Pokemon Black and White Don't Need a Remake (They’re Already Perfect) | Game Studio Spotlight

[Music] technology and art are intertwined as tech improves we find new ways of expressing art pokemon's a good example of this it exists across each of nintendo's handheld consoles every time there was a new console we had new expectations but for the first time ever in 2011 game freak stopped the same year that nintendo released the 3ds a powerful handheld console capable of detailed 3d graphics game freak launched pokemon black and white for the regular ds still with pixelated pokemon and characters it was controversial at the time with several interviews asking why on earth they still weren't making 3d pokemon games technically they could have done ever since pokemon diamond and pearl in fact but they maintained that this was the best way to retain art director ken sugimori's vision at the time as a teenager i didn't understand this but i think i do now there's an appeal to pixelart that exists outside of just hardware limitations and so while i and many others were getting impatient and flipping wistfully through the pokedex 3d app game freak were busy perfecting their craft for the very last time hello and welcome to the canaperfx this is a studio spotlight on gamefreak the creators of pokemon black and white we didn't get the chance to appreciate pixels as an art form until the game boy pixels were obviously a part of games before but we never quite saw them when we emulate nes and snes titles we miss out on the fact that these pixelated characters were crafted specifically for crt screens many artists would keep a tv on their desks to check how their work looked through the scan lines early consoles could only display a certain amount of colors but game developers were coming up with tricks to create the impression of more detail by using the blurring intrinsic to crt tvs in fact according to square enix pixel artist koichi ishii when you display owned final fantasy games on an lcd screen you're not seeing their work as intended but that's why the game boy was so important suddenly these pixel artists were being put in a situation where their work was clear no more scanlines the creator of the game boy goompe yokoi specifically wanted to challenge developers at the time the screen didn't actually have to be monochrome but he felt that a lot could be achieved through pixelated shapes instead this was a challenge that the team at game freak took up and they were kind of already unique in the pixel graphics space from the start the company started out as a magazine and satoshi tajiri would draw these pixel characters on the front but when ken tsugimori joined he felt they were kind of lame and instead wanted to go for a manga style instead this philosophy continued into their game creation where tsukimori would use anime and manga as inspiration for the animations in game freak titles and early consoles and so that's where pokemon comes from the challenging limitations of goompe yokoi's gameboy console combined with kinsugimori's manga ambitions on the overworld they're simple sprites with a couple cute walk animations but it was the battle screen that demonstrated their ability to create appealing pixel characters that would capture the world [Music] pokemon would eventually be realized in color and at the end of 2000 would be animated for the first time in pokemon crystal of course we were already familiar with how these guys moved in the anime but there was still something special about seeing these pixels wiggle it's only a few frames but it's a way of building character and establishing the unique personalities of your new best friends animated sprites returned for pokemon emerald later on and while it was still basic it was a step in the right direction but then you get to pokemon black and white and they don't stop battles in pokemon black and white are always moving with the pokemon driving and the camera zooming back and forth these animation loops are all about function and personality sure this still image shows us that timber is cocky but the animated version reveals that he's a total show-off and it's genuinely intimidating to go up against hydraegon because his three mouths won't stop aggressively snapping at you on the other hand golurk doesn't threaten you at all selling the designer's idea of him being a gentle giant at game freak all artists are expected to design at least one pokemon including the pixel artists who end up working on the animations this is one of the reasons director junichi master defends the team's persistence in 2d the designers draw their pokemon ideas sugimori creates the final illustration and that gets added to the game in pixel form leading the battle animation efforts is hironobu yoshida a long time pixel advocate among those at game freak in 2005 he was the character and graphic designer for drill dozer alongside director tsukimori and together they are the studio's staunchest defenders of pixel art for them it offers a clarity that no other medium can capture you move just one dot and the illusion breaks this is important because black and white's animation moves a lot more than just one pixel and so to retain the feeling of the original image animations are largely created in 2.5 d where each part of the illustration will move independently on a different layer giving a kind of three-dimensional impression this is often referred to as puppet animation but saying it's just that is kind of reductive characters like darumaka phariseed and scraggy have different versions of body parts to switch between as they move between pose to pose for the sequel black and white 2 the writing was on the wall this would be yoshida's last chance to create a pixel game and so he went all out this time not only would all the pokemon be animated but all trainers would as well accentuating each of their