How does Pokemon Sword & Shield compare to past 3D Pokemon Battle Simulators?

[shoz999]

So before GameFreak jumped into the world of 3D, Pokemon fans had to settle with games that are frequently called "3D Pokemon Battle Simultors" from Pokemon Stadium to Battle Revolution. To a lot of Pokemon fans, this was just amazing. The animations breathed new life to the Pokemon, the Pokemon Announcer breathed life into the battles, the selection of stadiums they offered for multiplayer were awesome and by Pokemon Battle Revolution, the graphics have aged very well today, in fact I might even dare say that Battle Revolution still looks graphically and artistically better than a lot of games I've seen today and this is a Wii game. So how does Pokemon Sword & Shield compare to past 3D Pokemon Battle Simulators... uh... well... it's pretty clear GameFreak is a bit inexperienced still in the home console area that honestly I kind of wished they asked for outside help on Sword & Shield. Don't get me wrong, Sword & Shield looks awesome, in fact it looks like Pokemon's most amazing-looking game yet. I like the vivid artstyles, the cities actually look like cities which is something even games like Colosseum/XD had trouble with and the Wild Area looks awesome but you can tell the graphics and animations are not only dated but that practically all the Pokemon models are reused from the 3DS games. In fact, some Pokemon fans especially notice this in how Wingull flies in the Wild Area.

Due to this I hope that GameFreak are working on fresh new 3D Pokemon models in the future from scratch specifically made for console hardware as they are updating the older 3DS models for Sword & Shield as we speak. Not only that but if they created amazing 3D Pokemon models like Pokemon Stadium did, they can continually reuse and update brand new models into the HD era for years to come as many of the models and what appears to be even some models for Battle Revolution are built on the much older N64 models. So far I haven't seen anyone complain about this type of process when the quality and hardwork has already been inputted into the models long ago and it certainly worked for the makers of the Shin Megami Tensei/Persona series who handled the "too much monsters" problem quite well for their series. However no one knows if GameFreak is doing that and I personally hope they don't continue using 3D models that were mostly made for 3DS games in the future and that's part of the point of this thread.

How does past 3D Battle Simulators compare to Sword & Shield? Not so well and if you don't think so, here's a good YouTube video I found that compares the graphics of Sword & Shield to past N64 games including the Wild Area to Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field and the differences does say that GameFreak is still very much new to the console era. I don't think their lazy, I do think they have deadlines to meet but you can tell that GameFreak is still new to console hardware, which is why I can't wait to see what they have in store for us once they've gained that experience. For now, let's talk about how Pokemon Sword & Shield compares to past 3D Pokemon Battle Simulators.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

I love Colosseum, but that said there are times when you can kind of see the Pokémon's model. Quagsire being the best example of it. But it's not anything big, as the game itself holds up otherwise.

 

[shoz999]

I love Colosseum, but that said there are times when you can kind of see the Pokémon's model. Quagsire being the best example of it. But it's not anything big, as the game itself holds up otherwise.

I think it can become a big problem later on. Right now, everyone's alright as long as they get their nationaldex but later on they have to create new Pokemon models in the future to ensure the fans that the Pokemon series is progressing well. As of now we've had three generations that used the 3DS models, as in these models are pretty old still and you can tell in the Wingull footage. I believe newer improved models that are full of life is a great way to refresh the series since it's already hard enough to revolutionize the gameplay.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

I gotta be honest, I truly believe that these games were able to have the graphics and stuff due to the limited pokemon availability in the games, XD had about a 100 obtainable pokemon in it so they were allowed to give each one more personality then a regular game which needs to put so many more in there.

 

[shoz999]

I gotta be honest, I truly believe that these games were able to have the graphics and stuff due to the limited pokemon availability in the games, XD had about a 100 obtainable pokemon in it so they were allowed to give each one more personality then a regular game which needs to put so many more in there.

Honestly, if GameFreak sought more outside help, maybe Genius Sonority themselves who made Pokemon Stadium, 2, Colosseum, XD, Battle Revolution, they probably could deliver a Pokemon game with jaw-dropping almost real graphics as opposed to the cel-shaded one with over 1000 Pokemon because Pokemon Battle Revolution not only had some top-notch graphics but it also had access to almost all of 493 Pokemon models for the Wii, which has pretty small storage space. I wonder if the amount of time and effort put into the Wild Area though along with the deadline has to do with the graphics.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Honestly, if GameFreak sought more outside help, maybe Genius Sonority themselves who made Pokemon Stadium, 2, Colosseum, XD, Battle Revolution, they probably could deliver a Pokemon game with jaw-dropping almost real graphics as opposed to the cel-shaded one with over 1000 Pokemon because Pokemon Battle Revolution not only had some top-notch graphics but it also had access to almost all of 493 Pokemon models for the Wii, which has pretty small storage space. I wonder if the amount of time and effort put into the Wild Area though along with the deadline has to do with the graphics.

In terms of Battle Revolution, I believe they were able to do that due to the fact that the game was all battles. There weren't cities, villains etc etc. Because there were just battles, they were able to focus on making each pokemon look good in battle.

 

[shoz999]

In terms of Battle Revolution, I believe they were able to do that due to the fact that the game was all battles. There weren't cities, villains etc etc. Because there were just battles, they were able to focus on making each pokemon look good in battle.

Probably but the space back than was pretty small, the Nintendo Switch is much bigger so unless it's an expensive cartridge issue, I do think it's still possible to achieve all these things if GameFreak had either the home console experience or worked with someone like Genius Sorority.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Probably but the space back than was pretty small, the Nintendo Switch is much bigger so unless it's an expensive cartridge issue, I do think it's still possible to achieve all these things if GameFreak had either the home console experience or worked with someone like Genius Sorority.

I think it's possible but I would want it to be more like XD and not Battle Revolution. At the end of the day, I'm all about the story and adventure in pokemon so another trip to the Orre(??) region could be fun. It would be interesting to see how those places and the region have grown since XD.

 

[Leonhart]

Judging simply from the new 3D models that we've seen so far, I think Shield and Sword have the better battle graphics, but that's to be expected since they're the latest games. Some of the rendering in the overworld looks a bit sloppy, but that's outside of battles, so it doesn't affect my opinion on these games much. Battle Revolution probably comes the closest to Shield and Sword in terms of smooth graphics, though.

 

[PokeMon2.0]

XD. I grew up with it!

 

[Ignition]

Battle Revolution is my favorite of the games mentioned. The Pokèmon have so much personality (for instance Honchkrow tips its fedora before fainting) and while the graphics are dated, they look fine. Plus there’s virtually no story so I could just battle with great music.

 

[JLK2707]

Pokémon stadiums 1 and 2. The graphics in ORAS and X and Y were good too.