>>51831317True, Pokemon was never about impressive graphics. They were still doing sprites on the late era of the DS when everyone else was transitioning to 3D models. But they NAILED the art style, so even though they were using old visual techniques, they were doing it in a way where the visuals would still hold up decades later. We can still look at BW or HGSS and think, "That looks pretty".
Now they've transitioned to 3D and were doing an okay job at it, but it wasn't until the Switch era where they suddenly decided, "We want the Monster Hunter" audience and gradually adjusted their art style to have more realistic-looking textures or more proportionate human designs and they don't have the tech to pull it off. The optimization looks terrible, the polish isn't there, these visuals would look terrible even if you showed it to people eight years ago.
Maybe if GameFreak wasn't limited to Nintendo hardware, they could do better, we'll never know. I understand that trying to fit hundreds of models with animations in an open world on crappy Nintendo hardware in 2 - 3 years time probably isn't the easiest task, but that's why they should double down on the cel-shaded and anime look, not the more "realistic" look they want to do.
