The two most-recent releases in the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, boldly brought the long-running monster-taming RPG series into full 3D open-world territory. And while strong sales and positive reception from fans would indicate that these titles were successes for Nintendo and developer Game Freak, there is a significant portion of the fanbase that isn't satisfied with Pokemon's transition into an open-world series. With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet plagued by a myriad of bugs and technical issues, the next step forward for the Pokemon franchise might instead be better realized by looking backward in a way that mirrors Square Enix's approach to its classic catalog.
Square Enix's Octopath Traveler series was originally designed as a throwback to the developer's 16-bit "golden-era", complete with a modern spin on the 2D pixel art endemic of some of the company's most beloved titles. Octopath Traveler's success established that many fans still enjoyed retro-styled JRPGs, paving the way for Square Enix to remake classic games in its catalog using the new 2D-3D art style employed in Octopath Traveler and its sequel. When considering where Pokemon could go after a mixed reception to its newer 3D entries, remakes of Blue/Red and Yellow using the 2D-3D art style from Octopath Traveler, Live-A-Live, and the upcoming Dragon Quest 3 remake seems like a perfect fit for the franchise.
Reception to Scarlet and Violet Presents a Perfect Opportunity to Reboot Pokemon
Despite any mixed reception from fans and some middling review scores, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet went on to sell just shy of 21 million units, making them the 4th best-selling games in the franchise. Still, many were frustrated by the numerous bugs and performance issues that plagued these titles at launch, prompting Nintendo to make an announcement acknowledging that patches were on the way. The titles have since been improved past the state they were in at launch, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's open-world could still be considered sparse and unpopulated when compared to some of the best open-world RPGs.
Instead of continuing to push Pokemon forward and have it attempt to catch up with the graphical and performance standards established by other AAA RPG franchises, perhaps the time is right to bring the series back to its roots. A complete ground-up remake of the first three games in the franchise, the games that introduced fans to one of the most successful IPs of all-time, could both welcome an entirely new legion of fans while also enticing lapsed fans to return. When considering how Game Freak should approach the style of these remakes, the 2D-3D style of Octopath Traveler is a much more appealing option than the style of the recent Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes.
The 2D-3D Art Style Is Less-Demanding and Appeals to Fans' Nostalgia
Square Enix's success with both Octopath Traveler games and Triangle Strategy has more recently translated into the use of those games' unique 2D-3D art style as the template for remakes of the developer's beloved titles. Perhaps the greatest appeal of the art style is the way that it deftly blends the charming 2D pixel art of Square Enix's 16-bit heyday with beautifully rendered environments, tricking the mind into a false sense of nostalgia in presenting classic titles as they are remembered as opposed to how they actually look. Of course, the other benefit to using this art style is that it's likely incredibly less demanding on hardware than a fully-realized 3D open-world.
Pokemon's pixel art origins as titles for the Game Boy makes the series a perfect candidate for use of the 2D-3D art style in future releases. Not only does this style provide longtime fans with nostalgia for what may have been their introduction to video games, the games themselves would almost certainly not suffer from the same kind of performance issues that Scarlet and Violet were riddled with upon release. Instead of playing catch up with multiple generations of AAA RPG experiences, it's time for Pokemon to focus on its strengths by embracing its origins and charm.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
