Gallery: Here's A Look At Pokémon Winds & Waves On Switch 2

I'm so glad that I can finally play a Pokemon game and pause to say "that looks pretty nice" instead of "God, this game is ugly".

Game looks nice, though graphics were never really a huge concern for me so that's not like an immediate selling point or anything. Still, it is definitely a step up.

Do appreciate that a decent chunk of the Pokemon shown off are ones that aren't in SV. Some overlap but between the Krabby, Tangela, Ledyba, Corsola, Taillow, Wailmer, Carnivine, Tympole, Frillish, and Sizzlipede lines that's at least 20 Pokemon different right there.

It looks like they are going to be fun games and my Nieces and their friends are very excited about them but I have a feeling they are still going to end up getting a lot of hate from so-called adults whinging over things made for children like they do with Dora the Explorer, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and Disney movies.

Finally, it looks like I'll be able to play a Pokemon game for the first time. I think the final product will be even better than the reveal.

I'm so hyped about this trailer.

I am totally getting Alola vibes here !!.. The water and the jungle looks so nice..!!

It's so important for a game to look polished. I'm glad they're finally getting there again with the mainline series.

Cautiously optimistic.

Am I the only one who is actually disappointed that the game isn't coming out this year? Still hyped though.

You know that I don't agree with popular opinions about the franchise when Pokémon Violet of all games was my favorite game of all time until recently 🤣.

This is gonna be spiteful to say, but shout out to all the people who moaned, "They're never going to try to do better!" after Sw/Sh and Sc/Vi sold so well.

Regardless of what the final product will be, it goes to show that most devs and creatives don't set out to phone it in or make a substandard product on purpose, and that short development times from on high was the more likely problem.

@Nep-Nep-Freak I'm a bit conflicted with that. On one hand, I'm ecstatic that the game is getting all the time that it needs to have all of its edges ironed out. On the other hand, this is a pretty dry year for 1st-party releases I'm interested in. There's only one game I could possibly get, Splatoon Raiders, but as I'm not normally a Splatoon fan, that entirely depends on if that has some interesting gameplay. It feels too soon for many of the series I'm interested in to release something so that's where the 2027 release is a bit of a bummer. Overall, I do think I lean more to the side of it being good that its a 2027 launch though.

Pombon will stand up, and everybody will accept it even if they don't want to.

It is that dog's destiny.

I'm not a fan but I am glad fans seem to be getting a real effort here. Pokemon in gorgeous environments sells itself.

@Nep-Nep-Freak appreciate the disclaimer.

looks alright, but I STILL defend that Pokemon moving away from the Cel-Shaded style they had in Sword and Shield was a massive Mistake.

What? You mean to tell me that GameFreak can produce a good looking game?!?

The open world engine looks decent and I look they carry on improving the game up until launch.

I’m genuinely surprised that they have made a Switch 2 exclusive already, but it was clear there developers were struggling with the Switch 1 specs.

I hope they can continue to improve the character models in the year or so of development they have left. They really stand out against the gorgeous environments.

I am cautiously optimistic for these games.

@UpsideDownRowlet

Indeed! I was among the ones complaining about those outdated graphics. But this looks good!!

Because of the outdated graphics i was playing pallworld to Fulfill that lol. Now can go back to pokemon. Hope my favorite charizard is still in it.

Game Freak used Graphics. It was super effective!

It's still crazy that it looks so good after the switch gens. I thought maybe game freak just couldn't do it but they proved me wrong

Looks respectfully good. I could never understand why Pokémon games looked so low budget while selling countless millions.

Looking really Good! the water graphics also reminds me of PS2, Gamecube and Dreamcast era, which is a good thing! Games like Sonic Adventure, Mario Sunshine, Tekken 4 or 5 (i forgot which one had beach stage) had really good water graphics for its time!

Usually i wait which legendaries the games have but since flying type is my least favorite type, i am picking up Waves day one.

The pictures look nice but I hope this game runs well. Scarlet and Violet did put me off Pokémon so hopefully this will be much better

Finally, it looks like a Wii U game.

Cautiously optimistic. Fingers crossed there will be some decent voice acting? Or is that too much to hope for?

@Nao120 Don't forget about Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles!

@PigmaskFan i didnt knew FF Chronicles had that type of graphics, honestly i never played it

I only mentioned the games i mentioned because i played those haha

It looks better but I do wonder what I will be doing in this open world other than catching pokemon. I miss dungeons, both mandatory and optional ones that had some challenge to explore.

Doesn't look amazing but it's the best Pokemon has looked in the switch era. I hope the performance doesn't ***** the bed like it did in S/V, given this game seems to have a bunch of densely forested areas and underwater segments.

Looks very pretty, but I wish they would do something with the textures of the Pokemon. They look so plastic now that the environments are so HD.

This looks like a much needed improvement.

I wish Pokemon would follow the Zelda path of having 2D and 3D games. I would love a pixel sprite (pretty much an enhanced fire red art style - no 3D as found in soul silver onward) game that covers a ginormous map.

Imagine all 10 regions in one 2D mega map. You choose which region you start in. Boom.

Ironic (but not unappreciable) that I used to fancy a modern Pokemon Snap as a free-roamer of the kind I eventually got in Beasts of Maravilla Island - and now it looks like we've got a whole Pokemon region with environments resembling the latter title. I reckon a photo mode will be there for good measure, too?

