The Legends: Arceus Graphics Discussion

[pitchtheripoff]

No? Would you be just as happy with it if they only voiced it in Japanese and Spanish?

What? English is basically used by every country in the world to communicate outside of their native language, and there's a ton of games that only have English/Japanese with subtitles in other languages.

Also, Nintendo somehow got BOTW voiced in all of it's languages, who's to say TPC can't?

 

[Blast]

What? English is basically used by every country in the world to communicate outside of their native language, and there's a ton of games that only have English/Japanese with subtitles in other languages.

Also, Nintendo somehow got BOTW voiced in all of it's languages, who's to say TPC can't?

I agree as long as there's proper subtitles just have Japanese and English VA should be fine for normal Japanese games. However, if you keep in mind that Pokémon is a huge international franchise with a lot of child fans I think it could be worth it to have VA for most major languages like the anime does. They're not gonna localise the game in my native language either way though so I don't mind personally if it's just Japanese and English.

 

[Oriden]

What? English is basically used by every country in the world to communicate outside of their native language, and there's a ton of games that only have English/Japanese with subtitles in other languages.

Also, Nintendo somehow got BOTW voiced in all of it's languages, who's to say TPC can't?

Pokemon has kind of made a big deal about its global releases, though, as well as being in multiple languages- it would be pretty regressive to go "Now with Japanese/English-only voice acting!"

And Zelda doesn't have a dedicated release schedule like Pokemon does.

 

[R1ke]

The graphics aren’t great and look unpolished imo. l don’t like the lack of detail/outlines) around the edges of the players/pokemon. I’ve played a bunch of retro games so I always care about gameplay more anyway. But I feel with open world exploration games they more important, since it’s the type of game I want to pause and just marvel at. I generally like the art style and aesthetic (particularly at night) but I’d like if they took longer to improve them, if possible.

Regardless they’re not the end of the world, I can still enjoy the game despite them.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

Pokemon has kind of made a big deal about its global releases, though, as well as being in multiple languages- it would be pretty regressive to go "Now with Japanese/English-only voice acting!"

And Zelda doesn't have a dedicated release schedule like Pokemon does.

You could go the Zelda route with just random sounds characters make when speaking like in Zelda. It would cut on VA budget and make it easier to record voices in a short timeframe, at least in my opinion. No need to localize either.

 

[Greninjaman]

You could go the Zelda route with just random sounds characters make when speaking like in Zelda. It would cut on VA budget and make it easier to record voices in a short timeframe, at least in my opinion. No need to localize either.

Yeah. I agree that not EVERY character has to get voiced lines. I would say at least the characters that are important to the plot as well as important scenes. I have played games where this is the case. Final Fantasy 12 comes to mind.

 

[Oriden]

You could go the Zelda route with just random sounds characters make when speaking like in Zelda. It would cut on VA budget and make it easier to record voices in a short timeframe, at least in my opinion. No need to localize either.

Yeah, that's the route I'd like to see them take. XD

I'm not against there being any voices, because I agree it would bring more life into the games. I'm just not keen on full dialogue voice acting because I think it would take more time to localize, make cut scenes so much longer, and you could get stuck with listening to some cringy as hell voices for the entire game.

 

[Neo Blaze]

For a Pokémon game, the graphics are fine. They honestly didn't bother me for most of the story. When you're standing still and just gaze into the distance, the graphics honestly look quite nice. But that's the problem; this is ultimately a game in which you have to move around a lot.

I've found personally that the graphics are especially bad when gliding around with Braviary. Giant rock formations just spawn out of nowhere in front of your eyes and nearby textures change rapidly as you move in closer.

Although to be fair, there are things that look great too: the Pokémon models especially. They look believable and most move around pretty realistically (well aside from the framerate issue with far away Pokémon but that's perhaps a whole other topic).

 

[Oriden]

Having played quite a bit now, I'm finding that the game looks pretty good when you're in motion, not so much when you're still. Haven't gotten to braviary yet but I know in the trailers that the overhead view was atrocious.

I do have some other nitpicks, though-


First off, things in the water are horribly pixelated. I get that they're going for a water distortion effect, but that's not what it looks like. It's just bad. Especially when you're staring at your pokeball for a moment to see if the thing you were battling stays inside it? Too much time to appreciate how awful that ball looks there.

While I was in the cave, there was also an issue with pixels appearing all around me, my pokemon and the wild pokemon during battle. I couldn't really capture how bad it was in a single screenshot but it was way more obnoxious than this:

Spoiler: So Many White Pixels...

And I'm honestly surprised that I haven't seen anyone point this out before, granted you have to wind up with your camera in just the right angle to notice it because of the grass:

Spoiler: Levitating Ruins

Kind of a big oops on that one. Luckily that's been the worst thing I've seen for poorly placed objects.

Flames on fire-type pokemon look awful, but that's been an issue in previous games. We need flames to look less like glowing jelly blobs. It's a shame, since fire-type attacks look so amazing now but flames on the pokemon look so stupid.

Speaking of fire-type attacks, though... I actually wouldn't call this a nitpick, because I love it and like to think it's intentional placement:

Spoiler: I'm thinking... Sparky Sparky Boom Mon

 

[Fungal Plague]

The game is pretty good ignoring the graphics, but what hurts it so much is how hard they are to ignore. The liquids in particular make me irritated every time i see them, in addition to the trees popping up in the distance whenever i move. The main problem for me is still the liquid, though, they remind me of the liquids you see in roblox games.The gameplay for these games is definitely heading in the right direction, but the awkwardness of cutscenes combined with the distracting graphics makes it a bit of a pain to immerse yourself in the world. I think pokemon could greatly benefit from VA, but if there would be too many problems with implementing it I believe there are many alternative routes they could take which would erase the need for VA.

