Quoted By:
Game Freak seemed not fully prepared to make 3D games. XY's level design philosophy is about the same as Gen 5, and they even share an art director (Takao Unno). Top-down camera with tile-based maps and 3D objects. Occasionally you get some multi-layered routes with different levels interacting with each other, like Muraille Coast or the swamp beneath the bridge to Snowbelle City, or the Autumn route with the waterfall running down the middle.
Once they completely left the grid with games like SwSh, everything felt smaller somehow? Like the Galar Mines or Spikemuth or the lack of a true Victory Road. Like they just weren't used to making fully 3D settings yet.