personalities roxy will strum on the guitar before facing you iris as a brand new champion will need to psych herself up in the original game this was limited to the main characters but now everything was in motion yoshida described development on the game being like a festival a one last hurrah for pixel art before his job was outsourced to the 3d animators and creatures inc black and white were the first games to exist on the exact same console as the previous generation in the past whether it was the game boy color or game boy advance they always had the hardware to prompt this feeling of a generational gap but for black and white on the same nintendo ds as diamond and pearl they needed to expand their team and improve the visuals part of this is the battle graphics i talked about before but another was in the world of unova itself while they still wanted to keep the characters and moving objects as two-dimensional sprites the rest of the map is entirely created in 3d this isn't exactly an original idea grandia did it in 1997 and dragon quest 7 did it in 2000 but not only did black and white present a cleaner result it also didn't have a crt screen to smooth it all over the effect has several advantages but the main one is a feeling of real depth as you move around the perspective shifts you can go underneath things around things all while moving according to a grid the 3d artists who created this were a mix of game freak veterans who had learned to work in the new medium and some new hires and so because most of the team had been working on pokemon for years it retains the same flavor one of the new hires was james turner a fellow brit who already had experience with the brand from pokemon colosseum on the gamecube and other projects with genius sonority he joined game freak as both a 3d artist and as per the rules a pokemon designer as well back at genius he works on the opening cut scene of gale of darkness where lugia steals a ship and similarly he created the animation for reshiram and zekrom for two of black and white's cutscenes one where in in pixel form acquires his legendary and another at the end the first mainline cut scenes to feature 3d pokemon models but while these are awesome the really memorable parts of black and white are when it defies our expectations where they combine these 3d assets with traditional pixel arts from the moment you step outside your house a flock of wubat flies over 2d sprites but clearly moving about in 3d space the same effect occurs with the leaves flustering over you as you head up through route 1 introducing you to the game's strengths in just the first few minutes i liked pokemon sun and moon a lot and pokemon x and y also happened but any time they tried to impress me visually it was always something you could expect but black and white was breaking its own rules most dramatically when the camera that had been fixed for 16 years suddenly started moving i don't think i'll ever forget the feeling of walking across sky arrow bridge for the first time with the camera constantly switching angles as boats cruise underneath you and trains rush alongside you it's the first time a mainline pokemon game felt like a living world and there i am trotting about as a bunch of bouncy pixels director junichi masada included these dynamic moments purely just to make players say wow and wow moments are at the core of black and white's design but the game doesn't necessarily need 3d arts to accomplish this i mentioned before that when kinsugimori first started a game freak he was more interested in manga arts than pixel works and in a way black and white was his way of bringing these inspirations to pokemon for the first time you're able to talk to characters face to face it doesn't happen often usually just used for ex-transceiver conversations but it's also the way the game chooses to present n's most memorable lines pokemon black and white already has one of the best stories in a pokemon game but the fact that it ends within looking you in the eye telling you to achieve your dreams it's unforgettable you said you have a dream that dream make it come true wonderful dreams and ideals give you the power to change the world if anyone can it's you okay look i couldn't get n's voice actor but that was fine right [Music] for me both pokemon black and white and black and white 2 are perfect games at the time i had hundreds of hours in them and years later i frequently go back and replay them and that's not to say i haven't enjoyed the game since but in the most literal sense they don't make games like black and white anymore when they moved to full 3d with x and y the pixel artists were reassigned to working on concept art or ui design they're still at the company today but it is sad that we don't get to see hironobu yoshida's work anymore we just get to see a 3d artist interpretation of it x and y's visuals and the games thereafter heavily relied on outsourcing game freak had people who could make the maps but for the heavy lifting it was largely the work of their sister company creatures inc who had been creating 3d pokemon models and animations ever since pocket monster stadium and the 3d artists at a magicka digital scape a massive cg production company there was definitely skepticism at gamefreak in creating a full 3d game particularly from kensugimori at this point they were industry leaders in pixel art and had created their magnum opus in black and white too going for 3d would be throwing all of that away so early development was tentative if they didn't like the results they would just scrap it all and make another game with pixels and black and white's 3d director takao uno was a big part of making sure x and y could be a visual success begging the artists to create black outlines on every character to more closely fit sugimori's style but it's still kind of sad as sugimori was saying they