Meanwhile, the real pressing issue is to decide on the new generation's portmanteau name for easier reference online. Pokemon WiWa sounds a bit weird, but Pokemon Wives... may sound even weirder.😅

@Nep-Nep-Freak I don't completely understand the "I'm glad they're waiting to get it right" argument. We've already had 1 or 2 Pokémon Presents before this one where they didn't announce the Gen10 games. I get what people are saying, but you could theoretically just say that forever with the assumption that the game can only be improved with more time. I'm not saying they should release it now if it's not "ready", but why didn't they just wait again and announce it next year, closer to its release? Oh well. I'm sure they wanted to drop it with the 30th anniversary.

What did you love about Violet? What did you not like about it? Which game surpassed it recently? (I never played S/V)

@UpsideDownRowlet This is only now March, so rest assured, we will receive more first-party titles this year than we currently know about. They do this every year...

@ottoecamn I do think that if they continue to lean realistic with the environments, the cartoonish Pokémon will stand out a bit more as incongruent with their surroundings. Maybe that's part of what you're seeing, too.

@AussieMcBucket yeah. Not only that, Pokémon has a very cartoony anime style for even their human characters. And we reached a level of technical fidelity that those concept arts and 2d renders can be recreated extremely faithfully with a celshaded 3d style. (Heck, just looks at Pokémon Masters Ex, the Paldea character models are A LOT more pleasing to the eye there than in Scarlet and Violet. Vux their cartoony designs match the style and the models match the art. While in ScaVio, the more realistic texture and rendering does them a disservice).

We've had a new battle gimmick for the last four gens (mega, z-moves, dynamax and terastalize), so I'm super interested to see what they go with for these new games.

@AussieMcBucket, it was my first ever openworld game, and having all that exploration freedom for the first time was mind blowing. I also really liked the story and the characters, some of which I felt like I really related to (like Penny, who has a very introverted personality like myself). Also the ending was incredible, and I liked a fair amount of the new Pokémon designs, like Quaquaval and Ceruledge.

As for what I didn't like about it, there wasn't much. One of the gym challenges was a bit tough for me and I had to look up the answer, and the Tera Raids were a bit glitch at times, but other then that, I actually had no other problems with the game.

As for which game surpassed it recently, that would be Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 (I became a really big Hyperdimension Neptunia fan last year, and it's currently my second favorite franchise after Pokémon, hence my name on this site).

@trymer89 LOL been awhile, but tbh the GBA games didn't actually look bad, for, well...GBA games, oh and XD: Gale of Darkness wasn't a bad looking GCN game either, but aside from those this might be the first game in the series in a good 20+ years that ACTUALLY looks good for a game released on the platform it's releasing on lol. 🤣

Edit: PS. Wasn't sure how to word it, so my message may or may not be grammatically correct lol. 😅

@ottoecamn Good point. And I think the character design of the 'Mon is fantastic, generally. And their animations seem great in Z-A, from what I've played so far. It's just that they do stick out in the worlds they're being set in.

@Nep-Nep-Freak How exciting for you then, that's awesome! I feel like I've heard positive things about a lot of the points you're bringing up.

Well, that's great. Everyone experiences things differently. You're not enjoying the game IN SPITE of the technical shortcomings of it. You're just enjoying the game as it is. And that's pretty cool too. I'm glad you got to enjoy it so much.

Oh wow! Kind of a different direction there, haha. I'm not sure that game would be for me, but cheers to your fun!

Now that is a gorgeous looking game for sure. Can't wait for the underwater sections. New Pokemon Snap has had me wanting for some more.

I can only hope that they can add contents that will make us scream out loud in amazement.

I hope they have voice acting, though I’ll begrudgingly accept none if there isn’t any.

I’d love to see them actually animate scenes instead of fade to black sound effect actions happened.

@gabrielthorn Well the Wii U had games as Xenoblade Chronicles X and Breath of the Wild. Both beautiful games, we can say that is a positive. Especially when this game is still more than a year off in development.

@UpsideDownRowlet it's only the beginning of March, and the only Nintendo Direct we've had this year so far was a third-party focused one. I dare say Nintendo has things lined up for this year that it hasn't revealed yet 🙂

The game is looking very impressive, and hopefully it can keep that visual fidelity on the final game, while also having some improvements to image clarity. Seems the new engine overhaul is making wonders

What I'm more concerned this time is how closely it will be to Legends Arceus' innovative formula that in my opinion, should become the standard for any future open-world turn-based Pokémon games. The ZR button is important!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK-FafRt6-0

@Druidsbrook I have to agree. Still very excited to dive into the games, and I can't be happier that they look this good in 3D! However, it looks like it's still built off of the fundamental Scarlet/Violet system or engine, and I'm wondering if that means the game will once again be a little too outdoor-focused. Now that this new region is so lush and tropical, it might feel like one big safari zone. Scarlet and Violet didn't feel like an actual region with genuine cities. Towns felt like little rest stops you ran into while in the safari zone. It's hard to put my finger on it, but the towns in Paldea felt like they existed in a vacuum, compared to how towns felt in regions as recent as Galar.

Still, we've only seen the introductory area of this new region, so we really don't know what the towns will look like. I just hope they feel more lived in and less superficial.

@kalosn I really loved Legends Arceus' hybrid turn-based combat, so I agree! However, the moment in the trailer when the trainer throws the Pokeball at Pikachu gave very strong visual comparisons to how combat functioned in Scarlet/Violet. Perhaps it's just the game engine that looks similar, and I hope I'm wrong! I would love the hybrid turn-based combat to return.

@ottoecamn As the years go by, I continue to view Sword/Shield more and more favorably. It really did have one of the best 3D art styles (Let's Go being my favorite; with 1:1 character proportions it would be perfect), it had truly grand and spectacular cities to visit, and it was the last route-based region. Plus it was the last Masuda-composed soundtrack.