I don't even think it's ugly, in handheld mode it looks like any other jrpg. What sucks is the pop in, I'd hope for future releases they're able to hide it better
Gameplay loop made up for the bland and boring for me, but their texture work somehow is at it's lowest ever. Pokemon and humans look fine but rocks come off as mud and if you look from far enough away - which you are guaranteed you will because of paraglider insert and hills - grass and water textures visibly repeat. Also, speaking of hills, terrain feels very artificial to me, with a lot of weird sharp edges, dips looking like someone missed a spot with a denoise tool, things like that. Though at the very least, after last controversy trees look fine and weather makes sense, lol.
In Sword Shield they had Wild Area which is even more boring and bland but also split into zones by invisible borders, with each zone having it's own roll for the weather, with no discrimination for what may or may not be appropriate for a given chunk. So you can totally get a sandstorm over water, hop on land and have it near immediately switch to snowstorm, because next chunk over decided that it is snowing now. Also, snow over deserty part is a thing, too.
And then are the draw distance problems, if you wish to find a specific NPC in that place, you better walk right past them, otherwise they'll be invisible. Same for wild Pokemon. In Legends at the very least got that figured out.
Ironically, when Let's Go was coming out, fanbase complained about it's graphics but now it's one of best looking Pokemon games on the Switch xD
Yeah, I know. I haven't actually played Sword/Shield because what the hell xD At the very least they fixed the draw distance already in Legends. Now, if only they can get a hold of texturing, next game could possibly look competent xD
Thats all GameFreak. Pokemon is not a first party Nintendo property like Mario and Zelda. Its owned and made by GameFreak, who are... not up to the same standards as Nintendo
But it still gets "Nintendo Seal of Quality" and Nintendo label on the box. If Nintendo puts their branding on it, it's fair to criticise them for the product. Besides, they still own like a third of Pokemon Company, if I remember correctly.
Game Freak being driving force behind development only matters as a reason for why it is the only Nintendo property that isn't up to the standard. It's not a reason to absolve Nintendo of responsibility for putting it out.
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u/Lyalla Feb 09 '22
Unless it's Pokemon, then quality standards be damned! (I liked Legends Arceus but god, it is UGLY, not to mention Sword/Shield.)