>>45527184>But, did the Gameboy ever have the ability to run something in the vain of this artstyle, all the pokemon, AND the battle mechanics?That artstyle in particular is not for a GBC game, just a game with an artstyle inspired by the system. Pic related however is something that CAN and does run on real GBC hardware, and with impressive details like the character's sprite lighting up when under streetlights.
As for if Gamefreak could have done more with Gen 2 in both mechanics and/or aesthetics, yes. People working on Pokemon Crystal romhacks have continuously broken new ground with fantastic ideas and new ways to implement things. If you want to just look at the tip of the surface, here are a whole bunch of features you yourself could easily add in an afternoon to Pokemon Crystal
https://github.com/pret/pokecrystal/wiki/TutorialsAnd that's the surface, that's nto touching on even wilder things like 60 FPS, 254+ Pokemon/Moves/Items, etc.
Keep in mind though that Gold and Silver were Game Boy games that were GBC enhanced, not true GBC games, and that held them back.
