The Terrifying Pace of Modern Pokemon

All right-- Say you just wrapped up development  on one of the hardest projects in your life.   Three years of non-stop 40+ hour work weeks for  a game that had over a thousand members of staff,   all doing their absolute best in order to  bring about a product that they believed in--   but forget that it's about time we talked  about Pokemon Scarlet & Violet!! Like all   of the design choices in Generation  9 that are looking good and bad...   and why there's absolutely... no  reason that these games need to exist. We've had a new Generation of Pokemon  every three years since Black & White,   where each project undergoes a development cycle  that has had roughly one year of pre-production   and two of in-engine development. In between  those we have another bundle of games that help   prop up yearly releases and are either  based off of games that already exist,   games that existed a little longer ago, and  some outliers that we'll get to in a bit.   That feel like a lot of information? Well GOOD--  because if it wasn't obvious enough, Game Freak   has been stretched extremely thinm and Pokemon  Scarlet & Violet are just the newest in a line   of entries to the series that make this business  model appear continually more unstable. Developer   crunch and overwork is absolutely an issue for  pokemon and besides having detrimental effects on   the people that work on the games themselves it's  a series that has consistently lacked polish and   features that future entries are always scrambling  to catch up with i really thought we were going   somewhere after the announcement of smaller scale  dlc to replace the typical b team third versions   constant recruitment of younger talent which has  led to some of the most influential people at the   company and outsourcing to other developers  entirely for main series games yes i'm still   making the bdsp video it's uh just gonna be a  while i have a lot to say but despite releasing   the most well-received pokemon game in the last  decade back in january we've had about a month to   let it breathe until the marketing machine kicked  into high gear and gave us a new region a set of   three starters and likely a director that's shown  time and time and time again that he struggles   greatly under the threat of a ticking clock  shiguru omori has never stopped working since   he was given the reigns of the series shortly  after x and y he's one hell of a director for   being able to release completed games that  crumbled under an intense development period   for a series with such a massive scope and judging  from the publicly leaked prototypes of sword and   shield in particular it's pretty insane what  amount of workers teams can do in just a couple   of months by the way i'm gonna dispel this notion  that the games are specifically being forced out   of the gate because of the anime card game or even  particular people when this just isn't the case   this series is so big and has so many moving parts  to the point where it's never one sole reason   just a bunch of factors that combine to cause this  type of situation if you really think that it's   the anime that's dictating the games because of a  graphic you've seen online then why was game free   granted a massive delay on gold and silver despite  pokemon being at the height of its popularity   during its development to the point where the  entire project might as well have started from   scratch the anime in particular has introduced  multiple exclusive arcs to bend to the games not   the other way around and honestly the 2019 series  can produce endless amounts of episodes until a   new generation given how it's structured i think  legends also have in separate areas instead of a   full open world could allow for a couple of new  ones spread throughout the years dlc something   that seems more than possible given how quickly  the daybreak update was pushed out by ewow's team   why not attempt to leverage the guys over at  ilka to shift manpower towards an actually   functional game as a secondary developer for main  pokemon games that are already out and could use   even more content which would give gamefreak  significantly more time to polish generation 9.   besides that this constant need to release games  in the series leads to a complete uncertainty from   the perspective of a consumer we just got a game  that revolutionized pokemon interaction completely   rethought how the most basic series mechanics  were understood and gave people an experience   unlike anything we'd seen for the series with gen  9 being planned and subsequently developed for   two years at this point how much a legend's dna  is going to make it in there's no way that they   have the time between now and release to uproot  fundamental aspect to scholar and violet to make   it more in line with what people love from legends  so the most that we can hope for is that scraps   of its design managed to make the cut sword and  shield had this exact issue with overworld pokemon   according to omori the team worked hard to  ensure that they made it into generation 8   after seeing the positive response to let's go  but realistically that gave them just under a   year to effectively re-implement how the player  interacts with the main mechanic of the game   the level design wasn't made to accommodate this  type of gameplay leading to big empty spaces in   the routes that would have originally been wild  grass and the nuances that let's go brought with   the mechanic like size differences invisible shiny  pokemon didn't survive the transfer process part   of me kinda wants to go back and see what a more  densely designed sword and shield might look like   if the game wasn't forcibly built around overworld  pokemon in the last nine months and i'm extremely   concerned that the multitasking overworld or ride  pokemon from legends are gonna fall by the wayside   in scholar and violet or at best are just gonna  lack the finer detail that are offered in those   departments at the very least it seems like we're  fully done away with the immersion shattering   pocket dimensions from sword and shield which  stopped feeling pretty necessary the moment we got   into a system with a little bit more horsepower  seeing the series all on one page is so satisfying   after years of experimentation which is something  that i can also say for the fact that the entire   game is now open world i will say i'm a little  worried about crowbaring the traditional battle   system onto a setting where you can walk up to the  seventh gym from