Pokemon Black and White remakes are hotter than ever as fans and observers theorize about the next games in the monster-catching franchise's 10th generation. As the possibility of adventuring in Unova once again draws closer and closer, it's definitely good to look at what it's going to take to make these Gen 5 Pokemon remakes as faithful as possible while still feeling unique. Octopath Traveler is a great game to look towards as something that strikes an amazing balance between nostalgia and forward-thinking visuals.
The most recent Pokemon remakes for the Nintendo Switch are Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The games took on a unique "chibi" visual style that hits an interesting middle ground between the modern 3D era and the original Gen 4 era. The Pokemon Black and White remakes have the potential to do something like this, but potentially even better, and the best example of how it can go about this is one of Square Enix's most recent JRPG hits Octopath Traveler.
Octopath Travel Proves That Pixel Art is Timeless
Octopath Traveler may be one of the best examples of a modern game that does pixel-style artwork, but in a way that feels like it's meant for the current generation. The gorgeous lighting along with the blending of 2D and 3D sprites and backgrounds give an incredible amount of depth that makes the game worth playing just to traverse its plethora of beautiful views. Combine that with the sometimes overwhelming amount of story between its eight main characters, and Octopath Traveler is easily a game that hundreds of hours can be sunk into.
The type of 2D/3D pixel-style visuals present in Octopath Traveler would be perfect for the Pokemon Black and White remakes. The originals from 2010 on the Nintendo DS already blended classic 2D Pokemon sprites with 3D backgrounds that looked particularly stunning in locations like Castelia City. This visual style was initially controversial back when the games came out, with a number of fans and critics preferring the fully-2D art style of the games from the first three generations. Like a lot of things related to Gen 5, though, it's become more popular and well-respected as the years have gone on.
Pokemon Needs to Stop Cutting Corners
The fully 3D Pokemon games that became the norm in every generation post-Black and White have been more generally panned for their visuals. Especially the Nintendo Switch main series games, with both Sword and Shield along with Scarlet and Violet being lambasted for failing to even live up to the visual standards of the 3D Pokemon games for GameCube like XD: Gale of Darkness. This opens up the perfect opportunity for the games to make a slight return to form while still dabbling in modern visual styles, with an art style like Octopath Traveler's being an ideal combination of both.
Any potential Pokemon Black and White remakes just generally shouldn't do any corner-cutting. Sadly, this was the case with Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which opted to only remake the content from the original Gen 4 main series titles, despite Platinum having extra content that is overwhelmingly popular with much of the fan base. Considering how popular the PokemonBlack and White sequels are, it would be a shame to see Gen 5 remakes be rushed out the door with only content from the original games. Ideally, Gen 5 remakes would actually combine both the original and the sequels into a single title, or at a very minimum there would be some announced plan to remake both the originals and their sequels, rather than just leaving the extra content behind as was the case with Pokemon Platinum.