really were throwing everything away and of course the fans lapped up the new 3d graphics so did i at the time we have the image of pixels being old-fashioned but over the last decade there's been more appreciation for the medium fond memories for the gameboy along with emulating famous snes titles have given us the chance to revisit pixel art from the 80s and 90s and indie games like hotline miami shovel knight and stardew valley have helped us remember what was so great about them even pop team epic's pixel animation sections were created by an animator who was inspired by the art of pokemon black and white in 2014 square enix re-released final fantasy 6 with apparently improved graphics for mobile and later pc that redrew the characters in a smoother style and it got slammed with players much preferring the pixel arts that they'd seen on emulators but as i explained earlier we were never meant to have seen that it was always the developer's intention that the pixels be hidden behind the crt screen and so yoshinori katase director of the original game was surprised to hear that people preferred the original even on lcd screens that said square enix is showing signs of understanding especially through the success of team arsenal's hd 2d games octopath traveler and the upcoming project triangle strategy these are titles that celebrate pixel art while much like pokemon black and white use 3d backgrounds to give the world depth even with all the big budget ps5 games i've been playing lately the most impressive graphics i've seen all year have come from the triangle strategy demo and it kind of sucks that this style is limited to just one developer i want to see it all over the place expanded and repurposed for different games and styles i want to see it being used to remaster games keeping the focus on the beloved 2d pixels that we learn to love far too late basically i want pokemon black and white octopath edition gen 5 looks great upscaled in fact you've been seeing upscaled footage throughout this video the 3d backgrounds are clean and complement the sharp pixel sprites but they were made incredibly simple to be able to run on the standard nintendo ds ideally i want to see an octopath style remaster that celebrates the pixel art from 2011 while showing how the 3d environment team have grown over the past decade but at this point it's incredibly doubtful that they'll return to creating pixel art which is kind of ironic in a way because game freak is still largely a 2d company the 3d assets in little town hero for instance were all outsourced but even if not a remaster the game should still be ported nintendo ds cartridges don't have an unlimited lifespan and neither do the consoles they play on but instead of bringing diamond and pearl back they're outsourcing a lifeless faithful remake that kills the style and personality of the original and i fear they'll do the same with black and white because 3d is always better right in an interview with the creators of mother 3 they talk about how the industry was undergoing an obsession with 3d in the early 2000s every game had to have the best possible 3d graphics but satoru iwata noted that it had the habit of killing what was unique about some games and he specifically mentioned that it was pokemon gold and silver's pixel art that made it special even if it took a lot less effort to achieve pokemon was later 3d but like every other developer once they were there they didn't turn back pixel games today are in the hands of indie developers and smaller teams and while the results are incredible i'm greedy it may have been a limitation at the time but today pixel art games can still sell millions of copies and most of game freak's best pixel artists are either still at the company or work with them in a freelance capacity on concept art and illustrations helm during a youtube series where the company's artists would draw and chat hironobu yoshida decided to make one of his pixel characters instead i mean it won't happen pokemon will never return to pixel art and will instead march onwards into the 3d space without looking back but what pains me the most is knowing that they could thanks for watching the canopex this is a video i've wanted to make for a long time so thanks for bearing with me but before i go i'd like to thank these incredible people for supporting the channel in particular i'd like to thank austin hardwick dedemeet eddie lahecker edwin shale frizzy canadian fuji frogkun jacob bosley jr pictures matthew grunsol my own mother nolan soga quentin elkin smith robert miller ronald mcdonald son and tommy roman this channel exists for videos on the animation of anime and sometimes games like this so if you want more please consider visiting patreon.com slash the cana perfect i want you to know that professor oak pikachu ash and all of us here in pallet town we believe in you callum may so you go after the dream that you want to go after and you are sure to succeed all right good luck to you and bye for now you

Channel: The Canipa Effect

Views: 360,386

Keywords: Anime review, anime reviewer, canipa, anime, Pokemon Black and White, Pokemon, Game Freak, Junichi Masudaa, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pixel Art, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rosa, Hilbert, Remake, Remaster, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl, Final Fantasy, 3D, 2D, Video Games

Id: rgVi3FkVn70

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I mean yeah they're great games but why wouldn't you want a remake of them

[u/gorilla1012]

Homestly, enough with remakes. Just make new pokemon games with better graphic/physics/motion so that us 30-40 yo pokemon trainer feel something is new

[u/CaptainObviousSpeaks]

Ha!

[u/Lukesheep]

Lol peak gen 5 nostalgia. Maybe bw2 are great, but vanilla bw is just meh and introduced most of modern Pokémon problems.