And as a competitive pokemon player, the lack of online battling hurt me somewhere special.

 

[FelipePR]

Pokemon has kind of made a big deal about its global releases, though, as well as being in multiple languages- it would be pretty regressive to go "Now with Japanese/English-only voice acting!"

And Zelda doesn't have a dedicated release schedule like Pokemon does.

Almost every other major franchise has subtitle options in more languages than Pokémon. Final Fantasy has it at 11, Assassin's creed has it at 14, for example.

And it would never be regressive to add something else to the game, like voice acting, even if it was only in Japanese. Both franchises mentioned have less dubbing options than subtitles one's, FF has five, Assassin's Creed has eight, and I never heard that the franchise regressed because of this.

And note that Pokémon is a much larger franchise than the aforementioned, as well as its games has a smaller amount of dialogue.

The truth is that Nintendo doesn't really care about non-first world regions, with the exception of China, perhaps. And for some reason, perhaps a passion for delivering games at the lowest possible cost, it doesn't deign to dub the vast majority of its games, even an rpg game like Pokémon.

 

[pokemoll]

To be honest, I hadn't registered most of the graphical faults or areas that could use some work until the section where you walk through the dimly-lit pass with Ingo, where it was impossible to ignore the white pixels around the outline of the characters. Especially since as you moved, the pixels would appear around different parts of the character model. I'm not entirely sure if that was an intended effect, sheer laziness, or just something they didn't think would be worth fine-tuning? It's very ugly, either way.

I can kind of live with the rest of the graphical letdowns both because this game is already a massive improvement on past Pokemon game graphics, and because I wasn't expecting much to begin with. I will say that I really like the character and Pokemon models, though the shading/lighting(?) makes them look a little flat at times.

 

[R1ke]

Although I think the textures look unpolished (particularly in caves), the sky+clouds always looked great. The art style really works here, it's hard to explain put looks like a vibrant comic book. When you're on a mountaintop and can see the distant view, the graphics also look nice.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

Although I think the textures look unpolished (particularly in caves), the sky+clouds always looked great. The art style really works here, it's hard to explain put looks like a vibrant comic book. When you're on a mountaintop and can see the distant view, the graphics also look nice.

I agree, the skybox in this game is incredible. Everything else though? Ouch....

 

[Dorothy]

To be honest, I hadn't registered most of the graphical faults or areas that could use some work until the section where you walk through the dimly-lit pass with Ingo, where it was impossible to ignore the white pixels around the outline of the characters. Especially since as you moved, the pixels would appear around different parts of the character model. I'm not entirely sure if that was an intended effect, sheer laziness, or just something they didn't think would be worth fine-tuning? It's very ugly, either way.

Yeah that part is roughhh. I'm shocked it hasn't been patched yet.

 

[GhostLucario]

I'm not really a fan, the game looks very rough and unpolished. The graphics don't really bother me though, the only part where I said "Yikes, this looks BAD" is when you're inside the caves. The white pixels around the models are an eye sore.

 

[Arceusgjengen]

I like them. They look good enough, and don't try too hard. Like the clothes look real good. Of course many textures look unpolished, but they often do in most CGI media.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I really didn't have any problem with the graphics in this game for the most part.

 

[Blanc]

Been thinking about this a while and to be honest I hate to play devil’s advocate but— the graphics aren’t as bad as a lot of the general public says they are, but they definitely could be better— but I don’t think the result of this is ‘laziness’ on Gamefreak’s part by any means.

As of 2021 Gamefreak stands at about 167 employees, and supposedly from what I can recall (might be wrong cause I heard it on twitter somewhere) only 86 of these 167 employees worked on PLA. The graphical quality of PLA is only a mere fragment of what I could get into about Gamefreak’s overall work, but I’ll stay on topic. LOL.

86 employees is not a lot, in fact, it’s concerning for a studio that works on a franchise as large as Pokemon and releases games yearly. Many triple A studios with not nearly the amount of profit Pokemon brings in have over 500+ employees, in fact, I believe usually they have upwards of 1,000 dedicated to game creation in studios of the same caliber. The reason this game is lacking where it could shine graphically isn’t laziness or incompetence, it’s a lack of manpower accompanied with tight deadlines. Knowing this, and graduating from uni with a lot of research in the game industry behind me due to my degree, I’m a bit forgiving of Gamefreak’s predicament involving their lack of quality, because 86 employees making a large open world game with 242 monsters in it is kind of nuts.

Anyways, as ‘plastic’ as the world can feel sometimes, I don’t find it so horrible looking that it’s distracting, I think it’s mediocre at best (honestly not sure what weird shader thing goes on in dark caves though with that pixel silhouette). Gamefreak got away with a small employee count in the past because rendering sprites is a lot different than rendering 3D models and graphics, but I think their size has finally been catching up with them since Sw/Sh. If they want to make a game like PLA but far more polished graphically or otherwise, they’re going to need to break their habit of sticking only to what they know and get some more hands on board.

Also, I think the graphics for some reason look better on my switch handheld than it docked, LOL.

 

[ripplefieldz]

honestly, i don't think dev time is the root cause of this issue looking at it more. comparing two games infamous for being rushed, taking kirby star allies for instance vs sword and shield... like, take a look at the prerendered cutscenes for each and um. OUCH. sure, the two series have very different styles, but the level of detail in the former ALONE far outweighs what we usually see in pokemon games.

infact, honestly i think the graphics actually got worse with swsh as much as i love it, and while legends looks a bit better they ABSOLUTELY should've stuck with the let's go artstyle. that said, the post above me.. that little employees. that explains a lot. and yeah, the games absolutely don't look Bad as much as they look mediocre.

tldr: pokemon needs a better artstyle (for in-game graphics, atleast) and apparently gamefreak needs more employees