We’ve seen approximately five minutes of Pokémon Legends: Z-A in motion and fans are already asking a question that has plagued every Pokémon game since the series shifted to 3D graphics with X and Y: Is Pokémon Legends: Z-A ugly? The modern Pokémon games have been universally plagued by technical issues, but the debate about the series’ graphics and art style is a bit more complicated and subjective than simple acknowledgments of technical shortcomings. Legends: Z-A is being held to a lot of scrutiny after games like Scarlet and Violet traded the intimate, crafted environments of their predecessors for open-world scope, and the fandom seems divided on whether the upcoming Switch RPG is an improvement or another step in the wrong direction.
I was disappointed to see Legends: Z-A adopt the odd, toy-like visual style of Scarlet and Violet instead of the stylized one we saw in Legends: Arceus. But it is a step up from the 2022 RPGs in that it’s more colorful, uses smaller environments to get more details and textures on screen, and at least in the trailer, it looks like it’s running better than Scarlet and Violet do, too. I’m open to conversations about whether Legends: Z-A looks bad, but I feel like anyone who thinks it looks worse than the ugly open world of Paldea probably hasn’t booted up Scarlet and Violet in a minute or is wearing rose-colored glasses. The side-by-side comparisons are pretty damning.
For all the discussion happening in the Pokémon fandom, Legends: Z-A feels like a calculated pivot away from the pitfalls of the series’ recent open-world entries. It’s focusing on a smaller world by taking place entirely in Lumiose City, which means we’ll hopefully not be subject to the same framerate culling and texture pop-in that plagued Legends: Arceus and Scarlet / Violet. But even if it’s a technical step up earned through careful planning, does Legends: Z-A beat the ugly artstyle accusations? That’s the question fans can’t seem to agree on.
I’m still interested in some of the mechanical changes Legends: Z-A is implementing like real-time battles, but the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’m disappointed that visually, the Legends subseries isn’t following in the superior footsteps of Legends: Arceus. Yes, Arceus had some of the same technical troubles that impacted Scarlet and Violet, but it was generally pretty to look at because it adopted a colorful cel-shaded look. Seeing Legends: Z-A fall in step with Scarlet and Violet is a bummer because moving away from the open-zone structure could have, in theory, given Game Freak the chance to focus on smaller environments with some visual flair and personality. Sword and Shield was the last game that featured (primarily) smaller environments, and it had some real standout towns that popped on screen and had a real sense of place. I look back at the city of Ballonlea, which is adorned with colorful, bioluminescent mushrooms, as a reminder that Game Freak can create gorgeous environments when it scales back. Lumiose City looks better than anything in Scarlet and Violet, but if it were more stylized, it could look even better.
Hopefully, we’ll see something more visually striking between now and when Pokémon Legends: Z-A launches on Switch later this year. Until then, at least I haven’t seen anyone getting mad about the trees.