the beginning which is something   the legends got away with by designing the core  systems around the open world and not being done   the other way hopefully they end up doing that  skull and violet show a lot of promises new   generation pokemon games that promise a truly  open world but much of the game's potential   is up in the air because of strict deadlines a  likely director that has struggled under those   deadlines and a myriad of features that the series  is stumbling to catch up on the fact of the matter   is that the games are getting bigger but the time  to make them remains the same and judging from   the way this game also looks i'd say that we're  in desperate need of some more time in the oven before i talk about specifics when it comes to  how scarlet and violet is looking i think it's   worth talking about the general art style outside  of that especially since the last time i did that   i got a lot of views each of the generation  9 starters showcase a fundamentally good   understanding of what went wrong with previous  trios and hawking back to a design ethos that   felt long since abandoned when it came to starter  pokemon when comparing 8 to 9 it finally feels   like we're past the era of sardis designed as  characters first in creatures second which really   does wonders for making these pokemons seem like  they can exist in this world cinderella and teleon   especially suffer because of this being based  off of footballers and secret agents as their   defining character traits i refuse to believe that  these apparently natural born creatures can exist   in the wild when their major character traits  are influenced by the existence of humanity to   the degree of being what is effectively their  entire design it's basically a lot of words   to say that they're pretty unnatural looking at  their core and the warning signs were there way   back in the first trailer for previous sets  of starters you typically had an animal that   corresponded to a particular type and that was  really it generation 8 introduced a creature   with a type with a defining personality attached  to it a character trait that took precedence and   as those lines evolved became the centerpiece of  the design if you tried to graft those character   traits on any other starter trio gen9 included  it'd be incredibly forced since they just simply   weren't designed for that so if there's a sonic  the hedgehog design attached to any of these three   they're buried deep within besides feeling like  animals that could just exist in the wild there's   also a lot of merit on keeping these creatures  less human as they evolve because pokemon is a   game about being a human living alongside these  interesting creatures when those creatures become   more humanoid that goal starts to muddy a little  bit and they start becoming less like partners   and more like people with the attributes  of animals which raises a lot of questions   and listen i know mr mime and him on china have  always existed but they were never your first and   intended to be a beloved cornerstone of your team  it's less of the fact that a pokemon is standing   on two legs because lots of pokemon do that just  fine and more so that a personality is being   shoved onto a pokemon that as a kid i'd rather  have projected or made up the personalities of   instead another big departure from the series art  style though i'd argue not for the better would be   these identical doll-like protagonist designs the  series always succeeded by having a fantasy world   that you grounded yourself in and less so one  that the games wanted you to relate to because   you were also probably a kid going to school  not to say that a series with a school center   and a young audience in mine can't work because it  absolutely can but with those the general premise   and character design do a lot of the heavy  lifting something that these real departures   from the pokemon series art style don't do very  well as an adult looking back even the earliest   designs felt contemporary and were emblematic  of the series at the time god they're so good   kensugimori's original art style was reminiscent  of popular artists at the time but his designs   themselves were always appropriately pokemon the  designs never felt like they were lacking when   it came to inspiration being just fantasy enough  to look a bit too goofy in real life but grounded   enough to the point where they fit a semblance of  real world aesthetic the kids could identify with   and in time the series maintained that growth and  literally matured the character designs until they   got around to remaking that original game this  then set the standard for protagonist character   design going forward and as the series progressed  so did design sensibilities whilst the legs and   arms grew a lot longer the bags hats and other  accessories grew to match which all came together   to create a ton of exaggerated designs that cast  a pretty wide net of appeal i can relate to the   main characters of sword and shield in the same  way as a person that's both far older or younger   than i am which is a really cool thing that even  pokemon's pretty limited customizability helps   out with it's one hell of a feat to pull off for  a series so huge and it's why these significantly   younger designs with a clear focus on lacking  that broad appeal or a little worrying the idea   that designers are paid to design kids for kids to  play as is something that pokemon has historically   avoided by evoking a sense of cool to the designs  even if they're not super grounded in reality not   nearly as much as these new designs are even the  classic eye shape set in the mid-2000s has been   replaced with a rounder variant and departing from  that classic pokemon art style will make them feel   more generic above all else i wouldn't care as  much if customization was less scatter shot but   this is pokemon we're talking about aka if you  pick the guide design or care for having more   than four skin tones then your [ __ ] out a lot  though i'd be pleasantly surprised if gamefreak   could prove me wrong on that front it's only been  what 10 years besides the models looking all waxy   and really poorly constructed these designs simply  aren't consistent with the rest of the series   and are likely extremely telling of how the rest  of the characters in scarlet and violet are also   gonna look like while witnessing the birth of  an adjustment to what is a really consistent art   style and like it or not it's super fascinating  to see what i don't understand