay001 My hype for this game is definitely deflated. The more we see of this game the more that this game feels like a huge nothingburger in terms of content to the point of feeling more like $60+ DLC of SV rather than a new game. It's not a full region, just one city, and said city only seems to be about as big as Kitakami or the Terrarium instead of a full game's size. There's almost no new Pokemon, variants, or forms, they're mainly just showing off Pokemon that already existed in XY, with the only new additions so far being the new starter trio and Mega Dragonite. There's little in terms of side modes revealed. I'm struggling to understand what they've been spending that extra year of dev time on, because it's sure not showing up in the final product.