is why pokemon   fans are so adverse to people talking about  changes to character design good or bad because   it doesn't matter people are paid thousands to  do exactly this and if you're the one dying on a   hill saying that nobody should put thought into  this so that it doesn't matter then congrats   you're only doing a disservice to the people you  think you're shielding from criticism it's just so   strange to me although i'm not too stoked about  the potential of scarlet and violet's character   designs i will say that gamefreak have evolved the  general aesthetic of the series when compared to   sword and shield so we better get into what those  changes are generation 8 tried to go with a more   realistic approach to world design for its art  direction when compared to the games that came   prior which had a lot of weird inconsistencies  when taken as part of a full product gala itself   looks alright but there was a clear mismatch  with the models that a texture is designed for   the 3ds's more cel-shaded approach as well as the  new direction for the series following let's go   which is still the most consistent looking pokemon  game since the jump to hd as much as it hurts me   to say that we're no longer going down the path  those games set given how classically sugimori   they look game freak seemed to have taken a lot  of cues from new pokemon snap and have retextured   lots of pokemon models to offer more realistic  depth now they blend in with the world far more   than the original textures that made each pokemon  look like super smooth balloon animals in gen 8.   each model also seems to continue the trend set  by legends arceus that turned many details that   were originally textures into indents on that  pokemon's model such as mouths eyes and other   appendages you could say that it's a pretty minor  thing but even stone journal yeah that thing now   looks less like its features are plastered on like  stickers and it goes a long way to improving that   design i just wish they were a bit more consistent  so viper has these cool looking scales on its   body but pikachu is still this amorphous blob of  cheese i don't think it's a good idea to fix one   art style inconsistency by what is effectively  creating another what i can't say the same for   is the environment quality i don't know what's  going on with gamefreak's texture compression   but i swear it's worse than legends arceus which  had entire character outfits reduced to literal   blurs it's something i can fix on my own when the  game comes out but that really shouldn't be the   basis of considering whether something looks good  or not any strong art style can't really survive   being poorly executed though what i assume is  the start in the house shows a lot of promise   it looks both gorgeous in isolation and also real  cohesive with the surrounding area and all the   colors really pop feels like we're a far cry away  from sword and shields pretty unappealing looking   first trailer by comparison the only issue is that  when sword and shield look good it was because it   had the added benefit of a fixed camera these new  towns and cities now have to be designed with a   rotatable camera in mind which means the trailer  close-ups like these are under scrutiny because   that's what the game can look like in motion games  are absolutely subject to change visually as time   goes on but there are so many issues in this one  city alone that i don't know where to even begin   huge frame drops in the swablu scene entire  shadows missing from whole structures which   gives the look that this world has no correct  sense of lighting the textures on this back wall   floor or railing suffering from absolutely  atrocious compression i'm extremely skeptical of   this area in particular because it appears to be a  major hub for the game legends had a similar issue   with jubalife but i was willing to give that game  a chance as elect any sort of npcs in the initial   trailer and it's something that i was confident  would be built upon over time if these are the   areas that game freak is choosing to focus on for  their first trailer i can't help but be worried   for how this game is gonna look that pervasive  issues that every single game in the series since   sword and shield has suffered from and the common  denominator here is that the time taker to create   these areas is too little it's easy for me to be  excited for a new pokemon generation because i see   three cute new starters in a world to explore  with all my old favorites and i smile because   it's everything i've come to love from this series  but there's always a little asterisk associated   with the new game release because i know for a  fact that the vision these developers are going   for ends up getting completely bottlenecked by a  time crunch and from a director that has a lot of   almost amazing games imagine ores but that extra  year was given to the battlefront here which was   absolutely planned to be in the game at some point  what about sun and moon that had all of its trials   fully featured proper attention given to the  ultra beast's post game instead of fetch quest   and all of ultra sun and moon's follow-up ideas  and concepts in one cohesive package or how about   a sword and shield that came packaged with the  dlc content as part of the core game on day one   a sword and shield with a fully featured pokedex  that had the time to be balanced tested and   implemented and a sword and shield that had the  time taken to refine the finer details that were   just now following up on in scarlet and violent  after the breath of fresh air that was legends   it's clear that the studio doesn't lack ideas or  talent or new faces but instead the time to let   them make the games that they very clearly want  to make absorb support studios as part of the core   brand instead of porting them off to repackage  games that they clearly didn't understand the   appeal of and most importantly give this guy a  break nobody at this company is some misunderstood   visionary but they are human beings that struggle  under a series that's collapsing in on itself and   i think of all people they're the ones that  want to prevent that from happening the most

Channel: Lewtwo

Views: 487,285

Keywords: pokemon gen 9, legends arceus, gen 9, new pokemon, gen 9 starters, sprigatito, fuecoco, quaxly, new pokemon starters, scarlet and violet leaks, scarlet and violet new leak, new gen 9 leak, pokemon scarlet, pokemon violet, Pokémon

Id: Rf0vboeLik8

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 24 2022